Hedging (A Smith and Wetzon Mystery) by Annette Meyers Read Free Book Online Page B

and black leggings, Zoey showed no sign of stress from the night before. “How do you feel?”
    “Great!” She looked away with a careless smile. “I always feel great after one. Best sleep in the world.”
    “Don’t you have medicine to prevent an attack?”
    “Takes away my energy. Makes me feel like a zombie.” She ducked back into the kitchen. “Coffee’s almost ready. Hope you don’t need milk.”
    “I don’t. But, Zoey, isn’t it dangerous? What if you have a seizure on a subway platform?”
    Zoey shrugged. “You saved my life last night. What can I do for you?” She handed T.J. a mug of coffee.
    Chat jumped down from the cushion, stretched, yawned, and curled up on T.J.’s lap. T.J. sneezed.
    “You said you’re running away from home.” Zoey sat down next to T.J.
    “Sort of.”
    “You can hide out here with me for as long as you like. I just don’t have enough money to feed two of us.”
    “I’ll get a job. If I can. I don’t have any ID.”
    Zoey grinned and her abundance of curls bounced about her face. “Down here, that’s not a problem. They don’t want anyone on the books anyway.”
    “I’m going to need to change how I look.”
    “That’s easy. I’m a whiz at that. You think I really look like this?” She jumped up. “It’ll be fun doing a make over.”
    “You’re not asking me about my trouble.”
    “That’s your business. Tell me if you want, when you want. You went out of your way for me. I owe you.”
    “You’ll have to clothe me until I get a job.”
    “We’re about the same size. But why don’t you take a shower while I see what’s here for breakfast besides stale muffins. Then we’ll start with your hair. When we get finished, no one will recognize you. That’s what you want, right?”
    “Right.” But T.J. saw it was a catch 22. If no one recognized her, she would be safe, but if no one recognized her, she wouldn’t be able to find out who she really was and what had happened to her.
    The shower replenished her, sweeping away her tension, her anxiety, but for how long? She dried her hair with Zoey’s dryer, flipping the long dark hair over her face and drying the nape hair first.
    “Hey, dude,” Zoey said, surprise in her voice. “You know what?”
    T.J. stopped the dryer and shook out her hair. “What?”
    Zoey was scrutinizing her, puzzled. “Maybe I was wrong. Go back to what you were doing.” When T.J. did, Zoey drawled, “So I guess you were just having a little fun with me.”
    Her fingers stopped the power. She faced Zoey frowning, fingers pushing the hair back from her face. “I don’t know what you mean.”
    “Oh, come on, T.J., your hair is dyed right now. Your real hair color is coming through underneath and it’s blonde.”

13
    W ITH DELIBERATE care, T.J. handed Zoey the hair dryer and sat down on the edge of the tub. “I didn’t know.”
    Zoey was all but indignant, more puzzled, standing there hands on hips. “How could you not know?”
    T.J. groped for sense among the jumble filling her head. “I don’t know because I don’t know who I am.”
    “T.J., you said your name was T.J. and that you were running away.” Zoey parked the dryer on its wall hook, draping the cord around it.
    “T.J.—for Temporary Jane. They called me Jane Doe in the hospital.”
    Zoey was getting it. “You ran away from the hospital.”
    T.J. nodded.
    “You don’t remember anything?” There was awe in Zoey’s voice.
    “Nothing. They found me wandering in Central Park without a coat or ID. Then a man came to the hospital and said he knew me and was coming back the next day—today—to take me home.”
    “You didn’t want to go with him?”
    “I didn’t like him. He scared me.”
    The phone rang.
    “Where’d I put the phone?”
    “Coffee table, I think,” T.J. said. She followed Zoey into the living room.
    “Maurice? Hi ... ” Zoey looked at T.J., eyes widening. “So, listen, what did you tell them?”
    They were getting close.