Forever Mine (10 page)

However, when this stint ended, she couldn’t think of a single reason for giving him a second thought.

Chapter Nine

Jimmy called three days later.

Allie was fitting a narrow sash onto one of the daytime dresses she intended to feature at Designorama. She held several straight pins between her lips. Although the body forms were adjusted to Fiona’s exact measurements, some garments might require a slight adjustment before she strode the runway. A last minute refitting added heat to an already bubbling cauldron.

The phone’s sharp jangle cut through Allie’s concentration like a hatchet. It took a few moments for her to refocus and trace the sound to her office. She froze and clamped down hard on the pins unmindful of the consequences of swallowing one. The only callers who’d recently used the office phone were Jimmy and Dave. Allie’s heart thudded against her chest.

On the third ring, Sutter appeared on the stairs. He swung off the bottom landing and glanced toward her. Then his eyes shifted to the office phone. On the fourth ring, he said, “Spit out those pins.”

She hesitated while her mind grappled with his words. Finally, clarity returned, and she obeyed the command.

He held a lined yellow pad and a black felt-tipped pen. A few steps brought him into the sewing room.

“Stay calm. Act friendly and keep him talking. Go.” He barked the last command while he dug his cell out of his pocket. He stepped away and spoke softly into the phone.

The deep breaths Allie pulled in dried her throat. Her shoes had a sudden heaviness as if they were cut from stone blocks. Still, she pushed hard into the office. A tremor gripped her hand, and it took a few seconds to snatch up the receiver before the answering machine clicked on. She put the phone on speaker, glanced toward Sutter but couldn’t see him. Her heart thumped harder. Although unnecessary, she clung to the receiver. Having something solid to grasp might help to mitigate her anxiety.

“Hello.” Her voice pushed out deep and scratchy.

“Hey, Allie.” Jimmy’s voice came over the line, upbeat, as if he hadn’t a single worry.

Had he any awareness the police were hunting him? He must have some sort of inkling. Did he know what the authorities suspected about Dave?

“Jimmy.”

Remembering Sutter’s earlier admonition, she immediately left the office. She walked into the sewing area and stopped several feet from him. The wall shielding him concealed her, as well. He’d completed his call and put away his phone.

Dread settled in the pit of her stomach. She had promised to play her part and was expected to act breezy and blasé during the upcoming conversation. Chances were Dave would also want to speak with her. At least she wasn’t totally alone; Sutter’s whole posture, the way his eyes bored into hers, told her he had her back. She stared at him and swallowed hard.

He wrote something on the pad and held it up for her to see. It read “talk 2 him.”

Allie managed to work up a little saliva. “So, how’s everything going?”

She glanced back at Sutter, and he smiled and nodded.

“Not too bad.” Silence followed Jimmy’s brief statement.

She recollected that he wasn’t very chatty. Their few conversations when he lived next door had consisted of “hello,” followed by a request for something, usually money, which Allie gave him, on occasion, and then “goodbye.” She realized she would have to move the conversation along.

Sutter scribbled something else on the yellow pad.

“What have you been doing since we talked last?” Her voice was low and tense. A grimace tightened her facial muscles.

“Uh…Not much.”

While she communicated with him, she kept her eyes glued to the cop in her sewing room. He tapped the pad, drawing her attention to where he’d written “where R they?”

She nodded and gulped a deep breath. Tasked with finding out their location, the best way to pose the question, without arousing suspicion, had eluded her. Now, Sutter’s directive, while not much of a script, encouraged her to get right to the point.

“Are you still up in Washington?” She sought confirmation from Sutter who scribbled “good,” on his pad. The single word elevated her confidence although not enough to still her heart’s erratic beat.

“Uh-huh. I think.”

“Don’t you know?” His cryptic reply confirmed her belief; mentally, Jimmy had detoured farther off into space.

“We been to different places. We found a cabin a couple days ago…”

“A cabin.” Allie injected her tone with false enthusiasm. “That sounds neat. Is it somewhere near Tacoma where I wired you the money?”

