Long, Lean and Lethal

by O'Clare, Lorie

  “What’s she saying?” Noah asked.

  Rain stepped in front of him, and his hand rested on her hip when she turned on the sound in the room. She didn’t move when the audio began and they could hear the soft sound of Susie speaking, her tone placid, if not humorous sounding.

  “I completely agree,” Susie said, her hand steady when she reached up and patted her hair on the side of her head. “Please send for my driver so I can get home. I have my sites to check, you know. There will be money to transfer to accounts.” Her laughter was melodic. “I’m sure you would like more money, which is why you aren’t real. I’m not sharing my cash with anyone—especially Steve. It’s all his fault I’m in this incredibly disturbing room anyway. Have you noticed how terrible it smells in here? And this table,” she added, scowling at it as if it were the most despicable thing she’d ever seen. “It’s so disgusting I’m afraid to touch it.”

  Rain glanced over her shoulder and slipped into the warm gaze that Noah offered her. He didn’t say anything, but she felt his wonder, confusion, and speculation over what they witnessed in Susie’s behavior. He was as puzzled and intrigued as Rain was.

  “I need my lawyer, and my driver. As soon as I’m home it’s going to be very important that I up security. They cannot find what I’m really about.” Susie was not only talking gibberish, but for someone who appeared intelligent and professed knowledge of the judicial system she spoke so openly—to no one—without appearing concerned or acting like she knew at the moment that everything she said was overheard and recorded.

  Rain snapped her head back to the window. Susie leaned back in her chair, crossing her legs, and rubbed her palms down her thighs. “I know you understand. You’re my most trusted servant.”

  “Let Steve go,” Rain decided, turning to Al.

  “What?” Al raised her dark, penciled eyebrows and shook her head. “The chief won’t agree.”

  Rain walked between Al and Noah, heading back to the chief. Noah grabbed Rain’s arm, stopping her and flipping her around to face him. He was too damned close when he looked at her. As close as he was, though, she couldn’t back away. His nearness, his presence, added to her determination, the power she’d already mastered to make sure they wrapped up this case without fucking it up.

  “I don’t have a problem with releasing Steve. You’re right. I don’t feel that he did it, either. But something is more than wrong with Susie.” Noah’s deep baritone flowed over Rain like a warm rush that made her throb inside, aching to touch him. When he placed his hand on her shoulder and brought his head closer, speaking so only she could hear him, his firm grip seared her skin through her shirt. “I want in that house. We’re going to do a clean sweep through and learn why she wants security upped in her home.”

  “Because she’s completely insane.” Rain wondered, though, how insane Susie actually was. “Noah, she is in an interrogation room that she must know is bugged, talking to herself, and mentioning money that is only hers and upping security for whatever reasons.”

  “Do you really think right now she knows we’re listening to her?” His gaze traveled over Rain’s face, dwelling on her mouth for a moment.

  Her lips were suddenly too dry and she ran her tongue over them. His eyes darkened as he watched, and when he looked at her eyes the heat he saw there damned near burned her alive.

  “That or making a show of it now would make it a hell of a lot easier to obtain an insanity plea if she’s charged.”

  Noah nodded and rubbed Rain’s shoulder with his thumb. “We’ll get that search warrant and I bet we get this wrapped up.”

  There was a sky full of stars when Rain followed Noah up to the Porter house. He walked with steady confidence, as if he knew exactly what he wanted out of the house and exactly where he would find it.

  “Steve has a lawyer who’s shown up at the station,” Rain told Noah when they entered the dark, still house. She clipped her cell to her waist after hanging up with the chief and felt an empty chill while staring at the large foreboding living room.

  “Should give us a bit of time.” Noah was all business, pointing at the dining room as he directed the crew with them, and then turned the other way and headed into the living room.

  Rain walked around a formal dining-room table, complete with silver candleholders adorning the center of the table, each one holding a long, tapered candle that had never been lit. She paused, not bothering to turn on the light, and stared at a china cabinet with a complete set of dishes, dessert bowls, coffee cups, and serving dishes neatly arranged inside. Tugging on her latex gloves, she opened the cabinet and picked up the top plate. It was covered with dust.

