Into Thin Air Read online

  Her whole body tensed at the brief contact as a pleasurable chill wiggled up her spine. Her already-fuzzy mind locked up, utterly useless, as Austin looked at her and smiled that annoyingly charming crooked smile of his.

  She mentally shook herself, forcing her thoughts back to business. “Any word about the Krills?” Chief Raines had nixed the idea of twenty-four-hour surveillance of the Krill home. Too expensive. But Caro had been hoping that the neighbor would come through.

  Austin shook his head, still smiling. “We won’t need them,” he said confidently.

  “In that case, is there anything else you want me to do right now?”

  “How about making some more phone calls? Maybe you can locate another girl the way you did Julie Yates. Virginia said those three girls were the only ones she’d been paid for, but who’s to say Odell is honest?”

  “Okay,” she said without much enthusiasm. What she really wanted was to go home and crawl into bed with a good book. She stood up and was just about to leave when she spotted Tony Villaverde heading their way, grinning ear to ear. “What are you doing down here, Villaverde?”

  “Looking for you. Fran told me to track you down before I went home today and make sure you were coming tonight.”

  “I’m coming,” Caro said, trying to inject some enthusiasm into her voice. “I’m going to drink myself into oblivion and sleep on your living room floor.”

  “Yeah, right.” Tony turned to Austin. “You ever seen this lightweight drink more than half a glass of wine?”

  “I’ve never even seen that,” Austin said, his tone indicating that he’d like to.

  “Well, you got plans for the evening?” Tony asked. “You’re welcome to come to my party. In fact, we’ll be celebrating more than just New Year’s Eve.” He looked at Caro. “My transfer came through.”

  “Oh, Tony, that’s...” She felt like her mouth and throat were full of cotton. “That’s really terrific,” she managed to say as she gave him a hug. “Tony’s transferring to CAPERS,” she told Austin.

  “Great, congratulations!” He shook Tony’s hand. “Now you can look forward to being the new kid on the block, a title I’ll gladly relinquish.”

  “Hey, thanks, man. Seriously, my wife and I would love to have you over tonight.”

  Caro realized she was holding her breath, waiting for Austin’s answer.

  “Thanks, but I already have plans.”

  She couldn’t deny the disappointment she felt. Why, when she spent so many waking hours with Austin, would she want to see him during one of her brief periods of leisure time?

  The answer to that was painfully apparent, even to a woman in denial. She was so attracted to the man she sometimes couldn’t think straight around him. That, more than anything, was why she couldn’t wait for this investigation to be over.

  Chapter 13

  Caro was glad she’d come to the Villaverdes’ crowded, noisy party, she decided as she nursed her second plastic cup full of white wine. It felt good to relax and forget about work for a while. Now that the phone company had installed tracers on the lines at both Wanda’s Answering Service and the Women’s Services Clinic, there was nothing to do but wait until Odell tipped her hand.

  It was both exhilarating and tense to be so close but feel so helpless at the same time. Caro hadn’t truly relaxed in so long she wasn’t sure she remembered how to do it. But the wine was definitely helping.

  “And you had to bottle-feed all twelve puppies?” Caro asked the woman she’d been half listening to for the last few minutes, the Villaverdes’ neighbor, who’d been waxing eloquent on her Doberman pinscher’s whelping experience.

  The woman started to answer when Fran Villaverde bustled between them with a squeal of delight, throwing her arms around Caro. “Oh, honey, it’s so good to see you,” she said, her black curls bouncing with every word. She was one of those round, bubbly cheerleader types who always had a smile, and it was impossible to remain in a bad mood around her. “I saw the stuffed mushrooms in the dining room,” she continued, “and I knew you were here somewhere in this mad crush. I’m so glad you could make it.”

  “Did I have a choice?” Caro said, grinning. “I got the impression I would be drawn and quartered if I didn’t show up.”

  “Well, I wasn’t going to let you squirrel your way out of this party like you did the last one.”

