Dreaming of the Wolf (Heart of the Wolf #8)(74)

Jake shook his head. “We’ll be careful. We’re just picking up some of Alicia’s things from her apartment and giving notice. She’s permanently moving in with me.”

“I’ll need your address,” Detective Hanover said. “But think about it. If you change your mind…” He handed Alicia his business card. “Just call me.”

The other detective opened the front door of the apartment, and from the grim look on his face, he probably had learned Ferdinand Massaro was dead. “Can I talk to you for a moment out here?” he said to Detective Hanover, his gaze shifting to Alicia, then back to his partner.

They couldn’t know she was involved in that murder, too, could they?

“Sure.” The detective looked at Alicia as if he knew she had something to do with the latest report, which had her on edge all over again.

The two men left the apartment and shut the door, and the detective’s partner began talking.

Alicia slumped against the couch, realizing just how tense she’d been up until now. Jake wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a comforting hug. But none of them spoke while she and the others all listened, trying to hear what was being said outside the apartment.

Because of the large glass window and their enhanced wolf hearing, Alicia and the others heard the man say, “I learned Ferdinand Massaro is dead. Found in his condo by his cleaning lady the next morning. He’d been murdered the night before. A couple returning from a late-night movie saw a woman fitting Miss Alicia Greiston’s description leaving the condo, frazzled and upset, sometime in the middle of the night. Several blocks from the condo, a cab driver gave a woman fitting Miss Greiston’s description a ride to her car parked in a suburb on the other side of the city.”

“Hell. Now why did I guess she might have been involved in another shooting incident that was connected with Mario’s gang?” Detective Hanover asked.

“Not a shooting this time. Massaro’s neck was broken. The coroner said it had to have been a man who killed him because of the trauma to his neck. But it only figures, Hanover. The little lady gets around. She sure has a hell of a lot more gumption than she appears to.”

“She’s good at staying alive, I’ll give her that. Anything else you can give me before I go in and question her some more?”

Alicia closed her eyes against the pounding headache developing in her temple.

Jake kissed her cheek. “Are you okay?”

“No,” she whispered. “What do I say now?”

Chapter 17

Round two, Jake glumly thought as he pulled away from Alicia and held her hand so she didn’t look ready to collapse under pressure before Detective Hanover returned to her apartment to grill her further. When the detective and his partner returned to the interrogation, the other detective looked almost smug as he watched the proceeding. Alicia hadn’t had time to prepare what she’d say, nor had Jake had time to counsel her.

Tom and Peter attempted to look unconcerned, but Jake could tell both were worried. She’d been at a murder scene and hadn’t reported it. What was she going to say now? Jake was tempted to get one of their lawyers involved before this went any further, but the problem was that the murder had taken place in Denver. They needed a wolf lawyer there to defend her, if that’s what it took. But they didn’t know any werewolf packs in the city, since the packs usually avoided most bigger cities and stayed closer to home. Except for Sherry Slate. Jake didn’t figure she’d like it that he hadn’t been interested in her beyond a couple of dates but now he’d taken up with Alicia and wanted Sherry to defend her.

“So, Miss Greiston, do you want to tell me what happened on the night of July 15 when you visited Ferdinand Massaro at his condo?”

“He told me to meet him at his place. That he had information about where to locate Mario. He left the message underneath my hotel-room door. When I went to his place, no one answered the door. I rang the doorbell several times, but still no answer. I didn’t have his phone number, so I couldn’t give him a call. I figured he’d left. Or maybe I had the time or location wrong. Or he might have.”

“But you say he had left a message under your door. So you must have had the right information.”

“I thought so. But then I thought maybe I didn’t. I hadn’t brought the piece of paper with me.”

“Do you still have it?”

She shook her head. “I tossed it out.”

“So you left the place in the middle of the night and…?”

“Finally got a taxi and returned to where I’d parked my car. Then I drove to my hotel.”

“Why get a taxi to get to your car?”

“I was being cautious in case any of Mario’s men might be following me.”

“Hmm,” Detective Hanover said.

Jake knew she hadn’t parked her car and taken a taxi from there, not when Massaro had grabbed her at the other location, but he couldn’t tell if the detective knew that or not. He assumed the detective would make a note to check out the cab records to verify her claim and find nothing of the sort.

“And then?” The detective looked up from his note-taking.

“I moved from place to place, trying again to track down Constantino and Danny Massaro. When I finally found where they were, I notified the police and they picked them up.”