“So, now that Scott isn’t gay or bi and doesn’t have a girlfriend, are you two going to finally get together?”
Katherine forced a laughed, then said. “Jeez, what is it about Scott that makes you want us together so much?”
“I just want you to be happy.”
“Scott’s leaving Reno. He’s been offered a job somewhere near L.A. So I think that ship has sailed.”
Amy looked incredulous.
“Are you kidding me? You two are nuts. Well, at least you are. I don’t know what Scott’s feeling, but you can’t fool me. I do know what you’re feeling.”
“It's been less than a week since he and Verna broke up. Give the guy a break. I think he really cared for Verna, and only broke up with her after he found out she’s a thief.”
“You don’t know that that’s the only reason. Why won’t you admit you care for Scott?”
“Okay Amy, you’ve forced me to be all dramatic now. I was afraid, okay? I was still getting over Ray. By the time I was more or less ready to give Scott a chance, he was seeing someone. Now it’s too late. He’s leaving.”
Amy could hear the hurt in Katherine’s voice, so she changed the subject. “You sure you’re not mad that I’m going out tonight? I can cancel this date.”
“No, it’s fine. It’s not like we were going to do anything after dinner. Go, have fun.”
Katherine could tell Amy was pleased. She wanted to go on this date more than she was willing to admit. “When’s he picking you up?”
“Did you already forget?” said Amy. “You’re dropping me off at the bowling alley.”
“Oh yeah. So tell me about this guy. How’d you meet?”
“Through some friends in Carson. It was an unofficial blind date. We all went out to eat. We were the only ones who were single. It was so obvious, but we hit it off. I told you about him, remember? The Boy Scout. I’m sure we’ll be doing more than bowling - with any luck, much more than bowling. Don’t wait up.”
“Well, okay then. Guess I don’t need to say ‘have fun!’”
Amy laughed, then said, “Nope. I plan to.”
Chapter Sixty-Three
Christian sat staring at his fireplace. He’d been waiting for the beating on the door, for the police to break it down, to be cuffed and taken to jail. But none of this had happened. Maybe Katherine had been telling the truth - maybe she really hadn’t gotten a good look at him. He should have been happy with his good fortune; he’d gotten away with murder. But his obsession grew every day. This was the woman who had his coin, he was sure of it. Could he rest knowing it was so close? He’d driven by her apartment a few times, even seen her. She was a brazen, foolish woman for not moving. Every day he remained a free man, he became more confident. He knew her police protection was leaving. It would be laughably easy to go get what was his. He stood and put on his jacket.
***
Christian parked across the street from the apartment building. Everything seemed quiet. He’d seen Katherine when she arrived home. He waited, wanting to make sure she wasn’t going to leave again. He needed her there, to give him the coin.
Chapter Sixty-Four
He looked around her bedroom, smiling as his eyes rested upon two small bags of garbage behind the door. Some things never change. He kicked one of the bags out into the living room, then threw himself down on the bed, reaching up and putting a pillow under his head, enjoying the smell, a mixture of vanilla and musk, Katherine in a nutshell. He assumed she’d be home soon, and hoped she was alone. Killing her sister wasn’t part of the plan, but if it came to that, he would. Time was running out - he’d had to sleep in his car to avoid going back to his motel room, where they waited. Glancing at his hand, he recalled his last warning. She needed to die; he’d had multiple chances, and the sliver that remained of his conscience was the only reason she wasn’t already dead.
He should never have told them about Katherine or the money. But when a three-hundred-pound monster is holding a meat cleaver to your dick, you’ll say just about anything. He wished he’d never have gotten involved with that world. What’s the joke? Drugs, women, and rock and roll. Just three of his many vices. Not much of a joke. And now he waited, for the sound of a key turning in a lock, for the fragrance of a woman, for his last chance to finish what he’d started.
He could just make out the sound of her voice; she was talking to someone. He tried to hide behind her door, but with the garbage it wasn’t easy. He set one outside, leaving just enough room for him between the door and wall. There she was. He’d seen her from afar many times, but up close she was something else. How do you destroy such beauty? He looked down at the knife he held.
***
Jack hung up the phone and began gathering folders and loose papers. It had been a week since Katherine’s confrontation with Ms. Churchill’s killer, and even though he was still out there somewhere, her protection was being pulled. He had some paperwork to do, but then he’d be leaving and he wasn’t coming back. When he heard the front door open, he looked out the office door and saw Katherine standing by the mailboxes. “Hi,” he said, a big smile on his face.
She smiled back. Jack’s smile was infectious.
“I wanted to say goodbye,” said Jack. “I’ll be here for a little while longer, but then that’s it. Today’s my last day.”
Katherine stood on the first step, holding her mail in one hand, her other hand on the railing.
“Really?” she said. “I guess I couldn’t expect you to be here forever, but I’m sorry to see you go.”
Jack walked out of the office. He looked up at Katherine.
“I’m sorry to be leaving” he said. “Where’s your sister? I was hoping to say goodbye to her too.”
“Oh, I dropped her off somewhere. She has a big date.”
Jack looked out the front door, lost in thought.
