Love Never Dies (27 page)

Julia inserted
her key inside the lock. So far so good. Luckily, she’d placed Mira in the kennel, so her overeager dog wouldn’t announce her arrival to the neighbors. An apartment door opened down the hall and Fred Collins stepped out. A heavyset man close to retirement, he owned a successful insurance brokerage near Thornbury Park and had the luxury of setting his own working hours. He stopped abruptly upon observing Julia fiddling with the lock.

“Excuse me miss, that’s Julia Morris’ flat.”

“Yes,” answered Julia sweetly, trying to disguise her voice with a
Texas accent. “My name is Barbara Woods and I’m a friend of hers. I actually teach at her school and she forgot some very important papers that have to be distributed to her students today and asked me to pick them up this morning because she’s in LA and driving directly to work. She gave me a key.” Julia jingled her noisy chain with the bright pink fuzz ball for him to see. “You’re Mr. ...?”

“Collins, Fred Collins,” he said suspiciously.
Fred had combed the few remaining strands of his balding black hair over the huge shiny spot in the middle of his head. It made him look like a used car salesman which probably didn’t hurt his image as an insurance broker one bit.

“I’ll tell her
you called,” said Fred warningly, playing the good neighbor to the hilt as he pushed past her.

Julia watched as he placed a pudgy hand on the handrail and descended laboriously down the steep steps.
Julia hurried quickly into her apartment and closed the door behind her, heart thudding. Before she’d always laughed off Fred’s meddling, but it could have cost her dearly today. The apartment smelt musty and she didn’t bother to turn on a light even though the drapes were pulled for the weekend. She moved unerringly down the hallway to her bedroom, flicking on the overhead light and standing for a moment staring at the beautiful sketch above her bed.

Julia
telegraphed a message to Simon informing him she was inside her apartment, and kicking off her shoes, bounded upon the mattress and removed the sketch, placing it face down upon her bright blue bedspread. Thick brown paper surrounded by heavy duty packing tape covered the back of the sketch and without hesitation Julia dug into her purse, searching the cluttered contents as receipts, pencil, lipstick, and a nearly full packet of gum spilled onto her bedspread before she finally found the large Swiss army knife. She dumped the purse upon the floor and within seconds the small pair of scissors sliced along the paper backing, her heart thudding rapidly. She’d make a lousy James Bond.

Her instincts told her that the disk would probably have slipped down to the bottom of the painting and she felt about tentatively before giving a sharp cry of triumph as her fingers closed over the incriminating floppy.
The otherwise plain label on the black surface stated only one word: Alletti.

Julia stashed the disk inside her huge handbag along with the knife as the rain started pounding loudly upon the roof and
she knew she had to hurry. She smoothed the ruined backing of the picture, wondering if she had time to tape up the nasty looking tear. Deciding against it, she picked up the picture and was about to place it back on its hook above her bed when a low voice hissed from her doorway.

“I knew it was just a matter of time bef
ore you’d wander back.” It was the man Julia only recognized before as Mike Cooper and now knew was Adam Gable. His hair, shiny from the downpour, could use a trim, and he wore a long black leather jacket over a stylish blue turtleneck and dress trousers. His expensive black patent leather shoes had left damp footprints upon her mauve carpet and his right hand remained menacingly in his coat pocket. Instinctively she knew he had a gun.

“Who, who are you?” she managed to blurt out
, even though she knew full well his identity. Julia placed the sketch back down upon the bed and descended unsteadily to the floor beside the queen-sized bed.

“Just a friend of your deceased boyfriend, Seth Hayes.
I hate to tell you this little lady, but he had something that belonged to me and I’ve been thinking for a long time that maybe you knew where it was.” His faded blue eyes remained glued to the painting now resting upon the crumpled bedspread and Julia gulped. Mustering all her strength, she sent out a warning signal to Simon, praying their unusual telepathy would function at this crucial moment.

