Free Spirits

by Linda Wisdom

  The officer raised an eyebrow of disbelief as he traded silent words with Michael.

  Jason looked at Michael closely, recognition slow to surface. “You were with her Saturday night,” he announced. “The woman is certifiable. I’m certainly glad I didn’t propose to her. I can see I would have had too much trouble on my hands even after I persuaded her to stop drawing those silly pictures and get rid of that cat from hell.” He bared his teeth. “I would have gladly driven that monster to the pound.” He flinched when Alex growled at him.

  “Aren’t we all glad this didn’t happen? I have an idea if you had tried it, you’d consider today just a picnic in the park compared to what the lady would do to you,” the officer muttered, clearly wishing he was anywhere else.

  “I don’t want this doctor working on me,” Jason told the officer. “He’s involved with her. I won’t receive proper treatment.”

  “Palmer, be happy you have someone at all treating you this soon,” Michael informed him, pulling out antiseptics and bandages. “Unfortunately, cat scratches can get infected if left untreated. Have you had a tetanus shot lately?”

  He stiffened. “I don’t like shots.”

  “Well, you’re going to love this one.” Michael leaned over Jason who now sat on a gurney. “Palmer, I didn’t like you the first time I saw you and I like you even less the second time. You are a hypocrite of the first order. If you suffered at Alex’s hands she must have been acting in self-defense. Now don’t make me angry. Or I might accidentally stick this needle in a muscle, and believe me, that can really hurt.”

  Jason’s face blanched at the implied threat. He sat back and shut up.

  Alex slouched down in the chair with her long legs straight out in front of her, ankles crossed. It was bad enough to sit next to a police officer, worse when said officer was there to keep an eye on her in front of too many people who knew her. Especially when certain people walked by with broad grins on their faces, making cracks about San Quentin and what a shame Alcatraz was closed.

  “I just want you to know that if I murder anyone here it will be justifiable homicide,” she told the officer between clenched teeth.

  A pair of legs garbed in surgical greens planted themselves in front of her. “I wouldn’t try that now, after all the trouble I went to on your behalf.” Michael’s amused voice floated down.

  She looked up. “Damn. There’s more than a few doctors in this place that deserve to die by my hand after their oh-so-cute comments, and now you’ve ruined all my fun. So tell me, what have you done on my behalf?”

  “Well, Killer, I was able to persuade the nice officer to release you into my custody, as long as you promise to behave yourself.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “This has been one of the most embarrassing days of my life.” Alex picked at a cinnamon roll of indeterminate age as she drank black coffee that looked strong enough to float the entire U.S. Navy and tasted just as bad. She had never dreamed anyone could make worse coffee than her mother’s. Scary it could be found in a hospital cafeteria. “I can’t believe Jason would pull such an extreme turnaround.”

  “Desperation does that to some people,” Michael replied, playing it safe with a large ice-filled cup of diet Coke. His fingers slowly ran up and down the plastic-coated cup in a dance that Alex wouldn’t mind seeing them perform on her skin.

  “Those officers weren’t really going to arrest me, were they? Or take Suzi Q away? She was only protecting me.”

  “No, but they needed to get you two settled down. Jason could make a lot of noise about Suzi Q, but there’s no proof she deliberately attacked him. Not to mention, cats don’t get rabies as he tried to claim she had. Still, Palmer had some nasty scratches that needed treatment. I know Suzi Q is a clean cat, but a cat’s claws do carry a lot of harmful bacteria, which is why the scratches needed to be cleaned.” He suddenly grinned. “And he needed a tetanus shot.”

  Alex’s eyes widened. “He hates shots.”

  His grin grew larger. “Yeah, I know.”

  A giggle escaped her lips. “I wish I had been there to see it.”

  “Nah, you already had your fun. This one was all mine.” He looked very satisfied with himself.

  She watched him under the cover of lowered lashes, while she pretended to study the oily swirls in her coffee cup.

