Free Alone in the Dark by Marie Ferrarella Page A

retort.

    "Sorry about that," Patience murmured.

    Brady shrugged the apology away. "Don't worry about it." He didn't have to look behind
    him to know that King was following. "Where are the flowers?"

    "Back here." Bypassing the exam rooms, she took him to her small office just off the
    operating area. The room barely had enough space for a desk and chair, much less the file
    cabinet and bookcase she'd managed to push in. Bringing another person in was a challenge.
    She glanced over her shoulder at Brady. "Tight squeeze."

    That was putting it mildly, he thought. If he took a deep breath, he'd wind up brushing
    against her, something he reallydidn'twant to do. "You could knock out a wall, make it
    bigger."

    She'd thought about it, but the clinic already occupied a great deal of the first floor. "I
    didn't want to take space away from the examination rooms or the operating salon. I
    didn't need much space." Moving around to where the chair butted up against her desk to
    give him room, she gestured toward the long white box on her desk. "There it is."

    "Was there a note?"

    She nodded. A flicker of nerves washed over her. "It said 'It won't be long before you're
    mine.'"

    He set his mouth hard. "Did you recognize it? Was it Payne's handwriting?"

    She shook her head, frustration nibbling at her. "I'm not sure what his handwriting looks
    like. The poems and notes he'd send me always came off his printer."

    That smacked of wanting everything uniform, controlled. Better to overestimate a suspect
    than to underestimate him. "Even with the flowers?" He found that highly unlikely, unless the man brought the cards with him when he bought the flowers.

    She thought for a second. Only a few of the flowers had been accompanied by notes.
    "Those were printed, too. He has his own computer business so he's into all that."

    He looked back at the rectangular box. "Is the card still inside?"

    She nodded. Rather than open the box, she watched Brady take out a pair of rubber
    gloves from his pocket and slip them on. "I thought only detectives carried around rubber
    gloves. Aren't you and King in the narcotics detail?"

    That was exactly why he carried gloves. "Sometimes I have to handle bags of cocaine or
    heroin," he told her matter-of-factly. "You don't want that getting on your skin, especially if you've got a nick or a cut."

    Patience was barely aware of nodding in response. She was holding her breath as he took
    the lid off the box, bracing herself again. It was as if each time she looked at the flowers,
    she was reminded all over again that the world was not the place she wanted it to be, the
    place that her brother and cousins made safe just by their very presence. There was a
    nasty side to life, a nasty side that found them despite the best of precautions.

    "Certainly isn't cheap," Brady observed matter-of-factly. Each rose was as plump and
    perfect as the last. Great care had been taken selecting them. By his count, there were
    two dozen.

    "This must have set him back about a hundred dollars." Both hands in the box, he moved
    the long-stemmed flowers around gingerly.

    He'd already taken out the envelope with the card and set it on the table. She didn't
    understand. "What are you looking for?"

    He glanced at her. "Making sure your 'admirer' just sent flowers."

    "What else would he have sent?"

    He debated telling her, then decided that he'd rather she be safe than another statistic.
    Forewarned was forearmed.

    "There was one case where the stalker sent a poisonous snake along with the flowers.
    When they caught him, he said that he felt if he couldn't have her, nobody could, and he
    made damn sure he got his way."

    She'd put the lid back quickly, but was confident that she would have noticed if there had
    been anything alive in the box.

    "No snake," she assured him. "Just flowers and a card."

    But that was bad enough, she thought. Patience sincerely doubted that she was ever going
    to be able to look at a rose without