Marie Harte - RetroCog

Frank frowned. “I’m surprised the voices in your head didn’t already tell you, Sybil.” Chloe scowled, and he continued. “Mike Buckman hit him with his SUV.”

“You’re kidding me!” Lara gasped. “So Mike is the killer?”

Frank paused. “I don’t think so. I followed Noah’s ambulance to the hospital. Mike seemed genuinely upset when I saw him in the waiting room. Then again, a witness saw him hit Noah, so maybe he was putting on a good show of innocence. Hard to leave the scene of an accident anonymously when someone sees you and you’re wearing a deputy’s uniform.”

“He tried to leave the accident?” Lara wanted to strangle the deputy.

“According to what I heard when I was eavesdropping, Mike tried to call for backup but had trouble with his car radio. He said he left Bill—yeah, Bill Knowles, your number two suspect—with Noah while he rushed into the library to call for help. But when he went back outside to wait, no one was there except for some old lady tending to Noah. And then he noticed his SUV had vanished.”

“No way.”

“Way.” Frank drove them to the small hospital and parked. They hurried inside, bypassing the receptionist, who waved at Frank. A few rooms down the hallway, they found Noah grumbling at Deputy Peters. Noah’s left eyebrow had a dressing over swollen skin. He wore a bandage around his wrist and upper forearm, and his chest had doctored scrapes along his left side. He still wore his jeans, now ripped in places. But the scowl on his face told Lara he couldn’t be too bad off.

“I told you already. I wasn’t watching where I was going. Next thing I know, I’m airborne. I landed hard on my arm and skated down the alley, giving me these.” Noah pointed to his ribs and upper chest. “I’m fine to leave, I’m telling you.” He opened his mouth to say more when he saw Lara and the others in the doorway.

Deputy Peters looked over his shoulder and sighed. “Hey, Lara, Frank. Come on in.” He turned back to Noah. “Well, Mr. First. I guess that’s all, then. If you think of anything else you might have seen, let me know. Here’s my card.” He left his card on the table. When he walked away, he tipped his hat at Lara and Chloe before leaving.

Lara didn’t wait a moment more. She ran to Noah’s side and ran her hands gently over his body. “Oh Noah. What happened? Are you okay?” She kissed his lips, his cheeks, and hugged him tight until he groaned. “Sorry.”

“No, no. That’s okay. You just keep doing what you’re doing.”

Chloe snorted. “Trust Noah to get himself all banged up to add to our drama.”

“What happened?” Frank asked. “Did Mike Buckman really run you down, then try to leave your ass in the street?”

“No.” Noah scowled. “It was my fault, but these idiots are trying to blame Buckman for it.”

“But he hit you.” Lara didn’t know why Noah would defend a man who’d tried to kill him.

“I stepped in front of his truck. Yeah, it’s hazy, but I was seriously freaked by what happened in the library.”

“What happened?” Chloe stepped closer.

Frank snapped his fingers. “ That’s what else I meant to tell you two. Seems the librarian and Noah saw Cecilia Fine. Her ghost materialized in the library by Noah. You should see the crowd over there right now.”

Noah sighed. “Look, let’s get me out of here. I don’t want to talk around other people. We’ll go to Chloe’s room, and I’ll fill you in on what I found out.”

Lara put her hand on his chest to stop him when Noah tried to rise. “Explain what the deputy wanted first. Noah, are you in trouble?”

“I’m not, but I think Buckman might be. After he hit me, someone stole his SUV. Made it look like he’d tried a hit-and-run. Only Buckman was in the library calling for help.”

“So he said.” Frank shrugged. “According to the librarian, he never got through. Some other emergency had the crews tapped.”

Noah groaned. “I don’t know. I was laying there, trying to figure out what the hell happened, when I woke to see some old woman looming over me. I was a little disoriented.”

“But Mike said Bill was waiting with you.” Frank narrowed his eyes. “Was he?”

“I don’t know. But I do know that Buckman is now missing. No one can find him, and his SUV is gone as well. That’s what the deputy wanted to know, if I’d seen anyone else when Mike went into the library.”

Lara wished she understood what had happened, but the important part of it all lay in bed, still alive and kicking. “Come on, guys. Let’s get Noah out of here. We’ll talk at Chloe’s.”

Where she’d demand some answers out of this man, answers that had more to do with him and her than this case. She wouldn’t let confusion and assumption stand between them, not when she’d almost lost him. Lara had no intention of letting anyone have Noah. Not Cecilia, Finn, Mike, or Bill.

No, this man belonged to her and her alone.

He watched the group leave through a narrow crack in the door, titillated at the thought of their plans to take him down. They had no idea what they were up against. He’d killed before, and he’d kill again. The run-in with First had been a test. So easy, so very simple to protest his innocence and then disappear. First looked little the worse for wear, which he’d soon amend. But not before he had a taste of Cecilia. He’d waited long enough.

He rubbed his aching cock. It had been too long since he’d had a woman. He needed Cecilia, and he needed her now. He turned from the stairwell door and had gone a few steps toward the basement when he heard the door open.

“Hey. What are you doing in here? I think Deputy Peters is looking for you.” His girlfriend smiled at him. She had dark hair and blue eyes, but when he closed his own, he could pretend well enough.

He put his hand in his pocket and gripped the switchblade. He’d intended to wait, but he needed a fix. Turning around, he walked back up the steps to meet her. He reached around her and closed the stairwell door. Tugging her with him down the steps, he didn’t need to cover her lips. She knew well the value of discretion.

He whispered in her ear, “You won’t believe this, but I found out who murdered that girl they found a few days ago, and it’s someone no one would suspect.”

Her eyes widened. “Really? Who?”

“One of our own. A civil servant. Ironic, huh?” He pulled her down the rest of the steps, and they stopped under the basement stairwell, where the dim light barely reached. A favorite trysting spot they’d used before.

“Is it Deputy Peters?” She tilted her neck to give him better access. He sucked hard and unbuttoned the front of her white shirt, exposing the swell of her breast confined by a plain bra. The white bothered him. He wanted to see scarlet silk, not serviceable cotton.

“No. Not him.” Thoughts of what he intended to do excited him.

“You’re so hard.” Taken by his arousal, she rubbed against him, enflaming his desire. “But if it’s not Peters, who—”

“I said it’s someone no one would suspect.” Awash in his pending orgasm, he raised his hands to her neck and squeezed. Not playfully, the way they normally did, but with the intent to kill. He breathed in her terror and tightened the pressure, ensuring she didn’t have enough oxygen to cry out. “Our murderer? Sugar, it’s me.”

Noah felt like shit. He didn’t want to admit it, but he felt a bit groggy from the painkiller they’d shot into him at the hospital. The drive to Chloe’s hotel was little more than a blur, but at this point, he didn’t care. He sat up in bed, his back against the headboard with Lara by his side. The woman got prettier every time he looked at her. It was all he could do to remember they had a crowd. The bed was so soft and Lara so close…