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“And miss Ginny’s first birthday?” She waved his concerns away. “What kind of a big sister would I be if I didn’t show up?”
Bentz felt his heart swell—Jesus, he was beginning to get soft!—but he was pleased, felt a warmth seep through his veins at the thought that they—all the members of his little ragtag family—were all together. All safe.
Ginny tore into her present, a little shorts outfit, a book, and a hand puppet in the shape of a witch complete with wart on her nose. “Not everyone has a birthday on Halloween,” Kristi explained, donning the puppet and touching Ginny on her nose. The little girl squealed in delight.
At that moment, the doorbell chimed.
“Here we go,” Bentz muttered.
Sure enough. When Olivia answered the door, a chorus of small voices shouting “trick or treat” echoed through the house. It seemed normal. Part of a regular life.
Bentz figured he’d get used to it.
* * *
Kristi spent an hour with her dad, Olivia, and Ginny, then drove home.
Telling herself that she should be relieved, even relaxed now that she would no longer be harassed or stalked by Aldo Lucerno, she still had trouble letting go—despite all the assurances she gave her father.
She’d gone over the notes she’d taken forThe God Complex and Murderand wondered how she’d missed that Aldo had been so humiliated by Reggie’s affair and what he considered Kristi’s exploitation of it. How had she not seen that he would turn to murder? Yes, he’d been brusque and threatening when she’d originally interviewed him, but she hadn’t seen anything that hinted he was a psychopath.
Did it matter now?
He was dead.
As was everyone associated with that horror story. And of course her agent had called, Zera insisting she write two more books. “At the very least.Rosary Twois a given, right? We’ve been talking about it, but now, there’s this new twist, a whole new crime book about the Oyster King, right? I mean, who better to write it than you?”
“Who indeed,” Kristi said, answering her own question as she pulled into her garage, walked into the house, and was greeted by both Dave and Lenore, the first with ridiculous kisses that washed her cheeks, the second by soft little figure eights between her ankles. “Hey,” Kristi said, rubbing the dog behind his ears and promising him a walk in the morning as she let him out the back door. She observed him running the length of the backyard to end up doing crazy zoomies at the door and taking off again. All the while, Kristi petted the kitten, listened to her purr, and felt a warmth of satisfaction.
For once she didn’t feel the pull of a glass of wine and settled for three pieces of bite-sized candy as she spent the next two hours answering the door and seeing every Halloween costume imaginable. From a two-year-old who could barely walk in his octopus outfit with eight outstretching tentacles, to a group of teenaged boys in Jason and Michael Myers masks who could barely mumble “trick or treat” before taking their candy and dashing off the front porch and wheeling away on skateboards. Bert and Ernie arrived, followed by Garfield, SpongeBob, a flapper, and a variety of Disney princesses. Her favorite was a toddler bumble bee who was more preoccupied with her wings than the candy.
As she finally turned off the light for the night, she smiled and patted her abdomen. Not this year, and probably not next, but in two years, watch out. There would be a new trick-or-treater in town. Baby McKnight would be ready for a candy grab!
Her phone buzzed with a text from Bella asking about coffee.
Want to meet for coffee? Please? My treat.Then several emojis of cups of java and ending with a happy face blowing hearts as kisses.
Kristi and Bella had already had a short conversation about what Kristi had been through and Bella apologized again for setting her up with Hamilton Cooke and Reggie. “It’s just awful about them. Thank God you’re okay!”
Was she?
Would she ever be?
Time would tell, she figured, and texted back:
You got it. How about Magnolia’s? Saturday at 10:00? Maybe Sarah and Jess can join?It was time to mend some fences over a hot latte and the latest gossip. And Kristi would let her friends in on her little secret, that she would soon be a mother. She felt it was time. She was ready.
Later that night, she curled in her bed and Dave whined to join her.
“Sure, why not?” she said, “but let’s take this off.” She unhooked his collar so that she wouldn’t hear his ID tags rattle as he shifted around during the night. As she did, she felt a bulge in the leather collar. “Don’t tell me this is ruined already.” She gave the dog a glance of reproval as she turned the collar over and saw that it was marred. It had been sliced to create a small pocket and within the tiny space a minute thumb drive had been wedged.
“What the—?” She had trouble retrieving the drive, it was wedged in so tight. “Who put this here?” And then she remembered Cruz Montoya’s final words to her: “Pet him for me.” And again, “for me,”as he’d stared at her with some unspoken message she hadn’t understood.
Now, she thought, she might.
She threw back the covers and quickly padded barefoot up the stairs.
Dave was right on her heels, toenails clicking behind her.
