She said softly, “Do you have to go tonight? Maybe Nikki and I could go with you when she wakes up.”
He gazed down at her, frowning. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Do you really want to take her back there? You’re both safe here.”
“But we can’t stay here indefinitely.” She folded her arms and gazed into the fire. “I have to go to work.”
“I know,” John agreed as he turned toward the front door. “But until I can figure out what the hell is going on in that apartment building, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you and Nikki from going back there.”
THE OFFICERS who had answered the call were still on the scene when John arrived, but they were getting impatient.
“We were told to wait for you,” one of them said, “but we were beginning to think you weren’t going to show.”
John shrugged in response. “So what did you find?”
“No tool marks on the door, but it was unlocked when we got here. The window in one of the bedrooms was open, as well. The suspect might have gotten out that way.”
John had a sudden vision of Thea and Nikki going through the window, climbing down the slippery stairs, running through the darkened streets…
“Either the suspect was one helluva locksmith or he had a key,” the other officer said.
“What about the light in the hallway?” It had been on when John arrived, but Thea had said it was turned off earlier.
“We found it on,” the first officer replied. “The hall and outside lights are controlled by a panel in the basement. Someone could have flipped the switch, but he would’ve had to know in advance where the control panel was located.”
“Aren’t most of them located in the basement?” John asked.
“Probably,” the officer conceded. “Nothing appears to be disturbed in here, but you’ll have to get the tenant to go through the contents to make certain. There’s not much else we can do.”
John nodded. “Okay. You can take off. I’m going to stay and have another look around.”
After the officers had departed, John prowled the living room and kitchen, trying to get a feel for anything missing. But he’d only been in Thea’s apartment twice before, and each time he might have been a little more preoccupied with her than was warranted. Still, his powers of observation were pretty keen, and so far he couldn’t spot anything out of place.
He checked the bathroom and Nikki’s bedroom before walking into Thea’s room. Even though he had every right to be there, his presence in her bedroom still seemed a little like an invasion of privacy. The room was tiny. She’d given Nikki the larger bedroom, probably because she would have been worried about the window in this room opening onto a fire escape.
He gazed at the articles on top of her dresser—a hairbrush and comb, makeup, a small vial of perfume. He resisted the urge to remove the stopper from the bottle and inhale the scent. Turning, he scanned the room. The bed was unmade. He could imagine the covers had been hastily kicked aside when she’d been awakened by the noise at the front door.
A cramped closet revealed a few articles of clothing, two clean uniforms, three pairs of shoes—flats, heels and walking shoes—and a large suitcase.
John frowned at the sight of the bag. It wasn’t tucked away into the back corner of the closet or stored out of the way on the top shelf. Instead, it rested on the floor near the front of the closet, within easy reach of the door.
Unable to resist, John knelt and laid the suitcase on its side, but the snaps were locked into place. Unless he wanted to break the latches, the contents would have to remain a mystery. He picked up the case, testing its weight, as he returned it to its original position.
Why would Thea have a packed suitcase in her closet? Was she using the bag for storage? Was she planning a trip?
One of her pink uniforms lay on the bedroom floor where it had apparently fallen from the back of a chair. Either Thea had knocked it off in her haste to flee the apartment, or the suspect had been in this room, too.
John was almost sure of the latter. The room carried a subtle fragrance, a lingering odor that didn’t seem to belong to Thea. It was a masculine scent, John thought, but then again, maybe that was purely his imagination. B-and-E perpetrators were usually male, so maybe the statistics were coloring his judgment.
He stooped to pick up the uniform, and as he placed it on the back of the chair, he saw that a button was missing from the front. A dark suspicion crept over him as he stared down at the uniform.
Tully, the head of the cleaning crew at the building that housed the Press, had said there was a new woman with them that night, someone the owner had supposedly sent over. A woman who had, apparently, left before she could be questioned. A woman Tully described as petite with short dark hair.
Thea?
He withdrew the plastic evidence bag from his coat pocket. The button in the bag was exactly the same as the buttons on the uniform.
He should have already turned the button in. Removing evidence from a crime scene without reporting it was a serious violation, but for some reason John had kept the button and the picture he’d found in Gail Waters’s office. It suddenly hit him why he might have done so. Had he subconsciously recognized that button? Had a part of him suspected it was Thea’s?
So what in hell had she been doing in Waters’s office? Had she assaulted the security guard? Had she tried to kill him?
John felt slightly ill as he turned toward the window. The officers had closed it earlier, but he slid it up again, letting the cold air rush over him. What in hell was going on here? Who was Thea Lockhart really, and what kind of fool was she playing him for?
Down on the street a man stood beneath a streetlight, gazing up at the window where John stood. He recognized the dark parka almost at once. So Fischer was finally ready to make contact.
John climbed out the window and clambered down the fire escape. He half expected the informant to have vanished by the time he got to the ground, but a movement in the alley behind him told him otherwise. He pulled out his weapon just in case.
