CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Jack sat silently in the car, studying the front of her house. He looked up and down the street to each side.

“I just need to throw some things in a bag,” Kate said. She thought that maybe he wanted to keep watch outside. “It shouldn’t take long. Do you want to wait here? Or would you like to come in?”

Jack gave her a look. “Didn’t you hear what I said about keeping you from drowning before you learn to swim?”

Kate’s gaze shifted to her dark house. Her place had always been a refuge, her safe haven. She wasn’t used to thinking in terms of someone stalking her. Or ambushing her.

“You mean you think the killer could be waiting for me to come home?”

Jack popped open his door. “Well, at least you’re learning to tread water. It’s a start.”

Kate followed Jack’s example and closed the car door as quietly as possible. Seeing the way he moved, the way he watched everything, heightened her sense of concern.

She hadn’t left the porch light on, but fortunately the streetlamp gave her enough light to see to unlock the front door. Jack gently moved her to the side with an outstretched arm as he let himself in ahead of her. Kate flicked on the living room light for him.

As he moved through the dark house, she followed behind, turning on lights. He said nothing, asked nothing. His gaze glided over everything, taking in everything. The way he looked around made her see it all as if for the first time.

For someone who was worried that there might be a killer waiting for her, his movements were measured, but not overtly careful. She thought that maybe she had just seen too many TV shows with a SWAT team yelling and screaming as they charged though a house to clear it.

They went through the spare bedrooms, where he looked briefly in all the closets. He checked behind the shower curtains in the bathrooms. In a way, it made her feel silly to be clearing her own house in this manner, but on the other hand it spooked her. His calm confidence reassured her.

Jack looked in the utility closet in the hallway, where he found the short door to the basement. He went down alone to check it out. The basement was basically a big square space with virtually nothing except a water heater and her simple workout area. Jack returned as soon as he was satisfied that no threat lurked down there.

If there were an intruder, Kate thought, there would have been signs, but everything was untouched and exactly as she had left it.

When they finally reached the kitchen after having checked everywhere in the rest of the house, Jack tested to make sure the door to the backyard was locked.

“You’ve seen everything in the house,” Kate said as she pointed back toward the hall. “I’m going to go pack a bag. Would you mind going out and latching the shed door? It was blowing around last night. Let me see if I can find a flashlight.”

“Never mind—I’ve got one,” Jack said, pulling a small flashlight from his pocket. “I’ll be right back.”

“Okay. When I’m done changing I’ll open the bedroom door, so come on in when you’re finished.”

After Jack went out to check on the shed door, Kate closed her bedroom door and quickly changed into a pair of jeans and workout shoes. It felt good to be in comfortable clothes. She picked out a black top and tossed a jacket on the bed.

Once dressed, she opened the bedroom door before flopping her carry-on bag up onto the bed, then quickly started gathering up things she would need. She collected makeup and toiletries and put them in their proper zippered pouches in her bag. She had a routine from when she traveled for work. She folded some tops and slacks and put them in the bag along with some clothes for work. She could hear Jack come back in and shut the kitchen door.

“You can come on in,” Kate shouted out toward the hall as she went to the dresser and pulled open the top drawer with her underthings.

When she started to reach in, she froze.

Jack came to the bedroom door, one hand on the doorframe as he leaned in.

“The shed door was already latched tight. I double-checked it to make sure it was secure.”

Kate stood staring down into the drawer.

“Kate?” Jack stepped into the room. “What’s wrong? Your face has gone white.”

“There is a pair of pink panties on top,” she said in a small voice.

He frowned as he stepped closer and looked over her shoulder. “So?”

“I don’t like that pair of panties.”

Jack clearly looked confused. “So?”

“So I keep them at the bottom of the stack in back, just in case I ever need extras for some reason. But I never wear them. I haven’t worn them in years. I always intended to throw them out.

“Now, they’re on the top in front.”

His expression darkened with concern. “Are you sure you didn’t put them there without realizing it? You’ve been pretty distracted with your brother’s murder. Are you sure?” He reached up and clasped her upper arm and turned her toward him. “Kate, this is important. Are you sure?”

She looked into his eyes. “I didn’t put them there. I don’t ever put them there in front on top. Never. They were buried in the back of the drawer. Distracted or not, I wouldn’t have dug them out. I wouldn’t. Someone has been through my underwear.”

Jack glanced around the room. “Is anything else out of place? Has anything been taken?”

Kate went back to the closet, looked through the hanging things, then the folded sweaters and tops on the shelves at the side. She pulled open drawers, checking everything.

“Nothing else looks out of order,” she finally said. “Everything is here and just as I keep it.” She looked back at him. “Did either of the doors to the house look like they had been tampered with?”

“No. I checked for any evidence of that.”

“Then how did he get in?”

“He wouldn’t need to use force or break a window. Most likely he simply picked a lock, probably the one on the kitchen door. Maybe with a bump key. A few taps and he’d be in. None of the neighbors could have seen him, so he would have had all the time he needed to get the door unlocked.”

“Why would he do this? Why move one pair of panties?”

“To rattle you. The people who want to kill you are intelligent, sophisticated predators. Scared people make mistakes. But mostly they simply enjoy terrifying people.

