“Riley, please, not today, okay?”
Riley proceeded to glare at Joanna, as she pulled on her jeans. She put the rest of her clothes on in silence.
“Riley, Alex needs to ask you a few more questions. Are you up for that?”
“Sure, I wondered what she was doing here, and what’s with the goon who was outside my room all night and following me like a damn hawk?”
Joanna hesitated, considering how to answer. “Riley, the man who attacked you is a serial killer and the same person who abducted all those women. There were others too, a few years ago in another state. They got a match from the DNA samples they took from you.”
Riley faltered at Joanna’s words and swallowed hard. “Shit.”
“Oh, come here, honey.” Joanna attempted to embrace her girlfriend in a comforting hug.
“I’m okay, I should go and talk to Alex,” Riley replied after a halfhearted hug.
“Okay,” Joanna frowned, following Riley from the restroom.
“Riley, you okay? How do you feel?” Alex asked her as she came back into the room.
“I’m good, just want to get out of here. Did you find the woman, the woman in the park?”
“Not yet, Riley. In fact, I was hoping you could help us. Do you think you can retrace your steps if we went back to the park?”
“Hold on a minute, Riley needs to rest. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to take her back to the park,” Joanna began to protest. “The doctor said she needs to take it easy, and she hasn’t been released yet.”
“Jo, I told you I’m fine, okay? Let’s go,” Riley said, putting on the denim jacket Kate had brought her.
“Um, maybe you should wait for the doctor, Riley,” Alex said after seeing the angry look on Joanna’s face.
“Yes, I think that’s a good idea, in fact let me see if I can find out what’s going on,” Helen added, giving Riley a firm look.
“This is fucked up!” Riley said, heading for the door.
Joanna had had enough; grabbing Riley’s arm, she escorted her back to the bed. “Can you give us a minute, please?” she directed at the other women.
“Yes, of course,” Alex said, heading out of the room with Helen and Kate.
“I’ll try to track down Doctor Stark,” Helen said, leaving the room behind Alex.
“Take a seat, Riley,” Joanna directed coolly. “The last thing I want to do right now is discipline you, but you’re asking for it, young lady. Now, I’ll tell you one more time. As soon as the doctor releases you, we can go. Maybe we can go with Alex to the park, but I don’t want you overdoing it, okay? Please, Riley, cooperate and we’ll get you home.”
Riley looked at Joanna sullenly, before flopping back on the bed. “Okay, I’m sorry, I just want to go home.”
“I know, baby, we’ll get you out of here as soon as we can. You know Helen, she can be quite persuasive, she went to find Doctor Stark,” Joanna replied, bending down and kissing Riley.
“I hear we have someone here who is a little anxious to go home?” Doctor Stark said, entering Riley’s room.
“Good morning, Doctor. What’s her status?” Joanna asked.
“Well, I’m happy with the CT results, I think you can go home, Riley. You need to take it easy for a week or so, no work, okay? I’d like you to follow up with your own doctor in a week.”
“Okay, thank you, Doctor,” Riley said with a small smile. “Let’s go find Alex.”
“Whoa, not so fast, we have protocol, someone will be in to get you in a couple of minutes,” the doctor said, shaking Joanna’s hand.
Chapter Eight
“Alex has her car out front waiting for you. Are you sure you’re up for this, Riley?” Joanna asked, concerned, seeing the tired look on Riley’s face, as the orderly wheeled her to the front of the hospital.
“Yeah, I have to, I think I know where she is. I saw her, Jo. If I can see the park, I can maybe figure out where I was,” Riley replied, as Alex pulled up in front of them.
“Hi, Riley, you doing okay?” Alex asked, as she opened the front door of her unmarked patrol car. Riley nodded, getting into the front seat while Joanna took a seat in the back. “Hi, Joanna, thanks for doing this, we’ve come up with nothing. There is no way he could have moved a body after he attacked Riley last night. We pulled all the camera footage and no one we talked to saw anything.”
“I think we just need to get this over with, so I can take Riley home,” Joanna replied possessively.
