by Diana X Dunn
Blake stared hard at her. “I don’t like it.”
“I know.”
He closed the gap between them and pulled her close. “I don’t want to lose you,” he told her. The kiss started out hard and aggressive, Blake seemingly wanting to assert authority, but within seconds it turned softer, more about passion and desire than anything else. Time seemed to stand still as Julia felt herself being dragged back into the attraction that had never left. Julia’s buzzing wrist-con finally broke them apart.
“It’s time for me to go,” she told Blake, a bit breathlessly.
“Make sure you come back safely,” Blake answered. “We still have unfinished business.”
Julia wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she didn’t bother. She needed to forget that kiss and focus. Her life depended on it.
Guns were illegal throughout the world in the wake of the Eco-Wars and the gun battles that had become commonplace during them. Even police use of weaponry was severely restricted. Julia had a personal collection of modern weaponry including stun guns and laser pistols, but she chose to leave them all behind. She was hoping she could rely on her wits and her physical training. They hadn’t let her down yet.
Julia rang the bell on Lilac Court feeling hundreds of eyes upon her. She knew there were numerous cameras in place, police officers hidden around the area, and members of her own agency, from Michael downwards, watching and tracking her. She was also wired with a camera and microphone that were so small and well disguised that she felt totally safe walking in with them.
When Matthew Richards opened the door, Julia had a surprised expression ready for him.
“Matthew, what a pleasant surprise,” she told him. “I was expecting Serena.”
Matthew looked uncomfortable. “Here’s the thing,” he said. “I got home about an hour ago. I just wanted to talk to her for a few minutes before you saw her. I still love her, you know.”
Julia nodded and smiled sympathetically.
“Anyway, she was packing when I got here. Packing all of her things. Within seconds we were shouting at each other.” Matthew shook his head and looked down at his feet. “She stormed out,” he said quietly, his voice tinged with sadness. “She stormed out and left her suitcases on the bed.”
Julia didn’t speak. She knew that he was lying. The house had been under surveillance since yesterday when she’d started looking for Serena. She knew Matthew had gotten home around four, and she knew that Serena hadn’t arrived before or after that. She definitely hadn’t stormed out at any time. Julia waited to see where Matthew’s story was going.
Matthew looked at her, sincerity and sadness in his expression. “I started to unpack her bags. I wanted her to stay. But then I found…,” he trailed off.
“What did you find?” Julia asked, pretty sure she knew the answer.
“Here, look.” Matthew led Julia into the living room.
On one couch sat a small suitcase that looked half full of hastily packed clothing. Matthew lifted off the top couple of items. A pile of clothes covered in dark brown stains was now exposed. Julia walked closer to take a better look, being careful not to touch anything. Matthew watched her face as she studied the clothing.
“It kind of looks like blood,” Julia told him.
“That’s what I thought,” Matthew sounded relieved that she was saying the right things. “And look,” he pushed the soiled clothes to one side and revealed a M-ped with “Property of Public High School 345” etched onto it.
“I thought the news said that Peter Henderson’s M-ped was missing. Do you think this might be his?” Matthew’s voice quavered.
“I don’t know,” Julia spoke slowly, calculating her replies carefully.
“I didn’t know what to do with this stuff. I don’t know what to think. I can’t believe that Serena killed anyone. Why would she want to kill Cassie or Peter?”
Julia held back a grin. That was a truly excellent question, but she was sure that Matthew would provide an answer before too long. She wasn’t disappointed. When she didn’t speak, Matthew continued.
“I think she might have been having an affair with Peter,” he told Julia, a pained look on his face. “I don’t know if that means something or not.” He shook his head and sank into the closest chair. “I just don’t know what to do,” he moaned. “I love her so much and I think she might have been cheating. Even worse, she might have murdered someone. You’ve got to help me.”
“I’m not sure what you think I can do,” Julia spoke gently. “You need to call the police and have them to take the suitcase for tests. They should be able to track Serena down, as well.”
Matthew nodded slowly. “I suppose that is for the best.” He staggered slightly when getting to his feet. “I’ll just see you out and then I’ll call the police, then.” He took Julia’s arm and started leading her toward the door.
Julia knew she had just taken part in some charade that Matthew wanted to play out. She didn’t want to just leave the house, though. She wanted a chance to look for more evidence.
“Before I go,” she said quickly, “could I just use your bathroom?”
Matthew looked surprised and then nervous. “Um . . . I suppose so,” he answered. “It is right through there.”
He pointed down the short hallway and Julia gave him her most dazzling smile and ducked down the hall. She saw Matthew fold his arms and lean against the hallway wall as she shut the door. She looked around at the tiny space and tried to think. Almost certainly, Serena, and possibly Alex, were being held in this house somewhere. What she needed was some evidence that could be used to get the police a search warrant. If Matthew called them to take the suitcase, they would only be allowed to go into areas he allowed, and could only take what he authorized.
Julia wanted a warrant to search the whole house and no court official would grant one while Matthew was being cooperative. A court official wouldn’t care that Julia didn’t trust Matthew. She had other means at her disposal, but she wouldn’t use them unless absolutely necessary.
