Dexter's Final Cut (Dexter 7)

She didn’t look convinced. “People get away with murder all the time,” she said, and she looked at me with a kind of knowing, challenging smirk.

“But Robert killed somebody famous, Astor. The cops have to catch him or they look bad to the whole world. They’ll give this everything they’ve got, and they’ll catch him.”

“Maybe,” she said.

“Definitely,” I told her. “They will try their very hardest—in fact, the only thing that could make the cops try any harder is if Robert also kidnapped somebody. Like an eleven-year-old girl with blond hair.”

“He didn’t kidnap me, Dexter,” she said. “I went with him. He loves me.”

“Do you love him?”

She snorted. “Course not,” she said. “But he’s going to get me into movies.”

“He can’t do that from prison. Or if he’s dead,” I said.

“But he says we can get away!” she sai

d. “We can hide from the cops!”

“And how will he get you into movies if he’s hiding from the cops?”

She put her lower lip between her teeth and frowned. “I don’t know,” she said. And I thought I might have convinced her at last.

“Astor,” I said. “Robert’s acting career is over. His life is over. And yours is, too, if you stay with him.” I wiggled closer to her and held my wrists up as far as I could. “Now untie me.”

Astor looked at me, and then turned and looked at the door. Then she looked back at me and shook her head. “I better not,” she said. “Robert might get mad.”

“Astor, for Christ’s sake!”

She put a hand across my mouth. “Shhh,” she said. “He’ll hear you.”

“I already did,” said a voice from the door, and Robert came into the room. He flipped the light switch beside the door and the ceiling light came on. It was a lot brighter than I remembered it, and I had to squint. So I didn’t see anything until Robert knelt down beside me, his head blocking the light. Then I could see, but I wished I couldn’t; Robert was carrying a very large butcher knife, and he looked like he knew what he wanted to do with it.

Robert studied me for a moment, head cocked to one side. Even in the glaring light of this room, his tan looked great, his skin seemed smooth and soft, and his teeth were still perfect as he peeled his lips back to give me a brief automatic smile. He hefted the knife and there was no doubt what he was thinking, but he was still the most unlikely executioner I could ever imagine. “You shouldn’t have come here, Dexter,” he said, rather sorrowfully, as if it was all my fault.

“You shouldn’t have killed Jackie,” I said.

He grimaced briefly. “Yeah, I hate that,” he said. “I just don’t have the stomach for it. But I had to,” he said, and he shrugged. “It gets a little easier each time.” He looked at me like he thought I would be easiest of all, and I could see I was running out of time. “Anyway,” he said, “I had a good reason. I did it for Astor.”

He turned and looked at her, and to his credit, if that is the right word, the look he gave her was either genuine abiding affection, or he was a much better actor than I’d thought. Astor looked back at him, but she didn’t look quite as smitten, and I thought I saw one small chance to save poor Dexter’s bacon.

“If you like Astor so much,” I said, “you never should have lied to her.”

Robert jerked his head back around to face me and frowned. “I didn’t lie to her,” he said. “I would never do that; I really love her. She knows that.” And he smiled at her again, putting the knife down on the floor beside him so he could take her hand reassuringly.

“You lied to her,” I said, and it was the only card I had to play, so I pushed it hard. “You told her you could get her in movies, and that’s a lie.”

“No,” he said, “I have a lot of connections and—”

“Your connections will run from you like the plague,” I said. “Just as soon as they find out you’re a lying, murdering pedophile.”

Robert turned bright red. “You don’t understand,” he said. “Nobody understands.”

“That’s right,” I said. “And the cops don’t understand, either, and they will make sure you go to jail for the rest of your life—if you’re lucky. We do have capital punishment in Florida, you know.”

He was shaking his head, faster and faster. “No, no way,” he said. “They’ll never catch me. I can get away.”

“How, Robert?” I said. “They’re already watching the airports, the docks, even the bus depot.”