“How did Paul react?”
Not good. “Concerned we might have some trouble with this guy.” Allan couldn’t tell her how Paul really felt about the situation.
“Just take it easy and I’ll see you when you get here.”
Allan drove through the misty snow on the slippery roads. His vehicle was equipped with snow tires, but he still slid a bit coming down off the mountain. The roads were sanded, even though the accumulating snow was hampering road crews.
When he finally arrived at Debbie’s brick duplex, he pulled into the carport in back and got out of the vehicle. The back porch light was on, and she opened the door. Standing there in the halo of light in her pink fluffy robe and slipper boots, she looked like a pink sugar cone, sweet and soft—not an image he wanted to remember every time they were working an assignment together.
He grabbed his overnight bag. He’d need a shave in the morning—no way did he want to show up for work looking like he’d been out partying all night.
“Hey,” he said, and she opened the door wider for him.
“I’m so sorry you had to go to all this trouble.”
“No trouble at all. I didn’t see anyone suspicious around the neighborhood. If the guy is the murderer of the drowned man in the car, why would he follow you? Not both of us? At first, I thought he was following me, but then when I turned off and came back around, he was driving behind you. So I assumed he was really following you all along.”
She shook her head. “If a couple of eyewitnesses hadn’t seen him—if it’s the same vehicle—I would have thought I was being suspicious without any good reason.” She led him to a bedroom. “Here’s the guest room. Bathroom is down the hall. Make yourself at home. If you need anything in the kitchen, it’s yours.”
“Thanks. I know you felt I didn’t need to come over and stay the night, but I wouldn’t have slept a wink if I hadn’t checked the area out. Get some rest. We’ll be up and out of here before we know it.”
“Agreed. And thanks. I really appreciate it. I doubt I would have gotten much sleep either. Night, Allan. Thanks.” She padded off to the bedroom at the end of the hall.
He walked into the guest room all done in lilac and pink. He smiled a little. This was a side to Debbie he’d never known. He heard her door close, but he didn’t shut his. He wanted to be able to hear if anyone made the mistake of breaking into her home in the middle of the night.
With that final thought, he stripped down to his boxer briefs and settled into the comfy bed, pulling the purple and pink floral comforter under his chin and wondering what Paul would say if he saw him now.
Chapter 7
“Hmm,” Lori said, trying to get comfortable in Paul’s arms that night. “I think these babies are starting their martial arts lessons early. Here I thought I’d have to train them when they got to be about three or so.”
Paul wrapped his arms around her, not believing they were having their own set of twins in just a few months. But he was worried about everything that was going on: a possible killer on the loose, Franny’s possible stalker, and Allan’s fixation with Debbie. “Allan said a black sedan had been following Debbie. We need to put out the word for all of our pack members to be on the lookout.”
“Black sedan? I swore one followed me to the grocery store this morning. But when I came out, it was gone.”
Paul didn’t say anything for a minute, wondering if the guy was a werewolf killer. But if he had been spotted at Van Lake after the murder there, that confused the issue. The dead man hadn’t been a werewolf. So what was going on?
“I’ve got to let Allan know the guy tracked you. Maybe others in the pack too.”
Lori groaned. “I was just getting comfortable.”
“I’ll give you another back rub. I want Allan to know the guy has been sighted more than once.”
“If it’s the same black sedan. Grandma has one that’s similar. That’s why I noticed.”
Paul hesitated.
“It wasn’t hers.”
“Okay, I’m calling Allan.” Paul made the call.
Allan picked up right away. “Yeah, what’s up?”
“The black sedan followed Lori to the grocery store too.”
“Damn it to hell.”
“Yeah, agreed. We need to learn what he’s up to as soon as we can. If any of us see him, we need to get his license plate number and run a check on it at once.”
“Gotcha.”
Silence.
“Are…you alone?” Paul asked.
Allan hung up on him.
Paul sighed, put his cell on the table, and began to give Lori a back rub.
“Well?” Lori asked, her voice sounding sleepy.
“Well what?”
“You know Allan better than any of us. Was he sleeping with her?”
Paul smiled and shook his head. “No, he wasn’t.”
“How do you know for sure?”
“I know Allan better than any of you. He hung up mad.”
Lori chuckled. “That’s our Allan.”
“Yeah.” But Paul still worried that Allan was getting way over his head in this situation with Debbie.