Never Sorry: A Leigh Koslow Mystery (32 page)

Leigh didn't believe her, but what did it matter? When she felt Carmen let up pressure on the knife, she started ahead. Did Carmen really think the police were stupid enough to stand around at the bottom of the hill and wait for them to come back out? Of course there would be someone stationed at the other end.

She plodded forward rapidly, hoping to get well ahead of Carmen by the time they met up with their rescuers. But Carmen kept hold of Leigh's arm behind her back, the knife hovering near her ear. They were behind the polar bear run when Carmen jerked her roughly to a stop, placing the knife again at her throat.

"This has all gotten too complicated," Carmen said, the annoyance in her voice increasing. She looked down the tunnel in front of them, and Leigh's hopes fell. So, Carmen wasn't so dumb after all. She knew the police would be closing in. But what did she plan to do about it?

Leigh tried to think of a plan, but she was tapped out, and her neck hurt like hell. "What are we supposed to do now?" she asked weakly.

Carmen sighed as she forced Leigh to kneel. "I don't think I can get you out of here. Sorry. You'll just have to stay and take the rap for me. Or for Kristin, I should say." She smiled. "But it sure would help me out if you said all this tonight was a joke. You're going to jail anyway, it shouldn't matter to you. Just get them to stop looking for Kristin. They've got to cut that out or it will ruin everything."

Leigh tried to follow the convoluted logic. "You're going to D.C.?"

"Sure," Carmen smiled. "I have Kristin's job all ready and waiting for me. And now I have a little bit of money; I'd have more if she hadn't maxed out all her damn cards."

With her free hand, Carmen pulled something else from her pocket and began to fidget with it as she talked. "I have plans, you know. Being dead has taken a load off. I can start all over. And it's worked out for everybody. Especially for Mike. He won't have to support some brat now, and he can finally stop thinking about that wench of a wife of his."

"And what about Kristin?" Leigh blurted, feeling a little faint. "Is she happier now too, you think?"

"Probably," Carmen answered seriously. "Mike would never have married her, and she wouldn't do well raising some kid on her own. She was just such a bitch that night, telling me Mike was going to marry her and she wasn't going to let him see me any more. Right. She was asking for it, I swear. But I wasn't going to kill her. Really, I wasn't."

Leigh felt, rather than saw, someone approaching slowly from around the bend. Soon, she told herself. Soon. When they made their move, she was making hers. If Carmen was the least bit distracted, Leigh could pull away enough to get her throat clear of the knife. Then even if Carmen struck out at her, she wasn't likely to do serious damage.

"I just hit her once, with the shovel," Carmen rambled, still fiddling with something behind Leigh's back. "Then I got the idea, you know. Not the dying thing, I was already planning that, but then it hit me—here's my body!"

Leigh swallowed in preparation. She wasn't sure, but she thought that someone was closing in from behind them too.

Then, without warning, Carmen yelled so loudly that Leigh's ears rang with pain. "
Everybody freeze
! I want you both to take three steps back or the good girl gets sliced, got it?"

"No problem. Just stay calm." The familiar voice that retreated up the hall was, for the first time, quite comforting. It was Detective Frank.

"Both of you!" Carmen screamed again.

"Backing up now," the second voice said soothingly.

Maura
. How had they known to come here?

Carmen continued struggling with something, and soon Leigh heard a dull squeak. "It's been real, Leigh. Sorry you couldn't jump bail. It would have been fun for you. Just remember what I said. Either suicide or just confess, that should get the heat off Kristin. Okay? You owe me, you know. Remember that."

Leigh was still trying to make sense of the words when she realized the knife was away from her throat. She lunged forward up the tunnel, colliding with Frank's feet as they rounded the bend. He bolted over her, the light in the tunnel suddenly dimming as he and Maura blocked the opening to the polar bear run.

Leigh stood up and wheeled around, hoping to see a subdued Carmen in thick handcuffs.

She didn't see Carmen at all.

