Close Encounters (28 page)

Julio grunted, and his body jerked. His face registered not surprise but resignation. The second thrust finished the job. His body slid down the wall, crumpling to the floor. He landed in a seated position, his knees drawn up to his chest. His head bowed forward. Except for the smeared trail of his blood, anyone finding him would think he’d only fallen asleep.

He’d waited for more than an hour outside the building, watching everyone who went in or came out. He was looking for the right time and opportunity to get in.

It had taken him two fucking days to get Gina to tell him the woman’s address. It wasn’t like she wasn’t fine and all. And who was he to turn down pussy? But it had been a pain to listen to her running her mouth about how he wasn’t treating her right. So he’d picked her up one night after her shift and taken her to a little Cuban place near the hospital where she worked. He knew the owner and their meal had been quick
and
free. Then, once at her place, they were in bed in under two minutes. He’d done her twice, making her squirm hotly beneath him. Gina had been ready and willing to give him whatever he wanted. Even where that woman lived.

“Aiyee… Goñyo, Mario. Take it easy,” Gina had hissed as he’d plowed into her, hurting her with the driving force of his hips.

That hadn’t stopped him. He had a lot on his mind and he figured he needed to be good to himself after what he’d been through. There was still business to take care of if he wanted to stay out of the joint.

Julio had been the easiest to get out of the way. But what did that Taggart bitch really remember? What had she told the cops about him?

Mario had it worked out. He’d hang around and get into the building. He didn’t even remember what she looked like, but he’d find her. Gina had said she wasn’t married, so she lived alone. That was good news.

Finally, a young boy returning home from school opened the building door and Mario slipped into the lobby behind the absentminded kid. He knew where she lived, he’d already checked that out. All he needed now was an opportunity.

Mario felt himself getting more angry the longer he thought about how everything had gone wrong lately. All because of the woman and her dog. He knew there was no way he could trust that Detective Peña either. And if he wasn’t careful,
he
was going to be the one who got fucked.

Carol closed the door behind her and headed for the elevator. She was carrying her keys and a small laundry bag of dirty clothes.

An older man and his health-care companion entered the elevator on the second floor and they got off at the main level. Carol continued to the basement. Someone’s linens were tumbling in a dryer, and the humming sound of the machine along with the fragrant warmth of clean sheets were comforting.

She filled one washer with her laundry, set the cycle, and started it. Before heading back upstairs, she stopped a moment to browse idly through a short stack of popular magazines discarded in a recycle box.

Carol realized she wasn’t alone when, in her peripheral vision, she saw a shadow starting to grow on the wall. It moved slowly enough for her to become suspicious. Her heart went into overdrive, with an adrenaline rush of fear that didn’t come soon enough.

A gloved hand clamped over her mouth. Another hand grabbed her around the chest and held tightly, restricting her movements. Carol felt the hard coldness of the leather gloves and coat the man wore. His scent jarred her senses and sparked a memory she couldn’t quite place. She tried to pull the hand away from her mouth, tried to scream even as her assailant began dragging her into a dark alcove of the basement.

She began to struggle in earnest. She beat her fist at her attacker’s arm and leg, but only hurt herself in the process. She kicked at a garbage bin, but it was made of plastic and didn’t make enough noise to attract anyone’s attention.

The man grabbed her flailing arm. “Too bad, mija,” he said in her ear. “Wrong place, wrong time. Again.”

Carol suddenly let her body go completely limp, even as the urge to keep fighting made her heart thud rapidly in her chest. He cursed at having to take her full weight. He grew angry and jerked her up.

“Stand up! Stand up!”

“What’s going on in there? Who is that?” The booming female voice seemed to come out of nowhere.
“What are you doing!
Let her go. Let her go, I said.”

Carol found herself being released and shoved violently aside. She crashed into the wall, hitting her head, and crumpled to the floor. The assailant ruthlessly shoved the older woman out of his path, and broke for the basement exit that would let him out the back of the building into a narrow alleyway.

“
Get out,
get out, you maniac!” the aged voice shouted fearlessly. Then it dropped to a maternal octave as a pair of cold, bony hands attempted to help Carol to her feet.

