Double Bind (9 page)

           
They sat awkwardly for a moment.
 
Sarah was too busy trying to think of things that she could do that would look suspicious to really think about niceties and figuring out how to talk to him.

           
“Look, Sarah -” he hesitated, suddenly looking nervous.
 
“It is alright that I call you Sarah, right?”

           
“Of course,” she said, waving her hand dismissively.
 
“You can call me whatever you want Rob.”
 
Again, she wanted to kick herself.
 
Just because she had started to think of him as Rob, the sexy stud, didn’t give her the right to endanger his life with flirting just now.

           
It was worth it though.
 
He beamed, his sexy smile spreading across his face like a window opening.
 
“Great.”
 
He cleared his throat, refocusing.
 
“Look, I wanted to talk to you Sarah, about the case, and what’s been going on.”

           
She blinked, then nodded.
 
“Okay.”

           
“We haven’t been exactly honest with you.”

           
She pulled away a little.
 
This could be very good.

           
“I hope you’ll understand why, though.” he said, his voice earnest.
 
Suddenly his hand reached out to take hers.
 
She wanted to resist, but couldn’t figure out how.
 
It just felt so nice to have his big warm hand around hers.
 
“You see, we never really thought that you were guilty.”
 
He winced, as though waiting for her to lash out.

           
“You didn’t?” she said, mostly surprised.
 
They had certainly been convincing enough.

           
He smiled tightly, looking relieved.
 
“No.
 
You see, we knew that this was probably the work of a much more dangerous criminal.
 
We didn’t want them to know that we were getting close, so we were hoping that putting pressure on you and your brother would make them feel confident.”

           
“Oh, well that would be a good thing.” She said, feeling lightheaded.
 
This was bad.
 
This was very bad.
 
She had to convince him that she was guilty.
 
But a guilty person would be happy about not being suspected.
 
This whole thing was going wrong.

           
“Exactly,” he said, growing more confident.
 
“The only problem is that you keep meddling in things.
 
At this rate, we’re going to have to close the case and try you!”

           
“Well, that would be awful.” Sarah said, rolling her eyes.
 
She knew she didn’t sound sincere, but she didn’t know what else to do.

           
He looked at her oddly.
 
“Exactly.
 
So I’m here to ask a favor.
 
I couldn’t ask when the other officers are around, since we think that there are dirty cops involved.”

           
“Okay,” Sarah said, feeling woozy, and wishing that she could just go back in time and not answer the door.

           
“I need you to stay out of things for
awhile
.
 
Hang out with some
girl friends
.
 
Go shopping.
 
Spend all that money in your account.”
 
He chuckled a little, but when Sarah didn’t laugh, he sobered back up.
 
“I just need you to stop drawing attention to yourself until we can make a little progress on the investigation.
 
Will you do that for me?”

           
Sarah had to swallow hard.
 
“Yeah, I can do that.”
 
This was so bad.

           
He grinned, looking boyish, and damned sexy.
 
How could she refuse him?
 
How could she convince him that she was a horrible person.
 
He was the last person that she wanted to have think bad about her.
 
She wanted him to be smitten with her, not suspicious.
 
She gritted her teeth.
 
She had to do this.
 
She knew she could.

           
“I’ll be so off the charts, you won’t even be able to find me,” she said, hoping that her voice sounded menacing and mysterious.

           
He looked at her a little oddly again, then smiled.
 
“Thank you so much Sarah.
 
And please don’t tell anyone about this.
 
As far as the world is concerned, you are still our number one suspect.”

           
“Of course I am,” she said, winking at him.

           
He shook his head, then suddenly seemed to realize that he was still holding her hand.
 
He looked down at her hand, but didn’t let go.
 
Sarah closed her eyes.
 
If he said anything else, she wasn’t going to be able to do this.
 
If he even made a little hint that he might like her, she was going to fold.

           
“Well, thanks for dropping by, I’ve got lots of staying low to do, so you ought to go.”

           
He blinked, looking seriously disappointed.
 
She wanted to stroke his face and smile, making him smile again.
 
Instead, she pulled her hand away, standing.
 
He followed her lead, brushing his hands nervously on the front of his pants again.

           
“I cannot tell you how relieved I am that I’m not going to jail!
 
I mean imagine, me in jail. I’m just as innocent as a songbird, and gee whiz you can bet that I wouldn’t do well in there.”

