Fear Familiar Bundle (171 page)

"That's one challenge I'll accept," James said, his voice a soft, heated promise. "Later this evening. Your place or mine?"

Jennifer got in the car door he'd opened for her. "Mine. As soon as we finish exploring Crush Bonbon's bomb shelter."

James shut the door and walked around the car. "Ah, another evening of adventure with a girl and her cat."

T
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lined the sidewalk by the police station, and Anna Green, with Chief Craig Bixley by her side, was getting ready to have an impromptu press conference as Jennifer pulled up. She parked down the street where she could watch the circus without drawing attention to herself.

"Look at that blister on the butt of humanity," Jennifer said to Familiar as she glared at Anna. "She's worse than dangerous. She could be doing good instead of this stupidity."

"Meow." Familiar gave her a knowing look.

The black feline had taken up with her and showed no signs that he wanted to be anywhere else. In fact, he'd resisted all of Jennifer's efforts to leave him at Eugene's house, or at her own home. He was definitely a cat with a mind of his own. As she watched him, his eyes narrowed at Anna Green. And a cat with his own opinions, which just happened to coincide with hers. Familiar didn't like Anna, and Jennifer understood why.

"She's a witch, isn't she?"

"Meow."

"Well, let's see if we can't set her broomstick on fire." Jennifer opened the door for Familiar, trusting that he would stay beside her. She'd grown to depend on him in many ways. Eleanor Curry was going to have a really hard time getting him back— and Jennifer had never considered herself a pet owner. She'd always liked animals, but had avoided owning one since childhood when her best friend, Sam, a mixed-breed pooch, had died and broken her heart. Now, Familiar had filled a vacancy she'd refused to admit she had. How strange that both the cat and James had come into her life on the same day.

From the podium, Anna did a sound check while Bixley straightened his posture and his chief's hat. There was enough gold brocade on his hat and uniform to blind someone, Jennifer thought as she watched the speakers prepare.

Along with the members of the news media were protesters, no doubt carefully orchestrated by Anna, Bixley and Bonbon. There were several signs that called for Eugene's books to be burned, as well as other books and tapes and videos. She couldn't make out the complete list, but it looked like a long one. Most of the spectators looked bored, but one or two had a fanatical gleam in his or her eye. Those were the ones who scared her. Those were the ones who'd take children to
make
Eugene or some other writer look guilty, believing they were acting for the good of humanity.

A loud call from the audience drew Jennifer's attention to a tall, slender woman dressed in red holding a microphone in her hand. It was one of the television reporters.

"Ms. Green! Have any charges been filed against— "

"I have a speech prepared," Anna said, cutting across the reporter's question. She cleared her throat. "Although no formal charges have been filed against Eugene Legander, I want to assure the public that the police chief and his staff are doing everything possible to protect the children of this community…."

She continued, but Jennifer tuned her out. Anna was eating crow and doing her best to make it look like caviar. Bixley, too, looked more chagrined than proud. They'd arrested Eugene, and it hadn't stuck. She was tempted to hang around and ask a few pointed questions herself, but she had other irons in the fire.

Jennifer's dilemma was how best to get Eugene out of the station and avoid the endless questions. No matter what he said, it would only make matters worse, for the time being. There had to be a back way out of the station house, and she knew just the cat who could find it.

"Come on, Familiar." She motioned for the cat to follow her. Luckily, neither Anna nor Bixley had spied her. They wouldn't expect her to sneak Eugene out the back while they were warming up the crowd. What they were hoping for was a spectacle of angry parents charging at Eugene. She grinned as she embroidered her "escape" plan more fully.

The building was irregular in shape and design, and Jennifer and the cat made several wrong choices before they found a door that was obviously the patrolman's entrance. "Purr-fect," Jennifer said, bending to pet the cat.

A large shadow fell over her and she looked up into the slitted eyes of Crush Bonbon.

"I thought I might find you here, looking for a back way to sneak out." He stepped back slightly as Familiar growled.

"Why aren't you up on the speaker's box with your friends?" Jennifer slowly straightened. Anger made her square her shoulders and lift her chin.

