Free Dream Man by Linda Howard Page A

allow himself to touch her in any way, except those necessary in his job. Cuddling her wasn’t included on that list.
    But he wanted to. Damn, he wanted to. He wanted to let her rest her head on his shoulder, he wanted to stroke her cheek, her neck, then let his hand drop lower to investigate her breasts, the curve of her belly, the soft notch between her legs.
    He surged to his feet, cursing to himself. He’d seen her for the first time that morning, and hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her since. That good old physical chemistry had sure blindsided him with this one.
    He checked the time: nine-fifteen. Hell, he might as well go down to the station and wait for Officer Ewan. At least the usual bullshit going on would keep him from thinking about her so much. He paced restlessly for a moment, then got his car keys and put the plan into action. As he had hoped, Officer Ewan came in early, as a lot of policemen did, so he would have plenty of time to change clothes and drink coffee, kind of settle into routine before the shift began. Jim Ewan was average in almost every way: average height, average weight, average features. His eyes, though, were the alert, cynical eyes of a cop, someone used to seeing everything and expecting anything. He remembered the incident Friday night very clearly.
    “It was a little spooky,” he said, thinking about it. “She was just sitting there, like a statue. Her eyes were open and fixed, at first I thought I had a stiff. I turned on the flashlight, but couldn’t see anything suspicious in the car, and I could tell then that she was breathing. I rapped on the window with the flash, but it took her a while to come around.”
    Dane felt an uneasy tingle up his spine. “Had she fainted, maybe?”
    Officer Ewan shrugged. “Only people I’ve ever seen with their eyes fixed like that were stiffs or crazies. The eyes close when it’s just a faint.”
    “So what happened then?”
    “It was like she was real confused, and she looked scared at first. She had trouble moving, like someone coming out of anesthesia. But then she managed to get the window rolled down, and she said that she was an epileptic and must have had a seizure. I asked her to get out of the car, and she did. She was shaky, trembling all over. I couldn’t smell any alcohol, and she didn’t seem to be on anything; I’d already called in her plate number, and it had checked out okay, so there wasn’t any reason to hold her. Like I said, she was pretty wobbly, so I followed her home to make sure she made it.”
    “What time was this?” Dane asked.
    “Let’s see. I can check my paperwork for that night to give you the exact time, if you need it, but I think it was a little after midnight, maybe twelve-fifteen.”
    “Thanks,” Dane said. “You’ve helped a lot.”
    “My pleasure.”
    He drove back home, mulling over everything Officer Ewan had said. For such a brief meeting, it had given him a lot of information.
    For one thing, Marlie Keen had been on the opposite side of town from the Vinick residence at about the same time Nadine Vinick was being murdered.
    Officer Ewan’s observations pretty much verified what Marlie had told him about how the “vision”
    affected her.
    So what did he have now? Logically he could no longer consider her a suspect, and something inside loosened with relief. She hadn’t been there; she had an alibi. There was nothing to connect her to the murder… except her own words. She had seen the murder happen. There was no other way. But how?
    She knew something, something she hadn’t told him. Something that put those shadows in her eyes. He was going to find out what she was hiding, find out exactly how she was tied to this murder. The only alternative was that she really was psychic, and he couldn’t buy that. Not yet. Maybe not ever, but… not yet.

Chapter 6
    He could feel the anger burning in him as the woman marched away, and he sternly controlled it, as he controlled