by Cynthia Eden
Kyle eased into the chair beside Lily. “Can you tell us when you first met Susannah Jane?”
“Susannah?” Lily blinked, then she smiled, a real smile that lifted her lips and chased some of the fear from her eyes. “She was here a few hours ago. Ever since she came to town, she’s always been such a good friend to me.”
Cadence kept her expression neutral. “Susannah came by to see you?”
“Yes, she…” Lily pointed to Malcolm. “She told me I was lucky to have my own guard, but I told her he wouldn’t always be here.” Her voice dropped. “I wish he could be.”
Malcolm’s face tensed. “I told you, Lily, I’m not going anywhere yet.” Malcolm “Mac” Williams had once been an Army Ranger, before he’d traded his military life for marshal service. He might be pulling protective duty right then, but Malcolm’s true talent lay in hunting. He never gave up his hunt.
Lily gave him a weak smile, then she looked back at Cadence and Kyle. “Susannah said she was sorry for what happened to me.”
I’m sure she was.
“Did she say anything else?” Kyle asked her.
Lily rubbed the back of her neck. “She told me that if she could, she’d stop something like this from ever happening again.” Lily glanced once more at her daughter’s bedroom door. “I told her the only way to do that was to stop the SOB who did this to me.”
Dani stared at the gritty image. She’d frozen the video on the woman’s face. Cadence had sure been looking at the video closely enough, and now that she’d finally found pictures of the woman calling herself Susannah Jane Evers, Dani knew why.
Is that you?
Her eyes narrowed as she leaned toward the computer screen.
Had the woman who begged for death been Susannah Jane? It was possible. There were some similarities, but it in the darkness, it was just too hard to tell for certain.
She leaned closer…
A gunshot rang out, the blast deafening.
Dani shot to her feet, her hands automatically going to the holster at her side. She always kept her gun with her, after what had happened to her.
Always keep your weapon close.
She opened the door a crack and inched carefully down the hallway.
“Where is he?” a woman’s voice screamed.
Then she saw the woman. The woman who looked just like the image she’d scanned a few moments before for Susannah Jane.
Susannah stood just a few feet inside the police station. She had a gun in her hand. A gun now shoved beneath her own chin.
Ben advanced toward Susannah. The female officer, Heather, closed in on Susannah’s other side. Heather had her own gun drawn and her face was deathly white.
“Stop!” Susannah screamed. “Stop right there, or I’ll shoot.”
Dani pulled out her phone. Called Cadence. “Get your butt back to the station,” she said when her friend answered. “Your missing girl is here, and she’s about to shoot herself.”
“You don’t want to shoot,” Heather said. The woman lifted her own weapon. Put it down on a nearby desk.
Oh, hell. Don’t do that. Don’t play hero.
Heather was confidently heading toward the other woman. “Susannah, it’s me. We’re friends.”
Susannah moved faster than a striking snake. “That’s not my name!” She grabbed Heather. Held her tight with a wild strength even as the cop twisted in her grasp. Desperation was giving her power. Susannah put the gun against the cop’s head. “I’m Shelly! I was Shelly!”
Shelly Summers. The name clicked immediately. A home in Florida. Parents who’d filed the missing-persons report when their daughter had never made it back to them.
“It’s too bright in here,” Susannah muttered. “I like the dark. It used to scare me. Not anymore.”
I’m tired of the darkness. Kill me!
Dani swallowed the lump in her throat.
“Bring him out to me or I’ll kill her.”
“Bring who?” Ben asked her quietly. Unlike Heather, he hadn’t advanced toward the other woman. He also hadn’t put down his gun. It was up, and aimed right at Susannah.
“What happened to me?” Susannah—Shelly?—whispered with a shake of her head. “Why did I become like this?” She shook her head once more and seemed so lost that Dani hurt for her in that moment.
“Let me go,” Heather said but she didn’t fight against the other woman. Maybe she was afraid the gun would go off.
Susannah’s hold tightened on Heather. “Bring him out, and I will.”
Him.
Dani whirled away from the scene and ran back toward the interrogation room. She threw open the first door. Aaron Peters jumped. His eyes doubled when he saw her gun. “What’s happening?”
“Come with me,” she demanded.
He hurried to his feet. Rushed outside with her.
“Susannah!” She shouted for the other woman, trying to get her attention. If she could distract her, then Dani knew Ben could make a grab for her weapon.
They needed to take Susannah in alive because she was the key to so much.
The key to everything.
Susannah turned her head at Dani’s call. She stared at Aaron, frowning. Then she gave a negative shake of her head. “That’s not him. I told you I need him!”
Well, she had two more men left to go.
“He hurt Lily.” Susannah pushed the gun against Heather’s temple. Shoved it hard. “I should have stopped him. Why didn’t anyone stop him?”
Dani shoved Aaron away from her. She was so afraid Susannah was about to pull the trigger.
“Why didn’t I?” A desperate whisper. “After what he did to me, why didn’t I?”
The tension was so thick that Dani could feel it pressing down on her.
“Susannah!” Aaron suddenly shouted. “Tell them I was with you last night!”
