AIR Series Box Set

by Amanda Booloodian

  Ethan's fingers were drumming the table again, and he kept looking towards the kitchen. I almost felt sorry for him.

  "You know," I said, "I think our waitress might be having a bad night."

  "That could be. I'm really sorry about this." He looked around the crowded room. "It's supposed to be warmer tonight than last night, isn't it?"

  "I'm not sure. I can check my phone if you want."

  "Thank you. You check, and I'll be right back."

  Curiosity made me watch him go, but when I looked up from digging my phone out of my purse, I had lost track of where he went.

  When he came back, all signs of apprehension had vanished. "Let's get a change of scenery. How's the weather?"

  "Cool, but warmer than last night," I said carefully as Ethan ushered me to the door. Outside I added, "It sets a bad example when a lieutenant walks out without paying."

  Ethan chuckled. "I paid and even left a tip, although I admit, I thought against it."

  "Where are we going?"

  "Our first stop is around the corner."

  "First stop. You're feeling ambitious." Around the corner, the aroma hit me. "Mmmmm."

  "I figured a coffee shop would be a safe choice." Ethan opened the door for me.

  The massive board of caffeinated beverages stood behind a long bar, music filled the air, and the place was packed.

  "What would you like?" Ethan asked, leaning in close so he didn't have to yell over the noise.

  For the first time, I was close enough to smell his cologne, which worked well for him, but his warmth made me lean a little further in, to tell him my order.

  "Wait here?" Ethan asked.

  "Sure." I watched him walk away, but this time, my focus was on the view, in an admiring kind of way.

  He brought my drink and we went back out into the fresh air. Ethan took me on a winding trail around downtown. We talked about silly stuff mostly, he bought me dinner on the go, and our last stop was at a bakery, where we each chose a cookie.

  After dinner, somehow we ended up holding hands, and after the bakery, it felt natural for me to reach for it again.

  "So," Ethan said on our way back to my car, "this date went better than the last."

  "It was a nice evening," I said.

  "I thought so too."

  The following silence wasn't awkward, which was a nice change.

  We stopped next to my car.

  "Are you free on Saturday?" Ethan asked.

  "It's possible my mother might be over, so as long as work doesn't call, I am definitely free."

  Ethan laughed. "Won't she miss seeing you there?"

  "She's there to see my grandmother." It was only a little white lie, Mom would notice my absence, but she may appreciate the fact that I'd be on a date.

  "You live with your grandmother?" Ethan asked.

  "Yeah. After her last husband passed away, I didn't like the idea of her living all alone. I was looking for a new house, so the timing worked out well."

  "Do you take care of her?" Ethan asked.

  I laughed. "No, Gran is one hundred percent independent. In fact," I checked the time on my phone, and it was almost ten, "I'll probably beat her home."

  "Well, if you're sure I'm not taking you away from your family, would you like to go hiking?" Ethan asked.

  "That sounds like fun."

  The words were barely out when he kissed me. He was hesitant at first, but when I fell into the kiss, he did too.

  When he broke away, he asked, "I'll pick you up on Saturday?"

  "Hmm, Saturday it is."

  He opened my car door for me and waited on the sidewalk while I drove away.

  Chapter 8

  My cell phone rang around three a.m. Nothing good comes from a call at that time of night.

  "Cassie," I answered.

  "It's Hank, got another fishy death for you and Logan."

  "Fishy how?" I asked, forcing myself out of bed.

  "Some guy killed his girlfriend—"

  "That's nothing new." I yawned and stretched.

  "He claims a possessed necklace made him do it."

  "Okay, that's new. A necklace?"

  "I thought that would get your attention. They have him at the police station."

  I called Logan, and his voice was chipper. It was too early for that.

  "Hank already reached out," Logan said. "Call Rider. He's been useful on this case, and we want to keep him with us."

  I've never called Rider in the middle of the night, but he answered right away and sounded alert. I have no idea how my partners did alert at three a.m.

