True Seeing

by Leigh Wyndfield

  Jake broke the kiss and for a moment, they both sat there in a daze, panting for breath. Acting as if it was the greatest effort of his life, Jake stood and walked to the door. He turned with his hand resting on the knob. “I was serious about working out a trade if you want your underwear back,” he said, his voice lower than usual, coming out in a growl.

  Susan felt worn out after all his questioning and confused by her overwhelming desire to ask him to stay the night. She wasn't sure if she cared at this point. “Keep them as a souvenir, Jake. I'm not giving you anything else."

  “You're wrong, Susan.” He made it sound like a promise. And then he went out the door, tossing a, “Make sure you lock up behind me,” over his shoulder.

  She got up, locked the door, and rested her head against it. She had to sleep with a cop, didn't she? Her number one priority would now be to avoid him at all costs. He threatened everything she had spent her life protecting. And, most dangerous of all, he knew she had a secret. Cops hated secrets.

  Even as she thought this, she forced herself to turn away from the door instead of calling him back to jump his body.

  * * * *

  Jake walked away from Susan's, watching his feet on the concrete, shaking off the desire that raged through his body with difficulty. He needed to talk to this Robb character before he left the apartment complex. He didn't like the sound of Robb's behavior when he was around Susan. And he needed to get a feel for him to see if he would be added to their pitifully short list of suspect hopefuls for last night's murder.

  He didn't like that his feelings were shading his perspective on this case. It wasn't a good sign. He sighed and tried to put his concerns about Robb hitting on his woman aside.

  “My woman? Jesus, Matherly,” he groaned out loud. One day since he'd slept with her and he had already escalated his feelings to ownership.

  Stopping outside of Apartment 21, he gave himself a mental shake before he knocked on the door.

  An in-shape, thirty-something year old with black hair and even, handsome features appeared. Jake didn't know what he expected, but he was surprised by how good-looking Robb Connors appeared. He realized he'd assumed Robb must be ugly to act so desperate with the ladies. If he had been that good-looking as a woman, Jake didn't think Robb would be begging for dates. Maybe this proved men really were focused on one thing. Or maybe Robb had some unappealing qualities that canceled out his handsome face.

  “Robb Connors?” he asked, opening his jacket to show the badge he'd clipped onto his belt. “I'm Detective Matherly. I'm working on the murder investigation of the man killed here in the laundry room. May I come in?"

  “Sorry, Detective Matherly,” Robb said, not sounding very sorry as far as Jake could tell. “I'd rather you didn't. My place is a mess.” Robb shrugged at him and kept the door pressed against his side as if he was afraid Jake might try to look past him.

  Jake flipped open his notebook and wrote weird behavior under the heading Robb Connors interview that he'd written earlier. “I need to ask you some questions."

  “I already answered some cop's questions last night. Is there some reason you're interviewing me again?"

  Jake met Robb's gaze with a blank one of his own. “I'm just following up on some loose ends. Where were you last night between seven and nine-thirty?"

  “Here. In my apartment. The other cop already asked me that question."

  Jake ignored his comment. “For the whole time?"

  “For most of it. I went out and spoke with a neighbor for a few minutes."

  “Which neighbor?"

  “Susan Rivers. I went to see if she wanted to go to a concert with me.” Robb looked irritated. “She said she couldn't go. She had other plans so I left and came back here and watched the Dating Game on Lifetime. It's on between eight and nine."

  “So you watched the Dating Game after you spoke with Miss Rivers?” Jake asked, writing spoke with Susan during the time she was at my apartment. He didn't bother to look up at Robb while he wrote in his notebook. He didn't have to see his face to know he was lying.

  “I also had a long conversation some time last night with another woman I'm seeing. We spoke on the phone for maybe an hour."

  As if you're seeing Susan, Jake thought, stamping down his irritation. He was a professional and would act like it. He would not give in to his burning need to give Robb a warning about his behavior with women. What was up with all the men at this apartment complex?

