Hide 'N Seek (31 page)

Markie couldn’t believe it. Melanie was crashing at Sydney’s place. No wonder they couldn’t find her. No one thought of looking for her at Sydney’s apartment. Why would they?

No sane person would do what Melanie had done. She wasn’t exactly playing with a full deck of cards now was she?

She washed her face and brushed her teeth. Beck had brought in the tooth bush from the guest bathroom she had used on her last visit. She didn’t want to think of the implications or Beck for that matter.

Melanie crashing at Sydney’s apartment concerned her more. Why? Because Melanie knew someone would find her and it would get back to Markie. The woman wanted a showdown.

Her killing spree ends now Markie vowed dropping the phone in her bag. She reached behind to zip her dress and felt Beck’s hand against her bare back.

He zipped up the dress while looking at her in the bathroom mirror. “Good morning.” He kissed her neck.

She hadn’t heard when he entered the bathroom. How could she? The bathroom was the size of her entire house. Her skin was still tingling from where he had kissed her.

“I have to go,” she said abruptly.

He frowned. She knew he wanted to talk about last night and probably a whole lot more by the look on his face. They had no future together and the more she kept entertaining the idea the harder it was going to be to walk away.

“I thought we could talk about us this morning,” Beck said running his finger along her arm. “Maybe finish what we started last night.”

She grabbed her brush from her bag and started brushing her hair. She didn’t want to talk. Had no time to talk.

“Not now. I need to use the washroom.”

Markie closed the door when he stepped out. She turned on the tap ran her hands under the water, then combed wet fingers through her hair and brushed again. When she came out of the washroom, Beck was waiting by the door.

“We need to talk.”

It looked like this time he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. He put his arm out blocking her exit from the bathroom.

“I have to go to work.” She ducked under his arm.

“Marklynn?”

“I have to go,” she said on her way out the front door. “I’ll call you later.”

•  •  •

“Tell me Markie is with you,” Jamie said when Beck answered. “She’s not picking up her cell phone. Carlos is at her house. She’s not there.”

“She left about ten minutes ago,” Beck said hiding his disappointment. He had hoped it was Marklynn calling to say she’d changed her mind. That was wishful thinking. When she made up her mind, she rarely changed it.

He had wanted them to talk about their relationship, but she didn’t seem interested. Maybe she didn’t care about him at all.

“Did she say where she was going?”

“Work. Is there a problem?”

Beck picked up on the urgency in Jamie’s voice, putting the milk back in the refrigerator, breakfast forgotten.

“What’s going on?”

The only thing he could think of was that Melanie had found a way back into the network.

“If you call someone trying to hack into Brooks Investigations network a problem then I’d say we have a big one.”

Beck cursed. “Melanie is going after Marklynn.”

“That’s what I figured,” Jamie said. “Are you sure she said she was coming into the office?”

“She didn’t mention the office. She got a call, said she was going to work and left.”

“Think, Beck. Who was she talking to? A man or woman.”

“I don’t know.”

“Did you hear what she was saying?”

“I got bits and pieces of the conversation. I think she was talking about Sydney. She mentioned the hospital and something about staying away from the apartment.”

“She’s on her way to Sydney’s place,” Jamie concluded. “Why would—”

Fear gripped Beck. “Melanie.”

“I’ll meet you there.”

•  •  •

Markie reached for her cell phone to punch in O’Malley’s number when she stopped at the traffic light at the end of Beck’s Street and realized it was turned off. She didn’t remember turning it off. She turned it on and saw the message icon. When she scrolled the directory she saw the missed calls from Jamie and Beck. She would deal with that later.

She called and got O’Malley’s voice mail. She left a message to let him know she was on her way to Sydney’s and for him to meet her there.

Twenty minutes later she was parked across from Sydney’s building. She made a quick call to O’Malley again, but didn’t bother leaving a message.

Markie checked her gun then dropped it in her handbag. After she scanned the street, she made her way towards the building.

The building was quiet. There was no one in either the lobby or the corridor as she tiptoed quietly down the concrete hall to Sydney’s apartment. Using her key, she opened the door slowly, listening before entering the unit.

