“This is it,” Erin whispered, and Sylvie put the car in park. More than anything she’d ever desired, Erin wanted to beg Sylvie to turn the vehicle around. To take her back to the airport and let her go. Let her run away.
But Gabriel’s life depended on her. She owed him for so much, for so many things. It was debt that propelled her out of the car and up the stone walkway. Sylvie and Gabriel hurried after her.
Gabriel caught her midway. “Don’t be a fool, Erin.” Casting a pensive glance at the door, he hissed, “There could be a killer in there. Let Sylvie do her job.”
Following protocol, Sylvie pounded on the door, announcing herself as an officer of the law. The cabin was dark, and she hadn’t noticed any tire tracks leading up the road. She motioned them to stay back and did a quick sweep inside. The cabin was two stories, one wide room with a loft above. After she checked the rear door, she returned to the front. “Place seems deserted.”
“I want to go inside.”
“Can’t.” Crossing over to Erin, Sylvie patted her arm. “I think it’s best if you wait in the car.”
Erin stared at the site of her greatest sin. Before she could forgive herself, she had to face what she’d done. In a sudden burst, she shoved Sylvie aside, knocking her into Gabriel. They tumbled to the ground, both yelling for her to stop. She darted inside the cabin, drawn by conscience and destiny.
The thick door slammed closed, locking Erin inside and Gabriel out. He hurtled his body at the door, but the solid wood did not budge. “Sylvie! Sylvie, he’s got her!” he bellowed.
Inside the cabin, Erin whirled around to face the killer. But she felt no shock to see Jessica standing at the threshold, covered in dust, gun in hand.
“Jessica? What are you doing here?” She asked the question because the scene demanded it. Jessica’s twisted ego demanded it.
“Defending my dissertation, I suppose.” Dropping the wooden plank into the grooved slot, she grinned at Erin as she bolted the locks. “Are you impressed?”
“Yes,” Erin answered honestly. “I didn’t see it. You gave me all the clues, and I didn’t see it.”
“Of course not.” Jessica waved the gun toward the bed. The naked mattress sagged from disuse. “Sit down, Dr. Abbott.”
Erin did as she instructed, realizing Jessica had hidden beneath the bed. Her heart pounded in her throat, and she could hear Gabriel hammering at the door. Jessica had dragged the rocker to the other side, and the teaching assistant sat down regally. With the gun trained on her forehead, Erin thought only of buying time. “You saw me with Nathan that night.”
The butt of the gun smashed into her lip. Pain arced through her and her vision blurred. Jessica stood over her. “Don’t you dare use his name. You destroyed him.”
“I tried to leave him.” Erin managed to speak through the pain and she levered herself up. “The night you found us here, I was trying to leave him.”
“You were going to turn on him. I could see it in your eyes.” At Erin’s confused look, Jessica explained patiently. “I was the one who told him that you saw him with Kendra. I saw you lurking in the shadows, judging us.”
Erin remembered the eyes that stared at her through the pulsating red. The eyes that made her run. “You were a student of his. At Callenwolde.”
“No, not a student of Nathan’s. More like a protégé. Of his darker passions. My major really is psychology. Always has been.” She smiled, a slow, deliberate baring of teeth. “I’ve always been fascinated by pain and death. Nathan was a master.”
“I didn’t recognize you.”
“How could you? Princess Analise. Darling of the school. Perfect manners, perfect grades, perfect dissertation. You never had time for the rest of us peons.”
“I’d already graduated by the time you arrived, Jessica.”
“But you still had him. No one else measured up.” The crazed, bright smile Jessica shot Erin curdled her stomach. “But you could never be to him what I was. He said I was a natural. I did for him what you wouldn’t. Couldn’t. And then you took him away from me.”
“The shooting was an accident. Jessica, you saw it.”
“If you hadn’t forced him to punish you, he never would have died.” Her voice broke and the gun dipped. “I had to do it for him. Avenge him.”
“You could have killed me a thousand times, Jessica. Why did you kill the others first?”
Jessica frowned. “I thought you’d have realized that by now. I killed them for research, naturally. My dissertation is on the interplay of disciplines in criminal behavior.”
