Clay pulled on a set of gloves and took the items from Nick. “Something to do with our case?”
“Something to do with an old case.” Nick felt scattered to the winds, watching impatiently as Clay set to dusting the card and envelope.
Murphy. Here in Cherokee Corners. The shock of seeing that familiar initial still ripped through him. He’d hoped the man dead, or at least in prison. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. But he was here…in this town, and Nick wanted him…wanted him badly.
“What’s going on?” Chief Cleberg appeared in the doorway. “Officer Sinclair said you’re upset about something.”
“A card was here for me. It’s from the man who killed my wife. I want to know how it got here, how it was delivered, if any officer got a look at whoever brought it in.” The words shot from Nick with the force of bullets.
“I don’t see anything here but what is probably your fingerprints,” Clay said and looked up from his work.
Frustration raged through Nick even though he’d expected exactly what Clay had just told him. Murphy was far too smart to leave fingerprints behind.
“I’ll check to see if anyone saw who brought the card in,” Cleberg said. “But the station has been busy today…lot of people in and out. I checked with Officer Bledlow, who was on duty before Sinclair, and he said he doesn’t remember anything on the desk addressed to you. It must have been brought in during shift change.”
Nick nodded, knowing that the man he sought would have used the cover of others to drop off the card. Or he would have paid some kid to deliver the card.
Memories crashed through his head… Dorrie in that damn motel room. The painting on the wall splashed with her lifeblood. The M carved into her chest.
The horror…the pain…the rage all boiled inside him as powerful, as sickening as if visiting him for the first time.
“Nick…are you okay?” Clay’s voice penetrated the fog that had wrapped itself around Nick’s brain.
“No…no, I’m not fine,” he said unevenly. Memories continued to attack him…memories he didn’t want, ones that he’d hoped he’d forever forgotten. The tangy unmistakable odor of blood…the splayed bright blond hair against the pillow…the horrible expressions on the faces of his fellow officers.
Then a new image presented itself to him…the image of Alyssa in a motel room, her black hair spread out on the pillow beneath her head…her dark blue eyes staring but unseeing.
Alyssa!
The thought of her and the potential danger she could be in forced a burst of adrenaline through him. “I’ve got to go,” he said to the two men who had been watching him.
He didn’t wait to make further explanations, his only need was to get to Alyssa now…immediately. He raced from the lab down the hallway to the front door.
He burst out into the night that smelled of the impending storm. Hot wind whipped around him as he ran to his car, his heart thrashing a rhythm of panic.
The air crackled with electricity and the hint of unbridled wildness. But nothing nature could conjure up could compete with the wildness that raced through Nick.
Murphy had taken one woman he loved from him. Nick wasn’t willing to give up another one. He started the engine of his car and jammed it into gear, leaving an inch of rubber from his wheels as he peeled out of the station parking lot and down the street to the city square.
Where was he? Where was Murphy? Was he in a car behind him, following him to the bed-and-breakfast? How long had he been in town? Did he know who Nick’s friends were?
Did he know about Alyssa? Did he know that Nick cared about her?
He slammed the car into park in front of the bed and-breakfast and ran to the front door. Locked. He banged on it with his fist, hoping that she would hear him and open it.
When he’d banged three times and nobody came to the door, he raced around the building to the back, fumbling for his keys as he ran. Once there, he unlocked the door and flew inside.
“Alyssa!”
No answer. Frustration battling with fear, he knocked on the door to her private quarters. Still no reply. Where the hell could she be?
“Alyssa?” This time he yelled her name up the stairs, following his voice by taking the stairs two at a time. Virginia’s door was closed and Alyssa wasn’t in any of the other rooms.
He crashed a fist against Virginia’s door, where loud music seeped beneath the wooden barrier. Come in,” she called out.
He opened the door to see her seated near the window painting her fingernails while a small stereo unit blared one of the latest hits of a country-western group.
“Nick!” She jumped up from her chair and blew on scarlet fingernails. “I thought you were Alyssa. What’s going on?”
