Wickedly Dangerous (Baba Yaga, #1)(64)
The pen scribbled down the pertinent facts as mouths dropped open around the room.
“Ah,” Liam said, a dimple she’d never noticed flitting in and out of view at the corner of his mouth. “So at five fifty, you were with Deputy Shields and her parents?”
“We had a lovely roast chicken with potatoes and beets,” Mariska said, beaming. “And then we talked about the Old Country for hours. The professor spent her childhood there you know, before moving to the United States with her adoptive mother.” She patted Baba’s hand. “It was so nice to be able to chat with someone who had been to Russia, no matter how long ago.”
Baba smiled back at her. “It was my pleasure. And that chicken was sublime.”
Liam nodded at Belinda. “And you can back this up?”
“Absolutely,” she said without missing a beat. “The chicken was definitely sublime.”
The front door of the station slammed open with a bang that had half the officers reaching for their weapons before they realized where the noise had come from. One of the air conditioning units wheezed to a stop, belching a puff of gray smoke into the already dense air.
Clive Matthews stormed up to the front desk and gestured for the officer on duty to open the gate, his plump face glistening with sweat. On his heels, Peter Callahan lent a gallant arm to a pale but upright Maya, limping across the floor with her Technicolor bruises standing out in stark contrast to her lacy blouse and upswept hair.
“What the hell is going on here?” Matthews demanded. One pudgy hand pointed at Baba. “Why isn’t that woman in cuffs?”
Baba could see Liam’s glance dart to the clock on the wall and saw him come to the inevitable conclusion that the only way that Matthews could have gotten there so fast was if someone at the department had called him. A clenched jaw was the only sign of his distress at this act of betrayal, and when he rose to greet the board president, his expression was a picture of artless confusion.
“Did we have a meeting scheduled that I forgot about?” He turned to Maya. “Goodness, Ms. Freeman, should you be out of the hospital? You look terrible.” Liam bounded around the table and pulled out a chair for the blond woman, thankfully one that placed the Ivanovs between her and Baba. Baba wasn’t sure she could sit next to the little monster without strangling the bitch with her bare hands. As it was, she had to settle for watching Maya wince as Liam politely insulted her.
Maya’s face was a study in purple and green and barely concealed displeasure. “Thankfully, there were no internal injuries,” she said, wafting gracefully into the seat. “And they tell me that the pain will subside in a few days. Or maybe a week.” She batted her eyelashes at Peter Callahan, clearly not realizing that having one eye swollen half shut rendered the gesture more grotesque than appealing.
“See here,” Callahan said, recognizing a cue when he saw one. “Why isn’t this woman under arrest? Miss Freeman told you that she was attacked by this so-called professor. Shouldn’t she be locked up in a cell?”
Liam settled one hip on the edge of the table and crossed his arms. “That’s right; Miss Freeman did say that Dr. Yager was the one who injured her, didn’t she?” He gazed at Maya thoughtfully. “That is very interesting, considering that we have three witnesses who will swear to the fact that she was with them at the time of the beating.”
Clive Matthews sputtered a protest. “That’s impossible! The witnesses must be lying. She paid them off. Or put them under a spell. Or something.”
Molly made a tiny choking noise and scribbled faster. Around the room, you could have heard a pin drop, even over the laboring sound of the ancient cooling system.
“The witnesses in question include one of my deputies and her elderly parents, who are longtime respected members of this community.” Liam raised one eyebrow and gestured around the table before turning back to Matthews. “And personally, I don’t believe in spells or any of that mumbo-jumbo. I do, however, believe that Miss Freeman lied to me, which I assure you, will have much worse side effects than any spell.”
He swiveled to give Maya the full force of his stern glare. “Now, Miss Freeman, since Dr. Yager is clearly not the culprit in this case, perhaps you’d like to tell us who is. I’m guessing that since you didn’t want to name the person who actually attacked you, this was some kind of lover’s quarrel—maybe with a married man?” He gazed pointedly at Clive Matthews and Peter Callahan.
Callahan sputtered wordlessly, and Matthews’s face got so red, Molly ran to get him a glass of water.
“My goodness, Mr. Matthews,” she said. “You should see a doctor about that high blood pressure of yours. I had an uncle who looked like that right before he keeled over and died.”
Baba bit her lip so hard, she thought it would bleed.
Liam went on, ignoring the indignant protestations from the two men and focusing his attention on the little blonde, who seemed slightly flustered for the first time since Baba had seen her.
“I . . . I’m afraid I jumped to a conclusion,” Maya said, trying the eye-batting at Liam with no noticeable effect. “My attacker wore motorcycle gear and a helmet. I couldn’t see the person’s face, but since Barbara Yager had already been harassing and threatening me, I assumed it was her.” A woeful expression highlighted her battered face. “I am so very sorry for any trouble I might have caused.”