Trouble Comes Knocking (Entangled Embrace) (12 page)

“Awesome. I don’t think I know him, but my dad might. Smith is a pretty common name, does he have a first one?” John asked with a flirty wink and a smile.

I rolled my eyes. Of course he had a first one. Still, the waitress seemed to eat up his flirting.

“Ulysses, actually.” She smiled back. It was an uncommon name, if John really did have a dad who knew him, that name would be one he couldn’t forget.

“Yeah, I think I’ve heard that name before,” John said, playing along. “Do you know what year he graduated?”

“Sometime in the eighties, I think?” Her cheeks shined.

“Awesome,” he said again, with a smile but no wink. “I’ll have to ask him. You’ve been a doll.”

She smiled, but it wasn’t as big now that it was clear he was done flirting. “Well, I guess I’ll take your order to the kitchen,” she said before turning to walk away.

“Okay, Watson,” I said. “What do we do with that?”

“We know his business partner was probably complicit in the affair,” John said. “So if this place is always this dead, where do you think the money to run it comes from?”

“HGR.”

“Exactly.”

I leaned over the table and kissed him square on the lips, only it wasn’t enough. I held the sides of his face and ran my thumbs along his cheekbones. My lips pressed until his mouth opened. My tongue tasted, delving deeper. Heat radiated through my body as I tried to remember we were sitting in the middle of a restaurant. I pulled back with a grin. “You’re pretty brilliant, Mr. Poole.”

“Yeah, I know.” He drank some of his water. “I hope she hurries up. I’m kinda hungry.”

Because John lived with his mom, it didn’t feel right spending the night there so instead I stayed in a motel. Not something I told John; I hadn’t even told him I’d been kidnapped. And since there was no way could I face Dee yet, I had nowhere else to go. I’d talked to Ana earlier to let her know I was okay but not yet ready to come home. Unfortunately, the people in the room next to mine sounded like they were having an orgy, or possibly were killing chickens, plus my bed had obvious stains from the previous “sleepers,” so I spent the night sitting in the chair and flipping through the ten available channels.

I was desperate to see Natalie, to know she was okay, so I started out the day with a trek back to the Fort Worth jail.

“Oh it’s been so awful,” she moaned from her side of the glass when I arrived. “I didn’t do it. I haven’t done anything. I’m in a cell with a woman who killed her husband. There’s this metal toilet, no seat. It’s dirty.” She sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes. I’d always assumed her black, bobbed hair to be straight, but now that she’d been away from styling products it was easy to see she actually had naturally curly hair. Her cheeks, usually plump, had also hollowed out a bit. It made me sad thinking of what only a day had done.

I sympathized with her deeply, but I also needed to trust her innocence. “Tell me what happened?” I asked.

“They said I logged in during times I couldn’t have. I was with Clive the night Mr. Winters got killed, yet they said I logged in then, too.”

“What proof do you have that you were with Clive?”

“Only him. But of course I was with him. Don’t you believe me?”

I sighed. “I do, but the police want proof of innocence.”

She frowned, her light green eyes completely devoid of their usual sparkle. “I don’t have any. We watched TV, wanted to watch that reality show
Twists
, but it kept getting interrupted by weather warnings.”

I thought back to that night. The storm I got caught in on the way home. She could have guessed, but I didn’t think she did. I believed her. “Natalie, I know you are innocent, and I know the police will discover the same soon enough.”

She sniffled again. “I sure hope so. My mom is bailing me out, but I miss Clive.”

I placed my hand on the glass. “It will work out. I promise.”

By the time I left Natalie, Eli still hadn’t called me back so I tried his phone again. The rat bastard didn’t answer. I searched the Fort Worth PD directory and decided to hunt him down. He’d been using me to help with his investigation; it was time for him to help me. I couldn’t allow my friend, whom I believed to be innocent, to be accused of something she did not do.

Inside the police department, I asked for him at the front desk and was directed to the third floor. Once there, I asked the first person I found, who pointed to an office in the corner. The name on the door said Captain Matheson. I knocked.

“Come in.”

Awards and trophies filled the office. File cabinets overflowed with folders, and on the desk was a smattering of mug shots. This must be the man in charge, no doubt in my mind, though I certainly hadn’t expected to be sent here. After all, I’d asked for Eli.

