by Stacy Green
Lennox blew out a hard breath. “I’m in D.C., but I can get a jet chartered within the hour.”
“Thank you so much.”
“Who else knows?”
“Chris, but no one else so far.”
“Listen to me,” Lennox said. “You don’t want him involved. Or anyone else. This needs to stay between us. Is he with you?”
I glanced at Chris still leaning against the Audi and checking his phone messages.
“Yes, but I’ve already told him I don’t want to put him at risk. And I’m afraid for my stepfather, Mac. A message was left for me. There’s been a threat against him.”
“Get out of earshot.”
I obeyed, trying to nonchalantly walk away and pace in a different spot. “I don’t understand.”
“Just listen to me. There’s a lot you don’t know, and you’re right on not involving anyone else. It’s too dangerous. Give me your stepfather’s address, and I’ll send an agent over there.”
I rattled off Mac and Joan’s address. My mother was going to love this.
“I’ll assign an agent to watch him until we figure this out,” Lennox said. “Now I want you to go back to Kelly’s apartment–alone–and stay there. Lock the doors. Trust me. He’s not going to kill her.”
“How can you know that?”
“Because you’re the one he wants. You have been from the start, and you’re playing right into his hands.”
I sat back in the Audi and tried to think of the best way to get Chris to step back.
“What did Todd say?” His probing eyes made me feel certain he knew I was about to lie to his face.
“He reamed me out for not telling him. After Tesla’s call, he’d already suspected something was going on.”
“He understands he’s got to be quiet about this, right? He can’t just show up at Kelly’s apartment with badge blazing.”
“I made that clear. He’s pissed about it, but he understands. He’s going to meet me there with a CSI in an hour, hopefully as undercover officers.” That was a good one.
Chris started the car, his head bobbing up and down. “Good. I know it’s scary to give over control to someone else, but this guy is different than anyone else you’ve dealt with. We don’t know what his full deal is, but he’s obviously in the business of mind fucking you, not to mention out for revenge. The fact that he’s been watching Kelly and knows so much about your life scares the hell out of me.”
“Me too.” I could have said more, but anything else would pique Chris’s interest and end up doing the exact opposite of what I wanted. “Look, I shouldn’t have asked for your help, but I really appreciate what you’ve done. I think it’s time for you to step back.”
“And just leave you alone?”
“He’s going to find out I called the police,” I said. “And he’s going to flip. He’s already made it clear Mac’s a target. I’m sure you will be too. And I can’t have any more on my conscience. It’s overloaded.”
He sighed, staring ahead at the rain drizzling down the windshield. “It goes against my nature to just walk away from a friend when she’s in danger.”
“I know. But I won’t be alone. Todd will take care of that.”
He grimaced. “Bet that makes you happy.”
“I don’t even know what to say to that,” I said. “All I can think about right now is Kelly and Mac. Todd’s going to send an officer over there, but still.”
“Todd will do anything for you.” Sadness crept into his voice. “You realize that, right? You could give him the name of every person you’ve killed, and he wouldn’t turn you in. He’s too far gone.”
Too bad I didn’t plan on telling Todd. But I liked Chris’s words.
“And that makes you happy.” He let the engine idle, making no attempt to drive out of the parking lot.
“Why does it matter to you?” I said. It shouldn’t matter to me, but no matter how hard I tried to shake it, the idea of Todd’s loyalty gave me a spark of hope. Maybe I could salvage the rest of my life.
He turned those eyes on me again. “Are you kidding? All this time now? You can’t be that clueless. Everything I’ve risked for you, everything I’ve worked on. Do you think that’s just because I wanted to be buddies?”
An embarrassed sort of heat spread down my neck and over my face. “You and I, we could never make it. Not like that. There’s too much darkness between us.”
“And you and Todd are a perfect match?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” He finally merged into traffic, jerking the wheel. “You know, when I first talked to you that night at Chetters, I had this stupid plan that we would eventually get together and become unstoppable. I knew it would take time, but you’d see it too. And for a while, I thought you did. But then you just changed.”
My mouth refused to work. I’d always been attracted to Chris, but I’d never been certain about how he felt about me. And now that he had laid it all out, I felt as though I’d been splashed with freezing, muddy water. “I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is,” he said. “I just have to accept it and move on.”
“Do you really mean that? Because Todd will go ballistic if you’re at Kelly’s apartment when he shows up.” More like Lennox would find a way to arrest us both.
Chris traced the fine leather on the Audi’s steering wheel. “Do I have a choice? I’m not going to beg to be included in your life. You called me out of necessity. I get it.”
A slap in the face would have stung less than the hurt in his voice. “It’s not just that. Of course I feel a bond with you. We’ve experienced things together other people could never understand. But that’s also why we can’t be together.”
His smirked. “We bring out the worst in each other.”
“We’d end up getting killed. Or in jail.” I didn’t want Chris to pay for my bad deeds.
“I don’t agree, but I’m too tired to fight with you anymore. Still, I have one condition.”
My nerves wanted to implode. “What is it?”
