Slowly he lay back against his pillow, his arm flopping over his eyes as the anguish of reality hit him in the face once again. He said a silent prayer. His leg stretched out and his prayer wasn’t answered. The spot next to him was empty, as it had been for the past three years. God, when was he going to stop reaching for her?
Opening his eyes, he let his arm fall and stared up at the ceiling. Help me. The words ate at him. He’d never had a dream like this one before. At least not so vivid. In this dream, Kate had been under the water. Her feet had been tangled in seaweed and underwater plants. Her face was ashen and her eyes nearly rolled into the back of her head. She had been struggling, fighting to get air into her lungs. He had been forced to watch his wife drown. And there had been nothing he could do to help her.
The weird thing had been her hair. It wasn’t hers. Kate had had beautiful, blonde hair, long and thick. He had always loved running his fingers through it. This Kate’s hair had been brown. Dark brown. It had been short and uneven, almost cut haphazardly.
He cursed, willing the memory away. Who could make heads or tails out of that? He was losing his mind, he decided. All of the sudden he was seeing things all over the place. The realization that maybe he needed to see a shrink, planted itself in his head.
He turned over, and for a while, just listened to the sounds outside through the open window, hoping they would hypnotize him back to sleep. They didn’t. His eyes were tired, but his mind wasn’t. He couldn’t stop thinking. He couldn’t stop hearing her voice. God, had she really suffered in such a way before she died? Had she struggled under water, pleading for help? The idea that he had let her die that way was painful to take. He didn’t want to believe it.
Unable to stand anymore thinking, he climbed out of bed. In his boxers, he headed down the hallway toward Hallie’s room. He had the sudden urge to check on her—to make sure she was okay.
The door at the end of the hallway stood open, as it did every night. She didn’t like sleeping in the dark.
He poked his head inside the door. There she was, a tiny lump in the middle of her pink canopy bed. Her soft curls rested against her baby face. She was breathing softly. She looked so peaceful and angelic. He couldn’t resist walking over and kneeling before her. God, she was his life. She was all he had left. He could remember that when Kate had first died he had been terrified at the idea of being a single parent. He’d actually gotten to the point of begging his mother to take her, unable to believe he had what it took to raise her himself. His mother had refused. She had given him a stern, yet sympathetic look at the same time and told him that his little girl needed him. Through his anguish and pain, he’d changed diaper after diaper and walked floor after floor. Hallie had been grieving herself, even though she’d been too young to remember it. She’d missed the smell, the feeling of being in her mother’s arms. She had cried for days, inconsolable. And then one day she’d stopped and Luke’s arms had become enough for her—and she had become enough for him. They had become a team. The thought of life without her scared him as much as the thought of life without Kate once had.
He reached out a finger and brushed it against her baby soft cheek. She was his link to Kate. She always would be. That smile of hers was identical to her mother’s, wide and beautiful. He thanked God for it every day.
Standing up, he backed out of Hallie’s room and went back to his own bed. He sighed, forcing himself to shut his eyes. He had no sooner begun counting sheep when the phone rang. Grabbing it before it woke Hallie, he held it to his ear.
“Hello?” he snapped irritably. Who was dumb enough to call this late?
No one replied. Not another prank, he thought, sighing again. He repeated the greeting one last time. This time someone answered.
“Don’t turn your back on her.”
Luke heard the words, but didn’t understand them. “Who in the hell is this?”
“A friend. Things aren’t what they seem, Garrison. Don’t you let her down. She’s going to need you.”
“Are you nuts?” he asked. “What the hell are you talking about? Who is this?”
“I know you and I know your wife. I’ve seen your daughter and her beautiful black curls. You may not know me, but I know you.”
He sat up, now alarmed. She’d seen his daughter? God, who was this crackpot? He’d dealt with an overzealous fan or two in his life but nothing like this. He reached over and slammed the phone down. A second later, it rang again. This time he turned off the ringer, waiting for the answering machine to pick up. There was dead silence for several seconds after the beep. Then he heard the sound of a quiet, singsong voice chant the last five words he expected to hear.
