Web of Deceit

by Susan Sleeman

  He’d accomplished his purpose. She now knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was not only involved, but planning to include her in his revenge. And after his next move, she’d be certain he was coming for her, and no one could protect her.

  KAIT WAS A STRONG, vibrant woman, but right now, she’d strayed as far from herself as Sam thought possible. Hands planted on her hips, she argued with her mother. Loud, boisterous, the way Sam knew she’d argue. Even as thoughts of going toe to toe with her sometime in the future brought a smile to his mouth, it disappeared when he caught sight of Lily sitting at the curb, her head hanging as she worried her fingers over her silky blanket.

  The urge to intervene for Lily’s sake tugged at Sam. But he couldn’t get involved. No. Correction. He could, but he wouldn’t.

  “She should never have left her to you,” Kait’s mother shouted.

  Lily’s head popped up, and her lower lip slipped out and quivered much like it had with Lord Licorice.

  Thump went Sam’s heart.

  No, dang it. He didn’t want this. Didn’t want to feel anything.

  “So what? You do,” he mumbled as he reluctantly pushed off the tree and headed up the hill.

  Coming up on Kait, he cleared his throat loud enough to break through the argument. She didn’t acknowledge him, but kept her focus on her mother now spewing even harsher comments about Kait’s lack of parenting skills.

  Taken aback at the vehemence in her mother’s tone, Sam decided not to come between them, but to rescue Lily on his own. He stepped to her and squatted down. Forlorn eyes locked on his, and his heart split wider.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked, figuring food was a safe topic for a person of any age.

  She nodded weakly.

  “I have a chocolate chip muffin and orange juice in my car. Should we share it?”

  Her eyes brightened a bit, and her head bobbed faster.

  He stood and held out his hand. She laid soft little fingers against his palm, sending his heart thumping harder, and the truth to his brain.

  He did want this. All of this. A wife. Kids. He wanted them badly.

  So at least be honest with yourself. But never, ever forget you’re not father material.

  He headed toward his car, now farther up the hill and out of the blast radius. The squad determined the safe zone based on the size of the box inside, and the uniforms had set another perimeter beyond that. He crested the hill and spotted a news van arriving on scene.

  Great. That’s all Kait needed to deal with today.

  He opened the passenger door of his sedan. Lily scrambled in as if eager to get away from the argument that had escalated to a new level. He ran around the front, trying to get Kait’s attention so when she came to her senses and realized she was holding WWIII within hearing distance of Lily, she’d know where to find her.

  Despite waving at her, she didn’t acknowledge him. He climbed behind the wheel and snatched up the paper bag on the console. He split the muffin in half and gave a piece to Lily. Her miniature hand couldn’t hold all of it, so he halved it again.

  “I’ll set the rest on the napkin for when you’re ready,” he said when she looked disappointed.

  She chomped down on the muffin, and he opened the orange juice, then set it in the holder by her leg.

  “Good?” he asked.

  She offered a tentative smile, and he relaxed a bit. He could do this. At least until Kait’s mom was done belittling her.

  He watched them, so alike in appearance. Kait would likely age as gracefully as her mother. Her posture was still perfect, her figure trim, and if she smiled, he’d bet she was pretty. She stepped back, and the anger suddenly disappeared, her eyes holding the same pain and regret that Kait carried. The same regret he lived with.

  Kait turned and met his eyes through the windshield. Her anguish put a physical ache in his gut. He pointed at the spot where Lily had sat, and then at his passenger seat hoping she understood Lily was safe.

  She glanced at the curb. Her eyes going wide, panic taking over.

  Sam popped out of the car. “She’s with me.”

  “Oh, my gosh,” Kait called out. “I didn’t . . . I forgot . . . oh, my gosh.” She clamped a hand on the back of her neck and turned in circles before pulling her shoulders back and coming over to the car. She knelt at the open door, and Sam joined them.

  “I’m sorry, sweetie,” she said to Lily. “Nana and I shouldn’t have been arguing.”

