Stealing Shadows - Hiding In The Shadows Part 19

Once again, Faith was unsure if that was her voice, her question-orsomeone else's.

She tried to think, to concentrate. "I was angry. I wanted ... justice.

That's what Dinah said to me, that we had to have proof that would standup 'in court or I wouldn't get my justice. But as far as we can tell, upuntil the accident, everything that happened to me happened before Icame to Atlanta. It has to connect, though, it just has to. WhateverDinah and I were investigating here has to connect to my life before."

"That makes sense."

"Then it is my fault Dinah's in trouble."

"Dinah's a grown woman with a d.a.m.ned good mind," Kane said after a

moment. "Whatever was going on, I doubt she was dragged into it

unwillingly." "What if I didn't tell her everything? What if I took whatever it isthey want, and I didn't tell Dinah what I did with it?" She grimacedsuddenly and set her winegla.s.s on the table. 'Dammit, not knowing whatthe thing is makes it sound so ridiculous when you talk about it."

"We could always call it the Macguffin," Kane suggested wryly.

"Isn't that a word Hitchc.o.c.k coined? To name something in a movie that everybody was after?"

He smiled faintly. "Another Hitchc.o.c.k fan, I see."

"I guess so."

-Well, then, we'll call it the Macguffin until we know what it is."

Faith waited out a long, rolling rumble of thunder.

"I 'just wish we knew."

"We'll find out." We have to find out. He didn't speak the last words,

but he might as well have.

He wouldn't let her help him clear up, and when he was done in the kitchen, he lit a fire in the fireplace.

Faith wandered uneasily to the piano for a few moments and then to a

window. The storm was going strong, and the rain was heavy now, blownagainst the windows by gusty wind in a rattle that told of sleet.It made her feel very jumpy.

Be careful That voice again, almost inaudible to her now.

"I think this is going to go on all night," Kane said, watching her as he stood by the fireplace.

Move ... now!

"I think you're right." Baffled by the faint whisper in her mind, by her

own tension, Faith winced as a bright flash of lightning illuminated thenight, then she turned from the window. "And I don't know why I havethis compulsion to stand here and watch when it makes me For an instant,Kane thought it was the crash of thunder that cut off her words, but hesaw an expression of puzzlement and then shock twist her features.

Her right hand touched the upper part of her left arm just below the shoulder, and Kane saw scarlet bloom around her fingers.

"Faith-"

"Will you look at that?" She was staring at a mirror directly across the

room from where she stood. A cobweb of large cracks radiated from asmall hole in the center of the mirror.

With more haste than gentleness, Kane grabbed her and pulled her awayfrom the windows. "G.o.d- dammit, somebody's shooting."

"At me?" She sounded only mildly interested.

He sat her down on the couch and pried her fingers away from her arm.

"Let me see."

Her sweatshirt bore two neat, round holes that were clearly entrance andexit points, and made it easy for him to tear the sleeve to expose thewound.

"It's just a scratch. I've always wanted to say that."

Kane had a hunch it was shock rather than courage that kept her voicestrong and her words light. But she was right in that the wound wasminor, a b.l.o.o.d.y furrow carved across no more than a couple of inches ofthe outside of her arm. He had no doubt, however, that it hurt likeh.e.l.l.

He made a pad of his handkerchief and pressed it to the sluggishlybleeding spot, and looked at Faith's pale, calm face. "Can you hold this'in place while I call the police?"

"Of course I can." She did so, then looked at him with amazingly cleareyes. 'But I won't go to the hospital.

"Faith, this needs to be looked at."

"I can have Dr. Burnett look at it tomorrow when we go to talk to him,"she said calmly. "It'll be fine tonight if you can 'just clean andbandage it."

"Faith- "It doesn't even need st.i.tches. I'm all right, Kane, really."

She shivered suddenly as thunder boomed again. "I just ... I don't wantto go out there tonight."

"All right."

He got a blanket and covered her with it before he went to callRichardson. He was careful to stay away from the windows, though hedoubted there was any danger. Whoever had been out there was long gone now.

That a shot had been taken on a night like this, with blinding rainmaking precision impossible, told him the act was a scare tactic, notintended to hit a live target; the bullet had found Faith only by sheerdumb luck. Nothing else made sense.

But that hardly made the situation better.

Kane disinfected and bandaged the wound. She never flinched or made asound, just sat there and watched him, and for some unaccountable reasonher gaze made him feel suddenly clumsy.

"I'm sorry," he said, taping the final piece of gauze into place.

"Why? You didn't shoot me."

Still holding her arm gently between his hands, he looked up to find hersmiling faintly. "I can't be flip about this, Faith."

