Got Your Number

he thought it was hers. I could have killed Frank myself for incriminating you."
    "Carl was at the restaurant where you and I dined," Roxann murmured. "I must have lost my scarf and he must have found it."
    Nell's smile was rueful. "An unforeseeable mix-up."
    "How did you meet up with Cape?" Capistrano asked.
    "Elise was screwing him in Biloxi."
    Roxann wet her lips. "Elise is dead, you know."
    Nell's laugh was punctuated with a hacking cough. "Oh, yes, I know. Elise and I were close when she went to school here. Carl nearly destroyed her, too, so I took her under my wing. She was strung too tightly to cope with any disappointment. Over the years she called me when she was in the midst of one crisis or another. I tried to help her when I could, find jobs for her."
    "You sent her to Biloxi," Roxann said in sudden comprehension.
    Nell nodded. "When your picture ran in the alumni newsletter, I could tell Carl was getting restless. He asked me to let him off the hook—he wanted to see you again." She smiled sadly. "I told him no, that you were still off-limits. He'd poisoned enough women with his wickedness, me included."
    Roxann couldn't believe what she was hearing. "So you sent Elise to spy on me?"
    "I was trying to protect you, don't you see?" Nell's bottom lip quivered. "I never had a child, Roxann. You're like a daughter to me."
    She set her jaw to hold back her emotion. Nell's love was so twisted, it was inconceivable. "B-but why did you kill Elise?"
    "I didn't plan to, but I listened in on her call to you at my house. I went to see her, to stop her from telling you everything. She wanted pills in return for her silence. Those pills wouldn't have hurt her if she hadn't taken more than one."
    But anyone who knew Elise knew that one of anything was never enough. Anger stirred in Roxann's stomach. "Angora had better live," she whispered. "She's innocent in all of this."
    Nell's ghostly face suddenly turned malicious. "Because of her, I had to have Carl killed." Then she narrowed her eyes. "And I finally figured out your little secret. How can you say that Angora is innocent?"
    Roxann's heart pumped harder.
    "It took me a while," Nell admitted. "But I started thinking about what Tammy had told me—that it had something to do with a blond wig. It suddenly dawned on me while I was at my sister's house. I checked, and it all fit."
    The exit door swung open and Detective Jaffey appeared with two uniformed officers, weapons drawn.
    "It's okay," Capistrano called. "Dr. Oney isn't going to cause any more trouble." Then he looked back to her. "Are you?"
    She shook her head and succumbed to another coughing spasm until blood appeared in her mouth. "I'm dying," she said to Roxann, with tears in her eyes.
    "What?"
    "Lung cancer. Doctors say I have about three months left to live."
    Roxann broke away from Capistrano's restraining arm and went to her. They hugged for several long minutes, and Roxann pretended Nell was the woman they both wanted her to be. Jaffey walked up. "We'll take it from here."
    She watched them lead Nell away, the woman's walk little more than a shuffle. Roxann slid down the wall and sat on the floor, weak and spent after the day's revelations. Capistrano was talking to Jaffey, filling him in on the high points of Nell's confession. Then he spoke to someone over the two-way radio, and walked over to sit down by her.
    "Your cousin is going to make it."
    She closed her eyes and breathed a prayer of thanks. "Is this nightmare finally over?"
    He pursed his mouth and nodded. "Unless you have a confession to make?"
    He was referring to the secret Nell hinted at. "Nope. I'm done for the day." She pushed herself up and he followed. "I don't know how to thank you," she murmured.
    "Yes, you do," he said, his brown eyes serious.
    But her head was too full to deal with yet another demand. "Sorry, Detective. That's not on the table." Then she walked toward the exit sign.

Chapter Thirty-six

    "WE COULD POSTPONE the trip back for another day if you don't feel up to it," Roxann said, pushing the wheelchair down the hall.
    Angora craned her head around. "I'm feeling fine. I just want to get out of here and on the road." She wore the crown Roxann had given her, and a blue pashmina shawl around her shoulders. She looked like a celebrity leaving the hospital, and indeed, she had become somewhat of a town icon since news of Dr. Oney's treachery had broken.
    Everyone at the nurses' station waved. "Goodbye, Angora."
    "Goodbye,"