Double Blind--A Novel

by Iris Johansen

  I can practically see you leaping for the door to come to her aid. It’s very amusing. But I’m not going to let you do that yet. I want the pleasure of having both of you go through that hell for a long time. Maybe I’ll permit you to come together sometime tomorrow or the next day or the day after. You’ll never know when. All you’ll know is how she’s suffering while I make you wait. If you bring the FBI or Lynch into this then it will not happen at all. If you’re obedient, you’ll receive a text and be told to go to a location of my choice. Then you’ll be brought to me … and Olivia. I can’t wait to bring the two of you together …

  Lynch dropped the fax on the floor. “That son of a bitch.”

  “Yes.” She looked down at the sheet of paper on the floor. “And he meant every word. He’s already making her suffer, Lynch.” Her lips tightened. “And he won’t let me stop it. He just wants me to think about it and imagine how much it’s hurting her.” She moistened her lips. “And he has to be a devil to realize what that would do to Olivia. When you’re blind, you’re totally in the dark, but if you can hear, it saves you. If you can speak, it helps you. Touch can make you feel as if you’re not isolated. If he’s taking all that from her, it could make her panic … and go a little crazy. Heaven knows what else he’s doing to her.” She swallowed. “I want to kill him, Lynch.”

  “I know. Stand in line.” He went to the bar and poured himself a whiskey and a glass of wine for her. “We’ll get there. We’ve just got to find out how to get around the roadblocks. You’re not going to bring in Griffin or the FBI?”

  “I don’t trust him. If he thought he could get Derek, he’d probably consider Olivia collateral damage.” She took the glass of wine from him. “Besides, Brock might be keeping tabs on what’s happening at Olivia’s and with the investigation. They seem to be everywhere.”

  “We might need Griffin at some point.” He held up his hand as she started to protest. “Only as an emergency backup if necessary. However, the first thing we need is to double the surveillance on you. I agree with everything you’ve said. But since I’m also on Derek’s verboten list, I suppose I also can’t be seen near you by Brock.” He grimaced. “I thought I was done with being incognito when I showed up at their home office today. I’ll make a show of leaving here tonight and going to my house. But I’ll call as soon as I get home and we’ll get on with it.”

  “On with what? I’m feeling very blank at the moment.”

  “You’re not blank.” He dropped down on the couch and pulled her down beside him. “I was worried about you when we first found out about Olivia, but that was only shock. You’re thinking, you’re analyzing, you’re being Kendra.” He sipped his whiskey. “Kendra going through a hell of a lot of pain.”

  “Don’t say that.” She lifted her glass to her lips. “It’s what he wanted. I don’t want to give Derek anything he wants.”

  “Then we won’t.” He paused. “I was afraid that you were going to insist on going to Derek when he snapped his fingers. He seems to think you’d do it. He must have done some in-depth research on your and Olivia’s relationship.”

  “Would I be tempted? Of course I would. But I know what would happen. He’d kill her, kill me, and get a real thrill on doing it in the most painful way possible.” Her hand tightened on the stem of her glass. “And he’d win and then go on to the next victim. I can’t let that happen. The only way to save Olivia is to find that monster and destroy him like a rabid animal.”

  “Oh, I like the way you’re thinking. And Derek doesn’t know you at all.” He smiled. “You might have tossed Griffin out in the cold when Derek told you to do it. But you thumbed your nose at him when you decided to keep me around to help.”

  “Of course I did. That was the intelligent thing to do. You’re brilliant at this kind of game. And I can always trust you. Why wouldn’t I want you?”

  “No reason at all,” he said. “I was just complimenting your rationality. Because I’ll always be the person you should call when you need someone.” He finished his whiskey and put the glass on the coffee table. “Now drink your wine and try to relax. There’s nothing we can do now but try to think and go over possible options.”

  “We should do something.”