  "We have a lead," I said, "possessed necklace."

  "Like the one in evidence?" Rider asked.

  "Let's go and find out. Meet us at my house."

  I hung up and pulled myself together enough to get dressed and go in search of caffeine.

  "Morning, sugar," Gran said when I stumbled into the kitchen.

  "Did I wake you up?" I blinked in the glare of the bright kitchen lights.

  "No, I woke up knowing you'd need coffee,” she said winking at me. "I have three tumblers ready."

  "I love you, Gran." I wanted to sink into a chair and rest until my partners arrived. It was a nice thought, but my time would be better spent finding out if Hank had any details in the file for today's case.

  The tablet wouldn't open for me. Apparently, a bleary-eyed attack on the password wouldn't work. Logan arrived in time to keep me from breaking the wretched thing on the counter.

  "Go finish getting ready," Logan said. "I'd like a chat with Margaret before she turns in," Logan said.

  I thought I was ready. How was everyone so awake in the morning?

  "Sure." I went upstairs.

  In my tired state, I had reverted to my old uniform of T-shirt, jeans, and boots. I changed into a better shirt and finished getting ready. Three-thirty in the morning wasn't pretty, but at least I was fully dressed.

  Rider arrived while I was on my third cup of coffee. I grabbed another to go, and we were out the door.

  ***

  The entry to the police station was open but empty. The officer behind the bulletproof glass buzzed us through without trouble this time.

  Ethan stood in the middle of a flurry of activity. He was talking to a uniformed officer, but he waved us over when he noticed us. How had it not occurred to me that he'd be here?

  He looked uneasy when we approached. "Agent Seale, and, uh, Agent Heidrich." He tripped over the greeting, and I didn't blame him. "And you are?"

  "This is Agent Wolfe," Logan said.

  Ethan blinked up at Rider, taking in his height. Standing behind me made him appear even taller in comparison. "Good to meet you. Let's go talk in my office."

  I was uneasy, wondering why Ethan was pulling us into his office. The talks that needed to take place behind closed doors were almost never fun.

  Ethan stifled a yawn as we entered the room. At least I wasn't the only one who thought being up at this time of the day was obscene.

  He looked pointedly at me. "I'm not sure how this works." I could hear the frustration behind his voice.

  Did he think I knew? "I think we treat each other the way we would anyone else."

  "Right." Ethan looked like he was thinking that over. "I find it interesting that my suspect was not even at the station when I received a call saying I couldn't interrogate him." He aimed this at Logan and Rider, as though trying to exclude me from his irritation. "Would you all care to shed a little light on why the Department of the Treasury is interested in a local homicide?"

  "You went out on a date with him?" Rider asked.

  Shaking my head and smiling, I looked up at Rider. "Yes, but that was last night, we should keep work separate."

  "Do I have to like him?" Rider asked as though we were alone in the room.

  "We can talk about that later," I said.

  Logan looked like he was trying hard not to laugh while Ethan looked resigned.

  "Sorr
y," Ethan said, "bad start."

  "No, what you said was okay," I assured him.

  Logan took the lead. "We may be here for no reason at all. We'll have to talk to the suspect to know for sure."

  "That's all I get?" Ethan asked.

  "We need to talk to the man to find out more," I said, "then, if this incident has nothing to do with us, we'll try to get out of your hair. It's too early in the morning for the bureaucracy crap to get in the way."

  Ethan's lips curled up, but it only lasted a moment. "Well, you all are not the only ones waiting. The DEA have been around for a few weeks, and they want to interview him. They weren't too happy when they were told to cool their heels."

  Logan was watching the office through the window in the door. He was already bored with this conversation and ready to move on. Rider was looking everywhere, as though he was memorizing the office.

  "Why is the DEA here?" I asked.

  "Seems like they're always here these days," Ethan said. "There're rumors about a new drug hitting the streets," Ethan said.

