by Paige Sleuth
Kat didn’t answer right away. She was too busy thinking about her own survival. Presley had already demonstrated he could overpower her. She would either have to outsmart him or hope Andrew opted to drop by instead of phoning when he got her message to call her.
“How’d you know it was me?” Presley asked again.
“I knew your mom didn’t do it,” she replied. “And you were the only person she would lie to protect.”
He cast his gaze down as he scuffed the toe of his sneaker against the floor. “I wish she hadn’t done that.”
“She loves you.” Kat couldn’t stop her thoughts from veering to her own mother, a woman who hadn’t been around during Kat’s childhood, and for a moment she almost envied Presley.
His shoulders slumped. It was obvious he loved his mother as much as she loved him. Maybe Kat could use that to her advantage. If she could convince him that Eunice wouldn’t want him to harm her, perhaps he would hold off on doing anything. That would give her more time to either wait for a rescue or to think of a way out of this herself.
“Are you close to your mom?” Kat asked.
Presley nodded. “My mom’s the only one who really loves me. She might not get me, but she doesn’t look at me like I’m some kind of nuisance, not like Dad does.”
Seeing the hurt in his eyes made Kat’s stomach clench. Although she had never met his father and didn’t know if Presley’s perceptions were accurate, she could see he believed it.
“Dad never really wanted me to live with him, you know,” Presley said. “But he knew Mom wanted me, so he pushed for custody to be spiteful. But he doesn’t care about me. He couldn’t wait to dump me at Mom’s for the weekend so he could take off with that bimbo he’s got living with us.”
Talk of his father was getting Presley too worked up for Kat’s comfort level. Time to change the subject.
“Why did you shoot Jay LaPierre?” she asked.
“To get back at him for ruining my life. It’s his fault I have to live with my dad. If he hadn’t spun all those tales about my mom being too depressed to care for me, my dad would be the one who only got me for the occasional weekend instead of my mom.”
A couple tears slipped down Presley’s cheeks. The menacing murderer had vanished, replaced now by a vulnerable little boy. And although Kat still planned to keep her guard up, at that moment she couldn’t help but take pity on him.
Tom must have taken pity on him, too. The big cat wandered back over and dragged his cheek along Presley’s jeans-clad calf.
Presley swiped his tears away. “It’s so different at my mom’s than at my dad’s. Dad might have a nicer house, but it doesn’t feel like a home, you know? He doesn’t care what I do, as long as I leave him and the bimbo alone. But Mom actually likes having me around.” His voice cracked. “It’s just so unfair that I can’t live with her.”
“So you decided to kill Jay for his role in keeping you from being with your mom full-time.”
He nodded, his eyes dropping to Tom.
“Tell me what happened Friday night,” Kat said.
“My dad dropped me off at Mom’s house that afternoon, before him and the bimbo fled town for the weekend. Mom was happy to see me. Thrilled. She was crying, she’d missed me so much.”
Presley sniffled, the memory obviously sparking some tears of his own. Tom released a tiny noise in commiseration.
“We talked for a while,” Presley continued. “She wanted to know how my summer was going and how things were at my dad’s. Stuff like that. Mom’s big into talking. And while we were sitting there, I couldn’t stop thinking about how wrong it was that I wasn’t with her all the time. That’s when I started getting really mad.”
Kat’s breath hitched as she observed his hands clenching and unclenching and how the two splotches of color on his cheeks kept growing larger and redder. He seemed to be getting upset just from the memory.
“So that evening I told my mom I was going to my friend Lane’s house to shoot off some fireworks,” Presley said. “But instead I rode my bike to Dad’s place, took his gun from beneath his mattress where he keeps it, and went over to that lawyer’s house.”
“Nobody saw you on your bike?” Kat asked.
“Nope.” Presley lifted his gaze up to meet Kat’s. “Nobody really pays any attention to me. Except for my mom.”
