by Rachel Dylan
“Rex, I think you should see this.” Her eyes scanned the message quickly and she let out a breath.
He stood up and walked around to her side of the table. Leaning down toward her, he read it out loud—“‘You can’t hide forever. If you try to stay hidden, the killing will continue and it will all be your fault.’”
“So now he’s threatening to kill more women if I don’t come out of hiding,” she said.
Rex blew out a breath. “Lily, he’s going to keep killing women regardless. You and I both know that. This contact is all just part of his mind game. He’s trying to break you down, scare you. Make you act irrationally.”
She looked up into his dark eyes. “I think we should talk to Eliza again about me making contact with him.”
“We can talk to her, but I don’t think she’s going to be on board. And I can’t say I think it’s the greatest idea, either. We can’t presume that this guy is a rational actor. That he would act like a normal functioning human being under a different set of circumstances.”
He went back around and took a seat at his computer. “Forward me the message and I’ll send it on for analysis. I’m sure he’s covered his electronic tracks, but that won’t stop us from looking.”
“Sending now.” She took a moment to gather her thoughts. “Hear me out about this.”
“I’ll listen to what you have to say. You can always tell me what you’re thinking.”
“If I could make contact with him, maybe that would stave him off for a bit. He’ll be so interested in continuing the conversations with me and less interested on killing.”
“Or, the alternative is that talking to you will amp this guy up so much that he has to go out there and immediately find another victim.”
“Like Eliza said at the meeting, it’s a calculated risk. You yourself just said that he’s going to keep killing. The only thing that will stop him is us catching him. But in the meantime, what if my emailing or texting him could keep him occupied for a little bit? Even if it only takes him away from killing for one day you never know how that would impact things. Don’t you think we should try to buy time in any way we can?”
“Eliza is actually already on her way over and should be here any minute. We’ll talk about this with her, in addition to our normal updates. I’m sure she’ll have an opinion.”
Lily reached down and patted Grace while she thought about the email that the killer had sent her. “It’s strange, though,” she said, thinking out loud.
“What?”
“The killer had to know if he attempted to burn down my house that I would have to leave if any level of damage was sustained. Did he miscalculate? Did he fail to factor in the possibility of me being moved to a safe house?”
Rex walked to the refrigerator and pulled out a can of soda. “Would you like one?”
“Sure,” she said.
He handed her the soda can and took his seat. “You raise a good point. But maybe he thought he was so on top of things that he’d be able to track you once you left your house. Maybe he was watching and waiting, but then he got thrown off the trail because of all the chaos. Or he could’ve been worried about being caught. One thing I can say about this guy is that he is arrogant. He has an ego, thinks he can outsmart us. He prides himself on being one step ahead of law enforcement. Believes that he knows the system better than we do.”
“And he may very well be in law enforcement,” Eliza said as she strode into the kitchen. Her long, dark hair flowed down past her shoulders today instead of being pulled back, and she was wearing glasses for the first time that Lily had seen.
“Eliza, before we go down that road, I need to tell you that I got an email from the killer.”
“I just saw that on my BlackBerry as I was walking in. He’s really desperate for contact. First the text messages, now email. Even if it’s only a virtual connection, he still knows that he’s getting his message through to you.”
“Don’t you think we should consider the possibility of me responding to him?”
Eliza smoothed down her navy suit jacket and took a seat at the table alongside Rex. “We can talk about it, but I’d like to discuss some updates on my other investigation. We’re the only ones in this part of the house so we can speak freely. I think you’ll find the developments of great interest.”
“What did you find out?” Rex asked.
“We’re still examining the initial evidence. So I don’t want to name names just yet, but I can tell you that there is a possible lead. It would actually make sense in many ways if it pans out.”
“But you can’t tell us who it is?” Lily asked. That was annoying. She hated being left in the dark. Especially when it literally impacted her life. “Don’t you think I deserve to know who it is, Eliza?”
“Soon. Believe me, I get that you’re anxious and you have every right to be. I just need to verify a few more things. But if this lead does hold up, we could be making an arrest within days. I don’t think I have to tell you how huge that would be for you, Lily.”
“And what if it doesn’t pan out?” Rex asked. “We need a contingency plan.”
Lily jumped in. “Which is why I want you to let me respond to this email. I think it could be helpful, and I hate feeling so helpless. I’d make sure the wording was carefully vetted through you and anyone else you deemed appropriate.”
Eliza held up her hand. “Everyone just needs to take a deep breath. Or better yet, a series of deep breaths. I can tell that you want to take action, Lily, and I sympathize with your position. It’s hard being locked up in here day in and day out, especially given your background, but we have to think about the bigger picture. And if you just give me a little time to do my job, then we’ll get through this. I’m not asking for much here and the stakes are high. I’m so close, let’s not mess up the approach by getting impatient when it counts the most.”
