After midnight, Kacy decided the party was over for her. She was tired and anxious to go to bed with Gulliver.
“I’ll call tomorrow,” she told Ginny.
Gulliver put her sweater on her shoulders when she lifted her hair. His kiss to the back of her neck made her smile, but Allen’s frown made her wonder if she and Gulliver had been flaunting their affair too much. She didn’t want to think so. Still, Gulliver had been very possessive all evening. If Allen and his wife were having a rough spot in their marriage, maybe he resented Gulliver for having a good time.
* * *
A week had passed since they met and in some ways, it seemed Kacy had known Gulliver forever. They were back at another weekend ballgame, and she had resumed her usual post behind the concession stand.
“Hey, Allen, wait up,” Gulliver called.
Kacy finished putting the stack of napkins away under the counter. The sound of Gulliver’s voice made her happy. She hurried to put the rest of the soda in the cooler to join him.
“What is it?” Allen answered.
“I wanted to talk to you about Kacy.”
Kacy froze to her name. Gulliver and Allen couldn’t see her and she didn’t want them to. She squeezed herself into a niche between the stack of soda crates and the old donated refrigerator. If one of them should look in the doorway, he would know she listened.
“Have you noticed anyone hanging around who might appear overly interested in Kacy’s activities? Maybe another parent or regular visitor here that has only been coming to the games since she has?”
“That’s going back months and I don’t know that I’ve paid much attention to what she does. Not unless she’s having one of her episodes.”
“I believe she may be in trouble,” Gulliver told him.
Kacy smiled. She was never certain if he really believed her or if he said so to pacify her.
“I think the detective in you is working overtime, Gully. Don’t they give you enough to do at the police station that you have time to baby-sit the woman?” Allen went on.
Kacy pressed her ear to the wall.
“I’ll tell you something about Kacy,” Allen said. “Last season she accused another parent of following her.”
“That must have been horrible for her.”
“Her? That parent had the best seven-year-old pitcher I’ve ever seen, and the fellow up and took his child out of the league. He said he wasn’t going to subject his kid to a nut. Either she went or he would.”
“If the kid meant that much to the team, why is Kacy here instead of your seven-year-old MVP?”
“I kept Kacy because she puts a hundred percent into the team. She volunteers for everything we do and she’s dependable. The blowhard showed up for games and that was it. Not to mention she’s got some nicely curved assets.”
“Is that why my sister left you? Your roving eyes take you to another woman’s bed?”
“I don’t know what Laura has said, but—”
“Laura and I don’t discuss personal issues and you know that, Allen. Whatever happened between the two of you is your business. I shouldn’t have made that crack—anyone looking can see Kacy is put together right. I can attest that her curves are even better beneath her clothes.”
Kacy breathed heavier at the turn in the conversation. Should she be flattered or offended? Gulliver said his sister’s personal life wasn’t open for discussion, yet he didn’t seem too reserved in talking about his conquest.
“So do you think the guy might have been following her?” Gulliver returned to his prior questioning. “What was his name? I’ll have him checked out.”
“Do you detectives ever go off duty?” Allen groaned.
“Not on this case.” Gulliver walked over to the front of the concession.
Kacy held her breath. All it would take was for him to turn his head and she’d be spotted.
“Remember what I said, Gully, about the getting too personally involved,” Allen reminded him.
“Now when have you known me to get too far into any relationship?” Gulliver laughed. “All I need is to complicate a good thing.”
The tears flowed so freely, Kacy didn’t even know she was crying until Gulliver’s gaze met hers. He stood there, silent for the longest time, not registering immediately that she really was standing hidden in a niche in the shadows.
“Kacy?” Gulliver hurried around to the concession booth door as she ran out. “Kacy wait,” he yelled.
She had no reason to wait. Gulliver had become important to her and to hear she didn’t mean that much to him crushed her.
“Kacy!” Gulliver ran behind her.
She looked at the parking lot. Ginny had already left. Everyone except her and Gulliver were gone. She spun around to the crunching sound of his shoes on the gravel.
“Stay away from me.” She held her hands up to ward him off. “You’re a cop.”
“Yes and you’ve known that for almost a week.”
“You lied to me all along about what you did. At the police station, you said I was a case. Now I hear you discussing how that’s all I am and all I’ve been right from the start.”
“I suppose I should have gone into more detail.”
Gulliver stepped closer and she backed away. “Don’t touch me.”
“Honey?”
“No ‘honey’. No ‘sweetheart’. I don’t want to hear your sweet talk. I want to know the truth.”
She watched him walk over to the car and lean on the side. His long legs crossed one another and he folded his arms over his broad chest.
“Your attacker hasn’t been caught and we’ve had a crime similar to yours, which you know. So yes, you are a case. What I didn’t tell you was about the woman that got away.” He took a deep breath. “Kacy, she died. You’re the only person alive that’s had contact with him and I believe he still wants you. He’s obsessed with you.”
Wishing he had lied, she put a hand up to her mouth to stifle her cry.
