“Sounds good. I have a few things to finish up here before I head over.”
Next, Steve called Booger. The investigator couldn’t make it for drinks, but he said he would be over at Steve’s place first thing in the morning to help organize their thoughts for the upcoming oral argument. Finally, Steve printed the state’s response, put it in his briefcase to be looked at again tomorrow, and left the office to meet Emily at The Empire Bar.
Steve was waiting at the same table where he and Emily first had drinks together a few months earlier; it was now “their” table. The pair had been there several times in the last few weeks, so she knew right where to go when she arrived. Steve saw her as soon as she walked out to the patio. He was already drinking a Guinness, and a cold Hoegaarden was placed in front of the empty chair beside him.
“Aw, you already ordered me a drink. Such the gentleman,” Emily said with a luminous smile.
Steve smiled back at her and stood up to pull out her chair. Emily leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek before she took her seat. “Do you want to tell me about the state’s brief?” Emily asked.
“Not really,” Steve said, almost pouting. “The long and short of it is that Bass did an excellent job arguing the legal reasons why the court should not grant our request for DNA evidence. Now, I honestly feel like our chances of getting the court to order a DNA test are low, and, if we don’t get that test, any shot at getting Scottie a new trial lands in the pond. That means I’ve failed Scottie.”
“You say that way too often. You need to stay positive.”
“I know. It’s just that the thought is always lingering in the back of my mind. That thought alone is what drives me to work harder every day for him; it’s what will drive me to work my butt off this weekend. I have to come up with counterarguments and find law to support those arguments. It is the only way we can still win this
CHAPTER 38
thing.” Steve stopped himself from thinking about it any further.
“But tonight, I want to forget all of that and just escape to my happy place. I want to forget about the state’s arguments and the possibilities that may come from it. Instead, let’s talk about you,” Steve said with a smile. “Please tell me more about the beautiful Dr. Emily Babbage and her wonderful life.”
“What do you want to know? I feel like I have told you almost everything in the last three weeks. Other than being apart for work, we have been together nonstop. I actually can’t believe I haven’t gotten sick of you yet,” Emily said teasingly.
“I know. It’s weird how our time apart always seems to go by in a flash. Yet, when we are together time slows down, and it feels like no other person or thing exists in this world. It is just you and me and the joy I feel in my soul.”
He reached over, and as their hands touched, he said, “I think I might have fallen in love with you.” It was the first time either of them had made reference to the L-word.
“You might have?” Emily asked as she pulled her hand away and mockingly turned her back to him.
“Okay, okay.” Steve grabbed her shoulders and turned her back around so he could look directly into her eyes. “I am falling in love with you.”
“That’s nice,” she said as she ducked her head quickly away, her dark hair concealing her face. A second later, Emily slowly looked up at Steve again. “I might be falling in love with you, too.” She leaned in and gave him a long kiss.
They merged into each other’s arms, holding the embrace for what they both felt in that moment was an instant and an eternity.
CHAPTER 39
Steve and Emily were lying naked in his bed when they awoke to the sound of the doorbell ringing.
“That must be Booger,” Steve said. “He said he would be here first thing in the morning. I forgot how early that usually is.” It was already 8:23 a.m. They overslept.
Last night, they had stayed out late drinking and simply enjoying each other’s company. At some point, Steve had even forgotten about the state’s response to his motion.
Steve went into the bathroom. “Can you go let him in? I need to take a whiz.”
Emily nodded sleepily as she dressed and walked out of the bedroom to open the front door. As Steve finished washing his hands, he heard it—the soft whisp of a gunshot muffled by a silencer. He had never actually heard the sound before in person. Yet, somehow, he understood exactly what it was and it tore his heart into pieces. He knew what had happened even before he rounded the corner. His greatest fear hit him hard in the gut like being dumped by the person you thought you would be with forever.”
There was Emily. Lying motionless and slumped against a wall, a dark red liquid oozed from the middle of her head. Time stopped.
Steve thought about all the crime scene photos he had seen over the years. How the bodies always looked like they’d been placed into position like a scene from a movie rather than real life. This, however, felt much different. It was real. The camera does not do justice to the nature of a murder scene, he thought. There was no doubt that Emily was dead. He could see it in her lifeless blue eyes. He wanted to cry, but his survival instincts kicked into high gear. Steve whirled around to see who had fired the shot.
There she stood—Heather Walters—dressed in her usual Saturday morning workout attire, with a Glock pistol in her hand. Smoke trailed off the end of the silencer. Steve stood staring, mouth open with nothing to say.
“It’s amazing how much she looks like my little sister,” Walters said almost gleefully. She raised the gun from pointing at Emily’s body and aimed it at Steve.
“You know, my mother always loved my sister more. I was only her stepdaughter, less important than my little sister. My mother never let me forget that. My sister was her only biological child. My sister was loved. After my father died, she would put me in my sister’s closet. As long as I was good and didn’t fight her, I could bring Boopie into the closet with me. I could hear them playing and having fun somewhere else in the house while I sat in the closet all day long. She usually kept me in the dark. But on good days, she left the light on for me and gave me a Bible. I found the Lord in that closet. He helped me survive all those years. And because of my great faith, the Lord allowed me to speak to my biological mom. The day before I met Ashley was the first day Boopie told me to start listening to my mom. I have talked to her regularly ever since. She speaks directly to God in heaven and tells me his plan. Last night, she promised me a special prize if I came here this morning and got rid of you. I never realized it would be such an amazing gift. The Lord provides to those who service him. That is what my mom always says.” Walters smiled with the utmost contentment as she rambled, staring blankly at Steve.
He could say nothing. He just continued to look at her in horrified awe.
