by Julia Derek
He raised his head and inhaled deeply, gazing intently at Kate. A tiny smile stretched his broad mouth. “Clementina knew that my heart belonged to someone else. She told me she couldn’t handle it any longer, so she left. I can’t say that I blame her. I would not have wanted to be in a relationship with someone who didn’t truly love me, either. But I’m still sad about it. See, I really did care about Clementina. Deeply.”
A warm wave of happiness went through Kate as she took in Trevor now. A second later, the feeling of joy was replaced by shame. Had she really allowed herself to be overjoyed about the fact that he wasn’t in love with Clementina but with her? How could she be so selfish? Her tongue darted out of her mouth and she wetted her lips. How about considering all the pain Clementina must have been in when she recognized that her fiancé didn’t love her instead of how that benefitted her?
Despite chiding herself in her mind, Kate couldn’t stop another, stronger wave of happiness going through her when Trevor brought his other hand to enfold hers on the table. She felt nearly euphoric as she watched the smile on his warm face widen, his blue eyes glancing at her so tenderly.
“You are the reason, Kate,” he said softly, stroking the inside of her hand. “I never stopped loving you. I loved you from the moment we first met. I can finally admit it both to you and to myself. I hope it’s okay and that I’m not making you uncomfortable. It truly isn’t my intention and I know that you love Diego. I just wanted to come clean with you.”
Kate smiled back at Trevor and placed her other hand on top of his. “I’m so happy that you were brave enough to do so, Trevor. You know that I’ve always cared deeply about you. And if I hadn’t met Diego that day, I truly think it would have been you and me. I do think that I would have ended up loving you. Now that I’ve seen what a wonderful person you are, I can see that. But it wasn’t our time then. Maybe it will be now. If you can be patient with me.”
Was she really saying these words? They were so wrong, weren’t they? How could she even be thinking about having a relationship with another man when her husband had been murdered only three weeks ago? What kind of a person was she? Callous, calculating, and selfish, that’s who. She looked away and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said all that. It was wrong. I’m a bad person for even thinking like this.”
Trevor’s grip around her hand tightened. “Please don’t talk about yourself like that, Kate. You’re a wonderful person. The best person I’ve ever met. You and I have a strong friendship that may or may not develop into something more. There’s nothing wrong with seeing where it goes. Whatever happens happens. Just let it be.”
Kate could feel herself relax. What Trevor said made so much sense. So what if Trevor loved her and she felt good about it? It wasn’t her fault that Diego had been murdered. Despite what those detectives claimed, she still believed that it had been a robbery. She and Diego had no enemies. She hoped they would find his killer soon, and she would of course do whatever she could to help them. That didn’t mean she couldn’t keep spending time with Trevor in the meantime. Let him be her friend and see what happened. She doubted anything romantic would develop between them right now, romantic as in sexual. She wasn’t ready to be romantic with another man. But she had a strong feeling that Trevor wouldn’t push her to be intimate with him until she told him herself that she wanted to. He was a kind and patient man. What would she have done without him? She honestly wasn’t sure if she would have managed to get through this trying time so relatively smoothly had it not been for the man seated before her, the man who was gazing at her with so much love.
“Trevor,” she said and squeezed his hand with both of hers. “I’m so lucky that I got to know you. Your friendship has proven invaluable to me. You make me feel so good despite what has happened, when I should be tortured with grief. With you by my side, I can cope with it.”
“I’m so happy to hear that I’m making you feel good,” he answered. He stared at her intensely for a long, silent moment, and for a second Kate felt as though his face changed, turning darker somehow. It was as if he was suddenly angry. “I sincerely hope you will feel the same way in the future. Feel lucky that you met me, I mean. I’m not so sure that you will.”
I’m not so sure that you will. What was that supposed to mean?
She frowned lightly at him and couldn’t help but think that it was a strange thing for him to say. The waiter came then and asked if they wanted more coffee, and Kate forgot all about the weird moment. When it briefly came back to her a day later, she wrote it off as him having been nervous that she would not end up loving him the way he apparently loved her.
If only she hadn’t been that naïve, she would have at least suspected what was really going on. She would have seen that Trevor for once let down his guard and revealed his true self.
* * *
Chapter 15
When Wil got home that night, she was exhausted. It had been a long day, and she and Larry felt even more confused than before they went over to Nilsen & Nilsen to talk to Rudi about the knife. All along it had seemed odd to them that the killer would plant a knife that was so unusual and so easily traced. He or she must have known that it wouldn’t take very long before the authorities had figured out where it came from. Had the killer really wanted them to know it was from Nilsen & Nilsen? Was that why it was planted? Or had the knife been dropped after all, the killer having had no time to pick it up? Despite there being no fingerprints on it, it having merely been dropped now not only looked like a real possibility, but in fact like the most plausible scenario. That at least made more sense than a killer wanting to help the police locate him or her by planting it.