“The connection of linguistics and psychology.”
In a reasonable tone, Jessica explained her theory. “How language can subvert generally accepted theories of criminal behavior. Sociolinguistics, as Dr. Bernard so elegantly put it.”
“As you commanded.” The connection snapped into place. “The lashes on his back. Your work?”
Jessica nodded in approval. “Excellent, Professor. Kenneth likes being told what to do. I’m very good at telling him.” She smiled knowingly. “We had an understanding.”
“He hired me because of you.” That explained the lack of scrutiny to her application. “How long have you been in New Orleans?”
“Two years. Two very long years, waiting for my chance. Then, like a Christmas present, there you were.” Jessica crossed her legs demurely. “I saw you in the Quarter one day, buying trinkets. I wanted to kill you then. Shoot you in the heart. But then I saw Dr. Fordham with you, and I knew. I knew what had to be done.”
The banging on the door had stopped, but Jessica didn’t seem to notice. Erin leaned forward, scooting away when the gun waved her back. Her mouth still throbbing, she asked, “Why Julian? Why did you kill him first?”
“I watched you. For weeks. Every morning, you would go to the gym and tease him.” Disgust edged her words. “He would watch you like a dog in heat. Salivating over you. Lusting after you. And you just ate it up.” The gun wavered slightly.
“He was nothing to me.”
“You didn’t see him. You never saw anyone. But I did. I paid attention.” Her eyes shone with resentment. “I went to his office. Invited him home with me. He said no. I asked him about you and he smiled.”
“So you killed him.” Erin blanched, her stomach turning. “Because he wouldn’t sleep with you?”
“No!” Jessica’s eyes grew hard. “I had a theory. About you. Want to hear it?” Not waiting for Erin’s response, she said, “The subject would be oblivious to the pain and suffering around her unless it became an intellectual exercise. How much more interesting if the victims were the ones to show her mercy?” Her voice trembled with sullen pique. “How badly would she suffer if she had to actually feel?”
“Why? Why hurt those who were kind to me?”
“Because then you’d feel like Nathan felt every time you turned him away. Rejected his love.”
Erin used the tail of her shirt to dab at the blood that trickled to her chin. “Nathan was incapable of love, Jessica. He was a narcissistic tyrant who abused women for his own ends.”
“He was a great man under too much pressure. Everyone wanted him to be perfect! You wanted him to be more than any mortal could.”
Enraged, Erin surged up from the bed. “Kill me if you have to, but understand this. Nathan was a bully and a thief. He preyed on the weak and the innocent and he used them. You and me and the woman in the cellar.”
“There was only one,” Jessica countered shrilly, gesturing with the pistol. “You. Always his precious Analise. Because of you, he pushed me away. Said I was inferior. That you were the most brilliant at everything you tried. Linguistics. Psychology. But I was better with the games. I knew how to please him.”
Over Jessica’s shoulder, she saw a swirl of light through the cabin’s front window. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement near the side window. She had to stall, give them a chance to rescue her. Erin returned to the bed, penitent. To pacify her, Erin said, “I couldn’t have
done what you did, Jessica. The combination of weapon and occupation was inspired.”
“I researched every word.”
“Where did you find your weapons?”
“You’d be amazed at what the university has lying around.”
“Not insulin.” Erin needed to keep her talking. “How did you get it?”
Fondling the gun, she explained, “I’m diabetic, like Nathan. That’s how we first met. At the university pharmacy, getting our prescriptions filled.”
“I didn’t realize you took insulin.”
“How could you? You never asked about me or my life.”
“I’m sorry, Jessica. I owed you better.”
“You owe me respect. I beat you.” Jessica preened as she talked. “That day Harmony begged for another chance, all to join that sorority, it came to me.”
“An initiate.” Erin held back the grief. There would be time, she had to believe. “I admired the intricacy of your clues about Nathan. It must have taken you a great deal of research to find all of those links.”
Jessica preened. “I got the idea after I killed Julian Harris. He had all of those books. I added Nathan’s to his collection.”
Glad she had calmed, Erin kept her talking, one eye on the weapon resting against the young woman’s thigh. “I couldn’t figure out Harriet Knowles. What was the clue?”
