by Tracy Sharp
The next moment I found myself falling through it. I fell against something dark and woolen, and then was pushed back into the house, falling backward and onto my back. My head cracked against the floor and everything went white for a second. I lay there blinking, trying to clear my head.
High pitched, hysterical, barking from Pango sounded outside and knew that somebody she didn’t know was in the house with me, and she was still outside. I heard her paws hit the screen door as the inside door was slammed, and the dead bolt turned and clicked into place.
I pushed myself up onto my elbows and saw a boot come toward me just before it hit my chest and slammed me back down onto the floor. The air rushed out of my lungs, and I lay there gasping and coughing, trying to get just a little air in. I squinted against the kitchen light as a head moved in front of it, dark and looming over me. Dark hair and pale skin, and eyes as dark and bottomless as an abandoned well.
“Vicky,” I croaked. “Nice of you to drop in.”
“I’m glad you still have sense of humor, given the situation you’re currently in,” she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice more than I could see it on her face. My vision suddenly wasn’t working all that well. I was guessing I had at least a slight concussion.
“You don’t look so good, Leah.” She was still smiling, enjoying every second of this.
“Yeah, well, good thing I can take a licking and keep on ticking,” I said, my throat on fire.
The thumping against the door and the panicked, infuriated barking outside told me that Pango wasn’t really happy with the current situation either .She was trying to bust her way in. I hoped she would succeed.
“Your buddy Jack left you all alone,” she said with a smirk in her voice.
Where had he gone? I frantically searched my memory. The only thing keeping me even remotely lucid was the adrenaline pumping through me. “You know, Vicky, if you wanted to be alone with me all you had to do was ask. You’re not really my type, but I’d at least let you buy me a drink.”
“Oh, you’re a funny lady, Leah. Jack will miss you, no doubt.”
“Is this the part where I’m supposed to break down and plead for my life? ‘Cuz I gotta tell you, Chicky, I’ve had my life threatened by much scarier folk than you and lived to tell the tale.”
“But you weren’t sick as a dog at the time, were you? I’m a nurse, Leah. You’re down for the count. High fever. Shivering. Chattering teeth. Probably a case of strep that you’ve ignored for so long that you’re pretty much delusional now. Your body is useless. You’re pretty much done.”
“Thanks for the diagnosis, Vicky. But I think that you’re the delusional one. Oh, and you’re not a nurse. You’re a medical assistant.” I just couldn’t help myself. She was far too calm and gleeful about having me where she wanted me. I was pissed.
She stomped my chest and the pain was so blinding that I rolled over as much as her foot would allow and threw up on the floor.
“Nice,” she said. “I’m taking classes, bitch. I’m almost a nurse.”
I took several deep breaths. “So I’m guessing you’re here to make sure that I don’t blow the whistle on you. Jack and I are really close to throwing your ass in the fire. We know you had something to do with the death of Garrett’s wife, Vicky.”
“So what? You can’t prove a thing.”
“Then why are you here, beating up on a sick person?”
“Because I don’t need you two breathing down my neck. It pisses me off.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet. You kill me you’ll have Jack on you like a fly on shit. You won’t be able to make a move without feeling him there. Because he will be there, Vicky. He won’t stop until he has you.”
“I’ll kill him too. I’m not letting anything stand in my way,” she said. “I’ve come too far.”
“Good luck with that. And I’d say you’ve sunk too low, rather than come too far. You’re not even human.”
“Oh, that hurts, coming from you,” she said, looking at me as if I were some disgusting bug she was about to crush.
“Things are not going your way, Vicky. And believe me when I said that things are going to end badly for you. Really … fucking … badly.”
She spit in my face.
“Aw, come on, Vicky, turn that frown upside down. You’ll make lots of new friends at the women’s prison.”
She didn’t speak. Apparently she was beyond furious with me.
This was good. Furious people reacted impulsively and made mistakes. I’d have a chance to knock the shit out of her.
