Dreaming of the Wolf (32 page)

“I’ll need your address,” Detective Hanover said. “But think about it. If you change your mind…” He handed Alicia his business card. “Just call me.”

The other detective opened the front door of the apartment, and from the grim look on his face, he probably had learned Ferdinand Massaro was dead. “Can I talk to you for a moment out here?” he said to Detective Hanover, his gaze shifting to Alicia, then back to his partner.

They
couldn’t know she was involved in that murder, too, could they?

“Sure.” The detective looked at Alicia as if he
knew
she had something to do with the latest report, which had her on edge all over again.

The two men left the apartment and shut the door, and the detective’s partner began talking.

Alicia slumped against the couch, realizing just how tense she’d been up until now. Jake wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a comforting hug. But none of them spoke while she and the others all listened, trying to hear what was being said outside the apartment.

Because of the large glass window and their enhanced wolf hearing, Alicia and the others heard the man say, “I learned Ferdinand Massaro is dead. Found in his condo by his cleaning lady the next morning. He’d been murdered the night before. A couple returning from a late-night movie saw a woman fitting Miss Alicia Greiston’s description leaving the condo, frazzled and upset, sometime in the middle of the night. Several blocks from the condo, a cab driver gave a woman fitting Miss Greiston’s description a ride to her car parked in a suburb on the other side of the city.”

“Hell. Now why did I guess she might have been involved in another shooting incident that was connected with Mario’s gang?” Detective Hanover asked.

“Not a shooting this time. Massaro’s neck was broken. The coroner said it had to have been a man who killed him because of the trauma to his neck. But it only figures, Hanover. The little lady gets around. She sure has a hell of a lot more gumption than she appears to.”

“She’s good at staying alive, I’ll give her that. Anything else you can give me before I go in and question her some more?”

Alicia closed her eyes against the pounding headache developing in her temple.

Jake kissed her cheek. “Are you okay?”

“No,” she whispered. “What do I say now?”

Round two, Jake glumly thought as he pulled away from Alicia and held her hand so she didn’t look ready to collapse under pressure before Detective Hanover returned to her apartment to grill her further. When the detective and his partner returned to the interrogation, the other detective looked almost smug as he watched the proceeding. Alicia hadn’t had time to prepare what she’d say, nor had Jake had time to counsel her.

Tom and Peter attempted to look unconcerned, but Jake could tell both were worried. She’d been at a murder scene and hadn’t reported it. What was she going to say now? Jake was tempted to get one of their lawyers involved before this went any further, but the problem was that the murder had taken place in Denver. They needed a wolf lawyer there to defend her, if that’s what it took. But they didn’t know any werewolf packs in the city, since the packs usually avoided most bigger cities and stayed closer to home. Except for Sherry Slate. Jake didn’t figure she’d like it that he hadn’t been interested in her beyond a couple of dates but now he’d taken up with Alicia and wanted Sherry to defend her.

“So, Miss Greiston, do you want to tell me what happened on the night of July 15 when you visited Ferdinand Massaro at his condo?”

“He told me to meet him at his place. That he had information about where to locate Mario. He left the message underneath my hotel-room door. When I went to his place, no one answered the door. I rang the doorbell several times, but still no answer. I didn’t have his phone number, so I couldn’t give him a call. I figured he’d left. Or maybe I had the time or location wrong. Or he might have.”

“But you say he had left a message under your door. So you must have had the right information.”

“I thought so. But then I thought maybe I didn’t. I hadn’t brought the piece of paper with me.”

“Do you still have it?”

She shook her head. “I tossed it out.”

“So you left the place in the middle of the night and…?”

“Finally got a taxi and returned to where I’d parked my car. Then I drove to my hotel.”

“Why get a taxi to get to your car?”

“I was being cautious in case any of Mario’s men might be following me.”

“Hmm,” Detective Hanover said.

Jake knew she hadn’t parked her car and taken a taxi from there, not when Massaro had grabbed her at the other location, but he couldn’t tell if the detective knew that or not. He assumed the detective would make a note to check out the cab records to verify her claim and find nothing of the sort.

“And then?” The detective looked up from his note-taking.

“I moved from place to place, trying again to track down Constantino and Danny Massaro. When I finally found where they were, I notified the police and they picked them up.”

Detective Hanover studied her for a moment, then quietly said, “But they didn’t. Pick them up.”

Her mouth dropped open, then she snapped it shut.

“They’re free still?” Jake asked, rubbing her hand and having assumed that was the case.

“Yes. The police arrived too late. But if you’re a bounty hunter who’s supposed to be bringing them in, why turn their location over to the police?” Detective Hanover asked Alicia.

“I figured they were too dangerous for me to try and arrest.”

“Because you had witnessed Ferdinand Massaro’s murder.”

Jake could hear Alicia’s rapid heartbeat. He felt her clammy hand in his and knew she was trying to make the best of this situation. He wished he could get her the hell out of this nightmare legally, without causing further stress or trouble for her.

“Murdered?” she asked, her voice hollow, and despite knowing Ferdinand had been murdered already, she sounded convincing enough that she hadn’t already had a clue. “The… the night I went to see him?”

Genuine tears filled her eyes. Jake knew they weren’t faked. She must have been terrified to see what she had in the condo, further horrified that she could have ended up like Ferdinand.

“It fits you were there after he was murdered.”

Not before, good. Or maybe the detective was giving her an out to see if she’d let anything slip. If anyone had seen Ferdinand take Alicia into the condo after he’d knocked her out, wouldn’t they have reported it to the police? Maybe not, thinking she was dead drunk.

