Look Behind You

by Iris Johansen

  “WHERE ARE YOU?” KENDRA demanded as soon as Griffin answered his phone. “I need to talk to you.”

  “You’re talking to me,” Griffin said. “Why the hell did you take off from the crime scene? The team wanted to discuss your findings in—”

  “I was having trouble thinking of it as a crime scene. I wanted out of there. Now where are you?”

  He was silent. “I’m on my way down to hotel security.”

  “We’ll meet you there.” She pressed the disconnect. “Security,” she told Lynch. “And we’ll be lucky if he doesn’t drag the entire team down there so that they can discuss that, too.” She added through clenched teeth, “They’re driving me crazy. I feel as if I’m being smothered every time they start to analyze and expound.”

  “Easy,” Lynch said. “I know you’re on edge, but we need Griffin for the moment. He can smooth the way for us.”

  She knew that, but it did little to keep her frustration in check. “You’re right,” she said curtly. “But everyone is treating Huston’s death as just another murder. But it’s all wrong, he died because Zachary wanted to mock us. He died because Zachary wanted to show me he could do it.”

  “Entirely possible. But that doesn’t make it your fault.”

  “Then why does it feel like it is?”

  “Because you liked Huston, and you’re not thinking clearly at the moment. You’re angry and feeling a little bewildered. But now the only thing of importance is to find out how Zachary did it.” He punched the elevator button. “And that means you have to be moderately civil to Griffin for the next several hours. Don’t worry, I’ll be there to run interference.”

  “You don’t have the best track record in that area. Not with Griffin.”

  “Then we’ll make it a joint project.”

  “Maybe,” she said skeptically.

  Kendra and Lynch caught up with Griffin, Metcalf, and Gina as they walked down the hall toward the second-floor hotel security office. Thank heavens he’d left his precious dream team behind, Kendra thought relieved.

  “You can see I’m busy,” Griffin said. “What did you want to talk about?”

  Kendra held up her phone and showed Griffin the LOOK BEHIND YOU text still on her screen.

  “What the hell is that?” Griffin asked.

  “A text from Zachary, sent to me less than ten minutes ago. He sent me two.” Kendra displayed the previous message: YOU’RE NOT WEARING THE RING I GAVE YOU.

  Griffin seemed more disturbed by this text. “Where were you when you received this one?”

  “Outside the building.” She tried to forget that moment of panic and think logically. “It doesn’t mean I was being watched, of course. It wasn’t like I was ever going to slip on that class ring we found and go about my day.”

  “Hmm. But it doesn’t mean that he wasn’t watching you. We need to find from where that message was sent. Probably a burner phone, but if we determine it was here in a common area, we can check security camera video against the timing to see if someone appears to be sending a text at that exact moment. It could help us. Rendell is upstairs uploading the contents of Huston’s phone right now, but you should show him what you just showed me. He’ll look into it.”

  “That photo of the hotel room wall was sent from Huston’s phone less than an hour ago,” Lynch said. “But I’d say he’s been dead quite a bit longer. Did Rendell have anything to say about that?”

  “The timestamp embedded in the photo shows it was snapped with Huston’s phone at 5:40 A.M. The email with that photo was created at the same time but programmed to be sent over four hours later. According to the M.E.’s initial findings, that lines up with the time of death.”

  Kendra nodded toward the hotel security office. “Are we here to check security camera footage?”

  “Yes. This hotel isn’t exactly flooded with cameras, but there’s good coverage in the lobby, most of the exterior entrances, and in the elevator lobbies on each floor. They’re giving us copies of all their footage between five and six this morning, but we’ll take a quick look while we’re here.”

  Kendra and Lynch joined the group for their “quick look,” which ended up taking more than three hours and which yielded, as far as Kendra could tell, absolutely nothing. There was some activity in the lobby and rear loading dock, but otherwise it was fairly quiet.

  Gina kept a tally of the departing guests who boarded elevators with their luggage, noting the time and floor number. “I’ll compare these with the checkouts,” she said.

