After Midnight (5 page)

Kate had learned the basics in college, sneaking in a minor in theater while her father paid for her major in
communications.
She had participated and even starred in several productions at college. But she had learned more from her experience with this small troupe of talented performers in a month than she had in her entire four years at the University of Texas. Working on this level was great for polishing your craft and boosting your career. Several actors had gone on from one of the many Denver venues to succeed in commercials, television, and even movies. And Kate hoped she would be the next.

Dressed in a period gown, with her hair swept up into a cascade of curls, Kate waited in the wings for her cue. Onstage, Andy was dressed like an old-west sheriff and Carrie was made up to be a saloon girl. Kate’s part was that of an innocent, naive schoolmarm arriving in town. Eric, another veteran cast member, propelled the plywood-framed stagecoach onto the stage with Kate pretending to be sitting inside it. The sheriff opened the door and helped Kate out, and her part began.

An hour and a half later, the delighted audience was on their feet, clapping and cheering as the cast finished their last song and dipped into a deep bow, then stepped back as the curtain closed.

“Good show.” Andy pounded her on the back.

Carrie gave Kate a quick hug and confirmed, “You did great.”

Basking in the glow of her success, Kate practically danced off the stage. Even though, physically, she was exhausted, her adrenaline was pumping, and she felt terrific. Everyone mingled around backstage, talking about the performance and making suggestions for last-minute changes. It felt fantastic, like being part of a big, happy—if slightly
strange—family,
and Kate was enjoying every minute of it.

“Excuse me…. Do you have a moment?”

She turned, but the smile slid off her face and her eyes widened. “You!”

“Yes, me.” His arm was still in a sling, but now he was casually dressed in jeans and a blue button-up shirt.

“How…how did you find me?”

“I’m a cop, remember?”

Uniform or not, that was a fact she would never forget.

“Want to go somewhere for coffee, or do you want us to talk right here?” Sam’s gaze was steady and deadly serious.

Kate looked around her and winced. Her relationship with these people was too fresh and fragile. She dared not give them a hint of the real drama that had been her life for the past week. “Do I have a choice?” she asked, knowing it was rhetorical.

He didn’t even bother to respond.

“Let me get out of this makeup and change clothes.” She slipped inside the dressing room. A half hour later, she knew she couldn’t drag it out much longer. Her stage makeup had been removed and replaced with just mascara and lipstick. Her costume was neatly hanging on the rack, ready for tomorrow’s show, and she was now wearing her usual jeans and a soft cotton V-neck pullover. Everyone else had left and was working outside in the seating area.

A sharp knock caused her to jump. “Need any help in there?” Sam’s voice was surprisingly patient.

She sighed and opened the door. “No…. I’m done.”

He had been leaning against the wall, and as she walked out, he pushed away and followed her.

“I have to help clean up the theater before I leave.”

“No problem. I’ve got nowhere else to be.”

Of course he didn’t. Thanks to her, he couldn’t work. But she still was flustered that he had found her. She went to the back of the theater and started gathering discarded programs, cups, and other debris, stuffing it all into a plastic bag. Without asking, Sam followed her, straightening the chairs and pushing them under the narrow shelf that served as a long table that stretched the entire row.

As they passed Carrie, who was cleaning the row in front of them, working in the opposite direction, she gave Sam a flirtatious look. “So, who’s your helper, Kate?”

“Uh…he’s…” Her mind raced for an appropriate explanation.

“Just a friend, here to support her
acting,
” Sam finished for her.

“She did great, didn’t she?” Carrie winked at Kate. “No opening-night jitters for her.”

After having the crap scared out of her last week and the emotion of the funeral today, tonight’s show had been a cakewalk. She smiled her appreciation and tried to continue on so Sam would stop talking before he said something awkward.

“Nerves of steel,” Sam agreed, sliding Kate a look that only the two of them understood.

They moved on, quickly finishing their rows, and, finally, there were no more excuses for putting off the inevitable. The cast called their good nights as J.R. locked the front door. The amusement park, too, was closing, and tired parents and sleepy kids were drifting toward the exit.

Kate and Sam walked silently, side by side, until they reached the parking lot. She nodded toward her ten-year-old yellow Escape. “That’s me over there.”

