Oh, God, he thought he’d throw up. His hands shook. His heartbeat accelerated. Don’t have a heart attack and die. Not now. Not before you make love to Heather.
He finally managed to remove his briefs. Standing there in front of her as naked as the day he was born, he looked down at his feet.
“Oh, you’re shy. You’ve never fucked a girl before, have you?”
He shook his head.
Thunder rattled the window panes and rain plummeted against the glass.
“I have a surprise for you,” she told him.
He assumed she meant that she was naked and ready to make love, that she was his surprise. Then he heard the door open and the sound of giggles alerted him to the fact that he and Heather were not alone.
His head snapped up in time to see Heather, still fully clothed, open the door all the way. Her three fellow Sable Girls stood outside in the hallway, peering in at him, giggling their stupid brunette heads off.
“Bring her in, girls,” Heather said.
He didn’t know what was going on, what Heather was up to, but suddenly he knew that they weren’t going to make love. Not today. Not ever.
Shannon Elmore and Sara Hayes dragged a big, shaggy, mixed-breed dog into the room. With his hands covering his private parts, he looked from the dog and the girls to Heather, who was smiling wickedly.
“I promised you a fuck, didn’t I?” she said. “Well, here’s the girl for you. She’s a real dog, the only kind of female who’d ever let you stick your dick into her.”
Heather laughed. They all laughed. Except Courtney, who stared at him with wide eyes, her cheeks flaming red.
Standing there trembling, he looked at Heather and asked, “Why?”
“Why? Can’t you figure it out?”
He shook his head.
“This is my initiation into the Sable Girls. I devised this whole plan all by myself. Clever of me, don’t you think.” She turned around to her friends and said, “Let’s go. I’m sure these two want to be alone.”
He stood there and stared at the dog, who turned and wandered out into the hall. Feeling like the biggest fool on earth, he dropped to his knees on the blanket, huddled into a fetal ball and cried.
The sound of the Sable Girls’ laughter echoed inside his head long after they left the storage room.
Chapter 29
While Kevin sat in the den watching TV and feeding Boomer tidbits from his breakfast plate, Jim and Bernie found a few minutes alone in her kitchen. Although they’d spent every waking moment together since Sunday morning, working tirelessly on the Secret Admirer serial killer case, along with Charlie Patterson, they hadn’t shared another night together. Bernie had spent Sunday night at her parents’ home with Robyn. Kevin was in school all day; then he went home with J.D. Simms in the afternoon and Jim picked him up at the DA’s house every evening. Between Bernie’s concern about and devotion to her sister and Jim’s duty as a full-time single parent, there hadn’t been any time for the two of them.
Selfishly, he wanted time alone with Bernie. And not just for lovemaking. He enjoyed simply being with her. Listening to her talk and laugh. Watching the subtle changes in her expressions.
Yesterday, the Adams County Sheriff’s Department and the ABI had come to a decision. It was time to call in the FBI.
Actually, what Jim had said was, “It’s way past time we call in the Feds.”
Charlie had agreed with him.
And on behalf of her family, Bernie had told Jim that they wanted Griffin Powell to send in a couple of his agents to reinforce the contingent of volunteer deputies acting as around-the-clock bodyguards for Robyn. Two agents were scheduled to arrive today and rotate twelve-hour shifts as backup for the local deputies. Everything that could be done to protect Robyn was being done. Jim didn’t think there was any possible way the killer could get to her, short of gunning down her guards and alerting half the town to his presence.
Jim came up behind Bernie where she stood at the sink rinsing out the skillets she’d used to prepare their breakfast, pancakes and sausage links. When he wrapped his arms around her, she leaned back into him and sighed contentedly.
He kissed her temple. “I like to start the morning this way. You and Kevin and I together, sharing breakfast. Like a real family.”
“Me, too.” She lifted her hands from the soapy dishwater, dried them off on her gingham checkered apron and turned in his arms.