The ride to Central Park was quiet except for the radio traffic being broadcast from Alex’s police radio.
“Two eighteen, we’re eight minutes out. What’s the press situation, Carl?” Alex radioed, as they approached the famous landmark.
“Good, we got them corralled at the north end. Cap is giving them a little info now, so you shouldn’t be bothered. I’ll call you on the cell if that changes.”
“Copy, thanks,” Alex replied as she pulled into the park.
“I’m going to drive slow, just try to retrace your steps and let me know if anything looks familiar, okay, Riley?” Alex assured her.
Riley looked around, she had been running so fast in the dark to escape from her attacker, she hadn’t really paid any attention but she knew her way around the park, she had run there so many times.
They had crawled for about a mile on the east loop road. Joanna had her hand on Riley’s shoulder as she surveyed the surroundings. Every once in a while, Alex would look at Riley expectantly.
“Anything, Riley? We’re quite a way in, are you sure it was this far?” Alex asked.
“Not yet, we’re not there, keep going,” Riley replied in an irritated tone, studying the landscape to the right of her.
Alex kept driving, deeper into the park. After about another mile or so, she gave Joanna a questioning glance in the back seat. Joanna nodded back at her. She knew Riley had seen something, despite the shock she was in the previous day.
“There! Pull over, right here,” Riley exclaimed, unbuckling her seatbelt and leaping from the car before Alex had managed to come to a complete stop.
“Riley, damn it!” Joanna cried out after Riley, before getting out of the car and going after her eager girlfriend.
Riley hurried into a thicket of trees before turning around and studying the way she just came in.
“This it, Riley? This is where you were?” Alex asked.
Riley just nodded and proceeded further into the undergrowth with Joanna and Alex in tow. For five more minutes, Riley went deeper into the trees, looking around every few seconds. Joanna saw Riley stop and turn pale, as she pointed to a clearing through the trees.
“In there, she’s in there,” Riley pointed then slowly approached the clearing.
“Riley, wait!” Alex started, but Riley was already in.
Riley stopped. “That’s the tree he tied me to. She’s right next to it, there,” she said, pointing to a pale shape on the ground.
“Stay here,” Alex instructed, as she approached the area Riley was pointing to.
Alex studied the ground, before looking back at Riley and Joanna, giving them an affirming nod. She made a call on her phone.
Joanna put her arms around Riley, who was beginning to shake.
“Alex, I have to get Riley out of here now!” Joanna demanded.
“Yes, of course,” Alex said, coming back toward them.
“She’s there, isn’t she?” Riley stuttered in obvious distress.
“Yes, Riley, she is. We’re going to get you home, okay?” Alex said, as Joanna helped her traumatized girlfriend back to the car.
“In there, a quarter mile, clearing through the trees,” Alex said to the detectives that met her next to the car. “Get a quarter mile perimeter, get the CSI team, but no one else goes in or out, I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”
Riley buried her head silently into Joanna’s chest as they both got into the back seat of Alex’s patrol car.
Joanna put a comforting hand on the bac
k of Riley’s head and held her. “Let’s get you home, baby, it’s going to be okay.”
Alex got into the driver’s seat and gave Joanna a questioning look in the mirror, mouthing the question, ‘She okay?’ Joanna shook her head and held her girlfriend tightly, as Alex drove them back to the apartment building. Once inside, Rosa jumped up to open the penthouse elevator, after seeing Joanna enter with a distressed Riley.
“You call for anything,” she said, as she ushered the pair inside the elevator.
Joanna could hear Alex talking to Rosa, as the door of the elevator closed.
“I need to take a shower,” Riley announced, as they entered Joanna’s apartment.
“How about I run you a nice bath and you let me take care of you, okay, sweetie?” Joanna said affectionately to her tired girlfriend.
“Hmm,” Riley grunted in return, as Joanna steered her to the bathroom.
