Almost Dead (Lizzy Gardner #5)(53)

“Well, all we can do is warn these people,” Lizzy said. “Tell them we believe it’s a woman and that she’s used a variety of ways to kill and make it look like an accident.”

“That’s exactly what I did. I read off the list of people who’ve died. I told them everything I knew, told them not to eat anything they didn’t cook themselves. The rest is up to them.” Kitally sighed. “As long as they’re aware of their surroundings, stay alert, and keep their doors and windows locked, they should have a fighting chance, right?”

Lizzy shrugged. The fact was, no matter how careful they were—how careful any of them were, every last one of them was vulnerable as hell. She thought of Shelby Geitner. There was no way Shelby hadn’t been careful, and it hadn’t mattered. She’d still been taken. Lizzy closed her eyes and curled around the painful ball of impotent rage that seemed to be growing inside her, day by day.

“Hayley suggested we keep an eye on some of these people,” Kitally said. “Maybe we can catch this woman in the act.”

Lizzy forced herself to open her eyes, take a breath. “As long as the two of you work together, I’m not opposed to that idea.”





CHAPTER 37

Kitally followed the light-blue Toyota Yaris into the parking lot of a discount market, parked in the next lane where they would have a clear shot of the car, and shut off the engine.

Hayley sat in the passenger seat and breathed in that new car smell everyone always got all worked up about. She didn’t understand the appeal. It just smelled like rubber and leather.

“Mindy Graft was just warned that someone might be after her,” Kitally said. “Someone armed and dangerous, and she didn’t even bother to lock her car.”

They watched the woman stroll toward the store.

Hayley shrugged. “I don’t think any of these people are taking the threat on their life too seriously.”

“I wasn’t able to reach Gary Perdue. We should drive by his place later if we have time.”

“Where does he live?”

“Auburn.”

“Let’s watch Mindy’s car until she comes back. Make sure the woman calling Lizzy isn’t watching her, too.”

Hayley looked around the parking lot until her gaze settled on a black Land Rover. A woman was sitting in the driver’s seat. Hayley was about to go check the license plate number when the woman got out, opened the back of the car, and pulled out a stroller. “Lizzy said the woman should be in her early thirties and single. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s correct.”

Hayley forgot about the woman with the baby and continued her search through a sea of cars. Nothing unusual.

“So, what do you do late at night when you’re out walking the streets of Sacramento?” Kitally asked.

“Just keeping an eye on a few people.”

“What sort of people?”

“Bad people. Evil people. Just making sure they’re staying out of trouble.”

“What happens if they’re not staying out of trouble—if they do something you don’t like?”

“I give them a few warnings—let them know they’re being watched.”

“You can’t watch every loser in town.”

“No, I can’t. That’s why I keep the number to a minimum. And I have rules.”

“Wow, you’re really serious about this, aren’t you?”

Hayley pushed a strand of hair out of her face and kept her focus on the parking lot.

“What sort of rules?”

“I wouldn’t bother teaching them a lesson unless I was sure they couldn’t be rehabilitated any other way.”

“How could you possibly know?”

“I just know.”

“You sound like a vigilante.”

“I guess if you have to label it—”

A siren broke into their exchange, growing louder as an ambulance with flashing warning lights pulled in front of the store.

“What the hell?” Hayley got out of the car and started jogging that way with Kitally on her heels.

The back of the ambulance flew open. Two men in white grabbed a stretcher and headed inside the store.

Hayley tried to follow them inside but was stopped by store security.

It wasn’t long before a woman was brought out on the stretcher. There was an oxygen mask on her face and a tube in her arm.

“Mindy Graft?” Kitally asked.

“No.”

Hayley heard panic in a medic’s voice as he called for backup.

A police car pulled up next to the ambulance, leaving enough room for the medics to do what needed to be done.

Countless sirens sounded in the distance. A fire truck pulled into the parking lot, followed by two more emergency vehicles.

People were coming out of the store now. Many of them were talking on their cell phones; some were crying, others running for their cars.

“What the hell happened in there?” Kitally asked nobody in particular.

A police officer used a bullhorn to tell people to back away from the front of the store. If they weren’t waiting for someone inside, they were to leave the vicinity immediately. Nobody would be allowed inside.

Not too far away, a man was talking loudly, recounting to a police officer everything he’d seen. Before he’d entered the store, there was a woman standing near the entrance passing out brownie samples. She said she was opening a bakery and was doing a little test marketing. He hadn’t eaten all morning, so he tried to get one, but someone else snatched the last one before he could get a bit of brownie for himself. He said that the woman who was brought out on the stretcher was one of the people who he’d seen eat a sample. When the officer asked for a description, the man said she was a white lady with red curly hair. She wore plastic gloves, which he thought made sense since she was dealing with food. He couldn’t see her eyes because she had on a pair of dark oversized sunglasses. She wore a long dress and was heavyset.