“Katie Blue still loves you.” Click, the line went dead.
Hours later, Luke dangled his hands between his knees as detectives from the local police department listened to his answering machine for what seemed like the hundredth time. God, he was sick of hearing that voice. Over and over and over again, her words cut into his soul. Katie Blue still loves you.
“You okay?” Nate asked, sitting down next to his brother on the couch. He’d come by earlier that morning to take Hallie to daycare so Luke could deal with the police. After dropping off his niece, he’d returned for moral support. Either that, or blatant curiosity had brought him back.
“No, I’m not okay.” Taking a sip of bitter and rather chilled coffee, Luke grimaced.
“I can make more,” Nate offered.
“Don’t bother. I don’t sleep as it is.” He tensed as a detective pressed play and listened to the message on the machine, yet again. “For God’s sake, how many times are you going to listen to that?”
The tall, pudgy detective, known as Detective Meyer, shot him a perturbed stare. “I’m trained to listen, Mr. Garrison. You called us because you were concerned about the message on your machine. I have to listen to it in order to investigate it. Sometimes I can hear unique things that someone such as yourself might miss.”
“What makes this call unique is that this person is referring to my wife. My wife has been dead for three years. I would say that a psycho referring to a dead person is pretty damned unique.”
“Luke,” Nate warned.
“Don’t say that to me. This is ridiculous.” Luke stood up, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
“Celebrities tend to be targets for this kind of thing,” the pudgy officer’s partner—a tall beanpole, with dark, messy hair, named Detective Archer—said. “Happens all the time. Overzealous fans.”
“This is not an overzealous fan,” Luke seethed, his eyes darkening. “This maniac is talking about my daughter here. She’s watched her and knows who she is. It’s not me the woman’s targeting.”
Both detectives in the room were quiet a moment. Eventually Detective Archer spoke up. “I understand your distress, Mr. Garrison. I would be upset too. However, the person didn’t make a specific threat to your daughter even when she talked to you on the phone. I can go to the daycare where your daughter goes and take a look around. But unless something else happens, there’s not much we can do.”
“Something else like what?” Nate wanted to know. “An attempted kidnapping?”
Detective Archer straightened. “She didn’t threaten kidnapping.” He motioned for his partner to follow him toward the front door. “We’ll go to the daycare,” he repeated. “I’ll be in touch.”
When they were gone, Luke cursed, slamming his hand against the front door.
“She really didn’t threaten Hallie, Luke,” Nate said, for lack of anything better.
“Did you hear what she said?”
“Yeah, I heard.”
“That was my name for her.”
Katie Blue, Nate figured out. “Yeah.”
“So how did she know that? How could she know what I called my wife behind closed doors?” Luke glanced sideways at his brother. “No one knew that. No one but Kate.”
Nate shrugged. “I’m sure you slipped in front of peo
ple. I heard you call her that a few times.”
“You’re family. No one else knew about it, Nate. It was a secret joke between the two of us.”
Nate sighed. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying….” Luke stopped suddenly and sighed. “Hell, I don’t know what I’m saying.”
“Someone else must have known about your name for her. It slips when it’s normal behavior.”
“I don’t think so.” Luke paced the floor in the hallway.
“What are you thinking then?”
“I don’t know. Nothing makes any sense to me.”
“Crackpots find ways to mess with people, man. It happens. I read in the paper the other day, that some freak broke into Brad Pitt’s house and put his clothes on.”
“I’m not Brad freaking Pitt,” Luke snapped, leveling his brother with a glare. “I’m Luke Garrison, a has been football player. Why would someone stalk me? I don’t play the game anymore.”
“I don’t know. It could be the produce girl at the supermarket for all we know. You don’t have to be famous at all to get a stalker.”
“Thanks, that helped.”
