by Nara Malone
* * * * *
One of Allie’s new business cards lay on the table and the picture of a woman on a stretcher lay next to it. The woman’s eyes were closed, her lab coat bloodstained. Allie couldn’t tell if she was alive. Nothing serious, he’d said in her office. Here in the interrogation room it looked dead serious.
“This your business card?”
“I don’t wish to speak to you without a lawyer.”
“We just need some information to help us with this case. You don’t need to be afraid. Why don’t you tell me who, besides yourself, had one of your business cards on Tuesday night and we’ll wrap this up. Your boss said she’d just given them to you that day, had them made up after you got a big promotion, right?”
Allie sat back in her chair, folded her arms, focused her attention on a coffee stain on the gray folder he’d left open on the table.
“How many people did you give a card to before Wednesday morning?”
Allie crossed her legs, kept her eyes on the stain. A cat, she thought, it’s shaped like a cat.
“You know, people with nothing to hide don’t get this resistant about helping with an investigation.”
Her heart seemed to stop, and then restart at triple time. She chewed her bottom lip. It was on the tip of her tongue to answer, to point out if he wasn’t trying to pin something on her, he’d be more forthcoming about what he thought she did. If she’d been anyone but Eddie’s daughter she might have answered any question they asked. But she knew not all cops were good, and even if they were, playing fair wasn’t on the agenda. Finding a suspect was the goal. She’d seen plenty of people go with an officer and not come back. They’d often wind up sentenced for things they didn’t do. They had done other things they were never charged for, and she imagined there was some sort of karma at work there. She had never been more scared in her life.
As tempting as it was to save herself, she wasn’t going to help them bring someone else down in that effort. With Marcus and Jake away, Maya was the one they’d most likely go after. Allie felt fairly certain Maya had nothing to do with what happened to the woman on the stretcher. She was also fairly certain Maya would be defenseless as a lamb in the hands of an interrogator.
“I don’t wish to speak to you without a lawyer,” Allie repeated.
It was as if he never heard her. He kept talking.
“I’m just trying to figure some things out. I know it’s all intimidating to a young lady like yourself, never been in trouble.” He paused there, as if he knew something and was inviting her to contradict the statement. That just upped her mistrust. Sweat trickled down her spine.
The detective picked up the conversation again. “I just need to figure out a few things. Get some facts down. Let’s start with your full name and address, where you lived before you came to Greyville, where you were last night.”
He lifted a stack of paperwork, looked from it to her with a hound-dog expression. Allie wasn’t moved.
He sighed and went back to filling out forms. The silence stretched between them. She let it.
He continued random attempts to get her talking. After hours of no progress, Officer Snodgrass said he had another matter to attend and he would come back to continue the investigation as soon as he could. Two hours after that, Allie was certain he’d gone home to dinner and bed. Her stomach growled. She tried the door but it was locked.
She’d barely sat down when the door opened. Another officer brought her a bottle of water and meal in a white paper bag. She asked for a phone to make a call. The officer said he would see what he could do about arranging that.
It was Friday night. No one had said she was under arrest or read her rights. Maybe that was something that only happened in TV shows. She wished she knew more about laws. Could they get a warrant to search her apartment? Her false identity documents could probably land her in prison for a long time. She needed to get out of here and soon.
* * * * *
His head pounded, every limb throbbed in time to the tribal drumbeat in his head. His mouth felt as if it had been blow-dried. He opened it wide in a yawn, his tongue automatically whipped out and swiped over his nose. That’s when Marcus came fully awake. He never slept in his shifted form. He lifted his head with an involuntary growl that threatened to send his brains spilling out his ears.
His daughter-in-law, Marie, looked up from the baby in her arms and put a finger to her lips. Two little fists extended straight out from the soft pink blanket, batted the air and then folded quietly back inside their cocoon. Marisa, the smallest of the septuplets, but her power was beyond that of most adults. He could feel the energy hum around her even in sleep. Even so, at three months old she was limited by a body that couldn’t quite keep up with her mental prowess.
Marcus tried sending Marie a thought but the energy required threatened to shatter his brain like glass. Marie held up a finger, rising gracefully, her long, red hair falling over one shoulder. “I feel you knocking on that mental door,” she whispered, “but I’m not good at sending thoughts. Let me put the baby down and I’ll be right back.”
Her hair was a wild red tumble of curls down her back. Her clothes a mismatched, oversized combination, which probably came from the cast-off box they kept beside the mirror portal. Between the babies and him, she was probably barely finding time to sleep and eat. It eased his suffering somewhat to watch a female put an infant to her shoulder and sway with gentle grace from the room. He wondered if there would ever be a day when he’d see his mate with their child in her arms.
When Marie returned she was alone.
“I imagine you’re upset over being turned into a leopard.”
It struck him then that he wasn’t a tiger. He looked about in panic. How? When had he done this?
“I know, you’re probably thinking it was me botching things again. The shift was Marisa’s doing. Adam isn’t recovered enough to put you back. After the fiasco with absorbing Adam that time I tried to shift him, I didn’t dare try shifting you. I’m really sorry, Magus. We had no idea a baby could do such a thing and we were afraid what might happen if we encouraged her to put you back.”