  “You were mad,” Lily said around a mouth filled with muffin.

  “I was. But I’m not anymore.” She scooped Lily into her arms and held her close, stroking her hair and cooing assurances. “I’ll bring you to Nana, and she can take you home.”

  She looked up at Sam. “Sam take me.”

  “Me?” Sam asked.

  “Uh-huh.” A wide smile lifted her crestfallen face. “I like you.” She reached her arms for him.

  Kait arched a brow and studied him, but didn’t comment.

  “What can I say? I’m irresistible to the ladies.” He grinned.

  “Puh-lease,” Kait said jokingly, but distress remained lodged in her eyes.

  “I’m a girl. Not a lady.” Lily threw her arms around his neck.

  “I know, Squirt.” He ruffled her soft hair and followed Kait over to her mother.

  “Mom, this is Detective Sam Murdock.”

  “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Knight.” Sam offered his hand.

  She grasped it firmly. “Mrs. Knight is my mother-in-law. Please call me Rosalind.”

  “Rosalind it is, then,” Sam said, though he doubted he’d ever see her again. At least with the way she’d treated Kait, he doubted he’d ever want to see her again.

  “Thank you for taking care of Lily while we were occupied.” She cast a quick disapproving look at Kait.

  “Saying we were occupied doesn’t make our actions any less wrong.” Kait stepped closer to her mother and glanced at Lily who was distracted by the crowd building behind the barriers. “Neither one of us considered Lily at all today, and we’ve put her through enough already. I’m done battling with you. I’ll relinquish custody.”

  “You what?” Rosalind asked, clearly dumbfounded

  “Take Lily to your house, and I’ll come by tonight to discuss the details.”

  Sam’s mouth fell open. How could she agree to give up Lily? Just like that. Permanently.

  He thought to protest, but this wasn’t a discussion to have in front of Lily. Once she was gone, that was another story all together. He’d be glad to give Kait his opinion.

  Rosalind snatched the muffin from Lily’s hand. “We don’t eat chocolate chips for breakfast.”

  “Sam does,” Lily said.

  “Mr. Murdock to you,” Rosalind chided.

  “It’s okay, honey,” he said before thinking. “I asked you to call me Sam, and that’s what I want you to do.”

  Rosalind scowled at him, and he thought he saw a hint of a smile flash on Kait’s face as she leaned close to give Lily a kiss on the cheek. “See you later, pumpkin. Listen to Nana, okay?”

  “’K.” Lily gave him a big hug before he transferred her into her grandmother’s arms, her scowl still firmly in place.

  “Please call before you come over, Kait,” she tossed over her shoulder as she departed.

  When she was out of earshot, Sam faced Kait. “You’re a wonderful mother. Don’t let her tell you otherwise.”

  “You’ve only spent a few minutes with us. Mom has spent years.”

  “Do you really think you’re a bad parent?”

  “Bad, no. Lacking, yes. My job often has to come before Lily. I live a life that can put her in danger. This morning adequately proved that.”

  “So you’re saying law enforcement pro
fessionals shouldn’t have children.”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Don’t do this, Kait.” He moved closer, but resisted taking her hand like he wanted to do. “Don’t make less of yourself than you are. You’re an amazing, strong woman who can have a child and a career, too. As long as you don’t have knock-down drag-outs like this in front of the kid, she’ll be fine.”

  She glanced around, a mortified expression taking over. “I couldn’t have been any less professional.”

  “Relax. Everyone else is too busy checking out the bomb to notice.”

  “Everyone but you.”

  He started to say he noticed everything about her, but that would be akin to flinging open Pandora’s Box.

  She touched his arm as lightly as a butterfly. “We haven’t known each other very long, but your support means a lot to me.”

  “No problem.” He could feel his mouth turn up in a dopey grin, and yet, he couldn’t stop it.

  She smiled. “If we see my mother again while on the case, I promise to remain in control.”