“I only meant that your career may not have anything to do with this. It could just be some random person who saw you and Hallie on the street. It sucks, but it’s possible.”
Luke sighed, running his hands over his face in a tired gesture. “I’m so tired, Nate. I’m thirty-one years old and I feel like I’m eighty. Every day it gets worse, not better. Something’s just not right here. I can feel it.”
“Meaning?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t feel right. Yesterday when Sara left, I got this weird feeling someone was watching me. I looked across the street and I could have sworn Kate was standing there. She had this weird look on her face, like she was hurt. Like she’d seen me kiss Sara and she was hurt.”
“You imagined it, bro. It’s your conscience.”
Luke shook his head. “I had a dream last night that I watched her die. I watched her drown. She just kept struggling and struggling to get air and I couldn’t help her. I haven’t had a dream like that in a long time. It was different even from the ones I had right after the accident. Her hair was all messed up and she just didn’t look like Kate.”
Nate was quiet for a moment. “Listen, Luke, you know I’m on your side here. You know I’ll do anything to help you and Hallie out. Whatever you need, you’ve got, right?”
“But you think I’m crazy,” Luke finished for him.
“I don’t think you’re crazy. I think you’re self-destructing.”
“It’s not by choice. Someone wants me to hang on to this.”
“It’s up to you to let it go,” Nate reasoned.
Luke thought that over. “If someone tries to hurt Hallie, I’ll kill them.”
The blazing anger in Luke’s blue eyes did not go unnoticed by his brother. “If someone tries to hurt Hallie, I’ll help you.”
It was late morning by the time Karen and Kate made their way out of bed and out into the world again. Kate had slept a little longer that night, having been too tired to dream. They had been forced to check out of the motel by eleven, and were now sitting at a traffic light in downtown. They were supposedly going in search of temporary work. Or rather Karen was. They had no more money, she’d informed Kate that morning. That meant that one of them had to go to work.
“I want to drive by the daycare again,” Kate said, knowing the request wasn’t going to go over well.
“Not a good idea.” Karen replied.
“I have to see her again. She’s all I have left, Karen. I need to see her, just one more time.”
“Damn it, Kate, you’re not listening. By now, Louis has been back. He knows we split. He’s on his way here, if he’s not here already. Do you understand that? He’s going to assume you’re back with your family and that’s the first place he’s going to go. Do you want to put your daughter in danger?”
“She’s my daughter. I have to see her just once more.”
Karen scowled at the desperation in Kate’s voice. “Quit playing me that way. It makes me act stupid and that’s going to get us both in trouble.”
“We don’t have to stay long,” Kate added. “Just long enough for me to see her.”
“You’re not getting out of the car this time,” Karen said, her voice stern. “I mean it.”
Kate didn’t answer. She had made that promise before and broken it.
“Kate, damn it.” Karen tossed a cigarette butt out the window and turned the corner. The daycare center was only a short distance. It loomed up in front of them five minutes later. Karen slowed the car down, a frown on her face. There were no children playing outside today. Instead of the Happy Days van that had been parked in the driveway the day before, there were two police cruisers out front. Karen started to step on the gas but Kate reached over and stopped her.
“Wait!”
“What the hell do you mean, wait? They’re cops, Kate. As in jail time.”
“We haven’t done anything,” Kate said, watching through the window as the daycare center remained still. The front door was open. She couldn’t see clearly enough to know what was going on inside. Annoyed, she squinted.
“We are going now,” Karen said, obviously panicked.
“Let me out then. You let me out and then go. There could be something wrong with Hallie.”
“There would be an ambulance if someone was hurt, Kate. Nothing is wrong with her. We have to go.”
“Will you stop freaking out on me? I can’t think.” Kate leaned further out the now open window, hearing voices coming closer. An officer and a woman stepped out onto the porch of the daycare center, still involved in a conversation. The woman looked distressed. She wore a red skirt and blouse and was above average tall. She had blonde hair. There was something familiar about her. Kate stiffened. It couldn’t be. She squinted again. But it was. The same blonde-haired person that Luke had been kissing earlier was standing on the porch of her daughter’s daycare center.
