Twisted Hunger (32 page)

He smirked at her. “Talk about a mood killer. How about Elle?”

She pretended to consider that for a full five seconds. “Well, that might work. After all, it is how Brandon and a few of my other lovers have addressed me.”

“Nuff said. How about Ellie? At least that brings it down to two syllables.”

She shook her head. “No. That’s—never mind. Just no.”

“Hmmm. I guess I’ll just have to come up with one of my own. How do you feel about Pumpkin?”

“How do you feel about having your nose hairs plucked?”

“Cupcake?”

“Remember that threat I made about aiming for softer flesh?”

He grabbed her hand and held it to his chest. “All right, I’ll keep thinking.”

“Don’t strain yourse—” She jerked upright. “Did you feel that?”

He sat up beside her. “What?”

“A tremor. Turn the light on.”

“I didn’t feel anything.”

“Just turn the light on, dammit!”

“Okay, okay.” He leaned over and switched on the lamp. “Gawd, Ellery. You’re pale as a ghost. What’s the—” Before he could finish his question, another, more noticeable tremor rumbled through the apartment, rattling a few loose objects. The terrified expression on Ellery’s face was answer enough. He wrapped his arms around her and held tightly. “It’s probably just a mild one, but if you want, we can go sit in a doorway or a closet—”

“
No!
” she shrieked.

Her eyes were wide and glazed. He didn’t know what to do except keep holding her. “It might help if you talked.” She shook her head against his chest. “How about if I talk? Will that help?” She nodded. “Okay. Let me try to think of a story I haven’t told you yet. I know. A few summers back, someone dared me to jump out of an airplane naked…”

In a soft, steady voice, he continued on from one story to another until he felt her relax. When thirty minutes passed without another tremor, he gently eased her back down onto her pillow and stroked her hair. “I’m an even better listener than I am a talker.”

She forced a half-smile. “Sorry about that. You mentioned dark fears before. You just witnessed how courageously I face my worst.”

“How do you handle it when you’re alone?”

“I recite multiplication tables and swear oaths to move out of the state as soon as possible.”

“I suffer from nightmares. Sometimes it really does help to talk about it.”

“Yes, that’s what both of the psychiatrists I went to said repeatedly.” If he had pushed her to talk she wouldn’t have, but he simply lay down beside her and continued to stroke her hair. With a sigh, she lowered another barrier against him.

“I was seven years old. My mother had gone to the store, so my father and I were alone when the first tremor shook the house. He insisted we go sit in the coat closet because it had the best support, but I wouldn’t go in without my favorite teddy bear.” She paused for a moment then decided to tell him the rest of it.

“He tried to convince me the bear would be fine even if the whole house came down, but I was spoiled, so I whined and got my way. He closed me inside the closet while he went to fetch my bear. A couple seconds later, another shockwave vibrated through the house, but this one was big. It seemed to go on forever. I heard a lot of loud crashing, like the whole house really was coming down around the closet. Then I thought I heard my father shout my name. I tried to open the closet door, but something was blocking it. I screamed for him to get me out, but he didn’t come.”

She had to stop again, this time to take a deep, calming breath. “I sat there, in that pitch-black, tiny little closet, for three hours, before my mother came home and freed me.”

“What happened to your father?” Luke asked quietly.

“He was right outside the closet door when that wave hit. The curio cabinet next to the door fell on him and crushed his windpipe. They said he was killed instantly. That was what was blocking the door—the cabinet, on top of my father. My precious bear was still in his hand.”

“My God, no wonder you had to see psychiatrists. I don’t know that anyone could have helped me get over something that awful.”

“Actually, the doctors helped me to forgive myself for causing my father’s death, but it was a friend I met a few years ago who taught me some tricks to cope with the leftover fears.”

“Like reciting multiplication tables during tremors?”

“And at a few other times, like when I have to ride in an elevator. I also carry a flashlight in my purse in case the lights ever go out unexpectedly.”

“Was your father the one who called you Ellie?”

She nodded. “After he died, I never wanted to hear it from anyone else. He thought Ellery was too stuffy for a little girl.”

“It’s too stuffy for a big girl too.”

“It’s still better than Pumpkin or Cupcake,” she said, managing a real smile.

“Don’t worry, before we retire to our rocking chairs, I’ll come up with one we both like.”

“Planning on sticking around awhile, are you?”

He kissed her nose. “Even longer than a while.” He planted a trail of kisses down her throat to her shoulder.

She knew she should discourage him from thinking about her in terms of decades, but as his tongue circled her nipple, she forgot what she was going to complain about.

* * *

Ellery awoke in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and was surprised that Luke was not next to her. She was certain she had implied that he was welcome to stay the night. Had he gone back to the motel? She doubted that, since his primary goal seemed to be to convince her to let him stick around indefinitely.

She heard a noise in the other room and thought she saw a dim light. Perhaps he had simply gone out to the kitchen to get something to drink. She put on her robe and went to check on him, but only got as far as the bedroom doorway. It took her several seconds to make sure she wasn’t mistaken about what she was seeing.