  He wrote check to see when Dating Game comes on Lifetime. Jake hadn't heard of a man watching anything on Lifetime before. Wasn't that a women's only channel?

  “Does this woman have a name?"

  “Margaret Westbrook. You can call her if you want. Maybe I confused the two conversations. Maybe I spoke with Susan after my show went off?” His voice became defensive. “Look, what's with all these questions? Am I a suspect or something?"

  “It's just standard procedure, Robb,” Jake said, his voice sounding like he believed it himself. “So you spoke with Susan after your TV show went off?"

  “Right about then, I guess. Maybe a little before nine."

  “You missed the exciting conclusion to your show?” Jake kept his face bland and the sarcasm out of his voice.

  “I noticed during the commercial break that she was walking up the stairs and thought I'd catch her as she was coming in."

  “Why the rush?"

  “The concert is coming up and I need someone to go with me. I've already paid for the tickets."

  “While you were out of your apartment, did you see anyone else around?"

  “No. Only Susan."

  Lucky Susan, Jake thought. “Did you know Jim Daugherty?"

  “No, who's that?"

  “He was the victim, Robb. Did you see anything at all yesterday that looked suspicious? Anyone hanging around who shouldn't be here?"

  “No, look, I already told you. I spent most of the afternoon in my apartment. Before that, I was at my mother's house. We went to church together."

  Jake thought the church part was a nice touch, because everyone knew people who went to church didn't commit murder. Riiiggghhht. He wrote can't be a murderer, goes to church in his notebook.

  “If you think of anything, give me a call,” Jake said, handing him his card. Robb nodded and closed the door in his face without saying goodbye. He'd lied about Susan's reaction to his date, but that might be so he wouldn't look stupid in front of another guy. But he'd been tap dancing around his movements for the evening. Jake knew where Susan had been from eight to nine and it wasn't with Robb. Jake would give Margaret Westbrook a call when he got back to the station and see where she fitted in the timeline.

  Susan has some really weird neighbors, he thought, walking to his car. It was hard to tell if they were murdering weirdoes or your regular, everyday kind of weirdoes. He would have to ask Gordon his opinion.

  Chapter Five

  Susan felt the hush fall over the smoky bar when she and her two best friends walked into the room. Courtney had been right; Buddy's was packed on Tuesday nights, if tonight was any indication of the norm. Packed with men, all watching a football game on the many TVs around the room. A bar full of men was something she didn't need. Based on her choice of company, she should have known she would end up in a place like this. Both Courtney and Briles were notorious boy-hounds. But she couldn't say no when they gave her the pitch of why she needed to come out with them. And they were right, staying at home was asking for another restless night. She hadn't slept well the last forty-eight hours. Thoughts of dead people interspersed with thoughts of Jake had made her toss and turn.

  Her mood never failed to pick up when she went out with her friends, especially in situations like this that had a high probability of turning out to be amusing. Both of them were beautiful women in their own way and Susan knew she was a perfect companion to them, since she wasn't interested in relationships in general, and one-night stands were a definite no-no for her. Jake was her one fail
ing—a no-no that had turned into a yes-yes.

  That meant they only had to compete between themselves for whatever men were in play. And usually enough men came their way that they didn't need to fight at all. Perhaps that was the wrong word for it, since neither of them respected men enough to end up fighting for them except when it amused them.

  Briles was in the lead tonight. Her long blond hair was pulled back into a clip with just a couple pieces of bangs hanging down, highlighting her gorgeous face. Dark blue eyes and a full mouth were her best features and the ice-blue tube-top she wore left her perfect shoulders bare. All three women wore simple black pants, but only Briles’ hung on her hips to reveal a slash of her flat stomach. If Briles was a song, Susan thought, she might be a sexy, hip-hop dance tune, with a pumping bass that every man in the bar could hear.

