A Killer Among Us

by Lynette Eason

  “No, of course not. Is that what your mother did?” She kept her voice soft, sympathetic.

  “That’s why you’re perfect,” he whispered, like he hadn’t heard the question, and she flinched.

  How she wanted to wrap her hands around his throat and demand he hand over Andy and Alena. But she couldn’t. He’d started this game and she wasn’t clear on the rules yet. Watch his body language. Keep his eyes and hands where you can see them. Visually monitor his respirations, be alert for any subtle twitchings . . .

  She knew what she needed to do on that end. “What do I have to do to keep Andy and Alena safe?”

  A baby crying sounded from upstairs and Kit turned without thought toward the steps. A hand on her arm yanked her back.

  “Not so fast.” Toward the staircase, he yelled, “Keep him quiet!”

  “Is Andy all right?” Kit blurted as she yanked her arm from his grip and backed away from him.

  “That’s Eddie. Eddie Junior. And he’s fine for now. The perfect baby. I heard you say that about him.”

  Kit froze. When had she said that?

  “The day you went over to your sister Jamie’s house. You stood on the front porch holding him and said how perfect he is.”

  Sickness churned in her gut. “He’s simply a baby, Edward. Because I love him, I think he’s perfect, but he’s still going to cry when he’s hungry or tired or—”

  “He better not cry too much. The perfect baby wouldn’t do that to his father.” He sounded a little tense.

  Kit’s fingers curled into a fist. How she wished she could wrap them around this guy’s neck. Breathe, she ordered herself. Breathe. “I understand.” Her voice came out smooth, with not a hint of her inner turmoil.

  But her mind raced, seeking a way out, churning for an idea of how to get to Andy and Alena and escape. She still had her cell phone in her back pocket. Why hadn’t he asked her for it? Had he been so focused on getting her gun that he hadn’t thought about asking for her cell phone?

  She could only hope, because somehow she had to get word to Noah.

  Noah punched the end button for the fourth call he’d placed to Kit. Why wasn’t she answering her phone? Where was she? It didn’t go straight to voice mail so her battery was still good. Her phone was on.

  So why didn’t she answer it?

  With a sigh, he sent up a prayer for her safety.

  The message he left on her voice mail as to the identity of the killer would have to do for now.

  Noah didn’t bother with a greeting when his phone rang. “What,” he barked.

  “Connor just called me and filled me in,” Dakota bullet-spoke into his ear. “Kit’s on her way over to see Edward Richmond.”

  “What?” Noah shouted at the man.

  “She said Edward called her and said he had something, some kind of evidence that Stephen Wells was the killer. She decided to go pick it up.”

  Oh no, oh Lord, please . . . “Do we have an address?”

  “Yeah, she wrote it down on a sticky note, googled the address on her computer, printed the directions. I got our computer guy to get the information off her computer. I’m on my way over there.”

  “Give me the address and I’ll meet you there.”

  “Good deal. I’ve already called in everyone else. They’re on the way.”

  Everyone else, including the SWAT team and a host of FBI agents and local police.

  No doubt the media would catch wind of it soon and be there too. Not if he could help it.

  “Try to keep it as quiet as possible. We don’t want this guy knowing we’re on to him yet.”

  “That’s the way we’re playing it.”

  “He’s got her, doesn’t he?” She was in the hands of a serial killer. A man who’d killed without regard to human life, without remorse for the killing. The paralyzing fear that hit him at the thought of losing her was the biggest shock. He loved her, he realized in a blinding moment of awareness.

  He loved her.

  “See you in ten.”

  41

  Noah pulled up beside the SWAT van, feeling the sweat break out all over him. He’d gotten there just in time to see the front door open and Kit disappear inside. God, keep her safe, please. I really need you to keep her safe. Protect her, Alena, and little Andy.

  Climbing into the van, he saw the same setup he’d walked into only a week ago when Kit had been in the trailer with Virgil Mann. Had it been only a week? He’d lost track.

