CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

Kate idly smoothed the fabric of her black dress against her leg as she sat in the front row of the service while a minister spoke of God’s plan and the eternal peace awaiting John. She wasn’t really listening to him talk passionately of a mindless tragedy that had taken a gentle soul. Knowing what she knew, it sounded like ignorant babble to her as she stared at John’s closed casket and wondered who might be behind her somewhere, watching her with murderous intent.

Jack was somewhere behind her, too, watching her back. She felt better knowing that he was there, protecting her while she took care of John’s final journey. John had liked going to the cemetery to visit the graves of their parents. Now he would be laid to rest beside them.

Kate didn’t really think that a stranger, a killer, would be among the gathering of people from the Clarkson Center, where John had worked. She couldn’t recall all of their names, but she recognized their faces. Since she knew all of her coworkers from KDEX who were there in attendance, a stranger would have stood out in the silent audience. It was not a likely place for an ambush.

What worried her was what would be a good place for an ambush. For all she knew, there could be a killer with a rifle set up in a distant building, waiting for her to walk out of the mortuary so he could drop her with a single shot. He wouldn’t need to cut out her eyes for proof. Such a murder would make the news and he would have all the proof he needed to collect his reward.

As she stared at the dead-looking bronze metal of the casket, she knew that somewhere there were preparations being made for AJ’s funeral, along with those of her husband and son. It was hard to believe that AJ was gone. Kate wished so much that she had had the chance to talk about Jack with her, to have her meet Jack, to listen to her laugh, or make a wisecrack.

AJ had died because she knew John and Kate. She had been an inconvenience for the hunters, and so she had been murdered.

Events were moving so fast that it didn’t seem like Kate’s emotions could keep up. She knew, though, that she couldn’t let herself dwell in that sorrow or she might not see what was coming for her.

Kate’s shoulders were a little sore from knife training the day before. It had been a long day of practice in their motel room. There were fleeting moments when it was fun sparring with Jack, but then the purpose of it all came rushing back in and it became a grim, determined effort.

At first, compared with the ways she had trained her whole life, it had felt confusing and awkward. Somewhere in the afternoon, though, it had come together in a way that fit naturally with what she already knew. Using knives rather than her bare hands became the new normal. The knives felt right in her hand. Even though she needed more practice, the blades were sometimes snapping out with hardly more than a thought. By the end of the day, it was hard to imagine defending herself without the knives.

What she had learned from her fight with John and AJ’s killer was that while she could fight pretty well, it wasn’t good enough. If that man had been any better or it had lasted any longer, it could easily have ended badly.

Kate tried to bring her mind back to John’s service, rather than dwelling on killers and fights. To either side of the casket were stands with beautiful sprays of flowers. Some were from the people where John had worked, some were from people Kate worked with. It was comforting to know that there were people in the world who cared, good people who had overcome their primitive killer origins and were guided by their better nature.

But her newly discovered ability set her apart from those good people in ways she would never have expected. The good intentions of friends or even law enforcement would be trailing so far behind where she was on the scale of understanding that they could only drag her down so that harm could reach her.

Kate reminded herself that there were cops like AJ that she might be able to confide in. There was also Jeff Steele. He was more than merely a contact with army intelligence. She wasn’t sure, though, if he would understand any of this business with killer DNA or her ability to recognize it.

When the minister finished speaking, hushed conversation slowly welled up in the room. People stood, then started toward the front to greet Kate and give her their condolences. A lot of them hugged her and told her how sorry they were, or what a good and decent man John was. One woman with two missing front teeth told Kate a funny story about John mistakenly going into the women’s bathroom at work. Kate pretended to laugh. She let a number of people take her hand for a moment as they told her how sorry they were. It was a difficult duty to endure. She did it as stoically as possible.

Theo gave her a knowing smile as he put a hand on her shoulder. “I hope that you will reconsider and take some time off. We can get by without you for a while.”

Kate forced a smile. “Maybe I will. We’ll see. Thank you so much for coming. It means a lot to me. It really does.”

A couple of young men in black suits began gently ushering everyone toward the side entrance as a few other of the staff waited, apparently to take the casket out to the hearse.

Jack, wearing a crisp black shirt, found her and gave her a silent nod to say that everything seemed clear.

Bert spotted Kate and Jack standing together. The burly security officer came up to give Jack a wink. “I’m glad to see you both together. You make a great-looking couple.”

Kate didn’t have to force a smile. “Are you breaking up our engagement?”

Bert grinned. “I bow to the better man and give him my blessings.”

Jack smiled self-consciously.

People shuffled out to their cars, most of them to go home, but a few followed instructions from the people at the funeral home and joined the line that formed up behind the hearse to go to the cemetery. Kate was relieved when she was finally alone in her car with Jack. It was painful to have to greet people, to listen to them say how sorry they were about her brother. She wanted it to be over.

The whole time she couldn’t help but think of all of the times in her life that she had been John’s guardian, watching out for him, helping him, protecting him.

But she hadn’t been there to protect him the day a killer had ended his life.

“How are you doing?” Jack asked.

As the hearse started away, Kate shifted the car into drive and pulled out behind it. “I’m okay. What John had of life was a good life for him. A lot of people like him don’t get the chance to live as fully as he did.”

And, Kate thought, none of them ever had the chance to help save the lives of others the way John did with AJ. There were people alive who never knew that if it were not for John and AJ, they would have encountered a killer.

On the slow drive to the cemetery, it started to rain. Streetlights came on. They rode mostly in silence, Jack leaving her to her thoughts.

After they wound their way through the cemetery and finally came to a stop at a grave site, everyone trotted through the rain to gather under a temporary tent. John’s casket was placed on a stand beside the place where it would be buried. People huddled around as the minister said a final prayer.

Kate didn’t really hear him. She was thinking about things all the people gathered around would never be able to imagine.

Kate remembered her last phone call with John. He had said that he went to take flowers to their parents’ grave, and someone had been watching him. Now she knew he had been right.

She continually scanned the cemetery, looking for anything suspicious, anything threatening. Jack, standing silently beside her, did the same.

Other people visited graves, but no one looked their way. Kate saw an older woman weeping, holding a white handkerchief to her mouth, as a man comforted her with an arm around her shoulders.

When the brief ceremony was finished, and people began to hurry to their cars to get out of the rain, Kate instead went to stand for a time over the graves of her parents, there beside where John was to be laid to rest.

It struck Kate how ironic it was that she was standing in a graveyard, wondering if someone wanting to kill her was watching, waiting for his chance to end her life.

The tension of it all was getting to her. She wanted the whole thing to end. But she knew that it never would.

After the brief service at the cemetery, the remaining people went to a reception hall for a simple buffet. They had meats and cheeses, along with bread if you wanted to make a sandwich. The atmosphere was considerably less grim and more lighthearted. People talked and laughed a little as they ate finger food.

The reception hall was on a busy street. Through the front windows, Kate could see a gas station and convenience store not far away on the other side of the street. The streets were busy with cars. The rain slowed everyone down, making it seem even more crowded. There were apartment buildings across the street. People were continually going in and out of the parking lot.

When the gathering ended, and she and Jack finally left and went to the car, Kate couldn’t help thinking of what a hopeless task it was to know if any of the people she could see were hunting her. For all she knew, the man putting gas into a gray minivan who looked over his shoulder at her could be simply curious, or he could be stalking her. A car parked in the lot across the street, and the engine and lights were turned off, but no one got out. Because of the rain, she couldn’t tell if there was someone sitting inside talking, or if they were waiting for someone, or if they were watching her.

It was an uncomfortable feeling not knowing if a killer was watching, waiting for an opportunity to strike.