This Time

by Amy Reece

  She’d received her own check from the insurance company, a staggering amount that would more than cover the cost of Neal’s funeral and the outstanding debt. She knew she would need to deposit it soon, but she didn’t want it and couldn’t begin to deal with it now. Later. I’m too tired to think about it now.

  She’d planned to take a short nap, but found she couldn’t settle her mind enough to fall asleep. Did Kira really kill Neal to get her hands on the life insurance money? Did she then try to make it look like a suicide? It seems so incredibly elaborate and far-fetched. She never came across as mercenary. Nina had no answers, but couldn’t manage to shake off the questions swirling in her mind. They’d been invading her thoughts all weekend since Finn and Chris had interrupted her secret tryst with Seamus at his apartment. She smiled wryly at her dramatic term, but their time had been so special and that’s how she liked to remember it. He was scheduled to work the next forty-eight hours, but they’d used every spare moment over the weekend to make love, needing to make up for lost time. They’d taken the girls to swim at his parents’ house on Sunday afternoon and Izzy had brought Janey, so the girls were in heaven. Nina had enjoyed visiting with Izzy while Seamus and Mac swam with the girls. Izzy had stated she wouldn’t be caught dead in a swimsuit as pregnant as she was, and Nina was happy to lounge by the pool with her. It would be one of the final swims of the season, and she actually found it a bit cool already to be donning a bikini.

  Cara had shown up closer to the dinner hour and the three had made plans for a girl’s night out soon. When Mel and Finn appeared, they told him they were kidnapping Mel for a few hours away from the baby and he could suck it if he didn’t like it. He’d simply laughed and handed little Ava to his mother, who was eager to hold her new granddaughter.

  “It’ll do her good to get away for a couple hours. I’ll see if the guys want to come over and watch a game and help me change diapers.”

  Nina smiled as she remembered the time with Seamus’s family. I wonder if he realizes how lucky he is to have such a close-knit family? Her smile faded as she thought about her own family, never as close, and now heartbroken over the loss of Neal. She shrugged her shoulders, determined not to let the black mood have its way. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and decided to spend some time picking up around the house. Nothing like a little housework to take her mind off things. It had gotten out of control during the time she’d been in the hospital and she was eager to whip it back into shape. Besides, maybe it would make her sleepy, so she could get back to her napping.

  She picked up the family room, wondering how in the world the girls could leave so many pairs of shoes under the coffee table. Did they actually own that many? She clearly needed to weed some out as soon as possible and donate the extras to Goodwill. Thinking of how Seamus would approach it, she amended her idea: I’ll have the girls do it and clean their room while they’re at it.

  She wasn’t up to running the vacuum yet, so she settled for dusting, then moved on to the kitchen. Seamus had kept up with the dishes while she was recuperating, so there was little to do. The apples and tangerines in the fruit bowl in the middle of the kitchen table had shriveled, however, so she grabbed up the bowl and dumped the withered fruit in the garbage can. She stopped as the stainless-steel lid slammed shut—it had broken months ago and she needed to buy a new one soon—and reached to open it again. She’d glimpsed something odd, something which didn’t belong in a fruit bowl, and re-opened the trash can to retrieve whatever it was one of the girls had left there. But as she wiped wet coffee grounds off the flash drive, she knew neither of the girls had left it. What in the world?

  She retrieved her new laptop from her bedroom and plugged the small piece of plastic into the USB port. She double-clicked on the icon as soon as it appeared on her desktop. The directory showed a long list of Excel files, a video file, and one Word document. These must be the files from Izzy. It’s odd she didn’t mention it Sunday when I saw her. But Nina remembered how much had happened in the last few weeks and couldn’t blame anyone for not remembering to mention a flash drive. There probably isn’t anything useful on it, anyway.

  She clicked open the Word doc and saw it was a note from Izzy:

  Hey Seamus & Nina,

  All the financials look legit. It appears the company turned a small profit last year and was on track for the same this year. I found the MP4 file embedded in one of the ledgers and extracted it. It’s password protected, however, so I have no idea what’s in it. Good luck! Hope this helps!

