“Here. In my apartment."
“The whole night?"
“Well, I got home around eight-thirty, I guess."
“Home from where?” Jake didn't feel like giving him any slack. Gordon took notes while he watched Parker squirm. The guy was hiding something or maybe he was naturally slimy. He couldn't tell which.
“From dancing class.” Parker tried to get chummy. “Ballroom dancing. All those lonely single women looking for a romantic guy who is willing to wine and dance them through an evening. You should try it. I've gotten three dates out of it in the last month."
“Did you see anyone when you got home?"
“Well, I saw the little girl who lives upstairs. I think her name is Ellie. I'm not sure where you are going with all this.” Paul Parker switched tactics from chummy, just-one-of-the-guys to innocent what's-going-on. Jake didn't react to the change.
“Did you see anyone else?"
“No I didn't. What's this about?"
Jake watched him carefully. “Someone was murdered in the laundry room of this building.” Why the act, Parker? There's no way you didn't hear the commotion outside.
Parker blanched. “I can't believe it. Malvern Manor is such a nice community."
That sounds rehearsed. We need to circle back to this guy. Why had he changed into a robe? Were his clothes bloodstained? Or was he one of those guys who walked around wearing a housecoat? Jake had never worn a robe and wondered why any man would. “Where are you taking dance lessons?"
“At Studio Twenty-One. Ask Reba, my dance instructor. She'll tell you I was there!” A note of panic crept in at the end of his answer.
“Did you hear anything out of the usual?” Jake interspersed accusations with friendly inquiries.
“No, nothing at all. But I've been watching a movie since I got home.” Parker's hands fluttered with nerves. Jake noticed the cover for Girl's Gone Wild Spring Break sitting on the coffee table. He'd always wondered who ordered those videos and now he knew.
Jake took one look around Parker's living room. High-end furniture predominantly done in leather was surrounded by what looked like real artwork. Parker had some bucks considering he lived in an apartment. Jake wondered why he wasn't in a house.
Gordon spoke for the first time as he handed Parker his card. “Give us a call if you can remember anything else, Mr. Parker. We appreciate your cooperation."
They left without shaking his hand. “What do you think?” Jake asked.
“Don't know. He seemed nervous. Let's check the alibi."
“I can't figure out if my gut's saying anything about this guy, or if it's that he's so slimy I want to accuse him of something just to get him off the streets to save the lonely women of the world."
“He's quite a ladies’ man,” Gordon said dryly.
“Yeah, bet he's got them panting after him.” As he walked back down to the basement, he thought again that something was off in Susan's statement as well. It could be the stress of finding a body. Or the stress of what happened between them. Or a combination of both. But something told him it wasn't any of these things. She wasn't saying everything she knew. And he would be back to find out what it was as soon as he had the chance.
* * * *
Later, as they walked to their cars, he stopped Gordon in the parking lot and said quietly, “Susan was at my place tonight."
Gordon nodded. “Figured that out. Think she has anything to do with this?"
“No way. Besides being physically unable to cut someone with that kind of force, she wouldn't have had the time to kill him and then come back down with her laundry. She left my place close to nine."
“She your new squeeze?"
Gordon wasn't one to pry so the question caught Jake a little off guard even as it amused him. Gordon talked about dating like someone raised in the 50's. “She's warming up to it. She's having a little commitment issue, but we're working on that.” Jake grinned at Gordon's surprised look. For some reason, his partner seemed to think he was a big ladies’ man. Up until tonight, he had been living like a monk for the last eleven months.
Jake almost mentioned his suspicions about Susan's statement, but decided to keep it to himself. Technically, he should have brought up any concerns he had during the interview, but he hadn't because the circumstances were unusual, to say the least. This woman had left him an hour earlier naked on his kitchen floor. He couldn't trust himself to be one hundred percent objective right now and Gordon hadn't seen anything off. Maybe he was wrong. He decided not to bring it up unless something panned out during his next conversation with her.
Why was he acting so protective? Jake forced himself to be honest as he got into his car. Eleven months of obsessing about her, coupled with what had happened between them tonight, made objectivity difficult. It was as obvious as the leaves dropping from the trees in the crisp October air. Susan Rivers had gotten under his skin.
Chapter Four
Susan wasn't surprised when she opened her door to find Jake on her doorstep. In fact, she was surprised he had waited a whole day to track her down. Work had been hell and she really wasn't in the mood to deal with him, but she stood back and made the mocking ‘enter’ gesture he had given her twenty-four hours before. She saw from his grin that her replay wasn't lost on him.
Jake walked in, seeming without a care and began a complete inspection of her living room. Susan held off her temper for about sixty seconds. “What do you want, Jake?” she asked, using his words from the night before in another attempt to vent her frustration.
Jake stopped his examination of the impressionist print over the mantel to give her his full attention. “Missing anything?"
Susan had known it was coming, but still had to fight down the urge to act as if she didn't know what he was talking about. “You know I am."
“Serves you right for leaving my apartment in such a huff,” he said. “We might be able to work a trade if you want them back."
