Keeping Watch (9781460341285)

by Choate, Jane M.

  “And Brooks?” Sal wondered.

  “Brooks took a bit more doing. Wingate did his homework and found out about Brooks and Washington’s relationship. He also had to find a way around Dani’s security system.”

  “How’d he manage that?”

  “I found out that before Devane turned himself into Wingate he worked at a security outfit, installing new security systems, upgrading old ones. Bypassing Dani’s security would have been child’s play for him.”

  “You never told me where we’re heading.”

  The worry in Sal’s voice didn’t begin to match that which festered in Jake’s gut. Picture after picture of Wingate holding Dani captive swirled in his mind, causing his desperation to soar. “Where it all began.”

  * * *

  “Good. You’re coming around.”

  Dani awoke slowly, head throbbing and mind muzzy. She looked down to find her wrists bound to the arms of an old wooden chair. Her gaze traveled around the room, taking in the yellowed wallpaper, the carpet so worn that only the pad was visible in places.

  “What happened? How did I get here?”

  Victor bestowed a smile upon her. “I brought you here. It wasn’t difficult. I took you down the freight elevator, carried you to the car, then drove here.”

  “Why?” The aftereffects of the drug he’d administered made her slow, her reasoning powers sluggish.

  “Don’t you get it?” Victor shook his head in mock disappointment. “I’d thought better of you. I’m the one you’ve been looking for. ‘The evil stalker.’” He made air quotes around the words. They should have been funny coming from mild-mannered Victor, but they weren’t. His normally pleasant features had twisted into something malevolent.

  Dani tried to wrap her mind around his words. As her confusion cleared and understanding came, the air felt as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of it.

  Victor? He was the stalker? The last thing she remembered was seeing Victor in the apartment where Jerry Brooks had lived. She’d been startled, as she’d thought she was meeting Jake there. Before she could register what was happening, Victor had pricked her arm with something, and she was out cold.

  She wasn’t afraid. Fear hadn’t yet punctured the numbness that enveloped her. This was a man she’d known more than four years, a man she considered a friend and basically honest, if a trifle weak.

  “How did you know I’d be at Brooks’s apartment?”

  “Think it through,” he said patiently. “I’m sure you’ll get it.”

  “Clariss said that Jake called and told me to meet him there,” she said, replaying the series of events. “But you couldn’t have known that. You couldn’t have known he wouldn’t have been able to reach me.”

  “Of course I knew. I played you, Dani. I knew if I kept pestering you to meet me that you’d turn off your phone. You’re so predictable.” He made a tsking sound. “Whenever you have your nose in a case, everything else takes second place and you turn off your phone. I should know. I took second place to your work plenty of times.”

  He was right. He had played her. And she’d fallen into the trap.

  “I grew up in this house.” Victor spread his hands, taking in the faded wallpaper, the sagging floor, the patched walls, the smell of misery that clung to it. “Not quite what you’re accustomed to, is it, darling?”

  She fought against the residual effects of the drug and struggled to stay focused. “I thought you were raised in Mississippi.” The stories Victor had told were of a genteel upbringing in one of the stately homes that still dotted the Mississippi landscape, then on to prep school, college and law school.

  “I lied. About everything,” Victor said, sounding almost cheerful. “I even lied about my name. It’s Mick. Mick Devane.”

  “Why? Why lie about who you are?”

  Victor raised his hand, slapped her, hard, across the face.

  Bruising agony. She fought her way through it.

  “Do you think a woman like you would have given me a second glance if she knew I’d been raised in this Podunk town by a mother who took in washing to make the rent? You’d have turned up that cute little nose of yours and run in the other direction.”

  “None of that would have mattered.”

  He slapped her again. Her head snapped back. A red haze misted her vision, and she tasted blood where she’d bitten her lip.

  “Of course it matters. I would never have gotten into law school if the officials had known about my background. So I reinvented myself. I became Victor Wingate. I found the name in a history book. I liked it, so I had my name changed legally. The rest I accomplished with superior, if I do say so myself, computer skills. It’s amazing what you can do with a few keystrokes and a little imagination.”

  “So you reinvented yourself. Others have done it. It didn’t turn them into stalkers.” She softened her voice. “You terrified me, Victor. I thought we were friends.”

  “Friends? You think I wanted friendship from you?” He turned the word into something ugly. “Don’t you get it? I had to have you so scared that you’d turn to me, lean on me. Just like you did before.”

  “Before?” Then a terrible truth hit her, and she understood. “My mother.”

  “Now you’re getting it,” he said, beaming with approval. “Yes, the dearly departed Madeline Barclay. Your mother was smarter than I gave her credit for. She found out about Mick Devane. She ordered me to tell you the truth myself or she would.”

  Dani had always prided herself on her ability to read others. Victor had completely fooled her. Why hadn’t she seen him for who he was, what he was? Had she been so blinded by the idea of love that she’d failed to see the man beneath the easy charm and handsome features?

  Only her mother had looked beneath the smooth and polished surface and seen the evil inside.

  Somehow, Jake would find her. She had to believe that. All she had to do was buy time. Keep Victor talking.

