Formula for Murder (29 page)

Silence fell as he ended his tale. After tonight he was going to convince Nick to change the ground rules.

Kat handed him a sheet of paper and a pen. “Write me something. Tell me who you are, that you’re not stalking me and that you mean me no harm.”

“I just told you that.”

“I want to analyze your writing to see if you’re telling me the truth.”

G.
 
L. cocked an eyebrow but set pen to paper while Kat decided what to do next.

Unable to criticize the man’s thinking on why she needed guarding, Kat’s ire turned to Nick. She was beginning to see where he fit in and didn’t like it. She sputtered about dire consequences, glanced at the handwriting sample but didn’t exactly give him a grade.

G.
 
L. wondered, but stuck to the subject. “Give me a break. I thought you were in danger. From what I’ve heard about wild car chases and threatening notes, we definitely have cause to worry.”

“Don’t forget about the weird phone calls and the second threatening note,” Kat confessed, startling herself as well as
G.
 
L.

“And you want to know why Nick was worried about you! What’s been happening?” It didn’t take long for G.
 
L. to elicit the rest.

“Well I found a second note. I suppose we could have that looked into. But I’m sure they won’t find any clues there. That’s why I didn’t mention it before.”

G.
 
L. was astounded at her lack of concern. From the little he’d seen of her she didn’t appear to be that naïve, or stupid. He felt it best to say nothing.

When she looked to him for a response, he just shook his head.

The second note made no more sense to him, he thought. Nick had told him about what she called the shadows stalking her in the stairwell. He asked her more about that.

G.
 
L. glanced around the kitchen, waiting for Kat to continue. He appreciated the cheery yellow walls and the homey touches of herbs on the windowsill. Nick could do much worse he mused. He could see she wasn’t feigning her fear as she added, “I didn’t have the nerve to walk back to the stairwell to check if anyone was standing there.”

“Wise move. You should never attempt to confront a pursuer!” G.
 
L. scratched his forearm as he spoke.

“But was there really one? When the student left, I watched for a minute to see if he had any reaction rounding the bend into the stairs but I didn’t notice anything. He just kept walking.”

“That doesn’t mean there hadn’t been someone there. I’m glad you didn’t force a confrontation. Nick checked on the whereabouts of Alvarez and Prosnerian after you mentioned that night to him. Alvarez was out of town the entire day. We’re still checking on the professor.”

Kat hadn’t known how seriously Nick took her concerns. She was pleased that he had followed up on it for her, relieved that maybe Carlos wasn’t her stalker after all.

He interrupted her reverie. “What else has been happening?”

A little unnerved by all the questions, she replied, “Don’t you know? You’ve apparently been following me. Maybe that’s why I had the sense of being stalked!”

G.
 
L. became defensive. “Hey, I’ve only been following you a few days. Since the day after the car chase. Nick knew he couldn’t handle Michael’s arrival, the investigation, and stick with you every minute too.”

Kat thought of the wonderful hours they’d spent together just the other night. He could have told her then. But even she wouldn’t have wanted the mood broken. And the intervening hours were hectic beyond belief. They’d barely talked, which was good since she wasn’t sure how to handle their relationship. She wasn’t sure they had a relationship.

“He still could have told me!”

“Kat, give him a break. He was worried sick about you!”

Kat didn’t know whether to preen or curse. So she rose and began fixing coffee instead. She couldn’t stand still for long though. Holding the pot half filled with water she whirled on the private investigator.

“Why couldn’t you tell me?” Noticing the pot as she waved it, she asked, “Do you want some coffee?”

“Yeah, sure. And I couldn’t tell you because you would have had a fit.”

“How do you know? You’ve never even met me.”

Slowly inching the knife away from Kat’s place at the table, he responded, “No, but I had a good description of you.” Loyalty to old friends only went so far. It was time to protect himself. “Besides, it was Nick’s decision. I work for him.”

Kat wondered how Nick described her. G.
 
L. didn’t look the type to tell. Hopefully Nick wasn’t either. It was probably better she didn’t know. “OK, so I had a couple of threatening notes, and someone followed in a car, maybe followed me up the stairs. But no one has done anything. What do they want?”

“I think it’s obvious at this point their main concern is to frighten you. Possibly frighten you into being quiet. The only other possibility I can come up with is that they are sick, and for some reason consider you the enemy.” he said as he scratched his arm again.

Kat poured the coffee and placed the milk carton down on the table with the sugar bowl. “Well, that’s real clear. We’re at a stalemate. I don’t know anything to be quiet about. And can’t imagine why I’d have an enemy. So what do I do about it? Draw them out somehow?”

He said thanks and fixed his coffee, while admonishing her again not to attempt a confrontation.

“I can’t just sit around and do nothing. This is driving me crazy!” She sipped the scalding coffee and inhaled sharply, fanning her tongue. “Better hold off on that for a minute. Let me look at your arm. You’ve been scratching it all evening.”

“It’s just dry skin. Drives me crazy sometimes though. Starts up every fall,” he admitted.

She handed him a jar of homemade goo from the counter behind. “Try this. It should soothe it almost instantly.”