"I see that. Kane, I'm fine. My arm hurts, and I won't be lingering nearany windows for a while, but I'm all right."

"You must be one of those people who shine in a crisis."

"You didn't do so bad yourself."

He realized he was compulsively smoothing with his thumbs the tapeholding the bandage in place, and forced himself to release her and leanback. "Yeah, well, I'll get the shakes later. And speaking of delayedshock-which do you prefer, whiskey or hot tea?"

"Tea, please."

When Richardson arrived a few minutes later, Faith answered thedetective's questions with no visible anxiety. Not that there was muchshe could tell him.

"I saw the cracked mirror first, and thought how odd it was. Then my armburned suddenly, but it wasn't until I put my hand over it that I feltthe blood.

Even then, I didn't immediately realize I'd been shot.

I never heard it."

"The storm was right overhead," Kane told his friend. "There was so muchnoise we couldn't hear the shot or the bullet going through the windowand smashing the mirror."

Richardson went over to examine the mirror. "It's gone all the waythrough and into the wall." He took down the mirror, then produced apenknife and dug into the Sheetrock. Win a very few minutes, he held amisshapen slug.

Even across the room Kane read Richardson's expression. "I guessballistics are out? No chance of tracing it to a particular gun?"

"I can't even tell what caliber it is, and I doubt the lab will be ableto either." He eyed the distance to the window, then went to examinethat as well. Like the mirror, the windowpane was marred by a small holesurrounded by a web of cracks.

"Too dark to see much now," he said. "I can come back tomorrow and takea stab at the trajectory, try to figure out where the shooter was. Butif he was standing more than a few feet away, he couldn't have hoped tohit what he was aiming at, not in this weather." Kane said, "There's nofire escape, and we're on the fifth floor. Unless he was outside on thebalcony- which is possible, if doubtful-he couldn't have been any closerthan the apartments on the other side of the courtyard. And thatbuilding is a good hundred feet away."

Richardson studied the distance from the hole in the window to the floor, then compared that with the distance between the hole in the walland the floor.

"Well, he sure as h.e.l.l didn't shoot upward from ground level, or downfrom a higher spot. Do those apartments across the courtyard havebalconies?"

"Yeah. "Then we'll look for a vacant or currently unused apartment.

I'm willing to bet we'll find one matching the trajectory of the shot.

Somebody sat over there watching this place, and when they saw Miss.Parker at the window ..."

"But I stood there at least a couple of minutes before I moved away,"Faith protested. "And it wasn't until then that I was shot."

. "Then he was probably trying to scare you, and just got lucky with theshot."

"Lucky," she murmured.

Richardson smiled. "A figure of speech." He looked at Kane. "Did you twodo anything today that might have gotten somebody's attention?"

"G.o.d knows. We talked to some people."

"In other words, you were driving all over Atlanta poking into corners."

"Guy, I'd swear n.o.body followed us. And as far as I could tell, no onewe talked to reacted in any unusual way to our questions." He had filledin the detective on their suppositions and conclusions, and Bishop'sdiscovery about the murder investigation in Seattle.

The detective sighed. "Well, somebody was obviously upset enough to warnyou off. Maybe you should pay attention. Get out of Atlanta for a whileand let me do the poking around."

"You know I can't do that. But I can hire a couple of security guards tokeep a closer eye on this place. And I'll sure as h.e.l.l have blindsinstalled on those windows first thing tomorrow.

"Put one of the guards in the garage to keep an eye on your car,"Richardson suggested. "And it wouldn't hurt to hire another private copto follow you whenever you leave and make sure he's the only one doingthat."

Kane grimaced slightly, but nodded.

"When's Bishop due back?"

"He isn't. He'll get here when he can, but some- thing's breaking in acase he's on, so there's no way of knowing."

"Have him call me and fill me in on whatever information he digs up."

Richardson looked at his friend steadily. "I mean it, Kane. This littlestunt, coupled with the break-ins at Miss. Parker's apartment, tells mefor d.a.m.n sure that whatever's going on is deadly serious. You getyourself killed, and the paper- work's going to be h.e.l.l."

"I'll remember that," Kane said dryly.

Richardson put the flattened bullet into a plastic evidence bag. "I'llfile a quiet report on this incident.

But it's the last time, Kane. Anything else happens, I won't be able tokeep it under my hat."

"Understood."

Kane showed the detective out and when he returned to the couch, Faithsaid, "He seems a good friend. "

"I'm blessed with a few," Kane agreed. He looked at her searchingly. "Iknow it's a stupid question to ask if you're all right, but I'll askanyway. Are you?"

She looked so small and still under the blanket, her hair dulled by thelow lights of the room and her face ashen.

"I'll be fine."