  Another thought occurred to him. Who was the SWAT shooter?

  Chad and Charlie gave him only a brief glance as he entered. Commander Flynn, the SWAT team leader, raised a brow at his entrance but waved him on in.

  “Do you have ears?” Noah asked. He pulled in a deep breath meant to calm his racing heart and pounding blood.

  Too bad it didn’t work.

  “Not yet.”

  “All right,” he said, “then we’ve got to get near the house to get a microphone into position on the window.”

  The man tossed him a look. “Working on it right now.”

  Of course they were. “Sorry. I don’t mean to tell you how to do your job.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  From his vantage point, Noah could see the house, but couldn’t see what was happening behind it. Then movement caught the corner of his eye. “Wait a minute. What’s that?”

  “What?” Charlie asked.

  “Hand me a pair of binoculars, will you?”

  A pair slapped into his hands and he lifted them to see the driver’s door of Kit’s vehicle open. Connor slid out and started moving toward the house.

  “Oh no. Tell me he’s not—”

  “Aw man,” Charlie muttered as he saw what Noah was talking about. “He is.”

  Commander Flynn cursed. “Is he insane? If that guy knows we’re out here, there’s no telling what he’ll do.”

  “I’m going after him. I’m sure he believes that Andy is in that house somewhere.”

  “He won’t do anything to put his kid in danger,” Charlie protested.

  Noah wasn’t taking any chances. Right now, Connor was emotional. He didn’t trust that at all. Certainly not with Kit’s life riding on the line too.

  “I’m still going. He might need some backup. Give me an earpiece so I can communicate with you, will you?”

  The commander hesitated, then nodded, and Chad fitted him within seconds.

  Before he could set foot outside the van, the door flew open and Samantha stepped in.

  “I need a computer,” Sam growled.

  Chad nodded to the laptop on the desk behind him.

  Samantha whirled and attacked the keyboard with a vengeance. “I want to know every detail about this sicko.” Her hands flew over the keys, fingers tapping, jaw tight. As the information came available, she read aloud, “He’s clean as far as stuff with the law, but his mother ran off when he was seven. And um . . . here. His DSS record. It says he was taken from his father when he was thirteen and placed in foster care. He bounced around a couple of foster homes, was kicked out of the eighth grade, and then became a model student in the ninth grade. Graduated at the top of his class, then went to college where he graduated with honors.”

  “Then on to law school, right?” Noah asked. He kept an eye on Connor. Right now, the man stood at the corner of the house. He seemed to be trying to decide what to do.

  “Right.”

  “Where’s his father now?” Noah inched toward the door. He needed to get to Connor.

  “It doesn’t say.”

  Connor rounded the corner and Noah lost sight of him.

  Without another word, Noah slipped out of the van and did his best to approach the house without being noticed. It was a quiet street and the houses were spread out, not all cramped together like in the newer neighborhoods. Tall oaks and a lot of pine trees dotted the area. The houses backed up to the woods. It wasn’t the upper-class area of town, but it wasn’t the projects either.

&n
bsp; This house blended in nicely with the rest of the neighborhood.

  You’d never know a killer resided within.

  42

  Kit did her best to keep her breathing even. How had this guy fooled everyone?

  Her cell phone vibrated one more time and she wished with everything in her she could reach back there, snatch it out, and yell for help.

  The only thing that gave her a small measure of hope was the fact that she’d told Dakota who she was going to see. The bad thing was, how long before someone would check her computer and see she’d looked up the address?

  But he would figure it out. If he thought about it. And when she didn’t call him or report in, he’d be doing a lot of thinking.

  “Where are Andy and Alena?”

  Edward tapped his lips with the barrel of the gun. Briefly she considered rushing him to pull the trigger.

  But she still didn’t know about Andy and Alena.

  “Go upstairs,” he suddenly ordered.

  “Why?”

  “Just go!” he yelled, snapping the gun to point it at her. “I’m getting worried I may have made a mistake in choosing you.”