  "Here, and not in the city?" That didn't sound right to me.

  "It's only a rumor," Ethan said. "As far as I know, no one has found anything yet. Here, or in the city."

  "Can you tell us anything about the suspect?"

  "The man killed his girlfriend in a rage. DEA is hoping to get a blood test soon. They think he's doped up. Since we found drugs in the apartment, it's a safe bet, but we only found the usual stuff." Ethan glanced at Rider before sitting back in his chair. He motioned for us to sit as well, but I was the only one who did. "We were told not to interrogate him. The thing is that he doesn't really need to be interrogated. He's been talking since we picked him up. We left him alone in the room, but we got down plenty before he reached the station."

  "What did he say?" I asked.

  "He admitted straight away that he killed his girlfriend."

  I arched my eyebrows. "No trying to deny it?"

  "No. We read him his rights, but he kept talking. He claims his necklace is possessed and made him do it. Prime candidate for a mental deficiency plea."

  Logan came back around to the conversation. "Could be that's what he's trying for."

  I looked at my partner and wondered what he really thought. "Anything else?"

  Ethan stood. "That's the gist of it. It'll all be in the file, but I think you'll be able to hear for yourselves when you get in there."

  "We're going to need the necklace when we talk to him," I said.

  "I'll bring it up." Ethan gestured to the door.

  Time to go see our suspect. It struck me that I was getting ready to walk into a room with a man that had murdered someone only a few hours ago. It didn’t sit well mentally, but I tried to push away the oncoming anxiety of being in the same room with a killer.

  "Agent Heidrich," Ethan said, as we left his office, "may I have a word with you in private first? It will only take a minute."

  "Sure."

  Logan chuckled, and I closed the door firmly on both my partners, knowing that it was no more private than if I had left the door open. With my partners’ extreme listening abilities, they could walk across the room and probably hear every word we said.

  Ethan cleared his throat, and he looked like he was thinking carefully about what he wanted to say. "Is this going to work?"

  "We said no hard feelings if either of us had to cancel anything for work, right? Let's amend that to include no hard feelings for anything that might happen that's work related, including treating each other like we would anyone else."

  "Thank you for that." He looked tired but smiled. "It may be easier said than done, though."

  The look made me want to curl my toes, so he might be right about that, but I plunged forward. "If either of us decided to walk off this case for the other, we would end with resentment. Especially since I don't even know if we have a case."

  "You're right, and it may not be so bad working together." Ethan moved around to the front of the desk but kept a respectable distance. "You look nice. How do you look so put together in the morning."

  I tried not to laugh, but it filtered through my words. "Four large cups of coffee and a partner who made me go upstairs and fix my first attempt at getting ready."

  Ethan coughed to cover his amusement, and then looked out the door while regaining his serious mood. "We probably shouldn't keep your partners waiting so long. Agent Seale looks antsy to talk to our suspect."

  "He probably is, but then he always looks like that." Even standing still Logan looked like fluid movement on the brink of being released.

  Ethan opened the door for me. "Thank you, Agent Heidrich."

  "Yeah, that agent stuff is probably going to have to go," I muttered.

  Ethan led us down a few halls, and we found two people arguing with an officer outside the interrogation room.

  "You can't go in," the officer said. "I have my orders. You shouldn't have gone in there in the first place."

  "It's not down to you to kick us out. We're doing our job," one of the agents said.

  "And I'm doing mine," the officer replied.

  It was one of those arguments among professionals where no one raised their voice, but you could tell by their stiff stances and glaring eyes that no one was thrilled with the situation.

  "Excuse me," Ethan said and led the men down the hall, leaving the officer behind. Once he had them down the hall, Ethan gave us a nod.

  Logan pointed to a door. "Rider, we'll have you in the viewing room. Make sure no one joins you, especially those men. They're DEA agents."

  "How can you tell?" I asked.

