Free While You Were Dead by CJ Snyder Page B

fell asleep. Your couch isn’t big enough for both of us and you wouldn’t let me go.”
     
    Hot heat flushed her cheeks again. “Please don’t sugar coat it on my expense.” His laughter followed her into the bathroom, where she slammed the door. The vicious bang didn’t help. Back in the bedroom, Max was whistling. Whistling!
     
    Appalled, Kat stared at her reflection in the mirror. Nothing happened, that was the only fact she was sure of. If anything had happened, she wouldn’t feel so, so. . .needy. No, a night spent making love with Max left her weightless, sated, not trembling with compelling restlessness. “You’re pathetic,” she whispered to her reflection. Kat frowned and turned on the shower. Coffee. Her stomach growled angrily. Coffee and dry toast. Did she have any cigarettes left? Definitely time for damage control.
     
    Ten minutes later, she’d just wrapped herself in a towel when the door flew open. Max wasn’t whistling now. He wasn’t even smiling. His face was pale, his mouth pinched with pain.
     
    “The police just called. They’ve got something.”
     
    The bottom dropped out of her world. Lizzie.
     

Chapter Five
     
    We’ve got your number.
     
    Max’s eyes devoured the simple note, now encased in plastic. Found on a breakfast tray outside Miriam’s room an hour ago, the envelope bore a scrawled child’s handwriting–not Lizzie’s. Lizzie had picture perfect handwriting. This was sloppily drawn, with abnormally large letters that proclaimed, “Uncle Max.”
     
    Kat’s fingers tightened around his arm. Seeking support? He wasn’t about to reject it. He pulled her inside the circle of his arm, his comfort automatic while he continued to stare at the note.
     
    “What does it mean–they’ve got your number?” Kat’s voice shook. “Your phone number?” Obvious, but something about the wording struck him as strange. Reluctantly, he handed the note back to Detective Reicher. “You’ll let me know on the prints?” There were two, one partial and a full. Max dared to hope for the first time. Ransom. Lizzie might have survived the night. He moved to the window, not seeing the greening grass outside.
     
    “As soon as I do,” the solemn detective promised.
     
    Yesterday these very doors swallowed Lizzie. Tough to walk through. Now even the hospital walls threatened to close in on him. Rage ate at the cold steel inside.
     
    He felt Kat beside him again and wrapped her up tight, her shudders strong enough to jar him. “Let’s go,” she whispered, eyes firmly focused away from the cones surrounding one table in the dining room.
     
    He gave a short nod. “I need to see Miriam first.”
     
    “Not to–“
     
    Max squeezed her waist, shaking his head. “No.” Miriam still didn’t know, and Max didn’t want to change that. Not unless he had to. His sister’s infection was worsening and the resulting high fever, coupled with her disease-ravaged kidneys, had her semi-conscious at best.
     
    Kat walked out of his arms. “I’ll wait here,” she announced and then stepped closer to a nearby table where two police officers were conducting employee interviews. Why wouldn’t she go with him to see Miriam? And Miriam never mentioned Kat, not once. Why not? He watched her pull out her cell phone and page through something.
     
    Detective Reicher tapped his arm. “She involved?” He nodded surreptitiously to Kat.
     
    Max shook his head. As strange as the circumstances were, he couldn’t believe Kat could be involved with Lizzie’s disappearance. “Friend of the family.”
     
    “Not a bad friend to have at a time like this. I’ve heard she’s one of the best.”
     
    Max raked his fingers through his hair. “What’s next?”
     
    Reicher had worked with Max before when a burglary gang had drifted north from Denver to Bluff River Falls. Max had been instrumental in assuring Bluff River Falls was their final stop. He didn’t try to sweeten his news. “You