  Izzy

  Nina’s heart pounded as she double-clicked the video file and was presented with a password prompt. After a half dozen attempts, she typed in 36NealzSe(retF!le24 and was astonished when the screen blinked and a still video shot, clearly of Neal, was displayed. She raised a shaking hand to move the mouse over the white triangle and clicked it.

  “Hey, Sis.”

  Nina sucked in a breath as she gazed at Neal’s face. Oh, God! I miss you! She wiped a tear away impatiently as she listened.

  “So, I know you’ll think I’m a worry-wart with conspiracy theory leanings, but hopefully you’ll never have to watch this anyway.” He laughed and scratched his cheek, the same way she’d seen him do so many times before. “Anyhoo, I just figured I’d make this little video and bury it deep in my personal computer. I told Kira to make sure you get the laptop if anything ever happens to me.” He laughed again. “God, that sounds so dramatic, huh? I’m not the type of guy anything would ever happen to, though. I’m just boring, old Neal Braden, after all.”

  Nina reached for a paper napkin to staunch the flow of tears she couldn’t contain.

  “But here’s the thing, Nina.” He looked back over his shoulder, then leaned closer to the camera. “Something is going on here at RiskCom. I’m not sure what, but it’s not good. I think someone in the company may be selling us out. I’ve been hearing rumors that our flagship program isn’t as secure as it’s supposed to be.”

  “Well, well, well. I guess he wasn’t quite as stupid as I figured.”

  ***

  Nina shrieked and leapt to her feet, sending her chair skidding across the tile floor as she spun to face the intruder. “Gordy! How the hell did you get in my house?” She’d locked the door behind her; she remembered locking the door. She backed away from him, fear coursing through her body. There could be absolutely no good reason for him to be here like this.

  He reached forward and pressed pause on the computer. “We’re missing the best part.” He straightened and turned to her, an exasperated expression on his face. “I have a key, Nina. I stole it from Neal the night I killed him. The stupid twit had them labeled. I slipped them off his key ring right before I shot him. No one ever noticed they were gone.”

  “You killed him? Why? He was your best friend!” She could barely hear her own voice over the pulse pounding in her ears.

  “Yeah, well, we weren’t actually that close any more. You know what? I’d like to hear what Neal knew before I tell you why I did it. Come sit down and let’s watch the rest of the video. It’s pretty shitty production value, but what can you expect from such a low budget affair?”

  “Get the fuck out of my house, Gordy!” She reached behind her, fumbling on the counter for her cell phone, which she’d set there earlier.

  “Later.” He pulled a small, yet lethal-looking hand gun from his pocket. “Now, I said come over here so we can watch the rest of this video. And you can leave your cell phone right where it is. You won’t be needing it.”

  She shivered at the coldness in his voice, wondering how he’d kept this side of himself hidden for so long. She shook her head, glancing at the time displayed on the oven clock, desperate to know if her mother would be dropping the girls off soon. They weren’t due for nearly an hour. Oh, thank God! I don’t want them anywhere near here until Gordy’s gone. She was terrified for herself, of course, but couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to her children. “Are you g
oing to kill me too?”

  “Definitely. Don’t worry, though. I’ll make it look like your intruder came back and I’ll be gone long before your kids get home. I’m not a monster, Nina.”

  She refrained from commenting, knowing anything she said would only get her killed faster. She thought frantically, desperately trying to think of anything she could do to save herself. I don’t keep a gun in the house. Even if I did, I’d never get to it before he shot me. Oh, God, I don’t want to die! I want to live and watch my daughters grow up. I want to grow old with Seamus.

  “Now, come sit down so we can watch the rest of this captivating video together.” He bent to pick up the chair she’d knocked over and gestured with the gun for her to sit. “Don’t make me tell you again, Nina.”

  “No.” She crossed her arms and spat the words at him. “I’m not going to do anything you say. Why should I? If you’re going to kill me, then just fucking do it! I don’t want to hear any more.” She wasn’t being fatalistic; she realized Gordy wanted to enact some sort of soliloquy like the criminals always did at the end of a television mystery. But she had no desire to listen, and she hoped she could make him angry enough to drop his guard for a moment. And what the hell will I do if he does? She had no clue, but she prayed she’d know when the time was right.

