Free Katia's Promise by Catherine Lanigan Page B

every last lace top and pencil skirt. However, she had to consider the cost of boxes and the extra space they’d take up in the moving van.
    Wandering to the back of the closet, Katia found plastic zipper cases that contained scarves, gloves and winter hats. She pulled them out and placed them with the other items she would take in her car. Returning to the closet, she looked up and noticed a wooden box she hadn’t seen in years. Decades.
    It was a box Austin had given her for her twelfth birthday. She hadn’t thought of it in ages, and suddenly here it was, as if appearing by fate.
    Or dumb luck.
    Katia went to the bed, sat down and opened the box. She gasped and felt her heart trip in her chest. Two white origami birds nearly sprang out of the box as if they’d been set free from a cage.
    “Austin...” She said his name with the kind of emotion and awe she had once felt. He’d made them for her the day after she’d skinned both knees learning to ride his old bike. She’d only been ten years old, and his racing bike had been too big for her. He’d been patient with her despite his apparent disdain for the job, which had been thrust on him by his father. Katia had fallen after wobbling along Maple Avenue for a block. Katia had not sobbed, but tears had streamed down her cheeks. It was the first time Austin had seen her cry.
    The next day, he’d given her the birds as a symbol of her bravery. She’d thought they were lovebirds.
    She found other treasures in the box. A tarnished silver locket he’d given her for Christmas the following year. She found movie-ticket stubs, a pin from the county fair and folded notes that he used to slip under her door announcing yet another tennis game that he expected her to play. She found a small notebook in which she’d tallied all their tennis scores. She’d marked how many times he beat her and how many times she’d come close to besting him. She found a key chain that had a little tennis racket...attached to a key.
    Katia’s hand froze as she held the key up to the light.
Austin’s front door key
.
    Was it possible that the key still fit? Surely, in all these years, he’d changed the locks.
    Or had he? Katia continued to look at the key. Austin was a man of routine. He didn’t like change. He clung to the past as if the future would set him on fire. The chances were strong that the key might still work.
    She wrapped her fingers around it possessively.
    Maybe not so dumb luck
.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    A FTER HER ARRIVAL in Indian Lake, Katia continued to phone Austin at home, but now her calls simply went unanswered. She guessed Austin had caller ID and that both he and Daisy were ignoring her. By the next day, he’d have her on his blocked-caller list.
    There was no other strategy for her to take than the obvious one.
    Katia stood at Austin’s front door and pressed the bell. She heard the familiar, elegant Westminster chimes play. She’d thought they were lovely when she was a child, but now she found them pretentious.
    It was dinnertime, but Katia hoped Austin had not begun eating yet. She had to talk to him about the insurance for his museum. Jack was expecting a great deal from her, and there was no time like the present to get started.
    Katia had also chosen to show up now because Maddie Strong had told her that Austin spent his days at the plant and left his office at the same time as his employees, around six. It was now six-thirty, quite dark, and even from the front steps, she could smell something like roast beef and garlic wafting from inside the house.
    Katia had walked from Mrs. Beabots’s house so that Austin wouldn’t see her car pull up. If he’d seen her rental the other day, she didn’t want to give away her presence before she had a chance to talk to him. Even if he hadn’t seen the car, the Illinois license plate might give her away, especially since she’d told Daisy that she’d been living in Chicago. She knew Austin probably had
that
piece of