If I could find the strength to get up off the floor.
I wanted to ask her why she’d done it. Why she’d murdered Alexia and her unborn baby. But I knew the answer. It wasn’t about money. It wasn’t that he’d be paying child support and almost certainly a hefty chunk of alimony to Alexia for at least eighteen years, if not more. It was that she wanted Garrett all to herself. She didn’t want the competition.
She stared at me with a blankness that I’d seen before. She was close to finishing me off.
“You think Garrett’s going to want you when he finds out that you’re the one who murdered Alexia and his baby daughter? You’re dreaming.”
“He’ll never know.” Her voice was stone cold.
“Yes. He will. You can’t really believe that you’re not going to get caught for this. You’ve got to know that you’re a suspect. The police will sniff you out.”
“They can sniff all they want.” She shrugged. “It won’t make a difference. And Garrett will never believe them. He loves me.”
I snorted, sending agony through my tonsils. “He lusts for you. Not the same thing, you idiot. He needed a distraction. You were there.” I shook my head, smiling. “Why do women like you always think the man loves them? You’re just another pair of open legs.”
She stomped my chest again and I turned my head and wretched, dry heaving. Nothing but drool came out, oozing to the floor. I promised myself right then and there that this bitch was going to bleed on this floor before the night was through.
And she wasn’t going to stomp my chest again. I turned back so that my shoulders rested on the floor, took a breath, and grabbed at her legs, yanking with every ounce of strength I had in my body.
She yelped, teetered and swayed for a second before falling backward. I rolled away as her back hit the floor, her gun going off and hitting the ceiling. The back of her head followed with a sickening crack.
I was already up and scrambling for the .45 I keep in the kitchen junk drawer.
I swung around just as she was pushing herself up on one hand and her knees. She still held the gun in the other, and began to lift it.
“Don’t. Fucking. Move.” My hands shook slightly as I pointed the gun at her, arms outstretched toward her. I wasn’t afraid to shoot her, but I was still feverish and sick as hell. Nausea was moving over me in waves.
“You can’t shoot me.”
“Oh yeah?” I shot her in the shoulder. “Now drop the gun.”
She screamed and fell onto her side. “You fucking bitch!”
“What did you say earlier? Oh yeah, that really hurts, coming from you. Drop the fucking gun. Now.”
“I’m pregnant. That’s why you can’t shoot me, you dumb fuck,” she screamed at me, her face red.
I stared at her. “Bullshit.”
“No. It isn’t,” she said, smirking. “I’m three and a half months pregnant. It’s Garrett’s.”
“Oh, how convenient for you. Money in your hand and all you had to do was fuck him for it.”
“It’s not about money you stupid cow.”
“Oh, I get it. You’re soul mates. You belong together. Am I right?”
“Yes. We do. And nobody is going to stop us from being together. Nobody.”
“I think the courts and the New York penal system will beg to differ on that one, sweetheart.”
“You can’t turn me in. My baby needs me.”
&nbs
p; “Wrong. Your baby needs a sane mother who isn’t a murderer. Now I won’t tell you again. Drop. The. Gun. Or I will shoot you again.”
She looked at me, weighing her options. There really weren’t many. Kill me or go to jail. I could see in her eyes that she wasn’t intending on ever stepping foot in a prison cell.
And I’d seen that look in Gabriel’s eyes just before he came at me before I shot him dead.
Fuck.
She lifted her arm and came at me, fire and insanity in her eyes. She launched herself at me and I pulled the trigger.
I shot her in the chest.
She fell back and her eyes widened as she hit the floor. She blinked several times, and then her gaze found me. She smiled. Both hands moved over her belly. “She’s coming with me.”
I found my cell on the counter and dialed 911, and prayed they’d get to my house before she died.
But she died a few moments later, staring right at me from my kitchen floor.