Julia ran some water in the sink to cover any other noise she made. Then she studied the heating and cooling vent that came up through the floor. Its placement suggested a basement under her feet. A basement would be a perfect place to keep people out of sight. A mobile camera would have been useful to drop down the vent, but Julia didn’t want to use the one she was wearing and she hadn’t brought a spare.
She pressed her ear to the vent, listening carefully. Nothing. Perhaps she’d been expecting too much, hoping that everything could be resolved today. The police could come and take the case and the evidence. At least they would have that much to start working with. Finding Serena would become a much higher priority, which would help as well. Julia flushed the toilet and turned off the water. She straightened her hair and opened the door.
Matthew was still waiting for her, but now he had a gun in his hand. Julia recognized it as an old-fashioned .38-caliber pistol. While the technology had long been surpassed, if the gun was in working order it was still deadly. Assuming it was working, she looked questioningly at Matthew, as if she wasn’t sure what was going on.
“One of my toys,” Matthew told her with a scary grin. “I suspect you know more about it than you are pretending.”
Julia decided to start with terrified. “What…but…it’s a gun, right? Why…, she stammered out, pacing the words to suggest fear.
“Yes, it is a gun,” Matthew told her. “It works really well, too.”
He aimed just slightly to the left of Julia and fired. The noise was almost as shocking as the huge hole that was left in the wall next to her was. Fainting seemed the way to go. She slowly began to sink to the floor, terror that was partly genuine shining from her eyes. Matthew grabbed her before she got to the ground and pulled her back to her feet.
“Now, now, none of that nonsense,” he told her, pushing her in front of him back into the living room. “Sit down and behave.”
Julia took a sea
t on one of the couches and studied the man holding the weapon. His veneer of cheerful blandness had vanished and he looked quite crazy.
“What were you doing on the floor in the bathroom?” Matthew asked her.
Julia blinked. “I dropped my earring,” she told him.
“You are good at lying, I’ll give you that,” Matthew answered, “but I have cameras all over this house, and I saw everything that you did in there.”
“You were watching me in the bathroom? That’s disgusting!” Julia didn’t have to fake her upset tone.
“Maybe, if you’d been using the bathroom, but you weren’t. What did you hear through the vent?”
“Nothing.”
Matthew considered her thoughtfully. “I’ve checked with several police contacts and none of them have ever heard of Julia Randall. Who are you?”
Julia took a second to consider her answer. “I told you when we came here the first time that I was a special consultant with the police,” she explained slowly. “Maybe you don’t remember because you were sort of out of it.”
Matthew shook his head. “I’ve watched the playback from your visit. You introduced yourself, but I checked it out, and I don’t believe that’s who you really are.”
He paused and then grinned at her. “Everything that happens in this house is recorded and archived in case I need to see what happened at a later date,” he said proudly.
“Why?”
“Because I can.” Matthew laughed. The sound echoed hollowly around the room. “I’m special,” he continued. “I’m not just any old guy living a boring old life. I’m going to be a secret agent for one of the most important agencies in the whole world.”
“Which one?” Julia asked wryly.
No legitimate organization would hire him without extensive mental testing that Julia was sure he would fail. She wasn’t convinced that any less than legitimate group would want him either. If he did have a job lined up, it was probably doing something illegal. Julia suspected that it was more likely that Matthew had slipped somewhere into a fantasy world he had created, though.
“That doesn’t matter,” Matthew snapped. “I’ve been training myself for years and years, getting ready, and it is nearly time. I just needed to clean up a few loose ends before I started my new life.”
“And Cassie was a loose end?” Julia guessed.
“Yeah, she was,” Matthew sighed. “She was a very loose end.”
“What about Peter and Serena?”
“Peter needed to go as well. Serena is another matter. At first I was going to take her with me, then I was setting her up to take the blame. She wouldn’t play along with either plan, and now you won’t either.”
Julia shook her head. “And Alex?” she couldn’t help but ask.
“Alex? He was just too close to the whole thing. I should have just framed him properly, instead of making it look like Serena did it sloppily. The next time I have to kill people, I’ll just keep it simple. Now I’m stuck with you, of course. You ask too many questions. I guess I can use you, though. You can help me, if you want to cooperate.”
“I’d love to cooperate,” Julia told him, feeling she had little choice.
“You need to convince the police that Serena is to blame for the murders. I’ve done everything I can to make that easy for you. I’ve got her clothes, covered in Cassie’s blood. I’ve got Peter’s M-ped with Serena’s fingerprints all over it. I’m going to call the police to come and take it all for testing. You’re going to convince them that Serena is guilty. Once she is arrested and locked away, I’ll let Alex go and you two can live happily ever after. Agreed?”
Julia frowned. “If I don’t agree?”
“I’ll lock you up with Serena and Alex, and I’ll call the police and do it all without your help.”
“I’m not sure why you want my help.”
Matthew glared at her. “Now that you mention it, I probably don’t.”
Oops, Julia thought, that was the wrong way to go with that conversation.
Matthew stood up and gestured with the gun. “Come on then,” he told her. “You can go and visit with Serena and Alex for a short time while I sort things out by myself.”