The pain in his eyes and the conviction in his voice was like a knife to Kat’s heart. Kat knew what it was like to feel invisible. She had felt the same throughout much of her own childhood in foster care.
Tom meowed and stood on his hind feet as he reached his front paws toward Presley’s knee. Presley stared at the cat for a moment before absently reaching down to pet his head. His movements were stilted, as if he didn’t quite know what to make of the animal.
“I knew where that lawyer lived,” Presley said. “I’d been to his house once before, a few weeks ago. Mom had his address written down, from when she’d gone over there.”
Kat recalled what Clarissa had told her and Andrew Friday night. “This was after she lost custody of you, right?”
“Yeah. The time my mom went I guess the lawyer wasn’t there though, so she spilled her guts to his wife. She told me about it later. She was really upset. I felt bad for her, so I went to go see him myself about a week later.”
“And what did Jay say when you talked to him?”
Presley’s hand fell away from Tom as he straightened back up. Judging from the cat’s ensuing meows of displeasure, he hadn’t yet gotten his fill of attention.
Presley’s eyes were hard when he looked at Kat, whatever softness Tom had brought out now faded away. “He sent me away. He just flicked his wrist like I was a servant boy being dismissed and shut the door in my face. It was like he didn’t care that he’d made my mom out to be a villain or that he’d ruined my life.”
Kat felt as if she had a tumor growing in her throat. “I’m sorry.”
“I wasn’t going to bother trying to talk to him a second time,” Presley said, his voice full of steel. “This time my plan was to ring the bell, shoot him when he answered, then take off. Except when I got there on Friday some guy was already standing by the door. So I wheeled my bike behind the bushes before he saw me and watched as some lady let him in. It was the lawyer’s wife, I’m pretty sure, but she took the guy’s hand like he was her boyfriend.”
Kat figured the guy in question was Floyd.
“I didn’t think she’d let that dude in if her husband was there, so I stayed there behind the bushes to wait,” Presley said. “I knew he’d have to come home eventually. And when he did, I was going to get him.”
A chill crawled down Kat’s back. Had Presley been hiding outside her building earlier too? After Eunice’s arrest he could have ridden his bike around looking for her car. Assuming he’d heard her telling his mother she lived in Jay’s neighborhood, he would have had a good idea of where to look. And it wouldn’t have been hard for him to bypass the buzzer by slipping into the building when another resident had the main door open. He could even have already been inside when Ani had dropped her off, lurking in the stairwell after he made sure they would have the whole third floor to themselves when she finally did come home.
“The lawyer finally showed up later,” Presley said. “His friend dropped him off, and he started stumbling around, obviously drunk. He was laughing too, like he’d had a great time and hadn’t ruined my life.”
Kat could picture the scene. Niles pulling up to the curb to let Jay out. Jay tripping through the lawn as he made his way toward the house, laughing at something one of his colleagues had said at the bar.
And the young man hiding in the bushes witnessing it all while growing more and more incensed over the injustice.
“When I pulled the trigger he made a noise like an oomph, but that was it.” Presley had a faraway look in his eyes. “I kept waiting for him to get up or do something, but he just laid there. I stared at him until I heard someone come out of the h
ouse. Since there was no way to leave the way I’d come without them seeing me, I wheeled my bike through to the backyard and cut through one of the other properties. Then I took off. I’ve never pedaled that bike so fast in my life.”
That explained Clarissa’s and Floyd’s conflicting stories about where Habby had been that night, Kat thought. Floyd must have heard what he thought was the cat prowling around but was really a killer fleeing the scene of his crime.
“How did your mom figure out what you’d done?” Kat asked.
“I slipped and told her something I shouldn’t have.” He glared at her. “Your visit really upset her, you know. She was fretting when I got back from Lane’s yesterday. She’d convinced herself she was going to be blamed for the murder, that they’d use her mental health problems to find her guilty, just like they’d used her problems to take me away from her. I didn’t want her to worry so I told her they wouldn’t do that, because it was Dad’s gun that killed him.”
