As Hannah left the station and walked toward her truck, she noticed a young boy of about seven running down the sidewalk. Hannah felt her breath leave her body as he approached her, grinning and loping along like the happiest kid she’d ever seen. His clothes were scruffy and wrinkled, and one of his shoes was untied. But more importantly, his head was covered in bright red curls and his big blue eyes were shining out of a sea of freckles.
“Hi!” he said to Hannah, and Hannah had to blink a few times before she believed what she was seeing.
“Joshua?” she asked him.
“Yep,” he said, “Who are you?”
“I’m Hannah,” she said. “I’m a friend of your uncle’s.”
“Nice t’meetcha,” he said, and bobbed past her into the service station, so Hannah got a good look at the raggedy backpack, patched with duct tape, that he wore on his back.
Hannah stood there, rooted to the spot, as the spitting image of Timmy Fitzpatrick greeted her old boyfriend.
“Another one,” she said. “There’s another one.”
Scott stopped in at Ava’s on his way back to the station.
“Hey, stranger,” she said, then hugged him and kissed him on the cheek.
A warm feeling spread throughout Scott’s body and he forgot what it was he came to say.
“How are you holding up?” Scott asked.
“I’m just taking it moment by moment,” Ava said.
Her big dark eyes were full of tears.
“Is there anything I can do?” Scott asked her.
“Come by more often,” Ava said. “I’ve been missing you.”
“It seems like Jamie’s keeping you isolated,” Scott said. “It makes me wonder if he has an ulterior motive.”
Ava looked at him like he had two heads.
“What in the world makes you think that?” Ava said.
“I’m sorry,” Scott said. “I just don’t want him to take advantage of you.”
Ava laughed, grabbed Scott’s arm, and gave it a shake.
“You crazy nut,” she said. “You’re so sweet to worry about me. Agent Brown has been nothing but professional. Actually, he warned me away from you.”
“What?”
“He said I was taking advantage of you by making you stay here; interfering with your job. That’s why I told you to go, you know, not because I wanted to.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t because he wanted to get rid of me?”
“I have a feeling Delia’s imagination has been running away with her,” Ava said. “She doesn’t like Jamie and she’s over-protective of me. Believe me, nothing could be farther from the truth.”
“Sometimes we read things into a situation that aren’t true,” Scott said. “Sometimes we think people feel a certain way when actually the situation is completely innocent.”
Ava stood close enough to Scott so that he felt enveloped in her warm, floral perfume. He felt himself drawn toward her. It was intoxicating.
“I think you know how I feel about you, Scott,” Ava said.
Agent Dulvaney came in and Ava stepped away from Scott. If that hadn’t happened, he was pretty sure Ava would have kissed him.
Maggie was sitting at her kitchen table, sipping tea and making a list of things she had to do to get ready for the funeral, when she heard someone climbing up the fire escape to her balcony. The hair stood up on the back of her neck. She knew the doors were locked but nonetheless she tiptoed across the room and took a large, sharp knife out of a drawer. She heard a tap on the glass. She parted the curtains. It was Gabe. Her heart thumped and she set the knife on the table. She unlocked the door and opened it a crack.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Let me in, Maggie, please,” he said. “I need to talk to you.”
“We don’t have anything more to talk about,” Maggie said.
A pair of headlights shone down the alley and Gabe gave her a pleading look.
“Please, Maggie,” he said. “There are people out here who want to kill me.”
“Then why risk it?” she asked as she let him in, closed the door, locked it, and drew the curtains behind him.
“I needed to see you,” he said.
He looked a little more rested and there was color back in his face. The cigarette smell was still there, but not the industrial detergent smell. He looked and smelled more like the Gabe she remembered. Maggie was so quickly overcome by her attraction to him that it frightened her.
He took off his coat and sat down at her kitchen table. He rolled up both sleeves of his shirt and leaned forward, his arms on the table and his hands outstretched toward her. He drummed his fingers on the table and then cracked his knuckles. He couldn’t seem to sit still.
“I heard about your grandfather and your brother,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you here?”
“I’ve decided I’m not going to let you go without a fight.”
Maggie sat down across from him, but sat back in her chair, arms crossed.
“We already discussed this,” Maggie said. “You’re going to testify and then go back to Florida with Maria and Luis.”
“I know that’s what Luis wants, and I convinced myself it was what I wanted. I love my son, and I want to be a good father to him, but Maria and I were so young when we met, and we’re such different people now. I don’t have the feelings of a husband for her. I don’t feel the attraction to her that I feel for you. I don’t love her like I love you.”
Maggie’s heart beat a little faster and she could feel her face flush.
“This is about more than feelings,” Maggie said. “You’re married to her; you promised to stay married to her, in a church, before God and everyone. How can you turn your back on her when she’s willing to forgive you and try again?”
“She doesn’t love me. Better for us both to tell the truth now than to live a lie.”
“I can’t just decide the past seven years didn’t happen, Gabe. I can’t pretend you didn’t lie to me about everything.”
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to change the past, to make all that up to you. Haven’t I served my time for the mistakes I’ve made? Don’t I have a right to be happy? Don’t we have a right to be happy together?”