Chapter Seventeen
Police and EMTs filled my kitchen and living room. I tried to answer their questions as best I could, but I felt my eyes roll back into my head and went away for a while.
***
I was down for the count for four days. Jack stayed with me, not leaving the house for anything. If we needed something, he called someone to bring it.
The first night, I dreamed of Callahan. I felt his lips kiss mine lightly, and the backs of his fingers brush my cheek, and then he was gone.
***
“We are not working on this case until you’re really up to it, Kicks. Okay?” Jack said, placing homemade soup in front of me. I sat at the kitchen table, almost floating on the smell of tomato and basil. His minestrone soup was incredible.
“Okay,” I said, blowing on a spoonful of soup. “But I really am feeling much better.”
“You’re a ways from being a hundred percent,” he said, taking bread from the bread maker he’d bought me the previous Christmas. He sliced a few pieces off and placed them on the table, next to the butter.
“Honey wheat,” I said. “You are amazing.”
“Yes, I am.” He winked at me.
We stayed in and watched movies, me lying with my feet on his lap and his feet up on the coffee table. And I felt safe and happy, and wished things could stay like this, and that we’d never have to leave my house again.
But Jack nursed me back to health and life had to go on.
***
Nine days after Vicky died on my kitchen floor, I’d decided I’d take one more day to hang with Pango. Jack was at our office, working on the white board.
I took a long bubble bath with Pango lying next to the tub, and went to bed early.
When I opened my eyes, she seemed to know and her tail wagged, hitting me in the face. “Hey pretty girl. Back to work day.”
I lay on my back, stretching. I had to pee badly. I was certain that Pango did too.
“Me first, then you, okay? You can get away with peeing on the floor. Me? Not so much.” I got up and headed to the bathroom with Pango at my heels. “Besides, I like these pajama bottoms.”
I felt pretty good. Rest really did do wonders. And having Jack take care of me didn’t hurt. I sighed, thinking, not for the first time, that I’d be fucked without him.
We went through the kitchen, bright with sunshine, and I pulled on my boots and coat. Pango didn’t need a leash, so I just opened the door and out we went.
Snow blanketed my entire yard. It was everywhere, draped over the tree branches, my car, everything. I lifted my face and breathed the cold air into me as we headed toward the woods. This silent, peaceful moment was what I needed. I found that nothing calmed my soul as much as a dog could. I watched Pango jump around in the snow, bury her nose in it and come back out, shaking her head wildly, bits of snow flying from her fur in every direction. She pranced and trotted, and ran circles around the yard.
I laughed at her, wishing we could just stay in that moment forever. I already loved her more than I could even fathom. The snow sparkled around us in the sunlight, and I heard tree branches cracking from the cold. Pango spotted a squirrel and chased it up a tree, smiling and panting as she went. She barked at the squirrel playfully, and even the memory of the dog chasing me up the tree while I ran for my life a couple of weeks before couldn’t mar the moment.
But it was just a moment. A phone call not long after we got back into the house darkened my joy.
“Mrs. Ryan?” the bubbly, happy voice asked.
“Ms.” I corrected. Christ. A telemarketer? I had to be nice. It could be a client.
“Oh, I just assumed…but then lots of single women are having babies these days. It’s cool.”
I frowned. Pregnant women? “Who is this?”
“It’s Rina Ostrom, from Madelyn’s Maternity?” She paused. “You were in a few weeks ago. You bought the gorgeous red holiday sweater.”
At first I was confused as to why she was calling me. Was there a problem with my credit card? Then I remembered that I’d been asking about Alexia Clemmons.”
“Oh! Yes. Hi. Sorry. Baby brain.”
She laughed. “I understand. You haven’t made it back in. I hope everything’s okay.”
“Oh yeah. I’m fine, thank you. Something came up and I couldn’t make it back in.” If only she knew what the last few weeks had been like.
