I put my arm around her shoulders. ‘Dr Mitchell, when will you get the results of the tests back? I’d like to know as soon as possible.’
‘Is she a client of yours?’
I started to say no, but then I remembered the lost, empty eyes of the vulnerable young woman we’d brought in and decided to lie. I wasn’t sure how far professional courtesy was going to get me, and I wasn’t willing to be another person who abandoned Emerald.
‘Yes. We just started working together.’
‘I should know something by tomorrow morning. I could call you when the results come in, if you want.’ He smiled and tilted his head to the side.
Was this guy flirting with me? I must have crossed into some twilight zone because this kind of attention just didn’t happen to me. First the vampire wannabe gave me jelly knees, and now the handsome doctor was smiling at me in a most inviting manner. I’d bet the combination of the smile and the head-tilt thing always worked for him. I could definitely verify its effectiveness.
‘I would appreciate that.’ Flustered, I finally managed to pull out one of my business cards and handed it to him. ‘Just leave a message any time and I’ll call you right back.’
If one of my almost-clients hadn’t been lying in the hospital missing several pints of blood, I might have been tempted to pull my own smile and head-tilt out of the garage and take it for a test spin. Nancy would be so proud. But considering the circumstances, I just put my professional face back on and behaved myself.
‘She isn’t going to be able to have any visitors today, so it would be best if you return in the morning,’ he explained, also stepping into his official persona. ‘Don’t worry – we’ll take good care of her.’ He winked at me and walked away.
Well, that’s it – I’ve definitely entered a parallel universe. After thirty years of being almost invisible to men, suddenly I’m on the menu. How did that happen?
Ronald went to fetch the van and Midnight retreated in search of a restroom. I sat down in one of the uncomfortable chairs, closed my eyes and circled my head around, stretching out the tight muscles in my neck. After a few seconds I sensed someone behind me and turned to investigate.
A tall, absurdly attractive man inched towards me, madly scribbling in a notebook, totally oblivious to the fact that I was staring at him. He must have sensed he’d reached my chair because he started talking, eyes still on his writing.
‘Dr Knight? I’m Special Agent Stevens,’ he said, finally making eye-contact. ‘I didn’t mean to sneak up on you. Seems I really can’t walk and do anything else at the same time. I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation you had with the doctor. The victim of the attack is your client?’
‘Special Agent Stevens?’ I took in his jeans and white T-shirt. ‘You don’t look like a special agent. Who do you work for?’
‘Sorry. I’d just got home and changed clothes when I picked up the call that there’d been another attack.’ He pulled out his identification from his back pocket and handed it to me.
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Special Agent Alan Stevens. I shifted my eyes from the photo to his face and back again, then returned his ID. ‘Why would the FBI be interested in an animal attack in Denver?’
He paused and studied me as if he was trying to figure out if I was serious or not. ‘This wasn’t an animal attack. I’ve been tracking these cases all over the country. The local police are involved, too. So, is Emerald Addison your client?’
‘You know I can’t confirm or deny that.’ Shit. He’d obviously heard me confirm it to the doctor.
‘That pesky confidentiality thing, eh?’ He grinned and made excellent eye-contact.
‘Uh.’ I played with my hair. ‘What cases have you been tracking? What does Emerald’s situation have to do with them?’ It was definitely time to change the topic.
He smirked. ‘Oh, so you won’t answer my questions, yet I’m supposed to answer yours? I don’t think so. But I’d like your contact information, just in case I think of some questions you can answer. Could I have one of those business cards you gave to the doctor?’
I gave him one and he fished in his wallet for his. ‘Here’s mine,’ he said. ‘If you think of anything that might help me find whoever did this to your client, you can call me. Day or night.’
‘Thanks, I will.’ What an odd fellow.
He locked eyes with me for a few seconds, then shifted his gaze back down to the notebook, began writing furiously again and shuffled a few feet towards the nurses’ station. Midnight, who had been standing off to the side, listening to the exchange, joined me and reported that Ronald and the van were out front. We were just going through the door when Special Agent Stevens suddenly reappeared and grabbed my arm.
‘Oh, by the way, Doc – watch out for the vampires.’
CHAPTER 5
By the time we left the hospital, the mountain skyline was shimmering in the midst of a breathtaking colour and light show. Brilliant shades of red, orange, blue and purple swirled around and through each other, muting into pinks, peaches and lavenders as shafts of sunlight streamed through openings in the kaleidoscope of colours. Off to the east, faint points of light floating in an indigo void sparkled as the sun retreated behind the towering peaks in the west. Nothing’s as magical as a Rocky Mountain sunset.
We were all exhausted and worried about Emerald, and the ride back to my office was a silent one. It appeared my companions had buried the hatchet because Ronald offered to take Midnight home and she accepted. Before they left I rescheduled Ronald’s appointment and thanked him for being such a big help. He seemed ill at ease with my expression of appreciation, but gave me a tentative smile. I looked forward to finding out if I could help alleviate the sadness I saw behind his warm tawny eyes.
I wrestled with myself about whether I should go up to my office and work for a while or head home to a glass of wine and a hot bath. Guilt won the match and I rode the elevator upstairs, daydreaming about sinking into an aromatic bubble-filled tub.
I was gratified to find several voicemail messages from prospective clients and I sat at my desk for the next hour returning calls and answering emails.
I had just decided to pack it in for the evening when my office door opened and two of the whitest men I’d ever seen walked in. I don’t mean just pale, like the British actors on the BBC, but chalk-white. Unlike the makeup Midnight used, the tone of their complexions hadn’t come from a tube. Suffice it to say they weren’t sun worshippers.
One of the men was tall, dark-haired, and handsome and the other short, odd-looking, and muscle-bound.
Startled, I asked, ‘May I help you?’
How did they get in? I’m positive I locked those doors.
No response.
They ambled in and circled around, prowling through the couches and chairs in the middle of the room, their eyes fixed on me.
The shorter of the two came and sat on the corner of my desk and leered at me. He smiled a closed-mouth smile and reached out a tattooed hand to touch my hair. I jerked away.
He wore a sleeveless T-shirt that showed exaggerated biceps and triceps rippling across his upper arms. His hair was that artificial colour of burgundy so popular with the goths, and it flowed down his upper body like stringy octopus arms. His eyes were so light-blue they were almost white. He reminded me of a demented miniature muscle man – a nightmare come to life.
These guys made my stomach hurt. It wasn’t only that they’d invaded my privacy, or that they appeared dangerous, or even that they could assault me at any moment. It was something else, some basic preverbal fear that caused the hairs on my arms to stand up and the warning system in my head to fire a red alert. I kept having the strange, less-than-comforting intuition that death was in the room, and my usually manageable radar was picking up so much fearful information that it plunged into overload and threatened to shut down.