Chosen by a Killer by Laurie Nave (read e book txt) 📗

Celia would have to figure another way to get one. Because if Bart pulled something like that again, Celia would shoot to kill. And she’d do it when no one was around.

By the end of the day, Celia had calmed some, and she was ready to head to Keith’s house and relax. It still irked her that she couldn’t go back home, but she knew she’d be on high alert all night if she was alone at her house. And there was too much to do to walk around sleep-deprived. She knew Keith would be true to his word and give her privacy, and she had to admit she had mixed feelings about that. She needed to blow off some steam and get some stress relief. However, she knew that would be stupid. Bart wasn’t going to make her stupid.

Keith was cooking dinner when Celia arrived. He showed her to the bedroom, and when she had put her bags down, she walked back into the kitchen.

“There’s beer in the fridge,” Keith said as he stirred vegetables.

“Great,” Celia said. “You didn’t have to cook.”

“It’s relaxing,” Keith replied. “You can clean up.”

“Yippee,” Celia laughed. “What are we having?”

“Sweet and sour pork with vegetable stir fry. Haven’t had Chinese in a while.”

“You want me to do some fried rice?”

“That would be great. I have some rice cooked already, in the fridge. Everything else should be in there too. The pans are to the left of the sink.”

While Keith finished the vegetables and pork, Celia got the pan hot and then began making the rice. Keith’s kitchen was surprisingly well-stocked, and she added to the rice until it rivaled any takeout place. Within 20 minutes they were seated at his small table.

“This is good,” Keith said, taking another bite of the rice.

“Thanks, you’re a pretty good cook too. I don’t even mind cleaning up.”

They chatted about nothing, and Celia could tell Keith was trying to keep her distracted. She helped herself to another beer, and when they were done, she shooed him out of the kitchen so that she could wash the dishes. He walked into his den, and Celia heard a ballgame on the television. Probably basketball, she thought. Keith loved the NBA.

After she finished cleaning, they both watched the ballgame for a while, until Celia couldn’t sit still anymore. “I think I’m going to go to bed and try to get some sleep. Thanks for dinner and the extra room.”

“Sure,” Keith didn’t look away from the television. “Let me know if you need anything.”

Once Celia was settled in the bedroom, she opened her laptop and began looking through her email. Most of them were about articles or stories in various stages of completion. She had one email from Marlene asking her to come over for dinner. Keith had sent her a few emails about the fiasco at her home. Lucille had returned and was distraught over the death of her cat. Celia shook her head picturing the old woman in tears. Hopefully, she had seen something. Whether Keith liked it or not, Celia was going to try to go back and talk to the neighbor herself tomorrow.

Chapter 26

Celia was surprised to see Room 4 empty when Keith opened the door. Tasha was almost always waiting for her to begin their interviews. She looked at Keith, but he just shrugged and closed the door. Celia set up the recorded and read over some of her notes as the minutes ticked by. When it was ten past the hour, Celia began to wonder if Tasha would arrive at all.

“I’m sorry to be late,” Tasha said as a guard walked her into the room. “I had some business to take care of before we met today.”

“I hope everything is okay,” Celia said.

“Oh yes, as fine as one can be on death row,” Tasha answered dryly. “I should ask about you.”

How did Tasha always seem to know? “I’m doing fine, regardless of what you may have heard.”

Tasha shook her head. “No, you are not, but I know that expression. I’ve had it myself more than once.”

“The police are taking care of it. I appreciate your concern though.”

“Let’s hope they can do their jobs.”

“Yes, let’s.” Celia nodded. “I’m not turning the recorder on yet. I wanted to talk about what you said at the end of our last visit.”

“About trusting you? I do.”

“Thank you. But I meant the part about William. How did you find out he was your brother?”

“He told me.”

Celia sat back. “The recorder can stay off for this. As far as I’m concerned it’s not part of the article. When did he tell you?”

“He’d known for a long time. I started to have doubts about my father. As you know, William didn’t like him. At all. And that made me curious too. It wasn’t all that strange for my father to dislike someone. But William seemed to like just about everyone. I wondered why they had such animosity between them.”

Celia understood that. She’d never heard William express dislike for anyone, even John, except for his criticism of the former editor’s professionalism.

“So how did he find out?” Celia asked.

“William was adopted. When he was 18 years old, he started searching for his birth parents. It was hard. There was no internet, of course. But he knew his adoptive parents had been overseas when he was adopted. He finally found the catholic organization in Belfast where he was adopted.”

“He was adopted in Belfast? But I thought Natasha’s mother was in England.”

“She was, but her family had family and connections. So they sent her to Ireland to have the baby. William’s parents adopted him there, and when he was three years old, they moved to the United States. The same year I was born.”

“So...was your father William’s father?”

“We don’t know. I don’t think so.” Natasha sighed. “There was no father named on the birth certificate.”

Celia shook her head. No wonder William felt so protective of Natasha.

“But what about your mother? Does that mean he knew