Page 14 of Heat of Justice

“Yes.” She nodded. “Yes. I do apologize.”

“No problem. Please, continue.”

“Her cheeks, eyelids, and lips, all had a bluish tinge as if she’d been under the ice or in a freezer for a long time. Her hair was wet.”

Cody took note of this.

“Also, more than the look of her, what hit me was the sense of absolute despair that I felt.” The lawyer shivered as she said this, and some of the color drained out of her own face. “It was like… Like a feeling of death, I suppose. To describe it as cold and hopeless doesn’t half do it justice. Physically, it felt like iceseeping into my bones.” She hugged herself as if for warmth, indeed. “It was the worst kind of despair. I don’t know how else to say it.”

“This is fine. Did you see the rest of her body? Any clue as to location?”

“No, just the face. Also, I sensed…”

“What?”

“Terror. Pure and absolute. I felt it.”

The look in her eyes was so fierce that if Cody were not careful, it might make her shiver too. She cast a brief glance at her notepad.

“Okay. I get the picture.”

Reed flashed a wan smile. “You work special crimes…”

“Correct, I do.”

“So, is this special enough for you, Detective?”

“It’s unusual, for sure.”

“Do you believe me?”

“Yes.”

“Really?” She sounded both doubtful and almost pleading.

“Yes.” Once again, Cody met her gaze. “I believe you saw what you saw, and that you don’t think it was a dream.”

“It wasn’t,” Reed confirmed. “I was getting in my car at the time. Fully awake. I sat behind the wheel, started the engine, and the world disappeared. There was just Cassie’s face in front of my eyes, and that awful feeling.”

“You said you’re not a psychic, so I take it this sort of thing hasn’t happened before?”

“Not in this way.”

Getting personal information out of the woman was as easy as squeezing blood out of a stone.

“In what way, then?” Cody encouraged.

“I mean I’ve always been extra sensitive to people’s feelings and emotions,” Reed clarified. “I can tell when their words don’t match what they’re really thinking, for instance.”

“Must be handy as a lawyer.”

“Sometimes, it is. Though I suppose it more or less comes with the territory in our line of work. I bet you can easily tell if someone’s lying to you.”

“Nine times out of ten, yes.”Like I saw that quick shadow on your face, as if you remembered something unpleasant, you don’t want me to know about.

Cody did not ask, but she noticed for sure. She looked at Reed. Their gazes locked. In the loaded silence that ensued, the last thing Cody expected to see was a flash of sexual heat in the woman’s gaze. But she could have sworn it. She watched her darker skin light up, and a line of color flare across her cheeks.Wow.Cody stared, taken aback at the reaction. It was there and gone in a split second, so fast she might have thought she had dreamt it... But her body obviously received the message loud and clear and reacted to it before she could consciously decide not to. A familiar pulse began to pound between her legs. Heat rose in her own face. She was aroused.Damn! I hope she’s not catching any of this...Fat chance of that, probably. The instant the question occurred to her, Cody watched all the light in Reed’s golden eyes vanish. It was like a roller shutter slamming down on her emotions, denying Cody any further insight behind her private lines.

“Do you need anything else from me?” the lawyer asked in a cool voice.

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