The morgue examiner stood nearby, pointing things out to him. I gloved up and walked over to them, but when Micah looked up at me, the expression on his face almost stopped me in my tracks. All of a sudden, I had a worse feeling than I normally did when approaching a dead body. The morgue examiner’s face was also grim.
“Who is it?” I said.
Micah shook his head. “See for yourself.”
I came forward, looked at the body, and gasped. Like Leslie, this was a recognizable victim. It was the dead witch, Athena.
Chapter Eleven
“I can’t believe this,” I said. Athena was far from even being called an acquaintance, but it was jarring to encounter two dead people that I was familiar with in such a short span of time.
“Looks like she was done in the same way Leslie was,” Micah said. Her torso was covered in brutal wounds, like Leslie’s. Her skin, which had been pale in life, looked bleached white now.
“The body was brought in a couple of hours ago,” the morgue examiner, Dr. Lane, said. “We gathered DNA evidence from the body, and forensics is looking it over right now. We might be able to have the results for you before tomorrow.”
Micah and I exchanged a look. I knew we were both thinking the same thing—that the DNA evidence would reveal that the killer was Ethan’s body-jacker.
“The similarities in the manner in which this victim was killed and the fact that ghost residue and physical evidence was also found on her makes us believe this victim is connected to the other one,” Dr. Lane said.
“I’m likely to agree,” Micah said. “Where was her body found?”
“In the lobby of her apartment building,” Dr. Lane replied. “There were no witnesses though.”
“Wonderful,” Micah muttered. He stripped off his gloves and tossed them into a bin. I followed suit. “We’ll be waiting for the results from forensics,” Micah said. “Thanks, Dr. Lane.”
He and I left the morgue and headed back up to the suite.
“If the results indicate what I think they will, we may be dealing with something more complicated than we thought,” I said. We were standing near Micah’s desk. “If Victor Raston’s ghost is in Ethan’s body and killed Leslie, that would be one thing, but why would he want to kill Athena?”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Micah said. “Let’s look into Victor while we wait on the results and see if we can figure out if it’s actually his ghost walking around in Ethan’s body.”
“Sir, yes, sir,” I said, giving him a salute. He actually smiled, and it was more than just a twitch of the lips. I smiled back and headed to my desk to dive into digging up information on Raston.
Researching Victor Raston turned out to be harder than anticipated because, for one, there were many a Victor Raston to look into, and that involved a thorough check on each of them to find a connection to Leslie. Between Micah and myself, we had over two dozen Victor Rastons to check. Before I knew it, the end of the day had come and gone, and the office had emptied out.
This was the most time I’d spent sitting at my desk in quite some time, and after a few hours, my eyes felt like they were glazing over. I could barely focus on what was on the screen. Then I realized what could help me refocus—food. I sat back and stretched, luxuriating in the feel of my bones cracking. Then I headed over to Micah’s desk and half slumped against his cubicle wall.
“Need food,” I drawled.
Micah looked as tired as I felt and sat back in his chair, running both hands through his hair, which made his biceps flex. For a moment, I had a brief flashback to what it’d been like to anchor myself to those arms.
“I agree,” Micah said. He opened his desk drawer and rummaged around for a moment, then produced a stack of menus. I took them from him.
“What are you in the mood for?” I asked. “Indian, Japanese, Tapas?”
“How about Thai?”
Thai was fine with me, so I called in an order, though afterward, I was reluctant to plunge back into sorting through all the Victor Rastons. I pulled up a chair and plopped down next to Micah, figuring I’d hang around him until the food came. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t bark at me to leave him alone.
“Nothing so far on Raston?” he asked.
“There are too many Victor Rastons in the world,” I said. “I’m still going through the list. What about you?”
“I might be on to something with one of them,” Micah said, scrolling through a few pages on the computer. “I’ve been following a trail, and I’ve gotten further with it than I have with the others. As a matter of fact…”
I leaned forward when he stopped speaking so I could get a better look at his screen.
“Aha,” he said after a few moments, sounding triumphant. “I think we’ve got our man. This Victor Raston opened a credit card several years ago, and guess who co-signed it?”
