“With the vase. Like you did last night.” She gestured toward the entrance. “But it didn’t work.”
Aggi lurked near the entrance, clearly torn between wanting to rush to her sister and not wanting to interrupt. She snatched up the stone-filled metal vase from the floor beside the door. “Here it is.”
“Did you move it when we came in?” Ben asked.
She shook her head.
“I put it on the door handle. I remember it,” Katie insisted.
“I believe you.” He could fall into those beautiful green eyes, and never come out.
Her hands slowly uncurled to press flat against his chest. Ben drew in a ragged breath as his body awoke to the realization of his closeness to an amazing woman. To this amazing woman.
She leaned forward with slightly parted lips. They were so close in height that he wouldn’t even have to bend to kiss her. He’d only have to dip his chin slightly.
“Well, this is interesting.” Ray’s comment broke the spell.
She broke free from his embrace, stepping away from him. Once she was free, Aggi ran to her sister, and hugged her as tightly as Ben had. “I’m so sorry!”
“Katie, look at this.” Ray held out the plastic sheathed letter. “It sounds like he wants something from you. It’s different from what the unsub has done before.”
Ben couldn’t catch his breath without her in his arms. He stood there, curling and flexing his fingers. To distract himself, he examined the room again.
The damp spot on the floor drew his attention immediately. He sniffed it and the towels. A spill, probably water from the lack of smell. Drops of water clung to the sides of the glass. Gravity hadn’t pulled them down yet. It happened while he was here.
His instincts shouted at him, slowing him down to prevent missing something critical. “Walk me through what happened.”
“Is this really the time?” Aggi demanded, her fingers busy on her phone.
Katie’s lips pressed together as her eyes silently begged him for reprieve.
“If you want to fight him, this is how,” Ben said gently. “What happened after Ray and I left the room?”
“I called Razel, and told her I’d leave the camera downstairs.” Katie spoke slowly, more signs she was fighting the traumatic shock.
“Then Mom called,” Aggi said.
“I need to hear it from Katie.” Ben took her hand. “You can do this.”
“I hung up with Razel and Bernice called within a minute. Aggi left to take the call. I felt nervous, so I put the vase on the door handle.” She frowned. “Then I checked the camera. I wanted to watch the footage again, and see if I missed something.”
Ben guided her to the bar, retracing her movements. “What happened next?”
She frowned. “I must have poured a glass of water, but I tripped. It spilled. That’s when I saw the envelope.”
There was the disconnect. She didn’t remember putting down the camera, or getting a glass of water. He noticed the steady red light gleaming above the camera lens. “You wanted to know how you could fight him. You already did.”
“What?” Katie frowned.
Ben held up the camera. “You fought him. You got it all on film.”
They all stared at the small black unit.
“We need a non-networked computer,” Ray said.
“My laptop. I can disconnect it.” Katie pulled out the computer. Once it was safe, she plugged in the camera’s USB connector.
The video hadn’t captured the unsub directly. The image showed the wall next to the door. But the conversation between Katie and the unsub played out clearly.
Katie stared at the screen. “I don’t remember any of this.”
Ray listened carefully. “He thinks you identify with him. You can use that, play into his fantasy.”
Ben glared at him.
Aggi’s lip curled. “Like hell—”
“No, he’s right,” Katie insisted, her voice still shaky. “He’s like any other fan, projecting himself and what he wants onto me.”
Ben kept his mouth closed, unwilling to destroy her fragile victory.
“When he comes back, I’ll be prepared. If he believes things are going his way, he’s less likely to expect me to resist.”
Pride overwhelmed Ben’s fears. She’d kept her wits, and thought outside the box. They just needed to figure out how they could use what they’d learned.
The door banged open again.
Shoving Katie behind him, Ben aimed his weapon. His finger squeezed the trigger.
“Where is he?” Orlund demanded.
Ben jerked his gun off target. In this moment, he might not have minded shooting the FBI agent, but he’d probably regret it later. “Not here.”
“So much for Special Investigations’ vaunted expertise.” Orlund sneered. “He waltzed in and out right under your noses.”
Too bad I didn’t shoot. Ben holstered his weapon. “Are you all right, Katie?”
She nodded, chewing on her lip. Aggi glared at Orlund as she joined her sister. The two women retreated to the bedroom, leaving the crime scene to the three men.
“Your genteel touch with victims is admirable.” Ray’s sarcasm was thick enough to use as a bulletproof vest. “Tell me, do you also like setting off fireworks at PTSD support groups?”
Orlund’s eyes narrowed behind his wire frames. “You and your attitude are booked on the next flight out of here. You’re accusing me of unethical behavior? Your partner seduced the victim. I’m filing a formal complaint.”
Ben stepped closer, cutting off the whining trail of words. It was alpha male posturing at its most basic. He stood four inches taller, and correspondingly broader in the chest than the FBI agent. By forcing physical proximity, Ben issued a primal challenge for dominance.
Orlund didn’t step away. Instead, his shoulders pulled back, and emphasized his barrel chest in a clear message of challenge accepted. “You have something to say?”
