Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [303]
Tess’s pulse quickened. She blinked, hoping the mirage would not disappear. An incredible wave of relief swept over her as she noticed a wisp of smoke coming from the chimney. She could even smell the wood from the fireplace. She heard a wind chime and immediately saw it hanging from the porch. Along the house, daffodils and tulips were in full bloom. She felt like Little Red Riding Hood finding her way through the woods to her grandmother’s warm and inviting house. Then she realized the analogy might prove more real than fantasy. An alarm seemed to go off in her head. The panic raced through her veins. She turned to run and slammed right into him. He gripped both her wrists and smiled down at her, looking exactly like a wolf.
“I was looking for you, Tess,” he said calmly while she pulled and twisted against his strength. “I’m so glad you found your way.”
CHAPTER 64
Washington, D.C.
Monday, April 6
Maggie couldn’t believe Cunningham had insisted she keep her Monday-morning appointment with Dr. Kernan. It was bad enough that they had to wait for some kind of unofficial permission from the Maryland authorities. How could they be sure Stucky wouldn’t find out? If any of the information leaked, they wouldn’t need to worry about Stucky setting another trap. No, this time he’d be long gone. It would be another five or six months before they heard from him again.
She had made the trip, angry and on edge—an hour’s drive in D.C.’s early-morning rush. And now she had to wait some more. Once again Kernan was late. He shuffled in, smelling of cigar smoke and looking as though he had just crawled out of bed. His cheap brown suit was wrinkled, his shoes scuffed, with one shoestring untied and dragging behind him. He had plastered down his thin white hair with some foul-smelling gel. Or maybe it was the Ben-Gay assaulting her nostrils. The man looked like a poster model for homeless mental patients.
Again, he didn’t acknowledge her as he shifted and creaked in his chair, back and forth, until he decided he was comfortable. This time Maggie felt too restless and angry to be intimidated. She didn’t care what strange insights he might probe from her psyche. Nothing Kernan could do or say would reduce or heal the chaotic storm ticking away inside her chest like some time bomb ready to explode without warning.
She tapped her foot and drummed her fingertips on the arm of the chair. She watched him sift through his mess. God, she was sick of everyone’s messes. First Tully’s, now Kernan’s. How did these people function?
She sighed, and he scowled at her over his thick glasses. He smacked his lips together in a “tis, tis,” as if to scold her. She continued to stare at him, letting him see her contempt, her anger, her impatience. Letting him see it all, and not giving a damn what he thought.
“Are we in a hurry, Special Agent Margaret O’Dell?” he asked as he thumbed through a magazine.
She glanced at his fingers and caught a glimpse of the magazine’s cover. It was a copy of Vogue, for God’s sake.
“Yes, I am in a hurry, Dr. Kernan. There’s an important investigation I’d like to get back to.”
“So you think you’ve found him?”
She looked up, surprised, checking to see if he knew. But he appeared engrossed in the magazine’s pages. Was it possible Cunningham had told him? How else would he know?
“We may have,” she said, careful not to reveal anything more.
“But everyone is making you wait, is that it? Your partner, your supervisor, me. And we all know how much Margaret O’Dell hates to wait.”
She didn’t have time for his stupid games.
“Could we please just get on with this?”
He looked up at her again over his glasses, this time surprised. “What would you like to get on with? Would you like some special absolution, perhaps? Some sort of permission to go racing after him?”
He put the magazine aside, sat back and brought his hands together over his chest. He stared at her as if waiting for an answer, an explanation. She refused to give him