Free Kiss the Girl by Susan Sey Page A

ain’t supposed to be two of them.”
    “Two of what?” Mary Jane asked .
    Nixie hauled desperately at her arm .   “They have a gun , Mary Jane.  This is not a good time for conversation.”
    “Two lady doctors ,” the driver said.   “ Ty said there was only one.”
    Mary Jane’s face went stony.  “Ty sent you?”
    Nixie frowned.  “Who’s Ty?”
    The d river gave Nixie a sullen stare and rubbed at his throat while the gun man emerged from the back seat , a little shaky but upright.  H is gun waver ed between Nixie’s liver and Mary Jane’s.  
    The driver said, “He wants the lady doctor .   Now. ”  
    “Fine.”  Mary Jane walked to the passenger door, opened it and slid onto the giant bench seat.  She drew her seatbelt down, buckled it.  “Let’s go.”
    “Um, Mary Jane?”  Nixie tapped the window as the kids scrambled back into the car .  Mary Jane rolled it down.
    “I’ll be fine,” she said.  “ Some poor kid probably needs stitching up.  At least they didn’t toss him out on the sidewalk this time.  Tell Erik to cover for me.  I’ll be back later.”
    The d river stomped the accelerator and the car bucked to life.  It jumped the curb and laid a perfect S of rubber on the street as it peeled away.  Nixie stumbled back and watched it roar off into the night, taking Mary Jane with it. 
     
    “So she got into the car voluntarily?” the cop asked, his uniform starched, a sharpened pencil poised over his flip pad.  The four of them were crowded into Mary Jane’s tiny office, Erik, Nixie, and the two cops who’d answered his 911 call.  Erik gulped at the Styrofoam cup of coffee he’d brewed.  It went down like boiling hot rocket fuel, but what the hell.  He doubted he had any stomach lining left anyway.  Nixie was killing him.
    “They didn’t drag her into the car, if that’s what you’re asking,” she said.
    “It’s not,” Erik told her.  “They’re trying to make it sound like Mary Jane went off with her boyfriend so they don’t have to investigate.”
    A second cop turned toward Erik.  This one was older, had the bulbous nose of a heavy drinker and the spare tire to match.  The comb-over was gratis.  “Did you witness the event?”
    Erik pinched the bridge of his nose.  “No,” he said, weariness and nerves burning in his gut.  “Only Nixie did.  And she just told you these guys pulled a gun on her and Mary Jane.” 
    “That’s true,” Nixie put it .  “They definitely pointed a gun at us.”
    “Did they threaten to shoot you or Ms. Riley?”
    “Dr. Riley,” Erik said, his eyes closed.
    “Did they threaten to shoot you or Dr. Riley?” the first cop asked, his voice mechanical.
    “ They never actually said they were going to use the gun , no, ” Nixie said . 
    “ And Dr. Riley got into the car of her own free will ?” the second cop asked.  
    Nixie gave Erik an apologetic look that put another cramp in his stomach before turning back to the cop.  “ Well, yeah ,” Nixie said.   “She did.”  
    Pressed Cop looked at Paunchy Cop.  “This doesn’t sound like an abduction to me,” he said.  Erik could almost see him slam the lid shut o n the case and mentally wander into a doughnut shop
    “The hell it doesn’t.”  Erik was on his feet, his hands fisted by his sides.  Both cops touched their firearms in warning. 
    “You’ll want to take it easy, sir,” said Pressed Cop. 
    “How the hell am I s upposed to take it easy when the woman I --”   He broke off when the cops exchanged a smug look.  “A woman I work with gets snatched off the street in front of her own clinic by a couple of gang bangers and the cops refuse to classify it as an abduction?”
    Paunchy Cop smoothed a hand over his scalp.  “Dr. Riley got into the car without coercion after she was told that somebody named Ty had sent for her.  She then told Ms. Leighton-Brace that she would be back.  I frankly don’t see how we can justify using