  Don’t question him. One more thing to remember. He wanted unquestioned obedience.

  “You didn’t make a mistake, Edward,” she soothed, eye on his trigger finger, “just try to be a little patient with me, all right? I’m still learning your expectations.”

  Her words seemed to mollify him. Enough so that he pointed the gun to the right of her instead of straight at her heart. She headed for the stairs, her mind clicking on how to let someone know where she was before something triggered Edward and he decided to kill them all.

  Noah rounded the corner of the house and came face-to-face with the barrel of Connor’s Glock. He threw his hands up. “Whoa, partner, I’m here to help.”

  Connor grunted and lowered the gun. “You almost got helped into eternity.”

  The man looked a little pale. The pinched expression stated clearly his tense emotional state.

  Noah tried to reason with him. “Look, you can’t do this. We need to get back to the van and—”

  “I’m not leaving. Somehow, we have to signal Kit that we’re here. Otherwise, she might take a risk to get word to us. We need to eliminate that risk.”

  Noah thought about that. Connor was right. Kit would be brainstorming a way to get word of her situation out, because surely by now she knew Edward wasn’t in his right mind.

  Noah’s earpiece came to life. “We’ve got eyes and ears on the lower floor, Noah.”

  “What do you see?”

  “An empty den area. We’re working on the top floor.”

  “Any sign of anyone?”

  “Negative. But there’s a baby stroller in the kitchen.”

  Noah glanced at Connor. “Keep me updated.”

  “Will do.”

  Stationed at the back of the house, Noah noticed the windows were nailed shut. The blinds were pulled and he had no way to see inside.

  That meant he had to get inside.

  He could see Connor scoping the house too. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “Probably.” He lifted a brow. “We need to find a way in.”

  “Bottom floor is reported clear.”

  “Any security cameras that I can’t see?”

  “None reported.”

  Connor firmed his jaw. “Then let’s find a way in.”

  Kit stopped at the top of the stairs. The long hallway branched to the right. Or she could go left. Before she could ask for direction, she heard Andy cry.

  Left it was.

  Without waiting for the psycho behind her to say a word, she headed toward the baby’s cry, her heart pulled by Andy’s distress while the relief of knowing he was alive flooded her again.

  Her fingers wrapped around the doorknob and she twisted it. Slowly, it swung in and she held her breath, almost afraid of what she’d find. After all, she hadn’t heard one word from Alena, just Andy crying.

  And then she saw them. Alena sat on the bed holding Andy, an empty baby bottle on the floor at her feet. But that wasn’t what made Kit’s heart nearly stop in fear.

  It was the necklace Alena wore.

  Only it wasn’t a pretty piece of jewelry, it was a bomb. And if it went off, so would Alena’s head.

  Noah slid the credit card into the crack near the doorknob and jiggled it. He could have picked the lock, but because the door was pretty old and had a loose seal, this way was faster and easier.

  Connor kept watch at the window. He’d found a broken blind and had a partial view of the room. And then Noah had the door open.

  Into his microphone, he whispered, “I’m in.”

  The SWAT team closed in behind him.

  The triple-banded metal collar looked like an ordinary bomb. Kit had had enough training to recognize the wires and know what they meant. But unless she managed to incapacitate Edward, she wouldn’t have the opportunity to even try to disarm the bomb. Heart pounding, her first priority was to get the now wailing Andy away from Alena. She took one step toward them, then stopped and turned to Edward.

  And nearly screamed.

  Empty black orbs stared back at her.

  Her gaze shot to Edward. “Who is that?”

  A shrug. “That’s my father.”

  “When did he die?”

  “Die?” Edward looked confused—and irritated as Andy continued to cry out his unhappiness.

  Did the man not realize the skeleton seated in the chair in the corner of the room was no longer breathing? “He’s dead, Edward.” Upon looking closer, she saw the skull was tied so that it would stay on the neck bones. She guessed underneath the dirty white T-shirt and a pair of ratty jeans, more rope and wire held together the rest of the major bones.

