Skin

by Patricia Rosemoor

  “Did she make it?”

  He nodded. “The surgery went okay. She’s not awake yet, but they say she’s gonna live.”

  “Thank God.” Relief eased the tension in Lilith’s body – she’d been strung tight since finding Caresse. “Who could have done this to her?”

  “The same psycho who took your sister.”

  “I thought so, too. If that’s true, not Michael, then. I was with him.”

  “I assume you mean Wyndham.” When she nodded, he said, “She must have been closing in for the bust, and the killer must’ve figured it out.”

  “Bust?” Confused, Lilith asked, “What are you talking about?”

  “Arresting the bastard. She’s been working the club since the second murder. Got all torn up because she didn’t get to him before he got to your sister.”

  “Wait. You’re saying that Caresse was the undercover cop?” When he nodded in agreement, Lilith’s breath caught in her throat. “Oh, my God.” Stunned, she asked, “What about Gabe O’Malley? He’s been at the club every night.”

  “Not on the job, he hasn’t. He’s been assigned to a paperwork detail for the last three months. Got benched after working over a perp.”

  Her mind already churning, Lilith backed off. “If Caresse wakes up, tell her I’m pulling for her.”

  “Hey, wait a minute!”

  But she couldn’t wait. She ignored him and raced out of the hospital.

  Why had Gabe made her believe he was working undercover if he wasn’t? She had to find out if she’d missed the obvious right under her nose. If Gabe was the one. She had to be sure this time. She’d been ready to tell Gabe that Michael could be guilty, and she’d been wrong.

  She couldn’t accuse another innocent man.

  oOo

  MICHAEL CHECKED Hannah’s place. No Lilith. She wasn’t at the club, either. Joe told him about Caresse, how Lilith had found her.

  His stomach as heavy as if he’d ingested a ton of lead, he headed straight for the hospital emergency room. It hadn’t taken him long to figure out what Lilith had been up to. He’d known she was Hannah’s sister from the start. And he’d checked her out after she’d started working at the club. He’d known she was trying to draw out the killer. He’d admired that. And he’d known the danger she was drawing to herself.

  The more he’d gotten to know Lilith, the more he’d admired her. He’d never before met a woman with such conviction. A woman who was so brave. The more he’d gotten to know her, the less he’d liked what she was doing. He’d tried to talk her out of it, had tried to convince her to quit the club.

  He’d be damned if he didn’t try again.

  She might not want to listen to him after seeing the interview with her sister, but he was going to tell her everything she wanted to know. And then he was going to try to talk her into leaving the investigation to the police.

  Finally in the ER, he went straight to the desk. “I’m looking for Lilith Mitchell. She’s a friend of the woman from Club Paradise who was knifed. Caresse something.”

  “Her name is Carrie Walker.” This from a crusty-looking man in a rumpled suit. He’d been talking to a nurse. Now he indicated she should go, and he turned his narrow-gazed attention to Michael. “What do you want with Lilith Mitchell?”

  “What business is it of yours?”

  The man pulled out a leather holder and flipped it open to show his star. “Detective John Pucinski.”

  Michael took a deep breath. He wasn’t liking this. Where in the hell was Lilith?

  “I’m a friend concerned for her safety.”

  “And why would that be?”

  “I know why she got a job at the club.” Figuring Pucinski knew, too, Michael added, “I know about her sister.”

  “She tell you all this?”

  “Look, it doesn’t matter how I know. I’m worried about her. She left my place without telling me, so I went to the club to make sure she was okay. The bartender told me what happened and that she followed the ambulance here.”

  “You missed her by less than five minutes. You know she’s been putting herself at risk at that club.”

  Michael’s gut churned. “I tried to get her to quit. She wouldn’t listen to me. I can only imagine how desperate she is to find her sister Hannah and some kid named Carmen before it’s too late. She left here. I fear she’s doing something to find them on her own. Something really crazy.”

  oOo

  WHEN LILITH arrived at Gabe’s house, she didn’t see his car anywhere. The house itself was dark inside. Good. She waited in the Jaguar for a few minutes to see if anything would change.

