“Leo was trying,” I said. “He invited you to come. He was urging Simon and Mia to give you a chance.”
“He couldn’t leave the past where it belonged.”
“You mean that key.” I glanced down at the floor. There was still no sign of Owen. “Your brother knew what it was for.”
Victor nodded. “But he didn’t know who’d sent it. Not at first. Then he looked at the damn postmark.”
“And then he knew who had mailed the key. And when.”
“Why couldn’t he just let it be?” Anger gave his voice a hard edge. “Meredith’s death was an accident and I didn’t take anything from my father’s strongbox that shouldn’t have been mine.”
He’d found a way to rationalize everything.
“What happened?” I asked. “I know you didn’t go over there intending to kill Leo.”
“I didn’t.” His jaw was tight, teeth clenched. “He told me that he was going to give me a choice. I could turn myself in to the police or he’d tell them what he knew.” Victor gave me a long, searching look. “Do you have any siblings, Kathleen?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “A brother and sister.”
“Would you sell them out? Would you put them in jail?”
“Neither one of them would ever put me in the position to have to even think about that,” I said. I made a mental promise that when I got out of this I was going to call both Sara and Ethan and tell them just how much I loved them. I imagined Ethan laughing and saying, “Yeah, yeah, big sister. I love you, too.”
“Aren’t you perfect,” Victor said.
“No. I’m not,” I said. “But I can promise you I would have made a different choice. And you still have the chance to make a different one now.”
“You aren’t leaving me any reasonable choice. Neither did Leo. I’m not going to jail. Leo backed me into a corner. I had to kill him. Don’t think I won’t kill you.”
I heard a strangled sound behind me, like a half-choked-off sob. I turned to find Mia standing there. One hand was pressed over her mouth as tears ran down her face.
Victor was faster than I was. Even as I started to say, “Run,” he grabbed her shoulder, yanked her body against his chest and snaked his arm around her neck.
I held up my hands. “Let her go,” I said. “You have me. You don’t need her.” I kept my eyes locked on Mia, trying to somehow let her know that we would get out of this. At the same time I took a couple of steps closer to them while I had the chance.
“Stop!” Victor said sharply.
I stopped moving. “Okay.” I dropped my hands to my sides.
There was a large atlas of the world on the low shelf next to me and a wire rack of paperbacks level with my shoulder by the end. Behind Victor and Mia was a higher set of shelves. I noticed the end book on the shelf just above his head was moving. Now I knew where Owen was. And now I had a plan. All I needed was for Mia to move the right way when the time came, away from Victor, away from me and toward the door.
On the end of the low shelf beside me I caught a glimpse of a fire-safety poster and I knew what to do.
“Give me your cell phone,” Victor said.
“Why?” I asked, trying to keep my tone even and neutral. At the same time I folded one arm across my midsection and laid my index finger against the arm of my sweater.
One.
Victor tightened his arm around Mia’s neck. I added my middle finger.
Two.
“You don’t need to hurt Mia,” I said.
“Then give me the damn phone.” I hoped Mia had noticed. I hoped she knew something was about to happen.
“All right,” I said. And my ring finger.
Three.
I made a movement as though I was going to give him my phone, then I grabbed the wire book stand and swung it at him. At the same time I yelled, “Stop! Drop! And roll!” as loudly as I could.
The words echoed around the library. Mia went limp, dropping out of Victor’s grasp onto the floor, where she rolled to the left just the way she had when we’d practiced with the kids. At the same time Owen materialized and launched himself onto Victor’s back, digging in with four sets of claws. It was all the distraction I needed.
I picked up the heavy atlas and swung it with every ounce of strength I had. It made very satisfying contact with the side of Victor Janes’s head, a little karmic justice. His eyes rolled back and he fell backward onto the floor.
“Run!” I yelled to Mia, pushing her toward the front entrance. Then I grabbed Owen and ran after her.
chapter 18
Once we were outside I put an arm around Mia and kept her moving toward my truck. As soon as we were next to it I called 911. Then I gave Mia the phone so she could call her father. I unlocked the driver’s door of the truck and set Owen on the seat. He shook himself and gave me a self-satisfied look.
“You’re my furry hero,” I said, leaning my face close to his for a moment.
“Mrr,” he said, nuzzling my cheek.
I straightened up and turned to Mia. Her face was streaked with tears and there was dirt on her sweater from rolling on the floor.
“You did great,” I said, putting my hands on her shoulders. I had to stop and swallow back the surge of emotions that suddenly hit me. “What were you doing in the building? I thought you and your father were in Minneapolis?”
“We came back a bit early. I realized that I’d left my sociology textbook here. I came in to get it just before you closed and then I got a text and I got held up.” She folded her arms over her chest. “I saw your fingers,” she said.
I smiled. “I knew you would.”
“And when you yelled, ‘Stop, drop and roll,’ I didn’t even think. I just did it.”
I nodded. “That’s what I was hoping.”
She looked over at the door. “He killed Grandpa.”
I folded her into my arms. “I’m sorry,” I said.
“What if he gets up before the police get here?” she asked.
I let go of her with one arm and reached into the bed of the truck to pull out one of the hockey sticks. Given how hard I’d hit Victor with that atlas I didn’t think he was going to be getting up very quickly, but if he did, I was going to be ready.
“If he does,” I said, “I’m going to show him my slap shot.” I heard the sirens then. I kept Mia against my side with one arm and held my hockey stick with the other.
It was only minutes before the first police car pulled to a stop in front of the building. Marcus’s SUV fishtailed to the curb right behind it. He got out, said something to the uniformed officer and then came striding across the grass to us.
“Are you all right?” he said, putting a hand on my arm and studying my face.
“I’m okay,” I said, giving him a small smile. It was so good to see his face.
He turned to Mia. “What about you? You okay?”
She nodded. “Kathleen saved us,” she said.
Owen meowed loudly from the seat behind us. He wasn’t about to let his contribution not be acknowledged.
Mia turned and smiled at him. “And Owen, too.”
“Victor . . . killed his brother,” I said.
“I know,” Marcus said. “I just got off the phone with his health insurance provider. We finally got a judge to give us a subpoena.”
Suddenly I understood why Leo had wanted to talk to Harry’s ex-wife. “He’s not sick.”
Marcus shook his head. “No, he isn’t.” He glanced over at the building. The paramedics had arrived and were on their way inside.