A MATCH MADE IN MURDER (The Wedding Planner Mysteries Book 5) (9 page)

              “I didn’t want it to have to be like this, but you gave me no choice.”

              His voice was far away, a dim light she didn’t want to see at the end of the tunnel she was stuck in.

              Kitty had no way of knowing how much time had passed since he’d grabbed her outside of Carter’s cottage. Had it been an hour? A day? Had she missed her wedding rehearsal? Her wedding? Was Sterling searching for her at this very moment? Or had anyone even noticed?

              Her head was reeling. Her stomach kept tightening up into a nauseous ball in response to the throbbing ache at the back of her head. She remembered being thrown toward the back of the van when it had peeled down the road. Had her assailant also struck her? She couldn’t recall.

              Was she still in the van now?

              Kitty realized the black hood he’d thrust over her head remained. Her knees felt raw and her hands were definitely bound behind her back, but she didn’t sense she was inside a moving vehicle.

              She was moving, however.

              She could hear water lap and gurgle through the wall. The very sound of it confused her. She couldn’t think straight to make sense of it.

              “Are you listening to me?” he asked. “Are you alive under there?”

              She was on a boat, she realized. That’s why the floor was rocking, rising and falling with each slight swell of the harbor. That was where she had to be, right? In a boat on the harbor? Unless he’d driven five hours east to the Atlantic ocean. She prayed that wasn’t the case.

              Kitty cursed herself for having run off without telling Sterling where she was going. She shouldn’t have gone anywhere without him, much less sneaking around on her own.

              “Hello in there?”

              She could barely hear him over the pounding in her ears. The mounting headache worsened when her heart rate spiked the second he stripped the hood off her head. She yelped, but her throat was raw and only a weak groan escaped.

              Kitty was terrified to look up and finally see the killer. She kept her eyes pinched shut. If she didn’t see his face, if she didn’t discover his identity, maybe he’d have a change of heart and let her live.

              He didn’t let her get away with hiding like this for very long. His gloved hand grabbed her chin, startling her into opening her eyes, but what she saw was a black ski mask and two dark brown eyes staring out.

              “I’m sorry about your cousin,” he said in a tone so kind it couldn’t be trusted.

              “Why do you want me dead?” she asked in a small voice. It was hard to look at him. His eyes were cold as though he both pitied and despised her.

              “Not everything is about you,” he said, not exactly answering the question. “I don’t care about you one way or the other and if you had nothing to do with Sterling, you wouldn’t be here.”

              “Why are you trying to hurt Sterling?” She demanded, finding an edge of strength in her tone. “How could you want to hurt a young boy?”

              “You’re being dramatic.”

              “You killed Mary when Sterling was only eight,” she pressed. “What could an eight-year-old boy possibly have done to you to make you want to do such a thing?”

              “It’s complicated.”

              “I should say so!” Kitty coughed and coughed. Yelling strained her voice and if she wanted to get the truth out of him, if she wanted to stay alive, she’d have to keep him talking. Sterling would find her somehow. Her only job was to stay alive until then. She softened her voice and tried again. “I just want to understand. You owe me that much if you’re planning on killing me.”

              “Like I said,” he leaned in to reiterate. “I didn’t want it to happen like this.”

              “Yeah, well, the necklace is in evidence.” She couldn’t help the sarcasm from slipping out so she tried to smooth it over. “You loved Mary, didn’t you?”

              As the killer lowered onto a bench across from her, Kitty realized he wasn’t holding a weapon. She also realized that she was in the cabin of some kind of boat and by the looks of it, the vessel was quite large, perhaps a thirty foot yacht, though it wasn’t fancy. Circular windows lined the walls. Water splashed against them, indicating that the yacht was docked, not sailing up the harbor. She took that as a good sign.

              “I did love her,” he said regretfully. “And she would’ve left Steve. She would have.” When he repeated the statement it came out angry. “She told me she would leave him.”

              “It sounds like she had a condition,” Kitty supplied. “She would leave you under one condition. What was it?”

              “Sterling is my son.”

              It hit her like a ton of bricks. How could a father want to torment his own flesh and blood like this? The man was clearly demented.

              “I know he’s my son.”

              Kitty realized he hadn’t disclosed the condition. “If he’s your son it should’ve been easy for Mary to leave Steve for you.”

              “You’re right,” he said. “But she wanted proof. That’s when she turned evil. That’s when she decided to ruin my life.”

              “I don’t understand.”

              “Mary insisted on a paternity test,” he explained. “I was willing. If it meant finally having her, finally being a family with Sterling, I was willing. I gave blood. I waited. That’s when she turned on me.”

              Kitty didn’t press him. She knew he was working the facts out as quickly as his broken heart would allow.

              “She lied. She said the results came back. Steve was the father, she said. But she was lying. I demanded to see the test results. She refused to show me.”

              The killer hung his head for a long moment and Kitty thought she could hear him crying under the ski mask. When he looked up at her he added, “She cut me off. I fought for her. I tried to win her back. I never told Steve about us. Never revealed the affair. That’s how much I loved her. It could’ve been so easy for me to destroy her. She loved me, Kitty.”

              She wasn’t sure whom he was trying to convince.

              “Then we took up again. Mary couldn’t live without me and that’s the fact of the matter. I brought her to the auction. I bought her everything she wanted. Everything. Steve never had the means to do something like that.”

