Hidden Fate

by Tara Thomas

  Chapter Four

  “I’m not sure I want to look at any other places,” he told her the next morning over coffee.

  “You don’t?”

  “To be honest, I’m not comfortable with you being in public.” Before she could say anything, he added, “Did you like any of the places we saw yesterday?”

  She crossed her arms across her chest. She knew both his tone and body language and, at the moment, both of them were telling her that she’d get nowhere by arguing. But she didn’t want to give up yet. “Don’t change the subject. I can’t live locked away forever.”

  “I wasn’t planning on keeping you locked away forever, only until we find out and catch who’s behind these threats.”

  Janie thought she knew what the underlying problem was. Brent thought she’d be safe in DC and he was shaken to learn she was just as vulnerable. In his mind, he probably wanted to get her back to the city he felt most comfortable in and believed he had the most control over.

  “I think by running back to Charleston, we’re letting this guy have too much control over our lives,” she said. “I think it’s clear we can’t run from him. He’ll only follow us.”

  He sighed and walked over to her, and placed a hand on either of her shoulders. “Janie, I love you. I’ve waited for you my entire life and I’d almost lost hope I’d ever find you. Can you blame me for wanting to keep you safe?”

  Her resolved melted at his words. “Not when you put it like that.”

  “I know you’re a cop and that you’re a strong, kick-ass woman. I love that part of you. And I’ll admit I’m a bit caveman over keeping you safe. It’s just that I can’t imagine life without you anymore.”

  His eyes pleaded with her and she didn’t doubt his sincerity. To be honest, it felt rather good to have someone look after her for a change. So much of her life had been spent being in charge and having to look after everything and everyone. For once, couldn’t she just step aside and place things in Brent’s extremely capable hands?

  “Okay.”

  He gently rubbed her shoulders. “Did you like any of the places we saw yesterday?”

  “I liked the second one,” she said.

  “The penthouse with the private rooftop space?”

  “Yes, I think I can deal with the busyness of DC if we have a private little getaway.”

  “I agree.” He leaned down and kissed her neck. “I’ll call the agent now.”

  * * *

  The trip home was much less intense and they spoke at length about the move to DC. Brent thought he could be ready to move in a matter of weeks, and while it would be a stretch for Janie, she thought she could get everything together and be ready the same time he was.

  Everything felt so completely normal, so everyday, that it was easy to forget she had a lunatic stalker who’d threatened her life. In fact, they didn’t bring up the photo he’d left, what they saw out the window the night before, or anything related to the man in question.

  That peace vanished as soon as they pulled up to Brent’s house and saw the white paper box on his front porch.

  She felt sick to her stomach. Brent cursed under his breath.

  But as they parked the car and walked up to the door, Janie’s unease was joined by a sense of Well, of course there’s a package waiting, what else did you expect?

  “I don’t suppose we’ll be fortunate enough for there to be a return address so we can just mark the thing ‘return to sender’ without opening it, right?”

  “I’d feel better about your safety if we could go inside,”he said.

  “No,” she said. “If he’s here, I want the asshole to hear. I trust Alyssa, but I get the feeling her hands are tied. It’s not her fault the Charleston PD is incompetent and unable to take care of this efficiently. So we’re going to do it.” She kicked the box and it opened, revealing a floral arrangement meant for a funeral. The ribbon on it said Fourteen Days and Counting. “This shit stops now.”

  With that she stomped on the flowers, kicked them out of her way, and reached for Brent’s hand. He took it, and even though she tried not to, she couldn’t help but look over her shoulder at the crushed roses that were now scattered across his porch. Nor could she keep her eyes off the ribbon that proudly announced how long she had to live.

  * * *

  Fuck. He’d messed up. Just like Janie had thought, he’d been hiding nearby, waiting for their arrival and to hear what they thought about his gift. Needless to say, it hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped.

  Was she really going to go rogue and cut out the police? That would be a nightmare. Working within the confines of the police department did more than ensure he knew what was going on, it also provided lines he knew she wouldn’t cross. But if she turned away from that, he’d be operating totally in the dark.

  Damn it all to hell, he’d grown too cocky, too sure of himself. He’d done exactly what The Gentleman had warned him not to do. He’d grown complacent, sure of his ability to outwit Janie, Brent Taylor, and the entire Charleston PD. But he’d also counted on his ability to be one step ahead of everyone.

  His phone buzzed. Of course it did. Because The Gentleman had some sort of sixth-sense ability to sniff out when he found himself in a shit storm. He gave serious thoughts about not answering it, but he knew that would only result in a bigger one.

  “Hello.” The caller kept it simple and to the point. “I see our friends arrived home.”

  The back of his neck grew prickly as if someone was watching, but he squeezed his eyes so he wouldn’t be tempted to look. Likewise, he shoved his free hand in his pocket so he wouldn’t reach for his neck.

  “Yes, sir,” he answered. “I was just watching them arrive and stayed to see their reaction to my latest gift.”

  “Would that gift happen to be the funeral arrangement littering Mr. Taylor’s front porch?”