  Courtney was on Susan's right, dressed in black. The tallest, she was almost six feet in her high-heeled boots. Courtney's was a different tune every time Susan saw her. Although tonight she seemed mellow enough, her friend's moods could change in a heartbeat. Susan had been frightened a couple of times by Courtney's mood swings. But 99% of the time, she was pure fun. Black short hair was slicked back from her face to show off her exotic features. Taking a quick survey of the room, Susan felt Courtney had about an even amount of admirers as Briles did. The reaction was so typical, Susan felt sorry for all the chumps, ah, men in the bar.

  Her gaze swept the room again in amusement, but then stopped on a face she had missed before. It was one of the few faces in the crowd that wasn't looking at either of her friends. Jake Matherly stared directly at her and he didn't look very happy. She put her back to him as she sat down at the high table, her legs feeling a bit wobbly. But she felt him now, the hair on the back of her neck rising in anticipation as she sensed him coming closer. She jumped when his hands closed over her shoulders, even though she had known he stood behind her.

  There was nothing she could do. She was trapped.

  * * * *

  The man on Jake's right let out a whistle, “Six o'clock gentlemen. Look what's coming in the door."

  Jake shook himself out of his partial stupor. He had been turning over in his mind what Susan could be hiding for the better part of an hour and his companions had long ago given up on including him in the conversation. They all knew he was a dog with a bone when it came work, so they left him to his own company. When he first looked up, he'd only seen the long-haired blond in the lead and the tall, dark-haired woman behind her but as they moved, the dark-haired woman fell back a step to reveal the shorter woman beside her. Strawberry blond hair, amused green eyes, and that full, sensuous, laughing mouth added up to one person. His attention snapped onto the object of his recent musings and everything else in the bar faded into a peripheral haze.

  What was she doing out at Buddy's after seeing a dead body two days ago? Through narrowed eyes, he watched the three beautiful women flow across the floor to a table. He didn't miss the fact that every other male was watching them, too. He almost didn't identify the jealousy as it welled up inside him. His first thought was that he was angry with her for being here. His second was she had been playing with him when he was at her apartment. The woman yesterday had looked beaten. This woman didn't look beaten; she looked gorgeous.

  Then he noticed the dark smudges beneath her eyes and the slight droop to her shoulders. He knew he would have sensed it if she had been acting last night. So why was she here? Her head turned as she looked around the room, a slightly amused tilt to her mouth. On the second pass, her gaze met his and she hastily looked away and took a seat at her table.

  Jake didn't know why she was here, but he knew she wouldn't be staying. If she wanted some guy to look at her, he would stare at her all night long. At home. He felt himself stand as if yanked by invisible strings.

  “Going somewhere, Matherly?” Someone at the table asked the question, but Jake didn't stop to figure out who it was. Because suddenly, as he looked at her, he knew the question he had to ask, as if a light switch had gone on in his mind. What thing would most people not want to tell a police officer? Could it be that simple?

  “I have a question I need an answer to,” Jake muttered. He walked towards her, unaware the anger in his stride had most of the people in the bar tracking him.

  Jake felt her jump when his hands came down on her shoulders. He leaned over and breathed into her ear, “I've got the question. Let's get out of here so I can ask it.” He straightened, pulling her off the high barstool in the same motion. He made it exactly one step away from the table, when the tall, dark-haired woman jumped in front of him.

  “Where do you think you're going with my friend?” Her voice carried around the room, causing the conversation around them to fade.

  “Courtney,” Susan said in a tone a little above a whisper, all calm in the storm. “This is one of the detectives from the murder at my apartment complex. He's got some questions to ask me."

  Jake could tell Susan was worried about her friend's reaction and he cursed himself seven ways to Sunday for strong-arming her. What in the hell did he think he was going to do, drag her out of the bar? Jesus, where did his head go when he got around her?

  Courtney stood as if deciding. “Are you sure you want to go with him? As your attorney, I highly advise you not to speak to him without me present."

