I shrugged out of his grip and turned around to face him.
He looked horrible. He'd lost weight; he'd gained circles under the eyes, lines on the face…he looked hollow.
"You look great." I said. "Last three years been a little rough?"
I hadn't had to read him in so long, I wasn't exactly sure what to do, how to behave. What exactly did he want? What exactly would set him off?
"No, you look great. I always thought you'd look good as a blonde." He gave me an adoring smile, and reached out and touched my hair. That was creepy. I smacked his hand away.
"I hate it. First chance I get, it's gone." He frowned as if he didn't understand my hostility.
"What do you want, Evan?" I wasn't getting a sense of menace from him, just emptiness. I'd expected rage, anger, threats.
"Well, I came to take you home..." He began simply, as if it made all the sense in the world.
"Oh, boy, you have burned out quite a few brain cells in the last three years, haven't you?"
His eyes fell on the logo on the sweatshirt.
"You're wearing his clothes."
"It's a cold night. Seemed like the thing to do."
"A cop. You know how much I hate cops." There was my first glimpse of fury. I remembered one night we'd gotten pulled over and he'd had to be polite and submissive and it had nearly killed him on the spot. He hadn't taken it out on me, but I seriously wondered about the next person who had gotten in his way.
"Right. This is all about you. So feel free to explore your feelings."
"I couldn't believe it when they told me. I thought you and I had the same values and ideas."
"Oh, we never had that."
"Dad's looking for you, too. You're lucky I found you first. I can protect you from him."
"Yeah, the role of 'protector', that suits you." I swear I couldn't stop myself.
"He wants to hurt you because you broke my heart."
"What heart?" Call me crazy, but could it be that Evan didn't know anything about the documents I'd taken? That would make resolving this situation a lot simpler.
"He told you that?"
"Those exact words."
So Dad didn't trust son with vital information anymore. That didn't surprise me, considering the brain-dead goober I was dealing with.
"I won't tell him I found you. I won't tell him where you are."
The bumbling fool had probably led him right to me.
I walked in circles until the cold started getting to me, then I went home.
I stood outside the apartmentfor a couple minutes, head on the door, eyes closed, dreading the fallout. I had trouble wrestling my keys out of the coat pocket because they'd poked through the lining, so I had to take the coat off and ease them out without tearing anything further. Which is when I saw the crumpled yellow paper on the ground, right in the corner at the base of the door.
This was new. I picked it up and smoothed it out.
It read "Upstairs!" with an arrow. She'd left a note so I wouldn't be worried. I started to smile, then frowned.
She'd gone to the roof. Alone.
"Stupid!" I muttered.
Then it occurred to me.
She hadn't crumpled the paper and thrown it on the floor. I dropped the coat and the keys and took the stairs two at a time.
At the top I stopped and listened, trying to catch my breath. I could hear voices. Probably a good thing.
Checked my gun. All good.
Please, please, please let it be Davis. Just Davis. Or Faith. The super, even.
I eased the door open slowly, knowing it would creak if it opened too quickly.
I could see them at the front of the building, right where we'd been last night. Stepping out of the doorway, I closed it just as slowly. He had his back to me, and Kate was backed up against the wall in front of him. God, he was big. I aimed right at the back of his head and willed him to do something stupid.
And Kate did something amazing. Or, rather, didn't do.
She knew I was there, but she didn't even glance in my direction, which is instinctual when something moves into your line of vision. She kept her eyes right on his face, without even a flicker. She really didn't want him to know I was there.
He was talking in a low voice, and I couldn't really hear him, but at least he wasn't a raving lunatic. And she was OK. So far.
Her arms were at her sides and again without looking at me, she purposely flicked the first two fingers of her right hand, trying to tell me something. What, did she think she was Obi Wan Kenobi: 'this is not the son of a bitch you're looking for?'
Or was she telling me to leave? Like hell.
I hadn't shut the door fully and now it rested closed with a soft click.
Crap.
"Is that you, cop?" Evan said, without turning. "You can't do anything to me. I haven't done a thing wrong."
He was right. I started to tell him I could make him leave, but Kate looked at me in alarm and shook her head.
Don't speak.
She looked back up at him, then over at me again, and she chucked at her nose with her knuckle and gave an exaggerated sniff.
He was all coked up. This just kept getting better.
I was about to take a step toward them, but she saw me shift my weight and shook her head at me again.
Don't move.
What the hell did she want me to do?
She said something to him I couldn't hear tokeep his attention off the fact that she gestured at me with her hand again.