  “I learned that he’s lost a lot of money and a lot a disgruntled clients have pulled their accounts,” she said quietly. “His credibility is sinking fast and he’s doing whatever is necessary to pick up new clients. I still don’t understand why he felt taking over my investments would make such a difference. My portfolio is insignificant, compared to the accounts he’s handled.” She idly chewed on a fingernail. “I wonder…”

  Michael looked up. “What?”

  Alex pushed her plate to one side. “I just wonder if perhaps Jason hasn’t been tampering with his clients’ investments. You know, moving money from one account to pay another, and now he’s caught short and needs new money to take care of the old ones.”

  “That’s a serious accusation.”

  “And Jason was a serious player. Now that I think about it, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was doing such a thing. I mean, he used to brag about some of the deals he pulled off. And while they didn’t sound illegal, they didn’t sound all that conservative either, considering his public image. Maybe it was all a facade.” She shook her head, unable to believe the events of the past few hours. “And to think I was seriously considering saying yes if that jerk proposed to me!” She slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand. “I am such an idiot. You’d think I would have learned the first time around.”

  Michael’s stomach seemed to drip acid at the idea of Alex marrying Jason. “Well, a lot of people aren’t what they appear to the public eye.”

  “You are.” Conscious of curious eyes directed at them every so often, she purposely kept her hands to herself. She kept them occupied rearranging the silverware, resisting the temptation to reach across the table for his hand.

  Seemingly just as conscious, his eyes touched hers. “Are you sure?”

  “There were no copies of Playboy hidden under the bed or in the boxes you haven’t unpacked, so I feel pretty safe in making that statement.” An impish smile curved her full lips, colored a deep rose. “Besides, I have to keep on your good side since the nice policeman left me in your custody.” Her forefinger slowly stroked the fork from the tips of the tines to the flat edge of the handle. “Tell me something, Doctor, did the police insist you take full-time custody of the prisoner?”

  His eyes followed the movements. “That’s negotiable.”

  “That would mean twenty-four hours a day,” she said huskily, keeping eye contact.

  “Just about.”

  “So-o-o,” she drawled. “You would have to watch over me during the night as well as the day, am I correct?”

  His gaze lingered on her slightly parted lips, then dropped down to sweep over her body before moving back up to her mouth again. “I’d say so, yes.”

  Alex could feel the heat of his gaze. Except right about now she’d prefer feeling a lot more than just his gaze on her! She injected a sultry note in her voice. There was no reason for her to be the only one affected by this two-edged conversation. “Well, then, doctor, I put myself in your more than capable hands.”

  His lips barely moved. “Excellent.” He suddenly glanced toward the clock on the wall. “I guess I better get back to work.”

  Alex quickly masked the frown she could feel furrowing her brow. After her not-so-subtle comment, he was thinking about work! What did she have to do to get this man’s full attention? “I can catch a cab back to my apartment.” She hid her disappointment as she rose to her feet the same time he did. She walked quickly by his side as they headed for the elevator. She looked furtively down the long, winding hall.

  Michael noticed her quick glances. “What’s wrong?”

  She lowered her voice. “I just want to kn
ow if the morgue is in the near vicinity. I mean, we’re not going to run into anyone, are we?”

  He draped an arm around her shoulders as they rounded a corner. “No, you’re safe.” He looked around. “For the moment.”

  Before Alex could question his cryptic comment, she found herself hustled around another corner and into a closet that turned out to be filled with shelves containing linens.

  Her lips curved in a wicked smile he could barely see in the light filtering under the closed door. Maybe their conversation had some effect on him, after all! “Why, Duffy, you devil, you. We’re not in here to count the linens, are we?”

  “Far from it.” His eyes were filled with equally wicked promises. “I’m sure we can find something else to do,” he said, reaching out for her.

  Smiling broadly, she edged away from his grasp. “I don’t think I should make it easy for you.”

  “You agreed to my having custody of you.”

