Level Five (9 page)

As he thought of her eyes widened in helpless terror, his blood warmed with pleasure.  As he’d beaten her, it had been like beating his mother for all her sins, taking back some of the dignity she’d stolen from him as a child.

But Maggie had joined the growing hoard in his backyard and his need for a new project at his house was growing stronger with every minute that passed.

Unfortunately, Susan wouldn’t do.  He needed a specific type in order to alleviate his pain.  And his pain was back, growing bigger, deeper and more difficult to tolerate. 
The right woman.  God, he wished he could find her, the right woman who would alleviate his pain forever. 

He glanced around the restaurant, seeking a woman who might excite him, who could fulfill his needs.  There were several dark-haired women, but none of them caused that sizzle of excitement to roar through him, that anticipation of sweet relief from his inner demons.

He’d find her…he’d find the perfect one like he always did. It was just a matter of time.  He smiled across the table at Susan. Yes, Susan was a lucky girl. She was a blond who stirred nothing in his soul.

After dinner they walked outside where the sidewalks had filled with people enjoying the beautiful evening.  Open doors of restaurants and bars emitted savory scents and the sounds of people laughing.

“You like to read?” he asked Susan as he pointed to a Barnes and Noble store down the sidewalk.

“I love to read.”

“And I’ll bet you like those mushy romance novels,” he forced a teasing tone to his voice.

She blushed and raised her chin slightly.  “And what’s wrong with that?”

“Absolutely nothing.”  He forced himself to reach out and take her hand in his.  That’s what people did on dates; they held hands and took leisurely walks and just enjoyed being together. “Maybe we should go inside and do a little browsing, then get a cup of coffee.”

“That sounds like fun,” she readily agreed.

As they drew closer to the store he saw the poster in the window announcing a book signing by a local author the next day.  As Anthony saw the photo of the author he froze. His heart pounded so fast in his chest he thought he was going to die. 

It was her. 

The one he wanted.

The one he needed.

Her long dark hair framed a slender face with beautiful features and the electric blue of her eyes seemed to be looking right through him.  Just like his mother used to do.

He was vaguely aware of Susan calling his name. He wanted to scream at her to shut the fuck up, to get lost and leave him to stare at the woman who torched such need through his veins.

He could just imagine the silkiness of her hair in his fist, those lovely eyes widened in horror.  Oh yes, he wanted this woman.

He scanned the poster, looking at her name.  Edie Carpenter.  She’d be here tomorrow between two and four to sign her newest release, a true crime novel.

Pictures could be photo shopped.  There was a possibility that in reality her eyes might not be quite as blue as they appeared in her picture.  Her hair might not really be that curtain of silky darkness. 

It was possible in real life she looked nothing like her publicity photograph, but he’d be here tomorrow to find out. If she was what he wanted, what he needed to stop the tormenting burn inside him for just a little while, he’d do whatever necessary to get her as his new project.

As Susan called his name once again, he turned and smiled at her.  “Come on.”  He flung an arm around her shoulder.  “Let’s go inside and look around and maybe I’ll buy you one of those romance books you like.”

“Oh, Anthony, you’re the sweetest man I’ve ever met,” she gushed as they walked into the book store.

                 Chapter 10

Saturday morning Jake and Edie shared a leisurely late breakfast of bacon and eggs and wheat toast.  He knew how the day would go, how the distance would begin to creep into her as the book signing drew nearer.  He called it her zone and once she got into the zone she’d remain there until bedtime.

“It’s nice you’re going with me today,” she said as she took a sip of her coffee.  She was clad in a pair of hot pink panties and a bright yellow T-shirt that nearly swallowed the upper portion of her slender body.  Her hair was still bed messed, but her face was scrubbed shiny clean. He thought she’d never looked prettier.

“I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be,” he replied. “I just hope my phone stays quiet so I can enjoy the whole spectacle.”  Although there was nothing hot on his desk at the moment and the weekends were his normal days off, he never knew when a call would come in that he was needed.

“It’s not a spectacle, it’s just a simple book signing,” she replied as she picked up a second piece of toast.

He grinned at her.  “It’s two hours of people fawning over you and telling you how wonderful you are.  You preen like a peacock and…” He laughed and dodged as she threw her slice of toast at him.

“You know how these things usually go, I’ll have at least five people ask me where the restroom is in the store, at least ten people will tell me they don’t like what I write and that’s only if there happens to be fifteen people in the store during the signing.”

“You know that’s not true,” he replied, knowing that this was about the time her nerves were starting to kick in.  “With your last two books you’ve developed a real following.  You’ll probably be so busy signing books you won’t even notice me standing in the corner.”

“I’d notice you no matter what corner you were standing in,” she replied seriously.  Her eyes held a shimmer of love, a whisper of need. It
was that which kept him coming back to her, living within the constraints she had placed on their relationship even though he wasn’t one hundred percent fulfilled.  And of course there was always the hot sex to keep him coming back, he thought with a wry inward smile.

She narrowed her eyes.  “You’re thinking about sex.”

He feigned innocence.  “What makes you think that?”

“I know you too well, Jake Warner.  While I’m sitting here thinking about how many books I might be able to sell this afternoon you’re thinking about sex.  You had that sex look in your eyes.”

He laughed and held up his hands in defeat.  “Okay, you busted me.  I was just thinking that I heard someplace that if you have hot wild sex before a book signing you sell a whole lot of books.”

