Stabbed in Cherry Hills Page 5

  Kat took off her coat and hung it up. “It’s not much, I know.”

  “You’re single, right? When you’re single, anything goes.”

  “I guess that’s true.” She pointed to the couch. “Would you like to sit down?”

  “Sure.”

  He shrugged out of his jacket before easing onto the sofa. Matty, who had been snoozing on the far end of the couch, lifted her head. When she spotted the source of the disturbance, she shot him a nasty look.

  “Why, hello there, kitty.” Professor Bluefield slid close enough to scratch Matty’s exposed stomach.

  Matty hooked her front paws around his hand and used her hind feet to kick it for all she was worth.

  “Yowch!” Professor Bluefield yanked his hand back and held it up to his face to inspect the damage. “Temperamental, isn’t he?”

  “She’s a she,” Kat replied as Matty flicked the tip of her tail, clearly not appreciating being lumped in with Professor Bluefield’s boorish gender.

  “Right.” He laughed. “I should have guessed from the attitude.”

  Matty stood up and leapt onto the floor. She glared at Kat on her way to the kitchen, as if to ask where she had scrounged up this hooligan.

  Kat coughed. “Professor Bluefield, can I get you something to drink?”

  “Sure, bring me a cold one.”

  “I have apple juice,” Kat offered.

  “All right.” The corners of his lips twitched as if her beverage choices amused him.

  Kat slipped into the kitchen. Matty sat in one corner to watch as Kat poured two glasses of apple juice. When their eyes met, Matty turned up her nose as though to make her thoughts on their visitor clear.

  “He’s my old college professor,” Kat whispered, reaching over to scratch Matty’s chin. “He taught me everything I know about programming.”

  Matty yawned, obviously unimpressed.

  Kat reentered the living room, handing one of the glasses to Professor Bluefield before taking a seat on the couch opposite him.

  “What projects have you been involved with since I graduated?” she asked, taking a sip of her juice.

  “Oh, you know.” He put his apple juice on the coffee table without touching it. “Whatever the school wants, so long as they don’t have to pay us.”

  Kat smiled. “I hope they at least got a few years of use out of that database we worked on together.”

  “Oh, yes. They love that one. The students who came after your class tweaked it some, but it’s still up and running.”

  Kat felt a small burst of pride. It had been a while since she’d experienced the feeling that came from creating something that made other people’s lives easier. She had yet to replicate the same sense of satisfaction as a waitress.

  A tinny tune started playing.

  “That’s probably my wife,” Professor Bluefield said, pulling an old-fashioned flip phone out of his breast pocket. He opened it and held it up to his ear. “Hi, Christy.”

  Kat nearly lost her hold on her apple juice. Christy? Professor Bluefield’s wife was named Christy?

  “Yes, I told you I’d be a few hours. I’m visiting with a former student of mine.” He flashed Kat a smile.

  Kat couldn’t do anything more than stare back at him. Her heart was pounding, everything she’d learned about Leo’s elusive girlfriend coming together.

  Although she hadn’t known her name, Barbara thought Leo was in love with the recipient of the yellow roses. He had even let this woman—Christy, presumably—redecorate his bedroom.

  And the killer had to be familiar with Christy’s tastes, as evidenced by the symbolic yellow rose left on his victim’s body. Kat had initially thought the rose pointed to a jilted ex-girlfriend, but perhaps the killer had been more connected to Christy than Leo.

  CeeCee had observed that Christy traveled to get to Cherry Hills. Ellensburg was about an hour away, short enough to finish a round trip in a day but long enough for someone else to ask about the drive. It would be easy enough for Christy to make up a day trip, then sneak over to her lover’s without anyone being the wiser.

  Except all evidence suggested someone had been the wiser. Despite their precautions, someone must have found out about their affair. And that someone must have decided to kill Leo because of it.

  And that someone could very well be Christy’s husband.

  “There.” Professor Bluefield snapped his phone shut and slid it back into his pocket. “Now, what were we discussing?”

  Sweat trickled down Kat’s back. She didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. The realization that she was very likely sitting across from a cold-blooded killer had paralyzed her.

  Professor Bluefield crossed his ankles and smiled at her, but the smile didn’t last long. She watched him stiffen as his eyes locked with hers. Kat didn’t doubt her shock was written all over her face.

  She set her apple juice on the end table beside her and swallowed hard. She knew she was past the point of playing dumb. That left her with two options. She could try to summon help, or she could make a run for it. Given that the only other resident on her floor was currently out of town, she was really left with only one option.

  She vaulted off the couch and ran for the front door. But Professor Bluefield was surprisingly fast for someone carrying thirty extra pounds around his middle. He used his body to block the footpath between the couches, trapping her in the living room.

  She stood there, her heart knocking against her rib cage. She didn’t try to muscle her way around him. She could tell from the look on his face that he didn’t intend to let her go anywhere.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “You killed Leo,” Kat choked out.

  “I did,” Professor Bluefield confirmed.

  “But . . .” Kat groped behind her. When her hands made contact with the couch, she somehow managed to drag herself over to the seat that Professor Bluefield had just vacated.

