Page 32 of Cooper’s Passion

Cooper chuckled, glancing at her. “Guess he’s had better.”

“Yeah, and I can’t give him that.” He gave Jacob a stern look. “You’re gonna have to eat what I’ve cooked for you, little man.”

Cooper turned to her. “How about I make us something to eat? You must be starving by now.”

“Actually I am.”

“We’ve got everything for a stir-fry in the fridge,” Wes added. “If you make enough, I’ll have a bite too.”

“Stir-fry okay for you, Anita?” Cooper asked.

“Sounds perfect. Can I help you prepare it?”

He shook his head. “No, I’ve got it. Why don’t you bring your files down, and set them up in the living room, and we’ll go over them once we’ve eaten something?”

“You sure you don’t want my help?”

“I’m sure.”

She pivoted and left the kitchen. As she walked upstairs, she reflected on the incident with Jacob, but another glance at her biceps confirmed that his teeth hadn’t broken through her skin, or the puncture wounds would still be visible. They weren’t. She shook her head. She was probably just tired and famished. Too much had happened in the past twenty-four hours.

In the guestroom, she grabbed her computer bag, when she realized that her handbag wasn’t in the room. Had she left it in the foyer? She walked downstairs, but didn’t see her bag in the entrance hall either, and now remembered that she’d put it behind her seat in Cooper’s SUV.

Anita put the computer bag on the little bench next to the coatrack and opened the door that led downstairs into the basement and the garage. She searched for the light switch but couldn’t find it. As she walked downstairs, she noticed that with every step she made, lights along the steps began to illuminate her path, triggered by motion sensors. She hadn’t even noticed them earlier, maybe because Cooper had flipped a light switch at the bottom of the stairs to switch on the overhead lights. In the basement, she turned to her left and headed into the garage. Cooper’s SUV was unlocked, and her handbag was indeed where she’d left it. She grabbed it, and closed the car door, when her gaze fell onto the other cars in the garage. Both the Mercedes and the smaller sportscar were still parked here. It appeared that Virginia hadn’t left by car.

She opened the door to the hallway again, when she saw a dark figure at the other end of the corridor. There was no light back there, and the person moved as if leaving in a hurry. But there was no exit at the back of the property. After all, the house stood on a hill, and only the garage part of the basement was aboveground.

Before she could even finish her thoughts, she saw long red hair swaying, then the person simply disappeared. Anita blinked, but the person was gone. Had this been Virginia? She’d only seen a glimpse, but who else could it have been? Her heart pounding like a sledgehammer, Anita made a few tentative steps into the corridor, glancing around. She passed the stairs, and peered through an open door into the room to her left. It was a small storage room, but nobody was inside it. Slowly, she walked toward the second door. It was closed. Hesitantly, she turned the knob and eased the door open very slowly.

“Virginia?” she called out hesitantly.

There was no reply. She opened the door wider, but the room was entirely empty. There were no windows and no other doors or any place to hide. The person had disappeared as if swallowed up by the ground.

“Fuck!”

Was she losing her mind? She took a few deep breaths, feeling dizzy all of a sudden. She leaned against the doorframe for support. Maybe her blood sugar was low. After all, she hadn’t eaten anything in almost twenty-four hours. She’d skipped not only breakfast, but also lunch, and it was almost time for dinner.

“Don’t go crazy now,” she chastised herself.

The stress was getting to her. If she was honest with herself, she’d admit that she’d been running on empty for a while now, not just since she’d arrived in San Francisco. She’d been immersed in the serial killer case for months, and hadn’t taken a break to recharge, and now it was showing. She was starting to hallucinate, to see mysterious things that weren’t there, to suspect everyone and everything. She needed to get a grip.

Anita forced herself to take a few calming breaths, before she headed for the stairs.