Pulling on pants, he found Eve sitting in his kitchen
wearing only his shirt, frowning at the morning’s newspaper headline. He
pressed a kiss to the back of her neck and stole a look down the shirt at her
breasts. “I like you in my shirt,” he murmured.
She looked up over her shoulder, her dark eyes
troubled. “Sit down.”
She gave him the front page and he hissed an oath. “I
guess we expected this,” he said grimly. HAT SQUAD MURDER- SUICIDE, the
headline read. He scanned the article, keeping his temper in check. “They make
it sound like we know Jack did it.”
She got up to pour his coffee, then set a mug next to
his elbow and leaned over his shoulder, her cheek pressed against his. It was
the support and affection he’d craved, and greedily he took it in.
“They mention Farmer’s capture,” she murmured, “and
his father’s murder a few pages in, but nobody’s tied their motive to Jack and
Katie.”
“We should have tied it together for them last night.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“It’s an internal investigation now. They’ll have to
clear Jack.”
“I called the hospital this morning. They’re not
giving out any information.”
“Abbott said he’d call when he heard something. I
guess no news at this point is still good news. I wish
MSP
never
published that damn article. When you were untying Brock last night, Dell was
screaming that the magazine made us look like gods.”
“I thought ‘white knights,’ when I first read it.” She
kissed his temple. “You want some eggs? I can’t do omelets because I couldn’t
find the knives.”
“You started talking in your sleep, so I got up and
locked them in my gun safe. I’ll make you a key so you can get to them when
you’re awake.”
She sighed wearily. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. We both bring baggage, Eve. We both have
nightmares.” He hesitated. “Mine are especially bad whenever I go to the bar.”
Now she looked away. “So if we…” She picked at the
shirt of his she wore. “If this continues, I’d have to quit.”
“I wouldn’t expect that, Eve. I know what Sal and
Josie mean to you, and you to them. But I can’t visit you there.” He tugged on
the tail of his shirt, pulling her to his lap. “If this continues, we’ll both
give and take. In the grand scheme, your job, my knives, not a big deal.”
She leaned her head against his shoulder. “I dreamed
of him last night.”
“I know. It gave me chills.” Bone deep chills that had
kept him awake for a while.
“I wish I could make them stop.”
“They’ll pass, Eve, the dreams and the voices. Mine
took years, yours may take longer.” He took her hand, threaded their fingers together.
“It’ll be all right.”
She pressed their joined hands to her lips. “I believe
you.” Then she abruptly turned his hand over, her expression suddenly taut.
“Dell Farmer wasn’t wearing a ring.”
Noah stared at his hand, his chest growing tight with
dread. “No, he wasn’t.”
“David said the man who ran him off the road was
wearing a ring, like yours. So either David was wrong, Farmer lost his ring,
or…”
“Or somebody else ran David off the road.” He closed
his eyes, trying to remember the scene at Harvey Sr.’s house. “The father
wasn’t wearing one either.” He dug his cell phone from his pocket. “I’ll call
Olivia.”
As he dialed, there was a knock at his front door. He
opened his door to Olivia, holding her ringing phone. “We gotta talk, Web.” She
pushed her way in before he could say another word, then stopped, her eyes gone
wide. “Well, hello, darlin’.”
Eve halted her attempted flight and leaned against the
wall, arms crossed, long legs bare. Her face was red, her scar visibly white.
“Olivia,” she said, warningly.
“I was going to ask if you had a good night, Web, but
I can see that you did.” She looked at Eve. “And next time my sister asks if
you’re happy, I’ll know to say yes.”
Noah dragged one hand down his face. “Give us a minute
to get dressed. There’s coffee in the pot. We need to talk to you about Dell
Farmer.”
“That’s why I’m here. He was tracking your car, and
Jack’s. I found the device under your engine block. Jack’s car had one, too.”
“Well, that explains a lot,” Noah said. “I wondered
how he seemed to know when to follow us. He was at every victim’s scene and
there when we interviewed the families.”