“May I help you?” the man’s gruff voice came out more as a demand than a request. Dressed in a somewhat plain navy suit, he wore a scowl like a badge. “Well?” he demanded again.

I didn’t want to step in any farther. “I’m looking for Detective Reyes?”

“He’s not here today. He’s working down in evidence.”

“What do you mean?”

“In English?” he asked, slowly. “Detective Reyes is down in evidence. What is this regarding?”

I didn’t want to say, but I didn’t think it would be wise not to tell this guy, either. “I was consulting on a case with him.”

“Really.” He leaned back, and the little paunch of his belly pushed the button of his coat slightly open. It made it look even more haphazard and unfitted. I imagined that button flying off and pinging someone in the eye one day. Maybe me.

“Um, yes. The Winters’s murder.”

“First, we didn’t hire any consultants on that case. Second, we made an arrest, and while this is still an active investigation, we are closing in on our primary suspect.” Matheson rolled his chair back and stood up. “Want to tell me why you’re really here, young lady?”

This man had the power to toss me in jail, just like Natalie, and throw away the key. It didn’t seem he’d be as likely as Eli to believe what I could do, either, so I wanted out of there as fast as possible. Like five minutes ago fast.

Still, I asked, “Why is Detective Reyes in evidence?”

Matheson walked around his desk and held the door. “That is something you will have to ask him yourself. Is there anything else?”

“No, I mean, no sir. Um, thank you.”

He ushered me out and shut the door with an emphatic bang.

“Wow,” I said to myself as I walked away. “Just wow.”

Evidence was in the basement. It was like time-out for cops. I knew that much from television. Mess up a bust? Evidence. Get your partner shot because you’re being stupid? Evidence. Screw up by inviting some crazy chick with an eidetic memory to help with your investigation? Evidence.

I hadn’t talked to or heard from Eli since the Friday before so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went down there. “Hey, I was told I could find you down here,” I said as lightheartedly as possible. “Doghouse?”

“You could say that.” He barely looked at me when he spoke. He took a call and went back into a room to retrieve an item. “I have about five minutes, what do you want?”

“Natalie didn’t do it.”

“I’m not on that case anymore,” he said, giving his best impression of a cold shoulder. “Anything else?”

I frowned. This wasn’t Eli. And if it was, he certainly fooled me over the past few weeks. “You’re not concerned that the wrong person is being railroaded?”

“Again, not my case.”

What a jerk!
I took the notes out of my pocket and tossed them at him. “The Slotted Spoon. Winters was part owner. He was paying for a dead restaurant to keep his mistress a secret. Where did he get the money, Eli?”

“We checked that out.”

“Check it out again.”

Someone came up behind me, probably whomever had called. “Look,” I said, not quite ready to leave. “I don’t know what happened, but when you get ready to tell me, I’ll be around.”

“Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“What is your problem?”

He answered another call as the person behind me signed something out. Walking to the back he retrieved yet another item and brought it to the front. “Look, Lucy. You’re a good kid, but I was wrong to get mixed up with you. It was completely my fault. I’m in a position of authority and you were vulnerable. So it’s been great, but I can’t see or talk to you anymore.”

Good kid my ass!
“I’m telling you,” I insisted, poking my finger at the paper. “There is something here.”

“Not my problem,” he said again, taking another call. “And even if it was, I’ve involved you too much.”

“You said you would pay me,” I said, not willing to let all this go yet. “You made me a part of this.” I didn’t care about the money, but his cold shoulder hurt.

“And I shouldn’t have. I was wrong. You weren’t authorized to work through the department, and bringing you in the way I did broke a whole lot of regulations. I could have lost my job. I’m lucky to be down here instead of out of the department completely. My captain confronted me when your name came up too much. You’re off-limits to me now.”

“So you’re going to give up that easily?”

“This isn’t giving up, Lucy. This is knowing where my place is and knowing when I’ve done something wrong. Can you understand that?”

“I can understand you don’t care as much about the truth as I thought you did.” My heart raced. I clenched and unclenched my hands, searching his face. I needed some acknowledgement that he was on my side. Something to show he’d have my back.

