Free Unforgettable by P J Gilbers Page A

shook his
head.
    “ We’re fairly certain he’s
hanging around your apartment. In fact we almost caught him
yesterday.”
    “ You want me to go back to
the apartment.”
    “ Your good friend Roger has
volunteered to go with you. You might have to hang out a while.
We’d have the place staked out like crazy. But, there’s always
risk.”
    “ No.” Jack was leaning
against the wall.
    I looked at Roger.
    “ You don’t have to do this.
It’s a risk. He’s a big man. An evil man. More evil than you will
ever meet again.”
    “ I know, Sam. I insisted. I
volunteered. Marines are always first.” he whispered.
    I walked into the house but Jack
grabbed me.
    “ Don’t do this, baby. One
stab. One shot. That’s all it will take.”
    Silverman stood up.
    “ What she knows, Mr. Nolan,
is that he won’t kill her quickly. He’ll take his time to kill
her…but we won’t let him.”
    Roger, Jack and Fritz were all
downstairs waiting for me.
    “ Gloria and three more of
our team are already over there.”
    I nodded.
    “ You and I are a couple,”
Roger told me. “I’m wired. Gloria will be close, the police will be
there but undercover. We need to make a lot of noise. See what
happens. You ready for this?”
    “ Yes.”
    Roger walked out but Jack took my hand.
He walked me into the dining room, sat on the table and pulled me
to him.
    “ I have to go…they’re all
waiting.”
    He nodded.
    “ What’s your favorite
dessert?”
    “ Chocolate chip mint ice
cream.”
    He played with the ruffle on my blouse,
barely touching my breasts.
    “ That’s mine, too. Better
come back real soon or I’ll eat it all.”
    I patted his chest, kissed his nose,
and grinned.
    Roger and I drove Jack’s SUV. I felt
small and cold.
    We seemed to get there much too
fast.
    “ Happy, happy,” he smiled.
He was such a cute little soldier.
    Roger walked around the car and hugged
me, giving me a big kiss.
    “ Smile,” he whispered. “I
hear we’re going on a picnic.”
    “ Picnic. Right. Just put
some clothes…just a few…in a bag and pack a lunch. Then we’ll
leave. And no thread in the door.”
    “ You knew about the thread
in the door?”
    “ Absolutely. Good technique
but you were a bit obvious with it.”
    I opened the door. The apartment was
hot so I turned on the small unit in the wall.
    “ In about an hour it’ll be a
few degrees cooler.”
    He laughed.
    “ I don’t care sweetie,” he
slapped me on the ass, “as long as I’m here with you. Can’t wait to
get to the beach.”
    I gave him a boy-am-I-going-to-get-you
look and nodded.
    The frig was almost empty but I made
sandwiches out of very old cheese and moldy bread.
    “ HideeHo
neighbor.”
    The short blonde man from last week
came in carrying a heavy metal tray with cupcakes.
    “ Sandra, right? Julio made
these last night—I cook and clean and he bakes. Aren’t they
wonderful? He never gains an ounce. I like the pink
ones.”
    He had a shrill, annoying
laugh.
    “ The blue and yellow are
good, too. But I just can’t gain one more pound so I saw you and
this gorgeous hunk of meat… You work fast, honey. Where’d you get
him?”
    The man brushed against Roger, saw his
weapon, and smashed the tray of cupcakes in Roger’s face. He pulled
an ice pick out of his pocket and stabbed Roger in the upper thigh.
Roger screamed.
    I jumped on the man’s back and squeezed
his throat, pulling back as hard as I could. The man collapsed,
choking and gasping. Before I knew what was happening Roger punched
him in the side of the head. He dropped like a fat
raindrop.
    “ Move in!” Roger
screamed.

Gloria was there first followed quickly
by Detective Silverman and two others. Silverman called for an
ambulance.
    I pressed on Roger’s thigh as blood
pulsed out of his leg. He was getting more and more
pale.
    “ He hit an artery,” I told
Gloria.
    “ Yup.”
    Gloria took off her belt and tied a
tourniquet around his leg. The bleeding lessened but Roger was
getting