  Her head was spinning. She had always had so much respect for her college professor. Hearing him confirm that he was capable of a crime this heinous threw her world off its axis.

  “Our thirty-year high school reunion was this past spring,” he said. “I wasn’t going to go, but Christy insisted. She said it would be fun to catch up with old friends.”

  Kat drew in a ragged breath. “And Leo was there too?”

  Professor Bluefield’s eyes darkened. “Yes, he was there. And he looked exactly as he had thirty years ago.”

  Kat took in Professor Bluefield’s thinning hair and potbelly anew. She wondered if his concession to middle age had happened suddenly, or if it had been a long, slow decline over the past decade.

  “Christy was thrilled to see him,” he went on. “I didn’t really think much of it. I knew they had a history together, but I didn’t view it as a threat. After all, how many of us still have the same feelings for someone after spending thirty years apart?”

  Kat thought about Andrew. Her feelings for him now were definitely different than they had been back in high school. Back then he was just a good friend. Now, he meant much, much more to her.

  Her heart ached. What she wouldn’t give to have that good-friend-turned-boyfriend here now.

  “But after the reunion ended and we returned to our normal lives, Christy started staying out for longer and longer periods of time,” Professor Bluefield continued. “She told me she was accompanying her girlfriends to the movies and plays and the mall. I believed her at first—until it hit me that she never came home with anything. What kind of woman spends all day at the mall only to return empty-handed?”

  Kat didn’t answer. She figured it was a rhetorical question.

  He folded his arms, resting them on top of his belly. “Naturally, I started getting suspicious. So one day a couple weeks ago, I followed her. You can probably guess where she went.”

  “Leo’s condo?”

  He nodded. “But I didn’t know it was his place at first. I thought maybe one of her girlfriends had moved to Cherry
Hills and she was coming here for her shopping trips.” He laughed, but it was a mirthless sound. “That was how naive I was.”

  Tom chose that moment to wander into the room. Kat’s heart plummeted when she saw him emerge from the hallway. She didn’t want him anywhere near Professor Bluefield.

  Tom walked past Professor Bluefield and sat on the floor by Kat’s feet. He peered up at her with his big, green eyes and meowed. She forced herself to look away, praying he would get the hint and saunter off again. She had no idea what her old teacher planned to do next, but after killing Leo she didn’t think he would have any qualms about hurting an animal.

  Tom sat there for a moment longer before Kat saw him moving out of the corner of her eye. She breathed out a sigh of relief when he headed back toward the hallway.

  Except, he didn’t actually continue down the hallway. When he reached Professor Bluefield, he arched his back against his leg and meowed.

  “What does he want?” Professor Bluefield asked.

  Kat felt as if her chest was being squeezed in a vise. She should have known Tom would refuse to leave until he’d gotten some attention. If she had been thinking straight, she would have picked him up before he’d turned to a murderer to get what he wanted.

  Tom jumped onto the couch armrest and reached toward Professor Bluefield with his paw.

  Professor Bluefield crooked one eyebrow. “What’s he doing?”

  “He wants you to pet him,” Kat said, figuring there was no point in lying. With any luck, Tom would be satisfied with a few short strokes and take off.

  Professor Bluefield studied the cat for a moment before uncrossing his arms and sticking out a tentative hand. Kat had to stifle a scream when his fingers made contact with her baby.

  “This one’s friendlier than the other,” he commented as Tom hunkered down on the armrest and started to purr.

  Kat held her breath, too terrified to respond. Her only solace was that Professor Bluefield didn’t appear to want to hurt the cat.

  Still, she could tell by the way he kept one eye trained in her direction that he didn’t plan on being as charitable when it came time to dealing with her.

  She swallowed. “You didn’t finish explaining how you found out about Christy and Leo.” If she could keep him talking, she would have more time to think of a way out of this situation.

  Professor Bluefield scowled, although he kept petting Tom. “That day when I followed her, she came out of his building carrying a yellow rose. She had brought home roses a couple times these last few months, claiming she picked them up from the store. Like a fool, I believed her. But her leaving a residential building with one made it pretty obvious she hadn’t been buying them herself, that another man was giving them to her.”

  “But how did you know that man was Leo?” Kat asked.

  “Christy was sloppy. She had been calling his office on her cell phone. It didn’t take a genius to get the number from her call history and figure out what company it belonged to. As soon as I pulled up their directory online, there was Leo’s name, as proud as you please.”

  “So you decided to kill him,” Kat said, her voice nearly a whisper.

  “Not right away, no. First I called the lout and told him to stay away from my wife, that if anyone would be buying her flowers in the future it would be me.”

  “And he refused?”

  Professor Bluefield’s nostrils flared. “That’s putting it mildly. Do you know what he had the nerve to say to me?”

  “No.” Kat was having a hard time reconciling this angry man with the person who had mentored her. This was a side of him she had never seen before.

  “He said I’d gotten what I deserved, that he would buy Christy flowers whenever he darn well pleased.” Professor Bluefield took his hands off of Tom’s back and clenched them into fists. “He made it sound like he had a right to her because they had been in love first. He was perfectly willing to ignore the fact that our situations were completely different. They weren’t married when Christy fell for me our senior year. Christy and I, on the other hand, had made a commitment to each other. We had exchanged vows.”

