'No,' Buddy interrupted. 'I think he's seen enough of Sara for one day.'
It was ten o'clock by the time Jeffrey left the station. Nearly two hours of his time had been spent calling around the state, making sure other police departments had gotten the flyer on Lacey and knew to be on the lookout for the black Thunderbird. A lot of the cops he spoke with wanted to give him details on open cases they were working. While Jeffrey didn't think he could help some of them, he made all the right noises, hoping the cops on the other end didn't feel like he was giving them lip service. It was more likely some patrol car in Griffin would run across the black Thunder-bird than it was for Jeffrey to find a missing wide- screen television that had been stolen out of a police sergeant's mother's house, but he wrote down and repeated back the serial number anyway.
Despite what he had told Nick, Jeffrey wanted to see what he could find on the Internet on his own. With Brad's help, they had found thousands of sites under the general heading of 'girl- lovers.' Brad's face had turned completely white by the third site they visited, and Jeffrey had dismissed the young patrolman and tried to navigate the Web on his own.
Even with Jeffrey's rudimentary knowledge of the Internet, he was able to find links to site after site containing images of children posed in various compromising positions. By the time he signed off, Jeffrey had felt the need to take a shower just to clean some of the images from his mind. Sara was right. Maybe some distance from the case would give him some perspective. As it stood, Jeffrey did not know where to look next.
Jeffrey tried not to think about what he had seen on the computer as he drove to Sara's house. He had called Sara before he'd left the station to tell her there was still no word on Lacey and that he was on his way over if she still wanted to see him. Thankfully, she did. He pulled into the driveway, noticing that she had left the lights on for him. When he got out of the car he could hear a soft, jazzy song playing in the house. Sara must have been looking out for him, because she opened the door before he had a chance to knock. Everything that had been troubling him for the last few days left his mind when he saw her standing there.
'Hi,' Sara said, a sly smile at her lips.
Jeffrey was speechless, and all he could do was look at her. Sara's hair was down around her shoulders, the curls softer than usual. She was wearing a silky black dress that wrapped around her body, showing her curves to their best advantage. A long slit up the side showed a hint of leg. She was wearing high heels, and they flexed her calf in a way that made him want to lick it.
She took his hand and led him inside. Jeffrey stopped her in the hallway, and pulled her close to him. The high heels added about three inches to her height, and Sara leaned her hand on his shoulder while she slipped off the shoes so that she would be back at eye level.
'Better?' she asked. When he did not answer, she leaned in, brushing her lips across his. He kept his eyes open as long as he could, watching her kiss him. Her mouth was sweet, and he tasted wine and a bit of chocolate on her tongue.
Jeffrey closed the door behind him still watching her. He could not remember a time when she looked more beautiful, even with the Band-Aid on her forehead.
She said, 'I don't want to talk about my day, or your day, or what's going on.'
All he could do was nod.
Sara leaned her arm against the wall, giving him a quizzical look. 'Cat got your tongue?'
Jeffrey put his hand to his chest, trying to articulate how he felt. 'Sometimes,' he began, 'I forget how beautiful you are, and then I see you…' He let his voice trail off, trying to find the right words. 'It just takes my breath away.'
She raised an eyebrow, as if to ask if he was feeding her some kind of line or not.
'I love you, Sara,' he said, taking a step closer to her. 'I love you so much.'
She seemed to be fighting a smile, and he loved her even more for that. As long as Jeffrey had known her, Sara had never been able to take a compliment.
She said, 'I guess this means you like the dress.'
'I'd like it even better on the floor.'
She stood away from the wall, and he watched as she reached behind her and did something with her hands. She wasn't wearing anything under the dress, so when it fell to the floor she stood completely nude in front of him.
Jeffrey drank her in, craving her in a way that frightened him. He went down on his knees and kissed her until she could not stand anymore.
Wednesday
Chapter Twelve
Lena dreamed that she heard a hammer pounding against a nail. When she rolled over in bed, she half expected to see her hand being pinned to the floor, but wh at she saw instead was Hank, tapping out the hinges to her bedroom door.
Lena sat up in bed, yelling, 'What the fuck?'
'I told you things were gonna change,' Hank said, still tapping at the pin holding the hinge together.
'Jesus Christ,' Lena said, putting her hands to her ears, trying to block out the hammering sound. She looked at the clock on the dresser. 'It's not even six o'clock,' she yelled. 'I don't even have to be at work until nine today.'
'Gives us plenty of time,' Hank said, sliding the pin from the hinge.
'You're taking off my door?' Lena demanded, pulling the sheet to her chest even though she was wearing a heavy sweatshirt and matching pants. 'Who the hell do you think you are?'
Hank ignored her as he started working on the top hinge.
'Stop it,' Lena ordered, getting out of bed and taking the sheet with her.
Hank kept tapping, still ignoring her.
He said, 'Things are changing, starting today.'
'What things?'
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of notebook paper. 'Here,' he said, handing it to her.
Lena unfolded the paper, but her eyes could not focus on the words. She was reminded of when she was a teenager, and Hank had not approved of a boy Lena was seeing. His solution then had been to nail her bedroom windows shut so that she would not be able to sneak out anymore at night. She had pointed out this was a fire hazard, and Hank had countered that he would rather see her burned alive than hooked up with that trash she was seeing.
Lena tried to take the hammer from him, but he was too strong.
She said, 'I'm not a baby, goddamn it.'
'You're my baby,' Hank said, jerking the hammer back. He tapped out
