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  The taller one, whose face was so thin and pointy it looked deformed, looked her up and down suspiciously. He stroked a scraggly looking goatee. "The fuck you talking about?" He said aggressively. "We're just standing here minding our own business."

  Obviously taken by Karen’s appearance the other man smiled at her, showing grossly rotten teeth. "Whatcha got goin on tonight, girl? Wanna party?"

  "My friends are inside the club," Karen gestured towards the street. "I’m just looking for a little extra um… perspective tonight while we watch the show." She doubted these guys would be going into the club or even be allowed inside.

  Hatchet face backed away a few steps, turned and left the alley.

  "You a cop?" The guy with the shitty mouth said. "You don’t look like no hype, with your shiny hair and all."

  Hype? Karen realized the guy meant junkie. "No, I’m not a cop." Karen knew from working on The Edge that a lot of people thought if they asked this question the alleged cop had to tell the truth or it became entrapment. This was just not true. Cops could lie and entrap any ole way they pleased. This guy was stupid, she decided and the thought made her bolder. "So yeah, I’m new. You got some tar for me and my friends?"

  "Come party with me," Shit Mouth said. "You don’t wanna be nodding in there. I got a safe place by the overpass."

  Never in your wildest dreams. Karen hid her revulsion and smiled her best smile right back at him. "Well, maybe if you’re around in a couple of hours we could meet up."

  "Okay, then. Back here, say ten o’clock?" He inspected her legs and winked. "I bet you got some fine wheels under those jeans, dontcha? I’ll save myself for ya, wouldn’t want to be too high before we get high would I?"

  I’m in a badly written scene out of a B movie, Karen thought. "Sure, ten o’clock, I’ll be right here."

  "So, how much you need?"

  "Three bags?"

  He held out his hand and three small black encased balloons appeared in his palm. "One fifty."

  Karen was sure that was too much, but slipped the folded twenties to him anyway. "I don’t have change, so here’s one sixty."

  "Well, you'll get the change when we meet back here. Maybe I’ll give you more than the change too!"

  Karen laughed as she put the bags into her pocket next to the knife. "Oh, we’ll see about that!" And thanks for ripping me off, she said to herself. "Hey? Do you have an extra syringe?"

  "Woman, you are new aren’t you?" He dug into his coat and handed her a small needle. "Brand new, never been used. Got it at the needle exchange."

  Whoopee do for you. "Thanks so much. I’ll see you later."

  Out on the street she made sure the man wasn't following her. She slipped the knife, the syringe and the bags of heroin into her makeup bag. Just down the street from the club she dropped the makeup bag into a trash can next to an empty bus shelter. The trash can was full, so it wouldn’t be a problem fishing it out again. She just had to take the chance that no one would look into the can long enough to see it.

  She took off her coat and stood in line to get into the Live Wire. The big guy at the door accepted her sisters ID without question and did an indifferent sweep up and down her body with the metal detector.

  "Open up your bag, please." The man said. Karen held open her purse and the man told her to move things around inside so he could get a better look.

  "Okay, have a good night." Then Karen was inside.

  Behind the bar on the right stood that woman, hugely fat and smiling like she didn’t have a care in the world. The place was swarming with people, four feet deep at the bar, so the cow was too busy to notice her. Karen stood frozen in place, all the anger and frustration, the humiliation, the injustice of it all threatening to overwhelm her. This bitch, this fat assed loser had ruined her life. She wanted to smash her smiling mouth in. She couldn’t see Joseph anywhere, so she moved to the other side of the bar and stopped again when she saw that there were no empty tables whatsoever. She couldn’t keep standing around and call attention to herself so she backtracked and went up to the first table she saw that had an available seat. Three guys were sitting there. A nice looking older man with salt and pepper hair and two younger guys that looked like they could be his sons.

  "Excuse me," Karen said prettily. "But is this seat taken? I was supposed to meet someone here, but I think I’ve been stood up."

  "Of course!" The older gentlemen actually got up and moved to an outside chair so Karen could slide onto the bench seat in the corner next to the other guy who grinned at her in a friendly way.

