Startled to see her, he threw the door open to the
woman his son had once loved with all his heart. “Katie, honey. What are you
doing here?”
Katie came into the living room, her lovely face pale.
“We need to talk.”
Harvey helped her to a chair. “I thought you were at
your parents’. What’s wrong?”
Katie stared up at him, her eyes glazed with fear.
“Where’s Dell?”
Harvey sat next her, apprehension coiling in his gut.
“I don’t know. Why?”
“This is unbelievable.” She shook her head. “Did you know
what he was up to?”
“I’m not sure anymore. Talk to me.”
She pressed her fingers to her mouth. “I knew he was
losing it, but I never dreamed he’d… Dell’s in trouble. We need to find him and
get him out of town.”
“Why? What has he done?”
“The cops say he’s killed someone.”
Harvey shook his head, this time in denial. “No, my
son is not a killer.”
“They said he killed a reporter. Kurt Buckland.”
Harvey frowned. “I know that name.”
“He covered V’s funeral. He comes to this bar named
Sal’s.”
Where Webster goes once a week
. “I know the place. Dell killed him at Sal’s?”
“No. But the cops that go to Sal’s said Dell’s been
harassing the bartender and today he tried to kill her. They said he’s been
posing as this Buckland guy all week, but this morning they found Buckland’s
apartment covered in blood. Buckland’s missing and they say Dell did it.” She
was becoming hysterical, hyperventilating.
“Calm down,” Harvey ordered. “How do you know this?”
She blinked, as if thrown by the question. “I’ve been
hanging at Sal’s for three weeks. Kissing up to Jack Phelps so Dell could trap
him. It’s part of your plan.”
Harvey stared. “
You’re
Dell’s Trojan Horse?”
She nodded. “I was supposed to snuggle up to Phelps,
watch him from the inside.”
“Drug him to make him sleep,” Harvey said dully.
“That was self-preservation. I couldn’t stand the
thought of the man touching me.”
“He hurt you?” Harvey snarled softly.
“No, but he’s a sex addict. He blows off work for it
and I’m not the first. Like Dell said, it was just a matter of time before the
guy got himself fired. We just sped it up.”
Harvey sat back. “So you’re helping Dell fry Phelps by
sleeping
with him?”
She flinched. “The bastard deserves it for what he did
to V. I’ll do what I have to.”
This is all insane
. “Why would Dell kill Buckland? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Of course it does. It makes perfect sense.”
Harvey and Katie swung around to look behind them.
Dell stood in the kitchen doorway. He’d come in the back door. “What’s this
about, Dell?” Harvey demanded.
Dell’s eyes made Harvey’s blood run cold. “You told.
You turned me in.”
It took Harvey a minute, but when he understood, he
lurched to his feet. “Are you saying I told the cops you killed Buckland? I
didn’t even know about him.”
“No, but you knew about last night. I wasn’t playing
by your rules. Stupid rules. You would have sat, waiting and watching those two
until you died. You’re pathetic.”
“I didn’t call the cops, Dell.” Harvey took a step
back. “Why would I?”
“Because you lost control. I wasn’t your ‘boy’
anymore. You couldn’t stand the fact that your plan wasted a year and mine got
results in three fucking weeks.”
“Don’t you take that tone with me,” Harvey warned, but
his voice trembled.
Dell laughed bitterly. “I’ll take whatever tone I
want. I’ll do whatever I want. And you can’t stop me. Nobody can.”
“Dell,” Katie inserted, “you’ve got to get away.
Didn’t you get my messages? I tried to warn you. The cops are passing around a
sketch of you at Sal’s.”
“Shut up,” he snarled and swung, hitting her with the
back of his fist. Thrown against the sofa, she started to cry. “This is all
your fault anyway, you fucking whore.”
Harvey caught Dell’s arm before his son could deliver
another blow. “Stop it. Stop this right now. I don’t know what’s gotten into
you, but I will not tolerate hitting a woman.”