“Leslie?” I said. Micah nodded. “Great, we found him. Plant a flag on him, and let’s figure out if he’s dead or alive.”
My phone rang to let me know the delivery person was in the lobby, so I headed down to get the food. When I came back, Micah and I put Victor Raston on hold and ravaged the food as soon as we opened the cartons. He hadn’t even protested against me eating next to him. The suite was empty except for us, and dare I say I was a little emboldened by the fact that we were alone and seemed to be getting along better than we had in a long time.
Which is probably why I said, “Why do you hate me, Micah?”
He froze, the fork halfway to his mouth, then lowered it and looked down into his carton. I immediately regretted opening my mouth. I’d probably just undone whatever small progress we’d made. Micah was quiet for so long, I thought it was going to get tense and awkward all over again.
“I don’t hate you,” he finally said, still looking down at his food.
“Then why have you had such a bad attitude toward me for the last year?” I asked. “I can’t figure you out. You act all cold and distant yet warn me when it’s inspection time.”
Micah fidgeted, and I knew he wasn’t comfortable with this conversation, but suddenly, I just really wanted to know what the deal was.
“I can’t help but think it has something to do with that night we spent together, because after that was when everything changed.” His jaw tightened, and his eyes narrowed. I figured I should probably back off, but I kept going. For the first time, I thought I really saw how Andrew viewed me, and maybe that made me want to figure out where I stood with Micah as well.
“Look, I just want to clear the air once and for all,” I said. “I think I deserve that much, seeing as I’m the object of your disdain but don’t know why.”
Micah exhaled a deep breath but still didn’t say anything, so I kept rambling.
“I know you’ve plowed through half the women in the office,” I said. “Have you made your way to Amy yet? If not, she’d be an easy conquest, but you probably know that. But you don’t treat any of them the way you treat me. Anyway, I know what I said to you before, but I really don’t think the problem was that you were bad. You were actually quite good from what my drunken memory recalls. I, on the other hand, was a clumsy oaf, but feel free not to back me up on that.”
“You thought I was good?” Finally, Micah spoke and looked at me, but he didn’t exactly say what I thought he would. We stared at each other for a heartbeat, then I laughed.
“Don’t tell me that’s what this is about,” I said. “You were waiting for validation that you were good in the sack? Come on, Micah, if that’s what you wanted, you could have just asked the day after and saved all this hostility.”
Micah didn’t join in my laughter. He just shook his head.
“No, that’s not what it’s about,” he said. The serious tone in his voice made me sober up.
“Okay, then please, can you tell me what I did so I can see if it’s something I need to apologize for?”
“Why is it so important to you?”
“Because you and I used to be friends,” I said. “And honestly, I never cared that much about your attitude toward me, but right now, I can’t stand the bad air between us, and the fact that I don’t understand why it’s there is driving me nuts, so please Micah, just tell me!”
“Because I liked you, okay?” He yelled it, and it stunned me into silence.
I sat there for a few moments, staring at him wide-eyed. He ran his fingers through his hair and momentarily dropped his head back before looking at me again.
“I liked you, then we spent the night together, and after…” He shrugged. “I know that night wasn’t something we planned, but I guess that whatever happened after wasn’t what I expected, and ever since then I just…” He threw his hands up, then crossed them over his chest and stared at the cubicle wall, his entire body rigid.
I stared at him for a few moments more, then I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Micah looked at me in shock.
“Are you kidding? Your whole attitude changed because you’re mad that we had drunk sex and then didn’t go skipping off into the sunset? You knew I was a hit and quitter, and I knew the same about you. How the hell was I supposed to know you liked me and wanted more than just one round in bed?”
“Because I made love to you,” Micah muttered, looking away again. “I didn’t fuck you. I made love to you. I never do that.”
That shut me up for a moment as I thought about that. Micah had been gentle and attentive. I had been the aggressive one. Compared to what I got on Andrew’s desk, I had to admit that things with Micah had been very different. And I think in a good way. I dropped my head into my hands and sighed. I couldn’t have predicted that the conversation would end up here.