  “Not that I’m disparaging your mother, but from what I’ve seen, it would take patience beyond the average person not to get testy around her. You sure you want her to take care of Lily?”

  “She’s not usually like this when I’m not around.”

  “You do something to make her mad?”

  “Yeah. I lived instead of Abby.”

  She sounded so sad and lost that Sam had to shove his hands into his pockets to keep from taking her into his arms. “Seems to me she should be happy that you’re alive and embrace you instead of alienating and blaming you.”

  “You’d think, wouldn’t you?” A low, long sigh escaped from her mouth as if trying to exhale her pain. “So . . . where do we stand with the bomb?”

  He wanted to pursue her comment, but talking about her mother wishing she’d died instead of Abby was a conversation for another time and place. “Why don’t we go find out?”

  She stepped past him then turned back. “Thank you, Sam. You’re an amazing person, too.” She smiled, softly, sweetly, her full lips torturing him.

  Thud—his heart tripped over. He wanted to throw his arms around her and kiss her right in front of the entire bomb squad. Crazy. Sheer will forced him to offer a simple thanks and move toward two MEDU officers scrambling around their van.

  They stepped into ugly green suits with rigid ballistic panels covered in flame-resistant Nomex and body-protecting Kevlar. The team leader, Sergeant Charlie Zamsky, barked orders like a drill sergeant. He often exploded like the bombs they disarmed, but he was a good cop. He’d served on an explosive ordnance disposal team in the military before graduating from the FBI’s Hazardous Devices School like all certified bomb techs are required to do.

  By the time they joined Zamsky, he’d set a nearly indestructible laptop on the hood of his vehicle. Using a remote control that resembled popular gaming remotes, he maneuvered a large silver robot toward Kait’s front door. Two arms protruded out front with long pincers acting as hands ready to seek out the package.

  Zamsky would follow protocol by taking an initial x-ray of the suspicious device. If the x-ray proved the item wasn’t explosive, he’d give the all clear, and Sam would take over the scene to ensure the recovery of any evidence left behind by Rhodes.

  The robot whirred into the house, the camera displaying the interior of Kait’s home on the laptop.

  “Which direction?” Zamsky asked.

  Kait didn’t take her attention from the screen to answer. “Left down the hall, then the first room on the right.”

  The robot entered Lily’s room, and Kait stiffened. Sam took a step closer to her, hoping his nearness might help her deal with whatever Zamsky discovered. The robot slowly approached the neatly wrapped package.

  “Some nerve using kid’s wrapping paper,” Zamsky muttered as he clicked the controls to shoot an x-ray. A few seconds later, the image appeared on screen. Zamsky let out a shaky laugh. “Not a bomb.”

  Sam expected Kait to relax but she continued to stare at the x-ray. “What is it?”

  The object was four or five inches long and looked like a large clenched fist.

  “I’m not a doctor,” Zamsky said, and then looked up at them, his expression making Sam’s body tense. “But I hunt enough to be fairly certain it’s a heart.”

  Kait gasped and stepped back.

  “Human?” Sam asked.

  “Not sure. We’ll need the ME to confirm.” Zamsky’s voice held no emotion as he pointed at the screen. “Looks like a note’s enclosed, too.”

  Kait turned to Sam, sheer pain slicing through her eyes. His gut started hurting even more.

  “Congdon’s missing heart,” she said soberly.

  “Likely,” Sam said.

  This was a warning to Kait. A serious warning. Fenton Rhodes meant business. He was coming for her, and so far, God help him, Sam had done nothing to stand in the monster’s way.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  KAIT FORCED HERSELF to take the walkway to her front door, leaving Sam outside to phone his Lieutenant and report the recent development. Development, hah! How could she call the package something that innocuous? A development in a case was the discovery of trace evidence. Or a murder weapon recovered. It surely wasn’t a heart in a box, sitting smack dab in the middle of Lily’s room.

  She dragged her feet up the steps and wished Sam was with her, holding her hand. How she wished it. But it couldn’t be. She was an agent, and needed to portray strength in front of other law enforcement officers watching.