Joanna ran the water and began to undress Riley. Her eyes were drawn to the bruises around Riley’s throat and wrists, and the black eye that had started to form around her right eye, spurring the anger and fear inside Joanna to resurface. Part of her wanted to leave New York and take Riley back to LA but Alex had been pretty insistent that if this monster out there was coming after Riley, she would be safer in New York, where they could protect her. Even now, Alex had arranged for two uniformed police officers to guard the apartment building. Joanna tried to shake the thoughts from her head, as she helped a silent Riley into the bathtub. She washed and rinsed Riley’s hair carefully, not wanting to aggravate the contusion on her head. Joanna had to turn her attention away; she didn’t want Riley to see the tears that were starting to escape her eyes, the more she thought about what had happened to Riley.
“I’ll be right back, baby, want your sweats or PJs?” Joanna asked, rising toward the door with tears streaming down her face.
“Sweats, I guess,” Riley replied, not looking up from studying the bruises around her wrists.
After Riley had soaked for fifteen minutes or so, Joanna helped her out of the bath and into her sweats.
“You want to curl up on the couch, or go to the bedroom, honey?” Joanna asked, gently towel drying Riley’s hair.
“Couch.”
* * *
Through the darkness, Riley could see the moonlight raining down through the trees. The wind blew and the canopy shifted and she saw the dead woman’s face in the moonlight before her. She bolted up on the couch from her dream, gasping, in a state of panic.
“Riley, are you okay? Shhh… you had a dream, honey. Come here,” Joanna said, coaxing Riley up into her lap after seeing the look of distress on her face.
Riley clung to Joanna and buried her face into her chest. “I saw the dead woman in my dream, and the man, but he had no face. He raised the blade in the air; he was going to kill me!”
“Honey, I have you, it was just a dream,” Joanna comforted, trying to calm Riley down.
After a few minutes, Riley looked up at Joanna. She no longer wore the scared expression, but a curious one. “I’m going to use the computer,” she announced, getting up from Joanna’s lap.
“Okay, honey, Helen and Kate are bringing over pizza, they went to get it now. You hungry?”
“Yeah, but why didn’t they just order it?”
“Well, we think the less people who come here the better for right now, and Alex agreed. We need to keep a low profile until they catch this guy.”
“Oh,” Riley said absently as she disappeared into the office.
Ten minutes or so later, Joanna heard a knock at the door and Helen and Kate let themselves in.
“Pizza’s here, how’s she doing, Jo?” Helen asked, setting the pizza box down on the kitchen counter.
“I don’t know, she had a dream when she was napping this afternoon, saw the dead woman and the killer, gave her quite a scare, I think.”
“Poor thing, where is she?” Kate asked.
“In the office, want to get her and tell her pizza’s here?”
“Sure,” Kate replied, heading in the direction of the office.
“Riley, it’s me, what are you doing in here, we have pizza?” Kate announced, entering the office.
Riley startled a little, cautious about the content on the computer screen with what she was researching on the web.
“I’ve decided I’m getting a gun. If this creep’s after me, then I want some protection,” Riley said, pointing to the picture of the nine-millimeter on the screen.
“Riley, is that a good idea? I mean do you even know how to shoot a gun?”
“Well, not exactly, but how hard can it be? Maybe you should get one too.”
“Are you crazy? Did you even talk to Jo about this?”
“Well, no, not yet. Maybe she doesn’t have to know?”
“Riley, you’re treading on dangerous ground. You need to tell Jo!”
“What do you need to tell me?” Joanna asked, as she appeared in the doorway with a frown on her face.
“I’m getting a gun,” Riley replied firmly.
“A gun, really, young lady? Have you ever shot a gun before?”
“No, but I’ll feel safer if we have some protection.”
“Is that so? Well, let me tell you the only protection you’ll need if you do, will be for your behind! No guns! Let the police do their job. I don’t want to hear another word about it.”
Riley glared at Joanna then Kate before shutting down the computer and stomping out of the office.
“Hi, Riley, got your favorite, barbeque chicken,” Helen smiled, seeing Riley emerge from the office.
