Seven Bridges

by Ciana Stone

  "You're just upset, and I understand but–"

  "No. I'm way beyond upset. I'm terrified, and you should be as well. Chances are, Tamara is dead and –and she didn't die easy. He'll have made sure of that, just to make a point."

  "Let's say you're right. What would provoke this? He's gotten away with his crimes for twenty-five years. Why take such a chance now? Killing an FBI agent will bring the full weight of the agency to bear on him. Why would he want to open this can of worms?"

  "Attention. Remember, he believes himself to be smarter than everyone else. He thinks he can manipulate and fool all of us. It's his game, and he believes, without doubt, he can win."

  "What do you believe?"

  "That he might be right unless we make up our mind to beat him at his own game."

  "And put your head on the chopping block."

  "No. Don't forget, he had me once. For three months. He hurt me, terrified me, and nearly broke me mentally, but he never once tried to kill me. It's not my head he wants, Gib. It's my heart."

  "As in on a plate."

  "Maybe. But even if that's the case, it may be a risk we need to take."

  "Well, I won't, and I'm not discussing it further, so if you're okay–"

  "I am."

  She marched by him and out of the door. She didn't wait for him but hurried back to where Leo and Galen waited. Dennis was there as well. "Has anyone spoken with Fiona? What are the extent of her injuries? Is there video surveillance in the hotel, and if so, can we get our hands on the footage from last night? Has anyone-"

  "Whoa, slow down there, hotshot," Galen was the one to interrupt.

  "Excuse me?" She threw one hand on a hip and glared at him, not angry with him, just the situation in general. She was actively working on being angry. The madder she was, the less afraid and sick she would feel. And the less chance He would have to get inside her head.

  Just then, Gib walked back into the room. "Okay, people wheels up in two hours. There's an APB out for Tamara, and as soon as Fiona is conscious, we'll question her. The local PD has the footage from hotel security and is forwarding us a copy. Dennis, be ready to retrieve it inflight, so we can have a look before we land. Questions?"

  No one spoke, so Gib nodded. "Then let's get moving."

  It took less than a minute for the room to clear, leaving Izzi standing on one side and Gib on the other, looking at one another. "For the record, I always place value on what you say, Iz, and always consider your suggestions, but for the last time, I don't know that you'll ever convince me that making you bait for this psychopath is a good idea."

  "It's okay," she started across the room. "I don't know that it ever will be a good idea. I just think it might end up being the only idea that has a chance of putting us in the same room with him."

  "Maybe," he replied and placed his hand on the side of her face as she stopped in front of him. "I love you, Iz. The idea of putting you in danger– it does something to me. Something bad."

  "I understand. Let's not talk about that anymore. Let's focus on Fiona and hopefully finding Tamara."

  He nodded, pivoted, and gestured toward the door. "You think we have a chance of finding her?"

  "Yes."

  "Just yes?"

  Izzi nodded and said no more. He wouldn't have wanted to hear it anyway. She did believe they'd find Tamara. But not alive. Her monster wouldn't take a chance on leaving Tamara alive. Not a trained agent, who might just pick up on something she could use to identify him.

  No. He wouldn't take that chance.

  Besides, he'd already told them. He was after them. Which meant he intended to kill every single one of them. Until there was no one left but him and her.

  Izzi grit her teeth as she accompanied Gib out of the building. She'd be damned if she'd let her monster kill this team. She was going to stop him. End him. Or die trying.

  In Route to Clarksville, Tennessee

  Everyone gathered around Dennis as he played the footage obtained from hotel security. The timestamp showed the first change in the shift for an officer to be posted outside the doors to Fiona and Tamara's rooms. The officer took a seat, pulled out his phone, and diddled with it. There was no activity at all in the hallway outside of their rooms. Not until an hour before shift change.

  The office on duty looked up toward the elevator and, after a moment, looked back down at his phone in his hand. Ten minutes later, he looked up again, but this time got up and walked toward the camera.

  A slight glitch in the video happened and then resumed to show the officer walking toward the chair placed along the wall between the hotel doors. He took a seat and pulled out his cell phone. From that point on, there was nothing to see for hours except the officer paying attention to his phone. Near time for a change in shift, there was another glitch, and when the video became clear again, EMT and police were entering the hotel rooms. There was no sign of the original officer on duty.

  Dennis fast-forwarded to the end of the recording. Even though video footage from the lobby showed EMT's and police entering, nothing showed the officer on duty leave.

  "Can you rewind that a bit?" Izzi asked. She thought she noticed something odd but wanted to make sure.

  "Sure, how far?"

  "First, look at the officer when he first arrives and takes a seat."

  Dennis rewound, and they watched the footage. "Okay, and?" Dennis asked.

  "Is there any way for you to clip that section and display it in a window of its own?"

  "Absolutely." It took him under a minute. "Now what?"

  "Now go to where he gets up, walks toward the camera and disappears, then returns."

  She watched the video fast forward until the officer came into frame with his back to the camera. "Okay, clip that section until he takes a seat and takes out his phone."

  Dennis did as she asked. "What are we looking for?"

