by Mac Flynn
I leaned over the counter. "No, but I need to ask him some questions about a case."
I flashed my badge. It didn't effect her like the Vulcan mind-meld it usually was. "I'm afraid he's a very busy man, so you'll have to make an appointment to see him. He'll be glad to answer any questions you have then."
I pursed my lips and pushed off the counter. "All right. Maybe next time." I half turned, paused, and turned back. "Where are the bathrooms?"
She scowled, but pointed down the hall to my left. "Down that hall and on the right."
I smiled and gave a nod. "Thanks."
I walked down the hall and started looking for what I needed. They always had one of those things in these large buildings, and I swear I saw one the day I left. I found what I was looking for near the bathrooms: a visitors map of the entire hospital. It showed all the wings, including the one with the offices of the doctors. None of those had names, but it took up only a floor of one of the wings.
I took one of the elevators and was soon in the long hallway filled with doors. On those doors was a nameplate for the owner of the room. The hall was empty, so I strode down the passage looking for my target. I found his door at the end of the hall near a window.
I also found trouble.
"Hey, what are you doing down there?" somebody yelled.
I glanced down the hall and saw a large black guy in a white coat march towards me. The stethoscope around his neck gave away his occupation as a doctor. He was supposed to be in that hall, but I wasn't. I slapped a smile on my face and pulled out my badge.
"Hi. I'm just looking for Dr. Lowell so I can ask him some questions. You don't happen to know where he is, do you?" I asked the man.
He scrutinized my badge and the frown didn't slip off his lips. "No, and I'm afraid you just can't wander around here looking for the doctors. There's a lot of sensitive equipment and dangerous illnesses to consider," he scolded me.
I tucked my badge into my pocket. The damn thing wasn't doing me any good here. "So you don't know where I can find him?"
He shook his head. "No, and I'd be grateful if you left. You can make an appointment to see him at the front desk."
I bowed my head. "Thanks. I'll do that." Sometime after hell froze over.
I slipped past him and down the hall. This day was turning out to be a big bust. First the paw prints disappear, and now the-
"Lowell!" I yelped as I rounded the corner.
We'd nearly crashed into each other. He caught me about the shoulders and his eyes widened as he studied me.
"Detective Selena? What brings you here? I hope not another malady," he commented.
I shrugged off his hands and shook my head. "No, just some work. I wanted to talk to you about a stone in your possession."
The other doctor came up behind me. "Should she be here, Tom?" the other doc asked Lowell.
"It's fine. I'll take responsibility for her," Lowell assured the black guy.
"All right. See you later." The doc passed by us and disappeared.
Lowell smiled at me and gestured down the hall. "Won't you come into my parlor?"
"Not exactly the best 'hello' to give someone, doc," I pointed out as I followed him back to his office.
He chuckled. "No, I suppose not, but I don't get to use it too often." He unlocked his door and opened it. "Ladies first."
I stepped inside and saw it was a mess, even by my standards. There were open books and papers all over the desk, and the walls were covered in bookcases with dusty shelves. The floor was treated like another shelf with stacks and piles of more books.
I managed to find a chair in the disaster area and sat down. Lowell took a seat in a chair on the other side of the desk. He leaned back in his seat and twined his fingers together in front of him. "Now how can I help you?" he asked me.
"I was told you were the last known owner of something called a moonstone," I informed him. "The men who were murdered the night of my attack were looking for it."
He raised an eyebrow. "Were they? I had no idea it was so valuable."
"To them it was worth their lives trying to get at it, and it cost them that much," I commented. "So what can you tell me about this little gem?"
He shrugged. "Only that it's been a family heirloom for quite a few years. I'm fond of it, but I'm afraid it isn't much to look at. Would you like to see it?"
"You keep it in your office?" I wondered.