It happened so quickly that neither Maura nor Frank had a chance of stopping it, even if they'd known how. Carmen the daredevil, a woman who seemed to lack any capacity for fear, was taking on one more challenge. She had unlocked the gate into the polar bear run, a convenient shortcut to freedom. She had sprinted across exhibits before—all she would have to do would be to get to the moat. Then she, unlike the bears, could shinny up the vertical cable planted strategically on its far wall.

But the polar bears were restless. Strange sounds had been coming from their ordinarily quiet tunnel, and when an odd animal suddenly arrived in their midst and invited chase, they were more than willing to oblige.

Leigh joined Maura and Frank at the gate, but after the briefest of looks, she turned away. It was an unfair fight—two on one, 1,000-plus pounds against 125. The bullets Frank shot were too little, too late. One swipe of a colossal white paw knocked Carmen to the rocks, and two giant sets of jaws closed in.

The battle was over in seconds.

Chapter 24

"So who all's coming?" Leigh asked, loading two sacks of ice into her freezer. At first she had felt a little funny about having a celebration so soon after the last in a grim trio of untimely deaths, but Warren had insisted that she needed closure, and after some thought, she had agreed.

"Your folks, Cara's gang, Katharine, and Maura all said they'd drop by," Warren answered, transferring two-liters from grocery sacks to Leigh's countertop. "Maura will have her mother with her, though, so they may not stay long."

"I'll send some food home with them if they miss it." Leigh smiled. "I'm so glad Maura's taking her mother to see Maplewood. I just hope Mary responds well. It's a miracle, her qualifying for that private funding."

"It's not that unusual a setup, if you can find it," Warren said matter-of-factly. "A few wealthy benefactors who've been touched by Alzheimer's can make all the difference to a family like the Polanskis."

Leigh's buzzer rang, and she was happy to admit her first guests a little early. Warren made Mary comfortable while Maura, who was beaming from ear to ear, gave Leigh a stellar report on Maplewood. "They knew exactly what they were doing," she gushed. "They anticipated every question I had, and the whole place is just beautiful. Mom said she could sit for hours and listen to the little waterfall in the lounge, and they even have a greenhouse where residents keep up their own plots. Everything is very calm, very structured. It's exactly what Mom needs. And it's right on the bus line, so my aunts can visit anytime…"

Leigh grinned. She hadn't heard her friend gush so much in years. Only after Maura had finished a considerable testimony to Maplewood did she remember the purpose of the party. "And how are you doing?" Maura asked. "That was a pretty gruesome scene last night, but I hope you're not still feeling guilty about Carmen's death. Because if you are, I'm afraid I'll have to slap you around again."

Leigh's mouth curved into a small, sad smile. "I was sorry Carmen got killed the first time—and I'm just as sorry the second. Even if she did kill Kristin and Stacey. But I'm trying not to feel guilty about it. I didn't even know she was going in the cage until it was too late. If I had known—"

"You couldn't have done anything then, either," Maura said firmly. "Carmen had a knife to your neck and Kristin's keys in her hand. She was going to do what she was going to do."

Leigh sighed. "I do wonder, though, if she would have actually hurt me. It sounded like she just wanted to make me look guilty to divert attention from Kristin—"

"Don't delude yourself, Koslow," Maura said sternly. "The woman killed one of her oldest friends in a fit of jealousy and didn't think twice about it. In fact, she used the situation to her advantage—to get out of debt and probably to get away from some pretty dangerous creditors."

Leigh sighed. Maura was probably right. "It's ironic that my getting arrested was her lucky break, don't you think? I mean, nobody would have ever suspected Kristin if it hadn't been for Stacey's murder and the tie-in with the tan Eldorado. But once the police started on Kristin's trail, Carmen's scheme was in trouble. And I made the perfect scapegoat."

"That's why you shouldn't delude yourself," Maura said heavily. "I think Carmen planned to make it look like you were guilty and had skipped bail. She would have taken you away somewhere, forced you to make a phone call or write a confession, and then you would have disappeared. If you get my drift."

