Xo

gripping the knife blade, wrapped in tissue, she slipped the handle into his palm quickly. He instinctively closed his fingers around it. She backed up fast.
    “What’s this, a pen?” he asked. Maybe thinking it was something for him to write her letters with.
    Then he realized what it was.
    Edwin’s smile faded. And he looked up to see the girl of his dreams holding a large revolver pointed at his chest. She pulled the hammer back. It seated with a loud click.

 
     

Chapter 40
    THE KNIFE DROOPED in his hand, his eyelids and shoulders sagged too. “Kayleigh … no.”
    “Don’t move.”
    “Oh, Kayleigh.” Smiling again but sorrowfully. “Do you know what kind of trouble you’ll get into, you do this?”
    She stayed strong.
    “This’d be terrible. So terrible. Don’t do this to yourself. Please! Think of your fans, think of your family.” As if he was genuinely worried for her, not himself. “It’s the first thing the police’ll look for, setting me up. They won’t want to believe you did it, they’ll hope it isn’t true, but the deputies have been there before. It happens all the time. Domestic, stalking … It happens all the time.”
    “You killed Bobby!”
    Thick brows knit further, making him even more ominous. “I didn’t do that, of course not. And I heard about the attack on Sheri. I’m sure they told you I was behind that too. But I’d never hurt anybody close to you. It’s all lies.”
    Shoot him! she told herself. And yet her finger remained outside the trigger guard. The gun wavered for a minute then she thrust it forward. Edwin Sharp didn’t even squint.
    “And you kidnapped my sister and niece.”
    “Maybe I saved their lives. From Ritchie’s driving, like I told you.”
    She looked around but held the gun steady.
    “You’re a smart woman, Kayleigh.”
    And she had flashback of a recent conversation she’d had with her father, who’d called her a “smart girl.”
    “You called me from a pay phone but can anybody place you where you made that call? It’ll be in my cell phone records. That’ll be easy tofind…. And, I’m sure you used gloves or a paper towel when you were handling this.” A glance at the knife. “And you probably bought it at a store with a self-checkout. But they’ll link it to you, Kayleigh. That’s what they do for a living.”
    “Shut up! I’m going to kill you!”
    He examined the knife. “It’s new so they’re going to check every store in town that sells this brand. There won’t be that many of them. You’d pay cash but all they have to do is look at the data-mined records of anyone who bought this model knife in the past few days with cash. They’ll figure out the exact store and register fast because you probably only bought this one thing, right? That’s a giveaway. They’ll get a warrant to collect the cash paid into the checkout machine. They’ll fingerprint the bills. And they’ll trace serial numbers of the bills you got from an ATM. That’s all recorded, you know.”
    Of course it isn’t!
    Is it?
    Don’t listen to him. Scream for help then pull the trigger….
    “There could even be a video or still picture of the self-serve transaction. It’ll take them all of five minutes to link you to this knife. And meanwhile there’ll be rookies searching the trash around the area here to look for bags and packaging and the receipt.” He glanced toward the toilet, which trickled as it continued to fill. Or the sewer pipes here. They’ll get you in an interrogation room and, Kayleigh, you’re such a good, honest person, you won’t hold up; they’ll have a confession in ten minutes. Madigan won’t want to but he won’t have any choice.” He glanced at her hand. “Can you even carry a concealed gun legally?”
    I’ll do it on my own.
    Except I can’t.
    I’m a fucking coward.
    The gun lowered.
    “Oh, Kayleigh, they’ve brainwashed you so badly. I’m not the enemy. They’re the enemy. Here, I’m going to set the knife down.” He wiped it on his shirtsleeves, removing his own prints, and then he rested it on the floor. “That way there’ll be no connection between us. You take it and use it or throw it out. This never happened.”
    He sounded so sincere. Kayleigh wished Kathryn Dance was here to look at the stalker and nod that he was telling the truth or shake her headthat he was lying. He stepped back and she eased forward, picked the knife up and slipped it back into her jacket.
    “Think about this,