Shadow Stalker by D W Cooperstein

Author:D W Cooperstein [Cooperstein, D W]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-01-08T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

When I left the Colonel’s house and returned to Highgate, I was eager to tell Caroline the exciting news of my capture of the Shadow Stalker. As I entered the bright and spacious foyer of my home on Linden Way, I expected to be greeted by my wife with open arms. I was greeted by Caroline all right, but she was holding my service revolver and pointing the gun directly at me. I was shocked, but I really wasn’t surprised, given that the baby she was carrying wasn’t mine. I stared at her feeling deeply hurt and emotionally betrayed. How could she do this to me?

“You don’t seem surprised at all,” Caroline said in an uncharacteristic monotone.

“You’re the Colonel’s secret lover, right?”

“Yes,” she finally acknowledged.

“I knew it. By the way the Colonel snickered at me when I mentioned your name, it was hard to miss that. Bravo, Caroline, you had me almost completely fooled until the very end.”

Caroline looked at me derisively. “Almost, James,” she said and then laughed. She paused to take a bow for her stunning performance.

“So, you were the mastermind behind the subway bombings, the shadow behind the stalker. You were the brilliant mind behind the scenes pulling the strings.”

“Yes.”

“Bravo, my dear, it was just as I expected. I always knew that you were brilliant, and I’ve always felt that you were my intellectual equal, unlike that pompous old fool Colonel Richards.”

She stared at me with that strange look of adoration and hate. “That’s right, but don’t get carried away and flatter yourself too much,” she said.

I looked at her with indifference. “So, how long have you been carrying the Colonel’s baby?”

“How did you know the baby was his?”

“Never mind. Just answer the damn question!”

She looked at me and laughed. “James, you have a whole lot of spunk in you for someone standing directly in the line of fire. But if you must know, I learned I was pregnant with the Colonel’s baby several months ago. This was around the time we reconnected and started up again. I wanted you to think that the baby was yours. I needed that emotional advantage over you.”

As I continued staring at her holding the gun, I wondered if this was a dream. I was betrayed by the Colonel, and now Caroline. I sighed. “Tell me, did you ever really love me?”

“At one time I loved you very much. When we first met over five years ago, I was deeply in love with you. But when you left the country after our breakup, I turned to the Colonel.”

“Around the time your parents were killed?”

“Yes,” she said, “it was around that time. Anyway, the Colonel fell in love with me. He wanted to get rid of you because he knew you loved me as well. You must have told him about our love affair. I’m afraid he wanted me all to himself. That’s why he arranged that sabbatical shortly after you were transferred to the Bureau. It was out of his love for me.

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