A Profiler's Case for Seduction(66)

Tomorrow would be a better day, she told herself. This darkness will pass. It was one of the things she’d learned in rehab, that if she just waited the world would change to bring back the sunshine.

Funny, since the day she’d left rehab she’d never desired another drink. She’d had no desire to anesthetize her emotions, to drink away her pain. She had learned that was the answer to nothing. It was important that she embrace her emotions and deal with them rather than shoving them or drinking them away.

That was the way she had lived her life for the past three and a half years, and that was the way she intended to continue living her life.

Certainly the healthy philosophy didn’t ease any of her pain, but now she understood that with life came both pain and pleasure and eventually she would find her pleasure again.

Tonight she would walk home alone from the bookstore. There would be no handsome FBI agent to walk beside her, to make her laugh and feel safe and secure. She was no longer afraid of the walk home. She believed that the stalker had been after Mark. It was really the only thing that made sense, that somebody close to the crime would attempt to take out one of the agents working to solve the crime.

The crimes. She still couldn’t believe that Mark thought Melinda was behind the murders, that she’d staged her own kidnapping to provide a sick but seemingly solid alibi.

How she wished she knew more about her older sister. How she wished she’d had the guts to ask Melinda questions, to attempt to forge some sort of bond. But there was no question that Melinda was cold and distant and had never encouraged any kind of personal relationship during the three years Dora had lived within spitting distance of her.

Dora wondered now why she’d decided to help Dora in the first place. Was it possible Micah had made it impossible for Melinda to resist? Or had Melinda wanted Dora close enough to keep an eye on her, to make sure she told nobody about the horrible roots they had shared?

She leaned back in her chair as a couple of male students came through the door. They were rowdy and laughing, trying on a variety of hats in the school colors and bearing the Gladiators logo.

“You going to the bonfire, Dora?” one of the boys asked as he took a school ball cap off one of the shelves.

“I’m not sure.” It had sounded like fun when she’d thought she was going to enjoy the evening with Mark.

“You’ve got to come,” the other boy said. He grabbed a plastic Gladiator helmet and woofed several times as he pumped his arm in the air. “We’re going to kick some birdie butt on Saturday night, but we’ve got to burn a few feathers on Friday.” He set the helmet on the counter for her to ring up. “You’ve got to come. Our fraternity is providing free marshmallows.”

As Dora saw the sparkle in the young man’s eyes, the youthful energy that wafted from him, it was impossible for some of that spirit not to be contagious. “I’ll probably be there,” Dora replied with a laugh. “Free marshmallows are a hard thing for me to pass up.”

Once the customers had left the bookstore, Dora made her decision to attend the bonfire and the game on Saturday night as she always had...alone. Just because she’d made plans with Mark, plans that were now destroyed, didn’t mean she should deny herself the pleasure of the traditional fun.

At eight-thirty she turned the Open sign to Closed and then gathered her things to leave. She stepped out into the encroaching darkness and saw the tall figure that stood nearby.

Her heart both fluttered and sank at the same time. He was the person she least wanted to see right now with her heart so bruised and battered, with the spectrum of her past like a ghost between them.

“Mark, what are you doing here?” she asked, her voice filled with weariness.

“I figured you might like the company on the walk home.” He stood in shadows, making it impossible for her to see his features, to gauge his mood.

“It isn’t necessary,” she replied, forcing a coolness into her tone. It was at that moment she realized he hadn’t only hurt her, but she was angry with him. It was the irrational anger that he knew the worst of her, that he knew all her ugly secrets.

He stepped out of the shadows and into a stream of moonlight that came from the near-full moon overhead. His features were expressionless. “Actually, it is rather necessary,” he replied. “I have some questions to ask you and I’d much rather do it at your place instead of dragging you down to the courthouse.”

Dora stiffened. “Does this mean I’m somehow a suspect in the murders? Do you think I kidnapped my own sister and plotted with her to commit some heinous crime?”