Page 78 of The Woman Who Couldn't Scream
“To save her?”
“I thought I would be okay with whatever happened. I’m not. I was afraid I would blow out the flame of Rainbow’s life. I did.”
“Oh, honey.” Stag put his arm around her, enveloping Kateri and Lacey.
Kateri stood straight and stiff.
“Hey. Stop blaming yourself.”
“I don’t blame myself.Ididn’t shoot her.” She pushed away.
Again Stag tried to hug her. “The Terrances shot her.”
“It was such good timing, with me and Bergen in the Oceanview Café.”
Now Stag stiffened. He stepped away. “What are you trying to say?”
She looked up at him.
His eyes were blank, black, closed off. Like a storm, he was gathering fury.
She wet her lips.
He took another step away. “You might as well say it, Kateri Kwinault.”
Now that she’d started this, she was afraid. Afraid she’d made a mistake. “I just wondered if you…”
“No. If I had arranged it, you would be dead.” His tone was flat, implacable.
Giving voice to her suspicions was the worst mistake of her life.
He continued, “It’s one thing not to trust me to bring home almond milk. It’s another thing not to trust me to run a law-abiding construction site. And it’s another to believe I orchestrated the shooting at the Oceanview Café.”
One look at his flinty eyes and she discarded any flippant suggestion that she trusted him with the milk.
Lacey whimpered.
Kateri petted her and tried to explain, to backtrack. “You were walking down the street. Your reflexes were so fast. You hit the ground before anyone else heard the Terrances’ car or noticed anything… I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but think how much easier it would be for your casino if the sheriff and the deputy sheriff were replaced by people more… amenable to…” Her voice petered out.
Stag stood in that cool hospital corridor, hands loose, staring at her. He didn’t look defensive, or indignant, and as she watched, his fury dissipated, leaving only grief.
That frightened her.
Taking her face in his hands, he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Good-bye, my beautiful Kateri.” Turning, he walked away.
There was a finality about that kiss that at last drove home what she had done. She had killed Rainbow and now, she had killed something beautiful, something she would never find again.
Worse, if his expression was anything to go by, she had hurt Stag Denali as he had never been hurt before. “Oh, Lacey,” she said. “What have I done?”
Lacey struggled in her arms.
Kateri placed her on the floor.
Lacey trotted after Stag, then looked back at Kateri, then trotted a few more steps, then looked back at Kateri. Kateri understood her clearly:What’s wrong with you? Let’s go. We belong with Stag.
Kateri’s tears welled in her eyes. She hurt. She hurt all over. For Rainbow. For Lacey. For herself. And for Stag. But she didn’t sob out loud; that wouldn’t be fair to Lacey.
The little prom queen of a dog got all the way to the door before she turned around and trotted back to Kateri.
