by Mary Eason
“How could you do that to him, Ed? Especially in front of all his subordinates and the people he considers his friends? You all but accused him of being guilty.”
Ed glanced her way for a moment and then checked the rearview mirror. Kara found herself looking uneasily over her shoulder. There was nothing there.
“Why do you think I chose to confront Davis in public like that? Do you really think I believe Davis is capable of being involved in that type of brutality?”
It took a moment before the truth became clear. “You staged this whole thing to make it seem as if you believed the evidence against him for the killer’s sake. Do you think he was there watching somehow?”
“I don’t know,” he said without hesitating. “I hope so. I just wish we could find this Harrison fellow and prove Frankie Shepard’s part in this mess once and for all.”
“Me too. Did Davis know you were doing this?”
“No, but he’s too smart not to have figured it out by now. I taught him well, Kara. And he knows me well enough. He knows what’s going on.”
Slowly she looked away. “I feel so helpless right now. I can’t help myself. I can’t help Davis. I hate going through this again—waiting for the inevitable.”
“That’s not going to happen. I made a promise to Davis to protect you and I damn well plan on keeping that promise no matter what.”
“What about Davis? Who’s protecting him?”
“Davis, and of course Ryan. Ryan would do anything in the world for him.”
A sudden uneasiness swept over her. Something bothered her about Ryan. She didn’t trust him completely with Davis’s life.
“Where are you taking me?”
“There’s a hotel outside town. I’m putting you up there. I’ll have a couple of female officers outside our precinct who will be staying there with you.”
“I don’t want this. You know I don’t work that way.”
“Let’s get one thing straight right now, Kara. You’re not working. You’re off this case. As far as I’m concerned, you weren’t ever part of it. I don’t want the same freak show as we had the last time. Your presence here will only stir up the media frenzy of before. You’re not part of this thing. You understand?”
“You still don’t believe in it, do you, Ed? You never did. You resented having me as part of the team right from the beginning, didn’t you?”
“Of course. I see no reason to deny it now,” he told her without hesitating. “Oh, I don’t doubt your abilities. How could I? You’ve proven them to me. But as far as I’m concerned, an investigation should be about the physical evidence. Not what you do.”
Kara didn’t argue. After all, she’d been fighting this type of prejudice in the law enforcement field from day one. And she couldn’t care less about helping solve these types of cases anymore. Once this was over and done, she was finished looking into the dark side of a killer’s mind. She’d never let another one inside her head.
The hotel sat close to the Pennsylvania state line. Two police officers in plain clothes met her and Ed there. Kara wondered how they got lucky enough to end up with this type of duty.
But they seemed genuinely nice enough.
The officers had reserved a suite under an alias. Not that it mattered. He’d know where to find her. He was reading her thoughts even now, growing stronger as Kara’s powers became weaker with the sleepless hours and the emotional roller-coaster ride of the past twenty-four hours of this case.
The fear inside her continued to spiral out of control with Davis’s absence, all but guaranteeing a bad ending.
The officers led the way to the back entrance with Kara and Ed following.
“I’ll have someone bring you a change of clothes later,” Ed told her as he followed her into one of the two bedrooms of the suite. “Kara, don’t leave here. This is serious. We have twenty-four hours to figure this out before he comes for you. Do what the officers tell you to do and don’t contact Davis.”
Kara never felt more exhausted than she did at that moment, standing alone in a strange hotel room. She stripped away her clothing, which was covered in the young woman’s blood. How did this girl connect to Davis? Davis didn’t recognize her, and yet somehow their paths had crossed to seal her fate.
She stayed under the warm shower until the water turned cold before wrapping the hotel’s gift robe tightly around her body. Then she lay down on the bed and focused on Ava.
Tonight she needed Ava’s sweet innocence more than ever. Ava was safe, but she and Davis were not.
“Take care of Daddy for me, Mommie. He needs you now.”
“I will, baby,” Kara whispered into the darkened room. “I promise I won’t let anything happen to him.” Protecting Davis became her last coherent thought before sleep took over and she faced the shadowy person known as the Angel. Could the Angel have been Alec Harrison all along? Or someone else who’d been orchestrating this outcome from the beginning.
For once, she was the one hunting him.
One thought became clear right away. He was avoiding her. The girl’s discovery threw him off his game.
It wasn’t deliberate. He’d made his first real mistake. The hunter had gone on the defensive. Kara pressed harder.
“Who is she? How did you connect her to Davis?”
Her question startled him. Before he could hide the truth, his thoughts become clear. Kara saw the girl. She wore a uniform with a nametag pinned to it. Her name was Annabelle McIntyre.
She worked at the same convenience store where Kara and Davis had stopped to call his father, just around the corner from Kara’s old apartment. The killer was taunting them, reminding them he could take anyone at any time and the Bureau was powerless to stop them. Kara tried to find a crack in his confidence.
“You’re scared. You know your time is almost up, don’t you? This time it will end.”
He tried to shut her out but she pushed on, not allowing him time to regroup.