  His mouth hardened at her defiance. He lunged forward and grabbed her arm, yanking her to the chair. He pressed the barrel of the gun hard into her cheek; she knew there would be a nasty bruise later. “But I want you to listen and I want to watch the rest of the video, so sit the fuck down and I might not insist on having a little fun before I shoot you.” He let his eyes drift to the front of her shirt and linger on her breasts.

  Her blood ran cold at the thought of him touching her. Oh, God, anything but that! She sat. He’d found a sure-fire way to quell her rebellion.

  Gordy pressed play again and Neal’s voice filled the room.

  “—but I can’t be sure of anything yet. I hope I’m wrong. I wanted you to know, however, in case something happens to me. You can go to the police, but whatever you do, don’t mention any of my suspicions to Gordy. I don’t have any proof, but something’s definitely up with him. He’s always been the one to look for shortcuts, and I think he’s gambling again. I don’t trust him, Nina.” He paused to rub his cheek again. “Well, I’ve rambled on long enough, especially considering no one will ever see this. Hopefully. Hey, I love ya, sis! Take care!”

  Neal leaned forward, and his face blurred and filled the screen for a moment. The video ended, and the screen went black.

  “I knew he didn’t trust me. Fucker.” Gordy slammed the laptop shut and threw himself into the chair next to Nina’s, keeping the gun trained on her. “He was a pretty smart guy; I’ll give him that.” He set the gun on the table in front of him and ran his hands through his hair.

  Nina’s eyes darted to the weapon.

  Gordy met her gaze with a smirk. “Go ahead. I know you’re thinking about it.”

  Nina crossed her arms and sneered at him. “Fuck off.”

  He chuckled. “Such a mouth! I used to think you were so sweet. You always acted like you were too good for me, even back in college. Then you married that old-ass professor. But Neal told me he was rich.” He smiled at her knowingly. “I guess we’re not so different, are we, Nina?”

  She looked away from his insufferable face. Please, God, give me a way out of this!

  “Neal always hassled me about my gambling, but a guy’s got to have a way to let off some steam. My poker habit has gotten expensive lately, however, and a few months ago I was approached by a couple of Chinese gentlemen who made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.” He laughed at his own joke. “They wanted to purchase the code for our Proteus program. They thought they could reverse engineer it and turn it into some sort of master key to hack into the government or some shit. I didn’t care. They offered me a load of cash to give them the code. So I did. But then Neal got nosey, and it was either him or me. I chose me.”

  “Who are you to decide your life is more valuable than someone else’s? Than my brother’s?” Her voice shook as she whispered the words, not expecting an answer, but needing to ask.

  Gordy stared at her, a small frown between his brows. He was saved from answering by the doorbell.

  Hope flared briefly in Nina’s chest.

  “Are you expecting someone?”

  She shook her head.

  The hope was quickly extinguished by Gordy’s next words. “We’ll ignore it, then. It’s probably FedEx or something.”

  But the doorbell rang again, followed by a female voice. “Nina? Are you home? It’s Cara.”

  “Who’s Cara?” Gordy leapt from his chair and growled the question in her ear, the gun jammed against her neck.

  “She’s just a friend of mine,” she whimpered. She had no intention of giving him more information than was absolutely necessary.

  He stood, pulling her to her feet. “Get rid of her. Answer the door but tell her you’re sick or something. I don’t care, but she needs to leave. I’ll kill her if she doesn’t. You don’t want that on your conscience, do you?”

  She walked to the door, her legs trembling so hard she feared she’d fall. Gordy followed closely behind, the gun pressed into her back. He took up a position to the side of the double front door, just inside the living room, where he couldn’t be seen as long as she didn’t open the door wide. She wanted to give Cara a hint but had no idea how to do it without endangering the other woman. She couldn’t risk it; she’d have to act as normal as possible. She opened the door a crack and peered out.