  The neighbor wandered away to find another audience for her Doberman puppy story. Fran bit her lip guiltily. “She is a dear—the twins just love her. Then again, what kid wouldn’t love someone with twelve puppies? Come on, let’s sit down for a minute and catch up.” She dragged Caro to a love seat in the corner of the living room and almost pushed her into it. “What do you think about Tony’s transfer?”

  “I’m devastated, what else?” Caro answered honestly. “There’s no one else in our department I can rely on like I do Tony. But I think he’ll do great in CAPERS. Homicide section, no less.”

  “Why don’t you go with him?” Fran asked innocently.

  “I was already there once, remember?” Caro said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Four years in CAPERS is enough. Too much pressure. If I needed any reminders, the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on these two cases–”

  “Oh, Tony told me. That Lomax guy’s been driving you crazy, huh?”

  “It’s the work that’s been driving me crazy. I’m not used to it. And I don’t think I want to get used to it.”

  “But what about Lomax?” Fran persisted, making Caro wonder what Tony had told her. Fran was an incurable matchmaker, always on the lookout to hook up her single friends with suitable partners. She and Tony were so happily married, she wanted everyone else to be, too.

  “He’s okay,” Caro said with a shrug.

  “Tony says you kind of sparkle whenever you’re around him.”

  “Oh, Tony’s full of it!” Caro scoffed, though inwardly she was mortified. Was her response to Austin that plain for anyone to see? “Austin Lomax is an egotistical jerk. I don’t ‘sparkle’ when I’m around him, I fume,” she added for good measure.

  Fran leveled her gaze at Caro. “Whatever you say.”

  “No, really, Fran I—”

  “Well, if you’re not interested in Austin, then you have to meet Glen. Remember I told you about him?”

  “The aerobics instructor,” Caro said with mounting trepidation. “He’s not here, is he?” She mentally crossed her fingers.

  “Yeah, he’s right over there. Red sweater, black jeans? I know you two would hit it off. Glen!” she called, motioning with her hand while Caro tried to sink deeper into the sofa cushions. “Come over here, I’d like you to meet a friend of mine. Glen, this is Caro Triece. She works with my husband.” Fran turned to Caro. “Glen teaches aerobics at my health club and he’s writing a fitness book. Oh, look, you both need refills on your drinks. Let me take care of that for you.”

  Fran snatched their glasses out of their hands and disappeared.

  “Subtle, isn’t she?” Caro said as Glen, a mountain of muscle with flowing blond hair, sat gingerly on the love seat next to her.

  “Huh?” he said. Not a promising beginning.

  “So, you’re writing a book,” she began, and that was all it took. For the next fifteen minutes he told her all about his idea for a book on how to be your own personal fitness trainer. He’d already written three pages, he related proudly. Caro entertained herself by thinking of all the ways she would get back at Fran. And when she’d run out of methods for torture, she tried to think of a clever way to extricate herself, although she could probably tell Glen his feet were on fire and he would dutifully whisk himself out of her presence in search of a hose.

  In the end she didn’t need to come up with anything brilliant. A strong hand grabbed her by the arm and practically lifted her off the love seat. “Excuse us for a minute,” the man said. It took Caro several confused moments to reconcile the fact that the man was Austin Lomax.

  “Wha
t are you doing here?” she asked as he dragged her into a private corner behind the Christmas tree.

  “Rescuing you from Conan the Barbarian?”

  “Glen and I were having a very interesting conversation,” she said, unsure why she was bothering to fabricate such an outrageous lie. She should be grateful to Lomax for what he’d done, and she was, but she was also irritated by his high-handedness.

  “Is that why you were studying the chandelier like it held the secret of life?”

  “Never mind Glen. What are you doing here? I thought you had ‘plans.’” She was alarmed at the shrewishness she heard in her own voice. What did she care about his plans? But she had to admit that, more than once, she had pictured Austin at some other party with a date, and the image had bothered her.

  “I’m here on business,” he said. “Odell called her answering service to check for messages.”

  Caro was instantly alert. “And?”

