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Rune Alignment

Chapter 18.

"So, you trying to pull some overtime, too?" Sledge asked Eames.

She looked up, smiled and replied, "No, just trying to get a head start on things."

"I translate that to mean you have no life, either, so you're going to spend your free Saturday time here."

"Please, don't remind me."

"What are you doing?"

Eames pushed her hair off her face with both hands, reached up with both arms and stretched. "I am adding to the to-do list Bobby gave me – us. That student showed up again." Sledge looked surprised. "Yeah, Bobby and the professor were at the farmer's market this morning and Elliott approached them. Apparently Bobby was her knight in shining armor."

"Oh? They were together?" Sledge said with a raised brow. Goren spent the night? Jesus, he's fast. How can such an oddball be that good with such a beautiful woman?

Eames nodded. "And, an envelope was slipped under her door sometime during the night. They brought it in to trace this morning."

"So, the big guy is a lover boy. I though he was made of stone. Or gay, ha!"

"Edward, why do you have to do that? Why do you have to make fun of Bobby?" Eames asked with exasperation.

"Because it is so easy," he answered.

Sledge looked at the tiny woman. She was so small, so strong. He could love her, did on some level. But he knew he stood no chance with her. She was in love with her partner, but she didn't know it yet. Goren sure as hell didn't love Alex; he respected her, admired her, maybe loved her like a buddy, or a sister, but he didn't love her. Thank God for that. Sledge knew he had to lighten up on Goren if he wanted to get close to Alex.

Eames shook her head and went back to work, intending to ignore him.

"Ok, ok. Sorry. What does Bobby have for us to do?" Sledge asked trying to make peace. He pulled up a chair to sit beside Eames.

"Everything is waiting for Monday. Bishop needs to contact Interpol to see if the student is in their system. We'll need a warrant to get the messages from her home phone. Huang needs to listen to the calls and then begin a profile. We need to get the numbers from the caller ID on her cell and home phones. Bobby thinks they may all be pay phones. Once we have those, we can map the sites and correlate the time and distance. I think Martin is starting the voiceprints."

"What can I do?" he asked.

"Why don't you start with the call sites?"

"Sounds good," he said and headed off to find Jerry.

"You have to stop that. Please. Gleason, stop," Bobby said as he pulled to the curb.

Pulling his finger from her mouth, she asked, "You don't like it?"

"No, no, no, I like it, I like it. It's just that . . . we're here and . . . I, I can't go inside . . . yet." He took his hand from the wheel and crossed it with his other in his lap. "Give me a minute."

Gleason chuckled.

Finally he ushered her into the tiny wine shop. "Is Marlowe in today?" he asked a young man he hadn't seen before.

"Marlowe is home recuperating from gall bladder surgery. He won't be back for another week to ten days. Is there something I can help you find?"

"How's he doing?" Bobby inquired.

"Fine, so far as I know. What are you looking for?"

Bobby wasn't sure this kid knew a Riesling from a Weiss bier. "We'll look around."

Gleason had wandered off, looking at the stock, eyeing bottles of wine. She stopped and lifted a bottle from a rack. Bobby went to her, stood behind her, put his left hand on her left hip and pushed against her, pulling her toward him. "Feel that?" he whispered into her ear, "like that?" She smiled and leaned back against him. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"Do what?"

"That thing, with your mouth, back in the car."

She considered a moment and then said with a smile he couldn't see, "Watching porn."

He didn't respond, not knowing whether to believe her or not. He moved his hand slowly from her hip to her waist, under her tee shirt and upwards from there.

She whispered up to him, "Knock it off or I'll do you right here." He smiled down at her and took a step back and went to get his Weihenstephanuer Hefe Weiss bier.

"What did you find?" he asked, walking back to her side.

"This is a nice little wine shop." She held up a bottle, "Look at this, this is a good find. It is Cairn O'Mohar's Spring Oak Leaf from East Inchmichael, a little town in Errol. It's from a winery in Perthshire, between the River Tay and the Sidlow Hills. I haven't had this in years. And this, look at this, Silver Birch from Moniack Castle. One is sweet and one is dry. I never thought I'd find these anywhere but home." Her delight was clear, "I'm going to get these two, ok?"

This was a peek into her past, a happy piece of her past. She was glowing, remembering a wonderful time and place.

The vendors were packing up their wares. The crowd was thinning. Goddamn her! She left. He took her away. How could I not have known that? I've spent hours walking around, looking for that bitch and she's not even here. Where did he take her? Back to her place? I'm sure that's where they went. Back to her place. Damn them both.

"Are you getting hungry?" Bobby asked her, glancing at his watch, as they walked back to his car.

"What time is it?"

"About two forty," he answered, putting the wine and beer in the back with the market fare.

"If we eat now, we won't be hungry for supper later."

"Believe me, I can eat now and later and probably after that." He opened her door and helped her up.

"You are a big boy," she said with a smile as he shut the driver's side door behind him. "What do you want to do?"

He thought a moment and then said, "Let's go to my place, make a nice salad with what we bought and then go out for a nice, special dinner later tonight." He looked at her expectantly.

"That sounds lovely."

"Take a look at this print," Martin said to Jerry. "Huang will have a field day with this."

Jerry stepped beside his colleague and looked at the colorful series of spikes coming across the screen and then onto a strip of narrow paper. "Jesus," he whispered. "So that's what waxing your bike sounds like in color, huh?"

"How many of these calls are there?"

"Ten from the cell. The home phone messages will be here sometime Monday or Tuesday. I'm assuming they are just like these."

"Do you remember ever seeing anything like this?" Martin asked.

"No. We've had some strange stuff, but I'd remember something that looks like this."

"Yeah. This is whole new category."