Beyond Suspicion

65

•

Nobody move,” said Yuri, his voice booming across the living room.

Katrina and Jack froze. Yuri had Cindy in front of him with a gun to her head, using her as a human shield. The fear in her eyes was more than Jack could handle.

“Let go of my wife!”

“Shut up!” said Yuri.

“Who are you?” said Jack.

“His name’s Yuri,” said Katrina. “What do you want?”

“I want you to do as you’re told.”

“I can’t do that.”

“So I heard. Did you really think I was foolish enough to send you here alone and not follow you? I heard everything you said.”

“Then you’re the man. I guess you’re just going to have to do Jack Swyteck yourself.”

He shoved the gun into Cindy’s cheek. “You’ll do as you’re told. Or I’ll kill his wife.”

“You’re going to kill her anyway.”

“Stop,” said Jack. “Let her go, Yuri, or whatever your name is. Then you and I can get in your car, and we’ll go to a nice quiet place in the woods. You can do whatever it is you need to do with me. Just let Cindy go.”

“Oh, aren’t you the hero?” he said, scoffing. Then his smile faded. “Down on the floor, Swyteck. Face-first.”

Jack didn’t move. Yuri tightened his grip on Cindy’s throat. Her eyes bulged, and she gasped audibly. “I said, get down!”

Jack lowered himself to the rug.

“Hands behind your head.”

Jack locked his fingers as commanded.

“Very good. Now, Katrina. Let’s do what we came here to do.”

She glared at Yuri, then glanced at Jack on the floor. The room was silent. Slowly, she reached inside her jacket and removed her.22.

“’Atta girl,” said Yuri. “Now move closer. Remember what I told you about the bullet in the brain. I want to see you use that.22 the way it’s supposed to be used.”

She crossed the living room, then stopped at the edge of the rug. She was close, but not so close that Jack could reach out and grab her ankle.

“Don’t do this, Katrina.”

“Put a sock in it, Swyteck,” said Yuri. “I’m trying to be a nice guy. I’m giving you the privilege of dying with the faint hope that I might actually let your wife live. One more word, and I’m taking that away from you.”

A tense silence fell over the room. Katrina could hear the sound of her own breathing.

Yuri narrowed his eyes and said, “Do it, Katrina.”

She could feel her palm sweating as she squeezed the handle of her gun and pointed the barrel in Jack’s direction.

“That’s it,” said Yuri.

She had one eye on Jack, the other on Yuri. Her finger caressed the trigger.

“Do it!”

Her hand was shaking, but her thoughts were coming clear. “This doesn’t make sense.”

“Stop stalling.”

“There are so many easier ways to do this.”

“This is the way I want to do it. Now pull the trigger!”

“Why? Why are you making me do it?”

“Because I can. Now shoot him!”

“Why? Why is it so important to you that I do it?”

“Don’t you dare disobey me. I know who you are, you little slut. Did you honestly think you could fool me?”

“What?”

“If I can get you to snip the hairs off your pussy and hand them over to me in a plastic bag, surely I can talk you into pulling the trigger. This is what you are. I know what you’re made of, and I own you. It’s like I used to say, remember? No decision we make is meaningless. We all determine our own fate. Now do as you’re told. Kill him!”

It was him, she realized, and the discovery cut to her core. Bits and pieces of information she’d gathered over the last few months had suggested that he was the man she’d been looking for, and now there was no denying it. Something snapped inside her, a fury sparked by the sickening reality of what drove this pervert. It was all about domination and control, from her friend Beatriz who was killed in his factory for refusing to give her body to him, to her own indignity of selling pubic clippings in a bag-and the truly unspeakable things she was forced to do at gunpoint when the clippings just weren’t enough. She couldn’t be certain that he’d murdered that woman with AIDS in Georgia, but only this creep was low enough to sell the blood of his victims. We all determine our own fate.

She wheeled and fired a shot across the room. Muffled by a silencer, it whistled past Yuri and shattered the vase on the wall unit.

Yuri fired back, another muted volley. But this one found its mark. Katrina fell to the ground. A hot, wet explosion erupted beneath her jacket. Her gun fell to the floor, then she fell beside it.

“Cindy!” said Jack.

A final, deadly quiet shot hissed from Yuri’s pistol, and Jack went down behind the couch. Katrina tried to raise her head, and managed to get it an inch above the floor. Just enough to see Yuri ducking into the kitchen with his hostage in tow.