Shadow of Perception (29 page)

hello dr dread hello

“Shh,” Pudge hissed. “I don’t ever want to talk about Dread again. Not after last night’s bullshit.”

yes precious so sorry so sorry

“It’s okay. It’s funny, actually. I was Dr. Dread. Dread killed Nurse Gretchen. Mama called to have Nurse Gretchen come over today, and because of that call, they probably found her body. This is good karma, don’t you think? The only way I could have planned it any better would be if I’d been the one to report Gretchen’s murder.” Pudge cracked an egg. “But this means we’ll have to wait until later to spy on Eden. I told the agency we didn’t need a new nurse after all.”

hello nurse nancy hello

*

Michael Morrison sat inside the diner, sipping a cup of black coffee. He pretended to watch the pedestrians pass the large glass window, while his true focus remained on the old homeless man sitting on a bench by the bus stop. The man had been the perfect choice. Blind in one eye, an obvious, bad case of cataracts in the other, he wouldn’t be able to give Eden and her friend a description of him. Even if he could describe him, between the sunglasses, ball cap and thick scarf Michael had worn, the man wouldn’t be able to give them much.
 

He’d given the man the manila envelope containing the DVD, and two hundred dollars for his effort. Michael had then told him he’d better not think of running off before handing the envelope over to Eden, otherwise he’d find him and kill him. The man had showed no fear, and Michael assumed death, to the old man, might seem a better route to take than the life he currently lived. Either way, Michael wouldn’t kill the man. He wasn’t a murderer. He was a crusader with a cause.
     

The waitress set a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and hotcakes in front of him, then refilled his coffee. As he dug into the eggs, he glanced out the window again. The old man remained at his post, but now he had company. Eden and her friend, the man he’d seen leaving and entering her hospital room, stood next to the homeless man. While Eden talked to him and took the envelope, her friend scanned the area, likely looking for Michael. The guy could look all he wanted. The old man hadn’t seen Michael enter the diner. The minivan had been parked a half dozen streets away. There were hundreds of people milling along the sidewalks, and dozens of shops and businesses on this block alone. Michael had become the proverbial needle in Chicago’s haystack.
 

 
After stowing the envelope into her purse, Eden leaned down and said something to the old man. He nodded, then stood with her and her friend’s help. They began walking together, crossed the street, and then approached the diner.
 

While his heart galloped, Michael poured syrup over the hotcakes. Eden entered the diner first, then helped the old man to a stool at the counter. She spoke to the waitress, then said something to her friend. As Michael finished his hotcakes, he noticed the waitress bring the old man a mug of coffee, as well as two Styrofoam cups. Eden handed one of the Styrofoam cups to her friend, placed money on the counter, spoke to the old man again, then nodded to her friend. Seconds later, they exited the diner, leaving the old man at the counter, a large plate of breakfast assortments in front of him.
 

Michael sipped the coffee, then wiped his mouth with the napkin. While they’d been on the phone, he’d told Eden he’d thought she was a good person. After witnessing her small act of kindness to the old man, he didn’t just think it, he knew it. Guilt shoved aside his breakfast and crawled into his belly. He honestly liked Eden, and almost regretted forcing her to watch the gruesome DVDs. Hell. He didn’t even like reviewing them…much. Although he gained sick satisfaction from watching his patients suffer all over again, another part of him couldn’t be more disgusted.
 

With himself.
 

With the men who had brutalized his daughter until she’d lost the will to live.
 

Regardless, he thought as he pulled out his wallet, checked his breakfast bill, then laid money on the table, Eden would be rewarded in the end. When he finished his death wish list, and gave Eden the last DVD, she would have a story that would seal her career. And he would have fulfilled his promises to Eliza.
 

Without looking at the old man, he left the diner. As he was about to turn the corner to head for his minivan, a display, located in the store window next to the diner, caught his attention. A pretty, dark-haired, life-like doll stared back at him. Eerily resembling Eliza as a child, the doll drew him closer to the window.
 