“Karina Richards, Haley Underwood, Patricia Rains, Josephine Zimmer, and Tunisha Glaus. DNA evidence linked all five of their murders to the unsub. And yet. they weren’t in your case files.” Ben shifted forward, looming over the agent. “In fact, there were a number of gaps in your files.”
“I—”
“Like how you were sleeping with Ashley Gilpin before the unsub murdered her.” Ray managed to sound both sympathetic and nasty, an impressive verbal achievement. “Don’t waste our time denying it.”
“You’re blackmailing me?” The FBI agent asked incredulously. “I won’t tell on you if you won’t tell on me? This is kindergarten bullshit.”
“You’ve misunderstood completely, Special Agent Orlund.” Ray smiled like a cat presented with a roasted canary dressed in catnip. “Our superior is aware of the intimate relationship developing between my partner and Miss Ballard.”
Delacroix knows? This was news to Ben.
His partner continued, delivering his threats with suave precision. “Director Delacroix understands how danger can bring a couple together, particularly when both are consenting adults. He only requires the relationship to be reported, so that Special Investigations can monitor for any signs of a conflict of interest. It’s rather similar to the policy at the FBI.”
“You never reported your relationship with Ashley,” Ben growled.
“If your superiors were to become aware of it, you would be reassigned.” Ray sauntered closer, his hands stuffed into his pockets.
Probably to hide the fists.
“Now, my dear Orlund, I am a romantic at heart.” Ray smiled. “I can sympathize with your tragic situation. But your rage is the teeniest bit misdirected. We are not obstacles to your pursuit of the man who killed Ashley.”
Orlund flushed red. “I don’t kn
ow what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play dumb. It’s not one of your strengths.” Ray pointed. “Ben does dark and brooding. I do sarcastic and bitchy. You do a lovely mélange of government drone with a hint of badass.”
“I’m going to enjoy kicking you out,” Orlund snarled.
Chapter 21
Enough is enough. Katie threw open the door. “Mr. Orlund, it is time for you to leave.”
She’d dressed in her uber-professional black suit, and tied her unruly hair in a knot. From the FBI agent’s expression, the costume created the effect she’d hoped for, automatic respect. She took advantage of the brief window of stunned silence.
“This has been a very difficult day. I do not need a dick measuring contest playing out at full volume.” She kept her gaze on the agent. “I don’t care what your personal opinion is of these two men and their organization. I do care about you spending more energy on avoiding sharing the sandbox than on catching the man threatening my life.”
He opened his mouth. To object, to intimidate, to apologize . . . it didn’t matter.
“Leave. Now.” She put a lifetime of frustration into two syllables. All her pent-up anger at those who had patted her on the head, treated her as stupid, or ignored her while she spoke. Her anger at every man who thought his genitalia gave him a special insight that trumped her experience. This was her line in the sand.
Orlund wisely chose to retreat. He left the suite, slamming the door in a final petty display.
“Evidently she does diplomatic warrior goddess.” Ray chuckled. “Well done, my dear.”
“She definitely does.” Aggi beamed approval from the bedroom door, leaning against the frame with her arms crossed.
“Are you okay?” Ben asked.
His finger gently brushed against Katie’s forearm. She took a deep breath. “I’m not even in the same time zone as okay. But I’m not going to fall apart. What about you? Could he make you leave?”
“I’ll happily throw a celebrity tantrum if it will help,” Aggi offered.
“He filed a complaint, but luckily our boss countered it with an official request to continue our part of the investigation,” Ray answered. “Occulata are a hot button topic. Blocking us is politically dangerous. Orlund’s superiors won’t risk it.”
Aggi asked Ray another question about the politics of supernatural abilities. Katie missed the answer when Ben leaned in close and whispered. “I’ll stay even if they fire me.”
“I hope they won’t. I’d hate if you lost your job over this.” She leaned against his muscular arm, enjoying the masculine warmth. The camera and her laptop caught her eye, still attached by the umbilical data cord. “Do you think you’ll find anything useful on the tape?”
His arm went rock hard, tightening around her.
Ray cued it up. “Let’s have another listen.”
Katie closed her eyes, and rested her forehead against Ben’s shoulder. The Director sounded like an obsessed fan, one who had lost sight of illusion versus reality.
Hearing Walter ramble about her mother kindled a fresh wave of anger. He has no right to poison the memories I have left. As a little girl, her mother would sing to her every night. On the road, Katie would curl up on the bus to play one of her mother’s albums. When she listened to her mother’s rich, smoky voice, all of the intervening years vanished.
“. . . Recordings of her songs were what evoked her in your mind . . .” Walter’s words on the tape were familiar.
Katie narrowed her eyes. “That phrase is from an interview I gave two years ago to Sharps and Flats. It’s an industry magazine.”
“Is it online?” Ben asked.
Her rush of hope vanished. “It is.”
“It was a good thought. He’s not used to guarding what he says since his targets will forget it. He shouldn’t have talked to you. If he hadn’t, you wouldn’t have known he was there.” Ben met her startled gaze with a cool confident expression. “He’s going to keep making mistakes, and we’re going to get him.”
