The Perfect Liar (28 page)

"Ava Bixby," she said. "I'm a friend of Luke's. And you?"

The short one spoke up. "I'm Sergeant O'Dell. This is Captain Fewkes. Also friends of Luke's."

Ava recognized the sergeant's name. He was the one who'd gone to the Moby Dick with Luke. She was glad to meet him. "Would you like to come in?"

They stepped into the living room and Fewkes closed the door, but they didn't sit down. "Where's Luke?" O'Dell asked, glancing toward the bedroom.

"He's running some errands."

"Oh." The two men looked at each other. "He knows you're in his apartment, though, right? You're not friends with Kalyna Harter or anything."

She laughed. "No. I'm with The Last Stand, a victims' charity in Sac.

I'm trying to help him with the Harter situation."

"Oh, I remember now. He's mentioned you. So what do you think of Kalyna?"

"I think she's trouble."

"You know I was with Luke at The Moby Dick, don't you?"

"Yes. Jonathan Stivers is my investigator. He spoke with you this past 207

week."

"That was your guy?"

"He has his own agency, but he works with us a lot."

"Did he tell you I said Kalyna's lying?" O'Dell asked.

"He told me. Now we just need to prove it."

"This might help." He jerked his head at his companion. "Fewkes ran into her in mid-May. That's why I brought him over. She said some weird sh-stuff to him at a bar. I thought Luke should hear about it."

"What kind of weird stuff?"

"When I asked her to dance, she said she couldn't get near me or her fiance would go ballistic. I said I didn't see a ring on her finger, and she said it was because they hadn't picked it up from the jeweler's yet." He imitated the expression and body language he'd used that night. "I said, 'It's just a dance.' But she insisted that her fiance was this insanely jealous animal. I told her I could handle myself in a fight, and she said I wouldn't stand a chance against Captain Luke Trussell."

"Did you know Luke?"

"Not really. I mean, we've played a couple pickup games over at the basketball court, so I recognized the name and had enough respect for him to back off. I mean, I'm not out to force a girl to dance with me if she doesn't want to, you know? But after I moved on, Kalyna wouldn't quit messing with me. She'd sidle past me, brushing her breast against my arm or touching me in some other way. Or I'd catch her staring at me from across the room and she'd give me a 'you know you want me' kind of smile.

It was weird. I got the feeling she was trying to tempt me into approaching her again, even though she'd warned me off."

"What do you think she was up to?" Ava asked.

"Playing head games?" he said with a shrug.

"I think she was living out a fantasy," O'Dell suggested. "I saw how she acted with Luke. She's obsessed with him. She'd love nothing more than to be his fiancee and have him care enough to be as jealous as she claimed he'd be. She was enjoying the danger and excitement of flirting with Fewkes as if she really had something to worry about from Trussell."

Knowing Kalyna, Ava could believe it. She expected Luke to return at any moment, so she poked her head out into the hall. But it was empty.

208

She was under the impression that the men in these apartments didn't stay home for much longer than it took to shower and change, at least during the day. They were single and active--this was just a place to bunk at night.

"You haven't told Luke about this?" she said, closing the door again.

"I didn't know about it until today," O'Dell said.

"And I didn't see any point," Fewkes chimed in. "If she was telling the truth, it'd only piss him off that we were flirting with each other. If she was lying, I'm not planning on seeing her again so it doesn't matter. It wasn't until I was lifting at the gym today that I heard O'Dell here talking about how some chick was claiming Trussell raped her. The name jumped out at me--

because Kalyna had mentioned it. Made me wonder what the hell was going on. She told me he was her fiance, yet she was telling everyone else he raped her?"

"Neither is true," O'Dell said.

"She must be a nutcase," Fewkes added.

O'Dell nudged him. "Tell her the rest."

"There's more?" Ava said.

"Wait til you hear this," O'Dell chortled.

"Later that night, when I passed her on my way to the bar," Fewkes continued, "I felt her grab my ass."

Ava couldn't imagine many women being quite that bold. But this was Kalyna, after all. "More teasing?" she said, incredulous.