Marcus remembered then that Marisa had been waiting for him when he returned from Allie’s. It wasn’t the first time the she’d shifted and gone roaming the night as a cub. They needed to find a way to contain that power of hers until she was wise enough to use it.
Marie took a glass bowl from the bedside stand, filled it from a pitcher and let him drink. The cool water washed the cotton feeling from his mouth but not his brain. Marie filled in some details for him.
“I had a feeling. I get those sometimes when she’s roaming. When she wasn’t in her crib this is the first place I looked. She was on the bed with you when I opened the door, then you vanished and a leopard reappeared in your place.”
It took all his will to focus beyond the beat of pain in his head. Light streaming through the window was like knives slicing through his eyes. He beamed a wobbly thought at her.
She understood and moved to draw the curtain. In the darkness, he managed to gather enough energy to send more requests. Marie, my sweet, sit here on the bed beside me. I need your help. Just a little energy so I can sort myself out.
“Adam said…”
There are things Adam doesn’t know or understand yet. Trust me. Help me.
She sighed and sat beside him. He rested his head on her lap. The peace that came with her closeness was better than a pill. Pain receded further.
One hand on either side of my head, sweet. Yes, that’s the way. Just let yourself be a conduit. He flashed out and back into his human form.
“Thank you,” he said with feeling when he could sit up and cover himself with a sheet. She reached to help him, but he waved her back, too aware of her embarrassment to allow it.
“How did I do that? I thought only you and Adam could shift others.”
“You were just a battery. I did the shift. You and Marisa show innate ability to shi
ft others. Your aim isn’t good yet, but you’ll both get the knack of it eventually. And how is my littlest granddaughter?” he asked to distract her.
“She appears to be fine. Adam is riding herd on her, intent on preventing any more surprises.”
The effort he’d expended so far left him exhausted, trembling. She grabbed a blanket folded at the foot of the bed, shook it out and pulled it over him. She adjusted the pillows under his head. She’d come a long way since discovering she was more than a mere human female, but his son’s mate still had some of those quirky human habits, like the way her cheeks turned pink when she was presented with the naked, newly shifted form of a male.
He squeezed her hand in thanks, waiting for his strength to return. Human speech, pushing sound through his lips and moving his lips and tongue to shape words felt like too much effort.
“How long have I been out?” he asked at last.
“Since Tuesday night. It’s Saturday morning.”
Saturday! Panic propelled him from horizontal to vertical. Allie would think… He wasn’t going to think about what Allie must think. He had to get to her.
“Marcus, what are you thinking? Get back in bed.” He steadied himself with a hand on her shoulder while the room rocked as if they were in a boat rather than a house.
The bedroom door rattled and popped open. Jake ducked under the doorframe and straightened as he stepped into the room. Human homes were not the best fit for Yeti.
“Good, you’re awake,” Jake said.
“Jake, you’re not supposed to upset him,” Marie said, moving in front of Jake. Marcus grabbed the bedpost to stay upright.
“Sorry, sweetie, but I have a situation he needs to know about.”
“Thank the Mother, someone around here still has some respect for my instructions,” Marcus grumbled.
“Jake, I need you to take me to Allie.”
“I’d do that, Magus, if I knew where she was.”
“Jake, you’re going to kill him!” Marie rose to her toes, planted both hands against his chest and tried pushing him back toward the door.
“Sorry, Marie, but he’s not the only one in danger now. I went to check on Allie. Her apartment has been ransacked and she’s not there.”
Marie relented.
“Get me some clothes and get me out of here, Jake,” Marcus said.
* * * * *
Jake helped him into the diner and Marcus propped himself in a booth, trying to look as if he didn’t feel like he’d been sawed into sections and stitched back together. Allie’s cell phone was going straight to voice mail. She still wasn’t at her apartment. He worried her father had finally caught up with her.
Franny came bustling down the aisle with a pot of coffee and when she saw Marcus, she put the coffee down and marched toward him with an intensity that couldn’t mean anything good.
Her slap came so fast Marcus wasn’t prepared to block it. He was sure his brain dislodged, slid down his throat and hit his stomach. The accompanying wave of nausea threatened to eject it from his body completely.
Jake caught Franny’s wrist before she could deliver a second blow.
“You know, I feel like doing that myself some days, but he’s fresh out of what could have been his death bed, so that’s more likely to part him with the little sense he has left than it is to knock sense into him.”
Franny gave Marcus a visual once-over. Her gaze lingered on his ill-fitting jeans and sweatshirt—something of Ean’s Marie had loaned Marcus.
“Okay. You were sick. You couldn’t call her?”
Marcus swallowed and closed his eyes, still trying not to throw up.
“Unconscious,” Jake said.
“Does why you were unconscious have anything to do with why the police took her off, pretty boy? Or are you going to pretend you have nothing to do with that?”
Marcus felt the blood drain from his face.
“What charge?” he asked, his voice weak, raspy.
