Alone in the Dark Read Online Free

she
    promised herself.

    Brady had no intention of letting this slide. "But previously?"

    Best defense was a strong offense, wasn't that what Uncle Andrew always told them?
    With a toss of her head, she fixed her best, most confident smile to her lips.

    "Really, Coltrane, there's no reason to get all official on me." She thought of their
    interaction over these past twenty-five months. "Although, I guess when you get down to
    it, that's all you ever are, isn't it? Official."

    "This isn't about me, Doc, it's about you."

    She squared her shoulders, deliberately avoiding looking at the flower he still held. "Right.
    And since it's about me, I'll handle it."

    He raised a brow, pinning her with a look. "You weren't handling it a minute ago."

    No, that had been an aberration. One she wasn't about to allow to happen again. She was
    stronger than that. "I'm better now."

    He made a leap, bridging the gap from here to there and filling in the missing pieces. It
    wasn't hard. He'd handled more than one stalker case before he'd found a place for
    himself in narcotics. "You ever report it?"

    She looked at Brady warily. She'd always sensed he was sharp, maybe even intuitive, but
    she didn't want to learn she was right at her own expense. "Report what?" she asked
    vaguely.

    "The stalker."

    Patience raised her chin defiantly. "What stalker?"

    "The one who was after you," he snapped tersely. Nothing irked him more than people who
    wouldn't take help that was offered. Like his mother who had refused to walk away from
    his father. "Look," Brady began more evenly this time, "nobody turns that shade of white when they see a stupid rose left on their doorstep unless there's something else going on.
    Now if you don't want to talk to me, fine, but you've got a boatload of police personnel in
    your life. Talk to one of them."

    Because she was a Cavanaugh, even though she considered herself the mildest one of the
    group, she inherently resented being dictated to. "How do you know I haven't?"

    He looked at her knowingly. "Just because I don't get along with people doesn't mean I
    can't read them." Brady gave her a look just before he turned to leave. "Have it your way.
    Looks like I'm not the only one who isn't communicative."

    It was as if he'd read her mind.

    Patience blew out another breath, irritated. Relenting. The man was right, she supposed.
    And it was better to say something to him than to Patrick or the others. Especially Patrick.
    She knew without asking that the law took on a whole different hue when someone her
    older brother cared about was being threatened.

    "His name's Walter," she finally said, addressing her words to the back of Brady's head.

    Stopping just short of the door, Brady turned around. He stood waiting, not saying a word.

    Okay, Patience thought, she might as well tell him a little more. "Walter Payne," she
    elaborated. "I saved his cockatiel and he was grateful. Very grateful. He was also kind of
    lonely," she added after a moment. "I tried to encourage him to go out, to get out of his shell." She'd even gone so far as to suggest arranging a blind date for him. But although
    eager to please her, Walter hadn't followed up on her suggestion. "Maybe I was too
    successful."

    "So he started harassing you?" He had his answer as soon as he saw the woman pale.

    Harassment and stalking were such ugly words. She told herself that it was more like
    enduring a schoolboy crush from a forty-five-year-old man. She couldn't handle it any
    other way. "He brought me flowers, said it was from Mitzi."

    "Mitzi?"

    "His cockatiel. At first it was just one, like that." She nodded at the rose. "And then it was a bouquet. There was candy and a few poems, as well." Those had followed in quick
    succession. Crowding her. "I just thought he was being overly grateful. The cockatiel
    meant a great deal to him."

    Brady tried to read between the lines to pick up on what the veterinarian wasn't saying.
    "You told him to stop?"

    "In a