Nothing.

After everything else that happened, I didn’t know what to do with that. “So look,” I said. “When you’re done licking whatever wounds you think you have, come see me. I have information for you, and I’d like to make sure my friend doesn’t rot in jail for something she didn’t do.”

I turned to leave and ran into another officer.

“Miss, you dropped this.”

I turned to take the paper from his hand. My doodle. I was exhausted and hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours. I went to shove it back into my pocket but opened it up instead.

The white room. Voeller Institute. Down to the last detail, every bit of what I’d remembered.

Shaking, I shoved it back into my pocket and tried to walk away but found my legs no longer worked. It was all too much. Leaning against the wall, I finally crumpled.

Chapter Eleven

“You still hadn’t seen your aunt Dolores at this point?” Len asked.

“No. I hadn’t gone home yet. I was still wearing the same clothes. I hadn’t showered, slept. Nothing.”

“Officer Reyes took you home?”

“No. To his place.”

“I don’t need your help,” I reiterated in what became my mantra, though I proved myself wrong more and more frequently. Honestly, I did need him, and it made me sad. I’d never
needed
anyone before. Why him? Why now?

He knelt on the floor next to me. “You might not, but I’ll seem like a bad cop if I leave you on the floor crying like that. You’re a mess. You need to get home.”

“I can’t go home.” I still couldn’t face Dee. Face the pain of wondering if she knew I was kidnapped and never told me.

He frowned and tilted his head to one side. “Because of what happened the other night? We don’t have any leads, but it looks like it probably was a Peeping Tom.”

“No.”

“Something else?”

“Yes.” I didn’t have the energy to say more. I didn’t have the energy to do much of anything other than examine the stubble on his face, the swirling browns of his eyes.

“Don’t want to tell me?”

I shook my head.

“Okay.” He made a call and another officer took his place. “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“If I can’t take you to your home, I’ll take you to mine.” He half pulled, half lifted me from the floor. “Do you need help walking?”

What I needed was a good night’s sleep and for the previous day, well, the previous few weeks, not to have happened. Short of that, nothing much I could do to fix things.

What I didn’t need was to see where Eli lived or to spend the night there with him. It was one thing to find myself suddenly attracted to both him and John, another entirely to see his place and be in such a vulnerable state that I may easily do something I would regret. That picture had been the end. I couldn’t take any more, didn’t want to, didn’t have it in me.

“Lucy. You haven’t answered.”

“I can walk.”

I stood up straight and used the painted concrete wall to give me some balance. It wasn’t that I would fall over again, more I needed to feel something solid that wasn’t Eli.

He picked up my bag, and we headed out.

His car, a sensible black sedan, had soft, buttery leather seats, and when I sat down he turned on the seat warmer.

“I think every car should have a seat warmer,” he said once we were on the road. “Why don’t they, do you think?”

“I’m not sure.”

I looked out the window to avoid focusing on the flexing of his upper arm muscles as he drove. Fall, it seemed, had finally made its appearance. With clouds and overcast skies graying our days and freezing nights, I could taste Halloween candy and pumpkin pie. We hadn’t had a truly cold winter in a long time, so I wondered if this might be the year. Snow on Christmas and all that. “We used to get snow every winter back home.”

“Arkansas?” He entered the freeway.

“No. Well, yes.”

“You miss it.”

I did, and thinking about it made my eyes sting. The rest of the ride was quiet. I texted John, letting him know where I was and that I was safe. Eli didn’t turn on the radio. I started to drift and saw that room again. Panic boiled in my stomach as I forced myself back awake. Next time I dreamed of the burning building. Then of my sister as a baby screaming and being taken away. Had that been Kat or Julie? Had the same happened to me? I wrapped arms around myself, trying to will away the terror. I wished I’d never gone to Elmer. Wished I’d never found out the truth, any of it. Thinking of my parents again, I felt orphaned and very alone.

Eli exited and soon turned his car into a residential neighborhood, then left onto Onyx Drive. The houses were small, but the yards were tidy and the street clean. “Is this where you live?”

“Yes. I bought a house here three years ago. That’s it, right down there on the corner.”

