Chapter 3

I was wrong about the police waiting for me when we got back to the apartment. In fact, it looked like no one was there at all. Cassandra accompanied me in. I hadn’t thought about it, but it was her night on the rotation.

Since it was so late, and there wasn’t anything else I could do about Jordan tonight, we went straight to bed. She showed me just how much of her costume was ‘tear-away’ and then crawled over to me as if it were like any other night we had spent together. The problem was, I wasn’t in the mood.

“I know you’re worried about Jordan,” she said softly, “But when you find the spell to track her down, you’re going to need all the energy you can get, because I doubt finding her will result in simply bringing her home.”

I looked at her. “What do you mean?”

“Well, if the caster did take her on purpose, then she’s probably going to be waiting for you to show up. You may have to fight her to get Jordan back.”

I shook my head. “She has access to spells most people have forgotten about. I don’t have the skill to fight someone like that.”

“Which means you’ll have to get more spells than just a tracking spell,” she said. “And you’ll need to practice them.” Then she crawled over me, lining her nude body up along mine.

A wave of euphoria swept through me, followed quickly by the craving to do more than simply touch Cassandra. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her lips hungrily. Her statements were correct. I would need more spells than just tracking, and I would need to practice. I needed the energy sex would give me and I rolled her over to get it.

My alarm clock went off and Cassandra crawled over me to turn it off. With the weather turning cooler, we had actually covered up after knocking a new hole into the wall via the head rail. She curled up against me and I felt both recharged and eager to start the day.

I turned to look into her eyes. “I’m skipping classes today while I gather those spells.”

She was about to say something when someone knocked on the front door.

The alarm system hadn’t gone off, though I wasn’t sure that was a good thing or not yet. I had yet to determine if the spell had been cast correctly, circumvented, or simply shut off. I would have to find out soon since Neil was no longer in police custody.

“Were you expecting someone?” Cassandra asked.

I shook my head. “Go ahead and get ready for work. I’ll see who it is.” I climbed out of bed, grabbed my bathrobe, and went to the door.

Looking through the peephole made the bottom of my stomach drop. I knew I would probably have to talk to them sooner or later, I just didn’t expect them to show up at my apartment so early in the morning.

I opened the door. Special Agents Radcliff and Bolson stood there, along with a couple of detectives I didn’t know. I stepped back and waved them in. “Come in, please.”

Radcliff nodded at the detectives. “This is Lieutenant Williams, and Detective Barns.”

I shook their hands. Williams was tall and lanky with large hands, short hair, and deep brown eyes. He looked older than the others by at least a decade. Barns was about my height though he had a stout build. He almost crushed my hand and looked at me like I was a career criminal he was ready to bust.

I waved at the furniture. “Have a seat. I was about to put on coffee. Anyone care for a cup?”

The only one who did was Williams.

Radcliff got right down to business. “Why didn’t you call the police yourself when your friend was kidnapped?” She said ‘friend’ as though she really wanted to say something else.

“You should know the answer to that already, Agent,” I said as I set up the coffee maker to start brewing. Then I turned to them. “You believed I had something to do with Francine James’ disappearance. Why wouldn’t you believe I had something to do with this?”

“Did you?” Barns asked.

I shook my head. “No. I tried to stop it. I almost got run over in the effort.”

“Why don’t you tell us what happened?” Williams said. “Then we’ll have a better understanding.”

I nodded and did just that. I started with leaving the party, going to the main office to check the ice machine there, then going over to Sonic and spotting the three women. “I saw Jordan with two other women. One of them looked my way. It was Francine James.” I looked at Radcliff, who frowned but didn’t say anything.

I told them about following the women across the street, about trying to get into their car but finding the doors locked, and how Francine was willing to run me over in order to get away.

“Do you recall what kind of car they were in?” Barns asked. There was a certain disdain in his face but his voice was neutral.

I nodded. “A sliver Honda Fit Aria. Two-thousand-three, I believe.”

“You’re sure?” Barns asked.

I nodded. “I worked on cars during my summers back home.”

He nodded and asked, “You didn’t happen to catch the license plate, did you?”

The coffee maker chimed that it was done brewing. I turned and pulled out two cups while thinking about his question. “YT3-FF8A,” I said and handed Lieutenant Williams his cup. “Sugar? Creamer?” I asked him.

He shook his head sipping. “No, this is perfect.”

“What happened after they drove away?” Radcliff asked.

“I came back here. I wanted to go after them, but there’s no way I could have found them. My friends convinced me to call it in. I asked my lawyer to do that for me.”

“You’re lawyer?” Radcliff asked. “Isn’t Linda Morgan a little too close to this case to be involved?”

I shook my head. “I don’t believe so.”

There was another knock at the door. I answered it. Linda pushed her way past me. “What the hell is this? Questioning my client without me present?”

Williams held up a soothing hand. “Easy Ms. Morgan. Mr. Connors isn’t under arrest and he didn’t ask for council.”

Linda threw me an angry glance, but remained focused on the officers and agents.

I looked at Radcliff. “As I said, I don’t believe she’s too close to the case to do her job.”

Linda turned slowly to look at me. “You and I have a LOT to discuss after they leave,” she said softly but intently.

I nodded. “Did you have any other questions?”

Barns looked over his notes. “Why did you go to the Sonic when you didn’t find Jordan at the ice machine?”

I waved at the door. “The Sonic is right next door and they sell bags of ice. It was the most logical place for her to go since the ice machine was empty.”

Radcliff asked, “You said Jordan was with two women, one of whom was Francine James. Did you recognize the other woman?”

“No, but I saw her face. I would recognize her if I saw her again.” I knew she was probably another kidnapping victim so I went with it. “In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if she was another kidnap victim.”

Radcliff pulled out a tablet and tapped on a few things. Then she held it out to me.

There were photos of all the missing women. I scrolled through them until I found the one I saw with Francine and Jordan. It was Anne Townsend. “Her,” I said, pointing out the photo.

Barns and Williams looked. Barns frowned harder, if that was possible, and Williams looked troubled but only for a second. That brought to mind last Saturday being questioned by Agent Radcliff at the police station. I gave her details on my whereabouts and who I was with when Francine was reported missing. It proved I wasn’t responsible for her disappearance. Then I identified two other women who had seen me with Francine the night I arrived on campus. It turned out they were two of the missing women on that same list. Since I had only seen Radcliff and Bolson at the police station, I had assumed at the time that the police detectives involved in the case were watching behind the two-way mirror. Had I been wrong about that? Were the Agents hiding things from the Detectives? If so, that made no sense.