“Maybe. There are lots of trees all around and a lake. Kinda like Tahoe but smaller. We’re gonna stay there again tonight.”

“Tahoe?” Were they already in California, somewhere in the Sierra Nevada Mountains? Could Jimmy differentiate one lake from another? “Are there other cabins close by?”

She glanced at Sutter but could read nothing in his neutral expression.

Another voice rose in the background then Jimmy said Dave wanted to talk to her.

She bit down hard on her bottom lip. Her breathing stilled.

Sutter held up an additional directive. He’d written, “relax.”

She mouthed “how,” then Dave’s smooth voice came over the line.

“Hi, Allie. Long time no speak. I missed chatting with you.”

Allie faltered, and she expected another admonition from Sutter. None came. Maybe she was doing okay. Finally, she tapped into her ability to talk.

“You did?” The dryness that seared her throat made it hard to swallow.

“Yeah. Jimmy’s okay company, but it’s not the same as talking with a woman. I hope I’m not interrupting anything important.”

From her knowledge of Dave, conversation must have held little place in his interaction with women. The thought sickened her.

Sutter signaled with a roll of his hand for her to move the conversation along.

“Interrupting…? No. I was…just sewing.”

“Right. The competition. Designorama, isn’t it? I’d like to hear more about the clothes. And you design bridal gowns, too. Seems to me you’re covering all bases. Smart.” Then after a pause, “Hey, you’re not married, are you? I should have asked the other day.”

Allie shook her head as if he stood within her sight. Finally, she managed, “Uh, no. I’m not married.”

“Boyfriend?”

She was tempted to mention a fiancé, a Sumo wrestler, but a silly lie might scare him away. Sutter would then feel justified in clapping handcuffs on her wrists and hauling her off to a dark, dank dungeon for screwing up his best opportunity to capture Dave.

“No.” She sucked in air. “There’s no one special right now.”

Sutter waved his pad at her. He’d turned back to the sheet that instructed her to inquire into the men’s location. To “where R they” he’d added “find out.”

“That’s good. I wouldn’t want to cause any trouble.”

“It’s no trouble.” Fortunately, he couldn’t see her loathing of him.

“What are you sewing right now?”

Allie shrugged at Sutter. Although she needed to question Dave about his location, subtlety was also important. Mentally, she kicked herself for ever mentioning Designorama. The only reason she had was to forestall Jimmy from asking her for more money.

“I’m working on…buttonholes.” She wasn’t but hoped something as asexual as button closings would steer Dave away from anything suggestive.

“You sound smart, Allie. I like clever women. There are so few around these days. At least the ones I’ve met lately. Maybe my luck has changed. I hope we get together soon. I’m counting the days.”

She paused while an imaginary clock ticked off the seconds. She wanted to jam the receiver back onto the answering machine, but that was in her office, and she was forbidden to go in there. Also, it was imperative for her to uphold her end of the bargain she made with the police. She had to talk to him.

Sutter’s face bore a mask of impatience. He waved his legal pad.

She nodded, regained control. “I’m counting, too.” She directed the words at Sutter. “It might take a while for you to travel down here, if you and Jimmy are still in Washington. He wasn’t sure.” She waited for a response. When none came, she said, “Whereabouts are you? I have friends in Bremerton.”

“Bremerton. Nice area. No, we’re nowhere near there. I’m looking forward to San Francisco though. I understand you have some great restaurants down your way. I’d like to take you to one of the best. Your choice. Whatever you like. We could become better acquainted over a meal and a good bottle of wine.”

A shiver snaked down Allie’s back.

“Hmm…” The last thing she’d ever do was let a maniac pour half a bottle of wine into her. Maybe he got the women drunk before he murdered them. Her free hand closed in a fist. Her nails sliced into her palm.

Sutter scribbled another note—“stay cool.”

“A good meal is something I haven’t had lately,” Dave said.

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“I’ve been busy, on the run a lot.”

“Are you in California? Jimmy mentioned a lake. I thought maybe it was Tahoe.”

