The Killings (An Olivia Miller Mystery Book 1) (14 page)

Luke lay crumpled on his side on the floor in front of his open apartment door. Blood flowed from a red gash in his throat. The front of his jacket was cut. Blood stained the leather and dripped onto the floor. The skin of his hands was red with blood.

Kneeling next to him, holding a knife, was Kayla.

Chapter 19

“Olivia,” Kayla whispered.

“Kayla, drop the knife,” Olivia said gently, unsure of what Kayla might do. She took a step forward.

Kayla blinked and looked down at the knife in her hand. She shook her head and raised her eyes to Olivia. She let the knife slip from her grasp. “I didn’t do this.”

Olivia knelt beside Luke and touched his neck to locate a pulse. She kept Kayla in her peripheral vision. “He’s alive.” Her voice quavered. She turned to Ynes. “Call 911.” She shrugged out of her jacket and pulled her sweater over her head, balled it up, and pressed it against Luke’s abdomen.

“Luke, can you hear me?” Olivia asked. Luke lay motionless and did not respond. She could see defensive wounds on his hands. “We’re here, Luke,” she spoke to him soothingly. “You’ll be okay. Help’s on the way. We’re with you.” The words hitched in her throat.

Kayla was kneeling behind Luke. Tears spilled down her cheeks. She leaned to check his neck wound. She lifted her scarf from around her shoulders and used it to apply pressure to the gash in Luke’s neck.

Keeping her hands firmly pressing the sweater against Luke’s stomach wounds, Olivia shifted to look at Kayla.

Kayla’s breath was coming in shallow gasps like she was close to hyperventilating. “I just got here. He was on the floor. I heard you coming up the steps. I grabbed the knife. I was afraid the attacker was coming back.”

Olivia didn’t know whether to believe Kayla or not. “Why did you come to his apartment?”

“Luke and I have met up a few times. For coffee, a drink. To talk about Christian and Gary and everything that’s been going on. He said he was going to meet a bunch of you at a club tonight. He asked me to go.” Her eyes bore into Olivia’s. “I didn’t do this. He was like this when I got here. Olivia. I swear it’s true.”

“How did you get into the building?” Olivia asked, adjusting her hands on Luke’s abdomen for maximum pressure.

Anxiety washed over Kayla’s face. “Probably the same way you did. I pushed someone else’s door buzzer and asked to be let in.” She leaned back from Luke’s prone form. “God, I know how this looks. You think I stabbed him.” She stood. “The police will think so too.”

She took a few steps away.

“Don’t leave, Kayla,” Olivia said.

Ynes knelt and took over for Kayla, pressing on the scarf to stay the flow of blood from Luke’s neck. “If you take off, it will look bad. Stay here. Just tell the police what happened.”

Kayla’s eyes darted around the hallway as she tried to make a decision. A siren could be heard close by.

“Don’t run,” Olivia said. “If you’re innocent, you need to stay and tell what happened. If you take off, it will make you look guilty.”

“Don’t tell the police I was here,” Kayla said, stepping back. “Please.” Her voice shook.

“Your fingerprints are on the knife,” Olivia said.

Kayla froze. Her hands clutched the sides of her head. Her muscles seemed to give out and she sat down hard on the floor.

The front door of the building opened. Heavy feet could be heard on the steps.

“We’re up here,” Ynes called out.

A police officer and two emergency medical workers appeared on the landing. The EMTs raced to Luke’s side and Ynes and Olivia backed away. Kayla was still sitting on the floor with her head pressed against her knees.

“There’s a knife on the floor,” Olivia told the cop.

Another officer climbed the stairs. “Move back down the hall,” he ordered the women.

“Kayla,” Olivia said, placing her hand on Kayla’s shoulder. “Come on. Stand up. We need to move down the hallway.” She placed her hand under Kayla’s arm and tugged. Kayla stood and moved with Ynes and Olivia.

Luke was placed on a stretcher and carried down the stairs and into the waiting ambulance.

Each woman talked individually with a detective who appeared on the scene shortly after the initial arrival of the two officers and the EMTs. The girls’ names and addresses were collected along with their accounts of why they were there and what they saw when they came on the scene. Olivia was the last to speak with the detective and by the time she was finished and allowed to leave, she dragged herself down the stairs to the first floor and stepped out the front door. Ynes was sitting on the front steps waiting. She looked up when the door opened.

