by W. J. May
Liam shook his head. “Not killer, but killers. We referred to it as a ring because it, sadly, was well organized. There were a group of individuals hunting down certain individuals.” The intense stare he had given her before returned, as if he was trying to read her mind or watch for some sort of reaction from her.
“Did you catch – sorry, did you apprehend the killers?”
His lips pressed into a thin line. “We stopped them.”
“All of them?” She wrote it down in her notebook. “If it was an organized ring, how did you catch them all?”
“We tracked them down.” He inhaled sharply. “With evidence, of course.” He went on to explain a few things about the case.
“When will they go to trial?” It would make a great addition to her report if she attended some of the trial and followed up on what happened.
“Isn’t it my turn to ask you a question?” He tapped his foot, apparently trying to think of something to ask her. “What happened after the accident? I saw the car. How did you make it out of there without even a scratch?”
She pursed her lips together. She didn’t like talking about the accident. “I didn’t make it out of there scratch free.” She thought about the scars inside and on her skin.
“You didn’t break anything? Like a leg or shoulder, or even a rib?” The disbelief was clear on his face.
“I don’t know how it happened. I blacked out when the car crashed into the tree and I’m kind of foggy on what transpired before that.”
“It was a pretty crazy night.”
“What do you mean?”
He straightened. “The weather. It was horrendous that night. The storm came out of nowhere.”
“It was a freak storm.” He had night shifts. He probably had to work the same evening as the storm and remembered it. She inhaled and let out a long breath, relieved he didn’t seem to want to press her with more questions. “Were those killers hunting down specific people? Like some kind of noc list?”
He let out a low laugh that was entirely pleasant to listen to. “No noc list. No secret service or anything like that. It was more of a sick game.”
She asked him several more questions about the case and wrote a few more things down. When the detective started to shift and check his watch, she decided it was time to wrap it up. She had enough information to make a good story. She leaned down and switched her recorder off. “I’m pretty much finished. I think I have enough to work with.” She began putting her things back into her bag wishing she could find an excuse to stay longer. She liked talking to the cute detective.
His phone started ringing as if on cue. “Thanks for coming by, Kallie.” Liam reached for the phone on his desk but didn’t pick it up.
“Looks like duty calls.” She smiled as she walked toward the door that led back out to the hallway. “Thanks again.” She waved and stepped out, closing the door behind her. She leaned against the cold wall, letting it cool her skin. She didn’t remember growing warm.
Chapter 4
Kallie found herself outside, the sky now dark. Why she had decided to walk to the interview instead of drive seemed stupid now. She could always call her dad, he’d be here in a jiffy. She paused at the top of the concrete stairs and straightened her shoulders. I’ll be fine.
It was going to be a full moon tonight. The day of the month weighing heavy on her.
She hurried down the stairs and set her backpack onto both of her shoulders instead of just the one. She walked a couple blocks and as she was waiting for a light to change, she grasped for her iPod still inside her backpack.
“Miss Matheson.”
Kallie jumped at her name being called. Her iPod slipped from her hand. A hand reached out and caught it just before it hit the concrete.
Detective Liam stood beside her, his arm outstretched as he handed her the little silver device. “Do you always take to walking downtown at night? I would have gladly offered you a ride home.”
“In a cruiser?” she teased, trying to hide her accelerated heart rate by covering it with a joke. “I can just imagine what the neighbors would say.”
His face remained serious. “It’s a long walk to your house.”
How does he know where I live? She pushed the question aside. The guy was a detective. He probably ran a full background check on her before he agreed to the interview.
“I’m not bothered. I like to walk. I find it relaxing.”
He nodded and pointed to the light change. “I do as well. I don’t do it enough.”
She began walking across the street and didn’t comment when he walked with her. “You look like someone who prefers running.” She flushed when she realized she had said the comment out loud.
“It does get you there a lot quicker.” He chuckled. “Would you mind if I walk with you? I’d feel better knowing you made it safely back.”
She didn’t mind at all and caught herself from saying it too quickly back. She shrugged. “If it makes you feel better.”
They continued in silence for the next block. Kallie racked her brain for something intelligent to say. Liam walked beside her, his hands inside the back pockets of his jeans. “What do you remember about the accident that killed—sorry, almost killed your dad, and you?”
So that was why he wanted to walk her home. “Why do you want to know?” She tried to hide her annoyance. Why couldn’t he just want to walk her back and ask her out to dinner or something?
“I’m just fascinated. I’ve seen the file and I’m curious what happened. What you remember. Was it your dad’s fault?”
Kallie stopped in her tracks. “What do you think? My dad tried to kill me?” Was that why he was digging for information? Another detective who didn’t like to leave a case unsolved?
“Maybe. Or maybe not your dad. Or not intentionally. I’m just trying—”
“Why do you care?” The sudden urge to protect her dad made Kallie straighten. “There was no criminal investigation, no cops even showed up.” She tapped her chest. “It was my fault. And Nature’s. My dad didn’t do anything. He didn’t create the storm. I hadn’t had my license long. I was the one behind the wheel who lost control.” What made her want to tell him things she could barely admit to herself? She shook her head. She was not going to share the family secret.
