Conduit (An Emily Monroe Novel)

by Angie Martin

  “That’s not what I’ve done,” Emily said.

  “You only have one employee at your office, right? And I imagine while she doesn’t know about you, Cassie does.”

  “Of course Cassie knows. She’s my best friend. We’ve known each other since high school.”

  “And by default she’s accepting of your abilities. But you only have one employee in a very busy office where you already work seven days a week. Not to mention, you’re signing an exclusive contract with Heartland Insurance. Did you have plans to hire someone else?”

  Emily allowed a small smile, letting Jake know he was on the right track. “Cassie and I had discussed it.”

  “Yet you haven’t placed an ad, have you? You’re scared someone may find out about you.”

  “You’re right,” Emily said. “You’re absolutely right, and now that you’ve made me admit my shortcomings, I’ll place an ad tonight. I suppose I should be ashamed of that.”

  Jake shook his head. “On the contrary, and you don’t have any shortcomings. You grew up being told your gifts were somehow wrong. Your mom instilled that fear in you, so your reaction is natural.”

  “If it’s so natural, why aren’t you like me? How do you cope so well?”

  “I think it’s because Janie was so accepting of everything, much more than I was. After she died, I hid who I was and lived in the shadows like you do. It took me a very long time, but I finally came to a place where I realized that isn’t what I would have been doing if Janie were alive, and that’s not what she would have wanted for me.”

  “She sounds like a wonderful person. Insightful even as a young teenager. I would have loved to have met her.”

  “She would have loved you, believe me.” Jake paused. “May I ask you a personal question?”

  Emily laughed. “As if we’ve not been personal enough. Every date thus far seems like a trip to the psychiatrist.”

  Jake joined in her laughter. “I suppose we have delved much deeper than most do on the first few dates. Is that why you broke up with Nathan? Because you were scared you couldn’t keep hiding who you are around someone who isn’t like us?”

  “Partly. I didn’t want to hide a secret from someone if I planned on spending my life with them.” Emily moistened her lips. “But the main reason I broke up with Nate is because I knew I would never love him. He was my first attempt at what you’ve already accomplished, living normally without fear. It sounds odd, but I really tried to fall in love with him. Since we had been in a relationship for so long, I thought it was expected of me.

  “Cassie thought I was crazy, that any girl could easily fall in love with him, but I couldn’t force feelings that weren’t there. Somewhere along the way, I didn’t fall in love, but I fell into a comfortable routine and I stayed with him much longer than I should have. Eventually, I realized that wasn’t enough for me.”

  Jake took a sip of his wine and watched her speak. Hearing her voice merely say the word love gave his heart a little shock. She took the emotion very seriously, and wouldn’t settle for less. Most women in her position would have stayed with Nathan, for his money and prestige, or even for the comfort she spoke about. But Emily wasn’t most women, and for that very reason he found himself quickly falling for her.

  She gestured with her wine glass. “Don’t get me wrong. Nate is a truly wonderful man and he deserves to be with someone who can appreciate him and love him without pretending. I never was that person, but because I tried so hard to be, it took me time to understand I would never fall in love with him.”

  Jake let out the breath he had been holding while she spoke. “You can’t know how happy I am to hear that. Not that I thought you were still in love with him or anything like that, but I was a little concerned that maybe your gift was the only reason you broke it off. If it was and you realized it was okay to be yourself around him and tell him about your gift, then I was worried you might be tempted to go back to him.”

  “Nate and I will always be friends. We click that way and that’s what made it so easy to be around him for so long without having mutual feelings for him. He’s the closest thing to a male version of Cassie I have. Without a spark, though, there was nothing that could salvage our relationship.” Emily stood up with her plate in hand, and came around the table to clear off his plate as well.

  Jake mulled over his next words. Emily was being candid with him, answering questions that she could have avoided. She had opened up to him in a way he hadn’t expected. Hiding secrets from her wouldn’t benefit their blossoming relationship. “I have to be honest with you about something,” he said.

  Emily tilted her head with curiosity. Her warm eyes encouraged him to continue with his confession.

  “After my meeting with Nathan today, I spoke to him about us. I let him know that we had been out on a couple dates and that we would be together tonight.”

  Emily nodded. She walked over to the breakfast bar and set down their plates without saying a word.

  Racked with guilt and worried he had just destroyed her feelings for him, he said, “Emily, I should have talked to you first, but it was a spontaneous conversation. I was worried he’d find out about us and fire me in some kind of jealous vendetta.”

  “He’s not that kind of guy,” Emily said.

  “So I hear.” Jake pushed his chair back and walked over to meet her. He rested his elbow on the breakfast bar and faced her. “I had nothing but the best intentions when I talked to him. I really didn’t mean for any of what I said to come out.”

  Emily looked down. “I guess that’s why Nate called me today.”

  Jake jerked his head back. “He called you?”

  “Right before I left the office. He’s stopping by my office in the morning. I figured it was another ploy to try to get back together.”

  “I’m sorry, Em.”

