Page 47 of The Woman Who Couldn't Scream
“When the town’s profits are disrupted, do you imagine the citizens will be happy?”
She had been up for hours. She’d viewed the scene of a gruesome murder, grieved for a woman she had never met, worried that others would suffer the same fate, dealt with paperwork, listened to police reports, dealt with more paperwork, organized photos, called the victim’s family, comforted Carolyn Abner’s children, persuaded them to authorize the autopsy… and now Kateri faced an indignant, moneygrubbing politician who looked like a bug-eyed snake who had swallowed an egg.
But she had to be fair… “You have heard a woman was discovered early this morning at Lupine Point, murdered by a slasher?”
“What? What? Murder?” Venegra put his hand over his heart as if to still the palpitations.
Kateri thought he’d be better off putting his hands on his aching testicles.
In a booming voice, he asked, “Did you catch the killer?”
“We have no suspects.”
“Is the victim someone local?”
“A tourist.” Kateri’s sarcasm got the better of her. “Is that better for business or worse?”
She was making fun of him, and Venegra was smart enough—barely—to know it. “At least you’ve done one thing right—you had the good sense to bring Garik Jacobsen into the case. Maybe our former sheriff will come back and catch the murderer before he kills again!”
In a voice that would have frozen a normal man, she said, “Garik would not so overstep his authority.”
“Well, maybe we’ll just vote him in after the citizens of our fair city impeach you!”
That’s it. I am done with you.Kateri stood up and offered her hand. “Let’s shake on that.”
Venegra grabbed her fingers and squeezed. Hard.
Kateri dragged seething fire, molten rock, ocean-cold, angry-red power up from the earth and let it flow through her and into him.
First Venegra started trembling.
The earth jolted hard and fast, a brief movement the seismologists would categorize as an aftershock to the big one that had reshaped Virtue Falls.
Venegra’s eyes grew wide.
Kateri pulled her hand away before she wholly gave in to her temper—and brought the walls down.
He flopped backward into the chair, his gaze fixed on her in horror.
With a fixed smile, she reminded him, “I did say, ‘Let’s shake.’”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Kateri texted Merida. Okay?
Merida texted back,No worries. I’m fine.
Have errands. Will be there as soon as I can.
Headed out for a run. See you soon.
Merida left the B and B and ran a mile through Virtue Falls, then took the cutoff that descended toward the beach and there along the fringes of the sand, she hopped along the rocks and the old dock pilings. She did her yoga, made like a tree, stood on one leg, then the other. In a silly departure from discipline, she became a pelican and waved her arms. It was perhaps childhood reborn, but in those moments she gained balance and dexterity—and she tasted freedom. Freedom from memory. Freedom from worry. Freedom from anger and vengeance. Just… freedom.
Slowly she stilled. Exuberance changed to introspection.
She’d been here for less than a week, yet last night she had encountered too many people who knew her as Helen. Then early this morning someone had called her, warned her that “they” were hunting her, and today worry replaced joy and mindlessness. As she stood there, facing the ocean, she found herself listening, not to the waves ceaselessly rolling, but for the sound of footsteps behind her. Serenity had never seemed so far away, so at last she turned back, running hard up the path, testing her limits for speed and endurance. She turned onto the street where the B and B stood, saw a man jogging toward her, shirtless, in shorts, shirtless, beautifully sculpted, shirtless…Lifts weights, shorts are too long, almost to his knees, such a shame, those thigh muscles must be awesome…
Benedict, of course.
