First Born (Lily Moore Series)

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First Born (Lily Moore Series) Page 21

by Tricia Zoeller


  Caldwell stared at Seth’s eyes again.

  “Mr. Moore, you listening to me?” Lake asked.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Where’s the dog?” Lake asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t have the dog?” Caldwell asked, settling back in across from him.

  “No, sir. I thought Mr. Jones had the dog.”

  “You told Reggie Mrs. Brown had the dog,” Lake said.

  “Yes, but last I heard Mr. Jones had the dog, but then it ran away.”

  “Screw the dog, Seth,” blurted Caldwell standing up. “What the hell has your sister gotten herself into?” He was standing over him, fists clenched.

  Seth wiped Caldwell’s spittle from his face.

  “My sister hasn’t gotten herself into anything. She’s in grave danger.”

  “You’re gonna be here a while,” Caldwell said. “You may as well start talking.”

  “Shit!” Seth said, standing up. Lake jumped up as well. Seth looked at them as if sizing them up. He quickly sat back down. “Sorry,” he said, while raking his hands through his hair.

  “What the—” Caldwell said.

  “Geez son, what the hell you got going on in that head?” Lake asked.

  “You guys been following me?” He looked straight at Caldwell.

  Caldwell made himself sit back down. Bastard’s gotta know where his sister is.

  “We ask the questions,” Lake said.

  Seth looked like he was trying to figure out some complicated calculus equation.

  “You have a tracking device on my car?” he asked.

  “What’s with the paranoia, Seth?” Caldwell asked.

  “People are dying and someone’s attacked my sister and Mr. Liu.”

  “Who?” Caldwell asked.

  “Lily said it was some big guy with blue eyes in a black mask. She said he knew Mr. Liu.”

  “When did you last talk to your sister?” pushed Lake.

  “Yesterday.”

  The two detectives looked at each other.

  “Listen. I really need to know if someone’s been tracking me or following me from your department.”

  This guy’s either really stupid or he has the cojones of a Right whale. Caldwell looked over at Lake.

  Lake stood up and smiled. Caldwell hadn’t seen this smile on the boss before and that in and of itself was frightening. “Seth. I’ve lost all my patience here. Where the hell is Mr. Liu?”

  “Lily said some masked man took him.”

  Caldwell sat across from him with his mouth agape. “Where’s your sister?”

  “I think in a lot of danger,” cried Seth.

  “I’ll be right back,” Lake said. He placed his back toward Moore and mouthed “car” before exiting the room. Caldwell knew he was looking at Seth Moore’s car hoping to find it unlocked so he could check for drugs. Moore’s behavior was erratic and Hitomi’s phone records indicated that he had a lot of communication with her.

  Caldwell allowed silence to pervade the room. He watched as Seth’s eyes bounced around the space eventually coming to rest back on him. But the detective continued the silence. He would wait him out. After several minutes, Caldwell leaned forward. “Where did you go after you left Li Liu’s the afternoon he disappeared?”

  “I think I’m going to be sick!” Seth started to gag.

  “Not again!” Caldwell said, turning his head toward the garbage can in the corner.

  Caldwell didn’t have enough time to process the flash of movement in his periphery. The heavy metal table rose up smacking him in the head with so much force that he flew back, crashing into the wall.

  When his vision cleared, he scrambled out from under the table to find Seth’s clothes on the floor. Caldwell yelled as he stumbled from the room. Officers came running.

  “What happened?” asked another officer.

  “He kicked the table, then I don’t know...” Caldwell said. “Son of a bitch. Didn’t any of you see him run past?” Caldwell felt something wet on his face. He put his hand to his temple where the table had struck him. Blood.

  Grabbing his cell phone from his belt, he called Lake.

  “Simms?”

  “Lieutenant. Moore just escaped.”

  “What!”

  “I’d stay by his vehicle in case he heads your way.” Caldwell pushed past people as he headed down the hall.

  “I’ll call to lock down the building,” Lake barked before hanging up.

