Haunting Whispers (31 page)

Yasi studied the photographs as Rae spread them on the bed in front of her. “This one says
liar.
” She read the other scrawled markings:
unclean, destroyer, poison
. Audrey was first—
unspoiled,
and I was last—
traitor
. There’s a pattern, isn’t there, Rae?”

Rae slid the photos back into the folder and tried to suppress her anxiety. She didn’t want to alarm Yasi or Audrey, but she owed them the truth. “Yes, it seems that Audrey was his chosen, the only clean or unspoiled one. After her, he’s been sending messages about the unsuitability of everyone else. He may have targeted you because of your connection to Audrey, or he may see you as a traitor because you’re Moroccan, more closely related to his
chosen
identity than the other victims. This is only a guess, a working hypothesis.” Barry Hewitt, the weapons analyst, had originally raised the possibility of the attacker sending messages with the cutting patterns, but Rae hadn’t given it much thought. Now it made more sense.

Yasi lowered her shirt and stared at Rae. “And it fits with my observation of an acquired, possibly a controlled, accent, doesn’t it? And if I’m right, he knows that Audrey’s International Cirque name, Sanjana, means
untouchable
in Sanskrit.”

“Yes.” Rae caught a questioning look from Audrey and knew she had a lot of explaining to do. “I’ll tell you later. We need to go. I’d very much like to hear what you remember.”

Rae started to leave, then turned back to Yasi and the others. “Will you be okay for a while?” Yasi nodded and Rae added, “Don’t leave here unless it’s absolutely necessary. If you have to, go as a group.” She waited for everyone to agree. “I’m serious. This is important.” Again they nodded. “And thanks for the help. I see why you’re all such great friends.”

During the drive back to her condo, Rae wondered if Audrey was second-guessing further involvement in the case and/or with her. Rae recognized distrust and insecurity rearing its ugly head. While she’d been tracking down leads, the distance between them seemed enormous, but when they touched again she felt immediately reconnected. She wanted reassurance her feelings for Audrey were real and reciprocated. But she most desperately needed to make sure Audrey was safe.

She reached across the seat and cupped Audrey’s hand in hers. The warmth spread through her. Losing Audrey would suck the vitality out of her life and leave her in a hole so deep that hell would be a step up. She didn’t want to imagine a future without Audrey beside her everyday and in her bed every night.

Audrey squeezed her hand. “I’ve missed you, Detective.”

She missed me
. That would have to be enough for the moment. Courting, wooing, and seducing took a backseat to tracking down a potential killer. “You have no idea how glad I am to hear that because I’ve sure missed you.”

“You’re focused on this case. Don’t feel guilty about that. Let’s figure it out…then get on with our lives.”

“Sometimes this psychic stuff is pretty handy.” Rae was relieved Audrey understood the urgency of their situation. She shuffled the latest bits of information about the case round and round in her head as she unlocked the door to her condo. None of it made much sense in the abstract, but perhaps Audrey could help put things into proper context. She still had only fragments of a suspect profile, with other pieces still coming in. If she was very lucky, Audrey would put the finishing touches on a slowly evolving silhouette.

Audrey brewed a pot of coffee while Rae set up the study for their work. When Audrey placed the tray on a side table, Rae wrapped her arms around her. “Could I have one kiss before we start?”

“You can have several, but no monkey business.”

Rae skimmed her hands down Audrey’s back and grazed her sides before capturing her mouth. Audrey’s lips melted against Rae’s as their tongues entwined, probing and searching for the depths of each other’s soul. Rae wanted to forget the world and focus only on Audrey, her needs, her desires, and her pleasure.

Pain pulsed between Rae’s legs, seeking relief. She tilted her pelvis back to alleviate the pressure, but Audrey grabbed her ass and reconnected them. It would be so easy to surrender to the desire clawing at her insides. She wanted this woman in every way imaginable, and she wanted to start right now.

Rae slid her leg between Audrey’s and rubbed against her crotch, receiving an appreciative moan. “Monkey business,” Audrey whispered.

