The Way You Look Tonight (30 page)

‘But you and Steve were friends,' she said softly.

‘We were classmates. And teammates. He acted friendly, but then he acted that way with everyone. He wanted to be
liked
by everyone. I could tell he didn't approve when I started seeing Emily, though. Oh, he was smart enough not to
say
anything, but I could feel it. I could feel
everyone's
disapproval.'

You imagined it, Deborah thought. Your mother ignored you, your father, whom you thought adored you, forgot about you in his despair over your mother. By the time you were a teenager, you'd become the perpetually rejected child. No matter what anyone did, you thought no one liked you, that you were the butt of everyone's jokes.

Snow poured down and the windshield wipers slapped ceaselessly. They went around a curve too fast and slid, but Pete didn't seem to notice. The tires gripped the road firmly again and they sped on. ‘I thought Emily cared for me. Or
would
care for me when she was old enough to have some sense. Then I found out about Eddie. You see, first she suddenly had that damned dirty dog. A Christmas gift from Eddie, although she claimed it had been given to her by a family moving out of town. But she named it Sax. How's
that
for a clue? Emily wasn't too bright, you see. Then, that summer, she started acting different. Dreamy but at the same time more mature. I went over there one day. She was outside in that blue bikini she'd gotten in the spring. The dog was inside. Usually he was right by her side like some sort of guardian.' He laughed roughly. ‘Rather like Joe with you lately. I suppose I lost my head that day. She was in the bikini, her long, dark hair hanging halfway down her back. She was tall and slim and graceful. She looked unbelievably beautiful. No one was around that day and I got very…physical with her. She started fighting me. When I wouldn't let her go, she screamed that she was married to Eddie.'

Pete closed his eyes and Deborah gasped as they swerved off the road. Snow pounded under the Jeep. A tree loomed about twenty feet ahead of them. ‘It was as if she'd stabbed me in the chest. I haven't felt like that since they told me my dad was dead,' he said vaguely, opening his eyes and violently jerking the car back on the road, throwing both of them to the left. ‘That
African
!' he went on, seeming unaware that he'd nearly flipped the vehicle on its side. ‘I'm a little fuzzy about what happened next. The Robinsons were having some work done on the house and I suddenly had a pipe of some kind in my hand. I hit her on the head, strangled her and…well…raped her. She wasn't conscious when I did the last, but I know she would have enjoyed it. Sex with me had to be better than it was with
Eddie
. Then, out of nowhere, Lieber came around the house. He was about fifty feet away. My hair was thick and long then. It had fallen over my face from the exertion. Lieber started shouting, ‘Steve! What the hell are you doing?' We looked alike in those days, Steve and I did. We still do when I wear my toupee and tighter clothes. We were even both wearing jeans that day. How's that for a stroke of luck? Lieber charged after me, but I was in great shape. I ran like I'd never run before. He didn't stand a chance of catching me.'

‘And Steve came home to find Lieber bending over his sister.'

‘I think he was trying to give her mouth-to-mouth or something. Maybe he was going to rape her, too. Who knows?'

‘But Steve saw Lieber and thought he'd attacked Emily, while Lieber was certain he'd seen Steve attacking her earlier.'

Pete snickered. ‘Right. Isn't that hilarious? Like some silly farce. It worked out perfectly for me, although I was a little put-out because no one ever suspected me. I guess they thought I wasn't
man
enough to do such a thing. Ah, here we are.'

They turned on to what Deborah suspected was a dirt road although there was so much undisturbed snow on it she couldn't be certain. Pete shifted into four-wheel drive and they jolted forward. On either side of the road stretched barbed-wire fence laden with snow. After a few moments, a structure loomed ahead. Squinting, Deborah saw that it was a barn.

Pete stopped the Jeep about fifty feet away from it. ‘The snow has drifted around the barn. I'm not driving any closer. Get out now, but don't try running away. You can't make any time in this snow, and I have a gun. You won't get ten feet.'

With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Deborah knew he was right. Escape at this point was impossible. With Pete's gun on her, she opened the door and stepped down into nearly a foot of snow. She stood very still while he climbed out and circled the car to where she stood. ‘Very good,' he said. ‘Now walk.'

‘To where?'

‘The
barn
, of course. I don't want to stand out here in this mess.'

Deborah plodded forward. She was still wearing the cheap shoes she'd bought earlier in the evening and they immediately began leaking. In fact, the snow was well above her ankles, dragging at her as she struggled toward the hulking shape of the barn. ‘Where are we?' she asked.

‘A piece of property for sale. It's been vacant for years.'

‘Just like the O'Donnell house.'

‘Yes. I suppose by now you've figured out that I rented it.'

‘Why?'

‘So I could watch you and Steve. You see, I'd realized the time had come for Steve's charmed life to come to an end,' he shouted, although the wind had settled. The night was now cold and still. ‘He still grieved over Emily, but not like he used to. He had you and the children. He told me you even planned to have another child. I didn't want him to be happy. He didn't deserve to be, not after the way he looked down on me all through school, not after the way he disapproved of me seeing his precious sister. And then there was Hope.'

‘Hope?'

‘Yes, my beloved wife. Did you know that she and Steve had an affair?'

The air went out of Deborah. ‘That is not true.'

‘Come now, Deborah. I think in your heart you knew all along.'

‘I knew no such thing! What on earth are you talking about?'

‘Hope didn't just wander off. She was having an affair.'

‘But not with Steve!'

‘
Yes
, with Steve. She denied it, but I
knew
. She'd always liked him. Didn't you ever catch them exchanging looks? Didn't you notice Steve was home less than usual? Wasn't there a little less activity in the bedroom?'

