“Now,” Detective Hanover said, “my father happens to be the police chief in Breckenridge and led the investigation.”
Police Chief Winston Hanover. Of course. She’d met him when he was trying to solve her mother’s murder several months earlier. Who would have thought his son would now be interrogating her in another incident?
“My father was unsuccessful in locating the missing woman, you, Miss Greiston. He assumed you had gone missing, not wanting to see Mr. Silver any further. Although my father was still concerned about your interest in Constantino, that the mobster has been spending time in the area, and that you believed there was a connection between the man and your mother’s death, not to mention her lover’s murder as well. None of which my father has been able to corroborate to date.”
Alicia barely breathed.
“So what happened, Miss Greiston? Why did you suddenly disappear from your hotel that day?”
“The note containing the death threat explains it all. I feared for Jake’s life and left before Mario killed him for hanging around me.”
“And now?”
“Jake assures me that Mario has no chance at doing him any harm.”
“Hmm,” the detective said. Then he flipped to another page in his notebook. “Then a day or so ago, a 9-1-1 call was made from the Cliffside Art Gallery, and the woman frantically tells the operator that a woman is in trouble. Her name is, surprisingly… Alicia Greiston. But the woman quickly tells the operator it’s a false alarm and the woman had passed out due to being pregnant. Since no real medical emergency existed, the operator concluded the conversation. But when my father heard of the call, his interest was instantly piqued. Now he knows the woman is still around, still alive, but he’s disconcerted that he hadn’t had a chance to talk to her… you.
“But it doesn’t end there. That night, another 9-1-1 call is made. A high-school buddy of mine gets the call about the shooting at Crestview Motel, and guess who’s at the heart of the shooting? Why our elusive Miss Greiston. Of course, Detective Simpson didn’t know you’d gone missing in Breckenridge or been the subject of the call about a pregnancy mishap…” The detective hesitated, and his gaze dropped to her waist.
She felt her face burn with embarrassment as she could imagine both Peter and Tom looking her over again, trying to figure if that was what all this was about. Had she’d gotten pregnant with Jake’s baby? But the timing wasn’t right, as far her having been turned, if a werewolf couldn’t impregnate a human.
“And now this. It seems as though no matter where you are, trouble follows you. My boss says we need to put you in protective custody, considering who you’re dealing with and how much my father would like to take Constantino down. But I wasn’t sure which one of you he was concerned more about protecting, considering all these shooting incidents that have occurred. You, or the men who hassle you and keep ending up shot or dead.”
And he didn’t even know about the man she’d shot on the trail where her mother had died.
“I’ll be fine with Jake and his family.”
“In truth, you’re bound to put his whole family at risk. There’s a good chance somebody’s going to do something rash and someone you love is going to get blamed for it when they’ve never done anything criminal in their life.” Detective Hanover looked at Jake, as if to say he was the one the detective was talking about.
Jake shook his head. “We’ll be careful. We’re just picking up some of Alicia’s things from her apartment and giving notice. She’s permanently moving in with me.”
“I’ll need your address,” Detective Hanover said. “But think about it. If you change your mind…” He handed Alicia his business card. “Just call me.”
The other detective opened the front door of the apartment, and from the grim look on his face, he probably had learned Ferdinand Massaro was dead. “Can I talk to you for a moment out here?” he said to Detective Hanover, his gaze shifting to Alicia, then back to his partner.
They couldn’t know she was involved in that murder, too, could they?
“Sure.” The detective looked at Alicia as if he knew she had something to do with the latest report, which had her on edge all over again.
The two men left the apartment and shut the door, and the detective’s partner began talking.
Alicia slumped against the couch, realizing just how tense she’d been up until now. Jake wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a comforting hug. But none of them spoke while she and the others all listened, trying to hear what was being said outside the apartment.
Because of the large glass window and their enhanced wolf hearing, Alicia and the others heard the man say, “I learned Ferdinand Massaro is dead. Found in his condo by his cleaning lady the next morning. He’d been murdered the night before. A couple returning from a late-night movie saw a woman fitting Miss Alicia Greiston’s description leaving the condo, frazzled and upset, sometime in the middle of the night. Several blocks from the condo, a cab driver gave a woman fitting Miss Greiston’s description a ride to her car parked in a suburb on the other side of the city.”