“You know, I love your voice. It tells me something about you. I already know from Jimmy that you’re pretty and tall with long dark hair. I want to find out a lot more about what you’re like on the inside when we talk again. Then, when we meet, it won’t feel so much like we’re
strangers.”

Sutter scribbled “when.”

“Sure.” Allie fought to still the tremor in her voice. “Any idea when you expect to be in the city?”

“Can’t say for sure. First chance I’m able to get away.”

She glanced at Sutter who made the kind of motion with one hand that directed her to stretch out the conversation.

“The semifinals are looming. Another week or so, and I’ll be really tied down here. I might not even have time to answer the phone.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll work it out. Right now I have to run. Catch you later.”

The line went dead.

Chapter Ten

Sutter pulled out his cell, dialed and said, “Anything?”

A few moments later, he pocketed the phone. “They’re using throwaways.”

“Throwaways?”

“They buy a prepaid calling card good for so many minutes, load the card into a phone and use up the time they paid for. That way it’s impossible to trace the call. Our friend Dave has thought of just about everything.”

So now he was
our
friend, like Sutter had issued her the much sought-after Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card.

A weird high-pitched sound came from Allie’s phone, and an electronic voice said to hang up and try dialing again. Sutter took the instrument from her and punched a button, killing the voice. He placed the phone on the sewing machine.

“Hey, are you all right?” He moved closer to her.

She nodded, although she was as miserable as if she’d just slogged down twenty miles of dirt road in a hurricane.

He touched her shoulder. “You did really well. Don’t let him disturb you. Remember, I’ll always be nearby. We’re a team now.”

He looked into her eyes. Something in his signaled a change of attitude. She supposed it had something to do with her cooperation in following his prompts. She couldn’t decide what was more disconcerting: a conversation with Dave or being touched by her new teammate, Detective Sutter.

He gently squeezed her shoulder. The warmth from his palm seeped through her T-shirt. He had large hands but not Popeye size, just one of the things that either attracted her to a man or made her steer clear. Long fingers and a rock-solid palm hooked her most every time. Small hands as well as a narrow slit of a mouth turned her off. Sutter would never have to worry about either.

Finally, he stepped back. Then he picked up the straight pins from the floor and gave them to her. She sunk them into a pin cushion.

“I guess you want to get back to work. You should. Maybe it will take your mind off Dave.”

Allie groaned. Every muscle in her body was as tight as a clenched fist. Her fingers were too stiff to manipulate scissors. The slightest misplaced cut could ruin an entire garment. At this stage, any serious misstep would torpedo her chance of advancing to the final leg of the competition. There was no time to order new fabric and replace an outfit. The semifinals were in less than two weeks.

“How about coming upstairs for a while?” he said. “You like Coke? I was just about to take a short break. You should, too.”

She shook her head. “I’m too tense. I need to go for a run. It’s the only way I can loosen up.”

“Not a good idea.”

“Besides this…
thing
with Dave, I have a ton of anxiety over the competition. The outcome can affect the rest of my life. Running clears my head, and right now it feels like someone lit a firecracker inside my brain.”

His face set in a thoughtful expression, as if he were mulling a dozen reasons why he needed to enforce the no-leaving-the-house rule.

“You’ll be right there alongside me.” She cut in before he had a chance to put the kibosh on it. “You carry a gun…”

He hesitated, cocked his head.

Allie’s mental clock ticked off more seconds. The longer it took him to make a decision the less likely he was to accommodate her.

“Please.” She hated to beg.

“Okay. We’ll shoot for an hour. Not in the street. We’ll use the beach, but farther up the coast away from the house.”

Allie breathed a sigh. She glanced down at her T-shirt and cutoffs. Sutter wore khakis, a starched blue cotton dress shirt and polished loafers. His clothing didn’t seem to concern him, and she wasn’t about to broach the subject. Apparently, he was used to chasing down suspects while wearing quasi-business attire. He probably never broke a sweat. A holster clipped to his belt held his gun. She supposed he’d have to do something about the weapon.

“I just need to change into my running shoes.” She headed for the stairs.

“I have some things in the car.” He moved into the back room and headed toward the garage.