  Karen settled in, putting her coat and purse at her side and realized with a rush of feeling that her power had returned. Even without blonde hair! Men! They were all the same. She was hidden in the corner, but with a great view of the entire bar.

  "Why don’t you guys let me buy a round of drinks," she said, and flagged a passing waitress.

  "Sure, you can," said the guy next to her, "as long as you let me get the next one."

  "Sounds like a plan. My name is Karla."

  Introductions were passed around and casual chit chat ensued. ‘Karla’ was here from California taking care of her aging mother who had just had a stroke. Karla didn’t know a lot people in Seattle and after weeks of staying inside with her mother, she felt like she had to get out of the house and have some fun. She had made an online date with a guy that was supposed to meet her here at the club.

  "I was supposed to meet him outside but he never showed," Karen pouted. "When I saw everyone coming inside I thought, what the heck, I might as well go in and hear some music, since I’m here anyway."

  "That's his loss, really!" The guy next to her, Steve, was sympathetic.

  Then it was established that the older gentlemen, Jerry, was a widower and that he and his two sons had a similar experience caring for their mother who had died of cancer. More sympathy was exchanged and by the time the drinks came Karen and the three men had bonded.

  The music started and after a few songs Steve asked her to dance. She politely refused, saying that she was never much of a dancer and that she found it hard to dance to the heavy metal rock the band was playing. Steve took it in stride and went off in search of a dance partner. The other brother, Daniel, eventually got up and Karen saw him with a girl on the full dance floor. She and Jerry made small talk while watching the dancers and Karen sipped her drink slowly.

  After two sets Karen was satisfied that Joseph would not be in the bar that night. She saw that woman put on her jacket and hug the black woman she'd at Peter’s party. She faked a call on her cell phone, told the men it was her mother calling and she'd take it outside.

  "I’ll be right back," she said.

  She got her purse and jacket and left the club. Outside she saw the back of Nina walking down the street. Karen sprinted over to the trash can and removed the makeup bag. Then she followed Nina at a discreet distance to a parking garage one block down.

  Nina stuck the ticket in the automatic parking kiosk and paid the ten dollar parking fee with her debit card. Then she headed up stairs to the third floor of the parking garage to her car. She felt very tired but took the stairs anyway for the extra exercise. Just five weeks until the little Walker was born. That’s what she and Joseph called the baby, as opposed to ‘it’ or ‘he/she'. Although she wouldn’t admit it to anyone, Nina was getting tired of being pregnant. She was out of breath a lot and had to rest after the smallest amount of physical exertion. The first novelty of impending motherhood had worn off with her burgeoning figure and diminishing strength. The move and decorating the new house had exhausted her and she doubted there would be any more nesting urges to come. She went to the club only a few hours on weekends now, and all she wanted to do for the next five weeks was take it easy, do her yoga every other day and enjoy Joseph and her new house.

  She reached the third floor and stopped to catch her breath at the top of the stairs. She heard a step in the stairwell behind her and turned.

  "G
od, you could barely make it up those stairs. What a pig!"

  "What?" Nina breathed heavily. She stared down the steps into the gloomy lighting and saw a black haired figure standing on the next landing.

  "So, whose baby is it anyway?"

  The figure climbed up the stairs and the face came into full view.

  "Karen." A tingle of fear crept up her spine.

  "Bingo! Surprised to see me?"

  Nina could only stand there processing the knowledge that she was alone at night in a deserted parking garage with her stalker. The stalker that she had thought was gone. How foolish to think that Karen had given up so easily!

  "What are you doing here?" she asked. "Joseph will be here any second."

  "I don’t think so. I didn’t see him at the club."

  Fear blossomed, tightening her chest. Nina looked around her to the far end of the third floor where her car was parked.

  "What do you want?"

  Karen was silent for a moment, staring at her through glittering eyes.

  "I want to take away your future." She brought out the knife and switched it open with a snap.