  “How did she find out?”

  “It seems one of her friends grew up not far from here. She’d seen me at a party you’d invited me to and asked your mother about me. From there, it didn’t take long for Madeline to put the pieces together and trace me here.”

  Dani was putting a few pieces together herself, and what she came up with turned her voice hollow with horror. “You killed her. Didn’t you?”

  “That I did.” His mouth curled into a smirk. “You could say that I was doing her a favor. She had cancer, you know. That’s where she was heading that day, to see her doctor. I’d been following her for a while and was curious when I saw her enter the doctor’s office. I chatted up the receptionist. You’d be surprised what you can learn, like when a patient is scheduled to return. All I had to do was pretend to be a worried son, distraught that his sick mother hadn’t confided in him.

  “I arranged to meet your dear old Maddie for coffee before her appointment. I told her that I was going to come clean and tell you everything, but that I needed to talk with her first. I slipped something into her cup, helped her out of the restaurant and into my car.

  “I hacked into her doctor’s records. She had three years to live, five at the most. I saved her and you and your precious daddy all those years of agony of watching her slowly waste away and die.”

  He was a monster. Every word was a red-hot brand that filled her with anguish. Victor knew it and was deliberately pouring acid into the wounds he’d inflicted. Her chest grew tight; she felt perspiration bead her face as she struggled to accept that she had once thought of marrying this man.

  “You robbed her of that time, however short it was, with our family. You robbed us all. You made me doubt her love for me.” Dani gave him a look of such loathing that she was surprised he didn’t melt from the hatred in it. “You’re despicable.”

  He ignored that. �
��I wanted you from the first time I set eyes on you,” he said, and his voice took on a dreamy quality. “You were everything I looked for in a woman. Poised. Beautiful. Smart. From a good family with an impeccable pedigree. You were like a Thoroughbred, just waiting for the right owner.”

  Revulsion filled her at the image of Victor owning her.

  Victor now seemed detached from his surroundings, as though he’d drifted into a surreal state. “Pedigree is everything. Did you know that?” He shook his head at his own question. “Why should you? You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth and a genealogy that could be traced back to the Mayflower. You never gave it a thought, never would have looked at me, a poor kid who couldn’t trace his family back further than some dirt-poor sharecroppers.”

  “It’s what a person is on the inside that matters. It’s the only thing that matters.” She thought of Jake, pulling his sister and himself out of poverty and the hopelessness that had been their life. He had no fancy pedigree that Victor put such stock in. No, Jake had something far more important. Faith. Integrity. Courage.

  “Don’t patronize me. You wouldn’t have given me the time of day if you knew the truth about me.”

  He was right about that, but not in the way he meant. If she’d known what kind of man he was—a cold, calculating murderer—she would have done just as he’d said and run in the opposite direction as fast as her legs could carry her.

  Unable to help herself, her gaze slid to the knife sheathed at his waist. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the lethal-looking object.

  He followed her gaze. “Ah, I see you like my plaything.” He clasped the hilt of the knife with his right hand. “It was a gift to myself when I passed the bar. It has a history, you know. It’s said that this knife belonged to a Southern gentleman and that he used it to slit the throat of a Yankee who invaded his home.” Victor studied her.

  “I’m frightening you, aren’t I?”

  She thought about denying it, then nodded. If she admitted to being frightened, he was more likely to keep talking, to feel a sense of power.

  Her mouth went dry. At the same time, she struggled to breathe. She recognized the beginnings of an asthma attack. She wet her lips. “My purse...inhaler.”

  He picked up her purse, pulled the inhaler from it, then dropped it on the floor and kicked it aside. “Things could have been so good for us, if you’d only given me a chance.”

  Dani’s breathing grew more irregular. “I did give you a chance, Victor,” she said in a husky voice. “It didn’t work out. That’s no reason to kill me.”

  “I hadn’t planned on killing you. I was going to marry you and have the perfect life. But it’s too late for that.” He pointed to a grime-streaked window.

  “She’s right out there. I had to bury her where no one would find her. This little piece of nothing seemed the perfect place for the high-and-mighty Madeline Barclay. Oh, how she loved holding my past over me.”

  “All my mother asked you to do was to tell the truth.” Each word was an effort now. What kind of man killed an innocent woman because she’d found out a few unpalatable facts about him? She answered her own question: a madman. Victor was certainly insane, and that made him more dangerous than ever.

  Her throat felt as if it was closing. Breathe slowly. Quietly. Don’t let him frighten you any more than he already has. Deliberately, she calmed her breathing, taking shallow breaths that didn’t rattle in her chest.

  “It didn’t work out because we weren’t right for each other,” she said in what she hoped was a reasonable-sounding voice. “It had nothing to do with my mother. I wanted to work. I needed to work. You wanted a different kind of woman. I couldn’t be her.”

  “I wanted you. It was you from the first moment I saw you. Only you. We could have traveled, seen the Arc de Triomphe or the great museums of Italy, anywhere you wanted to go. I would have given you the world, laid it at your feet. We could have lived anywhere, had everything we ever wanted.”