“I’m going to take you into the ER and have someone look at that wound. I’ve got connections, so it’ll be quick, I promise. They’ll get you on the right antibiotic.”
“And if I say no?”
“Then I’ll be ready for Todd.”
23
Chris kept his word, getting me in and out of the ER in less than two hours, bringing Kelly’s time down to 18 hours. The wasted time burned like a picked scab, but I needed Agent Lennox. I’d used up every other option. We picked up the Prius at Mac’s secret house, which now sat empty. Mac had probably slunk home to Joan and had to spend the whole day making up for his absence during the night.
I braced for another argument, but Chris stood by while I got into the Prius and left for Kelly’s.
Her apartment felt cold and foreign, as if whatever life Kelly breathed into it had been extinguished. With Lennox’s impending arrival, I realized the apartment would be investigated as a crime scene. I’d already contaminated it, but I felt like I needed to be inside a bubble.
Without thinking, I sat down on my usual barstool and dropped my head into my hands. I’d thoroughly mucked this up. Every ounce of my being still screamed for Kelly’s safety–to the point my muscles still twitched with the urge to act–but I’d fallen headfirst into the trap her kidnapper had set for me.
He’d known about Kelly’s work for me–at least to some extent. Whether he found out by spying or forcing her to tell, I didn’t know. But he’d counted on my searching out the laptop and being able to access her information. He’d deliberately misled me because he’d known exactly what I would do with the information. Had he killed Shannon for fun, or was she simply a pawn in his larger plan?
Because that’s exactly what he’d executed: a master plan that had likely been weeks if not months in the making. Which meant he not only knew my habits and routines and the few people I cared about, but he also knew exactly what mot
ivated me.
I suddenly saw him in my mind’s eye, as if he were some kind of disfigured cast-off of my own making, like a twin that had never fully developed and instead became consumed by me. Somehow he’d managed to escape and grow until he was big and strong enough to destroy my life.
My entire body quaked. Christ, I needed some real sleep.
But sleep meant bad dreams, and Lennox would be here soon.
Numb and yet feeling the ache of every move, I eased off the stool and set about making coffee. Instead of waking me up, the rich scent only made my eyes water with anger.
I’d done everything possible to keep my imagination from running wild about Kelly. I’d willed the image of the cell phone picture out of my head. But now I summoned it, remembering the terror in her eyes, the way the muscles in her arms strained, and how she tried to pull her body away from Jared Cook’s.
How had the kidnapper managed it? Had he propped Jared up next to Kelly? Or forced the cousin to do so before he killed them both?
I guess it had been the latter.
Had Kelly cried at the sight of Jared? Did she feel a disgustingly pleasant feeling of karma when she saw how destroyed he was? That he couldn’t even go to the bathroom by himself or speak his own name? I would have smiled at the sight, reveled in it. But Kelly probably felt pity.
Because that’s the kind of person she was. She somehow found the decency in people no matter their bad choices.
If Lennox managed to save her, I hoped she’d be able to visit me in prison.
The coffee had steamed to the top of the pot.
My rubbery arms moved to the cabinet. I automatically reached for my favorite coffee cup: the one with the rainbows and the inscription “Go to hell.”
Something jingled inside.
I turned the cup upside down and a shining silver dollar fell out, hitting the counter with a muted clang.
We left you a clue though, didn’t we, Kelly?
I reached for the cup, ready to slam it to the floor. Rationality stopped me just in time. Lennox would want to test for fingerprints. This had been the clue.
And the bastard had known all along I wouldn’t find it until it was too late.
But what was the clue? What was the point in these coins? So I know it’s the same person who sent me the spoons and the one who sent the coins to Alexandria. The one who killed Shannon. That tells me it’s all connected, that he’s been tracking me for awhile.
There had to be more. Something crucial I was missing.
I searched my memory, suddenly struck with the feeling the answer was inside my head and would be heartbreakingly obvious once I found it.
Nothing.
Lennox would arrive in less than an hour, and I couldn’t sit around drinking coffee, not after this.
I was going to find out how a stranger had gotten inside Kelly’s apartment.
Time for the super to meet Lucy Kendall.
The maintenance office was basically an old closet in the basement. The door stood open, and a man with slicked back gray hair sat at the desk, his eyes on the computer. Plump fingers tapped the same key, and I wondered if he was looking at porn or cat videos.
I banged my fist against the open door, and he jumped. He made no move to hide whatever he’d been watching, so my bet was for cats. Deep wrinkles lined his forehead, and he had the kind of sagging jowls that resembled a hound’s. “Help you?”
“Who stole your keys and when?”
He blinked, and the thick mole on his right eye seemed to swallow half his face. “Pardon me?”
I closed the door with a bang. I had nothing but my anger as a weapon, but I could be incredibly persuasive when I wanted to. “I don’t have time for your embarrassment. Someone took your keys and made a copy. When did it happen? Do you have any idea who it was?”
