After the Evil – A Jake Roberts Novel (Book 1) by Cary Allen Stone Page B

since
she had any feelings.
    * * *
    It’s my job to be analytical and know the geography.
An intense debate is going on inside of my head as I think about
Lori. I want to feel her passion, to share every minute, to listen
to her words, and be touched by her. I want to watch her breathe.
My cell phone rings as I drive away from Lori’s residence.
    “Are you up for some lunch?” Mika says.
    Imagine that, a call from Mika in the middle of my
debate about falling in love with Lori.
    “I’m close to Hennigan’s, got anything?” Mika
says.
    “As a matter of fact, I’m starving, and Hennigan’s
sounds good. And yes, I think it’s a tumor.”
    She didn’t like my wisecrack. I'm scolded.
    “That’s not funny––I’d miss you.”
    “See you there.”
    I’m just a few blocks away from Hennigan’s. I see no
need to race there. Mika isn’t even close herself. I hate waiting
like a lapdog, tongue hanging out and tail wagging. The extra time
gives me a chance to come up with an excuse, as to why I was given
three interviews to do, and only finished one. Maybe Harmon has
something so I dial his number.
    I’d miss you?
    As I wait for him to pick up, Mika pulls up
alongside my car looking cranky. I climb out of my car.
    “Everything, okay?”
    I sense incoming trauma. She shrugs, and heads for
the front door of the restaurant without saying a word. I hate when
women do that. I hate the guessing game. I open the door for her.
It was the restaurant management’s hope you would somehow confuse
the place for a popular restaurant with a similar name. The food
was good, and no one cared about the name anyway. Mika told the
hostess there were two, and possibly three of us. The young girl
marches us to a corner booth. After she takes our drink orders, she
goes about retrieving them. Mika is still looking off into some far
horizon, but finally speaks.
    “I want this guy, I’ve been through each case a
thousand times and nothing, but nothing, plus more nothing. What I
do know for sure is, I have multiple deceased males. That’s the sum
total of what I have.”
    Without anything to follow with, I ask if Harmon
stumbled onto anything.
    “He would have called if he had.”
    Her answer is abrupt, but I press on anyway.
    “Was there any more out of the M.E.?”
    “Moss didn’t have anything earthshaking, just basic
autopsy stuff.”
    She says it while scrutinizing the other patrons
like a cop.
    “The perp could be in here, right now, having lunch,
and I wouldn’t know it.”
    “Easy, we’re not in the Waterfront Tavern.”
    My reference is to the infamous bar where several
prolific serial killers had once tossed down a cold brew together.
The county morgue is not my kind of place. I detest it. I make my
living as a homicide investigator and am required to go there. I
always think it’s full of creepy people who enjoyed a little too
much what they did for a living. I often thought they should
be investigated. Fortunately, my ex-girlfriend turned FBI profiler
is in command, so I don’t have to go. I can just read the
report.
    Lori Powers.
    Her face keeps popping up in the upcoming events
marquee in my mind. Mika on the other hand has a different look
about her today. Until Lori Powers, Mika was where I had hoped my
luck in love would lead, again.
    “Did you do something different with your hair?”
    She looks at me as if trying to decide, whether or
not I deserve an answer.
    “No Jake, same hair, why? What’s on your mind,
something you want to talk about?”
    She asks as she pulls out a file three actual, and
not man inches, thick, press-a-ply's are stuck everywhere. She
looks over her notes.
    “How did your interview with...Lori Powers go?”
    Being a detail person, she notes the change in my
expression, and watches my head turn away when she says the name.
I’m not fast enough with an answer for her.
    “Jake?”
    “Let me give Harmon a call. He might want to meet up
with us.”
    I need to buy some time, and