by Stacy Green
“Chris planned that.” Kelly tried to sit up. I gently pushed her back down. “He made me write the file.”
“I figured that out after I found out the truth. I ran into Justin when I was at Tesla’s, and he told me what you found out about Tesla’s father. Take another drink.”
She did, groaning in appreciation. “That tastes so good. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was looking into Tesla and his friends.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I decided to get it over with. “But you should know, Jared Cook is dead. So is his cousin. Chris killed them after he sent a picture of Cook with you to your phone. He wanted to mislead me.”
Kelly closed her eyes. “I know. When he took me there, and I saw Jared…” she shook her head. “He killed the cousin first. That poor man didn’t know what hit him. Then again, I guess Jared didn’t either. Chris went on about how Jared had gotten what he’d deserved. And Jared didn’t have a clue what was going on. I felt sorry for him.”
“I knew you would.” Always better than me. Thank God.
“But you called Lennox?” She looked doubtful. She knew I would want to kill the person who’d put her through this.
“I didn’t have a choice,” I said. “When I saw Jared and realized what had happened, I knew it had to be something else, and time was running out. I thought whoever had taken you was related to some of … my people. So I called Lennox and planned to give him names.”
Kelly tried to sit up again. “You were going to do that?”
“Of course I was.” I eased her shoulders down. “Todd barely stopped me. But by then Lennox had decrypted your message.” I looked at the clock and watched the black hands tick the seconds away. “I’m sorry I trusted Chris and did this to you.”
“Don’t be. None of us knew.”
“I went to him and offered to trade myself for you. But he had ketamine. When I woke up, he told me everything. Including how to find you.”
She looked at her hands. I’d cleaned her fingernails as best I could while she slept, but the tips were still bruised. “Is he dead?”
“He kidnapped a woman,” I said. “A single mother, a prostitute who’s daughter had been molested. He wanted me to show that I was serious about being his partner in exchange for your life and thought she was the perfect place to start.” I felt tears building and willed them to stop. “I couldn’t do it. There was a struggle, she stabbed him.”
Her body relaxed. “So he’s dead?”
“No. I saved his life.”
“Why?” Unsurprisingly, there was no judgment in her voice.
“In case I was wrong about where you were. And because there are families out there who need closure.”
A smiled played at the corners of her mouth. “I guess you do have a conscience after all.”
I snorted. “Don’t tell anyone.”
“What happens now?” She asked. “To you, I mean?”
“Lennox said he’ll let NCMEC know why I’ll need a few more days off work. He says not to worry about it.”
“And that’s it? You’re going back?” She was trying to sound brave, but I could see the worry in her face.
“Only if you’ll go with me. I can’t leave you behind again. And you don’t have to decide now. I know there’s Justin to consider.” I glanced at the door. “Speaking of which, he’s waiting. I should let him in.”
She blushed. “Did he help you search?”
I swallowed around a lump in my throat. “I lied to him. He thought you’d committed yourself because you’d moved too quickly in your relationship. Needless to say, he’s pissed off at me. But he’ll get over it.”
Kelly started to laugh and then winced in pain. “My entire body hurts.”
I stood up. “I’ll get Justin.”
“Lucy.”
“Yes?”
She reached for my hand. Her dry, broken skin felt wonderful. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. Thank yourself. Your faith in me kept me going.” I wasn’t sure how to broach the subject, but I felt like I had to say something. “I can’t imagine what you went through. I just want you to know that I’ll be there in whatever capacity you need. And Todd’s looking for a way to prosecute Tesla Sr. and the others.”
“No,” Kelly said. “Let them go. At least as far as I’m concerned. Investigate them for current stuff, but I promised myself while I was trapped in there that if I made it out alive, I would let all of that go. It’s in the past, and I’m not going back.”
“All right.” She was a better person than I could ever be. “Whatever you want.”
“You should try to do the same. With everything. Lily wasn’t your fault. Neither was Shannon or what happened to me. Or Mac.”
I looked at her, unable to speak.
“Chris told me. He thought it was funny.” She squeezed my hand. “I’m sorry.”
The words wouldn’t come, so I just nodded. “I’ll get Justin.”
Justin shot me a dirty look as he hurried to Kelly’s room. I sat down next to Todd in the waiting room and leaned my head on his shoulder. “I wonder how long he’ll be mad.”
“Give it a few days,” Todd said. “He doesn’t burn long. How’s your wrist?”
I held it up. My cast was pink. For some reason I’d chosen the color I’d always hated. It was bright and pretty. “Hurts like hell. But I kind of like it. Reminds me I’m still alive.”
“I didn’t think you would be after we realized Chris had taken you.”
“Neither did I.”
Todd took my hand, the gesture comforting and familiar. “What happens now?”
“Now we try to move forward. If Kelly is willing to come to Alexandria, I’ll stay with NCMEC. Otherwise, I’ll move back. I need to be close to her.”
“And what about us?”
He worried his lower lip, making deep creases between his eyes. I smoothed them out. “Do you really want there to be an us after everything? In your line of work? People will talk.”