“Where is Alyssa?”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Nothing. Nothing is going on. Where is she? Do you know?” Even though he tried to keep the urgency out of his voice, he heard the strident tones of panic.
“She went over to Ruby’s to get something to eat. Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” she asked impatiently.
“I told you, nothing is going on.” He had no time for explanations or chitchat. As he turned he was aware of Virginia grabbing her purse, and as he headed back down the stairs, he heard her following after him.
He left the bed-and-breakfast, but instead of taking the sidewalk around to Ruby’s he cut through the park. Ruby’s lights gleamed through the trees that whipped and tossed in the wind. Lightning streaked the sky, followed seconds later by a crack of thunder.
She has to be there, he thought as he hurried toward the café. She has to be there safe and sound. And he had to figure out what he was going to do.
Maybe Murphy just arrived in town today. Maybe he hadn’t had time yet to know about Nick’s personal habits or the connections he’d made with people while he’d been working here.
Maybe Murphy didn’t know about Nick’s personal connection to Alyssa, a connection Nick had to sever immediately. It might just save her life.
As he broke from the wooded path to cross the street, he immediately spied Alyssa at a table toward the back of the establishment. Relief fluttered through him, but it was a short-lived relief.
She was okay now, but he had to do something to make certain she continued to be okay. As he pushed open the door to the café he was vaguely aware of Virginia hurrying down the sidewalk toward the place.
Apparently he’d stirred her curiosity enough to get her out of her room and away from her fingernail painting. Well, she could just watch the show he was going to put on. The more spectators there were, the better. He could use the local gossips more now than ever before.
The look of pleasure that stole over Alyssa’s features as she spied him sent a wave of sweet heat through him, but it wasn’t enough to banish the chill that a single letter M had created inside him.
He knew his idea was a lame one, but at the moment it was the only idea he had and he hoped that later Alyssa would forgive him for what he was about to do.
“Hi, handsome.” Ruby greeted him with a warm smile from behind the cash register.
“Hey, Ruby, how’s it going?” He forced a light, easy tone as his gaze scanned the faces of the other diners. There weren’t many and thankfully he saw no strangers.
“Good thing you didn’t try to come in at dinnertime,” she said. “Had the biggest crowd I think we’ve ever served. I love hungry tourists. You’d better get on back there.” She jerked a thumb in Alyssa’s direction. “I know she’s waiting for you.”
He steeled himself as he approached the booth where Alyssa awaited him. It’s a dumb idea, Mead, a small voice whispered inside his head. But desperation drove men to drastic measures and Nick had never felt so desperate in his life.
He couldn’t warn her, couldn’t tell her what he was going to do ahead of time. It had to look real…it had to be real. “Hi,” he said as he reached the booth.
“Hi yourself,” s
he replied. “The storm made me restless so I decided to come on over here and see if the wind eventually blew you in.”
Why did she have to look so damn pretty? Her hair was loose and flowing down her back and he wanted to wrap himself in it and get lost. She wore a beige sundress with blue embroidered flowers. The combination of beige and blue set off her beautiful skin tone and emphasized the deep blue of her eyes…eyes that at the moment had a quiet happiness he was about to shatter.
“Aren’t you going to sit down?” she asked.
“No, I just wanted to talk to you. I’m moving out of your place tonight.”
A frown furrowed the smoothness of her forehead as she gazed up at him in surprised bewilderment. “Moving out? What do you mean? Has something happened? Is something wrong?”
He couldn’t meet her gaze. He stared at a point just over the top of her head. “Nothing’s happened and there’s nothing wrong. I’m just feeling a little claustrophobic, is all.” His voice was too loud and he knew he was drawing the attention of everyone in the place.
“Claustrophobic?” The furrow in her forehead deepened. “I…I don’t understand.”
“Look, Alyssa, we’ve had a good time together, but I’m not the kind of man to stick around anyplace or anyone for too long. You’ve shown me a good time, but it wasn’t meant to be anything more.”
