Midnight Betrayal (Midnight #3)(14)

“It’s hard to say. I don’t know how she acts normally,” he answered. “You’ve tried her friends and family?”

“Not exactly. Director Cusack was looking for a report she was working on for him. I didn’t want her to get into trouble. She’s already been written up for lateness. I tried her cell, but she didn’t answer. When I called her apartment, her roommate answered and told me Zoe never came home last night. I thought, fine, she slept at her boyfriend’s place. Her roommate gave me his number—”

Conor lowered his coffee cup. “Tell me you didn’t call her boyfriend looking for her.”

“I wanted to spare her the humiliation of being fired.” Louisa’s face burned with indignation. “Internships are very competitive. There are other students who would love her position. Trust me. It was one of the most embarrassing phone calls I’ve ever made.”

“I believe you.” He held up a defensive hand, but his lips were twitching again.

Louisa huffed. Why did he enjoy provoking her? And why did she react to his every jibe? She wasn’t this snappish with anyone else. “Anyway, her boyfriend told me they’d had an argument, and he’d left her here. That’s when I got worried.” Not to mention shocked that Sullivan’s was involved. The coincidence just didn’t seem possible.

Conor rubbed his temples with a forefinger and thumb. “It was too late for a woman to take the subway alone.”

“I might be getting way ahead of the situation. Zoe could be fine.” Was Louisa’s concern more guilt-driven than logical? The stolen dagger was her responsibility.

A buzz sounded from his pocket.

“Excuse me.” He pulled out a cell phone and read the display. “I need to run an errand. If you want to keep talking, you’ll have to walk with me.”

She checked her watch. She’d taken a late lunch and was due back at work by three. “Will it take long?”

He shook his head. “Ten minutes. Come on. The fresh air will clear your head.”

She half wanted to run from Conor at full speed. But questions about the previous evening still lingered in her mind. “All right.”

As she followed him from the bar, she wondered if her agreement was based solely on her concern for her intern or if she was bowing to the part of her that didn’t want to bolt.





6


An afternoon breeze swept down Oregon Avenue as they set off down the sidewalk through elongating shadows. Louisa buttoned her jacket and clutched her purse tightly under her arm.

“This way.” Conor’s hand brushed her shoulder as he pointed left.

Though warm enough, Louisa shivered all the way down to her aching toes.

“Where are we going?” Her fingers cramped, and she loosened her grip on her purse.

“Just a few blocks. Can you walk in those shoes? Do you want to wait in the bar?”

“No. Tell me about Zoe’s boyfriend. What did he do last night that was so awful?”

They stopped at the corner. Other pedestrians bunched around them as they waited for the light to change.

“He wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Conor angled his body between her and the crowd. “So, you’ve been at the museum for two months. An intern was kidnapped and murdered with a stolen knife, and now a second intern has vanished.”

“That’s how it seems.”

“How many people in the museum know what happened in Maine?”

“Apparently, everyone. Why?”

“It’s too much of a coincidence, especially now that I’m part of it too.”

The light changed, traffic stopped, and the crowd moved en masse across the intersection.

“There were numerous newspaper articles.” She thought of April’s statement. “Evidently, the staff was passing them around in the weeks between my hire and my move down here.”

“So our connection is public knowledge, even though we haven’t seen each other for six months.”

“Yes.” She stepped up on the opposite curb. “I almost called you,” she blurted out before she could stop herself.

A lazy smile tugged at his mouth. “Really?”

Louisa’s hand was halfway to her pearls before she stopped it in front of her chest. Conor reached over and took her hand in his. They’d shaken hands before, but this felt different. This felt possessive, almost intimate. She tensed, her instincts urging her to break his grip, not because the contact was unpleasant, but because she liked it. Their gazes met. His was brazen, as if daring her to admit the attraction between them.

She took the challenge. Old habits needed to be broken. New city, new life. Heat soaked into her cold fingers and made her forget all about her fidgeting. And about letting go. “So . . . the group Zoe was with. Which one of them wanted to come here last night?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. We’re not part of the hip and happening club scene, and we’re too far from University City for overflow.” He steered her around a large crack in the sidewalk. “But her date was a Flyers fan, and we get plenty of postgame traffic. Still feels like too much of a coincidence, though.”

“Coincidences do happen.”

“True.” He squeezed her hand. “I’m sad your intern is missing, but I’m happy to see you.”