The First Days (As the World Dies #1)(97)

"And you shouldn't," he assured her. He kissed her forehead and drew away.

She rubbed her face and then ran her hands over her T-shirt to smooth it out as she tried to regain her composure. Right now, she couldn't fully examine his words or try to deal with them, but they had hit a harsh chord within her.

"You didn't come in here to calm me down from a nightmare," she said after a beat.

"Yeah, we have a situation. It's not going to be pleasant. Someone threw Ritchie over the wall, bound and gagged."

Katie dropped her hands. "What?"

Travis looked at her sadly. "He's out there, in the street, staring up at the city hall. He's not moving, just staring. He's pretty much eaten away, but you can tell it was him."

"Oh, gawd, that's awful," Katie gasped.

"Yeah. And I have to go find Juan. He's suspect number one, followed by Curtis."

Katie shook her head. "No, no, I don't believe either one of them would do that."

"Yeah, but Bill is investigating so we need to find Juan," Travis answered grimly.

"He's with Jenni," Katie said.

"Yeah, so I thought you should come with me."

"Okay, let’s go."

Their walk across the construction site was uneventful. It was early morning and many people were up at breakfast or still asleep. The sun was barely up and a thick mist, two feet deep, drifted over the ground. As they walked, Katie glanced toward Travis and saw absolute devastation written on his features. He was taking a lot of hard knocks and she knew she was part of it.

She was struggling hard against her internal turmoil. Never had she felt so conflicted. Well, actually, she had, back in high school when she had come out as a staunch lesbian and had endured much vilification at the hands of her former friends. Cheerleaders were not gay. And then in her senior year, she and her girlfriend had broken up and Katie had unexpectedly fallen in love with her first boyfriend. It had been a huge relief to her parents and her friends, but it had thrown her a little. But she had been young and embraced her boyfriend with all the love and passion she had embraced her girlfriend.

When he had started pushing her to have sex with another girl with him watching, that had ended their relationship. He had been pleasant enough, but she despised him for trying to use her sexuality just for his pleasure.

But with her first boyfriend and girlfriend behind her, she had felt secure in the knowledge that she could love a person for who they were. A series of girlfriends and boyfriends had followed. This had thrown her family and made her mother especially upset. But Katie had been fine with it. It hadn't been easy though. Some of the lesbian community thought she was a lesbian in denial or just confused. The straight community often just wanted to portray her as promiscuous. More than one guy she had dated had expressed delight at the thought of threesomes only to have her apartment door shut on him for good. There had been the good, solid boyfriends who had just not worked out. There had been the good solid girlfriends who had not worked out.

Then there had been Lydia.

She was jarred out of her thoughts by Travis suddenly jolting to one side as someone passed them. He looked shaken and took a breath.

"Waking nightmare?"

Travis noticed. "Yeah. I wish they would go away. I'm afraid one day I'm going to shoot someone thinking they are one of those things or not shoot one of those things thinking I'm imagining it."

Katie rested her hand on his shoulder. "We're both pretty screwed up, huh?"

Travis laughed bitterly. "Who isn't?"

Entering the building, they made their way up to the floor where Katie and Jenni roomed with Jason. The door was closed and Katie tapped lightly on it.

"Uh…"

"Jenni, it’s me."

"Okay, come in."

Katie opened the door to find Jenni sitting on her cot in a red tank top and shorts. Juan was in his jeans, lying down with his hands behind his neck.

Jenni was eating a small fruit cup and looked flushed and rather happy.

"Um, hi," Jenni said with a giggle.

Juan noticed Travis expression and sat up quickly. "What's wrong?"

"Someone bound and gagged Ritchie and tossed him over the wall."

"Who?"

"No one knows, but you're a suspect. So is Curtis."

"I was with Jenni," Juan said.

"Obviously," Katie said with a slight smile.

Jenni frowned as she chewed her fruit. "He was. All night. We barely slept."

Travis looked down and blushed slightly. "Okay, so he has an alibi, but Bill will want to talk to you both about it."

Jenni stood up and waved her plastic spoon at Travis. "How could anyone think that Juan would do something like that?"

"Because he sort of tried his best to take Ritchie out last night," Travis answered.

Jenni sighed. "Yeah, true."

Juan pulled on his boots and reached for his shirt. "Fine, I'll go defend myself. But this is bullshit. What is Bill going to do to whoever got rid of that piece of shit?"

Travis ran his hands over his hair. "I have no clue. Hell, how do we handle a murder? Or any crime?"

Juan tugged on his shirt as Jenni scrambled to slide into her jeans, pulling them on over her shorts. "Travis, you know me. I would not do this."