EDGE OF DAY

CHAPTER FIVE

"Did you purchase anything?" Officer Stanhope asked.

"Nope." The three of them stood and looked at each other. They were trying to make her uncomfortable. Maybe she was in too much pain to care, because she stared back, a wave of confidence sweeping over her.

Officer Stanhope's wrist monitor beeped, followed by the house alert.

"Do you recognize this woman?" Officer Rink held up a photo while his associate inhaled from his oxygen stick. It was Alexia, the woman from Janus who had told Day not to talk to any friends or family about her visit.

Day's pulse spiked. She heard Will's voice, carrying a flash of his relaxed smile, blonde hair flopping over blue eyes. This is all smoke and mirrors. Nothing to worry about.

"Nope. Well, if that's everything," she said, closing the door.

Rink raised an arm above his shoulder and leaned into the doorframe to prevent it from shutting. "Her husband has reported her missing," he said.

"Reported missing?" Day scoffed. That was hard to believe. No one went missing in this day and age. Apart from the wrist monitors tracking every human, there were monitors in every public space you could think of, and besides, humans couldn't exactly go strolling around outside.

"Mi-ssing," Stanhope enunciated.

"And you thought she might be here?" Day asked, the mockery palpable below her innocent expression.

The house blasted extra oxygen from the ceiling vents.

"We're talking to all carbon-based bipeds in the shopping mall, whose movements cannot be accounted for yesterday," Stanhope said.

"What?"

"Humans," Officer Rink clarified, glancing at his partner with a hint of irritation. "All humans in the shopping mall yesterday."

"Sounds like a big job," Day said.

"There were four of you."

"Well, there you go," she said.

Officer Rink's gaze shifted over her shoulder, as he scanned the hall. "Here's my card." He held up a transparent white card. She swiped over it with her monitor and he put it away again. "If you remember anything unusual, anything that happened while you were out yesterday, please get in touch."

The image of the black van hemmed in by two white vans careened through her mind's eye. The popping gunfire. The violent explosion.

The officers stepped off the porch. Day nodded at them.

"Oh Miss White," Rink said, as she was shutting the door.

"Yes?"

"If you see a black van loitering in the streets around here, let us know."

"Sure," she shrugged. But her pulse climbed again. According to Gavin, the chauffeur, she'd dreamed up the black van. She thought it was a latent memory or something. But if she'd hallucinated or dreamed the van, why would the police be talking about it?

"And don't leave Boulder without informing us. We might need to get in touch with you again."

She closed the door. House stopped bleeping and blasting air. She activated a square of the live-wall and asked House to show her the external front camera.

She watched the officers talking as they walked down the path. They stopped to glance back at the house. Rink's gaze shifted to the external camera. For a split second it was as though he was looking straight at her, and the hair on her arms shot up.