An ache bloomed deep in Kat’s chest. She could only imagine the extent of Eunice’s despair the moment Presley’s words sank in and she realized there was only one way he could possibly know whose gun had been used to kill Jay.
“Mom flipped when I told her that,” Presley said. “Then she made me tell her everything. And then, after I did, she started talking about how she had to go get the gun, before someone saw it sitting in the garbage or Dad reported it missing and the police linked it back to me.”
“Why didn’t she go get it?” Kat asked.
“Because. I can’t remember where I tossed it exactly, okay?” He dragged one hand down his face. “I wasn’t thinking straight when I left the lawyer’s house. I should have taken the gun with me and put it back at my dad’s, but I panicked. And I don’t come to this side of town often. I don’t know the parks around here. I just know I passed one on my way home.”
Sadness wrapped itself around Kat like a cloak. “So your mom did the next best thing she could think of to protect you. She decided to take the fall herself.”
For the first time, Kat saw a hint of remorse in Presley’s eyes. “I never thought she’d do that. I knew she wouldn’t turn me in, but I didn’t expect her to take the blame. And maybe she wouldn’t have, but then that policeman showed up at our house today. Mom shooed me out the back and told me to go when she saw him, but I stayed and listened through the window. He was asking her all these questions about the lawyer, and I could tell she was getting flustered. That’s when she told him she did it.” Presley’s nostrils flared as he locked eyes with Kat. “And now she’s in jail, and it’s all your fault.”
Sweat beaded on Kat’s forehead. She had almost forgotten he had come here because he blamed her for his mother’s arrest.
“It’s not my fault,” she said, struggling to keep her fear at bay. “Your mom confessed of her own free will.”
“If you hadn’t shown up yesterday my mom wouldn’t have been so upset, and I wouldn’t have told her about Dad’s gun, and she never would have cracked when that cop came over today!”
Kat’s cell phone rang. The sound was so jarring she jumped and almost landed on Tom’s tail. Tom scooted a few feet farther down the corridor, being sure to tuck his tail close to his body when he sat down again.
She started to ease her hand into her jeans pocket, but Presley grabbed her arm before she could reach her phone.
“Don’t,” he said.
She swallowed. “Presley, whatever you’re thinking of doing, it’s not going to solve things. The person who’s calling me now is with the police. It’s the policeman who arrested your mom, actually. And if I don’t answer he’s going to come over here to find out why.”
He squinted at her. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
His grip tightened around her arm, causing her to wince. Tom yowled as though to summon help. But just like her scream, Kat knew his cries would go unheard.
The phone fell silent but started ringing again almost immediately. Kat didn’t move. She didn’t dare. Her arm was throbbing beneath Presley’s fingers.
They were still standing like that when the ding of the elevator sounded. Kat, Presley, and Tom all whipped around in unison. Andrew was stepping into the corridor, his own cell phone pressed to his ear and a grim look on his face. When he spotted them he reached for his gun, his phone tumbling to the floor.
“Let her go,” he said, his voice as low and as threatening as Kat had ever heard it.
Presley gaped at him. His face had drained of color, and he blinked a few times as if to make sure his imagination wasn’t playing tricks on him.
“Let her go,” Andrew repeated. “Then put your hands on your head.”
Presley slowly released Kat’s arm and lifted his hands to his head.
“Knees on the floor,” Andrew said, stopping several yards away from them. “Then lie down on your stomach. Keep your hands on your head. Don’t make any sudden moves.”
Presley obeyed. He seemed to understand there was no way out now.
Kat rubbed her arm and slid away from the teenager, giving Andrew space to do his job when what she really wanted to do was collapse into his arms.
But Tom didn’t seem to care that Andrew had an urgent situation in progress. The big cat meowed as he galloped down the corridor. He weaved between Andrew’s ankles from left to right and in between, then from right to left, greeting Andrew with such an elaborate maze of footwork that Kat felt dizzy watching him.