  “And we will, but I’ve always found that putting pressure on yourself never gets you to the finish line. Just let it go and let it come to you. I’ll go down and talk to Griffin and get him to do all the probing we want him to do and then I’ll take my very obvious leave.”

  She finished her wine. She didn’t want him to leave, but he was making sense. And she must not cling, she was already asking too much of him. “It might be better if we only knew his damn pattern. Suber said that he was almost controlled by it.”

  “Which means he’s as much caught in what he’s done as we are. He’s set it up and now he has to complete it. He’s not going to run.” Lynch said slowly, “We just have to figure out how to trap the son of a bitch.”

  “And how are we supposed to do that?” She suddenly clutched the front of his shirt. “You’re the one they hire to cause entire countries to go down the tube. You must be able to think of a way to get Olivia away from him.” She knew she was being unfair. Her hands dropped away from him. “I’m sorry. I know it’s my responsibility. Forget I said that. I’m just scared.”

  “I won’t forget it. Because it will remind me to do everything I can to bring her home.” He drew her close. “Hey, you said you trusted me. I promise I’ll find a way.” He cradled her face in his two hands. “Just give me a little time. Nothing has been more important to me.” He brushed his lips on the tip of her nose. “Except that you get a little sleep. What I don’t promise is that it won’t be rough for all of us.”

  “Sleep? All I can think about is Olivia.”

  “Then think about her.” He pulled her over to cuddle against him. “But think good thoughts. Think about getting her away from that asshole. Think about all the good times and what you are together. You’ve been friends since you were children. I’ve seen bits and pieces but there’s so much more, isn’t there?”

  So much more …

  It was like a kaleidoscope flashing before her. The two of them sitting together on the cliffs above Woodward Academy, hearing the waves crash on the rocks below. Olivia, teasing her because she wouldn’t take enough chances. Olivia, holding her hand and telling her how happy she was that Kendra could see even when they both knew that Olivia might never regain her own vision. Olivia, panic-stricken at the hospital, running down the corridor beside Kendra’s gurney.

  “Too many to even count,” she said huskily. “But do you know what I’m remembering right now? When I was first getting to know Olivia at school, she was so different from me. Braver, funnier … But she was so generous, Lynch. I’d been born blind, but she had lost her sight in an accident. You’d think she’d be bitter, but she wasn’t. She hated that I didn’t have the memories that she had of the world around me. She’d spend hours trying to describe what was out there, what I should be able to see. She’d take my hand and have me feel textures and then try to compare it to what I should be seeing. She got so frustrated…” She smiled. “But then for a few months after my operation, she’d come and visit me and have me tell her exactly what I was seeing. She’d laugh and say, “See? I told you so. Am I good or what?”

  “She was very, very good.” Lynch was stroking the hair at her temple. “And that’s why we’re going to take her back. No question.” He kissed her forehead and then sat up and got off the couch. “Just lie there and think good thoughts. I’ll call you when I get to my place and we’ll try to firm up a plan.” He was heading for the door. “I mean it, Kendra. We’re not going to let anything happen to her.” His lips turned up in the faintest smile. “How could it? Are we good or what?”

  The door closed softly behind him.

  She lay there for a moment, letting his soothing words and the memories of Olivia stay and comfort her.

  Then she sat up and sw
ung her legs to the floor.

  Think good thoughts? The only good thoughts she could have would be how to gut that son of a bitch, Derek. She didn’t have the slightest doubt that Lynch’s mind and efforts even now were busy trying to put all the pieces together. But he should have known better than to think she could do anything else.

  He probably did. He might just be trying to give her that brief healing moment to make her strong enough to go on.

  But that moment was over.

  She got her computer and started typing.

  Start at the beginning. It was time to make notes of every single thing she knew or had heard about Derek. Every little fact, every hint of feelings or instincts she’d had about him.

  Accept everything.

  Ignore nothing.

  We’re going nail you, bastard.

  10:40 A.M.

  “Are you still working?” Lynch asked when she picked up the phone.

