by Kris Tualla
Hollis smiled. “Thank you, Officer. I do appreciate your help.”
Howard touched the brim of his hat. “To protect and serve, ma’am.”
The quartet, plus Sveyn, waited in place until the squad car pulled out of the parking lot. Then George turned to Hollis.
“Sage’s civil trial opens tomorrow at ten. Do you have any questions?”
“He didn’t settle, so I have to face him. Right?” The idea twisted Hollis’s gut.
George gave her a kind look, clearly visible in the parking lot lights. “A lot of trials go down to the wire before someone caves. I’ll be at the courthouse by nine in case Sage’s lawyer has talked sense into his client.”
“Because settling makes sense?” Matt asked.
“It does,” George answered. “Sage pled guilty in the criminal court and the security footage shows the state in which he left Hollis. Her suffering is demonstrable.”
“So why wouldn’t he have settled already?” Matt continued.
George shrugged. “He’s a tightwad who thinks he can win, I guess.”
Matt scowled. “Or he’s hoping Hollis backs out rather than face him?”
“There is that possibility,” George admitted.
“I’m not going to back out.” Hollis looked from George to Matt to Sveyn. “You all will protect me against that ass.”
Stevie shivered. “I hate to break up a party, but I’m freezing.”
“I’m sorry darling. We can go.” George put his arm around Stevie and pulled her close. “Nice to see you again, Matt. See you tomorrow, Hollis.”
Matt turned to Hollis. “Can I come over for a little bit?”
Hollis unlocked her car. “Sure.”
*****
Hollis heated up leftover pizza while Matt poured an old vine red zinfandel. They took the snack to the coffee table.
Matt sat on the couch. “Is he here?”
“In the condo? Yeah. But not in this room.” Hollis lifted a slice of pizza. “He’s very good about giving us privacy.”
“Hmm.” Matt sipped his wine, then twisted to face Hollis more directly. “I have to tell you something.”
Hollis froze mid-chew. “What?” she asked past the cheese and pepperoni.
“When I showed up at the opening, I expected so see the Hollis I knew two, three years ago. But I was surprised.”
This wasn’t good. “How?”
“The girl I knew back then never could have done what you’ve done here.”
Hollis was so surprised she didn’t know how to respond. She took a drink of wine to empty her mouth before she asked Matt, “Could you explain what you mean by that?
He nodded. “You moved halfway across the country, took on this massive project, and managed to create a fantastic display.”
Hollis’s brow lowered. “Matt. That’s what my degree is in. That was my job in Milwaukee. And in Chicago.”
“I know but—”
“So either you never understood my degree, or my job, or you didn’t think I was capable?”
Matt squirmed. “No. That’s not what I meant at all!”
“Then back that truck up and try again.” Hollis took a big bite of pizza and glared at him.
Matt ran his fingers through his hair. “Hollis, you’ve changed. You seem to have come into yourself. Finally.”
That was better. “Go on.”
“When we were together, you always deferred to me. You were always so generous and sweet.”
“And I’m not generous or sweet anymore?”
“No, you absolutely are!” Matt looked panicked. “But the other side of your personality has blossomed. The confident side. The side that tells the world to sit up and take notice.”
When Hollis thought about it, she realized that she agreed with Matt. The transition has been so gradual she hadn’t realized it was happening. She slid her gaze back to his.
“Why is that, do you think?” Hollis had a good idea and was curious to see if Matt came to the same conclusion.
“Because of me.”
Yep. He did. “Explain.”
“I was too strong of a personality. I steamrollered you.”
That’s not how Hollis would have defined it. “I disagree, Matt. I think you were a self-centered person who considered me less important.”
Matt flinched. “Suzan says I’m self-centered.”
“We all are to some extent,” Hollis admitted. “But I pushed my wants down and—what did you call it?—deferred to you.” She leaned forward. “Because I was in love with you.”
“But you aren’t doing that now.”
Hollis leaned back again. “Nope.”
Matt’s expression shifted. “I can’t tell you how sexy that makes you.”
That was unexpected. “You think I’m sexier now than when we were together?”
“I do.”
Hollis finished her second slice of pizza without speaking. This conversation was very revealing, partly because she wasn’t pulling any punches. If Matt wanted something between them to continue she couldn’t hold back any more.
“Can I say something else?” he asked.
“Sure.” What now?
“I’m going so far as to say that my leaving you was good for you.”
Hollis set her wine glass down before she wasted the delicious zinfandel all over his face. “You’re saying that you think that your running off with Suzan was good for me?”
“In a roundabout way, yes.” Matt waved a hand from her head to her feet. “Look at what you’ve turned into, Holl. You’re a smart, beautiful, and articulate media sensation who’s captured the world’s attention because of what you accomplished.”
Hollis’s ego really enjoyed that sentence in spite of the slam that led into it, but she didn’t want to agree with Matt’s contention that, in an admittedly oblique way, he left her for her own good.
Yet the resultant changes he described were accurate. She was much more herself now than she had ever been in her life.
