LITMIR.BIZ

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not get the whole story. I thought it was worth taking the chance, and the air force didn’t agree.”

      “So, was my brother contacting Ahern? He’s here on base. He could easily have helped Boyd.”

      “True, but the unproven suspicions regarding Ahern are for petty crimes and vandalism. Besides, as you said, he’s a great mechanic. Why would he risk his air force career?”

      “Him?” She jumped to her feet. Anger had taken over. “What about me? I love the air force. I worked hard to get to where I am, and I intend to stay until retirement. Why would I do something that would cost me so much?”

      “Whoa. Calm down.” Speaking quietly, Linc joined her and reached for one of her hands.

      She jerked it away. “Why should I calm down? The whole base has been treating me like a leper ever since Boyd showed up and started doing his Red Rose Killer act here. You Security guys have made me the main focus of your investigation. All that does is convince everybody that I’m a part of his crimes.”

      “It isn’t just that. Really. Listen to me. My assignment may have started out as a normal surveillance of your activities but it has turned into more, at least for me.”

      Once again, he reached for her hand, and this time Zoe didn’t pull away. “Explain.”

      “It’s beginning to look as though you may be the target of some dirty tricks, okay?”

      “You mean like opening my apartment door and leaving it ajar?”

      “That and maybe the guy with the knife, not to mention your fake chauffeur this morning.”

      “Have they located him?”

      “No, but one of the cars had additional miles on it so we had it dusted for prints. It had been wiped down.”

      “Wonderful. Just like my apartment and that warehouse door. Why can’t crooks be as dumb in real life as they are on TV?”

      “They all make mistakes eventually. The trick is never giving up and following every lead.”

      Zoe couldn’t help being bummed. “I suppose nobody is looking for the redheaded shooting victim I saw.”

      “Not that I know of. Do you think that was a setup, too?”

      “It almost had to be to leave no clues. I’ve been over and over what happened that day and I still can’t figure out why anybody would want to stage a fake murder or would have known I was in that warehouse and in position to see it.”

      “We came to the same conclusion.”

      “Unless you weren’t the only one following me.”

      “Star never alerted.”

      “Yeah.” She sighed noisily and gestured around the room. “Like in here, this morning.”

      “Not exactly. She did seem to hit on trails, but they were pretty much all over the place.”

      “Could she have been mistaken?”

      Zoe felt his fingers tighten around hers and noticed a hardness in his gaze that indicated intensity she couldn’t explain until he said, “No. I think she was picking up the scent of somebody who had been walking around inside your apartment and had covered a lot of ground.” He paused, then added, “I suspect whoever has been in here may have been doing things to try to convince you you’re losing your mind.”

      “Gaslighting me? Why would they do that? Are you joking?”

      The somber way Linc shook his head told her otherwise. “No. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes. I want you to start keeping track of every time you notice an anomaly. I don’t care how insignificant it is. Write it down along with the time of day and the date. We need to see if there’s a pattern.”

      Zoe would have pulled her hands free and gone to get a pen and paper right then if she hadn’t been so comforted by Linc’s touch. A few more seconds of drawing strength from him wouldn’t make any difference in the long run. Some of the instances of confusion were etched in her memory while more minor ones had been forgotten. They could start with her stronger memories and build from there.

      Raising her gaze to his, she was met by a softening of his green eyes and the promise of a smile. Her lower lip trembled, as did the hands he was grasping.

      “It’s going to be all right,” he told her.

      When he put it that way and looked at her with such gentle strength, she didn’t doubt him for a second.

      His lips were so close, his manner so inviting, she had to struggle to keep from rising on tiptoe and kissing him. Their clasped hands formed a barrier between them that was helping to keep them apart, until he released her and bent to close the distance.

      Zoe closed her eyes and gave in just as Linc apparently gained control of himself and pulled away. To her embarrassment, she almost staggered forward to kiss empty air.

      He caught her shoulders, righted and steadied her, then smiled sadly as if he’d read her mind. “Not a good idea, I’m afraid.”

      Moritfied beyond belief, she shook loose and denied everything with a quick reply. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

      His laughter as she stomped away grated like spinning tires throwing up loose gravel.

      It wouldn’t have been so bad if he hadn’t been right.

       NINE

      Star was napping on the sofa beside Freddy, but Linc was so uptight by the time Zoe finished relating all the questionable instances of the past few weeks he had to pace.

      Reaching the boundary of the small living room, he spun around to face her and pointed at the tablet on the kitchen table in front of her. “I can’t believe you didn’t bother to mention all this.”

      “Most of it could have been my imagination. You said yourself that I’ve been under a lot of stress.”

      “Forget that. Think. See yourself as the victim and assume all these things were done to unsettle you. Who would be that vindictive?”

      She huffed and arched both eyebrows. “Lately? There isn’t enough paper on this pad to list the names of all the people who seem to be upset with me. Ever since Boyd showed up at Canyon Air Force Base and my name was linked with his, I haven’t even had an invitation to go out for coffee.”

      “You’re exaggerating.”

      “I wish I were. I go to work, do my job, come home to Freddy, then do it all over again the next day. My social life is the pits.”

      “Unbelievable.”

      “Yeah?” She rolled her eyes. “Believe it, Colson. Sharing this pizza with you is the closest I’ve come to having company in weeks.” He heard her huff before she continued. “But at least that beats being hit on by airmen who think that just because I’m a single woman I must be ready for romance.”

      “There is the problem of crossing ranks being forbidden. Don’t they understand how much trouble you’d be in if you accepted dates with them?”

      Zoe chuckled. “Yeah, well, it doesn’t seem to bother them to try. I think it’s probably a challenge to see if their macho appeal is enough to get me to step over the line. Most of them are pitiful.”

      “Gotcha.” Linc rejoined her, sat with his elbows resting on the table and pulled the list to him. “I suppose there’s no way you can recall names, is there?”

      “Mostly, no. A lot of the offenders were my students of course, because I have the most one-on-one contact with those. I think a few even thought they could overturn my decisions to wash them out by romancing me. There were times when it was actually hard to

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