The Perfect Liar (Last Stand 5)

She went into the tiny kitchen and checked a few cupboards. He'd told her to help herself if she wanted anything to eat but she wasn't hungry; she was bored.

He had canned goods, a whole shelf of vitamin supplements and a large container of protein powder. The fridge wasn't any better stocked.

The fruit-and-vegetable bin contained one apple and a few carrots. On the shelves, she found milk, sour cream, jelly and a package of hot dogs. He probably ate out a lot.

From there, she walked down a short hall to his bedroom and poked her head through the doorway. His bed was made, of course. His closet door was shut but she didn't need to see inside to know that his uniforms would all be neatly ironed, with his shoes shined and organized beneath.

Remembering the first time she'd seen him at the door of The Last Stand wearing jeans and a T-shirt that'd been pressed, she chuckled.

Some free weights lined the wal and a giant model plane took up most of the space on his dresser--what was left by a second flat-screen TV.

There was another bathroom off the master bedroom. She knew it would be as clean as the one she'd used when she arrived--

A knock at the door brought her immediately back to the living room.

"Hey, Trussell. You home? Open up!"

Ava answered to find two men there. One was every bit as tall as Luke, the other only five-nine or so, but both were dressed in muscle shirts, gym shorts and tennis shoes and were sweaty enough to suggest they'd been exerting themselves. Their haircuts would've told her they were military, even if she hadn't been able to see the dog tags hanging around their necks.

"Who're you?" the tall one asked.

"Ava Bixby," she said. "I'm a friend of Luke's. And you?"

The short one spoke up. "I'm Sergeant O'Dell. This is Captain Fewkes. Also friends of Luke's."

Ava recognized the sergeant's name. He was the one who'd gone to the Moby Dick with Luke. She was glad to meet him. "Would you like to come in?"

They stepped into the living room and Fewkes closed the door, but they didn't sit down. "Where's Luke?" O'Dell asked, glancing toward the bedroom.

"He's running some errands."

"Oh." The two men looked at each other. "He knows you're in his apartment, though, right? You're not friends with Kalyna Harter or anything."

She laughed. "No. I'm with The Last Stand, a victims' charity in Sac.

I'm trying to help him with the Harter situation."

"Oh, I remember now. He's mentioned you. So what do you think of Kalyna?"

"I think she's trouble."

"You know I was with Luke at The Moby Dick, don't you?"

"Yes. Jonathan Stivers is my investigator. He spoke with you this past week."

"That was your guy?"

"He has his own agency, but he works with us a lot."

"Did he tell you I said Kalyna's lying?" O'Dell asked.

"He told me. Now we just need to prove it."

"This might help." He jerked his head at his companion. "Fewkes ran into her in mid-May. That's why I brought him over. She said some weird sh-stuff to him at a bar. I thought Luke should hear about it."

"What kind of weird stuff?"

"When I asked her to dance, she said she couldn't get near me or her fiance would go ballistic. I said I didn't see a ring on her finger, and she said it was because they hadn't picked it up from the jeweler's yet." He imitated the expression and body language he'd used that night. "I said, 'It's just a dance.' But she insisted that her fiance was this insanely jealous animal. I told her I could handle myself in a fight, and she said I wouldn't stand a chance against Captain Luke Trussell."

"Did you know Luke?"

"Not really. I mean, we've played a couple pickup games over at the basketball court, so I recognized the name and had enough respect for him to back off. I mean, I'm not out to force a girl to dance with me if she doesn't want to, you know? But after I moved on, Kalyna wouldn't quit messing with me. She'd sidle past me, brushing her breast against my arm or touching me in some other way. Or I'd catch her staring at me from across the room and she'd give me a 'you know you want me' kind of smile.

It was weird. I got the feeling she was trying to tempt me into approaching her again, even though she'd warned me off."

"What do you think she was up to?" Ava asked.

"Playing head games?" he said with a shrug.

"I think she was living out a fantasy," O'Dell suggested. "I saw how she acted with Luke. She's obsessed with him. She'd love nothing more than to be his fiancee and have him care enough to be as jealous as she claimed he'd be. She was enjoying the danger and excitement of flirting with Fewkes as if she really had something to worry about from Trussell."

Knowing Kalyna, Ava could believe it. She expected Luke to return at any moment, so she poked her head out into the hall. But it was empty.

She was under the impression that the men in these apartments didn't stay home for much longer than it took to shower and change, at least during the day. They were single and active--this was just a place to bunk at night.

"You haven't told Luke about this?" she said, closing the door again.

"I didn't know about it until today," O'Dell said.

"And I didn't see any point," Fewkes chimed in. "If she was telling the truth, it'd only piss him off that we were flirting with each other. If she was lying, I'm not planning on seeing her again so it doesn't matter. It wasn't until I was lifting at the gym today that I heard O'Dell here talking about how some chick was claiming Trussell raped her. The name jumped out at me--

because Kalyna had mentioned it. Made me wonder what the hell was going on. She told me he was her fiance, yet she was telling everyone else he raped her?"

"Neither is true," O'Dell said.

"She must be a nutcase," Fewkes added.

O'Dell nudged him. "Tell her the rest."

"There's more?" Ava said.

"Wait til you hear this," O'Dell chortled.

"Later that night, when I passed her on my way to the bar," Fewkes continued, "I felt her grab my ass."

Ava couldn't imagine many women being quite that bold. But this was Kalyna, after all. "More teasing?" she said, incredulous.

"I guess, because when I asked her what was going on, she said she wanted me, just didn't dare act on it. So I asked her what would happen if we got caught, and she said her fiance would kil us both."

"How'd you reply?"

"I didn't believe her. Like I told you, I don't know Trussell very well, but he seems too coolheaded for that. So I said, 'Don't you think that's a little extreme?' And she said, 'Hell, no. I'd do the same if I ever caught him cheating on me.' When I started laughing, she said, 'You think I'm joking, don't you?' I said, 'I think you're drunk.'"