Blood Game

by Iris Johansen

  “Probably. I’d bet that he was hovering around Kistle like a vulture.” He met her gaze across the table. “He let Kistle do his work for him. When Kistle made a kill, he’d follow him and take the blood he needed from the victim. Of course, it was only an appeasement. I understand Kistle was big on killing children, and they usually don’t have time to become exceptional.”

  She flinched. “I disagree. Every life is exceptional.”

  He nodded. “I’m speaking from Jelak’s point of view.”

  “It’s a hideous point of view.” She looked down into her drink. “So he was stirred into moving when we went after Kistle?”

  “You killed his host, and that was a major inconvenience. He’d have to do his own basic feed killing, and that would keep him from concentrating on reaching his ultimate goal.”

  “The goblet,” Joe reminded him.

  “The goblet was part of the cult ritual. The man standing before the table was the one who took the gift of life. The other men at the table represented the stages that the candidate would have to go through before he reached his goal. The goblet was to be used only for specific purposes. A truly exceptional kill or perhaps a warning. It was never used on one considered unworthy.”

  “The goblet in my refrigerator,” Eve murmured.

  “A warning,” Caleb said. “And so was the death of Nancy Jo Norris. He considered you very special and wanted to make sure you made the connection. But he must have found Nancy Jo’s blood superior because he left her the goblet.”

  “And the prostitute in the park?”

  “Not worthy of full ritual.”

  “This Donari gave you chapter and verse about his cult, didn’t he?” Jane asked.

  “With a good deal of persuasion. Yes, he was very helpful.”

  “You said he was Jelak’s teacher. What did he teach him?”

  “Burglary, lock picking, the art of choosing a host, how to slit a throat in two seconds. Any number of other skills.”

  “All very good skills for his chosen career.” Jane was studying Caleb’s face. “And where is Donari now?”

  “He’s no longer with us.” He met her gaze. “Neither are any other members of the cult. After Donari died, they took off from Fiero in quite a hurry. It took me years to track them all down.”

  “You said there were a dozen in the cult,” Eve said.

  “Yes.” He lifted his drink to his lips. “And they stood by and let Jelak experiment with Maria Givano. I thought it time that we said good-bye to that particular cult.”

  He’s a powerhouse.

  Eve remembered Jane’s words as she gazed at Caleb. Power and deadliness and relentless energy.

  “Then the goblet was omitted because Jelak didn’t consider Heather Carmello worthy,” Joe said.

  “More than probably. You can be sure if the victim had been our lovely Jane that we would have found a goblet.”

  “Be quiet,” Joe said. “That wasn’t necessary, Caleb.”

  “No, but it bothers you more than it does Jane.” He lifted his glass to Jane. “Which I admit might have been my intention. Well, have I told you all you want to know, Quinn?”

  “Maybe. Except about yourself.”

  His brows rose. “I thought I’d been very frank.”

  “Perhaps too frank. You’re not stupid, and yet you as much as admitted to multiple homicide.”

  “You’d have to prove it. And as you say, I’m not stupid enough to let you do that. I just wanted to give you—”

  Jane’s cell phone rang, and she glanced at the ID. “I’m sorry, I have to answer this. It’s Patty Avery.” She pushed her chair back. “I’ll take it in the bar.”

  Joe watched her cross the restaurant before he turned back to Caleb. “What did you want to give me?”

  “The knowledge that I’m totally committed to getting Jelak.” Caleb leaned forward, his dark eyes glittering and intense. “What do you say, Quinn,” he said softly. “Let’s go hunting.”

  Damn, he was persuasive, Eve thought. She couldn’t keep her gaze from his face. At that moment, his intensity was almost hypnotic.

  Evidently not to Joe. He leaned back and shook his head. “I plan on going hunting. But you’re not invited.”

  “Yes I am. Or you wouldn’t have brought me here tonight. You said you wanted information. I gave it to you. Now let me help you find him.”

  “So that you can kill him. We don’t want the same thing, Caleb.”

  “Actually, we do. I’ve done my research on you, Quinn. Ex-SEAL, former FBI agent. That’s an odd balancing act. Violence and law. With which are you most comfortable?”

