Destroying Angel, page 17
She stood up to give Monica a hug. "It was so good to meet you, too.”
Monica pulled back, her face serious. "You're good for her, you know. I'm glad Emery found you."
With that, she turned to leave, and Julia looked at Emery. “That went well.”
“It did,” Emery agreed. “And she's right. You're better than good for me… you’re perfect.”
32
JULIA
Against all odds, Kyle Brogan made it back into a regular hospital room, and without an organ transplant. He had far fewer IVs and monitoring equipment attached to him. He even looked more pink than yellow in the face, although his expression turned from boredom to annoyance the moment Julia stepped into the room.
“How you feeling today, Kyle?” she asked.
“Better,” he said. “Feel like I could actually leave here soon, with all my original organs too.”
“You got lucky,” she said, planting her feet uncomfortably close to his bedside so that she was hovering over him. “Unfortunately, it looks like your luck has run out.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I figured out who Mandy is,” she said. “And she told us everything.”
Fear shot through Kyle’s eyes, quickly masked as he looked away from her. “I don’t know what that means.”
“No? You don’t remember saying her name last time I was here?”
“I don’t even remember the last time you were here.”
“And I guess you didn’t date Amanda Drake in high school, either. Haven’t been harassing her for the last six months since she dumped you?”
“I don’t feel well, I need a nurse,” he complained, reaching for the call button at his bedside. Julia knocked it out of the way, not buying the act.
“What you need to do is tell me the truth, Kyle,” she said. She Mirandized him and used her phone to record their conversation, setting it on the tray table beside his bed. Ordinarily an interrogation would take place at the station, but being in the hospital wasn’t going to excuse Brogan from a murder charge. “We already know what happened. Amanda told us everything. So now it’s time for you to give me your side of the story. Show a little remorse and a jury may go easier on you. Keep lying, though…”
She let the rest of the sentence hang there, allowing Kyle to fill in the blanks on his own.
When he turned back to her, his tone was pleading. “She poisoned me. Bet she didn’t tell you that – little miss perfect with her new boyfriend and her new life that was so much better than being with me… she’s the one that baked that casserole, and she tricked me into eating it.”
Julia just let him talk, at long last, and he kept going.
“I bet she made me out to be some big monster,” he said. “I never hit her, I never mistreated her. All I wanted was for her to love me and instead she dumped me for that prick.”
“Brandon Hawthorne,” Julia said.
“Holier-than-thou jock asshole,” Kyle said. “Guy thought he was better than everybody else – and he convinced her that he was better than me.”
“So you killed him and she turned around and tried to kill you, is that your story?”
“I wasn’t trying to kill him,” he said. “I was just…”
“Trying to send a message?” Julia arched an eyebrow. Whether it hit home that his image of himself as the nice guy in this situation was bullshit, she couldn’t be sure. But he latched onto her wording.
“Exactly,” he said. “Her Uncle Rick’s big into mushroom hunting, started his own business doing it back when we were in high school and he used to take us out foraging with him. Never paid us for our labor, he was a dick too, but for me it was an excuse to spend time with Amanda. I figured when her new boyfriend got sick off mushrooms, she’d know exactly what that meant.”
Julia narrowed her eyes. “Uncle Rick? Beasley?”
“Yeah, I think that’s his last name, why?”
Julia just shook her head. “Small world. So what exactly did Uncle Rick tell you about destroying angels?”
She was trying to figure out if he knew how deadly they were, and she thought he’d try to deny it. But after several weeks at the edge of death, Kyle must have run out of energy for denials.
“He said they were toxic, some of the deadliest mushrooms out there. But Amanda knows all about them too. I thought she’d know what was wrong with her boyfriend and get his ass to the hospital.”
“How did you feed them to him?”
“I waited til he ordered take-out,” Kyle said. “Then I stood in the lobby of his building and pretended it was mine, took it from the delivery guy. My luck, it ended up being a pizza with mushrooms already on it. So I just added some more. I really didn’t mean to kill the guy. I’m not a murderer.”
Julia just shook her head pitifully at him. “You are, Kyle.”
“Oh Christ,” he said, reaching for the call button again. “I need drugs or something, I think I’m gonna be sick.”
This time, it wasn’t from the mushrooms. Julia waited for him to calm down and called in the uniformed officer who’d been waiting in the hallway. Kyle was handcuffed to his bed, where he’d stay until Dr. Nasir said he was well enough to be discharged into the custody of the police.
When Julia had finished with him and turned to go, he asked, “What about Amanda? Her boyfriend dying was an accident, but she really did try to kill me! What’s gonna happen to her?”
Julia turned around in the doorway. “Amanda is not your concern, and never will be again, Kyle. Don’t forget that.”
33
EMERY
Emery’s heart was pounding for a multitude of reasons.
She was walking down the sidewalk with Julia on their way to the diner, and trying her best to act like everything was normal. Inside, though, adrenaline was pouring into her bloodstream and she felt like she could sprint a mile.