“The only thing that I’d add to the scenario to make this morning perfect is for you to have woken up in my arms and for us to have made love before getting out of bed.”
She gazed into his eyes. “I thought you told me you weren’t a romantic.”
“I’m not.” He caressed her butt. “But you bring out the best in me. I feel like I can be totally honest with you.”
“You can.”
He nodded. “When we catch this bastard and Robyn is safe, I think you and I should talk about the future.”
“The future?”
“Our future. Together.”
She grinned. “Are you asking me to go steady?”
Jim chuckled. “Yeah, I guess I am. So, Bernie Granger, do you want to be my girl?”
She lifted her arms up and around his neck, then gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “Yes, I do. Very much.”
Kevin cleared his throat. Bernie and Jim jumped apart.
“What are you two doing—making out?” Kevin asked teasingly.
They turned and faced Jim’s son, who stood in the doorway, an empty plate in his hand and Boomer at his feet.
“Your father just asked me to be his girlfriend.” Bernie eased away from Jim and reached out to take Kevin’s plate. “What do you think about that?”
“I think he should ask you to marry him.”
Jim cleared his throat. “I … uh … don’t think Bernie and I are ready for marriage yet.”
“When do you think you will be ready?” Kevin asked. “Neither of you is getting any younger, and if you plan to give me any brothers and sisters, you might want to get a move on.”
Jim glanced at Bernie and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling.
“I think your dad and I will try dating for a while first.”
“Yeah.” Jim pulled Kevin back against himself, wrapped his arms across Kevin’s chest and tickled him playfully. “Don’t go putting Bernie and me on Medicare just quite yet. I think we’ve both got a few more good years left.”
Just as father and son started laughing and joking around, Jim’s cell phone rang. He immediately released Kevin, who stepped back and stared at the phone clipped to his dad’s belt. As Jim removed the phone, his gaze met Bernie’s and held for a split second. Then he flipped open the phone.
“Captain Norton here.”
“Jim? Jimmy, is that you?”
“Mary Lee?”
“Mom? Is it Mom?” Kevin asked, his eyes round with hopefulness.
“I suppose you’re surprised to hear from me,” his ex-wife said.
“How are you? Kevin and I have been concerned. We’re glad you’re feeling up to calling us.”
“I’m doing much better.” She laughed shakily. “I’m losing my hair. You remember my gorgeous hair, don’t you, Jimmy?”
“Yeah, of course, I do.” He remembered a lot of things about Mary Lee, but none of them really mattered anymore. Everything he’d shared with her was in the past now, where it should be. Everything except Kevin. Right at this very moment, while he was listening to the sound of Mary Lee’s voice, Jim was more certain than he’d ever been that he was completely over his ex-wife. And just as certain that he loved Bernie Granger.
“I want to talk to Kevin,” Mary Lee said. “I need to tell him that I love him and … well, Jimmy, it’s like this … I’d like for Kevin to stay on with you. Just until the end of the year. I still have more treatments and I plan on having breast reconstruction soon and—”
“I understand.”
“Do you think Kevin will?”
<
br /> “I believe so. He’s a great kid. You’ve done a good job with him, Mary Lee.”
She made an odd little sound, then said, “Thank you, Jimmy. I—I’m sorry that I’ve kept you two apart so much. In the future, I think we should discuss joint custody.”
“I’d like that.”
“May I talk to my son now?”
“Sure thing.” Jim held out his cell phone to Kevin. “Your mother wants to talk to you.”
Kevin grabbed the phone and started jabbering happily, asking his mother half a dozen questions in rapid succession, then telling her about school, about the new friends he’d made, about Bernie and about Boomer.
“Bernie and Dad make a great team,” Kevin said.
Jim walked over, put his arm around Bernie’s waist and leaned his head down against hers. “He’s right about that, you know. We do make a great team. At work. In life.” He whispered in her ear, “And in bed.”
