"What do you mean? I heard you working last night. That damned printer is too loud."
"I didn't do it. Jack did."
"Oh. Damn." LaToya lowered her voice. "I sorta told everyone that you did it."
Lara sighed. "I can't take credit for Jack's work."
"Fine. You want to explain who Jack is to the police chief and the FBI?"
Lara winced.
"I think you should stop seeing that guy," LaToya said. "He's too strange."
Lara gritted her teeth. "That would really be ungrateful. He spent hours compiling all that information."
"Yeah, but he's got your mind messed up, girl. You're acting like the police don't have a right to this case, when it's Jack who's butting in where he doesn't belong. What's in it for him, anyway?"
Lara didn't know how to answer that. Why was Jack so interested in this case? If Apollo and Jack had similar mind control abilities, what else did they have in common?
"There's something really suspicious about him," LaToya muttered.
"Please don't tell anyone about him. I'm serious. Please." Lara had promised Jack that she wouldn't tell anyone about him or his friends.
LaToya paused, then whispered, "You know the truth about him, don't you?"
"Not really." Other than her theory that he was the son of Casanova and some kind of mutated human with supernatural powers. If she told her superiors that, they'd lock her up and lose the key.
"Why do I get the feeling you're not telling me something?"
Lara sighed. She was in the same predicament as Jack-having to decide between him and her friends. "Jack did all that work just to help us. I don't want to cause him any trouble."
There was another pause. "Okay, then. If Jack's out of the picture, then you'll have to be the hero. I bet they make you a detective soon."
That was good news. It had been Lara's goal for the last six years. She'd wanted to put the pageant days behind her and do something meaningful with her life. Catching the bad guys and protecting the innocent-that had seemed like the most heroic thing she could do with her life.
No wonder she was so attracted to Jack. His goal was the same as hers. And whereas she aspired to be a regular hero, he was a superhero.
"Hang on a sec. Someone's at the door," LaToya said, and Lara heard mumbled voices. "Yes, sir. I'll tell her right away. Lara, you still there?"
"Yes."
"Get your ass into uniform quick," LaToya said. "A patrol car will be picking you up in ten minutes. The task force wants to see you."
Close to an hour later, Lara entered the precinct at Morningside Heights. As a sergeant led her through a sea of desks, dozens of heads turned to look at her. LaToya waved from across the room and gave her a thumbs-up.
"Boucher." Captain O'Brian from her precinct at Midtown North greeted her on the way to the conference room. "You've been briefed?"
"Yes, sir."
"You were told to take a week off after the Trent incident, and yet, you and Officer LaFayette took it upon yourselves to investigate a case you were not assigned to."
Lara swallowed hard. She hoped LaToya wasn't in trouble. "Yes, sir."
Captain O'Brian regarded her sternly. "It would appear the community will benefit from your utter disregard for the rules and your inability to grasp the concept of time off. Brilliant detective work, Butch."
Her cheeks warmed with a blush. She hated taking credit for Jack's hard work.
"They're waiting inside for you," the captain continued. "I told them you could do this, Butch. Don't let me down."
Do what? "Yes, sir."
Captain O'Brian opened the conference-room door and ushered her inside. At the sight of the police chief, Lara came to attention. There were five men at the table, all of them studying her silently. Captain O'Brian introduced them. Other than the police chief, there was the captain of this precinct, one of the NYPD case detectives, and two special agents from the FBI.
"At ease, Officer," the police chief said. He thumbed through some papers on the table in front of him. "Let's see, you graduated from our academy six months ago, and you were assigned to the night shift out of Midtown North."
"Yes, sir."
The chief turned to the special agents from the FBI. "What do you think?"
The one in the gray suit motioned to the Apollo papers on the table. "She's a good detective. She was able to uncover information that the case detectives didn't find."
The NYPD detective stiffened. "I interviewed those college girls myself. They didn't say a word about Apollo or this seminar."
"Maybe they were more comfortable talking to a female officer," the second special agent suggested. "But the real question is, how will she perform in the field?"
