Page 51 of His UnBearable Touch

The second policeman stepped in, holding a hand up in surrender. “Mr. Orsino, I’m afraid we got off on the wrong foot.” He gave his partner a significant look. “We maybe a little surly because we’ve been running around all night trying to find Miss Rossetti to make sure she’s alright.”

Valerio heard the tension in his voice and saw the dark look in the other man’s eyes. It was worry… concern.

“What happened?”

The first policeman hesitated.

“I’m sure you gentleman have heard about our firm. If not, I can get the Chief of Police and the District Attorney on the phone to vouch for us.”

The second policeman waved him off. “No need for that, sir. We’re just being careful.”

Valerio heard the truth in their words. “I appreciate that.”

The officer jumped right in. “We responded to a call at Miss Rossetti’s apartment tonight.” One of the men looked at him to gauge his reaction. “It was a fire alarm.”

He nodded once, struggling to fight his bear back down. He wanted to turn around and leave them at the elevator and go upstairs to Allegra, but he knew there was more to the story.

“Someone set the blaze intentionally.”

That, he could have guessed.

“There was quite a bit of damaged before the flames. Pillows and bedding were slashed. Stereo broken, smashed to pieces. There was quite a bit of damage before they poured what smelled like gasoline on… well, they poured gasoline on the bed and lit it on fire.

“We called the Director of the music group she plays with. They told us about you.”

Valerio picked it up from there. “And you came down instead of calling, because you wanted to make sure that Allegra was alive and well.”

“And that she’s here because she wants to be, Mr. Orsino.”

“You can follow me upstairs if that is truly your aim.” He looked at them in turn. “But if your intent is to upset Allegra then I will have you forcibly removed from the building.”

He stepped back into the elevator and waited. One of the policemen stepped inside, the other hovered outside the door for a minute.

Valerio waited patiently. He was in no hurry to take them home. It was the policeman already inside the elevator that spoke to his partner. “You coming, Joe?”

The other man looked Valerio over from head to toe. “And just who will ‘remove’ us from the building, sir?”

Valerio saw the man wince and knew that the policeman had seen his eyes bleed black for a milli-second. “Me.”

* * *

Allegra yawned and heard Essa chuckle from behind his music stand.

“Sorry,” she started to apologize and yawned again. “Really,” she turned toward the rest of the orchestra, “my apologizes.”

Zane, a young man from Seattle who had a true talent for the French Horn, called out from the Brass section. “No worries, Allegra. I was out late last night too.”

Allegra smiled in the direction of his voice.

“Just last night?” Linda scoffed from her seat. “You mean ‘again.’”

Essa tapped his baton on the stand. “Gentlemen? Ladies? Focus?”

The group settled down and Essa continued to speak. “After our successful performance at the Zoo, our Board of Directors have organized another event in public before our next big concert.”

An excited rumble of voices moved through the group. Allegra tensed up and tried not to show it.

It was hard enough to focus on the concert, but adding another event was just about enough to give her a panic attack. Being in public was another adventure for her, one that she’d never felt entirely confident about when she could see. Going out in front of a large crowd now should be easier since she couldn’t see them, but it had its ups and downs. It would, she decided, depend upon the venue.

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