Page 75 of Diagnosis Attraction

“Yeah, but you’re forgetting we have an advantage. We can sway his thinking.”

She gave Matt a worried look. “It didn’t work with Lang.”

“Unfortunately.”

“Do we know why?”

“Maybe because his nasty image of himself was so much a part of him that he wouldn’t listen to anyone else.”

“I hope that’s true. And I hope it’s not true of Harrison.”

They negotiated back and forth through e-mail for several hours. Finally, they agreed to meet the detective early in the morning alone in the parking lot of a shopping center, where they hoped they could make a quick getaway, if necessary.

Matt and Elizabeth said goodbye to the women they’d rescued, as well asDonna Martinson.

The women from The Mansion were still adjusting to their new freedom, but Donna took Elizabeth and Matt aside with a worried look.

“Can you keep them out of any investigation?” she asked.

“That’s what we’re trying to do,” Matt answered.

“But it might not be possible,” she countered.

“I think it is,” Matt said, praying he was right. “In any case, we won’t be coming back here.”

They left Donna still looking worried.

In the car, Matt picked up on Elizabeth’s troubled thoughts. “We can only do our best.”

“Which better be good enough.”

On the way to the shopping center, they discussed how they would handle the detective.

“The first question is—can we trust him?” Elizabeth asked.

“I think he’s gotten a pretty good idea of what kind of people we are,” Matt answered.

“Not telepaths.”

He laughed. “No. Upstanding citizens trying to help some women in distress. And he’s going to want to go to bat for us.”

“We hope.”

“We’re going to reinforce that.”

They pulled up in an area where a few cars were parked and watched the place where they’d said they would meet.

Harrison kept his word and drove up alone in an unmarked car, stopping near a fast-food restaurant.

Matt and Elizabeth made him wait ten minutes before pulling up nose to tail with his vehicle.

The driver of each car rolled down his window so they could talk.

Harrison began, “You know I don’t usually do this kind of thing.”

“We understand, and we appreciate it.”

“Why the cloak and dagger stuff if you’re innocent?”

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