“Are you all right, dear?” the woman asked.

Carol rose slowly. Her knees hurt. And she’d strained the muscles and nerves in her chest again. “I’m fine,” she said. She glanced at her neighbor. It was Gladys.

“Did you know that man? Were you just having a fight with your boyfriend?”

“Boyfriend?” Carol repeated blankly.

The absurdity of it overrode the desire to cry. Someone had attacked her. For all she knew, he might have intended to kill her. And she’d been rescued by Gladys, a wizened old lady with a cane, rock-solid nerve, and a voice loud enough to wake the dead. “No, that wasn’t my… my boyfriend.”

“Well, how did he get in? What did he want?”

To kill me,
Carol thought wildly, unable to fathom why he might want to. At the very least he intended to hurt her. “I don’t know.”

Gradually she began to calm down. To think. To remember and make sense. She thanked Gladys, assuring her that all was well. And yes, she would report the incident to the building management, although she was pretty sure there was no point in doing so.

She headed back to her apartment. For a while she replayed the incident in her head, trying to figure out who would want to hurt her… wondering if it could have been a random attack. The more she thought about dismissing the episode, the more she was persuaded that she couldn’t. She would have to go back to get her clothes. What if it happened again?

At first she considered calling Wesley, but it wasn’t worth having him return from his latest road trip. She’d begun dialing Matt’s number, but hung up halfway through. He would get the wrong idea. And he would tell her what any sensible person would tell her. Call the police.

So she did.

Carol called the beeper number Lee had given her. She didn’t have to wait even five minutes before her phone rang.

“Carol … what’s up?”

A dizzying rush of relief came over her. But instantly she began to tremble as well, her skin becoming clammy and cold. She opened her mouth to talk and all that came out was his name. “
Lee…
”

And she quietly began to cry.

Too tense to sit and watch Carol being interviewed, Lee paced her living room, listening to her being questioned. Typical of what he’d come to know of her, she hadn’t wanted to make a fuss. But he did. The assault had to be officially reported. He’d insisted on that.

He had called in a marker and asked for two specific uniformed officers to come take Carol’s statement and fill out the report. They would handle everything carefully and keep any mention of his presence out of the report. It was a good thing, too. As soon as he’d arrived at her apartment, Lee had known that he could not objectively take her account of the incident. Carol’s attack hit him too close to the bone. He couldn’t quite explain the fear that had gripped him when he’d gotten her call. Then he had gotten mad.

He stood so that only Carol could see him. She was calm and methodical in answering the officers’ questions, but occasionally she caught his gaze, as if to assure herself that she was giving enough of the right information. As if to make sure he was really there.

Lee had already listened to her account twice. He’d arrived in record time at her apartment, after he’d created his own worse case scenario of what had happened to her.

She’d met him calmly at the door, and he’d silently enfolded her in a tight embrace that was every bit as much for him as it was for her. It was unnerving to discover how badly he’d been affected by the prospect of anything happening to Carol again.

“What happened?” Lee had asked simply.

And she had told him simply.

But Lee knew that the incident had left a deeper mark on her than she was yet willing to admit.

“Do you want to come in and have a look at some mug shots?” one of the officers was asking as he and his partner prepared to leave. “Maybe you’ll recognize the assailant.”

“What’s the point?” Carol asked. “I never even saw his face.”

“You’re right,” the other officer agreed. “We can’t promise you much on this one, I’m afraid. Not unless we get a report of a similar assault. Anything else we can do, Lieutenant?”

Lee escorted the men to the apartment door and stood talking to them a while longer in low conversation before they finally left. He returned to the living room and stood looking thoughtfully down at Carol.

“Are you sure he didn’t hurt you?”

“I told you, I fell. He tried to drag me and I scraped my knees.”

“Let me see.”

Carol glanced at him. His eyes were dark and unfathomable except that they hinted, to her surprise, at anger. He was taking this personally. It fascinated Carol to witness the change, to see this proof of his emotional involvement.

