and then go over to my place?” She wasn’t sure why she’d attached so fiercely to the idea of independence-she didn’t actually relish the idea of being alone in the houseboat. Yet something com-pelled her not to accept his offer. She felt it showed weakness to accept. “Leave just one guy to watch my dock.”
“Walker’s a fisherman, Matthews. He’s probably just as likely to try a water approach. I don’t have the manpower. Even if I did, I couldn’t justify it to a lieutenant who doesn’t want you staying there. Do me a favor, don’t make me take another meeting with the Sarge. He’s in a stink. I don’t need it, not tonight. If we turn up Walker, I’ll promise to call and let you in on it, okay?” It hadn’t occurred to her that they might not include her in on this interrogation, but with her as the “victim,”
it suddenly made sense. “The number I’m going to call is my own loft, not your cell. You copy that?” He added, “In the meantime, I’m going to advise dispatch that you’ll continue to wear the wire, right up until you undress for bed. Okay?” She gave him a look. He said, “Don’t give me that. This is not kinky. It’s just on the off chance this guy’s holding another ace.” He wouldn’t let her get a word in edgewise. “Don’t forget, Matthews, it was you who put this notion into my head that this bozo might be cozying up to nabbing you, not the other way around. You got any peeves, you take it up with the lady in the mirror, not me, okay?”
She resolved herself to the notion that attending Walker’s interrogation was far more important to her than where she laid her head for a night. Besides, secretly, with all his gab, LaMoia had convinced her she didn’t want to spend the night alone anyway. Having a dog and a cop down the hall was just fine with her.
The wind gusted as if someone had switched on a fan. Elliott Bay whipped up into a white-capped froth that rocked the lumbering ferries side to side. Upon reaching LaMoia’s loft, Matthews had initially misunderstood Blue’s incessant whining, believing the dog missed its master, as did she, only to realize he needed a trip around the block to relieve himself. Donning one of LaMoia’s slickers and an old felt hat, Matthews set out for a quick trip around the block, bringing the Beretta along in the right-hand pocket as a security blanket. The formerly indus-trialized neighborhood was a hubbub of commerce by day-a coffee shop, a rug store, a gourmet market, a magazine and newspaper specialist, a smoke shop-but by night little more than a rolled-up sidewalk in a loft neighborhood, the curb lined with Range Rovers and Troopers, the black-leather-jacket set strolling in pairs during good weather, renting DVDs and staying home when it rained.
Blue left his mark on a few dozen vertical surfaces, from the corners of buildings to NO PARKING signposts. He staked his territory out like a surveyor, marking a street corner and actually waiting for her to lead him across the street.
When the slanting rain hit, she thought of her partially open bedroom window-of many of the loft’s windows- and picked up the pace of her return. A drizzle was one thing, but this kind of sideways storm could soak the place.
Perhaps it was nothing more than the anxiety of wanting to seal the loft from the storm and the accompanying adrenaline that pumped into her system, but a few minutes after she picked up her pace, a few minutes into realizing that she and Blue were inauspiciously alone out on this street-where had everyone gone? — an agitation overtook her, like the feeling when a limb aches and itches from the inside out. That awful feeling begged her to check ahead of her and behind, left to right, in an increasingly frantic effort to see if anyone was following her. Paranoia swept over her as quickly as had the wind.
When Blue’s pace quickened, the nails of his paws scratching the sidewalk’s concrete in a flurry of sharp strokes, it drove her heart rate faster, pushed her legs first into a jog and finally an outright run, the two of them in competition now, Blue heeling to her side, his wet tongue dangling, Matthews lifting her knees, rocking her ankles, controlling her breathing to where they closed the last two blocks back to the building in a full-on sprint.
Winded, and yet laughing as she told Blue what a good dog he was, she let them back into the building and took the stairs, eschewing the assistance of the elevator. It felt much warmer than when they’d left. She reached the apartment door, slipped the key into three of the five locks available, and unlocked it.
She unclipped the leash, patted Blue on the head, and was hanging the slicker back onto the coat tree when Blue’s slobbering turned her around.
The dog was licking the floor. He glanced up toward Matthews as he did so-as if he knew better-put his nose to the plank flooring, and then advanced several feet and licked again.
For a moment Matthews thought how cute a sight it was, but that moment passed quickly, followed by an inaudible sucking for air in a room that suddenly offered none: Blue was licking water off the floor-water, in the form of wet boot prints.
Blurred Vision
A moment earlier, while out on the street, Matthews had been feeling sorry for herself for being alone. Now she wondered if she were alone, and wished more than ever that she was. She wondered if she’d tracked those prints into the apartment a half hour earlier herself. Had they already been there then, and she’d simply missed them because of Blue’s pestering?
“John?” She called his name three times, each louder than the previous attempt.
She backed up and blindly reached behind herself, never averting her eyes from the expanse of the loft and its long wall of rain-streaked windows, water tangled on the surface like silver thread. With her right hand she unlocked each of the three door locks that she had relocked only moments before-she wanted a quick exit if needed. Her left hand searched the slicker, located the Beretta, and slipped it quietly out of the pocket. She switched off its safety, chambered a round, and took it in both hands, barrel pointing down and slightly to her side.
She cleared her throat. As she spoke, Blue lifted his head attentively. “I am armed!” she called out loudly into the room.
“I will shoot on sight! Go away now, or announce yourself! I repeat: I am armed!” … and dangerous, she thought. She squat-ted, an act that Blue took as an invitation to be petted, friskily trotting his way over to her. She pushed the dog out of the way-an act he took to mean she wanted to play. She pushed him again. Blue nuzzled her, nearly tipping her over.
One set of prints, the beaded water thicker to her right, lessened to her left, the soles of the shoes having shed most of the rainwater after only a few steps. The angle of the track suggested an origin in the guest room-her bedroom.
“Go away now!” she hollered again. To Blue she whispered, “Find him,” motioning out into the room. The dog looked at her curiously, nearly obeying, but holding by her side uncertain of the game. “Find him!” she repeated, the dog thumping its tail, a mixture of excitement and confusion. She stepped deeper into the room, her head light, her arms heavy. She considered turning around and running, but only briefly. She was done running, tired of playing the victim. Sometimes the role of victim was a product of one’s situation; sometimes it came down to a matter of attitude, a series of choices. She was the one with the training, the one with the pistol, the one with the determination. It was Walker’s turn to fear her; Prair’s turn to fear her.
She reconsidered those shoe prints, slowly convincing herself that they were hers, as the mind is wont to do under such pressure. She wasn’t about to squat and spend more time inspecting the floor, wasn’t going to be caught off guard by the intruder.
“Walker?” she called out loudly, moving cautiously through the loft, Blue panting at her side.
She swung the weapon, still aimed at the floor in front of her, right to left, left to right, a slowly tracking metronome.
Sweat trickled down her jaw as she flashed with heat, her eyes dry and stinging. The windows rattled in unison behind a gust of wind. The air smelled of seawater and fresh rain, a combination that on any other night she would have found pleasant, even intoxicating.
Just get me through this, she pleaded internally.
Given the loft’s open floor plan and vastness of space, she felt like a bug in a terrarium-some unseen, monstrous eyeball tracking her as she moved. Her mind raced, a restless impatience nagging at her to clear the room as quickly as possible, secure the door and windows, and then call LaMoia. Blue followed on her heels, a worried whine escaping him like a leaking balloon.
LaMoia would return home at some point, she reminded herself. One option was to get her back against a wall with a good view of the entire room and simply wait for his return. She could call-get someone down here,
