Death By High Heels (The Kim Murphy PI Series Book 1) (26 page)

“You know, you should be thanking him.”

I turned to look at Lizzie. She was staring at Kevin like he’d just pulled a family from a burning building. Yeah, the man was a real hero. “Thanks. Look, I need to use a phone.”

“It’s four o’clock in the morning. Don’t you think you should wait a while before you start callin’ people?"

“I need to call the police.”

“The police? No way are you calling the cops from my phone. Kevin, take her home now!”

“Okay, okay.”

I followed Kevin into the garage, grateful to be leaving. Once inside his car, the pizza smell wrapped around me like a giant blanket. After giving Kevin directions he probably didn’t need, I couldn’t stay quiet. There were so many unanswered questions. “Why did you search Lindsay’s apartment?”

“Well, you know, since Brian was killed there, I figured he may have gone there to give her the pictures.”

“Okay, but why did you try to search for them after the police sealed the door?”

“I didn’t know about that. Not until I got to Mrs. Kanisky’s apartment.”

What the hell? Little warning bells were going off in my head but the words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. “How did you know Mrs. Kanisky?”

“I didn’t. Brian did, sort of.”

“How?”

“It’s really not important.”

“She was a nice old lady. What did she have to do with Brian?”

“Nothing, just drop it,” Kevin snapped. His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly it looked as if someone had super glued them to the wheel.

Whatever Kevin, Brian, and the others were up to somehow involved my former elderly neighbor. Mrs. Kanisky’s death had been attributed to old age and several medical problems but I’d always felt something just wasn’t right about her passing. I’d chalked it up to my sadness over her death. She had waved bye to me as I got into my car that morning. That evening when I returned home, one of the neighbors told me she had died during the day. Had their actions somehow caused her death? I didn’t know how they could have, but I knew if Kevin and Lizzie were involved, I’d make sure they spent some quality time in the prisons of the court’s choosing.

I looked at Kevin and wondered if that was the face of a killer. He had seemed so nice, even helpful, but was that just an act? Didn’t the neighbors of serial killers always describe them as friendly? “Stop the car.”

“What?”

“Stop the car. I’m gonna be sick.”

“Hold on.” Kevin pulled the car to the curb. I jumped out, bent at the waist, and pretended to have the dry heaves, though it didn’t take a whole lot of acting skills at that point.

“Jeez, Miss Murphy, are you okay?”

Unable to speak, I nodded my head.

“Wow, you don’t look so good.”

“Thanks, just what I needed to hear.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“If you’re feelin’ better, let’s get in the car. I promise I’ll tell you everything.”

I stood back up and froze. Behind Kevin two men in ski masks, guns in their hands, were heading toward us. “Shit!”

“Are you feelin’ sick again?”

He had no idea. “Kevin, why don’t you take off? It’s not too far, I can walk from here.”

“No way am I leavin’ you on the side of the road.”

Ironically, that was exactly where he had found me a few hours before, but at the other end of town. If only he’d left me there, he wouldn’t be about to pay for it now. One of the gunmen grabbed Kevin while the other stepped around them and closed his free hand around my arm.

“What the hell?” Kevin struggled with the man holding onto him.

“Kevin, don’t!” I had images of the gun going off in the struggle. If we were lucky, it would hit one of our attackers. I didn’t figure Kevin or I had that kind of good luck.

“Listen to her, Kevin. It seems she’s the smart one.”

I’d have thanked him for the compliment if not for the fact that they were leading us to an old van with blackened windows.

“Let’s go. Our boss would like to talk to you, Kimberly Murphy.”

“It’s Kim.” What the hell was I doing correcting him? I really must have lost my mind.

“Look, guys, since I’m the one your boss is so eager to talk to, why don’t we just leave Kevin here and the three of us can go?”

“A threesome, huh?” the one holding me asked. “Tempting, very tempting,” he said, pulling me up against him.