That’s why they were now going with the somewhat shaky theory that someone at Nilsen & Nilsen—or someone connected to the store—was the killer. So far, they’d only gotten hold of one of the owners and Victoria Zucker, and the initial meetings with them hadn’t yielded much. While Rudi had an alibi, it needed to be verified before they could rule him out, and Victoria needed to come up with one. Not remembering her whereabouts, she had promised to look into what she had done that night. Even without an alibi for her, neither Wil nor Larry believed Victoria was their perp, however. If she was, she was a bonafide psychopath, they both agreed; no one with a drop of conscience in their blood would be able to discuss with the ease she had the reasons why the murder weapon had been taken from the store.
They had heard back from one of the other employees, a Brent Jacobs, who claimed he had been in Europe on vacation the last week of October. They sent him images of the knife and he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen it, which wasn’t odd since his position didn’t entail much sales, but mostly ordering and general accounting. All he was sure of was that he hadn’t made a note of the knife having been sold. If the last two employees or Rudi’s partner hadn’t sold it and forgotten to mention it—which was unlikely—the knife must have been stolen.
Wil sighed where she sat behind her laptop in her small kitchen, mindlessly surfing the Internet while eating pasta with meat sauce that she had heated up for dinner. She couldn’t say that she looked forward to spending hours and hours going through tedious security footage in search of someone having taken the knife in the last couple of months. Unless they received some useful information when they got hold of the last three people, that’s what she and Larry would have to do. She doubted they would get someone to help them out much with that part.
Well, maybe Kate Martinez would have something worthwhile to say about Nilsen & Nilsen and its employees when Wil called her—she planned to do so after she had finished eating. Somehow, she didn’t think that Kate would. To Wil, this entire lead seemed like a waste of time. She couldn’t put her finger on exactly why that was, just that her gut told her this was so. Unfortunately, since her partner was a firm believer in solid evidence and the knife was all they had to go by for now, they would have to keep at it until it didn’t make sense to do so any longer and/or a bett
er lead presented itself.
Swallowing the last piece of her dinner and rinsing the remainder of it down with some water, she found her cell phone. It was a little late, but she wanted to get the conversation with Kate over with, and in her book, calls before ten p.m. were acceptable, at least on a Friday. It was five to ten.
She found Kate’s number and dialed it.
“Hello,” a soft female voice answered after a couple of rings. She sounded a bit out of breath.
“Mrs. Martinez?”
“Yes, who is calling?”
“This is Detective Cooper with the NYPD. I apologize for the late call, but we have some news in regards to the investigation of your husband’s murder, and I’d like to ask you some questions about it. Is this a good time?”
“Sure, I just got home. What is it?”
“The knife left at the crime scene was traced to a store named Nilsen & Nilsen located in Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Does the name of the store ring a bell for you?”
“Nilsen & Nilsen?” Kate repeated. “No, I can’t say that I’ve ever heard that name before. What kind of a store is it?”
“It’s an antique weapons store. We have been in contact with the owner and some of the employees. So far, it appears like no one has sold the knife and that it was stolen instead. Fortunately, the store has security cameras with footage that we will go through, and hopefully we’ll find the person that way. In the meantime, we haven’t discounted the people with access to the store such as the owners and the employees and their families. They may be involved in the killing, so I’d like to ask you if you recognize any of the following names.”
“Okay.”
“Rudi Baumgarden.”
“No.”
“Rudi’s partner, Michael Winkler.”
“No.”
“Victoria Zucker.”
“No.”
“Jeremy Fiorelli and Mona Anderson.”
“No.”
“How about Brent Jacobs?”
“Not him either.”
“Okay, those are the people who work in the store. We’ll let you know about other possibilities as they come up.”
Kate cleared her throat. “I thought you told me that the knife was planted at the crime scene. Doesn’t that mean that the killer could not be anyone working at the store? I mean, why would they help you find them?”
“That’s a good point and something we’re keeping in mind. However, we need to at least consider them. While we don’t believe it’s likely, there is a chance the knife was merely dropped and not planted. In that case, it could very well be someone working at the store.”
“Oh.”
“How about the name the Latin Devils?” Wil asked. What with Diego being dead now, Larry and Wil didn’t think there was a reason to fear for Kate’s and her kids’ safety. If they were dealing with some kind of gang-related vendetta, the gang would hardly go after Diego’s family after having killed him. Even so, they had decided that they would bring up his gang involvement to Kate to see if she had known more about her husband’s life than what Diego’s family believed.
“No, I have never heard that name,” she replied. “Is that a band or something?”
“No, it’s a Hispanic street gang. Your husband was a member of this gang between the ages of thirteen and sixteen while living in Texas.”
Kate sucked in a gasp. “What? Diego was a gang member? That can’t be true!”
“Why not?”
“Because… because he would have told me about it. What makes you think he was a gang member?”
“His parents told us that he was. They had to pay a fee to get him out.” At the moment, Wil didn’t see the necessity of mentioning that Diego had been beaten to an inch of his life to get out.
“Really?” Kate sounded incredulous. “Why would he not tell me about it?”
“He was ashamed. He didn’t want you to think badly of him.”
