“The guy’s your landlord?”
She rubbed a hand over her face. “No Dolores is. The murder victim.”
“So, he’s an ex right?”
“It isn’t that simple.” She bit her lip not really wanting to tell Mark that this guy was different. That she felt things she hadn’t felt with any other human being. “He may be the father of Dolores’ baby. This is all wrong Mark.”
“What is?”
“These things that are happening didn’t happen before. Too many of them. I’m getting scared that I can’t prevent this.”
Her fear threatened to choke her. At the very least, her helplessness might immobilize her and then where would Dolores be?
“You’ll be fine, Grace. You always are.”
“What about the last time?”
“A fluke.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Well what else has changed? Nothing, right? You moved your location and that hasn’t affected things in the past. You worry too much.”
“You’d worry, too if you had dead people talking to you.”
“Why all of a sudden are you afraid?”
“Because it’s different this time.”
“What is? Give me specifics or I can’t help.”
Some part of her didn’t want to divulge that she had visions when she touched Zach. If she said it out loud to Mark, it might mean something. She didn’t want her new reaction to mean anything. She wanted to leave Mill Hall, but couldn’t because of Dolores. “I can’t. Never mind. Where are you again?”
“California. I’m doing a traveling play.”
“What play?”
He launched into a colorful description of his new job as Grace’s mind wandered. A rap on her window brought her out of her reverie. Dolores stood there in the light of a streetlamp a casserole in her hand. With her head cocked and face scrunched she had a question on her mind.
Grace begged off Mark’s conversation and then rolled down her window. “Dolores.”
“What are you doing here?”
Should she lie? She gulped. She hadn’t done anything wrong. “I had a question for Zach.”
“You couldn’t call him?”
“I didn’t think he’d answer me honestly.”
“Did he in person?”
“No, he didn’t.”
“What was the question?”
Who fathered your baby? “Nothing important.”
“Must have been for you to drive here.” Dolores said, her eyes narrowing.
“You’re right, but it doesn’t seem important now. I’ve got to go get some sleep.”
She rolled up the window cutting off anything else Dolores had to say.
***
Zach was surfing the net when someone knocked on his door. Maybe Grace had come back to finish what they’d started.
Instead Dolores stood on his doorstep, with food. She smiled the smile of seduction. She’d put on a skirt he was sure to show off her legs. He wouldn’t bite. He couldn’t go down that road again.
“Come in. That for me?”
She nodded and handed him the dish. Knowing a bribe when he saw one he cocked his head at her. “What do you need?”
“Who says I need anything?”
“You haven’t brought me a casserole since we were dating.”
“So, maybe it’s time I started again.”
“Mm.”
He didn’t want that, especially with the taste of another woman still on his lips.
She followed him into his kitchen. Putting the dish in the refrigerator, he braced himself. Dolores could manipulate with the best.
“I have an ultrasound tomorrow. Would you like to come with me?”
He straightened. “I don’t see why I should.”
“Well, the baby and all.”
The baby that could be anyone’s. Grace’s visit threw doubts in his mind. “What if the baby isn’t mine?”
Her mouth dropped open. “So you don’t plan on investing anything emotionally into it until there’s paternity test. Why the change?” Then a light when on in her eyes. “Grace. It’s Grace.”
When she put it that way, he sounded cold. Maybe he needed to be cold to protect himself from her. “It isn’t Grace. Lors, don’t. Don’t use emotional black mail to get me back. Do you really want me that way?”
She rubbed her hands up and down her arms as if she were cold. He had the air conditioning on, but not that high. “You eat?”
“Yes, I did. I saw Grace in the parking lot.”
Here goes.
“What was she doing here?”
“Not as if it is any of your business, but she had a question for me. One I couldn’t answer,” said Zach.
“What was it?”
“Who the father of your baby is?”
***
Dolores dialed the familiar number. She had to turn the screws more. She wasn’t going to be homeless. And he was going to pay for this baby.
“Hello.”
Lazy. It was only early evening where he was. “Wake up. It’s me.”
“What do you want? I don’t have anything else to say to you.”
“The baby is yours. You need to pay for it,” she said.
She rubbed a hand down her tummy. It fluttered, but she thought it was too early to feel the baby move.
“You can’t prove that.”
“When the baby comes I can.”
“You have to get DNA from me. Besides, you know I don’t have the money.”
“Yeah, you do. You got that trust fund.”
