BlindHeat (20 page)

 Chapter Nine

Each day Allie hoped for some sign from Marcus. She jumped
at each phone call, at the stir of air signaling someone opening her office
door. And at home the slam of a car door or footsteps on the sidewalk set her
heart racing. He didn’t contact her. She had tried once more to reach Jake and
talk to Maya, only to receive a repetition of the same vague and evasive
answers she’d gotten the first time. There was nothing left to do but assume he
didn’t want her to find him and had decided he didn’t want to see her. Even in
the blunt face of rejection, even knowing what happened was probably a game to
him, part of her couldn’t let go. There was an explanation other than the
logical. She could feel it in her bones.

She told herself she was done with Marcus and his rituals.
She didn’t have the courage to lift the lid on the lesson box, yet she kept it
with her, carrying it in her tote when she left the apartment.

Each night found her on her knees, repeating the practice
he’d outlined for her the first night. Kneeling naked for ten minutes,
imagining light on her skin was Marcus touching her.

Each day found her more aware of people she knew, and beyond
that it was as if her five senses had started to sort themselves out. Her
ability to experience aromas as scent seemed to expand and the taste of them
receded. She could wear subtle colors without feeling as if her clothes were
crawling over her skin.

The explanation for Marcus’ disappearance, when it did come,
was not from Marcus. On day three Elaine directed a grim-looking gentleman in a
baggy brown suit to Allie’s office.

“Allie, Detective Snodgrass wants to speak with you. I’ll be
in my office if you need anything.”

Some children grew up in a lifestyle and world where they
were taught police were their friend. In the world Allie came from, the sight
of a uniform spelled doom. Plainclothes officers were bigger doom. The
tightening of ranks, the aura of dread that permeated any room an officer
entered came back to her now. She bit her lower lip to quell a tremor. It
didn’t help that Elaine had suggested her presence might be needed at some
point.

“Nice day,” the detective said. He was looking pointedly at
a chair beside Allie’s desk. She didn’t invite him to sit.

She glanced toward the window, bright sunshine and a
brilliant blue sky. She couldn’t suppress the sensation that a storm cloud had
moved into her office with the officer and was getting ready to rain all over
her day. It must have something to do with Eddie, or perhaps they had somehow
discovered her manufactured identity. Maybe Elaine had and called them.

Allie looked back to the officer. Her mind couldn’t form any
words.
Don’t say anything to cops
had been drilled into her from
toddlerhood. It had been beaten into those of Eddie’s call girls who forgot
that cardinal rule. She waited for the officer to fill in the silence.

He seemed to be waiting as well. He blinked first. “I need
to know where you were Tuesday night, Ms. Summers.”

Her mouth was too dry for words. She’d moved her hands under
the drawing table, fisted them in her lap. The drawing pencil tangled in her
fingers snapped, the sound loosened her tongue as if that might hide what had
happened.

“I was on a photo shoot.”

“Can you give me a timeframe?”

Cold dread deepened. She had a soft, blue sweater on the
back of her chair, her skin was crawling where her bare arm touched the cotton.
Goose bumps rose on her arms. Timeframes were traps. She wasn’t willingly
walking into one.

She shrugged. “I lose track of the time when I’m into my
work.”

“Was someone with you who can verify how long?”

“Do you want to tell me why it matters?”

“It’s nothing serious. I’m investigating a situation and I
think information you have may be useful.”

“I’m not interested in answering any more questions.”

“Sounds like you have something to hide.”

“It sounds like you’re looking for someone to pin something
on.” The words were bolder than the shaking voice she used to deliver them.

“I’m going to have to ask you to come along with me to the
station until we can get this sorted out. Do you have a purse or jacket you’d
like to bring?”

Allie thought of her purse in her big desk drawer. It had
her phone with all the numbers of anyone she might call for help. Seth’s
business card was tucked in her wallet, right behind her fake driver’s license.
Allie didn’t even know how to drive. If they were fishing for evidence of a
crime, she wasn’t going to hand them the rod to reel her in with. She shook her
head and pushed to her feet. Her legs felt so insubstantial, she had to look to
make sure they were still there. How was she going to walk out there past all
her coworkers without dissolving, without bursting into tears and begging this
man not to take her to jail?