  “Yes, but that has nothing to do with this.” She swept her arm around the tiny room. Truth was, she couldn’t move two steps without running into Michael. Which wouldn’t be all that bad, to her way of thinking, as long as it was her idea.

  When he moved to the left, she moved to her left. The next time, he was able to outwit her and caught hold of her upper arms. “Gotcha.”

  She twined her arms around his neck. “Maybe I’ve got you.”

  “Then we’ll call it a tie.” His mouth hovered a fraction above hers.

  She could smell the coffee on his breath, mingled with the starchy odor of clean linens stacked in the small room. Not one of the sexier combinations she’d ever encountered, but where Michael was concerned, a lot of things had changed for her. She flicked his upper lip with the tip of her tongue. “I made the first kill. I win.”

  “Maybe the battle, but you still have the war to conquer,” he told her just before his mouth captured hers in a spine-tingling kiss.

  Alex wasn’t about to argue. Not when she was caught up in returning Michael’s caresses. She needed the feel of his warm skin beneath her hands to assure her this was real. She moved her hands over the front of his shirt, taking in his body warmth, stroking what skin she could find in the vee-neck of his cotton shirt. A faint odor of disinfectant on his hands, coupled with a musky aftershave, teased her nostrils. Funny, for someone who usually looked upon the world with colors in mind, her sense of smell was receiving quite a work over today. She opened her mouth wider as his tongue thrust inside. She was as close to him as she could get, but it wasn’t enough. Not when a part of her reminded that someone could walk in at any moment and it wouldn’t look good for Michael.

  “Michael,” she moaned, when he started lifting her sweater, “do you really think this is a good place?”

  “Do you know of a better one?” By now his lips were coursing a scorching path down her neck.

  “Yes, my apartment.”

  He stopped abruptly.

  “Where I can take the phone off the hook, lock all the doors and we wouldn’t have to worry about anyone walking in on us,” she said breathlessly.

  He angled back to get a better look at her flushed features and mussed hair. “You have an excellent idea, Ms. Cassidy.”

  “Then you agree? After all, you’d be able to keep a better eye on me there.”

  He tucked his shirt back into his waistband. “Just as soon as I get off duty.”

  She smoothed her sweater down over her hips. “I’ll be waiting.

  They were so caught up in each other they were unaware of a shadowed figure standing along one of the side hallways watching their exit with malicious amusement etched on his handsome face.

  Alex grasped Michael’s hand, threading her fingers through his as they walked toward the ER. “Come on, Duffy, we’ve got to get you back where you belong. I’ll fix you something healthy to eat tonight. I can’t believe all the junk food in that cafeteria! I’m surprised more nurses and doctors aren’t patients here.”

  Within two minutes, Alex and Michael parted company in the Emergency Room where he handed her some money for taxi fare. She used a telephone to call a cab and luckily didn’t have long to wait. She didn’t look back when she walked outside to her cab. There was no reason, since Michael was already hard at work.

  When she returned to her apartment she sought out the building supervisor to let her in since she didn’t have her purse with her and dreaded being overheard asking her dead parents to open the door. When she entered she found her parents pacing the length of the living room.

  “Are you all right?” Marian demanded to know. “They didn’t throw you in jail, did they? Oh, my poor darling, would you like some tea?”

  “Mom, I have never liked tea,” she replied, collapsing on the couch. “To me, it’s nothing more than dirty water. All I want is a cigarette.”

  “But tea is very soothing, and a cigarette will do the opposite,” she protested.

  “If I want soothing I’ll take a hefty shot of brandy.” She stretched her arms over her head.

  “That’s more like it,” Patrick agreed. “So what happened to that idiot?”

  Alex wrinkled her nose. “He tried to have me arrested for assault. I understand he also called Suzi Q a psycho and wanted her taken to the pound.” Her hand rested on the sleek back of the purring Siamese. “Needless to say, Jason isn’t welcome here anymore. As if he’d even want to come around after what happened today.”

  “He’s the one who should be in jail,” Patrick growled. “I should have let him have it.”

