The Caledonian Inheritance (The Athena Effect) (11 page)

She bit her lip, looking down at the jeans she had worn for the hike. She tried to smooth back her wild, windblown hair. “Okay, but give me a minute. I’m not dressed properly.”

“You look fine to me,” he said sincerely.

“Just give me a minute.”

“I’ll wait right here,” he said.

She looked down at the little dog sitting at Ramon’s feet and staring up at him adoringly. “C’mon Poddy. Get in the house.”

He was chuckling at the dog’s name when she shut the door on him. She raced up the stairs, stopping to splash some water on her face in the bathroom.

“Just calm down,” she told the girl in the mirror. “You can do this.”

~

When she reappeared at the door she had donned her armor, and she looked like another person entirely. Her jeans and sweater had been replaced with a modest skirt, bow necked blouse, and a
tailored jacket. Her long, loose hair had been hastily pinned back into a severe bun with only a few unruly tendrils threatening to escape at the nape of her neck. She greeted Ramon with exaggerated formality.

“I’m ready officer.”

Ramon insisted on taking her in his police cruiser, promising to bring her back as soon as possible. She snuck a few glances at his profile on the drive, trying to decipher his intense and constantly shifting colors. He was blazing with bright yellow curiosity, lime green suspicion, shot through with excitement and anxiety. Underneath his potent mix of emotions ran a current of deep blue concern.

He didn’t trust her, but she
got the feeling that he wanted to.

She started speculating on the best way to deal with his questions.
It shouldn’t be too hard to throw him off their trail, she thought, preparing herself for her performance. It was probably best that she handle this, because she had much more experience than her cousin did in manipulating human beings. Cali’s synesthesia was powerful, but years of experience had taught Layla how to administer hers with much more precision.

After some deliberation she finally settled on confusion.  Fear was a much more powerful motivator, but it might backfire, making him more suspicious
afterwards than he already was. Besides, he didn’t seem like someone that would scare too easily.

They pulled up in front of the police station and climbed out into the cool evening air.

“Right this way,” Ramon said, leading her in the door and past a lone receptionist sitting at the desk. The woman looked up with a nod. “Sherriff Brown went home for the day.”

“I’m here to take a witness statement,” he
explained.

“Hey Ramon... Would you mind locking up for me?” the girl called after him, “I have a date.”

“Sure thing,” he said, snatching the keys that she slid across the counter towards him.

She grabbed her purse and headed for the door, turning back with a grateful smile, “Thanks. I owe you one.” He followed her to the door, locking it behind her.

And then they were alone.

Layla followed him down an eerily quiet hallway, past an empty holding cell and into a small office. She scanned his cluttered desk, her mismatched eyes landing on a picture of him posing with a woman by his side. He was holding twin infants, one in each arm, and
sporting a proud smile on his face. She realized exactly how little she knew about him.

He gestured to a chair, “Have a seat.” He pulled out his own chair, removing his holster and placing a set of handcuffs on the table between them.

Layla’s reaction was immediate. She bolted back with an involuntary gasp, knocking her chair aside. Her heart started hammering, her breath quickened, and when his eyes searched hers, he saw real fear.

“Hey,” Ramon
asked, “Are you okay?”

She nodded, gasping, and he could see the pulse in her neck throbbing. “Yes,” she squeaked.

He glanced down at the cuffs and back up to Layla, who swallowed hard and took a deep breath. She rubbed her wrists and forced herself to smile, flooding him with a feeling of reassurance. “I’m perfectly fine.”

For a minute, he almost questioned what he’d just seen, but there was no doubt about it.
The handcuffs had startled her, and there was only one explanation. His heart sank when he realized that she must have had a run-in with the law before. She straightened out her chair and sat down gracefully.

He watched her fiddle with the single strand of pearls around her neck, wondering. She looked so sweet and innocent, and she sure was cute. Really cute.
He’d been hoping there was no truth to his suspicions, but everything he ever found out about her only raised more questions. Any way you sliced it there was something odd going on… With her, with her cousin, with that whole house full of people.

He opened his desk drawer and slid the cuffs into it, pulling out a pad of paper. “So… do you want to tell me your version of the day’s events?”

“What do you want to know?”

“First of all, what were you doing out there today?”

“We hiked to the ruins of my grandmother’s house. I’m planning to rebuild it.”

“Why?”

She looked confused, “What does that have to do with what happened?”

He cleared his throat. “Let’s start with a timeline.”

He looked back down at his pad, jotting down her account of the events leading up to the shooting. She answered his questions noncommittally, seemingly unwilling to give him any more information than she possibly had to. Everything about her attitude told him she was hiding something, but as hard as he tried, he couldn’t pin her down about anything concrete.

What Layla didn’t know was that he’d already run an extensive background check on her and her brother, a search that had only led to a series of frustrating dead ends. The most he could find was a trust fund set up by a Professor Theodore Reed, who had become their legal guardian when they were barely toddlers. A great deal of money had been moved in and out of that account, but it
had been drained of all funds and inactive for nearly a year.

Ramon watched her closely, looking for the signs of guilt he’d been trained to detect. She sat up straight with her shoulders squared, and even though she was clearly nervous, she seemed more determined than worried. When their eyes met he had a hard time thinking anything at all.

Every time Ramon asked Layla a pointed question she somehow managed to sidestep it, leaving him scratching his head and wondering why he couldn’t seem to stay on track. After he had racked his brain for every conceivable thing to ask he finally got around to the one thing he most wanted to know.