Put yourself outside it
, Eddie had taught her.
When
you’re afraid, put up a wall of ice between you and the threat. Go for cold, for
numb they can’t penetrate.

Detective Snodgrass pointed at the sweater she’d draped over
the back of her chair. “It’s cool out yet.”

Maybe he said it to make her think he cared. Maybe he was
really concerned about her well-being. Allie didn’t dare let that much warmth
penetrate her shield. She looked away as if she hadn’t heard and walked past,
knowing he must see the jellybean-sized goose bumps on her arms.

She could hear heads turn, feel gazes skimming over her as
she walked through the main office and out past the front counter. She kept her
eyes down as they passed Lila’s desk. She didn’t want her friends involved.

Lila was not the sort to be ignored. “Are you arresting
Allie? What for?”

“Step aside, ma’am.”

“Allie?”

“This doesn’t concern you,” the detective said.

Allie couldn’t look, couldn’t acknowledge. She kept her head
down, pushed open the glass door and kept going. Detective Snodgrass stepped up
his pace to stay with her.

Lila’s voice, shrill now, followed her out onto the
sidewalk. “Elaine, get your ass out—” The door closing spared Allie hearing the
rest.

He pointed to his car and Allie waited, docile, as he opened
the door.

Behind her, Elaine and Lila burst out the door.

“You stop right there, Allie,” Lila screamed loud enough to
be heard two blocks down. Elaine came running, her heels stabbing the pavement,
a sharp clacking that reverberated in Allie’s bones. Allie closed her eyes.
This was so hopeless. They knew about her. She could tell by the way the cop
had looked at her. He knew everything.

“Ron, what’s this? Why are you arresting Allie? You said you
wanted to ask who she’d given her business cards to.”

Allie’s head came up. Business cards? This had nothing to do
with Eddie? Allie had given away exactly two cards. One to Maya and one to Marcus.
Even if she had no interest in protecting Marcus, openly talking to cops was
always a lose. She knew that. Every child over the age of three in the
neighborhood she came from knew that. Allie said nothing and the officer
planted himself between her and Elaine.

Allie risked a glance at Lila. Lila made a dialing motion
and mouthed Franny’s name. Allie glanced quickly to the officer’s back and the
mouthed back,
Lawyer, Seth
. Lila frowned. Snodgrass was turning back to
her and Allie ducked into the car. He told her to buckle up and closed the
door. But she wasn’t handcuffed, which she thought meant she wasn’t under
arrest. Yet.

* * * * *

One of Allie’s new business cards lay on the table and the
picture of a woman on a stretcher lay next to it. The woman’s eyes were closed,
her lab coat bloodstained. Allie couldn’t tell if she was alive. Nothing
serious, he’d said in her office. Here in the interrogation room it looked dead
serious.

“This your business card?”

“I don’t wish to speak to you without a lawyer.”

“We just need some information to help us with this case.
You don’t need to be afraid. Why don’t you tell me who, besides yourself, had
one of your business cards on Tuesday night and we’ll wrap this up. Your boss
said she’d just given them to you that day, had them made up after you got a
big promotion, right?”

Allie sat back in her chair, folded her arms, focused her
attention on a coffee stain on the gray folder he’d left open on the table.

“How many people did you give a card to before Wednesday
morning?”

Allie crossed her legs, kept her eyes on the stain.
A
cat,
she thought,
it’s shaped like a cat.

“You know, people with nothing to hide don’t get this
resistant about helping with an investigation.”

Her heart seemed to stop, and then restart at triple time.
She chewed her bottom lip. It was on the tip of her tongue to answer, to point
out if he wasn’t trying to pin something on her, he’d be more forthcoming about
what he thought she did. If she’d been anyone but Eddie’s daughter she might
have answered any question they asked. But she knew not all cops were good, and
even if they were, playing fair wasn’t on the agenda. Finding a suspect was the
goal. She’d seen plenty of people go with an officer and not come back. They’d
often wind up sentenced for things they didn’t do. They had done other things
they were never charged for, and she imagined there was some sort of karma at
work there. She had never been more scared in her life.