"I guess, because when I asked her what was going on, she said she wanted me, just didn't dare act on it. So I asked her what would happen if we got caught, and she said her fiance would kil us both."

"How'd you reply?"

"I didn't believe her. Like I told you, I don't know Trussell very well, but he seems too coolheaded for that. So I said, 'Don't you think that's a little extreme?' And she said, 'Hell, no. I'd do the same if I ever caught him cheating on me.' When I started laughing, she said, 'You think I'm joking, don't you?' I said, 'I think you're drunk.'"

Ava could tell he was leading up to a bigger climax than this. "And?"

"And then she leaned forward to show me a knife she had in her purse and said, 'I've done it before.'"

Chil s rolled down Ava's spine. This incident definitely made it easier 209

to believe that Kalyna might've caused Norma's death. "What'd you do?"

"I left. I was done with her."

"Do you think she was serious about having kil ed before?" Ava asked.

Fewkes's nod was emphatic. "Serious as a heart attack. And I'l testify to that."

His story revealed a frightening cold-bloodedness on Kalyna's part.

Because of that, Ava thought Fewkes's testimony might be important to both cases--Luke's and Norma's. "You just might have to do that. Give me your contact information," she said, and after they left she called the Mesa police.

The door opened while Luke was trying to move all his groceries to one arm so he could reach the knob. "Sergeant O'Dell and Captain Fewkes stopped by," Ava announced, stepping back to admit him.

He carried his sacks in and deposited them on the counter. "Who's Fewkes?"

"A guy you've met playing basketball a time or two."

Luke didn't recognize the name. "Why'd he come here?"

"To tell you that Kalyna isn't stable."

"As if that's news." He stowed the milk in the fridge. "How does he know?"

While Ava explained what Fewkes and O'Dell had said, Luke put away the rest of his groceries. By the time she finished, he felt as much relief as concern. The number of people who stood on his side was growing. No court-martial would find against him with the details that were coming to light.

But he stil had no idea where this would end. He felt confident that he could take care of himself, and doubted Kalyna would attack him physically. But obsession-motivated murder didn't happen only in the movies.

You've been seeing her, haven't you!

The accusation ringing through her statement showed that Kalyna viewed them as a couple. And she'd already told him what she had planned for any love interest of his. Was Ava in danger?

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He thought she might be. No one even knew where Kalyna was, but if she'd murdered her mother, she could be on a rampage. And she had military training, familiarity with weapons.

"You're quiet," Ava said when he made no comment on Fewkes's story.

He folded the sacks and slipped them onto a shelf in his small pantry.

"I'm wondering what to do."

"About what?"

"About you."

"I'm not
your
problem."

Then whose problem was she? He doubted she would've been embroiled in this had she just dropped the case and walked away as she'd initially tried to do. It was her affiliation with him that put her at risk.
She's
working for me now,
he'd told Kalyna. He'd all but painted a target on Ava's forehead. What had he been thinking?

That Kalyna was like other people, like him. That she'd respond to the news of Ava's defection by realizing she was losing any advantage she had. That she'd back off. But she
wasn't
like other people. The deeper he got into this, the more he understood that.

"So you'l be safe on the houseboat?" he asked. "I mean, she has no way of finding it, right?"

"No. No way. She knows how to find
this
place, though. She could come here, shoot up your apartment--shoot
you
--and it would all be over in seconds."

"She's not going to shoot me."

"You don't know that. You can't stay here."

"Where am I supposed to go?"

"To a friend's place."

"My friends have roommates and no extra beds. And I'm not leaving the comfort of my apartment unless I'm happy with where I'm staying."

"Which means what?"

He grinned. "I'm happy at your place."

"No way. You're not coming home with me."

"Why not?" Maybe her clothes were as ugly as ever, but she was pretty in spite of them, far prettier than the day he'd first met her. Why she 211

seemed to have changed so much in such a short time, he couldn't say--

except that her personality somehow pulled the entire package together.