              “If you got back together, why did you kill her? Why did you let Sterling put the same necklace around his wife’s neck? Why did you try to kill me, taking Layla’s life by mistake?”

              “Because...” he trailed off as though it was too painful to discuss. “I asked Sterling to find the test. I had him search his whole house.”

              As the killer went on, Kitty understood that the killer was such a close family friend that he’d been able to ask Sterling to do this. That meant he’d spent time alone with Sterling. Sterling trusted him. If only Kitty could stay alive long enough to tell him...

              “I told him not to read it,” he went on. “I told him not to tell his mom or dad, but to give it to me as soon as he saw me. When that day came, he looked at me with hate in his eyes. He told me he loved his dad, that nothing would change that. He said he didn’t care what the test said. I’d never be his father.”

              Kitty stared at him. “Who are you?”

              Sterling waited on the pier in front of the William Wallace yacht and greeted each member of the wedding party as they filtered over from the Delamar Hotel. He wore the suit Kitty had laid out for this very occasion. The air was fresh and breezy, the sun warm. It should’ve been a perfect afternoon.

              But Kitty’s note had been bizarre. And she still wasn’t here.

              He glanced over his shoulder at the guests who were mingling on the deck. A waiter milled through them, carrying a tray of champagne, which had been Kitty’s idea. She wanted every stage of the rehearsal to be fun, not a labored technical lecture, but an opportunity for both sides of the family to get to know each other better. Why would she be late?

              “Why, don’t you look handsome,” said Penny, as she clicked down the wooden dock. When she reached Sterling, she gave him a big hug, as Ernie hung back looking a little green from all the excitement at the Shimmy Shack he’d undergone the night prior. “Is my lovely daughter on the yacht?”

              “No,” he said, trying not to cause alarm. “Have you heard from Kitty?”

              Penny’s smile drooped and she glanced at Ernie. “We haven’t heard from her all morning,” she said, concerned. “Is something wrong?”

              “She’s not picking up,” he stated.

              “She’s planning her own wedding,” Ernie stated. “She’s probably running around tending to last minute details.”

              Penny didn’t like the sound of that. “She always picks up,” she countered. “And if she can’t, she always calls back. Now I’m really worried.”

              Ernie turned pale, as it dawned on him what this could mean. “You don’t think... Did the killer...?”

              “I don’t know,” Sterling said unnerved. A switch flipped and Sterling got decisive. “Excuse me.”

              Bewildered, Penny and Ernie stared at him, as he stalked up the dock toward the boardwalk, lifting his cell to his ear.

              This was bad. Very bad. He nearly dialed Harrison, but he wanted to think this through before he shouted directives at his superior.

              Last night Kitty had dove into the Police Database and his understanding had been that she was looking into the county auctions around the time his mother had been killed. If she’d found the precise auctioneer, she’d have definitely tried to find out what he might remember. But was she really so brazen as to go off alone and not even tell Sterling where she was going or what she was up to? The killer had meant to take her life. How could she be so reckless?

              Sterling wanted his dad. He wanted Grady. He wanted support to get through this. His hands were shaking. If anything happened to Kitty he’d never forgive himself.

              Instead of Harrison, he dialed Steve, who should’ve been here by now.

              “Dad?”

              “I’m heading over,” he said gruffly.

              “Kitty’s missing.”

              Hearing himself declare his biggest fear made Sterling keel over, palm to knee. He was fighting for air. The docks, the boardwalk, the yacht at his back seemed to be spinning all around him.

              “What do you mean she’s missing?” Steve asked in a panic.

              “I mean it’s happening again, Dad, I just know it.”

              “Try to stay calm,” he instructed.

              “She’s not answering her cell. She left me a note this morning telling me to have Trudy do things for the wedding. She didn’t say where she was going. Arg!”

              “All right, son, all right. I’m on my way over. Just hang in there.”

              “Don’t hang up,” he pleaded.

              Steve stayed on the line and reminded him to breathe, as he made his way out of the Delamar Hotel. Soon Sterling saw his father break away from the fray of tourists who were out for an afternoon stroll.

              Steve picked up his pace when he saw Sterling leaning heavily against a pier post as though he might collapse at any moment.

              “We’ll find her,” said Steve, lifting Sterling up into a rugged embrace. He gave his son a few strong pats to the back then released him as though the gesture ought to have pulled Sterling back together. “Now, let’s get practical.”

              Sterling had to fight to think straight. “Oh God, I have to get her back in time for the rehearsal.”

              “Forget the rehearsal. Forget the wedding,” he barked. “One thing at a time. All that matters is that we find her alive. Now. Where should we start?”

              “Who’s doing this?” Sterling searched Steve’s eyes for answers that neither of them had. “Who would want to hurt all these women?”

              “If I had a clue, Sterling, they’d be dead by now.”

              “I have to call Harrison.” Sterling fumbled to pull up his lieutenant’s number.

              “Are you sure he isn’t behind this?”

              Sterling paused. “I don’t know. I feel like I’m surrounded by strangers.”

              “Who do you trust to help us?”

              He thought about it, and then realized, “No one. Only you.”

              “Then it’s just us,” said Steve, slapping his shoulder.

              “My laptop’s in the Jeep,” he stated, starting off down the boardwalk at a fast clip. “If her cell is still on her, and hasn’t died, I can find her using GPS.”

              Steve jogged alongside him and grinned. “We’ll get her back. Don’t you worry for a second.”

              But Sterling had never been more worried in his life.