  “The phone company couldn’t trace the call.”

  “Why not?”

  “They think Odell has a cellular phone.”

  “But they can at least trace cellular calls to the general area where the repeater is located, right?”

  “Ordinarily. But if she puts her phone on call forwarding and then uses another phone and calls the cellular phone, she would reach the answering service without leaving any kind of clue. That type of call is virtually untraceable.”

  “I’ll be damned,” Caro said. Frustration welled up inside her, tightening her gut. She wanted to hit something, although for a change it wasn’t Austin. “You came all the way over here to tell me that?”

  “I had to tell somebody. I didn’t want to be the only one whose New Year’s Eve was ruined.”

  “Thanks a heap.” She looked at him more closely then, noticing the fact that he hadn’t shaved recently, and he was still wearing the same clothes he’d had on earlier. Not that this lapse made him any less sexy, but it did make her curious. “What happened to your date?”

  “What date?”

  “Didn’t you say you had a date?”

  “I said I had plans. There’s a difference.”

  Caro felt a ridiculous surge of relief, which she promptly stifled. She might be a little fuzzy from the wine, but she should still be able to keep her mind on business. “What do we do next?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know about you, but I’d like a beer.”

  “I mean about the case.”

  “I know what you mean. I still want a beer.” Scowling fiercely, he brushed past her and plunged into the throng of party-goers, leaving Caro alone behind the Christmas tree.

  With her back to the wall, she slowly bent her knees and slid to a sitting position on the floor, hoping no one would see her or bother her. After hearing Austin’s news, she didn’t want to be here anymore. The last thing she felt like doing was celebrating. All she could think about was those poor girls. How were they marking the holiday? Were they even aware of it? According to Virginia, Odell had said she treated the girls well, but that didn’t mean anything. It was already firmly established that Odell lied.

  Caro was trying to figure out how she could discreetly escape the party when a cold glass of wine—in a real wineglass—appeared before her face as if by magic. She looked up to find that Austin was attached to the offering. He had a bottle of beer for himself.

  “I remember Tony said something about you drinking wine,” he said as she accepted his gift. “Is white okay, or would you like red better?”

  “This is fine, thanks,” she said, amazed that he’d thought of her at all, much less remembered what she liked to drink. She took an appreciative sip.

  He sat on the floor beside her, and they were quiet for several minutes. Finally he spoke. “Are you as bummed out about this as I am?”

  “At least.”

  “You asked what we’re supposed to do next, and to tell you the truth, I don’t know.” Austin began ticking off the frustrations on his fingers. “Amanda’s letter had at least two sets of prints on it that weren’t Russ Arkin’s, but they didn’t match up to any prints we have on file in the computer. The only physical evidence in Amanda’s car that might be helpful were two gray hairs attached to the broken fingernail. But they’re useless until we catch a suspect. Travis Beaman is still out of the country. The Krills haven’t shown up yet, either. And now our prime suspect has outsmarted us.” When he ran out of fingers on one hand he stopped and took a long pull on the beer bottle.

  “I even checked with the FBI to see if they had any similar cases,” he went on, “like a rash of disappearing pregnant girls, or missing girls connected to an abortion clinic. Nothing.”

  “When did you do that?”

  “A little while ago.”

  “You’ve been working this whole evening?”

  “I told you I had plans. Those were my plans, to keep working.” When she looked at him questioningly, he added, “I didn’t want to admit that I didn’t have anything to do tonight, okay? Don’t give me the third degree about it.”

  “Okay.” She settled back against the wall and smiled. For some reason it tickled her that she and Austin both had to practically be dragged to a New Year’s Eve party.

  “I only came here to talk about the case,” he said defensively. “I’m not much in the mood for parties.”

  “Then let’s talk. Any other ideas?”

  “I haven’t come up with much, but...we could set up recorders at the clinic and the answering service, and tape any incoming calls from Odell. Maybe she’ll give something away, or her voice or some background noise will give us a clue.”