“No, this is
our
business, and I can’t wait.” She backed Audrey toward the bedroom, careful not to break contact, purposely stroking her again with each step. Her body was on fire and she was beyond wet. When Rae reached up to ease Audrey down on the bed, her cell phone vibrated. “Shit. I’ll turn it off.” She reached toward her belt to silence the offending device, but Audrey stopped her.

“You can’t. It could be important. I can wait.”

“What if I can’t?” But Audrey was right. This could be the call she needed most. “Butler.”

“Rae, it’s Tammy in the lab. Have you seen Trevor Collins lately?”

Rae kissed Audrey’s cheek and adjusted her uncomfortably soaked underwear. “Not since yesterday afternoon. He was processing a scene for me.”

“Well, nobody has seen him since.”

Rae’s attention crystallized on Tammy’s words. “He’s missing?”

“It seems so.”

When Audrey and Rae arrived at her apartment complex, two patrol cars and an ambulance were parked out front, with a sizeable group of onlookers. Audrey opened her front door and the officers pushed by, eager to search for Trevor. Her psychic antenna pinged and not in a good way. She called after them, “Look in the spare-bedroom closet.” Since she’d remembered the assault, her instincts were consistently on target.

In a few minutes, one of the uniformed officers rushed out, ducked behind a boxwood, and threw up. He waved for the ambulance attendants and motioned them inside but didn’t reenter the apartment.

“How is he?” Audrey tried to alleviate the officer’s embarrassment. She already knew Trevor was badly beaten and barely alive.

“He’s in pretty bad shape. I don’t see how he’s still breathing.”

When the paramedics rolled the stretcher by, Audrey looked away. The image in her head was vivid enough without seeing the real thing. She waited until everyone except Rae was outside before she went in. “Darling, where are you?”

“In the bedroom.” Rae stood in the middle of the room staring into the bloody closet. “It was the Whisperer.”

“I know. I can feel him everywhere, especially right here.”

Rae looked at where she stood in the hallway between the rooms. “You mean you can read him now?”

“I haven’t made contact with him directly, but I can certainly sense his dark energy.” Audrey pointed to the scratches Cannonball had made along the baseboards. “That darn kitten
was
trying to tell me something. She was trying to get to him—up there.” Audrey indicated the narrow attic door over her head. The space barely seemed large enough for a cat, much less an adult male.

“Do you have a step stool or small ladder?”

Audrey retrieved the stool, and within minutes Rae shimmied into the crawl space and disappeared. She felt uncomfortable waiting below and not knowing what Rae saw, but she certainly knew what she felt—more anger and disgust. She called up, offering the only support she could at the moment. “Focus on your job.” Her best advice wouldn’t help. She felt the same sense of violation and helplessness. Audrey heard Rae talking on her phone and shortly afterward she came down.

Rae dusted the sticky fiberglass insulation off her clothes, shaking her head. “That son of a bitch was
living
in your crawl space. He accessed it from the vacant apartment next door. And you never sensed anything.” The comment wasn’t an accusation but a mere statement of disbelief.

“All I ever got from him was noise. Whenever I was home I always had my stereo on to block outside interference. He had to have been on guard constantly to prevent me from sensing him. Imagine the control that takes.”

“I’ve got the lab folks on the way to process everything. If he left one molecule of evidence, they’ll find it.”

Audrey nodded and walked into her bedroom, which she’d never sleep in again. The brightly patterned walls no longer felt cheerful and inviting. Her skin prickled and the air around her crackled with evil energy. “He put something in the wall, here.” She ran her hand across the textured wallpaper and felt unusual bumps. “Here, here, and here.” She walked through the rest of the apartment indicating various points, like a sniffer dog tracking drugs. “There are two in the bathroom, kitchen, and living room.”

Rae’s face morphed into an unreadable mask, her emotions sparking like fireworks. “Is this what I think it is?” She retrieved a knife from her boot and poked at a spot in the bath wall.

