by Karen Rose
Dammit. When had she gotten so strong? Since she started using coke, he thought, heaving air into his lungs. He let his right arm go lax—
And then she shocked the hell out of him by springing from his grasp and grabbing the pretty pink lamp from the nightstand, spinning and hefting it into the air. She hadn’t been unconscious. She’d been faking it. Playing possum. He straightened abruptly, reluctantly impressed. He’d underestimated his baby sister.
She swung the lamp toward his head and he blocked it with his left arm. He knocked it aside easily and grabbed her arm, twisting it behind her back.
He was pushing her toward the bed when she shocked him again – and sealed her own fate. Reaching back with her free hand, she grabbed the hat from his head and pulled, looking over her shoulder as she bared his face.
She froze, her eyes wide on his face. Fuck, Gemma. Why’d you have to go and do that?
She squinted up at him, confused. ‘Brandon? What are you doing here?’
He didn’t say a word, but he did grab that free hand and hold both of her hands with his strong left. Gritting his teeth, he forced her to the bed, using his full weight to hold her down. He pulled his switchblade from his pocket, flicked the release, and slid the blade along the bedspread, under her throat. Then he gave a mighty yank, pulling the blade across her throat.
Her eyes were wide with terror as blood spurted out, soaking her daughter’s mattress. And then her eyes were . . . nothing. Dim. Her life drained along with her blood. He rolled her over, pulled his gun with the silencer from his bag, put it to the center of her forehead, and fired. Then he checked her eyes, her pulse, just to be sure she really was down this time.
She was. She was permanently down. He’d killed her.
And I’d do it again. She’d brought it on herself. He pulled the hat back onto his head, squatted next to the bed and hoisted Macy to his shoulder, then stood up. His arm hurt like fucking fire, and by the time he got the child into the garage and hidden in the back of Gemma’s minivan, he felt like vomiting.
But that would be a mistake. He wouldn’t leave DNA for the cops to find.
He leaned against the minivan and breathed until the nausea passed. Then he tied Macy’s hands and feet, put duct tape over her mouth, and took out his phone and snapped a photo of her so that he could—
‘Shit,’ he whispered. Major flaw in his hastily concocted plan. How was he supposed to show it to Mallory? She was surrounded by cops in the ER. She didn’t have a sparkly pink cell phone, so he couldn’t send it to her, and it wasn’t like he could just waltz in there and . . .
Then again . . . Hide in plain sight. He’d been doing it for twenty years.
He went back in the house, into the closet next to Gemma’s. This was her husband’s closet and it was filled with uniforms. He was a little taller than his brother-in-law, but leaner, because his brother-in-law liked beer and donuts. One of the shirts would fit him. Not perfectly, but well enough for what he needed to do.
He dressed himself and then went back into Macy’s room and picked up her pink sparkly phone. Back at the minivan, he took a photo of Macy, then he covered her with a blanket, closed the minivan’s hatch and drove to the hospital.
He’d hide in plain sight, waltz into the hospital and make sure that Mallory knew Macy was in trouble. The girl wouldn’t say a word. She’ll be too scared. And as soon as he was able to get Mallory alone, he’d kill her too.
Cincinnati, Ohio,
Saturday 15 August, 2.05 P.M.
She was cold. Really cold. And . . .
Ohmygod. It hurt. Her leg really hurt. She heard a whimper. That was me, she thought, everything floaty. Panicked, she tried to move, but she couldn’t. Another whimper came out of her.
‘Hi, honey. Don’t be scared.’
She knew the voice. She’d heard it already. Where? Where?
‘My name is Meredith. I came in with you on the ambulance. You got hit by a car in front of the grocery store. You have a broken leg. I know it must hurt. It was a bad break.’
Mallory’s teeth chattered and someone covered her with a blanket. ‘Where . . . where is the lady cop?’
‘She’s not here,’ Meredith said. ‘But we’re friends, she and I. We’ve been hoping you’d call back so we could help you.’
So cold. And she wanted the lady cop. I remember. She was there.
Mallory opened her eyes to see a very pretty lady smiling back at her. But not the lady cop. The lady cop had smiled too. She was waiting for me outside Kroger. She’d smiled and waved.
