Final Act (35 page)

“They talked for another few minutes and
the bandit headed for the bus stop. 
I waited until
the bus
pulled away before hightailing it to
Old
Crow.”

Roger asked her if she remembered the number of the bus.

“Of course I do.  It was the number 12.”

He jotted a note to himself to have one of the techies track down the route. 

“Did speak with
Old
Crow?”

“Of course I did! 
Y
ou can forget bringing him in for a chat.  He wouldn’t ever talk to the cops, there’s the code. 
Y
ou’re lucky I’m talking with you.”

“Don’t I know it?  Go on.”

“Well, he was a bit shaken up when I went over to him, muttering to himself in that way of
hi
s, rocking back and forth.  So, I asked him outright, I said: ‘
Old
Crow, what did that
Bandit
say to get you in such a state
?
”

“So he says to me, ‘
Hazel, I don’t know
much but
one thing I do know, evil, that one is evil. 
W
ants someone dead, asks me if I know anyone who’d do the job.  Now I’ve done lots of things in my life that weren’t good, and
the Good Lord knows how I did,
but I never laid a hand on anyone. 
Truth is, d
id most of the hurtin’ to myself. 
I
couldn’t look in those
eyes
;
they were something else, cold, cold as a marble toilet seat. 
The evil one I
wasn’t going to
say
anything, p
ractically hissed at me before walking
away
’
.
Poor guy was shaking.  I passed on a bit of the change you gave me and
told him to go get something to
eat
;
he p
erked up a bit then.
”

“You positive he wouldn’t talk to us?”

“
Positive.
”

He pulled out his wallet and passed her the largest bill he had.  “How about you, are you afraid?”

“No, why would I be?  Most people don’t see us you know and if they do, they pretend they don’t.  And by the way, you don’t need to be paying me.  I would’ve told you without it.”

“I know you would but we have a
budget for this sort of thing.
”

She nodded
and
took the money
. 

“
Hazel, c
an you meet me here tomorrow
night
around 10?
Sorry for the late hour, but I have an early evening commitment and it’s important we meet as soon as possible.  We need to know when the black coat
bandit’s
in the
neighbourhood
again
. 
I’m going to bring you a cell phone”, he pulled his out of his pocket,
“
and
it will look just like this one.  It won’t cost you anything to use it and when the minutes are gone, it can be filled up again.  So pay close attention now, I’m going to show you how to use one.”

Roger spent the next fifteen minutes instructing her.   

“Time to go good looking”, Hazel said, “if I read your watch right. I don’t want to lose my bed.”

Roger stopped the car in front of the shelter and watched as she struggled to lift her arthritic body out of the front s
eat and watched until she disappeared through the doors.
  

Chapter
19

Kate
turned down Shirley’s offer of a drink at the pub and went home.
A quiet night, a movie and early to bed should restore her tired body.  She pulled into underground parking and
for the first time since moving in,
took the elevator up to the third floor and
slipped the key into her side door. 

Flicking on the hall light, she made a beeline for the kitchen.  Passing the den, an acrid smell hit her senses.
The thought of a
large glass of Merlo won out over the smell, and
she
kept walking.

S
he sensed a presence behind her but
before she could react,
an arm was across her
throat and duck tape covered her mouth.  T
he pressure on her throat was
excruciating
; her vision blurring.
Pushed into the bedroom, she
kicked back with her foot but
hit nothing. 
 

“Try that again, bitch, and you’re dead
.” 
The voice was deep, gravelly, male.

Heart pounding, she tried to swallow but couldn’t
, a wave of dizziness and the
black spots in front of her eyes
. 
Grabbing her hair, he
forced her to the floor and
threw his full weight on top of her
.  His hands tore at her clothes; his hot breath ragged in her ear. 

She tried to kick but he blocked her
and s
truck her across the face.  “You want to live, bitch, keep still.”

She closed her eyes and forced herself to lay still.  She knew her only chance lay in taking him off guard.  She moved her right hand to the small of her back, pulled the glock from her waistband,
and
slammed it into his gut
.
 

“You want to live, you get up now, very slowly
,
or I’ll pull the trigger.”

As he lifted himself off her, she rose with him, her gun hand never wavering.  She grabbed her cell out of her back pocket with her left hand and hit the speed dial.

An hour later she stood outside the interview room staring at his face.

