A Dark Mind (16 page)

“I had no idea you were going to let her drive on the freeway,” Cathy cut in. “What were you thinking?”

Lizzy shook her head. “She’s a very good driver. I never questioned for a second that she couldn’t handle it. There isn’t anything Brittany can’t do exceptionally well.”

Brittany smiled at Lizzy and then headed for the house.

Lizzy stayed where she was until Brittany disappeared inside and shut the door. Then she grabbed hold of Richard’s pointy finger and twisted it backward until he cried out and yanked his finger from her grasp.

“Your sister is a fucking nutcase!”

Cathy stormed to where Richard and Lizzy stood and wedged her way between them. “Don’t you dare cause a scene in front of our neighbors,” Cathy said to her ex-husband under her breath, her face red.

“She tried to break my finger and you’re going to take her side?”

“I’m not taking any sides,” Cathy said.

“Are you two back together?” Lizzy asked her sister.

“We’re dating again, taking it slow. That’s all.”

“What do you mean that’s all? I’m moving back in.” Richard looked down his nose at Lizzy. “She wasn’t ready to tell you because you tend to be judgmental and closed-minded.”

Lizzy looked at Cathy. “Is that true? Is that what you said?”

Cathy shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “Not exactly. I wasn’t ready to tell you yet because I knew you wouldn’t like it.”

“I don’t. He doesn’t deserve you, Cathy. He’s an asshole.”

Richard’s hands balled into fists at his sides as he came at her.

“What are you going to do, Richard, hit me?” Lizzy asked.

“You’re an insufferable bitch.”

Spittle hit her cheek, and Lizzy used her sleeve to wipe her face. She wanted nothing more than to dare him to make a move. Jared would be on his scrawny ass so fast he would find himself behind bars before the end of the day. But the look on Cathy’s face prevented Lizzy from provoking him. Richard’s face was a maze of angry lines, the cords of his neck swelling in anger. But the minute Cathy moved to his side, he managed to restrain himself from saying anything more.

“Could you give us a few minutes alone?” Cathy asked him. “You drove all this way to see your daughter. She’s in the house.”

Richard headed for the house, but he was not happy about being asked to leave.

“I don’t like that man.”

“Believe me, his feelings for you are mutual.”

A million responses begged to be put into words, but Lizzy gritted her teeth and kept quiet.

“I will tell you this,” Cathy said. “What you did today, taking Brittany driving on the freeway, was unacceptable.”

“Are you kidding me? Taking that abusive, disgusting man back into your life…that’s unacceptable.”

“How many times have we had this conversation? Why do you always have to push the limits?”

Lizzy stiffened. “Meaning?”

“We agreed that you would take Brittany driving every week, but never once did we talk about you taking her on the freeway.”

“You can’t expect her to get her license and then stay off—”

“You know what I mean. I would have taken her on the freeway myself.”

“When? You’re working full-time, and now that you’re dating that clown, you’re never home.”

Cathy sighed. “Brittany told you that?”

“She mentioned you two were seeing one another.”

“Does she know how you feel about Richard?”

“She’s a smart girl and it’s pretty obvious, but if you mean do I call him a clown or an asshole in front of her—no, I do not. That clown is her father. I have to respect that.”

“I was once married to the man.”

“It’s like a bad dream. It’s over now.”

Cathy sighed. “It wouldn’t hurt you to give me the same respect.”

Lizzy chuckled and headed for her car.

“What?”

“That’s so typical of you,” Lizzy said, “I’ve had to listen to you rant on about Jared Shayne and how much you despise him, and you don’t even know him. He’s never said a bad word about you. He treats me right. He doesn’t have a mistress hidden in every hotel in Sacramento. He’s a decent man. And yet I’m supposed to respect you enough to call that asshole in there a decent, respectable man.” Lizzy shook her head again. “I won’t do it. I love you, I really do, but I will never, for as long as I live, understand why you would take that man back.”

“I’m lonely.”

“What about that lawyer you were dating?”

“He met another woman and dropped me faster than you could say hot potato.”

Damn.
“What about simply being single for a little while? What’s wrong with that?”

“I’m not like you, Lizzy.”

“I’m not the only woman in the world who was fine with being single for a while.”

“I don’t like being alone,” Cathy said. “I need a man in my life.”

