Part 8 (1/2)

”Maris!” Dan burst between the stones into the circle. The flashlight in Maris's fist flared into life. Dan hurried to her side and grabbed her arm. ”Who were you talking to?”

Maris swung the light around to illuminate the stones one by one. ”n.o.body. There...there was no one here.”

Dan pulled her close. She let him, turning her head against his sweats.h.i.+rt, the scent of rank fear rising from both of them mildly offensive as well as rea.s.suring. Even if Dan didn't understand what had just happened, hadn't been close enough to witness it, at least he'd felt it. Maris burrowed her face against his chest.

”I think we'll come back another day,” she said. ”A sunny mid-afternoon.”

A sound rumbled through him, a kind of laughing growl. Not because he thought what she'd said was funny, but in defiance-a deliberate insolence to counter the unease. With his fingers tight on her upper arm, he led the way out of the stone circle and back across the parking lot to the main road. By the time they reached it, Maris was breathless from trotting alongside him.

”I didn't see your car when I came into the bar. Are you staying at the Hideaway?”

She nodded.

”Let's collect our food, and I'll walk you back, okay?”

”Okay.”

Maris kept an eye on him as they made their way to the bar, marking his mood in the lines of his profile. By the time they reached the parking lot, he'd calmed down considerably. Once they'd claimed their boxes of leftovers, they continued on to the quaint motel, walking with enough distance between them they could have driven a small vehicle through. It had to be that way.

Maris fished in her purse for the motel key. ”This is my room. So now you know. Sorry I didn't call you earlier with that information.”

”This is your room?”

”Yes. Why?”

”Nothing. May I come in for a minute?”

Maris lifted her gaze to blue eyes s.h.i.+elded by the downward turn of his lashes. Somewhere inside, in some unexplored place, she knew him. Had to be the eyes, the same as the friend she used to talk to in the night as a child. Imaginary, sure, but the impact of the memory remained.

”Sure,” she said as she inserted the key into the door, her back to him. She gave the room a quick onceover, speculating what he would think when he walked in. As a police officer, he might wonder why her unpacked suitcase lay in the middle of a bed she should have slept in the night before.

He entered behind her and shut the door while she placed her leftovers in a dorm-sized refrigerator. She couldn't decide whether she should offer to put his in there, too, as that might imply she expected him to stick around a while.

She indicated the desk chair. ”Have a seat.” He remained standing. ”Or not.” Maris yanked her suitcase off the bed, stowing it in the open cupboard. Let him think she was the type who lived out of it rather than utilizing the dresser in the room. She then went into the bathroom and returned a few minutes later to find he hadn't moved.

With a snort of impatience, she crossed the floor. She grabbed the take-out container from him and shoved it into the refrigerator. ”Would you sit down? You make me nervous standing there. I a.s.sume you want to finish the conversation we started?”

”I...First, I want to know what happened in that d.a.m.ned stone circle.”

Maris pointed at the chair. ”Sit.”

He complied, straddling it backward, his arms crossed over the curved back. Maris sat opposite him on the edge of the mattress.

”I don't know what happened, Dan. I really don't.”

”You were talking to someone.”

”There was no one there.”

”I heard you talking, and there was this...this...” He lapsed into silence, staring at the floor.

”I don't know what happened,” Maris repeated. ”I don't know what I saw. There's no one I can ask, either, now that Aunt Alva is gone. I could have spoken with my father about it, once upon a time, but he's gone now, too.”

He frowned, scrubbing at a worn place on the carpet with the toe of his boot. ”Is this the type of thing you deal with because of this...this gift' you have?”

Maris shook her head. ”No.”

”But when you look at me, you see something, don't you? Something you are familiar with. Something you recognize. And it's bad, isn't it?”

Maris curled the ring finger of her right hand until the nail dug deep into her palm. ”I don't fully understand what I'm getting from you yet. I'm working through it.”

Dan nodded. ”Okay. Fine. And what happened in the preserve, that'll leave me eventually, right? Because I feel like I need a really hot shower to wash the sensation from my skin.”

Odd, she hadn't perceived the episode in that way at all. She'd been frightened, yes, but she didn't feel sullied. ”Do you want to hang out here for a while? We could watch television. A mundane occupation might be just the thing.”

He lifted his head and met her gaze. ”Yeah. I think I would.”

Chapter 9.

Had he actually agreed to watch television with a woman in her motel room? Maris stood up from the corner of the mattress and turned on the set with the remote. She switched to the guide and began scrolling through the options with a running commentary on each one. When he didn't respond, she finally picked a sitcom and settled on it.

”A laugh will do you good,” she said before striding to the bed and yanking the pillows from beneath the bedspread, which she then piled against the headboard. ”You may as well be comfortable.”

”What about you?”

”I'll sit next to you. No big deal. I'm pretty d.a.m.ned resistible so I'm not worried.”

She was dead wrong about that one, but he wasn't going to argue. Dan pushed up from the chair and stood. ”You don't know me.”

”You don't know me either. We just shared a rather disturbing experience together, so I think we can cut the cop and suspect bit for a while at least.”

Dan slid the chair back beneath the desk. ”I didn't say you were a suspect.”

”And I'd say I'm all you have right now.”

Perched on the edge of the mattress, Dan loosened the laces on his boots. ”I told you the fingerprints are routine. The questions are routine. Family members are always questioned first in order to eliminate them. Do you mind if I kick these off?”

”Suit yourself.”

Dan arranged himself comfortably on one side of the bed as Maris tossed the remote his way. ”Is that door locked?”

In two strides, she was at the door and turning the dead bolt. ”Whatever that was, I think it belongs to those stones, and it certainly didn't have substance. It's not going to follow you.”

Dan started flipping through the channels. ”I thought you said you didn't see anything.”