Phish NET Stalkings

by Denise Robbins

  “Our garden.”

  “Maybe you’ll show me,” he suggested when she took his offered sweatshirt and turned to look at him.

  Her gaze narrowed on him. She was a suspicious woman, he thought. Cooper took a step in retreat. He knew when to charge ahead and when to wait, to hold and let the next move present itself.

  “I have a quarter acre of land and want to plant a small garden out back.” He moved away and sat back down at the table, offering David a brilliant smile. David returned the gesture with a slight nod of approval.

  “About the pink underwear?”

  Cooper groaned and Jane bolted from the room, her bare feet smacking on the wood floor as she went. Apparently, she knew when to retreat as well.

  “I was under cover. There are no women on the force.”

  One of David’s silver brows flew upward.

  “And I lost a bet,” he muttered.

  David laughed and slapped a hand on the table. “I knew there had to be a good reason. It’s a little odd, but there is no way that story could be a lie.”

  “Could you explain that to Jane? She doesn’t want to listen.”

  David shook his head. “You’re on your own there,” he said as he rose, went to the counter and retrieved the coffee pot. “Another round?” David offered.

  Cooper nodded and held out his mug.

  “Jane is a woman with a mind of her own and she can be as stubborn as a mule,” the older man said as he sat again. “She is also a very sensitive and intelligent woman who has made her own way in the world. She would rather hold herself back than trust anyone and get hurt in the process.”

  David sat back, crossed arms that still held a lot of strength in them for a man of about seventy across his chest.

  “What is your relationship with her?”

  “We’re friends. I’ve known her since she was in college. Now we’re business partners.”

  “David taught me everything I know about gardening, plants, and herbs,” Jane added from the open doorway of the kitchen. She moved into the room, slid up behind David, and put a hand on his shoulder. “David is family.” To punctuate her point, she bent and gave David a kiss on his cheek.

  “Quit interrogating him,” she snapped.

  Protective gesture, he thought, placing a hand on David’s shoulder. What was she shielding him from?

  “I’m not interrogating David or you,” he assured Jane in a calm, low voice. The same voice he used when he needed to calm a hysterical witness.

  “How did you find me? What do you want?” Jane demanded, thrusting a fisted hand on her hip.

  Hmm. Suspicious indeed. Then again, he did appear out of nowhere the day after she ran from his bed. Maybe she had a right to be wary. His gaze intent on hers, he fished into his pants pocket, retrieved her phone and set it on the table. “I found your cell phone this morning and thought you might need it.” He shrugged in false nonchalance.

  Jane reached around David and snatched the phone. Her eyes were wide with…fear? What could be so sensitive about a cell phone?

  “The little reminder dinging noise sounded when I was holding it and yes, I looked at it. David’s name and address appeared on your calendar reminder. I didn’t know whose it was or where it came from. I didn’t know anything else about you so I determined the easiest and best way to return your property was to show up here.”

  David reached up and patted Jane’s hand. “Obviously the man thought you needed the phone, Jane. Try to be a little more gracious.”

  “Thank you.” Jane wrinkled her nose and Cooper almost laughed at the childish gesture.

  Sliding the chair back, Cooper got to his feet. “I’m sorry for interrupting.”

  “No worries. We get together every week,” David told him as Jane rounded the table headed toward the kitchen door, and twisted the knob.

  “Jane, the man said he wanted to plant a garden. I’ll bet I can find a pair of gloves big enough to fit those beefy paws.”

  Jane let loose of the knob, dropped her head and sighed.

  This time Cooper couldn’t hold back the laughter. He chuckled, a deep rumble that echoed in the room. If Jane hadn’t shot him the evil eye, he probably wouldn’t have stopped. He sobered instantly and cleared his throat. Even when she was pissy, she was cute.

  “Beefy, huh?” Cooper lifted his hands, flipped them back and forth then shrugged and dropped them to his sides. “I would enjoy playing in the dirt very much but isn’t it a bit chilly out there?” He gave a mock shiver.

