Into the Light (16 page)

Thankfully, wherever Dylan and the rest of the police were wasn’t nearby. Approaching again from the front of the building, I slowed near the corner of Second and Glendale Avenues. During my circle I passed multiple buildings that weren’t only abandoned, but charred remains of what had once been homes. As a matter of fact, I was currently across the street from one. An overgrowth of shrubbery near the intersection hid my location as I pulled to the side of the road.

Peering about, I didn’t see a single person. Maybe it was the police presence somewhere in the vicinity, but for whatever reason, despite its being almost midday, the neighborhood was deadly still. I turned off the ignition, locked my car, and stepped onto the sidewalk. Weeds brushed my pant legs as I made my way through the debris littering the street and sidewalk.

Moving slowly around the overgrowth of bushes, I scanned the front of the building, the one where the SUV had parked. If I were to guess, it was or used to be an office building. Four stories tall, it had many windows in front, all covered interiorly by long white vertical blinds. This building’s surroundings looked different from those of most buildings in the area. Unlike where I stood, there weren’t any overgrown bushes or grass; even the sidewalk in front was clear of weeds and debris. A black chain-link fence surrounded the entire building, yet there didn’t appear to be a lock of any kind on the front gate. Above the front entrance was a blue awning with white letters that simply read “The Light.”

I snapped more pictures. Rotating from left to right I photographed the entire intersection. On the southwest corner, across Second Avenue from The Light, was a large limestone building surrounded by a rod iron fence. As I zoomed my camera, I made out the words
Public Schools of Highland Heights
etched in the stone. The trees and bushes as well as ground clutter indicated that, like many others, it was abandoned. Across from the old school was the skeleton of a house, decimated by fire, and on the corner where I stood was another building. The broken windows told me that it too was empty.

Getting back in my car, I watched the vertical blinds covering the windows on the front side of The Light. I didn’t notice any movement. If the building held people, they were hidden. As I slowly drove toward the intersection, a group of three women walked from the back of The Light, coming from near the parking lot. From that distance I couldn’t make out distinguishing characteristics, but I could tell that they were women.

What are they doing?

I watched as they crossed Second Avenue toward the old school and disappeared behind an overgrowth of trees. Reaching for my camera, I waited for more people. When no one else emerged, I laid my camera down and drove forward, crossing the intersection. Driving slowly, I peered in the direction in which they had gone. The iron gate on the far side of the trees was closed. Beyond it was a door, but it had a “Do Not Trespass” sign attached and a chain laced through the handle from the outside.

Where did the women go?

They couldn’t have entered that door. If they had, someone would have needed to chain it again from the outside. Even with my active imagination that seemed improbable; besides, the lock looked rusty and old. Stopping my car, I grabbed my camera. Quickly I took pictures of the side of the school. Looking back to The Light building, I noticed more windows, also covered from within. I snapped a few more pictures. The Suburban was still parked in the lot behind the building, along with a half-dozen other cars, none of which were new.

The wail of sirens in the distance propelled me to leave. Soon I was headed north and then east, back to Woodward Avenue.

Within ten minutes I was out of Highland Heights and safely into the North End of Detroit. I couldn’t recall for sure, but I didn’t remember having seen any police cars. Honestly, other than the patrons of the health clinic where I’d spent most of my morning, the men in my pictures, and the three women, I hadn’t seen anyone. Hopefully, no one would report my whereabouts to my overprotective boyfriend.

I shrugged. If they did, he’d need to deal. Then again, I didn’t want to lose my morning tour.

“Wake up, sleepyhead.”

Dylan’s raspy voice invaded my dream. I couldn’t remember what I’d been seeing behind my closed eyes, but whatever it had been, I was confident the man above me was better. As I inhaled his musky scent, my lips formed a smile, only for it to morph into a pout.

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then I guess your lovely tour of downtown Highland Heights will need to wait.”

My eyes sprang open and I started to sit. A laugh rumbled deep in Dylan’s throat as he leaned over me, stopping my upward motion. The vibrations of his chest electrified my bare nipples, making them hard and tight, while my insides fluttered.

“I don’t think I’ve gotten that quick of a reaction from you this early in the morning, ever. Not even when I was offering something a hell of a lot better than two rat-infested boarded-up houses.”

This time I laughed. “I think it’s the lovely description that has me enthralled. Who could pass up a tour of rat-infested boarded-up houses in lovely downtown Highland Heights?” I asked, mocking his words. “Besides, that other offer of yours, well . . .” I shrugged. “I’ve had that before.”

Dylan rolled away, laying his head on the pillow and covering his eyes with his hard bicep. “You’re seriously messing with my self-confidence.”

I lifted my head and moved toward him. My long hair teased his skin. After a quick kiss on his cheek, I said, “I doubt that. I’ve never known a more—”

His finger touched my lips and his eyes sparkled. “Stop right there. Let me imagine the rest of the sentence, and just maybe, I might recover.”

My grin blossomed into a full-out smile. “I’m so glad. I’d hate to be responsible for any of your nonexistent self-esteem issues.”

Dylan captured my shoulders and pulled me close, flattening my breasts against his chest and sending my hair cascading around my face. We were two people in a tunnel of blonde. “I think,” he teased, “we should skip the tour and work on my nonexistent issues.”

I pulled away. “As I recall, we worked on your issues last night.”

“But I have more.”

Turning slightly, I peeked at the blankets and playfully shook my head at the way they now tented. Kissing his lips, I reminded him, “You’re the one who told me we had to do this early, before . . . what did you say? The idiots came out?”

“That was me, wasn’t it?”

“It was, and I want my tour.”

Dylan looked at the clock, which read half past five. “Sunrise is a little after seven. We don’t want to arrive before sunrise and surprise the rats.”

