No one said there was, Ferrell said patiently.
Sophie decided she must be crazy or something. The authorities seemed to be treating her as if she were guilty, instead of the victim-how paranoid could a girl get? Obviously, she wasnt thinking straight. And how could she, given the state of her home? The darned thief had upended all eight purses in her closet. Her computer had been turned on. All her CDs and disks taken. At Ferrells urging, she checked her hard drive, which seemed to have all her data files intact, but it would take her hours of messing with it to be certain.
Bassett intervened at that point, told her they wanted to take her system with them.
What? You cant do that. I need it. Its got all my work on it- Well, that wasnt totally true, because she had her laptop. Her laptop was her secondary backup. But that wasnt the point. The point was that this whole mess was spinning out of control. She had two solid days of translating work to do on her system. The police heard her; they just didnt seem to care. Being broken into felt likean assault. Someone whod never lost their home and family might not get how huge a violation this was. A stranger had touched the things of her heart. Broken them, diminished them. And on top of her neighbors traumatic death last week, it was just too much.
Taking the desktop is necessary, Bassett said, as if that should settle it.
Nothing was settled, as far as Sophie was concerned. The search continued. Her hands got shakier and her stomach queasier. The thief had pilfered through her freezer. What on earth had he expected to find there? And in her bedroom, drawers were yanked open, her lingerie and jewelry strewn all over the place, her moms pearls abandoned on the floor. The state of the pearls made her eyes sting more than anything else. She ran to pick them up-or tried to.
No, Ms. Campbell, Ian Ferrell said gently, The best chance for us to find prints is to work with the items we know the perpetrator touched.
Sophie hadnt had a temper tantrum since she was five. She never lost it. Ever. But tarnation, she was coming darn close. Those are my mothers pearls. No one is taking my mothers pearls or touching my mothers pearls. Thats it, guys. Thats the line. I mean it-
Listen, Ms. Campbell, Ferrell said patiently, our guys will probably be here for just a couple of hours. Do you have somewhere you could go? There isnt anything else you can help us with, so you could get some fresh air.
I dont want fresh air, and Im not leaving the cat.
Now just think, Bassett said flatly, youre not going to feel safe staying here alone tonight anyway, are you? Im sure the cat will be fine. And tomorrow morning, if you wouldnt mind coming down to the station to make a statement-
Are you guys crazy or am I? Ive already made a statement. Ive told you everything I know. Im the one whos the victim here, remember?
At the precise moment she was about to wring George Bassetts jowly neck-or let a bunch of frustrated tears spring loose-she saw Cord striding in her front door.
Maybe she wasnt the kind of woman to depend on a hero-and she hadnt lived a life where she could possibly need one-but when he met her eyes, she flew toward him faster than a thief for a bank vault. He had her tucked under his shoulder in two seconds flat.
Every sensory nerve in her body took him in. His face was windburned, his pulse fast, as if hed been running. He was wearing old corduroys and his battered sheepskin jacket, and he hadnt shaved. The feel of his scratchy chin on her forehead, the heat and strength of his long, tall body-she couldnt remember such a sense of belonging with someone else. Maybe she was just traumatized, but who cared? Damn but he felt good.
You needed more hell, did you? he murmured.
Naturally, she was curious how hed showed up right then, but she didnt ask. She didnt care. This has been a nightmare, she said helplessly. I cant imagine why anyone would have done this to me. Why, how, who-anything. So much wealth around here, why would anyone pick on me?
He didnt answer, just took charge-not in a big, noisy way. He just stepped in, intervened. The next few minutes passed in such a blur that they barely registered. She noticed something in the way Bassett and Ferrell responded to his showing up, the way they talked to him-they knew Cord.
If that should have alerted something on her internal wary scale, it didnt. Nothing did.
Im taking her out of here for a while, Cord told the cops. Get her something to eat, a drink.
She said, Caviars traumatized. I really dont want to leave him alone.
Cord noted the cat cuddled under her coat, gently hooked the mangy feline under an arm and escorted him to her bed in the other room. Hes a tomcat, he reminded her. I do believe hes had a few terrorizing experiences in the past and survived them.
But hes a tomcat who came in from the cold. He wants shelter now. I dont want to let him down.
Sophie.
What?
Youre not letting him down, he said patiently. Were just getting out of here for a few minutes. Grab some food. Find a quiet place to just chill for a while. Then well come back here. Ill sleep next door. You wont be alone. The cat wont be alone. Hows that for a plan?