  “Barely.” Kendra rubbed her eyes and straightened on the couch. “Right now it’s all a blur to me.”

  “That’s the time that you should get a nap. I should have known that I shouldn’t leave you. You’ve been at it all night.”

  “No, that’s the time I should follow your advice and just let all the information I’ve stuffed into my brain come together. There’s no way I could exert any pressure on myself in my present condition.” She took a drink of her cold coffee. “I’ll just go back to the beginning again and let it flow. Did Griffin find out anything?”

  “Only that there were no fingerprints found in Olivia’s apartment and probably not a trace of DNA. Strictly a professional job.”

  “But we already knew that it was Brock.”

  “Yes, it all goes back to Brock. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Vivianne Kerstine’s crew. I was going to head over to your place, but I’ll be there a little later. I’m at the FBI checking to see if we missed a scrap of evidence in the stuff we took from their offices.”

  “Then do what you have to do. But it’s not going to do any good if someone doesn’t stop Derek from killing Olivia.” She added wearily, “We’ve got to find him. Let me get back to work, Lynch.”

  “Right. Like you said, go back to the beginning. I’ll call you later.” He cut the connection.

  The beginning …

  She put on the wedding video that she’d already played innumerable times. She practically had the damn thing memorized. Okay. Relax. Don’t go after it. Let it come to her.

  The speeches. The laughter. The music.

  Now that bit of whispered dialogue that Olivia had called to Kendra’s attention that night in her apartment.

  No pressure. She closed her eyes. Let it come to her.

  The harsh, urgency of the first whisper. “We should get the hell out of here.”

  Then that silky, amused reply. “Why? When it’s all here.”

  What was all here?

  And the tones were so different …

  She put it on repeat and kept her eyes closed. She let every nuance flow over her.

  You’re the one who first noticed it, Olivia. Help me.

  No, she had to help herself. As she’d told Olivia, she’d trained her hearing to crystal clarity after her operation. That skill must still be there to call upon. Concentrate. Shut everything else out. Catch the rhythms and tempos.

  What were they talking about? That whisper was so soft it was almost unidentifiable, but the more she played the tape the more she thought she caught … something.

  Something familiar.

  What?

  Which thread of speech?

  Lynch had said don’t force it. Let it come to her …

  Why? When it’s all—

  And then it did come to her!

  “Oh my God!”

  She sat up straight, her eyes flying open.

  She reached for her phone and punched in Lynch’s number. “Stay at the FBI Office,” she said. “I’m getting dressed and I’ll be right there.” She pressed the disconnect and flew across the room toward her bedroom.

  CHAPTER

  14

  FBI Regional Office

  METCALF MET HER IN THE lobby when she came in from the parking lot.

  “Did you get it?” she asked as she stepped into the elevator. “Tell me you got it.”

  He nodded as he handed her the disk. “It wasn’t easy. There was nothing at the wedding. I had to dig long and hard. You owe me.”

  “Yes, I do. We might be even now.” She got off the elevator at the tech lab and saw Lynch coming toward her. She held up the wedding video. “You were right. No pressure. But that was only part of it. Metcalf got me the rest of the equation.”

  “I’m sure that he was happy to do so,” Lynch said. “But you could have asked me, Kendra.”

  “It was simpler this way. He had all the contacts.” She followed Metcalf into the sound booth at the end of the hall. “And he said that it wasn’t easy.” She put the wedding video into the machine and then popped the disk Metcalf had just given her into the same machine. “Go ahead, Metcalf. Run the comparison. See if you get a match.”

  “What are we doing, Kendra?” Lynch asked.

  “It’s those damn whispers. I swore to Olivia that I hadn’t heard either of those voices from anyone at the party that night. I told her they must be guests. They were almost totally unidentifiable and were so soft that I missed them on the first runs. But Olivia didn’t and called my attention to them. One was rougher than the other and the content was … interesting. Not what you’d expect to hear at a wedding.” She quoted. “The first. A. ‘We need to get the hell out of here.’ And the second. B. ‘Why? When it’s all here.’”

