Statue of Limitations

by Kate Collins

  “Contact him right now,” I said. “Tell him what’s happening and see if there’s any way he can fax over to the court an emergency motion to halt the project.”

  He pulled out his phone and held it up. “I’ll call right now,” he said as he headed indoors.

  Everyone applauded, so I continued.

  “We are not going to be defeated. We cannot and will not let Talbot win. Forget about moving your belongings out. We’ll keep your block of Greene Street from being destroyed. At dawn the day after tomorrow, we are going to show up in force to form a human chain from one end of the block to the other. And we’ll stay there until we get that court injunction.”

  “What if Talbot calls the police?” someone called.

  “They’d have to arrest everyone in the chain and we’ll have another group ready to take their place,” I said. “That means all of you have to get on the phone right away and line up family, friends, neighbors, and anyone else you can think of. Are you with me?”

  The crowd was silent. Then Nancy called out, “Come on, folks. We can do this. If our ancestors fought against the Roman Empire, we can fight Talbot before he calls Sequoia his empire.”

  “Yes, we can do this,” Barb said. “Talbot wouldn’t dare mow all of us down with those giant machines. It’d be murder.” She turned to me and said, “I’m with you, Athena.”

  “So am I,” Nancy said.

  Then many voices called out, “We’re with you, too, Athena,” and a cheer went up.

  “Do we need to discuss this any further?” my dad asked.

  “I make a motion that we meet at dawn in front of our shops and make that human chain,” David, the owner of the men’s clothing store, said.

  “I’ll second,” Barb called.

  “All in favor?” Dad asked.

  All hands went up and an even louder cheer echoed through the breezy evening air.

  As groups formed around the table at the front of the garden area, my dad began taking down names and organizing leaders. I slipped around the crowd and headed to the back gate to talk to Case.

  He was smiling from ear to ear. “You did a great job, warrior goddess. I’d give you a hug, but it might attract attention.”

  “We’re going to stop Sonny, Case. I can feel it.”

  “Athena?”

  I glanced at the back lane and saw Kevin standing by my car. I walked up to the gate and asked, “What do you want?”

  “A word, please?”

  As I opened the gate, Case took my arm. “Are you sure you want to get into it with him now?”

  “Oh boy, do I.”

  “Actually,” Kevin said, “I’d like to talk to you both. In private.”

  I glanced at Case and he nodded. We exited the gate and followed Kevin up the lane away from Spencer’s. As we stopped behind a storage garage to talk, headlights came on, blinding us, and then two policemen appeared in the light, walking toward us.

  “Damn it,” Case ground out. “It’s a trap, Athena.”

  “Kevin, you set us up?” I cried.

  “Turn around and put your hands behind your back,” one of the officers ordered Case.

  “What are the charges?” I asked as he handcuffed Case.

  Ignoring me he said, “Case Donnelly, you’re under arrest for the murder of Harry Pepper. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

  As the officer continued stating the Miranda rights I said, “Listen to me. This is Dimitrius Costas, my cousin. You can’t arrest him. We don’t even know who Case Donnelly is.”

  “Athena,” Kevin said, “I told them who he is.”

  “Let’s go,” the officer said to Case.

  I stepped in front of them. “You’re making a mistake! He didn’t commit a crime.”

  “Step out of our way or we’ll take you in, too,” the officer barked. The other officer got into the driver’s side as his partner pushed Case’s head down to get him into the back seat.

  “Find that defense attorney and get him over to the jail,” Case said before the door shut.

  As the car backed up the alley, I turned on Kevin, so furious I could’ve scratched his eyes out. “You traitor!”

  “Me? You want to talk about traitors? I know everything about you two. I was on the dock when you lied to me on the phone and said you weren’t on the boat. I even followed you when you left. And I know you didn’t meet accidentally at the food truck. You’ve been lying to me all along.”

  “And you haven’t lied to me? Did you tell me Sonny was going to be your new employer? No, I heard it from Lila. Did you tell me Sonny’s plans to destroy Little Greece were going forward? No. Don Fatsis did.”