“Let them.” He brushed his lips against mine. The kiss was tentative at first, searching, and then more demanding. He pulled away first. “I want to be with you. So if it’s Alexandria, then we’ll figure it out. Maybe I can transfer to the D.C. Metro Police.”
“And Justin?”
He grinned. “Justin will follow Kelly. He’s smitten.”
I kissed him again. “Maybe he’s not the only one.”
“Maybe he isn’t.”
42
Alexandria, Virginia, six months later.
“Are you ready to leave?” I leaned against Kelly’s cubicle in the call center at NCMEC, resting my chin on the edge. “And I think we should eat out tonight because I don’t feel like pretending to be a decent cook.”
She laughed and pulled off her headset. Her dark hair had grown out past her chin, making her look even more delicate. “Sure. Just let me get my stuff together.”
I waited impatiently, my stomach growling. I’d spent my lunch hour organizing leads on a new case. “Is Justin working tonight?” As Todd predicted, Justin had followed Kelly to Alexandria. He’d found a job working nights with a janitorial crew and was taking criminal justice classes during the day.
“Until midnight.” Kelly’s recovery had been amazing. Her time in the tomb had somehow destroyed her fears and inhibitions. Instead of shuttering the world away, she’d embraced it, going so far as to volunteer at a women’s shelter once a week. She slipped into her winter coat, buttoning it all the way to her chin, and then we walked toward the elevators. She rubbed her temples. “You know the white van legend that’s basically in every neighborhood in America, right?”
“Of course.”
“Well, this time it was real. Kirksville, Missouri. A guy jumped out in broad daylight and snatched a seven-year-old girl off her bicycle. It happened twenty feet away from her house.”
“Jesus,” I said. “I guess that’ll be coming over my desk before too long.”
“Maybe.” She shivered as
we entered the January air. “Too bad we had to park so far away. And I thought D.C. was supposed to be nicer in the winter.”
“Come on,” I said. “It’s a lot warmer here than it would be in Philly.”
“I still hate it.”
“Me too. I heard from Todd.”
She linked her arm through mine. “Bad news?”
“He can transfer to the D.C. Metro, but he’ll have to start at the bottom of the totem pole. It’ll be like being a rookie all over again.” Todd had been trying to transfer to the metropolitan police for months. The process was long and arduous, and he’d finally gotten the final word this afternoon. “I told him to wait. He’s still thinking about it. There’s always the Alexandria Police or the National Park Police.”
“He’ll get here.”
“I hope so, because weekend trips are exhausting.” And expensive. Mac had left me a sizeable inheritance–much to my mother’s disgust–but I wanted to save it to buy a house. So Todd and I were spending a lot of our money on gas, trying to see each other at least twice a month. But I wouldn’t give the trips up for anything.
We walked quickly down Prince Street and then cut over a block. A snowflake landed on my nose. I hoped it snowed. As much as I’d complained about the bitter northeastern winter, I missed the snow.
Kelly cleared her throat. “Did you get another letter?”
The letters. They’d been coming every week since Chris had been incarcerated, almost always on the same day. I dug around in my bag until I felt the familiar envelope and then handed it to her.
She didn’t bother to look at the return address. We knew it by heart now. Chris was housed at the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, still awaiting trial. He refused outside communication but continued his weekly barrage.
“I don’t want to read it.” She handed it back to me and then tightened her scarf.
“There’s no need.” I stuffed the envelope back into my bag. “Says the same thing it always does.”
I knew the letter by heart now.
“With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to the truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dear Lucy,
You know this speaks to both of us. Mother was right.
I’ll be waiting for you.
“He’s wrong.” Kelly said. “It’s over.”
I jammed my hands into the pockets of my wool coat. The Lady Liberty coin Chris had meant for Maura made the tips of my fingers burn. I took the smooth silver in my fist, letting its warmth slither over me. A reminder, not of the way I’d nearly ruined my life, but of the person I really was.
A killer. A woman who still struggled to accept life’s cruelties and who had access to personal information about pedophiles all over the country. A killer who fought every day against the tantalizing urge to bring justice for just one more child.
I’d keep the coin.
Just in case.
Epilogue
Chris knew he was smarter than all of them. And maybe that’s what screwed him in the end. His grandfather always said being cocky was only meant for roosters and stallions.
He should have listened.
Now he was stuck in a tiny cell, listening to filthy criminals live their filthy criminal lives. Men rooting and grunting and crying at all hours of the night. Men in anatomy only!
His grandpa never cried, even when he knew he was dying and his dumb daughter had waited too long to stop it.
These men were as weak as his father, simpering and following orders.
He wished Lucy would answer his letters.
Or take a phone call.
He had no interest in communication from anyone else. That stupid FBI Agent drove him insane, always trying to get him to trip up and say something incriminating. But Chris never did. He was too smart for that.
But he needed to see Lucy. Had she learned her true purpose? Or had recovering Kelly further buried the killer inside?