She wanted me to put the gun away.
Not a chance. For a brief second she gave me a fierce look: No one gets hurt today.
I lowered the gun, keeping it at my side.
Evan put his mouth to Kate's ear and whispered something that made her face go white. She reached behind her and gripped the edge of the parapet. He stepped back, crossing his arms, smiling.
"Juan and Bobby are dead?" Good girl. Loud enough so I could hear. "How?"
"I'm not sure exactly, but I know it wasn't pleasant. And they were the only other people who knew where to find you."
"If that's the case, it would give me a great feeling of security if you were to join them." She smiled at him.
Jesus, Kate.
"I told you I wouldn't let anyone hurt you again."
"That's really an amazing statement, coming from you."
"I was told Juan suffered greatly. He's the one who hit you."
"Juan is dead because he hit me." she clarified.
He nodded.
"Then what do you deserve, Evan?" she asked in evenly measured tones.
He took a step back."You're not the girl I remember. You're not my Kate." He said sadly.
"Well, you've got two things right. Would you like to try for a third? Because if you get one more right, I just might let you get out of here," she glanced down at the front of his khakis then back up at his face, "intact."
Good. Way to provoke a coked up junkie with hostility issues. It was killing me, not getting involved. And I was in the perfect mood to crack a skull. Please, Evan, do something stupid.
"You're just talking that way because your boyfriend has a gun. Cops have an exaggerated sense of their own importance."
It helps.
"So do you! I didn't realize until this very moment just how insignificant you are. I spent the last three years with Evan Benedict hanging over my head like a vulture, but you weren't really there at all. You're nothing."
Maybe I could stay out of it for a little while. It seemed like she needed to do this.
That made him angry. He leaned in at her and jabbed her with his finger at the base of her throat, in that soft spot. I could tell it hurt, but she didn't move and she flashed me a look tomake sure I hadn't moved.
"I am not 'nothing'. I have money and power and success and everything I ever wanted. You left all that to live in a dirty city and screw a cop."
She crossed her arms and glared back at him. "So? Live with that."
"Lowest life form there is." He growled.
"Let me get this straight. We've got criminals here," she glared steadily at him and gestured with her right hand at his eye level, "drug addicts here," she held her left hand about six inches lower, "and cops here?" She dropped her right hand underneath her left. "Do I have that right?"
"Just about."
Kate dropped her arms and put her face as close to his as she could.
"Tell, me, Evan, where do rapists fit in your little hierarchy?" she demanded.
He'd turned a little, so I could see surprise on his face. "I did that for us."
I stand corrected. Coked-up junkie hostile psycho.
"That," Kate said slowly, "I beyond delusional. That is just sick."
"I thought it would make you stay. We'd be joined." He linked both hands, making an 'open the door and here's all the people' gesture. "We'd have that bond."
"Oh, wow, do you even know how psycho that sounds?"
"Whatever you need to tell yourself to get over me."
"Get over you." She repeated flatly.
The unimaginable arrogance.
"I wanted you back, Kate. Until I found out about this," he glanced at me, gesturing with disdain. "Now all I want is closure."
I've got closure for you, Evan. All kinds of it.
"You want closure? I'll make this real easy for you. He's not the only one. There have been about two dozen, all of them cops," she paused and squinted up at the night sky, "wait, except for that ice-cream vendor." She gave him a 'deal with that' face. "But it's interesting to know that you, of all people, are disgusted and repulsed by that."
He suddenly stepped forward and grabbed her in a bear hug. I didn't know if he was going to throw her off the roof, so I raised my gun again, but he released her just as quickly and I swear I saw a tear on his cheek. This guy was nuts.
He backed away from her and I backed away from the door to give him a wide berth.
"I won't tell anyone where you are, Kate. I promise."
"I'll never forget you," she said in a saccharine movie-ending voice that he missed completely. I think she may even have batted her eyelashes. She had one hand on her heart, lips pressed together to prevent laughter.
He turned and started to lumber past me for the stairs. But then he stopped and looked me over. "Who would have thought. Whore to a cop." And he moved on.
I started to lunge after him, maybe just to shove him down the stairs, but Kate snagged a belt loop with a couple of fingers and my shoulder with her left hand and held tight.
"Let him go." She whispered in my right ear.
I took me a minute to relax, but when I did, she slipped her left arm around my neck and her right around my stomach, burying her head between my shoulder blades.
"I don't even know who that was." she lamented.