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  I expected Matt to say something. He hissed his obscene words to Katy like he had diarrhea of the mouth. I heard him. But now that it was just us two guys, he didn’t have anything to say. What gives?

  “Hey, tough guy,” I taunted. “You like chasing down ladies? Is that the only way you can get a woman? To beat them unconscious, then rape them? Really? You sure are some kind of Casanova.”

  He didn’t say anything as he backed away from me. I yanked the blade from my shoulder and watched as his eyes popped with fear.

  “Come on. Why don’t you take a swing at me? You think this knife makes you tough? My grandmother cuts her steak with bigger knives than this.”

  Still nothing. His eyes were wild. I could tell he was trying to come up with a plan. But a guy like him couldn’t think fast on his feet. He had to fantasize about what he was going to do. He dreamt the reactions of his victims, and that was his motivation. However, this time he was face-to-face with me, not some terrified woman half his size.

  “You aren’t getting out of here, Matt. You’re not. You want to know why?”

  I was taking a big risk. I could be wrong. The whole thing could blow up in my face. But I had to try it. I had to see what he’d do if I said it.

  “You won’t make it out of here because I know you killed Melissa Tanney.”

  Bingo!

  Matt staggered backward as if he'd been punched in the gut.

  “I don’t know who that is.” He raised his hands helplessly.

  “See, the caste system in prison is a lot tougher than most people think. Those dudes don’t like the punks who kill women and children. Because most of them on some twisted level love their mothers or grandmothers or baby mamas. They see men who hurt women as less than human. You not only killed Melissa, but you raped her and you tried to do the same thing to Katy. But she got you good, didn’t she. She was just buying me some time.”

  “I told you, I don’t know who Melissa Tanney is!”

  “And when Katy testifies against you there won’t be any hope.”

  “I didn’t do anything to her!”

  “You stalked her! You harassed her! You broke into her apartment and cut up her things! You attacked her and tried to rape her while you strangled her!”

  “She wasn’t supposed to fight!” he screamed. It was like watching a ten-year-old have a temper tantrum. It wasn’t normal. It made me very uncomfortable. Yet I continued to stare. “She wasn’t supposed to fight! Melissa wasn’t supposed to fight!”

  “I thought you were talking about Katy?” I needled him. That was a good enough confession for me. The look on his face said everything.

  In one final desperate attempt to get away, Matt tried to run past me, but I shoved him into the wall. He screamed in frustration, coming back at me.

  With one well-timed swing, my fist landed against his jaw and sent him crumpling to the ground. For a minute I thought I killed him. Good riddance. But he groaned. Sadly, he was still alive.

  It was my duty to call him an ambulance. He’d get treated for his injuries. They’d dope him up nice and tight. He’d get his three squares a day until he was released to jail. There he’d get access to a lawyer who might just feel the guy was too mental to account for what he was doing. He didn’t get enough hugs as a kid. He suffered a head injury from an abusive male in his life. Whatever it was, there was going to be a long, drawn-out thing for this piece of garbage.

  The ambulance arrived about seven minutes later. I watched as they loaded Matt into the back. He was still unconscious.

  I ran back to Nate’s place. The black-and-white unit sat in the driveway. A uniformed officer by the name of O’Malley was waiting for me.

  “Hey, Smith. The victim wanted me to tell you she was all right.”

  “What hospital did they take her to?”

  “St. Joseph’s over on Pulaski and Vine.”

  I left the uniformed officers to secure the scene. As I pulled away from Nate’s house, I quickly prayed that Katy would be okay. I didn’t mean the physical part of her. I meant the mental one. This kind of experience could change a person. She may come out of this and never want to see me again.

  “If that happens I’m hanging up my badge and moving to Montana to raise sheep.”

  The visitors’ parking lot was packed. I had to park at the very end of the lot and jog to the entrance. Katy was in the emergency room. I identified myself and was led by a thin woman in pale blue scrubs to the area where Katy was. They had already cleaned her up. Her eyebrow had two stitches over it. Her cheek was black and blue, and her eye was swollen shut. Her hand needed seven stitches, but no serious damage was done.

