Free Secrets Amoung The Shadows by Sally Berneathy Page B

rising from the chair. "Go ahead. In the meantime—" He looked down at the gun on the lamp table. "Take that home with you. Lock your doors and windows. And promise me, if I should try to hurt you..."
    She shook her head, knowing she couldn't make any such promise. "I'll lock my doors and windows."
    "And take the gun home with you."
    She looked at the black metal object lying on her lamp table. That's all it was, she told herself. Metal molded into a certain shape, wooden grips on the handle. Material that could just as easily have been part of the table on which it lay. Inert. It could only cause harm if a person used it.
    "And take the gun home with me," she agreed, not sure she really meant it.
    He nodded, satisfied, and left.
    This time, she noted, he didn't ask her to go to dinner. He might still want to, but now he was convinced that a murderer lived inside his head, and he was determined to protect her from that person.
    As he'd observed, things didn't look good. Even so, she had to withhold a decision until she could be positive.
    The one major fact that still didn't fit was his failure to lose time. Multiples frequently blinked and found it had changed from dawn to dusk, from Monday to Wednesday. Their clothes were different, they were in a different place. They lost not only the memory but the time spent making the memory.
    Which didn't necessarily mean he was innocent. The evidence that he was guilty of murder was quite compelling. The evidence pointed to one of two possibilities. He could have a dangerous alter ego or he could be a cold-blooded murderer who was using her—her and her compassion for him, her attraction to him—to establish a defense of insanity.
    She wasn't sure which was worse.
    ***
    Greta ran in excited circles while Leanne filled her bowl with dog food. "Calm down, little one. You're not exactly starving. In fact, the vet tells me it wouldn't hurt you to join Weight Watchers."
    She set the bowl on the floor, and Greta pounced on it, tail wagging furiously as she crunched.
    The doorbell rang. Leanne started at the sound—a sign of her tension. Greta's head lifted from her bowl, she sniffed the air, and the fur on her back stood erect. The hair on the back of Leanne's neck stood up, too. She wasn't sure if it was nerves after everything that had happened lately or Greta's reaction to someone at the door that caused it. Whatever the reason, she felt distinctly uneasy.
    Greta growled as she followed Leanne to the front door. Leanne flipped on the porch light and peered through the viewer. Eliot stood there, gazing downward at the Welcome mat as if blinded by the sudden burst of light.
    Reflexively, without thinking, she flung the door open. "Eliot, what are you doing here? Has something happened?"
    But when the man lifted his head and smiled at her, when she saw his face, she knew it wasn't the same Eliot who'd come to her office. She stepped backward involuntarily. Behind her Greta growled ominously. She had to restrain an impulse to slam the door, bolt it and lock herself in her bedroom.
    "No, nothing's wrong," he said, smiling, and it was Eliot's smile, a slight dimple forming in one cheek, but at the same time, it was different. This smile sent a chill down her spine rather than warmth around her heart. "I just thought, if you hadn't eaten yet, we could order a pizza," he continued, peering over her shoulder. "Are you going to invite me in?"
    Greta barked sharply. Leanne jumped and gasped at the sound. She reached down to pick up the little dog. From the safety of Leanne's arms, Greta bared her tiny teeth at him. Leanne understood the impulse.
    "Mr. Kane," she said sternly, stroking the dog's head, trying to calm her, "you know how I feel about our doctor-patient relationship. I think you should leave now."
    She started to close the door, but he caught it, holding it open. Her heart pounded wildly, and she briefly wished she'd brought Eliot's gun home with her to threaten this intruder.
    The