“I have a black Mustang parked in the next row.” He gave her one of those steady looks that felt like it was pinning her to the wall. “I’ll follow you.”

“I don’t know where to go,” she admitted. “I’m not familiar with this part of town.”

“Okay, then you’re riding with me, and I’ll bring you back for your car.”

It wasn’t a question or a suggestion. It was an order, and Kate knew it was futile to try to argue. If she couldn’t trust a cop, whom could she trust? Besides, she really didn’t want to make a scene in the parking lot. Without answering, she followed him to his car. To her surprise, after popping the locks open with his key fob, he walked around to her side, and, with his good hand, opened her door. She sank into the black leather bucket seat and put on her seat belt. Sam entered on the driver’s side and, with a little difficulty, slid beneath the steering wheel and shut his door. He tried to hide it, but he struggled with the seat belt, trying to maneuver it under his sling and stretch it far enough to fasten. Kate watched him for a few seconds, then, without speaking, reached under his right arm, took the metal tongue from his left hand, pulled it down, and slipped it into the buckle with a solid click.

In the semidarkness of the car, their eyes met and held. Kate felt her heart do a strange little double skip that had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they shared a dark secret or that he was a cop. She quickly dropped her gaze and pulled back into the safety of her seat.

“Thanks,” Sam muttered, his voice not quite as firm and assured as before.

“You’re welcome,” she answered, then turned her head to look out the side window.

They drove in silence for several minutes until they reached the small town of Golden. Except for shifting into reverse and drive, which was a little awkward, Sam drove remarkably well for a one-armed man. He turned down Washington Street and stopped at the Blue Canyon Grill. Kate didn’t wait for him to come around and open her door, but let herself out and waited almost impatiently for him to get out. Now that she was face-to-face with her worst fear, she was ready to get it over with.

They walked side by side into the restaurant, looking like a couple but feeling like there was a brick wall between them. Sam selected an empty booth in the corner as far from the jukebox as possible and waited until she sat down before taking his seat on the opposite side. An impossibly perky waitress dropped menus in front of them and, after giving Sam a flirty wink, she left.

Kate’s stomach was twisted into nervous knots, but as she looked over the menu, she realized she was actually quite hungry. She hadn’t eaten anything since a quick bowl of cereal early that morning. Everything looked good, but finally she decided on a cheeseburger with fries, and Sam ordered the same when the waitress returned.

Alone at last, even though the room around them was filled with a noisy crowd, Sam and Kate looked across the table at each other.

“So, Kate McKinney, tell me your story.”

“I grew up in Texas.”

“That’s a little further back than I was expecting.” Sam gave her an encouraging smile as he stirred sugar into his iced tea.

“It’s pertinent,” she explained. “I realized in college that I really loved acting. But my father was…well, less than supportive. He threatened to cut off all my funding if I pursued it. Which explains why I live in a rat hole on Colfax and drive a ten-year-old car and take any job I can find.”

Sam didn’t speak, but one of his eyebrows lifted, eloquently commenting on his earlier assumption.

Kate picked up on it and frowned. “Not hooking,” she repeated emphatically. “I work part-time in a bookstore and hit all the auditions I can. This job at the Music Hall is my first big part in a commercial production.”

Sam studied her, working through what she had just told him and what he thought he knew. “So you really
are
an actress,” he stated rather than asked.

Her expression showed her exasperation, but he couldn’t let it go until several discrepancies were explained. “So why were you on Colfax in the middle of the night,
looking
like a hooker?”

“It was a job.”

“Okay, we’re talking in circles.”

Their food arrived, and a few minutes were lost as they dug in to their meals. She wiped her lips with one of the flimsy paper napkins.

“I was hired to dress up like a hooker and stand on that corner.”

“Why?”

“I was told a crew would be filming a reality TV show and that when the cops arrived, I was supposed to pretend to be a hooker.”

Sam’s eyes narrowed skeptically. It was clear that he wasn’t buying any of that.

“Really,” Kate insisted. “They paid me a hundred dollars. Cash.”

“Cash? Doesn’t that sound suspicious?”

She paused. “Well, now that I think about it, it does. But at the time, all I was thinking was how great it would be to get a shot at a television role.”

Sam put down his half-eaten cheeseburger and took a drink while he considered the scenario she had presented. “So how does Jameel fit into it?”