“I checked Katie’s cell LUDs,” Olivia said. “Lots of
calls to Dell’s cell matching up to calls made between you and Jack, going back
about three weeks.”
“Since
MSP
hit the stands,” Eve said, “and
Katie hit on Jack.”
“She was tipping off Dell every time Jack got a call.
Have you heard anything?”
“They won’t tell me anything,” Olivia said, “except
that he’s not conscious.”
“Farmer wasn’t wearing a ring,” Noah said abruptly.
“Somebody else ran David off the road,” Eve said.
“Somebody else was after me.”
Olivia didn’t look surprised. “Farmer wasn’t driving a
black SUV last night. And he seemed to think it was really funny when we
questioned him about it.”
“He said Donner ‘almost got you good tonight,’ ” Noah
said slowly, a piece falling into place in his mind. “Did you trace any of his
calls to that reporter from the
Mirror
?”
Olivia’s lips thinned. “The one who wrote that trash
story on Jack? Yeah, his number’s in Dell’s call log, not fifteen minutes
before the reporter showed up.”
“At the Bolyards’ house,” Noah said. “He knew that’s
where we were. And that reporter’s first question wasn’t about the Bolyards’
homicide, it was about Jack.”
“Dell was there,” Eve said. “He saw something. He saw
someone try to get you.”
“Get us,” Noah corrected. “That somebody tried to get
you first, yesterday.”
“He was there, outside the Bolyards’,” Olivia said.
“They both were. Dell and the killer. The other killer.” She scrunched her
eyes. “Sorry, it’s been a long night.”
“Why? Why me?” Eve asked, but by the look in her eyes
Noah knew she knew.
“It’s all about Shadowland,” he said. “Your test. Your
subjects.”
“We almost got him coming out of Rachel’s,” Olivia
said. “Because you alerted us.”
Eve leaned against the wall, stunned. “And now he
wants me gone. Damn, why do I always get involved with these people? I’m a
god-damn trouble magnet.”
“Dell started with the ‘pow’ shit when he heard me say
Donner’s name, and the Bolyards told that TV reporter that it was Donner that
followed Martha out that night.”
Eve shook her head. “I still can’t see Dr. Donner
killing five women, Noah. I can’t.”
“I’m having trouble with it myself. But we won’t know
until we find him, and he’s run.”
“Could Dell know where he is?” Eve asked uncertainly
and Olivia shook her head.
“He wouldn’t talk. And I don’t want to start out
offering him any deals.”
“Let’s talk it with the team,” Noah said. “We’ll get
dressed and follow you in.”
Thursday, February 25, 7:30 a.m.
“Hurry,” Liza muttered, rushing down the stairs of her
apartment. “Be late, be late.” The words were for her school bus. If she missed
the bus, she’d have to walk three miles and miss the test she had first period.
She burst out of the apartment building, relieved to see kids at the bus stop
at the end of the block.
“What’s your rush?” Liza heard the silky voice a
moment before she felt something sharp at her back. “Scream and you die,” a
man’s voice promised softly.
She sucked in a breath to scream her lungs out anyway,
but his hand covered her mouth, yanking her head backward. He was strong,
dragging her into the alley between her building and the next. Fear gave her
strength and she flailed, biting his hand. The gun abruptly disappeared from
her back, but she was stunned by a blow to the side of her head. Dazed, she
tried to fight, until a needle pricked her neck.
Seconds later he had her under his arm, dragging her
through the snow. She could see an outline of a dark vehicle ahead
.
She
tried to scream, but she couldn’t move her mouth. Couldn’t move anything.
Tom.
He wouldn’t know she was gone for hours.
He pushed her eyelids closed and she couldn’t open
them. “Your sister is dead,” he whispered in her ear. “And soon you will be,
too.” Then she landed hard on the floorboard of his backseat and the car drove
away.
Thursday, February 25, 8:00 a.m.
The mood around Abbott’s table was silently grim as
the team waited for Abbott to return from his meeting with the commander. Noah
had put Eve at his own desk with orders not to move for anyone. Right now she
wore the biggest target of them all.
