He’d forgive her for fucking Bobby. He’d ask her again and insist she be honest. He had to know but whatever she said, he’d forgive her.
He stripped his shirt off and kneaded his belly. Still a bit of excess skin from where he lost all that weight. But he’d kept the fat off, at least.
Anything for Kayleigh.
Should he take a shower too? No. He’d taken one that morning. Besides, she’d have to get used to having him on top of, or behind, her whenever he was in the mood, whether he was clean or not.
She was his wife, after all.
He turned on the radio and caught the news. It seemed the police hadn’t gone with the innocent interpretation of Kayleigh’s disappearance. Pike Madigan’s voice was explaining solemnly about the kidnapping and alerting people that it was likely that Edwin Sharp and Kayleigh Towne were on their way west, heading toward the Monterey area.
“We don’t know the vehicle they’re in, but go to the website we’ve set up and you can find Sharp’s picture.”
Ah, I knew I could count on you, Sally, you lying little slut. He wondered momentarily who’d gotten her to talk. Kathryn Dance came to mind. Had to be her.
Of course, the diversion about Monterey would buy them only so much time. They’d have to move but this place would be safe for a month or so. Kayleigh had said she liked Austin. Maybe they’d go there next. It was Texas; there had to be wildernesses to hide out in. But then she also had commented in her “On the Road” blog that she liked Minnesota. That might be a better place, especially when she had the baby. The weather would be cooler. Tough to be pregnant in the heat, he imagined.
Babies …
Edwin had Googled that cycle thing about women’s bodies. He wondered where Kayleigh was with that. Then decided it didn’t matter. They’d make love at least every other night, if not more. He’d hit the target sooner or later.
He undid his jeans, slipping his hand into his Jockeys, though he didn’t need any preparation there.
Then the shower water stopped. She’d be toweling off now. He pictured her body. He decided to establish a rule that they had to walk around the trailer naked. They’d only get dressed when they went outside.
Inhaling deeply, he smelled the sweet scent of shampoo fragrance on the humid air.
“Edwin,” Kayleigh said, a playful tone. “I made myself ready for you. Come look.”
Grinning, he walked to the doorway and found her in front of the bathroom door, fully clothed.
Edwin Sharp blinked. Then the smile vanished and he cried out in horror.
Chapter 76
“NO, NO, NO! What’d you do?”
She’d found tiny blunt-end fingernail scissors in the vanity kit he’d bought. TSA approved for air travel and therefore safe.
But they would still cut. And that’s just what she’d done with them: she’d sheared off all her hair.
“No!” He stared in horror at the pile of glistening blond strands on the bathroom floor as if looking at the body of a loved one.
“Kayleigh!”
A two-to three-inch mop of ragged fringe covered her head. She hadn’t showered at all, she’d spent the ten minutes destroying her beautiful hair.
In a mad singsong, she mocked, “What’s the matter, Edwin? Don’t you like me now? Don’t you want to stalk me anymore? … It doesn’t matter, does it? You love me, right? It doesn’t matter what I look like.”
“No, no, of course not. It’s just …” He thought he’d be sick. He was thinking, how long does it take for hair to grow?
Ten years, four months …
She could wear a hat. No, he hated women in hats.
“I think it looks like you care a lot. In fact, you look real upset, Edwin.”
“Why, Kayleigh? Why did you do it?”
“To show you the truth. You love the girl on the album covers, on CMT, on the videos and the posters. In Entertainment Weekly. You don’t love me at all. Remember that day we were alone in the theater in Fresno? You said my voice and hair were the best things about me.”
Maybe he could find somebody to take her hair and make a wig until it grew back. How could he do that, though? They’d recognize him, they’d report him. No, no, no, no, no! What was he going to do?
Kayleigh taunted, “You want to fuck me now? Now that I look like a boy?”
He walked forward slowly, staring at the pile of hair.
“Here!” she screamed and grabbed a handful, flung it at him. It flowed to the floor and Edwin dropped to his knees, desperately grabbing at the strands.
“I knew it,” she muttered contemptuously, backing into the bathroom. “You don’t know me. You don’t have a clue who I am.”
And then he got angry too. And the answer to her question was, Yes, I do know. You’re the bitch I’m going to fuck in about sixty seconds.
He started to rise. Then saw something in her hand. What—? Oh, it was just a cup. It had to be plastic. There wasn’t anything inside that could be broken or made into a knife.
He’d thought of that.
But one thing he hadn’t thought of.
What the cup held:
Ammonia, from under the sink. She’d filled it to the brim.
The cut hair wasn’t a message or a lesson. It was a distraction.
He tried to turn away but Kayleigh stepped forward fast and flung the chemical straight into his face; it spread up his nose, into his mouth. He managed to save his eyes by half a second, though the fumes slipped up under his lids and burned like red-hot steel. He cried at the pain, pain worse than any he’d ever felt. Pain as a creature, an entity, a thing within his body.
Screaming, falling backward, wiping frantically at his face. Anything to get away! Choking, gasping, coughing.
It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!
Then more pain as she hit him hard in the throat, the wound where he’d fired the bullet into his own neck.
He screamed again.