  “None of your business.”

  Caleb smiled. “Never mind. I think I know.”

  “How?” Joe asked sarcastically. “Do you feel it? Like you do Jelak.”

  “No, I can’t do that with everyone. I’m just a student of human nature.” He looked up and watched Jane coming back across the restaurant. “But it doesn’t take an expert to know that your Jane is a little upset.”

  More than a little, Eve thought, as Jane reached the table.

  “Is something wrong with Patty?”

  Jane nodded. “I’m going over to see her. She found out her power line was deliberately cut last night. She doesn’t want to involve the police because she knows it will upset her grandfather. I’m going to have to convince her to do it anyway.” She picked up her purse. “I’ll take a taxi. I’ll see you at home.”

  “No, I’ll go with you,” Eve said.

  Jane shook her head. “It will be difficult enough for Patty having me there. You saw how her grandfather behaved. He doesn’t like anyone in the house. I’m not letting you in for a tantrum.”

  “This is your friend, Patty?” Seth Caleb asked. “It happened last night?”

  “Patty Avery. Yes.”

  “Curious.”

  Eve’s gaze narrowed on his face. “What are you thinking?”

  “I believe in connections. And definitely not in coincidences. Is that the only thing that happened to her last night?”

  “Yes, she thought the power outage might be the storm.”

  “But now she’s worried?” Caleb said.

  “She lives across the street from Piedmont Park,” Eve said.

  “Connections,” Caleb murmured. He tilted his head. “Jane, will you call her back and ask her to do something?”

  “What?”

  “Look in her refrigerator.”

  Eve felt a chill. “And what is she to look for?”

  “You know,” Caleb said softly. “He didn’t think the kill was worthy. We have a missing goblet. Would he have thought your friend worthy? Is she strong, clever?”

  “Yes,” Jane said.

  “Go ahead. Call her,” Joe said curtly.

  “Your faith is touching.” Caleb smiled. “Do you believe in connections, too, Quinn?”

  “I believe in the process of elimination.”

  “I hope you’re wrong.” Jane was already dialing. “Damn, I hope you’re wrong.” She spoke into the phone. “Hi, I’m on my way, but I’d like you to do me a favor. Would you take a look in your refrigerator and tell me if you find anything? Thanks.” She waited, and when Patty came back on the phone, she smiled. “That’s good. Are you sure?” She had a thought. “Check in the back, maybe a lower shelf.”

  She waited again.

  “Shit.” She drew a deep breath. “No, don’t touch it again. I’ll tell Joe, and he’ll send someone to come and get it. I’ll be there myself in fifteen minutes.” She paused. “Lock your doors, Patty.” She hung up and looked at Caleb. “Gold goblet with carvings. Blood residue. How did you know?”

  Joe muttered a curse and reached for his phone.

  Caleb shrugged. “A guess. Connections. He wanted vindication and revenge. He couldn’t hit at you, so he went after your friend, Patty.” He shrugged. “But something went wrong, and he couldn’t get to her either. So he took another kill and used the goblet as a threat. W
ould you mind if I came along and took a look?”

  “No.” Joe was on the phone talking to the precinct, and he glanced up to say, “This is now an official police investigation.”

  “And there’s nothing official about me,” Caleb said. “But I found your lost goblet before he had a chance to refill it with the target of choice. Doesn’t that count for something?”

  “It counts for a hell of a lot,” Jane said. She looked at Joe. “Patty is my friend. She may be in this trouble because of me. You do what you like on an official level. I’ll take help where I can get it.” She turned back to Caleb. “I don’t care if you can hear him or smell him or feel him. Any way you can get Jelak is fine with me.”

  “I assure you I can’t hear or smell Jelak. Feeling is bad enough. May I drive you to your Patty’s house?”

  “Yes.” She looked at Eve. “It’s okay. Can’t you see? He’s brimming with hate, but it’s not for anyone but Jelak.”