It was a good plan. It was the best plan shed ever heard. She wanted to be with Cord and away from here, more than anything she could imagine wanting.
But the complete trust she wanted to feel with him wasnt quite there. She wanted it to be. Sophie knew perfectly well she was a sissy in the guy department, too damned afraid of being abandoned to give trust unless she had every lock latched, every T crossed, every possible question out on the table. But stillshe couldnt just make those worry buzzers in her heart totally shut off.
I should call my sisters. And Jan and Hillary and Penelope-the neighborhood women. Theyll have seen the cop cars. Theyll be concerned.
So bring your cell, Cord said.
Well, sheesh. After that, she couldnt think of any more objections.
Bassett and Ferrell undoubtedly thought he was going along with their plans by getting Sophie out of the way, but Cords motivation came from an entirely different source.
Bassett and Ferrell undoubtedly thought he was going along with their plans by getting Sophie out of the way, but Cords motivation came from an entirely different source.
Outside, his car was double-parked-not an uncommon occurrence around D.C.-but at the cost of tickets, a lot easier to pull off when you had the authorities permission. Sophie didnt seem to notice where he was parked. When he helped her into the passenger seat of his Bronc, she flinched at the passing lights of a cop car. By the time hed started the engine, his jaw felt glued together.
She looked more fragile than a rose petal. Fragile, crushable and damned scared. She got out her cell phone, obviously intending to call her sisters and friends, but for a few moments she just sat silently, locked in her seat belt and folded up inside her jacket as if hoping she could disappear.
Cord weaved in and out of traffic, turning right on Pennsylvania, his veins pumping adrenaline. He wished she could do exactly that-disappear. The woman was in danger. And because the cops thought Sophie was guilty of something, they werent going to protect her. They wanted to use her.
It was Ferrell whod called him, and that message was still ringing in his mind. Ferrell told him about the break-in, told him if there was ever a good shot at getting information out of Sophie Campbell, it was now. She could have staged the break-in herself, to divert suspicion. If she hadnt, then whoever Cords brother had been blackmailing believed that Sophie either had the evidence-or knew where it was.
Jons autopsy had come back. Thered been two critical blows-one to the back of the head, one to the forehead. The latter had propelled him down the stairs, and was how hed ended up lying on his back, but it had been the first blow that had really been the killer. There was no hard evidence to pin down the culprit, but according to Bassett, it was either a woman or a short man.
The cops had figured the killer as a woman from the start. More than ever, they wanted Cord to grill Sophie. Or as Ferrell put it, grill her or seduce her. Whatever worked to get information from her.
Cords grip tightened on the wheel while he listened to her calling friends on her cell phone. She left messages for her sisters, didnt reach Hillary, but connected to Jan Howellwho questioned her on every detail, what happened, what the cops said, what shed said, making promises to tell everyone else so she didnt have to repeat the call, offering to immediately come over-on and on. When Sophie hung up, she leaned back against the seat as if too wiped out to hold her head up.
Hillaryshes the one with the extraordinary, um? Cord had a hard time keeping the brunettes straight.
Boobs. Yes. Sophie didnt open her eyes. That figure of hers is so ironic. Shes soft-spoken, very shy, and a doctor-smarter than any ten people I know. Yet all people notice are her looks.
Hard not to.
I know. Women prejudge her, too. Im just sayingshes a true-blue kind of person.
In Sophies judgment, Cord mused. And Jan, the friend you did manage to reach. Shes the real tall glass of water, looks like she dresses at an art museum? The one who starts shooting the bull before shes even said hello?
Sophie opened one eye then. She was great to me when I first moved here and knew nobody.
Which meant, Cord figured, that she didnt think a whole lot of Jan, either, but wasnt about to knock someone whod been good to her. She was a friend of my brothers?
Cord, every woman in the neighborhood knew your brother, and more than ninety percent, Id guess, made a play for him. I never kept track of who he slept with. I didnt care. Still dont.
She changed subjects. I dont want to be gone for too long.
Well be back in a couple hours, no more. Are you hungry for anything special?
I couldnt possibly eat a thing, she assured him.
Uh-huh. He used his cell to order takeout. In less than an hour, hed picked up the brown bag, spread out a stadium blanket from the trunk and had Sophie installed on the grass with a view of the Washington Monument. She plowed through the War Sui Gui, then the Shrimp Fried Rice, then two egg rolls and a little Steak Kow.