Chapter Nine

 

Anna puts the phone down. There's been a development. She's not sure how she's supposed to feel about any of this. More than anything, it would be nicer to have someone tell her what she's supposed to do, how she's supposed to feel.

They're not going to do that for her. There's nobody who knows her the way that Mitch knew her. There's nobody who knows that she can get a little loopy sometimes, that she gets weird ideas in her head.

But Mitchell, he always corrected her. It was usually alright if she was on her own, of course. It was little things. Nothing major. Nothing that bad. But there was always the worry, always the fear, that it could turn into something bigger.

Was she supposed to be happy that someone said they'd kidnapped Ava? That she got some confirmation that she wasn't crazy?

It should have driven her insane with grief. But the truth was, now that she at least knew, for sure, that someone had her…

As long as Ava wasn't hurt, it didn't matter how hard she had to work, how long she was going to be in debt. As long as Ava was alright. She'd work something out with the kidnappers, if Mitchell didn't want to have anything to do with it.

Maybe they wouldn't get all the money that they wanted, but they'd get something. She wasn't going to let her baby get hurt. She couldn't.

A knock at the door. It seems like they're coming constantly, now. It will be the police again. It's always the police. They've been here four or five times, now. Different groups of them.

None of them were that handsome detective, though. Some of them didn't even introduce themselves, just came at her with a 'Howdy, ma'am, do you mind if we take some pictures' or 'We need to check for any hair samples.'

Her head was spinning. Why couldn't they just go away? She should be able to have at least a second's peace in her worry. Right?

She opens the door. A tall man stands at the door. He's wearing a light-brown suit, and he smells a little more strongly today of the scent that she noticed yesterday.

"Detective Meadows."

"Have you heard?"

"About the letter?"

The detective nods. Anna has to keep herself from smiling. She shouldn't be happy just because she gets to feel helpful. "Yeah. They told me."

"They?"

"Mitch's dad called me."

"Personally?"

"Well, sure." He'd called plenty of times, in the past. Way back. A couple of days after the break-up. To make sure there weren't any hard feelings.

How could there possibly be hard feelings? She wasn't exactly in a position to have any hard feelings about any of it. She was just some nobody, and they were, you know. They were the Queens. There's no comparison to be made.

She'd told him so, and he must have believed her, because he didn't call again.

"Do you have a copy of the birth certificate?"

"Yeah," she says. "Right here."

There's a white sheet of paper on the previously clean table, right where she left it. Anna wonders if he noticed that she cleaned up as best she could without disturbing the bedroom. She wonders, if he does notice, whether or not he's happy about it.

"Thank you," he says. He looks it over quickly, without commenting. "This is a photocopy? Or do I need to get this back to you?"

Anna bites her lip. He's not going to be mad, is he?

Before she answers he waves his hand. "I'll get this copied and bring it back, don't worry about it."

He's starting to read her face, starting to know how to act. It's a strange comfort. Here he is, almost a total stranger, and she's leaning on him like this. It feels weird. Almost wrong. But at the same time, that doesn't mean that she's capable of stopping, even if she wanted to.

Anna sticks to the walls and waits for him to tell her what he wants her to do next. She watches that pretty, dark-featured face of his. She shouldn't be thinking the thoughts that she's thinking right this second.

It's easy to fall for a pretty face like that. It's easy to think about yourself with a person like that. No doubt, he's already dating someone. He's not wearing a ring, though, so he's not married.

That's the sort of thing that you get used to noticing, at parties full of fancy people. Whether or not they're married, right off the bat. It can get real embarrassing if you get onto the wrong subject.

Detective Meadows looks up at her, and for a moment, the look in his eyes makes her shiver. She doesn't need to be told what it means when a man looks at a woman like that.

Then, in the blink of an eye, he's got the mask of professionalism back on. "Thank you very much, you've been a big help."

"Is there anything else I can do? Coffee? Water?"

He takes a breath and shakes his head. "No, but thank you for the offer. I shouldn't."

"Okay. I understand."

She understands very well. He's busy. He's important. Police detectives have important jobs, and they don't have time to waste drinking a woman's coffee, or sitting and chatting. Not when they're on the job.

"Anna, do you mind if I ask you a question?"

Her face brightens. "Sure."

"I don't want you to get offended, so you don't have to answer if you don't want to, alright?"

"Don't worry about that. I won't get offended."

"How did Mitch treat you? Did he treat you real good?"

She doesn't know the answer that he wants. She can see in his eyes that he doesn't like Mitchell. She doesn't know why. Mitch was real good at getting people to like him. He's a charming guy. Smiles a lot at people.

He wasn't smiling yesterday, though.

"Well, sure, he treated me fine."

"Is that the truth, Anna? Did he treat you just fine? No complaints, not ever?"

What does he want her to say? She doesn't like it when there's no right answers. It makes life hard. It makes life scary. She doesn't like hard, and she sure as hell doesn't like scary.

"I'm sorry, was that wrong?"

His eyes close. Is he angry with her for something?

"No. I'm sorry. Forget I said anything."

He's upset. He's hiding it real well. Anna can usually tell, when someone's hiding their anger. Especially, she thinks sadly, when it's anger directed at her. But this time, she really can't tell at all.

Which is almost upsetting. She should be able to see it. She should.

But he must be upset, because every other thing he's doing is exactly what Mitch does—did—when he was upset with her. When he was upset with her, and she was going to be in trouble when they got back to the house.

Anna didn't know when the trouble was going to spring on her this time. She was already at home, and there wasn't going to be any time that she was more private than she was right now.

Which made her even more worried. After all, if she doesn't know when it's coming, how's she supposed to know what to do to keep him calm?

Her body starts to react to the thought of calming Mitch down. There was one thing, one way that had always worked with him. She wouldn't mind doing that with the detective—angry or not.

She dismisses the thought. That's not going to happen, she tells herself. Her mind listens. her mind knows that it's not going to go there.

The warmth between her thighs, on the other hand, isn't listening at all.