“You don’t even love him, do you?”

“He’s my daughter’s father.”

“That’s not good enough,” Lizzy said. “You’re stronger than you think.” She was about to climb into her car when she glanced back at Cathy. “Don’t do it. For Brittany’s sake, don’t let him back into your lives. He’s selfish and verbally abusive. He doesn’t deserve either of you, and you know it.”

Sacramento

Thursday, May 17, 2012

He watched the stolen Toyota Tundra sink into the irrigation canal, which happened to be about 117 miles of prime dumping grounds. It wasn’t the first stolen vehicle to be dumped here and it wouldn’t be the last. He’d been dumping a lot of interesting things in the canal for years. He scratched his collarbone and headed for the thick underbrush where he’d left a bike, also stolen. He’d ride the bike to the nearest bus station, and then bus home to Sacramento.

He was born and raised in Sacramento. The city was known for many things, including its colorful government bureaucrats, allergies, and, most recently, its abundance of housing foreclosures. He laughed to himself as he jumped on the bike and began to pedal. The sky was filled with dark clouds that looked ready to burst. He hadn’t ridden a bike in years. He felt like a kid again, which prompted his thoughts to become darker than the clouds hovering overhead.

Mother, Mother, Mother.

Everything had been perfect until the day he found her in the barn.

He pedaled faster, hoping to outrun the memories. His eyes stung.

He refused to cry.

Nothing that had happened to him was his fault. Rarely did he feel guilt or remorse; only when he thought of his mother. He didn’t like to think about her because he knew he should have tried harder to make her understand. He told her he hadn’t done it. But then she had called him names, all sorts of horrible things, and even told him that his therapist had said he was delusional, which meant he twisted the truth until lies became reality. That was rubbish.

He pedaled faster. He knew that if he pedaled long enough and hard enough, the darkness would pass. And it did.

With two miles left to go, he thought of Lizzy Gardner instead and his mood lifted. He’d thought that a break-in would throw her off balance, take her out of the game for a bit, but he’d been wrong about Lizzy. The police had gone to the house, she filled out a report, and that was the end of it. She was back on the news the very next day! He couldn’t believe it when he turned on the television and saw Lizzy Gardner exiting the California State Prison. Once again, the media was all over it. The woman didn’t know when to quit.

It wasn’t good enough that she talked to Lieutenant Greer about Dalton’s supposed innocence. The bitch needed to talk to Michael Dalton, too? Who did she think she was, anyhow? The goddamn mayor of Sacramento?

His insides began to quiver with anger.

The idea of Lizzy Gardner, a nobody, getting deeply involved in his business was too much. Perhaps she wasn’t teetering as close to the edge as he’d first thought. But she would be soon. Nobody was safe in this cow town…especially Lizzy Gardner. It was hard to believe she’d gotten the best of Spiderman. The woman was a pale, tiny thing—five foot four inches at most. She liked to wear
her dirty-blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. She had a decent mouth. Not full pouty lips, but soft pretty ones. He wasn’t sure of the color of her eyes yet, but he was in no hurry. There was time.

She enjoyed sushi and she liked to run at the park most mornings. Other than that, she didn’t seem to have a set schedule. Every day was random. He liked watching her do surveillance because he could tell by her movements that she didn’t like sitting in her car for too long. It made her antsy. He had to admit he was enjoying waking up every morning, wondering what Lizzy would do that day.

She spent a good amount of time in her office on J Street. According to articles he’d read, she used to live in an apartment with her cat, but not any longer. Spiderman had taken care of the poor little feline. Unlike Spiderman, he would never kill a poor defenseless creature.

The fact that Lizzy lived with an FBI agent really made things interesting. Getting an FBI agent into his cage was not going to be easy, but nothing was impossible, and he was certainly up to the challenge.

Since breaking into the house, he’d learned more about the crazy girl who lived with them, the one who’d come after him. He prided himself on his research, and it bothered him that he hadn’t known about the girl before he entered the house. Her name was Hayley Hansen. She was damaged goods. Who wasn’t? This particular young woman had recently done time for cutting off a man’s penis.

Ouch.

He made a mental note to stay away from that one.