“Do I want to know what it is?” he asked as he opened the jar and sniffed.

“It’s just water, glycerin, aloe vera, and a little plantain to soothe the itching. It’s a traditional herbal remedy for skin problems.” She began sipping the coffee and nibbling a cookie from the tin on the table. She offered one to G. L. who took one after applying the lotion.

Kat continued. “It sounds like you should start taking vitamin E every day though. That could stop the rash in a couple of weeks.”

G.
 
L. nodded his thanks and Kat returned to the previous subject.

“Have you seen anything helpful while trailing me?”

Pacing while his arm dried off, he stopped to stare out the kitchen window. “Nothing, really. I’ve been trying to see if there is any regularity in your movements that a stalker could pick up on. You don’t seem to leave at the same time of day, arrive in the office at any set hours and you certainly don’t clock out on any schedule. That makes it difficult for me, but for a stalker too. Unless they already know where they can find you. If it’s someone on campus that’s highly possible.”

Kat nodded in agreement and motioned that the coffee was fine now. “So you haven’t seen anything suspicious?”

“I have to admit, that day you visited Maria, Carlos came home as you were leaving, and he sure didn’t look pleased. If looks could kill . . .”

“That bad, huh? You know, the other day I was walking down the corridor in McAfee Hall, and Carlos was all of a sudden there. We talked, and when I left, I discovered he was just standing there, staring after me. Gave me the creeps, but couldn’t peg it as sinister. Now I’m beginning to wonder. That was right after the funeral; right before Suzanne Mishkin was attacked.”

“We’ll check into him again.”

“I know Burrows did already. It was after Carlos was seen in my office when the note was found.”

G. L. finished his coffee. “Sounds like it wouldn’t hurt to dig deeper.”

The phone startled both of them. Kat recovered and caught it on the second ring.

“Nick, darling, I was just thinking of you.”

Chapter 27

Tied strokes, going back through the stem in letters, disclose a writer who is persistence personified with a strong desire to achieve goals no matter what the circumstances.

Katharine Everitt’s handwriting

G. L. cringed on Nick’s behalf. The tones were dulcet but the eyes sparked fire.

Nick almost dropped the phone. He’d missed Kat and had the urge to be with her, thus prompting his call. But even with his hopes high, the honeyed voice and “darling” took him by surprise. He recovered in time to respond, if somewhat clumsily, “I was hoping I could stop in for a while tonight. Maybe bring some wine?”

“Great. Bring some wine. We’d love to have you.”

“We? I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had company. Maybe some other night.” Nick tried, but had difficulty hiding his disappointment.

Kat was pleased on the one hand, but anger at his audacity in hiring a guard for her without her knowledge overruled any other emotion.

“That’s OK Nick. G.
 
L. and I are just becoming acquainted. Why don’t you come on by?”

“Uh-oh! Some other night would definitely be better.”

“No, Nick. Tonight would definitely be best,” she cooed, with a touch of ice in her voice.

G.
 
L. made a feeble attempt at hiding his glee at Nick’s obvious discomfiture. Kat winked at him while Nick ran out of excuses why not to come. She added, “Bring lots of wine. Flowers, candy, whatever you think appropriate.”

G.
 
L.’s smile lasted only till he remembered it was his fault Nick was in deep water. When Nick arrived he’d get an earful. But he couldn’t resist. He motioned to Kat before she could hang up. “Tell him to add some nachos to that.”

She complied. Nick laughed. “Yep, that’s G.
 
L. all right. Tell him to enjoy his peace while he can. I’ll be there soon, bearing gifts for you. Tell him not to expect any.”

Kat switched back to her breathless, honeyed voice. “I can’t wait.”

Nick had waited so long to hear that capitulation. Why didn’t it please him now, he wondered as he grabbed his wallet and headed to his execution?

Kat still wasn’t sure what kind of reception to give Nick when the bell rang. He left her no chance to decide. She flung open the door ready to challenge him. He swept in, stuffed a gorgeous bouquet of wildflowers in her hands before she could punch him, and landed a kiss on her mouth with unerring accuracy. Having successfully blocked any verbal or physical attack, he moved in for the kill. Still dazed from the first kiss, he maneuvered her into a more intimate position and delved deep. His goal was to have her so far off kilter she’d forgive him anything. Besides, he owed her for calling him darling and getting his hopes up.

He hadn’t been prepared for the sparks. He watched those emerald eyes flash, realizing he enjoyed her anger almost as much as her smile. Heat flowed through him like hot lava and all he could do was fist his hand in her hair as an anchor while the volcano erupted. Kat went with the flow, No thinking possible. Neither knew where it would have led if G.
 
L. hadn’t emerged from the kitchen seeking them out.

The men left on a friendly
note. Despite the traumatic beginnings, the evening turned out to be quite entertaining, but the fear G.
 
L. had engendered lingered with Kat. She locked the door before hastily clearing the table.

She flicked off the kitchen light. Panic had her slapping it back on before she realized it was just the ringing of the phone that startled her.

The fear lent a wariness to her voice, “Hello?”