Guardian by Kaitlyn O'Connor (ebook e reader txt) 📗

easilyunderstandable way. But she was so nervous she couldn’t seem togather her thoughts or put them in any kind of order. “I just … getthis feeling that something isn’t quite right abouthim.”

“So … it’s a man? A youngman? Old man? White, black, Hispanic?” he asked briskly.

Marilyn felt her faceredden. Her belly knotted. Abruptly, this seemed like areally, really bad idea. “Well, I … uh … I don’t want to cause him anytrouble if he hasn’t done anything.”

She could see the detective wasstruggling with his patience.

“But you think he might?Well, I need a description if we’re to check this out. Unless youhave a name?”

She did, but she wasn’t about to givehim that! “He’s … uh … white, I think. He could be Hispanic. Well …no, probably not. He’s very tall. And they usually aren’t—not thistall anyway. Black hair.”

“Eyes? You get closeenough to see his eye color?”

Marilyn was appalled atthat suggestion. “I couldn’t tell you if I had. He always wearssunglasses. Always. That’s one of the weird things that makes meuneasy.”

He toyed with his pen. “What do you dofor a living?”

Marilyn was taken aback. The questionseemed totally off subject. “I’m a librarian. What does that haveto do with anything?”

“I’m just trying to get alittle information here. Do you live alone?”

Marilyn gaped at him in disbelief anddawning resentment. “I don’t see that that has any relevance,” sheresponded tightly.

“I was just wondering ifyou lived alone and that played into your being uneasy abouthim—maybe looks you’d encountered? Maybe something he said? Orsomething like that. As for the glasses, well a lot of people wearsunglasses, Ms. Carter. I don’t really see that as suspiciousbehavior.”

Marilyn’s lips tightened. It wasgetting harder and harder to recall the points she had planned tomake and she really, really didn’t like the direction he was takingwith his questions. It sounded an awful lot like he was questioningher veracity to say nothing of her mental state. Thankfully,though, his comment about suspicious behavior triggered some of hermemories. “That’s just it. He behaves suspiciously. It’s nothingyou can really put your finger on, but … it just seems to me thathe must be up to something. He … well, it’s almost like he’d tryingto disguise himself.”

“With thesunglasses?”

Marilyn felt her face turn red again,but she was on a roll now. “He dresses like a … well, I’d say ageek. But he doesn’t come across as a geek to me. And there’s thesunglasses. And he never seems to work, but he doesn’t seem to havea problem with money. He’s always having people over. Now, doesthat sound like a geek to you? I mean, they’re usually loners,right?”

Like her. Absolutely zero people inher circle.

The detective nodded and doodled onhis pad. “So he looks like a geek and he has friends and he wearssunglasses all the time? Anything more specific?”

“That’s the point! He isdrop dead gorgeous! He looks like a movie star gorgeous and I justdon’t see him as a geek.”

The cop stared at her for a longmoment and finally nodded and got up. “Alright then. I think I haveenough here to get started Ms. Carter. I’ll check it out and seewhat I can find out and check back with you later if I needanything else from you.”

He had helped her from her seat andushered her out the door and closed it behind her before she couldgather her wits about her to ask questions.

She had left the police station andwas halfway down the stairs outside before it dawned on her thatshe hadn’t given him any real information at all! She hadn’t toldhim where she worked or the name or address of the apartmentbuilding or given him a contact number.

Of course, there weren’t that manylibraries ….

He thought she was just akook!

A lonely woman looking forattention!

She was embarrassed and angry whenthat occurred to her, but realized with some dudgeon that sheshould have expected to be dismissed out of hand by that kindNeanderthal male!

She had instincts, damn it! And theywere telling her something was just plain ‘off’ about theguy.

Much good it had done to go talk tothe cops about her worries!

See something say something my ass!Like they listened when you tried to!

And for his informationshe was not lonely and she didn’t needthis kind of attention!

Didn’t he get that she was scared?That she thought her neighbor was up to something nefarious? If hewas, then he could blow up half the city before the stupiddetective figured out he was running a terrorist cell!

Not that honestly thought hewas.

He was drop dead gorgeous, but he wasvery exotic looking.

She hadn’t gotten a good enough lookat him—though god knew she had tried to without him knowing shewas—to decide whether he was white or Hispanic or middle eastern,but the impression she’d gotten said ‘exotic or other’, notwhite.

He had blue black hair. She hadn’tseen hair that dark on very many people at all.

He was tan, or brown—but not verydark—tan enough to be ‘white with good tan’.

She supposed he could be black ormixed. His hair didn’t look like a black person’s hair, though. Itwas more like Asian—board straight and silky looking.

But he was really, really tall and shehadn’t seen a lot of very tall Hispanics or Asians.

That said black or white.

Maybe he was like German? OrRussian?

She bet that was it! Russian. ARussian mobster!

He even had a teeny tiny bit of anaccent that she hadn’t been able to place.

She frowned after a few moments,reluctant to give up on the terrorist scenario so easily—at leastnot entirely even though she had been far from convinced that waswhat he was up to.

She’d thought hemight be buildingbombs—which was what had her so unnerved about him being around andhad inspired her to talk to the police about the vibes she wasgetting.

She was obliged to admit, though, thathe looked more like a Russian than a middle easterner.

And she didn’t think they ‘did’terrorist groups. They were generally plain old, scarycrooks.

* * * *

Detective Roddy left his cubicle,stuck his head in the door of his partner’s office and grinned whenDillard glanced around and then chuckled at his expression. “Youthink you got enough to investigate the weird neighbor posing as ageek?”

Dillard snorted. Tearing