  "Is there a way to tell if these clips are identical?"

  Galen looked at her. "What are you thinking?"

  "You know what I'm thinking. The video has been altered."

  "Can we play them simultaneously?" Gib asked.

  "Yes!"

  Dennis' fingers flew on the keyboard, copying and pasting the clips from the original footage and putting them into a new timeline, stacked one atop the other. "The top video is the last one on the recording. I'm making it seventy percent transparent and color-correcting it to green so we can see if there's a difference."

  It took about five minutes to get the starting point correct, but once he accomplished that and played the clip it was obvious. The two clips were identical.

  "How is this possible?" Gib asked.

  Dennis shook his head, pursed his lips, and stared at the screen for a few moments. "It stands to reason that this entire section of video has been tampered with, so there should be something to prove it, some mistake or--"

  Izzi interrupted. "Check the movements of the officer. Do they repeat at all?"

  Within minutes they all saw it. The officer's movements, did, in fact, repeat. Several times. "And the time codes," Izzi pointed to the bottom of the footage. "Look at the point when he shifts in his seat and coughs."

  Dennis ran the tape in slow motion. "There!" Galen pointed. "The counter on the seconds backed up from zero six to zero five."

  "So, what does all this tell us?" Leo, who until then had been silent, asked.

  "That he did all this right under our noses," Dennis answered. "He'd have to have been in the hotel and have access to the surveillance videos to make the changes and replace the originals with the doctored versions."

  "And he'd have to have done it quickly," Galen added. "In order to have time to kill the officer on duty before his replacement arrived, beat up Fiona and take Tamara."

  "So, you're saying he was there the whole time?" Leo asked.

  Galen looked at Izzi. "What do you think?"

  "I think he was."

  "Then here's the million-dollar question," Leo responded
. "Why?"

  "Game on," she said, reciting the words on the grizzly note he'd left them. "He wanted us to find this and figure it out."

  "Because?" Dennis asked.

  "To remind us that he's smarter," Galen looked at Izzi as he answered.

  "Yes," she agreed.

  "Then we're just going to have to prove him wrong," Galen said and stood. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I've about had it with this bastard. I think it's time to put him in the ground."

  "You'll get no argument from me," Leo agreed.

  "I think that's what we'd all like," Gib said calmly. "But that's not our way. We'll find him, and we'll put him behind bars."

  "Or death row," Dennis offered.

  "Works for me," Leo remarked.

  Izzi didn't comment or join the conversation. She didn't believe they stood a chance of catching her monster. None of them would ever get close to him unless he wanted them to. Which meant she had to find a way to convince Gib that their plan had to be to give the monster what he wanted.

  How she'd accomplish, that was a mystery. But for the sake of the members of the team still alive, she had to try.

  Chapter Twenty

  Clarksville, Tennessee

  Gib couldn't remember feeling as exhausted, beaten down, or heart sick as he did right now. He lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Izzi lay beside him with her head on his shoulder and one arm crossing his body.

  He knew she wasn't sleeping and would have been surprised if she was. They'd visited with Fiona at the hospital, and it was difficult to see how badly she'd been hurt and how much pain she was in. The doctors had already informed her she would require several surgeries to rebuild her nose and one cheekbone and insert dental implants to replace all the teeth missing. There was a chance her left leg would be permanently handicapped.

  Gib wanted to hit something, shoot something, do some damage to get this rage out of his gut. No, that wasn't true. He wanted to hurt the killer. As bad or more than he'd hurt Fiona. Gib wanted to make the man suffer.

  He wanted something to erase the feeling of helplessness. He'd been there once before and was pretty sure the only reason he survived was Izzi. It was at that moment he realized he'd never told her.

  "Are you asleep?" He knew full well she was not.

  He felt her shift and moved a bit as well, so he could look at her. "Do you remember when I showed up at your house a month after Diana died?"

  She kissed his chest and then responded. "I've never seen anyone more broken."

  Broken. That was an apt description. Gib didn't allow himself to revisit that time much. There was still a lot of pain and grief. At the moment, however, he was taken back in time without warning.

  He didn't much remember the trip, or even making a conscious decision to make it. He was standing in the bedroom he'd shared with his wife, looking at her clothing he'd taken from the closet and dresser. Her things lay on the bed like they were alive, daring him to touch or dispose of them. If he did, was he disposing of her? Of them and what they'd shared?

  Gib wasn't sure what to do anymore. His children had come to terms with their mother's death and were starting to reclaim their lives. Diana hadn't suffered. At least according to the doctors. She was playing tennis with her best friend and just fell, dead before she landed.

  An aneurysm in her brain burst, killing her nearly instantly.

  Still, he couldn't help but ask and wonder. What were her last thoughts? Did she have time to understand what was happening? Was there pain? God, he didn't even have a chance to say goodbye, to thank her for all the love she'd given him, all she'd done for their family.

  And worst of all, he'd never come clean and confessed that while he loved her more than he could ever say, he'd given a piece of his heart to a young woman she'd come to think of as a daughter. Would he ever live down that guilt? If Diana was here now, would she forgive him if he confessed?

