Alone in the Dark (4 page)

Contributing to the restlessness he now felt was the fact that Dr. Patience Cavanaugh

hadn't been off his mind for more than thirty minutes at a stretch. Usually less. He just

wasn't comfortable about her lack of action with this stalker thing.

The first free minute he'd had, he'd deliberately investigated if any new stalker

complaints had been filed today. They hadn't. Big surprise. Maybe she'd turned to

someone in her family with the problem. No, he had a bead on her. For all her friendliness,

all her vibrancy, Patience Cavanaugh was stubborn and independent like the rest of the

Cavanaughs. That meant that she didn't relish appearing as if she were vulnerable, as if

she couldn't take care of whatever was going on in her life all by herself.

"Still not our problem," he told the dog that went home with him every night.

King gave him the same penetrating look he'd given him that morning.

Brady sighed. Who the hell did he think he was fooling? "Yeah, right, we're police

officers. That makes everything our problem."

Muttering something ripe and piercing under his breath, he started up the lovingly

restored Mustang that served as his single private mode of transportation from the time

he had leftGeorgiabehind in his rearview mirror. The only original thing left of the cherry-

red car was its outer shell. Everything beneath the hood was new, or at least had been

replaced once if not twice. The vehicle was in prime running condition. He made sure to

keep it that way. Working on cars helped soothe him whenever he felt particularly

agitated.

Brady paused before pulling out of the lot. He knew he should go home, maybe tune up his

engine to work the frustration out of his system.

Instead he turned his car in the opposite direction and headed back to the animal clinic.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, we're not going home. At least not yet." He glanced at the dog in the mirror. "Don't give me that look. She's a tax-paying citizen. Those are the ones we're

supposed to protect, remember?" King's face remained impassive. "I just want to check up on her, make sure everything's all right. Something happens to her, the department's

gotta find a new vet. Which means that you've got to get used to someone else poking at

you. You want that?"

King continued to stare at him.

"I didn't think so." Brady took a sharp right. The open stretch of road in front of him

invited him to go faster. He did.

Fifteen minutes later he eased his car to a stop, parking across the street from the

animal clinic, which was attached to Patience's home. After tossing the dog a large treat,

Brady looked out at the two-story building. Except for the one just above the front

entrance, the lights within the clinic had long since been extinguished.

The lights inside her home, however, had not. She was home. Most likely alone.

Brady settled in.

«^»

Patience pushed back the curtain. There it was again.

The car parked directly across the street from her home had been sitting there for a

while now. Ordinarily she might not have even noticed it, except that for once, there were

no other cars parked along the street. The neighbor who had a hundred and one excuses to

throw a party was off traveling inEuropesomewhere. According to the neighborhood gossip,

he wasn't due back for another three weeks.

Everyone else around her parked their cars either in the garage or in their driveway.

Which made this particular vehicle stick out. Even if it hadn't been red, which it was.

Walter owned a beige sedan. Beige, like his personality. Had the man bought a new car?

Her palms felt damp. Why did anxiety always crowd in the moment sunlight left?

Her mind was working overtime. She had to stop doing this to herself. So there was a

strange car parked across the street from her house, so what? There were a hundred

reasons for it being there.

She could think of only one.

She'd noticed the parked vehicle as she'd walked by her family room window. Ten minutes

later, she was drawn back to the window. And again. Each time she looked, she could feel

something in her chest tighten just a little more.

Get a grip.

She worked the curtain fabric through her fingers, staring at the vehicle. Telling herself

that memories of her father's case were making her overreact. Walter hadn't hurt her

last time. Why would he this time? Patience didn't know for sure that the flower had come

from Walter. But it had begun the last time with a single rose. Just because Walter had

sent it, didn't mean that someone else couldn't send her a flower for a completely

innocent reason.

There could be all sorts of explanations for that flower. It could have even come from a

new real estate agent trying to make an impression. Realtors were always doing strange

things like that, giving you pads, newsletters, flags. Why not roses?

Okay, so where was his flyer? Flying off somewhere? She watched a bunch of leaves

chase each other at the curb where she'd swept them. Gusts of wind had been blowing all

afternoon. Fall was settling in.

Stop it, Patience, you're making yourself crazy. Just wait and see what happens next.

That was what she'd told herself earlier this evening—just before she'd spotted the car.

Patience chewed on her bottom lip. Did the car belong to Walter? She didn't know. No, she

wasn't going to break down, wasn't going to be the spooked female, wasnotgoing to let her

imagination run away with her. She could handle this. At the very least, she had to be sure

if it was Walter or just a car someone had innocently parked near her house.

Summoning her courage, Patience looked out a third time. And saw the vague outline of a

dog in the back seat. The relief she felt was massive. It wasn't Walter's car. Walter was

terrified of dogs. Each time he had come into the clinic, he made sure to steer clear of any

canine patients in the waiting area. He'd told her that he'd had a bad experience as a

young boy that had scarred him for life.

Okay, not Walter. But, if not Walter, then who? A patient with an "emergency"? It

certainly wouldn't be the first time she'd seen a patient after her doors were closed.

She'd even gotten a couple of calls from frantic pet owners in the middle of the night.

The last one had been less than a month ago, involving an encounter between a Great Dane

and a pit bull that had accidentally gotten loose in the residential area. Jogging with her

master, the Great Dane had been no match for the smaller, more powerful animal. If it

hadn't been for a cruising patrol car, Patience had no doubt that the Great Dane would

have been killed. As it was, she'd spent the better part of three hours stitching up the

poor victim.

