Free Blue Dawn by Norah-Jean Perkin

attraction.
    “Are you all right Allie?”
    Allie’s eyes flew open.
    “You’re looking a little tense,” Nate commented. “Is all this stuff about Cody getting you down?”
    “Some,” Allie conceded. She suspected Nate had chosen her and her column to focus on her former fiancé’s disappearance to give the stories an emotional edge they might lack from an uninvolved stranger. Interviewing the Tiffanies and Janes and others she hadn’t known about who had filled Cody’s social calendar had hurt and shamed her more than she wanted anyone to know.
    No, she didn’t enjoy the role she was playing in the investigation. But Cody was missing. And if there was any chance her columns would help find him, she’d swallow her pride and just do it.
    Nate sat forward in his chair, his cherubic face glowing with child-like eagerness. “That interview yesterday with Cody’s mother was the best thing yet. You captured her worry and fears magnificently. I don’t think anyone’s ever—”
    “Nate!” Allie glared at the elfin city editor, her exasperation momentarily blotting out her awareness of Erik. “Cody is missing. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
    “Of course it means something to me.” Nate sat back, miffed. “He was our best investigative reporter.”
    “Not just that.” Allie’s voice rose. “He’s missing, Goddammit. Gone. Disappeared. He’s a human being. Not just some story. Don’t you feel for his mother? Don’t—”
    It was Nate’s turn to interrupt. “Of course I do.
    What do you think I am, some kind of monster? I shouldn’t have to tell you this is a newspaper, Allie. This is what we do. No matter how I feel about Cody, his disappearance is also a great story. It’s in all the papers, on every TV and radio broadcast. And more than anyone else, it’s our job to tell that story. Besides, the more we focus on it, the better chance of someone finding him or turning up some clue.”
    Allie sighed. Nate was right. Cody’s disappearance was a great story. And an even better story because it had put The Streeter at the lead of every local newscast and on the front page of every paper for the past week. Not to mention her column. It would have been foolish not to milk Cody’s disappearance for everything it was worth.
    But still. It seemed so cold, so inhumane. Yet another time when her own instincts conflicted with what a reporter was expected to do.
    She shoved her reservations aside. She had to concentrate on what was important—and that was finding Cody. “So. What do you want me to do?”
    “Atta girl.” Nate relaxed. The sparkle returned to his eyes, and along with it the excitement the news always seemed to incite in him.
    “So far the police have nothing on Cody’s disappearance. Not a clue, not a fingerprint, not a sighting, nothing. If we don’t come up with something soon, the story will die, and likely our chances of finding Cody too. So I want you to go see a psychic.”
    “Oh, come on , Nate. Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme?”
    “No.” Nate shook his head. “No, it’s perfect.
    The disappearance is a mystery. Why not a psychic? And Madame Carabini has an excellent reputation for coming up with things that no one else has found.”
    “Madame Carabini?” Allie rolled her eyes.
    “Where’d you come up with her? She sounds like someone out of a comic book.”
    “Well, she isn’t.” Nate nodded at Erik, who had remained silent throughout their interchange.
    “And I want you to go with Erik. He’ll get the pictures of her mulling over Cody and his fate.”
    “Erik? Why?” Allie blurted out in dismay.
    Nate frowned. He looked from Erik to Allie. “Is there a problem?” He focused his attention on Allie. “Because those pictures Erik took of the abandoned car captured the eerie mood exactly.
    There’s nobody here who does that kind of thing so well.”
    “No, no, of course there’s no problem,” Allie gulped out. For a split second she shut her