The one holding onto Kevin chuckled. “Maybe later, sweet cheeks, after the boss is through with you. Afraid we’re going to have to take your friend here.”

Kevin and I were shoved into the back of the van. I wondered if my own face mirrored Kevin’s panic-filled one. While one of our ski-masked kidnappers got in back with us, the other got behind the wheel of the van. The driver, before pulling away from the curb, yanked off his ski mask and tossed it onto the passenger seat. He probably figured it wasn’t wise to draw attention to himself by driving in the summer with a ski mask on. Both of our kidnappers were wearing identical outfits of black pants and black long-sleeved shirts. They reminded me of a couple who had the poor taste to dress alike, minus the matching ski masks, of course.

Beside me, Kevin whimpered. Our companion in the back chuckled. So, okay, Kevin was scared. Who wouldn’t be after two guys pointed guns at you and shoved you into a van? Being kidnapped was scary as hell. I should know, since it was quickly becoming a regular occurrence for me. The only reason I wasn’t sitting in the corner babbling incoherently to myself was I had had my fill of scary for one night. The fact that I’d escaped from these idiots once gave me a bit of encouragement that my luck hadn’t run out yet. Not so lucky was the fact that who other than me could have managed to get kidnapped three times in under eight hours. It must be a gift, the kind you were desperate to return the day after Christmas.

Kevin didn’t look so good. His face was pale and he was sweating—a lot. “Hey, you okay?”

It was a stupid question but it was the best I could come up with at the moment. Kevin didn’t answer me at first, but eventually he nodded his head. I scooted closer to him. “Take slow, deep breaths.”

He did and seemed to calm down a bit. That was good because the last thing we needed was Kevin freaking out. Our masked and unmasked companions were likely to be way too eager with the trigger fingers, especially since I’d escaped their little party earlier. They were sure to be on their guard for any antics from me. If not, all the better for me and Kevin.

“Sorry, not much of a view back here,” my ski mask-wearing buddy said. All of the windows in the back of the van had been blacked out.

“That’s okay, it’s too dark to see much anyway. Now, if there was something we could do to make the floor more comfortable, that would be nice.”

He laughed. “Maybe next time we’ll use a limo.”

“Sounds great,” I replied, as long as it wasn’t me and it wasn’t the inside of the trunk.

I looked back at Kevin to see how he was doing. The labored breathing had stopped but his eyes were glued to the gun still pointed in our direction. I assumed we were traveling in the general direction of where they’d taken me the first time. Could they really be taking me back there? The question had just popped into my head and now we were once again crossing over train tracks. Now my own heart began to race. Kevin and I were being taken back to where Angie’s body had been dumped like any other garbage. No one deserved that. Well, except pedophiles and rapists. They deserved that and oh so much worse. Kevin had returned to whimpering. I’d have joined him if I thought it would do any good.

When we stopped at what I assumed was a red light, the driver glanced back at us. He chuckled at Kevin’s obvious fear. Looking at me, he licked his lips and winked.

“Get moving. The light’s green.”

Our driver turned around and once again we were on the move. Before long we stopped once again. Only this time our driver put the van in park and turned off the engine. He got out and a few seconds later the back doors opened. Kevin, experiencing a moment of either bravery or stupidity, rushed forward, knocking Mr. No Mask backward. Kevin turned toward me, his eyes large and round like two DVDs. He was as surprised as I that it had worked.

“Come on, let’s go.”

Kevin grabbed my hand. In his excitement he must have forgotten about Mr. Ski Mask sitting in the back with us. I turned to look and found myself staring at a large, shiny gun. I looked back at Kevin, and he had his own problems. Mr. No Mask had gotten back up and was also pointing a gun, at Kevin’s head.

“Move it, asshole, and don’t try to play hero again.”

Kevin scooted toward the back of the van. When he got to the edge Mr. No Mask grabbed him and yanked him out, tossing him onto the ground. Kevin struggled to his feet just in time to collide with Mr. No Mask’s fist. I shouted for him to stop but he ignored me and landed several more punches to Kevin’s head and stomach. The last punch sent Kevin sprawling to the ground.