What. The. Hell. The man was an idiot. He had eyes in his head. The guy had to see what was happening.
Susannah blinked. She seemed to weave on her feet.
Footsteps pounded behind Dani. She looked back. Saw both Captain Anniston and James Marsh rushing down the narrow hallway.
Dani’s gaze flew back to Susannah. The woman had taken the gun away from Heather’s head. Now she was pointing it at—
Me.
“No,” Dani said. Because she knew what was going to happen. With the gun pointed at her, with Susannah’s trembling fingers tightening around that trigger—
“Drop it!” Ben yelled.
But Susannah didn’t drop the weapon. Tears leaked down her cheeks.
“Don’t!” Dani begged her. “You don’t want to do this.”
A blast shook the station.
Susannah’s body jerked.
She smiled as she fell. As her blood spattered.
“No!” James Anniston ran toward her. His shoulder bumped into Dani, jostling her.
James and Ben surrounded the fallen woman. “I had to take the shot.” Ben’s voice was tight. “She was going to shoot.”
The people who’d been frozen before all sprang forward. A thick circle formed around Ben and James.
“Get an ambulance!” James shouted.
Someone was already calling for the EMTs.
They weren’t going to be able to help.
“Are you okay?” Aaron said, his voice shaken.
She looked down and realized Susannah had been firing. She’d fired even as Ben took his shot. The thundering sound had been so loud because—two bullets.
Blood dripped down her arm. “The bullet just grazed me.”
She turned, glancing back to see where the bullet had gone.
Jason Marsh was on the ground. Blood pooled beneath him.
Oh, hell, no. “Man down!” Dani shouted and hurried toward him.
His eyes were wide, shocked. Blood leaked from his lips and from the hole in his chest.
Susannah was smiling when she died.
Because she’d taken out the man who’d turned her into
a monster?
Dani put her hands over Jason’s wounds. Others were coming to offer help but his blood was soaking her. Pouring out far too fast. If the bleeding didn’t stop soon, he’d be dead.
Cadence, I need you. Cadence would know what to do. She always knew.
Jason’s hand rose. Locked around her arm. She glanced at his face.
“Help’s coming.” She tried to reassure him, even if he was a killer, she tried. “We’ll get you sewn up.”
The bullet was still in him. It had torn its way through his organs. Where had Susannah even gotten that weapon?
Jason shook his head. “Not…”
“You’ll live!” Lie, lie. “Just hold on!”
She heard the screech of sirens then. When cops called for an ambulance, the ambulance rushed to the station.
Her knees were soaked in his blood. It covered her jeans. Every space of skin on her hands.
“Susannah.” His voice was a rasp. “She…okay…?”
Not based on the sounds Dani heard.
Then the EMTs were there. Pushing her back. Loading him on a stretcher.
Susannah had been loaded up, too. They were put in the same ambulance.
“Fuck, you’re hurt.” Ben grabbed her arm.
She pulled away from him. Stared after those swirling lights.
“Dani!” Cadence was finally there, running toward them with shocked eyes.
“What the hell happened?” Kyle demanded as he rushed behind her.
“Justice.” This came from James Anniston. He didn’t sound satisfied. Just tired. “Susannah said she was here for the man who’d hurt her. Dammit, she was a victim, too?”
One who had been there, all along.
Her arm throbbed. The lights from the ambulance were vanishing.
“She shot him. She took out Marsh. My own detective.” The words were a whisper from Anniston. “My detective…”
Cadence caught Dani’s arm. “You’re going to need stitches.”
Ben was still staring at Dani. “It looked like she was shooting you.”
Yes, it had.
“I had to take the shot.” She’d never heard Ben sound so shaken. Wait…
Yes, she had. Back when she’d been in the hospital, fighting to stay alive.
“Is Susannah gonna make it?” Kyle demanded.
Ben shook his head.
Anniston swore and stormed back into the station.
They were left there, with the scent of blood and death all around them.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“I don’t understand.” Anniston’s shoulders were hunched forward. “She was one of the women he took? But she was here in town, all those years…”
The police station was a crime scene. The people inside were stunned.
Susannah Jane had died en route to the hospital. Jason Marsh had survived until he got onto the operating room table.
Then died five minutes later.
“He kept her for so long that he brainwashed her.” It wasn’t the first time a victim had turned killer.
Anniston’s head lifted.
Kyle sat in the chair near hers, but he wasn’t speaking.
“A victim can be held for so long.” She hated what could be done to a damaged psyche. “It’s a form of Stockholm syndrome. You bond with the captor. The victim has to have that bond in order to survive. The bond can go so far that in order to function, the victim has to identify with her attacker. She has to become like him. Think like him. Act like him.”
Kill like him?
Anniston swore. “But she was free, walking around town. She could have come to me. I would have helped her!”
Susannah Jane’s freedom had been superficial. She might have been walking around the town, but the perp had still held her captive. He’d controlled her completely through fear. “Just because she wasn’t still being held in the cave,” Cadence said quietly, “it doesn’t mean she wasn’t still a prisoner. Her abductor no doubt kept close tabs on her. He would have controlled her, every aspect of her life.”