“We can’t be together. You’re married. It’s as simple as that.”
“She would give me an annulment. She doesn’t love me. She knows I love you.”
“Even if Maria doesn’t care, I don’t want my happiness to be at the expense of Luis,” she said. “Besides, how could I trust you when everything you’ve ever told me was a lie?”
“Not everything,” he said. “You know that in your heart.”
“It’s no use,” Maggie said. “It would never be the same.”
“It could be better,” he said. “Only pride is keeping us apart. You hold my heart in your hands, Maggie.”
Maggie was confused by her conflicting feelings. She had every reason to be righteously indignant but suddenly she couldn’t bear to be mean to him. His dark eyes were so intent upon her. She couldn’t help but remember how it felt to be with him all those years ago. How safe he made her feel, how loved and protected. Sweet memories began replaying themselves in her mind as she felt herself soften toward him.
“Please, just go,” Maggie said, but even she could hear the lack of conviction in her voice.
“Is that what you want, Maggie?” he asked her. “Is that what you really want?”
The timbre of his voice was like smooth whiskey. It felt like everything up to this point had been a dream and now she was wide awake, but intoxicated. This was her Gabriel, the love of her life. Memories of how they were together flooded her mind, her resolve collapsed, and the attraction she felt toward him overwhelmed her. She let herself remember what it felt like to be in his arms, kissing his lips, and, oh my… All she had to do was reach out and she could have that again.
“Say the word,” he said. “Say the word and I’ll move heaven and earth to be with you.
”
“My family would never accept you,” Maggie said.
“To hell with them, then,” he said. “We don’t need anyone else. We can go someplace no one knows us. We can start over.”
“My mother is going through hell right now; I can’t do that to her.”
“Then we’ll stay here,” Gabe said, looking around. “There’s plenty of room for me here. Eventually she will get over it. If we give her a grandchild she will definitely forgive us.”
“But where would you work?”
Maggie knew it would be next to impossible for Gabe to find employment in Rose Hill, where everyone knew everyone else’s business. After the trial commenced, Gabe’s testimony would seal his fate in this town, reputation-wise.
“I don’t know,” Gabe said. “Maybe your Uncle Ian would let me work in the Thorn.”
“Not likely,” Maggie said, trying to picture it and failing.
“Then I’ll work downstairs,” he said. “I can learn to make fancy coffee drinks.”
Maggie pictured the fall off in business from all the local customers who wouldn’t want an ex con and former drug pusher to sell them anything. She’d be ostracized in the community. Hannah would stick by her, but few others would.
He pushed back his chair and stood up. Maggie felt paralyzed as he came around the table and knelt at her side.
“Maggie,” he said, and put his hands on her crossed arms.
The warmth of his hands and the proximity of his scent overwhelmed her senses. Their eyes met. There was no denying the feelings that had reawakened between them. Maggie tried to think but the pull was too strong. It was that familiar drowning feeling, that drowsy, drunken force field that quickly overwhelmed her rational mind.
“Maggie,” he said, and he leaned forward, upward, reaching out to kiss her, to hold her, just like he used to.
A flash of color caught her eye, and she saw he had a tattoo on his outer arm that he hadn’t had seven years ago. Only the tip of it was visible under the edge of his rolled-up sleeve. It was the head of a serpent. It was like a bucket of cold water poured over her head. The spell was broken.
“No,” she said.
“Maggie, what’s wrong?”
She grabbed the knife off the table and held it out between them as he stood up.
“Out,” she said.
“What are you doing?”
“Out,” she said, and pushed her chair back so she could put distance between them before she stood up.
“Maggie, you know I’d never hurt you,” he said.
“But you did, Gabriel,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “You hurt me more than anyone else ever has. You lied to me about everything, and I believed you. Then you left without even telling me good-bye.”
“I wrote to you,” he said. “It’s not my fault you didn’t get the letter.”
“Since I found that letter, I’ve been wondering what I would have done if I had received it when you sent it. You know what? I think I’d have burned it. I think I’d have done what I’m about to do now, which is wash my hands of you.”
“Don’t throw away what we had,” Gabe said. “Everyone makes mistakes. Give me a second chance, Maggie. I can prove to you I’m the man you once loved.”
“A second chance to screw up my life? No thanks. Look at what you just offered me: to reject my family and everyone that I love, to break your son’s heart, and to abandon Maria. She gave you a second chance and look how it’s turned out for her.”
“Maggie, just listen to me,” he said. “I love you.”
“You’re not the man I fell in love with,” Maggie said. “You’re just pretending to be him to get what you want. You know all the right things to say, but they’re all lies.”
Keeping the knife out in front of her she backed up to the balcony doors, opened one, moved to the side, and then gestured toward the open door with the knife.
“Go right now and I won’t call Scott,” she said. “But if you ever come near me again, I’ll have you arrested.”
“Please don’t end it this way,” Gabe said. “Please.”
“Just go,” she said.
“I’ll do as you wish,” he said. “But I’ll never stop loving you.”
