Great. He needed to change this subject. If he spent much more time in Elise’s presence, he’d be revealing all his secrets. Secrets better kept to himself.
He backed out of the room, waving the banana peel. “I’m going to toss this.”
When he returned to the bedroom, he took up his position at the door. “So, what do your brothers do?”
“Make my life miserable.” She leaned on the suitcase with one hand and used the other to yank at the zipper.
Sean took two steps into the room, hunched over and held the suitcase down while she zipped it. “Mine can do that, too.”
Still bent over the suitcase, she turned suddenly and her golden hair brushed his arm. “Nice to see a human side to you, Detective.”
He didn’t move an inch. The ends of her ponytail tickled his arm. The pulse in her throat beat out waves of her floral perfume. Her bright blue eyes sparkled with curiosity and humor.
Time seemed to freeze for a few seconds, and in those few seconds he had an overwhelming urge to take possession of her plump lips. To lose himself in the rush of senses that her presence stirred in him. To find out what it felt like to taste sunshine.
The over-the-top thoughts running through his mind must’ve shown on his face.
Her eyes widened and her lips parted as she lodged the tip of her tongue in the corner of her mouth.
He didn’t need a body language expert to tell him what her response meant. Hell, he was a body language expert. If he kissed her now, he’d meet no resistance.
He smacked his palms on the lid of the suitcase and straightened to his full height, feeling as if he were emerging from a spell. “School stuff?”
“What?” Elise blinked her eyes.
“I can take your suitcase out to the car while you get your school materials.”
“Oh, yeah. I keep them all together in a bag.” She swiveled her head from side to side as if lost in her own house.
Sean hoisted the suitcase from the bed, pulled out the handle and stated the obvious. “I’ll take this.”
She nodded and scooted past him into the living room to retrieve her school bag.
Sean loaded the suitcase in the car and returned to the house.
Elise dropped her school bag at his feet. “I forgot my shampoo and stuff. I’ll dump it in another bag.”
She darted for the hallway, and Sean followed. As she plucked items from her medicine chest and a shower caddy, Sean pointed to the mirror. “Do you want me to clean that up? We got all the evidence we’re going to get from it.”
“Go ahead. It’s your message.” She hitched the bag over her shoulder and tilted her head. “Did you ever figure out what it meant?”
“He hasn’t contacted me again. Probably just a jab at law enforcement.”
He’d figured the guy probably knew his history and was taunting him. Wouldn’t be the first time.
“There’s a roll of paper towels on the counter and window cleaner under the sink in the kitchen.”
The lipstick smeared the mirror as he swept damp paper towels across it. A few more swipes and the words disappeared. If only he could erase them from his mind as easily.
Elise hovered at the bathroom door. “Ready? I have everything.”
“Let’s go.” He crumpled the used paper towels in his hand and dropped them into the kitchen trash and replaced the glass cleaner under the sink.
He loaded her remaining bags in the trunk of his car and took off for what he hoped would be her safe house for a while.
They wended their way through the city streets as the late-afternoon sun streamed through the buildings and glinted off the water that made an occasional appearance when they crested a hill.
Sean pulled into the lot at the Central Station in Chinatown, where Elise’s hybrid huddled between two patrol cars. If the killer had followed her here, where had he parked? Spaces were at a premium and he wouldn’t have wanted to risk a parking ticket, which could be traced.
Maybe he’d watched from his car as she went into the restaurant and then figured he’d have time to park in a public lot near Union Square and pick up her trail on foot when she’d finished lunch. However he’d done it, the guy was no amateur.
Had he killed before somewhere else and then taken his sick proclivities on the road to terrorize a new city?
He pulled behind Elise’s car, leaving the engine running.
She opened the door and placed one foot on the ground. “Aren’t you going to transfer my bags from your car to mine?”
“I told you. I’m following you over. I’ll bring your bags in for you when we get there.”
She rattled off her friend’s address. “In case I lose you on the way.”
He whistled. “Nice neighborhood.”
“Family money. Their parents owned a lot of properties here, including that house where I live.”
“Good. That’s a safe part of town.”
He followed Elise’s car. She drove so slowly, there’s no way she could lose him—and probably no way she could’ve avoided being tailed by her stalker, no matter what she believed.
She pulled in front of a modern building, supported by gleaming white pillars. She pointed out her car window at a driveway that sloped down toward a wrought-iron gate.
Sean made a U-turn and parked in front of the condo complex while Elise rolled into the parking garage. He popped the trunk and gathered Elise’s two bags over one shoulder and settled her suitcase on its wheels.
“I can take one of those.” Elise had appeared on a walkway next to the driveway.
“I got ’em. Lead the way.” He followed her up the marble tile steps, and she used her friend’s key to open the front door. “Is your friend going to be home?”
“I have no idea.”
They went to the second floor and Elise stopped at one of just three doors on the hallway. She knocked first, listened and then unlocked the door.
The decor of the condo almost blinded him—modern, tasteful and white. He preferred Elise’s jumble of colorful styles.
She called out, “Courtney?”
There was an upstairs as well, and Elise stood at the foot of the staircase, her hand resting on the chrome banister.
“I guess she’s not home yet.”
Sean parked her suitcase in a corner and piled her other two bags on top of it.