Olivia and Kane were tired after their fruitless hours
in Interview with Dell. Micki also looked exhausted, having coordinated
multiple crime scenes. Ian had actually fallen asleep sitting up. Four new
bodies in the morgue kept the MEs busy through the night.
Carleton’s shoulders sagged, his eyes on Jack’s empty
chair. No news was no longer good news.
Abbott returned, and one look at his face said his
meeting had not gone well. The commander had a right to be perturbed. Five dead
women and they didn’t have shit.
Abbott threw a stack of local newspapers on the table.
The headline on every one was Jack’s alleged murder-suicide, but each had an
equally damaging variation on the
Mirror
’s NEW RED DRESS VICTIM FOUND,
with the details of Rachel Ward’s death. Below the headline was the smaller
“Two Witnesses Slain” and “Cops Have No Leads.”
Ian jerked awake as the papers slid across the table,
Micki patting his hand silently.
“Jack is unchanged,” Abbott began tersely, saying
nothing about the newspapers. The headlines spoke for themselves. “The doctors
aren’t hopeful. His dad’s with him.”
Noah closed his eyes until the fury passed. “Do we
know what he took?”
Abbott pursed his lips. “This is delicate. Internal
Affairs has the case, but we all know Jack was set up. I’ve been given
clearance to give you certain information as it may connect to Dell Farmer,
which may connect to Donner…”
“Which may connect to five dead women,” Noah said
bitterly. “So IA’s helping us?”
“More like reluctantly cooperating. There was
Oxycodone and Valium in Jack’s whiskey bottle. The empty prescription bottles
were in Dell’s car.”
“At Rachel’s he swore he’d only had one drink,” Noah
said hollowly. “Katie must have been slipping stuff in his booze all along. I
blamed him for getting there too late.”
Olivia gave his arm a brief squeeze. “You didn’t know,
Noah.”
“Jack was late a lot before Katie came into the
picture,” Micki added softly. “It was a perfect storm, I guess.”
Carleton nodded wearily. “Apt description,” he
murmured. “Such a waste.”
“Were Dell’s prints in Jack’s house?” Noah asked.
“Yes,” Abbott said. “Dell was there. So far, however,
we have not found Dell’s prints in Donner’s house, so it seems their only
connection is Dell’s rant last night.”
“What about Donner?” Noah asked. “We get his LUDs
yet?”
“Still waiting for them,” Abbott said. “When we’re
done here, we’ll go search his office at Marshall, and check his next of kin. I
got the warrants signed overnight.”
“We?” Noah asked.
“We,” Abbott confirmed. “Until I get you a new
partner, we’re riding together.”
It was going to be a very long day. “Okay.”
“Glad you heartily approve,” Abbott said dryly. “Kane,
anything on Jeremy Lyons?”
“Security at Marshall found his car in one of the lots
last night,” Kane said. “He hasn’t called home, hasn’t used his credit cards,
didn’t pick his kid up from day care.”
“So Lyons is either gone under or dead,” Abbott said.
“Putting us no closer to determining who’s doing this. The one bright spot is
that the two potential victims Eve identified weren’t contacted and are still
safe.”
“He could be done,” Olivia said. “We almost caught him
coming from Rachel Ward’s. Maybe that was enough to convince him to stop.”
Carleton looked unconvinced. “I don’t think he’ll stop
until you stop him or until he accomplishes whatever it is he’s trying to do.”
“What
is
he trying to do?” Abbott snapped.
“Goddammit.”
Carleton appeared unoffended. “Do
that
to you.
Make you ruffled. Throw you off.”
“Well, he’s doing a damn good job,” Abbott grunted.
“But I take your point. Once we find Donner, we’ll start getting some answers.”
“God, I hope it is him,” Noah murmured.
“But you still don’t think it is,” Abbott said, then
shrugged. “He framed Axel Girard, Donner could be a setup, too. We need to know
what Dell knows and how he knows it.”