  She looked at him. “Today I think I did recognize just a thread of familiarity with the speech pattern of one of those voices. But I had to get a comparison before I could be sure.” She nodded at Metcalf. “Will you run it?”

  He pressed the keyboard, and the monitor displayed two audio waveforms. Comparison data scrolled down the screen, then came to an abrupt stop. “Done,” Metcalf said as he pulled the report from the machine. He glanced at it and smiled. “A match. Like I said, you owe me, Kendra.”

  “Not until you tell me which one was the match,” she said dryly. “A or B?”

  “B,” Metcalf said. “Not the rough one.”

  Lynch looked between them. “What kind of game is this?”

  “Not a game,” Kendra said. “A test. I didn’t even tell Metcalf what I was after. I didn’t want him influencing the results when he took these audio samples to his colleagues. In the research ‘game’ it’s what we call a ‘double-blind’ test.” She turned to Lynch. “Told you I was a scientist.”

  “I never doubted you,” Lynch said. “So now am I allowed to ask to whom we’re comparing this guy?”

  Metcalf nodded. “The second disk was a quarterly sales presentation given by Ivan Campbell. Who I had to call last night and inform that his wife’s body had been found.” He glanced at Kendra. “What are you doing? I don’t see any connection here.”

  “I didn’t either. It’s still fuzzy. I think he was making sure that I didn’t see any connection. Ivan Campbell knew that his voice was on that video. But he also knew that whisper was almost unidentifiable. When I came to interview him, he tried to make his voice totally unlike that whisper except perhaps on a machine like this. When I showed up at his door, he seemed to be in a towering rage at me and the FBI. His voice was harsh, rough, and sharp. Nothing like that whisper, which was soft, smooth and almost mocking.”

  “But not in the least incriminating,” Metcalf said gently.

  “Do you think I don’t know that?” Kendra said. “And on the surface I could even go along with him almost attacking me that day at his condo. I felt sorry for him.” She paused. “Until last night when I thought about what Jessie had said about him always being soft-spoken and quiet. He didn’t give any speeches at that wedding reception and I hardly remember seeing him with his wife, Barb
ara. She was totally involved with the wedding party. I didn’t make the connection with those people whispering in the background. And I was chalking all that ugliness and harshness up to his grief that day at his condo.” She added, “But I would probably have gone back later and thought it was a little peculiar … except that I got that call from Griffin just then.” She looked at Lynch. “And you might say I was distracted.”

  “And Campbell escaped that razor-sharp brain of yours,” Lynch said. His gaze was narrowed on her face. “Are you telling me that you think Campbell is Derek?”

  “I’m telling you that he could be.” Her hands were clenched on the wedding video. “I’m saying that day Campbell went against everything people thought about his character and was almost violent toward me. He was enjoying hurling insults at me.” She grimaced. “And particularly my stupidity in handling this case.”

  “He’d lost his wife,” Metcalf said.

  “I thought about that.” She ignored Metcalf and said to Lynch, “But if he’s Derek, then he’d think nothing about killing his wife himself. Remember, he said he didn’t believe in that man-woman garbage. She would only have been a convenient addition to his grand scenario.” She went on quickly, her mind leaping from point to point. “And then when you go back to that whispered conversation, it begins to make sense. That first speaker must have been one of Brock’s men who’d been assigned to try to persuade Derek to back away from those wedding killings. Kerstine must have thought it was the height of madness to take a chance like that. And Derek’s reply was completely in keeping, too. ‘Why? When it’s all here.’ He was telling him that the situation was completely to his liking and he was going to go for it. In short, go to hell.”

  “Possibly,” Metcalf said. “But it’s not exactly—”

  “Thanks for your help, Metcalf,” Lynch said as he got to his feet. “Why don’t you do Kendra another favor and go tell Griffin what we’ve been discussing. Get his input and perhaps suggestions. Then we can talk later.”