My whole body quivered. “Yuck. It’d be all right with me if you quit mentioning those.”

He poked my side, making me laugh. “You can always change your mind.”

“Nope,” I squeaked from the tickling. “Stop! You offered me a tour. I want it.”

“OK. I was thinking that if we drove separately to WCJB, you could leave your car and ride with me to Highland Heights. Then I’ll take you back to the station.” He sighed. “Heck, we’ll probably get you to work before Barney.”

I slapped his shoulder. “
Bernard.
What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Last time I checked you needed to go to work too.”

Dylan threw back the covers, stood, and stretched. Suddenly my eyes found it difficult to make their way up his sculpted body. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy his handsome face, I did. I also liked his shoulders, abs, and everything lower. “Hey,” he said with a laugh. “My eyes are up here.”

“Umm . . .” I sighed. Slowly I moved my gaze up to his blue smirk and winked.

“You, Miss Montgomery, happen to be dating a detective. Once I’m in the car, I can log on, and we’re good. I’m officially on duty.”

“If you get an exciting call, do I get to come along?”

“And have it end up on WCJB’s evening news? No way.”

“You’re no fun,” I said, jutting my lower lip out as far as it would go.

Dylan reached for my hand. “We’ve got a little time. How about you join me in the shower, and I show you how much fun I can be?”

I shrugged as I stood. “I guess, but I think a police chase would be more exciting.”

Dylan slapped my behind, and the crack echoed through his bedroom.

“Ouch!”

His eyes sparkled. “Don’t forget, I have issues.”

Tracing my finger teasingly down his chest, I stepped close and kissed his neck. “Detective Richards, we all know that.”

An hour later we were in Dylan’s unmarked Charger on our way to Highland Heights. I pulled the black case I’d thrown in the backseat up to the front. I opened it, removed my Nikon, and began changing the lens. I wouldn’t need the zooming power of yesterday. Well, unless there was a rat; then I’d be so far out of one of those houses, I would need the two-hundred-millimeter.

Dylan glanced my way. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

“It seems rather obvious, but if you’re having problems, I’m changing the lens on my camera.”

“No. You’re not taking pictures. I’m taking you into a secured crime scene. I’m not losing my job.”

“It’s not like I’m going to take
your
picture,” I replied. “Besides, it helps me remember everything. I can go home and study the pictures.”

“No.”

“They’ll never end up on one of Bernard’s broadcasts, I promise.” I turned on the screen and scrolled through my pictures from yesterday.

Dylan looked in my direction and his knuckles blanched as his grip tightened on the steering wheel. “When did you take those?”

I looked up from the image of the white brick building with the blue awning.

Shit!

“Yesterday,” I replied sheepishly.

“I thought we had a deal. I guess I should take you back to WCJB.”

“We
do
have a deal,” I pleaded. “The thing was, when you called, I was kind of already in Highland Heights. I left soon after our conversation.”

“Jesus, Stella. Why?”

This time of the morning the traffic hadn’t yet built. I watched the landmarks in New Center as we continued heading north on Woodward Avenue. If he wasn’t turning around, I guessed I could answer him, at least partially. “I was staking out an abandoned building. It was an address from a source. I heard the sirens, but never saw the police cars. So, see, I wasn’t really near you.”

“Staking out
an abandoned building
doesn’t exactly narrow down your location.”

“Do you go to Highland Heights often?” I asked.

“The HHPD and DPD work together on some things. Usually Highland Heights takes care of its cases and we do ours. There’s been some crossover lately.”

“Why? What’s changed?”

The morning sky was an array of reds and pinks as the sun brought light where dark had prevailed. Dylan turned right off Woodward, away from the sunrise, onto Cortland. This street was only two blocks south of Glendale, where I’d been yesterday. Dylan ran his fingers through his hair.

I started thinking about the body they’d found yesterday. This one was a man. No wonder Dylan had answered so fast that it wasn’t Mindy. According to my talk with Tracy the night before, the guy was a typical gang member, one with the right tats and piercings. Even she didn’t believe her compilation theory applied to him.

We had crossed Hamilton Avenue by the time Dylan finally spoke again.

“Do you recognize this area?”

“Not really. Why?”

“Because from the picture I saw, you weren’t that fucking far from here
yesterday
.” The way he emphasized the last word reminded me of Tracy saying how he was usually more of a hard-ass.

I reached out and covered his hand on the steering wheel, reminding him that I wasn’t part of his work; I was his girlfriend. “Thank you for being concerned. I really wasn’t here for Mindy or because of that other body. I was here for WCJB.”

“What does Barney have you doing? The man’s a lunatic sending you here. Why doesn’t he send Foster? Or maybe he could man up and do it himself.”

“You know I can’t tell you what he has me doing.”

The Charger stopped along the side of Cortland, in front of a house with plywood-covered windows and doors and bright-yellow police tape roped across the front porch.

Dylan put the car in park and turned my way. “Then show me the same courtesy. I’m bringing you here for one reason, so you won’t come on your own. Fine, don’t tell me what you’re researching with that church. Just don’t come back here alone, and don’t ask me why DPD is working with HHPD.”

Church?

There were so many questions I wanted to ask, but I didn’t. He was right. If I wasn’t willing to share, I shouldn’t ask him to do it. I squeezed his hand, smiled my brightest smile, and nodded. “Agreed, Detective, now may I please have my tour?”

He took a deep breath and exhaled. Shaking his head, he said, “Yes, by all means. I believe we traded hot sex for this.”

“Um, was the shower that forgettable?”

His grin showed me the return of the man I was falling for, not the hard-ass who liked to tell me where I could and could not go. “No,” he said, “not forgettable, just quick. I hope that when we’re done with this tour, you
don’t
think it was a good trade.”