“Good. Well, I hope you don’t mind me calling you at home. I got your information from your credit card receipt. I would never call a customer at home unless there was a problem with the card. Don’t worry, that’s not the case with you. The reason I’m calling you is because I spoke with one of the girls who just remembered something about your friend yesterday.”
“Really?” My heart thudded.
“Yes. Your friend didn’t come in with anyone, but a girl approached her while she was here. They struck up a conversation and they left together.” Her voice was a stage whisper. “I don’t have all the details but if you want to speak with Gina she said you can meet us at my house, if you like. She’s a little nervous about the whole thing. She said she knew that something was off but forgot about it. She feels bad for not telling the police about this person, but she honestly didn’t remember it.”
I thought that was odd. It was likely closer to the truth that her friend Gina was just scared and didn’t want to get involved. “Sure. Where do you live?” I grabbed a pen from my kitchen counter and an empty envelope from a bill I’d torn open at some point. I jotted the address down.
“You can come now, if you like. She has to get to work in an hour. So you’d better hurry.” It sounded like she was covering the phone, and she whispered. “I think she might lose her nerve. She’s really freaked out about the whole thing.”
“I’ll be right there.”
I ran upstairs to find the pregnancy pad I’d bought and put it on quickly, pulling a large sweater over it. I looked at myself in the mirror to make sure the belly looked real, then went back downstairs, grabbed my car keys, and left, telling Pango I wouldn’t be long.
She looked sad as she watched me go, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before she went back to her breakfast.
I considered calling Jack, but I knew he’d want to come with me. If he showed up, he might spook Rina’s friend, and cause her to clam up. So I decided against it. The conversation shouldn’t take long anyway. I’d just find out what the girl remembered and leave her to get on her way to work. If I needed to talk to her again, I’d bring Jack the next time.
Rina lived on the outskirts of town in an old farm house. She’d said that I’d have to travel along a dirt road for about two miles before I’d get to the house. There were a couple of old abandoned houses on the way, but I didn’t see any that appeared to be lived in. It was a pretty drive with the sun shining on the snow, making the frozen flakes look like shimmering diamond chips. I always loved that effect.
I found the house and parked in the long drive way. The farmhouse was large and homey
, painted a sage green; a color that was big a few years ago. I wondered if she rented or if it was a family home, passed on through generations.
There was a cellar on the side of the house, with old fashioned dirt cellar doors leading down into it. That kind of cellar always gave me the creeps. I didn’t know how anyone could go down into one without getting the willies. The door had a large padlock on it. I guessed it gave Rina the willies too. Although these days, you’d be crazy to leave doors leading into your house like that unlocked.
I knocked on the large white door. This was a coffin door. I’d seen them before, enormous and cracked through the white paint. A door used in the eighteen hundreds to carry coffins through into the homes of the deceased. I felt a shiver run through me. These doors had never freaked me out before. But now I was nervous, realizing that I really should’ve called Jack. I reached in my bag for my cell.
The huge door opened a crack and I saw Rina’s round face smiling through at me. I felt immediately better. Her smile was warm and friendly, and made me feel at ease.
“Come on in.” She opened the door wider and I stepped through quickly, not wanting her to get cold standing there waiting for me.
“It’s freezing out,” I said.
“Yeah, winter in the Northeast. They’re actually calling for another Nor’easter later, but this time with snow instead of that freezing rain we got last time. We’re getting the storm early this year, I guess.”
“Oh you’re kidding.” I hadn’t been watching the weather or listening to the radio. I’d been avoiding the news like the plague, actually. I didn’t want to hear anything about Gabriel’s cult or the missing babies, or missing pregnant women.
“No, I wish I were,” she said. “Come this way. Do you drink coffee?”
“Absolutely.” I couldn’t wait to wrap my hands around a hot mug of steaming coffee.
She led me to a large, bright yellow country kitchen. It was a sunny room with pictures of sunflowers and daisies hanging on the walls. Sunflower placemats adorned the table, and a vase of silk daisies sat in the middle on a lace doily.