I haven’t blocked out the past. I wouldn’t trade the person I am, or what I’ve done—or the people I’ve known—for anything. So I do think about it. And at times it’s a rather mellow trip to lay back and remember.

—Ted Bundy

Davis

Friday, May 18, 2012

Hayley called her mom. Still no answer. She looked at her ankle. If she could get the damn thing off, she could check on her mom herself.

To hell with it. She picked up her cell and dialed Jessica’s number.

Jessica answered on the first ring.

“It’s Hayley. Where are you?”

“More surveillance. Same-o, same-o.”

“Povo?”

“No, some other loser.”

“Can you do me a favor?”

“Of course, anything.”

“I need you to check on my mom. Lizzy was driving by and keeping tabs on her while I was away, but I’m worried. Mom hasn’t been answering her phone. I was hoping you wouldn’t mind going to her house and knocking on the door or peeking through a window. If nobody answers, she keeps a spare key under a decorative concrete rabbit near the front door.”

There was a long pause before Jessica said, “If she doesn’t answer the door, you want me to go inside the house?”

“Yeah, that would be great.”

“If she doesn’t answer, shouldn’t I call the police?”

“I’d rather not.”

Hayley heard Jessica sigh.

“Never mind,” Hayley said. “It’s probably not a good idea for you to go there alone. Forget I asked.”

“No, I’ll do it tomorrow…Saturday.”

“Cool. Thanks.”

“Not a problem,” Jessica said, but they both knew that was a lie.

Hayley clicked her cell shut and began to pace. Tommy was supposed to have come over days ago with her new monitor, but he was a no-show. What if he couldn’t figure out a way to make it work? What would she do? She needed to get out of the house once in a while. How much longer could she sit in her room doing nothing but filing and reading?

She might as well be at the detention center. Ever since someone had broken into the house, Lizzy wanted the curtains and blinds shut tight. Hayley found herself spending a lot of time staring out her bedroom window. Freedom was right there for the taking, and yet she couldn’t walk more than a mile without the light on her monitor flickering and beeping.

The sound of a car outside drew her attention. She went to the front window and peeked through the curtains. It was Jared and Lizzy—at two o’clock on a Friday.
What are they doing home?

She returned to the couch, opened a file, and pretended to be working when they walked through the door. Raising a brow, she feigned surprise. “What are you two doing home so early?”

Lizzy headed for the kitchen and set her purse on the kitchen counter. “I had to drop my car off at the shop. Jared picked me up and brought me home.”

She’d forgotten all about Lizzy’s mangled car. “How bad was the damage?”

“Over five thousand dollars’ worth of damage.”

“That sucks.”

“Insurance will cover it, but I’m sure they’ll raise my premium.”

Jared was already upstairs, checking windows. Every window throughout the house had been hooked up to a cool new device. If anyone so much as touched the latch, inside or outside, an alarm sounded, a barely perceptible beep that would send a text message to Jared’s and Lizzy’s phones.

The ring of the doorbell caused Hayley to hold in a groan.
Shit. It better not be—

“It’s Tommy,” Lizzy said as she looked through the peephole, her face brightening. Lizzy opened the door and let him in.

Hayley shut the file and stood up. “Hey, Tommy.”

“Hey.”

Of course, Jared strode downstairs to see what all the commotion was about.

Lizzy introduced Tommy to Jared and that should have been that, but Jared and Lizzy were acting like nervous parents who
wanted to make sure everybody was getting along. Lizzy knew Tommy and liked him, so she was fine.

Jared, on the other hand, was staring at Tommy, sizing the poor guy up with one long, hard stare. If Tommy wasn’t here bearing gifts of freedom, she would have enjoyed the scene. But he was and so she wasn’t.

Hayley massaged her neck as she waited for the awkward moment to pass.

“Can I get you two something to eat?” Lizzy asked as if she’d suddenly turned into June Cleaver. “Crackers and cheese? Cookies and milk?”

Jared locked the front door and made his way upstairs again without another word. Clearly, he was not impressed.

“Cookies and milk sounds great,” Tommy said as he followed Lizzy to the kitchen. Hayley hovered over Tommy and watched him eat cookies and wash it all down with a glass of cold milk. The entire process felt like an hour but in reality lasted only ten minutes. “Come to my room,” she said the minute he finished the last cookie. “I want to show you something.”