Page 67 of K-9 in Pursuit

“Why did she laugh?” Chloe asked.

Bunny loosened the scarf, uncovering her hair and draping it loosely around her neck. She wet her lips, which were chapped, the pink frosted lipstick flaking. “She thought she was better than me. She was young and pretty in a way I could never be.”

“Youth can be arrogant,” Chloe said. “But I’m sure she didn’t mean—”

“She wanted to take away the only thing I’d ever wanted.” Bunny’s gaze met Chloe’s. “Do you know what that feels like? Can you imagine? Have you ever loved someone so much you would die for them? And then this child walked in and tried to destroy everything. She would have taken away my home, my family—everything.”

Understanding washed over Chloe like ice water. She wrapped her hand around her phone and tried to think how to summon Brian without letting Bunny know. But Bunny wasn’t even her name, was it? “Are you… Theresa?” Chloe asked.

Her eyes glittered—with tears or something else? “I couldn’t let her take everything,” she said.

“But your husband stayed with you. He chose you.”

Theresa—Chloe was certain now this was Theresa—shook her head. The woman with the perfect alibis. Somehow she was here when her husband swore she was home. Had he lied? Was he here, too?

“He’ll never look at me the same, will he?” Theresa said. “She wanted to remind him of what he had with her that he could never have with me—her young body that hadn’t carried twins. I’m a mother now. My children need me. I can’t focus only on him, the way she did.”

“But… Sharee lived here, hundreds of miles away.” Chloe said. “You had Cameron. He’s married to you. He stayed with you. He sent her away.”

Theresa’s gaze met Chloe’s, no real sign of recognition there. “She wrote him a letter. I collect the mail every day and I recognized the handwriting right away. The idea that she had continued corresponding with him enraged me, so I opened the envelope right away. She said she had photographs she wanted to show him. Pictures she knew he would want to see. She suggested they meet and she would give the pictures to him.”

“She wrote a letter?” Had Sharee ever written a letter in her life?

“I made Cameron change his phone number and she didn’t have the new number,” Theresa said. “If she had the number, I assume she would have called. The school had blocked her, so I guess she figured writing a letter would be safe.”

“What did your husband say when you told him about the letter?” Chloe asked.

“I didn’t tell him. He would have lied to me, then arranged to meet her. I was sure the pictures were of the two of them together. Or maybe they were photos of her, so he’d be reminded of what he was missing.”

Chloe pressed what she hoped was the call button on the phone in her pocket. Then she moved her hand to the side of the phone to silence it. She wanted Brian to hear what was happening, but she didn’t want to alarm this woman. The woman who had killed her sister. “What did you do?” She had to force out the words. She wanted to know…and yet she recoiled from the idea of knowing. Once she learned the details of Sharee’s death she would never be able to blot them from her mind.

“I waited until Cameron went out of town on a school trip,” Theresa said. “I left the children with my sister. I only wanted to talk to the girl. To make her give me those photos. So I followed her. But when I asked about the pictures, she laughed. Do you know how much that hurt? She was destroying my life and she laughed.” Her voice broke, and tears spilled down her cheeks.

Did she expect Chloe to feel sorry for her? Chloe wasn’t even sure the tears were real, or merely another performance. “Those photos weren’t of Sharee and Cameron together and they weren’t of Sharee by herself,” she said. “They were of you and Cameron and your children. Family photos.”

Theresa stared. “Liar!” Her face reddened. “Why would she have photos of us? Why write to tell him about pictures like that? And then you did the same thing. You called Cameron and stirred everything up again. So I had to come here again. I had to find those photos and stop you.”

So Theresa had been the one to break into Chloe’s apartment. She must have taken the key from Sharee. Had she followed Chloe tonight? Did she only want the photos, or did she plan to kill Chloe, too? “Where are your children?” she asked, hoping to distract Theresa long enough for Brian to send help.

“They’re with my sister. Cameron thinks I’m there, too. My sister and I are close and I often visit her.”

“Does your sister know what you’re doing?”

“We’re twins. We’d do anything for each other. She knows how much I’ve suffered.”

Chloe took a step back, but the alley was narrow and now she was pressed up against the wall of the pizzeria, the cold of the bricks seeping into her shoulders even through the insulation of her jacket. “The sheriff’s department has those photos,” she said.

“Liar!” Again, Theresa flung the word like a dart. “I found one photo in your purse—a picture of my family. Where are the rest of them?”

Chloe shook her head. “I don’t have them.”

She never would have believed the woman could move so fast. Theresa surged forward and slammed the back of Chloe’s head against the wall. Pain rocketed through Chloe’s skull and her vision grayed. She fought to stay alert, even as Theresa ripped the scarf from her around her neck and wrapped it around Chloe’s throat. She pulled hard, tightening the ligature, while Chloe tried to fight her off. Grayness swamped her as Theresa squeezed and squeezed.

“MANAGER SAYS WE’RE closing up in five minutes.” The bartender at Murphy’s, Felice, stopped beside Brian’s table.

“Then I’ll get out of your way.” Brian stood and Daisy rose also, tail wafting gently.

Felice patted the dog. “It’s a cold night,” she said. “Stay warm.”