“How did you and your dad walk away unharmed? The car was totalled. Your dad—”
“Maybe my fairy godmother flew down and saved us,” Kallie said sarcastically, cutting him off. “We got lucky. That’s it. It’s not a memory I try to think about. I tend to concentrate on being thankful we weren’t hurt and leave it at that.”
“Everything changed that night, didn’t it?”
Kallie shook her head. The guy did not give up. Except he was right, everything had changed that night and would never be the same. How many times had she wished they could rewind that night, they should have just waited out the storm before driving home in it?
“What changed?” Liam took his hands out of his pockets and began motioning with them as he talked. “What happened to your dad? Do you remember how he got out of the car? Were you guys alone?”
Kallie scoffed. “What do you think? Half the neighborhood was up at that hour, taking a nice stroll in a massive lightning storm, in the torrential downpour?” She shook her head and forced herself to calm down. “No one was there. One minute I was driving, the next in my bed. I woke up thinking I had just had a nightmare.”
“So… you remember driving, but not the accident? What do you remember? Are there bits and pieces? Like hazy parts?”
Kallie threw her hands up in the air and began walking. “It doesn’t matter! Nothing’s going to change him back.” Her mouth dropped and a sound of surprise escaped through it. She quickly pressed it shut. She’d almost gone too far. “The accident changed him. It changed me. No one would walk away from something like that and be the same.”
“You’re talking about your dad?”
“No! You keep pressing me
.” She rubbed the heel of her hand up and down against her forehead. “Now I’m getting all confused. Can we just leave it?”
Liam tilted his head and bent over closely so he could see her face. “I’m sorry. I’m just curious what happened. Maybe we could ask your dad—?”
“No!” Never. Over her dead body would she let a cop ask her dad about that night. The thought terrified her. “What’s your deal?” Kallie straightened and forced air through her nose. Whatever fear she had felt just a moment ago turned into irritation. “Why the interest in my dad?” Even if Liam was cute, he was still a cop and she had no interest in sharing her family. It was none of his business. Hands in fists, she pressed them against her hips. Suddenly she’d had enough.
Liam pointed to her right foot. “You’re about to tap that foot into a pile of dog crap.”
She shot a glance down and moved away from the small bomb. She ended up closer to him.
He moved nearer to her as well. His blue eyes reflected bright against the street light above them and the darkness around them. “Tell me the truth. Tell me what you know.”
Instinctively Kallie swallowed and then wet her lips. She had the strangest feeling Liam wanted to kiss her – or some kind of intimate touch. The trembling deep in her belly told her she wanted him to. She forced herself to blink and break his gaze. Answers. Get the answers. Protect your dad. Reason broke the moment of insanity. Had he planned to distract her? “Can we not talk about the accident?” She met his intense gaze again, this time with her own determination. “What do you even care? No laws were broken. That’s why they’re called accidents.”
Whatever moment had been there a second ago was now gone.
Liam stepped back, his eyebrows crushed together. He quickly hid the confusion on his face. “I-I apologize. It isn’t my place to pry.” He scratched the back of his head. “How about I keep my mouth shut and just walk you home? I won’t say a word.”
She stared at him, trying to figure him out. Part of her thought he was flirting, the other thought he was just playing detective. She couldn’t make heads or tails of him. “It’s—”
“Unless you ask me a question. Then I’ll answer it because it’s rude to ignore someone.”
She laughed. “Why do I get the feeling you are a persistent little bugger?”
He grinned at her, a sexy kind-of-embarrassed grin. “I don’t think I’ve ever been called a bugger, but the persistent thing… I can’t deny.”
The tension in the air dissipated. They began walking again and Kallie quickened her pace to try and keep up with Liam. She was nearly jogging when she finally stopped racing. “Do you mind if we slow down a bit?” she huffed.
Liam glanced back in surprise. “Sorry, I didn’t realize.”
She dropped her head to the side and forced her breath to slow her racing heart. “You’re not even winded.”
Liam shrugged. “It must be the running thing.” He carefully set his pace equal to hers.
An odd thought crossed her mind but she tried to push it aside because it didn’t make sense. He couldn’t be like her father. His eyes were different.
Chapter 5
Kallie shook her head, as if it would clear the crazy notion from her thoughts.
“Are you all right?” Liam’s hand slipped out to touch her.
She moved just out of his reach and pretended to stretch. She didn’t want to know if his touch would be cold. She tried to remember if she had noticed anything different back in his office and couldn’t come up with anything that seemed out of the ordinary. The man liked to work the night shift. He was young and bad things tended to happen at night. It made sense. It wasn’t strange. “I’m fine. You just walk really fast.” She smiled and forced a laugh. “Maybe I should have brought my running shoes.”
Liam was quiet as they walked for the next while. Her house was about a forty-minute walk from the police station, and they were already over halfway there. As they continued, she relaxed and enjoyed the view of him from her peripheral vision. He was tall, but not too tall. Muscular without being bulking and bodybuilder material. His dark hair made her hands itch to run her fingers through it.
