Agent with a History

  Chapter Five

  Locksmith

  Bright sun was poring through the half open blinds, and I starred at the sunny beams dreamily for a moment, before abruptly jerking upright in the bed.

  How late had I slept?

  I glanced at the clock. It was after eleven!

  The captain is going to kill me! I reached for my phone, which is when I saw the plain white card with a single phone number laying on top of it.

  So it hadn’t all been a dream. My strange encounter with a murder suspect had really happened last night.

  He wasn’t the murderer, I knew that, but he was involved in some way. I needed to find out how.

  The sun showed more writing on the card and I turned it over and read in a bold cursive script, ‘PS, if you need a safe place to run to for shelter, go to this address. The door locks automatically so don’t freak out when it does. Again, a onetime only use.’ The address was listed below.

  I got up feeling very much like a new person, although my cheek was sore, as well as my rib cage, where I’d taken an elbow.

  I went to the bathroom and lit a match to burn the card, having already memorized its contents.

  He’d said I was a good cop. I wasn’t so sure, seeing as how I was currently destroying evidence. I watched the cursive writing on the back burn to ash in the sink. Then it hit me.

  He hadn’t mentioned anything about a safe house last night, just a phone number. Which meant what?

  I walked past my bed to the open living room beyond. The pillow at the one end of my couch had a dent in it!

  He’d come back!

  Why?

  One of my kitchen chairs was missing and I glanced over at the door to see it sitting beside it ready for use. He hadn’t wanted me to be here alone without the chair in place!

  My stomach rumbled, reminding me of how long it had been since I had really eaten something. I went to my small kitchen. The first thing I noticed were the dirty dishes in my sink. He had eaten breakfast in my apartment!

  I opened the refrigerator. There was a glass of orange juice, already poured, sitting on the top rack with a sticky note on it that had an arrow pointing toward the stove. I picked up the glass and cautiously opened the oven door.

  A small oven dish sat there. I pulled it out. It looked like he’d made some kind of a breakfast egg quiche. It was still warm.

  I stood there looking at the baking dish in my hand in a state of profound shock. Why? He’d come to warn me, and I think he was entirely on the level when he had done that, but why all of this?

  The answer was there even though I didn’t want to acknowledge it. He must like me was the simplest answer.

  I wasn’t sure I was ready for that kind of relationship, if I’d ever be ready, and beyond that he was a suspect in a murder investigation. Not exactly boyfriend material.

  Even if he wasn’t the murderer, he was waist deep in something highly illegal. And yet why, even after considering all the facts against the man, had I known yesterday when I saw the sketch that this man was going to profoundly change my life.

  I glanced at the clock. It was going on twelve. I had to get out of here! I sat down and ate, then got ready for the day in a hurry.

  As I stepped up to the door I saw that cooking breakfast wasn’t the only thing he had done. He had switched out my door lock and replaced the deadbolt with a new one!

  A key for each sat on the chair by the door, which meant that he had the duplicate keys. Somehow that didn’t bother me as much as it should have.

  I picked the keys up and stepped outside and locked the door. I let my head fall forward against the door. I had burned a sample of his writing and he had no doubt left finger prints all over my apartment, but was I calling anyone to report it? No.

  How could I explain why he’d spent the night in my room anyway? It was too embarrassing to even contemplate. He had been wrong. I was a terrible cop, at least where he was concerned.

  Old Mrs. Thachet came out of her apartment two doors down. When she saw me her face lit up and she gave me two thumbs up. My face completely flushed; she must have seen him!

  I tried to hurry past, but she reached out and snagged my arm. What must she be thinking?

  “So nice to see you settling down dear, but remember,” she tapped her wedding ring, “This first and then…...” She patted my stomach with a knowing nod, as her voice trailed off.

  My face felt like it was about to become molten lava. I managed to smile wanly, and I pulled my arm free as I stepped away sideways toward the stairs.

  Oh, this was bad!

  Mrs. Thachet was the worst gossip in the whole building, bless her heart. It would be common knowledge by tonight that I had a man. I groaned inwardly.