Dead Woman Crossing by J.R. Adler (books on motivation .txt) 📗

cottage. The door closed behind her with a thud. Inside, it was still, the only evidence as to what had just transpired being the pools of blood on the floor. She wiped her feet on the rug, force of habit, and walked further into the house, turning toward the long hallway. The stuffed elephant lay covered in blood on the floor.

The door opened with a squeak and closed with a thud again.

Sam stood there with the ice pack in his hand. “Everything good?” he asked, taking a couple more steps into the house.

Kimberley bent down, picking up the stuffed toy. She tried to wipe the blood off, but it just smeared it more.

Sam peered down the hallway where the fight had happened, noticing the broken drywall. “Was that you?” he asked.

“It was my body, if that’s what you’re asking.” The soreness in her back had returned, or perhaps it had been there the whole time, but she was blocking out the pain.

“Let’s get you to the hospital.”

Kimberley opened her hand, dropping the blood-soaked stuffed animal back on the floor.

35

Kimberley sat on the edge of an exam table in a small doctor’s office. She’d been fully examined and was just waiting on a prescription for pain meds from the doctor. There was a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

Sam poked his head in first. She had refused to get into the hospital gown but did remove her shirt so the doctor could have a look at her back. She was dressed back in her uniform.

“How ya doing?”

“Concussion and a couple of bruised ribs.” Kimberley shrugged her shoulders. “How’d it go?”

She wasn’t concerned about her own injuries. She wanted to know about David. Would he fess up? Confess to it all? Make this an open-and-shut case so it’d be easier on his family and Hannah’s family? Or would he deny everything? Demand a lawyer? Refuse to talk? She could see it going either way. He was a proud man, and proud men don’t admit their wrongdoings.

“He confessed to all of it.” Sam shifted his stance.

“Really?”

He nodded. “He said they’d been having an affair for over two years on and off. Hannah got pregnant shortly after they started seeing each other. Isobel is his daughter. But recently Hannah wanted more. She wanted to leave Dead Woman Crossing, take her daughter and find a better life. She blackmailed him, saying she’d go public with their affair and his fatherhood if he didn’t pay her to keep quiet. She wanted fifty large, but obviously David doesn’t have that type of money, and she didn’t know that. Apparently, they met down at Deer Creek, and she flew into a rage when she realized he didn’t have the money, tried calling Wyatt to expose David. And he shot her.” Sam shook his head. “It’s a damn shame.”

“And let me guess, he staged it to look like Katie DeWitt James’s murder to throw us off?”

“That’s right.”

“I mean, he got us to bite on that for a while but… what a fucking idiot.”

“That’s right too.” Sam rocked back on his heels.

“Now, what?” Kimberley asked.

“I’ll wrap this case up. You take it easy, spend some time with your daughter, and come back when you’re feeling better. And I mean it. Take some time off.” He cocked his head and turned on his foot toward the door.

Before he left the room, Kimberley said, “You know I’ll be back in the office on Monday.”

“I know.” Sam smiled.

36

Kimberley lifted Jessica into her high chair, wincing from the pain she felt throbbing in her back. She locked the tray in and set down a bowl of Cheerios and a sippy cup of apple juice mixed with water. Kimberley was dressed in her uniform. It was perfectly pressed and creased in all the right areas. She had attempted to cover the bruise on the side of her face with some concealer, but it still showed through. It was Monday morning and she hadn’t seen or heard from her mom since Friday when she hopped into the ambulance with David. She didn’t know where she was staying, as Kimberley was still residing in the cottage. She figured she’d need to find a new place to live soon. Sam had the place swept and a forensic cleanup crew in and out by the time she brought Jessica home on Friday night.

Even after she had run the elephant through the wash cycle three times, she still couldn’t bring herself to give it back to her daughter. It was tainted. Jessica had cried for an hour when Kimberley told her it had left and joined the circus. She spent hours searching for the same elephant online, but with no luck. She had decided that after work, and before she picked up Jessica, she’d drive over to Weatherford to look for a new stuffed elephant.

“Are those yummy?” Kimberley smiled at Jessica.

“Yeah,” she said, pushing several into her mouth.

“Take a drink.”

Jessica lifted the cup, taking a big gulp.

“Nana?” Jessica said, setting the cup back down on the tray. “Nana.”

Kimberley’s face crumpled for a moment. She quickly smoothed it out, not wanting to break down in front of her daughter.

“I’m right here, sweetie,” Nicole said.

Kimberley turned around, finding her mother dressed in a long cotton dress standing in the doorframe. There was a cracked smile on her face, like she was both happy and sad, proud and ashamed. What was she doing here? Where had she been? Why had she chosen David over her own flesh and blood?

Instinctively, Kimberley stepped in front of her daughter like a lioness protecting its cub. Nicole’s face crumpled. Tears streamed down her face.

“I’m so sorry, Kimberley.”

“Sorry for picking a murderer over your own daughter and granddaughter?”

“No. It wasn’t like that. I’m sorry… for believing him. I just… had to make sure he was okay.”

Kimberley narrowed her eyes. “Were you with him the whole weekend?”

Nicole shook her head. “I stayed in a motel to give you space and to clear my head. He confessed everything to me, but I