Eliza’s birthday was coming up and while making the doctors who had hurt her pay for their crimes had seemed like the most fitting gift, he decided she deserved something not tainted with blood or death. He smiled as he remembered Eliza’s past birthdays, how her eyes had lit up and her smile filled her face while she’d opened his gifts. As a child, she used to collect dolls. With the doll’s fancy, pink dress and black patent leather shoes, he knew in his heart that she would have loved this particular one.
 

He entered the store, bought the doll, then headed for his minivan. He would give her the doll on her birthday. After he took care of his final patient and delivered the DVD to Eden. For now, though, he needed to head home. Last night had been a long night. Dr. Tully’s procedure had proven more difficult than he’d anticipated. Liposuction wasn’t as easy to perform as You Tube had made it look. He’d wing it on the next surgery.
 

After breast implants, veneers and now liposuction, rhinoplasty should be a piece of cake.

     
Chapter 16

“Once again, no prints,” Rachel said as she entered CORE’s evidence and evaluation room.

Hudson blew out a breath. “We figured as much.”

“What about the guy who gave you the DVD? Could he describe the killer?” Rachel asked.

Eden took the seat next to him, and shook her head. “He was old and half blind. The killer picked the right person for the job.”

Hudson thought about the old man, how Eden had treated him with kindness and concern. When it came to her career, she was ballsy and cutthroat, but when it came to people in need...

 
He loved and admired the compassionate woman Eden kept hidden beneath the tenacious reporter veneer. Even more, he loved that she’d trusted enough to expose her softer side to him. Last night he’d come to an epiphany, the striking realization had grabbed him by the balls and made him truly comprehend the complexity of his emotions.
 

When he’d met Eden, the first time around, he hadn’t been thinking about finding a place to belong. He’d already had that security through his career. What had been missing, though, was someone he could share every aspect of his life with—his dreams, hopes, fears. While he’d made solid friendships during his time in the Marines, CIA, and CORE, he couldn’t turn to those men and express his intimate feelings. Even thinking about the words “intimate feelings” made him feel like a pussy. He’d been raised by a man who believed what you felt wasn’t anyone’s business, that you kept your emotions in check, and never let your guard down for anybody.
 

That philosophy hadn’t worked too well for his dad. After a major drinking binge, he’d choked on his own vomit, and had died alone. His dead body hadn’t been discovered until almost two weeks later, and that had only happened because the neighbors complained to the city about the tall grass that had grown around his dad’s small bungalow. At his dad’s funeral, aside from himself, only two other people had attended. One had been the minister, the other, the funeral director. That day, as the minister said a few words, Hudson had sworn he’d never end up like his father. Cold, ruthless…alone.
 

When Eden entered his life, he thought he’d found the woman who could soften him, help make him a better man. Even though she’d left him, he’d believed that their time together had changed him for the better. He’d begun to realize that while he’d liked his career path, he wouldn’t mind something a little less dangerous. He’d started to think about moving out of the city, taking up golf or some such shit.
 

“Hello, earth to Hudson,” Rachel sang.
 

He glanced at her, then to Eden. “I was just thinking about the old guy who gave us the DVD,” he lied. Now wasn’t the time to talk about his dad or his thoughts about the future. “I hope he keeps his mouth shut about the two hundred dollars. He’d be an easy target for druggies looking to score.”

Eden winced. “I didn’t think about that.”

“Maybe the killer did, and figured someone else could clean up his loose end,” Rachel suggested.

“I don’t know about that,” Eden said. “I don’t think the killer has any interest in harming anyone other than the men he’s going after. I also think your theory about this being a hate crime is wrong. No offense.”

“Of course.” Rachel tapped the pencil against her chin. “And you suspect this because…?”

“When I talked with him on the phone, I asked him why he didn’t just kill these men instead of torturing them first. He answered me with a question.”