  “But he’d offer any of us up as a sacrifice to get him.” Eve rose to her feet. “I don’t care about her grandfather. I’m coming with you. Her house is going to be teeming with police and forensic people anyway.” She glanced at Caleb. “You can follow us.”

  “Fine.” He got to his feet. “We’ll see you there, Quinn.”

  “You certainly will,” Joe said grimly as he hung up the phone. “And you’ll stay out of my way.”

  “By all means; I’m just happy to be allowed to trail along.”

  Eve shook her head. She was remembering Caleb, all power and intensity, inviting Joe to go hunting. If Caleb was “trailing” along, it was a deceptive move that was only designed to get him what he wanted.

  Jane was gazing at Eve, reading her expression. “We don’t have to trust him. He can help Patty. That’s all that matters, isn’t it?”

  Eve nodded. “That’s all that matters.”

  NINE

  “I DIDN’T EXPECT YOU, EVE. It’s bad enough that I bothered Jane with it.” Patty made a face as she opened the door. “Sorry about this.”

  “So am I,” Eve said. “And there’s nothing to be sorry for. We may have brought this down on you.” She turned to Caleb, who was coming up the steps. “This is Seth Caleb. He’s something of an expert on Jelak, and we thought you wouldn’t mind if we let him come.”

  Patty frowned. “You mean he’s a sort of profiler?”

  “Sort of.” Caleb smiled. “I won’t be long. Joe Quinn will be arriving shortly with his tech crews, and he won’t want me bothering him.”

  “Great,” Patty said dryly. “Techs running all over the house. Granddad will have a cow.”

  “It’s best,” Jane said. “You know that, Patty.”

  “I was hoping just to fill out a report on that power line.”

  Patty looked at Caleb. “But that goblet screwed me up, didn’t it? It’s the same man who killed those women?”

  “It’s a very good possibility. Could I see the goblet?”

  She jerked her head in the direction of the kitchen. “It’s on the counter next to the refrigerator.” She moistened her lips. “How did he get into the house? I locked the door last night.”

  “Jelak was trained to get past locks.” He moved toward the kitchen. “I’m just wondering why all he did was leave the goblet.”

  “You mean you’re wondering why he didn’t slit my throat?” Patty shivered. “I’ve been wondering that too.”

  “Was there anything different about your routine last night?”

  “I talked on the phone for quite a while before the power went off. That was a little different. Granddad didn’t like it. Then he was nervous because of the power outage and wanted me to stay with him.”

  “How long?”

  “All night. I slept in the chair by his bed.”

  “You didn’t leave the room to get him anything?”

  “No, he’d already had his medicine.” She gazed at him. “You think that murderer Jelak was in the house waiting for his chance, don’t you?”

  Caleb nodded. “I think if you’d left your grandfather’s room anytime during those first few hours, you’d have been the victim and not Heather Carmello.”

  “Why didn’t he come into Granddad’s bedroom and try to kill us both?”

  “That’s not according to ritual. He would have considered it crude. It has to be one-on-one. He probably stayed until he thought you were in there for the night, then went after someone else.”

  “What about the goblet? There was blood . . .”

  “He came back, didn’t he?” Eve asked. “He took the chance of coming twice. After the kill, he wanted to show how easily it could have been Patty.”

  “Dear God,” Jane murmured.

  Caleb nodded. “It was a gesture of bravado. He had to make a statement this time.” He paused at the kitchen door. “And he probably wanted to check to make sure Patty was still with her grandfather. Usually, he’d limit the kill to one a night. The ingestion isn’t pure otherwise. But in this case, he wouldn’t have minded another ritual. He didn’t take Heather Carmello’s blood for himself.”

  “You’re so damn casual,” Patty said. “It’s my blood you’re talking about.”

  “I’m not casual,” Caleb said. “I hate the idea of what Jelak is doing. I’m just trying to answer your questions. You can’t fight him if you’re ignorant of what he is.”

  “You certainly know what he is. You must have studied him for a long time,” Patty said.

  “Long enough. The kitchen is that way?”

  They followed him as he went into the kitchen and squatted to look at the goblet on the counter. He stared at it for a long time. “It’s Jelak. And it’s the same.”

