I have to do it. I have to take the risk of someone seeing me grab him, pull him into one of the alleys and kill him quickly. I have my switchblade on me. I will have to ditch it afterward, but I…
I…
I have to act. Walker is almost to the crosswalk.
I feel the knife in my pocket, readying to grab him. He hasn’t glanced back in some time, but he will when he reaches the crosswalk. I know he will. It’s now or never, or I am caught either way. I am ready to spring forward, legs taut. Just one leap, grab, pull, and…
And…
I duck into the alley alone just before Walker can look back and see me while waiting for the signal to cross the street.
I can’t do it. I have to but I can’t. I don’t want to. And because I don’t, I miss my chance, and when I glance back out of the alley, I watch Walker enter the police station. All I can do now is wait or flee. I should do the latter, get a head start on leaving the city. I am doing everything wrong, everything against protocol, and all for a man I have only known for a week and a half. A man who, this very moment, might be turning me over to the police.
Just my luck, there is a Starbucks on this block too, so I get another coffee while I wait.
Walker comes back out of the police station far too quickly to have been in there for a confession about knowing a serial killer. Did he change his mind again? Or was he in there for another reason?
He had messages from numbers he didn’t recognize. Perhaps he was summoned.
I feel a sense of relief wash over me that letting Walker live was not the mistake I feared. I am… glad, so very glad, and as he crosses back to my side of the street, I wait out in the open for him to spot me. Walker startles when he does but relaxes into an expression that says my presence is exactly what he expected. He knows me well.
“Might I buy you a cup?” I ask, lifting my coffee and using it to gesture back at the Starbucks.
“I thought you were going to leave me alone for as long as I wanted,” Walker tosses back at me.
“Do you want me to leave you alone right now?”
He deflates a little, shoulders sagging, and shakes his head.
I take his arm to lead him to the coffee shop.
Inside, after getting Walker an herbal tea—his choice, since he said a stimulant was the last thing he wanted in his system right now—we find a small table in the corner, far enough from anyone else to keep our conversation private.
I guessed right. The messages on Walker’s phone were partially from a detective working on Curtis’s missing persons case. The other messages were from Curtis’s friends. He admits it all to me and what was discussed inside without much prompting.
The smell of cherries and almond bark hits me now that we are sitting closely met at the tiny café table—Walker’s shampoo. His hair is still partially damp from his shower, even after the walkhere. He cradles his tea in his hands like he more so wants the heat and smell than to actually drink it. He is also staring into it more than looking at me.
He seems so small, so fragile right now. All I want is to swaddle him and promise I can make it all better. He doesn’t need to know I almost ended his life in an alley.
“So, um, without me being able to offer them anything, they’re closing Curtis’s case before it’s barely been opened. All evidence points to him ditching town more than foul play.”
As intended. “You are having a difficult time with this, Walker.” I reach for him, slowly, like approaching an injured animal in the woods. He lets my hands close over his. “But you didn’t turn me in.”
His gray eyes finally meet mine. They are especially gray today, almost colorless beyond that muted shade. “I don’t have any proof that you did anything. You cleaned everything up, remember?” he whispers.
“Is that the only reason?”
“I don’t know.”
I stroke my thumbs across his skin. I know it relaxes him. I watch his shoulders slump lower as some of his tension leaves him. “You were already edgy when you arrived last night. Suspicious of me then, even before you saw Mr. Wayfair?”
Walker flinches at the reminder of the body. He tugs his hands from mine and takes a sip of his tea before answering. “A few things weren’t adding up right, especially with Curtis. And then I… I saw you near Saks when you said you were elsewhere, so I tailed you for a while.”
Remarkable. I have never been tailed before, only done the tailing. I didn’t notice Walker, too focused on my own quarry. I would have to be more vigilant in the future.
“We saw that man twice before, so seeing him again in Saks while you were there felt too weird to be a coincidence. I arrivedat our date early to… confront you, call it off? I don’t even know. But you had everything set up so nicely, I convinced myself that what I’d seen was random chance. It wasn’t though, was it?”
“No. Two birds and all that. I did have things to purchase for our date, but I was also following Mr. Wayfair. I am impressed I didn’t notice you following me.”
