Loves Redemption

and Imani House.” He gave her one final lingering kiss good-bye. “Tell Jorge I enjoyed the lunch. And speaking of food, would you like to go to dinner with me tonight?” The rough pad of his thumb caressed the underside of her full bottom lip as he asked.
“I can’t tonight. One of my interns can’t facilitate one of the group sessions, so I need to find a replacement, and I’m going with Dalia to the library to do a little research,” she hated to admit. She felt ambivalent, wanting to take the time to get to know him, but knowing she had commitments and people who relied on her for their well-being.
“That’s okay. Why don’t you look at your calendar and I’ll call you later.Then you can
tell me what day you have open this week for dinner. I’ll also talk to Lieutenant Hernandez about you consulting with us. I’ll call you later.”
Maya walked him back through the house and opened the front door for him to leave. He
surprised her by pressing his lips to hers a final time before he left with a promise to call.
She touched her still tingling lips with the tips of her fingers, and watched as he climbed into his vehicle and drove away. When his car was no longer visible, she went back inside. As she turned around, she came face to face with Dalia.
“How long have you been there, Dal?” Maya wondered how much her friend had seen, as
she glanced down to make sure her clothes weren’t crazy looking and twisted.
“Not long, little sister. The detective found you, I see. Did he have more news for you
about your Allison?”
The two women moved together toward her office and Maya updated Dalia. “Detective
Halstan came to give me information about Ally. He has also asked if I would consider
consulting on this case with the police department.”
“In what capacity? As a psychologist?”
“I guess it’s more on the line of a special consultant. Because the police believe this killer is a prostitute, Mark, that is Detective Halstan, believes that I may provide an insight that may help in completing the sketchy profile they have.”
Dalia pretended not to catch the slip as Maya continued to fill her in on the details, and
how she’d planned to fit consulting with the police into her already busy schedule.

CHAPTER 6
“Mazyte Sesute, ” Dalia began, addressing her as she often did, as little sister in her native Lithuanian language.
Dalia loved Maya. She’d met her four years ago soon after Maya had bought the building
that was now Imani House. At the time it was a safe house where Maya had spent time doing her internship while completing her PhD. Although the safe house had an adequate referral system, it didn’t have funding or staff. Maya had changed all of that after she bought the building.
Dalia had real affection for Maya, who was responsible for affecting so many lives. Dalia
had immigrated from her small village in Lithuania to New York thirty years ago and had been lured into prostitution. She’d worked the streets for years, before she knew she could no longer live that life. She’d gathered her small possessions and moved to Texas. Within months she’d met Maya and not only had she become the young woman’s first client, she became Maya’s
assistant, and in turn provided aid for the new women in the program.
She continued to listen as Maya outlined the sketchy details of what she could provide to
the police as a special consult.
“If anyone can give this insight they are looking for, then it is you, Maya. I pray this
person who killed Allison is caught. How are you feeling today? We have not talked very much.”
“No, we haven’t. You know how it gets toward the end of semester. The interns need to
make sure they have all of their hours added, and it becomes a madhouse around here. This
reminds me, we need to recruit a few more volunteer counselors: one for the night shift and the other for the early afternoon.” She avoided giving a direct answer.
“I will leave you to your work. We can talk more tonight on the way to the library,” Dalia
reminded her.
Looking up with a smile, Maya answered, “Don’t worry, I didn’t forget. It shouldn’t take
me too long to wrap this up, and then we can go.”
With a small sigh, she picked up the phone to try and locate a substitute for the evening
class that was scheduled to start after dinner. Looking at her watch, she knew if she hurried she’d be able to grab a bite to eat before she and Dalia made their way to the library.
* * * *
Mark made it back to the station in the afternoon from his visit with Maya. Jordan was
there, working at his desk.
“Hey man, that was some errand. Did you get everything taken care of?” Jordan asked as
Mark walked over to his desk. “By the way, the lieutenant was looking for you an hour ago. He wants to know the specifics about Dr. Richardson and her connection with the female victim. He said when you came in to send you to his office.”
“Thanks, Jordan. I wanted to run something by him anyway.”
“Yeah well you also got a shit load of messages. I put ’em on your desk for you to sort.
Some woman kept calling, she must have called a dozen times, I swear. And she would not talk to anyone else but you. Anyway, I asked her name, but she wouldn’t tell me, kept saying she wanted to speak to you.” Jordan told him with a shrug.
Mark gave an answering shrug. These types of cases, because of the media coverage,
often generated a lot of misinformation and general gossip.
It was crazy the way the public got involved in the ones that the news broadcasts
followed, as if it were some type of reality show. Unfortunately, most of