“The woman, the one that got away,” he continued, “she told us things we needed to go over with you, but you wouldn’t talk to anyone at the police department. One thing she said was he liked to talk about a woman named Kacy. He said he was going to get her back real soon. When I was brought in on the case, I found you, rented the house next to yours and pretended to be a neighbor.”
“You don’t own the house?”
“No, Kacy. I still live in an apartment in another town.”
“The junk drawer stuff, the lone sock, the…the…”
“That was mine and in a hurry to have something to move into the house, I dumped it into boxes. That’s my reason for the sloppy packing.”
“The police? None of them acted as if they knew you.”
“I’m an undercover detective. Most patrol officers don’t know me because I don’t come in contact with them very often.”
He aroused her buried fears and her awful insecurities. She wanted to hate him for making her feel as vulnerable as her attacker had. Disconcerted, she crossed her arms and pointedly looked away.
“I feel like such a fool,” she sniffed. “I’ve told you things I’ve never said to anyone.”
“Kacy.”
She spun around when she heard the movement of his feet. The loose gravel gave way with every step he took.
“I want to go home,” she demanded. “You’ve sworn to some oath to protect and serve, to be a cop. We’ll you can do the serve part right now by driving me home.”
She walked to the car and got in. While hating what he did, she trusted him to get her home. She had to hang onto the one thread left of her sanity. Gulliver would never physically hurt her.
He slid in behind the steering wheel and started the engine. “I have some things I’d like to tell you.”
“Save them for someone who wants to listen. I just want to go home.”
Kacy stared out the window on the ride to her house. She hardly waited for the car to stop in her driveway before she opened t
he door. She tried to hurry and get to the front door, to get it unlocked and go inside, yet it all took time.
“Kacy?” Gulliver’s hand touched her shoulder lightly.
“Leave me alone.”
“I know you’re not afraid of me. Please let me in to talk,” he begged. “I hurt you and I’m sorry. It doesn’t mean things have to change between us.”
“There isn’t any us.” She stepped boldly toward him. “There was never any us, from what I understand. I should thank you, though. You did make me a little more confident and now I don’t need you anymore.”
She went back to the doorknob and tried to put the key in the small slot, but the door swung freely away from her. Gulliver grabbed her arm and pulled her back. He jerked his pant leg up and retrieved the revolver from the holster on his leg.
“I know I locked the door,” he whispered, pulling her close so his breath fanned her face. “I want you to go to my house and lock yourself in. Call nine-one-one and tell them Detective Knight needs a patrol car and then give them your address.”
“Gulliver, I freeze up when I’m scared.”
He cupped her face. “No you don’t. Not anymore, honey.” He pushed his keys in her hand.
Kacy hurried down the walk. Gulliver trusted her to make the phone call and she would. She fumbled with the keys—he carried too many on the ring. Finally, the right one slipped into the lock and she got inside the house.
The deadbolt inside also required the key to lock the door and she had to start all over finding the same one. It was easier the second time since only three looked like his house key. The first one she tried worked.
The phone was her next challenge. She went room to room searching for it. She hadn’t recalled seeing it before, just hearing it ring.
“His room,” she exclaimed, proud of her ability to continue to function.
Kacy ran down the hall and turned into Gulliver’s room. It was orderly because she’d made it that way. She had put the sheets and comforter on the bed. Clothes were draped over the chair and the area was devoid of stacked boxes. Except as she entered, she didn’t recall a phone in that room.
The window was open and she glanced at her house. Gulliver crossed the threshold of her bedroom and she watched him inspect it with one turn of his head.
It was calming to think that maybe he had been wrong about the door. It had been open for the dog as well. Maybe she should call a locksmith to check it out.
Gulliver saw her and made hand movements, wanting to know if she’d made the phone call. She began to shake her head when an arm came around her neck.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” the man’s voice rasped in her ear.
Chapter Seventeen
Kacy started to shake as if the room temperature had dropped to zero. She rolled her gaze to the look in the mirror. A man in a black ski mask stood behind her, shrouded in dark clothing.
“No,” she screamed and kicked, afraid she’d pass out from shock again.
If she did, this time she’d die.
The sound of breaking glass came simultaneously to her elbowing her captor in the stomach. He let go and doubled over, stumbling against the door behind them and she turned to see Gulliver leap from her bedroom window. She met him halfway by climbing out his open window. In her rush, she tripped and fell into the flowerbed.
“Hold it right there,” Gulliver shouted.
Kacy crawled behind Gulliver’s legs and sat watching him as he walked cautiously toward the house. Flowers squished under her hands and the scent of jasmine filled her nostrils when the vines of a trellis looped her arm. She rose on her knees as the man inside moved out of view.
“Gulliver,” Kacy squealed as he dove into his bedroom window in pursuit.
He rolled over to the door in a superhero fashion. His body acted as if it were a sled on ice instead of a hardwood floor as he slid out of the room. Kacy scrambled to follow him, afraid to be alone.
She scampered through the opening and jumped when a phone rang nearby. The sound came from under the bed, and she crawled along the edge, searching until she found it.
