“He must have followed me.”
Brit frowned. “Not when I was with you, he didn’t.”
“Then I don’t know.” She looked around the room, panic showing in her eyes.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she said, but it didn’t look like nothing. “Could you just take me to another hotel? I would prefer that to going to your place.”
He frowned, getting the feeling again that she wasn’t being completely honest with him. “Just go with Susan. We’ll talk when I get back.”
~
Cali left the restaurant with Susan. She could have called a taxi, and she even gave a quick thought to phoning Tanya, then she remembered Tanya’s date. Deep down, however, she chose to stay because of Brit.
“I’m sorry to impose like this,” Cali told Susan.
“You’re not imposing. I’m just glad that whatever pulled him away didn’t keep him from showing up at Mom’s party. And I’m thrilled he brought you.”
“Well, thank you.” Cali looked out the window and thought about her dream last night. Don’t stay at the same hotel. How had her maternal psyche figured that one out? Chills marched up her spine and she wondered if maybe she should go see Dr. Roberts again. Have her convince Cali that the dreams weren’t really her mother seeing the future.
“Have you and Brit been dating long?” Susan asked.
Cali inhaled. “We’re not…” She wasn’t sure what they were or weren’t doing.
“Dating?” Serious doubts played across Susan’s expression.
Cali had a hunch that Susan had seen them on the dance floor. “I mean, we’re not really dating. I’m a case.”
“That’s what he said, too.” Susan stopped at a red light and faced Cali. “I didn’t believe him, either.” She smiled. “You two look good together.”
Cali nodded. “It’s just the wrong time.” She hoped that would stop Susan from asking more questions.
“It’s never the right time.” Susan sent her another smile. “But I know it’s probably more about Brit’s job and him getting his ass in sling for dating someone involved with a case.”
“Yeah.” Cali gave that some thought. She didn’t want him getting his ass in a sling.
“But Brit’s always bucking authority.” Susan chuckled.
Cali nodded. A change of subject was needed and she pulled one out of thin air. “Brit said you lived in Austin. Do you visit much?”
“Every month or two,” Susan answered. “I’m a photographer, freelance, so I travel quite a bit anyway.”
“I took photography in college,” Cali said. “Loved it.”
“You teach art, right?” Susan turned the wheel.
They talked for the next ten minutes about painting and photography. Comfortable conversation. Then Susan pulled into a driveway. The quaint, red brick bungalow was located in one of the refurbished areas of town.
“Nice,” Cali said.
“You haven’t been here before?” Susan asked.
“No.” Suddenly, her decision to stay with Brit didn’t seem right. He wasn’t sure about what was happening between them. He could get in trouble with his job. Staying at his home meant crossing a line. Cops didn’t bring home their witnesses. Neither did they make out with them on a dance floor.
She looked at Susan. “I’m thinking that staying here might not be a good idea.”
“Why?” Susan, eyes the same blue-green color of Brit’s, studied her.
“Because your brother has already done too much. Because...it’s the wrong time.” Because I’m scared. Because I’ve got a bad habit of dating dickheads. Because my dead mother talks to me in my dreams.
“Brit doesn’t do what he doesn’t want to do. Besides, he’s not even here.” Susan got out of the car. Giving in, Cali followed her to the porch.
Susan unlocked the front door and reached in and hit the lights. “If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of case are you involved in?”
“It’s a long story.” Cali stepped inside, crossing the line into Brit’s personal world. She took in the decor—masculine, but nice. Dark leather furniture and bookcases. With the exception of some black and white photography, very little wall art. She glanced back at Susan. “A real long story. Is this your work?” she asked, hoping for a change of subject.
“Yeah.” She took a few more steps inside. “I like stories. Come on. I’ll get us something to drink.”
A soulful meow cried out. “Is that Brit’s cat?”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t recommend getting close.” Susan raised her sleeve and showed off some scratches.
“She attacked you?”
Susan smiled. “No, I was just certain if she’d let me hold her, she’d fall in love with me. I’m a sucker for the underdog.”