She could tell he teased her—his tone was light—but she wasn't in the mood for his games. He walked closer, his face turning serious, his hands reaching to tip her head so he could look fully into her face.
“You're looking rather pale, Susan love.” His touch was light but firm. “What's wrong?"
She had spent her day in the middle of a contract negotiation with two parties that wouldn't give an inch, making a mockery of the term “negotiate.” This, added to last night's two visions, one on top of the other, mind-blowing sex, and a dead body had done their damage. She had half-expected him to show up at work, which kept her stomach in knots all day. Susan felt like sleeping for a month. Instead, she pulled out of his hands and said, “Oh, I don't know, Detective Matherly. Everything's going so smoothly lately that I really don't have a care in the world."
“Tsk, Tsk, Susan. Sarcasm is the weapon of the weak."
Anger filled her and drained out of her body in a loop that left her exhausted. He had always been like this. Unflappable, stalking, irritating. Desirable. “What do you want, Jake?” She sighed and walked to her glass of wine on the table, taking a steadying sip. “I'm beat.” She sat down on her overstuffed chair.
He crossed the room and sat on the coffee table in front of her. Susan couldn't control her flash of irritation over his abuse of her table and was rewarded with an amused twist of his lips and the glint in his brown eyes. He moved forward so that their knees touched. “You tell me what you didn't tell Gordon last night and I'll get out of your hair."
Susan felt her body go rigid in reaction to his question and knew he felt it, too. She forced herself to relax. He didn't know anything. He was fishing. They were connected—had been for a long time now through the electric attraction they generated, and he could catch feelings from her others couldn't. She had to fend him off with plausible explanations. “I don't understand what you're asking me,” she said as calmly as she could. “Are you saying I had something to do with this?"
“Did you?"
“No!”
She knew he didn't really think she was involved with what had happened. He was purposely putting her on edge. She couldn't control her anger and fought to calm herself again. Her body no longer felt exhausted, but filled with energy. Her emotions were all over the map.
Susan looked, really looked, at the man sitting rudely on her coffee table, his knees still touching hers. He was dressed in a charcoal gray suit, which complemented his short brown hair. It didn't hide his broad, muscled chest, but accented it. The white shirt tapered over his flat stomach in such a way that she wanted to touch him. His tie, on close inspection, had little stickmen on it, in different poses, their eyes x's to indicate they were dead. Cop humor? It hung between his legs as he leaned over into her space. His strong face still had a bit of tan on it from the hot, dry fall they'd had, complementing the brown eyes that were narrowed in concentration at her, intelligence and determination radiating from them.
“Of course you didn't have anything to do with this murder,” Jake said, his words snapping her back to the conversation. “But you know something you aren't telling, Susan. I can feel it."
She wondered what to tell him. “Why are you saying that? I answered all Detective Gordon's questions as truthfully as I could."
“Did you?"
“Yes."
“Do you know Robb Connors?"
Susan blinked at the change of subject. Where had this come from? “The guy in apartment twenty-one?"
“Yes."
Susan looked for help around her empty living room in confusion. Finding no one there, she looked back at him and said, “I know Robb."
“What is your relationship with him?” His voice was all cop, cold and detached.
“My relationship? I don't have a relationship with him!” Jake had a right to question her about leaving something out, since she did. But she was not going to allow him imply she was dating a total scab like Robb Connors.
“How do you feel about him?"
“Robb? Ugh!” Susan looked at her wine glass, wishing the Good Fairy would come refill it for her.
Jake grinned, relaxing the cop face for a second. “Come on, I know you wouldn't date him. He's not your type. Just tell me the scoop on him."
Susan drew herself up. “How do you know what my type is?"
“Because, Susan love, I'm your type.” At her look, he pushed his palms toward her and said, “Come on now, you walked into that one.” Then he turned up his palms and made a give-it-up motion, wiggling his fingers at her.
She sighed in exasperation. “If you're talking about Robb as a person, he's a little heavy with the flirting. He asks out every woman he sees and won't take no for an answer. My neighbors and I think he has a rotation that goes by apartment. Ellie, then me, then Georgia. The other two apartments have couples living in them, so I think those women are safe. I'm not sure if he hits on the first floor tenants, since I don't know them as well. It's a running joke with the three of us."
“Ellie's the one who found the body?” Jake's face was back to the cop mask he had worn earlier.
“Yes. Georgia's apartment is next door,” she said, pointing to the left. “But she might be out of the rotation now that her brother has moved in. I'm not sure. We haven't run into each other to catch up for the last few weeks."
“From the description one of the canvassing officers gave of him, it sounds like Robb looks like the victim. That's a strange coincidence, don't you think?"
Susan thought back to her vision, when she could see the dead man while he was still standing up. “I guess he did—the same hair color and height. Are you saying that's relevant?"
“I don't know what's relevant and what's not at this point. His description matched almost word for word with the one I wrote down for the victim and it caused a red flag for me.” Jake shifted on the coffee table as if it was uncomfortable. Susan hoped it was. “Old Robb sounds like a piece of work. Did you see him Sunday night?"
