“You can also have it tomorrow,” he suggested.
She smiled. “Oh, I’ll be hungry again in a little bit. Don’t you worry.” She got up, walked over to one of the open spaces on his balcony, and slowly started stretching. He wondered why, until she looked over at him. “It helps me think.” He smiled, then nodded and got himself a glass of red wine, held out the bottle to her. She smiled. “Yes, please.”
As she continued to stretch with the wine waiting beside her, he sat down and let his own food digest. He would have to send Mama anotherThank youbecause it was yet another delicious meal. He looked over at Kate to see that she was frozen. He took a couple steps her way, not wanting to interrupt her. She was caught on a train of thought.
She turned, looked at him. “You know something? I haven’t actually checked beyond the last couple years to see if there have been any deaths on that trail in the past.”
He looked at her, startled. “Meaning?”
“Meaning,” she added, “I wonder if he has chosen this place because someone he cared about died there or something.”
“So, what then? He turns around and kills other people, so that their loved ones have to suffer the same way?”
She looked at him in surprise and then slowly nodded. “I realize it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but sometimes people’s motivations are pretty twisted.”
“More than pretty twisted,” he replied. “How aboutverytwisted?”
She smiled. “Well, if you come over here, we can have something very different to talk about.”
He grinned, grabbed his wine, and headed toward her. “What did you have in mind?”
She reached up, snagged his ears, and pulled him gently toward her. “I think you better put the wine down,” she murmured, “before you spill it.”
Chapter 9
Wednesday Morning
Kate woke upto Simon thrashing beside her. His hands were at his throat, and his body bucked in the bed, as if fighting an unseen enemy. She immediately rolled over and tried to wake him up, but he seemed to be caught in this nightmare. She hated to think that it was another victim, and, the way he was choking, she really didn’t want it to be another one of her victims. Finally she smacked him hard across the face.
He bolted upright and glared at her. “What the hell was that for?” he asked, putting his hand to his cheek, staring at her in shock.
She winced. “I wasn’t sure how to wake you out of it.”
“Wake me out of what?”
“You were thrashing around and holding your throat, like you were choking to death.”
He stared at her and slowly sagged back onto the bed. “Is that what it was?” he asked, his hands automatically at his throat.
“I really wasn’t sure what was going on. Do you remember any of it?”
“Nope. When you slapped me, it broke me right out of it. So, if you’re looking for information, I don’t have anything to give you.”
She groaned. “What was I supposed to do?” she asked. “Watching you choke in your own nightmare isn’t something I particularly want to see again.”
He frowned, hearing that note he’d heard in her voice before but, at the same time, hadn’t been able to recognize. Somethingalmost like she was so done with this, didn’t want to deal with it, and wanted to be anywhere but here with him. He reached out a hand. “I’m sorry.”
She looked at him in surprise. “Can you control it?”
“No, of course not. You know that. You saw it.”
She nodded. “Then why are you apologizing?” she asked simply.
He took a deep breath. “Because it seems like you want to be anywhere but here.”
“I want to be anywhere but where there is such a reminder that I’ve failed with this killer,” she stated bluntly.
He stared at her. “Seriously?”