  “But you knew it probably was him,” Jane said. “And what do you mean the same? Were you expecting something different?”

  “You’re very observant.” Caleb rose to his feet. “There’s a possibility that the goblet could have been different. Though I wouldn’t expect it, considering Jelak’s actions.”

  “What kind of difference?”

  “The number of the men at the table. The ones that represent the twelve stages that Jelak has to pass through before he reaches his final goal. That could change.”

  “Patty!”

  “Granddad,” Patty said wearily. “I have to go to him and explain before Joe and the forensic techs get here. Lord, I don’t want to deal with this right now.”

  “Would you like me to take care of it?” Caleb asked. “I’ve had training in this kind of thing.”

  “I thought you were a profiler?”

  He shrugged. “It all has to do with psychology.”

  “No one’s trained to deal with Granddad,” Patty said. “He’s going to raise hell. I wouldn’t put anyone through it.”

  “Let me try.” He headed for the door. “Sometimes a stranger has better luck than a family member. I wouldn’t want Quinn to have a bad time when he gets here. Which room?”

  Patty hesitated. “Second bedroom off the hall.”

  “And what’s his first name?”

  “Marcus.”

  He nodded and disappeared down the hall.

  “I shouldn’t have let him do it,” Patty said. “It’s my job.”

  “Then he should know that within a few minutes,” Jane said. “I’m glad that he’s going to try. You look beat.”

  “It scared me,” Patty said. “The idea of anyone being in the house and me not knowing it. It’s like a horror movie I saw once.” She paused. “And this guy belongs in a horror movie, doesn’t he?”

  “Yes,” Eve said. “Jelak qualifies.”

  Patty shuddered. “Do you think he’s right about Jelak killing me if I’d left Granddad’s room that night?”

  “I wish I could say he was wrong,” Jane said. “But he seems to know Jelak.”

  Patty nodded. “Those details were pretty—” She stopped. “I think I hear cars outside. Joe must be here.” She grimaced. “And that means your Seth Caleb didn’t have enough
time to explain much of anything to Granddad. I’m surprised I haven’t heard him screaming for me yet. I’ll go and let Joe in and try to run interference when he goes in to talk to Granddad.”

  “Joe can take care of himself,” Eve said, as she and Jane followed her toward the front door. “Stop trying to shoulder everything yourself, Patty.”

  “It goes with the territory,” Patty said. “Just because I called you for help tonight doesn’t mean I have to saddle anyone else with—”

  “Be quiet,” Jane said. “We’re friends. We’ll do what friends do. Support. Now, do you have a couch where I can sleep? I’m going to move in with you for a few days. Your grandfather can just get used to me.”

  “No way,” Patty said flatly. “No one is going to hover over me and hold my hand.”

  “Look, this may be my fault. I need to—”

  “She’s right, Jane,” Caleb said from the doorway of her grandfather’s room. “You shouldn’t come here. It’s what Jelak wants to happen. You’ll be more vulnerable than you would be with Eve and Quinn.” The doorbell rang, and he smiled. “And, even as we speak, there’s Quinn. I’d better prepare to make my departure. I tend to annoy him.” He moved toward the door. “I think Marcus will be okay for a while. I didn’t have much time, but he seemed willing to cooperate.”

  “Cooperate?” Patty repeated. “Granddad?”

  “No guarantees,” Caleb said. “But since he really cares about you, there’s a chance.” He stepped forward and opened the door. “Hello, Quinn. I was just leaving. You’ll be glad to know I didn’t disturb a thing. Ask Eve.”

  “I’ll do that.” He looked at Patty. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “A little uneasy. No, dammit, big-time scared.” She glanced at the four forensic techs coming up the steps. “And they make it seem too real.”

  “We’ll be in and out as quick as we can.” He paused. “We’ll need statements from both you and your grandfather.”

  “He doesn’t know anything.”

  “I’m sorry. We have to get a statement.” Joe stepped aside for the team to enter. “Where’s the goblet?”

  “In the kitchen.”

  “I’ll show you.” Jane started across the room toward the hall.