Page 31 of Truth, Lies, and Second Dates
“I’m not married and I don’t have a boyfriend.” She spared a quick thought for Blake Tarbell, but they had never been boyfriend/girlfriend. Just bang buddies, a juvenile phrase she refused to drop because it horrified literally everyone who heard it.
“That’s hard to believe, Captain Capp, a pretty girl like you.”
Wow. Subtle this guy is not.
“I will see you at home. Abe, Hannah, good day,” Tom said, and if he’d produced a hook to drag Ava offstage, his intent could not have been more clear. Lesson of the morning: Dr. Tom Baker did not like it when his personal and professional lives collided. Which, given his line of work, was understandable. “Please come with me, Captain.”
“Ava.”
“Yes.” He bent, gave Hannah a hug, whispered something in her ear that made her grin, and then he was practically dragging her toward the park entrance. “I apologize.”
“Why? Your family’s great. How old is your niece?”
“Six years, four months, two weeks.”
“I’m sorry about your sister.” Ava wondered what could have happened, but held off asking. And she’d noticed the pause just before Tom introduced Abe as his friend. Whatdidyou call your late sister’s father-in-law?
“Thank you. Now as I was saying…”
“You were begging me never to call you Tommy, and then your sister’s father-in-law rolled up and called you Tommy. That’s who Abe is, right?”
“Correct.”
They were almost at the entrance and she was having to really move to keep up with Tom’s long strides. “Actually, just before that—agh, slow down!—I was asking why you were telling me about your theories. I get the ‘unique witness perspective’ thing, but this isn’t TV. Random pilots don’t team up with random MEs to catch random killers. Although if thatwasa show, I’d definitely watch it. The pilot episode at least. Heh.”
Tom smiled a little—and thank goodness, because he’d been clearly stressed by the park encounter. “As would I.” Then the smile faded from his face and he stopped walking, doubtless to emphasize whatever he was about to say, so yikes.
“I’m telling you this because if I’m right, the killer is fixed on you and will try to rectify his or her mistake while you’re still in town.”
“He won’t just let bygones be bygones, huh?”Ugh. Not funny. You don’t have to crack a jokeeverytime like some deranged court jester.
“Perhaps not. And if I’m right, the killer will now fixate on you. It’s likely someone you know, even if only peripherally.”
“Well, son of a buggering switch,” she managed, because sometimes actual profanity was woefully inadequate.
Seventeen
THE LIST
Avoid killer
Return union rep’s call
Sushi?
“You foundwhatin my urine?”
“Marijuana, cocaine, meth, PCP, benzos, oxy, ecstasy, and PCP.”
For a second, Ava thought she was going to topple off the hotel bed. The room actually tilted a bit as she took in the rep’s words. “You… you said PCP twice.”
“Yeah, well… there was a lot of it.”
“Are you fucking kidding?”
“Oh, and you’ve also got a vitamin C deficiency.”
Wait, so I might actually be getting scurvy? That’s amazing!