“Where’s Kayla?” Olivia asked. She sat down on the concrete step next to Ynes, the spot illuminated by a streetlight. The night air was cold and Olivia pulled her coat closer around herself.

“She was gone when I came out.”

Olivia looked at the blood on her hands. Ynes fished hand sanitizer and some tissues out of her purse and handed them to Olivia, who took them and cleaned her skin.

Olivia felt like all her energy had drained out of her body, so she put her arms around her legs and rested her head on her knees. “At least Luke is alive.” Tears welled in her eyes. “I thought all this was over. The cops arrested Adam Johnson tonight. They found a knife in his trunk. I thought these killings were over and done. Now, Luke is attacked. It can’t have been Johnson. He can’t be responsible for killing the guys.” She sounded so weary. “Poor Luke. I can’t believe this happened. Who’s doing it? Why?”

“What do you think?” Ynes asked. “You believe Kayla’s story? She had nothing to do with this?”

Olivia lifted her head. “I don’t know. “Why would she try to kill Luke?”

“She might think he could identify her because he saw her in the apartment that night.”

“But she claims she didn’t see much. Just someone’s feet. And she only saw Luke’s back as he ran into the living room. He didn’t see her there.”

“So she claims,” Ynes said, skeptically.

“I don’t know. I don’t think she’s lying. I don’t think she killed them.”

“Reasons?” Ynes asked.

Olivia lifted her palms up and shrugged. “Intuition?” She blinked at Ynes. “Am I wrong about her?”

Ynes scowled. “I think she did it.”

Olivia sighed. “We should go to the hospital. See about Luke.”

“I’ll call a cab. Again,” Ynes said. She reached into her pocket for her phone.

Olivia was so sick of trying to figure things out. She felt like she could sleep for a week. She rested her head back on her knees and whispered a silent hope
.

Don’t die, Luke. Don’t die.

Chapter 20

Olivia and Ynes entered the hospital and found out that Luke was alive and in surgery and that he would survive his injuries. Both young women breathed a sigh of relief.

Ynes was exhausted and decided to head back to her apartment. She was leaving the next day to attend a conference in New York City and she need to pack and get things ready to go. Olivia wanted to stay at the hospital for a while hoping to see Luke once he was moved to recovery. She was directed to a waiting room where she could sit until Luke’s surgery was completed.

Olivia entered the empty, dimly lit waiting room and went to take a seat when she noticed someone slumped in a chair, asleep. The person’s jacket covered most of her face but her short blonde hair was shining in the moonlight that filtered in through the window glass.

“Kayla,” Olivia spoke quietly. She touched her shoulder.

Kayla bolted up, blinking, trying to orient herself to her surroundings. “Oh. Olivia.” She rubbed her eyes.

Olivia took off her coat and draped it over the arm of one of the chairs. She collapsed into the seat next to Kayla. “I didn’t think you’d be waiting.”

Kayla stretched and leaned back. “Yeah. Well. I wanted to see how Luke was.” She sat up straight and faced Olivia. Dark circles tinged the skin under her eyes. “I didn’t stab him. I swear. I found him like that. I didn’t do it.”

Olivia nodded. Kayla seemed sincere in her denial, but Olivia just didn’t know what to believe anymore. “Who’s doing this?” she muttered.

“I don’t know. It’s horrible. Who would want them killed? What’s the reason?” Kayla rubbed her long, slender fingers over her temples. Her spiked up hair had relaxed and now hung over her forehead giving her a soft, almost sprite-like appearance. “They never got to live their lives.” She looked at Olivia, her face lined with worry. “Will the police arrest me? My prints are on the knife. How will they ever believe that I didn’t stab Luke?”

“I don’t know. You’ll get a lawyer. The truth will come out. You’ll be okay.”

Kayla whispered, “Will I?” Her shoulders slumped.

“Was Luke conscious when you found him?” Olivia asked.

Kayla stared at the floor. “No. He was on the floor. I thought he was dead.”

“I wonder if he got a look at his attacker. The police will question him. He’s the only one who has survived an attack.” Olivia speculated, “It must be the same person who killed the others. Maybe the knife can be tied back to Christian and Gary. And, Jack.”

Kayla massaged the back of her neck. “Luke must have fought back. His hands…they were all cut up.” She winced recalling the image of Luke’s bloody hands.

Olivia nodded. “Maybe the attacker heard you come in and took off. Maybe you saved him.”