  “I wasn’t going to accept Mr. Talbot’s offer, not until I saw you with Case. You lied to me about your relationship with this man when I thought we had a future together. Now you’re in trouble, too. You’ve been harboring a fugitive, aiding and abetting a murderer. That carries quite a prison sentence, in case you weren’t aware of it.”

  “Kevin, listen to me carefully. Case didn’t kill anyone.”

  Kevin made a sound of disgust.

  “You’re a jackass, you know that? If you don’t believe me, take me with you to see your client. Remember your client? Lila Talbot? Whom you are supposed to represent as a defense attorney? What a laugh that is. You don’t know the first thing about defending someone. In fact, I warned her not to talk to you. So if you want to hear the truth about Harry’s and Talbot Senior’s death, you need me there because she knows you’re working for her husband. And while you’re at it, if you’re brave enough, question the coroner about why he broke the law and didn’t do an autopsy on Talbot. If you don’t, then let’s talk about who’s aiding and abetting a criminal.”

  “I don’t want to hear this, Athena.”

  “Of course you don’t, because you belong to Sonny Talbot now. He’s been manipulating this whole show, Kevin, and you’re going to be the one responsible for letting him get away with murder, not just destroying Little Greece. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”

  I turned and walked away just as the clouds burst open. When Kevin put his hand on my shoulder I pulled away and dashed for my car. Inside, still in shock, I watched the end of the lane as the red and blue police lights faded and Case was taken to jail. Kevin gave me one last disgusted look through the heavy torrents now falling from the sky, and I knew Mama was going to hear about this one.

  I glanced over at the garden center and saw that everyone had gone inside. Their plans had been made and the members were finally excited, while I felt at my lowest point ever. If Sonny got his way, I would indeed be charged with the crimes Kevin had listed. What was I going to do?

  I looked at my watch. Even though it was past Nicholas’s bedtime, I strongly felt the need to hold my son close, afraid of what the next day would bring. I pulled out of the alley and headed home.

  Two blocks from my parents’ house, I was suddenly jolted forward so hard, my airbags deployed. Momentarily shocked, I realized I’d been hit, so I unfastened my seat belt to get out. But before I could push the airbag out of the way, my car door was opened, and a tight black cloth bag was slipped over my head.

  Before I had time to react, I was yanked out of the car and pushed down onto the street on my stomach, where I struggled with my captors as my hands and feet were bound. Then I was pulled to my feet and shoved into the back seat of a car facedown.

  I tried to scream, but someone pressed my face into the leather until I was gasping for air. I heard a car door slam nearby and then could tell by the sound of the engine that my SUV was being driven away. The vehicle I was in pulled away, too. Everything happened so fast it took a minute for it to sink in. I’d been kidnapped.

  “You won’t get away with this,” I said, my words muffled by the tight cloth pulling against my lips. “I’m due home. My parents will know something happened.”

  No one said a word.

 
I was driven around town, turning corners, as though the driver was trying to confuse me, but I could hear the familiar sounds of the harbor when the vehicle finally stopped. At that moment, my chin was pulled down and a gag was put around my mouth, making it impossible to scream or even talk.

  I was dragged out of the door by my feet until they hit the ground, then I was raised up and pushed forward, taking shuffling steps into a building that echoed when the door slammed behind me. I could tell I was on a wood surface, but the room felt empty around me. Another door was opened, and I was shoved forward into another room where my captors forced me to sit on a creaky old desk chair and tied my ankles to the base.

  In a panic, I took stock of my situation. My hands were bound behind me, my feet tied down, my mouth gagged, and my face covered. I heard footsteps retreating, then the door slammed, and I knew I was alone. I had no purse, no cell phone, and no way of untying myself. I was stuck and sure I was going to be the next one murdered.

  Suddenly something sharp stabbed me in the arm, right through my shirt, and then everything went black.