  Rain moved on, glancing under the table and then leaving the dining room and entering a small dayroom. She met up with Noah in the kitchen and then headed for the stairs in the hallway. Upstairs they split in the hallway and Rain entered first one bedroom and then another that appeared to be unused. Closets were empty, and although there were dressers, there weren’t even mothballs in them. All of them were empty. The entire fucking house appeared no more than a facade, a front for something that didn’t exist.

  Noah followed her into the master bedroom. “Finally a room that’s had some action.”

  She turned around, disgusted. “Do you really think so?”

  Rain studied the bed and almost cringed at the thought. The bed was made with incredible care, the blankets smoothed over it so that there wasn’t one bulge and hanging off each side as if they had been measured.

  “Not the kind of action I meant,” he said, tapping her nose. “Not like our bedroom.”

  “Our bedroom?” She shouldn’t let that sound personal.

  “Yup.” He squeezed her shoulders and guided her farther into the room. Every inch of her sizzled from his touch, and she sucked in a breath, more than aware of how desperately she needed him inside her. “There’s something in this room. I can feel it,” he whispered over her head.

  Rain walked away from him, needing to cool the sizzling lust that damn near burned her alive. Forcing herself to take in the contents of the room, she willed thoughts of him away and searched for anything odd about the bedroom.

  “You would think people who live like this would have a cleaning service,” she grumbled, and ran her latex-covered finger over the lip on a frame that was covered with sticky dust.

  “Unless they’re living beyond their means.”

  “Possibly.” She didn’t get how anyone working at a piss-ass job like what Steve did would make close to the amount of money to afford a home like this. “But did you notice how well-stocked the kitchen was? They can afford to go shopping.”

  “You’d think with all of these brand names, he’d hang a few of these up,” Noah commented, closing one drawer and opening another in a dark mahogany dresser on his side of the king-size bed.

  Rain stared at the bed, noting two pillows, one on each end tilted slightly against the headboard. Between both pillows was a larger designer pillow that was overstuffed and didn’t look very used. There were no head indentations and the fringes around it were neatly straightened, as if someone took meticulous care to make them look that way. “Looks like they don’t even touch each other when they sleep.”

  “Marriage isn’t for everyone.” He stared across the bed at her with dark brooding eyes.

  “No. It isn’t.” Rain couldn’t tell whether he made the comment out of sheer observation or was making a more subtle statement. She looked away before he could see any worry in her eyes. No regrets. There would be no regrets. He’d already told her he almost made it to the altar, but after his engagement had fallen through, possibly getting serious with anyone else didn’t appeal to him.

  “Her dresser is the same,” Rain said, changing the subject as she pulled out heavy drawers that held neatly folded jeans and Tshirts and all of Susie’s dresses. “Clothes you would assume they’d hang up are all folded in their drawers.”

  Rain glanced over at the closed closet
door. Or what she assumed was the closet. “It’s locked,” she said when she tried turning the handle. “I wonder what’s in there if they have all their clothes in dressers.”

  She noticed the small eight-by-ten hanging next to the door: a wedding picture of Steve and Susie. They looked so young and scared, or tense. It was an odd picture; neither one of them was smiling. It reminded Rain of the famous painting of the farmer and his daughter with the father holding the old-style pitchfork and both looking so stern.

  Rain adjusted the frame, which was slightly crooked, and tilted her head, looking at it closer. There wasn’t dust on this picture frame. Maybe it hadn’t been hanging as long. She glanced around the room.

  “I wonder why they would hang this picture more recently than the others?”

  “Huh?” Noah turned around from where he ran his hand along the windowpane under the curtains. “What do you mean?”