  Well, it was something, anyway. Better than doing nothing. Caro had an idea of her own. “How many ‘Odells’ do you suppose there are in Texas? It’s not a very common name.”

  “Are you suggesting we ask the Department of Motor Vehicles to check and see?” he asked, gazing at her skeptically. “Odell might be an alias.”

  “Hey, I didn’t pooh-pooh your idea.”

  He actually cracked a smile. “Sorry. Okay, it’s worth a shot. Your wild shots seem to pay off. Maybe we could also—what is that woman doing?” He was staring at Fran, who had climbed up onto a chair and was tapping a glass with a knife to get everyone’s attention.

  “Quiet, everyone, quiet,” she yelled above the party noise. “It’s about thirty seconds to midnight, so everybody put on your Chap Stick—”

  She was interrupted as a ten-second countdown chorus began. Tony, impatient for those last few seconds, pulled Fran off the chair and into his arms in a showy kiss.

  All at once it hit Caro what was about to happen. In five more seconds everybody in the room would be kissing someone. She stared resolutely at a little drum hanging from the Christmas tree, acutely aware of the warmth of Austin’s body next to hers, then the brush of his breath on her cheek. Somewhere a champagne cork popped, and midnight arrived.

  “Well?” Austin said softly in her ear.

  “Well what?” Her voice was breathless and girlish-sounding as panic rose in her chest.

  “Happy New Year, Caro.” He pressed a warm kiss on her ear, then her neck.

  She turned toward him, helpless to stop herself. There was something so compelling about the huskiness in his voice, the smoky smell of his after-shave, and the sudden ache of loneliness that needed to be filled. She let him kiss her...no, she kissed him, hard and deep as the need expanded and encompassed both of them. His hands were in her hair and his tongue was in her mouth, and she suddenly felt connected to Austin Lomax in a way she’d never experienced with anyone. Maybe it was the shared frustration of the case, or the fact that they were working toward a common goal, or maybe it was simply a case of hormones running amok. But she didn’t want to stop kissing him. She didn’t want to break the fine thread of understanding that had finally been spun between them.

  Austin pulled away first. It was only then Caro realized their embrace was being serenaded by a chorus of whistles and catcalls
. She’d been so caught up she’d forgotten they were in Tony’s living room with dozens of people—many of them her colleagues—all around them.

  Her face burned with embarrassment. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting out of here,” she said, struggling to her feet.

  “I’m right behind you. Where’s your coat and purse?”

  “Hall closet. I didn’t bring a purse.”

  “I’ll meet you outside. You’ll see my car.”

  It didn’t even occur to her to argue. All she could think about was escaping. She would worry about the rest later.

  Fran managed to waylay her at the front door. “Austin’s an egotistical jerk, huh?” she teased. “He must have other attributes.”

  “Fran, please...”

  Apparently sensing Caro’s distress, Fran was immediately contrite. “Oh, honey, I’m sorry. Did we embarrass you?”

  “I embarrassed myself.” Caro reached for the doorknob.

  “Wait a minute. Where’s your coat?”

  “Austin’s getting it. There’s been a new development in the case we’re working on, and we need to go take care of some things,” Caro fudged.

  Fran wasn’t fooled for a minute. She gave Caro a sly smile, and then a hug. “Don’t work too hard. Happy New Year.”

  Caro hugged her back, then slipped out the front door into the crisp, clear night. Austin wasn’t kidding when he said she’d see his car. The conspicuous silver Jag was wedged between two other cars, hanging half in the street. Apparently he hadn’t been patient enough to find a proper parking space.

  Austin appeared moments later. Silently he held her jacket out for her. She slid her arms into the sleeves, and he held her briefly, then let her go. “That was some kiss,” he said as easily as if he were talking about the hors d’oeuvres.

  She couldn’t disagree with him; he would know she was lying. “Do you think we could just forget about it?” she ventured.

  He gave a low, wicked laugh. “Not on your life.” He took her hand and led her toward his car.

  “No, Austin, really, I ought to be getting home....”