As tempting as it was to save herself, she wasn’t going to
help them bring someone else down in that effort. With Marcus and Jake away,
Maya was the one they’d most likely go after. Allie felt fairly certain Maya
had nothing to do with what happened to the woman on the stretcher. She was
also fairly certain Maya would be defenseless as a lamb in the hands of an
interrogator.

“I don’t wish to speak to you without a lawyer,” Allie
repeated.

It was as if he never heard her. He kept talking.

“I’m just trying to figure some things out. I know it’s all
intimidating to a young lady like yourself, never been in trouble.” He paused
there, as if he knew something and was inviting her to contradict the
statement. That just upped her mistrust. Sweat trickled down her spine.

The detective picked up the conversation again. “I just need
to figure out a few things. Get some facts down. Let’s start with your full
name and address, where you lived before you came to Greyville, where you were
last night.”

He lifted a stack of paperwork, looked from it to her with a
hound-dog expression. Allie wasn’t moved.

He sighed and went back to filling out forms. The silence
stretched between them. She let it.

He continued random attempts to get her talking. After hours
of no progress, Officer Snodgrass said he had another matter to attend and he
would come back to continue the investigation as soon as he could. Two hours
after that, Allie was certain he’d gone home to dinner and bed. Her stomach
growled. She tried the door but it was locked.

She’d barely sat down when the door opened. Another officer
brought her a bottle of water and meal in a white paper bag. She asked for a
phone to make a call. The officer said he would see what he could do about
arranging that.

It was Friday night. No one had said she was under arrest or
read her rights. Maybe that was something that only happened in TV shows. She
wished she knew more about laws. Could they get a warrant to search her
apartment? Her false identity documents could probably land her in prison for a
long time. She needed to get out of here and soon.

* * * * *

His head pounded, every limb throbbed in time to the tribal
drumbeat in his head. His mouth felt as if it had been blow-dried. He opened it
wide in a yawn, his tongue automatically whipped out and swiped over his nose.
That’s when Marcus came fully awake. He never slept in his shifted form. He
lifted his head with an involuntary growl that threatened to send his brains
spilling out his ears.

His daughter-in-law, Marie, looked up from the baby in her
arms and put a finger to her lips. Two little fists extended straight out from
the soft pink blanket, batted the air and then folded quietly back inside their
cocoon. Marisa, the smallest of the septuplets, but her power was beyond that
of most adults. He could feel the energy hum around her even in sleep. Even so,
at three months old she was limited by a body that couldn’t quite keep up with
her mental prowess.

Marcus tried sending Marie a thought but the energy required
threatened to shatter his brain like glass. Marie held up a finger, rising
gracefully, her long, red hair falling over one shoulder. “I feel you knocking
on that mental door,” she whispered, “but I’m not good at sending thoughts. Let
me put the baby down and I’ll be right back.”

Her hair was a wild red tumble of curls down her back. Her
clothes a mismatched, oversized combination, which probably came from the
cast-off box they kept beside the mirror portal. Between the babies and him,
she was probably barely finding time to sleep and eat. It eased his suffering
somewhat to watch a female put an infant to her shoulder and sway with gentle
grace from the room. He wondered if there would ever be a day when he’d see his
mate with their child in her arms.

When Marie returned she was alone.

“I imagine you’re upset over being turned into a leopard.”

It struck him then that he wasn’t a tiger. He looked about
in panic. How? When had he done this?

“I know, you’re probably thinking it was me botching things
again. The shift was Marisa’s doing. Adam isn’t recovered enough to put you
back. After the fiasco with absorbing Adam that time I tried to shift him, I
didn’t dare try shifting you. I’m really sorry, Magus. We had no idea a baby
could do such a thing and we were afraid what might happen if we encouraged her
to put you back.”