  “Those other pictures hanging on the walls. The frames are all dusty. In fact, the entire house is dusty, as if everything in it was for appearances’ sake only and has never been used.” She pointed to the picture behind the bed, those over the dressers, and another by the door but then returned her attention to the closet door and the wedding picture hanging at eye level next to the door. “It looks like they just hung this picture, since it’s not dusty. But why hang a wedding picture after all these years? They’ve obviously been married awhile,” she added, gesturing at the two young people in the picture.

  Noah rested his hand on her back when he moved in next to her. He eased the picture off the wall and Rain sucked in a breath. “Holy crap,” she hissed.

  “Explains why they don’t use the closet.” Noah hurried to put the picture on the bed and returned to examine the combination lock hidden in the wall behind the picture.

  “Got any toys to make that baby open for us?” She grinned when he looked at her, his gaze traveling over her face while his dark eyes smoldered.

  She saw a hunger that matched what she felt inside her, a craving to crack open a mystery, to learn what they didn’t know and piece together a puzzle until the picture was clear.

  At that moment, Rain feared she would have a hard time moving on after Noah left. Never in her life had she met a man who turned her on physically as well as intrigued her. His enthusiasm for his job, nailing the bad guy and stepping out on the edge to do it, matched how she’d always felt about investigative work. Her dad used to tell her many could train to be cops, but it was those few who were naturals and were born to ensure the safety of others who made the best cops. Hugh Huxtable claimed to be one of those cops, and he’d told Rain more than once that she had the same fire burning in her blood. She believed Noah was one of those few special people who also lived and breathed solving the mystery.

  Noah looked away first, returning his attention to the lock in the wall, and ran his gloved finger along the bottom where the brand name was. She stared at his serious, intense profile and the way his dark hair bordered his face. Noah was a tall man, taller than most, and there wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. Any woman would look twice at him, wondering if they stood a chance. It wasn’t often a man entered a lady’s world who not only was drop-dead gorgeous but also possessed intelligence and a well-rounded personality. Honestly, Rain couldn’t think of a single fault he possessed, other than the fact that he loved pushing her beyond her safety margins. Her father would have liked Noah, she decided. Maybe not at first. But as determined as Noah was at insisting she accept her need for him, he would have been equally resolute with her father.

  “Let me call in the brand name on this,” Noah said, tapping his finger under the name of the company printed on the bottom of the keypad. “I’m sure we can get it open, one way or another.”

  Rain blinked, diverting her attention to the pad built into the wall. Swallowing the lump that suddenly emerged in her throat, she nodded. “Sounds good,” she managed to say. Somehow accepting the revelation that her father would approve of Noah threw her off-kilter. She was light-headed when she made a show of once again looking around the bedroom.

  It only took a couple of minutes to place a few phone calls. Rain paced the bedroom, returning to the combination keypad lock several times and trying her hand at cracking it. All attempts were futile.

  A door opened downstairs and heavy footsteps bounded through the house. The crew downstairs exchanged words with the irate Steve Porter, who didn’t hesitate hurrying up the stairs and into his bedroom, as if he knew that was where he would find Noah and Rain.

  “Get the fuck out of my room,” Steve snarled, his hair tousled and stress lines accented around his eyes and mouth as he glared at the two of them. “Fucking cops. I can’t believe this shit.” He turned a hateful glare at Rain and made a show of lunging at her. “You little cunt. Trying to get down my pants just so you could nail fucked-up charges against me and my wife.”

  Rain barely had time to react before Noah grabbed Steve by the back of the neck and flung him against the wall by the door. Steve hit the wall hard, shaking the pictures hanging there and letting out a howl when Noah lunged at him.

  “You talk like that to her again and you’ll be praying to be behind bars,” Noah threatened in a tone so deadly Rain’s heart stopped beating.

  “Get out of my house.” Steve didn’t sound half as threatening as he did a moment ago.

  Noah pressed his hand into Steve’s neck, pinning him to the wall and looming over him while his entire presence seemed to grow as quickly as Steve’s diminished.

