Once inside, Maya eased her head back against the cool leather headrest and closed her
eyes. “That sounds fine, Detective. I could use a cup of coffee right now.”
After giving her one last sympathetic glance, he eased out of the parking space and
headed toward the café.
CHAPTER 2
Mark maneuvered his SUV with expert ease into a space directly in front of the popular
coffee shop. Going around to Maya’s side of the vehicle, he took her hand and helped her out before guiding her into the café.
“I haven’t eaten since breakfast, so I think I’ll have a muffin to go with my latte,” she
said, as she sat in the booth next to him.
“Sounds good. I hadn’t realized it was getting so late. They have great sandwiches here if
you’d like.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been here before.” Maya looked around the dimly lit interior of
the inviting café. The walls were painted in grays and muted blues, a perfect contrast to the abstract prints that hung throughout the cafe.
The exterior had given the impression of a casually dilapidated building, but once inside,
this illusion was quickly dispelled. To the left of the door was a horseshoe-shaped, fully stocked bar, flanked with a dozen or more high-backed wooden stools. To the right was a lounge area with a raised dais, where a woman sat strumming a guitar and singing softly for the small crowd.
There were several smaller tables and booths scattered throughout the café, giving it a
casual put-together elegance. Looking up at him with approving eyes, Maya was going to make a comment when she noticed their waitress approaching them.
As she approached, the woman’s smile considerably brightened as she caught sight of
Mark. Smiling with interest in his direction, she took their orders, looking at him the entire time.
With a slight smile, Maya’s glance stole over the detective.
His close fitting shirt tucked into the waistband of faded jeans that hugged his muscular
thighs. Not only was he handsome, but his body was the picture of male perfection. She had an inexplicable urge to reach out and touch his arm, if only to see if his bicep felt as strong as it looked.
Instead, she demurely sat with her hands clenched tightly in her lap. “Where do we start,
Detective?”
“We can start by me reminding you to call me Mark,” he reminded her with a smile.
“And then why don’t you tell me about Allison, who her friends were, where she hung out.
Boyfriends, girlfriends, anything you can think of.” He withdrew his notebook from his jacket pocket and flipped it open.
“Sure I can do that, but before we start I have a question. Do you know if Ally had a
necklace matching this?” She pulled out a small pendant, suspended on a thin gold chain.
Leaning across the table, his fingers glazed the tops of her breasts as he took the pendant from her fingers. Her breasts tingled from the light contact. Gently he allowed it to fall back into place between her breasts.
“No, I don’t remember a necklace being catalogued in the evidence room. I’ll check
tomorrow to make sure. You know, I kind of remember seeing these when I was a kid.”
Maya remembered how she’d gotten the pendant and smiled in melancholy. “Allison and
I became foster sisters when she was 5 and I was 7. We had both been in the same group home for girls, and bonded pretty quickly as only children can.” She laughed sadly in memory.
Memories of Allison also brought on memories of Santa Lucia Hospital when she’d lost
both of her parents in a tragic accident.
“My parents died when I was five years old. I survived the accident with only a small
contusion. Well, physically at least.”
“I’m sorry,” he murmured in sympathy.
“Thank you.” She paused before continuing, “My grandparents, who at the time I didn’t
know I had, wouldn’t claim me. So I was left with social services and entered foster care. That’s where I met Ally.”
Taking a satisfying sip of coffee, she thought back to the dreary time in her life and of
funny little Allison who had helped make life more bearable.
“At one point we thought we were going to be separated. Allison had been the one
constant in my life for a long time and I didn’t want to lose her. A few days after we were told we may be separated, she gave me this necklace. She had a matching one. She’d been saving it for a Christmas gift but decided to give it to me early, in case she couldn’t later. She said no matter where we were, we would always be together as long as we wore our necklaces.”
When he placed both of her hands into his much larger ones, she allowed his show of
comfort. Taking a deep breath, she expelled it slowly and withdrew her hands as the tears she’d been shedding throughout the day threatened to fall once again.
“I’ve worn this necklace every day since she gave it to me,” her voice sounded thick with
the unshed tears clogging her throat as she fingered the small chain. “I replaced the original chain with a real gold necklace as soon as I could afford to. Ally always wore hers too. She said it was her reminder she had someone who loved her and she mattered.”
“I’ll check the evidence room as soon as I can and find out for you Maya. I promise you.”
He cleared his throat from the sudden obstruction he felt. “How long had your sister been a prostitute?”
Maya wondered, not for the first time, had she not shied away from what Ally had been
doing to earn money, would things have turned out differently for her foster sister?
“When she was around 17, Ally became involved in prostitution. Soon after we’d moved
out on our own.”
She noted his surprised expression. “Ally and I didn’t have the most positive, nurturing
atmosphere growing up.” She laughed sadly. “Drugs, violence, gangs, and