  “I have a greenhouse.”

  The opening he wanted just presented itself. “Count me in.” Thank you, he mouthed to David.

  TWELVE

  “How did you get interested in herbs, flowers and gardening?” Cooper asked Jane who stood next to him at a waist high table. She filled small pots, placed seeds or bulbs on top in a very careful and strategic manner then covered the plantings up with another layer of dirt. “Was it something your mother taught you when you were a kid?”

  Her head snapped up and she whipped around. The handful of dirt she held went flying, splattering him in the chest with dirt as black as coal. “My mother is dead,” she announced in a hard yet soft-spoken voice as she reached out to wipe the dirt mixture off his shirt, which only smeared the mess worse.

  Cooper halted her hands on his chest by laying his bigger one across hers. “It’s just dirt, Jane. Don’t worry about it.”

  “I’m sorry,” she muttered.

  She slid her hands from beneath his, avoided his gaze, and went back to filling the pots.

  “I’m sorry your mother is dead.”

  Without missing a beat, she said, “It happened a long time ago. I don’t remember it.”

  Cooper paused with his hands in the Moo Dirt, which did have an odor of cow to it and stared at Jane. Her gaze was fixed on her task, but he watched the muscles in her jaw flex. Upset? Lying? Way to go, Coop. Remind the woman of her dead mother. Change the subject.

  He filled another terracotta pot and placed the plantings under some special light that imitated the sun. “How did you and David meet?”

  Her lips curved into a brilliant smile that lit her face. “I was on one of my Saturday flea market treks when I saw this beautiful antique typewriter. David owned the typewriter. I wanted it but it was too expensive for a college student to afford so we bartered my time in his garden for the typewriter. We’ve been friends and have a standing Saturday date ever since.”

  Finally, a subject she would talk with him about with more than one sentence.

  “Now you’re business partners? What kind of business?”

  Jane paused, planted a fisted, gloved hand on her jean-clad hip, and stared at him as if he had been hiding under a rock.

  “What?”

  She shrugged. “Nothing. I just figured with you being a cop you would know.”

  “I didn’t even know your last name until this morning,” he murmured.

  For a brief second he could have sworn he saw fear in her brown eyes then it disappeared.

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “Your business?”

  “David and I are partners in an organic cosmetics business. He does most of the research and development while I run the business. Occasionally, he lets me dabble in the research side of things,” she said in a conspiratorial whisper.

  “I heard that,” David called across the greenhouse. “You can come play any time you like, and you know it. She usually makes suggestions as to what I should develop.”

  David made little quote marks with his fingers when he said the word suggestions. These two had a wonderful friendship and partnership.

  He was making progress, Cooper thought. Keep her talking. “What’s the name of the business?”

  “Not-so-plain-Jane’s.”

  A bubble of laughter erupted from his chest. “Ha! That is perfect.”

  Jane wrinkled her nose and pushed another bulb into a dirt-filled pot. “I think so.”

  “
I’ll second that,” David chimed in.

  “Here, let me show you.” Jane took his pot and picked up a bulb. “This is the root end. See how it’s kind of rounded and meant to sit on?”

  Cooper offered a grin. “You mean like a butt?”

  David must have heard him because he tried to cover up a laugh by turning it into a cough.

  “Yes,” she answered. “Don’t encourage him, David.”

  “The round end goes down and sits in the dirt. The pointy end faces up as if looking for sunlight.”

  “Got it.” He nodded, demonstrated what he had learned by setting the bulbs in the pot the right way, and asking for her approval.

  The next hour passed in the blink of an eye and C00per thought he had never enjoyed playing in the dirt so much in his life. Hell, he couldn’t remember the last time he did anything in the yard besides mowing. He had only mentioned the garden for his house as an opening to spend time with Jane, but now he wondered if he really should start a garden. He felt so relaxed working elbow to elbow with a gorgeous woman and getting filthy dirty.