  “Only I didn’t want the world,” she said softly. Not Victor’s kind of world, where money reigned and appearances mattered more than substance. Never that. “I wanted to make a difference in the world. For the world. You never understood that.”

  “You and that job of yours. It wasn’t worthy of you.”

  “Any job is worthy if you do it with honesty and integrity.”

  He made a disgusted sound. “Then there was that ridiculous faith of yours. You were always spouting it. Faith doesn’t get you anywhere. My mama prayed day and night, got calluses on her knees for all her prayers, and all it ever got her was rough hands and a sore back as she did other people’s wash. She said if we had enough faith that the Lord would provide.”

  “She was right,” Dani said. She had to have faith that Jake would figure it out, that he would find her. In the meantime, she had to do her part, to keep Victor bragging about his cleverness so that he wouldn’t use that knife on her.

  Was that how he’d killed her mother? A shudder rippled through Dani. Her mother had been fragile and delicate; she would never have been able to fend off a determined Victor.

  Dani reminded herself that she was neither fragile nor delicate. She’d had defense training. If only she could get her hands loose...

  Surreptitiously, she wiggled her fingers, testing the knots. It seemed as though Victor had taken cruel pleasure in tying the knots as tightly as possible.

  “You won’t get free,” he said, reading her mind.

  “But you could set me free,” she said, softening her voice. “You could make all this right by untying me and letting me go. It’s not too late.”

  His harsh laugh told her just how unlikely that was to occur. She looked into his eyes. And saw her fate.

  “And your mama? What am I to do about her? Please don’t bother telling me that you won’t tell anyone what I did with her.”

  He was right. Even if she convinced him that he might escape charges for the stalking and kidnapping, there was her mother’s murder. A tiny sob escaped. Unbelievable pain clenched her heart.

  Oh, Mama. I thought you’d run off all those years ago. I thought you didn’t love me. And all this time, you were here. You died trying to protect me, and I never knew. Forgive me.

  “Don’t bother crying for her. I have to hand it to her, though.” Victor gave an admiring shake of his head. “She didn’t plead, didn’t beg. I think she knew it wouldn’t make any difference. She was a lady right to the end, all dignity and breeding and looking down that royal nose of hers. Do you know I used to hate the way she looked at me, as though I were nothing?”

  “Turns out she was right, wasn’t she?”

  The slap stunned Dani and, for a moment, she must have passed out. When she regained consciousness, she felt a trickle of blood at the corner of her mouth. Her breathing had grown increasingly labored.

  If Victor kept her here much longer, he wouldn’t have to bother using the knife. He could just let the asthma take her.

  No!

  “What about Newton and Brooks? Were they part of your plan?”

  “It was ridiculously easy to manipulate them. They wanted nothing more than to get even with you. All I did was give them a helping hand. I sent an email to Newton, telling her of your peanut allergy. I told her just how much to use. I couldn’t have her killing you. I only wanted you to be sick.”

  “Sick and vulnerable, so I’d turn to you.”

  “That’s right,” he said, in the manner of a teacher encouraging a slow pupil. “I had everything planned. Did you notice that the fish arrived on the anniversary of the day your mother disappeared?”

  “You did that on purpose?” Horror at his deviousness welled inside her. How could she not have seen the evil inside of him?

  “Of course.”

  “But your plan didn’t work.�
�� Careful, she cautioned herself. Don’t make him angry. “I didn’t turn to you.”

  Victor’s face darkened. “No. You had your bodyguard. He was always around, always interfering.”

  “And Brooks?”

  “I hacked into your building’s security program and bypassed the security code to the outside door and to your apartment door.” An ugly smirk crossed Victor’s face. “Brooks didn’t even need a key. All he had to do was waltz in the front door while an out-of-work actor was playing the part of a cop and distracting the doorman.”

  “And you wiped the video feed.”

  “Of course. Child’s play.” He shot her a playful look. “You really ought to live in a building with a better security system.” He snapped his fingers. “Oh, that’s right. It doesn’t matter anymore. You won’t be needing it. Just like you won’t be needing your two bodyguards.”

  Sal had been at the office with her. “Sal? What did you do to him?”

  “He’ll be out for a little while. Groggy but none the worse for wear.”

  Thank goodness for that. “And Jake?” Please, Lord, she prayed, let Jake be all right.

  “Ah, yes, your watchdog. I have plans for him.” Victor leaned over, stroked her cheek.

  Repelled by his touch, she pulled away. “Leave Jake out of this.”

  “So brave,” Victor murmured and held the knife to her throat.

  Dani refused to close her eyes; she waited for the knife to pierce her skin, all the while breathing in the cold scent of her own terror.

  He studied her face and must have seen the resolve in her eyes. “I knew you were falling for him. He’s a nobody, but you chose him over me. For that alone, you’ll pay.” He grabbed a handful of her hair, yanked it. “Don’t worry. Your precious Jake is safe. For now.”

  She sagged in relief.

  “Who knows, though? An accident may befall him at a future date.” Victor shook his head in mock sorrow. “The way he drives that big black Jeep of his—it’s just an accident waiting to happen.” His lips curved when her face bleached of all color.