Determined to get to the bottom of this, Patience slipped on a sweater and went

downstairs to the front entrance of her house. The wind was picking up again. Two weeks

into fall and the weather had decided to surrender to the season. Patience wrapped her

arms around herself as she crossed the street. She missed summer already.

As she approached the vehicle, she saw the man in the driver's seat look her way. Because

of the location of the streetlamp, his face was bathed in shadow. She recognized the dog

first. King. Which meant that the man in the car had to be Coltrane.

But why?

She leaned down until she was level with the window and his face. He looked none too

happy to see her. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged carelessly. "I was just making the rounds."

The hell he was. She glanced at his vehicle, one that, even in this light, she could tell had

been lovingly handled and restored. She'd had no idea that he was handy around cars. Only

someone who was handy could drive an automobile like this. It required a great deal of

attention. "In a '78 Mustang?"

He looked mildly surprised that she could identify not just the make and model, but the

year, as well. "You know cars?"

She laughed shortly. In this light, the car looked a deep blood-red. Not exactly the most

inconspicuous color for a vehicle. "Most of my relatives are male. I'd have to be deaf not

to have picked up something about cars over the years. And don't change the subject.

You're off duty." She ran her hand lightly over the dog's head. "You both are, unless the police chief has suddenly decided to relax the uniform code. Besides, you're part of the

narcotics division."

He'd never seen her outside of the clinic and without her lab coat. She wore a pair of

faded jeans that adhered to her like a second skin, a white T-shirt that just barely

covered her midriff and a cardigan that did nothing to hide her curves. For once her red

hair was loose, falling in waves around her shoulders. She looked a great deal more

feminine and fragile this way. Something protective stirred within him, growing larger.

"Haven't you heard about crime in the suburbs?"

She fixed him with a look that said she saw right through him. "Is that anything like lying

in the suburbs?" Before he could say anything, she began, "Look, if you're here because of this morning—"

He looked at her with an attempt at innocence she found endearing. "This morning? What

happened this morning?"

She made no effort to suppress her grin. Amusement shone in her eyes. "If being a

policeman doesn't work out for you, Coltrane, promise me you don't try being an actor.

There's no future in it for you. Trust me, you're awful at it." And then her grin softened

into a smile. "I'm touched." She nodded toward the house. "Why don't you come inside for a cup of coffee?"

He reached for the key in his ignition. "I was just on my way home."

"Sure you were." Before he could start the car, Patience opened the rear door. Instantly, King came bounding out. His tail wagged so hard, had he been a smaller dog he might have

succeeded in levitating himself off the ground. Laughing, she ran her hand along the

animal's head. "Well, I'm happy to see you, too. Why don't you come on in and say hi

toTacoma? I've got this great extra soup bone I don't know what to do with." She began

to lead the way, but King turned to look at his master. His expression seemed to implore

Brady to come along. "Don't worry about him, King. I already asked him, but he doesn't

want to come in. He likes sitting in cars in the dark. Let's go."

Turning on her heel, she started to walk back to her house. After a moment's hesitation

King followed her willingly.

She probably had treats in her pocket, Brady thought darkly. Patience was forever doling

them out to the dogs she treated. Disgusted at being abandoned, he leaned out the window

and called, "That's bribery."

She looked at him over her shoulder. Even at this distance, her expression looked purely

impish to him. "Yes, it is."

With a sigh, Brady got out of his car and shut the door. He made no effort to catch up to

the duo. Instead he followed behind the clearly smitten animal and the woman who had

made him give up his evening routine.

Not that it was any great sacrifice on his part. Evenings for Brady meant heating up

whatever he found in the refrigerator, then stretching out in front of the television set,

tuned to some news channel so that he could stay informed.

Law enforcement had advanced a long way from making sure the town drunk was locked up

for the night. It had even progressed beyond the thieves, the drug pushers, the

murderers, kidnappers and rapists that were all a part of the modern world. Now there

was an international threat to be on the alert for, as well.

It never seemed to stop.

However, tonight the world had gotten a great deal smaller again and his focus was

concentrated on the woman walking into the house, adoringly followed by his four-footed

partner.

Entering the house, he followed woman and beast into a kitchen that was both warm and

cozy. Something out of a sitcom, he thought, because it certainly wasn't out of anything

he'd ever experienced firsthand. He remembered hearing somewhere that the kitchen was

the heart of the house. In his house, the kitchen had been where his father liked to do his

drinking when he wasn't throwing back shots at the local bar.

Brady watched as King followed every move Patience made. He liked her hair down, he

noted, instead of up and out of the way. He hadn't realized it was so long. The tresses

moved with her like a strawberry-blond cloud.

He straddled a chair. "You know, he's not supposed to do that. Divide his loyalties that

way." He gave King a dark look. "He's supposed to respond only to me."

Patience tossed the dog a treat out of her pocket. King stretched, catching the bone-

shaped snack in midair. "Don't feel bad, I have this way with animals, I always have. That's

why I became a vet when everyone else around me was cleaving to the Aurora Police

Department." And then she smiled, which Brady found oddly unsettling. "I promise I won't get between you two unless absolutely necessary."

He gave her a penetrating look. "And this was necessary."

"Absolutely." Taking the coffeepot she always kept brewing, she poured Brady a cup, then filled her own. Just talking to Brady made her feel better. "I didn't want your butt falling

asleep because of me."

"No part of me was going to fall asleep," he informed her tersely. When she reached for