“Hell. Now why did I guess she might have been involved in another shooting incident that was connected with Mario’s gang?” Detective Hanover asked.
“Not a shooting this time. Massaro’s neck was broken. The coroner said it had to have been a man who killed him because of the trauma to his neck. But it only figures, Hanover. The little lady gets around. She sure has a hell of a lot more gumption than she appears to.”
“She’s good at staying alive, I’ll give her that. Anything else you can give me before I go in and question her some more?”
Alicia closed her eyes against the pounding headache developing in her temple.
Jake kissed her cheek. “Are you okay?”
“No,” she whispered. “What do I say now?”
Chapter 17
Round two, Jake glumly thought as he pulled away from Alicia and held her hand so she didn’t look ready to collapse under pressure before Detective Hanover returned to her apartment to grill her further. When the detective and his partner returned to the interrogation, the other detective looked almost smug as he watched the proceeding. Alicia hadn’t had time to prepare what she’d say, nor had Jake had time to counsel her.
Tom and Peter attempted to look unconcerned, but Jake could tell both were worried. She’d been at a murder scene and hadn’t reported it. What was she going to say now? Jake was tempted to get one of their lawyers involved before this went any further, but the problem was that the murder had taken place in Denver. They needed a wolf lawyer there to defend her, if that’s what it took. But they didn’t know any werewolf packs in the city, since the packs usually avoided most bigger cities and stayed closer to home. Except for Sherry Slate. Jake didn’t figure she’d like it that he hadn’t been interested in her beyond a couple of dates but now he’d taken up with Alicia and wanted Sherry to defend her.
“So, Miss Greiston, do you want to tell me what happened on the night of July 15 when you visited Ferdinand Massaro at his condo?”
“He told me to meet him at his place. That he had information about where to locate Mario. He left the message underneath my hotel-room door. When I went to his place, no one answered the door. I rang the doorbell several times, but still no answer. I didn’t have his phone number, so I couldn’t give him a call. I figured he’d left. Or maybe I had the time or location wrong. Or he might have.”
“But you say he had left a message under your door. So you must have had the right information.”
“I thought so. But then I thought maybe I didn’t. I hadn’t brought the piece of paper with me.”
“Do you still have it?”
She shook her head. “I tossed it out.”
“So you left the place in the middle of the night and…?”
“Finally got a taxi and returned to where I’d parked my car. Then I drove to my hotel.”
“Why get a taxi to get to your car?”
“I was being cautious in case any of Mario’s men might be following me.”
“Hmm,” Detective Hanover said.
Jake knew she hadn’t parked her car and taken a taxi from there, not when Massaro had grabbed her at the other location, but he couldn’t tell if the detective knew that or not. He assumed the detective would make a note to check out the cab records to verify her claim and find nothing of the sort.
“And then?” The detective looked up from his note-taking.
“I moved from place to place, trying again to track down Constantino and Danny Massaro. When I finally found where they were, I notified the police and they picked them up.”
Detective Hanover studied her for a moment, then quietly said, “But they didn’t. Pick them up.”
Her mouth dropped open, then she snapped it shut.
“They’re free still?” Jake asked, rubbing her hand and having assumed that was the case.
“Yes. The police arrived too late. But if you’re a bounty hunter who’s supposed to be bringing them in, why turn their location over to the police?” Detective Hanover asked Alicia.
“I figured they were too dangerous for me to try and arrest.”
“Because you had witnessed Ferdinand Massaro’s murder.”
Jake could hear Alicia’s rapid heartbeat. He felt her clammy hand in his and knew she was trying to make the best of this situation. He wished he could get her the hell out of this nightmare legally, without causing further stress or trouble for her.
“Murdered?” she asked, her voice hollow, and despite knowing Ferdinand had been murdered already, she sounded convincing enough that she hadn’t already had a clue. “The… the night I went to see him?”
Genuine tears filled her eyes. Jake knew they weren’t faked. She must have been terrified to see what she had in the condo, further horrified that she could have ended up like Ferdinand.