"No. My father is the victim! All the people you've hurt, or worse, are the victims! You are just a cold-blooded, egotistic asshole."
"Why couldn't he have looked at me the way he looks at you? That may have been the one thing to save all of us."
Anderson blinked blankly. That question caught him off guard. "What? Who are you talking about?"
"Leo."
"What are you talking about? You're not gay. You're married."
"That means nothing." Daniel walked across the room to where a stool was and pulled it across to him. He sat on it and rubbed his hands against his thighs. "When I became a cop, it was to get close to Jazmon. I had every intention of becoming a court cop. But then I found out the best way to get in there was to work a few years with the NYPD so I could get first pick. I didn't have that kind of time. I did some digging and found out Leo was like a son to him. I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. I'd get close to Leo and get my revenge at the same time. But I was going to make Jazmon watch as I dismantled his life the same way he had mine. I was going to start with Leo, then a few of his friends, then you. But I broke into Jazmon's place and he caught me, so I had to recalibrate my plans. Life just got complicated the moment I graduated the academy. I had the wife, you see, and then I before I knew what was happening, I fell into the friend trap with Leo. Then you came along…"
"It's not my fault you didn't man up about it. You chose to stay in the closet, right?"
Daniel gritted his teeth and Anderson simply glared harder. "I saw the two of you once. You were facing the wall and he was behind you, holding your hands to it and fucking you hard. I thought—that should have been me. I mean, I've loved this man since the very first day I laid eyes on him. His hair was longer then and he had this body that made me think of that guy from the new TV show Hawaii Five-0. But here you come with your hard body and big brown eyes and he just gets caught up in you and your ass." Daniel stopped and pushed some air out his mouth. "No matter. I'm back on track now. My plans have been altered somewhat but now I'm back and I've made the changes necessary to carry them out."
"You think Leo is going to come after me."
"Oh, I know he will." Daniel eased from the stool and pushed it back against the wall. "There is no way he's not going to come, especially knowing you're in danger. Oh yes, he'll definitely come to your rescue. He's just that kind of man. He fights for those he loves."
"Well, you're wrong. Leo doesn't love me. It was just sex."
"You know, for a professor, you sure are dumb."
Daniel walked around him then and Anderson twisted to see him.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Anderson hollered. "Hey! I'm talkin' to you!"
When the only reply he got was the slamming of a door, Anderson wanted to scream. This wasn't working as well as he thought and he was fresh out of options.
* * * *
"So let me get this straight," Byung Ho Yung said, hands on his hips, pacing Leo's living room. "Your partner—a man who was tasked to serve and protect—is a homicidal maniac who wants you dead so he's using my best friend as bait?"
Leo cringed but nodded. It'd taken him a while before he decided to actually contact Byung. But he had to. When it was spelled out the way it was, the whole situation sounded so horrid. "I was such an idiot. He was my partner. I should have seen something was off about him."
"This is not your fault, Kim," Isha said.
"Then whose fault is it? I was trained to see when someone is bullshitting me and this asshole weaseled himself into my life and just completely blindsided me. Now he has Anderson. He has the man I love and I'm sitting here feeling like my world is exploding and there's nothing I can do about it."
Isha picked up a folder and opened it. "I didn't see it coming either. But there's no other explanation. I can't get a hold of Daniel at all and this would explain those times when you asked for him and we didn't know where he was. Now we just have to find him."
Leo rose and placed his cup on the counter in the kitchen. Folding his arms across his chest, he took a breath and turned to look at Isha. "Here's the plan. We're going to Daniel's place and talk to Mary. Maybe she knows him better than we did."
"Who's Mary?" Byung wanted to know.
"Daniel's wife." Isha handed him a photo of Mary. "I never knew what she saw in him. He always gave me the creeps."
Byung handed the picture back. "And we think she's involved?"
"I don't know." Leo adjusted the badge now digging into his side.