“What about you, Matt?” Hollis pressed. “What have you learned?”
He thought about that for a minute. “I’ve learned that I was actually looking for the exact woman that I was stopping you from becoming.”
Hollis stared at him. “And you thought Suzan was that woman?”
“I did. But she wasn’t you. Obviously.” Matt smiled sadly. “And then I saw you on YouTube and realized that you really were right for me all along. I guess I had to loosen my grip so you could blossom.”
“Why did you hold me so tight, Matt?” Hollis whispered.
“Because I was terrified I’d lose you.” He snorted softly. “And then I gave you up for not being what I wanted, even though I was the one who held you back.”
*****
Sex with Matt was still not an option at this point. In spite of his revelations about himself and her, Hollis couldn’t sleep with him yet. She needed something more definite from him. A commitment of some sort. Filing for divorce from Suzan was a very good start, but it was still only a start.
That didn’t stop her from enjoying his body.
Matt was always an amazing kisser, and he knew how to kiss her where it counted. She used her hands and her mouth on him as well, until both of them sprawled half-dressed on her couch, panting in post-pleasure bliss.
Hollis was stabbed with guilt, though, as images from her dreams with Sveyn popped annoyingly to mind. She made an effort to be quiet during her play with Matt, knowing that Sveyn would hear every utterance of her arousal.
And she was definitely aroused. Having a hot, three-dimensional, and solid man caressing and stimulating her most sensitive areas beat the snot out of dream sex. Her body quivered and flushed with her peak like it never did in her sleep.
“I love you, Hollis,” Matt whispered into her tousled curls.
Hollis hesitated, wondering if her words were true but saying them anyway. “I love you, too, Matt.”
Thursday
Januar
y 7
Hollis sent Matt home last night, using the civil trial as her excuse. “I really need to focus, Matt, and prepare myself to see that man again.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” he asked.
That was sweet. “No. Thank you, though. I really want to do this by myself.”
With Sveyn.
Hollis faced the Viking as soon as Matt left. “Don’t judge me.”
Sveyn looked sad and resigned. “I cannot hold anything against you, Hollis. As much as I do love you, and ache to be with you, I cannot give you what a living man can.”
Remembering the stricken look on his face brought tears to her eyes now and she wiped them away as she pulled into the parking garage for the court.
“Will you stay where I can see you?” she asked the Viking for the third time.
“Of course, Hollis.” He moved into her line of sight. “Try to relax. This man cannot hurt you any longer.”
Right.
She paused to take a calming breath and then got out of the car.
Her assigned courtroom was on the fifth floor. As she rode the elevator, she wondered why the people sharing the space with her were there. Were they the good guys or the bad guys?
The doors opened to a hallway. Marble floors and wood-trimmed doorways gave weight to her surroundings. She stepped out and looked to the left, and to the right, searching for George Oswald.
A man in a dark blue uniform approached her. He put out his hand to keep the elevator doors from closing behind her. “Hollis McKenna?”
“Yes,” she answered.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a dead cat. “You are running out of lives.”
Hollis screamed.
The man dropped the cat and leapt past her into the elevator. The doors closed.
As everyone turned to look in her direction Hollis ran away from the carcass, not really thinking about where she was going; just that she needed to put distance between her and it. She ran straight into George.
He grabbed her arms. “Hollis!”
She jerked back. “He threw a dead cat at me!”
Officers were already talking on walkie-talkies, gathering up the body, and shooing people away.
A police officer—a real one judging by the equipment strapped to his uniform—stepped between her and the brief crime scene. “Come with me, please.”
George let go of one of her arms, but steered her with the other. It was a good thing. Her knees were threatening to drop her.
The two men hurried her into a small room, presumably used for lawyer-client discussions, and closed the door. Someone had the forethought to stock the room with water and cups.
The policeman poured Hollis a drink while she sat down. “Tell me what happened.
Hollis gulped the water, the cup shaking in her hand.
Sveyn sat in the chair beside hers. “I will tell you if you leave anything out,” he said.
Thank you. “I got off the elevator. A man in a navy blue uniform came up to me, and he asked if I was Hollis McKenna.”
“And he stopped the doors from closing,” Sveyn prompted.
Right. “He stuck out his arm so the elevator wouldn’t close. Then he pulled the dead cat from inside his jacket.”
“Did he say anything else?” The policeman was writing quickly and didn’t look at her.
“Yes. He said I was running out of lives.” She glanced at Sveyn. He nodded. “Then he dropped the cat on the floor and jumped in the elevator.”
“Was there a tag tied around the cat’s neck?” George asked.
Hollis couldn’t remember seeing one. “I…”
“Yes,” Sveyn said. “It had the number seven on it.”
Hollis looked at the attorney. “I think it had the number seven on it.”
George turned to the officer and gave him a brief explanation of the Dead Cat Threats. Then he spoke to Hollis. “Detective Campbell called me half an hour ago. He should be here now. I’m going to call him and tell him where we are.”
“Okay.”
