“Because… dealing with me made her stressed. She got cancer because her body’s defenses were down… or something. I don’t know. Does it have to make sense?”
“When do they?” the fire chief intoned, rolling his eyes. “I’ve got three exes, and there’s no point in trying to reason with them. I’m probably lucky none of them have tried to kill me.”
Zachary rubbed at one of the scorch marks on his pants, seeing whether it would come off, or whether the fabric itself was burned.
“She knows… that I would normally take a Xanax and go to sleep after a panic attack. She told Kenzie so.”
“So, she had good reason to think you would sleep through just about anything,” the cop observed.
“Yeah.” Zachary rubbed some more. He was going to have to get new clothes. Not just to replace the ones that he was wearing, but everything. None of the clothes that were in his apartment were going to be salvageable. If they hadn’t burned, they would be smoke damaged. “But I don’t think it was Bridget. I really… I don’t think she would do that. I know she wasn’t there when the brakes were cut. She was on the other side of the city.”
“Or so she told you.”
“No…” He bit his lip and looked at the policeman. “I had a tracker on her car. I know she was on the other side of town.”
The cop gave no indication he intended to arrest Zachary for stalking or any other crime.
“With an ex like that, I’d track her too.”
Chapter Twenty
Zachary was again back at the hospital. After being checked out, he wasn’t admitted. He went to the waiting room to sleep in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs. He didn’t have anywhere to go, or any way to get there. At least the waiting room was warm. He was around people, so, hopefully, he was safe from whatever psycho was determined to kill him.
He slept fitfully off and on. More off than on. Eventually, he figured it was late enough in the morning he could call Kenzie. He begged the use of one of the nursing station phones to do so. He was again without a phone of his own, or a wallet, or any other possessions. All he had were the clothes on his back, smelling strongly of smoke and not enough to protect him from the elements.
There was no answer on Kenzie’s cell phone, or on her line at the medical examiner’s office. He continued to call throughout the morning, growing hungry and crabby and at a complete loss as to what to do next.
Finally, almost at noon, she answered her cellphone.
“Kenzie! I’ve been trying to get ahold of you.”
“So I see. I don’t recognize the number you’re calling from, though.” Her voice was cool. Almost frigid. Zachary’s heart sank.
“I’m calling from the hospital.”
“Oh. What is it this time?”
He didn’t understand her attitude. Wasn’t she even the least bit concerned? “Well… it looks like whoever cut my brake lines isn’t done. Someone started a fire in my apartment last night.”
“Oh, did they? Why would anyone do that?”
He tried to figure out whether she was putting on a show for someone who might be listening in on the conversation. Did she not care about the second attempt on his life?
“Kenzie? They tried to kill me. Again!”
“I heard you.”
Zachary waited for a few beats, trying to analyze her tone. He tried to picture her in front of him to figure out why she was behaving the way she was.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Did I do something?”
He didn’t need to wait for her answer for it to click in. He should have expected it. He should have known that she, too, would abandon him.
“I took Bridget’s advice and took my car to the shop.”
He swallowed. “Oh.”
“You’ve been tracking me, too.”
“It’s not like that…”
“I can understand why you would track Bridget. It makes sense in theory. If you wanted to avoid her, you had to know where she was. But why would you be tracking me? Explain that one.”
Zachary concentrated on breathing. He sat down in the chair beside the nursing station, unable to keep his feet. He breathed through his mouth.
“I’m waiting,” Kenzie prompted. “Or are you out of excuses now? I’m starting to think maybe there’s something to what Bridget’s been trying to say. You’re not a well person, Zachary. There’s something very wrong with you.”
“I… I wasn’t stalking you. I wasn’t doing anything sinister or creepy. I just…”
“You just what?” she snapped.
“I have… anxiety. You found that out. There’s more to it than just panic attacks. I get… worried about people I have relationships with. I want to know… that you’re okay. I know it’s sick. You’re right. I get scared, and I want to check on you. Just to make sure…”
“To make sure that I’m not seeing anyone else? That I’m not sneaking around behind your back? You don’t own me, Zachary. We haven’t even talked about dating exclusively. We’ve just had a few casual dinners together. That doesn’t make me your girlfriend, and it doesn’t give you the right to follow me around and monitor what I’m doing.”
“No. I know that. That’s not what I was doing. It didn’t have anything to do with whether you were seeing anyone else.”
“The hell it didn’t!”
He was taken aback by her vehemence. He sat there in shocked silence. The nurse’s eyes slid over to him, trying to analyze how much longer he would be. Trying to understand his conversation from the one side that she could hear.
“I’m sorry, Kenzie.”
“You think that makes everything okay?”
“No. It’s wrong. It was an invasion of your privacy. I was just being… a jerk. A stupid, dysfunctional jerk. I couldn’t help—” He stopped and corrected himself. “I could help it. I shouldn’t have done it. I should have just put up with the anxiety. Not like it would kill me.”
She sniffled, and he realized she was crying.
He had
