“Actually,” Callahan said, rising and looking around for someplace in the Spartan space of the emergency room bay to put the roses. Finally, he gave up and set them down on the chair he’d vacated. “I’m the one who called you. Miss Freeman was hesitant to bring the law into this matter, but I told her she had no choice. That woman cannot be allowed to stay at large. Not after this.”
Liam blinked, gazing from Maya to Callahan and back again, although he was pretty sure he knew exactly which woman she meant. “I’m sorry, I’m confused. What woman?” He turned to Maya. “Are you saying a woman did this to you?”
Maya looked up at him, her eyes brimming with unshed tears she dabbed at with a handkerchief. She practically radiated an aura of virtue and honesty; one which Liam almost bought, even knowing better as he did. The other two men were clearly mesmerized by her fragile, damaged beauty.
“It was Barbara Yager,” Maya said in a soft, hesitant voice. “She attacked me as I was getting out of my car in the parking lot behind the apartment I’m renting in town.” One big blue eye focused on Liam accusingly. “I told you she was stalking me, but you didn’t take me seriously.”
“This is on your head,” Callahan blustered, big hands clenched in fists at his side as he hovered protectively over Maya’s bed. “You were told that Ms. Yager was harassing my assistant, but you did nothing about it. And now look what’s happened! I expect that woman to be arrested immediately.”
Liam had a momentary vision of Baba, her face suffused with anger at the thought of children being snatched away from their parents and sold to the highest bidder in the place she called the Otherworld. There was no question in his mind that she could have done this. She was bigger and stronger than Maya, and he had no doubt she was capable of fighting like a cornered panther if she had to. But attacking Maya had never been a part of their plan. Besides, as furious as Baba might get, he couldn’t envision her risking those missing children simply for the chance to hurt someone who had pissed her off.
No, Baba hadn’t done this. Which meant that either someone else had and Maya had taken the opportunity to put the blame on Baba, or worse, Maya had somehow staged this in order to get Baba thrown in jail. Maybe Maya had figured out somehow that they’d been in Callahan’s office, and had gone on the offensive before they could use the information they’d found there.
Either way, he was in a lousy position now. And from the gleam in the tiny woman’s uninjured eye, she knew it. A martyred sigh oozed malice in his direction.
“I’m afraid I am going to have to press charges,” Maya said, a sad expression on her bruised face. “Otherwise I would just be living in terror that she would come after me again.”
Liam made sure his own expression was neutral and professional before he spoke. “Not that I’m doubting your story, Ms. Freeman, but why would Barbara Yager have attacked you so brutally? Did you do something to provoke her?”
Callahan gritted his teeth. “The woman is crazy. She didn’t need a reason. Everyone in town is talking about how she is selling phony herbal remedies to people in need. She’s clearly a con artist.”
“Actually, she’s a professor,” Liam corrected him in a calm, even tone. “And my investigation into the problem with the medicines she sold turned up evidence that a third party had been interfering with the remedies after people had taken them home.” He purposely didn’t look at Maya when he said it.
“I don’t care if she’s the Queen of Sheba,” Callahan shouted, a purple vein pulsing madly in his forehead. “She doesn’t get to attack an innocent woman. I want her arrested immediately, or I’ll have your job!”
Privately, Liam thought it was a little late for that threat, a supposition that was reinforced a moment later when Clive Matthews stepped in too close and said, chest puffed up like a Bantam rooster’s, “Make sure you take a couple of deputies with you. We don’t want her to get away.”
Then Matthews fixed his beady eyes on Liam’s uniform and added with a sneer, “Surely even you can manage to capture one unarmed woman. I trust that I can depend on you to do your job and protect the people of this county from a dangerous criminal. After all, there’s a first time for everything.”
*
LIAM PULLED HIS cruiser into the space in front of the Airstream, its silver bullet shape glistening in the light of the tangerine moon overhead. Two deputies in a second car edged in behind him, choking a little on his dust as they got out, the road as dry as a desert from the summer’s unusual heat despite the storm earlier in the week. One, a youngster with the whitewall crew cut of a guy who spent his weekends training with the National Guard, let his hand hover over his service weapon until Liam glared at him.
“I don’t care what you’ve heard,” Liam said to him, including the older deputy with a sideways glance, “but the woman we’ve come to question is a respected professional, and I expect you to treat her like one unless I tell you otherwise. Is that clear?”