Free Present Danger by Susan Andersen

called her? The little girl with the big eyes? It was true in more ways than one, evidently. What a surprise.
    He sat down at his drafting table and picked up a pencil, fingers moving swiftly as a cartoon took shape. This had turned out to be one hell of an interesting day.
     

CHAPTER 4
    How could everything be going along so swimmingly one moment and fall to pieces the next? It wasn’t supposed to work that way … not here in her new life. Yet it only took one telephone call to bring everything crashing down around Aunie’s ears.
    She was laughing at something Lola said when she picked up the receiver. Fifteen seconds later, the smile was wiped from her face.
    “No,” she whispered. Then louder, “No!” Clutching the receiver in both hands, she slid down the wall. She could hear a spate of words on the other end of the line, frantic-sounding in their rush to reassure, but they seemed to be in no particular coherent order. She blindly fumbled the receiver into its cradle. She could see the concern on Lola’s face, watched as her friend’s lips moved, but the words Lola spoke didn’t quite penetrate the fog that shrouded her brain.
    “Go home, Lola,” she whispered. “I’m fine. Really. Go home.”
    But she wasn’t fine. Maybe she never would be again. Her lawyer had just delivered news that wrapped a chill around her heart.
    “Aunie, please, let me in,” Lola called through the closed door. She bounced the apartment key in her palm and then knocked harder. “Aunie!”
    The door down the hallway opened and James stuck his head out. “Lola?” he said irritably. “What the hell’s going on?”
    Lola gave the key in her hand another uncertain glance; then she turned away from Aunie’s door and hurried down the hallway. “Oh, James, I don’t know what to do. I’m worried ‘bout Aunie.” Lola saw that she had his immediate attention. The expression of impatience that he habitually wore when anyone interrupted his time at the drawing board had disappeared. “Why?” he demanded, pushing away from the doorway.
    “I was visitin’ wid her this mornin’ before she had to get ready for school. She received a phone call while I was there that upset her somethin’ fierce, and she asked me to go. So I did, mon, but I kept a eye out for her … to be sure she was all right, you know. She was that upset.”
    “Yeah? And?”
    “And she hasn’t left the apartment, mon. That girl’s serious ‘bout her grades; I don’t know if you know this, but she wants to qualify for the U next year.” James hadn’t known, but he nodded anyway. “Well, before the phone rang, she’d just finished tellin’ me she had an important test this afternoon,but she hasn’t budged from that apartment and she won’t open the door or answer me. This is the third time I’ve been up here.” She showed him the key. “It’s my duplicate. I’ve been debatin’ …”
    “Use it.”
    Aunie’s apartment was dark when they let themselves in, illuminated only meagerly by a waning finger of light that filtered through a slat that hung awry in one of the dining room windows’ miniblinds. Feeling their way cautiously until their eyes had a chance to adjust, they entered the living room, halting in the entrance. They were greeted by a blast of hot air. “Aunie?” Lola called softly. There was no response and James said brusquely, “Aunie, answer us, dammit.”
    Aunie raised her forehead from where it rested on her kneecaps and peered through dull eyes at the two dim figures standing just inside the living room. “Go away,” she said hoarsely and hugged herself tighter. God. The last thing she wanted at this moment was company. When they didn’t move, she said plaintively, “Please? Just go away.” It didn’t occur to her to ask how they’d gained entrance to her apartment. Wearily, she lowered her head once again.
    “We can’t do that,” James said flatly and made his way to the nearest lamp. He turned it on, casting a