The Florentine Cypher: Kate Benedict Paranormal Mystery #3 (The Kate Benedict Series) Read Online Free Page B

of lined paper towards him and wrote the title down on his notepad before pushing the book gently back towards me.
    Then he scrawled some more notes. That was a good sign, I thought, that he was taking me seriously. The police station was remarkably quiet. I’d imagined it would be buzzing with activity on a Friday evening, but all I heard was the tick of a large clock on the wall and the low hum of a photocopier sitting on top of a filing cabinet.
    “I’d like some information on you, if you don’t mind,” Lake said, with a glance at the piece of paper in front of him. “Kate Benedict, resident of Bayswater, and an architect at Bradley Associates in the City. Is that right?”
    “Yes, I went to University College London for my architecture degree, and I’ve been working for Bradley Associates for five years. I can have my boss verify that if you need him to.”
    I didn’t bother to mention the six months I’d taken off work after my mother died and my aura sightings had started. I’d thought I was going out of my mind. A gamut of medical tests had indicated that I didn’t have a brain injury or any other physical anomaly that could have caused the sudden onset of aura visions. The doctors found nothing. As my friend Anita often told me, it was all in my head.
    “Thank you,” Lake said. “So back to Ethan Hamilton. Has he been behaving unusually in any way? Said or done anything that might suggest he had problems?”
    “Like what?”
    “Break-up with a girlfriend, money problems, worries about his job? Sometimes those details can be very helpful.”
    “Nothing that I’m aware of. Well, yes, his father died six weeks ago. He was killed in a car accident. Ethan was very distressed.”
    “Distressed enough to harm himself?”
    My head jerked up. “What? No. Of course not.”
    And yet there was that aura. It meant Ethan was in serious danger. Could he really be a threat to himself? I thought not. It didn’t fit. Ethan had been upset, but not depressed. When I’d seen him for drinks a couple of weeks ago, he was doing fine. Still grieving, of course, but beginning to focus on his work again.
    I shifted on my chair. After all that sitting, my back cried out for relief, and the unforgiving wood dug into my thighs. Detective Lake watched me with the expression of a schoolteacher resigned to dealing with a recalcitrant student.
    “I’m positive that Ethan means no harm to himself,” I said, leaning across the desk to make my point.
    A sudden racket erupted outside the office, someone shouting and the sound of handcuffs jingling. The air grew ripe with obscenities. While Lake waited for the noise to die down, he rocked back and forth on his chair. When it was quiet again, he came back to level. Seconds later, his door opened and Cooper poked his head in. “Need you when you have a minute, sir.”
    Lake nodded. The door closed.
    “You said a window was open in Ethan’s office when you arrived?” Lake asked me.
    “Just a few inches, but yes, so I shut it because it was letting the rain in.”
    “And you saw no one outside when you closed the window?”
    “No, but there are no street lights in the alley that runs along the back of the building.”
    “And you say there was a break-in at his flat?”
    “Yes. I went there to see if he was home. His landlady’s concerned. We think the intruder climbed out through a window. You’ll probably find footprints in the flower bed—”
    “Was there any damage or anything taken?”
    “No. The landlady lives alone, though. She doesn’t know yet that Ethan’s missing, but I think it would be a good idea if you could send someone over to take a look. It would put her mind at ease.”
    Lake wrote another note. “We’ll do what we can,” he said. “But Dr. Hamilton is an adult and seems to have no cognitive or medical issues. I expect he will turn up soon.”
    He put his pen down. I sensed our interview was over. How could I convince him that Ethan was in danger