Dear Santa Part 11

"Don't all the applicants do that?" Vic asked.

She was forced to drag her gaze to his.

"Not quite as smoothly as Coyote does it."

"Hmm," Megan said.

"Now that I read this through again, I see what you mean. So, we're dealing with a boy with what we call in my profession, well-developed manipulative skills."

"Exactly."

That meant he'd be harder to second-guess and harder to find before he got into deeper trouble, or before someone made that trouble for him. She thought about Lacey Harbison and what she was more certain than ever could have been a thinly veiled maneuver to get at the Bellaway children She was also thinking about whoever had been in her apartment last night and the sinister tone of the note they left there. She shuddered.

"We have to figure out where Coyote might be," she said, feeling even more strongly how critical that was. "He's out in the street on his own, and there was a blizzard last night."

"I don't know where he was last night, but I found where he'd been holing up," Vic said. He described Coyote's rooftop hideaway.

Megan tapped the letter in her hand.

"This tells us he has good survival instincts. He's smart enough to know he has to plan a strategy in order to get what he needs. That's a positive. I think we may be safe in a.s.suming that this boy didn't sleep in a drift somewhere," Megan said.

"My guess is that he worked out something more practical than that."

"But we have no way of knowing what he worked out or where he is."

Katherine didn't even try to hide her frustration.

"He may be smooth and good at saying the right thing, but he's still a kid," Megan said.

"He may have left some tracks here to follow, after all. We just have to get close enough to find them."

Katherine sighed again. That sounded like wishful thinking.

"Look at this," Megan said, her red curls bouncing as she sprang forward in her chair again, more enthusiastically this time, and stabbed her finger at the paper.

"It could be a clue."

"What is it?" Vic asked.

"The and my little sister, Sprite, are real close," " Megan read. " "I do my best to take good care of her. I keep an eye on her all the time."

" What clue do you get from that? "

Vic sounded skeptical, and Katherine had to admit she felt the same.

"He probably wrote that partly to show what a great kid he is so we'd think he deserved the grant money. But," Megan added, "I think he could be telling us the truth about himself, too."

"What truth is that?"

Katherine didn't quite grasp what Megan was getting at "I think he may still be watching his younger sister. If he can manage it, anyway. Where is she now?"

"At Arbor Hill School. I dropped her off there myself this morning."

"I'm going to call Stefan Piatka and tell him to be on the alert about this. Coyote may come lurking around there to make sure Sprite's all right." Megan got up from the chair.

"I'll make a couple of photocopies of this letter, too. I a.s.sume we're going to give one to the police."

"We're keeping the police out of this for the time being," Vic said.

"You haven't notified the authorities that this boy is missing?"

"The children's guardian has asked us to handle this privately for now," Vic said.

"There are special circ.u.mstances." * He was speaking to Megan but staring at Katherine as he said that.

Megan continued to watch them both with obvious curiosity.

"What circ.u.mstances?" she asked.

"Why don't you go make those copies, Megan," Katherine cut in.

"And call Stefan Piatka. Mr. Maltese and I need to talk privately for a moment."

"Yes, we do," Vic said in a tone that made Katherine's knees threaten to buckle again.

She told herself she had to stay strong and resolved.

Megan, meanwhile, glanced from Katherine to Vic once more, then walked out the door. She'd be back, of course, with lots more questions to ask. Katherine was sure of that.

"I SEE YOU were the one who took Coyote's letter from my place this morning," Vic said.

All Vic had found when he finally came to earlier in his living room was the envelope crushed underneath him where he'd collapsed on the couch in the middle of the night.

"I woke up and you were gone. I had no idea what might have happened to you, or to Sprite either. Whoever got into your apartment yesterday could have come after you again at my house."

"Well, they didn't."

She sounded almost belligerent, probably because he was putting her on the defensive, but he didn't care. She'd given him a scare, and he wanted her to know that.

"I went over to your place, and n.o.body was there either. I stopped by Tooley's. She was the one who told me you and Sprite were okay." He looked steadily at her and tried to keep his voice just as steady.

"You could at least have left me a note."

"I probably should have done that."

She sounded less belligerent and more apologetic. She was looking down at the desk, so he couldn't see her face to read her expression.

Still, he wasn't quite ready to let her off the hook.

"After I'd gone out looking for Coyote, I came back to my place and fell asleep. I'd been on my way upstairs to check on you, but I sat down on the couch and"a"Katherine's head shot up.

"Check on me?" Her eyes were smoky with anger.

"Was that all you were going to do when you came upstairs?"

Vic could feel the heat of her indignation steaming across the desk at him. He would never have guessed that someone who was usually so cool and reserved could also be this angry.

