Two-Faced (13 page)

CHAPTER FORTY TWO

Jess jumped when the phone rang then quickly grabbed the receiver with shaking hands.

"Mrs. Parks? It’s Detective Sykes."

Relief flooded through her when she heard the familiar voice.

"Detective, a man just tried to attack me, here at my house..." She tried to continue but her throat unexpectedly caught and tears spilled from her eyes.

"Will you be okay for twenty minutes?" he asked. "It
’s the soonest I can get there.”

“
Yes,” Jess nodded. His voice was reassuring even through the phone.

“
Okay, see you soon," he said and hung up.

Headlights flashed through the living room blinds, accompanied by the sound of a car
’s engine. Then the silence was punctuated by the slamming of a car door.

Jess peered through the slats in the blinds to make sure it was Sykes. When she saw his tall figure heading up the walk she hurried to the front door and flung it open before he could ring the bell.

“Oh, hi,” he said, looking surprised.

Seeing him stan
ding there, with his gun in its holster across his broad, solid chest, Jess wanted to hug him in gratitude and relief. Instead she moved aside, and made room for him to enter. “Thanks for coming."

"No problem." He looked at her with narr
owed eyes. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, surprised by his concern. “
I’m better now...that you’re here.”

She led the way into the living room and Sykes took a seat on the sofa. “
Why don’t you tell me what happened."

Jessica nodded as she took the chair opp
osite him and tried to gather her thoughts.  "I...I was just coming in the house, when a man came towards me. I shot him with my pepper spray and he ran off. I tried calling 911 but I got a busy signal."

He didn
’t seem surprised to hear it. "Did you get a look at him?"

"No. It was too dark. And my porch light was off."

"Hnm," He said with a look of disapproval . She wondered whether it was in response to her not getting a look at the guy or because her porch light was off. "Did he say anything to you?”

“
No. I mean he screamed when I got him with the pepper spray but that was it.” Her voice quivered but she managed to keep it under control.

"How was he dressed?"

“All In black I think.” Jess paused to look down at her hands, then she looked back over at Sykes. “He was tall. Probably about six foot two and big. Detective, do you think it could have something to do with the case?”

"Could be. Or it could just be a coincidence.”
He stood up. “I’m going to take a look around." Sykes headed to the front door and Jess followed behind.

They went outside and she pointed to the bushes to the left of the house. "I heard rustling in those bushes over there."

Sykes shined his powerful Maglight into the area, then slowly walked around the house, studying the grounds carefully.

"Anything?" she asked anxiously after he had made a complete circle around the house.

"Doesn’t look like anything's disturbed. Are you sure there's nothing else about him you can describe?" 

Though still in his cop mode, Sykes somehow appeared more accessible to her. Perhaps it was how he treated a victim of a crime, rather than the suspect.

Jess shrugged in answer. "It was so dark, and it all happened so fast. I think he was wearing a baseball cap so I couldn’t see his face at all."

Sykes walked her back into the house. "Look you can file a police report tomorrow, though I doubt it will do you much good."

Jess felt calmer now that this man and his large shiny gun was in her house. She'd never approved of guns before, but somehow, after having a bad scare, she found both the presence of the gun and a man who knew how to use it, very reassuring.

"Listen, I
’ll call in and have a patrol car keep his eye on your house tonight.”

“
Thanks.” Jess said, sitting down on the arm of the sofa. "You know Ally threatened me not to tell about the drug smuggling...do you think it could be someone from her...er...operation?" Even as she said it, her theory of drug smugglers sounded unlikely.

"It
’s possible,” Sykes said, though his tone implied that he doubted this scenario. "In any case, you really need to be more careful when you come inside at night." 

He paced back and forth in front of her. ““
Make sure to leave a lot of lights on. And get someone out here first thing tomorrow to trim those bushes. And put in some motion sensor lights. It’s a perfect spot for someone to hide."

Jess studied him, deeply touched by his apparent concern for her safety. Then she thought better of it. It was just his cop's nature
coming out. Nothing personal.

"Would you like some tea?" she asked. "Or something else to drink?"

He hesitated. "No, I better get home.” He looked at his watch and turned to leave. “Oh, by the way," he said, reaching into his breast pocket for his notebook. "I tracked down that guy you mentioned earlier...Bob..."

Jess's eyes widened in surprise.

"Bob Smalley." Sykes read the name from his notebook then looked at her for confirmation.

"Thats it!" She jumped to her feet,
wanting to hug him but took a step back instead. "Smalley! I knew it was a weird name. Did you talk to him?"

"No, not yet. But we exchanged messages, and he said he did remember meeting a hot-looking blonde named Alessandra Banks on the evening of the ten
th, and admitted to asking her out on a date."

"That was me!" Jess yelled with relief.  "You see? I was telling the truth!"

He squinted at her, a glint now in his eye. Was he stifling a smile or was that her imagination?

"Yeah, well we'll see," he said.
"I haven’t talked to your sister about it yet. It could have been her."

"You have to go talk to her! Right now!" Jess couldn
’t believe she was barking commands at him.

"What? Now? It
’s damned late.”