Kayla’s eyes were wide at the thought that she may have interrupted the attack. A buzz from her pocket indicated an incoming text message and she reached in and took out her phone. “It’s Eric. He wants to know how Luke is doing. He’s on his way to keep me company. He’s just outside.”

“What time is it?”

“Two am.”

“He’s quite a friend to come here so late.”

“Yeah. He’s good to me. He comes to most of my gigs. Makes sure I get home safe.” Kayla’s fingers flew over the screen of her phone sending a reply text back to Eric.

“How’d you meet?” Olivia shifted in the chair trying to find a more comfortable position.

“At the coffee shop. We’ve both been working there for a couple of years.”

“He told us he graduated from MIT and worked at a start-up for a while.”

“Yeah, he’s wicked smart. He knows everything about computers, online security, all that stuff.”

“He got laid off?” Olivia asked. She wanted to see if Kayla knew that Eric had been fired from his position at LearnApp.

“He didn’t care about getting laid off. He’s working on his own project.”

“What is it that he’s working on?”

Kayla pulled a few dollars from her jeans. “I have no idea. I don’t understand software or hardware or whatever he’s doing. You want a coffee from the machine?”

“No thanks.”

Kayla got up and went to the vending machine, fed in her dollar bills, punched in some numbers, and returned with a paper cup of steaming coffee.

“What’s Eric’s last name?” Olivia asked.

“Daniels.”

“Huh,” Olivia said. “That’s weird.”

“What?”

“I met a guy the other night. He said he had worked with an Eric Daniels. At a start-up in Kendall. LearnApp”

“Yeah. That’s where Eric worked. What’s weird then?” Kayla sipped her coffee.

“The guy said this Eric got fired. That he lost his temper all the time. Couldn’t get along with anyone. One day, he ranted about a co-worker to the CEO and security had to escort him out.”

“That can’t be the Eric I know.” Kayla smiled. “Eric’s not like that.”

“Eric’s not like what?” A man’s voice asked.

Olivia’s head whipped around. Eric was standing in the doorway of the waiting room. Kayla looked up, her eyes bright when she saw him there. “Hey. You got here fast.” She stood and went over to hug him.

As Eric patted Kayla’s back, he gave Olivia a cold stare that sent a chill along her spine.

Olivia assumed Eric had overheard the things she was telling Kayla that the guy had said about him and she wanted to deflect Eric’s attention away from her. She stood up. “Time for the little girls’ room.”

“I’ll go with you.” Kayla handed her coffee cup to Eric. “Be right back.”

The girls walked down the corridor looking for the restroom.

Olivia didn’t like the way Eric always seemed to be hanging around Kayla, like she needed a bodyguard. Kayla didn’t know that Eric got fired from his job, not laid off. He must have wanted to save face in front of her. Olivia wondered if that guy who said he’d worked with Eric was exaggerating about Eric’s behavior. And maybe Eric really did get laid off? “Does Eric live in Cambridge?”

“Yeah, off Mass Ave somewhere.”

“You’ve never been to his place?”

“No. That’s funny, huh? I never realized that. We always go somewhere.”

“You two hang out a lot?”

“Yeah. After work we might go for a drink. Go to the movies. We spend a lot of time together. He’s like my brother.”

“He doesn’t look at you like he’s your brother,” Olivia said.

Kayla let out a chuckle. “What do you mean? It’s not like that. Not at all.”

Olivia wasn’t so sure about that. She had the distinct impression that Eric didn’t think of Kayla as a sister. “Well, he sure doesn’t like me.”

“Oh, he’s just protective of me. Don’t let him bother you.”

They found the bathroom and then returned to the waiting room. Eric was sitting slouched in one of the chairs staring at his cell phone.

Olivia didn’t like the vibe Eric was giving off, so she picked up her coat and put it on. “I think I’ll head home. Melissa went home sick earlier and I’d like to check on her. Maybe I can call the hospital in the morning about Luke.”

“I’ll text you,” Kayla said, “when he gets out of surgery and after I speak with the nurse or the doctor. I can give you an update. Give me your number. I’ll give you mine.” Kayla took out her phone.

Olivia reached in her coat pocket. It was empty. She stuck her hands in the other pockets searching for her phone. “Where’s my phone? Oh, no, I hope it’s not lost. I just got it fixed.”

Eric bent and reached under the chair next to him. “This it?” He held it out to Olivia. His expression was still angry or cold. Olivia couldn’t read it.