Eli lived in a one-story house with cream-colored siding and brick-colored trim. The front door, painted red, and the front yard landscaped with rosebushes beneath the windows and sweet potato plants around a wrought-iron lamppost practically said,
welcome, come on in
. A well-worn mat covered in flowers laid at his door. It looked somewhat feminine, and suddenly I realized I’d always assumed Eli was single. My face flushed in embarrassment that I might meet his significant other. That I’d spent all this time both hating and oddly attracted to Eli and that he very well could be in a relationship with someone. No. No, he couldn’t be. “Eli, does someone live here with you?”

“No, why do you ask?”

My bones turned to jelly, and I held back a nervous laugh. Inexplicably, it meant a lot to know he was single.

He didn’t have to help me out of the car, and after he fiddled with his house keys for a moment, the front door opened. He grabbed his mail, and as he looked through it, motioned for me to come inside. “After you.”

“Thanks.”

Tossing the mail on a table, he took off his gun and placed it inside a small drawer. “You can have a seat on the couch.”

“I wouldn’t have known about that drawer had I not seen it,” I said.

He looked up and grinned. “That’s the point.” He paused. “You never answered my question, Lucy.”

Why did I ask if someone else lived with him. “I don’t know, I guess I was wondering about the house. It’s a little more than most people would get on their own.”

“Thirsty?” he asked, blatantly ignoring my statement.

“Yes.”

He left the room, then came back in carrying two glasses of water and a bottle of aspirin. “Thought you might have a headache.”

I did. “Thanks.”

Still standing, he watched as I took the pills with a swallow of water.

“You look like death.”

“Geez, don’t hold back.”

“What the hell is going on?” Now he sat. He leaned forward in the chair and placed his elbows on his knees, arms in front of him, hands clasped. “I mean, you’re putting yourself in dangerous situations, not sleeping. Apparently not going home. The case against Natalie is open and shut, a slam dunk. I’m in trouble because I shouldn’t have brought you those notes, but that’s on me.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“No, like I said, that’s on me.” He set down his water and sat back in the chair. “Lucy, I know you keep a lot to yourself, but I’m your friend. If nothing, I’m an open ear. Someone safe. Talk to me.”

I held the water glass on my knees and leaned my chin against the rim. There was no one safe. How could I explain that? Especially when he looked at me so earnestly? No one.

“Eli, I’m okay. I appreciate you helping me, but I have some money saved, I can get a room to stay in.”

His lips pressed into a thin line. “You are one of the most stubborn women I have ever met, Lucy Carver.” With that, he stood and left the room.

I swished the ice around in my glass, not certain what I should do next. A few moments later, he returned with a pillow and a thick blanket, took the glass from me, and placed it on the table.

“Get some sleep. You can figure out what you want to do when you wake up.”

“Thanks.”

He picked up our glasses and took them back to the kitchen. I laid my head on the pillow and tucked my feet up underneath me on the couch. I thought about Natalie in her jail cell. Her bubbly, sweet nature might get her hurt in a place like that.

I thought about Elmer. The doctor. My sister, no, sisters. A tear slipped across my nose at the thought of the sister I had lost and the one I might never see.

I thought about Dee. My parents, or the people I had thought were my parents. Dolores and I were united by a lie, not blood. She knew nothing of my kidnapping, I decided finally. She treated me as her own because she thought she had to. Would she even want me now?

I thought about John. My times with him kept me grounded. We ate together every day at lunch. He told me jokes, snuck kisses in the lobby. His passion for music radiated anytime he spoke of his band. His smile could fix my worst day. My skin yearned for his touch. The way he stroked my ear, or gently pressed his palm into my hand. Yet, when I needed help most, I didn’t go to him.

I thought about Eli. He set his anger toward me aside immediately when I needed him. That level of chivalry left me longing to know him better. I’d looked him up on the computer. Eli became detective younger than anyone before him. Why? Why did he work so hard? His house, his car, his job, the way he dressed, his demeanor…every part of him showed maturity beyond his years. How come?

Pulling the blanket tight around my chin, I wondered how long I could lay there without closing my eyes.

“Lucy, wake up. Lucy.”