Anniston shook his head. “I was here. Right damn here for her!”
Kyle’s hands had fisted. “You were here, but Jason was here, too. Jason was in the station. He worked for you. If she’d gone to you for help, Jason would have found out.” Kyle shook his head. “That wasn’t an option.”
“Neither was turning on him,” Cadence said. “She feared him far too much.” Until he’d taken her friend. Until she’d seen it was possible to escape from him.
She’d tried to fight back, but it was too late.
“We’re gonna search his place,” Anniston said. The lines on his face were so much heavier now. The case—cases—had taken a heavy toll on him. “Do you think we’ll find more evidence there?”
Yes.
Cadence glanced toward Kyle.
“Is it over now?” Anniston asked.
They hadn’t closed the case, wouldn’t, until they’d tied up the loose ends. But Jason fit as the killer.
A nice, neat bow.
They still had to go through the videos. Had to ID the remains.
They’d search Susannah’s small home on the outskirts of town. They’d tear apart Jason’s place.
There was still a lot more work to be done. The case wasn’t over, not yet.
Cadence prayed the deaths were, though. “We won’t be leaving town just yet.”
Anniston nodded. “If there’s anything I can do, tell me.”
The reporters were already outside, ready for a feeding frenzy. A serial abductor—and killer—who’d turned out to be a cop. This story wouldn’t go away any time soon.
No matter how much the town might wish it would.
“Identify with the killer.” Anniston couldn’t seem to get past that. “I can’t believe it’s just—”
“There are plenty of theories out there,” Cadence told him as she ignored the throbbing in her temples. “Things like learned helplessness.”
He frowned at her. “Learned what?”
“Helplessness. It’s why battered wives don’t leave their husbands. After so much abuse, you learn to adapt your behavior in order to survive.”
Was that what had happened to Susannah? An adaption? One that came back to haunt her.
They’d never know for sure, not now.
“We’re heading out to Susannah’s place,” Kyle said as he rose. “We’ll keep you updated on what we find.”
Anniston stood, too. “Son, I’m sorry we never brought your sister home.”
“Maybe we did.” He gave a slow nod. “The ME is working to ID those remains. Maybe Maria will get her funeral. Maybe I can take her home.”
Cadence wanted to reach out to Kyle. So she did.
So what if Anniston was there to watch? She took Kyle’s hand in hers. Curled her fingers with his.
Together, they walked to the door.
“Thank you,” Anniston said. There’d been no anger from him. No demands of an apology after he’d been suspected as the killer.
The guy seemed to know just how the cases worked.
Cadence glanced back at him. Anniston was watching them with a steady stare.
“I just wish I could’ve done more to help you.” Anniston spoke again, voice solemn. “Something more. Anything.”
They left his office. The cops in the station looked shell-shocked. Heather was swiping away tears on her cheeks. “You never suspect your own,” she whispered as they passed by her desk.
Cadence hesitated near her.
“I should have seen.” Heather swallowed. “We were so close, and I never knew what he was.” Another swipe of her hand over her cheek. “I feel so stupid.”
“You shouldn’t.” Killers were good at deception. The man had spent plenty of time perfecting his craft. Fifteen years.
“Captain Anniston said for me to go home,” Heather told them. “What will I do there? Or here?” Her gaze locked where Jason had fallen. “Maybe I should go home.”
She turned away from them.
“We need to get over to Susannah’s place,” Kyle said quietly, “before some reporters hungry for an exclusive bust inside and ruin any evidence.”
Cadence could hear the reporters outside the station. They’d pretty much staked out camp there. The story was too juicy to ignore. Especially when a cop was tagged as a serial killer.
They pushed open the station’s doors. The questions flew at them.
“Is it true one of the victims helped the killer commit his crimes?”
Not just one of the victims. Two had.
“Detective McKenzie, have you found your sister?”
Kyle didn’t even slow down. He figured someone had leaked that tidbit to the press.
“Was Detective Marsh the killer?”
The SUV’s doors slammed closed. Kyle pulled away from the station.
Silence.
Cadence stared down at her hands. She wished she had been at the station when Susannah arrived.
Could she have saved her?
Maybe.
Or maybe Susannah had just been ready for death.
Maybe she’d been ready since she woke up, locked in a tomb deep within the ground.
“It consumed me,” Kyle said.
At his rumbling words, Cadence glanced over at him. His words had seemed hesitant, when he was never the sort for hesitancy.
“Finding her was all I had. It kept me going for years. The thought I’d bring her home.”
He drove easily through the twisting roads, following the GPS instructions as they filled the interior of the SUV.
“Then I met you.”
He never took his gaze off the road.
“Something else started to consume me.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “Kyle.”
“I don’t know how you feel about me. But I wanted you to know. Cadence, sometimes I feel like I’m not even fucking alive if you’re not near me.” His hands had tightened around the wheel. “Love is supposed to be easy, isn’t it? Kind and good. The way I feel about you…it’s dark. Sometimes, I worry it’s closer to obsession.”
They were leaving the small town. Heading for the outskirts. Heading to Susannah’s home.