As soon as he left, she locked the doors and drew the curtains. She sat down at the kitchen table and looked at her list but her vision was blurred. When the first tear dropped on the paper, she crumpled it up and threw it across the kitchen. As if on cue, it started raining again. The tin overhang that sheltered her balcony rang out with every drop; it was a cozy sound that had always lulled her to sleep before, but tonight it gave no comfort.
Scott saw a dark figure walking up the alley ahead of him and called out. Gabe turned and waited for him.
“You shouldn’t be out alone,” Scott said.
“I don’t care what happens to me,” Gabe said.
He was soaked to the skin and looked as miserable as a person could be.
“But maybe Luis does,” Scott said.
Gabe shrugged and they walked together up the alley.
“Were you at Maggie’s?” Scott asked.
Gabe looked at Scott but didn’t answer.
“C’mon,” Scott said. “Let me give you a ride home.”
Gabriel accepted and they walked to Scott’s house to get his Explorer.
As Scott opened the driver’s side door, he felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed into the back of his neck. Gabe was already in the SUV and Scott heard him curse as he saw what was happening.
“Get in,” the man said. “I’ve got nothing to lose by killing you both, so don’t do anything stupid.”
As soon as Scott was seated, the man got in the back and again he felt the gun barrel on the back of his neck.
“Hey, good buddy,” the man said. “Long time no see, Gabe.”
Scott looked into the rear view mirror but he didn’t recognize the man. He had a clean-shaved head, a scraggly goatee and his pupils were dilated in his red-rimmed eyes.
“Let him go,” Gabe said. “I’m the one she wants, not him.”
“It would be stupid to leave a witness, though,” the man said, smiling at Gabe.
“It would be more stupid to kill a cop,” Gabe said.
The man’s eyes widened.
“State or county?”
“Local,” Gabe said. “He doesn’t have a dog in this fight.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll drop him off somewhere, he’ll have a long walk home, and you and me will go see the boss.”
“He’ll kill us both,” Gabe said to Scott. “It might as well be here as somewhere out in the woods. Don’t go anywhere.”
With his eyes on the man in the rear view mirror Scott slowly moved his left hand across his lap toward his holster, which was on the right hand side of his belt. The man in the backseat had his eyes on Gabe.
“What’s she paying you?” Gabe asked the man.
“Fifty grand,” he said. “Dead or alive.”
“Did you kill the guy up at the cemetery?”
“Duane killed my buddy Ray, so I killed him. Live by the sword, die by the sword.”
“Did you kill Brian?”
“No,” the man said. “We don’t know who did that.”
“She could’ve paid somebody else to do it,” Gabe said. “Maybe she doesn’t tell you everything.”
“Let’s go,” the man said to Scott. “Drive down to the river. You make any stupid decisions and I’ll kill this one and then you.”
“Don’t,” Gabe said to Scott. “If he shoots us here, someone will hear and he’ll get caught. If he drowns us in the river he’ll get away with it.”
“If this cop doesn’t put this car into gear and move right now,” the man said to Gabe, “I’ll kill you both and then pay a visit to your redheaded girlfriend. I followed you down there. I know where she lives.”
Scott immediately started the car and put it in reverse. His eyes briefly met Gabe’s; whe
re he expected to see fear instead he saw steely resolve.
“Use the alley by the college,” the man said. “There’s no roadblock down there.”
“What’s the old lady gonna do, kill everybody?” Gabe asked him. “They’re closing in on her and she’s getting sloppy.”
“She’s got people everywhere,” the man said. “She’ll get them before they get her.”
“It seems to me she’s killing anyone who could be a liability. Why is it any different for you?”
“She trusts me,” the man said. “I’ve never done wrong by her.”
“You won’t live to see next week,” Gabe said. “You’re nothing to her but a means to an end.”
“She needs somebody she can count on and that’s me,” the man said. “We’ve got big plans.”
“She’s slick, I’ll give her that,” Gabe said. “You’ll believe that right up until somebody slits your throat and tosses you in the river.”
“Ray didn’t deserve that,” the man said. “He was a good guy.”
“She didn’t do such a great job protecting him, did she? And yet you somehow think she’s gonna protect you.”
“I’ve been with her a long time. She’s never let me down.”
“If you can’t trust a paranoid, drug-addicted psychopath,” Gabe said, “who can you trust, right?”
“Shut up,” the man said to Gabe, and then to Scott, “Quit driving so slow. You’ll draw attention.”
“When they arrest her, and they will,” Gabe said, “what’s to stop her from claiming you acted on your own? Maybe you killed all those people because you’re the psychopath.”
“Nobody’s gonna arrest her. She’s got people in high places who owe her big time.”
“Maybe locally, maybe even in the state, but not in D.C., pal. In D.C. she’s just a roach that’s about to get stepped on.”
They turned down Daisy Lane. Scott drove slowly down the alley and then stopped where the water lapped up against the backyards of the houses on Marigold Avenue. They were behind Bonnie and Fitz’s house and Scott could see the light in the kitchen was still on.
“You won’t survive being arrested if you kill a cop,” Gabe said. “They’ll call it resisting arrest when they fill out the report afterward. Or they’ll give you a head start and then shoot you in the back, say you were armed and dangerous.”
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