"She does just fine," Captain O'Brian said. "Just a week ago, she subdued an armed man in a domestic dispute. He had shot and wounded her partner."
"She has the right look." The gray-suited FBI man motioned to the photos of Apollo's victims. "She has the right hair color, and she looks young enough to pass for a college student."
"Excellent." The police chief rubbed his hands together and regarded Lara grimly. "What do you say, Officer Boucher, to an undercover assignment?"
Lara swallowed hard. They wanted to use her as bait. Her mind raced. They were correct that she had the right look. What they didn't know, and what wasn't in those papers, was the fact that Apollo used mind control to abduct his victims and cover his tracks. She was immune to Jack's mind control, so hopefully, she would also be immune to Apollo's. If she was able to keep her wits about her, she could probably manage this.
She cleared her throat. "You want me to pose as a college student to help you locate Apollo when he comes on campus to do his seminar?"
"There's no law against him conducting a seminar," the NYPD detective said. "We need to know where he's taking the girls. Only then will we have the evidence we need to make an arrest."
"Exactly," the gray-suited FBI man agreed. "Officer Boucher, you'll have to let Apollo kidnap you."
Lara gulped. What would she do if he physically restrained her? What if he tried to rape her … or kill her? Maybe she should let a female officer with more experience do this. But what if that woman succumbed to Apollo's mind control? She would have a worse chance of survival than Lara. And if she was murdered, how could Lara live with that? And how could she refuse this job and do nothing, when Apollo continued to kidnap a new girl every month? She drew in a deep, shaky breath. "I'll do it."
Chapter Sixteen
"Are you crazy, girl?" LaToya demanded after she arrived home that evening.
"Don't fuss at me." Lara spooned chicken and sausage jambalaya onto two plates. After an hour of discussing her dangerous mission in the conference room, she'd come home frazzled. She'd decided to cook to calm herself down. "I wouldn't be in this fix if you hadn't swiped that Apollo file."
LaToya huffed. "You know we had to show it to them. Believe me, we would have been in a lot more trouble if we'd sat on that information for days before passing it on."
Lara winced. "Are you in trouble?"
LaToya shrugged, then retrieved a bottle of wine from the fridge. "They slapped me with one hand and patted me on the back with the other. They can't decide whether to be pissed or proud."
"Yeah, I got the some sort of thing." Lara set the plates on the table.
LaToya poured them two glasses of wine. "So you're really going to let that Apollo dude kidnap you?"
Lara sighed, wondering for the millionth time if she was making a huge mistake. A part of her wished LaToya had never taken the information. Then she could have continued working with Jack. But another part of her was ashamed. Those poor kidnapped girls were in danger, and here she was, hoping to use their sad circumstance as an excuse to keep seeing Jack. Why didn't she just face it? The relationship with Jack was doomed.
The timer on the oven dinged, interrupting her thoughts. The cornbread was ready.
"Well?" LaToya set the wineglasses on the table. "Are you going to do it?"
"Yes." Lara set the pan of cornbread on the stove and removed her oven mitts. "Those girls need help. I just hope they're still alive."
"Yeah, me, too." LaToya gave her a worried look. "You could have refused, you know."
"I'll be all right." Lara cut two pieces of cornbread and put them on saucers. "They're going to put some kind of tracking device on me. The minute I arrive at Apollo's so-called resort, they'll swoop in and arrest him. It should be very quick and easy."
"That's what they always say." LaToya retrieved the butter dish from the fridge.
Lara brought their cornbread to the table. "I have a secret weapon, remember? I'm immune to mind control."
"Yeah, that's good." But LaToya still looked worried as she sat and smeared butter on her cornbread. "I-I may have been wrong when I told you not to see Jack anymore."
"You've decided he's okay now?" Lara gave her a wry look as she sat down.
LaToya shrugged. "I don't know what to think about him. He's suspicious as hell, but he does have some superpowers, and right now, I'm thinking it would be a good thing for you to have a superhero in your pocket."