  No lights.

  No movement.

  No car pulling up.

  As a matter of fact, no one was on the street.

  Closing her eyes for a second, she took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She had to do this. Had to find out if Gabe had Hannah and Carmen before it was too late. Had to see if there was proof of his crimes somewhere in the house. Then she could call Pucinski and tell him to arrest the bastard.

  “I can do this,” she whispered fiercely. “I CAN DO THIS!”

  Another breath and she got out of the car. Looking around carefully, she crossed the parkway and the sidewalk and took the gangway to the rear of the house. As she went, she checked the basement windows. No lights. No way in. When she got to the backyard, she stared into the night in every direction to see if anyone else was around. No one she could see.

  Tires squealed nearby, making her jump.

  A couple of teenagers out front were laughing.

  In the distance, a siren howled.

  Then, all grew quiet.

  Her stomach was in a knot, but she had to get inside.

  Heart hammering, she took one last, furtive look around before popping a glass pane in the door panel. Then she reached inside the opening and unlocked the door. She hesitated a second, listening hard for any sign of life inside.

  Silence.

  Hardly able to swallow the tension thickening in her throat, she slipped into the rear vestibule. Clicked on her flashlight. Prowled on silent feet. She’d made a quick run home to change into dark workout clothes, a jacket with a hoodie and rubber-soled running shoes. Though certain she was alone in the house, she tried not to make a noise. Just in case.

  Half-entering a bedroom, she flashed her beam around. Empty. Down the hall, another bedroom. Equally empty. Across the hall, a bathroom.

  Now what?

  Seeing an open door and stairs on the other side, she descended into the basement and swung her flashlight in a big arc.

  The beam caught the glow of glass eyes, making Lilith start. A stuffed animal head loomed over her, and next to it were others. Below them, a case held weapons – rifles and shotguns and knives. Gabe had said he was a hunter. She’d never seen such a collection, though her stepfather had been a hunter, as well.

  As a teenager living in a small southern Illinois town, she’d learned all about guns. She used to fantasize about using one on Marlon, but the only things she’d ever shot had been pop bottles and cans. She would never use one on another human being.

  Then she spotted the framed black and white photographs.

  “My God! You son-of-a-bitch!”

  Lilith flashed her beam to find the light switch on the wall, flipped it on so she could better see the five framed photographs. The first was Gabe’s wife... next, the two murdered women... then Hannah... and finally, the other ripped half of her photo taken from the club.

  She was next on his list.

  The realization made her go cold inside.

  She’d known the killer was dangerous, that he might strike out if she got too close.

  This was worse. She had become part of his plan.

  She thought of everyone who’d warned her not to do this. Elena. Caresse. Pucinski. Michael. Even Gabe himself. And she hadn’t listened, not to any of them. Now she had a bull’s-eye on her back.

  Not that she could stop.
<
br />   She was thinking that, if only she could find where Gabe was holding Hannah and Carmen, she could leave the rest to the police, when she spotted a mahogany and glass case snugged against the wall. There on the middle shelf was the mate to the heart-half she wore – Hannah’s half.

  Absolute proof that he had her sister.

  Her gaze moved up to the souvenirs of the two women he’d killed. Disbelieving, she tasted bile for the second time that night.

  The papers hadn’t said anything about this. The police must have held back information. She wondered if Gabe’s father would be proud of the way his son had taken to those hunting skills.

  Detective Gabriel O’Malley had skinned his victims.

  Chunks of long dark hair still attached to their scalps told her exactly what he planned to do to Hannah. And what about Carmen?

  Neither was here, so where had he stashed them?

  Hand shaking, she pulled out her cell to alert Pucinski. The call went straight to voice mail. Before the greeting was finished so that she could leave a message, she heard a real-life noise.

  Above her, a door slammed.

  “Gabe,” she whispered, suddenly terrified that he might catch her.

