Got Your Number

tell me."
    "Elise...made a pass at me."
    The whites of Angora's eyes shone clear in the semi-darkness of the cab. "She's a lesbian?"
    "Actually, I think she might be experimenting."
    "And you weren't interested in experimenting?"
    "No, Angora, I wasn't."
    "Don't get so testy. Can you find out if this woman broke into your place?"
    "I don't know how to contact her. Elise left the program and they don't know where she is."
    "Are there any other suspects?"
    She quirked a brow—Angora was getting into this. "An old boyfriend from Birmingham crossed my mind. He and I parted on bad terms several months ago."
    "Was he violent?"
    "No, but he had an attitude. And a drinking problem, so anything's possible."
    "You have bad taste in men."
    Roxann checked the side mirror—no Capistrano. "We have bad taste in men."
    "Except for Dr. Carl."
    Roxann had to admit that he seemed to be pulling her toward South Bend, but part of that, she acknowledged, was wanting to escape her current problems. "Capistrano had Frank Cape's car impounded, and he won't be able to pick it up until morning. So to get a jump on him, we'll have to drive all night."
    "Okay."
    "And no more credit cards—the charges are too easy to trace. Whatever cash you need, get it from an ATM while we're here."
    Angora sighed. "Without Trenton's card, I don't have any money."
    "What about your own bank account?"
    "Overdrawn—there were too many wedding expenses."
    Roxann slowed the van. "Angora, I have a little money, but we're going to have to be very frugal for the rest of the trip." An alien notion to her cousin.
    But Angora held her left hand out in front of her. Her enormous engagement ring caught the light. "No we won't."

Chapter Thirteen

    "WELCOME HOME, my dear."
    Roxann walked into Dr. Nell Oney's sweatered embrace, inhaling the woman's signature vanilla scent, grateful beyond words that she hadn't changed over the years. But when she felt the woman's frail bones through the heavy clothing, she realized how much her mentor had aged—more gray in her soft brown hair, more lines around her gentle mouth. Still, she remained an attractive woman, aging gracefully.
    "You look wonderful," Dr. Oney said, squeezing her hands.
    "So do you," she said, applying light pressure to the woman's cold hands. Dr. Oney was a bit past fifty, Roxann calculated. And no family, save the cats she took in. She had once told Roxann that the people at Rescue were her family. With a start, Roxann acknowledged that she was looking at herself in twenty years. And while living in a patio home just off campus wearing hand-knit sweaters covered with cat hair held a certain literary appeal, it seemed fantastically lonely.
    "Meet Angora Ryder, my cousin. We graduated in the same class. Angora, I'm sure you remember Dr. Nell Oney."
    "It's nice to see you," the professor said, shaking Angora's hand. Then she squinted and looked back and forth. "You two do bear a striking resemblance—except for the coloring, of course."
    "And the crown," Roxann added dryly.
    "Dr. Oney, I hope you don't mind me tagging along," Angora said. "Roxann rescued me from a little scrape."
    "I don't mind," she said. "And call me 'Nell.' Let me show you girls where you can put your things. The guest room has twin beds."
    They traipsed after her, dodging four—no, five—cats. Angora sneezed a thousand times before they set their things down on outdated red comforters in the tiny guest room. The walls were lined with shelves of worn paperbacks—proof positive, Roxann conceded, of those long, lonely years stretching ahead of her. In fact, didn't she immediately upon relocating to a new city acquire a library card?
    "I have two classes to teach this afternoon, so I'd better be off," Nell said from the doorway. "Do you need anything before I go?"
    Roxann wanted to ask about Carl, but bit her tongue and shook her head. "We can't thank you enough."
    "No need, really. But just so that I know, this Cape fellow who's been following you, what does he look like?"
    "Tall, thin, rednecky. He was wearing camouflage when he caught up with me in Little Rock."
    "Do you have a weapon?"
    "Pepper spray. But hopefully he's given up by now."
    Nell nodded. "Still, you can't be too careful. Do you two have plans tonight?"
    She exchanged looks with Angora, and her cheeks grew warm. "Well, uh—"
    "We're going to the bachelor auction," Angora cut in. "Want to come?"
    Nell laughed and shrugged. "I hadn't thought about it, but maybe I will. Just