She drove around, aimlessly at first, then purposefully, past the places that had meant so much to them. Where they first met, where they had their first date, where they were when Alex told Bonnie for the first time that she loved her and where they had first made love. Each stop along the way restored her faith in herself and in them until there was no place else to go but home.
She turned onto their street, bright-eyed and singing one of their favorite love songs, the words catching in her throat when she saw Rossi’s car in their driveway. She folded onto the steering wheel as if she’d been kicked in the gut, stopping in the middle of the street, staring at her house, the life gone out of her, body and soul.
At first Alex thought Rossi was there to harass Bonnie once again. She hoped Bonnie would tell Rossi that they’d broken up so that Rossi would leave Bonnie alone. Any chance of that happening would be lost if she walked in on them. And then she realized that it might be something worse. Convinced that Alex was going to destroy herself, Bonnie might have invited Rossi in an attempt to broker a deal to save her. It was just the sort of thing Bonnie would do: diagnose the patient’s condition and do the best she could to treat it, unaware that this time the cure was worse than the disease.
Crying, feeling like she’d been cut open from the inside out, Alex drove back to the Residence Inn and crawled into bed. She woke up at nine o’clock, not remembering falling asleep. She was groggy, her limbs felt rubbery, and though she wasn’t hungry, she knew she needed to eat, but first she needed to move, get her body working again, and that meant going for a run. Putting in five miles would perk her up. She changed into her running gear, laced up her shoes, tucked her cell phone and room key into a fanny pack, and went out into the night.
The temperature was perfect, in the low fifties. Standing on Main Street, she looked across at Penn Valley Park. Bonnie was right. The park was one of her favorite places, 176 acres of rolling hills with an off-leash dog park, baseball diamonds and tennis courts, the World War I Liberty Memorial, and, her favorite, the Scout, a ten-foot-tall statue of a Sioux Indian on horseback mounted on a limestone base and overlooking downtown Kansas City. She loved the simple majesty and power of the sculpture and the amazing view.
Alex didn’t share Bonnie’s concerns about running in Penn Valley Park at night but, nonetheless, stuck to Main, trotting north and taking advantage of the long descent down to Pershing Road to loosen up. She turned west onto Pershing, staying with it until she reached West Pennway, where she turned again, heading back south, the uphill grade payback for her downhill start on Main.
She was running easily as she started the climb, her arms and legs working together in a steady, fluid motion, her head upright, her chin level, her core holding everything together. There had been a lot of traffic on Main and on Pershing, but only a few cars passed her on West Pennway. South of Twenty-Sixth, the name of the street changed to Penn Valley Drive, signaling the beginning of its route through the park. She told herself that she wasn’t breaking her promise to Bonnie because, technically, she was running through the park, not in the park. The thought made her smile until she realized it would be a while before they’d have that conversation, if they ever had it.
Passing a small lake on her right, Alex forgot her promise and left the road, cutting across a wide grassy expanse enveloped in darkness, strong, sure strides carrying her up the gradual slope leading to the Scout. Her lungs swelled with each breath in, contracting with each breath out, in perfect rhythm with the beat of her heart. Sweat poured off her, cooled by the crisp night, her body in perfect harmony with earth and air, joyful at their union.
Alex could see the Scout a hundred yards ahead. It was illuminated at its base, the lights making the bronze shine in the dark. She sprinted as she got closer, the horse and rider looming larger and larger, her breath coming in deeper gulps, her heart pounding. An arm’s length away, she reached out to touch the limestone pedestal like she was breaking the tape at the finish line of a race, at once aware of furious footsteps behind her, coming out of nowhere, gaining on her, another runner’s labored breathing causing her to turn her head, but she was too late. She caught a glimpse of a black runner’s face mask, gasping at a flurry of quick, sharp pains in her back and something warm running down her legs, which had somehow given out on her. She dropped to her knees, collapsing facedown at the base of the statue, bewildered and bleeding.
She tried to cry out, but the sound died in her throat as her assailant pressed a knee into the base of her spine, tugging at her fanny pack and unzipping it. From the corner of her eye, she saw an object sail through the air, knowing it was her cell phone, feeling as helpless and untethered as if she’d been cast adrift in outer space. And then she was alone.
One hand braced against the stone base of the statue, she pulled herself up to her knees, clawing with both hands to get to her feet. Gingerly, she reached behind her, wincing as she found two wounds, uncertain whether there were more. Wiping blood on her leg, she staggered away from the statue, aiming herself toward where she thought her phone had landed, knowing she had little chance of finding it and even less chance of not bleeding to death if she didn’t.
She counted her steps as a way of maintaining her focus, telling herself that it was only a little farther, just another step, anyone can take one more step. Anyone. And then she couldn’t, her legs crumbling beneath her, the cool wet grass coming up to meet her. She lay still for a moment, eyes closed, opening them when she heard her phone ringing. Lifting her head, she saw it glowing ten feet away. She dragged herself to her knees, crawling to the phone, throwing herself the final distance and pulling it toward her. She rolled onto her back, fumbling with the touch screen until it opened.
“Alex? Alex? Are you there?” Bonnie asked.
Staring at the starlit sky, she said, “I’m sorry,” and then the world went black.
When she woke up, she was on a gurney surrounded by people wearing hospital scrubs as they rolled her into the emergency room at Truman Medical Center. She smiled when she heard Bonnie shout orders and closed her eyes again.
Four hours later, she was sitting up in bed, Bonnie at her side.
“How did you find me?”
“I called 911 and they traced your cell phone.”
She ran her tongue around the inside of her mouth and Bonnie gave her glass of water. She took a sip, marveling at how good it tasted.
“I was stabbed. Twice, I think.”
“Three times. You were very lucky. The wounds weren’t deep. Just soft tissue and some muscle damage. You’ve got enough stitches for some very lovely scars, and you’re going to be pretty sore for a while, but that’s it.”
Neither said anything, the silence awkward until Alex broke it.
“I was going to come home today.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I got as far as our street and I saw Rossi’s car in the driveway. I didn’t know what to think.”
“So now you know. We’re having an affair and he was fucking my brains out.”
Alex laughed, flinching at the pain. “Don’t do that. It hurts. What was I supposed to think?”
“What did you think?”
Alex looked away, her face flushed. “That either he was harassing you or that you were giving me up.”
“You know I would never do that. And he wasn’t harassing me. If anything, it was the other way around.”
Bonnie explained the scam she’d run on Rossi, threatening him with a lawsuit.
“I don’t think a lawsuit is going to scare Rossi. You think it will work?”
“We’ll see, but it wasn’t so much about the lawsuit. I gave him credit for being human and feeling guiltier about the men he’d killed than he’d like to admit. I wanted him to walk in your shoes and think about spending the next five years having people call him a murderer.”