Lily didn’t want to wait. She had to be reasonable, though. Eliza’s reaction made Lily think that not only was Eliza close to taking action against a suspect, but that she was very confident that this was the guy. That she’d found the killer. Lily would withhold judgment until she had all the facts and evidence in front of her.
Eliza stood and buttoned up her suit jacket. “I hate to run so quickly, but I need to try to finish up analyzing the evidence we have. The sooner I can make a call on that, the sooner we can all move forward with the investigation, no matter the outcome. Our tech team is on the email tracing, but we suspect the perp used a complex IP masking system just as he did with the other communications. So I wouldn’t hold your breath on that.”
“Let me know as soon as you have something concrete,” Rex said.
“Will do.” Eliza bent down to give Grace a few rubs. “Hang tight, Lily. Hopefully this will be over soon.”
Eliza walked out of the kitchen and Lily looked over at Rex. “So what did you think about all of that?”
He ran a hand through his hair and leaned back in the kitchen chair. “I think she believes she has this guy nailed, but just wants to cover all of her bases before an arrest is made.”
“Why do I sense some skepticism from you?”
“I’m just trying to be cautious. And of course, I’d rather not have a situation where one of my people at the FBI or someone at APD is a serial killer.”
“Guess we’ll just have to wait until Eliza share’s the evidence she’s been gathering.” Her thoughts were interrupted by commotion at the front door.
“Sounds as if dinner’s here. And not a moment too soon—I’m starving,” Rex said.
Just then, one of the APD officers came into the kitchen carrying a tall stack of pizza boxes. Lily had been craving pineapple and extra cheese, which was her absolute favorite, so she got her own special order. Everyone else in the house wanted the works or extra meat.
“Thank you so much,” she said. She took a small box from the top of the stack, and the officer placed the other larger boxes on the kitchen counter.
“You’re welcome, ma’am. Sean picked up the order and just dropped it off. He wanted me to tell you that he checked on your friends again on the way over here and that everyone was doing just fine. He knew that you’d be worried about their well-being.”
Her heart was filled with relief as she pulled out paper plates and napkins from the kitchen cabinet for herself and Rex. “That’s great news. I needed to hear something positive.”
“Let me know if you two need anything else,” the officer said.
She watched as Grace eyed the pizza boxes on the counter. “Don’t even think about it, Grace.”
“You’ve got to keep your eye on her.” Rex laughed. “But she’s fully stocked with her own dog food and it’s the brand you requested. One of the agents made a pet-store run.”
They’d been feeding her a generic food that Lily wasn’t too fond of. Now she was glad that Grace would be back to her regular diet. One that didn’t include pizza. “I’m trying to do my best not to totally spoil her with things like people food.”
“She’s a good dog. I can see her catching on already to the training. And she’s been through so much since you were attacked the first night. You should be proud of her. She’s a real trouper.”
As if Grace could tell they were talking about her, she stood tall and started wagging her tail. “That’s a good girl, Grace. But you’re still not eating my pizza. Or Rex’s pizza.”
Rex took out two enormous slices of extra-meat pizza and put them on his plate. She opened her small box and pulled out her pineapple and extra cheese. It smelled wonderful—the perfect mix of cheese, marinara and pineapple with a hint of garlic.
Not wasting any time, she took a huge bite. The tangy marinara sauce hit her tongue. It had a bit of a kick to it, but she was so hungry she didn’t mind. She took another bite and looked up at Rex. He had already polished off his first piece and was moving on to the second.
“Does yours taste a little strange?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Tastes like regular pizza to me.”
She took another small bite, and then put the rest of the piece down. “Mine has a weird flavor.”
He set down his piece. “What do you mean?”
“It just tastes strange. At first I thought it was just me, but I don’t think so anymore.”
His eyes widened and he jumped up from his seat and yanked the pizza from the table.
“What are you doing?”
“Your pizza. We can’t risk it.”
“Risk what?” And as the words came out of her mouth, a wave of intense nausea swept over her. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Rex pulled out his phone, and she could hear him requesting medical help ASAP.
Her brain became foggy. She tried to focus on her breathing, but she felt as if she were drowning. Maybe if she closed her eyes it would all be okay. Darkness made everything easier.
* * *
Rex rushed over to Lily’s unconscious body, which was slumped over in her chair. Dear Lord, please let her be okay.
“We need help now!” he yelled.
Another FBI agent rushed into the room. “Paramedics are less than five minutes out.”
“I don’t know if she has five minutes to spare.” His mind raced as he thought about the possibility of Lily dying right there in front of him in the FBI safe house. He had to push those negative feelings out of his mind.
Another agent and an Atlanta police officer rushed in, but Rex was on autopilot trying to take care of Lily until professional medical help arrived. They’d all received basic medical training because of their jobs, but he feared she was going to need experts.