The alley was cut off from the streetlights, and the shadows from the buildings on either side made it almost pitch-black. John walked slowly forward.
“You won’t need the gun,” the man said from the darkness. “You should know that by now.” As always, there was something odd about Fischer’s voice, as if he was deliberately trying to disguise it. He moved forward slightly, allowing John to make him out. “It’s good to see you again, John.”
John squinted in the darkness. “I’ve been seeing you around the past few days. I was wondering when you’d make contact.”
“Didn’t have anything to contact you about,” the man said. He eased back into the shadows a bit.
“And now you do?”
“I don’t have any information for you,” Fischer clarified. “Just a few observations.”
John fought back his impatience. Observations he didn’t need, but he also couldn’t afford to alienate a valuable informant. “Let’s hear them.”
“What do you know about Gail Waters?” Fischer asked him.
John shrugged. “She was a reporter for a small paper called the Press. She also coproduced a local cable show called Vanished!”
“The natural assumption would be that her murder—if she was murdered—had something to do with one of her investigations,” Fischer said. “Maybe she found someone who didn’t want to be found.”
John shrugged. “That would be the natural assumption, sure. Are you saying that’s a false assumption?”
The informant paused. “You have a vested interest in this case, John. She was investigating your own father’s disappearance at the time of her death, wasn’t she?”
John frowned, straining to see through the gloom. “How do you know that?”
“Informants are like reporters. We don’t give away our sources.”
“All right,” John said, no longer bothering to hide his impatience. “What’s your poin
t?”
“Suppose her death had nothing to do with any of her investigations. At least not directly.”
“Go on.”
“You would have been looking in the wrong direction all this time. Maybe you were even steered in that direction. Her investigations could have been a smoke screen.”
The conversation with his uncle the night before came back to John. Liam had warned him that his brother could become a suspect in Ashley’s murder if the investigation into Gail Waters’s death became public. But was Liam really worried about Tony—or someone else?
“If you dig deep enough, you might find Gail’s private life as interesting as her professional,” the informant said.
“There was a rumor at the paper that she was involved with a married man,” John told him.
“If he was someone important, someone in a position of power, say, then he might have been willing to do something drastic to keep their relationship from becoming public.”
“You talk as if you know who he is,” John said.
“All I have are suspicions.” The informant paused. “But if my suspicions are right, this investigation could get you in serious trouble. It could take you places you don’t want to go.”
“I’m beginning to realize that.” John shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his coat. He was suddenly very cold.
Chapter Ten
When Thea awakened, a glimmer of sunlight drifted through the closed blinds at the window, and for a moment she couldn’t remember where she was or how she’d gotten there. She sat up on the sofa in a panic, gazing around her strange surroundings as the events of the night came rushing back to her.
Nikki! Where was her baby?
Throwing off the afghan that had been covering her, Thea jumped to her feet and raced down the hallway to the guest room. The door was ajar. She opened it wider and looked in.
Nikki was still asleep, the white cat curled up at her feet. They both looked so peaceful. Thea stood watching them for a moment, wishing it could be like this always. She’d even managed to catch a few hours of sleep herself after John had left, although she’d told herself she was only going to stretch out on the couch for a few minutes.
Somehow she hadn’t been able to bring herself to crawl into John’s bed. Lying where he lay, dreaming where he dreamed, would have been too intimate and much too disturbing.
Even being in his home was a danger Thea should have avoided. She felt closer to him here and even more drawn to him, almost as if by observing where he lived, she had a deeper insight into the man. And she liked what she saw, Thea had to admit. She liked it very much.
No good can come of this, she warned herself as she backed out of the guest room and pulled the door closed. The sooner she could find a way to get Nikki and herself safely away from here, the better for all of them. The last thing John needed was to get mixed up in her problems. If he learned the truth about her, he would have two options—turn her in or turn against everything he believed in.
Thea knew instinctively he was an honest cop, one of the good guys. It wouldn’t be easy for him to look the other way. It wouldn’t be easy for her to ask him to.
But until she could get back to her apartment and get her money and IDs, Thea only had one option. Stay here and risk detection with every minute that passed on the clock.
The smell of coffee drew her to the kitchen, but John was nowhere in sight. A note lay on the counter near the coffeemaker, and as Thea picked it up, something fell from the paper and rolled across the countertop.
She stared at the white button, a warning flashing somewhere inside her. Mrs. Lewellyn’s words the night before came flowing back to her. Oh, by the way, I can see you’re missing a button on your uniform.
Thea had just gotten home from Gail Waters’s office. Was it possible…?
Her heart pounded in her ears. Dear God, what if John had found the button at that office? What if he knew now that she had been there? Would he arrest her for Waters’s murder? Was he out there right now, looking for the proof he needed to put her away?
With shaking fingers, she unfolded the note and read the words he’d scrawled across the paper.
