No Way Out - Fern Michaels Page 0,89
of the neighborhood where the incident had occurred and was examining the videos. She halted when she spotted someone looking exactly like Rick dashing across Seventh Avenue. The time stamp was 12:35 A.M. She looked at the police report again—12:45. Ten minutes. She had lain on the cold cement stairs bleeding nearly to death for at least ten minutes. She could have died. She almost died. She was now completely convinced that her vague recollection was true. The only question was, had Rick pushed her? But even if he hadn’t, leaving her crumpled and bleeding at the bottom of the steps instead of calling 911 should be criminal. So, if she had the opportunity, she would assume it was assault and report it as such.
She picked up her burner phone and called Kara.
“Wow. Two calls in one week?” Kara laughed as she answered the phone. “They let you out of the box?”
“Very funny,” she scoffed. “Are you sitting down?”
“Should I be?” Kara asked.
“Yes. Please.”
“What’s up?”
“I remember some of what happened that night.” She took a very deep inhale. “I fell down a set of steps outside a brownstone in the Village.”
Kara caught her breath. “You remember that? You fell?”
“That’s the only thing that’s a little hazy. I’ve had two nightmares since Rick got in touch with Christian.”
“Darn it. I shouldn’t have told you,” Kara said, concern evident in her voice.
“No. It’s a good thing you did. It triggered my memory. The first nightmare was me falling backward into a dark hole. The second one included Rick. He was standing over me, watching me fall. I reached out for him, and he did not keep me from falling.”
“Holy smoke.” Kara was stunned.
“When I woke up from the nightmare, I did a deep dive into some archives, one being a newspaper’s. When I saw the article, I thought it might be me they were writing about because it said, ‘Identity of the woman not yet known.’ ”
Kara interrupted. “That’s because they thought it was a mugging and it was an ongoing investigation.”
“Maybe, but the police report didn’t have my name either. It said the victim was taken to Lenox Health. That’s where I was when I woke up.”
“When the police questioned you, you couldn’t remember anything, so they had no leads.”
“Yeah, well, I also went through the traffic-cam footage from that night.”
“You can do that?” Kara wasn’t sure if she was impressed or shocked.
“Yes, but I’m not supposed to. And right now I don’t care if I hacked into their system. I needed to find out for myself.”
“I didn’t realize they kept that footage for such a long time.” Kara was intrigued.
“It’s digital, so it doesn’t require a lot of storage space, the way it did when they used videotapes. They’ve found that keeping archives for seven years has helped solve some cold cases.”
“You sound like you work for CSI or something.” Kara was amazed. “But why would Rick steal your purse?”
“I’m pretty sure he grabbed the strap as I was falling backward.”
“So, he didn’t push you on purpose?” Kara asked.
“I can’t really be sure. But he definitely left me there. And I could have died—would have if someone hadn’t found me and called nine-one-one. So he might as well have pushed me. Obviously, he could not have cared less if I lived or died. What does that tell you?”
“It tells me that he’s scum,” Kara answered, without hesitation.
“Kara, I need to find out where he is, just in case he’s looking to finish the job, or even prevent me from filing charges against him.”
“Do you think Rick has the guts to do something like that?” Kara asked.
“Maybe not himself, but he could hire someone to do it for him.”
Kara gasped. “Oh my God. Do you think that’s what the money is for?”
“Possibly. I need Christian to send it to him. Once I know where he is, I might be able to find him on my own.”
“You mean in person?” Kara was aghast.
“Nope. I’ll find him the way most cyber-sleuths find people. I have a lot of connections, and I’m pretty good at it myself.” She took another deep breath.
“Next time Rick calls, have Christian send a check to the FedEx location of Rick’s choice. Rick will most likely be somewhere near a casino.”
“Wow. That’s exactly what Chris and I said!”
“Some people are quite predictable. He’ll ask the casino to cash the check for him, but before it can clear, you guys stop payment on it. That ought to get the casino