by Mary Eason
Rick glanced up from taking notes. “He believed Lewis was behind the calls.”
“Yes, in his mind there was no doubt. He was so rattled that he later left the state. I lost touch with him soon after.”
“Why’d Lewis kill his wife?” John wondered aloud. “Clearly he adored her.”
The doctor took a moment to answer. “He never expressed any reason for doing it. As I’ve said, he never admitted to the crime, and I often wondered if this wasn’t some ploy cooked up by his legal team to get him off. After he was released, well, I feared the worst, that he would come after me. I never connected the killings to him. I should have, though. After all, Brenda was stabbed to death, her body discovered later in that same park. I found out through a family member of Brenda’s that she was scared of him as well. His mental condition had been deteriorating for a while. She sent a note to the family. They received it after her death. She accused him of abusing her for years. Her medical records backed up those claims. In the note, she said she had finally gotten the courage up to do something about it. The family believed she was going to leave him. She’d hinted at someone new in her life, perhaps someone from the neighborhood, seeing as Brenda didn’t work. My guess is that is what sent him into a rage and ultimately caused him to murder her.”
As interesting as all of this was, John knew time was quickly running out on them and they still didn’t have a clue where to find Lewis. “Doctor, we need to find him before he kills again. Can you tell us anything about where he might be hiding?”
The doctor considered this. “As I’ve said, he refused to talk about his wife’s murder, or anything related to the crime. Most of our discussions were about abstract things like world conditions, sports. I do remember he had a passion for movies. Not what you’d expect, he preferred westerns. The Duke was his idol. He’d seen every one of his movies and could recite them by heart. John Wayne’s work was one of the few movies the institute allowed the patients to see. Jericho was in heaven. It’s not much, I realize.” The doctor picked up on the growing frustration in Rick and John. “I’m sorry. Really, I wish there were more, but as I’ve said, Lewis was an enigma. He kept his secrets close. “
Resignation weighed heavy as John got to his feet, feeling as if they’d wasted precious time they didn’t have. “Thank you for seeing us, Doctor.”
“There is one more thing. I don’t know if it will help you, but last year, Lewis checked himself back into the hospital. He said he needed more treatment. Needless to say, his new doctor was thrilled. He thought it proved everything I said was wrong. I saw it as suspicious at best. Lewis hated his time at Brookhaven. He’d never come back without reason. I made my doubts known very vocally. I was fired. Shortly afterward, I found out someone had been accessing patient records again using my medical license. I couldn’t prove it, but I was certain it was Jericho Lewis.”
The doctor nodded, his glasses slipping from his forehead. He smiled briefly and positioned the glassed on his nose. “Ah, I wondered where these had gone.”
Once they said their goodbyes, John took the keys from his partner who relinquished the control reluctantly to his pride and joy. “Not much to go on, is it?”
John had to agree. “No, but I guess it’s something. Call Ryan. Have him check all the theaters that show old movies. See if John Wayne’s playing anywhere.”
* * * * *
What did she see in him? He had nothing to offer her. He watched his rival pick through pieces of his past and wondered if he would beg for his life, or accept the inevitable. The thought of it pleased him. Soon. Their time would come soon.
The doctor was a more immediate problem. He’d served his purpose, even though it had required returning to that hellhole when his first attempts at finding her had failed. The last time had been more successful. The doctor’s assistance would no longer be needed.
He’d take care of the cop, but all in time. First, he needed the cop to tell him where he’d hidden her. She was still fighting him. She hadn’t forgiven his past transgressions. He couldn’t get a good read on her whereabouts although he could feel her. She was close. She’d be his soon. First, he’d take care of the doctor and then had to decide if he wanted to be merciful to Agent Delaney. Or make him pay dearly for corrupting his beloved.
* * * * *
“The doctor mentioned a possible boyfriend. Have you found out anything more on him?” John couldn’t seem to shake the feeling of being watched. He’d had it many times over the past few hours. Even after, they’d returned to the Federal Building.
He glanced down at the street below. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. The case had his imagination playing tricks.
“Not so far. I’m going to call Brenda’s sister. See what she knows. What do you see out there?”
John turned from the window. “Nothing. That’s just it. Anything from Ryan yet on the movie search?”
“Nope. Apparently D.C. and surrounding areas are not great fans of the Duke.” Rick stopped smiling when he caught sight of the uneasy way John scanned the street below. “Hey, what is it?”
John shook his head. It was, after all, just a hunch. “Nothing. I don’t know. I just have this gut feeling he’s close.”
“You think? Want me to have the locals canvass the area?”
John nodded. He knew Warren would have a fit when he discovered there was no sound basis for such the search beyond John’s gut, but he was already in hot water with Warren. What did one more indiscretion matter?
“Do it and get the sister on the phone for us. Let’s see if we can find out what Jericho Lewis did to his wife’s lover.”
Rick glanced at his watch.
"I know it's after midnight, just do it."
