Page 28 of Blood in the Water
Bridget shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“The young man was tall and thin, blue eyes. Said his name was Sean,” her mother said.
Bridget’s heart skipped a beat. “Sean Maguire?”
“He didn’t give a last name.”
Sean Maguire had been here, in Bridget’s home, in her kitchen, talking to her mother. “What did he want?”
“He said he wanted to check on Owen, that Seamus had sent him to see how Owen was doing,” her mother said. “I’ll admit that it seemed odd, but I was in my pajamas, and I didn’t want to wake your father. He works so hard. I started the coffee and asked the young man to wait while I changed.”
Bridget felt sick. She should have been here, not with Nolan in some secret apartment across town. “Mom…”
“When I came back he was still sitting at the table. It didn’t seem anything had been disturbed so I poured us both coffee, sat down and gave him an overview of Owen’s condition. He seemed satisfied.”
“Why do I get the feeling there’s something you’re not telling me?” Bridget asked.
“It wasn’t until after he’d left that I realized what he’d done.” Her mother’s voice had taken on a robotic rhythm, like she was reciting from memory.
Bridget’s gaze was pulled to the pills inside the plastic container — different colors and different sizes, all of them necessary to keep Owen alive or comfortable. She realized for the first time that the pills piled next to the container were the same shape and size, obviously the same kind of medication. “You’re scaring me, Mom.”
Her mother pushed the pile of pills on the table toward Bridget. “Do you know what these are?”
Bridget picked one up and brought it close to her face, but there were no discerning marks on its chalky surface. “No.”
“Neither do I,” her mother said.
“What do you mean?”
“When the boy named Sean left, there was one of these pills in every day of Owen’s medication organizer. He musthave done it while I was changing upstairs,” her mother said.
Bridget’s heart was hammering against her breastbone, her chest constricting as she tried to breathe. “Are you saying Sean tampered with Owen’s medication?”
Her mother’s face registered a brief flash of annoyance, the first sign of normalcy she’d shown since Bridget had entered the room. “I certainly didn’t put them there.”
Bridget’s mind was spinning, turning over everything her mother had said against the events of the previous day, the previous weeks and months.
“What did he say, Mom?”
“I told you: he asked after Owen.”
“What else?” Bridget asked.
Her mother rubbed a finger against the surface of the kitchen table, a nervous tic, something she did when she was trying to figure out what to say. Bridget sensed the weight of everything hanging in the balance, knew that once her mother said the words, nothing would be the same again.
“He said to tell you Seamus wants to see you. That if you answer his questions, everything will be okay, your family will be okay.”
The words hung in the air. Then Bridget was reaching for her phone, dialing as she made her way through the house, locking doors, closing curtains.
15
Nolan forced himself to drink the coffee Bridget’s mom had offered him even though it was starting to turn his stomach. He’d just stepped out of the shower at the Millennium Tower apartment when Bridget called to tell him about Sean coming to her parents’ house. His skin had still been damp as he’d thrown his clothes on, his heart racing as he’d sped across town, watching his rearview mirror for cops as he’d maneuvered through rush hour traffic.
His tail hadn’t even tried to be subtle, and while the windows of the Jeep following him had been tinted, he’d thought he caught a glimpse of a wide face and flat brow that might have been Oz.
The car had parked down the street from Bridget’s house, was still there as far as Nolan knew. He’d considered confronting whoever was behind the wheel, but he hadn’t had enough information when he’d first pulled up, and the fact that whoever was on his tail hadn’t made a move indicated they weren’t looking for confrontation.
Not yet anyway.