  Nina turned to run but Karen grabbed her arm and pushed her up against the metal stair railing. She moved in close, with the knife just under Nina’s chin. Nina arched backward over the railing and drew in a breath to scream.

  "Don’t scream," Karen said mildly. "There’s no one here, anyway."

  In one blinding moment Nina realized that this woman was going to hurt her badly and possibly kill her and her unborn child. A fierce protectiveness ripped through her. She opened her mouth and screamed straight into Karen’s face. Then she swung out and slammed down across the arm holding the knife, feeling the stinging slash as the knife bit into her forearm. Nina feinted left, then scurried right to the stairwell as Karen whipped the knife in the direction of Nina’s belly, the blade snagged and tore the fabric of her top. Frantic to escape, Nina missed the first step down. One foot floated out into thin air and searched for purchase. Finding none, she tumbled forward down the concrete stairs, twisting her ankle. She landed hard on her left side with a loud crack from her elbow. Blood covered her right arm in a sticky mess and she felt her baby kicking wildly, turning somersaults within her.

  She looked up and saw Karen looking down at her, grinning. "Well, look at you! You just saved me a whole lot work."

  Nina started to cry. "Please, don’t hurt my baby," she whimpered. She struggled to a sitting position and hugged her abdomen over a deep cramping pain that had started there. "Please, Karen. You don’t want to do this!"

  "Do what?" Karen started down the stairs. "Ruin your life? Take your man away from you? Take your friends away from you?" She reached the landing and bent over Nina. "Take your career away from you?" She reared up and delivered a kick to Nina’s side. "Wreck your reputation? Take your dignity?"

  She kicked out again and Nina tried to lean out of the way as the foot connected. "Stop!" she screeched and curled up into a ball. Again the foot landed and Nina screamed in agony.

  "One dog that deserves to be kicked when it’s down. How’s it feel? How’s your baby doing?" Karen reached up for Nina’s purse that had fallen on the second step. She found Nina’s cell phone and took it. Then she stood staring at Nina’s stomach.

  "No! Karen!" Nina couldn’t take her eyes off the knife in Karen’s hand.

  Karen pointed to Nina’s left hand. "That isn't going to happen," she said. "Give it to me."

  Nina pulled the engagement ring off her finger and tossed it to Karen, who caught it neatly.

  "Not even three carats!" Karen said, inspecting the ring. "Cheap goods for a cheap club whore."

  Nina, who had never prayed in her life, started praying to God, to the universe, to anything that might be out there to save her. She closed her eyes and used all of her energy to imagine herself and her baby in the comfort of her home, safe in Joseph’s arms.

  She felt Karen move towards her and squeezed her eyes shut tighter.

  "You’ll live. I’m not so sure about your baby though. You think I'd kill you? I want you to suffer just like I did."

  Nina felt hot breath on her face as Karen moved closer.

  "Congratulations," she said. "I really mean that."

  Nina sensed her moving away and when she opened her eyes she was alone. She sat still for a minute, listening. Karen was gone.

  She clasped her hands together and whispered, "Thank you!" Then she raised her bloody arm to the stair rail and tried to pull herself up to a standing position. Pain shot through her ankle, and she buckled. Using the brick wall as support she half hopped, half shuffled to the next flight of steps down. Once there she sat down and shifted her butt down the stairs one by one. At the bottom of the second floor landing she felt another searing pain course through her.

  "No, no, no. Please, God," she sobbed. She crawled to the elevator and pressed the down button. When the elevator arrived she crawled in and pressed the button to the street. When the elevator door opened out into the dark night she dragged her body over the threshold and yelled for help.

  A couple of young women were walking past and heard her cries. They helped her out of the elevator and onto the street.

  "Call nine-one-one!" Nina bawled as another pain exploded within her. "I’m seven and a half months pregnant. I’ve been attacked. I need an ambulance, now!"

  Three seconds later her water broke all over the sidewalk.