She was perplexed at his line of questioning. “Why? Do you think he killed that man?"
“Do you?"
“I would think he'd kill a woman before he'd kill a man, the way he chases anything that wears pantyhose."
“The first rule in police work is anything is possible. The second is coincidences stink. Who knows, maybe he's repressing his homosexuality and was secretly in love with the victim."
It was such a weird thought that Susan couldn't help but laugh. “Maybe. He certainly gets repressed by a lot by women."
“Is he giving you a hard time?” From the sound of Jake's voice, he wasn't asking this question as a policeman. The thought both pleased and worried her.
She looked at him for a second. “Somewhat.” She was reluctant to get into this with him for some reason. He was acting Medieval and she didn't need him getting involved in something she could handle by herself.
“Somewhat how?"
She sighed. She might as well tell him. He'd pester her until she did. “A week or two ago, he pushed his way into my apartment and I had to threaten him with the police to get him out."
Jake stared at her for a full minute before she hurried to say, “He's harmless. Just a pest."
Jake was silent as he seemed to digest that. “So?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at her.
“So what?"
“Did you see him Sunday night?"
“Actually I did."
Jake looked irritated. “Why didn't you say something before?"
“Because, Jake, neither you nor your partner asked and I didn't think it was important."
“All right,” he looked really annoyed now. “Let's take it from the point where you left me naked on my floor and move forward again."
“We've never talked this through from that point, Detective.” Susan could feel her own irritation increasing. They locked gazes for what felt like a minute, but then she gave in. “I drove straight from your place to here. Got out of my car. Walked up the stairs. When I got to the top of the stairs, I screamed at Robb."
“You did what?"
“I screamed at him. He popped up all of a sudden and startled me. He's been doing that lately.” She made a slashing gesture at Jake to stop him from interrupting her again. “Then I walked into my apartment and shut the door in his face. I changed clothes and grabbed my laundry and went down to the basement."
Jake made a T with his hands. “Okay, back up. Weren't you concerned he'd be waiting for you when you left to do your laundry?"
“I figured he'd be off asking someone else out. I don't think of him as a threat. In the past, when I've said no, he usually goes off and asks Ellie or Georgia out."
“What do you mean when you say he's been popping out at you lately?"
“He's been waiting for me outside my door. It's his new method of asking me out, ever since I got caller ID and stopped answering his phone calls. This is the second time he's done it in the dark, but this time I was so wound up, that when he jumped out at me, I screamed. It was stupid."
“Did you speak to him?"
“Yes. I said, ‘Hello, Robb’ and ‘Goodbye, Robb.’ I don't think I said anything else."
Jake shut his eyes and looked like he was asking for patience. “What did he say to you?"
“He asked me out on a date."
“Did you say yes or no?"
“Not that it is any of your business, Detective, but I didn't say either. I told him last month I would no longer repeat myself and that if he asked me out again, he should assume my answer is no."
“Has he asked you out that many times?"
Susan nodded. “He's a pain in the rear, but I don't think he killed that guy in the basement. He wasn't acting in any way out of the ordinary."
“Except for the fact he wouldn't leave your apartment when you asked him to and he's purposely scaring you. It sounds like he's escalating, becoming more aggressive."
Susan looked at her hands resting in her lap. She could handle Robb. The man she couldn't handle was sitting on her coffee table.
Susan's mind raced, trying to keep up with his subject change. “I don't know why I used that wording, Jake.” She wanted to get up and pace, but he was blocking her in. “I don't know why I did. I was flustered, that's all.” She made herself make and maintain eye contact with him. He had to believe her and stop fishing because she wasn't going to tell him about her visions. “Can't you understand that?"
He searched her face for a moment, and nodded. “That could be it.” At her relieved look, he added, “Could be but I don't think so. What aren't you telling me? You were calm as can be before Gordon asked what else you had seen. You jumped at that last word.” Jake stressed the word seen as Gordon had.
Susan tried not to move in surprise—he had said Seen like she thought of it when she was speaking about True Seeing, with a capital S—but in trying to stay still, she gave herself away. She could tell by the flash of something that moved through his eyes.
“Jake, what else could I be holding back from you? I walked down to the basement, saw Ellie, saw the body and called the police from my apartment. I don't know what you think I could be able to hide in that scenario. Ask me anything you want. I'll give you the answers to your questions.” She pushed his shoulders to lean him back from her so she could get some space between them. “But I don't know what you want me to tell you."
“That's the puzzler. I know you're holding something back, but I don't know what.” He stood up, looking cagey. He stalked in a tight circle beside the coffee table.
Susan started to stand too, but Jake was back again in a heartbeat, forcing her into her seat. He leaned over and grabbed her chin. “I'll be back when I have the right question, Susan.” He planted a rough kiss on her lips that set her on fire. “Until then, you know where I live if you want to come tell me what the right answer is.” He started to stand, then sat on the coffee table to grab her head and bring her forward for another kiss. His lips slanted across hers, then his tongue dipped into her mouth. Susan felt all the energy in her body pool between her legs.
True Seeing Page 4