Melanie had removed the chain lock. Markie wasn’t sure if that was because Melanie had left or she was in hiding. Either way, she was not going to underestimate the woman and pulled out her gun.

Who would have thought Melanie would have ended up at Sydney’s place?

Melanie wanted a showdown. She wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble if she didn’t. It was clear to Markie that only one of them would walk out of the apartment alive and she’d decided it was going to be her.

The apartment was quiet. Too quiet. Like the crucial scene in the movie when the music swelled then all hell broke loose. And then it did.

Melanie rushed out of the bedroom firing her weapon. A bullet zinged by Markie’s head and lodged into the door. Markie hit the floor hard landing on her stomach with a grunt. More bullets splintered the door. She rolled for cover behind the sofa and lost a shoe in the process then kicked off the other one.

“You ruined everything!” The woman screamed.

“What did I ruin, Melanie?” Markie figured if she distracted Melanie enough with conversation she might get a clear shot off instead of feeling like a trapped animal.

Markie was pretty much running on adrenalin and her only thought was trying to stay alive.

“My name is Monika.”

“Monika is dead.”

Markie belly crawled to the corner of the sofa to see where Melanie was, but the woman fired again. That was how many shots? She tired to count how many shots Melanie had fire, but it wasn’t working. Stick to psychology, she told herself. Keep her talking.

“She’s dead because she didn’t protect you. Isn’t that right? She left you.”

“Shut up!” The woman hissed. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I think I do, but you didn’t have to kill Malcolm,” Markie said and tried to do a belly crawl to the front door. That idea was scrapped when she heard Melanie moving towards her and rolled back to the sofa.

“He loved you,” Markie said continuing to engage Melanie in conversation.

“He loved sex. Just like…like…”

“Your father,” Markie finished for her. “Monika and Malcolm didn’t hurt you. It was your father.”

“Shut up!” She said and fired off another shot.

Markie had never felt such hatred as she did for anyone at that moment than she did for Mr. Daniels. This was the result of his handiwork. Melanie was a very angry and confused woman. He was supposed to be her father, her protector. Her mother did nothing to help her as well. There was no one to protect her.

“What happened when Monika visited you at the hospital? Is that when you decided to kill her?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Why did you kill her? She was your sister.”

“She said we could be together, but I had to get better first. There’s nothing wrong with me.”

“You killed Malcolm,” Markie said inching towards the door again.

“He deserved to die.”

“What about your sister?” Then Markie remembered what O’Malley had told her. “Monika wasn’t on the boat when you blew it up.”

“That was her idea. She wanted to get even with Dalton. We faked her death so he would be blamed for it. It would have worked, but she changed her mind wanting to go back to him. I told her it would be okay that I wouldn’t fail like the car accident.”

“You’re responsible for Beck’s hit and run?”

“Monika freaked when I told her. I couldn’t let her leave me again and go back to him. She deserved to die.”

“Why? Because she loved him?”

“She had everything and didn’t know how to keep it. That was her fault. I have everything now. I’m Monika. With you out of the way Dalton and I will be together.”

Markie had to give her head a shake. Melanie didn’t know who she was. It was as if she was Monika one minute and Melanie the next. She wasn’t going to get her hands on Beck. Not if Markie had anything to say about it and she had plenty.

“I love Beck and you can’t have him,” Markie said. “I won’t let you hurt him either.”

“No!”

Markie pushed her head up above the sofa back just as Melanie lunged towards her over the sofa. She fell backwards taking Melanie with her.

Stars, in a rainbow of colors exploded behind Markie’s eyelids. Giving her head a quick shake to clear it, she rolled to a squat on her feet, her hand sweeping the floor to find her gun.

“Did you lose something?” Melanie was pointing the gun at Markie’s head. She felt the cold steel against her forehead. The woman was quick on her feet.

Markie felt something trickling down at the corner of her mouth and wiped at it with the back of her hand. Blood. Out of the corner of her eye she scanned the floor and saw her gun sticking out from under the sofa.