If this didn’t work out the way he’d planned, he wondered how many years he’d spend trying to forget the look she wore on her face at that very moment.
Chapter 14
Alyssa couldn’t make sense of it. As she stared up at him, her mind tried to make sense of the words that were coming out of his mouth. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t Nick. He looked like Nick, smelled like Nick, but this wasn’t the man she’d known for the last month.
She was conscious of the curious stares of the other people in the café and the heat of embarrassment burned in her cheeks. “Nick, would you please sit down and let’s talk quietly about this.”
“See, that’s what I mean, sleep with a woman a couple of times and she thinks she owns you.” His voice was still loud, too loud.
She felt as if she’d been slapped across the face and she couldn’t help the hot sting of tears that burned in her eyes.
He looked around the café and laughed. “Small-town girls…you gotta love them. Too bad they have to take everything so seriously. Look, babe, we had a good time, but I’ve been worried that you’re seeing something that isn’t there between us. I mean, hell, you’ve been entertaining and all, but it’s time for me to move on.”
Embarrassment was nothing beneath the pain his callous words brought. Had she so badly misjudged the kind of man he was, the kind of relationship they had? She felt as if she were in a dream…no…a nightmare, but she wasn’t waking up and it wasn’t going away.
The burning in her eyes increased and she swallowed hard, knowing she would die if she allowed the tears to fall here in a public place.
“Well, you don’t have to worry about it, Nick.” She stood, shoulders rigid, chin high. “I’m seeing things quite clearly now. I’ll have your final bill ready when you get back to the bed-and-breakfast.”
“Thanks, babe, I appreciate it,” he said.
Alyssa held on to her composure as she walked toward the front door of the café. She was vaguely aware of Ruby’s sympathetic face at the register, but she didn’t stop there. She’d pay for her dinner tomorrow. Ruby would understand.
She had to get outside, away from the stares that followed her, away from Nick before she lost all her composure and crumbled into a heap of emotion.
Alone, you will live your life alone. Her grandmother’s words echoed and reechoed in her head as she stepped out of the door and into the wind-whipped night.
Even though she’d thought she’d prepared herself for the eventuality of Nick leaving her life, she hadn’t been prepared for this. Nothing in her life, nothing in the time she’d spent with Nick could have prepared her for the emotionless, cruel dismissal he’d just given her.
She ran straight ahead onto the wooded path that would lead her directly to her home. She needed the privacy of her rooms to mourn the loss of Nick, a man she’d apparently desperately misjudged.
Tears half blinded her as she ran. Wind tore through the trees and they moved in a macabre dance of nature. She raced past a bench, where a lamp created a pool of light in the center of the park.
Lightning lit the night like a camera flash gone awry and thunder boomed overhead, but not before she heard Nick calling her name.
Despite her desire to the contrary, she slowed her pace and turned her head in his direction. What he’d said to her had been despicable, especially in view of an audience.
But, that’s not Nick, her heart cried out. That wasn’t the man she had come to know, grown to love, learned to trust. That man in the café had been a stranger, with stranger’s eyes and a demeanor incongruent with the Nick she knew.
She saw him approaching the bench and at the same time saw Virginia catch up with him. Alyssa frowned. What was she doing here? The blonde grabbed his arm to halt his forward progress.
Torn between wanting the privacy of her room and curiosity, Alyssa froze, watching the interplay between Virginia and Nick. She wasn’t that far away from them. She could see their features as they spoke, but the wind crashing through the trees made what they were saying to each other impossible to hear.
As she stood in the shadows of the trees, a sense of everything gone wrong filled her, along with a terrible foreboding.
The night was wrong, with the violent skies and thick atmosphere. The pounding in her head was wrong, as if a vision wanted control but refused to take her over.
And the man was all wrong. She knew in her head, in her heart, that something was wrong with Nick and he hadn’t meant anything he’d said to her.
