45

Eugene had cut through the alley behind the Purple Parrot. Katie caught up with him on the next street over.

“Eugene, wait!” she called.

He slowed and then stopped. “Dr. LeClair, I think Alicia is in danger. We have to find out if Nathan is home.”

“Why?” Katie asked. But as she said it, everything clicked into place. Nathan had been the ex-boyfriend who was jealous. Nathan had been absent from the planning meeting the night before Taylor’s body was found. And Nathan didn’t want Eugene in town bringing up the past.

“I don’t have time to explain, but Alicia thinks Nathan may have killed Heather Stone and Taylor Knox,” Eugene said. “Come on!”

Katie followed him through a backyard into another street and then through a side yard until she saw that they were in the backyard of a two-story yellow house.

“That’s her house,” Eugene said. “Nathan’s car is in the driveway. We have to get inside.”

“Why can’t we just ring the bell?” Katie asked.

Eugene gave her an incredulous look. “We can’t let him know that we’re on to him.”

They sneaked through the backyard to the back door. From this close, they could hear an argument emanating from inside.

Eugene started lifting up the potted plants that sat on the back deck.

“Found it!” He held up a key.

“Wait, we can’t go in there. It’s breaking and entering. Or maybe just entering …”

A loud crash sounded from inside, and they heard Olivia crying.

“I’m going in,” Eugene said.

Katie looked at this skinny guy with his big ears and ridiculous glasses and wondered what he thought he was going to be able to do against a big guy like Nathan. But she saw the determination in his eyes and nodded.

“Okay, I’ll come with you,” Katie said.

Eugene put the key in the lock and turned it. He quietly opened the door and stepped inside. Katie followed, and they stood silently by the door. The argument was louder now that they were inside. They stood in the kitchen, listening. It sounded like Alicia and Nathan were upstairs.

Eugene and Katie cautiously peeked in the living room. Empty. They made their way up the stairs. At the landing, Eugene hesitated.

“Don’t hurt her, please, Nathan,” Alicia cried.

“Stay back, Alicia, or I’ll do it. I swear I will.”

Eugene and Katie exchanged a look. What was going on?

“They’re in the baby’s room,” Eugene whispered.

They moved warily down the hallway to the nursery. The door was open and they heard Alicia crying.

Sirens sounded in the distance.

Katie stepped into the doorway with Eugene right behind her. Nathan stood on the far side of the room with the crib between him and the door. The window was open wide and cold air gusted in from outside. He held the baby, and his hand circled her throat. One twist and he could break her neck. She continued to cry, but in an exhausted rather than outraged way. Nathan seemed to be ignoring it, as if it were just background noise.

Alicia rushed to Katie as she came through the door. “He walked in when I was packing up more of Olivia’s things. He grabbed her and threatened to hurt her if I refused to stay with him.”

“Nathan, give me the baby,” Katie said. Her voice shook with concern for the child.

Nathan shook his head. “This is between me and my wife. What’s he doing here?”

“He was worried about Alicia,” Katie said. “Eugene, maybe you and Alicia should go downstairs.”

Someone began pounding on the front door.

Alicia stepped across the room to join Eugene, but she refused to leave without Olivia.

“It’s over, Nathan; the police are here now,” Katie said. “You don’t want to hurt your daughter.”

“How do you know what I want?” Nathan sneered. “I have nothing left now. Alicia is just like all the other girls. She got tired of me and decided to leave.” He clutched the baby tighter and she cried louder. “Now she can feel what it’s like to lose someone you love.”

“Who did you lose, Nathan?” Katie asked in a calm, quiet voice.

Nathan looked bereft. “Heather,” he said. “I lost Heather.”

“What happened?”

Nathan’s shoulders slumped and Katie worried he would drop the baby, but he seemed to catch himself and he readjusted his grip.

“She just broke it off.” Nathan shook his head. “For no reason. Said she’d met someone else. But I loved her.”

Nathan’s eyes pleaded with Katie to understand.

“I’m sure that was very difficult. I’ve heard she could be cruel to her ex-boyfriends.”

A bark of laughter escaped Nathan. “You could put it that way. But I showed her, didn’t I?”

“Did you?”

Nathan nodded. “I caught up to her after she left the party. She laughed at me and said she was dating a real man, not a little boy.” Nathan stopped. Remembering. “I don’t know what came over me, but I grabbed her neck and squeezed. She actually laughed. Looked me right in the eye, while I had her life in my hands, and laughed. I pushed her away, hard.”

Alicia gasped, and Nathan looked past Katie to his wife.

“I didn’t mean to hurt her. She just made me so mad. She hit her head on a rock, and I couldn’t wake her up. I heard someone coming and I ran back to the party.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Katie saw Eugene slip out of the room. She hoped he was going to let the police in—she assumed that was who was pounding on the door.

“What about Taylor?” Katie asked.

“She had to go. She had figured everything out. She’d been talking to people. Picking apart their stories until she realized I was the one.” Nathan took a shaky breath. “I didn’t want to lose Alicia and Olivia.”

Katie took a step forward. “I’m sure you don’t want to hurt your baby.”

Nathan adjusted his grip on the infant, and she seemed to settle a little bit. Her little eyes were red and swollen and her face was flushed and wet.

They all heard footsteps on the stairs.

Nathan’s eyes went wide, and he looked frantically around the room.

Sean Gallagher and a young woman officer stood in the doorway with guns drawn and pointed at Nathan.

“Put the guns away!” Katie said. “You can’t shoot him without endangering the baby.”

Carlson came into the room and gestured at his officers to stand down. The small nursery had gotten crowded in the past several minutes.

Carlson put his hands out in a calming gesture. “Nathan, you don’t want to hurt the baby. Just give her to Dr. LeClair and we can talk this out.”

“I’m done talking to you,” Nathan said. He stepped closer to the window. He put one foot on the sill.

“Nathan, please, give me the baby,” Katie said. “Whatever is going on here, she is innocent. Look at her. She hasn’t had a chance to even experience life yet. She’s your daughter. Don’t you want to see her walk and ride a bike? Don’t you want to hear all the things she’ll have to say?”

Nathan kept his eyes on Katie, and one tear escaped as he stared at her. He looked at Olivia and smiled sadly.

“Okay, just Dr. LeClair can come take the baby.”

Katie stepped forward, her arms out. She knew the second she had the baby that Carlson and his officers would move on Nathan. She prepared to grab the child and step out of the way.

Nathan waited until Katie was just on the other side of the crib, and then he slowly handed Olivia to her. Katie felt the warm weight of the little girl in her arms and turned away from Nathan, but not before she saw the flash of a gun in his hand. He’d been holding it in the same hand as the baby.

Katie instinctively curled her body around the child and ran away from Nathan. She heard Alicia scream. Then the shot.

And the rest was chaos.