Page 8 of Dark Terror
“I see how you look at her.”
Cara stilled. That had been Doni’s voice. Were they talking about her?
“You’re imagining things, cuz. I look at her the way I’d look at any witness,” Gabe said.
Doni made a half-laugh, half-snort sound. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that.”
Theyweretalking about her, and how was Gabe looking at her? Not wanting them to know she’d overheard their conversation, she quietly backed up into her bedroom. She waited a full minute, then walked down the hallway again. Gabe was shutting the front door, Cricket draped over his arm, as she entered the living room.
“Doni leave?” she asked, amazed that her voice sounded normal.
“Just now.” He set the dog on the floor.
“I wanted to thank her for staying over with me.”
“I’ll pass that on,” he said, his gaze glued to Cricket as if he was making a point not to look at her.
Well, this was awkward.
* * *
“So I guess we just let him go where he wants?” she said to Gabe as they stood on the sidewalk, both of them watching Cricket sniff the grass. She couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation she’d overheard between Gabe and his cousin, and she couldn’t stop trying to see how Gabe looked at her. Except he wasn’t. Hadn’t since his cousin had called him out on it.
Gabe nodded. “Yeah. Hopefully he’ll decide to head home.”
As hard as she tried not to glance over at the stand of trees where the woman had been killed, her eyes went there anyway. “Who are those people?” she asked at seeing two women and a man inside the crime tape.
“They’re from the Bureau of Identification.” At her blank look he said, “What you think of as crime scene technicians.”
“Oh. So they’re looking for evidence?”
“Yeah.” He watched them for a moment, then said, “I need to talk to them a minute. Are you okay with walking over there?”
No, she wasn’t. “Why don’t I wait for you here?”
He glanced around, his alert gaze scanning the area. “Don’t move from this spot.”
“I won’t.” It was a good thing she’d given herself permission to appreciate the fine qualities of Gabe Caulder because her eyes insisted on doing just that as he jogged away. “Nice,” she murmured. When he reached the crime scene people, he glanced back at her, and she knew he was checking on her, making sure she was okay. She raised her hand and waved, letting him know she was good while trying to ignore the warm feeling that a simple glance from him sent through her.
“I might be in trouble, Cricket,” she said. Cricket paused in sniffing the grass and lifted his head, his ears perked up as if listening to her. “I see you agree.”
Hopefully they would catch the killer soon so her role in all this would be done and Gabe Caulder would exit her life and become nothing more than a memory. Cricket growled as he backed up toward her. Curious as to what had caught his attention, she glanced over and saw a man standing on the corner of the library side of the street. He wore sunglasses and a ball cap pulled low over his forehead, and he was watching her.
Cara’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. This morning, in the light of day, she’d convinced herself that there wasn’t any reason for the killer to have an interest in her. She couldn’t identify him, since he’d stayed in the shadows hiding his face. But she could feel menace radiating from the man watching her now, and she followed Cricket’s lead and backed up.
“Gabe!” Oh God, he was too far away to hear her, but the man had to see the people at the crime scene and know they were cops. Surely he wouldn’t be stupid enough to come near her.
Gabe thought he heard his name, and he glanced over at Cara to see her and the dog backtracking. He scanned the area around her but didn’t note anything suspicious. Still, something was wrong.
“I’ll check in with you this afternoon,” he said to Benjamin Page, one of the crime scene techs, and then he headed for Cara.
As he jogged to her, he considered how little evidence they’d obtained from the scene. A shoe print and a used needle a few feet away from where the victim had been found. A drug deal gone bad? As for the print, it was a size 11, a common one for men, so not much help there unless they got lucky and the pattern on the sole turned out to be unique.
“Is something wrong?” he asked when he reached Cara. Fear showed in her eyes, and she stepped close to him. He followed the line of her sight but didn’t see anything to cause concern. She was clearly frightened, though.
“There was a man standing on the corner, watching me.” She shuddered.
“Do you think it was the man you saw last night? Can you give me a description?”