  Karen hid around the corner of a building half a block down and watched as the ambulance arrived and Nina was put onto a stretcher. Jubilation swept through her. Yes! It looked like she was going into labor. The fat cow did it all by herself! Karen didn’t know much about pregnancy, but there was a good chance the baby wouldn’t survive, and if it did survive she hoped it would be brain damaged. What a stroke of luck that she was so stupid and clumsy to fall down the stairs. Karen was going stab her in the stomach but that might have killed her. She didn't want her to die. She just wanted to hurt her irreparably. Things couldn’t have gone better. Guess there’s no happily ever after for you, bitch. Karen started walking uphill away from the scene of her triumph.

  It was too late to catch a bus so she snuggled into a doorway of a church with her coat over head and slept off the night. Nobody bothered her. Just another Seattle bum having a snooze. At six in the morning she went to the nearest bus stop and got on a bus heading north farther into Seattle. Along the way she was looking out the window and saw a car for sale in the parking lot of a grocery outlet. She pulled the cord and got off at Thirty-Fourth and East Union.

  Forty five minutes later Karla Wassenbaum was the owner of a 1997 Ford Escort Wagon with one hundred and thirty thousand miles on the odometer. The guy wanted twenty-five hundred for it. Karen paid cash. The guy couldn’t believe his luck since he had just parked it in the lot a half an hour earlier.

  Karen found her way back to the Northgate Park-and-Ride and removed her suitcases from the trunk of her Mercedes. I’ll miss this good old car, she thought as she said goodbye to it. She drove the red wagon to Interstate Five and pointed it south. It was time to pay a visit to her sister. There were still things that needed to be done.

  THIRTEEN

  NINA was admitted into emergency at the University Of Washington Medical Center. The trauma team assessed her injuries and an obstetrician examined her. They splinted her left arm, bandaged the cut on her right arm, and iced her ankle. Later she would have a cast and thirty-four stitches. The first concern was the impending delivery of a thirty-three week old preemie.

  Nina’s contractions ceased soon after she arrived at the hospital and Dr. Scott, the sharp looking obstetrician on call, explained to a distraught Nina that they would have to perform an emergency C-section.

  "You’ve lost the baby’s swimming pool," she said kindly. "And its heart rate is too high. I’ve decided to get you into surgery."

  "Will my baby be okay?" Nina was terrified.

  "I’ve performed hundreds of th
ese procedures. I promise you’ll get the best care possible. After the baby is born we will assess its needs and take it from there." She took Nina’s hand and squeezed. "I know this is hard. At this stage the baby should have developed enough to breathe on its own. That’s all I can tell you until we get a look."

  "I need Joseph," Nina said.

  "Is he the father?" At a nod from Nina, the doctor turned to one of the nurses and asked her to call him.

  "She took my phone—all my numbers are in my phone. I don’t know his number by heart." Nina said desperately. Fresh tears started to flow until Nina remembered Trish. "Call the Live Wire! I know that number. My friend Trish should still be there."

  Trish arrived just as Nina was finished receiving an epidural from an anesthesiologist.

  "Oh, my God! Are both your arms broken?" Trish asked, her eyes wide with disbelief as she looked at Nina’s bandaged and splinted arms.

  "No." Nina lifted her right arm and an IV tube dangled from it, "this one’s cut." She lifted her left arm, "this one’s fractured, but they won’t know how badly until they can get an X-ray."

  "You poor baby! What happened? Were you mugged?" Trish sat close to Nina’s head and listened as she quietly explained what had happened in the parking garage.

  Varying degrees of shock, anger and determination flitted over Trish’s face as she heard what happened. "I’ll kill her! That bitch is dead!" she said. "I can’t believe this! Where is she? Did they catch her?"

  "No, no one has seen her. The police have been notified. I guess they’re looking for her. I’m going into surgery. They’re going to take the baby."

  "Oh, Nina! Is the baby going to be alright?"

  "They won’t know until after the surgery."

  An orderly came in and got Nina ready to transport to the surgery suite.

  "Call Joseph, Trish. Call him right now."

  "I will. I’ll call everyone." Trish kissed her cheek. "Look at my face, Nina. Everything is going to be alright, you got that? You’ll have your little Walker in your arms in no time at all."