“I knew him for a few months. We met at a cattle call for extras just after I moved to Denver. He wanted to be an actor and was looking for his big break, too.” Her voice trailed off as she remembered Jameel’s laughter and enthusiasm. But the good memories were quickly followed by images of the angry, cursing crazy man she had watched become a cold-blooded killer. “He seemed like a nice kid. He had just graduated from high school, which, to him, was a really big deal. I never saw any hint that he would do what he did.”

Sam pushed his plate aside and leaned forward. Nothing about her story made sense, but the more he heard, the more convinced he was that it wasn’t as it had seemed. “So who hired you?”

“I don’t know. I never talked to anyone but Jameel. He called me and said he had a job I’d be perfect for. He’s the one who paid me and gave me all the details.”

They were both silent for several moments as they thought back to the events of that evening and all the possible scenarios. Finally, Kate asked tentatively, as if afraid to voice aloud her fears, “Do you think there was any credibility to any of it? Could there have really been a job, but something went wrong and the film crew never showed up?”

Sam was genuinely puzzled. But the one thing he was beginning to feel sure about was that she was telling the truth. But it was the truth as she knew it. “All I know is that the bullets in his gun weren’t blanks. And I didn’t see any film crews.”

“Neither did I,” she agreed, and a shudder shook her as the horror of that evening flashed fresh in her mind.

Sam noticed and reached out and covered her hand with his. “I never got a chance to thank you. You saved my life.”

“That’s a matter of perspective. From my side, it looked like you saved
my
life.” To her dismay, a fresh flood of tears filled her eyes and she pulled her hand away from his and covered her face.

Sam shifted uncomfortably. He never knew how to deal with women when they cried. But this was particularly awkward because her tears ripped open his own raw emotions, and he felt himself dangerously close to breaking down. God, maybe he did need some therapy.

She pulled herself together and dabbed at her eyes with her napkin. “I’m really sorry,” she sniffled, trying very hard not to, but not really succeeding. “I’m not usually like this. But ever since…you know…I cry at the drop of a hat.”

His smile was gentle. “I know.”

The waitress stopped by to offer refills of their drinks and to clear their plates. They both declined the temptation of dessert, and she left their check on the table. Still Sam and Kate lingered, not quite ready for the evening to end.

“You’re going to have to come into the station soon.” He spoke softly, trying to gauge her response. “They need to hear your side of the story and clear you. Right now, you’re sort of a phantom. Everyone who was there saw you, but no one knows who you are.”

Kate winced. “I wish I could keep it that way. I really don’t want to have my name make the headlines.”

“You’d probably make national news, maybe even the
Today
show.” Sam shrugged. “Don’t they say that any publicity is good publicity?”

“Not in this case.” Her expression was genuinely horrified, and even a little frightened. “That would be catastrophic.”

“That’s a little bit extreme.”

“No, it’s an
understatement.”
She paused and took a deep shaky breath. “My last name is really Connors. I took my grandmother’s last name
professionally.”

“Connors?” Sam’s eyes narrowed as he tried to put together the clues she was giving him, then he nodded.
“Texas…Connors…oh
my God—your dad is Ben Connors? The politician?”

“He’s the governor.”

“And he doesn’t approve of your choice of career.”

She nodded miserably. “He’d be furious if it got out that I was mistaken for a hooker.”

Sam leaned back against the booth’s seat. “Ahhh…I get it. Does he even know you’re in Denver?”

“No, he thinks I’m in L.A.”

“And why aren’t you?”

A flush of color pooled in her cheeks. “I wanted to make it on my own. I didn’t want him to find me and drag me back to Texas before I had a chance to give it my best shot. It’s not that he would physically pick me up and take me home. It’s more that I didn’t want him to use his influence to convince people not to hire me and force me to crawl back with my tail between my legs.”

“And you didn’t think he’d look for you here.”

“Not unless I make the national news.”

Sam studied her for a minute. “I’m assuming you’re old enough to make your own choices.”

“It’s not that I can’t do what I want. But with a father who has much higher ambitions, I can’t do anything that will screw up his career. You know how presidential candidates are vetted. He hasn’t been the best father in the world, but he’s a great governor and would be a really good president. I would hate myself if I did anything to distract from his personal and professional
qualifications.”