“I’ve been cut off. I didn’t do exactly what ‘Daddy’ wanted.”
“Then start doing it. You need the money and so do I,” she said. She shifted on the chair, not able to find a comfortable spot. How bad would it get if she already couldn’t sit easily?
“I can live like a pauper.”
“Well I don’t intend to. And I don’t intend to raise this baby on welfare.”
“How about that ex-husband?”
“He’ll do the math and figure out he couldn’t be the father.”
A pain raced down her abdomen. She shouldn’t have had such a spicy lunch.
“Oh well. Guess this baby will be without a father.”
“Where are you?” she asked.
“Where I’ve been since you told me.”
“Coward. Besides, I don’t believe you.” Her breath seized as the pain came back. “Ouch.”
“Dolores?”
“Just gas, I’m sure.”
“Then get some antacids and stop calling me. Our fun is over and I’m not coming back.”
“I’m sure I’ll find a way to get you back.”
The pain again.
“Nope.”
“Ouch,” she said.
“You okay? Maybe you should call your doctor. I’ll let you go.”
She dropped the phone as a harder pain seized her abdomen.
“Dolores? Dolores?” His voice came from the received on the floor, but she couldn’t reach it to answer.
***
This time Zach was already naked. “Let me in, Grace.”
For a moment relief swept through her. Then a longing for release took hold of her. His expert hands had her body thrumming.
Then he began a slow and easy rhythm. “Is this good?” His voice came out in deep breaths as if he couldn’t control himself. “Tell me what you like.”
“Oh, God. This and more.”
He smiled down at her his eyes dark with desire. “Slow down, Grace.”
“No, speed up.”
“The journey.”
“No, the climax.”
His chuckle rumbled from deep inside of him. She was going to disintegrate. Soon. She wanted to be there.
His breaths grew short as his eyes went dark. She knew he couldn’t hold out much longer. She only had to reach the top of the hill.
Her fingernails scraped across his back. He groaned.
And when she
thought she would let go, she was catapulted out of the dream.
Her body ached from the effort. Her spirits crashed as she knew she’d never find satisfaction with anyone else.
She sat up, but exhaustion pushed her back into the pillows.
Zach had been in her thoughts more than she liked, and with her dreams she had less control.
Pacing the apartment she tried to decipher what it all meant. She had no one to talk to in this instance. Her gut told her not to let Mark know all that was going on. She wished she knew why.
A movement outside on the driveway had her looking out. She parted her curtains, but stepped aside. Once again a man stood on her driveway. She thought he was looking up at her window.
Without turning on the light, she fished in her purse for Zach’s card. Dolores wasn’t supposed to die for another day, but she wanted to be sure.
He answered on the second ring. “Holten.”
“Zach, it’s Grace Harmony.”
“Is something wrong?”
He must have heard it in her voice. “Yes that guy’s back. He’s standing on the driveway.”
“Did you call the cops?”
“I called you.”
“Well get off the phone and dial 9-1-1. I’m on my way.”
Grace did as he instructed. The man had moved closer to her apartment. She slipped a robe over her shoulders as she relayed the information to the dispatcher.
Hanging up she sat on her sofa bed for a moment, chewing on her thumbnail. She checked outside again, but that man just stood there. Not liking cowering in her room, she belted the robe and strode out her front door.
A siren wailed at the end of the street and the man turned and ran away from her. She sprinted to where he had just stood, but he’d disappeared into some bushes.
“Damn.”
The patrol car pulled into the driveway. She pointed in the direction the man had run. “He went that way.”
“You okay, Miss?”
“Yes, just get him.”
The patrolmen set off on foot, but came back a moment later. “I didn’t see him. You get a good look?”
“I’ll tell you what I can.”
She described the man the best she could. As the officer finished taking her report, Zach pulled in behind the cop’s patrol car.
“Someone you know?” the cop asked.
“Yes.”
The cop acknowledged the newcomer. “I didn’t see anyone when I arrived.”
Grace eyed Dolores’ house. She thought she’d seen her come in earlier and she wondered why the woman hadn’t been awakened. Several of the neighbors had turned outside lights on to see the action.
As if reading her mind, Zach said, “She sleeps pretty soundly.”
“Maybe you should check on her.”
Zach cocked his head. “Something you want to tell me?”
Her anger spiked. “No.”
Zach moved his car for the cop then pulled back into the driveway. Grace stood in her robe suddenly feeling vulnerable.
