Kiss of Midnight (Midnight Breed 1)

"Oh, so you want homicide, then?" The young woman's long manicured fingernails clacked over the keyboard in rapid strokes. "Hmm... nope, sorry. He's not listed in that department, either."

"That can't be right. Could you check again for me? Doesn't that system let you search on just the name?"

"It does, but I have no listing anywhere for a Detective Lucan Thorne. You sure he works out of this precinct?"

"I'm certain of it, yes. Your computer system must be out of date or - "

"Oh, hold on! There's someone who can help you out," the receptionist interjected, gesturing toward the entrance doors of the station. "Officer Carrigan! You got a second?"

Officer Carrigan, Gabrielle registered miserably. The aging cop who had given her such a hard time last weekend, all but calling her a liar and a cokehead as he refused to believe her statement about the nightclub slaying. At least now, with Lucan having processed her cell phone pictures with the police lab, she could take comfort in knowing that, regardless of this man's input, the case was moving forward in some fashion.

Gabrielle had to fight to contain her groan as she turned her head and saw the rotund officer taking his sweet time to strut over. When he saw her standing there, the expression of arrogance that seemed so natural on his fleshy face took on a decidedly contemptuous edge.

"Ah, Jay-zuss. You again? Just what I don't need, my last day on the job. I'm retiring in four more hours, darlin'. You'll have to tell it to someone else this time."

Gabrielle frowned. "Excuse me?"

"This young lady is looking for one of our detectives," said the receptionist, sharing a sympathetic look with Gabrielle at the officer's dismissive demeanor. "I can't find him in the system, but she thinks he might be one of yours. Do you know Detective Thorne?"

"Never heard of him." Officer Carrigan started to walk away.

"Lucan Thorne," Gabrielle said with force, setting Lucan's coffee and bagged danish down on the reception counter. She took an automatic step after the cop, nearly reaching for his arm when it seemed he was simply going to leave her standing there. "Detective Lucan Thorne - you must be familiar with him. You folks sent him to my apartment earlier this week to get some additional information on my statement. He brought my cell phone photos into the lab for analysis - "

Carrigan was chuckling now, having paused to look at her as she blurted out the details of Lucan's arrival at her home. She didn't have the patience to deal with the officer's belligerence. Not when her nape was crawling with the feeling that things were about to get weird.

"Are you telling me that Detective Thorne hasn't shared any of this with you?"

"Lady. I'm telling you that I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I've been working out of this station for thirty-five years, and I've never heard of any Detective Thorne, let alone sent him out to your place."

A knot began to form in her stomach, cold and tight, but Gabrielle refused to process the dread that was taking shape beneath her confusion. "That's not possible. He knew about the murder I witnessed. He knew I'd been here, at the station, filing a statement about it. I saw his ID badge when he came to my house. I just talked to him today, he said he was working tonight. I have his cell phone number..."

"Well, I'll tell you what. If it will get you outta my hair any faster, let's give your Detective Thorne a call," Carrigan said. "That ought to clear things right up, eh?"

"Yes. I'll call him now."

Gabrielle's fingers were trembling a little as she dug her cell phone out of her pocketbook and punched in Lucan's number. It rang, unanswered. She tried again, waiting for an agonizing eternity while her call rang and rang and rang, and Officer Carrigan's expression smoothed from dubious impatience to a tentative, sympathetic look she'd seen on more than one social worker's face when she was a kid.

"He's not there," she murmured as she brought the phone away from her ear. She felt awkward and confused, made all the worse for the careful expression on Carrigan's face. "I'm sure he's just tied up with something. I'll try him again in a minute."

"Ms. Maxwell, do you have anyone else we can call? Family, maybe? Someone who can help us make sense of what you might be going through?"

"I'm not going through anything."

"Seems to me like you are. I think you're confused. You know, sometimes people invent things to help them cope with other problems."

Gabrielle scoffed. "I'm not confused. Lucan Thorne is not a figment of my imagination. He's real. These things that have been happening around me are real. The murder I saw last weekend, those... men... with their bloody faces and sharp teeth, even that kid who was watching me the other day at the Common... he works here at the station. What did you do, send him to spy on me?"

"Okay, Ms. Maxwell. Let's see if we can work this out together." Evidently, Carrigan had finally found a scrap of diplomacy underneath the crust of his boorish nature. But there was still a big dose of condescension in the way he took her by the elbow and tried to guide her toward one of the lobby benches for a seat. "Let's just take a few deep breaths, here. We can get you some help."

She shook him off, pulling away. "You think I'm crazy. I know what I saw - all of it! I'm not making this up, and I don't need any help. I just need the truth."

"Sheryl, honey," Carrigan said to the receptionist who was staring at them with apprehension in her eyes. "You wanna give Rudy Duncan a quick call for me? Tell him I could use him down here."

"Meds?" she inquired lightly, the phone already hugged between her ear and shoulder.

"Nah," Carrigan replied, looking back to Gabrielle. "No cause for alarm just yet. Ask him to come down to the lobby, nice and easy, have a little talk with Ms. Maxwell and me."

"Forget it," Gabrielle said, rising off the bench. "I'm not staying here another second. I have to go."