“I’m pretty sure that isn’t from Confucius.”

“No, it came from the Great Goddess of the pink panties.”

She stood up and pulled her T-shirt up.  “You mean these pink panties?”  She took them off and gave him a wicked smile.  “You know I want to sell a lot of books this afternoon. Let’s go test this theory of yours.”

Minutes later they were naked in her bed, her sweet breath hot against his neck as he caressed her breasts.  Jake had always thought of himself as a big breast man before he met Edie, whose small breasts fit perfectly in the cup of his palms.

Making love with Edie wasn’t a simple incident, it was a major event. He’d never met a woman who gave so much and demanded just as much in return.  She was abandoned and passionate and always when they were finished he felt as if she’d had him heart and soul. He wasn’t sure he had her in the same way.

Maybe it was the mystery that kept him hanging around, his need as a detective to figure out that small bit of obscurity, to solve the very mystery of Edie.

At the moment all he wanted to do was drive himself deeply enough, hard enough into her that he would somehow mark her as his own, make it impossible for her to ever think of making love with anyone else for the rest of her life.

With this thought in mind he moved between her slender legs and slowly slid into her, watching her eyes as she hissed in a breath.

As he settled into her, with her inner muscles tightening around him, he found it impossible to think about anything but the sensations that flooded through him. Her moist tightness, the scent of her that filled his head and gasps of pleasure that escaped them took complete possession of him.

They moved together with the familiarity of old lovers who still and always would find pleasure together.  He knew just where to touch her, just how fast and how slow to pace himself to make sure that she reached her climax before he allowed himself his own.

Afterward she rolled over on top of him, her blues eyes
slitted with the kind of lazy pleasure of a cat who finds a sunny spot on the floor.

“Amazing, as usual,” she said.  “Even if I don’t sell a single book, I am a contented woman.” 

He leaned up to capture her mouth with his.  When the kiss ended he smiled at her.  “After that, if nobody buys any of your books, I’ll buy every single copy the store has.”

She laughed and swatted his chest as she rolled off him and out of the bed.  “Promises, promises, that’s all I get from you after we’ve had good sex.  Now I’m heading for the shower to start to get ready to look like successful author Edie Carpenter.”

He watched the wiggle of her ass as she left the room.  She had a great ass. As she disappeared into the bathroom he remained in the bed.

It was still early. He’d have plenty of time to get ready when she left the bathroom.  And when she left the bathroom he knew she’d be in the zone, quiet and introspective, gathering her energy to be
on
for the duration of the signing.

As always when he had a moment alone if he wasn’t thinking about Edie, his thoughts turned to his work. He felt the frown that crept across his forehead as he thought of the latest missing person’s report. It was quickly becoming a cold case. 

It had been two weeks since Maggie Black had disappeared from the McDonald’s parking lot.  Her car had been impounded and gone over by techs. They had found her cell phone tucked beneath the floor mat in the back seat.  Other than that, there had been absolutely nothing else that might give them a clue as to what had happened to her.

Neither her cell phone nor her laptop computer had yielded anything remarkable.  Maggie did a little social networking but not a lot.  Most of the cell phone calls she’d received had been either from her mother or girlfriends.  It seemed that Maggie was exactly how her mother had described her, a nice girl who worried about her college grades and wasn’t into anything that would put her in a high risk category.  And yet she was gone.

It was as if a mother ship from some alien nation had sucked Maggie straight up into the air, not even leaving the faint marks of her shoe prints behind.

He’d say they’d hit a dead end, but there had never been an alley to follow.  It had been the same in the Kelly Preston
case…beautiful young woman goes missing without a clue, without any real leads to follow.

Certainly he’d reminded Teddy many times that they didn’t always solve their cases, but both he and Teddy took each one very personally. 

It wasn’t the photo of Maggie that haunted him when he closed his eyes to sleep, rather it was a vision of Maggie’s mother, Danielle.

At least once a day she called him or Teddy, wondering if they’d found any leads and what she should do and when would Maggie be found?  Jake found the calls heartbreaking. More than anything he wanted to give Danielle answers. The truth was they just didn’t have any to give and might never be able to give her the closure she needed.

He must have fallen asleep for when he awakened later he was alone in the bedroom and a glance at the clock told him he’d been asleep for almost an hour.

He rolled out of the bed and grabbed the shorts he’d been wearing during breakfast from the floor.  He pulled them on and went in search of Edie. 

He found her at her computer in her office.  She was dressed for the signing in black slacks and a white and black blouse with matching jewelry.  She looked chic and successful and she offered him a vague smile and then returned her gaze to the computer screen.  “I was just about to wake you up.  We’ve got to leave here in about thirty minutes or so.”

             
“I’ll be ready,” he replied and headed for the shower.

             
A half an hour later he was dressed in a pair of dress slacks and a black and white pin-striped shirt that was one of Edie’s favorites.  He followed Edie in his own car to the book store.  He had to have his own wheels should something pop at the station and so whenever she had a commitment like this they always drove separately.

             
As always these very public outings for Edie created a small burn of tension in Jake’s gut.  Maybe it was because he’d been a cop for so long, had seen the very worst that humanity could offer, or maybe it was just because he loved her so damned much.

             
He worried that some creep would become enamored of her, that a fan would somehow step over the line.  Jake was intimately familiar with the number of psychos that walked around looking like normal people. He didn’t want any of them anywhere near Edie.