"She'll be up--She's a total night owl." Jess looked a
round for her sweater. "Please. It would be such a load off my mind. I won’t be able to relax until I know you believe me."

Sykes shook his head, but reached for his coat and put it on. As he headed out the door he glanced back at Jess who'd grabbed her p
urse and sweater and was following him out. "Just where do you think you're going?" He squinted at her forbiddingly.

"I'm going with you," she said, locking the door and making sure to leave the light on behind her. “
And if you won’t take me, I'll drive there in my own car."

She was feeling wide awake and in control. It was time to put an end to this mess once and for all.

Sykes rolled his eyes but made no move to stop her as she locked the front door behind her and followed him to his car. He opened the passenger door and shook his head as she got in and settled herself into the seat.

“
Thank you,” she said smiling demurely up at him.

"Humph," he grunted and got in on the other side.

CHAPTER FORTY THREE

When they pulled up to Ally's twenty minutes later it was clear to Jess that her sister was home and awake. No one, not even Ally could have slept through the music blaring from the house.

"You see, she's up," Jess said, unable to keep the "I told you so"
out of her voice.

Sykes looked around as they walked up to the front door."It can't be a party, not enough cars around."

He had to ring the bell several times before Ally finally came to the door and flung it open. "What?" she asked irritably, looking from one to the other. She was wearing a sports bra and a pair of sleek black stretch pants and was dabbing at the sweat on her neck with a terry cloth towel.

"Sorry to disturb you ma
’am" Sykes said politely. Too politely, Jess thought. "But I have a few questions for you."

Ally made no move to invite either of them in. She looked at Jess then back at Sykes and smirked. "What'd you do? Get yourself a new partner?"

"Mind if we come in?" Sykes asked.

In reply, Ally sighed, then turned and walked into the l
iving room, leaving the door open for them to follow.

She plopped down onto the couch without offering either of them a seat.

"So what is it? It's a little late for questions isn’t it?"

"I'm just trying to clear something up here" Sykes said, consulting
his notes. "On the night of the tenth, you and your sister both claim to have been in Mexico. Mrs. Parks has given me her version of that night. Is there anything you can tell me...anything that happened to you, that she might not know about?"

Ally reach
ed into the marble box on the coffee table and extracted a cigarette. She sighed and with slow deliberation, put it to her mouth and lit it. Jess knew she was purposely doing it to prolong the torture and felt a surge of rage toward her sister.

"Hmmn…
well let me see. There was the rude waiter at the cafe...and there was that man staring at me as I sat in the café. But I believe I told her about all those things."

Jess glared at her sister
who was so obviously lying. Couldn't the detective see it? She glanced over at him but his face betrayed no hint of what he was thinking.

"What about after you crossed the border?" Sykes asked her. "After you went through customs?"

Ally crossed one toned thigh over the other and sighed, deep in thought.

"Hmmn...well there was this policeman who brought me my I.D. But I definitely told Jessica about that."

Sykes nodded and made note on his pad. "Did this policeman do anything unusual? Out of the ordinary?"

Jess held her breath. Here it was. The make or break question.

Ally appeared deep in thought.

"Unusual? No,not that I remember. Nothing at all unusual happened that I can think of.”

Jess fought the urge to scream in triumph as Sykes made a final not
e in his notepad. He had to believe her now, didn’t he? Finally, the weight she'd been feeling since her father's death would be lifted from her shoulders--and placed squarely on Ally's, where it belonged.

Sykes flipped his notepad shut. “
Well thank you for your time, Miss Banks,” he said. And as he and Jess walked back to the front door Jess didn’t even try to suppress her smile of triumph.

But just as the detective
’s hand reached for the doorknob, Ally appeared behind them.

“
Oh, Detective,” she said, in a low sultry voice. “I know this might not be what you were asking about…but that cop who stopped me? I forgot to to tell you…but he asked me out on a date.”

Jess stared at Ally in shock.

"Of course I wouldn’t really call that
unusual
though,” Ally said with a sly smile. "It happens all the time, actually."

Jess looked from her sister to the detective, then back again.

"Now lemme think," Ally stretched her limbs with slow, catlike grace. "Yes...this cop...he stopped me. Then gave me his phone number and told me he'd show me around Mexico. Any time I wanted."

Jess listened in horror as Ally recounted the one incident that she had never told her about. She couldn
’t believe it. How could Ally know about it?

Jess looked helplessly over at Sykes w
ho remained impassive while writing in his notepad.

"It
’s funny to be talking about him, actually" Ally continued, "Because in fact, I just got off the phone with him. With Bob. That’s his name. Bob Smalley." She shrugged innocently. "I decided to take him up on his offer and we're going out this weekend." She smiled seductively at Sykes. "There’s just something about policemen I find very appealing."

Was Sykes smiling back at her? Jess was horrified.

"Well thank you for your time Miss Banks."

"Any time
, Detective," she said. An inviting smile played at the corner of her lips. "Feel free to come by any time you have more questions. I'm up late"

Jess couldn
’t control her anger. "I don’t know how you knew that," she screamed. "None of that happened to you! You weren’t even in Mexico! I was."

"Don
’t be silly, Jess," Ally said with a cold smile. "Of course I was.”