“Are you okay?” Julia asked for at least the second time since Emery had come to pick her up for lunch. “You’re distracted.”
It’d been three weeks since they ran into Amanda Drake in the hospital hallways, leading to her confession and Kyle Brogan’s. Three weeks since Julia told the chief about her problems with her ex, and they’d been living on pins and needles ever since.
Waiting.
Watching.
Expectant.
At once hoping that Samantha stayed far away, and that she just made a damn move already so that the interminable waiting could end.
Emery couldn’t take much more of it, being followed around all the time by a police officer and worrying about Julia every minute she wasn’t with her. So for the past week, Emery had been keeping a secret.
“Is it unforgivable?” she’d asked Monica when she decided to act. “Is it the dumbest idea I’ve ever had?”
“Maybe,” Monica had answered, a sympathetic look on her face. “But it’s also kind of… I don’t know, chivalrous?”
Emery still didn’t know if what she was doing was catastrophically stupid, but she’d spent the last week getting it all in order and pulling a few strings to make sure it worked. And now she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to get through it without her heart pounding out of her chest.
She definitely belonged in a lab, not out on the streets setting up sting operations.
“Hello?”
“Hmm?”
“I asked you a question,” Julia said, nudging Emery’s arm.
“What was it?”
Julia pulled her to a stop on the sidewalk outside the diner. “Okay, you’re starting to really worry me. I asked if you were okay.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Emery said, pushing the door open for her. “Just hungry.”
They went in and grabbed a booth – one that Emery strategically steered Julia to because it had a good view of the door. A server came over and got their drink order, and instead of picking up her menu, Julia kicked Emery lightly beneath the table.
“Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not planning to like… propose or anything, are you?”
“At the diner on your lunch break?” Emery asked. “Please. Number one, we haven’t even hit our two-month-iversary, and I love you but I’m not eager to scare you off by popping the question that fast. And number two, give me some credit. This is not the setting I would choose.”
A subtle smile tugged at Julia’s lips. “So you’ve thought about it? Us getting engaged?”
Emery kicked her back. “You have too. You were talking about renting a house together the other day in bed.”
“I hate the apartment complex life,” Julia said. “Besides, your walls are getting pretty full. I’d love to see you decorating a whole new space with your spider web art.”
“Our art,” Emery grinned.
She’d taken Julia out to a park near the precinct the previous week to show her how it was done. The park wasn’t nearly as good as an undisturbed wooded area for finding spider webs, but she wasn’t about to take Julia out into the forest with her ex still at large.
Hopefully that wouldn’t be a problem anymore after this meal – if everything went according to plan.
“Just a second,” she said as they arrived at their usual booth. “I forgot to send an important email to my boss.”
She stepped away from the table and took out her phone. Her heart was still hammering as she opened Facebook and checked in at the diner – mentioning Julia in the post using her old name.
She’d delete it as soon as all this was done, and tell Julia what she did… for now, she was laying a trap. She’d been thinking of what the chief said in his office – that it’d be entrapment if the police were involved. But if it was just Emery masterminding the scheme…
Julia didn’t deserve to spend the rest of her life in fear that her psycho ex would show up when she least expected it. So Emery was doing something about it.
“Get that email sent?” Julia asked when Emery returned to the table. A single arched eyebrow told her that Julia did not buy the email cover story.
“Yep, now I can enjoy lunch.” Emery slid into the booth across from her, making sure she had a clear view of the door.
Both of their plainclothes police officers were outside the diner. But Julia said the chief was talking about easing back on the security – it’d been three weeks after all, and those cops were needed elsewhere. And that was exactly why this had to happen today.
Come on, Samantha, show your miserable face, Emery thought as she picked up her menu. It wasn’t like she was in the mood to eat with her heart in her throat, but she’d have to keep up a pretense of normalcy so neither Julia nor Sam suspected the trap.
“I think I’m gonna get a turkey club today,” Julia said.
“Sounds good.”
“With onion rings because what the heck, it’s almost the weekend.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Slathered in fish sauce.”
Emery’s eyes snapped back to Julia. “Excuse me?”
She laughed. “Just seeing if you were paying attention. You expecting someone?”
“No.”
“You’re staring at the door pretty hard.”
“Sorry. I just can’t get used to having a cop follow me around all the time,” Emery fibbed. “I was wondering if he ever gets a lunch break.”
Julia nudged her foot under the table. “You better get used to having a cop around because you’re stuck with me now.”
They ordered their food, and a few more customers came and went. No sign of Samantha, though, whose face Emery had been able to memorize thanks to social media. She’d sent Sam a friend request a week ago, and made sure to post a photo of herself with Julia so Sam would accept it.
At first she worried the woman would see right through her plan. Why would someone who knew Julia, and presumably knew her history with Samantha, friend request her?
It turned out not to be an issue, though. Sam had immediately accepted and left a comment on Emery’s profile photo about how pretty Julia looked. It turned Emery’s stomach, but from there, it was just a matter of luring her closer, tempting her to make her move and then choosing the moment.
