Four

by Jane Blythe

  Dropping to her knees, Laura knew that her one hope of getting out of here alive lay on the floor over by the bed. Doing her best to ignore Axel’s account of the ‘fun’ they had had that summer as she crawled as quickly as she dared toward Rose’s body. In the pitch black, unable to see where she was going, she banged headfirst into a piece of furniture, causing a bang that seemed amplified in the quiet cabin. She pressed one hand to her mouth, the other to her cheekbone that was already sticky with blood, and held her breath as she waited for Axel’s hands to close around her neck and crush the life right out of her.

  “Well, this certainly is a bundle of fun,” Axel cheered. Apparently, he was happy to drag this out for as long as he could. “I was always sorry I missed out on the hunt, that I never got to chase you in the woods. Well, I guess we’re making up for it now.”

  A rumbling peel of thunder announced a coming burst of lightning and Laura took cover behind a chair and prayed that Axel wouldn’t see her. She needed to get to that gun, but to do so, she needed to keep Axel distracted. If she could keep him talking, it should keep him sufficiently occupied so she could keep moving undetected. The prospect of talking to the man responsible for what had happened to her made her feel physically sick, but she’d already found the strength to fight back once, that empowered her to try again.

  Taking a deep breath, she asked, “Why? Why did you do it?”

  “Because of what you did.” His voice turned to a vicious snarl.

  “What did I do?” she asked, edging her way toward the sofa.

  “You know what you did,” he snapped.

  “I said I wouldn’t have sex with you because you were married with a family.” She tensed her muscles, preparing herself to move after the next flash of lightning. “Why would that make you hate me enough to do this?”

  “You did more than that.” Axel’s face looked manic as Laura caught sight of it as bright light briefly illuminated the room.

  Continuing her quest when the room fell dark once again, Laura hardly noticed when she crawled over the tiny shards of glass that had rained down when Axel had shot out the light globe. The pain in her knees and hands was nothing compared to the giant knot of fear that gripped her heart and made her feel like the mouse being played with by the cat.

  “You went to my wife,” Axel was ranting. “Told her everything. She left me, took my son, convinced a judge I was abusive, and she got full custody of him. He’s eleven years old now and I haven’t seen him since he was one. You thought you were so perfect, so high and mighty, playing God with my life, costing me everything. You deserved everything you got.”

  She was so close to the gun now, she just needed to keep him talking a little longer. “How did you know the Garretts?”

  “They’re my nephews.” His voice grew smug once more. “Their mom was my older sister. She ditched them when they were young, couldn’t stand their lunatic dad, so I used to look in on them from time to time. Imagine my surprise when one day I go to check on them and I find they have a little visitor.”

  “What they did to me, it wasn’t the first time?”

  “Far from it,” Axel laughed. “With two loser parents, I thought they deserved to have their fun. Then when you played with my life, I thought it was only fair that I play with yours.”

  “You knew—you knew what they were doing and you never tried to stop them. That makes you as bad as they are.”

  “Little Laura, always so prissy and perfect,” Axel sneered.

  Finally reaching the bed, Laura lay down on her stomach and eased underneath it, inching her way toward the other side. Feeling around, her hand brushed against Rose’s and she had to bite on her lip to stop a sob escaping. At last, her hand clasped the item she’d been searching for. With a deep breath, she tried to steady her nerves, she was only going to get one chance at making this work.

  “I never went to your wife,” she announced.

  “Liar,” Axel screamed.

  As another peel of thunder crashed above them, Laura’s muscles tensed and as a bolt of lightning temporarily lit the room, she sprung up and fired, hitting her target right between the eyes.

  The room bathed in darkness once again, and Laura heard the thud as Axel’s body hit the floor and found she had once again lost the ability to move.

  It felt like hours that she stood there listening to the rain. Occasionally, lightning would light the blood-splattered room, but Laura liked it better in the dark. It felt safer.