“Okay, so that’s an added complication,” Sam agreed. “Let me see if I can work something out so that you can remain anonymous.”

“Do you think that’s possible?”

“I can’t make any promises, but I’ll do what I can.”

Kate visibly relaxed for the first time that evening. “That would be fantastic.”

Sam gave her a distracted smile. He wasn’t sure what the policy was, but it would be tricky to keep her identity confidential. Especially since it was widely suspected that she was a prostitute. Maybe he could use her fear for her personal safety as an excuse. He’d have to come up with a good excuse for that since Jameel was dead, and there wasn’t anyone else who would want to harm her.

But then there was the matter of who had actually hired her and why. It could all have been legitimate—the film crew could have gotten sidetracked or frightened off by the blood. Bottom line was, it wasn’t as
straightforward
as it had seemed.

He met her grateful gaze across the table. Minus the blond wig and slutty clothes, she looked much different than on that night. Long medium-brown hair with reddish-gold highlights fell softly around her shoulders. Soft translucent skin, a straight nose, and full red lips combined in a face that was undeniably beautiful. And her eyes that were that serene shade of turquoise were exactly the same. She had been flashy and hot before, but now she was very pretty…and still hot. She spoke intelligently and with a slight Texas drawl that he was finding particularly irresistible. His first impression of her was quickly being replaced by that of a strong, ambitious young woman who was trying to deal with an extraordinary event with grace and honesty.

Or he could be entirely wrong. A little detective work would prove it one way or the other, and he had plenty of time to follow through. But he wanted to keep her close until he discovered the truth.

“I’ve really got to be going,” she said, interrupting his thoughts. “I work the morning shift at the bookstore, and then I have another show tomorrow night.”

He picked up the check and waved away her halfhearted offer to pay her share. “No, this was almost official police business,” he assured her. He left enough to cover the check and a generous tip and followed her out of the restaurant.

The silence as they drove back to the parking lot where her car was parked was much more comfortable than earlier in the evening. They weren’t exactly in the chatty friend stage, but at least there wasn’t the
confrontational
suspicion that had hung in the air before.

He parked his Mustang next to her yellow SUV, but neither made a move to open their doors. He turned to her in the semidarkness. “Hey, I’m sorry about what I said in the hospital.”

She didn’t say anything, and he rushed to add, “You really were there, weren’t you?”

She nodded and smiled. “I forgive you. You were drugged out of your mind.”

“It made for some crazy dreams.”

“I wanted to make sure you were okay.” She hesitated a moment before continuing. “I really do feel responsible for all this.”

“You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We both were. But I’ll help you get through the process.”

“Thanks.” She reached for the door handle, and he hurried to get out and hold her door, although she was halfway out by the time he got around his car.

Kate already had her keys out of her purse and quickly unlocked her doors. Chivalrously he opened her driver’s-side door. Just before she climbed inside, she turned to him. “I just have to ask, how
did
you find me?”

Sam reached out and lifted the locket that hung between her breasts. The brush of his fingers against her bare skin sent unexpected tingles through her. Her startled gaze lifted to meet his. Gently, he ran his thumb over the gracefully engraved “K.”

“I started calling around to all the local theater companies and asked about a beautiful young actress whose name started with a ‘K.’ It only took a couple of hours before I found out there was a Kate McKinney meeting your description acting in a play at the Music Hall tonight. Sure enough, there you were.”

“So, you finally believe that I am a professional actress?” Her voice was soft and just a touch defensive.

His lips stretched into a slow, slightly crooked grin. “I wasn’t sure why, but it became very important to me that you were.”

His admission momentarily took her breath away, and she didn’t know how to respond. “I suppose you know how to get in touch with me about going to the station.”

“It would make it easier if I had your phone number.”

“You’re spoiling my opinion of your detective skills,” she shot back at him with a teasing grin to match his. But she dug through her purse and found an old receipt on which she jotted down her cell phone number.

“What if I call you for something other than business?”

She didn’t pretend she didn’t know what he was talking about. Instead, she met his gaze steadily. “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.” Before he could respond, she slid inside her car and shut the door. He was still standing in the parking lot as she started her car and headed back to Denver. For the first time in over a week, she felt like the cloud that had been hanging over her was gone. She realized she was still smiling, and she turned up the radio and sang along with Katy Perry. Fireworks indeed!