  * * *

  I was jolted awake at the sound of a door opening, and then I heard heavy shoes walking toward me across the wood floor. I was groggy and hungry but otherwise still alive. I had no idea what time it was nor how long I’d been out, but judging by the gnawing hunger and thirst, it had been a long time.

  The cord around my wrists was untied, my hands brought around to my lap, where my wrists were tied together again. My gag was removed, and the black cloth bag was yanked from my head. I blinked at the bright light shining in my face until I could see a lantern held in front of me, as though someone were studying me. The lantern was placed on the floor at my feet, revealing a short, stout man with craggy features, a red-veined nose, and a head full of white hair.

  “Have a cup of coffee,” Dr. Kirkland said, thrusting a cardboard cup at me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  “Dr. Kirkland?” I croaked, my throat parched. “You kidnapped me?”

  He walked to a window that had been covered with a blanket and pulled back one corner to peer out. It was nighttime, but which night? My belly grumbled loudly, and I was desperate for water. Before I could ask another question, the coroner let the blanket drop, then dragged an old wooden folding chair from the rear of the shop and sat down, the chair groaning under his weight. He set a black medical bag down beside him.

  My heart pounded in terror. I tried not to think about what was in the bag and braced myself for an interrogation. Instead he pulled out his cell phone to type a text.

  To keep myself calm, I glanced around the room. Redbrick walls, polished cherry floors, shadeless windows, holes in the bricks where picture hangers had been—I was in the back room of Don Fatsis’s art shop, near a bright red emergency exit sign over the back door that washed most of the room in a menacing glow. I checked my watch and saw that it was almost four in the morning. But of which day?

  Kirkland hit a button on his phone, then slid it into his white shirt pocket.

  “How long have I been here?” I asked.

  “Just drink your coffee.”

  I tried in vain to ignore the steaming liquid in front of me, not wanting to accept his offer, but out of a desperate need for hydration I gripped both hands around the cup and took a sip, then drank greedily, the coffee tasting sweet and pungent and warm. Then a frightening thought occurred to me. What if he’d poisoned the coffee?

  As Kirkland glanced at his watch, I took deep breaths, trying to tamp down my fear before it paralyzed me. Putting on a brave front I asked, “You didn’t put sleeping pills in my coffee, did you? Like you did with Talbot Senior?”

  His lips twitched as he glanced at the empty doorway that opened into the front of the shop, the red sign near his head exaggerating his sunken, weary eyes. Otherwise he gave no indication that I’d struck a nerve.

  “You drugged Harry Pepper, too, didn’t you?” I gave him a moment as I finished the last sip of coffee. “How did Talbot bribe you into helping him? Offer you new office space or a guaranteed reelection?”

  “You should have left it alone, Athena.”

  “Left what alone? The murders or the destruction of Little Greece? You’re a medical professional. How did you get involved in all of this?”

  “It doesn’t matter. In three hours, this building will be rubble.”

  I swallowed hard. “You’re going to leave me here?”

  He glanced down at his clasped hands as though unable to look me in the eye. “That’s the plan.”

  “Because I wanted to save my grandparents’ home and diner?”

  “No,” came a man’s voice from the doorway, “because you stuck your nose into my affairs.”

  I turned to see Sonny Talbot saunter out of the darkness, a smirk on his face. He stopped in the front doorway, half of his body draped in shadow and half bathed in red. He was dressed in a black jacket, pants, and black athletic shoes, which was why I hadn’t heard him come in. “Did you really believe you could stop me?” he asked.

  “Do you really think you can get away with three murders?”

  He straightened, his smirk gone. “It’s time for the chloroform, Doctor.”

  Sonny walked over to the window and pulled back a corner of the blanket as Kirkland opened his black bag. My stomach knotted as I watched the coroner take out a small brown glass bottle and a white cloth.

  “Is that how you killed Harry?” I asked quietly. “You held the cloth over his face until he blacked out and then suffocated him?” When Kirkland didn’t deny it, I asked, “Don’t you think it’s going to be a little too coincidental that I die the same way?”