Dell made no move to wrest his arm free. They stood,
nose to nose, eye to eye, and for the first time, Harvey knew true fear. “No,”
Dell said softly. “You just hit little kids. Well, guess what, Pop? I’m not a
little kid anymore. And you shouldn’t have told on me.”
Harvey’s heart was pounding too hard. “I didn’t tell.
I didn’t. Tell me you didn’t kill anyone and I’ll hide you. Run, and I’ll tell
the cops I don’t know where you are.”
“I’m not running because I’m not finished.
You
,”
he barked to Katie, who was edging toward the door. “Get back here. I’m not
done with you.” Katie started to run, but Dell grabbed her by the hair and
flung her to the sofa. “I said I’m not done with you.”
Harvey took a step forward, but stumbled back when
Dell’s fist plowed into his jaw. Then froze when his surviving son pulled a gun
with a silencer from one pocket and a pair of handcuffs from another. “I
brought my own tools,” Dell sneered. He snapped the cuffs on Katie, turning her
facedown on the sofa. “Now you’ll stay put.”
“Dell. Why are you doing this? What has Katie ever
done to you?”
Dell’s laugh sent another chill through his blood.
“You thought V was innocent, but he wasn’t. He killed that guy. But do you know
why he was in that store to begin with?”
“No,” Harvey said, not taking his eyes from the gun in
Dell’s hand. “Tell me why.”
“Because he needed the money. Because he wanted to buy
more
stuff
for his fiancée because he was afraid she was steppin’ out on
him with another guy. And guess what? He was right. She was just using him,
spending his money faster than he could earn it.”
“It’s not true,” Harvey said. “Katie wouldn’t have
cheated on VJ. She loved him.”
Dell lifted Katie by the hair again. “Tell him where
you were the day VJ died.”
“With you,” Katie whispered, terrified.
Dell shook her. “Louder.”
“With you,” Katie cried. “I was with you. In VJ’s bed.
I was with you.”
Harvey couldn’t breathe. “You were sleeping with your
brother’s fiancée?”
“She didn’t do much sleeping,” Dell said bitterly and
threw Katie down in disgust. “She hasn’t done much sleeping any night for the
past three weeks.”
“You were with her?” Harvey asked, faintly. “All these
nights?”
“While Phelps slept like the dead in the next room. I
know. Sickening, isn’t it?”
But Dell didn’t look sickened. He looked… insane. “How
could you, Dell?”
Dell shook his head, slowly. “V was always bigger than
life. I can’t count the times he saved me from you, taking the blame for
whatever made you mad.” He seemed to have run out of steam and Harvey watched,
waiting for the opportunity to take the gun.
“I always wanted to be V,” Dell went on, wistfully.
“He got all the girls. When Katie came on to me… I just took what she offered.
And I’ve lived with that for the last year.”
“You seduced Dell?” Harvey whispered. “And you’re
still sleeping with him?”
Tears ran down Katie’s face. “VJ worked all the time.
I was lonely and it just happened one day. I didn’t plan it.”
Stunned, he stared. “But you’re still sleeping with
him.”
“He told me he needed me,” Katie sobbed. “He said we
could get Phelps together. Make him pay. I wanted to make Phelps pay.”
“Oh, you will,” Dell said. “Don’t worry. You’ll have
the starring role.”
Harvey looked up at his son. The crazed light was gone
from his eyes, replaced by an amused detachment that was more terrifying. “What
are you going to do?”
“Well, I got to thinking. Wouldn’t it be great if,
after losing his job through gross incompetence, Phelps killed himself? Then I
kicked it up. He loves women. Wouldn’t it be even greater if he was discovered
dead in his bed next to his newest bimbo who was shot in the head? Think about
how
that
would look on a magazine cover. It would get headlines. The
world would see Phelps for who he really is. It would ruin him.”
“You can’t do that,” Harvey blurted.
Dell’s eyes narrowed. “Watch me, old man.”