Hanover’s partner got a call and said into his phone, “This is Brumley. Yeah?” He looked up at Alicia. “All right. I’ll tell Hanover. Yeah, we’re still questioning her. Thanks.” He hung up his phone. “Want me to ask?” he questioned Hanover.

“Don’t tell me it’s about another shooting,” Hanover said dryly.

Brumley said, “Yeah, it is. Seems some hikers thought they’d heard a shot fired and then saw two men in suits coming off a hiking trail near Breckenridge, one with a bloodied trouser leg. The hikers said a woman was standing by a wreath of flowers near the trail.”

“For Missy Greiston,” Hanover guessed, looking directly at Alicia. “So who shot the man, Brumley?”

“My guess?” his partner asked.

“Take your best shot,” Hanover said, never taking his eyes off Alicia.

She remained ramrod stiff.

“Mario’s men came after her on the trail, and met up with Alicia Greiston when she was visiting the spot where her mother had died. Mario’s men threatened her. Miss Greiston defended herself. The men left but, in their usual fashion, didn’t report the gunshot wound. Because of that, there was no crime to report. No real witnessing of a crime. Only circumstantial evidence.”

“Gun casings? Bullet fragments?”

“None.”

“All right.” Detective Hanover slapped his hands on his thighs, rose from the chair, and said, “That about wraps it up. If you think you might have seen someone or something in connection with Ferdinand Massaro’s murder, you’ll let us know, won’t you, Miss Greiston?”

“Of course,” Alicia said softly.

Detective Hanover gave his head a little shake and followed Brumley out the door. Once it was locked, Alicia let out a shaky breath, then looked at Tom and Peter’s grave expressions.

“I didn’t witness any
other
shootings or killings. I swear it,” she said with a frown, her voice sharp.

They both chuckled darkly.

“Let’s go through my mother’s things, then we can pack up some of my stuff and go. I did want to keep my furniture, though.” She looked at the new couch and love seats she’d bought the previous year and that she’d saved hard-earned money to purchase. And she longed to sleep in her own bed, too.

“No problem. My grandparent’s place has old furniture that needs replacing. We’ll get a moving van and move your things there.” Jake said to Tom and Peter, “You can wait here and make sure no one comes that shouldn’t be here.”

“Want me to rent a moving van? Shouldn’t take anything very big to haul Alicia’s furniture and personal effects back to Silver Town,” Tom said.

Rising from the couch, Jake looked to Alicia for a decision. She nodded. She might as well get this over and done with. No sense in paying rent on a place when she wasn’t going to be living there. “I’ll have to give notice, and I’ll lose my deposit for not giving a month’s notice.”

“It won’t matter. I make enough money for the two of us.” He took her hand and helped her up from the couch.

She gave him an easy smile and looped her finger through one of his belt loops. “I should have asked that right away.”

“I didn’t realize that was the only thing holding you back from saying yes.”

She gave him an annoyed look and a tug on his belt loop as she headed for the stairs. “I don’t recall being asked anything that remotely required me to say yes.”

“Do you want me to call Darien and give him the heads-up concerning our progress?” Tom asked, cell phone in hand.

“Yeah, tell him we’re getting a moving van so it might take a little longer to return home. And you can let him know that we had the shooting incident here at her apartment and gave police statements again. Tell him there’s a little trouble about Alicia’s being sighted at the condo where Ferdinand Massaro died, in case we need to find a lawyer in Denver, and that we’re about ready to go through Alicia’s mother’s things.”

“Will do.”

A little trouble? Witnessing a murder was bound to get her into a whole lot more trouble. Why had she ever mentioned knowing Ferdinand Massaro?

When they reached the bedroom, Jake moved into the closet to pull out the boxes of stuff belonging to Alicia’s mother.

“Just dump the contents on the floor, and we’ll sort through them that way,” she said, her heart in her throat. She’d thrown everything in the boxes without really going through any of it, so she hadn’t a clue if any of it needed to be discarded or not. But smelling her mother’s perfume on her personal effects and seeing the jewelry and trinkets she’d collected since her mother had been a young woman was still hard for Alicia to deal with.

After searching through two of the boxes of knickknacks that Alicia decided she couldn’t part with, while she randomly wiped away her errant tears, Jake paused and asked, “Where do you keep your tissues?”

“Bedside table.”

He returned to her side with the box, crouched in front of her, and wiped away her tears himself. “Alicia, if this is too difficult for you…”

She shook her head. “I might see something that would mean something to me but that wouldn’t to you.” She smiled through her tears at him and swept her hand down his arm until she was holding his strong but gentle hand, and she squeezed lightly in thanks. “Thanks, Jake. Have I told you I love you?”

He gave her a quirky smile. “Not in so many words, but I knew it anyway.”

She gave him a watery smile, and he tilted her chin up and kissed her lips. But he quickly broke off the kiss, gave her a light hug, and then went back to searching through a sheaf of papers. She knew he wanted to get this over with, the sooner the better, and be on their way. She wished she could look through everything as clinically as he could.

She was leaning forward to move aside more papers when her hand brushed against something oddly familiar—a small, sturdy red envelope that was big enough only for a key. She recognized the bank key at once, and her heart began beating faster. She lifted the envelope, shook out the key, and held it up to show Jake. “My mother’s safe-deposit-box key.”

Jake paused from reading through various papers he’d found and looked up at her. “Where is the box?”

“A bank in Breckenridge. She… didn’t want to keep it in Dillon.”

“Why?” His dark brows were slightly furrowed.

“I don’t know. I never asked, and she never said.” Alicia had never given it much thought, but as intensely as Jake was looking at her, she suspected he thought the key could be vital to discovering clues.

“Do you know what it contains?” he asked.