They thought Robyn was safe, that they had her adequately protected. But they were wrong. They had no idea just how wrong they were. If they thought posting deputies to watch her around the clock and bringing in professional bodyguards would keep him away from her, then they underestimated him. He had accelerated the rate of his gift giving, sending her his tokens of love on an almost daily basis since Saturday night. She was waiting for that final gift, the one that announced he would soon be coming to get her, to take her away someplace where they could be alone. She had to be as eager as he for that moment. Despite the fact that she was pretending to everyone else that she loved Raymond Long, he knew better. He knew she loved him. Only him. And she wanted him, even more than he wanted her.
Just like Heather.
Don’t remember. Don’t think about her. Concentrate on the present, on the here and now, on Robyn. You have plans to make and execute.
But the memories never left him alone. They came to haunt him at will. Sometimes the harder he tried to make them go away, the more vividly they played out repeatedly inside his mind. Almost as if they were happening all over again.
He hadn’t made any plans to see Heather that night. He hadn’t sought her out, had not gone looking for her. And he had not meant to punish her. Despite what she’d done to him, a part of him had still wanted her. At twenty-one, he hadn’t been the same pitiful boy she’d so heartlessly duped.
She’d been a senior in college, home for the holidays. He’d been on two weeks’ leave from the Army and back in Greenville for Christmas with his aunt, a widow for two years. He hadn’t set out to see Heather, but as fate would have it, they had both done last-minute shopping at the mall. He’d recognized her instantly. Beautiful as ever. Maybe even more so.
When their eyes met and she smiled at him, he’d known she didn’t recognize him. Who would? He’d changed a great deal, physically and mentally. He was a soldier now. A man, not a boy.
He’d introduced himself to her by his new name. Before he’d joined the Army, he’d had his name legally changed, taking his uncle’s last name. They had talked. She’d flirted. Then he’d offered to carry her packages to her car for her. She’d been so busy basking in his attention that she’d never suspected a thing.
After they had sex in her car, he’d told her who he was. She’d freaked out, hitting him, calling him ugly names. That’s when he’d lost it. He had strangled her until she passed out; then he’d driven a couple of blocks away, parked in a dark alley, and when she’d come to, they’d had sex again. She’d screamed rape, but he knew better. She’d wanted him.
But because she wouldn’t stop screaming, wouldn’t stop saying such horrible things to him, he’d had no choice but to silence her. He’d taken out his pocket knife and slit her throat. It had been so easy. Afterward, he’d actually felt good about what he’d done. Satisfied. And powerful. He’d taken the car a few miles out of town, left her there inside and jogged back to the mall parking lot. Then he’d driven home and spent Christmas with his aunt. When he returned to active duty, he’d told himself that now, finally, he could put the past behind himself. Forever. But he’d been wrong. Dead wrong.
“Stop worrying about me,” Robyn told Raymond. “I’m fine. Ron just left a few minutes ago and Scotty Joe’s here now, along with Mr. Delaine, who is, I swear, six-six and has the most fearsome scowl on his face all the time. That look would scare the devil.”
Raymond had called just to say he loved her. And to check on her, as he did several times a day. He took her to lunch, along with her armed guard, every day. And he came for a late supper at her parents’ house every evening, along with his mother, Helen, who had done a complete about-face and was treating Robyn as if she were already her beloved daughter-in-law.
“You haven’t received another present, have you?” Raymond asked.
“No, I haven’t. Besides, you know that Bernie assigned a deputy to watch the backdoor, just in case.”
“We couldn’t get that lucky, could we? That he’d actually walk up to the back door to leave a gift and a deputy could arrest him.”
“Bernie and Jim say he’s smart, so he probably won’t make that mistake, but they also say it’s only a matter of time until he screws up. That’s when they’ll catch him.”
“It can’t be too soon to suit me.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
“You’ll be closing up soon and coming home, won’t you?”
“Uh-huh. My last aerobics class ended about twenty minutes ago and everybody’s gone, except Scotty Joe, Mr. Delaine, and me. I’ve got about ten minutes of paperwork to do and then we’ll be heading out of here.”