  She dropped the call and turned down the ringer volume. Stuck the cell back into her pocket.

  Floorboards overhead creaked.

  Trying not to panic, she snapped off the light just as she heard the first footsteps on the stairs.

  Her legs shook as she slid into the basement’s interior and plastered herself in the shadows surrounding the boiler. Hiding from him gave her time to think. To plot. She could jump him, maybe knock him out, but then she might never be able to find Hannah and Carmen. She hadn’t found anything to indicate where Gabe had stashed them.

  When he got to basement level, Gabe switched the light back on.

  Certain that he would be able to see her if he looked this way, Lilith hugged the shadows. Her senses went off-kilter – she couldn’t hear beyond her own breath, and her mouth went dry and vision telescoped.

  From her vantage point, she could see him through a collection of pipes that split off and ran in different directions to take hot water heat to various parts of the house. Gabe’s back was to her. He was bent over, picking up a case. Careful not to make a sudden movement that might alert him, she strained to see as he set it on a small table next to a leather chair. He started removing items from the weapons cabinet, checking over each item as if he were taking inventory before setting it in the case.

  And then he closed the case, picked it up and snapped off the light. His footsteps on the stairs told her when he got to the top. She was already leaving her hiding place. By the time she heard a door open, she was up the stairs and heading for the back. Thankfully, he’d used the front door and hadn’t seen the broken glass.

  As much as she wanted to try Pucinski again, she couldn’t take the chance of losing Gabe, who seemed to be off on a hunt. She had no doubt Hannah would be his prey. She would call Pucinski the first chance she got.

  Lilith exited the house and slid along the darkened pathway alongside the building and stopped in the shelter of a big bush for cover. She got ready to run. Gabe was just closing the trunk of his black sedan – she recognized it as the car that had followed her the other night. He’d parked several lengths behind Hannah’s Jaguar.

  How was she going to get to the Jag without alerting Gabe? Apparently he hadn’t seen Hannah’s car or hadn’t recognized it.

  Just then, a truck pulled up behind Gabe and a man exited, saying, “Hey, O’Malley, how’s it hanging?”

  “Randy. Not bad. Did you find the source of that leak?”

  Apparently a neighbor. He had Gabe’s attention at least for the moment. No time to consider. Like a flash, she raced across the open ground in front of the house and into the shelter of a parkway tree. Heart pumping like mad, she slid into the Jaguar and slipped the keys into the ignition.

  Through the rearview mirror, she could see Gabe shaking the neighbor’s hand and punching him in the arm. Just one of the boys.

  Then he got in the sedan. The moment she heard him start his car, she started the Jaguar. She waited for him to drive past her, to get to the corner and make a turn, before she turned on her lights, pulled away from the parking space and followed.

  Certain he was headed for Hannah and Carmen, she was going to be right behind him.

  Oddly enough, Gabe didn’t get onto the expressway but circled around to North Avenue and drove west a few miles, then turned south, heading into a questionable neighborhood of too many overgrown lots and boarded up buildings.

  Where was Gabe keeping Hannah and Carmen? The graffiti on buildings told her he was leading her deep into gang territory.

  He turned onto a side street. Not wanting to alert him, she pulled over to the curb where she could see him, but he wouldn’t notice her. She waited until he got to the end of the block and crossed the intersection before following. Luckily, when he got halfway down the block, she spotted his headlights turning into a drive that went to the back of a building.

  She parked on the street one building down from where he’d turned in. Before following, she tried Pucinski again.

  Voice mail.

  What now?

  Michael.

  Hesitating only a second, she tried his number. He answered on the first ring.

  “Lilith, where the hell are you?”

  “The west side.” She gave him the address. “I followed Gabe O’Malley. This must be where he’s holding Hannah and Carmen. You have to get that information to Detective Pucinski, please!”

  “Pucinski is–”

  “I don’t have time to talk. I’m going in!”