“Again, I must ask, how was I to know that? Maybe instead of waiting me out to see if I would get caught under your spell, you could have just talked to me like a normal human being and not acted like we were in some high school drama!”
“Fine,” he said, his voice calmer but still intense. He turned his chair, leaned forward, and gave me a direct stare. “I like you, Selene. A lot. I admire the way you’re not afraid to take risks despite the consequences, and I think you’re beautiful. For the past year, I haven’t been able to get you off my mind, and the reason I’ve been treating you the way I have is because despite how strong my feelings are for you, you don’t seem the least bit interested in me and it hurts. It fucking hurts. All I was to you was one night, and I wanted more. I know I should have said something, but I just…” He shook his head and sighed, and I didn’t know what the hell I should think or say.
Micah had been giving me a bad attitude because he liked me. I could have probably come to that conclusion long before now, but it had never crossed my mind to give myself that much credit. I just thought his ego was hurt because I didn’t start chasing him like all the rest. I still didn’t know what to say though. Was Micah attractive? Hell yes. Was he good in bed? Double hell yes. But we’d just spent a year in some weird bad-vibes relationship, and this new development had thrown me way, way off.
“So there you have it,” Micah said softly. “Happy now?”
“Micah…” I scooted my chair closer and reached out to touch his arm. His entire body went still.
He looked at my hand on his arm, then looked at my face, and when our eyes met, I was again at a loss for words. I had never looked into his eyes from so close a distance. They were a beautiful, soft gray, and there was so much intensity in them, it was almost hard for me to hold his gaze. Micah’s lips were slightly parted, and his eyes dropped to my mouth. I had to admit, there was a warm, electric feeling growing between us. Where the hell had that come from?
“Selene?”
Micah and I leaped away from each other like we’d been caught doing something wrong, and we looked up to see Andrew standing a few feet away. I hadn’t realized he was still here. Andrew looked from Micah to me, and his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. We hadn’t been doing anything wrong (just staring into each other’s eyes while heat grew between us), but it still felt weird that Andrew had walked up on us like that. I smiled at Andrew, trying to relax, but was unable to shake the tension that had come over me. Andrew flashed a smile before his face was serious again.
“You two are here late,” Andrew said. There was a tightness to his expression that he didn’t usually have when he talked to the people who worked for him, but I didn’t see why he should be put out because Micah and I had been sitting close to each other. Andrew and my affair was all about sex, not feelings. That’s certainly the vibe I got from him at least.
“We’re still working on the case,” Micah said after clearing his throat. He looked as tense as I did. “Forensics called earlier and said if we stuck around, they’d have the results from the evidence found on Athena’s body, so we’re waiting it out…and getting some other work done.” He started to shuffle the papers on his desk.
“I see,” Andrew said. “Well, I’m on my way out. Hope things with the case work out. I’ll see you both at my cocktail party tomorrow night, yes?”
I had forgotten about that.
“You have the best selection of liquor, so why would we miss it?” Micah said.
“Ditto,” I said, giving Andrew another smile. For some reason, things felt more awkward between Andrew and me than they should have.
But I hadn’t been doing anything wrong, damn it, and even if Micah and I had been sucking face, it shouldn’t matter to Andrew. I kept telling myself that. Andrew nodded at us, held my gaze a second longer than he needed to, then left the suite. Micah and I tentatively looked at each other.
“My food is cold,” I announced, standing up and almost knocking my chair over. “I’m going to warm it up.”
I headed to the kitchenette with my food. After I warmed it up, I stayed there and ate it, hoping that the longer I stayed away from Micah, the more any awkwardness would dissipate. That was probably wishful thinking. I tossed the empty carton into the trash and headed back out.
“Were you warming up your food or re-cooking it?” Micah asked when I sat down next to him.
“It was so delicious I had to stand there and finish eating it,” I said. Micah shook his head.
Just then I heard the suite doors open and saw Dr. Lane walking toward us, waving a file. I felt relieved because I hadn’t wanted our conversation to pick up where we’d left off. This would be a good distraction.