Not letting Presley out of his sight, Andrew reached down to nudge Tom out of his way.
But Tom had a different take. He must have thought Andrew intended the gesture as one of affection because the feline planted his butt on the floor and lifted his chin as he swung his head toward Kat.
She swore he was gloating.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Hey, Tommy.” Andrew gave the cat a thorough rubdown before standing up to kiss Kat.
The kiss went on longer than usual, which was fine by her. She was grinning when Andrew finally pulled back.
“That was nice,” she said. “But you know, one of these days you’re really going to have to kiss me before you pet Tom. Every time you acknowledge him first it goes straight to his head.”
Andrew stepped farther into her living room. “You know you’re my number one girl.”
Kat followed him. “And Tom’s your number one guy. He still thinks you come here to see him.”
“Maybe I do.” Andrew flashed her a double-dimpled grin as he flopped onto the sofa.
Kat sat down next to him. Not to be outdone, Tom leaped onto the couch and climbed over Kat in order to curl up on Andrew’s lap. He closed his eyes and started purring before Andrew even had a chance to begin petting him again. The look on his face said he was exactly where he wanted to be.
From her perch on the cat tree by the window, Matty watched Tom, an inscrutable look on her face. Matty might seek out human affection when she was in the mood, but she rarely begged for it. Kat got the impression she viewed Tom’s neediness as a sign of weakness, and she was pretty sure the tortoiseshell would be shaking her head if she were human.
Kat relaxed against the sofa. “Hear that?”
Andrew cocked his head. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly. I think my neighbors finally ran out of fireworks. They haven’t set any off since Tuesday. We’re on our third full day of peace and quiet now.”
Andrew draped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. “Thank goodness. I really didn’t want to have to start arresting people for noise violations. Processing two Berkowitzes and one Townsend last weekend created enough paperwork to last me the month and then some.”
“You’ve been busy,” Kat concurred.
“About that. Sorry we couldn’t get together all week. But I can finally see my desk again, so things must be getting back to normal.”
For us, anyway, Kat thought. She wasn’t sure everyone in town could say the same.
&n
bsp; She sighed and snuggled closer to Andrew.
He squeezed her shoulder. “Everything okay?”
“Yes. No.” She fingered Tom’s tail. “I feel bad for Eunice, that’s all. And Presley too, I guess, although I don’t agree with what he did. But the fact that he acted out in pain . . . It’s just so sad.”
“He knew what he was doing, Kat.”
“I know. And he deserves to be punished. That doesn’t make the situation any less tragic though.”
She wondered what would happen to the teenager after his hearing. He was expected to plead guilty, but nobody knew how severe his sentence would be yet.
She supposed in a way this year’s Independence Day really was just that for some. Presley had escaped from his father’s custody. Whether the alternative would be better was another matter. But as Andrew had said, he’d known what he was doing, and now he would have to face the consequences.
And Jay’s death—however terrible—had left Clarissa and Floyd free to openly pursue their relationship, although it didn’t sound as though they had done much to conceal it before. Kat never did find out what kind of medication Clarissa was on, but a simple Google search had revealed an extensive list of drugs capable of emotional blunting. She didn’t know why Clarissa needed her prescription, but she hoped the widow, maybe with Floyd’s help, would one day find an alternative formula or dosage that would leave her more able to feel the highs and lows of life.
Ani Bedrossian was another person who had gained some freedom this Independence Day. She now had a restraining order against Mitch Townsend, a fact that had been sufficient to keep him from bothering her again—so far, at least. Kat was maintaining hope things would stay that way.
After all, sometimes hope was all a person had.
“By the way,” Kat said, turning her face up toward Andrew’s, “what did you mean by that answer you gave Niles Quayle when he asked if we were married?”
Andrew brushed Kat’s hair away from her face. “What answer was that?”
“You said, ‘Not yet.’”
“So?”