But where was she?
Emery had been sure this would work. Maybe Sam was smarter than she seemed.
“I have good news,” Julia said when their food arrived.
“Oh yeah?”
“I think Renee and I have finally worked out a truce,” she said, biting into her sandwich. “We’re not besties yet, but after I explained why I had to change my name, she looked up my work history in Grand Rapids. She finally believes I’m not hiding some big, horrible secret in my past.”
“As she should, you’re great at your job,” Emery said. “Sounds to me like she’s got some baggage of her own.”
“Yeah, we haven’t gotten into that yet,” Julia shrugged. “Maybe someday. Oh, that reminds me, Taphouse tomorrow night? There’s been some hinting that it’s supposed to be an eventful one.”
“Why’s that?”
“We think Arlen’s finally gonna pop the question.”
“At the bar?”
“It’s where they fell for each other,” Julia explained. “It’s sweet.”
Emery filed that little tidbit away for the future, and tried not to stare so hard at the door. They finished their lunch, still with no sign of Samantha, and Emery’s heart was finally starting to beat at a normal rate. It was frustrating that this meant the waiting had to continue, but she was a little relieved the conflict wasn’t going to happen right now.
“I gotta go back,” Julia said, checking the time. “Break’s almost over. Dinner at my place or yours?”
“Mine, I’ll cook,” Emery promised. She stood, and her bladder gave a warning pang. “Got time to wait just a minute? I need to use the restroom.”
“Sure, I’ll take care of the check.”
Emery headed for the hallway that led to the single-stall restroom at the back of the diner. She really did have to pee, but she wasn’t about to leave Julia alone right now. It occurred to her belatedly that stalkers didn’t necessarily like conflict any more than she did, and Sam might not approach Julia while she was with someone.
So Emery stood at the end of the hallway, her back to the dining room, using her phone camera to peek at Julia alone in the booth.
How long should she wait?
How long until Julia got worried and came looking for her?
She was just about to give up when the bell above the diner door jingled and in walked a tall, lanky woman with her bleached strawberry-blonde hair in a messy bob around her face. Samantha.
Emery’s heart was instantly in her throat again.
She turned around, abandoning the pretense of the phone camera, and watched Samantha make a beeline for Julia’s booth. Emery had her phone to her ear, speed-dialing her assigned police officer, but Julia’s was already coming through the door.
“Hey,” he barked at Sam.
Julia’s head shot up and she locked eyes with her ex. Emery saw absolute terror in her expression, and in that instant, she hated that she’d done this. She set this up, she made Julia feel this way.
“Franny,” Sam said, looking desperate.
“Freeze,” the officer demanded, “you’re under arrest for violating a restraining order.”
Julia was pressed up against the back of the booth like a scared animal, and Emery practically vaulted across the room to be at her side. The second Sam spotted her, her eyes narrowed. “You tricked me!”
“I had no choice,” Emery said, staring right back at her. She maybe would not have been so brave if two armed police officers weren’t present, but brave or not, she knew she’d do anything to protect Julia.
“You did this?” she asked.
The officer was in the process of cuffing Sam’s wrists. Emery hugged Julia tight, and the whole diner was in a commotion. Now wasn’t the time for details – that would come later. Instead, she just said, “I had to keep you safe.”
Julia buried her face against Emery’s shoulder, squeezing her fiercely. “I love you so much.”
Behind them, Sam screamed. It was an ear-piercing sound that made Julia wince in Emery’s arms. “No, you love me!”
She started to struggle, writhing in the officer’s grasp. The second one came through the door to assist, and Emery held Julia tighter. There was a very satisfying moment when Sam thrashed so hard she gave the cops no choice but to slam her down and pin her on a tabletop.
“You’re mine, Franny,” she was mumbling, her mouth smashed against the laminate. “You don’t love her, you love me.”
Julia looked at her, never letting go of Emery. “No, I don’t. I never did, do you hear that?”
Sam looked like she’d just taken a bullet to the chest. Her expression cracked wide open, and she limply allowed the officers to haul her back upright. Julia took a step toward her ex.
“Wait,” she told the cops. They held Sam tightly and Julia approached her. “We’re finished. There’s nothing left between us, and you’re going to leave me and my partner alone now. You got that?”
“Fran–“
“Do you hear me?” Julia insisted.
Sam nodded, defeated.
“Take her away,” Julia told the officers.
They went outside to watch Sam being loaded into a squad car that was now waiting for her. As it pulled away from the curb and made the short trip up the street to the precinct, Emery put her arm around Julia’s shoulders.
“Do you think she’ll listen?”
Julia sighed. “God, I hope so. If she didn’t hear me, then the charges I’m about to press will reinforce the message.” She turned to Emery. “I can’t believe you got my ex arrested.”
“In a lot of other circumstances, that’d be a red flag.”
“In ours, it’s a very, very good sign,” Julia said. “It means we can officially start our life together, no more baggage getting in the way.”
“I’d carry your baggage all over the world for you, babe.”
EPILOGUE