"You have a comfortable recliner."

Her forehead rumpled. "You're kidding, right? Don't you have to work in the morning?"

"I can make a call, leave a message for my superior officer. I have so much leave coming, he'l give me the whole week. It'l save him from having to think up things for me to do now that I'm grounded."

"So you want to come home with me."

"I think it would be safer." Luke hid a smile. He didn't need to stay anywhere. He had a 9 mm in his dresser drawer. He could protect himself, but the image of Ava in that thong flashed before his eyes for probably the mil ionth time, and staying home--or anywhere else--just couldn't compete.

He doubted Kalyna could find the houseboat, but he didn't want to risk being wrong and seeing Ava get hurt. In his mind, this was more about protecting her, and there was no harm in that. "What do you say?"

"I've used the boat as a refuge for my clients before," she mused.

"And I've got an extra bedroom and everything."

You should watch the sunrise from my bedroom
...He had no interest in her guest quarters. And he felt it was only fair to warn her. "Just so you know, if you do have me over, it's asking for trouble."

Her eyes narrowed. "What kind of trouble?"

Stepping closer, he lowered his voice. "The kind of trouble that comes with getting naked."

She licked her lips nervously. "You're not attracted to me, remember?"

"I might've overstated the level of my disinterest."

"No, you were right." She backed away. "We're a mismatch.

Completely different, il -suited, worlds apart."

"I keep telling myself that."

"But..."

"I stil want you."

She cleared her throat. "Absolutely not. Forget it. I won't be getting naked with you," she said. But when he packed his bag, he took the condoms from his nightstand, just in case.

212

The woman who'd welcomed Kalyna to Help for Women, a free clinic in Reno that was open twenty-four hours seven days a week, stood in the doorway of the small exam room where Kalyna had been waiting. She was smiling, which boded well. "Great news," she said.

Kalyna's heart jumped into her throat. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. The AIDS test showed no antibodies. You're clean."

But what about the baby? "And the pregnancy?"

Her smile faded. "I'm afraid there is no pregnancy."

No pregnancy! Kalyna couldn't believe it. She'd never had so much unprotected sex in her life. It
had
to result in a child. When she was younger, she'd gotten pregnant so easily.

"Is something wrong with me?" she asked. "Is there some reason I can't have a baby?" She was feeling the urge to hurt herself again. Why wouldn't God give her a baby?

Because she was bad. But He was the one who'd made her this way.

She'd never had anything she wanted, nothing. Why couldn't He at least let her have Luke?

The doctor removed the stethoscope from around her neck and put it in the pocket of her coat. "It's hard to tell with such a cursory examination.

You should really see an OB/GYN if you're interested in having a child. And don't worry, even if there are problems, there's so much they can do these days."

But by then it'd be too late.

If only she'd gotten pregnant. Then Luke would've given her another chance. He was that kind of guy. And one more chance was all she needed to prove how perfect they'd be together. No one could be more devoted to him than she was.

"You can go ahead and get dressed," the doctor said, and left the room.

Kalyna slowly stood. What now? It was only a matter of time before Ogitani dropped the case. Her own father would testify against her. So would Ava. That bitch had ruined everything, talking to her mother and her sister and Luke. It wasn't supposed to happen like that....

Ava was the one who'd taken Luke away from her.

213

I hate her. I hate her with a passion.
Kalyna had no hope now. None.

But on the way out they handed her the printed results of the tests they'd performed, and she realized she might've given up too soon. The sheet read
negative,
but that one word wasn't anything a little Wite-Out and a copier couldn't fix.

Luke had asked for proof that she was pregnant. So she'd show him falsified lab results. Granted, the ploy would only buy her a few months.

After a while, it'd become obvious that her stomach wasn't growing.

But a few months was better than nothing.

Ava's stepfather had docked the houseboat where she'd left it.

Although the smell of his cheap cologne lingered, he was gone--thank God.

She didn't want to deal with him. Not when she was going on so little sleep.

And not when she had Luke with her.

Well...actually, she never wanted to deal with him.