And then . . . the car. His car. His green Mercedes. He’d known. He’d known.
How? She whimpered again, hating the sound. Unable to stop herself from doing it.
How had he found her? She’d left the car at the drugstore. She’d taken a cab. The nice man hadn’t charged her anything. He’d let her keep all nine dollars and fifty cents. Just in case no one came to take her home.
Maybe the man had told. But how? She hadn’t given her name.
Tears filled her eyes and she blinked, sending them down her face. They were warm at least. A soft tissue dried her cheeks.
‘Don’t cry, Mallory,’ Meredith said.
Mallory hunched back into the pillow. ‘How do you know me?’
‘You told me. You said you were Mallory and we needed to save the kids. And Macy.’
It was a lie. Mallory didn’t remember any of that. She wouldn’t have told a stranger about Macy. But the lady cop had been there. Maybe I told her. ‘I want the lady cop,’ she said, her voice hoarse. Meredith put a straw in her mouth, let her sip some water. It felt good.
‘Maybe we can get Kendra in here,’ another voice said. Another lady.
Mallory looked to her right, slowly, because her head hurt. Meredith wore a pretty green shirt and khaki pants. She had a pretty necklace, too. But the other lady wore all black. Pants, jacket. Her shirt was white . . . but it had blood on it.
And she had a gun. But she smiled, and then she didn’t look so mean.
‘Kendra?’ Mallory asked.
‘The lady cop’s name is Kendra Cullen,’ the lady in black said. ‘I’m a lady cop too, if that helps. My name is Special Agent Coppola. I’m with the FBI. You can call me Kate if you want. Yesterday Kendra and I arrested the man who harassed you last week.’
Mallory frowned. What? Oh. She remembered now. ‘Football guy,’ she murmured.
‘Yes. His name is Corey Addison,’ Kate said. ‘He’s in jail. He can’t hurt you again.’
‘Thank you,’ Mallory said politely. ‘I still want the lady cop. Kendra.’
The two women glanced at each other over her bed. ‘I’ll try,’ Meredith said, ‘but she’s upset.’
‘Why?’ Mallory asked.
Meredith sighed again. ‘Her partner was waiting outside the grocery store, in the back, in case you got scared and tried to run. The man who hurt you, he . . . killed Kendra’s partner.’
Mallory stared at her, not understanding the words at first. Then she did. My fault, she thought. My fault. Oh God. It’s my fault.
‘We were hoping you could tell us where we could find that man,’ Kate said softly.
Mallory’s eyes whipped to the right to see Kate. And that was when she saw it. A pink sparkly phone. It was Macy’s phone. She’d gotten it from her mom at Christmas. The phone sat on the little table next to Mallory’s bed.
Mallory began to breathe harder. As she reached tentatively for the phone, she became aware of the silence in the little room.
‘Where did that come from?’ Meredith asked in an odd voice.
Kate shrugged. ‘I thought you kept it for her while they set her leg. You didn’t?’
‘No. And I know it wasn’t here fifteen minutes ago. The nurse moved the tray out the way when she
set up the IV.’
Kate reached for the phone, her movement abrupt. Mallory grabbed it and turned it on.
And stared. And stared. And heard the whimpering again. Coming from her own throat.
Kate moved more slowly, and now she had gloves on. Carefully she turned the phone to see the screen, then she exhaled like she was mad.
Good. Be mad. Somebody should be mad. He had Macy. He tied her up. He put her in a car. He put tape on her mouth. He’s going to hurt her.
He’s going to turn her into me.
Meredith leaned over the bed to see. ‘Oh God,’ she breathed. ‘Mallory, is this Macy?’
Mallory closed her eyes and pursed her lips. Say nothing. He’s here. Somewhere. He has Macy and he’s here. He can see you. He can hear you. He’s here. Her hands went limp and Kate pulled the phone away from her gently.
‘It’s not Macy?’ Meredith asked.
‘It is,’ Kate said, and she sounded grim. ‘It says “Macy” on the back in sparkles.’
‘Mallory,’ Meredith murmured. ‘Who is Macy?’
Mallory pursed her lips harder. Say nothing.