Chris hoped it had. He hoped Lucy was lulled into a soft, snuggly cocoon and that she’d fooled herself into believing she could actually deny her basic instincts.
Her fall would be that much greater.
And she would fall down.
The great ones always did.
WARNING: the bonus content contains major spoilers from the Lucy Kendall series. Do not read until you’ve finished all of the books!
ALL GOOD DEEDS
Bonus content
Chapter 5
“Mind if I join you?” Chris slid into the booth across from Lucy, his heart pulsing hard enough to give him a delicious head rush. He loved getting this close to her. Her physical beauty was only the bonus content. The way her twisted emotions danced across her face even as she struggled to hide them hypnotized him. First, the shock at seeing him, apprehension, curiosity—and whether she knew it yet or not—a desperate need to let him into her life. She needed him just as much as he needed her.
Her green eyes widened as he got comfy, unbuttoning his pea coat and slipping off his scarf, and then they narrowed in barely contained fury. Chris scratched his jaw, already needing a shave.
“What are you doing here? Are you following me?” Her husky voice sounded almost musical to him, the scathing antagonism as tempting as any drug. Forgetting how dangerous this woman was would be hazardous to his health. If she labeled him a threat, she’d try to kill him.
Not today, though. The little girl’s kidnapping preoccupied her thoughts, giving him the opportunity he needed. “I was going to keep my distance, but you looked upset, so I thought I’d stop over and see if you wanted to talk.”
Her knuckles turned white, the cheap pen she clutched snapping. “I don’t have time for your bullshit right now. There’s a little girl missing.”
Chris saw no point in wasting time discussing the basics. Lucy’s mind had already jumped to Justin Beckett–a fact Chris counted on. “Do you have any idea who might have taken her?”
She rocked a little in the booth, probably unaware of how much her body language gave away. Stress lines crawled over her forehead, bags bloomed beneath her eyes. She continued to throttle the pen. “Do you know who Justin Beckett is?”
He wanted to come clean right now and tell her how much he already knew about her life and the horrible thing that had molded her into the killer she was. But that would make her close off. He had to earn her trust for them to work together. “I think so. He killed a kid, right?”
“After he raped her. Released as an adult last year without sex offender status. A little girl who lives across the street from Justin disappeared on the way home from school today. She’s around the same age as the one he attacked.”
God, the way the venom spewed from her. She probably had no clue how her eyes burned when she got angry, or how her bow-shaped lips seemed to turn even pinker. A perfect thing to gaze at while a man took his last breaths. Of course, Lucy didn’t stay around to watch her victims die–yet. Chris pretended to be shocked and then disgusted. “You’re joking.”
“I wish.”
“So you’re going to find the little girl and take care of Beckett?” He would help her. Beckett could be their first kill together. He could do this with her by his side.
She clammed up, shoulders rounding. She dropped the pen and reached for her coffee. “Leave me alone, please.”
“I’d like to help.”
“Despite your stalking, you don’t know anything about me. And I know even less about you, so beat it. I don’t have the time to humor your twisted fantasies.”
Honesty went a long way in earning someone’s trust, and Chris saw no reason to lie. She already had his name. His public information could easily be tracked down. He stretched his arm across the back of the booth. “Told you, I’m a paramedic
for the Philly Fire Department, Field Unit 35, off Broad. My name is Christopher Alan Hale. I’m thirty-three. I live on 63rd Street–”
“63rd St? You live there on a paramedic’s salary?” Her interest piqued, eyebrows up, a smile on those pretty lips.
He could work with that. No reason to hide his trust fund. “Family money. You can probably verify that too. Grandpa was a doctor, Uncle’s a lawyer, Aunt’s an engineer. You get the picture.”
Did she wonder why he never mentioned his parents? He didn’t think so. Her mind was still caught up with the little girl and Justin Beckett, probably imagining all the filthy things the bastard was doing to that child. How could a man’s wiring be so screwed up he got off on raping a little kid? Chris knew evil, witnessing it every day on the streets. But there were limits. And a special place in hell for child molesters. That’s one of the reasons he admired Lucy so much. She had the balls to do what the system didn’t. Once she realized it wasn’t a duty but a calling, her life would be so much easier.
“And you’re the average Joe with the supplemental income?”
“Trust fund, thank you.” He winked, liking the way her cheeks lit up. Women loved him. Always had. Chris learned how to use his looks to his advantage a long time ago, and he knew how to treat a lady. Although Lucy Kendall wasn’t exactly a lady, which was another reason he wanted to know her so badly.
“Good for you. Now leave before I call the manager and have him throw you out.”
He laughed and made no attempt to move. Resignation set into her beautiful face. “What do you want with me?”
Chris spread his hands open. “Exactly this. An open line of communication.”
“Why?”
A multi-faceted answer. Which part should he share with her? No reason to play all of his cards right now, especially when she thought she had so many tucked up her sleeve. “I’m intrigued. Confirm my information. Then maybe you won’t be afraid of me.”