"I don't know what you mean," he said.

"I mean that you shouldn't have been on your way up there at all. I came to your house last night because I thought Sprite might be in danger, not because I wanted you wandering in and out of my bedroom all night."

That had Vic more confused than ever. What the h.e.l.l was going on here? He didn't like being yelled at like this, especially when he didn't understand the reason for it.

" First of all, that s my bedroom you were in," he began.

"Then you should have had me sleep on the couch. Either way, I was practically unconscious, and you had no right to take liberties."

Vic stared at her for an instant while what she'd said sank in. When it did, his temper raged at least as hot as hers appeared to be.

"Take liberties?" he demanded.

"What are you talking about "Lower your voice," she said.

Her own volume was suddenly under control. He hated it when a woman turned the tables on a guy so fast his head felt like it was spinning off. He especially hated that she was right about not shouting here at the center, where anybody who happened to be pa.s.sing by might hear.

"What are you talking about he repeated in a quieter voice. The effort made him seethe inside. He told himself he had to calm down.

"What's this bull about taking liberties?"

"I remember"a"she hesitated, looking fl.u.s.tered all of a sudden "a"things.

I just don't remember how far it went between us."

Vic stared into her blue-gray eyes. He could hardly believe what he was heating. He could feel the leash he tried to keep on his temper running out to its end.

"You think I..." He searched for less corny words but couldn't think of any, so he spluttered out the corny ones.

"You think I took advantage of you?"

"Did you?"

At the moment, he couldn't remember when or why he'd seen softness and warmth in her eyes. They were as cold and hard as flint now. Vic heaved a sigh so explosive he half expected the file folders to fly off her desk in the blast. He told himself to turn and march out of there without favoring her insult with the answer it didn't deserve, but he was too angry to listen to what was probably very good advice.

"Let me tell you something, lady. You asked me for that kissa"not that I wasn't happy to oblige. I don't know what you've dreamed up about what supposedly happened between you and me in my bedroom after that, but I'll tell you something else, and you can take it to the bank." He put his hands flat on her desk, crush ing a couple of those file folders he'd been thinking about a moment ago. He leaned forward, looking straight into her face.

"You've got me a thousand percent wrong."

He turned abruptly and stormed out of Katherine's office. Too bad having the last word didn't feel anywhere near as satisfying as he'd hoped it would.

KATHERINE WAS STILL stating at the door when Megan appeared on the other side of it. Vic hadn't actually slammed the door behind him, but he hadn't exactly shut it gently, either. Besides, they'd both been talking loudly in here before that, and it was well past midmorning so the full center staff would be on board. Katherine could guess what the gossip around the coffee machine would be about for the rest of the day. Thank heaven the kids were in school. She wouldn't have wanted them to hear her and Vic carrying on like a couple of hotheads instead of two professionals who should know better. She motioned for Megan to come in.

"Let the interrogation begin," Katherine said with what she wished sounded more like good humor. She tried to forget the niggling sense of guilt she felt about Vic. Had she completely misjudged him?

Megan flopped down into the chair in front of Katherine's desk.

"Why do you think I would want to interrogate you?" she asked.

"Because that's what you head-shrinkers do."

"I'm not a psychiatrist. I'm a psychologist. Nor am I a member of a remote Amazonian tribe that specializes in skulls. Therefore, I don't think the head-shrinker label really fits."

Katherine sighed.

"Don't mind me. I'm a little off my stride this morning."

"Good. You're properly humbled. Now the interrogation can begin."

Katherine laughed.

"So, did you get what you wanted out of him?" Megan asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You had to be pus.h.i.+ng his b.u.t.tons like mad to inspire that kind of reaction, even out of Mr. Maltese. When we push somebody's b.u.t.tons it's usually because we're looking for something in particular."

"Good old Megan. Straight for the jugular."

Megan didn't answer.

Katherine sighed again.

"I suppose there's not going to be any more work done by either of us till I satisfy your not entirely professional curiosity."

"You could be right about that."

Katherine settled back in her desk chair. Megan was doing some b.u.t.ton-pus.h.i.+ng herself right now, and Katherine knew it. She also knew she needed to talk about the confusing things that were going on in her life.

"I had to find out something from Vic about last night," she said.

"Does this have anything to do with your earlier remark about getting up on the wrong side of the bed?"

Katherine nodded. Megan had a therapist's memory. She almost never forgot what was said to her.

"Did he tell you what you had to know?" she asked. Katherine thought about that for a moment. "Yes, I suppose he did," she said. "Was it what you wanted to hear?"