He pointed as they passed a street not far from her house. “That’s my street.”
“It is?” She had never seen him around the neighbourhood. It surprised her. He lived about a ten minute walk from her house. “Which house?”
“Are you preparing to stalk me?” Liam joked.
“No.” She was horrified at the thought. She waved her hands. “I just meant I like walking. I was curious which house it was.”
“It’s the one slightly set back from the road.”
“With the old corvette under a tarp?”
He nodded, clearly surprised. “Yah, that’s it.”
She knew his house. It was a ranch style bungalow with the shutters always drawn. Nice house, the lawn was immaculate.
“How did you know it was a corvette?”
“The shape. My dad loves old cars. Your corvette reminds me of the bat-mobile.” She tilted her head. “You’re not some vigilante, are you? Pretending to be Batman at night? Do you have a butler? Is his name Alfred?”
Liam chuckled and the sound made Kallie shiver in a good way. “No Alfred I’m afraid. Just me.”
“How long have you been there?”
“I’ve been there about three years.” Liam gave her a sheepish grin. “I’m a bit of a recluse when I’m not at work. I guess I should get out more.”
“What do you do when you’re not saving the city from its vicious criminals?” She pictured him at a bar on his own, picking up a woman with just a bat of his eyelashes.
“I used to play video games. Now they’ve, uh, kind of lost their appeal.” He shrugged. “What about you? What do you do when you’re not at school?”
“Hang with my friends. Dance. Write.”
Liam pressed his lips together when he looked ahead. They were about to pass the large tree that Kallie had crashed into two years ago. He stared up at the old tree at the same time she did and they both sighed, as if each lost in a bit of history of their own.
Kallie purposely crossed the road as she always did, and Liam followed her without a word. Her street was the next one.
“I don’t have many friends, and I can’t write worth a hill of beans.” Liam walked closely beside her. “But I can dance. Sort of. Maybe you want to hit the town one night. Sometime. With me. Or not.” He shrugged as he stumbled over his words. “It’s not that I don’t have friends, I just mean, with my kind of work there isn’t much time for hanging out.”
Kallie smiled. He was a decently nice guy who seemed to be hitting on her and was having an awful time trying to get the words out. “That sounds like fun.”
He stared at her surprised. “Really? I mean that would be cool. Let me check my schedule and I’ll send you a text when I have an evening open.”
“Okay.” She actually had the urge to skip while they were walking. It was silly to be so excited over just a simple date, but Kallie had managed to rope an interview from the guy and now was going out on dates with Mr. Hotness. If he didn’t push her for information about the accident or her father, they could actually have a good time. She liked that he had admitted that he didn’t have a ton of friends, she was kind of in the same position. Since the accident she too had become a bit of a recluse. He was interested in her and she definitely was taking a liking to him. “Just let me know when you have a night off.”
He nodded toward the house they were now standing in front of, at the same time the phone on his hip began requesting his presence. “Looks like duty calls, perfect timing.” He hesitated a moment, as if unsure what to do next. Then he surprised her by leaning in, his lips hovering close to her neck. He whispered in her ear, “I will. Take care, Kallie.”
She closed her eyes, the nearness of his mouth by her skin intoxicating. She swallowed, hoping he would kiss her. “Bye,” she murmured. When she opened her eyes she saw him
already down the street, jogging toward the precinct. He turned around and waved once before heading onto the main road. It was only when he was out of sight that she realized he knew where she lived.
“Stay in the car, Kallie.” It was nearly midnight, the moon hung bright in the clear sky. Her dad stared straight ahead, his hands squeezed tight on the steering wheel. “Under no circumstance do you get out.”
Kallie licked her lips, trying to quell the dryness in her mouth. Her dad may not be looking directly at her but the red in his eyes burned brighter than usual. She couldn’t miss it. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry—”
“Stop it! Stay in the car,” he snarled. The street light flashed against his elongated, pointed canines. He half covered his mouth with his hand. “Sorry, love. Just get in the driver’s seat and keep the car running. Go home if I’m not back in ten minutes. Not a second longer.” He stared at her, his eyes brighter than their usual burnt orange color. “Promise me, not a second longer?”
Her heart stuttered against her rib cage. What did he have to do once a month that made him so afraid? Six months ago he had tried to appear casual when he asked her to drive him downtown. She’d fired a million questions as they drove but he refused to answer anything. He just said the same words; Stay in the car. Don’t get out. Wait ten minutes. If I’m not back, leave. “Ten minutes. I promise.”
He never got scared after the accident, except when she drove him here once a month. Did he fear for her or himself?
Terrified, she un-clicked her seat belt with a shaky hand. She slipped her hand under her leg, not wanting him to see her fear. “You going to be okay?” she whispered, part of her wondering what ears might be listening to them. She still didn’t know what happened when he disappeared for those ten minutes, but the staggering walk and beaten look on his face when he came back to the car always stopped her from asking any more questions… till the next month. She knew he only asked her to come because he couldn’t make it home on his own before sunrise. Mom wouldn’t have the strength to do it and he would never even consider asking her.