  “Your body will be buried under so many tons of rubble there probably won’t be anything left of it,” Sonny turned to say. “And if anyone should happen to find something, who do you think they’ll call to test your remains?”

  I followed his gaze over to Kirkland.

  The coroner, of course.

  “So you do all of Talbot’s dirty work, Doctor?” I asked, trying to keep my teeth from chattering. “I know you prescribed sleeping pills for Lila so your master could murder his elderly father in his own bathtub. Imagine that scene, Doctor, Sonny waiting until his dad fell asleep, then holding his head underwater until he was dead. And then blaming it on his wife. What kind of man does that? A soulless man, that’s who.”

  “That’s enough,” Sonny snapped, dropping the blanket.

  I kept going, hoping to shake up Kirkland. “What was that oath you took when you graduated from medical school? First do no harm? Look at you now. You’ve become nothing more than one of Talbot’s henchmen.”

  Kirkland’s embarrassed shrug sickened me. “Unfortunately, kid, I don’t have much more choice in this than you do.”

  “Doctor, please, why are you risking your life for him?” I began to plead. “Think about your wife. And your practice.”

  “This quack wouldn’t have a practice if it weren’t for me,” Sonny answered for him.

  Ignoring him I said, “Doctor Kirkland, listen to me. You still have time to back out. Cut a deal with the DA and save us both.”

  Kirkland wouldn’t meet my gaze. “I’m sorry, Athena.”

  “Just shut up and give her the cloth,” Sonny demanded.

  The coroner glanced toward the rear of the store. “Did you hear that sound?”

  “Don’t stall, Dan,” Sonny said. “Do your job.”

  “I’m not stalling. I heard something.”

  “Doctor,” I pleaded, trying to regain Kirkland’s attention as he stretched a thin pair of rubber gloves over each finger, “Lila knows about the sleeping pill conspiracy. She’s going to hire a good defense lawyer and take her husband down. Do you want to go down with him?”

  “I’m surprised she was smart enough to figure it out,” Sonny said, keeping his vigil at the window. “But then you were coaching her with your little jail chat, weren’t you?” As Kirkland uncapped the bottle, Son
ny said, “Lila won’t be a problem. Do you know how many inmates are killed in prison each year by their own cellmates?”

  Dear God. Sonny was going to have Lila killed, too. And who would think to blame him for a death that happened in jail?

  As Kirkland approached me with cloth in hand, I was trembling all over. I couldn’t leave my son without a mother. How could I stop them?

  My voice shaking with fear I asked, “How does it feel to be a hired assassin, Doctor?”

  Kirkland’s craggy face flushed a deep red, but he didn’t answer.

  I kicked my chair backward against the slick hardwood floor as Kirkland stepped closer. “How do you sleep at night knowing you helped this power-hungry lunatic murder his own father? And Harry Pepper, too, who never uttered an unkind word to anyone?”

  “If you’re trying to prod his conscience,” Sonny said, “you’re wasting your time.”

  “How would you know? You have no conscience,” I shot back. “Your father did, though. That’s why he canceled the project. He was a better man than you’ll ever be.”

  “He made a mistake, that’s all. Fortunately, he didn’t live long enough to regret it.” Sonny’s phone beeped. He pulled it out, read the text, and muttered, “Damn that stupid kid.”

  “What is it?” Kirkland asked.

  “Kevin wants to talk to me. Hold off on the cloth, Dan. He says he has critical information.” Sonny began typing on his phone. “I told him to meet us inside the front door.”

  “There’s that sound again,” Kirkland said. “It’s coming from the back alley.”

  “Go check it out then,” Sonny said as he sauntered toward me. “I’ve got a question for you now, Miss Goody Two-Shoes. How does it feel to know that even your boyfriend turned against you?” He bent down at the waist to study me, his eyes sweeping over me as I continued to inch backward. “What did he see in you anyway?”

  “Kevin is a good man,” I argued. “He took the job with you to get even with me. If he knew what you were really like—”