  She’d just killed a man. The fact that he was a psychopath who had organized her kidnapping, killed people, and who had been about to rape and murder her, didn’t seem to factor in. All she could think of was that she’d just taken a life.

  She didn’t hear Jack come in, although she supposed he must have spoken. All she could hear was the sound of the gunshot ringing in her ears.

  The first she realized he was there was when he gently eased the gun from her hands, wrapped his jacket around her shoulders, and picked her up, carrying her from the room and out to the car, where he laid her on the back seat, resting her head in his lap.

  Laura was numb by the time a swarm of paramedics and police officers descended on the cabin. Jack handed her over to a pair of medics, promised her that he would meet her at the hospital, then disappeared into the cabin.

  She didn’t believe him, though.

  How could he ever want to see her again? His partner was dead because of her.

  She was going to go back to her apartment, lock herself back inside, and return to the life she’d been living the last ten years, completely giving up any notions of a happy future with Jack or anyone else.

  * * * * *

  10:42 P.M.

  He stood and watched the flashing red and blue lights of the ambulance as it rushed off down the road. Jack had been torn between riding with Laura to the hospital and remaining here until things were wrapped up. In the end, he had decided to stay, unable to leave while his partner’s body still lay inside the cabin.

  As the lights were swallowed up in the dark night, Jack turned and headed back toward the cabin, pausing at the door, trying to convince his brain that the scene before him was real. He had attended hundreds of crime scenes in the years since he joined the police force, but this was the first ever where the murder victim was someone close to him.

  Inside, the carnage looked surreal. Lights had been set up, giving the room an eerie glow. Axel’s body was still lying where it had fallen. The glass from the shattered light fixture still littered the floor. Paige was crying in Ryan’s arms over by the bed. Rose’s body was covered with a sheet, but it didn’t matter, the picture of his partner’s lifeless corpse was forever burned into his mind.

  “You doing okay?” Ryan suddenly appeared beside him.

  He nodded absently; he’d been in a haze ever since he’d returned to the cabin to find Rose and Axel dead, and Laura standing in the middle of the room staring blankly into space.

  “How’s Laura?”

  “Still in shock.” Just as she had been since he found her. Laura hadn't heard him arrive, even though her name had been the first word he uttered upon discovering the carnage. After quickly checking to confirm that both Axel and Rose were dead, he’d gone to her, asked her if she was okay, but she still hadn't heard him. She hadn't realized he was there until he had gently taken the gun from her, wrapped her trembling form up in his jacket and carried her from the room. “I'm going to go to the hospital to be with her once we finish up here.” He shook his head to focus his dazed mind. “So, how did it go down?”

  “There’ll be time to go through this later,” Paige said softly. Her eyes were red and puffy. Paige had been just as close as he had been with Rose. Jack had no idea how any of them were going to get through this. “Go to the hospital; Laura needs you.”

  “I can't until they …” Jack trailed off, his eyes glued to the bloody sheet.

  Exchanging glances, Ryan gave Paige a nod. “Looks like he caught them unaw
are, shot at Rose, got her in the back, right through the heart, and she died instantly,” Paige explained. “Laura’s clothes are by the bed,” she continued carefully, her brown eyes studying him. “Did you ask her if he raped her?”

  The queasiness in his stomach intensified. “I asked her.” As soon as he’d found her dressed in nothing but her underwear, he’d been afraid that Axel had forced himself on her before she shot him.

  “And?” his brother prompted.

  “And I don’t know, she didn’t answer, she didn’t answer any of the questions I asked her, she was in shock. I asked the EMTs to get the doctors at the ER to do a rape kit on her.” He was working hard to keep his voice neutral. He wasn’t sure how Laura was going to cope with all of this—taking a life, no matter how justified—was something that haunted you.