  Suddenly the walls all seemed to close in at once, and he felt like he couldn't breathe. He didn't think about it, didn't plan, he just got in his car and started driving.

  Now, here he was, standing at Izzi's front door. It opened, and she took one look at him before stepping forward and wrapping her arms around his waist to hug him tight.

  That's when the tears came. Tears he'd held back for months. Tears he'd been ashamed or afraid to shed. But with Izzi, he could, and so it let it all out, quietly standing on her front porch, hanging onto her and feeling her hold him.

  He arrived broken.

  When he left two weeks later, the cracks were starting to heal. Six months later, he returned, and that time when he left, she accompanied him.

  "You healed me, Iz. You accepted my love for Diana, and my kids never tried to compete with it or put it in a closet. You helped me, and the kids celebrate the life we had with her and made us realize how much you loved her as well. Because of you, we were able to share that with one another. I'll never be able to repay what you did for me. For all of us. Thank you. I know that it will never be enough, but I will feel it every day. Just like I'll love you every day I live."

  It didn't happen often, but every now and then, Izzi's emotions broadcast strong enough that people around her could feel them. He did now. He felt the depth of her love and knew it to be true and enduring. She didn't measure his love for her against what he had and still felt for Diana, or his children. She simply accepted what he gave with sincere gratitude and returned it ten-fold.

  "God, I'm so lucky to have you in my life, Iz."

  "Not half as lucky as –"

  The way her body stiffened, her breath hitched, and her word cut off abruptly, scared him. Gib sat, pulling her upright. "What's wrong? Iz, what is it?"

  Her eyes were open, white, and unblinking, letting him know she was seeing something no one else could, and it was likely to be bad. Gib knew better than to try and pull her out of whatever she was experiencing, so just held onto her and watched.

  Izzi struggled against the ropes binding her wrists and the hands tangled in her hair, preventing her from moving her head. A face came into view, someone looking down at her.

  The hands were holding one of her eyelids closed while something cold and wet dripped on it.

  Then her eyelid was pried open wide and pressed back against the skin behind her eye. She wanted to squint her eye closed, but it was held firm.

  All she could do was try not to scream.

  When the hands moved away, she quickly tried to close both eyes. That's when the scream erupted. She could only close one eye. What had been done to her?

  The laughter told her that her fear and discomfort was a source of pleasure, and it made her mad.

  Why would anyone do such an awful thing?

  She struggled harder, desperate to break free as the process was done to her other eye.

  Within minutes, the attention was on Donny, doing the same thing to him as had been done to her.

  Gluing his eyes open. It was awful. Like a nightmare.

  And it only got worse.

  As Donny was held in place, so was she.

  That's when she realized. The monster who was hurting her mother was not alone.

  "No!" She screamed and fought to get away, retching, and crying as she witnessed the carnage.

  And suddenly, in the space of a heartbeat, the scene shifted. She was no longer in her room, being held by an unseen captor, made to witness her mother being brutalized.

  Now she saw it happen to Tamara, and the eyes she looked through were not her own. She felt the scream rising in her throat as she watched the monster cut out Tamara's tongue and toss it aside.

  Small hands held Tamara's face, unsuccessful in preventing Tamara from turning her head side to side as she struggled to raise her head. She fought the darkness that loomed over her, casting a shadow on her and the pale child with bandaged eyes who knelt behind her head.

  Izzi's terror released the scream in accompaniment to the voice of her monster. "I'll leave her piec
es where you can find them, my love. I'll let you know when I've finished."

  Izzi mentally recoiled, screaming and reaching blinding. "Gib!"

  Gib had her in his arms, holding her tight the moment his name burst from her lips. "I've got you. I've got you. You're safe. I'm here, Iz. You're safe."

  She clung to him, trembling like someone who just been pulled from freezing water. It shocked him to realize her skin felt like it.

  Gib grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around them, pulling her onto his lap so that her legs circled his waist, and her body was pressed around his.Within moments he felt the heat leaching out of his own body and into hers. A few seconds passed, and suddenly warmth suffused her and then him.

  Izzi pulled back to look at him, and he saw tears streaming down her face.

  "Tell me," his hands moved to cup her face gently.

  "Tamara," she whispered brokenly.

  "Tell me what you saw?"

  Izzi hesitated. She wouldn't outright lie to Gib, but there were things she'd seen – memories that had surfaced that provided information previously hidden. It was information she wasn't sure about just yet. Not it's veracity, but what to do with it. She needed to sink deeper into her own memories and see if she could drag out other things that had been hidden.

  And Gib wanted answers to what was happening now, not what happened in the past. She could tell him what she'd been shown, as awful as it was.

  "He showed me. He's making the child help, Gib. Making her participate in –" She stopped and choked back tears.

  "He said he'd leave her pieces where we can find them and will let me know when he's finished."

  "Dear God," horror was evident on his face. "What the hell do we do? We have to stop him, Iz."

  It was the question she'd been waiting on. "Then we have to stop being pawns in the game. He's made his opening move. It's time we make ours."

  "And do what?"

  "You know what. We offer him a trade. Me for the girl."