  “Why be sorry?” She locked eyes with him. “You did nothing wrong. It would be awkward for you to date me behind his back and that’s completely understandable. I’d question your integrity if you didn’t struggle with that. If anything, you’re honest to a fault.”

  Her words relieved him and he smiled. “I’ve never been accused of that.”

  “Well, I’m also honest to a fault. Even if it’s accusing someone else of being honest.”

  Jake laughed. “You’ve just talked yourself in circles.”

  “I can’t help it. I can’t seem to shut up around you, even when I know better than to say another word.”

  The backs of his fingers grazed her wine-flushed cheek. “I don’t ever want you to shut up around me.”

  “Even for this?” Emily leaned up and met his lips. She kissed him slowly at first. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled him to her.

  His body fit perfectly against her shape, and yet he couldn’t get close enough to her. Jake backed her up against the wall next to the breakfast bar. As the kiss intensified, he reached for the bottom of her shirt. He slid his hands underneath the material. His fingers pressed against her warm skin just above her waist, and every part of his body yearned to tear off her restrictive clothing.

  Despite wanting to explore every inch of her, he reluctantly pried his hands off her skin, smoothed down her shirt, and slowed the kiss. When their lips parted, his forehead touched hers and he smiled. They were both out of breath, and Emily bit her bottom lip.

  “Damn,” he whispered.

  “I second that.”

  Jake moved his head back from hers, but kept his hands on her hips. He was concerned that vocalizing his thoughts would ring hollow to her, but he wanted to have a slow moving and long lasting relationship. A physical encounter this early in their relationship might do more damage than good.

  “Emily, I really want to be with you. I haven’t wanted to be with anyone more than I do when I’m with you. But I don’t want to screw this up. I want to take it slow and get it right.”

  “Me, too. Part of me wants to race back to the bedroom and have you stay the ni
ght with me, but I don’t want to mess up a good thing.” She waved her hand back and forth between them. “This physical attraction will always be there. I never thought I would say this, but I really want to know you before anything else. I want to know everything there is to know before we go down that path, and I don’t want to waste any time continuing to get to know you.”

  “Of course. I’m not about to stop seeing you every chance we get. I’ve never met anyone like you before. I’ve never…” He paused, searching for the right words. “I’ve never cared about someone as much as I do for you. We’ve only known each other a couple of days and it doesn’t make much sense—”

  “Yes, it does make sense. Nothing in my life has ever made sense the way this does.”

  Jake kissed her for a long moment, savoring the taste of her lips. He broke away when his skin prickled again with desire. “We had better go do dishes. I don’t know how much more restraint I have left tonight.”

  Emily laughed. “Between the two of us, I’m sure the kitchen will never be cleaner.”

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  It was always risky driving too long with a body in the trunk of his car. Though David kept every vehicle he used in good working order and always drove just a hair under the speed limit while following all traffic laws, any number of things could go wrong. Someone could hit his car in an accident. He could get delayed in a DUI checkpoint. An overzealous cop could pull him over.

  When he first started killing years earlier, he kept the bodies closer to home, but that also held a number of risks, as it could give police a radius within which to search for him. He weighed the pros and cons and determined the odds were more in his favor if he scattered the bodies farther away from his home, rather than dump a number of bodies close to where he lived.

  To help him in the task of transportation, every car he used was stolen, and he acquired a new one at least twice a year. He could not risk registering a car in his name that he would later use to transport a body. They were all newer vehicles and after taking them, he made alterations to their appearance. Changing out the license plate, adding a dent here or there, even switching out the VIN plate on the dashboard with one stolen from a junkyard. He kept several vehicles parked in the barn outside of his farmhouse, and he used a different one for every errand.

  Though he took serious measures not to get caught, the drive to a dump location gave him an adrenaline-fueled thrill, especially when he drove by a police car with a decaying, mutilated corpse resting in the trunk of his unassuming vehicle. He laughed at those cops unfortunate enough to drive next to his car when he transported a body. They never knew what horrors were so close to them.

  Tonight, he had yet to encounter any police, which was always better than when his heart raced at one pulling up behind him. Wrapped in painter’s tarp, Jillian’s body hid in the trunk of the Ford Taurus he selected for this drop. He always prepared the bodies in the same manner. Though in the beginning he hated the cleaning part of his work, it allowed him time alone with the girl to relish her, and he soon learned to enjoy caressing away any blood and debris from her skin.

  Over time, he developed a ritual for cleaning a body. After donning latex gloves, knee-high rubber boots, a long rubber coat, and a hair net so nothing from him could transfer onto the girl, the long process of cleaning the body began. He first worked on the fingernails, even under the fingers he detached from the girl’s hand, carefully scraping out any dirt or other debris under them. Once her nails were clean, he used an expensive coconut shampoo and conditioner so her hair looked as nice as possible. He then scrubbed her body with a creamy vanilla body wash, rinsed, and repeated. The smell of death would soon override any special bath products he used to clean her, but at least for a short time the smell was tolerable.