  Caldwell secured his phone in his belt and took a napkin one of the detectives offered him. The napkin did little to staunch the bleeding from his head, but Caldwell kept it in place as his eyes scanned cubicles and offices. Fellow officers joined him in searching every inch of the work space. His head hurt like hell, but he felt certain they’d find Moore.

  “What an idiot,” he mumbled under his breath. His thoughts were of Seth, but they applied to himself as well. He felt woozy from the knock to the head and even worse when he considered having to answer to the lieutenant. “Where the hell did that bastard go?”

  Chapter 35

  Help From Some Friends

  “Awww, what’s your name, kitty?” Tiny asked while scratching Seth’s ears. He almost didn’t have to bend down to reach Seth who was a large Bobtail.

  “You’re sho are a big sumabitch. What you been eating...midgets? Hee, hee, hee.”

  “Meoooowww.”

  “’Long as you don’t eat the black ones,” Tiny laughed as he sat back down at his desk to finish his lunch. Seth eyed his tuna fish sandwich.

  “Oh, I see how it is. You want my food!” He broke off a piece and placed it on the floor for him. Seth gobbled it up all the while keeping an eye on the elevators.

  They both heard the code for lock down called overhead.

  “Oh Lord, it’s gonna be one of those days.”

  Ding.

  Seth took off like he was shot out of a cannon, darting into the elevator just before the doors closed.

  He heard Tiny yell, “Hey,” but nothing else as the door shut and enclosed him in the strange elevator world.

  The machine lurched then whirred as it descended. Seth stood at the seam of the doors willing the metal box to move faster. Tom Jones crooned “What’s New Pussycat?” through the speakers. Really? Ya gotta be kidding me.

  It stopped with a gentle bounce as Seth’s body quivered. He crouched low to the ground, his bobbed tail twitched impatiently. The doors opened and he dashed through the lobby, following the exit signs to a back hallway. The smell of a lit cigarette led him to a young maintenance worker who happened to have the back door propped open with a cinder block. Seth launched past him down the alley toward Peachtree Street.

  He heard choking sounds behind him as the young worker was startled from his moment of nicotine Zen. Seth sprinted north on Peachtree Street toward Colony Square and Reggie. It was not a short trip. Once in front of the building, he waited at the revolving glass doors, scooting inside with a young businessman.

  The clock read 11:30, which meant Reggie would be taking lunch soon. Seth stalked behind two guys who were talking about Italian food. He crouched in the shadows, waiting at the column of elevators. When he darted inside with them, one man sneezed and the other voiced his strong dislike of cats.

  Reggie’s red Pontiac Grand Am was in the corner of the parking garage. Seth knew it would be locked so he waited.

  Crouched under the car, he felt useless, having no way of warning Lily that she was in more immediate danger than he initially thought. Twenty minutes seemed like two hours. Finally, he heard Reggie’s familiar whistling in the parking garage followed by the click of the doors unlocking remotely. Seth considered shifting and opening the door, but didn’t want the security cameras to catch his naked form slipping into Reggie’s car.

  When Reggie popped the trunk, Seth used the opportunity to throw his Barry White voice, “Mr. Green!”

  Reggie turned toward the elevators seeking the source
of the loud, authoritative voice. Seth leapt into the trunk, maneuvering himself under Reggie’s work blazer.

  “Huh,” Reggie said before closing the trunk.

  Over the hum of the engine and thrum of tires, Seth listened to his buddy’s rendition of Luther Vandross’s “Here and Now.” He concentrated on breathing to stave off a panic attack. He never liked closed spaces.

  Eight minutes into their ride, Seth flailed as Reggie swung the car left. The car swerved left again and Seth bumped his head on the top of the trunk as he bounced along with the car over several speed humps. They came to a halt in what Seth assumed was a parking space. Reggie finished singing “Dance with My Father.”

  While Reggie was distracted, Seth launched his attack, kicking down the back seat with a tremendous “Meeeooow!”

  “What the—”

  Seth jumped through the front bucket seats and landed as his passenger.

  Reggie flung himself against the driver’s door. Alarmed and suction-cupped to the window, he attempted speech, “Wha, wha, wha—”

  Seth waited for Reggie to catch his breath and purred to try to put him at ease.

