The Dead Woman

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Matt stared at Mr. Dark for a few heartbeats, then looked back to Abbey and shook his head. "Is anything you've told me true?"

"Oh, don't look so surprised," Abbey said. "You should listen to him sometime. He's brilliant. Hell, he's been around forever and knows just about everything there is to know. He even knows a lot about you, Matt. In fact, he told me you'd never go for this."

"I sure did," Mr. Dark said. "Did I call that one, or what?"

"Yes, you did," she said, then looked back at Matt. "Like I said. It's a shame."

"Go for what?" Then Matt understood. The van, the escalation of the attacks, the fake divorce, even killing Annie. "You're leaving," he said. "And you wanted me to come with you."

Mr. Dark smiled again, and Abbey leaned over and kissed Matt on the forehead. A loud, wet smack that made him want to wipe his brow. Her lips felt like a pair of rotting leeches. The last thing he wanted was to die with any of her goop on him.

"If you hadn't shot me, I'd be fucking your brains out right now," Abbey said, much to Mr. Dark's amusement. "I hope you remember that."

Matt stared at the gun in her hand. The gun with only one bullet left. It had his fingerprints all over it. When forensics pulled the bullets out of Annie's gut and Matt's skull, they would be a match. He doubted there would even be much of an investigation. Here he was, a drifter, who just happened to come through town and fuck a local cop's wife. All Abbey had to do now was finish off Dale. Then, with the cop dead and the wife missing, they would look at Matt as the prime suspect.

He thought about his call to the police. He'd asked for Dale and refused to talk to the receptionist. That would look bad. The local police would think he and Annie set the whole thing up to kill Dale, but something had gone wrong. Still, it didn't quite add up, and Matt knew why.

"But you shot Dale with the shotgun," Matt said. "My prints aren't on that."

"Nope," Abbey agreed, "but soon hers will be." She nodded to Annie, who grunted a weak reply. "Sorry, sweetheart. It would have been gut no matter what you picked. I needed you to stay alive long enough to grip the shotgun." Abbey winked.

"Fuuuuuuh yooooo," Annie wheezed.

"Not likely," Abbey replied, then turned her attention back to Matt. "Your prints are all over that knife," she said. "That'll be interesting. Especially when the police match it to eight of the Blake County Killer's victims. You'll be famous all over again."

"But what about you? When they don't find you here, they'll know you were part of this."

"Oh, they'll find my body in a few weeks. It'll be floating down Black Creek. One last victim of the Blake County Killer. They might be surprised to find it with a full set of ID, but at least that should make it easier for them, since they won't be able to identify the face."

By then no one would even be looking for it. Matt knew how small towns worked. He grew up in one. He was just a drifter. No one knew him, but by tomorrow morning half the town would swear they'd seen him around the last few years but never thought anything about it. He'd be found guilty post mortem, and that would be it. Then Abbey would find another partner in another city and start all over again, this time with help from Mr. Dark.

Like she needed it.

"So, Matt," Abbey said, raising the gun to his forehead. "Mr. Dark here is pretty anxious to get this over with. Is there anything else you'd like to say before I kill you? Make it good, now."

"Just one last question," Matt said.

"What is it?"

The sound of sirens came to them, warbling and loud. Above, the steady chop of a helicopter could be heard, its rotors getting louder and louder by the second. Matt smiled.

"Did you check your phone?" he asked.