Luke was holding the steel flashlight from her purse and was looking through the files she had brought home from work. Her blood froze in her veins. “You should have told me you were interested in the environment,” she said, barely controlling her rage. “I would have been glad to make you a copy so you could read those papers in better light.”

As he whirled around, he dropped a set of keys on the floor. “I can explain,” he said as he tried to retrieve them, but she was faster.

“These are my office keys.” Her gaze flew to her open purse. “Did you take anything else?”

“I’m not a thief.”

“No, you’re a spy.”

“I’m not a spy either,” he insisted. “Please let me explain. I didn’t want to get you involved.”

“Oh really? Well, I hate to tell you, pal, but you’re in
my
home, nosing through
my
purse and
my
files. And that was definitely
my
body you fucked last night. I’m about as involved as a person can be. Now get the hell out of my life!”

He reached for her and she slapped his hand away. “
No
! Just get the fuck out of here!” She opened the door and stood there with crossed arms and fury in her eyes as he found his pants and pulled them on.

“I was only trying to see if you had a calendar or date book.”

She snorted. “Bullshit.” She picked up his shirt, jacket, socks and shoes then tossed them outside. “You can finish dressing outside.”

“You’ve got to listen to me, Ellery. You might be in serious danger. I witnessed a murder a long time ago, but I didn’t go to the police. I’ve had nightmares about it ever since. You asked me why I looked at Jones so strangely. It’s because I only recently realized it’s
his
face, or rather, his brother’s, that I see when I’m asleep.

“I think Theodore Jones may have committed a number of gruesome murders, but I need to know where he was on certain dates to prove it. Ellie, please listen to me. It’s for your own good.”

He touched her cheek and she retaliated with a hard slap to his. “You bastard. You gave up the right to touch me the minute you went into my purse. You should have at least had a believable story ready to cover your ass. But really, the senator’s brother is a serial killer? How stupid do you think I am?”

He exhaled heavily. “I know you’re not stupid, and I didn’t just make that up. I’m sorry. I should have explained up front, but I didn’t know how loyal you were to the senator. Then I fell in love with you and—”

“That’s it!
Out
!” With a hard shove, she pushed him out the door and slammed it closed.

For several minutes she just stood there, leaning against the door with her eyes closed and her fists clenched. But when one tear, then another leaked out of her eyes, she turned her anger on herself.

She’d been warned repeatedly by Brevowski. Her intuition had told her he was trouble on a personal level as well. How dare he call her Ellie! She swiped the wetness off her cheeks.

She should have realized the first time he kissed her that she wouldn’t be able to enjoy him without getting emotionally attached. The feelings he aroused were exactly what she had avoided all these years.

After watching her mother make one mistake after another, she had sworn she would never end up dependent on a man for anything. Not for financial support. Not for protection. And especially not for love. How could she have known that someone would come along to test that oath? She had no way of preparing herself in advance, but she would never make that mistake again.

Fortunately, she discovered the real Luke Madigan tonight, before she admitted to him just how far he had already wormed his way into her heart.

Chapter 18

At six-thirty Saturday morning, he watched Detective Harris pull out of his driveway and head for work. At six forty-five, he pulled on a pair of latex gloves and covered those with heavy workman’s gloves. He then strategically scored the detective’s kitchen window with a glass cutter and adhered several large strips of electrical tape to it. A few hard taps with his fist, and he was able to quietly remove all the glass. He carefully bagged it up to take with him later. By seven, he was inside.

When asked, Frank Patterson had been happy to confirm what time the detective would be at his desk, so it was just a matter of working backward from there to figure out when the best time would be to arrive in Glendale. He had managed to get two hours’ sleep after arriving at Vivian’s parents’ house, which was more than enough to re-energize him.

The location of the officer’s home was in the AIDS fundraiser files, along with the address and phone number of every other guest who had attended the banquet.

He wasn’t terribly worried about nosy neighbors. If anyone happened to be up and about at that early hour, however, he was dressed in sweat clothes and sneakers, and wore a man’s brown wig and thin moustache. He looked like a typical sunrise jogger. He also counted on the change that had occurred in American neighborhoods over the years. Not only did few people mind each other’s business nowadays, they might not even know the names of the people next door.

Also, as he expected, the detective had no alarm system. Police officers, he had learned, tended to believe they were above that sort of thing.

Not knowing precisely which method would be most efficient until he got in the house, he had a variety of items, ranging from common tools to an incendiary device, all strapped to his body beneath the loose clothing.

Thanks to a very well-rounded, international education, both in and out of school, he was capable of doing things that would shock most people, if they ever found out… but they never did and they never would. That was his karma. The current situation had become a bit more complicated than usual, but that only meant a bit more clean-up than usual was required, beginning with the detective.

One of the wonderful things about the United States was that criminals of all types have always been permitted to write detailed descriptions of their special skills and illegal experiences, even while serving time in prison. And publishers happily distributed their “works of literature” to the public. With the advent of the internet, access to such information no longer even required a trip to the library. From con games to computer theft, from arson to bombs, it was all available with very little effort. Of course, he knew all about the FBI’s internet watchdogs, which is why he used a variety of public computers all over the country, always wearing different disguises, of course.