Closer Than You Think (9 page)

‘I will.’ Deacon hung up, his gaze zeroing in on Faith Corcoran, who’d bent her head wearily when he’d whispered his oath over Arianna’s rape, as if she’d understood, even though she couldn’t have heard a word that Isenberg had said.

What did she know? Where had she come from? Why was she here and why was she carrying a gun?
Faith Corcoran, I think it’s time we were formally introduced.

Chapter Five

Mt Carmel, Ohio, Monday 3 November, 6.20
P.M.

T
he white-haired cop had been all over the crime scene, talking to everyone on the ground.
Except for me
, Faith thought, although she’d had his attention off and on the entire time. He’d studied her as if she were a bug in a jar.

Which was ironic, actually.
Of the two of us, he is totally the not-normal one.
What with his white hair, that leather coat, and those ultra-dark wraparound sunglasses.

He was definitely in charge here. Everyone he talked to followed his orders. Although that one other agent had looked really angry. And that first deputy’s initial reaction to him still had her puzzled. And a little nervous.

More than nervous, actually. She was trembling. She hadn’t been able to hear much of what he’d said, but she’d watched his mouth as he’d said it. He had a nice mouth, and the thin white goatee that surrounded it set it off, making it even easier to see. She’d been staring at him when she’d realized his lips were carefully enunciating a familiar set of letters and numbers.

He’d called in the Jeep’s license plates.
He suspects.

Suspects what? You haven’t done anything wrong.
Besides, he wasn’t going to find anything. She’d changed her name on all of her documents.

And if he digs deeper? Finds Dr Faith Frye? Places a few calls to Miami?
Her relocation effort would end up being a big waste of time. Once one Miami PD cop knew, they’d all know, because cops were the biggest gossips she knew. Once Miami PD knew, it wouldn’t be long before her new address leaked out. And then the nightmare would start up all over again.

She’d know soon enough, she thought, her pulse racing even faster as he closed the distance between them. When he stopped, he was close to where she sat.
Too close.
Far too close.

‘Miss Corcoran? I’m Special Agent Novak, with the FBI.’

In a moment of panic, she fell back into old habits, dropping her gaze to the inch of asphalt that was all that separated her thick wool socks from his shiny black wingtips. He was so close that she could feel the heat of him. Hear the flapping of his leather trench coat in the wind as he towered over her, looking down.

He’s trying to intimidate me.
It was working.
Stop this. You are better than this. You have done nothing wrong. Look him in the eye and tell him to move the hell back
.

She lifted her chin to speak, but the movement reminded her all too quickly why she was still sitting in the back of an ambulance. She slammed her eyes shut as a wave of nausea smacked her hard. She heard a soft moan and realized that it had come from her mouth.

You will not throw up on his shiny shoes. You will not
.

‘You’re the EMT?’ he asked, startling her. She had nearly forgotten about the medic.

‘Yes. I’m Jefferies, Mount Carmel Fire and Rescue.’

‘How is she?’

‘
She
is fine,’ Faith said, keeping her head down and her eyes closed. ‘And perfectly able to speak for herself.’

‘Glad to hear it,’ Novak said levelly. ‘Jefferies, I’d like to speak to Miss Corcoran before she’s transported. Can you give us a few minutes?’

‘Sure,’ Jefferies said. ‘I got reports to do. But Miss Corcoran should be seen in the ER. The contusion on her forehead needs to be sutured. Her hands may also need attention.’

‘May? You mean you don’t know?’

‘She wouldn’t let me touch them,’ Jefferies said, sounding slightly defensive.

A slight pause. ‘And . . . why not?’

‘I was afraid I might have picked up evidence from the girl’s skin when I touched her,’ Faith answered. ‘The sheriff already bagged my coat because I covered her up with it, but I thought your forensic guys might want to swab my hands.’

‘I see,’ Novak said. ‘Anything else, Jefferies?’

‘Not that I know of. Just tell me when you’re done.’

Faith winced as the ambulance shuddered at the impact of the driver’s-side door closing, even though the EMT had shut it softly. ‘Any word on the girl’s condition?’ she asked.

‘She’s still in surgery. Do you have any other injuries that you wouldn’t let the EMT see?’