Flat and low, she slithered beneath the metal frame to hide while she answered the caller.
“Hello?” she whispered.
“Is Uncle Gully there?” Livia’s cheerful voice seemed too loud and Kacy held the phone tighter to her ear so her attacker didn’t hear.
“He’s busy—could you put your daddy on the phone for me?” She slid further under and kept an eye on the door to the hall.
“Hello, this is Laura Johnson,” Livia’s mother said in the phone.
“Oh Laura, Gulliver is in trouble. Call the police and send them to his house.” Her frantically rushed words slurred into the mouthpiece.
“Who is this?”
“Kacy Carwell. We met once at the ballpark and I’m Gulliver’s neighbor.”
“Are you sure this isn’t something you’re imagining? Maybe you should let me talk to Gully.”
“Please Laura. I’m crazy, I’ll admit that, but someone has broken into his house and he went after him. He told me to call nine-one-one and tell them Detective Knight needs a patrol car.”
“All right, Kacy. Hang up and I’ll call for you right away.”
“Thank you.” She pushed the “off” button on the cordless phone and then lay completely still, waiting for something to let her know it was safe to come out.
When the gunshot went off, Kacy rushed out from under the bed. She ran down the hall, hoping Gulliver had killed the man. What she found was her attacker running toward her. He shoved her aside as he barreled past to make an escape.
Sirens blared outside the house and all she could think of was not to let him get away.
Kacy ran after him and grabbed his shirt. He pushed her away, but the wall of the hallway stopped her and she swung her arm, hitting him in the head with the telephone.
He staggered and slammed into the wall, holding a hand against the side of the ski mask. His recovery was slow, but then he made a move toward the bedroom door and Kacy chased after him.
Ever since Gulliver told her another woman went through the same ordeal she had, Kacy felt sick inside that she hadn’t done more to help. She wanted revenge and justice.
“Kacy, no,” Gulliver yelled.
It might be foolish on her part, but she couldn’t just let him get away. She clawed and grabbed at his clothes, hoping to stop him, praying she could slow him down long enough for Gulliver to catch up.
Jerking on his shirt and then pushing him before he could go in the room, she had to let go when he swung around. His arm swept the air and she lifted her hands in defense. His hand hit hers and she grasped the glove, yanking it free.
Stumbling away, Kacy felt the hardness of his knuckles whack her mouth. The force sent her reeling backward, but Gulliver caught her before she fell on the floor.
Wrenching out of his grip, Kacy flattened herself against the wall. “Don’t touch me.”
“Kacy honey I…”
“I don’t want anyone to touch me except crime scene investigators.” She leaned her head back, wishing she didn’t know so much about crimes. “I do watch a lot of television, you know.”
With her eyes closed, she tried to stay focused. She had to keep calm, alert, and God forbid, not faint.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
“Not really.”
“Sweetheart, open your eyes,” Gulliver whispered.
She looked at him, inches away from her.
“I’m proud of you. I always knew you were brave.”
Without feeling the need to curl up in a ball and cry, she enjoyed her moment of empowering freedom from fear. She breathed calmly and she didn’t shake.
The pounding on the front door made them both turn their heads.
“I’ve got to get the front door open before they bust it in. You’re all right?”
She nodded.
“Can I kiss you?”
“No. He hit me
and there might be his DNA on my mouth.”
“Wait right here.” He left her standing in the hall.
Kacy listened to him at the door with the officers. They hadn’t seen anybody come from the yard—typical, from her experience with the police. She closed her eyes and tried not to think of the sweet taste of blood. With all the bad luck she’d had, she could envision her next problem being some disease she’d pick up from him. Her stomach churned. Nauseated and repulsed, she was thankful when the phone in her hand rang.
“Hello?” she wheezed, out of breath.
“That’s my girl,” the voice rasped. “I like that you have the fight back in you.”
“Who is it?” Gulliver asked coming back.
Kacy held the phone to him. Her teeth chattered and she clenched her jaw to stop. Gulliver snatched the portable from her hand.
He listened for only a second. He wasn’t able to contain his fury for long, though, and his face contorted with anger. He turned his back and fuchsia swept up the back of his neck, showing the rage he tried to hide from her.
“Listen here you son of a bitch…” Gulliver threw the phone down the hall.
He spun around. “Kacy, honey.”
“No, don’t touch,” she reminded him.
Even though her bottom lip quivered and the salty tears stung the cut on her lip, Gulliver’s outburst actually relieved her anxiety.
“Detective Knight, we checked the house and the yard,” an officer said behind him.
“Check the house next door.”
When they were alone again, Kacy closed her eyes. “What happened to the woman? You said she died.”
“She went through something similar to what you did and got away. We don’t know how because she didn’t get a chance to give us a full statement.”
He flattened his hands on the wall, one near her left shoulder and one next to the right. It boxed her in, but it was safe and secure to have him close.
“Was she as obnoxious as I’ve been?” She tried for a smile even though she didn’t have much to smile about.
Gulliver bowed his head. “She killed herself.”
A Desperate Longing Page 17