His original plans after turning in his resignation had been to spend a month in Arizona trekking through the Grand Canyon and shooting landscapes to pad his portfolio. Instead, he was being paid a lot of money to spy on two so-called psychic detectives.
Resentment threatened to sour his mood again.
Glancing at Emma as she examined the card he’d given her, he reminded himself this job might not end up being so bad. Not if he played his cards right.
“A professor.” She stared at his business card and gnawed at her lip. “Cool. Thanks.”
“Guess I’d better run.” He edged toward the door. “My cell phone number is on there. Feel free to call if you need anything, Emma.”
“Spider.”
“Oh, right. I thought I heard that officer call you Emma.”
“Emma is my real name, but I prefer for people to call me Spider.”
“Why?” He preferred Emma. It was a pretty name. Feminine. He liked it.
She scrunched her face. “Because it’s an awesome nickname. Come on now.”
Stepping through the doorway, he processed what he’d learned about her. Cyber security. Internet. The web.
Spider. He got it.
“Emma suits you better.” Winking, he pulled the door shut behind him.
Spider waited for the Internet to connect and realized she’d been tapping her foot for – who knew how long?
“It hasn’t taken this long before. What the frack?”
Costello’s response was a cross between a whine and a grumble. The dog always insisted on lying as close to her feet as possible. Sooner or later, she was gonna step on him and then hello animal emergency room visit.
“And it’ll be your fault, you silly dog.” She nudged him with the toe of her Converse hi-tops as she rebooted the machine.
The plush sofa cushions tried to coax her into taking a nap, but her nerves were too on edge to cooperate. Her stomach churned with an urgent desire to find out more about Noah West. Even though her smart phone didn’t have the juice she needed to do a thorough Internet search, she tried it anyway while she waited for her laptop to restart.
She scrolled through the recommended websites a simple search returned, frowning. “This is useless.”
Tossing her phone aside, she hopped to her feet, sidestepped the dog, and began pacing. Noah could be everything he claimed to be, but serious doubt nibbled at that idea. Few people were all they claimed, and she still had the emotional scars to prove it.
Don’t think about the a-hole. He’s ancient history now.
Too late. Her mind reeled back to her ex and how horribly their relationship had ended.
After her mother had died when Spider was in the tenth grade, she’d relied upon her best friend Paul to be her rock, and he had been – that is, until he’d changed from her kind and supportive boyfriend into a cruel and domineering fiancé. She became so meek and shy, letting him dictate her every decision. He’d all but forced her to drop out of college because he wanted to take care of her. No job, he’d said, because she would be too busy being his wife and mother to the three kids he wanted. A proper little lady who wore dresses and never spoke out of turn. Practically a cardboard cutout.
One day she’d taken a look at the hot-pink-haired leather-clad female avatar she’d created in a game – which, let’s be honest, had been her escape to keep her sanity intact, not to mention her one act of rebellion, since video games were not at all lady-like – and wondered why she couldn’t become more like her avatar in real life. Strong. Independent. Unique. Maybe even a little bit snarky. The desire to become those things had grown and swelled until, one day, she impulsively dyed her hair purple and ditched her closet full of dresses for a wardrobe heavy on jeans, combat boots, and skin-tight t-shirts.
And she ditched Paul, too.
Both he and her father had accused her of having an early quarter-life crisis, but she hadn’t cared. She’d felt more herself than she had in her entire life.
She enrolled in computer programming classes, because she’d always had a knack for computers. Afterwards, she got the job at Zach’s agency. And she was almost two years into her five-year plan to save money, get her own house and finally enjoy her fought-for independence.
Patience was all she needed, and not to get mixed up with any serial killer types in the meantime. Because dying before she could get her own place would really, really suck.
Before she could change her mind, she snatched up her phone and punched in the non-emergency number for the Atlanta Police Department. When an officer she didn’t recognize answered, she said, “I’m trying to reach Officer Jack Lanier. He’s been working in Zone 2.”
“He’s on patrol and unavailable at the moment. Would you like to leave a message?”
“Sure. This is Spider, er, I mean Emma. Emma Fisher and—”
“The chief’s daughter?”
Her shoulders sank on a sigh. “Yeah.”
“No kidding. What’cha been up to, kiddo? Haven’t seen you around here in a long time.”
Yeah, well, for one, I’m not a kiddo anymore. “You know. I’m working now.” She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t catch your name.”
“Pruitt. I come over to your house every now and then for games.”
“Oh, right. Pruitt.” She had no idea which officer was Pruitt. The parade of new and old uniforms that came through her house was never ending. “How have you been?”
“Good. Hold on. I’ll patch you through to Lanier’s cell phone. Take care, you hear?”
“Uh. Okay. Thanks.” She blew out a breath, hoping word wouldn’t get back to her father that she’d called into the station. Maybe this hadn’t been the smartest idea she’d had.
“Lanier,” a gruff voice growled.
“Hey, Jack, it’s Emma Fisher.”
“Hey, kiddo, what’s up?”
Enough with the kiddo stuff. Geez. “I have a question. Remember the guy who was here?”
“Yeah, yeah. The neighbour. West. Looked like he’d been on a bender. Why? He been bothering you?”
“No.” Sweet mercy, how did she say this without sounding like a paranoid recluse who spied on her neighbours? She swallowed. “Did you run a check on him or anything?”
“Yeah, standard check. Came back clean.”
“So, no priors or anything?” She drew out her words slowly.
“What’s this about, Emma?”
Drawing in a deep breath, she plopped down onto the sofa again. Here goes. “It’s just that, well, you know how you always hear after police catch someone for doing something awful, that people will say, ‘I saw something suspicious, but I never called the cops’? And you wonder, why didn’t they call the cops? They could have caught