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“The house was tossed,” he said. “It looked like a standard B&E gone bad. Someone looking for quick drug money, and she was unlucky enough to be home. An unfortunate urban statistic.”
“I see,” she murmured. “You didn’t, um, contact Mathes, then?”
He looked directly into her eyes. “Seeing the dead lady was the sum total of my investigative accomplishments for the day, sweetheart.”
She leaned forward, pulled his head down to hers and kissed him. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “That must have been hard.”
“I’m handling it,” he said. “Enough about me. Let’s talk about you. Tell me about your day, babe.”
Mr. Super Cool to the last. She rubbed his hand against her cheek. “Well, one good thing is that I finally got in touch with Josh.”
“That’s good news. Where was he?”
“Shacked up,” she said ruefully. “With this beautiful girl named Nadia. He wants to move in with her. I have my doubts, but whatever. He’ll have to figure it out the hard way. That’s why he didn’t call. He’s been rolling around in bed for the past thirty-six hours.”
“Lucky boy,” he said. “Anything from your sister?”
“Not yet,” she said glumly. “In fact, Joshie and I are driving down to Olympia this afternoon to look for her.”
“Are you now.” His voice was cool, strangely distant.
It made her feel flustered. “Um, you could come with us, if you like,” she said. “But I assumed…you would probably want to concentrate on whatever’s happening up here. Your investigation and all. Since I’ll be with my brother, of course. I won’t be all alone.”
“Is that what you assumed?” He stroked the palm of her hand with his forefinger, without meeting her eyes. “So you talked to your brother on the phone. What else did you do? Give me a blow by blow.”
“Well, I went to my apartment. Oh, yes, and I wanted to tell you about this—I guess they, uh…they’ve found me.”
“What?” His eyes fastened onto hers, suddenly intent. “What do you mean, found you?”
“I found a video camera,” she confessed. “On the shelf. Behind the stuffed animals.” She braced herself for an explosion.
It didn’t come. He just stared at her, his eyes thoughtful and shuttered. “No shit,” he said softly. “A video camera. How about that.”
“I was really careful afterwards to make sure I wasn’t being followed,” she offered. “And when I was at the rental place, I think I lost anyone who might have been tailing me when I got the cab.”
“Good thinking,” he said. “You’re getting slick at this stuff, Becca.”
God, his voice was so bland. So unemotional. It was unnerving.
She struggled to gather her thoughts. They were getting scrambled by a strange, staticky buzz of interference from him.
“That’s why I’ve been so freaked out about Carrie,” she confessed. “If they know where I live, then Zhoglo knows about Carrie too.”
“Don’t panic about Carrie yet,” he said. “What else did you do?”
She’d been internally debating the wisdom of confessing to her Gavin Street detour, since it hadn’t been on the trajectory she’d originally laid out to him. In his current mood, she was less and less inclined to do so. She was jittery, nervous, tearful. She did not want to be yelled at or harangued. And what did it matter, if that conversation with Josh took place on the phone in the cab, or in person?
“I think I’ve covered it all,” she said. “Bank machine, apartment, rental car place. Then I came back here.”
“That’s it?” He stared straight ahead.
“Uh, yeah,” she said.
He looked away from her, as if the blackout curtains over the window had suddenly taken on some deep significance. “I see.”
She felt so alone all of a sudden. Bereft. Which was silly. He was just depressed and stressed-out, and no wonder, for God’s sake. She should try not to be clingy and demanding. It was the kiss of death.
Still. It made her ache.