“Jack?”
“Sorry. Well if you ever need anything just call the department and ask for Detective Jack Harney.”
“I will. Who knows - Reno’s not that big, maybe we’ll run into each other sometime.”
“I hope so.”
Katherine walked up the stairs.
***
Scott sat at his desk, taking a break from going through all the boxes that had arrived from the now-closed branch office. He was startled when the phone rang, and almost fell out of his chair. He was grateful nobody else was in the office to see. It was nearly 8:00 pm and everyone else had gone home.
It was his brother. “Hey, Alex, what's up?”
“A little bird tells me you’re not seeing Verna anymore.”
“Well, that didn’t take long. You’ve talked to Jason. Yeah, we broke up about a week ago.”
“How ya feeling?”
“I’m fine. I liked her, but she had issues.” He didn’t tell Alex about the things she’d stolen from Katherine.
“Jason said your friend Katherine broke up with her boyfriend, too. It’s fate.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Haven’t you always wanted to be with her? Seriously, brother to brother, no bull.”
“Maybe it’s time to let it go,” said Scott. “We started out as friends. Maybe that’s all we’re meant to be.”
“Is that all she wants to be?”
“I don’t know. She can’t be eager to get into another relationship so soon. She went from a guy who cheated on her to a guy who turned out to be gay. When it comes to men, her judgment might not be all it should be. Come to think of it, maybe she will want to date me.”
“You joke, but if I were you, I wouldn’t waste a lot of time. If she’s as attractive as you’ve made her sound and you want to be with her, you’d better do something about it quickly, before she meets someone else.”
“Doesn’t matter now. I got a job offer near L.A. I have to be there in three weeks.”
“Oh man, Mom’s gonna freak. She was just complaining that she hardly sees us.”
“I can�
��t help that.”
”I’m surprised,” said Alex. “I guess I thought you were really into her. Must have been wrong if you’re okay with leaving her.”
“I’m not okay with leaving Katherine, but it’s the smart thing to do.”
Later, Scott thought about what Alex had said. His feelings for her had grown. Even being with Verna hadn’t dampened them, but it was time to cut his losses and move on. She’d barely batted an eye when he’d told her about the new job. He knew it would hurt, but not nearly as much as having to watch her with someone else.
***
Katherine set her purse onto the couch and headed for her bedroom, glancing at the bag of garbage in the living room with confusion. She didn’t remember bringing it out from her room. When she pushed the bedroom door, it hardly moved, and she figured the second garbage bag was behind it. Pushing a little harder, she was able to just squeeze through, and she began unbuttoning her blouse.
Then the door slammed behind her.
Katherine swung around.
“Don't let me stop you.”
She backed toward the bed. “What are you doing here? How did you get in?” she said, more angry than frightened.
“You’re beautiful, but sometimes you talk too much. It might get you hurt someday. Maybe sooner than you think.” He gestured toward a garbage bag. “I can’t believe you still hide the damn garbage in the bedroom. Hope you don’t mind me moving it. There wasn’t enough room for the garbage and me behind the door.”
“You have no right to be here.”
“How can you say that? I’m your husband.”
“Not for much longer. What do you want, Ray?” She didn’t like the look in her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s eye. She hadn’t seen Ray in nearly a year, and he looked tired and bloated.
“You never should have left me.”
“Why would I stay? You gambled away most of our money, and you were screwing around. I don’t have to put up with that shit!”
“Ah, well, still. If you’d stayed I wouldn’t be in the trouble I’m in now.”
“And what trouble would that be?”
“I owe a lot of money to some very unsympathetic men. They’ve been very patient, but if I don’t give them the money I owe soon - well, let’s say I'm fond of my—.”
“I don’t have any money, and I wouldn’t give it to you if I did. You’ve come to the wrong woman.”
“Katherine, you’re worth a lot of money. You just don’t know it.”
“How’s that? Please enlighten me.”
Ray gently pushed her shoulder until she’d backed up to her bed, and with one more push, she plopped down. Sitting next to her, he caressed her cheek and tried to kiss her neck. She shoved him away.
“Are you nuts? I don’t know how you got in, but I want you out of here.”
That was when she saw the knife. “What the hell Ray? What’s going on?”
Chapter Sixty-Five
Scott sat at his desk thinking about his new job offer. Since starting this job, all he’d been doing was bumping life insurance policies against a master list, ensuring that all the policies that were on the list were in the boxes that had been delivered from a now-closed office, and there had been a lot. The new job didn’t have anything to do with life insurance, a definite plus. He started to review a box of policies that weren’t as important as the others. They were provisional and were due to expire that evening at midnight, but they still needed to be bumped against the master inventory.
He turned on a small lamp on his desk, took a sip of hot chocolate from his I’d Rather Be Eating mug, and proceeded to work his way through the box that held policies filed under “O” through “S.” He’d decided to do one more box because the one he’d finished hadn’t been full. Picking up a folder, he confirmed that it was on the master list, but for some reason he didn’t put it back down. It took him a second to realize what had caught his eye. The policy was for a woman, maiden name O’Brian, first name Katherine. Like the policies in the previous box, this policy would expire that evening, at midnight. The beneficiary was Ray Turner. He remembered that Katherine had told him Turner was her married name.