He chuckled and turned his swivel chair to a shelf close to his right side. "This is probably the safest place in the world to put it. Even if someone did go looking for it, it would take them days to find it," he pointed out. Lowell pushed aside some large-bound books and reached far back into the shelf. He pulled his hand out and his fist was clasped around something I couldn't see past his fingers. He turned to me and opened his palm. On his hand was a small white-purplish gem about the size of a walnut. The colors swirled around small deposits of crystals, and the white parts resembled quartz in their clearness.
It was a plain rock, but there was something alluring about the stone that I found almost irresistible. The feeling was like finding something you'd been searching for for years. I reached out my hand, but Lowell pulled it out of my reach. I shook myself and leaned back in my chair.
"So that's it?" I asked him.
"That's it," he assured me.
"And you have no idea why someone would think it was valuable?"
He closed his hand, leaned back and shook his head. "No idea."
I nodded at his fist. "Do you mind if I keep that? For evidence?" I asked him.
"You're on duty already? As your doctor, I'd advise you take a few weeks off," he suggested.
"Well, not exactly on duty just yet," I admitted.
His smile fell off his lips and he frowned. "Then you're not part of the official investigation?"
"Not exactly," I replied.
"That's a lot of inexactness on your part, detective," he commented.
"Detective work can be an inexact science sometimes, especially when you're dealing with people," I pointed out.
The smile returned to his lips. "Yes, I suppose it can be." He glanced at his watch. "But it seems I have to cut this lovely conversation short. I have some patients waiting for me and some of them are quick to point out that I'm late." We both stood, and Lowell turned away from me and deposited the stone in its hiding place. "I hope you won't tell anyone where this is hidden," he mused.
"Only the police," I replied.
He paused and turned to me with a frown. "I hope that won't be necessary."
"If it's evidence it's necessary," I told him.
"I see." He stepped around the desk and blocked the door. "But seeing as you're not on the case they shouldn't find out."
The small room and him in front of me didn't give me much space to breath. I backed up and my legs collided with some stacks of books. They fell over, but both of us ignored the worse mess. My attention was on Lowell, and for the first time I noticed a strange look in his eyes. They were firm and cold, like a predator. It wasn't a look you'd expect from a doctor.
"They might find out if they follow my trail," I commented.
He took a step towards me. "That brings up a very interesting question. How did you find out those two men were after my stone?"
I reached for the gun in my pocket and took a step back. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I narrowed my eyes. "I don't reveal my sources."
Lowell stopped his advancement on my position and smiled. It wasn't one filled with warm fuzziness. It was more like a jackal biding its time. "That sounds very illegal coming from a detective."
"Sometimes you have to look the other way to find what you want," I returned.
"I see." He stepped to the side and swept his hand towards the door. "Then it seems our conversation is done. I hope to see you soon."
I didn't take my hand off my pocket as I slipped around him. "Yeah, maybe," I replied.
I stumbled from the book-s
tuffed room and out into the hallway. After that stuffy room the sterile hallway was a breath of fresh air. I strode down the hall, but at the end I stopped and chanced a glance over my shoulder.
Lowell stood in front of his office with that twisted smile on his face. Whatever was passing through his mind I didn't want to find out, so I left the hall and that hospital.
This day was just an endless stream of dead-ends, but my luck was about to change.
CHAPTER 13
I walked over to my car and pulled my keys out of my pocket, but something made me pause before I inserted the key into the lock. It was the familiar smell of the river sewage, but it wasn't coming from me or my ride.
I inserted the key into the lock, but my eyes flickered to my right. The parking lot of the place was the usual rectangle with cars facing each other in rows separated by a lane wide enough for two cars to pass. My eyes fell on a particularly plain car among the line of cars that faced mine. It was a dark-blue four-door sedan. A guy sat in the driver's seat staring at his smart phone screen and casually glancing at the hospital. He wore dark glasses and a dark gray suit. His brown hair was cut short, and his hands were covered in thick black gloves.
