A PERFECT RENDEZVOUS

Bambi

Agents Ingram and Tomlinson lived in the same condominium complex in Dallas; they were friends as well as co-workers. Locked in thought, they rode in silence to the motel on the outside of town where they'd been staying for a full week. Not until David Ingram pulled their sedan to a stop in front of their rooms, did he finally venture an opinion. He gave it in the same disarmingly pleasant tone that had fooled Harry into thinking he believed everything Harry said. "He's covering up something, Louis."

Louis Tomlinson frowned at the peeling white numbers on the door of his room, then he shook his head, "Nope. He's on the level. I don't think he's hiding a thing."

"Then maybe," Ingram said sarcastically, "you'd better start thinking with your brain instead of the organ that took over as soon as he looked at you with those great big green eyes of his."

His head jerked around. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means," Ingram said in disgust, "that you've been developing an obsession with that man ever since we got here and you started checking him out with the local citizens. Every time you learned of some new good work of his, you got softer, every time you talked to another one of those handicapped kids he teaches, and whose parents adore him, you got in deeper. Shit, when you found out he also tutors illiterate women and sings in the church choir, you were ready to nominate him for sainthood. Tonight, every time he looked disapproving of your voice or your question, you lost your momentum. You were already biased in his favor when you only had his picture, but when you saw him in the flesh tonight, your objectivity went straight to hell."

"That's bullshit."

"Really? Then suppose you tell me why you were so damned desperate to find out if he slept with Malik. He told you twice that Malik didn't rape him or force him in any way to have sex with him, but that wasn't enough for you. Why the hell didn't you just come out and ask him if he let Malik screw him. Jesus," he said in disgust, "I couldn't believe it when you asked him if he could describe the bed linens on Malik's bed for us, so we could try to trace the manufacturer and locate the owner of his hideout that way!"

Tomlinson shot him an uncomfortable look. "Was it that obvious?" he asked, opening his car door and getting out. "I mean, do you think the family noticed?"

Ingram got out, too. "Of course they noticed!" he snorted. "Nice little Mrs. Mathison was fantasizing about smothering you with some of her cookies. Louis, use your head. Harry Mathison is no angel, he's got a juvenile arrest record—"

"That we wouldn't have known about if a copy hadn't been left in the files from the Illinois foster care authorities instead of being destroyed years ago, like it should have been," Louis interrupted. "Furthermore, if you want to hear the truth behind Harry's petty rap sheet, then call Dr. Theresa Wilmer in Chicago like I did, and let that shrink chew your ass off. She thought—and still thinks—that Harry is as straight and as fine as they come and always was. Be honest, Dave," he said as they walked side by side up the path to their adjoining rooms. "Have you ever in your life seen a pair of eyes like Harry Mathison's in your life?"

"Yeah," he said with a derisive snort, "Bambi had 'em."

"Bambi was a deer. And his eyes were brown. His are green—like translucent dark emarald crystals. My kid sister had a doll with eyes like that once."

"I do not believe this conversation!" Ingram exploded in a low voice. "Listen to you for God's sake! He is a man!"

"Relax," Louis sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. "If you're right—if he helped Malik in his original escape or if he gives us any reason to believe he's concealing information about Zayn now—I'll be the first one to read him Miranda, and you know it."

"I know," Ingram said, shoving his key into the lock and opening his door while Tomlinson did likewise. "But Louis?"

Louis leaned back from his own doorway. "Yeah?"

"What are you going to do if the only thing he's guilty of is sleeping with Malik?"

"Find the bastard and shoot him myself for seducing him.''

"And if he's innocent of that as well as collusion with Zayn, then what?"

A slow smile tugged at Louis's mouth. "In that case, I'd better find myself a heart he'll approve of and get myself a transplant. Did you see the way he looked at me earlier tonight, Dave? It was almost as if he knew me somehow, as if we knew each other. And liked each other."

"There are women all over Dallas who know you in the biblical sense of the word, and they all like your great big—"

"You're just jealous because that gorgeous blonde who used to be married to her brother won't give you a second look when she comes over to the house," Tomlinson interrupted with a grin.

"For a dinky little town," Ingram reluctantly agreed, "there are some highly unusual women and boys here. Too bad they don't have a decent motel."