  She stopped at the door and spotted Zamsky with one of his men moving the robot down the hallway. They were joking while her heart was breaking. She didn’t take offense. Their adrenaline was still flowing, and they relieved the pent-up tension by joking. She’d done it herself at a crime scene.

  She stepped into her house, her fight or flight response intensified, and adrenaline coursed through her veins, making her jittery.

  Zamsky caught sight of her and sobered. “We opened the box to confirm my initial thoughts.”

  “A heart?”

  “Yep. Size leads me to believe it’s human. Your ME will have to confirm.” He gestured at the FED van pulling down her driveway. “We’ll be turning the scene over to the detectives now, but you better prepare yourself for the criminalists. They’re bound to make a real mess.”

  Kait nodded her understanding, but she didn’t care about the techs invading her home. Nothing could be more invasive than Fenton entering Lily’s bedroom last night. Except maybe the fact that he’d done it before. Several times. Hacking her alarm as he must have done last night. Standing outside Lily’s door while Kait slept down the hall. While Kait discounted Lily’s fears.

  “Figured FED and Murdock would have my hide if I touched the note,” Zamsky went on. “So I left it alone.”

  Kait nodded. She shouldn’t touch the note either, but she didn’t have the same self-control. If Fenton left a message for her, nothing would stop her from reading it now. Nothing.

  SAM FOUND KAIT in the corner of Lily’s room, sitting on the floor, hugging a large stuffed dog. She’d been crying, but her eyes were dry now. He entered the room, and she looked up, despair muffling her very expressive eyes.

  He knelt next to her. “We’ll catch him, you know.”

  “I know. But it’s not going to take away the feeling of being violated.” She pointed at the box. “I realize I shouldn’t have, but I read his note.”

  Sam looked at the nightstand and noted a pair of discarded latex gloves. “At least you wore gloves and didn’t contaminate the evidence.”

  “Even if protocol didn’t dictate it, I didn’t want to touch anything from him.”

  “What’d it say?”

  “It�
��s best if you read for yourself.”

  Sam got up and snapped on gloves. He lifted the heavyweight cardstock in a bright pink color.

  You shattered my heart, Kait, when you let your sister die in your place.

  How many hearts do you think I’ll have to take before mine is whole again?

  Are you smart enough to catch me before I take another one, Kait? Are you?

  “As if this lunatic is even capable of love,” Sam mumbled.

  “Actually, I think he is. At least in his way, he loved Abby, and he loves Lily.”

  “It’s just that his way is sick and disgusting.”

  “Regardless,” Kait said. “He’s definitely going to kill again.”

  “He could just be trying to scare you.”

  “I’m not scared. Creeped out. Sick to my stomach, but not scared.”

  You should be, Sam thought but kept it to himself. A killer who was willing to admit to his crimes and taunt the woman he blamed for his wife’s death was more than willing to expand his murderous circle to include Kait.

  As he watched her, a violent shudder claimed her body. He crossed the room. “Looks like you’re more bothered by this than you’re willing to admit.”

  Her eyes flashed with anger. “Of course I’m bothered. He was here. In my house. In Lily’s room. I’m not sure I can even live here anymore.”

  “That feeling will pass in time.”

  “Will it? Or will I always blame myself for not taking care of Lily the way I promised Abby?”

  “Lily is fine.”

  “No thanks to me.” She shook her head. “My mom is right. I’m not fit to care for her.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Isn’t it?” She wrapped her arms around her stomach. “Lily told you all about his visits. You believed her, until I talked you out of it. What if this is about kidnapping her? Taking her away from me?”

  “He obviously doesn’t want to do that, or she’d already be gone.”

  “After the way he talked about her on the phone, I’m not so sure about that. My gut says when the time is right, he plans to take her from me.” Kait shivered again, but her shoulders lifted higher. “I won’t let that happen. I’ll make sure she’s taken to a safe house today.”