Nothing too unusual, but my nose told me his tires had ran through the river muck recently. My eyes followed the scent and I noticed there was some dried mud in the treads. Either he'd taken a strange joyride, or I had a problem on my hands.
I slipped into my car and started the engine. The guy didn't flinch. I backed out. That got his attention. He put down his cell phone and started his engine. I drove down the parking lot as he pulled out of his spot. I left the parking lot, and he was like a ten-second delay in time with my driving. He drove out and turned onto the same street and stopped at the same light to turn left. This guy was tailing me.
I had two options. The first was to pull over and see if he didn't want to talk. Judging by his face he didn't look like the kind of guy who wanted a heart-to-heart chat with who he was tailing. That left the second option: losing him. I had some experience doing that on a few of my wilder cases.
"All right, Mr. Sedan. Let's see how your car rolls," I muttered to myself.
My eyes flickered to the red light ahead of me. The green light on the opposing traffic ticked to yellow, then red. Mine turned green, and I stepped on the gas, but I didn't turn left. I swung the wheel and took a sharp right. Fortunately I didn't cut anybody off, but I did tick off my tailer. He was a little slow following me and through my rear view mirror I swear I saw him throw around a few words he didn't learn in kindergarten.
I sped down the road with my tailer in hot pursuit. Traffic was light which was both good and bad for me. I wouldn't be dying a horrible, fiery death rear-ending a Ford Pinto, but I couldn't lose him in the crowd. There was also the problem of other officers. I wasn't above being given a ticket for reckless driving, and I didn't think a judge would let me off because I was being tailed.
That meant I had to take the back roads and lose him in the alleys. I turned the wheel and bounced into an alley on my right. Alley cats and rats scattered ahead of me, and behind me my tailer screeched into the alley. His car kissed a few garbage cans on the way in and that gave me some breathing room.
The city blocks around the hospital were filled with towering office buildings with shiny windows, but the ground between them was a mess of dirty alleys. The roads were more like mud paths filled with obstacle courses made up of garbage cans, cardboard boxes, and hobos. I veered left and right to stay straight on the bumpy, uneven roads. Building side doors and screeching alley cats flashed by in dark blurs. The blue sedan was still in my rear view mirror, but it wasn't gaining.
I took a sharp left onto one of the major roads in the downtown district. It was a one-way street with traffic backed up for a block from the intersection. I saw flashing lights and guessed there was an accident at the light. There wouldn't be any way I could escape my tailer sitting in that mess, and I was lucky the alley came out at the tail-end of the lineup. I spun the wheel and performed a pretty good one-eighty against the traffic. It wasn't the right way on the street, but I wouldn't be on the street long. An entrance to another alley was half a block down. All I had to do was get there and get to the side streets, and I'd lose him.
I sped by the mouth of my former alley and passed by the tailer coming out. I gave him a wave and a smile, and he returned with a scowl. He spun his wheel and bumped out of the alley.
Bad move.
He was so focused on me he didn't see the oncoming traffic. A large white van slammed into his driver's side fender and door. It pushed him a few yards down the road and slammed his side into the rear of another car that waited in the long line. It caused a domino effect of rear-ending that ended five cars down. People in this city just didn't know how to give anybody any space. I'd hoped the guy would've stuck around to give the officers his name, but he jumped from his car and sped off down the nearest alley.
My damage there was done, so I swerved around oncoming traffic and slipped into the alley. Behind me I could hear yelling and swearing. Maybe they'd pick up the guy's name from the car, but something told me a guy that smartly dressed wasn't that stupid. The car was probably stolen, and his gloves wouldn't leave any fingerprints to match.
I reached my apartment at about five. The sun hadn't started setting yet when I unlocked my door and stepped inside. A Shadow stood by the curtained window that opened to the alley. I had a visitor.
"Isn't it early for you to be bothering me?" I commented as I slammed shut the door.
The man stepped from the shadows of the curtains. There wasn't any sign of his wine or wine glass, and he glared at me. "I told you not to look for me."