“They were both from Philadelphia.” Jessica cocked her head quizzically. A student eager for praise, she asked, “Did you figure out the other ones?”
“Phoebe went to Juilliard, like Nathan. The Chinese artifact for Rose Young. The photo in Mr. Johnson’s cabin. And you took Maggie’s ring.” Erin realized instantly she’d gone too far.
“I saw you wearing his ring at school. He loved that ring.” Jessica aimed the gun at Erin’s finger. “I defiled her body, just like you did to Nathan’s. When you made me kill him.”
The confession froze Erin. “You? You killed him?”
Madness brightened her eyes and she nodded. “I had to. He went after you, left me there with Kendra’s body. He chose you over me. I knew about the cabin. I followed him to you. But you were too weak to save him from himself. I struck you with a branch.” Jessica smiled wanly. “The bullet had hit him in the stomach, but it wasn’t fatal. He begged for me to save him. Whining, mewling. A whimpering dog. He was supposed to be the master, but he was no better than a supplicant. I took the gun from you and stood over his body. He cried. The bastard cried. It wasn’t Nathan. Not my Nathan. I had to kill the impostor.”
“I didn’t kill him.” The knowledge ripped through her.
“But you took his ring.” Jessica stared at her hand. “Give it to me.”
Dazed, Erin looked past Jessica and saw her signal. She tucked her hand behind her back. “Come and get it.”
CHAPTER 28
Jessica lunged for Erin, who jumped out of her path. She ran for the door, stopped by a vicious tug on her hair. Erin lost her footing and fell. Kicking out, she knocked Jessica off-balance, and they both hit the ground.
Erin straddled Jessica’s writhing form. Jessica bucked and they tumbled over the rough wood and braided rugs. They wrestled for the gun, a haunting echo of two years before.
But this time, Erin was wide awake and furious. “You’re not going to win, Jessica!” She levered her body to aim a knee at the younger woman’s kidneys. The blow elicited a screech of pain, and Erin felt Jessica’s hands loosen on the gun. She heaved the weapon away.
This time, when glass shattered as Gabriel dived inside, Erin stood over a live body. Behind him, police officers swarmed into the cabin. Kind hands pried the gun from her rigid fingers. “We’ve got it now, ma’am.”
Erin could hear Jessica’s shrieking cries but only had eyes for Gabriel. Stumbling, Erin made her way to him, meeting him near where Nathan had died. Gabriel cradled her bruised cheek in a cautious hand. “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry.”
“I didn’t kill him.” The immensity of her vindication crumpled her into an exhausted heap. “She did it,” Erin sobbed in a broken litany. “Gabriel, I didn’t kill him. I didn’t kill him.” Crouched beside her, Gabriel could do nothing but hold her as she wept.
When she subsided, Gabriel gained his feet and scooped her body into his hold. Purple colored her cheekbones, swelled the ripe mouth he adored. He’d let her walk in alone. She’d never be alone again. Giving voice to his oath, he pledged, “I’m taking you home.”
Erin awoke to find herself swathed in crisp cotton sheets. And nothing else. Her jaw ached from Jessica’s gun, and her stomach growled in hungry protest. Next to her, Gabriel sat on an upholstered chair, feet propped on the bed. She realized, with a start, that he’d been there for hours. Dawn hadn’t broken, but the sky was lightening.
She watched Gabriel, flooded by emotions too huge to comprehend. Shadows bruised the skin beneath his eyes. Stubble darkened his chin. One hand held hers in an unyielding grip. Touched, Erin pressed a kiss to the warm skin. Gabriel blinked once.
“You’re awake,” he murmured in a voice scratchy from sleep.
“Why are you over there?” Erin patted the empty space beside her. “You didn’t have to sleep in a chair, Gabriel.”
“I didn’t want to crowd you.”
The wide expanse of the king-size bed belied his explanation. “Are you trying to tell me something?” she teased.
Gabriel didn’t smile. Instead, he loosened his hold on her and stood up. “I’m sorry, Erin.” He stalked over to the balcony, where the drapes framed the Golden Gate Bridge. Fog hung low over the night city, a gauzy blanket over the pastel and stucco houses below.