  Edward blinked. “No, he’s not. He talks to me all the time.”

  A fear like none other invaded her. Edward was certifiably insane. She wasn’t a psychiatrist, but she didn’t need one to make that diagnosis. “Right, okay.” When they got out of this, her sister Jamie would be able to tell them when and how the man had died.

  But first . . .

  Taking a deep breath, she asked, “May I please take the baby?”

  He looked surprised that she asked, then frowned at Andy, whose cries had reached a near-fever pitch. Alena’s arms shook. She’d obviously been holding him a while. The more Andy cried, the more Edward tensed. Waving the gun, he shouted, “Shut him up! Shut him up!” Then he bit his lip and pulled in a deep breath. “No, I won’t be like him. I won’t be like him. I won’t . . .”

  “Be like who, Edward?”

  “Him!” He shoved the gun in the direction of the skeleton, and Alena gave a choked cry.

  Ignoring her impulse to cross the room and snatch the baby from Alena, Kit forced herself to wait on Edward’s instruction. “Please? I can get him to stop crying.”

  “Shut up!” he yelled at the baby. And lifted the gun to aim it at him.

  Fear choked her and she moved, almost without thinking, to place herself in front of the gun. She held up a hand. “Edward, look at me. Please.”

  “What? What?” He paced to the door, then back, the barrel of the gun now pointed toward the ceiling while the back of his hand pressed against the side of his head. His agitation grew by the minute. “Make him stop crying!”

  Kit stepped backward, keeping herself between Andy and Alena and the gun. “I’m going to take him from Alena, all right?”

  Edward blinked, his eyes focused. In a voice of calm that held no hint of the former impatience, he said, “Of course, dear. I think that Eddie Junior would want his mama holding him.”

  Kit turned and took the squalling baby from the scared college girl. She mouthed, “Stay calm.”

  Alena gave a fraction of a nod even as tears streamed down her cheeks.

  Pulling Andy to her, she held him securely and whispered reassurances in his ear. Immediately he quieted, hiccupped, and sniffle
d.

  The sudden quiet sounded loud. She looked at Edward and he flashed her a brilliant smile. “See? I told you that you were the perfect mother.”

  “Thank you, Edward.” She bounced the baby on her shoulder while she played his game. It would be best if she could get Andy to sleep. Then she’d have to find a place to lay him down. Somewhere that offered shelter in case that bomb went off. Of course she didn’t know the strength of the bomb, but it looked like C-4.

  Only where was the detonator? Cold chills ruptured through her. She couldn’t use her cell phone. Because a cell phone could set off the bomb, there was no way she could try to contact someone, even if she found a way to get Edward to leave her alone somewhere.

  Now seemed like a good time to start praying.

  Noah slipped inside the foyer, gun ready. “Kitchen’s clear,” he whispered.

  Connor aimed his gun toward the stairs. Noah exited the kitchen and nodded toward the stairs. The SWAT team headed that way, rifles held to their shoulders.

  Noah placed a foot on the steps and crept up behind them. Connor followed and Noah could feel the man’s tension. In his ear, he heard, “I’ve got audio. I’m patching you through.”

  He tapped one time on the piece to let the man know he got the message. Then Kit’s voice sounded, sending his heartbeat skyrocketing. “Is there someplace I can put Andy down for a nap?”

  “It’s Eddie!” Edward screamed. “Eddie Junior, understand?”

  “Absolutely.” Andy shifted and wrinkled his little forehead like he might start wailing again. Kit jiggled him and whispered reassurances in his ear. He opened his eyes and looked at her, yawned, and fell back to sleep. Kit let out a relieved sigh and looked at Edward. “Please, is there someplace I can put Eddie down?”

  A brilliant smile crossed Edward’s face. “Yes. I have the perfect place for him. You can put him in the nursery.”

  Footsteps sounded and Noah motioned for the lead SWAT team member to do his thing.

  “If he passes this way, put a bullet in him,” Noah whispered.