“Good.” She lifted her chin defiantly.
When she’d first heard about spectres, the idea of constantly being ignored and invisible sounded like torture. But Walter’s tragic past didn’t excuse what he’d chosen to do, or the thrill in his voice. He’d enjoyed frightening her, and having power over her. He was looking forward to killing her.
Ben’s lips quirked in an approving grin. The whole recording finished surprisingly quickly. Less than a dozen statements before Walter left.
“A proper supervillain would have explained his evil plans,” Katie muttered.
“Supervillains are rare on the ground, I’m afraid,” Ray replied. “It’s interesting how he thinks Katie would sympathize with him.”
Aggi snorted. “People always think their actions are understandable. Remember the asshole sponsor from the music festival in Austin? The one who grabbed my ass during the publicity shoot?”
“Of course I do. He kept claiming any girl would take it as a compliment.” Katie spent weeks countering his story in the media. He owned a couple of newspapers, and half of the local rental market. He’d poured a lot of money into trying to make Aggi seem unreasonable and uptight. Every time he brought it up, Katie ensured the coverage circled back to him groping a young woman during a time and place where she had limited options to object. Not that the circumstances stopped Aggi. She’d halted the shoot immediately, and refused to stand next to him again.
“My favorite excuse was how he didn’t grab me, he slipped because of wet grass.” Aggi’s angry smile held plenty of vengeful glee.
“What happened to him? The first asshole?” Ray asked.
“Other female artists came forward, and revealed he’d done the same thing to them,” Katie said. “The music festival canceled his sponsorship. He tried to sue Aggi, but it fell flat in a hurry.”
“That’s why I hate charity events. The causes are great, but the actual events are mostly rich people wanting up close contact with famous people. And a lot of them don’t understand the concept of no. I’d rather just donate money, or visit schools and hospitals.”
Katie squeezed her sister’s shoulder. Aggi always bore the brunt of such events. The Director doesn’t understand. I wasn’t ignored, I was free. No cutting analysis of her actions being hashed endlessly over the Internet. No overhearing conversations about graphic fantasies or speculations about her character. She’d found her own path rather than being relentlessly pushed into the appearance of perfection.
Those who hadn’t been in the spotlight didn’t understand. The pressure never let up. The flash of a single photo wouldn’t hurt, but dozens or hundreds through the course of the day blinded the eyes. The fans were wonderful though they extracted their own toll. Any excursion in public could end up taking three or four times what it should because of people approaching Aggi. And if we clear the store, then she’s an out-of-touch diva.
Walter wanted fame and recognition at any cost. He was the blind one.
I have to face him. I can’t keep hiding. “He doesn’t realize we recorded him. He’ll be back either way, but if we gave him an opportunity, we’d be in control.”
“It’s poss—” Ray began.
“Out of the question,” Ben growled. “It’s too risky.”
Ray glared at him. “I was going to say that it’s possible the unsub might take the opportunity, but with his abilities, we couldn’t be sure of doing our part. Once the line of sight is broken, he’s effectively a ghost. After you fall, all of the urgency goes out of your voice, even though he’s still in the room.”
“Isn’t better to have some control about when and where the next encounter happens?” The more Katie thought about the idea, the more logical it sounded.
“I’m not letting him get close to you again.�
�� Ben’s display of testosterone-induced protectiveness crossed a line.
She pulled free from his embrace, and glared at him. The whole alpha male thing gave her a thrill in stories, but not when it was aimed at her. “I’m the one being targeted. You keep saying how dangerous he is. Shouldn’t we try something different?”
“Oh shit,” Ray said quietly.
Ben stepped forward, his voice quiet and grim. “If he gets you, he will torture you as he remakes you into his perfect woman. He sews extensions directly into his victims’ scalps, and drives pins into their arms and legs in order to prop up their corpses. He slices away imperfections, and injects them with a painful poison to bring on premature rigor-mortis.”
Katie swallowed, sickened by the litany. Aggi’s hands gripped Katie’s arms, supporting and comforting.
“That’s what you’re risking if he gets you. And that is what I will damn well prevent, no matter what I have to do,” Ben finished.
“If you break the fantasy, he could still kill you. He killed the others because they weren’t honest.” Ray’s calm explanation brought down the tension despite the macabre subject matter. “My guess, he asked them if they remembered him, and they pretended they did.”
And even if the girl does everything perfectly, she dies. Katie grimaced. “This seems so much easier on the crime shows.”
“I wish it was fictionally simple.” His eyes fixed on hers, pleading with her not to be reckless. “As much as we can use a killer’s actions to gain insight, they remain unpredictable. They are operating outside normal reactions. A wrong guess could have fatal consequences.”
She shivered. “I’d rather do something than sit around helplessly waiting.”
“You are doing more than anyone could expect,” Ben reminded her. “You found a way to record him. You were able to hold a conversation. You didn’t forget the context until after you broke eye contact. All of that tells us if we keep our attention fixed on him, our chance of apprehending him increases.”
Deadly Potential Page 14