  “I’ve got a fucking warrant, and you’re treading on ice so goddamned thin that you say another word and you won’t have a home, or a bedroom, or even a bathroom that you don’t share with a handful of new fuck buddies.”

  Steve pressed his lips into a thin line, not saying a word, but his eyes grew so bloodshot that they glowed red with anger and unadulterated hatred.

  Noah didn’t flinch or even back down. “If you know how to open that lock, I suggest you do it right now. If you don’t, I’ll arrest you for assault on a police officer, slander, and sexual-harassment charges that will keep you behind bars until we nail your disgusting ass for murdering five good people.”

  Steve stared at Noah, not blinking, while his entire face grew as red as his eyes.

  “Speak now and tell me how to open that closet door.”

  Steve didn’t say a word.

  “Open the fucking door now.”

  “I don’t know how.”

  “Fucking liar!” Noah lifted Steve by the neck, forcing him to stand on tiptoe. Steve grabbed Noah’s hand and made terrible gurgling sounds.

  “Noah!” Rain hurried over to him, grabbing him by the shoulder although his body felt harder than steel. “I believe him. He’s not man enough to stand up to you. If he knew it, he would be blabbering how to do it without hesitating.”

  Noah released Steve and stalked away from him, walking over to the front window and moving the curtain to stare out into the darkness. Rain glared at Steve, who bent over, coughing profusely, while rubbing his neck. When he looked up at her, his pathetic stare made her stomach clench with revulsion. He didn’t appeal to her before, but now, as he showed his even weaker and obviously quite ignorant side, Rain believed for the first time that he possibly was innocent.

  “How long has that wedding picture been hanging in your bedroom?” she asked, pointing to the picture lying on the bed.

  “As long as we’ve been married,” he said, sounding defeated. “I’ve never paid attention to it, though.”

  “Now that I believe,” she muttered, doubting he paid much attention to anything about his marriage. “Do you even know where it was hanging?”

  “I’m not an idiot,” he complained, and waved at the combination pad in the wall alongside the closet door. “I’m sure it was covering that thing.”

  “Why don’t you use your closet to hang your clothes?” she asked.

  Steve frowned at her and then quickly focused his attentio
n on Noah when he moved to stand next to Rain.

  “I don’t know,” Steve admitted, sounding exasperated and whiny as he threw his hands up in the air. “Susie always put my clothes in the dresser. I never gave it any thought.”

  “You’ve never wondered why you can’t get into your own bedroom closet?” Noah asked, sounding like he didn’t believe a word of what Steve said.

  “Don’t patronize me.” Steve sounded more confident but nonetheless took a step backward, showing his first sign of intelligence in wanting to keep distance between himself and Noah. “Some things aren’t worth fighting over. Susie didn’t like me messing with the closet, so I didn’t. For all I know she closes herself in there and wallows in fucking self-pity. You have no idea what it’s like being married to an insane woman.”

  “Tell me what it’s like then,” Rain said softly, putting her hand on Noah’s arm and praying he would get her silent message to stay quiet for a moment. Steve wasn’t that unpredictable and possibly was no saner than his wife. “Explain Susie to me.”

  Steve snorted and walked around the bed, staring at his dresser as if by looking at it he could tell that Noah and Rain had gone through every bit of his personal possessions. “She’s absolutely out-of-her-head mad,” he said so quietly he was hard to hear. “She talks to herself and refuses to talk to me. She won’t fuck me and then acts like it’s a big deal for me to get some from someone else. One minute she acts like sex is the greatest gift from God and the next she’ll convince you she’s a virgin and doesn’t have a clue about shit.”

  “Virgin?” Rain asked. “When’s the last time you’ve had sex with your wife?”

  “When’s the last time you fucked Noah?” Steve countered, looking over his shoulder at her with an appraising stare.

  Noah growled and moved in front of her. Rain really didn’t need the testosterone-charged macho act. Steve backed down too quickly, which didn’t surprise her. He bullied women but didn’t have the stomach to stand up to a real man. She glanced at the window when she thought she heard a car door.