"What do I do?" Byung asked.
"You're coming with us," Isha said simply. "He has Anderson and who knows who else he's going to go after. Kim, do you want me to call the Captain?"
Leo shook his head. "No. He holds us in such high regard. If we tell him now, it'll kill him."
Isha nodded. "I did that background you ordered on Daniel."
"And?"
"Well. turns out Jazmon Williams put away his father." Isha handed Leo another file and he opened it to read. "His name is actually Cole Daniel Astrid. Fergis was his mother's maiden name. I don't know how he got into the academy, Kim—I just don't know."
"He didn't do anything illegal. It's his name." After browsing the file, Leo rubbed his eyes. "So his father was killed in lock up."
"Seems that way." Isha drank deeply from her cup. "He blames Jazmon Williams for it all. But the thing I don't get is why? Judge Williams saved that punk ass from an abusive home."
"I guess he didn't see it that way and now he wants to break me."
"Okay… I hate to break up this session of pissing in the wind," Byung interrupted. "But this psycho has Andy… okay? So do something—now."
Leo took a breath, held it for a moment, and exited the room to grab his gun. Once he was packing, he grabbed a few pairs of gloves and shoved them into his pocket just before the three headed out. They took Leo's car, but remained silent for the entire ride across town. The wind blew through the car leaving a strange whistling around them. The plan was complete in Leo's head. He was going to find Daniel. He was going to make the ass pay for going anywhere near Anderson. When he was finished, he was going to throw the motherfucker in a cell and see to it personally they threw away the key. Afterward, he would visit him every year, just to remind him what he lost.
At Daniel's house, he knocked on the front door. There was no need to break in and scare Mary. The door creaked open slowly and he arched a brow before glancing back at Byung and Isha. He would have told them to stay in the car but he knew that wouldn't have happened. A stench he would know anywhere wafted from the house. It was the smell of rotten flesh that had been sitting around for too long. His heart began racing again, painfully crashing into his chest. He felt his hands shake slightly and he forced it to stop. Frowning he reached for his gun. "Stay here," he said. "I mean it."
They both nodded.
"I'm serious!"
They nodded again.
Moving through the door, the foyer of the medium-sized family house was a royal mess. There was a faint stench. The pictures were pulled from the wall and laying in broken frames on the floor. Dirt was strewn all over the floor from broken flower pots with the flowers dead. There were patches of smudges on the wall he hoped was only dirt. Further in, water was leaking from the wall. He began his search with the bedrooms. One bedroom was empty; there wasn't even a piece of paper in it. The other was covered with glass jars filled with love-lies-bleeding plants. Leo felt sick.
The third bedroom was locked, so he sent his foot through the door and pushed open with his shoulder. There were pictures of Jazmon with all the other victims. There was a picture of Leo kissing Anderson in New Jersey.
"He was following us…" He yanked the picture from the wall and shoved it into his pocket. Taking another look around the room at the picture-covered walls, Leo continued to the laundry room then turned toward the living room. The sofa cushions were ripped apart and lying on the floor with dirty footprints over them and every piece of furniture was
overturned. The dining room was in a worse state, for the glass stable there was smashed and all the chairs ripped apart. The stench was even stronger there. Even breathing through his mouth was a problem—it was so overpowering he couldn't stop coughing. By the screen door there was the buzz of flies and Leo knew what he'd find. Stepping forward he stuck the gun back into his holster and brought a palm up to cover his nose and mouth. He hunched beside Mary's dead body and shook his head.
"Daniel what did you do?"
He took a moment to go through the scene. He dug through the mountains of paper on the desk in the office and finally found something about a guesthouse they invested in. Taking evidence from the scene was frowned on but he just couldn't help himself. He couldn't just sit around and wait for the guys to get there for a dead body. When he was through, he walked back to where Byung and Isha were.
"Who's dead?" Byung asked.
"It's not Anderson," Leo replied, his voice cracking with relief.