  Once cleaned, he let her air dry. He did not dare use a towel against her skin for fear that fibers from the towel would catch on her body. When her body was fully dry, he used a large magnifying glass to double check the body in its entirety. If he found even one fiber, hair, or other evidence, he started the process all over. Sometimes the meticulous cleaning could take several hours, much longer if he had to do it more than once.

  After he was satisfied he erased all evidence from the body, he rolled the girl into a tarp. From there, he carried her upstairs and outside to her waiting transport. Before he brought each girl home for them to fulfill their destiny, he planned out where they would be left for the police to find. He didn’t mind if the police quickly discovered the body because he left behind no evidence linking the girl to him. He took care of every detail and accounted for every possibility. Even the tarp was destroyed when he returned home.

  David threw his car into reverse and backed down an alley, stopping beside three green commercial trash bins. The surrounding warehouses had been out of business for quite some time, and the buildings were on a side street that had very little traffic, especially this time of night. If it had been a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night, he might not get away with leaving a body in the alley. A popular country bar was only a few blocks over, and those nights were the busiest. Monday, however, was not a night when lonely souls opted to drink too much and dance with strangers in the hopes of spending a few hours with someone in their bed.

  He had scoped out the alley weeks earlier, even though he had not yet decided on taking Jillian. He encountered Jillian four months ago, long before he found any of the other women, but he wavered on whether or not she would work out for him. Once he selected her as number seven, he knew this alley was the perfect place to leave her body.

  He switched off the headlights, but left the car running. He peered down the alley with a small flashlight and confirmed he was alone. Trunk open, he took out the rain slicker he had placed on top of her covered body and pulled it on over his clothes. He bent his knees and scooped up Jillian’s covered body. Laying her on the asphalt about halfway down the alley, he lifted the end of the tarp and rolled her out of her wrapping, using his gloved hands as little as possible to guide her. Back at his car, he tossed the bunched up tarp in the trunk.

  Gently, he lowered the trunk of the car to limit the amount of noise. He started for the open driver’s side door, but hesitated before getting into the car. Someone else was in the alley with him. David frowned, as he had just looked up and down the empty alley before taking Jillian’s body out of the trunk.

  Closing his eyes, he searched his mind in an attempt to discover if the sudden rush of fear coming from the alley was real or imagined. As he emptied his own thoughts from his mind, he reached out to find the source of the presence. He whirled around, eyes staring into the dark shadows, fully expecting to see someone there.

  David stormed down the alley, upset at the idea that he might have to dispose of a second body that night. He had never killed someone out of necessity before, but he could not risk getting caught at such an integral part of his mission. He was now permanently connected with Emily. He had sensed her every second since he ended Jillian’s life, and she also felt him. If someone saw him, it could destroy everything he worked so hard to achieve. He would be forced to kill Emily and leave Kansas to find another woman to take her place.

  He stopped at an opening to his right, where another alley branched off. His eyes adjusted to the dark and he held still, listening for even the slightest sound. Nothing moved. David closed his eyes again, and cleared his mind. The sense of someone else in the alley had disappeared. The only thing remaining was Emily’s beautiful presence. He must have imagined this other person, and he was relieved. He didn’t want to kill Emily unless he had no other choice.

  As he walked toward his car, he reveled in the idea that she would not be a faraway emotion for long. He would look into her eyes, touch her warm skin, and know what it was like to have his passion for her reciprocated. They would truly become one in body, as they already were in mind and spirit. Once she came to him, she would not be able to deny him, and would accept their destined futur
e together. Now that Jillian was dead, he would soon hold Emily in his arms, and she would love him.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Lionel pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut against his migraine. The investigation seemed to be going in their favor for once, and then this. Another victim, dumped in a neglected alley between two abandoned warehouses.

  Shawn strolled up beside Lionel, his expression as dismayed as Lionel felt. He pulled latex gloves on over his hands. “Let’s get to it,” Shawn said.

  Following Shawn to where Perry kneeled over the body, déjà vu washed over Lionel as he put on his gloves. Dumped next to some graffitied trash cans, the girl laid naked for the world to see. As with the other women, her body was not posed in any particular manner.

  “You boys need to hurry up and catch this guy,” Perry said when they reached him. “He’s getting much, much worse.”

  Lionel saw what Perry meant by his statement. The body of the victim was sliced up the same as the rest of the victims, but the girl’s face was also mutilated beyond recognition. “This is different than the rest,” Lionel said. His stomach twisted while he examined the wounds on her face. No part of her face was left untouched by the killer’s knife. “It feels...personal.”

  “Why would he slash up her face?” Shawn asked. “If it was to hide her identity, he had to know we’d just get her name through fingerprints or some other means.”

  Lionel gestured to the six fingers lying on the ground beside the body. “If he wanted to hide her identity, he wouldn’t have left those behind.”

  “It’s almost like he’s showing off at this point,” Shawn said. “He wants us to see how cruel he can be.”

  “The letter?” Lionel asked Perry.

  Perry rolled the girl’s left leg to the side, revealing the letter “E” carved into her inner thigh. “He’s back to doing it antemortem.”