  “Nina? Hi! I stopped by on my way home from work to drop off some clothes one of the girls left at my parents’ house last night.” She held up a small, plastic grocery bag. Nina could see the brightly flowered print through the plastic: the flowered shorts Iris had worn over her swimming suit. Cara reached for the handle of the security screen door, but found it locked. “You mind if I come in?”

  “Oh, um…actually, I’m not feeling well. I guess I pushed myself too hard my first day back to work. Why don’t you just leave the bag on the porch? I’ll, uh, get it later.”

  Cara frowned, her hand frozen on the screen door. “O—kay.” Her eyes darted to Nina’s, frowning. “Is everything all right?” She tried to peer into the house behind Nina.

  Nina stepped forward to block her view. “Everything’s fine. I’m sure I’ll be better by Thursday for our girls’ night. I know how much Chris is looking forward to it.” She stressed the name ever-so-slightly. It was the only hint she could think of that Gordy wouldn’t understand. She realized the probability of Cara getting it was slim, however.

  Cara stared at her for a long moment before she finally nodded. “Yeah. Okay. Well, I’ll just leave this here.” She bent to place the bag on the door mat. “Call me later? Get some rest.” She turned and strode down the walkway to her car.

  Nina breathed a sigh of relief and closed the door.

  “Lock it.”

  She flipped the lock then turned to him. “What now?”

  “Wait.” He turned to look out the front window between the slats of the shade. “I need to make sure she leaves.” A moment later he turned back to her. “She’s gone. Let’s return to the kitchen.” He gestured with the gun for her to precede him.

  As Nina walked in front of him, she wondered if perhaps she could get him to talk more. He’d seemed eager to tell her why he killed Neal, and she was desperate to give Cara enough time to call the police, on the off-chance she’d understood Nina’s veiled hint. She desperately held on to the gossamer thread of hope. “How did you do it?”

  “Do what? Oh, you mean how did I pull off such a brilliant murder? The police totally bought the whole suicide thing for quite a while.” He resumed his seat and motioned for her to sit. “I planned it meticulously. I took the gun from Neal’s apartment a few months ago. I knew he kept it in his closet, but I also knew he never checked it. He said he hated it
and only bought it because there’d been some break-ins in their neighborhood. I got the ketamine from a veterinarian friend of mine who knows not to ask questions. I snagged your key after I killed him—I had a feeling it might be necessary. I figured Neal would have told you about his suspicions. I used it to get in after Kira told me she gave you Neal’s laptop. Dumb bitch!”

  “Was she involved? Did you plan this together?”

  He laughed harshly. “With Kira? No. She’s too stupid for words. She might be a total slut—” He broke off at the surprised look on her face. “You mean you didn’t know?” He continued to laugh. “Yeah, she’s quite the little gold digger. She’ll sleep with anyone she thinks she can get a few bucks from. I stopped screwing her almost a year ago.” He appeared contemplative for a moment. “I don’t think Neal knew. Huh.”

  Poor Neal! He was so in love with Kira. I hope he never knew what she was really like.

  “Anyway, I made a bit of a mess looking for his laptop, so I decided I better make it look like a burglary. Sorry about that.” He grinned in a way that let her know he wasn’t sorry at all. “But it gave me the idea for the mugging in the parking lot behind your office. That almost worked. You just can’t get good help these days. So, I decided I’d better—”

  A loud rapping on the kitchen window interrupted his disgusting monologue and they both looked up suddenly. Cara’s shocked face peered in as she yelled, “Hey!”

  Nina knew this was the moment—the only chance she’d likely get—and she acted without hesitation. She grabbed the heavy, yellow Fiesta ware fruit bowl she’d so recently emptied and swung it at Gordy’s head as hard as she could. He saw it coming at the last second, but didn’t have time to duck. Instead, his sudden turn presented his face to the bowl, which slammed into his nose. Blood spurted violently over the table and Nina, as Gordy fell backward out of his chair and collapsed, unconscious, while the bowl broke into several large pieces around him. Nina scrabbled over him for the gun.