Ah, I knew I could count on you, Sally, you lying little slut. He wondered momentarily who’d gotten her to talk. Kathryn Dance came to mind. Had to be her.
Of course, the diversion about Monterey would buy them only so much time. They’d have to move but this place would be safe for a month or so. Kayleigh had said she liked Austin. Maybe they’d go there next. It was Texas; there had to be wildernesses to hide out in. But then she also had commented in her “On the Road” blog that she liked Minnesota. That might be a better place, especially when she had the baby. The weather would be cooler. Tough to be pregnant in the heat, he imagined.
Babies…
Edwin had Googled that cycle thing about women’s bodies. He wondered where Kayleigh was with that. Then decided it didn’t matter. They’d make love at least every other night, if not more. He’d hit the target sooner or later.
He undid his jeans, slipping his hand into his Jockeys, though he didn’t need any preparation there.
Then the shower water stopped. She’d be toweling off now. He pictured her body. He decided to establish a rule that they had to walk around the trailer naked. They’d only get dressed when they went outside.
Inhaling deeply, he smelled the sweet scent of shampoo fragrance on the humid air.
“Edwin,” Kayleigh said, a playful tone. “I made myself ready for you. Come look.”
Grinning, he walked to the doorway and found her in front of the bathroom door, fully clothed.
Edwin Sharp blinked. Then the smile vanished and he cried out in horror.
Chapter 76
“NO, NO, NO! What’d you do?”
She’d found tiny blunt-end fingernail scissors in the vanity kit he’d bought. TSA approved for air travel and therefore safe.
But they would still cut. And that’s just what she’d done with them: she’d sheared off all her hair.
“No!” He stared in horror at the pile of glistening blond strands on the bathroom floor as if looking at the body of a loved one.
“Kayleigh!”
A two- to three-inch mop of ragged fringe covered her head. She hadn’t showered at all, she’d spent the ten minutes destroying her beautiful hair.
In a mad singsong, she mocked, “What’s the matter, Edwin? Don’t you like me now? Don’t you want to stalk me anymore?… It doesn’t matter, does it? You love
“No, no, of course not. It’s just…” He thought he’d be sick. He was thinking, how long does it take for hair to grow?
She could wear a hat. No, he hated women in hats.
“I think it looks like you care a lot. In fact, you look real upset, Edwin.”
“Why, Kayleigh? Why did you do it?”
“To show you the truth. You love the girl on the album covers, on CMT, on the videos and the posters. In
Maybe he could find somebody to take her hair and make a wig until it grew back. How could he do that, though? They’d recognize him, they’d report him. No, no, no, no, no! What was he going to do?
Kayleigh taunted, “You want to fuck me now? Now that I look like a boy?”
He walked forward slowly, staring at the pile of hair.
“Here!” she screamed and grabbed a handful, flung it at him. It flowed to the floor and Edwin dropped to his knees, desperately grabbing at the strands.
“I knew it,” she muttered contemptuously, backing into the bathroom. “You don’t know me. You don’t have a clue who I am.”
And then he got angry too. And the answer to her question was, Yes, I do know. You’re the bitch I’m going to fuck in about sixty seconds.
He started to rise. Then saw something in her hand. What-? Oh, it was just a cup. It had to be plastic. There wasn’t anything inside that could be broken or made into a knife.
He’d thought of that.
But one thing he hadn’t thought of.
What the cup held:
Ammonia, from under the sink. She’d filled it to the brim.
The cut hair wasn’t a message or a lesson. It was a distraction.
He tried to turn away but Kayleigh stepped forward fast and flung the chemical straight into his face; it spread up his nose, into his mouth. He managed to save his eyes by half a second, though the fumes slipped up under his lids and burned like red-hot steel. He cried at the pain, pain worse than any he’d ever felt. Pain as a creature, an entity, a
Screaming, falling backward, wiping frantically at his face. Anything to get away! Choking, gasping, coughing.
It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!
Then more pain as she hit him hard in the throat, the wound where he’d fired the bullet into his own neck.
He screamed again.
Doubling over, paralyzed, he felt her rip the keys from his pocket. He tried to grab her arm but she was quickly out of reach.
The bitter, biting chemical flowed deeper into his mouth and nose. He sneezed and spit and coughed and struggled to catch his breath. Edwin staggered to his feet and shoved his face under the faucet in the kitchen sink to rinse the terrible fire away.
But there was no water.
Kayleigh had run the supply dry.
Edwin stumbled to the refrigerator and yanked it open, feeling for a bottle of water. He found one and flushed his face, the cold liquid little by little dulling the sting. His vision, though fuzzy, returned. He stumbled to the front door, which she’d closed and locked. But he took a second key from his wallet and opened the door, then hurried outside, wiping his eyes.
He looked around. He spotted Kayleigh running down the road that led to the highway.
As the pain diminished, Edwin relaxed. He actually smiled.
The road was three miles long. Gravel. She was barefoot.
She wasn’t going to get away.
Chapter 77
EDWIN STARTED AFTER her, jogging at first, then sprinting.
The terrible burn of the chemical had diminished his passion but not eliminated it. He was all the more driven to fling her to the ground, rip her jeans off. Then over onto her belly…
Make her cry, the way he was crying. Teach her who was in charge.
He saw her disappear around a curve in the road, only a hundred feet away. He was closing fast.
Seventy feet, fifty…
Teach her that she was his.
And then he turned the corner.
He ran for ten more steps, five, three, slowing, slowing. And then Edwin stopped. His shoulders sagging,