  “Attorney?” Jake asked. Did she get a lawyer?

  Susan ignored him. “Courtney, what are you talking about? You're a contract attorney."

  Courtney laughed delightedly, her mood changing lightning fast. “I've always wanted to say that!"

  Susan pulled on Jake's arm to bring him a step closer to the table. “Detective Matherly, these are my friends from work, Courtney and Briles.” Jake didn't care which one was which. They had too much makeup on and were wearing too little clothing. Compared to Susan, he thought they weren't anywhere close to her in the looks department, even though a year ago he might have thought otherwise. He'd thought he liked his women like Susan's friends. He'd found out at his party eleven months ago he was wrong.

  Briles’ smoky voice purred her appreciation, as she gave Jake a quick once-over. “Come on now, Detective, we're trying to cheer her up. Don't pull her out of here quite yet."

  Well, that explained why she was out tonight. Jake looked at her two friends and tightened his grip on Susan's arm. They were piranhas, he could tell. The blonde one looked like she was going to lean over any second to lick him and the tall one was giving a probing look at the top of his jeans. Jake didn't even realize he had stepped slightly behind Susan until she looked up at him with amusement dancing in her eyes.

  Answering his silent plea, she spoke up, “Detective Matherly has another round of questions for me so I'll see you guys tomorrow at work. I was too tired for this anyway. We'll go out this weekend."

  Jake could tell Susan was stepping in out of pity but any help was welcome.

  “Good hunting,” Susan called back over her shoulder to her friends as he propelled her out of the bar.

  Chapter Six

  “I feel like I need a shower after the looks those two gave me. God, Susan, who in the hell were those women? Beautiful but deadly, taken to a new extreme."

  “Scared you, did they?” Susan couldn't stop the laughter that escaped. She thought it was kind of cute that a man who risked getting shot every day of his life at his job would be scared of her two friends. “I work with them. Briles is a paralegal and Courtney's another attorney at the firm. They're also my best friends."

  “Just promise me you won't leave me alone with them.” At her peals of laughter, he added, “The tall one was checking out my package."

  Susan laughed until she was wiping tears away. “Now you know how women feel. All men should get that treatment at least once in their lives. It would make the world a better place."

  “Did you drive?” he asked her.

  “No."

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her to his car, stuf
fing her into the front seat as if she might make a run for it.

  He drove the few blocks to her apartment without speaking. Susan wondered where his mind had wandered. Mentally, she tried to gear up for the upcoming confrontation.

  Jake pulled into her apartment parking lot. They both got out at the same time, but he met her as she came around the car. “Follow me up the stairs,” he said, looking around with an alertness that put her on guard. They walked up the stairs with Susan feeling like she was playing follow-the-leader. At the top, Jake took her keys and opened her door.

  “You're spooking me, Jake. You seem like you are on full alert. Should I be this worried living here?"

  Susan stood in her living room as Jake did a quick sweep. It was a small apartment—one bedroom, one bath, a kitchen and a large living room that all formed a square. While the layout was unimaginative, Susan thought her decorations weren't. She liked the bold splashes of colors against the off-white couch and the beautiful, but simple dark coffee table. And she enjoyed the added touch of the exposed beams across the ceiling. When he came back into the room, she repeated, “Should I be this worried, Jake?"

  He looked at her, his face serious. “I'll be honest. I don't know. This case is a bit of a puzzle.” He prowled restlessly across the deep blue oriental carpet covering the hardwoods.

  “Who was he? The man in the laundry room?” she asked.

  “Jim Daugherty. He lives over in the Woodbridge Apartments."

  “Woodbridge? Aren't they a few miles away? What was he doing in our laundry room?"

  “Doing his laundry.” The simplicity of his statement seemed to amuse him and Jake grinned at her. “It's fifty cents cheaper per load here."

  “What? He came here to save money? To save fifty cents?"