Page 109 of The Midnight Club
Their gazes locked. “He won’t come near you again,” Maceo said softly, and Ori nodded.
“I know. He hasn’t tried. How’s Netta?”
“Going with him, I think.”
“Good. Good, she should—maybe she can help him sort his head out.”
Maceo gave a disgusted snort. “I don’t give a fuck what thatfiglia di puttanadoes as long as he never comes near you again.”
Ori felt unhappy. “We don’t know for sure that he’s the killer, Maceo.”
Maceo said nothing. He stood and sat on the edge of the bed, carefully not to jostle her too much. Ori ran her hand along his muscled thigh. “I miss you,” she said. “I know that doesn’t make sense. I mean, I miss being physically close to you.”
Maceo hesitated, then maneuvered so he could sit on the bed next to her. “I’m not hurting you?” He put his arms around her, and she leaned into them.
“Not at all.” Her head was on his chest, and he buried his face in her hair.
“Ti amo,Orianthi.”
“Ti amo, mio caro.”
Two boys playing at the edge of the river Arno saw what they thought was a mannequin at first. When they realized it was the body of a young woman, they ran away, yelling, and soon a crowd formed at the riverbank. The body was caught in some weeds, and when finally they managed to fish her out, they laid her body on the cold stone and waited for the police.
At the morgue, the pathologist confirmed that the unidentified woman had been murdered, her throat cut. From the water and blood in her lungs, he told the police she had been stabbed and pushed immediately into the river, where blood loss and drowning had finally taken her life. “Horrific,” he said, shaking his head.
Police tried to identify the woman, but after a few days they had to rely on the public, releasing a sketch of her to the news stations.
Lucia stared in horror at the television, then grabbed her phone. “Yes,” she said. “I know who the woman is. Her name is Cassie.”
Benoit laughedat Shiloh as she struggled into a T-shirt which stretched over her burgeoning belly. “Nothing fits.”
Benoit was watching her from the bed as she peeled off her top. “When we get back to Paris,mon amour, we’ll have maternity clothes made for you by all the best designers. I’m sure Lisander would be delighted.”
Shiloh laugh, finally deciding on a loose-fitting top. “Lisander has better things to do with his time. Did you know Kate is going to move down to Buenos Aires with him?”
“Already?” Benoit looked surprised, then laughed as Shiloh gave him an incredulous look. “Yeah, I guess we’re not the poster children for taking things slow, are we?”
Shiloh grinned and came to sit by him. “We are most certainly not. And, you know, Benoit, given what I’ve seen Maceo and Ori go through, I’ve never been so thankful that we weren’t careful. I have never been this happy or excited about the future.”
Benoit kissed her, placing his hand over the bump in her belly. “Me neither. Look, I think we had better go back to Paris and figure out what to do. You still have your work in Africa, and we have to discuss living arrangements. Shiloh, I’m not wild about heavy security, but I think that until the killer is caught, we need to be extra vigilant. Maceo knows he made a mistake blowing off his security coming here, leaving Ori vulnerable. He’ll never forgive himself for that, and I’m not prepared to make the same mistake.”
He could see the doubt in her eyes. “I know it’s asking a lot for someone as independent as you. So I’m not telling. I’m asking. Please, let me do this.”
Shiloh nodded slowly. “Okay. Okay, then, Benoit. God, I hope they get him soon.”
“Me too,ma chére, me too.”
When Lucia cameto tell him that Cassie had been murdered, Maceo barely acknowledged it. “I don’t care. I really don’t.”
“The police want to speak to you.”
“Let them come.”
They talked to him about his whereabouts the night Cassie was killed, but he answered them in a monotone and, realizing he knew nothing about the murder, they released him.
“Hey, you.”
It was a week later, and Ori was getting really sick of her hospital bed. At least today they had let her shower, albeit with a nurse present. She had sent Maceo home for his own shower, a good meal, and some sleep, but now she was bored, having finished the stack of paperbacks on the nightstand.