His partner didn’t hesitate to follow through with John’s request. Within minutes of his call to the local police precinct, a quiet search of the area had begun. And Sarah Templeton was on the phone, confused and angry at being woken from sleep at a quarter of one.
“Mrs. Templeton, I apologize for calling so late, but I’m Agent Garner and with me is Agent Delaney. We need your help desperately.”
On speakerphone, everything appeared amplified. They could hear the sound of a light switched on and voices, more than Sarah’s, probably her husband.
“What’s this about? Can’t it wait until morning? I have to be at work in six hours.” Sarah asked at last.
“Ma’am, with all due respect, it can’t. This is about your sister.”
The silence following Rick’s response was long and filled with emotion.
“What about Brenda? She’s dead. Has been for years now. Why can’t you people just let her be for once?”
John wondered what she meant by that. For the time being, it could wait. They needed to know about Brenda’s boyfriend first.
“Mrs. Templeton, we believe your former brother-in-law may be responsible for more than a half dozen murders that we know of. I apologize for the time, but it can’t wait. We need your help now.”
The fear in her voice was palpable. “My God, not again. What do you want to know?”
“Anything you might be able to tell us that might help.”
“I’ve spent most of my life, in recent years, trying to forget the torture she suffered at that monster’s hands and now you want me to relive it?”
“I know it’s hard,” Rick offered.
“You don’t know anything about it.” Sarah Templeton breathed the words to life. The weight of a lifetime of pain in them.
A noise followed and then a man’s voice came on the line. “What do you need from us?”
John assumed the man was Sarah’s husband. He took up the questioning from that point. “We need to know what you can tell us about Brenda’s boyfriend. I need to talk to him.”
The silence that followed was overwhelming. “That’s impossible. He died a few days before Brenda. Don’t you people talk to each other?”
John’s gaze collided with Rick. “He was murdered? Lew
is wasn’t charged for the murder.”
The man laughed angrily. “No, because the bastard was too smart for the local people. Oh, they knew he did it, even the DA prosecuting Brenda’s case knew he killed that poor man, but there wasn’t enough evidence, and they just wanted to lock him away from society before he could hurt anyone else. You see how well that worked out.”
“He hasn’t tried to reach you or your wife.”
“You think he’ll come after us?” Fear laced tension through the man’s tone with that realization.
“I don’t know. At this point, we know very little about him. For the time being, until we’re sure, I’d like to take you both into protective custody.”
“Dammit, we have lives. How much longer are we going to have to surrender them because my sister-in-law made a mistake?”
John wished he had a definite answer for the man. “I don’t know. Let’s hope it won’t be too much longer. I’d rather have you in custody than out there in plain sight for him to hunt down.”
“Fine. Do what you have to do, but this time do us and the world a favor and kill the son-of-a-bitch.”
After they hung up from the Templeton’s, Rick voiced his doubts. “You think he’ll come after them?”
“No. He wants Anna. Or at least what Anna has—Brenda’s heart. And I think he’ll stop at nothing to get her.”
Rick’s cell phone buzzed and he answered it. “Yes. Okay. Thanks.”
He flipped the phone shut. “The search turned up nothing. If he was out there, he’s gone now.”
“How are Bev and Ed holding up?”
“As well as can be expected, I guess. They’re worried sick about Anna.”
John nodded. “I’m assuming the search on Anna’s home turned up nothing.”
“Not a thing. Why don’t you call her?”
John didn’t need to ask whom he was referring to. “And tell her what?”
“That you miss her. That you’re doing everything you can to solve this thing. That once it’s over, you two need to talk.”
In spite of the gravity of the situation, John smiled at Rick’s attempt at matchmaking. “You’ve got it all worked out. You call her.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not the one in love with her. Why don’t you do something even better? Why don’t you go there? You know you want to.”
John shook his head. He didn’t need to be reminded. The desire to be with her now was almost physical. “I need to be here. There’s too much hinging on us catching this guy and soon.”
“Which is why you should be there. Go. Ryan and I’ll keep digging. Go be with her.”
Chapter Fifteen
The night drug by. With John gone and the two agents protecting Anna standing stone-faced in the presence of any of her attempts at making conversation, she found herself with too much time on her hands to think.
And as always, John was like an addiction. She couldn’t be near him and not act on the attraction they’d shared from the beginning. In her heart, Anna knew the truth. It didn’t seem to matter how she tried to dress it up, what she and John had went much deeper than mere physical attraction.
She finally abandoned any attempt at conversation with the two agents and retreated to the bedroom she’d shared briefly with John. Sleep would be impossible. The bed held too many memories for sleep. Instead, she curled up in the corner of the room as far away from the window as possible, the Glock within a hand's reach, and listened to the men talking quietly in the next room.
They hadn’t said more than a handful of words in Anna's presence, but with her gone, and presumably sleeping, she could hear bits of information about the case, along with innuendos.