“I can’t find out anything. I call the police station and they tell me nothing. I went down there and they said they don’t have her in custody and I have to discuss it with the detective in charge of the case. Only Detective Snodgrass is not around and doesn’t return my calls. Lila tells me it is something to do with Allie’s business card. You wouldn’t know anything about that though, would you?”
Marcus shook his head and wished he hadn’t. Franny’s face blurred and swam in front of his eyes.
Jake’s voice came at him from somewhere to his right. “I know who can straighten this out. Can I trust you to keep your hands off him until I make a couple of calls?”
He got a grudging nod from Franny. The sound of phone buttons depressed and the resulting beeps faded as Jake moved away. Jake said Seth’s name as he exited the diner.
Seth was the son of one of the council elders, Keeper of the Code. Marcus wasn’t sure he trusted the heir in line to fill the role of interpreting the Pantherian Code around his family. But he knew that even if it required a presidential pardon, Seth had learned his way around the human world and its myriad laws well enough that he could have Allie out of jail in an hour. He’d just have to warn Jake to keep Seth away from Marie and the girls.
* * * * *
Allie had asked for a lawyer and as that initial request went unanswered she assumed there was no point in carrying on about it. If she overlooked the locked interrogation room—and really that might be set to lock automatically—they hadn’t locked her up. She was fairly certain they had to do something formal to take her into custody and they hadn’t mentioned a charge. If/when they charged her she’d get more adamant about an attorney.
Interrogation rooms didn’t come with windows to the outside. The clock was her only sense of time passing. At seven the next morning, a woman in a pink business suit, so tight it made Lila look like a nun, slipped in the conference room and set coffee and doughnuts in front of Allie.
“Detective Snodgrass will be back as soon as he’s out of his meeting. He said to see if you needed anything.”
“The ladies room?”
“Oh sure. Sure. Right this way.”
Allie followed the woman out and down the hall, her body stiff from a night spent not answering questions and long waits between officers dropping in to fill out paperwork and “chat”.
The woman motioned to the ladies’ room door and leaned against the wall directly across from it. “I’ll wait right here so I can show you the way back.”
Allie was washing her face in cold water at the sink when the bathroom door opened. She grabbed a wad of stiff brown paper towels and patted at her face.
“Damn, girl, they must be putting you through the ringer.”
Allie looked up then and by the shocked expression on the face of the young woman confronting her, she suspected she should know who she was. She didn’t.
The woman glanced back at the door. “The officer in the hall waiting for you?”
Allie nodded. “She’s a cop?”
The woman leaned back against the door. “Damn right she is. Nice of her to tell you. What are they after you for, sugar? No wait, let me guess, they want your dad.”
Allie crumpled the paper towels she’d been about to toss in the trash. The scent of wet toweling lingered in her nostrils and on her tongue like old coffee grounds. The realization this woman could tie her to Eddie made her so dizzy she had to lean against the sink.
“Look, baby, you probably don’t remember me. You were just a little girl the last time I saw you. You didn’t even have boobs yet. I used to work for Eddie, back before I got clean and straightened up. I’m a social worker now.”
“I don’t know anyone named Eddie.” Allie twisted the towels in her hands to keep them from shaking.
“Really? He had a kid looked just like you. She’d be your age now.”
Allie kept her eyes down, shrugged. “Sorry, wrong girl.” She kept her chin tucked to her chest, moved toward the door, but Ms. Social Worker wasn’t budgin
g.
“I heard your daddy is bad off, cancer or something. Maybe they figure he’s easy pickin’s now.”
Allie didn’t know if it was truth or a trick. She was so headachy from hunger that she couldn’t think straight. She held to her lie. “You’re mistaken.”
“Okay. Maybe so. My name’s Billie. You decide you need some help call down to Social Services and ask for me.”
The female officer came in then and Billie stepped aside when she asked Allie if she was done. Allie wasn’t keen on her return to the bleak little room that had the scent of fear and poverty embedded in the walls, but she was happy to escape Billie.
Alone again, and back in her hard plastic chair, Allie put a hand to her stomach. The scent of doughnuts and coffee had it cramping. She hadn’t eaten the meal they brought last night. She hadn’t planned to eat the breakfast either. She didn’t know how her passive defiance would help, but she’d resolved to stick to water until they let her go.
How long could they keep her over something as small as a business card at a crime scene? She had ideas about how the card wound up there. Ideas related to the fact that the crime occurred a few hours after Marcus had left her Tuesday night. In the early hours of Wednesday morning to be exact. Throw in that she hadn’t seen Marcus since and it wasn’t a big leap in logic to suspect he had something to do with it. Should she be relieved that he’d been running from trouble instead of her? She didn’t know.
She knew what was most important—people who keep their mouths shut go home. People who talk either go to jail or to a shallow grave in the woods. Those were facts of life.
A uniformed officer opened the door and waved Allie out. “Got a lawyer out here insisting you asked for him. Is that right?”
Allie nodded. She didn’t know who or how, but she was taking any ticket out that came her way. She followed the officer to her rescuer.
A familiar Texas drawl had her smiling before she turned the corner and saw her rescuer at Detective Snodgrass’ desk. Seth.
“You crossed way over the line keeping her here all night,” he was saying. “Where’s the warrant for the search of her apartment?”