She wrapped both her arms around one of his and tried to lead him toward the door. “I’ll tell you, but only after we’re outside and in your car.”
Planting his big feet, Luther refused to budge. “My car, huh? Should I take that to mean you’ll be riding somewhere with me?”
“Yup. To Mort’s.” She cleared her throat. “Because that’s where Gaby’s at.”
Oh hell. The way she said that . . . Luther shut down his computer and grabbed up his suit coat. “Let’s go.”
Trotting in her high heels to keep up, Ann said, “Just that easy?”
Where Gaby was concerned, Luther had learned a second’s hesitation could be too long. “Yeah, just that easy.”
“She has you twisted up pretty good, Luther. I’m not altogether sure that’s a good thing.” Once they were in the hallway, she pulled back on his arm. “Slow down, please. My shoes aren’t meant for sprints.”
Luther moderated his pace, but his determination burned. They stepped outside to a setting sun and humid skies. “Okay. So what’s going on?”
“Well, two things, really. And I want you to hear me out, okay?”
“Fine.” He opened the passenger door for her, practically tucked her into the car, and hurried around to the driver’s door.
Ann laughed. “I didn’t mean to alarm you. Gaby’s visiting with Bliss. From what Mort said, she’ll be there a little while yet.”
“Unless she decides to leave.”
“Well, yeah. She does make mighty abrupt decisions, and her mood switches faster than light.”
“Trust me, I’m well aware of Gaby’s personality quirks.” Grim, Luther started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. “So what specifically about Gaby being at Mort’s made you think we needed to get over there?”
“You won’t like this.”
“That much I already know.”
Ann half turned in her seat to face him. “Given what Mort overheard of the conversation between the girls, Gaby wants to know the particulars of being a prostitute.”
“So? She’s always curious about . . .” Luther trailed off. Ann didn’t need to know about Gaby’s preoccupation about, and inexperience with, sex. “Never mind.”
She waved that away. “I don’t think you’re getting me, Luther.” Ann touched his arm. “Gaby wants to know what she should do, and how she should act, to convince others that she’s a hooker.”
Disbelief slammed into Luther. His hands tightened on the steering wheel. Damn her. So that was her harebrained plan?
At least Mort and Ann had done as he’d asked, and notified him posthaste of her foolhardy plan.
Resigned to Gaby’s perfidies, Luther said, “She hopes to set herself up as a hooker in order to catch the cretin who’d killed Lucy.”
“I think so. That was Mort’s impression. He couldn’t think of any way to dissuade her, so he called me, so I could tell you . . .”
Striving for a calm that was well out of his reach, Luther said, “I appreciate it. Thanks.”
Ann sat back. “Well, bravo. And here I thought you’d be up in arms about it.”
“There’s no need to get upset because she’s not doing it.”
“She’s not?”
“Hell no.”
Seconds ticked by as Ann studied him. She settled back in her seat and folded her hands over her lap. “Well, I’m curious as to how you plan to stop her. From what I’ve seen, Gaby is an unstoppable dynamo who does just as she damn well pleases.”
“I’ll stop her.” Luther flexed his hands on the wheel. One way or another, he’d force her to see his reasoning. “That’s all you need to know.”
“Luther . . .” Ann’s hesitation diverted his attention.
“What?”
“You know I love you. As a friend and partner, I mean. I can’t help but worry about you.”
He’d said as much to Gaby; friends worried, and nothing could change that. “What’s on your mind?”
“I don’t want to anger you. But you’re so eaten up with this girl, I’m not sure you’re seeing things as clearly as you should—as clearly as you normally would.”
Luther glanced at Ann. Eaten up? Yeah, he was. Gaby had him twisted up in a dozen different ways. He stared at the road ahead of him. “Let’s hear it.”
And still Ann fretted before finally saying, “How did Gaby know that there was someone in that fire? No one else knew, right?”
“She claims to have this incredible intuition.” Feeling idiotic, but unable to stop his defense of Gaby, Luther attempted to explain. “You know, like a cop’s instincts that tell him something isn’t right. You’ve done it. So have I.”
“Not like that, Luther. Gaby knew someone was inside. She didn’t just suspect it.”
He didn’t have an answer for that, so he said nothing.
“And after just stumbling on that dead vagrant, how did she then go several blocks away, only to discover a pipe bomb in an old playground?”
Oh God. He should have asked himself those same questions. But when he was with Gaby, his need for her blunted his suspicions. She made him believe in her.
Probably because he so badly wanted to believe in her.
“I don’t know.” Luther shook his head, growing more tense by the moment. “It could all be bizarre circumstance.”
“I suppose that’s possible.” Ann’s hand tightened on his arm. “But, Luther, you’re a cop. You have to accept the other possibility—that Gaby knows these things, because . . .”
He didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t. “Ann—”
“She knows, because she’s the one responsible for them.”
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Luther tightened his hold on the steering wheel. Acid burned his throat and his guts churned. But he needed to hear it all. “You’ve gotten to know her some, Ann. In your personal opinion, do you think she’s capable of that?”
“Capable?” She answered without equivocation. “Absolutely. I’ve never seen anyone more capable. But do I think she did it? No.”
His lungs filled. “No?”
“I was there when she stormed past that fire to save someone she didn’t know. I was there when she stood over that damned bomb. You heard from the bomb squad. If it had detonated, there would have been no more than little bits and pieces of Gaby left.”
So he wasn’t the only one under Gaby’s spell? Nice to know, but under the circumstances, not a whole lot of comfort.
“Gaby is hurting. I see that, too, Luther. And people in pain can do astounding things. Mort trusts her with his life.”
“They have a screwy friendship.” A smile took him by surprise. “Want to hear something funny? When I first met Gaby and got to know Mort, I thought they had something romantic going on.”
Ann smiled, encouraging him with her silence.
“I was jealous.” Feeling raw, Luther laughed at himself. “That’s pretty fucked up, huh?”
“You know what I think?”
He wasn’t sure he wanted to. “What?”
“I think Gaby is incapable of causing such carnage, but she knows a whole lot more than she’s telling you. And regardless of our personal feelings on it, we’re obligated to explore every possibility.”
Luther pulled up to the curb in front of Mort’s apartment building. “Meaning you want me to count her a suspect?”
“I don’t relish Mort’s reaction to such a thing. He’ll feel betrayed, and that’s sure to cause a rift between us.” She opened her seat belt. “But do we really have any choice?”
“No.” They were about to get out when a call came in.
Ann answered, saying, “Detective Kennedy.” After a moment of listening, she closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “I see.” She listened again, then said, “Oh God. Yeah, we’ll be right there.”
Seeing the strain on her face alerted Luther to the seriousness of the call. As soon as she disconnected, he asked, “Trouble?”
“That’s an understatement.” She looked at him with sympathy. “We have to make this visit short.”
“He got another woman?”
“No, this time it was a man. We’re being called in because he was tortured pretty badly, in a similar way to our first victim.”