  “Officer.” A small brown-skinned man about the size of a munchkin wearing a stethoscope around his neck. “You are with Miss Blakenborough?”

  I nodded.

  “You look like you need a little help.” He pointed to my shoulder. I had almost forgotten about my injuries. Once again I was roaming around oblivious to the blood on my shirt.

  “Yeah. I think you’re right.”

  “Come see me when you are finished here.”

  “If you think this is going to get me to stay away, you’re wrong,” I whispered to her. She smiled but winced. Her lip was puffy. “In fact, there is nothing sexier than a woman with a scar.” I gently brushed her eyebrow.

  “Don’t make me laugh.” She pouted. “It hurts. That jerk broke one of my ribs.”

  “You got him back for it, though. I saw his face. That was a good job.”

  She shrugged.

  I pulled up a chair, took her hand in mine, and kissed it.

  “He confessed to Melissa Tanney,” I said. “He’ll be going away for a good long time. You won’t ever have to worry about him again.”

  “I think you’re right.”

  We sat there in silence for a little while. I knew they had put Katy on some drugs so she’d be falling asleep soon. It was routine for this kind of thing that she’d stay overnight for observation.

  “Zac?”

  “Yes, honey. I’m right here.” I squeezed her hand.

  “I took one of Nathan’s Vicodin. I had a bad headache. I hope he doesn’t get too mad at me.”

  “Oh, yeah. He had those from when he had his teeth pulled. I’m sure he’ll be okay with it.”

  “Zac?”

  “Yes, babe. I’m still right here.”

  “He didn’t get me, you know. He almost did. But almost doesn’t count. You’re still the only one.”

  It was my turn to blush a thousand shades of red. Whatever they had dripping in her arm was some powerful stuff.

  “Well, I have to admit that I’m happy he didn’t. You stopped him, Katy. Like I said, he might have thought he could get to you. But he wasn’t counting on us.” I kissed her hand and held it to my cheek. I knew I was in bad need of a shave. I hoped Katy didn’t mind the scruff.

  “Zac?”

  “Katy, I don’t plan on leaving. What is it, dear?”

  “I love you.”

  My heart jumped up into my throat. What was I supposed to say? She was heavily sedated. She probably wouldn’t remember she said anything tomorrow. Think, Zac. Don’t just leave her hanging there.

  “I love you, too, Katy. I really do,” I whispered.

  “I’m glad,” she murmured. Then I watched her slip into a deep sleep. I stayed with her all night. Her words echoed over and over, making my heart jump each time I thought of it.

  “But she won’t remember. I know it. That’s just too good to be true. She won’t remember she said it, but why do I get the feeling she’ll remember I said it. Then I’ll be hanging out there like a jerk,” I argued with myself on the way to the cafeteria. I was starving.

  Katy was released the very next morning.

  Matt Beabe was charged with the rape and murder of Melissa Tanney and the attempted rape and murder of Katy Blakenborough.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Katy

  I looked in my bat
hroom mirror at my eyebrow and smiled. The doctor had done such a good job stitching me up that after only two months you could barely see the scar.

  “Okay, enough gazing at your own reflection. Where are you going to put this picture?” My apartment was coming along nicely.

  Zac had spoken with the landlord, who agreed to repaint the walls for me and even cleaned the carpet for free.

  As a surprise, Zac asked at the station if anyone was getting rid of any furniture. I received four bookcases, a love seat, a coffee table, and a dresser from some of his buddies, and none of them would take a penny for it.

  Cindy hooked me up with a friend of hers who sold me a double bed for a song and offered to give me free firearm lessons if and when I decided to buy a pistol for self-defense. I’m going to take him up on it.

  Today, Zac told me not to make any plans. There was a surprise he wanted to show me, so I was to stay home because he wasn’t sure what time it would arrive. It was just a little past noon when he knocked on my door.