Lee followed her to the bedroom. She turned on the bedside lamp. He gave only a cursory glance around. As with the rest of her apartment the bedroom walls were crowded with framed works of art. But Lee wasn’t interested in the decor. She stopped at the side of a queen-size bed.

Carol seemed unsure of what to do next, then a quick glance at Lee seemed to convince her. She unbuttoned the waist of her black pants and pulled them down. Lee touched her shoulder to indicate that she was to sit on the side of the bed. He crouched before her and unzipped the short boots she wore, pulling them off and peeling away the knee-high hosiery. Next came the slacks. She was left in her underwear and a sweater.

Her briefs rode low on her hips, exposing her navel and her long brown legs. But Lee was focused on the abrasions on each knee. They weren’t terribly raw, but the skin had been broken, and there was dried blood over the bruises. He knelt before her and touched one knee, testing the extent of the damage, gently twisting her leg to see better.

Carol studied his bent head. She liked the way Lee concentrated totally on her.

Lee curved a hand around her calf, and stroked the skin as he sat back on his haunches and looked up at her.

“And you think it was just a matter of you being in the wrong place at the wrong time?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Again?” he said skeptically.

Carol hesitated. “Yes.”

Lee frowned and shook his head. “I don’t believe in coincidences, Carol. I know better.”

“So what’s your explanation?”

He was careful, bowing his head for a moment while he thought of an answer. His own theory might frighten her more than was necessary for the moment. But Lee was sure that the attack was connected to what she may have seen the morning she was shot. Still, he had no proof of that, but it still made him uneasy. “I’m not sure.”

Lee let his hand glide up her leg to her hip.

Carol looked at his large hand, cognizant of the contrast of skin colors, but feeling more the familiar touch that was both calming and incredibly provocative. She lightly caught her breath as she was swept back to the night when they’d first made love.

“I’m glad you called me,” he said.

“I … I almost didn’t. I didn’t want you to think I was just looking for a reason to see you.”

“You don’t need an excuse.”

He shifted his position and sat next to her on the bed. They had already granted each other certain unalienable rights and neither was the least uncomfortable with the fact that she was more than half undressed. They’d cut right to the core of the relationship. It had allowed them both a spontaneity and instant acceptance when they’d first kissed—and had led to that incredible night in his apartment.

Lee put his arm around Carol, pulled her against him, and turned neatly to kiss her. Carol sighed and opened her mouth and welcomed the rough texture and warm invasion of his tongue. She leaned closer as Lee deepened the kiss.

Carol felt exhilarated and a little scared, as if she were lifting off into the air without wings, and risking the fall. She turned fully against Lee and put her arms around his neck. She massaged his nape, gently urging closer contact. For the moment she felt safe, but knew it couldn’t last. Sooner or later he’d have to leave and she would go back to her own routine. She couldn’t let what happened paralyze her.

Lee’s hand rested on her stomach and slowly glided up her rib cage beneath the sweater, his fingertips stroking her skin.

“I’m going to stay with you,” he murmured.

“Oh, Lee … you don’t have to. I’m fine now. I’m just glad you came right away…”

He kissed her briefly even as he reached behind her for the telephone on her night stand. “I’m staying,” he insisted.

Carol didn’t argue. She was too relieved. Too happy. She listened as Lee called into his post. He told the person on the other end that he had something personal to take care of and was clocking out for the rest of the day. He sat staring into Carol’s eyes as he spoke. When he finished she just sat and smiled at him.

“You could have come back later. I would have let you in.”

Lee stroked her hair and the back of her neck. “I’m here now.”

“I’m glad.”

They hugged each other.

“Lee?” she began in a quiet whisper. “I was scared.”

He squeezed her, his cheek against hers. “I know.”

When he kissed her this time it was no longer for reassurance but with mutual primal need. Lee managed to remove her sweater. She wasn’t wearing a bra. She wiggled out of the briefs and lay naked, curled on her side watching as Lee shed his own clothes. He suddenly left and headed for the bathroom. She closed her eyes and listened to water being run in the sink, the medicine cabinet being opened and closed.