George walked to a corner of the room to make the call while the officer taking her statement laid a piece of paper in front of her. “Do you have anything to add to this account?”
Hollis read the handwritten transcript. “Just that I ran away.”
“Is it important that you screamed?” Sveyn asked.
“I did scream when he pulled the cat from his jacket.” She looked up at the cop. “Does that matter?”
“Probably not, but I’ll add it. Could you sign at the bottom?”
Chapter Thirty-Six
George got off the phone and walked to the door. He opened it and stepped halfway out. “In here.”
When he re-entered the room Detective Campbell was right behind him. Campbell introduced himself to the responding police officer and read over his account of Hollis’s statement.
“Did he get away?” Hollis asked when the detective looked up from the paper. “Do you know?”
“I do know.” Campbell flashed a grin. “And no, he did not.”
“Thank goodness.” Hollis shuddered. “Hopefully you can put a stop to this mess.”
The responding officer excused himself to file his report, promising the detective he would get a copy.
George motioned for Campbell to sit down. “What do you have for us?”
The detective pulled out his trusty notebook. “The man arrested at the museum last night turned out to have an outstanding warrant for theft. He was quite happy to trade information for a plea deal.”
“How much information?” George asked.
“Enough for us to trace other activity from the instigator.” Campbell looked at Hollis. “He was very clever, as it turns out. And he had the cash to make things happen.”
“Everett Sage,” she whispered.
“Yes.”
George looked at his watch. “It’s nine-thirty. Our case is scheduled for ten. If you can give me a quick rundown, I’ll talk to his lawyer once more before we convene.”
“Sure thing. Long story short, he used Gypsies. Hired one man at a time to kill and wrap a cat. Hired different men to drive them to the drops, and others to pick them up after the boxes were delivered. Payment was in cash, handed over by the drop-off driver.”
Hollis shook her head in disbelief. “Gypsies? Really? Those two guys I saw were dressed normally.”
Campbell gave her a stern look. “There is a large Romani population in Maricopa County, and they dress like the rest of us. They just don’t live like the rest of us.”
“How do you mean?” George asked.
“They live outside society. No documentation, no permanent residences, no jobs.”
“Then how—oh!” Hollis realized the answer was right in front of her. “So a cash job, no matter how odd, would be gladly accepted.”
Campbell nodded. “And he paid a thousand dollars for each person involved in each drop.”
“Three thousand dollars, times seven drops?” Hollis stared at George. “That’s twenty-one thousand dollars as of today!”
George addressed the detective. “Has Sage been charged?”
“Yes. Filed this morning.” Campbell referred back to his notebook. “Harassment. Animal cruelty—though that might not stick, since he didn’t kill the cats himself—and threats on Ms. McKenna’s life.”
George’s brow pinched. “Those charges are admittedly weak, since Sage was one step removed from actually committing the acts, but the fact that they have been filed should give me what I need.” He stood. “Wish me luck.”
“What should I do?” Hollis asked.
“Wait here.” George winked. “Hopefully the next thing that happens is we’ll go out to lunch and celebrate.”
*****
“I still can’t believe it.” Hollis stared at her margarita. “He settled for what you said he would, George.”
“Nine hundred thousand.” He lifted his glass, drawing Hollis’s gaze. “And you, my dear, will
have seven hundred thousand dollars delivered in a cashier’s check by tomorrow at five.”
“And I didn’t have to face the pompous ass.” Hollis grinned. “Even better.”
Matt appeared at the restaurant’s door with Stevie. George waved them over. At eleven in the morning, the restaurant wasn’t crowded yet.
“Oh my gosh, Hollis!” Stevie gave George a quick kiss on the cheek, then slid next to her in the booth. “The museum has gone crazy this morning!”
With an apologetic glance at Sveyn, Hollis patted the seat on her other side. The Viking moved to make room for Matt. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“That Ghost Myths, Inc. show last night was covered on all four local news casts, and the line at the door this morning was longer than when the tapes of Sveyn were posted.”
“Really?” Hollis looked at Matt. “I had no idea so many people watched that show.”
He shrugged. “Maybe not much happens in Phoenix.”
Though the city wasn’t her official home, that comment stung. Before she could think of an appropriately caustic remark, Stevie spoke again.
“So spill. All George would say was that Sage settled.”
With George’s prompting, Hollis told Stevie and Matt about the morning’s Dead Cat Threat, the Gypsies, and the settlement.
“Your life is definitely not boring.” Stevie lifted her drink. “Cheers to the end of a bunch of ick.”
“I’ll drink to that!” Hollis clunked her heavy glass against Stevie’s.
“You’ll want to invest that money, Hollis,” George warned. “Let me connect you with my broker.”
Hollis laughed for the first time that day. “I’m going to buy a new car, first. The broker can have the rest.”
“You could buy a house,” Stevie suggested. “That’s a good investment.”
Hollis nodded and sipped her margarita. If I knew where I was going to live it would be.
Matt smiled at her. “I’m so proud of you.”
“Thanks.”
Hollis looked at Sveyn. He was beaming at her.
*****