  “Katy, I’d like you to meet my mom, Lizbeth Smith.”

  I was a bundle of nerves.

  “Hi,” I stammered. “Wow. You guys look just alike.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing,” his mother retorted. I instantly saw where he got his sense of humor. “Zac, why don’t you set those things down in the kitchen?” his mother instructed. It was funny to watch Zac do exactly what his mom said. Here he was, this big brute who liked biking and kayaking and could take a small knife, but a knife nonetheless, in the shoulder without barely blinking, and he was yes ma’am-ing a tiny older lady who if she reached five feet was tall. He was holding two boxes in his arms. They looked heavy.

  “Uhm, what’s all that stuff?” I asked.

  “Zac told me you needed some dishes.” She smiled.

  “Wait until you see these, Katy,” Zac called out. “I think you’ll like them.”

  “That’s so nice of you,” I blubbered. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”

  “Well, see if you like them first. You won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t.” Lizbeth slipped her arm through mine, and we started to walk to the kitchen. “Zac’s mother gave those to us. I honestly think it was a prank. The old girl wasn’t the nicest mother-in-law a girl could have.”

  I chuckled.

  “Grandma was nice. She was always nice to me.”

  “Of course she was, Zac. You were her only grandson. She was head over heels for you. Can you blame her?” Lizbeth looked at me as she squeezed my arm. I shook my head no. “But trust me. She wasn’t very happy your father was setting up housekeeping with the likes of me.”

  “What made you think that?” I was loving every minute of Lizbeth’s story.

  “I wore my skirts a little too tight.” She winked at me.

  “Mama. You’re going to give Katy the wrong impression.”

  “What? It was the style back then. Ignore him,” she joked as she pushed past Zac to the big box he had set on the counter. “She’d made a couple of comments here and there about my taste in clothing. I just shrugged it off. I wasn’t going argue with an old lady. But then she made a big production about buying me some dishes. She said that she thought they were just my style. I should have known not to trust her.”

  After pulling out several handfuls of crumpled newspaper, Lizbeth withdrew a flawless teacup with a scalloped design around the top in the most feminine, over-the-top pink color ever mixed on a palate. My eyes popped out of their sockets.

  “Wow!” I exclaimed. “It looks like a birthday cake.”

  “Yes.” Lizbeth’s eyebrows shot up. “That is exactly what I said to Zac’s father. He insisted that his mother was trying to be nice. I wasn’t so sure of that.”

  I took the cup and inspected it in my hands. Considering I had been eating off paper plates and napkins for the past few weeks, I didn’t feel I was in a position to turn these down. Plus, something in me kind of liked them. I peeked into the box and pulled out a matching saucer.

  “You can bet that every time that woman came to our house, I busted out the pink plates and saucers. I was going to beat her at her own game. She was going to see this ugly set of dinnerware for every holiday, birthday, or special occasion until the day she died.”

  “I can’t help it, Lizbeth. I love it,” I gushed. “Thank you so much. Would you like a cup of coffee? I just put a fresh pot on. I have a different mug I can serve it to you in.”

  Lizbeth laughed. So did Zac. I looked at him, and he gave me a wink.

  “Zac, go down to your car and get those other things I brought. I’ll help Katy put these things away.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he answered before kissing us both on the top of our heads and walking out.

  “Thanks again.” I didn’t know what else to say. I was alone with the woman who gave birth to the man I was seeing. Whether she knew it or not, her four-foot-eleven-inch frame intimidated me.

  “Zac told me everything you’ve been through. I’m so glad it’s all over for you,” she soothed.

  “Well, I still have to go to trial. I’m a witness of sorts. But I’m not scared. Not anymore.”

  “Just think. If you hadn’t moved here, if those horrible things didn’t happen, poor Melissa Tanney might still be waiting for her day in court. Isn’t it amazing how God works things out?”