“Me, too.”
They ended up at the kitchen table, drinking wine. After a few minutes, Cali gave Susan the short version of how she’d met Brit.
Susan studied her hands. “I should have guessed.”
“Guessed what?”
“Well …” She hesitated as if to choose her words carefully. “It’s Brit’s nature to protect women.”
“The cop in him, I guess.” Cali sipped the wine.
“Yeah, but our mom sort of fell into bad relationships. You know how the story goes, a victim always in search of a man to victimize her. A real loser chooser.”
“That sounds kind of grim.” Cali thought about Frank, Brit’s mom’s husband. He hadn’t seemed like a loser.
“Not as grim as Brit would put it. He spent most of his childhood trying to protect her from our father. After Dad died, he protected her from the next guy, and the next. He grew bitter. Not that I blame him, but Mom’s trying to change and Frank’s different. Brit, of course, can’t see it.”
Cali chewed on that piece of information. “And you think his protecting me is somehow related to all that?”
Susan took a sip of wine. “What do I know?”
Cali could tell from Susan’s voice that it was exactly what she believed. And the shoe fit. Not a pretty shoe either. At least now Cali understood why he’d been so hard on her in the beginning. The idea that he lumped her into a category with a woman who’d gone from one bad relationship to another didn’t feel too good, but if what Dr. Roberts had said was true, maybe Brit hadn’t been that far off the mark. Great. Am I really a loser chooser?
“You and Brit seem close,” Cali said, wanting to change the subject.
“We are. With a lot of drama always happening when we were kids, we kind of looked out for each other. Can you believe he had a fit because I went out to breakfast with his new partner? He said he didn’t want to know the guy who was trying to get into my pants.”
Cali grinned.
“So I told him I wouldn’t let his partner brag about how good I was in bed.”
“So you are dating him?”
“Maybe, I mean, I had breakfast with him and then he came to Mom’s party tonight. But I like him. I haven’t dated anyone in two years. I gave up men and took up ice cream about two years ago.”
“Bad breakup?”
“I’d say. I came home early from an out of town job and found my fiancé in bed doing the deed with an anatomically correct doll.”
“Seriously?” Cali had to work to keep from giggling.
“Seriously. He’d even named the doll.” She made an odd face. “George.”
A giggle leaked out. “Sorry.”
“Please. I know it’s funny. Now. Not so much then. Anyway, I finally kicked the ice cream habit and lost the forty pounds it cost me.”
They talked for at least another twenty minutes, before Cali yawned.
“Are you tired?” Susan asked.
“Yeah, a little.”
“Why don’t I set you up in Brit’s room?”
“I would prefer to just sleep on the sofa.” Cali saw Susan’s surprise. “We’re really not dating.”
“Looked like you were dating.”
Susan held up a hand. “I’m sorry. It’s not my business.”
“It’s okay.” Cali felt obliged to tell the truth. “I’m not going to say we’re not attracted to each other, but we haven’t…We aren’t…”
“Getting naked, yet?” Susan grinned.
“Yeah.” Cali looked around the house, Brit’s home. She’d crossed a line by being here, but if she kept her head, she could step right back over it.
“Well, unlike my brother, I don’t have a problem with it. So you have my blessings to get naked with him.” She stopped talking and frowned. “Okay that sounded awkward.”
They both laughed.
“He’s a great guy. Honest. Loyal. Doesn’t have a thing about blow-up Ken dolls.” She sighed. “Grumpy as a bear with an African bee up its butt sometimes, but he’s good as gold when it counts.”
Cali sighed. “I know.”
Susan stood up. “Okay, I’ll stop playing matchmaker. However, Brit’s sofa sleeps like a bed of rocks. And I’ve trashed the extra bedroom pretty badly. So, sleep in his bed. Besides, Brit works third shift. He won’t be home until morning.”
Cali followed her into Brit’s bedroom. When Susan turned the light on, Cali’s gaze went to the unmade king-size bed.
