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.”“Sorry.No problem.I don’t like Dairee Pops either.And the butterscotch one”—I put my finger on my tongue and made a gagging sound—“isn’t really all that good.Maybe some other time.If there’s nothing else I can get for you.” I made an exaggerated yawn.“I think I’ll just finish up and head home.”“Aren’t you going to charge me for the Slurpee?”I waved him off.“Professional discount.Uncle Frank always gives drinks on the house to folks in uniform.Thinks it’s the least he can do when they put their lives on the line day in, day out.”“Now, that is nice of Uncle Frank, isn’t it? Tell me, Tressa, do you share your uncle’s admiration for men in uniform?” The killer took a long, noisy drink of his Slurpee.I felt the noose tighten.“Uh, yeah, sure.My grandma’s father was the Chief of Police here in Grandville for years.But, of course, you knew that.”The killer nodded.“Of course.”“I can let you out the front door.” My stride was jerky and marionette-like as I made my way back to the short-order window.“I’ll just grab my key.”“That really won’t be necessary, Tressa.”“Oh, it’s no trouble at all.”I had almost reached the key ring, when it was snatched up by the Slurpee-sipping psycho.“Don’t forget your laundry,” he said.My mind drew a blank.No surprise, considering it was operating while under the influence of terror.“Laundry?”“In the back room.The machine is filled.Looks like you were just getting ready to add something else, maybe?”I shook my head.“I guess I just forgot to put the lid down.”“Really.” He took the keys and put them in his raincoat pocket.Although he wasn’t in uniform, I was under no illusions that he hadn’t come armed and dangerous.“You sure you didn’t want to add, oh, maybe this Bargain City vest in with the laundry? That’s a pretty bad stain there.” He’d moved beside the coat tree and my chest felt tighter than when I’d tried to pull on last year’s one-piece swimsuit.“Can you put reds in with dark blues?” I asked, falling back on good old ditz to save my skin.“They won’t bleed, will they?” If I could have managed to kick myself, I would have.My tormentor raised a brow and smiled.“So, you’re worried about bleeding?”“Uncle Frank would kill me,” I squeaked.Hell.I’d done it again.“Somehow, I don’t think you’re going to have to worry about that, Tressa.”The killer, my killer, reached into his pocket and pulled out these godawful, dark purple gloves like the ones my gynecologist wore the last time I had my yearly exam.I backed against the drive-up window wondering if it would break if I flung myself out it.Unfortunately, it didn’t look big enough for me to fit through.The killer put a hand in the pocket of my Bargain City vest and pulled out the manila envelope now as infamous to me as a certain black glove in a high profile double murder case which shall remain nameless.“You know, I’ve thought and thought about where this envelope could be.You sure seemed convincing when you said you didn’t have it, so at first I wasn’t certain.After Dennis died, I thought I could put this all to rest and move on, but the thought of that damned or, rather, damning envelope being out there somewhere, just kept eating at me.And the more I thought about it, the more I had to find it.So I went back to that first night and replayed everything in my head, and when I saw you wearing the red vest earlier today, that’s when I remembered.You were wearing the red vest the night you found poor Peyton Palmer.So, I waited for an opportunity to get you and the red vest alone, and here we are.” He put the envelope in his coat pocket along with my keys.“And now, Tressa, it’s time to conclude this rather unpleasant business.Once and for all.”I pressed against the drive-up window and began to beat on it, screaming for help as I pounded.With steady rain still coming down, there wasn’t a car on the street.It never failed.The one time I actually wanted a customer at the Dairee Freeze drive-up, everyone was either staying home or eating at Mickey D’s.“Listen,” I tried to reason with someone who, I feared, had lost all reason.“You’re sworn to protect life, not take it!”He laughed.“I am protecting life.Mine.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a rather wicked-looking knife, similar to the ones Uncle Frank uses to slice and dice.“Let’s take a walk, Tressa.”“I’d rather not.You see, I don’t have my new walking shoes on.”I was about to do something incredibly brave and daring, like dive head-first through the drive-up window when the drive-up buzzer sounded.I jumped a city block.It was then I realized that I was still wearing the space cadet remote headphone paraphernalia designed so I could hear the drive-up customer and he could hear me, but the restaurant clientele wasn’t treated to the static, crackling, and popping of the mechanism.I stole a look at my knife-wielding assailant.He appeared not to have heard.“You won’t have far to walk,” he said.I took a deep breath, knowing my life could very well depend on the words that came out of my mouth in the next few moments.Oh, brudder.In that case, pick out a tasteful headstone, Ma and Pa.Nothing gaudy.No more than two, maybe three angels, at most.“Where do you want me to walk?” I said, enunciating every word.“The back room will do fine.”“Do you really plan to kill me with that big long knife you’re holding?”“What’s wrong with your voice? You sound funny.”“Fear, I guess.Terror transmitting itself into my voice.After all, you’ve admitted to murdering two people.We’re locked in here together.You have a knife.You want me to go for a walk into the back room so you can use that knife on me.” I hoped the doofus on the other end of the drive-up transmission wasn’t busy making out with his girlfriend and had missed my SOS.“Something’s wrong.”The master of understatement.His eyes narrowed, then flew to the contraption on the top of my head.He whipped his head around and saw the OPEN sign lit up
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