"Who is it?" Isha pressed.
"Mary."
Isha gasped and turned her face into Byung's shoulder. The man held her tightly against him but he was frowning deeply. "I found this," he handed Byung the photo he'd yanked off the wall.
Byung made a face. "So he's been following you around."
"Yeah. But he didn't have to follow us to Elmont. I told him I was going."
Leo pulled out his cell phone. Since Isha couldn't touch the body without her kit, he called for the forensic team, being sure to ask someone to bring everything Isha needed. The next call was to the captain.
"Heron."
"Captain. It's Leo."
"Kim! What's going on?"
"You're going to want to get over to Daniel's place. There's something you need to see."
"Leo…"
"It's Daniel. He's the serial killer we've been after."
"That makes no sense."
"Tell that to his dead wife and Anderson Williams. Look, just come over to his place, all right? I won't be here, but forensics and Isha will be. He took Anderson and I'm trying to get him back before it's too late."
"Son of a bitch."
"My sentiments exactly. I'll see you when I see you."
After hanging up, he stood there silently for a moment. He wasn't sure why but he couldn't move yet. Leo finally turned to look at Isha. They slipped into another conversation, rebuilding the plan since the first one was an obvious bust. It seemed lately he spent more time planning than actually getting things done. Sirens could be heard in the distance. He wasn't sure why they were running loud—perhaps the captain told them to. "We're going to leave you here," Leo said.
Isha shook her head.
"Isha—you'll be fine. Backup is coming, so you won't be alone. He won't come back here, especially if its crawling with cops. We know the longer he's out there, the less chance we have of finding him alive. You won't be alone. Do this for me… please."
She nodded and pulled herself from Byung's arms. The first squad car pulled up out front followed by a large forensics truck. The officers jogged up to them and Leo began telling them what was happening. Isha hurried down to the truck to suit up.
"What about me?" Byung asked.
"Stay here. I can move better alone. Isha will help you get home once they're finished."
"Be careful," Byung told him.
Leo nodded and hurried away from the crowd. When he eased into the front seat of his car, the rage in him was pulsating behind his left eye. He was going to get Anderson back and he knew the perfect place to start.
Chapter Seventeen
Leo should have known Daniel would run to this place. He remembered it then—once Daniel and Mary had Thanksgiving dinner there. It pained him to think back about the good times they had that night, knowing Daniel deep down wanted him dead. The closer he got to the place, the more he remembered the front way in. The back way wasn't as clear but he remembered the long, pointless way the GPS routed him the first time.
It was hard for Leo to sit outside the property, staring at the wooded area. He pulled out his gun to check it then shoved it back into the holster. He couldn't just go waltzing in the front door—that would get Anderson killed or make Daniel think he had anything to bargain with. As much as Leo wanted to put a bullet between the jerk's eyes, he wanted to take him alive—he wanted to find out why Daniel thought he had to go as far as he did. Leo sat for a moment reminding himself he was a cop first, lover second, and crazed vigilante third. But no matter how many times he told himself, he just didn't feel right about it. When he moved lover to first and cop to second, he felt as right as rain.
Pushing his body from the car, he eased from his jacket and tossed it into the back seat. He slammed the door, looked both ways to ensure traffic was clear, then jogged across the street and into the woods. There wasn't a path, so he spent half his journey ducking tree limbs and stepping over fallen trunks. A few times he got caught in a few limbs but managed to extricate himself and carry on. When he was within eyesight of the cabin, he checked the chimney. There was no smoke coming from it and though the place looked dead, he could see the front end of a car. Leo hunched down and watched the house for a while, feeling the hairs on his arms and back of leg stand up.