“If you don’t knock on her door, I will,” she said.
“I’ll do it. Let me call her first.”
He dialed a cell phone he had retrieved from off his belt. Shaking his head he hung up. “Odd that she didn’t answer. You sure she’s here?”
“I thought I saw her come in.” Grace looked over her shoulder. “Her car’s in the garage. I heard the door.”
“Did you actually see her?”
“Well, no, but I did hear the door.”
Zach frowned at her in the moonlight. “Okay, I’ll check.”
He had Dolores’ key on his chain. Guess they were close. “She gave me a key because she sometimes locks herself out.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Your posture said it all.”
She uncrossed her arms. “I only have this robe on.”
Zach stopped on his trek to his ex-wife’s back door. She couldn’t see his expression, but she could imagine.
“Only a robe. What do I say first?” He ran a hand through his hair. “What the hell were you thinking coming out of your apartment? Let alone half-naked. You’d be a prime target for rape.”
She pulled her robe closer around her. “I’m not half-naked.”
“Did you see the way that cop looked at you. He’s got a great story for the guys back at the station.”
Her face flushed. She hadn’t thought about that. “I wasn’t thinking.”
His voice came out in a stern whisper. “No, you weren’t.”
Turning away from her he put the key in the lock. It clicked. “Lors?”
No answer. A chill went up Grace’s spine. Was she too late? Had she gotten the date wrong?
“Stay here,” Zach commanded.
“No.”
The whole neighborhood heard his sigh. “Stay behind me, then.”
She did all the way upstairs to Dolores’s bathroom. That’s when they found her in a pool of blood.
Dolores looked up at them, pale as she could be. “The baby.”
Chapter Eight
Zach paced in the waiting room in the emergency room. No one was telling him anything and he thought he’d jump out of his skin. People hurried by, but not one of them stopped.
Grace had come in the ambulance with Dolores and now returned to him with two cups of coffee. He wasn’t sure the brew would help him, but he took it to have something in his hands. “What have you heard?”
Her long face told him everything.
“She’s alive and doing okay. She lost the baby. I’m sorry Zach.”
He sipped the black liquid his senses numbed except for the coffee searing down his throat. This changed a lot of things between him and Dolores. Guilt traipsed through him as he thought for the better. “What was it?”
“A girl. She was three months along,” Grace said settling into an orange plastic chair.
“Three months? Are you serious?”
She nodded. “Why is that significant?”
Zach shook his head. This was between him and Dolores. She’d lied once again. The baby wasn’t his. Couldn’t have been. They’d been together only a month ago. A month he’d been rethinking his life. All in vain because his suppositions were based on a lie.
The last lie she would ever tell him.
With his coffee drained, he threw his empty cup across the room. Grace stood then approached him with wide eyes. “Zach, she’ll be okay. She can still have more children.”
“Yeah?”
None of them would be his. His streak of bringing no children into the world would be intact.
He shrugged off her hand. “I’m going home. Call me with any updates.”
“You’re leaving?”
Turning he looked into her horrified face. “No reason to stay.”
He left Grace blinking at him.
***
Grace watched Zach stride out of the waiting room. Her disbelief paralyzed her. Just because Dolores had lost her baby was no reason to abandon her at this point. Anger catapulted her in his direction.
“Zach.”
He turned, his face flushed with rage. A muscle worked in his jaw.
“It isn’t her fault.”
“I didn’t say it was.” He put a hand on her arm. “Look, Grace you’re in the middle of something you don’t understand. Just let me go.”
She touched him back even though she knew it would cost her. “Explain it to me, then. Maybe it will help Dolores.”
Colors swirled and Grace’s hormones went on overdrive. She dropped her hand. The feeling died away.
“You mean that she’ll be out of danger as you seem to think she is in?” he asked.
His frown communicated his doubt.
“She is in trouble. She’s going to be killed.”
His face remained impassive and Grace wasn’t sure if her gamble would pay off. She wanted to shake him and though he’d given her a hard time, she didn’t really think he was this cold. He must care about
Dolores some or he wouldn’t have slept with her.
“Killed? By whom? I’ll have him arrested.”
“Zach, I don’t know. Maybe you’re the guy. You seemed pretty pissed at her.” Most of her didn’t believe this.
He stiffened and rose to his full height. She was not going to be intimidated. “I wouldn’t lay a hand on Dolores or any other woman for that matter.”
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