  Reggie pulled his arms down and turned from the window, managing to look over at Seth with a wide-eyed crazed expression. If he had hair, it would be standing on end.

  “What kind of demon...cat, animal...how’d you get in here?”

  Seth looked at the car keys swinging in the ignition.

  Reggie’s chocolate brown eyes magnified three-fold as he looked at his uninvited passenger. Seth tilted his cat head while staring back at him.

  “You’re one big mo fo. You know that? What the heck are you, some kind of bunny/puma crossbreed?”

  Seth laughed.

  “What kinda noise is that?” Reggie asked. “I never heard a cat make a noise like that?” Seth inched closer to him.

  “Whoa, uh, niiice kitty. You stay there. You had all your shots and stuff?”

  Seth leaned forward to bite down on the keys. He pulled them out of the ignition before leaping into the backseat.

  “You slinky sonuvabitch!”

  Seth growled.

  “Damn. You got rabies?” Reggie asked, just the top of his head and eyes visible at the side of the seat.

  Seth attempted to look innocent. This isn’t going to work.

  “Listen. No offense, but I’m not a cat person. Now give me back my keys and I’ll let you out of the car,” Reggie negotiated.

  Seth stared at him—willing him to exit the car.

  Reggie turned back around in his seat, placing his forehead on the steering wheel. “No one would believe the week I’m having.”

  “Try me,” Seth said, having dropped the keys and maneuvered his body on top of them.

  “What the—!” Reggie lifted his head up to glance in the rearview mirror. He waited a moment. “Shit, I just thought you talked to me,” he laughed.

  “I did.”

  Reggie spun around so fast he must have wrenched his neck. “What?”

  “Reggie. Your friend, Seth, needs to borrow your car. Leave now, have lunch. Tell people the car wouldn’t start. Get a ride from Mama Green. Then you can say the car was towed by the time you came back to get it. By tomorrow, you can come to the conclusion that it must have been stolen.”

  Seth was sure Reggie was going to pop out his contacts. His nostrils flared and his pupils dilated.

  “Breathe,” Seth suggested. “Your friends are in danger. Now I’m commandeering your vehicle.” This was one thing the two friends had discussed. If Reggie went into law enforcement, he’d have the authority to commandeer a civilian’s vehicle. Seth had suggested he make sure it was a Mercedes S Class.

  Reggie went back to resting his forehead on the steering wheel with his eyes closed. Seth watched him gulping in deep breaths. “I swear to God I need to get more sleep.”

  “Why don’t you go have a beer and relax? By the time you come back, I’ll be gone,” suggested Seth the cat.

  Reggie’s bald head popped up, slick with sweat. “Shut up!”

  Seth screeched. It was the kind of cat noise that had inhibited man and larger predators for centuries.

  Without a second glance to his back seat, Reggie clambered out of his car, not even bothering to close the door. Seth watched him bend over in the middle of the parking lot like he was trying not to puke. Then he jolted forward like a man shot with adrenaline, almost running over two women as he entered the microbrewery.

  Once Reggie stepped inside the restaurant, Seth jumped down on the floor to shift. In human form again, he reached back into the trunk to retrieve Reggie’s workout clothes.

  After slipping the clothes on in the back seat, he hopped out of the car to feel the undercarriage. The package was still taped there from last night’s covert op. It was a risk, but he had to know. After ripping it free, he slid into the driver’s seat clutching the package to his chest. Ten minutes later, he was traveling north on Georgia 400 wearing Reggie’s Educated Black Man t-shirt, black bandana, and workout shorts. He knew Reggie would be pissed about his Nike Air Hoops in addition to the loss of his car.

  Chapter 36

  Lily and Seth

  It was dusk as the steam rose up around her. From the hot tub, Lily surveyed the deciduous broadleaf and evergreen trees. She preferred this skyline to any one made of glass and metal. With her improved vision, she could see a hawk perched thirty feet up. They watched each other. After thirty seconds, it let out a call and flew away. Its cry sounded as if it were sitting next to her on the ledge of the hot tub.