I tossed my car keys and wallet on the table beside the front door. "I guess I didn't hear you."
"You're playing a dangerous game here. One you don't understand," he warned me.
I walked over to the couch and leaned against the back so I faced my uninvited guest. "Then why don't you enlighten me?" I suggested.
"That would put you in greater danger. I've already risked your safety too much by coming here tonight," he replied.
I crossed my arms over my chest. "Then why come?"
His eyes swept over me. The heat in their depths excited my body, and I felt a warmth spread over me. I tried to shove it down, but it bounced back with twice the strength as before. He moved so he stood in front of me. His hands grasped my shoulders and he pulled me against him.
"Your scent drives me here. It risks both our lives for a chance to smell you, to touch you," he whispered.
My heart beat loudly in my chest and I felt my face flush with warmth. I tried to keep a grip on to my detective persona. My voice quivered, but the words got out of my parted lips. "I-I don't understand. What scent? Why me?" I questioned him.
"Because I claimed you, and you are mine," he growled.
I shuddered at the tension in his words. His voice was more animal than human. He longed to take me, to make me his, and I lusted for the same. He leaned forward and caught my lips in a searing kiss. His hands pawed at my shirt, my pants. Each of them were cut through by his nails and dropped to the floor in shreds. I wrapped my arms around him and moaned into the kiss. His fingers danced across my bare skin. Only my underwear and bra remained. My bare flesh pressed against him. He was hot to the touch, we both were.
I broke from the kiss and gasped for air. "How?" I moaned. How could he do this to me? How could he break my will and get my permission to take me with the passion of a lover?
"Mine," he growled.
That was the only explanation he gave, and the only one he needed. His lips pressed a hot trail down my neck to my heaving breasts. They swelled and strained against my flimsy bra. Their pert nipples pushed out from the cups and begged for attention. He cut through the straps and the bra slid down my stomach to rest on my bent arms.
My lover's hot gaze swept over my nakedness. I leaned back to give him a better view. He g
rowled and pressed me closer. His warm lips nipped at my sensitive mounds and teased my nipples. His hands brushed against my smooth buttocks and pulled off my underwear. He massaged my rear and ground his hips into mine. I gasped as the size of his need pressed hard against my hot center. He picked me up off the floor and I instinctively wrapped my legs around him.
My lover moved us to the closest wall where he pressed me between the rough sheet rock and his hard, tense muscles. He tore off his shirt and pants and stood naked in front of me. His pulsing member teased my entrance for only a moment before he plunged himself inside me.
His penetration filled me both physically and mentally. He stretched my walls and soaked himself in my warm juices. I leaned my head back and reveled in the feeling of our completeness. I was nothing without him inside me, filling me with his lust for my body. His hands and mouth worshiped my body. Nothing was untouched. My most intimate places were teased and stroked. We were covered in sweat before his first push inside me.
I grasped his shoulders and sank deep into the sensual feel of him pulling in and out of me. Each penetration was a step towards a feral bliss, a carnal desire that lay deep inside us. It rose to the surface now and demanded satisfaction. Our sweat-soaked bodies pressed and tensed. We ground our hips against each other in this wonderful dance of lust and the primitive need to procreate.
I felt my muscles shift and expand. My fingers lengthened into sharp claws. Fur sprouted from my warm flesh. None of it mattered. There was only him inside me, pleasuring me to limits I could never have imagined.
"Fill me," I pleaded.
He grunted and thrust harder. His harsh breathing echoed in my ear. The sound of my groans filled the apartment. I clutched onto him and felt his rippling muscles burst with a thick coat of fur. His deep breathing changed to violent growls. The ends of his ears grew long and pointed. His manhood swelled inside me.
Our lovemaking turned to a rut. I clutched to him as he penetrated me again and again. Each time brought with it greater bliss, but also a greater appetite for the pleasure. I squirmed and screamed my joy.