  He glanced up and saw Jane staring at him. “What? Do I have dirt on my face?” Self-conscious, he swiped at his face with his forearms.

  “No.” She giggled. “I’m just surprised.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you seem to be paying attention and having fun.”

  “I am,” he answered honestly. “I guess I’ll have to wait on my garden until the spring, but I’m enjoying this manual labor.”

  “Labor of love,” she whispered. “The best part is seeing the end result of all the hard work.” She pointed to the pots on shelf after shelf near where David sat on a stool. “We planted every one of those. They’re our babies and they’ll be used in the various products we make.”

  “That must be a real sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.”

  Her smile beamed and lit the room and he returned the grin. “Hold still.”

  Jane froze. Her body went on alert from something unknown. “Relax,” he said as he removed one of his gloves. He reached up and brushed the pad of his thumb across her cheek. “You got a little smudge.”

  What a mistake. He felt the silky heat of her skin beneath his fingers and wanted to touch her more. She must have sensed the warmth of his own hand and the electric impact of the touch because her gaze met his and those brown eyes turned amber and she turned her cheek into the palm of his hand. Just enough for him to cup it. Then she stepped away, out of reach.

  “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure.” Retreat, he told himself, and changed the subject. “What’s this plant?”

  She picked up the small terracotta pot that contained a small plant with what looked like spikes with compact, bushy violet flowers on the ends, and held it up to his face. “Smell it.”

  Coop did as she requested. With his eyes closed, he leaned in and sniffed. The flower had a sweet, heady aroma that was sexy and at the same time relaxing. Immediately, he recognized it as something that was part of her, an underlying scent that was Jane. He inhaled again. “It’s you,” he whispered and opened his eyes, his gaze meeting hers across the flower. The stunned look in her wide eyes was priceless.

  “What is it?”

  She licked her lips then spoke. “It’s lavender. You can dry the flowers and use them in a drawer sachet or cooking such things as lavender cookies.”

  He wrinkled his nose. Jane must have noticed his expression because she laughed. “It’s better than it sounds.”

  “I hope so because it sounds awful.”

  She giggled again and turned to place the plant back on the shelf. “Lavender has many uses.”

  “Such as?”

  “Taken internally it’s used for indigestion, tension or migraine headaches, even anxiety. Lavender has an antiseptic quality to it too, which makes it effective on most types of burns, insect bites, and muscle pain.”

  He lifted one brow.

  “In aromatherapy it’s used to alleviate tension, depression, insomnia, and even impotence.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Jane gasped and slapped a gloved hand on her mouth.

  Coop tried to restrain himself, but he couldn’t prevent the chuckle from escaping. The wide-eyed look of horror on her face as her cheeks flushed a brilliant hue of red was priceless. “Uh, good to know.”

  “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to imply…”

  He wouldn’t have thought it possible but Jane’s cheeks grew to an even deeper shade of red.

  Before he could respond, the loud theme song of Hawaii Five-O sounded from his pocket. “Shit,” he muttered as he stripped the other glove off his hand and fished out his cell phone. Flipping it open, he answered, “Coop,” and listened.

  A couple of seconds later he flipped the phone shut and stuffed it back into his pocket. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to go.”

  “What is it? Is everything okay?”

  Cooper shook his head as he started toward David and the door of the greenhouse. “I appreciate the coffee, the company, and the gardening lessons. I hate to run out on you without helping to clean up but I’ve got an emergency.”

  Jane and David followed him out of the greenhouse and into the kitchen where he tugged his jacket off the chair and slipped it on.

  “Can we do anything?” the old man offered.

  “I’m afraid not.” He reached into his pocket for his keys. “We’ve got a maniac on the loose attacking women and he just struck again.”

  Jane gasped.

  Cooper glanced at her. “Right now he appears to only be attacking hookers. He hasn’t killed anyone yet, but has hurt the women pretty bad.” He caressed her cheek then dropped his hand to his pocket and pulled out his badge. “Be careful.”