  “I never thought of it that way.” It was almost like a slap in the face. I hated to say it, but I was so wrapped up in my own issues, my own life, that I didn’t realize Melissa and I had something so intimate in common.

  “You helped solve her case. Zac might still be struggling with it had you not shown up.” Lizbeth smiled and patted me on the shoulder. “And anything that makes my boy happy makes me happy.”

  I wanted to cry.

  “Now, I’ve got this other thing for you as well. I didn’t want you to think that the pink nightmare was what I actually thought of you. I picked this up in a little town I was exploring in Arizona last week.”

  “Zac didn’t say you were in Arizona last week.”

  “That’s because he didn’t know.” She giggled. “It can be difficult to be the mother of a police detective. He thinks I should be home baking cookies watching my soap operas and visiting Wal-Mart. It’s safer. He worries. I do those things, but sometimes I just like to get out on an adventure. So, don’t tell him I went. I’ll tell him later.” She winked. The similarities between them were off-the-charts crazy.

  She took the other box and quickly opened it. The smell of lavender instantly hit me.

  “There was a roadside shop just outside Sedona before you begin the insane trek on the expressway up seven thousand feet.” She pulled out a couple things wrapped in tissue paper. “I don’t know about you, but I love scented soaps. I thought these were amazing. This one is lavender. Obviously. This one is peppermint, and it’s meant for your legs and feet. When you rub these beads on your skin, the peppermint heats up. It’s like a spa treatment. It leaves your skin so soft.”

  “I love these kinds of things. I wish I knew you were coming. Zac didn’t tell me. I would have at least gotten you some flowers or baked a cake or something.”

  “To see the smile on my son’s face, to hear how happy he is on the phone, what mother wants more than that?”

  This time I did cry a little. I hugged Lizbeth, and she hugged me back. I put her gifts in the bathroom on the sink in a little crystal dish I’d found at a thrift store. It was a matter of just minutes before the entire commode smelled like a lavender garden.

  When Zac came back to the apartment, he had two grocery bags filled with tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers.

  “The guy down the street from me has a greenhouse. He gets fresh veggies all year long,” Lizbeth bragged. “When he has a bumper crop, he gives some to me. Now I’ve got too much and need to share.” She laughed.

  I invited Lizbeth to stay and have lunch with me while Zac checked in with work. We had a lovely vis
it. Like Zac, she had the gift of gab and was happy to share stories about Zac when he was a kid. She also told me about her late husband. It was obvious she missed him.

  When five o’clock rolled around, Zac knocked on the door, interrupting Lizbeth’s story about Zac’s first camping trip when he was a boy.

  “He always loved being outside,” she bragged as he stood in the doorway. “I still don’t know why you didn’t become a forest ranger or lumberjack.”

  “Mama.”

  “Lord knows you eat like a lumberjack.”

  “Mama.”

  “I swear he’s more at home out peeing on a tree in the middle of nowhere than he ever is in a place with indoor plumbing.”

  “Mama, you’ve embarrassed me enough. It’s time to get you back to the home,” he teased.

  “Yeah, back to the home. The home you’re going to inherit someday if you play your cards right. Don’t make me write you out of my will.” She turned to me as Zac chuckled and shrugged, shaking his head.

  “It was wonderful meeting you,” I said, squeezing Lizbeth in a hug.

  “I’ll be seeing you again soon. Enjoy the dishes and the soaps.” Lizbeth walked out of my apartment and started off toward the elevator.

  “I’ll stop by after I drop Mama off. Is that okay?” he whispered before kissing me on the cheek.

  “Sure. Don’t let her take the elevator by herself.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Zac

  “So. What do you think of her?” I prodded. I knew my mom. She was not the kind of lady to say she liked someone just to make me happy. In fact, she had, on more than one occasion, come right out and told some of my lady friends that I would not be marrying them. Not because she said so but because I had a good head on my shoulders. Needless to say, those ladies are no longer in the picture.