  Metcalf shook his head in frustration. “If he knew what he was doing, and I really think he does, our guy could have come and gone without being spotted by a single camera. There’s no coverage on the side garage entrances, and if he took the stairs, he could have avoided surveillance cameras altogether.”

  “Or if he was a guest,” Kendra said. “That would have been easier still. Do we have a copy of the registry?”

  “We will as soon as our warrant gets here,” Griffin said.

  “Good. In the meantime, I’d like to go back up to Huston’s room and take another look around. I might have been a little distracted when I did the first examination.”

  “Sure, no problem. But forensics is still there. They might get in your way. Why don’t you wait awhile?” He paused. “The team wants to go back and talk to Hagstrom about those souvenirs. We’re not sure how long we’ll be able to keep him after Huston’s murder. They want you to go with them.”

  She looked at him in disbelief. “No way. Not now. It would just be a rehash of previous interviews. The only souvenir I’m interested in right now is that ring we found today.”

  He frowned. “It’s a minor request and might yield rewards. After all the team was intimately connected with Huston’s work on the cases. They’re all exceptional detectives and it’s worth—”

  “No,” she said sharply. She’d had enough. She got to her feet and headed for the door. “I’m done. No more.”

  Griffin caught up with her as she pressed the button for the elevator. “What’s that supposed to mean? All I’m asking for is a little cooperation.”

  Keep your temper. “I don’t believe I can help in this instance. I don’t seem to be in sync with your friends on the dream team. We don’t appear to even be on the same wave length.” She looked him in the eye. “You’re absolutely right, I think they’re all brilliant. They’d just be better off without me. I’m opting out, Griffin. No more dream team for me.”

  “What?” Griffin’s lips tightened. “Don’t be ridiculous. We all have to work together on—”

  “This elevator is taking forever.” Lynch was suddenly beside them and taking Kendra’s arm. “Let’s take the stairs.” He didn’t wait for a reply but was whisking her down the stairs toward the lobby and away from Griffin.

  “I wasn’t going to deck him,” Kendra said.

  “Just doing my duty to keep the peace. The minute the word ridiculous appeared in the conversation I thought intercession was called for.”

  “You might have been right.” She grimaced. “I was doing pretty well until then.”

  “Yeah, you were.” He smiled. “Then we go up to Huston’s room and you take another look? You don’t make mistakes, Kendra.”

  “I was pretty upset. Everyone makes mistakes.” She added wearily, “Except Zachary.”

  “He makes mistakes, too. We just haven’t found them. Where’s all that fire I saw just a few hours ago?”

  “I’ll get it back. He might have made a mistake already. We just have to put together what we know about him.” She frowned, trying to examine that list. “He has to be some kind of psychopath, he’s extremely smart, he knows a lot about procedural law enforcement, he knew this hotel well enough not to show up on the cameras. That’s quite a bit when you think—” She stopped as she started to put it all together.

  Could it be?

  Perhaps …

  “Kendra?”

  “Maybe I’ll wait to do that second c
heck of Huston’s room.” She reached for her phone. “Maybe I’ll go in another direction…”

  Hilton Hotel

  8:20 P.M.

  “So you really think they might let Hagstrom go?” Jessie asked as she dropped down into an easy chair in the hotel bar lounge. “I told you I thought the chances of him being Zachary could have gone either way, but I was hoping that we’d gotten lucky.”

  “We didn’t get lucky,” Lynch said. “He definitely didn’t kill Huston and there are credit card receipts that keep surfacing that might give him alibis at the time of the killings of some of the other victims.”

  “But I wasn’t wrong about him being in every one of those crime locations,” Jessie said. “I double-checked and that’s pretty damning coincidences.”

  “We’re not accusing you of not being correct,” Kendra said. “I’m certain Hagstrom was in the same city as Zachary at the exact same time.”

  “An accomplice?” Jessie asked.