  When he looked up after attaching his badge to his waistband, he saw Jane frozen in place and shivering.

  “Jane? What?” He took a step toward her and she retreated. Her face took on a pale pallor, her breathing grew erratic and her eyes looked as if they were going to bulge out of their sockets. Panic stricken, he thought. “What is it?”

  He looked at David who moved in front of Jane.

  “Go ahead. We understand duty calls. I hope you catch the guy before he hurts another woman.”

  “Me too.”

  He hesitated. He wanted to understand what happened, what made Jane go rigid and blank-faced, but he had to rush.

  “Thank you.” He hustled out the back door and into his car. Timing. Perfect damn timing!

  * * * *

  Hours later after he left David Conrad and Jane, Cooper returned home. He tossed his jacket on the first box he came across, walked into the kitchen for a beer then flopped back on the sofa. He was exhausted. He spent the better part of the late afternoon and early evening talking with the latest victim of the Street Corner Rapist as the newspapers have dubbed, or at least attempting to get information from the woman named Lucky Lucy. She had tight lips when talking with law enforcement.

  “Too damn tight.” He twisted the cap off the beer and took a long pull. The cool liquid soothed his dry throat. Trying to ask the same questions in various ways had left him parched and drained. Not that he blamed Lucky or Lucy or whatever name she wanted to go by. She hadn’t asked to be raped and beaten.

  “In broad daylight, no less.” The guy was changing, shifting. Before today, he only attacked his victims in the evening and now he managed to know when a hooker was in a spot where he could get away with beating her within an inch of her life.

  Even now, the image of her purple and blue, swollen and bleeding face made his stomach curl. How could a man do that to any woman? The answer was simple. He wasn’t a man. Men did not attack defenseless women. Then again, men did not, or should not, do the horrors that he had witnessed done to children. What was the purpose?

  “Damn!” Cooper shot to his feet, ran a hand through his hair and drained the rest of the beer. Tossing it in one of the empty boxes, he paced back and forth in the small room with r
estless frustration. He felt caged, like a wild animal captured, crazed with anger and ready to pounce. He needed to do something, to burn energy.

  His mind clicked and Cooper stopped pacing. He knew what he wanted to be doing. He wanted to be doing Jane. That would burn some energy and make him relax. And it wasn’t going to happen. Yeah, he knew her address and could just show up on her doorstep, but would she let him in?

  Before he got the call from Jack about the Street Corner Rapist, he and Jane had a good rapport going. Thanks to David. She had showed him how to plant the various herbs and flowers, explained to him the benefit of each one, and he actually found the information fascinating. He had never even heard of half the plants and herbs she grew. Who knew rosehip was used in after-shave balm to help the skin heal and regenerate. And lavender. The vision of Jane’s flaming cheeks behind a gloved hand, her brown eyes wide in disbelief and horror was forever emblazoned in his mind. Even when embarrassed she was beautiful. And smart.

  Maybe he could think of an excuse. He searched his mind for a pretext and came up with the perfect answer. She had his sweatshirt. Granted the sweatshirt was left at David’s, but perhaps she took it with her so she could return it.

  “Wishful thinking,” he muttered and shrugged into his leather jacket.

  THIRTEEN

  Thanks to the intrusion of Cooper Chance, Jane was home from David’s later than she planned. She needed to do some work. She needed to put Cooper and her conflicted feelings for the man out of her mind. Not that she had been able to all day. Instead, thoughts of him, his devious grin, his unbelievably hot kisses, and the way he actually paid attention and seemed to enjoy listening to her explain various herbs and plants flitted through her mind all day.

  “Forget Cooper,” she ordered herself. With her laptop perched on her thighs, Jane opened her office email. At the top of her email, she saw a message from Love Online, the online dating service she signed up for on a whim that so far has yielded a big fat zero in the love department.

  “Wonder what they want?”

  She double-clicked the message and found a greeting card inside. “Cool.” She sat back smiling and hit the Play Me link.