“Don’t worry. Brit actually has a housecleaner. She came a few days ago. And he’s only napped a couple of hours since then. So the sheets are pretty clean.” Then Susan smiled. “I think he keeps an extra toothbrush in his medicine cabinet.”
~
Brit and Quarles met Officers Wolowitz and Edwards in front of the hotel. Within a few minutes, Brit had updated them on the case. While Quarles talked to Wolowitz, Brit walked to the hotel room with Edwards.
“Why hasn’t Adams assigned someone to her?” Edwards asked following him as she pushed a lock of dark hair back behind her ear.
Brit tensed. “I asked, but with the cop killings going down, he couldn’t see doing it.”
“Well, let this guy get to Miss McKay and Adams will wish he’d seen it differently.”
“He won’t get to her.” Brit poked his head into the hotel room where he and Cali had stayed for the last couple of days.
“We don’t know if anything was taken,” Edwards said.
Brit stepped inside. A few of the dresser drawers had been yanked out. Cali’s suitcase had been emptied and her clothes lay strewn around. Was the jerk still looking for the bracelet or was it Cali he wanted? For just a second, Brit considered letting it leak out that the police had the bracelet. The acid in his stomach started to churn when he recalled again how close he’d come to leaving her here.
“Do you think the guy stole something?” Edwards followed him inside.
Brit picked up the suitcase and set it on the bed. “I’ll have Miss McKay go through her things. If anything’s missing, I’ll call you.”
“So you know for sure that she’s safe?” Edwards asked.
“Yeah.” He picked up a pair of Cali’s panties the asshole had obviously handled. Frowning, Brit tossed them in the trash.
Edwards looked at the discarded undies, then back at him. “No luck finding the pickup.”
“The guy’s slippery. We get anything more from the clerk?”
“No, but he was pretty upset then. We might want to have another go at him.”
“I’ll do it.” Brit turned to leave.
“You two an item?” Edwards’ question sounded more female-related than cop.
Brit looked back. “No, but I don’t want anything to happen to her.”
“Because you care?” She laughed. “I saw it the other day. You were too worried.”
The denial lay on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t say it. “Yeah, I care.”
A grin softened the lines of her face. “You know, my partner was right. He said you were an okay guy.”
“Don’t believe it. I can be a jerk.” As Brit headed to the office, he considered how he had left Cali at the restaurant. He wondered if she was going to be pissed.
Two men sat behind the counter. The man holding a bag of frozen butter beans to his eye was the same one Brit had confronted earlier. Both men’s heads bobbed up when Brit cleared his throat. “I need to talk to you.” He pointed to the victim.
The clerk removed the frozen veggies. “Not sure I feel much like talking.” He was going to have one fine shiner. However, the man had faired a lot better than any of Stan’s other victims. Why?
“This guy kills most of his victims,” Brit said. “He could come back to finish the job because you may be an important witness to this case. Of course, if you don’t want to help us find him…”
The man’s shoulders snapped back. “Whatcha want to know?”
They walked to the office in the back and sat down at a table. Brit asked the basic questions. The answers reconfirmed what Brit already knew. Humphrey had come looking for Cali. “Did you see a vehicle?”
“No. But I really got a good view of the front of his knuckles,” the clerk said sarcastically.
Brit leaned against a table. “Who did you tell that Cali McKay was staying here?”
“Tell? I didn’t tell anyone.”
“Did you change the paperwork like I told you?”
“I deleted her name from the records, and canceled her charge, just like you asked and put the charges on your card. Hell, you stood there and watched me do it. Remember?”
“What did this guy say when he first came in? Did he act as if he knew she was here or was he just asking?”
“He knew she was here. He demanded I give him her room number. I said she wasn’t staying here. He called me a liar. No, he called me a ‘fucking liar’.”
“He didn’t say how he knew she was here?”
“We didn’t sit down for tea and conversation.”
Brit frowned. “Then what happened?”
“When I denied the chick was here the second time, he got ugly.”
