into place, like the final pieces of a giant frame.
This woman deserved to die.
She didn’t remember me until I reminded her. Apparently I’d made little impression on her flighty, self- absorbed mind. She’d made a big one on me.
No car insurance, she wailed. Now how was she supposed to get home to her children, just sent back from their foster home? The policy had run out and she’d had no money to renew it.
Of course not. Every dime she earned went into her veins.
Her kids would be better off without her.
I offered to drive her home. “Oh, yes, thank you!” she cried. I told her to turn off her flashers and lock the car.
Two miles, that’s all I managed. My fingers branded themselves into the steering wheel.
She was chattering on about what she’d done to clean up her life since I last saw her. She was working now at a respectable job. Hadn’t used for months. I didn’t believe that. “I have some ideas for you,” I said. “Can we stop and talk a minute?”
“Sure.”
I pulled into an alley between two stores. Nobody was around. In one fluid movement I put the car in park, whipped the cloth from beneath my seat, and surged toward her neck.
My body caught fire as we struggled, burning up my desire, her unforgivable sins. Turning them all to ash. The fabric hardened to steel in my hands.
When she finally slumped over, coolness swept through my veins.
One thing I knew then. I was born to do this. All the years preceding this quest of truth were merely funneled sands of time.
The swelling victory. A long exhale.
My brain notched into logistics mode.
I put on my gloves. Shoved her all the way down in the seat.
Searching for a place to dump the body, I felt oddly empty. Only when I’d disposed of it did I numb out in vast, near-floating relief.
By the time I reached home I knew something more. It both frightened and excited me. From here on, things would be different. The next time I wouldn’t wait for death to seek me out.
I would pursue
thirty-seven
Gravity sucked Kaitlan’s blood to her feet.
She watched, mind crumbling, as he drove past the house and turned down the driveway leading to her apartment.
The next thing Kaitlan knew she was halfway across the room. She stumbled over the carpet, hands exploring the dark like frantic antennae. She hit the hallway, turned left, trailing her hand down the wall toward the corner so far, far away.
How long before he found she wasn’t home? Thirty seconds? What would he do then?
Kaitlan reached the entryway and veered left, slipping on the tile. She grunted, thrust upright, and flung herself toward the door.
Margaret would be coming down the street any minute. Kaitlan had to flag her down before she pulled up to the house.
Craig would be turning off his car now. Getting out …
With melting fingers she fumbled at the deadbolt. Her hands slipped around. On the third try she snapped it unlocked and yanked open the door. She forced herself to close it without a slam.
Kaitlan stumbled across the porch and down the steps. To the sidewalk and swiveled left.
The road stretched before her for about a third of a mile, disappearing around a curve. She ran like never before.
In no time her lungs heaved like old billows. She gasped in oxygen, pumping, pumping her arms, blood pounding in her ears. Kaitlan couldn’t stay on the sidewalk long. Any time now Craig could careen onto the street, his car beams lighting her up like fleeing prey. But she had to get far enough away from the house to head off Margaret.
He would be cussing, enraged.
All light from the distant street lamp behind her faded. There were no more on this rural part of road. Kaitlan pushed through hungry darkness, panic feeding fire to her limbs.
The sidewalk bent uphill. She threw a glance over her shoulder. No headlights. Her legs slowed as she forced herself on, ears cocked for the sound of an engine coming up the driveway. Knowing she wouldn’t hear it over the adrenaline rush of her own body, the slap of her feet—until too late.
She had to get away from the road.
The curve still lay some distance ahead. She didn’t dare try making it.
Kaitlan veered off the sidewalk and crashed into the forest. She tripped and fell with a loud
She halted. Jerked around. The road lay about twenty feet away.
Terror wound around her throat. What to do? Any closer and Craig could find her. Farther in, and Margaret could pass her by before she got back to the sidewalk.
What if they drove by at the same time?
Lights appeared. Kaitlan peered through the night. Which direction were they coming from?
They brightened. She heard a car engine. A loud one.
Kaitlan threw herself to the ground behind a tree. Leaves crunched, the thick, earthy scent of soil filling her nostrils.
The car approached slowly. Kaitlan peered around, wide eyes catching on a large beam gliding through the forest to her right. Headed straight for her.
Craig’s police spotlight.
Too late. She had nowhere to go. Kaitlan pressed her cheek to the ground and froze.
The beam cruised nearer, trunks and branches and bushes bursting into light just twenty feet away. She imagined Craig holding the spotlight, jaw thrust forward, eyes like glaciers.
Ten feet.
Kaitlan squeezed her eyes shut.
Every fiber of her being listened to the Mustang, willing it not to stop. Seconds ticked by … an eternity. Still she heard the engine, steady. Steady.
She opened her eyes to darkness. Turned her head to look the other direction.
The beam skimmed on up the woods.
Kaitlan breathed.
She dropped her head back down, smelling the earth, one hand hooked onto a lumpy tree root. She gathered the energy to get up.
The spotlight disappeared, the rumbling engine now a distant low hum. Craig had driven around the curve.
Kaitlan hefted into a crouch and hung there, listening. Watching.
Nothing.
She rose to her feet and fought her way back toward the sidewalk.