  “Well, whether he did or not,” Paige continued, “Laura must have fought back, managed to get away. Axel Christenson probably shot out the light. Laura had cuts on her hands, knees, and face, so it makes sense that she was crawling in the dark across the glass from the globe and crashed into something. It seems she made it to Rose’s gun …”

  “Maybe she got the gun at the beginning,” he suggested. “If she was near Rose when he …” He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

  “Maybe,” Paige nodded slowly. “But I'd say unlikely. If she had the gun at the beginning, Axel would have taken it off her when he took off her clothes. Or he never would have had a chance to take her clothes off because she would have shot him right away.”

  “I guess,” he agreed, reluctantly acknowledging Paige’s logic but still desperate for a scenario that categorically precluded Laura being raped.

  “Assuming she got Rose’s gun after she fought him off on the bed, she was able to get a shot at Axel, lucky she’s such a good aim or she’d probably be dead now, too.”

  He was barely able to breathe. He had come so close to losing her. If her aim had been only a little off, she would have missed her chance and Axel would have killed her. He couldn’t help but picture how terrified she must have been, crawling across the floor in the dark, desperately trying to get to the gun so she would have something with which to protect herself against this maniac. Jack was hoping that the knowledge that she hadn't been helpless this time, that she had fought back and saved herself, was going to be enough to help her through this.

  “At least he’s dead now,” Ryan murmured. “Laura is safe.”

  Safe but probably petrified out of her mind, he thought. Alone in a sea of people. The ER would be busy and Laura would have to draw on reserves of strength he wasn’t sure she had left. The paramedics had given her a sedative; he hoped it was enough to calm her panic and keep it at bay until he got there.

  Guilt was beginning to crush him as he pondered all the things he ought to have done differently. He ought to have found Axel Christenson sooner; he ought not to have brought Laura out here; he ought to have been the one to stay with her; he ought to have gone with her to the hospital and not made her face that alone.

  “Can I have a minute alone, please?” he asked Ryan, Paige, and the CSU techs who were busy collecting evidence.

  “Are you sure?” his brother asked.

  “I need a moment to say goodbye.” Jack’s eyes were once again riveted to the bloody sheet covering his partner’s body.

  “Okay.” Ryan nodded to the CSU techs who left their equipment and filed out the door.

  “Want me to call the hospital and check on Laura?” Paige asked.

  “Yeah, thanks. Tell her I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  Once alone, Jack bent over and pulled back the sheet, staring down at Rose. She lay face down, her red hair spilled out around her head, the jagged hole in the back of her white turtleneck the only indication that something was wrong. He burned with rage at Axel Christenson’s cowardice. Shooting someone in the back was the lowest of low.

  He knelt and gently eased Rose onto her back, cradling her head in his hand. Laura had survived, she was still alive, and he still had a shot with her, but at the expense of his partner’s life. A tear splashed down onto Rose’s cheek, then another and another, until he was sobbing quietly.

  JULY 29th

  6:03 P.M.

  She ignored the ringing phone.

  It would be Jack.

  Again.

  Laura had already ignored several dozen phone calls from him. He’d filled up her answering machine, but she’d stopped listening after the first message. She didn’t want to hear his assurances that he’d be over as soon as he could. It was better to make a clean break of things. She didn’t need him to come in person to tell her that it was over, that he couldn’t forgive her for getting his partner killed.

  As much as she didn’t want to admit it, hearing his voice still offered comfort it shouldn’t. If just his voice could comfort her, then having him here in person was sure to be more than she could deal with right now.

  Everything that had happened last night was weighing down on her. The events replayed themselves relentlessly in her mind. Rose dying right in front of her, Axel almost raping her, shooting him. Every time she thought about killing Axel Christenson, her heart felt like it was being tied in a knot.

  She pulled the covers tighter around herself. She’d been in bed ever since she returned from the hospital in the early hours of the morning. At the hospital, she had let the doctors stitch closed the gash on her cheekbone, clean the cuts on her hands and knees, and tend to her burn, but when they had said they wanted to do a rape kit on her, she had flatly refused. There was no need for one, Axel hadn't raped her, although he would have if she hadn't managed to fight him off. She’d considered telling the hospital staff that it wasn’t necessary, but all she had really wanted was to get back home.

