Then again, if Rob really was getting interested in Liz…
Snap out of it^ I told myself. They’re all grown-ups; they can run their own lives.
I arrived at the Mutant Wizards office to find the parking lot nearly empty. The only vehicle there was Frankie’s fifteen-year-old van, which would probably sit there until he’d saved enough for a new transmission. Of course, Caerphilly was small enough that a lot of people walked to work, but the empty lot was a good sign. As were the darkened office windows.
I let myself into the building and climbed the stairs to the second floor, where the Mutant Wizards offices were. I stuck my key in the suite door lock, but before I could turn it, the door slipped open.
Damn, I thought. Probably the therapists again. They were used to leaving the front door unlocked so they wouldn’t have to interrupt a session with one patient to buzz in another. I’d been trying to explain to them that they couldn’t keep doing this - not considering Mutant Wizards’ extensive investment in hardware, to say nothing of the possibility of corporate espionage. I would read them the riot act tomorrow. Point out that their actions could have enabled the murderer to enter the building, or reenter to destroy evidence.
I was fuming and already beginning to compose my stern lecture as I stepped into the office and groped to the left of the door for the light switch.
“Lorelei!” someone whispered.
As I turned, startled, toward the sound, two hands gripped my shoulders and a mouth closed over mine.
At least the mouth tried to close over mine. One of the things martial arts is supposed to do, if you’re paying attention, is train your reflexes, so you react quickly and effectively when you think someone’s attacking you. As Michael found out rather painfully one day when he decided to drive up and surprise me upon my return from a craft show. Unfortunately, he decided to surprise me by sneaking up behind me and grabbing me.
“I won’t ever do that again,” he’d said, nursing his bruises.
“Don’t,” I’d replied. “Because if you do it again, I’ll react the same way. If someone grabs me, I can’t stop to worry about whether it might be someone I know.”
It was nice to see my reflexes were still okay. In fact, better than okay, I thought as I flipped on the light switch and looked down at my would-be assailant. Or, perhaps, would-be admirer. I made a mental note to call my karate instructor and thank him. Then again, maybe not; he was sure to want a blow-by-blow description, and I was already having a hard time remembering exactly which technique I’d used to shake off the clutching arms, and exactly how I’d knocked the attacker to the floor. I could report that the side kick to the groin worked splendidly, though. The intruder kad curled into a fetal position, his face almost touching his knees, and he was making faint whimpering noises. I didn’t recognize him immediately, but then, what little I could see of his face was starting to bruise. And, wonder of wonders, I didn’t seem to have reinjured my left hand in the fray.
George, awakened by the light, blinked sleepily at the sight of me.
“Okay,” I said to the groveling intruder. “Who the hell are you, and what do you mean by attacking me like that?”
I had to repeat myself several times before he stopped whimpering and looked up.
“Why did you do that?” he asked.
“You attacked me in the dark,” I said. “I defended myself.”
“I thought you were someone else,” he said, heaving himself up on his knees.
“I figured out that much. Don’t get up just yet,” I said, turning my body slightly so I was ready to deliver another good, solid kick.
George added to the effect by choosing that moment to shriek rather loudly. I knew he had just recognized me and assumed, in his single-minded way, that I had arrived to feed him, but it must have sounded rather ominous to the intruder. He dropped back to the floor and curled up again, watching me warily.
I recognized him now - a therapy patient. One of Dr. Lorelei’s flock, a small, plump, graying man who could have been any age between thirty and fifty. This was the first time I’d seen him unaccompanied by his wife, also small, plump, graying, and of indeterminate age.
“You thought I was Dr. Lorelei?” I asked.
He reduced his chances of getting kicked again by blushing.
“So you were coming to see Dr. Lorelei.”
He nodded.