Page 69 of Crash and Burn

She shouldn't be this bad. Sure, she and Seline had stayed up late, but …

Maybe she was just getting old. Maybe Aunt Abbie and her old woman ways were wearing off on Maggie. Then again, maybe she simply hadn’t slept well in several weeks and her body decided that this was the last straw.

But the fun night of movies and hanging with Seline had been worth it.

Heading into the kitchen, she opened the pantry and stuck her head in. Potato chips? Given the junk food she and Seline had eaten last night, she knew she should find something better. She closed the pantry and heard a creak behind her.

Strange, she thought. The idea had barely registered before she had turned around and spotted the man standing in front of her fridge. He leaned back against the appliance, arms crossed, baseball cap pulled low.

Everything in her froze. She should have screamed bloody murder, but she was too startled.

She should have had her gun on her, but it was broad daylight and she was seeing clients.

She should fight, but he wasn’t fighting her. Just looking up, kind face and clear blue eyes. Maybe this was just someone who wanted legal services? Was this Merrit Geller? Maggie couldn’t tell.

So she stared at him.

He was grinning, but then he tipped his head as though to examine her and everything clicked. This was Merrit Geller.

For half a second she had the very odd reaction of wanting to pump her fist in the air and yell,yes, we were right. But it wouldn’t be a victory if he got hold of her.

“Hello, Geller.” She said it in her best unafraid voice, but the fact was she was petrified.

“Hello, Magdalyn,” he replied.

Shit. Anyone guessing would have called her Margaret. He knew who she was. Though she hadn't voiced her thoughts about this to Sebastian, she’d known that Merrit Geller would kill her if he found her. He had to.

She could now definitively link him to everything in the house. His fingerprints would match everything else. Now that she’d seen him, she could ID him to the police. She didn’t need anything more than she already had right now to confirm he was the La Vista Rapist.

But as her eyes darted downward, she saw that he was wearing thin, leather gloves.

Shit, she thought again. She blinked as he held up his hand and smiled, seeming to catch on to what she’d been thinking.How had he read her so clearly?

He was making no move to launch at her.

Maggie thought for a minute about what her next move should be. If he wasn’t actively attacking her then she could think of an escape. She stayed still, not quite able to put her thoughts together. The fear was far more overwhelming than she'd expected it to be.

“Where's my list?” he asked.

The public didn’t know that it was anything more than just a piece of paper, as far as Maggie knew. His words meant the list was, in fact, his.

“The police took it,” she replied though, in her fear, her words ran together.

As she watched, his features contorted to rage, his fists clenched in the thin, evidence-concealing gloves. But he didn't move from where he leaned against her refrigerator.

Maggie hadn't moved from in front of the pantry. In fact, she realized she was leaning back on the door.

She would get out of this. He might know the house, but she did, too.

She'd been practicing what she would do if he got in. Here was her chance to make it pay off. She could run to the front door, but she’d have to be faster than him. She could run to the back door, but that would put her in the back yard, and further from help or anyone who could likely see her.

But running to the back of the house would mean she could get the gun she’d left on the shelf … easy to grab, but hard to spot.

That plan would still leave her at the back of the house. The neighbors wouldn’t see what was happening. They might not even hear if she screamed. She’d bolted the back door, since that was how he’d been coming and going at first. It would take too long to go out that door if she was being chased.

Maggie was on her own, so she made the decision to run through the back room, loop to the front door, and shoot if she had to. Now all she had to do was make a break for it without looking like she was getting ready to bolt. And she probably already did … he’d read her clearly when she looked at his gloves. Maggie tried something else.

She looked Merrit Geller dead in the eyes and asked, “How did you get in?”

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