Julia followed his directions down the hallway toward the back of the house. A metal door that Julia assumed she wouldn’t find in any of the copycat neighborhood houses looked out of place in the kitchen. Matthew leaned around her and punched a code into a keypad beside the door. He used a fingerprint recognition pad after the code and the door slid open. In front of Julia was a dark stairway.
“Down you go,” he ordered.
Julia carefully stepped down the first step, trying to think of a way out. She knew was being watched and monitored, both by the police and her agency, but the basement was still scary. Matthew flicked a switch and a dim light flickered on in the darkness below.
Julia walked slowly and carefully downwards. Matthew kept well behind her, not allowing her to get a chance to disarm him. When she reached the bottom, Julia took a quick look around. She was in a large open area with several doors opening off from it. A few pieces of old, battered and broken furniture were dotted around the room. The dim light left shadows in every corner. As far as Julia could see, there was no one else there.
“You’ll have plenty of time to explore, once I’ve gone,” Matthew sneered at her. “Have a seat.”
He pointed to a small wooden chair that looked as if it would collapse under any weight. Julia slid into it cautiously. Matthew reached into a pocket and pulled out an old-fashioned pair of handcuffs. Julia was surprised and relieved to see them. They would be much easier to get out of than anything more modern.
Matthew ordered her to cuff herself to the chair and she did so, carefully fastening one cuff around her left wrist and the second around the nearest chair leg. Matthew was too distracted to notice how easily she could free herself. He produced a second pair of cuffs and she repeated the process on her right ankle under Matthew’s orders.
“I guess I’ll take the suitcase to the police then,” he told Julia. “I really wouldn’t want them coming here now. Or maybe I won’t bother. Maybe I’ll just go and start that new life of mine.”
“That might be a better idea.” Julia was honest with the man. If he went to the police now, he would be arrested. Of course, even if he didn’t go to the police, she knew that the officers outside were waiting to arrest him.
Matthew sighed and leaned against the wall. “Everything is getting increasingly complicated. The plan was simple, really. Kill Cassie and Peter and frame Alex and Serena. How much more simple could you get? You’re a complication I wasn’t expecting. You ask too many questions.” He sighed. “I’m sorry to leave you locked in here. Under other circumstances we might have become friends.”
Julia smiled at him. “Maybe we still could be friends,” she suggested. “Maybe I could come with you?”
Matthew hesitated. “It’s tempting,” he told her, “but I’ve been training for many years to get to where I am. You would just slow me down. I’m like super-human. This has been my dream since I was ten.”
Julia raised an eyebrow. “What kind of training?” she asked.
“I know lots about computers and hacking into them. I faked my own alibi for Cassie’s murder,” he giggled. “Henry Mason would have a fit if he knew how easy it was to hack the security cameras in his building.”
“What’s going on there?” Julia asked.
“You know, I’m not really sure. I think he’s up to something, but I’m not sure what. I could have found out if I wanted to, but I was too busy getting my new life ready.”
Julia nodded. Once she got out of here, she would look into Masters and Mason more closely. “What else can you do?” She wanted to keep the conversation going, knowing that several different parties were watching it all with interest.
“I can create new identities and change official records. I played around with Serena’s record, just for the fun of it and I bet y
ou couldn’t even tell!”
Julia shook her head and tried to look impressed as he continued.
“I’ve trained myself in the martial arts and I can use lots of different weapons. And, of course, I can kill people.”
“So Cassie and Peter were practice?”
“Not exactly,” Matthew told her. “They needed to die because they knew me too well. Cassie and I were, well, we had an affair. She knew that I was training. She knew what I was planning. I even thought about letting her come with me, but she didn’t want to leave New York. Anyway, killing her was good practice, and framing Serena was easy. I even set it up to look like she was trying to frame Alex Knight. That is how good I am.”
“You are good,” Julia told him, pushing him to tell her more. “What about Peter? Why did you kill him?”
“Peter? That was Cassie’s fault. She actually told him.” Matthew looked affronted at the thought of Cassie’s betrayal.
“Told him?”
“She told him about my plans. About my dreams and my training. And he laughed at me about it. He said that I was crazy and that I should be happy with my life the way it was. But it wasn’t me. I wasn’t meant to be an architect in a horrible house in the suburbs. I was meant to be David Daniels.”
Julia resisted rolling her eyes at the reference. “David Daniels” was the world’s most famous secret agent. Legend had him working for just about every government at some point in his career. He got the credit for foiling hundreds of plots by various terrorist groups over the years of the Eco-Wars. He was also a totally fictional construct. His creation allowed a lot of real agents to hide their identities over the years. Lots of men wanted to be him, but no one actually was.
“So you’ve been training in secret and now you are ready to find a job as an agent?” Julia asked.
“I’ve been training myself, I applied to every agency on the planet, and now I’ve found a job as an agent.” Matthew corrected her.
“Wow,” Julia tried to sound impressed. “Can’t you tell me who you’re working for?” she tried.
“I could tell you.” Matthew answered, “but then I would have to kill you.”