           
She knew that she was sounding like an idiot, but she didn’t dare stop talking long enough to give him a chance.
 
“I’ll just sit at home doing nothing, and certainly not calling any secret agencies with my secret hidden burner cell,
haha
.”
 
She glanced at the detective to see if he was noticing anything.
 
He looked puzzled, but not suspicious.
 
“Yup, I’ll just be here, not breaking the law.”
 
She purposefully stumbled, so that she crushed the cushion on the couch, making the papers behind crinkle.
 
“Don’t mind that.
 
There are definitely no suspicious papers in there.
 
Nope, nothing but cushiony goodness, that’s for sure.”

           
He stopped in the entryway, looking at her with his eyebrows drawn together.
 
“Sarah, are you alright?”

           
“Of course I’m alright,” she said, forcing a laugh.
 
“I’ve just found out I’m not a suspect, the world couldn’t be better.”

           
“I don’t know -” he started to say, but Sarah pushed him out into the hall.

           
“Thanks for chatting,” she said.
 
“It’s been grand.”
 
She closed the door between them and drew a deep long breath.
 
After a second she turned to look through the peephole.
 
Rob was still staring at her door, his face quizzical.
 
Quizzical was good; that meant that he might be getting suspicious.
 
Shaking his head, he turned and walked away down the hall.

           
Sarah closed her eyes tight.
 
That was done.
 
Now he would stay out of the way, and not get his handsome butt killed.

           
She opened her eyes and turned back to her apartment.
 
Now she just had to stop the bad guys, before they killed anyone else.
 
Easy right?

           
Feeling more than a little sick to her stomach, Sarah headed back to her couch to piece together the clues and save herself and the handsome stud of a detective before it was too late.

Chapter 8

           
Unfortunately without a computer, she didn’t have access to nearly enough files, and the public library was closed for the night.
 
At least Rob would be happy with her for staying out of trouble for a few hours.
 
She decided that it was time that she pick up her apartment.
 
After all, she couldn’t very well sit still for that many hours, not when she had slept so late.
 
It would be hours before she could fall asleep properly.

           
It didn’t take nearly long enough for her to finish tidying up her apartment.
 
She was even tempted to organize her shoe closet, but she decided instead to leave something for herself to do the next day.
 
After all, who knew how long it would take for her to find the right information?

           
The only problem was that, that left her with nothing to do.
 
She decided to go down to the local market and rent a movie.
 
There were plenty that she had been intending on watching, but she knew that she was probably going to get a chick flick and then spend the rest of the night daydreaming about Rob.
 
She knew that she was getting in over her head, but she didn’t care.
 
He was
studly
, and he was nice.
 
What more could a girl need?

           
She drove down to the store feeling better than she had in days.
 
Sure, she had to alienate the same guy that she was daydreaming about, and she was still a suspect in a police investigation.
 
But, she also was finally making progress toward discovering the true culprit.
  

           
She had to pass her workplace on her way to the store, and looked longingly up at it.
 
She had never thought that she would actually miss the days when she worked 14 hour days and slaved away for a boss who couldn’t have spotted intelligence if it was biting him on his oversized ass.
 
Some days, it had seemed like the only redeemable thing about working was getting to work with Valerie, or teasing timid Jared.
 
She scowled.
 
So much for those happy memories.
 
Now she knew that Valerie had set her up, framing her.

           
Suddenly she pulled over, staring up at the building in surprise.
 
There, on the twelfth floor was a bright light shining out of the building.
 
It wasn’t the only light on.
 
After all, with a big company like
BioGen
, people worked late all the time.
 
What was surprising was that it was a window that Sarah knew all too well.
 
It was the lab.
 
The whole 12th floor was lab-space.
 
And that corner was her lab.
 
Hers.

           
She turned her car off to stare up at the building, rage piling up in her chest.
 
Someone was in her lab.
 
Possibly doing terrible things.
 
Or planning on doing horrible things.

           
The light went out. Sarah gripped her steering wheel tight.
 
Rob had clearly told her that she should stay out of trouble. Angela had told her that she was to stay home until someone came and got her.
 
Her own brother was stuck in jail because she hadn’t left well enough alone.

           
But Valerie and her coconspirators could be up there on the 12th floor that very moment.
 
Sarah knew what she was going to do.
 
Forget the library and research; she was going to find out who Valerie was working with in person.
 
She was going to follow her.