Erica Spindler - Cause for Alarm

"No one. Everyone." Kate lifted her gaze to his. "She's Emma's birth mother. I only found out today."

"Ouch."

"Yeah," she muttered, "ouch. And you don't even know the half of it."

"So, tell me."

She nodded, took a swallow of the wine, then set the glass on the coffee table. She dropped her head back against the couch's deep, soft cushions and gazed up at the ceiling. "Richard was unfaithful to me."

"I'm sorry."

"But not surprised?"

"No." He paused, a thought occurring to him. "Was Julianna-"

"Yes." She brought the heels of her hands to her eyes for a moment, then lowered them to her lap. "That day at Tulane, what you said…you were right, I think. About why he-" her voice broke "-why he married me."

Luke swore under his breath, making a sound of regret. "Kate, the things I said…I said them in anger. Because I was hurt. Because I wanted to hurt you. I didn't mean-"

"Yes, yes you did. Even in anger, they contained a kernel of truth. Maybe not the whole truth, but a kernel of it."

She took another sip of her wine. "It all began with Emma's adoption."

Luke listened as Kate told him about the past few months of her life-about their being chosen by a birth mother, about Emma's arrival and her own joy at becoming a mother.

"I was so happy, so in love with our baby, I didn't notice what was happening with Richard. Not at first, anyway."

She sighed, stood and crossed to the picture window that looked out over his backyard. She gazed out, her thoughts inward. "He wasn't happy. He never held Emma, not voluntarily, anyway. He didn't even look at her, let alone play with her. Turns out, he was jealous of the time and attention I gave her."

She sighed again. "He did it for me, I see that now. I wanted a child-we couldn't conceive, so he agreed to our adopting one. But he never felt good about it, about taking another's biological child and accepting it not only into our family but into our hearts." She shook her head. "I should have seen what he was doing, how he felt. But I didn't want to think about him or what he wanted. I was too hungry to be a mother."

"Kate," Luke said softly, "you don't know, he might have been the same way with a biological child. For whatever reason, some people aren't meant to be parents."

"I wish I'd known."

"Do you? Would you send her back?"

"No." She laughed, mocking herself. "I can't imagine my life without her. Being a mother's the best thing I've ever done."

"Then, there you have it."

"I guess so."

She turned, wandered back to the couch and settled into the corner, drawing her legs up underneath her. "I should have seen Richard's infidelity coming. He and I began to fight, he began seeming more like the boy I had known in college than the man I had been married to for ten years. Arrogant and self-centered. Petulant when he didn't get his way."

She went on, seeming to Luke, to ramble. She told him about how their relationship became strained, then began to unravel, about sensing someone had broken into her home and about how her neighbor, Old Joe, had seen a strange woman on their swing. She told him, too, how she had discovered Richard's unfaithfulness. About how, less than twenty-four hours later, she had learned of his murder.

She hugged herself. "It all seemed to happen so fast. One minute I have a great marriage and am basking in the delight of being a new mother. The next, I'm a widow."

She squeezed her eyes shut, struggling, he saw, to get a grip on her emotions. "How do you deal with that? How do I deal with him being…dead? I'm still back at finding him in bed with another woman."

She looked at him through tears. "And I feel so guilty. I look back and I think, if I had just done one thing differently, he would be alive. If I hadn't wanted a child so badly. If I had seen his real feelings about adoption. If I had given him what he needed or forgiven him when he strayed."

Luke shook his head, not following her reasoning. "Freak twists of fate happen, Kate. Somebody's in the wrong place at the wrong time. That doesn't have anything to do with what you did or didn't do."

"This wasn't a freak twist of fate. It wasn't a robbery gone bad." She met Luke's eyes. "Richard's murder was premeditated. He was singled out by a lunatic and killed. Because of Julianna."

Luke frowned, thinking of the blood spatters on Julianna's clothes. "What do you mean?"

She went on to explain things she said she had only learned of today. About how Julianna had found them through the adoption agency, how she had fallen in love with Richard from his profile, then set out to seduce him.

"She followed us. She learned about us. About me. Dear Jesus-" Kate brought her hands to her face a moment, using the time to collect herself, then dropped them to her lap. "She modeled herself after me. Tried to become like me, so Richard would trust her. So he would be attracted to her." Kate made a sound of pain. "Like me, only better. Younger. Sexier. Unencumbered."

"No one's like you," Luke said softly. "Trust me on this, I've been looking for ten years."

For a moment, Kate simply stared at him, then her eyes flooded with fresh tears.

"The story gets better." She relayed to him what Julianna had told him about John Powers. That he had killed Richard, Julianna's mother, a family friend connected with the CIA who had tried to help her.

"And you believe her, Kate? Come on, this is not a stable woman. She probably fabricated the whole-"

"No, I didn't, not at first. Until he called. He said Emma was…he said she was dead."

Luke sat back against the couch, stunned. "He said that? Those exact words?"

"Yes. There was no mistaking his meaning. So, you see," she finished, "there's a madman after us. A professional killer. He means to kill Julianna and Emma. If I get in the way, he'll kill me, too. If he finds out you've helped us-" Her voice broke. "I shouldn't have come here. I shouldn't have involved you."

"You didn't have a choice."

"Yes, I did. I could have just kept driving. But I was afraid. And I knew…I knew you'd make me feel safe." She began to cry. "Now, because of me, you're in danger, too. I'm sorry. So sorry."

He went to her and took her in his arms, holding her while she wept. She pressed her face to his shoulder, and curved her arms around his middle, clinging to him.

After a time her tears subsided, and she drew away. "We won't stay long," she murmured, wiping the tears from her cheeks, "we have to keep moving, be sure to stay a step ahead of him. I just need a little time to figure out where we're going. To make a plan."

"You can stay as long as you like."

"No." She shook her head. "I don't want to involve you any more than I already have. The sooner we're gone, the safer you'll be."

"I can take care of myself, Kate. It's you who I'm worried about. And Emma."

She laid her head against his shoulder once more. He felt her exhaustion in the way she sagged against him, as if she hadn't the strength to even hold herself upright.

"If only I could think clearly," she whispered. "There's got to be a way to beat John Powers. There's got to be."

He curved his arms tighter around her. "In the morning," he murmured. "We'll talk some more. Between the two of us, we'll figure something out. I promise we will."

Luke couldn't sleep. Long after he had told Kate good-night he sat at his computer, staring at the glowing screen. He'd thought his story would crowd Kate and her situation out of his mind. His writing had always taken him out of himself, away from the world of flesh-and-blood people and into one of his own making.

Not tonight. The last hour and a half had been futile. As much as he'd tried, his story in progress had been crowded out by hers.