“Do you know what it’s like to hate so much that it festers inside of you until you’re infected with uncontrollable rage?” Hudson quoted, then looked to Rachel. “I agree with Eden. This is definitely vengeance. For what? We need to figure that out before he kills his last victim.”

Rachel took the copy of the DVD. “I agree with both of you,” she said as she turned on the DVD player. “I’ll explain why after we watch our morning matinée.”

“You can explain now,” Eden said. “I don’t have a problem postponing.”

Hudson reach for her hand, then gave it a squeeze. “You don’t have to watch this at all.”

“I know,” she said. “I also know I need to. He sent them to me for a reason, and I want to help stop him. It’s just…after talking with him, I started thinking about what he might have been like before he snapped and decided to mutilate these men. Whatever happened to drive him to such a level of depredation had to have been horrific.”

“Don’t tell me you feel sorry for him,” Hudson said, shocked by Eden’s reaction. He’d met plenty of soulless murderers during his career. In his book, there was no such thing as a kindhearted killer.
 

“Hardly,” she said, and looked at him. “I’m simply saying that I can understand the killer wanting to get even if these men had hurt him, or someone he loved, and had gotten away with it.”

He thought about Eden’s rape, how angry he’d been, and still was, that the men who’d assaulted her had never paid for their crime. He also thought about his plans to set that straight, and nodded. “I get what you’re saying. Only his vigilante act won’t make any sense until we understand why he’s killing.”

“Let’s just watch the damned thing instead of trying to psychoanalyze this guy,” Rachel said. “Hopefully he’ll give us some new leads.”

When Rachel turned her back to adjust the DVD and the volume on the TV, Hudson brought Eden’s hand to his lips, and kissed her knuckles. Knowing the killer had probably watched them while they’d retrieved the DVD, and that he’d had intimate knowledge about Eden, scared the hell of out him. He wanted to keep touching her, reassuring himself that she was safe.

As he turned to face the screens again, he caught Rachel staring at them. She cocked a brow, then picked up the pencil she’d been toying with earlier. “Here we go,” she said as she hit PLAY, then she chomped the pencil like a dog would a bone.

The TV screen came to life. “Wait,” a large, very overweight man shouted. “Shouldn’t I get a chance to say something?”

Dressed in the usual hospital scrubs and cap, the killer kept his back to the camera. “You mean your final words?”

The killer looked over his shoulder at the camera.
 

“This guy is a frickin’ whack job,” Rachel mumbled over a mouthful of pencil.

Hudson agreed as he stared at the killer’s latest surgical mask. He’d drawn buckteeth on the first mask, a jack-o-lantern smile on the second. For this mask, he’d drawn a simple smile, but had added a set of sharp fangs to it, giving his face a devilish look.

“You don’t deserve it.” The killer held up a piece of duct tape. Between the angle of the video camera and the man’s large stomach, Hudson couldn’t see the victim’s face, and assumed the killer had slapped the tape over the man’s mouth.
 

“This is the only thing you deserve,” the killer said, as he grabbed a scalpel, then stabbed it into the victim’s stomach.

Even with his mouth sealed shut, the victim’s scream pierced the room. Blood wept from the fresh wound. Another scream followed as the killer made another incision, this one larger, deeper.

“What the hell is he doing?” Rachel asked. “The other methods of torture were obvious, but this one…” She trailed off when the killer set the scalpel aside and stood.

“He’s not on the surgical table,” Eden said. “I thought the room looked different, but didn’t know why. Now I can see it, can’t you?”

Rachel hit PAUSE. “Yeah, and look,” she said as she moved to the TV and pointed to the corner of the screen. “Wheels. Wherever he’s performing his surgery, the building is big enough to hold a car.”

Hudson studied the screen. He’d been restoring cars for years, and recognized the makeshift table the killer used for his victim. “He couldn’t lift the man onto the surgical table, so he used a Mechanic’s Creeper.”