"I've got something to say to you. Stay off my property. I know you were in my house the other night." He grinned at the startled expression on her face. "Stay out of there. I'm warning you, Miss Barkley. Tamper in my personal life again, and you could get hurt very seriously."

"On the contrary, Crush. I think you're the one who has the most to lose, should I ever admit that I was in your house. Care to explain about that special room, the one for a child?"

She saw his hand ball into a fist and, for a split second, she thought he was going to hit her. Familiar, too, tensed, the hair on his back fuzzing to demonstrate his deadly intent.

"That's none of your business." Red suffused his cheeks. "That's a personal thing. Very private. You'd better not go running your mouth off about that."

"It looks pretty sick to me, Crush. A grown man with a room decorated for a child. A grown single man with no children and no prospects of having any." Jennifer couldn't stop herself. All of the pain that Eugene had suffered was partially due to the man who stood in front of her.

"Watch yourself, Miss Barkley, or you could find yourself in some unpleasant circumstances."

"As Jack Nicholson so succinctly put it, 'I'd like to rip your eyeballs out and shove them up your dead skull."'

Crush took another step back. "You're as demented as Eugene. The two of you should be in an institution. If I ever had any doubts about Anna and what she's doing, I don't anymore. This violence has to stop, and you're part of it."

He spun around quickly for a heavy man and walked back the way he'd come.

"Let's get Eugene." With the adrenaline dissipating, Jennifer felt a strange uneasiness. Crush hadn't reacted as she'd thought he would. There was something…vulnerable in the way he'd acted about the child's room. She felt a twinge of guilt. No matter how much he'd hurt Eugene, it made her feel bad to strike back.

She shook her head and opened the back door that led into the interior of the police department. "Why am I standing out here wasting time feeling sorry for Crush when Eugene is in a cell?"

Familiar twitched his tail twice.

From the front of the building a loud roar rolled toward Jennifer. "What the hell is that?" She knew even as she asked. It was the crowd. Anna Green had finally roused them to the point where passion overrode good sense.

"Meow!" Familiar darted into the building with Jennifer on his heels. Their only concern now was Eugene.

Jennifer's dash through the station house was punctuated by a volley of angry shouts directed at her and Familiar. She paid them no mind. Letting Familiar take the lead, she followed him as he made his way unerringly to the small, drab room where Eugene waited.

Jennifer barreled into the room to find Adam Bailey— one of the most respected defense lawyers in the nation— and Eugene hunched over a deck of cards playing gin. She stopped so suddenly that she almost fell over.

"Let's get out of here," she finally managed. "There's a crowd outside waiting to tear you apart."

Eugene waved a hand at her. "Hush, darling. I'm about to show Mr. Bailey exactly how gin is played. Of course, a small glass of port would make this more of a gentleman's game."

"Eugene!"

He finally realized she was genuinely upset and hurried to her side. "What's all of this about teeming masses outside?"

"Anna has whipped up a mob. They're calling to burn your books— and you, if they can manage to get inside here and get you out."

Although Eugene didn't laugh, he was amused. "Ah, it's only April and the fools here are beginning to suffer from the heat. It's a genetic thing, you know, this inability to think clearly on warm days. They should all go home and take a nap."

Bailey stood also, his concern more apparent than Eugene's. "Is there a back door?"

"Meow." Familiar started toward the exit.

"I see. Even the cat is upset." Eugene's amusement was somewhat diminished. "I take it very seriously when Familiar is upset. Maybe we should depart."

"Legally, you can go. The charges have been dropped, as is only proper," Bailey said. "Eugene will receive an official apology no later than noon tomorrow, signed by the mayor as well as Chief Bixley." He nodded. "I don't think they'll be harassing either of you unless they discover some very weighty evidence."

"Eugene?" Jennifer looked down the corridor to where cops were buckling on riot gear as they headed toward the front.

"Maybe it would be best if Eugene and I departed out the back, in my car," Bailey said. "Perhaps you could create a diversion?"

Jennifer nodded. "Good plan."