“How ugly? Did he threaten you with a gun or knife?”
“No, his fists were pretty convincing.”
“But you gave him the room number and the key so he could beat up on a woman?”
To the clerk’s credit, his eyes widened with concern. “I thought the female officer said she wasn’t there.”
“She wasn’t. But you didn’t know that then, did you?”
Brit turned to leave and practically ran over Quarles standing at the door. Brit kept moving until he made the parking lot. The cold surrounded him, and he zipped up his flimsy jacket, and thought about getting his leather coat.
He gave a verbal report to Wolowitz and Edwards. After a few minutes, they left. Brit went back to the room to finish gathering Cali’s things. Quarles followed on his heels. Too close.
“You’re in too deep.” His partner leaned against the door.
Brit dropped the suitcase on the bed and didn’t reply.
“You need to step back,” Quarles said. “Let me find her a new motel. I’ll keep an eye on her. Give yourself time to think before something happens you’ll regret.”
“I’m handling this.” Brit zipped up the case.
“I saw you handling it on the dance floor. Adams will have your ass if you mess up this case.”
Brit gritted his teeth. “I’m not going to mess it up.”
“It looks bad.” Quarles reared back on his leather shoes.
“Ask me if I give a damn how things look. Besides, you’re trying to get it on with my sister. I think that’s a hell of lot worse than me being interested in someone who may or maybe not even be considered a witness in a case.”
“I’m not trying to—”
“I saw the way you were looking at her tonight. Like she was a candy bar that you were dying to unwrap.”
Quarles rolled his eyes, but he didn’t deny it. “At least let me question Cali, just to make sure she’s not still talking to this guy.”
“She’s not talking to him.” He scanned the room once more and the smell of cigarette smoke filled the air. W
as Humphrey a smoker?
“If you believed that, then why were you drilling the clerk about how Stan knew she was here?”
“I was doing my job.” Brit snatched up the suitcase and left.
~
Cali moaned into the mattress. Everything smelled like him. Burying her face in the pillow, she recalled their little make-out session on the dance floor. Her body warmed with the memory. She threw the top sheet off and tugged on the flannel pajamas Susan had lent her.
Staring at the ceiling, she let her thoughts skitter from one issue to the next; the dreams, Stan, Brit thinking she was a weak-hearted woman who loved to be abused.
She thought back to the three real relationships she’d had. Her first, at nineteen, had cheated on her with his brother’s wife, but the moment Cali discovered his indiscretions, she’d told him to take a long walk down a busy railroad track.
Her second boyfriend had been a control freak, and while he’d wanted to control Cali, she’d freed the shackles of that three-month fling pretty quickly. Then Marty. As Dr. Roberts had said, not all relationships were bad. She had loved Marty.
He’d gotten a dream job offer in New York, and he hadn’t wanted to go alone. The night she’d gone to break the news to her mom, her mom had broken her own news first. She’d found a lump. Cali couldn’t leave her mother, and Marty couldn’t turn down the job of a lifetime. Both had made choices.
He had visited the first few months, twice, but as Marty had put it, “Long distance relationships are hard nuts to crack.” But Cali’s heart had cracked. She had lost the man she loved and, at the same time, she’d been fighting not to lose her mom.
After that, Cali had gone through her mom’s up and down dance with cancer. Not until Stan had paid for her coffee that September morning had she even considered indulging in a relationship. Sad as it sounded, she hadn’t missed sex or men. Being with Stan convinced Cali that she hadn’t missed out on much. But meeting Brit sure had.
With her relationship evidence laid out in her mind, she didn’t feel so bad. Yeah, she’d known a few jerks, and she’d admit that she needed to learn to be a better bitch. But she hadn’t been anyone’s doormat.
Unable to sleep, she flipped on the lamp and followed her bladder to the master bathroom. Once relieved, she went to the sink and rinsed her hands. Running her tongue over her gummy-feeling teeth, she tried to open the medicine cabinet, in hopes of finding a new toothbrush.
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