  She had also flatly refused when they told her they wanted to keep her in the hospital overnight under observation. Instead, she’d signed herself out and taken a cab back to her apartment.

  Reaching her fortress, she had locked herself in, thrown off the scrubs the doctors at the hospital had given her to wear since the police needed her clothes as evidence, and pulled on a pair of her favorite pajamas, then climbed into bed. Jack’s first call had come shortly after.

  Someone knocked on her door and she jumped a mile.

  She knew who it was even before they called out. Since she hadn't buzzed anyone into the building, it had to be someone her doorman would be comfortable letting in, and the only person who knew where she lived and who her doorman knew was Jack.

  “Laura?” Jack’s voice called as he hammered on her door. “I know you’re in there, let me in, we need to talk.”

  She pulled the covers over her head and ignored him.

  “Laura?” he persisted. “I need to see that you’re okay, please let me in.”

  She had hoped that the fact that she hadn't answered or returned any of his calls would have been a big enough hint that she didn’t want to talk to him.

  He banged on her door more insistently. “Laura, I’m just going to break your door down if you don’t answer.”

  Assuming he was joking, Laura stayed right where she was, tuning out the thumping and his increasingly desperate pleas for her to open the door.

  She narrowed her eyes in confusion when she heard a strange buzzing noise. Reluctantly climbing out from under the covers, she followed the sound to the front door. She slid the five deadlocks undone and pulled open the door to find Jack kneeling on the floor in front of her, removing the screws with his drill.

  He flashed a smile at her. “I didn’t want to hurt myself breaking down the door.”

  Refusing to allow herself to be drawn in by his adorable dimples and endearing grin, Laura turned and was about to close the door once more when Jack grabbed her wrist.

  “Laura, wait, please.” He turned her to face him. “Please, I just want to talk to you.”

  She knew she’d regret it even as her mouth was forming the word. “Fine.”
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  Jack followed her back inside her apartment, where he relocked all five deadbolts, then took her hand and led her to the couch. “Are you okay?” he asked as he gently pushed her down.

  Not trusting herself to talk, she simply nodded.

  His blue eyes went fierce. “Before you shot him, did Axel rape you?”

  She suppressed a shiver. “No.”

  Visibly relaxing, he sat down beside her. “I was afraid he’d hurt you and it would be one more thing that you’d have to …”

  “Why did you come here?” she interrupted. It was too hard having Jack here and this was hard enough as it was, she needed him gone.

  “I told you I’d come,” he reminded her. “Actually, I told you I’d meet you at the hospital, but when I got there you’d already checked yourself out.” A hint of reproach was in his tone.

  She stood to dismiss him. “Look, I don’t want to talk right now, I just want to be alone.”

  He jumped up and blocked her path as she tried to escape to her bedroom. “What’s wrong? I thought we were doing okay. You shouldn’t be alone right now, I want to stay with you.”

  Tears welled up in her eyes. “How can you even stand to look at me?”

  “What?” Genuine confusion filled the blue eyes that looked down at her.

  “Rose is dead,” she reminded him.

  “I know.” Pain flashed across his face, but the puzzlement was still there. “And?”

  “And your partner is dead because of me,” she finished. No longer able to hold back her tears, they burst out in a noisy sob.

  “Listen to me.” Jack took her shoulders in a firm grip. “What happened to Rose was not your fault.”

  His words only made her cry harder, so Jack gathered her into his arms and sat back down on the couch, setting her in his lap, his arms wrapped tightly around her. She gave herself permission to let go of all the doubts and insecurities and entwined her arms around his neck and clung to him as she wept. Jack’s hand stroked up and down her back, his other cradled her head, and she drank in his warmth and strength. She lifted her head from his shoulder to peer up at him. “Don’t you blame me?”