“If you have your things packed we should get out of here and get you to AJ’s house.”

Kate sat on her bed, opened the bottom drawer of her nightstand, and then unlocked the gun safe. She pulled out her Glock.

“I think we had better take this,” she said.

Jack shook his head. “No. Leave it.”

Kate was incredulous. “What? Someone wants to kill me. They’ve been in my bedroom—and you don’t want me to take a gun?”

“Guns have their place and there is no doubt that sometimes they are invaluable in saving your life, but guns can also get you into all kinds of trouble you don’t need. If you go into the wrong place and forget you have it you will get arrested. Then you have a weapons offense linked to your name and if you need the police they likely won’t be on your side.”

“But I—”

“What if you’re on the run and you need to get on a plane, or into someplace with security? Where are you going to leave it? Guns make people, especially police, freak out. If you shoot someone you will go to jail while they sort it out.

“Jails are full of bad people. There may even be someone there who can recognize what’s in your eyes. You would be helpless in that situation, trapped in a cage with a killer like a Christian in the Colosseum with a lion. You wouldn’t be able to run and you wouldn’t be able to protect yourself.

“More importantly, a gun isn’t always going to save you.”

Kate wasn’t willing to give up the idea so easily.

“I’d rather take my chances of ending up in jail for shooting a killer than be killed myself. At least I’d be alive.”

“That’s the right attitude, but there are better ways.”

Kate was beside herself. “You came to find me because killers are after me. And yet you don’t want me to have a gun so I can protect myself?”

“Of course I want you to be able to protect yourself,” he said. “Like I said, guns certainly have their place, but in this situation they aren’t going to help save you from the kind of killer who will be coming for you.”

Upset, Kate stood with the weight of the gun in her hand at the end of her hanging arm. “What do you mean?”

He gestured to the gun in her hand. “Pretend I’m a threat. Try to shoot me.”

Kate was incredulous. “What? It’s loaded.”

Jack took the gun from her hand, dropped the magazine onto the bed, and then pulled back the slide to empty the chamber, letting the chambered bullet land on the bed beside the magazine. He slid the slide back again, double-checking to make sure it was empty, then handed the gun back to her, grip-first.

“You couldn’t shoot me if you tried, but there you go—now it’s empty.” He flicked a hand. “Go stand over there by the closet and I’ll show you what I mean.”

Kate was skeptical, but moved closer to the closet.

“I’m a killer,” Jack said. “You just came home. I’ve been waiting, hiding inside your house. I’m here to kill you. I just walked into your bedroom, catching you by surprise. Try to shoot me.”

“What?”

Jack lunged at her. In an instant he closed the distance. Kate started to raise the gun to point it at him but before she could, he slammed her up against the wall with one forearm. With his other hand he had already grabbed her wrist with the gun, holding it down before she could point it at him.

Kate blocked upward, knocking his forearm away. She spun out of his grip. Before she could twist away from his attack, he slammed her up against the wall again, face-first.

She felt something sharp at her throat. She froze, panting. His weight held her pressed up against the wall.

She didn’t know how he had gotten it, but he had the cold barrel of the gun pressed against her left temple.

Jack pulled her back away from the wall enough to hold the blade up before her eyes, showing her the knife that had been at her throat. He tossed the gun on her bed.

“Rule of twenty,” he said.

Kate stared at the short, stout blade in front of her face. It looked sinister.

She looked back over her shoulder at him. “Rule of twenty?”

Jack finally released her. “Inside twenty feet a knife is faster than a gun. You didn’t even begin to get the gun up enough to shoot me before I got to you. Bad guys always try to get as close as they can, first, so they can attack before you have a chance to react. They want surprise on their side. You lost before you started. I already had you where I wanted you.

“You said that you’ve been practicing martial arts all your life. You know how to protect yourself, yet in that instant of surprise, you abandoned what you know, depending instead on the gun.

“Unless you have a lot of training and a gun close at hand at all times, you won’t have enough time to use it. This is about saving your own life, not the method you use. The kind of killer who is stalking you isn’t going to announce himself from a distance and tell you that he’s going to kill you so that you can pull out a gun and shoot him. He’s a predator, and a predator is going to sneak up and get up close in order to strike before you have a chance to react. These people are up-close killers.

“He’s going to want to get close enough for you to look into his eyes before he kills you.”

“But I didn’t—”

“Doesn’t matter. You’re already dead. Excuses can’t change that. A gun is false security in this situation. In your case, it’s better to use your training. You have muscle memory that’s already there with you all the time. That’s the start of how you will be able to defend yourself. I’ll teach you the rest.”

Kate pulled hair back off her face as she sat on her bed. She looked down at the gun in her hand a moment before reloading it and then locking it back in the safe.

“AJ is expecting us,” she said as she closed her carry-on bag and pulled it off the bed. “And I’d like to get out of my bedroom where I know a killer has been through my underwear.”

“I don’t mean to scare you. I only want to keep you alive.”

Kate nodded. “I don’t want to end up like my brother. You just keep on doing what you need to, even if I don’t like it.”

“I understand,” he said. “Let’s get to AJ’s.”