Page 81 of The Woman Who Couldn't Scream
Luis suspended his air-quoting fingers in midair. “I’m not arguing.”
Kateri continued as if he were. “She has a PhD in psychology. Does she know what this says about her?”
“He just ‘needs the right woman.’” Eye roll and air quotes. “He showed up at her house with buckshot in his ass. She removed it for him. He was worried someone—land-based law enforcement, the Coast Guard—was going to track him. So she carried him away to her private island to canoodle.”
“Canoodle?” Kateri laughed. “Her words?”
Luis looked surprised at himself. “Actually, my grandmother’s. But that was the meaning. Mrs. Blethyn was vague on the details, but I do believe there was some canoodling, also some food and drink and fresh clothing. Then he stole her boat and left her stranded on the island.”
Sarcasm spilled from Kateri. “I’m stunned that he would betray his lover in such a manner. You’d think she could recognize his character. Or lack of it.” Then she realized—who was she to mock? She had talked with Stag, slept with Stag, allowed him to scold and care for her. And she still hadn’t known him. Pain twisted her heart.
She must have gotten an expression on her face, because Luis asked, “Ribs hurt?”
To her horror, she burst into tears.
Luis leaped to his feet and shut the door, came back and dug around in his desk drawer and produced a box of tissues. He offered them to her. “What’s wrong? Did Stag get mad because you announced you two were in a relationship?”
She shook her head.
“This is about Stag, isn’t it?”
She nodded.
Luis knelt before her. “What did that bastard do?”
“He was nice about the relationship. And I…” She cried harder.
He put Lacey into her lap. “What didyoudo?”
“Asked… accused…”
“Accused him of what?”
“Theshooting.”
“What shooting?” Luis’s voice dropped to a hush. “At the Oceanview Café?”
Kateri nodded.
Lacey sighed.
Luis’s voice got loud. “What in the hell were youthinking?”
“That… he…”
Luis didn’t wait for her to stammer through her words. “He wouldn’t work with an amateur like John Terrance.”
“If he… shot law enforcement… his life would be”—Kateri took a long breath and wailed—“easier.”
Luis was unrelenting. “Are you kidding? If Stag Denali wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”
She nodded. Apparently everyone knew that. Except her.
“As it is, he wants you alive so he can bang your brains out. All the time.”
And she was here to testify that he was good at it. “How do you know… anything?”
“It’s logical. You got a guy who’s been in prison for murder. I’d guess a rough early life, learned a lot of skills necessary to survive. He could get a job anywhere doing enforcement, legal or otherwise, or obtain a ‘position’ as a stud for Ruth Blethyn”—more air quotes—“or work at any number of lucrative jobs. He showed up in Virtue Falls, the piddly-poop outback of nowhere, and he’s working as financial wizard on the rez in Virtue Falls for their new casino. I figured he’d move on as soon as he got the funding set up. Makes sense, right? Then he comes after you. Specifically after you. He sleeps with you and all of a sudden, he’s construction superintendent on the site, working all hours, living in an apartment over the flower shop that’s so small he bumps his head on the hood when he uses the stovetop. And you don’t know if he loves you?”