She stared at Nick and Virginia and warnings screamed in her head. It was wrong. It was all wrong. Virginia shouldn’t be here. None of them should be here, in the park, in the storm.
Nick appeared to be trying to escape from Virginia, but she had hold of one of his arms and seemed to be pleading with him.
He finally managed to yank his arm from her grasp at the same time she opened her purse and a slash of lightning rent the night.
In the glare of that light, Alyssa saw Virginia’s nails dark with color. Wrong! Wrong, her brain screamed.
Hands…hands gripping a knife…red…not red hands…red fingernail polish. A blue-handled knife gripped in slender, feminine hands…hands with red fingernail polish.
“Nick!” His name burst from her in terror, but a loud clap of thunder swallowed the sound.
Still, he turned in her direction and Alyssa watched in horror as Virginia’s hand raised and steel flashed as she struck him in the back. It happened in the space of a heartbeat, so fast, so unexpected.
Nick reeled sideways and crashed into the bench. “No!” Alyssa screamed as he fell to the ground and Virginia raised the bloody knife once again.
Fear catapulted Alyssa forward…fear for Nick’s life. She had no idea if he was dead or alive, but there was no way she was going to let Virginia touch him with that knife again.
Just as Virginia began to kneel over Nick’s prone body, Alyssa slammed into her. Together the two women rolled into the grass, grappling in a life-and-death battle.
Alyssa managed to grab hold of both of Virginia’s wrists and she slammed the hand that held the knife against the ground in an effort to make the woman drop the weapon.
“What are you doing?” she cried as she struggled to gain control of the knife.
“He deserved it,” Virginia screamed, her pretty features contorted into a mask of rage Alyssa had never seen before. “I did it for you! I did it for every woman who’s ever been used by a man.” With a roar, Virginia bucked Alyssa off her and rolled away.
She rose with the knife still in hand as Alyssa scrambled to her feet. “You should have run back to your
safe little bed-and-breakfast world, Alyssa.”
Virginia circled her, getting closer, her eyes gleaming as wickedly as the razor-sharp knife. “I can’t let you leave here. You’ll have to be the first female victim of the Shameless Slasher.”
She lunged forward but stopped suddenly, a look of utter surprise on her face as her thigh exploded in a burst of blood. With a cry of pain, she fell to the ground, the knife spilling out of her hand.
Alyssa hadn’t heard gunfire that had sent the bullet that ripped through Virginia’s leg, but she turned to see Nick propped up against the bench, gun in hand and face as pale as death.
“Nick!” She ran to his side, sobs choking her as she knelt down beside him. The gun fell to his side as if he hadn’t the energy to hold it another minute longer. “Hang on, Nick. I’ll get help,” she cried. Blood. There was too much blood.
He grabbed her arm, his eyes dark and glazed with pain. “Dumb idea…”
“Don’t talk…save your strength. Help us!” she screamed, hoping somebody, anybody, would hear her.
“Listen.” Nick squeezed her arm. “It…it wasn’t about her…”
“Please, Nick, don’t talk now,” Alyssa exclaimed as tears chased down her cheeks. “Somebody…please! Help us.” She reached behind him and pressed her hand against the blood that poured out of his wound. Too much blood.
Virginia moaned. “Help me. I’m bleeding to death,” she cried. “It hurts! It hurts so much.”
Nick was bleeding to death, Alyssa thought. She screamed again and nearly sobbed in relief as somebody answered her cry. “We’re here!” she called. “Get the police. Get an ambulance! Hang on, Nick. Please…hang on.”
It was her vision…the storm, the knife and Nick bleeding to death. “Stay with me, Nick,” she cried. “Don’t make the vision be true.”
The rain finally came while Nick was in recovery. Alyssa stood at the window in the waiting room and watched the rain beating down.
The last several hours had been a nightmare. Thankfully, somebody had called the cops and Virginia was now in a room down the hall under arrest despite the injury that had required medical care.
Manhunt Page 16