I crawled out of the van and leaned down next to Kevin. He was still breathing but his face looked like someone had mistaken it for a piñata. Except instead of sugar-coated treats trickling out, a steady stream of blood dripped from his nose. Mr. No Mask pulled his foot back as if to kick Kevin.

“Enough! Get them inside.”

I couldn’t see the person who belonged to the voice but it was obvious this was someone in charge. Mr. No Mask half dragged, half carried Kevin while Mr. Ski Mask grabbed my arm and escorted me inside. Having learned a lesson from their previous attempt to keep me here, they stuck us in a small room with a window the size of my head on the first floor. Neither Kevin nor I had been bound, which should have been good news, but it wasn’t. They hadn’t bound us because a quick look around the small room revealed nothing, absolutely nothing. The room was as empty as Brandon’s refrigerator, if you ignored the beer and the science experiment in the back.

This sucked. They had even kept my purse this time, not that I had anything useful in it, but I’d only used it twice. Maybe now wasn’t the right time to focus on the loss of my purse but it at least took my mind off the very real possible loss of me. Which I was pretty sure was the only outcome possible. The worst part, well, one of them, was I’d inadvertently gotten Kevin dragged into this mess. His murder would weigh heavily on my conscious, if only for a short time. I figured these lunatics wouldn’t take long to kill me after getting whatever it was they wanted from me. Angie’s death felt like it was my fault as well. I couldn’t figure what all this mess was about. I just hoped before the end they had the decency to explain it to me. No sense in leaving a lady in limbo for all of eternity.

The thought of eternity was terrifying. I was a good, somewhat of a good, person, but I didn’t have any guarantees which way my soul was headed. Was my eternal resting place one giant party or someplace that required a sunscreen with an SPF of about a million?

Kevin whimpered, drawing me out of my depressing thoughts. I knelt down beside him. His whole body jerked when I placed my hand on his arm. “It’s okay, Kevin, they’re gone.” What I didn’t say was
for now
. I was sure if he hadn’t already, he would soon figure it out. There was no need for me to point it out.

“Are you sure?” He lowered his hands, revealing his beaten, terrified face.

“Yeah. Do you think you can sit up?”

“I think so.”

I stood up and took several steps back to give him some room but to be close enough in case he needed help. Kevin pushed up and leaned back against the wall.

“I’ve felt better, that’s for sure.”

“Sorry.”

“What do these guys want?”

“I have no idea, but they sure as hell are determined.”

At his questioning look I filled him in on my previous kidnapping, careful to leave out the part about finding Angie’s lifeless body in the dumpster.

“Jeez, Miss Murphy, that’s crazy.”

I had to agree. This whole thing was crazy. “Yeah, I just wish I knew what they wanted.”

“So if they want you, what am I doing here?”

Kevin was collateral damage, a witness that would need to be dealt with. “Wrong place wrong time, I guess.”

“Story of my life.”

“Me too. Don’t worry, we’ll get out of here.” I tried to sound more positive than I felt.

“You think so?” he asked, sounding so hopeful.

“Absolutely,” I lied.

Kevin’s smile morphed into a wince as blood seeped from his bottom lip.

“How do you feel?”

“Like I got hit by a semi.”

“Well, you kinda look like it too.” I smiled.

“Good to know.” His laughter turned into a round of coughs.

I held his hand while his body shook in time with each cough. Eventually the coughing stopped, as did the shaking.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. I always help my co-kidnapees.”

“I don’t think that’s really a word. Is it?”

“It is now.”

I smiled and let go of Kevin’s hand. Desperate and determined to find a way out of this, I stood up and walked around the room. It was possible, though unlikely, our captors had left something behind. It took less than a minute to discover that, sadly, they had not been quite so stupid this time. With nothing left to do I sat back down next to Kevin and leaned against the wall.