  “Possible. But I doubt it. Zachary seems to me to be a loner. He’s too egotistical to accept sharing either credit or the pleasure of the kill. It’s also possible he could be a dupe. I’m leaning toward that direction. Perhaps he’s been setting Hagstrom up all these years and waiting for the right moment to stage the frame.”

  “Diabolical,” Jessie said. “And painstakingly precise.” Her lips tightened. “And I’m not fond of the idea of him using me to put all the gears in motion.”

  She shook her head. “No, he used me. I used you.”

  “Same thing. When you hired me, we became one partnership. That’s the way I work. The son of a bitch tried to manipulate me.”

  Lynch chuckled. “Interesting business philosophy. But I can see how you might experience difficulties with it.”

  Kendra grimaced. “Because you’re a prime manipulator yourself.”

  “Guilty,” Lynch said. “But I imagine Zachary regards us all as chess pieces.”

  “Screw him,” Jessie said. “And I think that’s probably what you intend to do to the bastard.” She turned to Kendra. “You didn’t invite me to meet you here to buy me a drink. What can I do for you?”

  Kendra smiled wryly. “Cut to the chase? I just had a row with Griffin in which I officially resigned from that dream team he proudly put together. He wasn’t pleased. But I can’t go on like this. We’re not getting anywhere. My first thought after Huston’s death was that Zachary might be gathering all those detectives in one place like lambs to be slaughtered.”

  “You didn’t mention that to me,” Lynch said.

  “Since I would have been the first lamb to be slaughtered, you would have been a trifle upset.” She shrugged. “And you probably thought about it yourself.”

  “It occurred to me.”

  “So you want protection?” Jessie asked. “Is that why I’m here?”

  Kendra shook her head. “No, you’re here because I want you to stay here at the hotel and keep those four detectives under surveillance.”

  “To make sure they’re not murdered, too?”

  “No.” She paused. “To make sure none of them are murderers.”

  Jessie went still. She gave a low whistle. “That came out of left field. You believe one of them might be Zachary?”

  “I believe that there could be a possibility that I don’t want to ignore. If Hagstrom isn’t guilty, we’re left with no one. Zachary has shown an incredibly strong understanding of how law enforcement works. The dream team is staying at the same hotel, so none of them would look out of place to anyone reviewing the lobby cameras. They’ve all lived and breathed these cases, and there would be no suspicion if they appeared on site at any of them. I want them watched until I can investigate them all in depth.” She wrinkled her nose. “In short, I want my own team to watch the dream team.”

  “And I’m your team of choice?” Jessie was frowning thoughtfully. “I appreciate the compliment, but it won’t be easy. Hotels are notoriously simple to escape. Fire exits. Maids with pass keys. Room service deliveries. It didn’t surprise me when you said Griffin wasn’t finding any clues in Huston’s death. There have to be so many people at the scene they’re probably stumbling over each other. Police. FBI. Forensics. Plus those guys in the dream team milling around. If anyone knew the hotel, it wouldn’t take any effort to slip in and out.”

  “Is this a refusal?”

  “Hell, no. I’m just setting you up to let me call in a couple guys who work with me sometimes. I can’t watch all four rooms at one time. And what if one of the guys decides to go pub crawling?”

  “Get them. No problem. Just make it happen.”

  She nodded. “I’ll do it. And I’ll set up another guard to keep an eye on Olivia while I’m here.” She took out her phone and started punching numbers. She gazed at Kendra as she waited for an answer. “You’re charged. I can feel it. Huston’s death really shook you.”

  Kendra wasn’t surprised she was being this transparent. Every nerve was tense. “Among other things. Every time I turn around Zachary seems to be there … waiting for me to make a mistake.” She got to her feet. “And he’s on the move. We’ve got to stop him.”

  “Right.” Jessie glanced at Lynch. “So do your job and make certain that you keep the bastard away from her. It appears I’m going to be tied up here.” Then her call was answered and she began to talk quickly into her phone.

  “I believe we’ve been dismissed.” Lynch took Kendra’s elbow and guided her toward the front entrance. “Or at least I have.” They were outside and he gave the valet his check. “She evidently thinks there’s no reason to urge you to get your ass in gear. You’re obviously motivated.” He tipped the valet as he got into the driver’s seat. “A little too obviously.”