It took a while but Daniel finally came out of the house to move the car. Now it was in full view of where Leo was. It took everything he had not to jump out and rush in, but he had to play this right. If he jumped Daniel and Anderson wasn't there Leo knew the chances of Daniel telling him where Anderson was would be slim to none. When he was sure Daniel was back inside, he left his hiding spot and ran toward the car. He hid behind it, peering over the hood toward the house. He rushed from there and pressed his back against a windowless wall. His heart raced so fast he had to hold his breath.
Shuffling along, Leo stopped by a window and peeked in. It was the bathroom. What looked to be blood was on the sink—and he panicked.
He darted around the house and entered the front door with his gun drawn.
"I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me," Daniel mocked.
Leo shoved his gun into his holster since pointing a gun at the suspect could only serve to exacerbate the situation. He kept one eye on Daniel and one on Anderson. He desperately wanted to free Anderson from his restraints and wipe the blood from his lips. Anderson seemed weak and unconscious.
"What's this all about, Daniel? You killed the judge, the teacher, tried to kill the coach, kidnapped the son—what's this about?"
"You're telling me you haven't looked into my past?" Daniel laughed bitterly, leaning his back against the wall. "I know you better than you think I do then."
"I checked. Still I don't know what this has to do with me? Why are you going after people I care about."
"Plans change. I went after you at first to teach the old man a lesson. Jazmon Williams was supposed to stay alive until I'd taken out everyone and everything he cared for—everything he loved. I was going to take it all away, starting with you, then this little ass-hat, then the system he's worked so hard to build. Then when he suffered, I was going to kill him too. But things in my life don't normally go as planned."
Leo felt sick. Hearing the man he'd trusted with his life speak so openly of destroying everything he cared for enraged him. "And now?"
"Now? I loved you, Leo! I wanted you! Then I saw you fucking this—this… and I just lost it! You looked at him like he was everything. You looked at him like the sun rises and sets with him and it makes me angry! Even now… even now I'm telling you I could be the best man for you, you're thinking of how you want to save him!"
Leo shifted his stare and focused fully on Daniel. The man was shaking now; the gun in his hand worried Leo immensely. He inched closer to where Anderson was, careful to only move when Daniel looked away from him and only just a small bit. He knew Daniel had lost all sense of reality and he wasn't about to let anything else happen to Anderson.
"You don't love me, Daniel. You're not gay—I am. You
never once showed any interest in my heart or my body. If you loved me, you wouldn't have married a woman. As far as I know, you're straight. Why did Mary have to die? All she did was love you."
"She found out how I felt about you."
"So you killed her?"
Daniel shook his head. "No. She died because she sucked the life out of me. Forced me to be something I wasn't."
"But Daniel—she didn't force you to do anything. You chose not to live the life you want. You chose to let revenge consume you, push you into a marriage with a woman when you knew you were gay."
Daniel used the gun to scratch his head. "No. Do you know how many nights I made love to her and all I could see was you? Then afterward I'd leave the house, pretending I was going on some case or another and find my way to Kodger's Row."
Leo shook his head.
"Yes. I'd find some unlucky, young stud who thought he was just in for a simple fuck and I'd make him pay for you ignoring me. I didn't kill anyone then—they were just your ass replacement…"
"Okay. So what do you want me to do about this? You tell me this now—now when all shit has hit the fan? What the fuck do you seriously want me to say to all this?"
"Nothing at this point." Daniel sniffled and aimed the gun at Leo again. "We go back to the drawing board—the original plan. You die."
"I don't like that plan."
"I don't care."
"For the longest time we thought the killer was from Jazmon's past—that's why we got the old yearbook to see if anyone in there would turn up red flags. You knew what taking that book would do to Anderson and it had nothing to do with Jazmon's past. You knew it would be a waste of time and you just sat back and watched."
"You think I was out to alleviate any pain Anderson was feeling? Hell, whatever he was feeling wasn't enough."
Leo ground his teeth to keep what he was truly thinking in his head. "Tell me something, Daniel," he began. "What's with the flower and Edgar Allan Poe?"
Love Lies Bleeding Page 13