A jowl quivered. “Lady–”
“Not a lady.” I positioned myself on the other side of his desk and leaned over, hoping my physical fatigue and emotional exhaustion could be mistaken for dangerous psychopath. Or maybe they were all the same thing. “I’m not a nice person, and I need answers. If you don’t give them to me, I’ll be forced to make you. And that’s not going to be a fun experience.”
He looked as if he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. His gaze drifted to the bandage on my arm and then over the rest of me. I knew he saw a dirty, glittery eyed woman who could easily be someone off the street looking to cause trouble.
“Kelly Swan called you earlier about someone trying to get into her apartment. You checked the tapes for a stranger trying to get into the building. You got angry when she asked about you misplacing your keys. Cut the shit and tell me what happened.” I should have been nicer, tried to sweet talk him. But I’d lost that ability today.
“I’m telling you-”
“I don’t care if you screwed up! I’m not going to tell your boss. Just tell me what the hell happened.”
He swallowed. I kept expecting to feel some sliver of compassion for him, but that ability seemed to have been executed as well.
“Look,” he said. “I made a mistake of being compassionate with you drug addicts before. I don’t know what you’re after from me, but I’m not giving in this time. You need to get out before I call the police.”
Drug addicts coming off the street in Rittenhouse Square? Not impossible, but unlikely. “What are you talking about?”
“You tell that damned Preacher I know he took those keys last week. He’s not welcome here, and neither are you.” He held out a jingling key ring. “They went missing for just a little while, and it’s him that did it. But no one’s place has been broken into, so I don’t see no point in reporting it. But I ain’t making the same mistake with you.”
Preacher.
Who I’d killed and dumped in a state park last winter.
My head spun like an out of control wooden toy. I expected it to fly off and land in the middle of the maintenance guy’s tiny desk. Bet that would freak him the hell out.
“Preacher.” The word choked me. “A tall, lanky black man?”
“Hell no. Some white guy wearing a baseball cap and looking like he needed a fix in the worst way. Jittering like hell–more than I’ve ever seen anyone. I was too scared not to let him use the bathroom. I still don’t know how he lifted the keys. If he did,” he added lamely. “Like I said, I only lost them for a little while.”
I backed up and grabbed the doorknob for support. “Did you see anything on him? Anything that stood out?”
He shrugged. “Not really. He had a beard. Not real thick, but enough to cover his face. Scruff, I guess they call. Tall and white. Junkies all look the same.”
“Was he thin or muscular? What kind of clothes did he wear?”
“I don’t know! I don’t notice that sort of thing on a man. He wasn’t skinny, I know that much. I remember thinking he looked too healthy to be an addict. But people can fool you. And I wanted him out of here.”
“He was shaking like he needed a fix?”
“Crazy like. Damn near epileptic.”
Acting or did he really have a problem? No way did a drug addict that desperate could pull off something this organized. If the thief had really been a user, then he would have been a pawn. And lost to the streets now.
“If he used the bathroom, how did he get the keys?”
The maintenance guy looked down at his hands. “I think I left them in the bathroom. But I don’t know. They might’ve been laying around somewhere else.” He seemed to realize I’d gone from belligerent demands to cold questioning. He looked me over again, and the widening of his eyes told me he was seeing something else this time around.
“You ain’t no addict, are you? What’s going on?”
I ignored his question. “You’re sure he said his name was Preacher?”
“Yeah. I remembering thinking it was stupid. I even asked him about it, and he said he was in the business of making things right.”
How could this man kno
w I’d killed Preacher? The only person who knew that was Chris. But that idea was crazy.
Nearly manic, I searched through the pictures on my phone. Chris didn’t like his picture taken, but I had a couple. One of them was taken near Christmas, and he had a few days beard.
“Look at this.” I held the phone out to the man. “Was it this guy?”
The super took the phone and squinted. “No. Too young. And much better looking.”
Right. I knew it wouldn’t have been Chris. But beyond him and Kelly, no one else knew. But rumors flew…was I looking for a cop? None of my victims had relatives on the PPD, state or county police, but that’s as far as Kelly had checked. What if I’d killed some child molester who had a brother in law enforcement somewhere else? Just the credentials would give him access to a lot of information, if he played his cards right.
But that all sounded too complicated. I was missing something.
I left the super guy muttering in confusion and started climbing the steep stairs to the first floor.
My phone rang, and I eagerly glanced at the screen, stupidly hoping to see Kelly’s number.
It was Joan’s.
If I talked to my mother now I would lose it. I couldn’t afford to waste the last bit of composure I had on that wretched woman.
I sent the call to voicemail.
She called again. And again.
Rage filled me. Who in the hell did she think she was? That I had to bend to her every whim? I suppose she was calling to go on about the police questioning her. She might have even heard about my involvement with Shannon by now; I had no doubt it would reach the news. How did Mac stand her?
My heart jerked to a stop. I called Joan back feeling as if I were falling backward on the stairs. But Agent Lennox had sent someone over.
That’s probably why she’d called. To complain about the intrusion and embarrassment to her.
“Lucy.” Her high pitched voice sent me stumbling down several steps. “Come to the Thomas Jefferson Hospital right away. Mac had a heart attack.”