  “Yes, sir.” His stomach twisted. He was nearby. “Apparently, he and Janie didn’t think much of it.”

  “I fear you’re taking this assignment far too lightly. Like you think you’re playing a game.”

  “No, sir. I don’t.” At least, not anymore.

  “Make no mistake about it. There will be funeral flowers needed fourteen days from now. The question is, who will they be needed for?”

  * * *

  Janie stepped back and looked at her work. She’d completely taken over one of Brent’s guest bedrooms. Along one wall was a time line that ran from the disappearance of the first girl, all the way to the flowers she’d received today. One another wall, she’d hanged a poster board with everything they knew about the suspect. Yet another wall was decorated with every known victim.

  Brent came up beside her and gave a low whistle. “Wow. This is amazing.”

  Janie looked from the time line to the list of details about the suspect. “It’s here. I know it is. The answers we’re looking for. Everything. We just have to find it.”

  “Why does it feel like a needle in a haystack?”

  “Because it is.” She walked to the suspect details with a pen in her hand. “I keep coming back to that moment in DC when we saw him and we both thought he looked familiar.”

  “Me, too,” Brent said. “I thought if we could come up with a list of people we both knew, it’d be a good place to start.”

  “I thought the same thing.” She pointed to a garbage can, so stuffed with wadded-up papers it could no longer contain them. “We know too many damn people.”

  “Why don’t you take a break and we’ll relook at this over dinner?”

  She stretched her arms above her head groaned. “I’m going to run by my place and start getting ready for the move. I sent Alysa a text about fifteen minutes ago and she’s going to be here soon with Mac to take me.”

  Even with her friend who was an active law enforcement officer and her boyfriend, Janie still felt anxious on the ride over to her place. Was her stalker following her in Alyssa’s car? She wanted to turn around and look out the bac
k window, but on the off chance the bastard was, she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

  “Any leads?” Janie asked Alyssa. “Off the record?”

  Alyssa sighed and shook her head. “I wish I had some good news to share, but there’s nothing concrete at the moment. Every time we have a new bit of information, I think it’s the one that’s going to bust this case wide open. And every time, it goes nowhere. The DNA we have doesn’t match anyone in the system. We did find a partial print on the last batch of evidence collected, I’m sure it won’t lead anywhere. but I still hope it does.”

  “I feel like we’re so close.” Janie gazed out the window.

  “We are,” Alyssa said, but her hope sounded forced. “Sooner or later something has to turn up.”

  * * *

  Yeah, Janie thought. She was sure it would. She only hoped she was still alive to see it.

  Mac pulled into the parking lot of her apartment and dread filled her belly. She knew without stepping foot into her place that there would be something waiting for her inside. What would it be? Another dead animal? More flowers? Part of her didn’t even want to go inside. But she had to, at least one more time.

  If it was at all possible, this would the last time she went into the apartment. She would do everything in her power to get everything wrapped up today. God, she hoped she could do it. She closed her eyes. She could do this. She was strong.

  “Are you sure you’re up to doing this?”

  She looked up to see Alyssa staring at her through the rearview mirror. Her friend’s face was filled with concern.

  “We can do this later, you know,” Alyssa continued.

  “No.” Janie undid her seatbelt and opened the door. “We do this today.”

  Alyssa looked at Mac, and Janie didn’t miss the unspoken message sent between the two of them. She wondered what that was about.

  “Okay,” Alyssa said. “But I go in first.”

  “Why you?” Mac asked. “Why not me?”

  “You think you should go first because you’re a man?”

  “I never said that,” Mac said.

  “You meant it that way. I’m going first because I’m a law enforcement officer.”

  “Damn it all to hell, Alyssa,” he said, and he sounded more angry than Janie had ever heard. “Does everything have to come down to showing me how badass you are? You’re a cop. I get it.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Mac shrugged, and Janie realized she’d been distracted from her own thoughts by the tension between Alyssa and Mac. Something was definitely going on between the two of them. She wondered if Mac was still working all the time. Didn’t it say something that he wasn’t working now?

  She got out of the car and followed behind Alyssa, who was walking so fast toward her door that she was almost jogging. Mac hung back and waited for Janie. He gave her an apologetic smile. He didn’t say anything. Probably because he didn’t want to say anything about Alyssa to her best friend. However, nothing could stop the sense of unease she felt growing with each second.

  She tried to put her finger on what it was that made her uneasy. Was it because she had once more witnessed an argument between Alyssa and Mac? Maybe Mac himself? Or, most likely, something not having to do with either, but something else entirely? Like she still hadn’t to Alyssa her concerns about her partner? Or she just didn’t want to go into her apartment?

  They walked slowly to her apartment and Janie wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed that Alyssa hadn’t opened her door yet. Alyssa had a key to her place; they’d exchanged them years ago.

  “I didn’t want to open it without you being here,” Alyssa explained.

  “I know and I appreciate that.”

  Alyssa put an arm around her. “There’s going to be something inside, isn’t there?”

  “I don’t know for sure, but my gut thinks so.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll open it.”

  “Okay, but I’m going in first.”