‘My guess?’ Kate said. ‘Her sister. The two look so much alike.’
‘Is Macy your sister, Mallory?’ Meredith asked, still gently.
Mallory trembled. Don’t say yes. Don’t say anything. He’s here.
‘This photo wasn’t texted from someone,’ Kate said. ‘It was taken using this phone. Someone left it here to frighten Mallory.’
‘Goddamn, I hate this guy,’ Meredith said softly.
Tears fell from Mallory’s eyes. Me too. Me too.
‘He threatened Macy?’ Kate said. ‘Is that how he got you to be silent all this time?’
Say nothing. Say nothing. Say nothing.
‘Mallory,’ Kate tried again. ‘We need your help. You asked us to save the kids. You need to tell us where they are.’
Kids? Oh God. The kids. She wanted to tell. She wanted so badly to tell.
‘We know about the videos,’ Meredith said. ‘We want to help you.’ But then she sighed. ‘She’s terrified, Kate. And in pain. I don’t think she’s going to talk right now.’
There was a soft sound. Kate rubbing her face. ‘I really hate this guy too. We get close and then he messes with us.’ She was quiet a minute, and then she leaned close. ‘Mallory, I’m going to go now, but I’ll be back. I’ll try to bring Kendra. But you need to understand something, honey. You are our best lead so far to finding the man who hurt you and who took your sister. I need your help, and I’m not lying. So rest. I’ll be back soon.’
Say nothing, because he’s here.
A hand softly stroked her hair. ‘Just rest,’ Meredith said. ‘I won’t leave you.’
Cincinnati, Ohio,
Saturday 15 August, 2.35 P.M.
‘Kate?’ Zimmerman came out of his office as she and Decker stepped out of the elevator onto their floor at the field office. ‘A word, please?’
Kate squared her shoulders. This was the talk she’d been dreading for hours. ‘Yes, sir. If you could give me a few seconds.’ Zimmerman nodded and retreated to his office, and she looked up at Decker. ‘If you can make flyers out of those pictures we took of Rawlings last night, we can go to the jail and try to get some real answers about Alice’s murder when I’m done. Unless . . . y’know . . . I’m done.’
They’d had this talk on their way from the Kroger to the hospital, and again from the hospital to the field office. I lost control of the situation and people got hurt. An officer was killed. And the Professor got away. Again.
Decker gave her shoulder a light bump with his. ‘It wasn’t anything you could control. It was set up to be a clusterfuck from the word go.’
‘Yeah. Right. I’ll take my medicine.’
‘If it makes you feel better, I think he’s madder at me and Deacon.’
Her lips quirked up. ‘If that does make me feel better, does that mean I’m a bitch?’
He grinned, making her insides . . . settle. ‘Go. I’ll get those photos done. Troy sent me Rawlings’s booking photo too, so I’ll add that in.’
Kate’s answering grin disappeared like mist as she went into Zimmerman’s office, closed the door, and sat down in front of his desk. She clenched her fists and wished for her knitting, but she’d left it in the car again. She swallowed, the gulp audible. ‘I’m sorry, sir.’
Zimmerman rested his chin on his steepled fingers and studied her. ‘For?’
Kate blinked rapidly and tried to quiet the sudden hurricane in her head. ‘I don’t even know where to start.’
Leaning back, he pulled something out of a drawer and tossed it to her. A protein bar. ‘For starters, eat that.’ He took a bottle of water from the same drawer and put it on the edge of his desk closest to her. When she was finished with the food and water, she twined her fingers together and waited.
A fraction calmer, actually. Surely he wouldn’t feed her if he were planning to go all administrative discipline on her ass. She hoped.
‘On a scale from one to five, how clear is your mind now?’ he asked.
‘I’m at about a Cat 4,’ she answered honestly, and he chuckled.
‘Then take this.’ He tossed her a flat box, like old-fashioned lace hankies might come in.
She caught her breath when she lifted the lid. ‘Origami paper,’ she murmured, her throat going tight. ‘Okay, so down to Cat 3 now. You’ve fed me and watered me and given me coping presents, so I don’t think I’m in too much trouble.’
He chuckled again. ‘Well, I wouldn’t say that, but we’ll share whatever blame comes down.’ He shrugged, sobering. ‘Decker was right, what he said in the hallway.’