Novak’s voice had subtly shifted. Now low and deep, it had a hypnotic quality that made her feel calm at first – and then annoyed at the realization that she’d been affected so easily by a vocal technique that she herself had used on countless clients over the years. Someone had obviously trained him well. It made her wonder how he sounded when he was being himself.

‘My head’s a little sore,’ she said. ‘My hands and knees are scraped. I’m really quite fine.’

‘You don’t look really quite fine,’ Novak said in that same soothing voice. ‘You look a little green around the gills.’

‘I’ve had better days,’ she allowed.
I’ve also had much worse.
‘But I haven’t thrown up on your shoes. Not yet, anyway. But I’d hurry if I were you. Those shoes look new.’

He chuckled, surprising her. ‘Not new. Just well cared for. Can you look at me?’

‘Why?’

‘Because I like to see the eyes of the witnesses I interview. Please.’

She remembered the deputy’s flinch and wondered if Novak had a scar she hadn’t been close enough to see. She knew how it felt when people stared then looked away. That had happened often when the scar on her throat had been raw.

‘It would help if you weren’t quite so tall,’ she said. ‘Looking that far up makes me sick.’

She heard the muted squeak of soft leather. ‘Better?’ he asked.

Opening her eyes, she found that not only had he leaned down, knees slightly bent, but he’d also leaned in, taking up even more of her personal space. Or maybe it was simply that he was a big man. His thighs were the size of tree trunks and looked just as solid. His shoulders completely blocked her view.

‘Miss Corcoran?’ he prompted.

Dr Corcoran
, she wanted to correct, but did not, focusing instead on her rapidly escalating pulse.
Don’t flinch if he has a scar.
She lifted her chin. ‘Please back up. You’re—’

Her mouth stopped working as her gaze focused on his eyes.

Oh my God
. His
eyes
. They were . . . mesmerizing.

She’d met individuals with different-color eyes. She’d met individuals with one bi-colored iris. But she’d never seen eyes like Special Agent Novak’s. Deep brown and bright blue they were, but both of them. Each iris half brown, half blue, the vivid colors pixelating, then blending where they met in the middle.

‘Oh,’ she breathed, unable to break her stare. ‘How . . . beautiful.’

He went perfectly still, and for a long moment they stared at each other.

He broke away first, straightening to his full height. From where she sat, she found herself staring at his midsection, his eyes no longer in her view. For a moment she felt strangely bereft.

Until she realized what she’d said.
Out loud, even
. Her face flaming, she cleared her throat. ‘I’m sorry. I was just . . . I mean, I wasn’t . . .’ She sighed. ‘What would you like to know?’

‘Tell me what happened.’ His voice had gone flat. Expressionless.

Great.
She’d managed to offend him, even when she’d tried not to. ‘Well, I was driving home, or to what will be my home anyway. All of a sudden she was just
there
. I don’t know where she came from.’

‘I thought she was lying in the road.’

Faith forced herself to concentrate on the girl instead of Novak, who stood as rigid as a statue. ‘I don’t think so. I know it sounds crazy, but it was almost like she jumped in front of my car.’

‘What happened after you saw her?’

That he hadn’t said that she
wasn’t
crazy didn’t escape Faith’s notice. ‘I slammed on my brakes and swerved. Went down the embankment and hit a tree. I got out of my Jeep, called 911, then went to the girl. I took her pulse, did some basic first aid.’

Returning to his crouch, he carefully took her left hand. ‘Where did you touch her?’

His hand was large and warm. His whole body radiated heat. She had to fight the urge to lean into him, just enough to take the edge off her chill. She wondered what he’d do if she tried.

Not that it mattered. She hadn’t leaned on a man in four years and she wasn’t going to start now. Especially with a cop. No matter how mesmerizing his eyes.

‘On her throat to take her pulse and around the wound on her leg. She was bleeding from what looked like a bullet wound and I used my scarf to staunch the flow, but I was careful not to directly touch the open wound.’ She shrugged. ‘You can never tell who’s clean these days. Better safe than sorry.’

Still holding her left hand, he reached for her right, turning both palms up. ‘But your hands are covered in her blood.’

‘Not hers,’ Faith said. ‘It’s mine. I cut my hands when I crawled up the embankment.’

‘Why?’

‘There were sharp rocks in the dirt. Or broken glass, maybe from the Jeep’s windows.’

