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“I had the floor to myself.”
“I figured that, too. When I got up there tonight, I had a nanosecond to look down the hall and see which door the cop was guarding before throwing an armload of empty boxes at his buddy.
“Anyway, last night, once I knew where you would be when I needed you, I went back to the estate to try to find a way in. The guard never left the front gate, but the ones that had been patrolling the grounds were pulled off. No need for them since you were no longer there.
“I knew that the park behind the property was the only possible access. I combed every inch of that side of the estate wall, practically on hands and knees. In the dark, mind you. I was looking for a rear gate. Something. Took hours before I found the grate. I loosened it, crawled through.”
“And left that drink can there so you could find it again from the inside.”
“In a hurry. Just in case cops were in hot pursuit. The rest you more or less know.” After a beat, he said, “Except this.”
He turned in to the parking lot of a multiscreen movie theater and found an open slot between a van with a Garfield clinging to the rear window with suction cups on his paws and a pickup truck with tires taller than their car.
He cut the ignition and turned toward her. “The night I got out of prison, I was desperate to get laid. I went to Marcia. Just that once. There’s been nobody since.”
She took a breath, held it for several seconds before letting it out. “I wondered.”
“Why didn’t you ask?”
“I didn’t have the right.”
He moved suddenly, stretching his arm across the space separating them, curving his hand around the back of her neck and pulling her toward him. He kissed her hard
, stamping his lips firmly against hers, pressing his tongue deep into her mouth. Then he pushed her away as suddenly as he’d grabbed her.
Hoarsely, he said, “You had every right.”
He let go of the back of her neck and returned to his place behind the wheel. For several moments they sat in silence, hearing only the soft popping sounds made by the car’s motor as it began to cool.
Finally he turned to her. “He called me. Foster. The day the pregnancy was confirmed. He invited me to your house the next night so he could thank me and pay me in person. Did you know any of this?”
“No.”
“He also said he’d figured out how I would be paid if I outlived you both. Remember that hitch?”
She nodded.
“He said he’d worked out a solution. He used that and the promise of the half million to get me there. And while I was there, Manuelo tried to kill me.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“Why?”
“Because Foster ordered it.”
She inclined away from him until she was pressed against the passenger door. “You’re lying!”
“No, I’m not. And you know I’m not, Laura, or you’d have put up a bigger fight before leaving that hotel with me. You’re not a pushover and you’re no coward. If you’d wanted to get away from me, you’d have been screaming bloody murder every step of the way, because, as you said, you know I wouldn’t carry out any threat to hurt you. You’re here because you want to be. You want to hear the truth of what happened. In any case, you’re going to listen.”
He paused for breath and to organize his thoughts. Also to see if she would, after all, open the car door and run screaming across the parking lot. She didn’t, so he began.
“Over the last several days, I’ve spent the daylight hours, and a lot of the nighttime, thinking. Thinking. And remembering. In my mind I’ve replayed every word, every small detail, from the first meeting till those last horrendous moments of Foster’s life, and I can see now how well he planned it. It was a masterful game plan.
“It even occurred to me that he’d lied when he called to tell me you were pregnant. I hadn’t heard it from you. I thought maybe that was the juiciest piece of bait for the trap he laid. That’s why I asked you earlier if you were really pregnant.”
“It was confirmed the day before he died.”