Pushing her tangled hair away from her face, Erin struggled to sit up without dislodging the sheet. When she finally managed to lean against the headboard, she remarked evenly, “You have nothing to apologize for. You saved my life.”
“I put your life in jeopardy.” He shoved his hands into his pockets, afraid to touch her now that she was awake. Through the long night, he’d grappled with his guilt. He’d get this out before he asked her the question that would complete his life. “Before I bullied you into helping, you were safe.”
“I started investigating on my own. I found the clues.”
“You wanted to quit.”
“My teaching assistant was a serial killer who blamed me for stealing her lover.” The absurdity of the situation demanded that she either laugh or weep. She chose to laugh. “Jessica planned to kill me, Gabriel. If I’d given up, more would have died and then she’d have come after me. You’re the reason I was able to fight back.”
Stubbornly clinging to his remorse, he challenged, “You’d have run if I hadn’t taunted you into staying.”
“Because I was a coward.”
Gabriel erupted. “You’re not a coward! You’re the bravest woman I’ve ever known.”
“So brave, I let someone cut me off from everyone I loved. I changed my career for him. My life. I was a coward.” The summary brooked no argument.
Before Gabriel could contradict her again, a rap sounded at their door. Gabriel checked the Judas hole. “It’s Sylvie.”
Erin tucked the sheet around her more firmly, grateful for the interruption. “She can come in.”
Because he wanted to hear Sylvie’s report, he stepped away to admit her. “Come in.”
“Erin, you doing okay?” Full of motherly concern, Sylvie trundled over to the bed, which dipped beneath her. She patted Erin’s undamaged cheek. “I was proud of you back there. You kept her occupied long enough for help to come.”
“I had to know the truth.”
Sylvie sat up. “Truth is, the kid’s as crazy as a loon. SFPD is gonna charge her in Rhodes’ murder and extradite her to New Orleans, but she’ll be in an asylum. Turns out she’s been in and out of mental facilities since she was nine. She was abused as a child but showed promise in school. They sent her to Callenwolde, where her med list would fill a novel.”
“Nathan used her. He gave her a focus for
her rage.”
“One that she turned on you,” Gabriel reminded them both harshly. “She brutally murdered nine innocent people.”
“She’s not responsible, Gabriel. She’s sick.” Erin could see the struggle in his eyes. Compassion warred with anger over how Jessica had hurt her. Erin felt the same, but training demanded that compassion win. “When she goes to trial, I plan on testifying in her defense. She needs help.”
“We’ll discuss that later.” Gabriel turned back to Sylvie. “What about the other matter?”
A satisfied smile wreathed her broad face. “All charges against Analise Glover have been dropped. Erin is free to leave the jurisdiction.”
She gave Gabriel a startled look. “I was under arrest?”
“No. Just forbidden to board a plane. Sanchez thought I might try to make you run.”
A week later, Erin curled on the sofa to read the morning edition of the Ledger. The lead story, written by Gabriel Moss, reported on the DA’s agreement to accept a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity from Jessica Dawson, aka Terry Watson. Captain Lynn Sanchez railed against the prosecutor’s decision, but it didn’t help that the next victim and his investigating officer had lobbied on Jessica’s behalf.
Erin reached for the phone, wanting to call and congratulate him. The Chronicle had been hounding her for an interview, but all exclusives went to the wildly popular Bayou Ledger. But her hand faltered above the phone. It had been a week since they’d talked about anything other than Jessica’s case. A week since he’d made love to her. Told her he loved her.
The urge to go to him thrummed through her every day. How could she, though, when she had no idea what she felt? Love was more than the flutters in her belly and the tightness in her throat or the tingling of her skin when they touched. It was more than sacrificing herself for his safety or wishing for his happiness.
Love was a daily endeavor of compromise and forgiveness and trust. Trust most of all. She wasn’t sure she could do it. With a sigh, she got up from the couch to head to the library, prepared to spend another day buried in her latest project. Over Sebastian’s rather crude objections, she planned to write a book to explain why Jessica Dawson deserved to be hospitalized rather than executed. Luckily, Sebastian had returned to New York, so his threats were in word only.
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