‘No, I mean why did you crawl up the embankment?’

She frowned at him. ‘Because she was hurt. I couldn’t leave her there, lying in the road.’

He was studying her with an intensity that made her feel . . . exposed. A part of her wanted to close her eyes again, to hide from his scrutiny, but another, bolder, nearly forgotten part of her didn’t back down. She locked on to those amazing eyes and didn’t look away.

Novak rose abruptly. ‘Sergeant Tanaka! Come here, please. Bring your collection kit.’

A forty-something man of Asian descent hurried over, carrying a tackle box. ‘What is it?’

‘Miss Corcoran, this is Sergeant Tanaka. He leads our crime-scene unit. This is Miss Corcoran. She has refused medical attention because she touched the victim and wanted to protect any evidence. Can you process her hands so that the EMT can take care of her wounds?’

Tanaka regarded her curiously. ‘Of course.’ He transferred the grime from her hands to evidence bags, swabbing the blood and scraping under her nails. Apologizing when she winced.

Novak stepped back far enough to give Tanaka room to work. Far enough that Faith could see him without having to crane her neck to look up.

Far enough that he was no longer crowding her space, allowing her to breathe normally again. He’d dropped his gaze to his phone, leaving her free to study his face without the distraction of his eyes staring back. He was a handsome man in a stark, startling, action-hero kind of way. He’d never be ignored, that was for sure. If his white hair and remarkable eyes didn’t do enough to set him apart, the black leather coat and the sci-fi wraparound sunglasses he’d worn earlier would certainly do the trick.

Which made Faith wonder why he would make himself so instantly recognizable. So completely unforgettable. So visible.

The thought of being so visible bothered Faith more than she wanted to admit. She’d spent most of her life trying to be
in
visible, but Novak was as far from invisible as a person could be.

‘Thanks,’ he said to Tanaka when the sergeant had finished with her hands. ‘I’ll interview Miss Corcoran so that she can get the medical care she needs, then catch up with Kimble.’ When Tanaka was gone, Novak dropped into a low crouch so that Faith could look down at him. ‘I’ll make this as quick as I can. You said you were driving home?’

‘Yes. To what will be my home.’

His brows bunched slightly. ‘On this road?’

He continued to use the soothing voice, but his eyes had gone sharp, setting off an alarm in Faith’s head. ‘Yes, on this road.’

‘I just checked the map on my phone and this road dead-ends about a mile from here. There are no houses between here and there. Just a cemetery. Are you planning to build?’

Huh
. Now there was a suggestion she hadn’t considered. She’d inherited fifty acres of land along with the house. She could sell forty-nine of those acres and build one hell of a house on the acre she kept. Except that building a new house seemed a poor use of the money the sale of the acreage would bring. Her dad might need that money.

Hell, I might need the money if I have to run again
.

‘No,’ she said, adopting the same soothing tone, taking satisfaction in watching his eyes flicker in surprise, ‘I don’t intend to build, and yes, there
is
a house at the end of the road. The map doesn’t show it since it doesn’t have a traditional address. It never has, as far as I know. But it’s visible on Google Earth, a big old abandoned house with a cemetery in the back yard.’

His head tilted slightly, his interest piqued. ‘Abandoned? For how long?’

‘Twenty-three years.’

‘Who owns it?’

She drew a breath. ‘I do. Now.’

‘You bought it?’

This was getting too personal. ‘I don’t see how that’s your business,’ she said coolly.

‘Humor me, then. I could find out through the public record, but you could save me some time by telling me. Time I could use to find out who brutalized that young woman and left her out here to die,’ he added, as a parent might when trying to make a child feel guilty.

It worked. Faith looked away, appropriately chastised. And aware that the deed in the public record might still list her as Faith Frye. Her attorney in Miami had filed for the name change several days ago, but had told her it could take a week or more to update. ‘My grandmother owned the house, but hadn’t lived there for twenty-three years. She died a month ago and left it to me.’

‘It’s sat empty all this time? Really? That’s hard to believe.’

‘Oh, she had people go in and tidy up from time to time, but from what I saw yesterday, it looks pretty much as it always did. The grounds are kept up by the historical society, on account of the cemetery being a landmark. Why all the questions about the house?’