Kate sighed heavily on the other end. “Really? Oh, my God… Poor Diego. I wish he would have had the courage to tell me. I would not have loved him any less. Do you—do you think his murder may be related to his time in the gang?”
“It’s possible, but unlikely. For now, we’re focusing on people with access to Nilsen & Nilsen. It seems like a stronger lead. His time in the gang was a long, long time ago, so it is a little odd that someone would come back for him now.”
“Yes. Yes, that’s true.” Her voice was little more than a whisper.
“Please don’t be worried for your and your children’s safety, Kate. If we had reason to believe it was gang-related, we would take precautions to ensure that they couldn’t reach you. But the fact of the matter is, even if it were, they probably wouldn’t touch you or the children. Not after Diego was already dead.” Wil made her voice softer. “Do you see what I’m getting at here, Kate?”
“Yes. I think so. They would have come for us first.”
“Yes, they would have. If there’s something you remember that you think may relate to Diego being a gang member, please don’t hesitate to let us know. It might prove helpful. Also, anything related to Nilsen & Nilsen. No matter how insignificant it may seem to you, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Call us any time.”
“Okay. What did Diego do while in the gang? Why did he join them in the first place? Do you know? I thought only poor kids from broken homes joined gangs. Diego came from a good home.”
“That’s usually the case, but not always. You should talk to your in-laws about his gang involvement. They will know more about it than I do. I don’t think he did anything very serious, though, or he would have a record. Diego does not have a criminal record. We already checked.”
“Okay, I will call them and talk to them. Thanks for letting me know about it.”
“You’re welcome. Please don’t be mad at them. They didn’t keep you in the dark out of spite. They had promised Diego not to tell you. I don’t think they thought it would ever matter.”
“I’m not mad. I just want to know what they know. Why he did it.”
“That’s understandable. Well, I’m going to let you go. Have a good night, Kate.”
As soon as they disconnected, Wil placed a call to Diego’s parents and left a detailed message on Mrs. Martinez’s voicemail. She let the other woman know what she had told Kate and that Kate would likely call her. Wil emphasized that she hadn’t told Kate about the beating Diego had received during the jump out.
Then, on a whim, Wil did a search for the words “Diego Martinez revenge” on her laptop. A bunch of websites and images popped up. She scanned through them casually and was about to give up and call it a night when her eye caught a body she had seen before. She clicked on the image to make it bigger and make sure she wasn’t mistaken. She could feel her eyes widen when she saw that it was in fact a photo of Diego Martinez’s mutilated body on the ground. She recognized it from having seen it in person as well as after having studied it in crime scene photos. It was definitely him. She clicked on the website to which the photo belonged.
The link took her to Pinterest where she saw that the image had the caption Revenge is Sweet.
* * *
Chapter 16
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO
“You think you can just go flirt with any guy you want to, huh?” the Duchess hissed at Kelly Anne in the school’s hallway. “Even ones who’re taken? What the hell is wrong with you?”
The Duchess and her posse of friends had surrounded Kelly Anne in a half circle. They were walking closer and closer to her, their faces twisted with fury. Kelly Anne was terrified, her heart pounding hard, sweat coating the sides of her ribcage. You didn’t want to mess with the Duchess ever. Judging from the way they were all glaring at her, not to mention what the Duchess herself had just said, it was obvious that she had done something really bad. But what guy was she talking about? It sounded like it could be the Duchess’s boyfriend, Jamie.
Kelly Anne and Jamie had spoken yesterday during lunch break, but
that was only because Jamie had come over and had taken a seat beside Kelly Anne when she was eating by herself. Kelly Anne would never ever dare go up to a hot, popular senior like Jamie and talk to him on her own. Especially not one who was going out with the Duchess.
Kelly Anne was a lot of things, but she wasn’t an idiot. She kept to herself. That was the best way to stay out of trouble. That’s what both her mother and her brother always told her. Her big brother, whom she barely saw any longer he was so busy with the gang he had joined.
“What—what do you mean?” Kelly Anne managed to get out as she kept walking backwards to get away from the Duchess and her friends. Maybe she could get away. She had to get away from them. She didn’t want to be beaten up. She had seen how they once beat up another girl so much the girl had to be taken to the hospital. Lots of people had been around watching as they beat the girl, but no one had done anything to stop what was happening. They wouldn’t do anything to help her, either.
“You know damn well what I mean,” the Duchess snarled at her, her blue eyes turning into slits. “You were talking to Jamie yesterday and offered yourself to him. And he wants it. Don’t ask me why, but he does.” She let out a mocking laughter, and the others laughed, too.
“What? What does he want?” Kelly Anne had no idea what the Duchess was talking about. All she and Jamie had been talking about was what they thought of the latest play the drama group had performed before the holiday. Yes, it was true that they had spent several minutes discussing the play, but that was it. When they were done, Jamie had thanked her for the nice conversation and left.
The Duchess glared at Kelly Anne. “Jamie broke up with me last night because he had met someone else. When I asked him who it was, he told me it was you.”