  As much as she’d like to pass that off to Alyssa, she knew she had to be the one who opened the door. It was her apartment and she’d be damned if she’d let some sicko keep her from it.

  Alyssa smiled. “I’ll be right beside you.”

  “I’ll stay out here,” Mac said. “Make sure no one’s watching or followed us.”

  Just as well, Janie thought. If she totally freaked out, only Alyssa would see.

  The door was unlocked and she never forgot to lock her door. Had she not already convinced herself that something would be waiting inside, that would have done it for her. She glanced at Alyssa, who had her gun in her hand.

  * * *

  “Ready?”

  Alyssa nodded.

  Janie opened the door and stepped inside, Alyssa followed close behind.

  “Holy shit,” Alyssa said, speaking what Janie was thinking.

  Plain white delivery boxes littered the floor, every one of them opened to reveal dead roses inside.They stepped gingerly around the boxes, not wanting to disturb anything more than necessary.

  Janie signaled to the bedroom and Alyssa nodded. They needed to make sure they were the only two people inside before they did anything else. A careful search showed whoever had ransacked the apartment was long gone.

  Making their way to the living room, they compared observations.

  “I didn’t see a note,” Janie said, trying to remain calm. The sight of the roses made her stomach flip. Damn it, they were just roses. At least he hadn’t left another dead cat.

  “He probably doesn’t think he needs one,” Alyssa said. “The way he sees it, there’s little doubt you’d believe it was anyone else.”

  “Possibly, but do you think it’s more? Like maybe he thought he was revealing too much in them?”

  Alyssa was quite as she thought. “I don’t want to rule anything out at this point. I don’t remember anything sticking out, but it won’t hurt to look again.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’ll call the station and get a team out here.” Alyssa put her gun away. “You probably shouldn’t touch anything until they do.”

  “Really?” Janie raised an eyebrow and took out her phone. She needed to let Brent know what was happening.

  “Sorry. Old habit.”

  As she waited for Brent to pick up, she heard Alyssa step outside and say something to Mac.

  “Hey,” Brent said. “What’s going on?”

  * * *

  “He’s been busy,” she said.

  Brent cursed. “How so?”

  “It appears as if he’s bought damn near every white box in the city and filled them with every dead rose he could find.” Her words were light, but she knew he picked up on the slight edge in her voice.

  “I’ll be right there,” he said and she almost told him it wasn’t necessary, but she desperately wanted to feel his arms around her. “After the police leave, take what you can, and make a list of everything else you want to keep. I’ll call a cleaning service and a moving company. They’ll take care of everything so when you leave today, you won’t have to go back if you don’t want to.”

  “How do we know they’ll be safe? I can’t stand the thought of someone getting hurt because they were in my house if he happens to go by again.”

  “Don’t worry about that. I know the owner personally. I’ll explain the situation and ensure everyone is safe.”

  She closed her eyes. He was so good to her. “Thank you,” she whispered, wondering how it was possible she’d ever thought about not going to DC with this man.

  Chapter Five

  Later that night, Brent sat in the guest room with Janie. She never stopped amazing him. Just when he thought he had her figured out, she’d do something to remind him all over again how it was he’d fallen in love so fast and complete with her.

  He knew the discovery at her apartment had scared her. But she refused to give into that fear and instead she’d returned back to his place with rene
wed vigor and determination to find the person responsible and to put a stop to them.

  She was, hands down, the strongest woman he knew. And since he was raised by a strong woman, spent his summers in Greece with his strong grandmother, and had a sister with similar characteristics, that was saying a lot.

  “I don’t know why he’s doing this,” she said, looking over all the evidence she had pulled together.

  “Tell me what you’re thinking,” Brent said.

  “I’ll give you a quick list. First of all, I’d be surprised if he’s working alone. I believe he’s either working with somebody, or for somebody. I’m not sure which. Secondly, he’s either with the police or he’s very close to somebody in the police department. There have just been too many instances where he seems to know information that is either confidential or hasn’t been released to the public. Like how he always knows where I’ll be and for how long, how he always seemed to get away with seconds to spare and, I’m sorry, I just think it’s strange that we only ever got that one DNA profile of him.”

  Everything made sense to Brent. He had to admit, the part about the police department both made sense and scared him. Assuming the person was on the police department, where did that leave them? The perpetrator would always be at least one step ahead of them.

  “Also,” she continued, “he’s made a few mistakes. He’s acting a bit irrationally. Seriously, all those boxes were overkill, and I believe he’s showing signs of extreme confidence. While it’s sometimes dangerous when they get like that, it’s also when they make mistakes. Big ones. Mistakes will allow us to catch them.”

  It all seemed too much to hope for. She looked at Brent and took his hand, entwining their fingers.

  “I would love to go to DC with all of this behind us,” she said. “And not have to worry about it another day.”

  “Me, too.”

  Janie was studying the boards. “Another thing. I think our man will turn out to be well liked in the community, the sort to fly under the radar, and generally, one of the last people you think would be possible to do this. And yet, I believe he is highly volatile, has a short temper, and has shown violent tendencies in the past. Perhaps as early as childhood.”