‘Which thing? That you’re madder at him and Deacon than at me, or that the Kroger situation was a clusterfuck from the word go?’
‘Both,’ he said dryly. ‘The truth is you all acted quickly to minimize the danger to civilians. It could have been worse.’
‘We let him get away,’ she murmured, petting the paper. It was so very nice. So textured and tactile under her fingertips.
‘You didn’t choose the venue. The girl did. He simply made the most of the knowledge that you wouldn’t risk shooting an innocent bystander to stop him. I’ll deal with the fallout. That’s part of my job.’ He gestured to the paper. ‘That’s from my wife. I mentioned the folding you do and she picked that up after she saw the report about the Kroger on the news. She thought you’d need it.’
Kate brushed her fingers over the thick paper, just waiting to be folded into something wonderful. ‘You told her I fold paper? Why?’
‘Because talking to her quiets the chaos in my mind at the end of my day. I don’t tell her the nastier parts of my job. Like seeing a woman dismembered and shoved in matching luggage. I can’t tell her the sensitive parts of our investigations, but I can tell her about my people, and she likes that because she’s the mothering type.’
Kate was touched. Confused, but touched. ‘I’ve never even met your wife.’
‘Actually, you have. Twice. Once at Agent Symmes’s funeral last week. You passed her your pack of Kleenex and smiled at her. Then yesterday you saw her outside in the parking lot. She was getting out of her car to bring me dinner as you were getting into your car muttering about men needing keepers. She said you took a moment from your rant to smile at her again. My wife likes you.’ He shrugged. ‘Go figure.’
Kate had to laugh. ‘Gosh. Thank you. I’ll have to write her an actual old-fashioned thank-you note.’ She took the first piece of paper from the box, scooted her chair closer to Zimmerman’s desk and started folding, sobering as she began to talk. ‘So. The Kroger. The older woman is in bad shape with a broken rib and a fractured hip, but she’ll live, barring any weird infections or complications. Officer Heinz – th
at’s Kendra’s partner – has been taken to the morgue. Deacon and his lieutenant did the death notification to his widow.’ She drew a breath and sighed. ‘And Mallory – that’s Sunshine Suzie’s real name – refuses to say a word.’
‘I suppose we can hardly blame her at this point,’ Zimmerman said quietly. Kate had called him from the ER to report the sparkly pink phone and the picture of the abducted Macy, and they’d immediately instituted an Amber Alert with only the photo and ‘Macy’ because they didn’t yet know her last name or where she’d been abducted from.
‘Nobody saw him put that phone down on Mallory’s table,’ she said. ‘Deacon and Decker and I searched the security tapes, and we think we found him.’ She looked up and met her boss’s worried gaze. ‘He was dressed like a cop, sir. No badge, but he wore the uniform shirt. Long-sleeved, which is how we picked him out of the crowd to begin with.’
‘To cover the wound on his arm,’ Zimmerman said, the beginnings of excitement in his voice. ‘Could you see his face?’
She shrugged. ‘Not really. He wore the standard-issue hat, brim pulled down. He had a mustache and a beard. Probably another disguise, but who knows?’
Zimmerman blew out a frustrated sigh. ‘We found the cruiser. He abandoned it in a shopping mall. We couldn’t trace the little girl’s phone. It’s a burner.’
She blinked, not expecting that. ‘Who gives a little girl a burner phone?’
‘Who makes a little girl’s big sister do kiddie porn?’ Zimmerman returned bitterly. ‘So until Mallory talks, we’re back to where we were this morning, pursuing leads to the Professor. I heard you and Decker discussing going to the jail.’
She finished the basket she’d been folding, set it aside, and began tearing the next sheet into even strips. ‘Yes. We’ll take the pictures of Rawlings and see what we can dig up. Hopefully something that tells us how he contacted the Professor or how he received the poison he used on Alice. As for the others, Deacon is staying at the hospital with Dani. Meredith is staying with Mallory, who’s been moved to a regular room. We have a guard posted. Kendra went home with Wendi. She’s a mess, sir. Kendra, I mean. And Adam and Troy came back here.’