“So, what were you doing with Millie’s grandson?” he asked. “Are you dating him?”

“I was showing him the site… He’s an architect”

“So, your relationship isn’t of a personal nature.”

She looked surprised. “That’s a personal question.”

“I’m just doing my job ma’am.”

She looked at his serious face and burst into laughter, making him uncomfortable. “You’re ma’am-ing me again? Please call me Layla.”

“Layla,” he said softly. “That’s a really pretty name.”

Now it was her turn to squirm, unnerved by the way he was scrutinizing her. “Thanks.” She looked at the picture on his desk, trying to change the subject. “You have a beautiful family.”

He picked up the frame with a warm smile, “Yes. Yes I do.”

“How old are your children?” she asked.

“The girls are four years old now,” he smiled affectionately at the picture, looking back up at Layla with warmth in his
nearly black eyes. “But they’re not mine. That’s my sister and her twins.”

“Oh,” she said, unexpectedly relieved. “You’re an uncle.”

He put the picture down. “I have six nieces and nephews.”

“Wow,” Layla nodded solemnly. “That’s a lot of people for one family.”

“Not where I come from,” he laughed.

She looked away, uneasy. She realized that she didn’t have any firsthand knowledge of what constituted a normal family. Aside from make-believe people in books, Layla had nothing at all to base her opinion on. Ramon leaned back in his chair, studying her across his desk. He was blazing with such a deeply hued,
intense interest that she could feel its heat and taste its tart bite. Instead of satisfying his curiosity, she was piquing it.

Ramon’s stomach growled audibly, and he laughed it off,
all dimples and white teeth. “Excuse me, but I’m starving. Have you had any dinner?”

“No,” she told the truth.

“I was going to grab a bite after we finished here, and I hate eating alone… Why don’t you come along with me?” he asked directly. The way he was looking at her was making her nervous again, and she felt her face flush hot.

“Where?” she asked.

“Have you ever been to Betty’s diner? It’s just down the street from here.”

“Once,” she said, remembering her lunch with Conrad.

“Well?” he asked.

She shifted in her seat uncomfortably, “Are you finished questioning me?”

“Taking a statement,” he corrected her. “And yes, we’re done. Now I’m asking you to join me… as a friend. My treat.”

“A friend?” she echoed.

He cocked his head charmingly, “Why not?”

She thought about it, realizing that she might seem even more suspicious if she refused his friendly offer.
After all, she
was
hungry.

“They make a really great burger…” he added.

She smiled, instantly disarming him. “Okay.”

~

Chapter Ten

DINER

~

She waited on the sidewalk while he locked up the police station. He touched her back casually, nodding his head down the street. “We can walk from here… just watch your step, okay?” She realized he was referencing her clumsy fall, but she couldn’t tell if he was making fun of her or not. When they got to the diner he brushed against her arm, opening the door and standing back. Was it her imagination, or was he going out of his way to touch her?

The place was crowded with diners and humming with conversation. A gum-snapping waitress smiled wide when she saw Ramon, “Hey sweetcheeks! What’s shakin’ tonight?”

“Hello Darlin’… Nothing much, how ‘bout you?”

She led Ramon and Layla to a booth and handed them each a plastic menu after they slid in. Ramon watched with amusement as Layla carefully unfolded a paper napkin and arranged it daintily across her lap, sitting up straight to read the menu with a serious face. She was so oddly formal he couldn’t quite figure out where she might have come from.

She looked up to see him staring. “This place is a dive,” she said, echoing Conrad’s assessment.

“A dive?” He burst into a full-throated laugh, throwing his handsome head back. Professor Reed would have called that making a spectacle of yourself, and Layla looked around nervously, surprised that no one seemed to be paying any special attention to them. When he collected himself he spoke with mock outrage. “I’ll have you know that this is a classic old-school diner!”

She was mortified, realizing that she’d just inadvertently insulted him. “I didn’t mean any offense by it,” she said, worried.

He shook his head. “None taken.”

She pretended to read the menu, fully aware that he was watching her. When she lifted her colorful eyes over the menu his dark ones were right there to greet her. She cleared her throat. “So… The burgers are good?”

“Best thing they do here,” he replied.

She folded the plastic menu and set it down carefully, “Okay.”

“So you’re really building a house?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s a lot of work,” he said.

She nodded, “Millie has been a big help getting everything in order.”

He looked skeptical. “Millie? Helpful?”

She rolled her eyes, used to the same attitude from Cali. “Millie’s okay. She only wants someone to listen to her.”

Ramon smiled wryly, thinking of all the times he’d been cornered and held hostage by the old busybody’s stories. “Yeah, you sure got her number.”

“What number?” Layla asked innocently.

He looked at her funny, like she was a puzzle he couldn’t quite figure out, and she suddenly felt extremely self-conscious once
again. She slid to the end of the booth. “Excuse me.”

She found the bathroom and ducked into a stall for a moment
to gather her nerves. So far, so good. She hadn’t given away any secrets, and aside from sidetracking his questions a few times, she’d hardly needed to use her powers on him at all. Maybe Cali was right, and she could get by without falling back on her endless manipulations.

She heard a flurry of footsteps, and recognized the waitress’ voice. “You’re late.”

“Sorry!” a younger voice replied, “I’ll be out in a sec… Ooh! Did you see Ramon’s on my station? Man! That boy is like sex on a stick!”

The older woman laughed, “Did you see who he was with? The redhead… You know– the one who drives that fancy convertible.”