Fire Within - By Ally Shields Page 0,97
can and took a long drink. She vaguely remembered Andreas’s arms carrying her. Almost like a dream. She finished the soda, setting the can on the counter.
Hmm. Andreas must have found her asleep and put her to bed. That would explain the missing clothes. The corners of her mouth twitched. Maybe she should be embarrassed, but she wasn’t. Just sorry she’d slept through the experience.
She found her clothes neatly folded on a kitchen chair. Attractive, sexy, and tidy too? Andreas wasn’t half-bad at this boyfriend business. Ari grinned, shrugging off the weight and gloom that seemed determined to settle between her shoulder blades this morning. She couldn’t let this case get her down. First a shower, then the food, and back to work. She remembered the clue she’d found last night. Thank you, Great-Gran. All she needed to do was follow it to its logical conclusion. Piece of cake.
When she was dressed, she nibbled on the reheated dinner, sipped a cup of microwaved coffee, and gave Ryan a ring. Time to catch up on his side of things.
“Did you have a nice rest?” he asked by way of greeting.
Puzzled by the amusement in his voice, she said, “Uh, fine, thank you.”
He snorted, barely containing his laughter this time. “I’ll just bet you did. Andreas left me a phone message saying you’d fallen asleep and he was quote ‘putting you to bed.’ He suggested not calling until you called me. A little possessive, I thought, but it must be nice to have somebody come tuck you in.”
“Very funny. Can we stick to business?” She’d be discussing this with Andreas. You don’t share embarrassing moments with a cop. Ever. They never let you forget it.
“If you insist. Actually, I let the computers run the searches last night and managed to get a few hours sleep myself. But I don’t think I had half as much fun as you did.”
“Enough, Ryan. Your imagination is leading you astray. What about our suspects?”
“I think we really are down to the last three, the three in Shale’s office: Stanley, Binderman, and Shale himself. Unverified alibis and holes in those three backgrounds. Sarah Young is clean. The shrink we use as a profiler agrees on Stanley and Shale. She thinks Binderman is too transparent.”
Profiler? What would a human shrink know about demons? But anything that made Ryan happy was fine with her. Ari let it go unchallenged. “Fitzhugh and Batty are definitely cleared?”
“Yep. Fitzhugh was squeaky clean. Richard Batty is an oddball and probably a pervert. Two convictions for intox, dismissed from the last job for indecent exposure, but charges were never filed. His alibis and background are genuine.”
“That’s good work. You still think Stanley’s the most likely of our remaining suspects?”
“No searchable history. Anywhere. If she’s not the demon, she’s hiding something else behind an alias. We’re concentrating efforts on her at the moment, looking for a criminal past that might explain the discrepancies.” He paused, and she heard him slurping coffee. “That doesn’t mean we’re ignoring the other two. Haven’t located Binderman’s last employer in Chicago, but we’re looking. As for Shale, his counseling agency in L.A. closed about eighteen months ago. We still don’t know why, and we’re trying to account for the missing time before he showed up in Riverdale.”
“I’m impressed. You’re close to nailing this down. I’m working hard to find a magical solution by the time we need it. I know where to start now. Great-Gran’s been helping me.”
“Huh?”
“No, no ghosts. Old notes. Never mind.” Ari chuckled at his confusion. “Just trust that I’ll get it done.” The real question was whether she’d figure it out in time.
As they talked about the suspects, Ari finally acknowledged her growing sense of unease, the weight on her shoulders. The dark cloud of dread had been there when she woke and continued to trickle through her system like the buzz of too much caffeine. A sudden cold spot on her neck made her rub it with one hand.
“We have to work faster,” Ari said. “I can sense the creature is growing impatient, and it knows we’re looking for it. It’s next strike will be a big one, and I think it’s coming soon. Maybe, within hours. Dark magic is stronger at night, so dusk could be our deadline.”
“Let’s hope you’re wrong for once,” Ryan said. “We need all the time we can get.”
* * *
In spite of the ticking clock, she had a couple more calls to make before getting back to work. The