“You’re that man,” she stalled, “who asked me about his nephew at school.
You said your name was Mike, Mike Cooper. Now you’re telling me you’re a friend of Seth’s. That’s certainly a lie for he’d never have hung around a lowlife like you.”

The brave words got the desired result as Ad
am Gable moved closer, pulling his hand slowly out of his coat pocket. His long ugly fingers curving over the butt of the gun, he directed the barrel straight at her heart.

He snorted, “So where is your new boyfriend; the brother of your dear departed?”

“Boyfriend? I don’t have any boyfriend; not since Seth died.”

“Maybe that’s what you want your brother and f
amily to think, missy, but I know you’ve been spending a little extra time with your own personal bodyguard. I can’t imagine what your dead lover would think if he knew you were banging his brother. So where is Simon? Isn’t he around, or have you tired of him already?” Adam cocked an ear to listen. “I don’t hear reinforcements and somehow can’t believe he’d leave his own little lady alone. Nice disguise though, it would have fooled me at a distance, but never close up.”

“Just what do
you want?” Julia asked meekly. The image of the Swiss army knife and the gun secreted inside the dark confines of her bag motivated her and she edged closer to the purse resting upon the floor, hidden by the bed.

Ad
am moved to the bed and fingered the discarded contents of her purse, picking up the receipts and gum. He glanced at them a moment before pocketing them.

“Just the
disk sweetheart. You see your boyfriend, the dear departed Seth, was into gambling and owed a whole lot of people mega money. His assets are listed on that disk and will placate those he owed. So where is it?”

Why he bothered to lie was beyond her. “I don
’t believe you. Seth would never have done anything illegal.”

“That’s what all the guys want you to think.
If you’d known the kind the stuff he was involved in, you would have never looked at him twice. Hmm, nice painting, I saw it before when I checked out your apartment a few weeks ago.”

“You’ve been in
side my flat?” blurted out Julia, indignant that this skinny evil man had so violated her privacy.

“Yeah.
I went through everything one day while you were at work. Had to muzzle your damn dog. Those are very pretty undies indeed, in your upper right-hand drawer. You must have really turned that Seth on, and you know it never occurred to me to check out that beautiful painting where he appears so moony about you. Now why have you come back here, taken it down, and destroyed the backing? One plus one is not three, little lady.” He smirked as he moved to the painting, his pale blue eyes searching the ravaged binding of the sketch.

“It fell down, I was just replacing it.”

“Now who lies, girlie? Give me the disk now. We both know you have it and if you do, I promise I won’t hurt you.”

Julia trembled in fear.
“Alright, okay, it’s in my bag, there on the floor.”

Ad
am clearly didn’t want to stoop over and retrieve the bag. “Pick it up real slowly,” ordered Adam, the Glock handgun now focused upon the spot right between her eyes. Julia realized she only had one chance and bending over, slowly reached inside the bag.

“I put it in the zip pocket,” she explained, fingers searching for the gun.
It was too big and cumbersome for her trembling fingers to grasp and her hand moved to the Swiss army knife. She fumbled a bit, her fingers trying to work a miracle until the ice pick darted out, its sharp point pricking the tip of her forefinger.

“Put your hands where I can see them,” shouted the suddenly nervous intruder.

“I’m bringing it out now,” she said. “Please don’t shoot!”

Ad
am Gable greedily moved forward, his menacing stare informing her that his promise of preserving her life was but another lie. Julia lunged forward, aiming the poker straight for his eyes, her right foot simultaneously kicking to make contact with his right shin. Adam must have been convinced she wouldn’t fight back, for he wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of rage propelling the miniature ice pick toward his eyes. He managed to fire that last second, missing Julia by a good two feet as the bullet embedded itself near the vanity backed against her far bedroom wall.