“Get up! Move.” She shoved Markie towards the bedroom when she stood up slowly. “You’re going to die like the rest of them.”

Markie stumbled and turned towards Melanie. “You don’t want to do this, Melanie.”

“It’s Monika! What makes you think—”

Markie hiked up her dress swung her right leg in a semicircular motion. Striking with her foot in a roundhouse high kick, her foot connected with Melanie’s chin. Melanie went down with a thud on the floor. Before she could recover, Markie dove for her gun scraping her knees against the parquet floor. Her gun trained on Melanie.

Anyone would have stayed down with that blow, not Melanie. She grabbed her gun and sprang to her feet. Whatever drug she was on, she was higher than a kite.

“It doesn’t have to end like this, Melanie. Drop your weapon and we can both walk out of here. I can get you the help you need. I promise.”

Melanie laughed. “I don’t want your help.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

Markie had seen the eyes of death before in the boy at the gas station, and they were staring at her again. She fired one shot through the heart and Melanie fell back against the bookshelf. She also saw the boy’s face again at the gas station as he cried out in pain and fell back onto the glass wall. She would now see two faces in the dark at night.

It was so quiet she could hear herself breathe. Her hand started to shake as she looked down at the gun in her hand.

Markie dropped down on the floor on her knees staring at the woman’s body, her heart still pounding in her chest. A large red stain formed on Melanie’s white T-shirt. Markie turned her heard quickly towards the door when she heard voices. She raised her gun and aimed at the door. Then it busted open.

It was O’Malley, Jamie, and Beck with a terrified look on his face.

•  •  •

“Are you okay?” Beck rushed to her side. He was looking at the blood smeared on her hand. He knelt down and his hand went to her face. She moved her head away from his touch.

“I’m fine,” she said, her voice hoarse. Her eyes shifted to Melanie’s body.

Jamie tapped Beck on the shoulder and he got up. He whispered something in Beck’s ear and they both moved towards the door in conversation.

“She’s dead,” O’Malley said as he got up from over Melanie’s body. Six officers appeared at the front door. They were the same officers involved in the raid at Melanie’s place. One of the officers extended a hand to help her up off the floor. She looked over at O’Malley. “Booker doesn’t speak for everyone.”

She took the officer’s hand. “Thank you.”

“You haven’t been formally introduced,” O’Malley said. “Parker say hello to Marklynn Brooks.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am. You alright?” Parker asked after seeing all the bullet holes in the door.

She nodded. After she’d given her statement to Parker, O’Malley said, “Go home. We don’t need you anymore. We can take it from here.”

“Thanks.”

“I’ll drive you home,” Beck volunteered. He picked up her handbag from the floor and handed it to her.

He’d stood by the door watching while she’d given her statement as if he was her protector. Markie didn’t want him to take her home. She was not in the mood for a discussion. She wanted to be alone.

“That’s not necessary.”

“I just want to take you home. That’s all. Okay?”

She nodded and walked out of the apartment praying that her legs wouldn’t buckle under her. He held out his hand for the keys she retrieved from her purse and handed them to him. Their hands touched, their eyes met. Warm kind eyes.

All she had to do was to reach out to him and he would hold her. She saw it in his eyes. She needed to be held. But she didn’t want to reach out to him. History had taught her that when you reach out you get burnt.

It was a little after one in the afternoon when they made their way from Cambridge towards Quincy. The sun had disappeared behind the clouds and it started to rain. A song by the Manhattans,
Kiss and Say Goodbye
played on the radio and she turned it off.

The only thing she could hear after that was the whistling noise coming from the engine caused by a crack in the drive belt. It needed to be replaced. The mechanic had told her so the last time it was in the shop.

She could do that tomorrow and started planning her schedule because she didn’t want to think about the shooting. Maybe if she dropped it off first thing in the morning she could get a rental then head over to the hospital. Sydney was being released tomorrow.

Markie didn’t want to think about Beck either, but it was hard since he kept staring at her every time he stopped at a traffic light or slowed down. What did she tell Melanie?
I love him and you can’t have him
.