John’s special treatment of her was getting some unwelcome attention. Samson and Henderson were new to the division. Anna hadn’t recognized either of them, yet they obviously remembered the case and her.
There’d been rumors about John and Anna's relationship even before Aaron’s death. Afterward, no one dared mention it or considered sullying Aaron’s name. Then, of course, Anna had left. Rumors hadn’t died away in her absence.
Somehow, she must have managed to fall asleep because somewhere in the early morning hours of the night, she was jarred awake by Gemma’s low, fearful growl.
“What is it, girl?” Anna glanced around the room. Nothing moved in the darkness. She could hear the sound of voices still. Then lights flashed across the room. Someone was coming up the dead-end drive.
“Wait here, girl.” Anna grabbed the gun, dropped Gemma on the bed and cracked the door. Samson and Henderson weren’t anywhere in sight.
Anna tiptoed to the living room. The door stood open. The two agents were standing on what passed for a front porch.
Samson noticed her first. “It’s okay, ma’am. It’s just Agent Delaney.”
Even though Anna was still groggy, it took only a minute to understand the implication. John’s return meant something had happened. Something important enough for him not to trust her safety to anyone else.
“You should go back inside, ma’am,” Henderson encouraged, which Anna ignored. She needed to see John. Needed to see his face.
He got out of the truck and covered the space in just a few strides. While he spoke to the agents, his eyes were for her alone. It was like drowning in a vortex of emotions.
“Something’s happened?” Anna forced herself to ask, and he was quick to reassure her.
“No. Nothing has happened, Anna. I just wanted…” He caught himself before the words were out. She saw Samson and Henderson exchange a sneering look. They hadn’t missed the electrical sparks passing between John and her.
John turned to Henderson, the senior officer. “Dave, I need you back in D.C. with Rick. Take the car. Thomas and I will stay with Anna.”
“Of course. Anything I need to know?”
John’s gaze slid to Anna before answering. “We’ll talk outside.”
Henderson followed John, and she was stuck inside with the junior officer Thomas Samson, who’d turned back into stone man.
Anna tucked the Glock into the pocket of the light jacket she wore and out of sight. It took only a few minutes before she heard a car driving away.
John came back inside the house, the silence between him and Anna lengthened. She could see he wanted to tell her something, but with the stone man watching their every move, John kept his silence.
Gemma yelped from inside the bedroom and she freed the dog from her prison. Gemma wouldn’t even look at her, yet she all but jumped into John’s arms, further increasing Samson’s curiosity.
John chose to ignore Samson’s thinly veiled smirks. “How old is that coffee?”
“Old. I’ll make some fresh. I, for one, could use some.”
John came with her into the kitchen where they at least had some measure of privacy.
“Tell me what’s happened,” Anna whispered urgently.
“Nothing. At least, nothing of any importance. I just wanted to be here with you, okay? There’s nothing I can do in D.C. I wanted to be close to you.”
Her hands shook as she made coffee. She was barely hanging on. She couldn’t deal with this softer side of John.
He moved closer. His hands hovered above her shoulders. She closed her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to be in his arms. “Don’t. He’ll see. He suspects something already. We can’t do this now.”
John's hands dropped to his sides. “Okay. But when this thing is over, Anna, we need to talk.”
She would never have that conversation with John.
If her time with Henderson and Samson stood still, the hours with John before dawn finally broke were even worse. Anna was aware of every little move he made. Every look. Every word spoken. John abandoned trying to convince her to get some sleep began to work the phone. From the scraps of conversation Anna managed to pick up, she discovered the name of her stalker was Jericho Lewis and that they hadn’t found any real clue as to where he might be hiding. Which meant he could be anywher
e.
Even on this isolated strip of coastline.
Anna couldn’t handle the silence and waiting any longer.
“Let’s go for a walk,” he suggested.
“You think that’s wise, Agent Delaney?” Samson voiced the obvious cautions.
“Probably not. I’ll keep my eyes open and we won’t go far. If you need me, use the walkie-talkie feature on the phone.” He didn’t give Samson time to argue.
She snapped on Gemma’s leash and she and John walked without talking for a long time, but it was okay. It was wonderful breathing the fresh sea air.
John touched her arm to stop her. “This is far enough.”
“How are Bev and Ed? Are they holding up?”
He touched her cheek, his thumb scrubbing back a straying hair. “They’re okay. They’re worried sick about you, but other than that, they’re fine.”
Anna closed her eyes. “Dammit, I hate that I’ve gotten them involved in this thing.”
“This is not your fault. You didn’t ask for this thing to happen.”
Her smile held bitterness. “Isn’t it? I’d say it’s my fault and yours.”
“You don’t believe that.” The anger in his tone was undeniable. “The only thing we’re guilty of is acting on our feelings.”
“You mean acting on our desires.”
“No, that’s not what I mean at all. It’s more than that and you know it. You’re just determined to punish yourself because of the way Aaron died. You and Aaron were divorced when we were…together, Anna. We didn't do anything wrong. ”