“Cam—cameras.” Audrey could barely say the word around the disgust and anger rising in her throat. She tried to remember how many showers she’d taken recently, how many nights she and Rae had snuggled and kissed on her sofa, and how often she’d masturbated thinking about Rae since they’d met. “The cameras were everywhere. He removed them.”

“That must be why he attacked Trevor. He was afraid he’d find them.”

“Yes. He’s been watching me for a long time, Rae. I think he killed someone else.” Audrey couldn’t say the name because she’d led him straight to the victim.

“Jeremy Sutton?”

Audrey dropped onto her sofa and sobbed. “It
was
…because…of me.”

Rae tried to reassure her, but Audrey knew the truth. She didn’t deserve consolation. She’d tried to play detective and instead got an innocent man killed. The Whisperer had followed her to Sutton’s house, seen them shake hands, and killed Sutton because he touched her. He was a deranged man who considered her his property.

“Don’t blame yourself, Audrey. Help me find him. Can you see who he is?”

She shook her head. “That’s one of the few things I can’t see right now.” The pain in her chest lingered while the possibility of helping mitigated some of the sting. “I can give you more information from my assault.” Audrey prayed it would be enough.

“Let’s get to work. Time’s running out, and he’s becoming more violent. I’m surprised he left Trevor alive.”

“He doesn’t believe Trevor saw him…and he isn’t afraid.”

“Well, he should be. He’s got both of us on his trail. He should be very afraid.”

Audrey gave Rae an appreciative smile and waited as she instructed the patrol officers and a crime-scene analyst before they left. Right now Rae’s confidence and her own stubbornness were the only things keeping her going. Once the case was over, she’d probably have the nervous breakdown she’d put off for the past year.

When they returned to Rae’s condo, the mood had entirely changed from earlier. They had been close to making love again, but now they were more somber. Each had a job to do and couldn’t avoid or delay any longer.

Rae pulled Audrey against her on the settee as though settling in to watch a movie. “When you’re ready, I’d like to hear what you remembered today.”

“I’m ready. When I start, don’t interrupt. Let me finish com-pletely…no matter what happens.” The time had finally come to speak the whole truth…everything she recalled, felt, and believed about the first time she was assaulted. Rae would want it all. Audrey took a deep breath and let the memory surface. She didn’t try to temper or hide the feelings this time, and she was unprepared for their intensity.

Waves of horror washed over her as fresh as the night it happened. She struggled against the bindings at her wrists and ankles until her skin chafed. The blade sliced through her like fire, and she flinched and thrashed from the sensory memory. His whispered words echoed in her head as if he’d screamed them, and she covered her ears to block the sound. When she tried to beg for her life, she gagged on the musty rag stuffed into her mouth. She cried aloud, prayed silently, and pleaded with her eyes.

He grunted and moaned like a man desperate for sexual gratification but unable to obtain it. The vehicle rocked with his rhythmic struggle and vibrated with the sounds of flesh angrily pounding flesh until he erupted in a frustrated wail. Audrey recoiled and waited for the next strike of the knife. She felt dizzy and near blackout.

When the darkness came, she saw everything in slow motion. She described it all in intricate detail. The pain stopped and she heard a soft voice calling in the distance. “Audrey, are you okay? Can you hear me?”

Rae. She was safe. “I’m all right now.” Her voice cracked and her mouth felt parched. She was pressed against Rae’s side and drenched in perspiration. “Water.”

She took the bottle Rae offered and downed half before stopping. The cool liquid eased the dryness in her throat as her pulse calmed. “Do you want to ask questions or should I tell you what I remember about him?”

“Are you sure you’re up for this? You look exhausted already.” She stroked Audrey’s arm reassuringly. “It can wait.”

“No, it can’t. I’ll start and you can ask questions as I go.” Rae nodded. “First, the smell was very sweet and on something that he placed over my nose and mouth.”

“Chloroform, go on.”

“I was inside a van, I’m certain because of the back-and-forth motion—and I saw it. The blindfold came partially off when he dumped me out. The van was old and white, as I said before. There had been an emblem on the side but was painted over, no license tag.”