He carefully lifted Lily out of the chair and laid her down gently on the kitchen floor. “Get me some cool towels,” he said to the other agent. He watched helplessly as the color drained out of Lily’s face. They were truly in a race against the clock. If she’d ingested some type of poison, a doctor would have to determine if it was better to induce vomiting or not. He had no idea what the right thing to do was. All he could do was pray. He let out a breath when the paramedic arrived and started to work on Lily.
“Rex, what in the world happened here?” Derrick strode into the room and looked down at Lily. Then he knelt down beside her.
“I think she was poisoned,” Rex said. As the words came out of his mouth, he still couldn’t believe it. Never in his wildest imagination had he thought that they needed to screen her food.
“But how?” Derrick asked with wide blue eyes.
“That’s the million-dollar question. The killer had to have had access to the food. It was her pizza. She complained that it tasted strange. But how did the killer know who to follow to be able to get access to her food?”
“This all points to an inside job,” Derrick said. “I didn’t want to think that was possible, but how could it be anything else?”
The EMT continued to work on Lily as Rex and Derrick looked on.
“Her blood pressure is dropping,” the EMT said. “We have to get her transferred to the ER immediately. I’ve started a line for IV fluid, but we need testing to determine what we’re dealing with here. The doctors could take a variety of approaches if they think she’s ingested something poisonous.”
“Derrick and I will ride along in the ambulance with you,” Rex told the paramedic. “There’s no way we’re leaving her alone with you. It’s too dangerous for her, and for you and the driver.”
“Understood,” the man said. “Let’s move.”
Once inside the ambulance, Rex watched as the EMT continued to check her vitals.
“We’ve got to be more careful,” Derrick said. “And we’ve got to figure out where the breakdown in our security occurred.”
“I just pray that she makes it through the night,” Rex said.
“Me, too,” Derrick responded. “The Lord was already watching over her, though. She stopped eating. If she’d had more of the pizza, who knows what would’ve happened?”
“We were supposed to protect her, man. We let her down.”
Derrick hung his head. “Believe me, I know. We’ll get through this and make sure nothing else happens to her.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” Rex said. “And I’m holding myself accountable, as well.”
“We never could’ve known the psychopathic killer would’ve taken this route.”
“With this guy I think we’ve learned one very deadly fact. Absolutely nothing is off the table.”
EIGHT
The next morning, Rex watched as Lily lay still in the hospital bed. It had been a long night. That had been one close call. Just as Derrick had surmised, the doctor had told him that if she’d eaten the entire piece of pizza that she’d most likely be dead by now.
They were still determining the exact type of poison used, but at the end of the day it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that Lily had almost been killed—in the safe house and literally sitting right in front of him. He kicked himself for not being more careful regarding the food. Honestly, poisoning hadn’t even been on his radar.
What bothered him even more was how the killer had gained access to her food in the first place. There were too many unanswered questions. Lily’s eyes opened and locked on his.
He walked over and grabbed on to her hand. “You’re going to be okay, Lily.”
“What happened?” she asked in a raspy voice.
“You were right about your pizza tasting strange. You were poisoned.”
She sucked in a breath. “Yes, I’m remembering now. I’m so thankful that I didn’t eat more than I did.”
“Me,
too. You had me worried there for a second when you blacked out. They’re giving you fluids because you did get sick once they transferred you here. But that’s actually good because it was better than keeping the poison in your system.”
She nodded. “What are we going to do now?”
“There’s a lot of stuff happening behind the scenes. Eliza said she didn’t want to reveal anything over the phone, but that she’d be coming by here to check on you and to talk to us about next steps.”
“Is Grace all right?”
“Yes, she’s at the safe house, under the care of an agent I know personally.”
“Was my pizza the only one that was poisoned?”
“Yes. This attack was specifically targeted at you. The killer knew which pizza was yours.”
“And how did the killer track me down?”
“Believe me, I have the same questions. We have people looking into all of this right now, trying to figure out which methods he used to find you.”
Eliza rushed through the door looking as if she hadn’t slept. Her hair was falling out of its bun and her glasses did nothing to cover up the dark circles under eyes. “I have news,” Eliza said. “But first, Lily, thank God you’re okay.” The agent walked over and gave her hand a strong squeeze.
“What is the news?” Rex asked, cutting right to it.
“I just spoke with the prosecutor on the case, Steffie Hood. She’s about to press charges against Officer Sean Bishop. He’s being brought in as we speak.”
“What?” Lily and Rex said in unison.
“You think that Sean Bishop is the killer?” Rex asked. “That seems highly unlikely.”
“I thought so at first, too, but there’s mounting evidence against him. It’s definitely enough for him to be charged at this point.”
“What evidence?” Rex asked. “First of all, how did Sean attack Lily and then drive me to the scene minutes later?” They were way off base here. This just wasn’t right.
“We’re thinking that there’s an accomplice,” Eliza said. “That Sean was working with someone else. What we don’t know yet is whether that person is also inside the APD. The investigation is ongoing, and we’re hoping that Sean will give up his accomplice through the interrogation process.”