“Kissing me.”
“You don’t really mean that.” He picked up the ends of her hair and rubbed them between his fingers.
“Yes, I do.”
This time it was the heat in his eyes that streaked right through her.
“I’m wondering just how long it would take me to prove you’re lying.”
Not long. The color rose in her cheeks. “I want you to stop kissing me while we’re working.”
“Ah. That’s a different story.”
“Then you’ll agree?”
“Nope.” Taking her arm, he pulled her into a driveway bordered by a high hedge.
“It’s the next house.”
“I know that. I just want to try something.”
Fiona bit her tongue so that she wouldn’t ask what. She’d told him he could take the lead on this one. But she had to bite down even harder when he led the way through a break in the hedge. They emerged on a lawn dotted with trees. The house sat half a football field away and it boasted both front and back porches. A Christmas tree twinkled merrily on the other side of a sliding glass door. Billy and his pals were just filing into the house.
“C’mon.” Moving quickly and gracefully in spite of the cane, D.C. drew her with him from tree to tree until they arrived at one side of the glass door.
Through the branches of the Christmas tree, she could see a tall woman lead Billy, Carla and Mark into a spacious room lined with bookshelves. The woman—Kathryn Lewen—had that very curly hair that was hard to tame. In her photo she’d worn it pulled away from her face, but today it fell unchecked halfway down her back. She walked with a long, easy stride, settled herself on a large leather love seat and gestured the other three onto the sofa that faced hers. A fire beckoned warmly on the hearth. Carla and Mark sat. Billy remained standing.
Unlike her three students, Kathryn Lewen was not dressed in black. Instead, she wore earth tones—a long, chocolate-colored skirt, a loosely fitting tan sweater and comfortable looking clogs. Something prickled at the edge of Fiona’s mind. There was something familiar about the professor, but Fiona couldn’t put her finger on exactly what.
A sudden breeze stung Fiona’s cheeks and caused the wind chimes near the back of the house to sound.
“What are we doing?” she whispered.
“Gathering information.”
Billy was talking now, but the sound didn’t carry through the glass.
“How? We can’t hear them,” Fiona pointed out.
“The tree is blocking me some, but I can guess at a few words. Police and Rubinov. Suspects.”
“You read lips.”
“A little.”
“You’ve done this Peeping Tom thing before.”
“In my misspent youth. My mom could tell you a few stories. But their body language is interesting, too. What do you see?”
Fiona studied the four people in the room. Mark and Carla sat mute on the couch, just as they had when she and D.C. had visited the apartment. Once again, Billy was doing the talking. Tension radiated from his body and from his staccato gestures.
Kathryn Lewen sat relaxed on the sofa, not moving at all. Fiona took a moment to study her again. “She looks as young as she did on the Web site. And in person, she reminds me of someone. I can’t think who.”
“Anything else?”
“She’s at ease. Perfectly composed. Billy isn’t.”
“Nerves. He’s spooked. The person who attacked Amanda was easily spooked, too. What about the other two?”
“Followers,” Fiona said. “Billy’s the spokesperson even here.”
“That fits, too. I’m betting he’s the one who followed Amanda into the sculpture garden while the other two manned the getaway car.”
“All of which makes a very nice theory. Let’s go see if the professor backs up their alibi. If she doesn’t, that will give us something.”
“Not enough.” Taking her arm, he started around the back of the house. To Fiona’s surprise he headed toward an other hedge.
“Wait a minute. We have to check their alibi.”
“We will. You can call her from the car.”
“But we’re right…” She broke off as D.C. pulled her through another hedge. “Here.”
“We’ve already spooked them once. If we arrive on their professor’s doorstep minutes after they do, they’ll get the idea that we think they’re involved.”
Fiona stopped and waited for him to face her. “And we don’t want them to know that because…?”
“We don’t have enough hard evidence to link them to the robbery yet. You were the one who didn’t want to spook them when we questioned them earlier.”