Cause of Death by Laura Dembowski (ereader iphone .TXT) 📗

knew it was her the moment I saw her and heard her voice.”

“Did she hurt you?”

“No. I can take care of myself. I thought she might try to hurt me, and I just proved to myself that I got this,” I tell him.

“What if she catches you off guard? I can’t believe I let her in here. How could I be so stupid?” He’s pacing the room.

“We’re okay. She’s done with us, I think—except for this.”

We both stare at the box, trying to summon X-ray vision that will allow us to see what unwelcome surprise waits beyond the shimmery paper. I tear it off and lift the lid while simultaneously backing away from the package.

Emmitt looks in and jumps away, covering his mouth. I walk over to it as slowly as I can, trying to avoid the inevitable. Finally, I look in. I back away instantly, like Emmitt, and steady myself against the counter, feeling all the blood rushing to my head and adrenaline flooding my system. I feel like I might faint, but I close my eyes, force a few steady, deep breaths into my lungs, and press onward.

“That’s . . . that’s a . . . it’s a hand,” Emmitt says, as if I haven’t already figured that out.

“It’s a hand,” I repeat.

“Call Sarge,” Emmitt says, since the only sound between us is our breathing. “Get the guys over here so they can deal with this, and put that woman behind bars.”

I do as Emmitt suggests. I call Sarge and tell him that Margaret was here and she brought a bloody hand with her. He says they’ll be right over. I go and lie down on the sofa to try to compose myself, even though I don’t really think that’s possible.

Emmitt sits on the end of the sofa and rubs my feet. He’s a good guy. I’m lucky to have him.

“Are you okay?” Sarge asks when I open the front door and let him, Will, and the rest of the team into my house.

“I don’t even know,” I say.

They immediately begin looking around and collecting evidence. I follow along so they don’t miss anything.

Sarge puts his hand on my shoulder. “We’re gonna get her.”

“Yeah, we have to lock her up for good. For life.”

“We will. What happened to you here was awful, but now there’s no doubt, we have her.”

I rub my face and run my hands through my hair. It’s impossible for me to remain still. I’m exhausted, yet full of energy. It’s toxic energy, though, energy I want to run away from, energy I want to exit my body. It’s making my skin crawl, making my heart flutter.

“We have to get her this time,” I say.

“I know this case was personal for you,” Will says.

I like Will, but I don’t want to talk to him right now. He has no idea what this case is really about. I just want to talk to Sarge, and Ryan. God, I wish Ryan was here.

“No, you don’t know!” I interrupt Will. “She’s a killer! She fucked Ryan over, and when I got home today, she was in my fucking house. She was in my fucking house!” I double over in tears. “Something worse could have happened. What if I didn’t get here in time?”

The guys say nothing. I can’t handle the silence.

“Say something,” I scream. “Fucking say something!”

“I’m sorry,” Will says.

“We’ll station a couple officers in front of your house until we have her,” Sarge adds.

“Like that’s going to do anything,” I yell.

“It will protect you, and we will have her in no time. We’re gonna run fingerprints and DNA on the hand and find the victim. Then we’ll charge her and lock her up,” Sarge says in a soothing voice.

“You need to tail her and bring her in before she kills someone else! You need to promise me we’ll get her, put her away for good, end this nonsense once and for all. Promise me that.” I stare both of them down.

“I promise,” Sarge says.

I wasn’t sure he’d say that, but he did, and Sarge never breaks his word.

“I just don’t know why she did it,” Sarge says.

“What?” I ask.

“Cut someone’s hand off? Bring it here, to taunt you? She probably would have gotten off.”

I shake my head vigorously. “No, she wouldn’t have. I wouldn’t have rested until she was behind bars. Plus, if there’s one thing we know about Margaret Moore, it’s that she’s crazy.”

“I guess,” Sarge says.

“We have to get Ryan off, too. I know he has some issues, and he was fucking her sister, but it was all part of Margaret’s little plan. He didn’t kill anyone,” I say.

“Ryan and Tracy were on the rocks,” Sarge says.

“Yes, they were, but he never would have killed her. Margaret did it!” I say confidently. I’m certain about this. No one is changing my mind.

“But witnesses saw a man leaving the property,” Will says.

“She hired someone.”

Will rolls his eyes, and I continue. “Oh, please, after everything this woman has done, and you don’t believe she could have hired an assassin?”

“It’s possible,” Sarge declares.

“So let’s prove it!” I exclaim.

Chapter 25

Kate

I insist on riding along when Margaret is arrested. Although we still don’t have any real evidence that she murdered Lana, Dave, or Tracy, we know she’s guilty. For some strange reason I will never, ever understand, it wasn’t enough for her to have killed three human beings, she just had to go and do it again.

Luckily, the fingerprints from the hand were in the system. The guy, Ron Klein, had been busted for solicitation a few years back. We went to his house and found his body with Margaret’s DNA all over it. All of this damning evidence, along with bringing the severed hand to my house, and her incredibly checkered past, is more than enough to get a jury to convict her. Hell, they’ll probably want to hang her right there in the courtroom.

Still, for some reason I’m nervous as we pull up to her house, only