Leigh got it. But the whole scenario was still hard to fathom. Carmen had switched her clothes and jewelry for Kristin's, leaving behind just enough of the body to prove someone was dead, yet nothing that would give away its identity. She had even thought to tear out some of her own hair at the scene. "Carmen was pretty clever, wasn't she?" Leigh thought out loud.

Maura scoffed. "She wasn't clever. She was damned lucky. The scheme would have blown up in a day if her blood type hadn't matched Kristin's."

"Then why didn't they do DNA tests or something?" Leigh asked critically.

Maura looked at her sternly. "DNA tests aren't free, Koslow. They cost money, and a detective has to have a darn good reason to request them. But Carmen had no relatives crying foul, and there was a fair amount of evidence pointing to the body being Carmen's, and not a shred pointing against it."

Leigh didn't argue the point. She looked at her watch and threw a glance at the door.

"Who are you waiting on?" Maura asked suspiciously. "Don't tell me Warren invited Tanner over."

Leigh looked up in surprise. "No. I mean, I don't think so." Perhaps they should have invited Tanner—after all, the charges against him were going to be dropped, too. The State Police were now convinced that Carmen had killed Stacey after the two ran into each other at the cabin hideout. Stacey had probably threatened to blow the whistle, and that was that.

"So you're over the guy, eh?" Maura asked hopefully.

Leigh considered. She owed the man a nice dinner and a beating, but her desire to deliver either was gone. Perhaps she should do nothing and call it a wash. "Definitely," she answered.

The buzzer buzzed, and the first guest headed up. It was Katharine Bower, looking especially attractive in a close-fitting turquoise suit. "It's official!" She smiled, looking at Leigh. "The charges against you have been dropped."

A cheer commenced, and Leigh promptly offered Katharine profuse thanks and a large cola on the rocks. "Will anything happen to Dena Johnson?" Leigh asked, curious about the accuser she still had never remembered meeting.

"Probably not," Katharine said, sipping thirstily. "She says now that she and Tonya met Kristin on their way out of the zoo that night. Apparently, Kristin had just found out she was pregnant and couldn't wait to tell Tanner—and rub Carmen's nose in it. She was heading for the tiger shed when they left. When they heard the next morning that Carmen was dead, they thought that the two had fought again, and that Kristin must have killed her. Since they were the only other people who knew Kristin had been at the zoo, they figured they'd do their pregnant friend a favor and not mention it. And when they found out the police suspected you, Dena foolishly decided to go a step further."

Leigh scowled. "I still think Dena was afraid of Kristin doing something to her if she didn't help."

"Maybe," Katharine answered, smiling slightly, "but you're the only one I talked to who had anything really negative to say about Kristin Yates. Everyone else at the zoo seemed to like her."

Leigh sighed and shrugged. Her confidence in her character-judging abilities was flagging of late. The door buzzer rang again, and she headed toward it. "I hope that's the pizza," she announced.

A male voice came over the speaker. "Henderson Floral. Delivery for Leigh Koslow." Skeptical, Leigh walked over to the window, and was pleased to see a floral van parked below. She buzzed the young man up, and accepted a beautiful fall bouquet with amazement.

Her cheeks red, she put the flowers on her coffee table and extracted the card. Mao Tse, who had been in hiding ever since Warren arrived, promptly popped up on the table to investigate. Leigh read the card, and couldn't help grinning.
Sorry I misjudged you. Gerald Frank
.

She made a quick mental note to send a similar offering down to the bureau tomorrow. She knew just what it would say:
Ditto.

"Now
that's
got to be the pizza," Warren announced when the buzzer rang again. "I'll get it. It's my treat."

"He's so generous, isn't he?" Katharine asked, standing at Leigh's side and watching Warren adoringly.

"Yes," Leigh answered a little tightly, "he is."

"You've got to respect a man who'd go to such lengths for a friend," Katharine continued. She started to say something else, but stopped herself.