“Robyn?”
“Hmm…?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Smiling, she laid the receiver on the base atop her desk. Just as she returned to the paperwork she needed to finish tonight, she heard voices beyond her closed door. Scotty Joe and Mr. Delaine? Of course. Who else could it be? Then she heard an odd noise, as if something fell, but she dismissed it as nothing when Scotty Joe knocked on the door and called to her.
“Are you okay, Miss Robyn? We thought we heard a loud bump.”
“I’m fine. Maybe it was something outside.”
“Mr. Delaine’s gone to check around outside and I’m taking a look inside. You sit tight.”
“All right.”
Sit tight? She could do that. She planned to sit right here and not move a muscle until Scotty Joe gave her the all clear.
What if he’s out there, outside the fitness center? What if he was waiting for her? Robyn’s heartbeat hammered in her ears. She rubbed her hands together nervously.
You’re safe. You have two capable bodyguards and both of them carry big guns.
A dead limb off one of the trees out back might have fallen on the roof. Or a stray cat or dog could have knocked over a trash can in the alley.
Minutes ticked by, each seeming endlessly long. When Scotty Joe finally opened her office door and rushed inside, she jumped as if she’d been shot.
“Sorry, Miss Robyn, I didn’t mean to scare you. Everything is okay, except …” He pulled the large manila envelope out from where he’d been holding it behind his back. “Looks like our guy has left the final gift.”
“Where did he leave it? And why didn’t the deputy watching the backdoor see him?”
“He didn’t leave it at the back door. When I was looking around to see what that noise was, I found the envelope lying on one of the treadmills. Somebody must have left it there earlier this evening.”
“Oh, God!” Robyn covered her mouth with both hands.
Scotty Joe took several steps forward. “Maybe we’d better open it to make sure it’s what we think it is.”
She nodded.
He undid the clasp, opened the flap and turned the envelope upside down over her desk. The contents dumped out on top of the scattered paperwork—a small envelope with her name printed on it in large black letters, a gold-plated ankle bracelet, and an ink-rendered sketch. She and Sco
tty Joe stared at the sketch and then at each other.
“It’s me,” she said. “Look what he’s done to me.”
“Don’t look at it, Miss Robyn. Just leave everything here and let me and Mr. Delaine get you home; then Bernie and Captain Norton can come back here and take care of this stuff.”
Robyn nodded. Scotty Joe came around her desk and helped her to her feet.
Robyn had been due home an hour ago. They had tried calling her at work, tried her cell phone and tried contacting Scotty Joe and Griffin Powell’s agent Ron Delaine. No one responded. Bernie tried not to think the worst, but horrific doubts kept creeping into her mind. The Secret Admirer killer had outsmarted them, somehow, someway, and had abducted Robyn. They had no idea who he was, so if he had taken Robyn, how would they ever find her?
Bernie had tried to talk her father and Raymond into staying at home with her mother and Helen Long, but they had followed behind her and Jim, in Raymond’s car, arriving at the fitness center right behind them. As soon as they got out of her Jeep, John Downs emerged from his car and joined them at the front entrance.
Using the spare set of keys for the fitness center that her parents kept at home, Bernie unlocked the door and shoved it open; then Jim eased her aside and stepped over the threshold. She and John Downs followed Jim into the vestibule, both with their weapons drawn. Illumination from the streetlight cast shadows across the wooden floor. With her free hand, Bernie felt along the wall until her fingers encountered the light switch. She flipped it and light flooded the area.
Carefully, the three of them crept through the vestibule and into the main work room filled with various types of exercise equipment. Bernie turned on the lights. Ron Delaine lay on the floor, facedown, fresh blood circling his head like a sticky red halo.
Bernie gasped, but continued moving forward. Carefully.
“John and I will check things out,” Jim said. “You see if Delaine’s dead.”
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