  She heard him say, “Lilith, no!” as she ended the call.

  oOo

  Chapter 21

  CARMEN WAS handcuffed to a radiator, Hannah to a cot.

  The way they’d both been worked over stopped Lilith’s breath.

  Barely able to believe her eyes, she stared and fought the urge to sink to her knees. Dear Lord, she’d known they wouldn’t get away unscathed... but this...

  She visualized smashing Gabe’s head into a brick wall.

  Carmen’s face was a mess. Bruises were blooming beneath smears of dried blood, and the eye Lilith could see was swollen shut. With her bruised wrist handcuffed to a radiator, Carmen had collapsed on the floor, her head tilted at an odd angle. Lilith didn’t know whether or not she was conscious.

  “Oh, Carmen,” she whispered.

  The girl’s head snapped up and around, and her good eye went wide. She whispered, too, her words slurred because one side of her cheek and mouth was swollen. “...knew ya’d come!”

  Grateful that the girl seemed to be okay other than the cuts and bruises, Lilith put her finger to her lips, and when Carmen nodded in agreement, she moved to see to her sister, who lay handcuffed to the cot. It took everything in her not to cry out at the sight.

  Blood still oozed from a nasty gash in Hannah’s hairline. Both eyes were swollen closed, her mouth was so swollen it was slightly agape, and the lower lip was split. Still in the dress she’d worn the night she’d been taken, the additional injuries on her arms and legs brought tears to Lilith’s eyes.

  In far worse shape than Carmen, Hannah lay as still as death.

  A thought that choked Lilith.

  No, not after all this...

  But Hannah didn’t seem to be breathing.

  Lilith’s heart thundered as she sat on the edge of the cot and felt for a pulse, and she nearly collapsed in relief when she found a light, irregular thread.

  Let her live. Please let her live!

  She gently touched and shook her sister’s shoulder to wake her, but Hannah’s swollen eyes didn’t so much as crack open.

  Where the hell was backup? She might be able to defend herself against Gabe, but Hannah and Carmen needed medical help. How long before Pucinski arrived with the cavalry?

  Had Michael even
been able to contact the detective?

  Pulling her cell from her pocket, she was about to try calling him again when she heard a footfall behind her. The bastard’s laugh cut through her, and she dropped the phone and bolted up off the cot and whirled around–

  “Looking for me?”

  –barely getting a glimpse of Gabe before he struck out with a rifle butt and whacked her in the head.

  Her mind lit with bright lights before going dark.

  oOo

  “AS IF YOU COULD save anyone,” Gabe muttered, his laughter stilled when Lilith collapsed at his feet.

  “No! Lilith!” the girl wailed.

  “Your Lilith can’t help you now.”

  The little bitch had jumped him. He took pleasure in taunting her.

  She swallowed a sob and glared at him in silence.

  Gabe ignored the girl and fetched a length of rope. He hadn’t expected Lilith to find his lair. How had she figured it out? No one else had been able to identify him as the hunter killer. Other than the bitch they’d planted at the club. But he’d taken care of Caresse for good. She wouldn’t be able to tell anyone anything.

  Lilith must have figured out he was the killer on her own. She must have followed him here from home.

  That ruined his plans.

  He’d been anticipating torturing her until she was out of her mind with fear, then taking her when she least expected it.

  “I guess the time-line just moved up for us, sweetheart.”

  “What’re you goin’ t’ do t’ ’er?”

  He ignored the girl’s frantic slur and checked the sister, who wasn’t looking so good. Nice handiwork. He congratulated himself.

  And then he shook her. Hard.

  “Hey, wake up. Hannah! You want to see your sister alive, open those eyes right now!”

  If she heard him, it was in some faraway place. Her eyes flicked open to slits in the swelling, but they didn’t focus.

  “Sit up.” He tried to force her, but she merely moaned, and her eyes shut again.

  “Stop it! You’re ’urting ’er!”

  Obviously he wasn’t going to rouse Hannah. She’d gone to a place he couldn’t reach, so he abandoned the idea of doing the sisters in tandem.