Part 14 (1/2)

She dropped her feet to the floor and stood. Her head turned abruptly toward the door. ”Is Jamie waiting in the hallway? Handcuffs at the ready, I suppose.”

Dan followed her gaze, spotting the shadowed movement visible under the barrier of wood. Releasing her arm, he hurried to the door and yanked it open. He stepped into the hall, glancing the short distance to either side. ”Rogers! Where are you?”

The sound of footsteps on carpet preceded Jamie Rogers's appearance on the upper half of the stairs. ”Where I have been. Sitting on the step. You told me to wait.”

”No one went past you?”

Jamie's brows lowered. ”Are you joking around? No one's come in. They would have had to step on me. I haven't moved.”

”s.h.i.+t.” Dan ran to the bathroom and checked inside, then onto the small guestroom, also empty. When he came out, he found Jamie and Maris standing side by side. Jamie's realization of his vicinity to Maris's person spread across his face. He sidled a couple of feet away.

Maris took a step forward. ”I saw someone-”

”So did I. But there's no one up here. And your friend there was on the steps, so no one pa.s.sed him.”

Maris eyed Jamie up and down. ”My friend?”

Jamie shot her the same sort of look, but with the whites of his eyes showing all around. Oh, yeah, thought Dan. The guy is spooked.

”So you both saw someone,” Jamie said, ”but there's no one up here except you two. Is that what I'm supposed to get out of this conversation?”

”That's exactly what you're supposed to get out of this conversation,” Dan said.

”I don't-” Jamie subsided, staring down at his feet.

”It's all right,” Maris whispered.

He glared at her, then turned away and stomped down the stairs.

”We'll be right there,” Dan called after him. ”Park it on the couch for a sec.” Cupping the back of Maris's skull in his palm, he tipped her head closer and pressed his lips to her warm, fragrant hair. She smelled like...his shampoo. Right. He laughed.

She pulled away and looked up at him. ”What's going on?”

He jerked his head in the direction of the stairs Jamie had descended. ”You, me, the upstart down there-we need to have a conversation. Are you ready for that?”

Maris's brows dropped to form a straight line, giving her the expression of a worried cat. ”Depends on the topic.”

”The topic is you.”

Before she could protest, he pulled her to the stairs and down. Jamie waited for them in the living room seated on the edge of a cus.h.i.+on, arms folded over his abdomen. Dan led Maris to the stuffed chair on the opposite side of the coffee table. He perched on the chair arm beside her, conscious of the sweat drying between his shoulder blades.

”I'm going to start.”

Both Jamie and Maris looked at him, relief clear on their faces. Obviously, neither of them was ready to say a word.

”A few years back, I had a run-in with something impossible. It still gives me nightmares, and it's not something I've discussed freely with anyone. In fact, I've developed a pretty c.o.c.ky-a.s.sed att.i.tude about things that don't fit into a neat little box labeled reality because I figured there could be only one reality-the one that comes under the cla.s.sification of general acceptance. Because even though I'd experienced something that didn't fit into that box, I wanted to pretend it didn't happen. I never would have admitted to any of it out loud, and I compartmentalized the memory. Still, it was like a door that kept opening I needed to slam shut. Every time I encountered something else, my solution was to turn away in denial.” Jamie folded his hands. He ran his thumb over the ridges of his knuckles. Maris slipped her fingers into Dan's.

”Which brings us to what happened in this house. Not upstairs, but the conversation between the two of you.” He waited. Outside, children laughed in the yard across the street. The sound seemed oddly m.u.f.fled.

Finally, Jamie looked up from the study of his interlaced appendages. He turned to Maris. ”You scare the h.e.l.l out of me, lady, plain and simple.”

”I've spent my life doing that to people. I don't mean to. I'm sorry.”

Dan stirred, squeezing her hand. ”Don't apologize.” Her lips twisted in something less than a smile.

Jamie cleared his throat. ”I think the whole psychic thing is bulls.h.i.+t. No offense meant, but I do. But you were dead on with the needle in the neck remark. Dead on.”

Maris tugged her lower lip with her top teeth and released it. ”I have to tell you...I heard that thought from you.”

”I know you did. If that was the news I'd come to share with Dan, yeah, I would have followed you up those stairs and hauled you back down and to the station. But it's not. It was just a thought in my head, totally random because of what we were saying about Ted Bundy. I don't even know where it came from. But you lied to cover up for what you had said, which troubles me. I pounced on Dan about it the second he walked in. Caught him off guard. I could see he wanted to lie, too, to protect you. Now why, I ask myself, would he want to do that?”

”Don't blame him for anything-”

Dan shook her hand. ”Let him talk.”

”I'm not blaming him. Not right now, anyway. However, there's been some talk around the station about the c.r.a.p at the scene yesterday when you were talking about the cards on the table. You were saying things as if it all meant something.” He made a gesture with his hands. ”But when you spoke those words on these steps a few minutes ago, it was as if they'd come right out of my head and into your mouth.”

”That's...that's not how my aunt died?”

”No.”

Maris nodded. ”Does that mean you no longer suspect me of killing her?”

He snorted. ”h.e.l.l no. Despite having my sense of logic shaken, I do believe in evidence. And once-until-we have evidence pointing to you without any chance of having the case thrown out of court, I'll keep looking in whatever direction I am taken. As Dan would, if he was still on the case and if he could manage to pull his head out of his a.s.s.”

”I'm sitting right here,” Dan said. ”And as you can see, my head is firmly perched on my shoulders.”

”So,” said Maris, ”what about in the meantime?”

”In the meantime-” Jamie shot another look at Dan.

Dan narrowed his eyes at him. He'd told Jamie to mind his own business, but Dan had known Jamie would ignore that command.

”In the meantime,” Jamie went on, ”I wish you'd stay the h.e.l.l away from Dan.”

Leaning forward, Maris let go of Dan's hand, her expression earnest. Dan placed his fingers on her back in defiance of whatever she or Jamie would say next.

”I know what I'm doing to him, Jamie. I worry about him. I see the effect I have on him. But he has one on me, too. Things are not simple. In fact, they're complicated in the extreme. We are...bound together. I'm not quite sure why.”

”Bound together. Quaint name for f.u.c.king his brains ou-”

”Shut up, Rogers.” Dan stood. ”Not another word.”

Jamie rose from the couch, facing him. ”I'm sorry. I know I'm out of line. It's just that I feel...”