Scott thought about Katherine being forced off the road on her way up to Tahoe, and the attack at the mall. What if it hadn’t been Jeanette Churchill’s killer who’d done those things? We just assumed that if Katherine’s life was in danger, it was because of what she’d witnessed. Could we have been wrong all this time? He debated with himself. If Ray Turner hoped to collect on the policy, Katherine would have to die before midnight.
This is crazy.
He grabbed the phone. He’d call her to make sure she was all right. Maybe he’d suggest that they get together. He wouldn’t tell her why, but it would make him feel better if she were with him.
***
Katherine’s cell phone rang, and she reached for it.
“Oh no no no no,” Ray said. “This is our time, Katherine, yours and mine. I don’t want any interruptions.”
“Amy will be home soon and she'll have her boyfriend with her.”
Ray laughed. “I don’t think so, but if she shows up we’ll have a party.”
“A party?”
The phone next to the bed rang. After three rings, the answering machine picked up.
“Katherine, give me a call. I thought we’d get together tonight. I haven’t forgotten it’s your birthday. Call me, soon.”
“Ah, Scott,” Ray said. “If I was a betting man, I’d wager he’s in love with you. Wait a minute - I am a betting man.”
***
Scott set the phone down. He knew Katherine had gone out to eat with her sister, but he’d thought she would have been home by now. Just because she didn’t answer didn’t mean anything was wrong, he told himself. He looked at the policy he held, then back at the phone.
What am I going to do? Rush over there? What happens if she doesn’t answer the door? Am I going to break it down?
He willed himself to focus on the remaining policies.
***
Ray patted the bed. “What do you say, for old time’s sake?”
Disgusted, Katherine jumped up off the bed.
“Are you nuts? You've broken into my home and you look like hell. The last thing in the world I want to do is have sex with you. You must be drunk.”
The look on his face turned from playful to angry in a second. “I’m desperate and I’m horny, but I’m not drunk. You should have stayed with me, Katherine. You would have kept me straight. After you left, well, there was no holding back. I’m lucky I didn't get kicked out of the Air Force. But it is what it is, and as much as it pains me, you will die tonight.” He looked at the clock. “Very soon.”
Panic filled Katherine’s chest. A year ago she would never have believed Ray capable of hurting anyone, but he hardly resembled the man she’d married. “Kill me? Why would you want to kill me?” she asked, trying to buy time as she inched toward the bedroom door.
“You’ve heard the saying ‘worth more dead than alive.’”
Katherine’s breath caught in her throat. She thought she'd figured out why he’d come, and she knew she was in a lot of danger.
***
Katherine had forgotten about the life insurance policy. They’d each gotten one while they’d still been happily married. It had been cheapest to buy a term policy and renew once a year on her birthday. She’d told Ray that once they were better-off financially, she’d change the policy, but then they’d split up. And she’d never changed the beneficiary.
She looked at the clock on her bedside table. It was nearly eight thirty. He had until midnight. How long before he’d kill her?
“I don’t think the policy covers murder,” she said.
“Sure it does. You don’t think I’d go to all this trouble without checking. I admit it would have been better if you’d had an ‘accident.’ God knows I’ve tried.”
Katherine looked at Ray’s boots hanging over the side of the bed.
>
“Steel-toed boots,” she said, mostly to herself. “Was it you who attacked me in the stairwell at the mall?”
“Sure was, and you’d be dead right now if I hadn’t let your obvious appeal distract me. Granted, that wasn’t the best location to kill you, but I didn’t have much luck anywhere else either. To be fair, my heart wasn’t really in it at first. However, I was persuaded that getting money really needed to be a top priority” - he held up his hand - “when this happened.”
Katherine recoiled. Where Ray’s right pinky should have been, there was only a stump.
“I was fond of my pinky finger, Katherine, and I’d just as soon keep the other.”
“What else did you do?”
Ray shook his head. “My God, you must have nine lives. I’m the guy who ran you off the road to Tahoe. I thought it’d be easier to kill you if I didn’t have to look at you. Didn’t make a difference, though. When I thought you were dead, I still felt like shit. Hell, I even sunk to sneaking into the building and greasing down the stairwell railings. What will save you this time?”
Katherine was asking herself the same question.
***
Scott looked at the clock. It was nearly nine. He tried to ignore Katherine’s life insurance policy. He got through two more files before he grabbed his keys and shut off the light.
Scott had planned to go straight to Katherine’s, but had to stop for gas. As he pumped, he started to relax. He would be very glad to see her, to know she was all right, but he wouldn’t tell her what he’d feared.
He pulled into the street only to slam on his brakes. An accident had occurred up the block, so there he sat. The clock in his car showed nine thirty. He tried calling Katherine again, but still received no answer. He alternated between feeling anxious and feeling foolish. If he was wrong, he’d look like an idiot, but if he was right and didn’t go - well, he didn’t want to think about that. Thirty minutes later, still stuck behind the accident, he pulled out his phone again.
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