Catch a Falling Knife

voice said, “I thought he was going to. I was frozen. I couldn’t run or even move. After he stopped stabbing Elise he seemed to calm down a little. He looked at her for a while, still holding that bloody knife. Then he looked at me. He finally told me that he wouldn’t kill me if I would keep quiet and not tell the police anything. But if I didn’t keep quiet he would get me. He scared me out of my wits.”
    “Was it his idea, then, that you become the Shooting Star so he wouldn’t appear to have a motive?”
    “Well…yes, but he said to do it only if necessary—if somebody associated Elise with the Shooting Star. He said it might not happen.”
    “So Ted didn’t realize that Elise was the Shooting Star.”
    “He said that Ted never caught on. He didn’t think Ted would be a problem. But then Dr. Morgan talked to me and said she thought Elise was the Shooting Star. That’s when I had to start pretending.”
    “What happened to the knife?”
    “I got a towel and we wrapped it up, after wiping off any fingerprints. Eric…Mr. Hoffman told me what to do. He took it with him so it wouldn’t be around when the police got there.”
    “How did the window get broken?”
    “He…he broke it with his cane to make it appear like a robbery. He told me to wait 15 minutes and then call 911. And then to call his house. That would give him a chance to get home so he could answer the phone. Then he would tell Mrs. Hoffman. He didn’t want to have to wait until the police showed up at his door. But I panicked and called 911 after about five minutes. Then I called his house, but of course he wasn’t there yet so I had to tell Mrs. Hoffman what had happened.”
    “How did the knife get in my car?”
    “Mr. Hoffman gave it back to me after he found out that I knew you. He told me to put it in your trunk since you were under suspicion, anyway. He said it would help me avoid becoming a suspect, myself. I…I’m sorry I did it.”
     “You know we have to go to the police.”
    “At this time of night?”
    “The police operate 24 hours a day. Somebody will listen to your story.”
    “If Mr. Hoffman finds out he’ll kill me.”
    “The police will protect you from Mr. Hoffman. Come on, let’s go.”
    There were sounds of chairs being slid back and then the distant sound of a door closing.
    “I got the whole thing on tape,” Lefty said, proudly, pointing to his electronic equipment. “We’ll nail that bastard now.”
    Something was wrong. The solution was too pat, too easy. I said, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I think we should stop them.”
    “I say, if they’re going to the police, let them go,” Lefty said. He extracted a tape from the recorder and held it up. “We can follow them and present the police with this. Then they can compare it with what she tells them.”
    “Gogi’s right,” Sandra said, urgently. “Donna’s dangerous. This isn’t the way she wrote the ending.”

Chapter 31
     
    Lefty looked quickly from one of us to the other and said, “All right, I hear you.” He opened a drawer of his desk and pulled out a gun. “Do you know where they parked?”
    “In the back,” I said. “It’s closest to go out the door at the end of this hall.”
    “Good. We should beat them to their car.”
    Lefty led the way, with Sandra right on his heels. I followed as fast as I could. By the time I got to the outside door, Lefty and Sandra were already out of sight. As I went through the doorway the cool night air hit my face, refreshing after the closeness of the atmosphere inside. It was dark, but the parking lot was lit by several spotlights on the side of the building.
    I looked toward the back of the lot where Donna’s car and my car were parked. Sandra and Lefty were running toward the two cars. I didn’t see Mark and Donna. It would take them longer to come around from the front door. I felt some relief. Sandra and Lefty would intercept them and Lefty would neutralize Donna with his gun, if necessary.
    I didn’t want Donna to see me when she and Mark came around from the front so I walked quickly to the back of the building and wedged myself into a fenced-in area, containing trashcans. It smelled like a garbage dump, but I should be safe here, in the dark. And from here I could see the cars. As I watched, Lefty and Sandra ducked down between the cars, out of sight.
    Minutes passed. Nobody came to the back of the lot. Since only a handful of other cars were parked back here,