“You thought the truth about Frankie would never be known, didn’t you?” Kara tried harder to focus on him. While she couldn’t make out his features, she sensed his fear very clearly. It drove her on.
“You wanted Davis to take the blame. You screwed up.”
“Ms. Bryant?”
He struggled to break her spell. In another minute, he was gone. Kara awakened before she could discover the truth. She sat up in bed, disoriented for a moment. Someone knocked hard against her door. Officer Geneva Soloman opened the door and asked, “Are you okay in there, Ms. Bryant?”
“Yes.” Kara forced the word out, annoyed by the interruption. She’d been so close.
“I’ve ordered room service. I thought you might be hungry by now.” Kara swung her legs off the bed and closed her eyes once more, trying to reach him but he was gone. She got out of bed and followed the officer into the living area.
“Where’s your partner?” Kara asked when the officer handed her a sandwich. Didn’t cops eat anything but donuts and sandwiches?
“Officer Blake went out to get you something to wear. We figured you could use a change of clothing since yours was covered in blood.”
Kara nodded without answering. The simple ham-and-cheese sandwich tasted delicious. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until now. A little more of her strength returned with the nourishment.
Geneva Soloman sat down on the sofa across from Kara and took a bite of her sandwich. Kara knew all the questions that were coming by heart.
“You’re that psychic, aren’t you?” she asked, swallowing. Kara’s gaze went to hers. She was surprised by the officer’s recognition.
“I remember the Death Angel murders as if it were yesterday,” Geneva told her. “I recalled seeing your picture. You’re involved in these copycat killings as well, aren’t you? I mean, why else would the head of the Bureau escort you here personally.”
“Yes, well, I’m not actually involved in the current investigation but I did participate in the last one.”
/> “I was just starting out at that time. I don’t mind telling you, that creep scared me to death.” She took another bite and chewed it thoughtfully. “What a mess.”
“What do you mean?” Kara asked cautiously. She knew what the officer meant.
“The Bureau screw-up. You know about the leak?”
“Oh…yes, you’re right. It cost us valuable time as well.”
“I can imagine. So, can I ask you a question?” Geneva finished the last of her sandwich and wiped her hands thoughtfully. Kara knew what was coming but she merely nodded her head.
“How did you come upon this gift? I mean, I’ve heard a person is either born with it or sometimes it manifests after a trauma. Some case studies seem to indicate we all have a certain amount of psychic ability within us. So I’m curious, when did you first realize you had it?”
For a second, Kara hesitated. She hated talking about the gift, but Officer Soloman seemed genuinely interested in her answer and not out of a morbid sense of curiosity.
“Believe it or not, it runs in my family.”
“No kidding? So you’ve had it for as long as you can remember?” She wiped a crumb from her shirt. “I’m taking some courses at the university. I want to join the Bureau someday,” she added by way of explanation.
“I see. Yes, I’ve had it for as long as I can remember and I’ve hated it just as long.”
“Really?”
Kara could see she didn’t understand this.
“I know that sounds ungrateful, but trust me, I don’t see this as a gift. It’s a terrible responsibility, seeing such unbelievable evil and watching lives torn apart by it.”
“Yeah, I can only imagine,” Geneva added quietly. “Do you see it before it happens?”
“Sometimes,” Kara answered reluctantly. “Sometimes I see the aftermath. Sometimes I feel the victim’s pain. And sometimes I’m able to see into the mind of the killer.”
“Wow. That must be creepy. I’ve read some of the serial killer case files. Those guys are some twisted people.”
“Yes, they are.”
“What was your first case, if you don’t mind me asking?”
She did. She hated talking about any of this.
“It was a child’s death,” Kara admitted reluctantly. “I’d always had the ability to see things, like where something had gone missing, or when the next test in a certain class would take place. Just little things like that. But the first real image of murder happened while I was still at the university. I can remember it as if it happened today. I’d been studying at the campus library when I saw it. He was taken from the street, molested and then murdered.”
“Oh wow. What’d you do?”
“At first nothing. I thought…well I don’t know what I thought,” Kara said, remembering those first terrible images. “I left the library and went home to my grandmother’s place. As soon as I walked in the door, the news came on about a missing boy.”
“The kid you saw,” Geneva supplied.
Kara nodded. “I told my grandmother about it. She took me to see the police right away. Of course, they laughed it off. Then another boy went missing that I’d witnessed and I knew where he kept the boy.”
“So what did you do?”
“I went back to the police, told them what I saw, told them where I thought the boy could be found, and they all but accused me of being responsible.”
“Yeah,” Geneva said with an apologetic grin. “We don’t fully understand your type.”
“I certainly know that. Anyway, I directed the police to the boy. We were lucky enough to find him alive, although he’d been horribly abused. But the killer left evidence. They caught him soon after and my career was sealed whether I wanted it to be or not.”
“I can understand your reluctance to get involved.” Geneva said. “I mean, I see some of the things people do to each other after the fact and it’s a terrible thing to witness. I can’t even imagine having access to that type of evil.”