"But what about Jennifer's safety?" Eugene was planting his feet. "She comes from tough stock, a descendant no doubt of Hippolyta, but we can't abandon her if we're going to flee the mob."

"It isn't
Jennifer's
hide they want," the lawyer observed pointedly. "Besides, I'm paid to protect you. She's a paid employee of the publisher."

"That's the most ridiculous— "

Jennifer gave him a hug and a push. "Go. Familiar and I have some business with the desk sergeant, anyway, and James is meeting me here."

"The intrepid Mr. Tenet." Eugene's face brightened. "Then I'm leaving you in capable hands."

With Familiar leading the way, Eugene and Bailey started down the long corridor to the back.

"Get that blasted cat out of here!" one of the patrolmen yelled.

The angry command was followed by the sound of barking as Eugene went into a series of animal noises, including the trumpeting of an elephant.

Jennifer was smiling as she squared her shoulders and started toward the main entrance. There was a crowd of people there who needed to learn a few things about public conduct, and she was just the woman to teach them.

Even through the tinted plate glass doors, Jennifer could see the angry throng outside. Didn't these people have jobs? How was it possible they were free to participate in Anna Green's obnoxious scheme?

Hitting the door with outstretched arms, Jennifer burst through it and climbed up on the makeshift podium— the tailgate of someone's pickup truck. With a glare that silenced Chief Bixley in midsentence, Jennifer took the microphone from his hand.

She looked into the heart of the mob, waiting until her very silence forced the spectators to take note of her.

"You should be ashamed," she said softly. "Look at yourselves. People opposed to violence and what are you doing? Working yourselves up into a mob." She pointed to the television cameras. "Will your children be proud of you tonight? You've come here because you want to protect your children from the evils of violence on television and in books and records. Well, what will they see when they watch the six o'clock news?"

Jennifer saw guilt flicker across a few faces. Two signs were lowered. "You people are hypocrites. And not very bright ones at that. This woman— " she pointed to Anna Green "— is running for office. She is using you. How much easier it is for her to play on your fears and emotions, on the safety of your children, than to address the many problems that face this state? I ask you, when you're home tonight watching the spectacle of yourselves on television, if you ban all the books at school or in the library, does that solve the problems of our school system? Does it stop the drugs on the street? Does it provide medical care for those who cannot afford it? Does it do one little thing to make your life better? Or does it simply give Anna Green a platform from which to catapult herself to elected office?"

She looked over the crowd again. Then she put the microphone on the stand and jumped from the back of the truck. Eugene had had plenty of time to make his escape, and she was suddenly very tired. So weary she only wanted to sit down someplace quiet and put her head in her hands.

"Well done."

The familiar voice made her look up, directly into the laughing eyes of James Tenet. He held a pad with a pen poised over it. "Shall we step inside…where I can ask a few questions?"

Her heart rate doubled at the sight of him. "We can step inside, but if you try to poke me with questions, I'm going to chop off your head and roll it down the steps."

James's laughter drew the looks of several other reporters as he took her arm and hurried her away. "So much for the reformed Miss Barkley. I didn't hear a single threat from your pickup podium. I was impressed, but a little concerned that you were sick. I at least expected a version of the 'let them eat cake' speech." He nodded at Familiar. "He must be writing your speeches, thank goodness."

"Right." She leaned against a wall as she waited for him to put his pen in his pocket. "Eugene caught a ride with the lawyer. So what's next?"

"Crush hasn't applied for any building permits. Of course, he could be doing it without a permit, or he could be building a shelter in another county."

"That figures." Jennifer was disappointed, but she hadn't really expected anything to go easily.

"Let's take a look at the police reports while we're here. It's a long shot, but you never know."

Jennifer nodded and fell into step beside James. Familiar walked between them as they made their way to the desk.

"The three musketeers," James said, pointing at Familiar. "The forces of evil had better beware now, for sure."

"Meow!" Familiar darted ahead and leapt up on the counter, drawing a smile from the policeman manning the desk. "What a cat," he said, reaching a hand for Familiar to sniff. "What can I do for you people?"