  “You tried, dear, remember?” Marian nudged his shoulder as she sat on the couch arm next to her husband. “So tell us what happened,” she urged Alex.

  Alex quickly filled them in on events at the hospital, but wisely kept the details of their time in the linen closet to herself. She had no desire to raise their hopes for something that just wasn’t going to happen. While Alex silently admitted she was more than a little attracted to Michael Duffy, she also knew that she wasn’t about to make a third mistake. Not after her colossal dud regarding Jason. Luckily she knew she was safe with Michael. With what he’d told her of his past love life, she sensed he was just as wary of any entanglements as she was. Or was he? her brain prodded. After all, look how he acted last night? And today. That wasn’t the bland and boring Michael Duffy he claimed to be.

  Well, she shrugged inwardly. she would just take it a day at a time.

  She pushed herself off the couch and walked into her office. “I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me.” She seated herself at the drawing board, sorting through her colored pens. As she stared at the predrawn black squares, she searched her brain for the idea that had been forming in her brain since her cab ride home with a driver complaining about a crazy plane trip he’d taken recently.

  She settled back in the chair, tapping a pen against her teeth. “What if someone flew from Beverly Hills to Burbank on Fly-It-Yourself Airways,” she mused. “And a trunk with a man’s body was lost during the flight. And now his widow is complaining to Fritzi about the deplorable service and she needs the trunk before they can have the funeral. She should look like an even more macabre version of Morticia Addams.” She pushed her chair closer to the drawing board and began rapidly sketching as the ideas flowed from her brain onto the stark white paper. As always, Alex’s strip held a touch of whimsy along with dark humor befitting the subject matter.

  While some cartoonists hired apprentices to fill in the colors and dialogue after the main artist finished his/her work, Alex preferred to do it all herself because she liked to add a special little puzzle inside the strip that her faithful readers looked forward to solving. This time, the intricate design of the sleeve of the woman’s red-and-black cloak would reveal to those who looked for it a grinning skull design. By the time she finished her rough draft she sat back, stretching her aching back and neck muscles as she proudly surveyed her work.

  “I thought you had to wear your glasses while you drew,” Patrick commente
d, obviously feeling it was a safe time to come in. He held up a pair of dark-rimmed, oversize glasses.

  “I’m supposed to,” she admitted ruefully. “I have to use them to combat eye strain. And I usually pay for it when I forget to wear them and work for long periods of time. Thanks for bringing them in. I usually keep them in here.” She slipped them on. “And I’ve got to do the final draft tonight, so I can mail these off first thing in the morning. Thank goodness I’m not behind schedule in spite of all the crazy things that have been going on lately.” She gestured to the small stack neatly piled on top of a two-drawer file cabinet. “These aren’t due for another three weeks.”

  “So what are you going to do about the good Dr. Duffy?”

  Alex slowly turned her chair around to face her father. “Don’t beat around the bush, Dad. Get to the point.”

  “You saw him at the hospital, didn’t you?”

  “What makes you think that?” She acted nonchalant, studying her fingernails with an all too casual air.

  He began ticking off the reasons on his fingers. “One, the man was on duty today and he works in the emergency room. Two, you were in the emergency room yet you didn’t mention seeing him, which you must have since I’m sure he would have made a point to see you. Three, your face was more than a little red when you talked about being there. Not a normal reaction from a woman who was almost arrested for assaulting a man who deserved it. I’d say you did a bit more than run into the good doctor while you were there.” His eyes twinkled with broad mischief. “So what happened? Anything remotely decadent?”

  “Father!” She pretended shock. “Decadence does not go on in a hospital.”

  “Wanna bet? Why do you think your mother watched ‘General Hospital’ all those years? She even insisted on a satellite dish for the RV so she wouldn’t miss any episodes while we traveled.”

  “She was the same way during the years ‘Marcus Welby’ was on. I think it was more a fixation with doctors than the show,” Alex wryly pointed out.