“Before I knew it, I was getting called in to consult on various cases around the state. From there, I became well known. Then I saw the first image from the Death Angel. I told the Austin police, they contacted the FBI, and the Bureau called me in after they weren’t able to develop any solid leads. I guess they were desperate enough to try anything at that point.”
Geneva rolled her eyes. “That must have set well with the feds.”
“Not exactly. I was met with ridicule, doubt and every attempt possible to sabotage my efforts to help.” Kara smiled wryly, remembering how young and defenseless she’d felt at the time.
And then she’d met Davis.
“But eventually I was accepted. Mostly because they were desperate.”
Officer Judy Blake returned a short time later with a change of clothes from the local Wal-Mart. “Sorry, we’re on a budget,” she apologized.
Kara smiled at the simple jeans, tee-shirt and plain white bra and panties. “No problem. These are great. Thanks.”
“If you need anything else just let us know. I realize this is almost like being in jail, but at least you’re safe here,” Judy said with a warm smile.
“Thanks, I think I’m just going to lie down for a while.”
Kara left the two women watching TV and went to her room. She could feel the walls closing in around her. Time seemed to have come to a standstill, and yet it sped toward the inevitable moment of reckoning awaiting her.
In less than a day, he would come for her. As much as Kara trusted the two officers guarding her, she didn’t believe anything or anyone could stop this moment from happening.
Chapter Eleven
The windows of the car were all down. The night breeze helped to take the edge off Davis’s anger. But nothing could wipe away the urgency he felt. Time was running out for him. For Kara. If he didn’t figure something out soon, he would not be in a position to save her again. Hell, he might even be in jail.
He should go home. By now the press would have moved on to the latest victim’s family. Ryan had told him to wait by the phone for news, but Davis couldn’t stand the thought of doing nothing.
And so he drove around the city, finding himself in old, familiar places. Places the Angel haunted. He could almost feel him now. He’d become so in tune to his pattern of killing.
The city, poised on the brink of the next killing, appeared quiet tonight. But already the fear had spread. He could see it in the eyes of those who ventured out. He still remembered the paranoia of the past.
Dear God, not again.
His thoughts went back over the information he and Kara had uncovered about Frankie.
Davis pulled off the deserted farm road close to the place where they’d found Jessica, and closed his eyes. He could feel Kara. She was worried about him.
In his gut, Davis believed the key Victoria uncovered would prove to be the missing piece of evidence to reveal the killer’s whereabouts. Solving the case would come down to one thing. What had Frankie felt so important that he’d hidden it away all these years?
The car’s clock revealed a new day. Kara went missing the first time on this date. History had begun repeating itself.
The father…
The image of Barry Shepard appeared before him. Instinctively he knew Kara was trying to tell him something. He needed to talk to Frankie’s father. But the man had been silent for years. All throughout the first case, he refused to cooperate. What chance did Davis have of changing his mind now?
Simple. He had to try. He’d exhausted all other possible leads. And he was desperate enough to try anything.
Barry Shepard lived in an affluent section of Richmond. He’d moved there with his new wife shortly after divorcing Frankie’s mother.
Davis stopped the car in front of the house. At four in the morning, the place appeared dark. Of course, they would be sleeping. He couldn’t go banging on their door at that hour demanding answers. He’d have to wait at least another hour.
Davis ticked off
the facts he knew about the man. Barry and his current wife had three teenage girls of their own.
He glanced up at the house. Apparently, someone wasn’t sleeping. He hadn’t noticed the tiny light made by something resembling a flashlight until now. Someone was awake. He was betting on it being one of the girls.
Davis picked up a small pebble and tossed it up to the window. Nothing. After several more attempts, a young girl opened the window and peered down at him.
“Who are you?” she called out while trying to keep her voice as quiet as possible.
“Agent Martin from the FBI. I need to speak to your parents.”
“They’re sleeping!” she whispered glancing at the window closest to hers. Probably her parents’ bedroom.
“I realize that but this is important.”
“Is this about my brother?”
It took him a few seconds to realize she meant Frankie.
“Yes, Frankie Shepard.”
“They won’t help you.”
“Will you?” He saw her hesitate.
She glanced back over her shoulder. “How do I know you’re who you say you are?”
Davis took out his badge and tossed it hard. He barely got close. Thank goodness, the girl was on her toes. She leaned out the window and somehow managed to catch the badge.
After she’d carefully inspected his ID, she whispered, “Hold on.”
A few minutes later, the girl appeared around the corner of the house.
“My parents will kill me if they know I’m talking to the police about this.”
“They don’t have to know. Is there something you can tell me about your brother?”
“No. Why would I know anything about him? He wasn’t part of our family. Dad said he was sick. He won’t let us talk about him. Ever.”
“Is that what you think? That Frankie was sick?” Davis could see it wasn’t.
“No,” she admitted reluctantly.
“You met him before his death, didn’t you?” He saw the truth before she could hide it.
“No!” Clearly, she was lying. Davis tried to think of something he could say to win her trust.