Groggy and incoherent I opened my bleary eyes to see Eli kneeling over me on the couch, his face only a few inches from mine, eyes shining with concern. “What’s wrong?”

He rolled back on his heels and took a knee. “Your screaming woke me up.”

It took a moment to register his naked chest. His muscles flexed as he talked.

“I came in and saw you kicking, screaming. You had a nightmare.”

Light from outside reflected through the window, leaving his face mostly in shadows now. Not enough. What resembled concern when he first woke me turned to pity.

“I’m okay,” I said, pushing myself up a little. I couldn’t remember the dream. I’d never forgotten my dreams, even kept journals of them, but this one escaped me the second my eyes opened. “A nightmare? Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure. I thought someone broke in.”

“Jeez, I’m sorry.”

“You don’t remember your dream?”

“Not at all.”

He stood and his pants slipped a little, showing a smidge of the V of his hips above his boxers.

“What time is it?”

“Eleven thirty. I went to bed an hour ago.”

Outside the wind whipped around, reminding me of a couple of nights ago. I wondered if Ana stayed after I left. She had meetings and auditions all week. I’d texted her, but she hadn’t texted back. I wondered if Dee was scared without me there. If Ana went to Bobby.

Eli walked down the hallway and returned wearing a shirt. He turned on a lamp beside the couch and sat next to me. “Something about what you said earlier keeps going through my head.”

“What is that?”

“About Natalie. I didn’t think she appeared right, either.” He turned to me, tucking his leg up under him as he got comfortable on the couch. Arm slung casually over the back, he said, “The reason I’m down in evidence is because I argued with Captain Matheson about her, not because I showed you the paper. They went over the data you brought us and her name kept coming up. Every time something changed she was there. It looked pretty damning. Plus, she didn’t have a solid alibi for that night. She says she was with her boyfriend, Clive, but we show him logging out of his system and leaving the building during the time she says they were together.”

“Do you think Clive might have done it?”

He ran his hand across the stubble on his chin. “I thought about that after you brought me the information about his access to all those files. He doesn’t seem to have any motive. Though certainly could be a likely suspect for setting her up if he did.”

“So why don’t you think Natalie did it?”

“No motive. Murder is all about motive and opportunity. She had the opportunity during her unaccounted for time, but why would she kill him?”

A fire engine passed outside, letting out a low wail, and somewhere a dog howled in unison.

“I went out of town yesterday,” I told him, feeling a boulder lifting from my chest as I started to tell. “Me and Ana. We went down to Elmer, where I’m from, to try to figure some things out.” I paused, waiting to see if I should keep going.

“What happened?”

“I found out some shocking things.” I looked down at my hands, played with my cuticles. “It seems my parents aren’t my parents; they kidnapped me. I have sisters. One of them killed a bunch of people and is dead. The entire town hates me because I look like her.” I glanced up at him, wishing we still sat in darkness. “I think something bad might have happened to me there when I was little, to me and my sisters. I don’t remember it, though.”

“Lucy, that’s a lot of stuff.”

I took a deep breath and pushed it out. “Yes. A lot. And none of it I’m ready to talk about just yet. But I had to get it out of me. It felt like a swarm of yellow jackets stinging my brain, and I had to get it out. So it’s out, and when I get ready to talk more, I’ll talk more, but not before, okay?”

“Fair enough.”

I hesitated only briefly. There was something I wanted to tell him but hadn’t. I regretted that now. “I saw another of those green cars on the way back. I know John said it’s a pretty common car, but I swear this one followed us. I can tell you the license-plate number. Do you mind looking it up?”

“Lucy, you should have told me immediately.”

My thoughts exactly. “I thought you were still angry. I had so much going on in my head.” I hesitated before saying, “Sorry you’re in evidence now.”

He wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

I welcomed his warmth as I snuggled in. “Thank you for thinking Natalie didn’t do it.”

“You want to talk about your dream?”

“I don’t remember it.”

“Do you want to talk about your day?”

A
crack
sounded outside, and then the power flickered and went out. Lightning flashed through the window, followed by another
crack
of thunder. Inside the house, something beeped.

“The house alarm,” Eli said, as if reading my mind. “It beeps every time the power goes out to tell me it’s still working.”

I shivered. “What if he’s out there?”