“Oh, I’m not crazy,” she said, smirking. “I know she isn’t in actuality my sister. I could never kill my own sister. The Lord would not approve of that. So, he gave her to me.” With the pistol still aimed at Steve, Walters turned her smile toward the body slumped against the wall. “It is uncanny how much she looks like her though… The feeling I had as I watched her fall dead to the ground was the most joy I have ever felt in my life. Killing Ashley felt good too because I was doing the Lord’s work then, but this time he gave me such a wonderful gift.” When she focused again on Steve, she was beaming. “I have wanted nothing more than to kill my sister my whole life. Today, I got to experience that sensation.”
Steve noticed someone else walking up the driveway and finally mustered the ability to talk. “Why did you kill Ashley?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t figured this all out yet, Mr. Smart Attorney Man. She had a baby with a man who was not her husband. A few weeks before I saved her from herself, she confessed to me all about her affair with Deputy Blackburn…”
Booger made eye contact with Steve, whose eyes darted from Walters to Emily to the back door and back to Walters. Thankfully, Walters was too involved in her story to notice the exchange that had transpired.
“You see, she always told me everything. A few days before that fateful Saturday morning, she informed me she was going to keep that extracurricular activity secret and raise Gabriel with Scottie. When I told my mother, she let me know that the Lord does not condone such actions…”
Steve hoped Booger remembered the key Steve kept under the gnome in his backyard. If Booger found the key, he could enter through the other door and circle through the back hallway and guest bedroom to come up right behind where Walters was standing.
“I was asked to fix the situation. Ashley needed to atone for her sin, and Scottie deserved to be punished in his mortal form before we could be together.” She pointed the gun toward Steve’s head. “Now, I must kill you, and Scottie will be with me forever. I didn’t understand it all at first, but now I see this was a test of my faith. I stayed true even after Scottie was sent to death row. I knew, one day, the Lord’s plan would unfold, as long as I maintained my devotion to Him.”
“Wait. If you kill me, you will surely end up in prison. How could that help you be with him?”
“No. That won’t happen. My mom has explained the Lord’s plan to me. It is, in fact, quite simple.” Walters held the gun up to her face and looked at it.
“This gun belongs to one Deputy Andrew Blackburn. I took it from his bedroom this morning. You men are so easy to seduce when a woman has a body and face like mine. His downfall began a few months ago, right after you first started stirring things up again. That was when I made the deputy my new Saturday morning workout partner. His biggest problem was his ego. He began telling me about all his guns a few weeks ago. When he showed me this one with the silencer attached, the Lord’s plan became clear to me. The deputy’s second biggest problem was that he always fell into a deep sleep right after I was done pleasuring him. This morning I told him that his punishment for doing such a bad job keeping you from meddling in the case was that all he got was my hand, nothing else. After he was dead, I left the dirty tissue on the nightstand and rubbed some of the lotion I had used into his hand. They will think he took care of himself right before he took care of himself. You know what I mean.” She laughed out loud at her play on words.
Walters smiled as if thinking blissfully about a baby sleeping, then continued, “I was able to use his own hand to blow his brains out all over his bedroom. Then I came up here to finish you off. After I complete this task, I will place the gun back in his cold dead hand. Once it all comes out that he is Gabriel’s father, everyone will figure out that he is the one who killed Ashley. After that, it will be easy for the police to determine he killed you because you were about to catch him. Unfortunately, he had to kill your girlfriend too. The guilt from killing an innocent bystander got to him on the drive home, and he ended his own life with the same gun used to kill both of you. I hope it makes you feel somewhat happy that your death will be the last thing I do before I get what
I truly deserve.”
“And what is that?” Steve asked.
“Scottie Pinkerton’s love, of course.” Walters spoke like a little girl who had finally convinced her parents to get a puppy. “Like I said, your investigation will lead them to see that Deputy Blackburn is Gabriel’s father. They will find you and your friend’s bodies here. Then, they find his body at his home in Claremore. It won’t take much for them to determine the same gun was used in both cases. They will conclude that he is a killer, that he killed you two, and he must have killed Ashley that day long ago as well. Then, they will have no choice but to release Scottie. I will leave Jim, and Scottie and I will be together forever. I must admit, there were days when I didn’t originally understand why the Lord wanted Scottie to be punished rather than to be with me. But now I see it was all just a test—a test to prove my faith and love in Him. Oh, God is so good.” She bit her bottom lip as she finished her sentence.
Steve could tell from the self-satisfied look on Walters’s face that she was done bragging about her pending accomplishments and ready to achieve them. At the same time, he saw Booger sneaking up behind her. If only she had ranted just a few more seconds before pulling the trigger, Steve might have survived this. Then, it happened.
Booger stepped on a plank in the old wooden floors of the hallway that let out a creak that was just one decibel too high.
She turned, saw Booger, and fired her gun immediately. The investigator fell back as the bullet caught him off balance in his upper chest. Steve was moving before she had even fully turned around. He lunged across the room and tackled her, knocking the gun away as they fell.
He was now on top of her, yet not fully in control of his position. She was able to regain control of herself on the floor while Steve still lay loosely over her, struggling without a solid foundation. He heard bells ringing; she’d elbowed him hard in the side of his head. While he was stunned, Walters smacked him twice more with an elbow to the jaw in rapid succession. Steve fell off of her and slumped to one side. Seizing the opportunity, Walters clamped her hands around Steve’s neck.
“Stop, young lady!” Booger stood nearby, pointing the deputy’s gun directly at Walters’ head. She froze and looked up at him.
The expression on her face showed she knew the fight was over. Her body loosened. She crumpled to the ground, broken. Her head lowered between her arms on the floor. She began to sob.