“No, no,” Harvey backpedaled, stalling for time. On
the sofa, Katie was sobbing in fear. “I mean, you can’t just punish Phelps.
Webster was there, too. What about him?”
“Oh, I have a plan for him, too. No worries.” Dell
took a step forward.
“Why Buckland?” Harvey asked.
Dell smiled, enjoying his fear. “I wanted to be sure
the story would get printed.”
“You killed a reporter, posed as him, so that you
could take over his column?”
“No. I killed him because he refused to write the
story I wanted him to write. Kept whining about professional ethics and
corroboration. Turns out I was right.” He took another step forward, pointing
his gun at Harvey’s chest. “But I wasn’t close to being finished. I had days of
stories left to write. You really shouldn’t have told on me, Pop.”
“I didn’t. I swear—” There was a quiet pop and Harvey
looked down at his chest in disbelief. Red was spreading across his shirt and
he couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
Dell leaned close. “You really shouldn’t have hit us
all those years, either, so that was for me and V.” He yanked a sobbing Katie
to her feet. “Time to go.”
Wednesday, February 24, 5:30 p.m.
“So is this Buckland imposter connected to the
Shadowland killer?” Abbott asked when Noah and Olivia had finished the story.
“Could they be the same person?”
Carleton shook his head. “Unlikely. The temperament is
completely different. The imposter is reckless and the Shadowland killer is
very careful and meticulous. Both dangerous, but not the same person.”
“Considering we know what the imposter looks like,
that would have been too good to be true,” Abbott grumbled. “But the timing can
be no coincidence.”
“This Hunter,” Micki said. “What exactly did he see?”
“A black SUV,” Olivia said.
“And a ring,” Noah added. He’d told Olivia and she’d
already added it to the BOLO. He held up his hand. “Like my college ring, but
there are a lot of people with college rings. And most schools use the same
ring companies, so the designs are the same.”
Kane held up his right hand. It was ringless, but he
wiggled his finger. “I had one.”
Olivia looked up at him, charmed. “I didn’t know that,
Kane. What did you study?”
Kane’s smile was slightly embarrassed. “Dance. Helped
me play football.”
“I have one, too,” Carleton said, holding up his right
hand. “We’re going to have a hard time tracking him down if that’s the only
thing we have to go on.”
“I know,” Noah said flatly.
“His prints aren’t in the system,” Olivia said, “but
we’ve got a sketch.”
“No sign of Buckland’s body?” Abbott asked.
“So far, none.” Olivia looked grim. “The tech guys are
tracing the email he sent to the
Mirror
’s editor with the article on our
dead women, we think from Buckland’s laptop.”
“All right.” Abbott sighed. “So full circle, back to
our dead women. No suspects, no forensics, and no idea who he’s going to strike
next. I need to decide if we’re going to release the Shadowland element to the
press. Pros? Cons?”
“Pro, we warn the people in the study,” Noah said. “We
tell participants not to leave their houses to meet strange people they meet
online.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Like they should need to be
told.”
“Con,” Jack said, “we show him our hand.”
“If you expose the connection,” Carleton said quietly,
“he’ll change. He’s stayed a step ahead of us all this time. If he thinks we
know his MO, he’ll find a new one.”
“Which is exactly why Eve fought so hard not to be
connected to this case,” Noah said. “She didn’t want us to lose that Shadowland
advantage.”
“So you’re saying not to tell, Noah?” Abbott asked.
“No, I’m saying she bought us a few days, but the
clock is running out for these women. We’re no closer to finding this guy and
he’s going to kill again.”
Carleton shrugged. “If women stop leaving their homes,
they stop becoming victims. But you also may lose the opportunity to catch him.
He’s likely to go somewhere else and start all over. It’s your call, Bruce.”
Abbott folded his hands and pressed them to his mouth,
the picture of a man with a terrible choice to make.
“If it were me,” Noah said quietly, “I’d tell. He’s
killed five times. I don’t want to find a sixth, and we can’t predict what he’s
going to do.”
Abbott raised his brows. “Jack?”