  A flash of motion caught Kat’s attention. She shifted to see Matty settling down on the other end of the couch. Apparently the tortoiseshell had decided her favorite spot was safe to occupy again.

  Kat prayed that was true.

  “Then Christy came home two nights ago with more yellow roses—a whole dozen this time.” Professor Bluefield’s face contorted into an ugly, red mass. “Well, I just snapped. How dare he.”

  Kat didn’t move. She was afraid to draw any attention to herself while he was this furious.

  “That’s when I decided to take matters into my own hands.” He grew calm, his eyes developing a glassy look. “My last class ended at two o’clock yesterday, which gave me the time I needed to make the trip up here. Then I just had to locate the DataRightly building and wait for Leo in the parking lot. The last thing he expected was for me to pull out that knife. He was too shocked to even yell for help.”

  Kat shuddered. She had a good idea how Leo had felt during those last few seconds. She suspected it was a very similar feeling to the terror she was experiencing right now.

  “I threw the knife out of my car window on the drive back to Ellensburg,” Professor Bluefield said. “Nobody will ever find it. And if they do, they still won’t be able to connect it to me.”

  “I’m guessing that yellow rose you left on Leo’s body came from the bouquet Christy brought home the other day,” Kat said.

  “He should have never given her those flowers.”

  “Aren’t you afraid Christy will realize the significance?”

  “Christy doesn’t know I know about their affair. She has no reason to think I put that rose there. And if she did somehow figure it out, she would never report me. She can’t survive without me. She relies too much on my salary. Besides, she’s the one who brought Leo back into our lives. She’s as much to blame for his death as I am.”

  Kat couldn’t help but think Christy and the police might have a different opinion on that.

  Professor Bluefield regarded her. “You know, I forgot how smart you are, Kat.”

  She blinked, taken aback by the subject change.

  He sighed. “Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn’t pay to be too smart.”

  Kat pressed one hand to her chest, willing her racing heart to slow down. She was so shaken she was having a hard time thinking straight, yet she knew she needed to maintain a clear head if she hoped to make it out of this situation alive.

  “I should tell you, I was quite surprised to see your name on one of those résumés that scattered after I stabbed Leo,” Professor Bluefield said. “But I was glad I remembered the street address you listed on there. It made it easy to know where to show up after I got your email.”

  “But why show up at all?” Kat asked. “It’s not like I accused you of killing him.”

  “No, but I was curious whether anyone here suspected me. Seeing as how you’re the only connection I have in Cherry Hills, you were the only one I could turn to for information.”

  A spark of anger ignited in her belly. She should have known he’d had an ulterior motive for showing up outside her apartment building. That excuse about driving up to check on her mental health had struck her as fishy from the start.

  Tom meowed. Kat’s breath caught. She had forgotten he was there, sitting within reach of her crazy old professor.

  Professor Bluefield grazed Tom’s fur with his fingers. “You don’t like that I’m ignoring you, huh?”

  Kat gritted her teeth. She wanted so badly to snatch Tom away from him, but she thought that would only increase the odds of both of them ending up injured.

  “What are you going to do with me?” she asked, unable to take the suspense any longer.

  Professor Bluefield glanced at her, then focused on Tom again. “I’m not sure yet.”

  She remembered how much she had admired him in
college, wondering if there was any trace of that man left. “You could turn yourself in to the police.”

  He shook his head. “No. I can’t do that.”

  So much for appealing to his conscience, Kat thought.

  She looked around the living room, desperate to spot something she could use to defend herself. Her eyes landed on her discarded high heels. If she could make it across the room, maybe she could grab one and swing the pointed end at Professor Bluefield’s head before he knew what was happening.

  Or, she considered, she still had her cell phone in her jeans pocket. Did she have enough time to dial Andrew before Professor Bluefield registered what she was doing? It would be a long shot, but if she succeeded her chances of being rescued would be that much greater.

  She inched her fingers toward the edge of her pocket, her heart pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears. When Professor Bluefield’s hand shot out and he grabbed her wrist, she nearly wet her pants.

  “Whatever you’re planning, don’t,” he said, his icy tone sending chills down her spine.

  She nodded, the only response she was capable of.

  Thankfully, he let go of her hand right away. She slipped it into her lap, twisting her fingers together as she scanned over the living room once more.

  “You keep eyeing the door like you think you can make a run for it,” Professor Bluefield commented.

  Kat’s gaze snapped toward his. “No I’m not.”

  “You are.” He stepped forward. “Why don’t we go into the kitchen where you won’t be so tempted.”

  She didn’t budge, too petrified to move.

  “Ladies first,” he said, sweeping his arm in front of him.

  Kat somehow managed to stand up despite how her legs felt too weak to support her. She kept her eyes fixed on the high heels as she inched forward. She wanted nothing more than to have one in her hands. But given the way her muscles had turned to jelly, she didn’t think she had the strength to bend down, let alone swing something with enough force to make the effort worthwhile.

  Or, she considered, she could try grabbing a knife from the kitchen. She wouldn’t need to exert as much effort to do damage with that.