  “I suppose you mean something by that.”

  “I mean that you’re going to slow down.” He started down the driveway. “I’m taking you to dinner and then I’ll take you home and you’ll get some sleep.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “We’ll start with dinner and go from there.” He tilted his head as he glanced at her. “Unless you have some scheme, some urgent plan, that you have to immediately execute? I don’t think so. I think that setting up Jessie with the dream team might have been an act of desperation.” He held up his hand. “Not a bad idea. Clever. It might be the way to go. But there might be other solutions and you need to think about what they might be. We’ll go to a quiet restaurant that has nothing to do with gaudy sombreros and we’ll talk about options. Heaven forbid I try to get you off the subject of Zachary for the length of the meal.” He looked her in the eye. “If you have somewhere to go and something to do, forget it. If you don’t, you’re mine.”

  He knew her too well. He had read both her desperation and her driving need to get something, anything done. Assigning Jessie to the dream team had been the only thing she could think to do that might yield results. But now what else could she do? He was right, she had to think, concentrate, and search for that next step.

  “Dinner might not be too bad,” she said. “As long as you keep your promise about no sombreros.”

  * * *

  WHAT A COZY EVENING, Zachary thought as he watched Lynch’s Ferrari pull into Kendra’s parking garage. First a quiet dinner and now they were going to her place to screw and comfort themselves that Kendra was not really in danger.

  But there had been no smiles or laughter at that dinner. Kendra had been just as subdued and on edge as he could have wished. She had not given up, but Huston’s death had shocked her. She might be having thoughts of her own mortality. She had never faced an enemy of his caliber.

  The realization sent a rush of pleasure through him. Even the sex with Lynch might not be so good tonight, Kendra. I’ve got you on the ropes. He’d had no doubt they were lovers since that moment he’d seen the two of them on the street after they’d seen Huston’s body. No question about the intimacy between them. No question either that he’d have to target Lynch before he took Kendra. Seeing a l
over die was just too painful not to include it in Kendra’s final death agenda.

  Lynch.

  An important name to add to his growing list …

  * * *

  “I SUPPOSE I’M NOT allowed to stay,” Lynch said as he handed Kendra her keys. “All this contriving is nonsense you know.”

  “No, I don’t know,” she said tightly. “And I won’t take any chances. Have you forgotten Huston was gutted this morning?”

  “I’m not Huston.” He pushed the hair back from her temple. “And it might help to have someone to hold onto tonight.”

  “Good night, Lynch.” She shook her head. “And I don’t need someone to hold onto. I need to figure out what’s going to happen next, so I can get there ahead of Zachary.” She grimaced. “And your quiet, restful dinner did nothing for me. I went blank, dammit. I felt as if there was something I should know, something just out of reach, but I can’t get there.”

  “You will. Give yourself a chance. Relax and let it come to you. You know it always does.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “I’ll be down the hall in that condo Olivia exiled me to. Call me if you need me.”

  She watched him walk down the hall.

  She wanted to call him back. There was no way she wanted to be alone tonight.

  But that would be another victory for Zachary and he’d already stolen too many from her.

  She closed the door and leaned back against it.

  Zachary was getting closer. She could feel it. Body by body, he was making his way toward her. But there had to be a way to stop him.

  Think.

  Concentrate.

  There was only blankness.

  She pushed away from the door and headed for the bedroom. Relax, Lynch had said. Let it come to you. It always does.

  God, she hoped he was right.

  8:45 A.M.

  “You’re out of luck,” Olivia said to Kendra as she threw open her front door. “I thought you might drop by, but I couldn’t wait. When you didn’t show up by seven, I made a delicious omelet for myself and devoured every morsel. But I can give you a cup of coffee.”

  “Don’t have time.” Kendra came into the living room and glanced over at Olivia’s desk, which was piled high with papers and devices. “Does that mean you have to work today?”