“You know, Withers, I nailed the bastard outside the gym a couple of weeks ago.  How could I have been so stupid?  I should have realized he would
n’t stop stalking me.  I should have hauled his ass in then.  The man’s a danger to every woman who walks.  How could I have been so stupid?
”

“Don’t
give me
the victim
spiel, Kate,
i
t’s not your fault.  Now, come with me, we’re going to the hospital and get you checked out.  You’ve got some nasty cuts and bruises.  I know you’re tired but it’s best everything is documented
.
” 

He grabbed a camera from the duty desk and took pictures of Kate’s wounds. 
June, who had accompanied Withers to the precinct, put her arm around Kate.

“Ok, hon.  Let’s go.  I’ll stay with you through it all if you want and then its home to sleep. 
I’ll stop by the house on our way home, grab a nightie and bunk on your couch.  Okay with you?
”

Kate nodded
, too weak, too tired to protest
.
  Ushered into the cubicle, a doctor who looked no older than eighteen examined her cuts, bruises, cleaned them up and asked if she would like to be referred to a counsellor. 

Kate shook her head no.  “I just want to go home”, she said.

An hour later, June covered her with warm blankets, placed a glass of water and the bottle of pain meds the doctor had given her on the nightstand and left the room.  She called Withers from the kitchen.

“There’s no way she’ll be in tomorrow.  The doctor has given her heavy sedatives, tell whoever needs to know so
no one starts calling.”
 

***

Withers stuck his head in the office door and informed Shirley that Gordon wanted to meet with them.  Laying her coffee aside, she stood looked over at Kate’s empty chair.

“I wonder where Kate is?  It’s not like her to be late.”

“She won’t be in today, home sick.  We’d better get moving.”

Gordon looked up at the two tired looking detectives and felt a rare stab of compassion; it passed quickly.

“Where’s Kate?”

“She won’t be in today, sir, she’s sick.”

“Sick!  The woman has never taken a sick day.  You sure?”

“Yes, took the call myself.”  Withers flushed at his lie.

“Oh, that is a surprise.  Anyway, to the business at hand.  We got him.”

“Got who sir?”

“Ward, of course”.  He opened a file and placed a packet of letters on his desk. 

“Hot off the press, and I do mean hot, in fact, they sizzle.  Best love letters I’ve read in a long while.  Catherine Stone and Henry were getting in on for the past year.  And they made plans, lots of them.  There are references to when Jeffrey’s ‘
out of the way
’, ‘gone’, ‘given up the ghost’. 
She wasn’t going to New York with him, never packed a thing, and why would she?  He wasn’t going to New York either.  He would be dead before he got on the plane.  They planned it together.”

“Does it say that in the letters, sir”, Shirley asked.

“Implied
, i
t’s implied in the letters.  Not difficult to read between the lines.
  We’ve got enough to now to go to the District Attorney with.  The bastard won’t be on the street for long.
”

***

Kate woke to the worst headache she ev
er had in her life.  She rolled to the edge of the bed,
lay
on her stomach, swung her body to the side and eased her legs onto the floor.  Placing her hands on the mattress, she pushed herself up, waited until the room stopped spinning before making her way to the bathroom
where she
heaved over the bowl until nothing until the last of the stomach bile burned its way up and out.

She scrambled through the cabinets looking for Tylenol, Aspirin, anything that would lessen the pounding in her head.  She found two Advil in a bottle stashed at the back of the cabinet.  She swallowed them dry, made her way back to the nightstand and read the
label on the prescription pills.  She hated drugs, avoided taking anything, preferred to tough it out. 

Freaking drugged.  She went to the kitchen, filled a large bottle with water, looked in the spare room – empty
, she never heard June leave.  She made her way back to the bedroom, took the bottle of prescription drugs, flushed them down the toilet, and fell back into bed.  Drink water, sleep, drink water and maybe by this evening they’d be out of her system.

***

It was an early start the next morning for the group assembled on stage and
their displeasure showed on their faces
.

“Thank you all for
coming in a bit earlier this morning
”, Eleanor said
.
“
I wouldn’t have called you here if it hadn’t been necessary.
”

“Generous
of the co
ld
bitch, isn’t it,” Charlotte
asked
.

Andrew ignored her remark.

“I want to assure you it’s not bad news I have to deliver.  The production is not going to be cancelled.
  The play will go on tonight as scheduled.
”

There was a visible lessening of tension in the gathered group.

“
I have
surprising news and it should be making its way down the centre aisle right now.”

Eyes peered into the darkness of the unlit theatre.

“By God, is that you Henry?  Have you been sprung from the dungeon
”,
Andrew
asked.