Here in the gentle sanctuary of Alice’s kitchen decorated with pretty sunflowers and sage green cabinets, with her sensitive, bright hazel gaze resting on him thoughtfully, and the kindest, most generous and delicious meal anybody had ever cooked for him spread out before him, he could finally admit the truth to himself about why he had quit—he had grown tired.
The tips of her slender fingers touched the back of one of his hands. “Are you all right?”
Riehl ducked his head. “Yeah,” he said, his voice gruff. “Thank you for supper.”
“You’re welcome.” The tip of her tongue touched her lower lip. She looked as if she wanted to say something else, but she lowered her head instead.
They ate supper in a silence that was surprisingly comfortable. When Alice finished the food on her plate, Gideon took the serving spoon and offered her another helping of the scrambled egg dish. She raised her eyebrows but nodded with a smile. He watched with deep pleasure as she ate it.
His cell rang with Bayne’s ringtone, the Bee Gee’s “Stayin’ Alive”. He ducked his head further to shovel the last of the hash browns into his mouth even as he dug into his pocket for his phone. “Sorry,” he muttered. “It’s my boss. I’ve got to get this.”
The shadows came back into her face. He hated to see that. She said, “Of course you do.”
Gideon strode into the living room and clicked on the phone. “Yeah.”
“Heard you found your witness,” said Bayne.
“Yeah, I’m still with her,” Gideon said. He started to pace. “We’re at her place. What’s up?”
“We’re wrapping up at Haley Cannes’ apartment.” The gryphon said to someone else, “Pack it up. I want someone to comb through every file on the hard drive, and check out every contact on her email list.” Then his voice came back stronger, “You find out anything from Alice Clark?”
Hell yeah, a whole slew of new things, but most of them weren’t any of the sentinel’s business. Gideon turned to pace another lap. Alice was cleaning up the kitchen. She had carried the dishes to the sink. Even though she had a dishwasher, she was running a sink full of soapy water. It looked like she felt the need to do something as well.
Gideon said, “We’re still talking.”
“Call or text if you find out something new. In the meantime, we’ve got a lock on the whereabouts of all the chameleon Wyr who live in NYC. Now that schools have let out for winter break, some are traveling for the holidays. A family of four has left for Arizona, a single parent, her boyfriend and her kid have gone to L.A., and a couple are headed for Miami. We’re checking with the airports to confirm their flights left before the storm shut things down, but assuming they did, that leaves us eleven chameleons still in the city.”
“Right.” He looked at Alice again. She had finished the dishes and was wiping off the table. She had just started winter break? On the one hand, he liked that she had personal time right now. She needed it. On the other, he didn’t like the thought of her possible isolation. He growled, “Eleven is more than enough if he’s looking to do a repeat of seven years ago.”
“He’d only need four more, wouldn’t he?” Bayne said. “Something bothers me about all this. If this is the Jacksonville guy, last time he took advantage of a situation that was very comfortable for him. All of his victims lived together in one place, and they tended to isolate so nobody knew something might be wrong when the group disappeared for a week. They were only found after acquaintances missed them at the Masque they had scheduled to attend. That’s not the case with these murders.”
Gideon rubbed the back of his neck. “He plots things out carefully ahead of time,” he said. “He’s got a plan and he thinks it’s going to work.”
“Yeah,” Bayne growled. “That bothers me a hell of a lot.”
That also bothered Gideon. He asked, “What about protection?” The NYPD wouldn’t have the funding to provide police protection for eleven people, but the Wyr Division of Violent Crime was supported by a separate funding stream that came from the demesne’s coffers. As the sentinel heading the WDVC, Bayne could authorize such an expenditure of manpower and money if he deemed it appropriate.
“I’ll be setting up a task force when I get back to the office,” said Bayne. “Protection’s at the top of the agenda. It should be in place for everyone by morning. I want you to head it up.”
Gideon stopped pacing at the instant surge of denial. He looked at Alice again, and said to Bayne, “No can do. You’ll have to find someone else.”
Bayne said, “I assume you have a compelling reason for turning down this urgent assignment, and you are willing to share that reason with your new boss.”
“I do indeed,” said Gideon. “But it’s difficult to go into detail right now. I’ll have to get back to you.”
“Is that some kind of secret code for she can hear everything you say?”
“Yeah, something like that. In the meantime, I need to get back to questioning Alice.”
“Has she figured out she’s next on the list?”
“I don’t know,” Gideon said. “Maybe. But it’s all right, since I will be spending the night.”
Alice lifted her head and turned to look at him, her eyes wide and startled.
“I was going to tell you to hang with her until I got a guard detail sent over,” Bayne grunted. “At least that’s one thing to cross off my list tonight.”
“You can take it one step further,” Gideon told him. “I’ll stay the point person on this assignment.”
There was a long pause on the other end. “Are there implications in that?” Bayne asked. “I don’t like implications. I can’t figure them out on my own very often.”
Gideon smiled at Alice reassuringly. He said to Bayne. “Talk to you soon.”
“You’d better, son. You’ve got a lot to tell me,” said Bayne, who then hung up.
Alice’s pulse roared in her ears as she watched Gideon pocket his cell phone. She looked down and realized she was twisting the dish towel in her hands. She fought to breathe evenly as she hung the towel on the stove handle. Clothing whispered as Gideon moved into the kitchen doorway. There had to be something sane and sensible she could say, if only she could think of it. Her rabbiting mind hopped through a series of statements and discarded each one in rapid-fire succession.
That’s pretty presumptuous of you there, Detective. Did I say I’d let you spend the night?
Of course you’ve got to stay the night. It’s too dangerous out for anyone to try to drive.
How about that storm, eh?
We haven’t even kissed yet. (NOOO. Don’t say that.)
She croaked, “Do you want coffee?”
“Alice,” said Gideon.
Her head jerked up.
Watching her, Gideon felt such a powerful surge of tenderness at the disturbed confusion on her face, he couldn’t even smile, and for once the inappropriate lust stayed subjugated to his will. He wanted to take her in his arms again, just to hold her and tell her that everything would be all right.
He told her in a gentle voice, “I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to talk things over with you first, but my boss and I would like for me to crash on your couch tonight.”
Her unsteady fingers smoothed the towel. “You think that’s best?”
“We do,” he said. “There are too many indications that the killer feels the compulsion to follow certain patterns of order.”