Free Man Shy by Catherine Mulvany

though Mallory couldn ’ t quite place her. One thing for certain, she wasn ’ t the bride-to-be.
    Maybe Lindsey ’ s suspicions had some basis in fact. Like it or not, maybe Mallory really should have a little chat with Evan.

FIVE

Brody found Mallory in the living room staring at the dusty split-leaf philodendron in the corner as if she ’ d never seen one before. “ Problem? ” he asked.
    “ What? ” She turned slowly to face him. “ Oh, no. It ’ s nothing. Who was on the phone? ”
    “ Lieutenant Kirkwood. ”
    “ On a Sunday? I thought officers were strictly nine-to-fivers. ”
    “ None of us will be nine-to-fivers again until we catch the burglars. ” And GI Joe. The rapist had attacked another victim last night, according to Kirkwood.
    “ Were they able to trace the pickup, using the partial you gave them? ”
    “ Yeah, only one truck registered in Paiute County fit the description, so they hauled the owner in for questioning. The lieutenant wants us to come down to see if we can ID the guy. ”
    “ But what about your head? Didn ’ t you tell him you were on the casualty list? ”
    He ’ d slept well and the golf-ball-sized lump on the back of his head had shrunk to mosquito-bite proportions. Aside from a headache, he felt pretty good. “ I ’ m okay. How about you? ”
    Mallory looked pale and fragile with her hair wisping around her face and faint violet shadows under her eyes. Then she grinned at him and the illusion of fragility vanished. “ I ’ ll live. Did your lieutenant say who the owner of the truck was? ”
    “ Arlo Davis. Name ring a bell? ”
    She shook her head. “ Never heard of him, but I bet it ’ s the same guy we saw outside Dixon and Alexandra Yano ’ s house. And probably the same one who clobbered you, then stashed you in the Dumpster. According to the witness, the man who followed you outside was ‘ smaller than an elephant, but not by much. ’”
    Brody nodded. “ Good description of our burglary suspect, all right. ”
    Unfortunately, the witness ’ s description wasn ’ t a good match for Arlo Davis, a frail, white-haired man in his late seventies.
    “ I don ’ t get it, ” said Mallory. “ Why did they just let him go? Even if he wasn ’ t the human tank who bashed you over the head and ripped off my friends ’ house, the old boy had to have some idea who the culprit was. After all, we know it was his truck that was used in the robbery. ”
    “ No, ” said Brody. “ We don ’ t know it was his truck. All we know is that it was a truck that looked like his. I didn ’ t get the partial license number at the crime scene. ”
    “ Yes, but someone attacked you when you bent down to check the plate number on Davis ’ s truck. That can ’ t be a coincidence. ”
    He shrugged. “ No, but it ’ s not evidence, either. Maybe if Arlo Davis had been the big guy we saw at the Yano house, we could have convinced a judge to issue a search warrant so we could have checked his truck and his house for stolen goods. As it is, we ’ ve got nothing except, in my case, a killer of a headache. I ’ m going back to bed to take it easy like the doctor said, but c” A smile spread slowly across his face.
    Mallory felt the reaction all the way to her toes. “ But what? ”
    “ Why don ’ t we try this dinner-date thing one more time? Say tomorrow night at seven? ”
    She frowned. “ I don ’ t know, Brody. I think the fates are trying to tell us something. ” Another date wasn ’ t a good idea. She was way too attracted to him already, and she suspected he wasn ’ t exactly indifferent to her. Normally a strong mutual attraction was a good thing, but Mallory ’ s approach to relationships wasn ’ t normal. Her fear of intimacy ran deep. She and Brody had no future, and it wasn ’ t fair to him to pretend otherwise. All she needed was an escort for the wedding festivities. Nothing more.
    “ Come on, Mallory. Give me a chance to make it up to you. ”
    She