  "I can't imagine anyone else as eager to get into the room as these guys appear to be," Logan said.

  Looking down the hall, one of the agents was glaring our way while talking with Ethan. The officer by the door was watching Ethan and the agents, looking amused.

  The suspect began talking as soon as we entered the room. "You have to listen to me, it's the necklace. It did this to me. It's the reason I killed her."

  Logan held up a hand to stem the admission. "Rider, mosey on in here for a minute."

  I tried not to look puzzled, but I'm not sure I managed it.

  "Look," the suspect began again as Rider entered the room. "If you listen—"

  Logan held a hand up again and quieted the man down before turning to Rider. "You hear it?"

  Rider looked like he was concentrating. "I hear many things."

  There was nothing I could hear, but I seized the Path, holding back much of the current, to see if I could read what they heard.

  "This one is a buzz," Logan said, "down low and away from the lights."

  Rider walked to one of the chairs and then flipped it over. At first, I didn't see anything but a blurry concentration of greenish brown that clung to the Path, but once they pointed it out, I recognized it. Not only had the DEA come into the room, but they also bugged it. I'm sure this was against the law, but more importantly, it pissed me off.

  Rider took the tiny device off the chair, inspected it briefly, and then handed it to me.

  Aggravated, I marched straight out of the room and down the hall where Ethan was talking with the agents.

  I held up the small device and scowled. "This is an obstruction of justice and infringement on the rights of the accused." I had no idea if any if that was true, but it sounded right. "We're supposed to be on the same side." The Path picked up a frenzy of emotion, guilt, impatience, anger; it all came at once and pressed in on me.

  Rider walked out and gave a low menacing growl, his Path merged into the others before overpowering them. Instead of making me more uncomfortable, though, it rolled through me.

  Everyone stopped to look at Rider, even me. A man nearly six and a half foot tall can garner a lot of attention when he's angry.

  Rider took the tiny listening device from me and held it up with two fingers to show the agents. Then he crushed it. He rubbed his fingers together, flicked away s
pecks of the device, and went back to the viewing room to watch the interrogation.

  The Path around the agents diminished and shifted hesitantly, as though afraid to travel too far from its source.

  "Damn," Ethan said, under his breath.

  I stifled a grin, appreciating my partner's antics, and trying to avoid looking at Ethan's Path, I moved back to the interrogation room.

  "Agents." Ethan held up a plastic bag. "Here's the item you asked for."

  Logan took the bag and examined the contents through the plastic.

  "Thank you." I flashed Ethan a smile, in case Rider had thrown him too far off balance, then Logan and I went back into the room.

  The suspect was sitting in the bright lights with his hands folded in front of him on the table. He took one look at what Logan had in his hands and let out a scream while jumping into the corner. Blues, purples, and greens marred the room and yellows crushed their way through. It was beautiful and terrible at the same time. The intensity also had me damming the Path back to a trickle to have enough energy to keep going.

  The interrogation room door had remained open, so the officer outside noticed the event and looked questioningly at us.

  I shook my head, and he shut the door.

  "Knock it off, Ed," I said.

  Logan dropped the plastic bag holding the necklace onto the table.

  "Keep that thing away from me." He stood trembling. "You shouldn't touch it either, keep it away."

  "Why don't we start with what happened?" Logan said.

  We left the bag sitting where it was, ignoring it. For Ed, the presence was like a weight, each time he shifted his gaze to us, it always landed back on that bag.

  "Look I killed her, okay. That's what happened. Now get that thing out of here."

  "Where did you pick this up?" Logan sat back on a chair.

  Seeing what my partner was doing, I leaned against the wall. We tried to pull back from Ed in a way that would make him more comfortable with coming forward. It wasn't happening, though. The man looked like he was prepared to put down roots. Even his Path clung to the corner.

  Logan nudged the bag forward a minuscule amount. "Where'd you come by it, Ed?”