Karen Rose - Have You Seen Her?

Thursday, October 6, 11:30 P.M.

"What do you know that you're not telling me?" Jenna asked when they'd stopped in front of her apartment. "You're too quiet. Too something. I don't know. Tell me what you know."

Steven braced himself. "Your brakes were cut, Jenna. Casey's accident was no accident."

Her face drained of all color leaving her white and trembling. "No," she whispered. "They wouldn't." He said nothing, but took her hand and let her squeeze the life out of his. She leaned back, her eyes shut, her lips a strange fluorescent purple in the glare of the parking lot lights. "I thought it, in the waiting room, but didn't want to believe it was true," she said, her voice harsh. "But it is." She clenched her teeth. "Steven, I need to run an errand. Will you drive me?"

"Where?" Steven asked warily.

"Just drive, please. I'll tell you where."

Thursday, October 6, 11:50 P.M.

After twenty minutes Steven stopped, looking up at their destination in a combination of disbelief and a strange feeling of karma. "This isn't a good idea, Jenna."

Her lips were set in mutinous determination. "You don't have to go in. I, however, do."

He guessed she did. He watched for a moment as she got out of the Volvo and marched up to the front door of the house, the whiteness of her karate gi making her look like she glowed in the dark. He caught up with her as she rang the doorbell.

Nobody answered. The house was dark.

"I think they're all asleep," he said mildly.

"Then let them wake up" she gritted and leaned into the doorbell, creating one continuous chime they could hear through the expensive stained-glass door.

Finally a light came on. The door opened revealing a tired-looking woman in a flannel nightgown. A god-awful ugly flannel nightgown. "What is this about?" she asked imperiously.

Jenna pushed the door open and stalked in, leaving the woman agape. "Mrs. Lutz, I'm Dr. Marshall and I want to talk to you and your husband. You might as well cooperate, unless you want to call the police. Then we'll have a nice conversation about what a saintly son you have."

Mrs. Lutz paled. "Get out."

Jenna stood her ground, nose to nose with Mrs. Lutz. "I will not. I will talk to you and your husband. Now."

"Nora, what's going on?"

Steven looked up to see Mr. Lutz coming down the stairs, tucking his shirt into his slacks. Jenna waited until he got to the base of the stairs before speaking.

"I have had enough of your terror tactics," she said coldly and Lutz had the nerve to look bored. Big mistake , Steven thought.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Miss Marshall."

Jenna advanced until she was toe to toe with the hulking man and Steven poised himself to drag her away before it became physically confrontational. "It's Dr . Marshall, you sniveling little man," she said and Steven bit back a grin.

"Nora, call the police," Lutz said calmly.

"Go ahead, call the police," Jenna returned, now as calm as Lutz. On the surface only, Steven knew. "Call Al Pullman of the Investigative Division. I'm sure he'd like to talk with you."

Lutz scowled. "Get out. Miss Marshall."

"I will," she said evenly, "but not until I've said what I came to say. You think you're clever. You think I'll give your son a grade he did not earn. But you're wrong. Not only will I ensure your son never graduates from my school, I will not rest until he's behind bars for what he's done."

Steven watched Lutz but didn't see a single flicker of fear. Either Davies was wrong and Rudy was not the infamous William Parker or Lutz was good. Steven preferred to believe the sonofabitch was good. Really good. But ultimately not good enough.

Lutz said nothing and Jenna shook her head in disbelief. "A few spray-painted epithets I can take. Slashed tires and water in my gas tank I can take. I can even take the dead possum your son hung in my classroom yesterday morning."

Steven straightened. He hadn't heard about that. Animal mutilation was inextricably linked to serial killers. Almost all of them had killed animals at one time or another.

"But," Jenna was continuing, "attempted murder I cannot take. Neither will the police."

Lutz raised a brow. "You're delusional."

Jenna's jaw went rigid. "No, I'm not delusional. I'm alive. But I may not have been and now my best friend's lying in ICU because she drove my car this afternoon. My brakes were cut today, Mr. Lutz. That is not adolescent vandalism. That is no longer a misdemeanor. That is a felony."

Lutz did pale at that. "What are you talking about?"

"I suggest you ask your son." Jenna turned away, then turned back for one more exchange. "One more thing, Mr. Lutz. You'd better be praying my friend pulls through or the charge will be murder. And that doesn't sit well with college scouts."

She turned on her heel and walked out the door. Steven followed her quietly, still mulling over the look of shock on Lutz's face. Of two things Steven was fairly certain. Lutz hadn't known about the brakes nor did he care for the idea of his son being charged with felony murder. Go figure.

Friday, October 1, 12:30 A.M.

Jenna didn't say a word until they were in her apartment with the door closed.

"Son of a bitch,'' she muttered, jerking at the belt on her gi . Her fingers stilled and her shoulders sagged. "Dammit," she whispered and his heart sagged, too. A wave of tenderness washed over him, and with it, a fierce need to protect her.

"Here, let me," Steven said softly and went to work on the knot in her brown belt. He slipped the belt from around her waist and draped it over the soft arm of her sofa. Then he slipped the gi from her shoulders and laid it on top of the belt, leaving her in T-shirt and the gi bottoms.

And a bra , he thought, tenderness sliding over to make way for lust. He tried not to think about it. "Turn around," he ordered, his voice husky in the quiet of her apartment. She obeyed and he massaged her shoulders, trying not to let her soft groan distract him from his relatively innocent task.

To make her feel good. To take away her stress. Be honest. To get your hands on her again .

"That feels good," she said thickly, dropping her chin to her chest. He pushed her ponytail to one side and went to work on her neck. Tried to ignore the urge to kiss it. Tried to ignore the throbbing of his body. His erection was nothing new. He'd been stiff as a board since she'd given Lutz a piece of her mind. She'd been magnificent. But this was different. This was more.

He gave in and dipped his head, brushing his lips across the back of her neck, her sigh making his heart beat faster. Slipped his left arm around her, bracketing the underside of her breasts while his right hand massaged the long, lean line of her spine. Felt her heart beating hard against his arm. Felt her settle her incredible ass against his groin. He fought the urge to thrust, to bury himself deep inside her. He moved his arm, over and around so that her breast fell into his hand.

She drew a breath and he didn't move. Neither did she. "Jenna," he whispered.

"What?" she whispered back.

I want you , his brain screamed . I want to come inside you and pound and pound until everything else in the universe goes away . "I want to kiss you."

She was quiet a moment, then drew another deep breath, pressing her breast into his hand, her nipple as hard as a diamond against his palm. "On one condition."

"Which is?" he breathed, ready to grant her anything.

"That you don't run away again," she whispered and he groaned.

He spun her around, pulling her into his arms, grinding his mouth against hers. Finding relief in the kiss even as the wanting built hotter and higher. Her arms came around his neck and she pressed against him, her breast to his chest. Her hips against his hips. Her soft mound against the hard ridge of his cock.