It was crazy. Steve would never have had an affair with Pete's wife. There hadn't been a change in his behavior for so much as a week during their marriage. And even if there had been a one-night drunken dalliance, Steve could never have acted normal around Pete again. But Pete was convinced. Jealousy, long nurtured in a sick mind, had turned to hatred and paranoia.

‘Did you ever talk with Steve about the affair?' she asked, playing along.

‘No. I took my revenge another way.'

‘By setting him up to look like The Dark Alley Strangler.'

‘Right. I was killing two birds with one stone, to use a cliché. I got back at him for all he'd done to me, and I also removed any possibility that I would ever be suspected of being the Strangler. Everyone would think he was still alive, still out there murdering young women.'

‘But someone saw Steve's car the night Sally Yates was attacked.'

‘Of course. I followed him to Wheeling and took his car in the middle of the night. Hot-wired it, as they say. I went to some bar and found the Yates slut. I made sure I was seen coming out of the alley after I'd attacked her. I waited until I saw someone coming down the street, then I emerged from the alley laughing and gibbering, acting crazy to draw attention to myself. And to the car. It was all part of the plan. For the last three years I'd made sure my attacks coincided with Steve's visits to Emily. I even stuck bits of oleander in the women's mouths, since Steve was so damned proud of his ability to grow the silly plant.'

Oleander in their mouths, Deborah thought. That's why Agent Wylie had been so curious about Steve's interest in the shrub. ‘But witnesses say the man had dark hair.'

‘My dear, I have a dark toupee, and the rest I took care of with a temporary rinse. I also wore dark glasses and a fake mustache. I couldn't take a chance on anyone identifying
me
. And it still looked as if Steve were making an attempt to disguise himself.'

‘And who was it at the school who tried to take Kimberly?'

‘Me. I wasn't actually going to take her. I saw the teacher watching me. I just wanted to scare you, make you think perhaps Steve was still around. That fool Lieber followed me that day. The police arrived so soon, they almost got him instead of me.'

‘And the bells Kim heard?'

‘Me again. That one wasn't sure-fire. I didn't know if she'd actually come outside, although I'd given her a suggestion earlier in the evening that if she heard bells close by, it was Santa. I didn't know if you'd check the freezer, either. But it went perfectly.'

‘I still don't understand why you rented the O'Donnell house.'

‘I told you, I decided it was time for Steve to be caught, so I needed to watch every move. And I wanted to see what was going on after he disappeared. After all, I couldn't camp out at your house like Pierce did. I had a son to raise.'

‘And you attacked Mrs Dillman.'

‘As I was sneaking out of the house one night, the old crone ambushed me. Can you imagine it? She'd slipped past the surveillance and was
waiting
for me. Waved a knitting needle at me,' he laughed, then he sobered. ‘The bad part was that at close range, she recognized me. Well, it didn't take long to put her out of commission, but carrying her back to her yard without being seen was no easy feat, I assure you.'

‘But you seem to be losing your touch,' Deborah said acidly. ‘You didn't manage to kill Sally
or
Mrs Dillman.'

A hand slammed against the back of her head and she went sprawling into the snow. ‘I am
not
losing my touch, you stupid cow. They were just unusually tough. But the Dillman woman is too old to live through this, and I'll get Yates yet. Oh, yes, I'll get Mrs Sally Yates. Now
get up
.'

Deborah had a mouth full of snow. She spat it out, then clambered to her feet, her ears ringing from the blow. She stumbled forward until they reached the barn. Still holding the gun on her, Pete opened one of the big doors and pushed her inside. She fell again, this time on cold, naked earth that still smelled of hay and horses.

It was dark in the barn, but Pete produced a flashlight and shone it in her eyes. ‘Well, what do you think?' he asked.

She didn't rise from the ground. She asked tonelessly, ‘Is this where you killed Steve?'

‘Yes.'

She expected a rush of emotion, an outpouring of grief, but she felt nothing. She realized she'd known all along Steve was dead. Entertaining doubts about his being The Dark Alley Strangler who'd gone into hiding was only a way of keeping him alive in her mind.

‘How did you get him out here?' she asked.

‘My goodness, you are chatty tonight, aren't you? But I've found that most women can't shut up. Oh well, what the hell.' He laughed again. Deborah couldn't see his face. She could only hear the voice that sounded like a distorted version of Pete's familiar tones. ‘He apprised me of the whole FBI thing. I was the sympathetic friend, as always. He was afraid that if he were arrested and indicted, his bank accounts would be frozen and you and the children would be left with nothing. He asked if I'd hide the money if he emptied his savings account. I said I would, of course. I told him I was afraid of his place being watched, or of Adam overhearing us if he came to my house, so we agreed to meet out here.'

So that's why Steve had withdrawn the money. To protect it for her and the kids. And naturally he had no idea that Pete hated him and was setting him up as a murder suspect. He thought he was asking his oldest, closest friend to do him a favor. ‘So when he brought it out here to you, you killed him,' she said stonily.

‘I killed him, yes, but he didn't bring the money. He said he was rethinking the situation. That even though he'd withdrawn the money, he was afraid hiding
would only make him look guiltier. Besides, it wasn't ethical.
Ethical!
Stupid fool. He'd hidden it in your storeroom. He planned to take it back to the bank on Monday.'

‘Then it was
you
in the storeroom that night?'

‘Yes. I couldn't have the police searching the house and finding the money. Then they'd know Steve didn't have it and this whole deliberate disappearance angle would fall apart.'

‘And did you hide in the evergreens behind our house the night of the party?'

Pete was silent for a moment. ‘No. I think that was Lieber. I told you, the creep has been lurking around peeping and spying on me, making a general nuisance of himself.'