  There was no longer silence in her world. Everything hit her ears then bounced inside her brain like a pinball trying to find a place to land. She was practicing filtering out the barrage, but it didn’t always work.

  While she soaked, Seth paced the cabin like a caged tiger. His distressed movements were hard to block out. He had arrived mid-afternoon the day before commanding that she evacuate the cabin. He explained that someone had ransacked his apartment and he was sure had been tracking him.

  She understood his concerns, but she wasn’t going anywhere. There was nowhere to go. Instead, she had showed him the arsenal that she uncovered locked in the garage: a Remington 700 youth rifle, a Winchester 20 gauge shotgun, a Glock 36 handgun, and a .38 Special. She also found a camouflage field pack containing shotgun shells and three boxes of rounds for the other guns the Quinns used for hunting.

  “If he comes here, I’m shooting his ass!” Lily had said.

  “This isn’t a game,” Seth said.

  She was far too aware that this was no game. All of her injuries healed in a matter of days. The residual scars were emotional, not physical. She remembered the crush of fear, pain, and failure that day at Mr. Liu’s house. Her anger remained coiled in her stomach like a snake raising its head at any reminders of her ordeal over the past week. She was tired of being a target.

  But they were both targets now. The news organizations were speculating about the Moores, suggesting that it was such a tragic story of a good cop’s kids gone bad. Seth, in particular, made for some excellent sensationalism. The public remained divided about her. She tried to block it all out. Her main concern was the Dark Watcher and his bitch of a sidekick finding them. The police concerned her as well, but hopefully they didn’t want her dead. Their backpacks, full of supplies, waited for them at the back door so they could be ready at a moment’s notice.

  The low rumble of the old sliding door interrupted her thoughts. Seth stepped out on the deck, holding a newspaper he had borrowed from the neighbor’s driveway. He extended his arm, avoiding the water.

  “I realize that you’re relaxing, but I have some news.” He stood over her, frowning. She waited. “They are keeping Larry in jail along with Professor Hitomi. Your buddy Frank is MIA.”

  She nodded. These were all things she knew, but couldn’t do anything about.

  “Oh and we have a new status. We are considered dangerous persons of interest. Some individua
ls speculate that a serial killer is responsible. Others think that we are delusional drug addicts on a brother-sister killing spree.”

  She knew the drug reference exacerbated his self-loathing. He had gone from blaming everyone else, their father in particular, to shouldering all the strife in their lives. According to Seth, his behavior had been the catalyst for all the trouble raining down on them. Sometimes she thought this too.

  “Anything in there about Reggie?” she asked.

  “Yes. They believe I stole his car. So far, no one is blaming him. Witnesses saw him pull into the parking lot alone and walk into the restaurant. There were no security cameras in the parking lot.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Couldn’t be helped. I’m relieved that they don’t suspect any involvement on his part.” Reggie’s red Grand Am remained in the garage. They kept the jeep combat-parked outside so they didn’t have to open and close the garage door. No one could see them from the road, but they didn’t want to take a chance by displaying a stolen vehicle in the open.

  Her moment of peace destroyed, Lily climbed out of the hot tub as her stomach began its familiar grumbling. Seth stayed on the deck looking at the forest while she went inside. After drying off and changing clothes, she grabbed a can of Chef Boyardee Beefaroni out of the pantry for dinner. Looking outside, she noted that Seth had shifted. He perched over the hot tub, pawing at the bubbles with his head cocked to the side. She admired his fuzzy white fur, one dark ear and one red ear. His stunning blue eyes stood out above a pink nose. He really is a cute kitty.

  “Bunnies are cute!” he bellowed at her.

  Crap. Her mind continued to leak information telepathically when she was unaware. “Sorry. You are a ferocious feline. Hear you roar!”

  His head hung in dejection as he studied the bubbles. She knew he was ashamed of shifting into a cat. He had told her that he was going to confide in her, but then she had sprouted wings, diminishing his already tenuous self-esteem.

  When her gourmet dinner began to bubble in the pot, she checked out back for Seth. He sat on his haunches watching the birds splashing in the birdbath. He sat still with his beckoning leg up. She gasped when a blue jay flew over to perch on his paw.

 

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