Struck by Lightning. Christa Maurice

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СКАЧАТЬ to start hanging a few of Edie’s larger necklaces. She had three clasped around her neck to keep her hands free.

      “You have students this afternoon?” Max asked.

      “I have a student this afternoon.” Her student, Monica Raines, had been taking lessons for two years. Monica didn’t want to be a professional, she just wanted to be good at her hobby. Rebecca suspected she also wanted to contribute to Rebecca’s income. She looked out the window. The owner of the second-run movie theater across the street was changing the marquee, and the woman who owned the newsstand next to the theater was putting up a new window display. A group of people walked out of Meechan’s Kitchen. Not many people roamed on the sidewalks at this time of day, but school would be out pretty soon and they would have to chase kids out of the gallery before they broke stuff.

      A blond guy ambled along the sidewalk looking at the shops with interest. Rebecca took another necklace off her neck and reached up to hang it in the window without taking her eyes off the guy. They didn’t have a lot of trouble in the neighborhood, but everybody tended to keep an eye on suspicious people too. She watched him turn slowly, taking in the bank and the grocery store. Just as he focused on the gallery, she recognized him. Leaping out of the window, she bounced a few steps into the gallery so she stood in shadow where he wouldn’t see her.

      The professional hero. What was he doing strolling down the street so intently today? She didn’t remember ever seeing him around before. In fact, she didn’t remember ever seeing him before last night. He wasn’t looking for her, was he? Her heart skipped, but she wasn’t sure if it was with hope or fear.

      “What’s the matter?” Max asked. He looked out the window.

      “Nothing,” Rebecca said. Her face felt hot. He was still standing under the marquee of the theater staring down the street at the library or the apartment building next to it. He certainly did look like he was searching for something. Or someone.

      Max walked closer to the window and peered out. “It didn’t look like nothing.”

      “Get out of the window.” Rebecca grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him out of the light. Across the street, the professional hero started making his way up the street again. She watched him until he walked around the corner of the theater.

      “Do you know that guy?” Max asked.

      “No.”

      Max nodded. “Okay, are you playing games with that guy?”

      “You have no faith in me.”

      Max put his arm over her shoulder. “I have absolute faith in you. Are you playing games with that guy?”

      The door opened. Claudia Sanchez stepped in as though she was far too good for this one-horse town. She smoothed her hand over her perfectly coifed hair before speaking. “Hello, I’m Claudia Sanchez. From the paper. I called earlier.”

      Rebecca plastered on her best sales face. “Hello. It’s a pleasure to see you again. I hope my Dream sculpture found a good home with you.”

      “That was yours, wasn’t it? It looks very nice in my spare bedroom.”

      Rebecca half expected her to say it matched her bed spread, but she didn’t. “Glad to hear it. Feel free to look around. Max and I will be here to answer any questions you have.” She turned back to the window. The hero was most definitely gone so she stepped up on the sill and finished hanging the necklaces.

      Why was he wandering down the street today? She felt pretty sure she’d never seen him before last night. Rebecca licked her lips. It had been a great kiss. But if it hadn’t been raining and there hadn’t been lightning and he hadn’t been in uniform, it wouldn’t have been so great. No, she thought, it would have been a pretty average kiss. She could prove that by going back to the station some rainless night and looking up the professional hero for a control kiss. And then maybe a rain-only kiss.

      And then one out of that uniform.

      That image sprung to mind. Rebecca shivered and hung the last of Edie’s necklaces in the window. The large, chunky amethyst on it caught the light and flared it around the room. She had to put that guy out of her mind at the soonest opportunity. She didn’t have time to be messing around with heroes.

      * * * *

      Dan opened the door of his car, which he’d parked around the corner. Before he’d even settled into the driver’s seat, he had out his map. She could have been coming from anywhere and going anywhere. According to the marquee, a movie had let out not long before he’d seen her and the restaurant sign said it had been open, as had the newsstand. The crabby woman in the gallery said they usually closed before then. The library and the bank had both been closed also, but that didn’t narrow the field enough. Her destination wasn’t any easier to figure out. The block she’d turned onto had half a dozen houses split up into apartments and one actual apartment building along with several single-family dwellings. Worse, there was one alley connected to the next road down and a cul-de-sac with yet more apartments.

      He studied the map for something he might have missed that would point to the only logical location for her. Anything that would narrow his search a little bit.

      Maybe if he walked it. He could park at the station and walk the route he’d seen her take. She hadn’t had on any shoes, and if the alley was rough and glassy she couldn’t have gone that way. Or he might spot the purple skirt hung outside to dry someplace. Or the girl herself might be sitting on a porch drinking her morning coffee. And failing all that maybe Kevin’s ungirlfriend would say, “Her? Oh sure I know her. You want her number?”

      He had to find her. Had to. He couldn’t really explain to himself why, but he had to. He set aside the map and started the car. He had two days to patrol before he had to be back on duty and if he hadn’t found her by then, he’d just have to take up his spot at the bay doors, watching down the street for any sight of her.

       Chapter 2

      “It’s just amazing. It’s like she was swallowed up by the earth.” Dan toyed with his remaining french fries. Since Jack’s wedding last Saturday, he’d been eating every possible meal at Meechan’s. The waitresses knew him, and he pronounced it “Meechan’s Keetchan” like a local. “They said she used to come in once in a while. But she hasn’t been here for at least a month. The waitresses, the cook and the regulars. Nobody has seen her.”

      “Maybe she moved away,” Lew offered.

      Dan groaned. “I thought of that. You don’t think she did, do you? I mean, it wasn’t like end of term at the university, was it?”

      “So when do you give up?”

      Dan flashed him a trademark grin. “As soon as something more entertaining comes along.” Before he’d looked back down at his plate, he was frowning again. “I’m beginning to think I made her up. Like I was standing there watching the rain and I daydreamed this ethereal woman.”

      “Ethereal?”

      “It was the word of the day yesterday. Sort of fits.” Dan shrugged. When he’d torn the page off the calendar yesterday morning and read the definition the first thing he’d thought of was that girl. Of course he’d thought of her first thing every morning since he’d met her, but the word of the day for the day before that, “disingenuous,” hadn’t СКАЧАТЬ