Thea and Nikki—
Plenty of food in the fridge so help yourselves. Don’t worry about dinner tonight. I’ll try to be home early, and I’ll bring something when I come. Stay inside and keep the doors locked. I’ll take care of your job. Think of Nikki, Thea. She’s safe where you are.
Was that last line a warning? Thea wondered. Did he somehow know her first instinct when she found the button would be to run?
But what if he was testing her? Maybe he was only guessing that the button belonged to her. If she ran, wouldn’t that prove his suspicions?
Thea’s head whirled with indecision, and when the phone rang she almost jumped out of her skin. She didn’t answer it, but waited for the machine to pick up. When she heard John’s voice, her heart began to hammer in slow painful thuds against her chest.
“Thea? Pick up if you’re there. And you’d better be there,” he added in a low ominous tone. Or was that her imagination?
She reached for the phone and brought the receiver to her ear. “Hello?” Her voice sounded calm enough. She drew a long breath, trying to steady her racing pulse.
“Thea? Is everything all right?”
Thea tried to detect a double meaning in his question. He did sound guarded. That wasn’t her imagination, she was sure of it. “Yes, we’re fine. I didn’t hear you come in earlier.”
“You were sleeping so soundly I didn’t want to wake you. So was Nikki.” He paused, almost as if he was expecting her to jump in and explain about the button. When she remained silent he said, “The reason I called is to warn you—”
Thea gasped in spite of herself. “Warn me?”
Another pause. “Yes. My sister, Fiona, is coming over this morning. I asked her to bring you and Nikki some things I thought you might need.”
Thea’s knees almost buckled with relief. “That was thoughtful of you. But I really need to get back to my apartment today. I have to get back to work.” And Nikki would be safe at her preschool. The facilities were excellent.
“I’ve already called the diner and told them you need some time off,” John told her. “Your employer was very understanding.”
Thea frowned. It wasn’t his place to ask her employer to give her time off. That was something Rick would have done.
But even as she had that thought, Thea knew exactly what she was doing. She was trying to vilify John, even in a small way, so that she wouldn’t be tempted to trust him, to confide in him, to ask him for help.
She closed her eyes as another wave of panic washed over her. What was it about John Gallagher that made her want to risk everything? If she only had herself to be concerned with, she might have gone to him. She might have told him everything. But there was Nikki to consider. Nikki’s future she had to protect. If she went to jail, John could do nothing to keep Nikki from Lenore Mancuso.
“Fiona has red hair,” John was saying. “Tall, skinny, freckles across her nose. Make her show you her ID before you let her in if you’re not absolutely positive it’s her.”
“All right,” Thea agreed.
“I guess that’s it. I’ll see you and Nikki tonight.”
“Thank you for everything, John,” she said, and meant it.
He fell silent and then, after a moment, “Don’t leave, Thea.”
Was that a warning note or a plea in his voice? Thea wished she knew.
JOHN HAD JUST GOTTEN BACK from dropping the picture he’d found in Gail Waters’s office at the lab when Roy Cox came in with a package.
“What’s that?”
“The 911 tape you requested this morning.” Roy tossed the padded envelope at John, then sat down behind his desk and propped up his feet.
“That was fast,” John said, breaking the seal on the envelope.
“We aim to please,” Roy drawled. “So what did I miss last nig
ht?”
John filled him in on what had happened at Gail Waters’s office while he snapped the copy of the 911 tape into a cassette player. Pressing the play button, he located the time and the call he was interested in on the accompanying transcript, then fast-forwarded.
The moment he heard the woman’s voice after the dispatcher had answered the call, John’s heart took a nosedive. There was no question in his mind about the identity of the caller, even though her voice had sounded strained, almost garbled. The woman who had placed the 911 call from Waters’s office was Thea.
So where did he go from here? Should he haul her in for questioning? Treat her as he would any other suspect?
His good sense told him that was exactly what he should do. To hold back now, to sweep the evidence he’d found against her under the rug was to do exactly what he’d accused his uncle of doing. John had never been one to look the other way. He’d never been one to shy away from his duty, even when his responsibilities had put him at odds with his own family.
So why was he holding back now? Why was he protecting Thea when to do so meant risking his job?
This was the danger in getting involved with a suspect. He’d seen other cops fall victim to a beguiling predator, seen them lose their careers, their families, everything for the sake of a woman whose sole interest was saving her own skin. John had never figured himself to be one of those cops. He’d had a bad marriage, sure, but Meredith had been basically good. She’d been the right sort of woman, while Thea—
“What the hell’s the matter with you?” Roy demanded. “You look like you just swallowed a june bug.”
Without a word John ejected the tape from the machine, then slipped it back into the envelope and locked it in his desk drawer.
Roy said, “Didn’t you hear me? What’s on that tape that’s got you so wired?”
“Nothing,” John told him.
“Right.” Roy paused, then said, “You wouldn’t be holding out on me, would you, partner?”
The Littlest Witness Page 14