“What, Kate?”
“It’s her. The blonde. That’s the woman that Luke was with yesterday.”
Karen followed her gaze, the car sliding to a stop at the curb down the street. “I guess big tits and ass are still important to men, huh?” When Kate frowned, she shrugged. “Sorry.”
Kate ignored her and continued scoping out the woman. She was definitely upset about something. Her hands were moving through the air as though she were trying to describe something. Something or someone. Now that Kate thought about it, she realized the woman was also the same person they had talked to yesterday, beside the chain link, when she’d been watching Hallie play. God, Luke was having an affair with his daughter’s teacher!
“We need to go.” Karen scooted across the seat nervously. She had a strange look on her face. Her eyes scanned the street before them, up and down, back and forth. There were several parked cars lining the curb, all of them empty. A garbage truck rattled by, causing both Kate and Karen to jump. Karen’s eyes still scanned, as though she knew something was there, but she couldn’t find whatever it was.
“We’ve made a mistake. He’s here, Kate. We have to go.”
Kate looked around, not noticing anything strange. When her eyes reached the end of the block, she saw what had Karen so upset. Louis was there, his arms folded over his chest as he watched them. Kate felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. Karen hit the gas quickly and proceeded straight into the back of a parked car. At that point, all hell broke loose.
“Shit!” Karen shrieked, throwing her door open. Louis was nowhere to be seen but the police officers who had been standing on the steps of the daycare were heading straight for them.
Before Kate could think straight, Karen had shoved out of the car and taken off in a sprint. Kate had no choice but to follow.
NINE
If his life got any crazier, Luke didn’t think he was going to be able to take it. Staring from Sara to Detec
tive Archer and then back again, he struggled to make sense of what was going on. He’d gotten a call about a disturbance at the daycare center, which had thrown him into a panic after the phone calls he’d received the night before. He’d sped over to the place and found complete chaos. Upon seeing his daughter playing quietly with her friends in her classroom, he’d managed to calm down somewhat. But seeing Sara’s tears and hearing her constant apologies—for what—he still wasn’t sure, was disconcerting.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed again, wiping at the black mascara drizzling from one corner of her eye. “I had no idea they were here staking out Hallie. If I had known…” Her voice broke off. He felt sorry for her. He knew he should probably attempt to comfort her in some way, so he reached over and squeezed her shoulder.
“You couldn’t have known,” he heard himself say. He turned to Detective Archer. “You said you have one of the women in custody?”
“Not real smart perps. They were parked out in front of the daycare this morning. Just as Ms. Hendrickson here was telling us about yesterday and their little visit to the center, one of the broads managed to slam into a parked car. Appears something startled her. Anyway, that’s when Ms. Hendrickson identified them as the two women lurking around the place yesterday. They took off on foot. One of them got away. Lot over there across the street is thick and large.”
“I want to see her. The one you caught. Where is she?”
“Patrol car outside. We need to question her, Mr. Garrison.”
“To hell with that. I want to see her. This is my daughter we’re talking about.”
Archer shrugged his shoulders. “I suppose I can’t blame you. Keep your hands to yourself. I don’t need any lawsuits.”
They walked outside where a uniformed patrol officer was standing guard on the sidewalk. The windows of the patrol car were rolled down. Luke walked over and peered inside. There was a figure there. He couldn’t make out much from where he stood. It was definitely a woman of slight build. She was still handcuffed, he realized, when she turned toward him. He stepped closer, observing her closely now. Her eyes were blue and full of something that looked like cynicism. Her hair was blonde, or rather bottle blonde. He knew a dye job when he saw one. She chewed heartily on a piece of gum as she met his gaze. He saw a flicker or what looked to be recognition as she stared at him. She was a stranger, he determined. He’d never seen her before in his life.
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