“Thanks, but I’m not hungry,” Riley seethed as she angrily stormed into the bedroom and slammed the door behind her.
“And just what was that about?” Helen inquired, as Joanna and Kate came out of the office after Riley.
“She was in there, researching guns. She thinks she needs to have one for protection now, even though she’s never touched one in her life!” Joanna replied in an angry tone looking toward the bedroom door.
“I hope you weren’t encouraging this?” Helen directed at Kate with irritation in her voice.
Now it was Kate’s turn to do some glaring of her own. “You know what, screw you, Helen, I didn’t do crap!” Kate announced with an injured look on her face.
“Kate, Riley may have a free pass today, but that’s not going to stop me from lighting you up,” Helen replied angrily, as she started to descend on her girlfriend.
Joanna could see Helen was about to come unglued.
“Stop it, we’re all on edge, and this isn’t helping,” Joanna replied, breaking down into helpless tears.
“You’re right, sorry, Jo. We need to figure this out rationally and calmly,” Helen replied, as Riley appeared from the bedroom and flew over to comfort Joanna.
Helen held out her own arms for Kate in apology. “I’m sorry, honey, you didn’t deserve that.”
“No, I didn’t. Accepted, now can we eat? I’m starving!”
* * *
“I’ll get it,” Riley said, hearing the doorbell and stuffing the last bite of her pizza slice in her mouth, before heading over to the front door.
“Alex, come on in,” Riley greeted the detective. “We’ve got pizza if you want some.”
“First of all, never answer the door, unless you know who it is. Did you even look?” Alex questioned.
“Christ, keep your shirt on, Alex. No one can get up to the penthouse without the fob and you have the two cops out front!” Riley replied defensively.
“Riley, I don’t think you understand what this guy is capable of. Until we catch him, you need to be vigilant.”
“The woman at the park, was she the woman you thought it was?” Joanna asked in a somber tone.
“Yes, I’m afraid so. We also found the rope and belt he tied Riley with. He was in a hurry, that’s for sure. Riley, I mean it, you need to lay low. No going out on your own, and limit any places you could be vulnerable. No motorcycl
e, it makes you too easy of a target.”
“I assure you, Alex, you don’t have to worry about that. After Riley’s little ninety-two mile an hour stunt she pulled, the motorcycle is off limits for quite a while,” Joanna replied dryly, making Riley roll her eyes.
“Good, and if you can work from home, do it. We don’t want him knowing your patterns.”
“So, what? I’m supposed to stay cooped up here, is that what you’re saying? See, I told you I should get a gun.”
“Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying, Riley, and unless you are proficient in the use of a firearm, that’s not a good idea either.”
“That’s crazy, I’m not going to let that asshole dictate how I come and go. I can’t just put my life on hold!”
“That is exactly what you need to do until we catch him, Riley.”
“Between the three of us we’ll be on top of this, Detective. Riley won’t be on her own,” Joanna said thoughtfully. “She can work from home, no need to go to the office.”
“What, no! I’m meeting with David tomorrow to show him the new ads. I’m not staying here!” Riley just glared at Joanna. She was already antsy at the thought of being cooped up in the apartment.
“Riley, I know you said you don’t remember, but if we bring a sketch artist over, you think you could have a go at creating his likeness?” Alex asked.
“I guess I could try, but all I can see is a blank face and a hoodie, it’s like a faceless man. But the woman, I see her clearly, I remember her face like I was there.” Riley gave a visible shiver as she thought about the woman.
Joanna put her arm around Riley. “This will be over soon, honey, they’re going to catch this guy, okay?”
“I hope so,” Riley replied weakly.
Alex put a comforting hand on Riley’s shoulder as she phoned her partner. “Carl, bring Anna over to Riley’s apartment, we’re going to see what she can remember. Great, thanks!”
Three hours later, Riley rubbed her temples in frustration as she sat at Joanna’s elegant dinner table, along with Carl, Alex, and Anna, the sketch artist who Riley took a disliking to the moment she arrived at the apartment with Detective Tanner.
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