Ad
am’s other hand flew up in a purely defensive movement and the poker, instead of stabbing his left eye tore into his earlobe. The assassin gave an unearthly howl as the sharp point of the tiny ice pick skewered the upper cartilage of his ear and rammed into his skull. He shrieked in agony as Julia kicked again, lifting her knee viciously into his groin and pushing her shoulder into the narrow expanse of his chest. Adam fell upon the bed, landing upon the painting, which shattered the glass into a hundred pieces as she dove for the bedroom door.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t far behind her and as Julia glanced over shoulder, she saw him yank the army knife of his gushing ear and
slam it onto the floor. Blood poured down his shirtfront as he aimed again, the shot reverberating throughout the small apartment. Julia recklessly careened through the lounge, heedless of her furniture as she sought the front exit. She nearly made it before Adam’s skinny hand grabbed her arm like a vice and jerked her about just as she reached her doorway. Deciding she was not about to die without a fight, Julia flailed at him, her stinging hands inflicting harsh punishment upon his face and severely damaged ear. Her wildcat actions managed to keep the menacing gun away from her head.

Simon suddenly appeared through the doorway and giving an angry snarl, did something Julia thought strange at first.
Instead of pushing Adam back into her apartment and pulling Julia out, Simon thrust her aside, his hand batting away Adam’s gun as his fingers tightened around Adam’s shirtfront. He pulled forcefully, thrusting himself backward through the door and dragging Adam with him. With one tremendous heave, he lifted the slighter man and hurled him over the balcony railing.

Julia had never witnessed anything like it before
and it must have been the unrestrained hatred directed toward the man who’d nearly killed him the past winter that gave Simon superhero strength. One second Adam was stable upon the wide balcony and the next hurtled toward the low-lying bushes framing the pool. Adam must have had his own evil guardian angel, for instead of plunging to his death upon the concrete, he landed with a tremendous splash into the deep end of the chilly pool.

If Simon was disappointed, he didn’t waste any time reflecting upon his foe’s good luck.

“C’mon Julia!” he shouted, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her down the steps two at a time, the handbag slapping violently against her as she tried to keep her balance. By the time they’d reached the bottom steps, Adam had surfaced, sputtering and flailing; his ruined ear tingeing the pool pink, his gun lying useless upon the green outdoor carpet of the upstairs balcony where he’d dropped it during Simon’s enraged attack.

For a man in such extreme pain, Ad
am had bolted out of the icy pool by the time Julia and Simon sprinted across the street to the Chrysler. Simon gunned the engine of the LeBaron and turned on the windshield wipers full blast as the rain pelted down. The road was slick and treacherous and the tires of the rental squealed as it sought traction on the wet road. Julia cast a glance over her shoulder to observe a drenched Adam Gable running after them for almost a hundred yards before raising a bloody fist and screeching obscenities at the top of his lungs. It was a long time before Julia’s pounding heart returned to its normal rhythm.

Simon headed toward the
mission, finally parking the powerful black car under the shelter of a beautiful oak tree in the historical site’s parking lot as the rain hurled from the skies. He pulled the trembling Julia into his arms as she shivered violently.

“Everything’s alright now... hush
, sweet love,” Simon soothed reassuringly. “Why don’t you take off that wet jacket and wig and I’ll turn the heater on full blast. It’s okay, love.”

He helped her removed the sodden wig and garments as the hot air from the engine’s fan tried valiantly to warm them up.
Simon threw his own wet jacket on the back seat and taking her hands once again, rubbed his fingers gently over their cold surface. They sat that way for a long while until Julia slowly calmed and they both warmed up. Julia finally opened her purse and pulled out the black floppy disk, flashing it victoriously at him. He smoothed back his long wet hair, and replacing the baseball cap grinned in relief.

“W
e need to get out of town Julia. He’s seen the rental and will be calling in favors to find us. I should have known when he lost us in LA he’d head back to Santa Barbara.”

“At least we have the disk.”

“Thank God for that. So now you have to be my navigator once again.” Simon started the engine and waited for her instructions.