Killer Moves (26 page)

“Well, that’s great! She’ll be happy to have this thing over, right?”

“No. It’s someone she knows. Someone she loves. Davis Martin.”

“Oh my God.”

“Yes. I need to take her back to headquarters. We’ll need to question her. She’s been with him the most over the past few days. I think maybe she knows more than she realizes.”

“She’s not really in any state of mind to answer a lot of questions right now, Agent Anderson.”

“I’m not insensitive, Officer Blake. She’s a friend of mine as well. As was Davis.” Ryan walked past the officer, opening the door to the room she’d indicated.

“Kara?” He stepped inside and saw another officer seated next to the bed.

“Who are you?” the woman asked, but Kara stopped her.

“It’s okay,” Kara told her. “I know him. She sat up in bed and looked into his eyes. She suspected nothing. But she knew something.

“It’s Davis.” Her voice sounded weak. It annoyed him. She was supposed to be his greatest challenge. Instead, her gift grew weaker.

“Yes.” He turned to the officer. “Can you leave us alone for a second?” Ryan smiled politely. The officer was immediately convinced she could trust her charge to him. She had no idea.

“I’ll be right outside, Kara, if you need me.” She got to her feet and smiled at Ryan. He could feel her attraction.

“Kara.” He sat down close to her and took her hand. Just touching her accelerated his excitement. They were so close. He couldn’t wait to take her.

“Where’s Davis?”

“Kara, I’m so sorry. He’s dead.” He met her stricken gaze and saw her pain. His body came to life with anticipation.

“No.”

“I’m sorry, Kara, but it’s true.”

“No. No, it can’t be.” She tried to pull her hand free but he simply took her in his arms, comforting her for now. It was almost too thrilling to keep to himself. But he must be patient until they reached the place he had set up for her death.

She pulled away. She suspected something. Good. She would make it challenging after all.

“I’m going to take you home now. Back to Davis’s place,” he told her solemnly. “It’s all over now, Kara. Not the way either of us wanted it to be but it’s over just the same. Ed will meet us there. He has some questions for you. They’re finished with the crime scene. There wasn’t much to investigate really. Davis confessed to everything.”

“I don’t believe you. Are you sure?” she asked, not wanting to accept it but left with little choice. Something of his excitement must have showed in his eyes. She became a little more suspicious. He would need to get her out of there soon.

“Yes, I know this is hard, Kara, but it’s true. Now I need you to come with me.”

For a second, he thought she might refuse. She glanced at the phone as if she considered calling to check out his story. Then she got to her feet and pulled away from him.

“All right. Let’s go. I just want to get this over with and then I want to see him.”

“Of course. You’ll be with him soon. But there are a few things that must be cleared up first.”

He followed her outside.

“I’ll be taking her with me now. You are relieved of your command. You may go now. I’m taking her home.”

He didn’t give them the chance to ask questions. He’d grown too excited to wait much longer. He took Kara’s arm and escorted her out into the hallway. The two officers didn’t follow.

“I’m parked just outside,” he told her, but she didn’t respond. She moved like a robot, following his command. Irritation dampened his earlier excitement. He didn’t want her like this. He wanted her to fight him every step of the way. Until the end.

He opened the passenger door and waited while she slipped inside, glancing briefly up at the room she’d just left.

She closed her eyes. He could feel her reaching out to him again. He tried to calm himself but he was too excited. Some of his resistance slipped away. She sensed something that unnerved her. She turned to him with a look of fear in her eyes now. She had begun to figure it out.

Not yet…it’s too soon.

He didn’t want the game to be over just yet. He’d planned to savor his time with her, every minute of it. The drive to the crime scene. Her fear. He smiled calmly back at her.

Kara looked a little more confused. Maybe she thought she could be losing her mind. She turned away and grew silent. He felt her thoughts move from what she had begun to suspect toward grief again. Then she was reaching out to him again. Trying to put the pieces together.

Something didn’t add up. Davis was dead? Not possible. She’d lost him for a moment but now she felt his presence again. Something wasn’t right.

Why would Ryan tell her this when she still felt him? Kara sat next to Ryan as he drove her to Davis’s home, and all at once, she became afraid. Ryan told her the nightmare ended in the worst possible way and yet it didn’t feel over.

“I don’t believe Davis did this. He’s not capable of doing such things. I know he’s not.”

“Kara, maybe you didn’t know Davis as well as you thought. Maybe you don’t know a lot of things.”

She turned to him. He smiled gently back at her. But she felt it again just as she had in the past. As she had right before they left the hotel. Something seemed almost twisted about Ryan’s reaction to Davis’s death.

“What do you mean?” she asked, and then realized he wasn’t heading for Davis’s place at all. “Where are you going?” she said slowly, catching a glimpse of the expression in his eyes for the first time. It was like looking into the face of wickedness. She shivered at the very sight of it.

“We’re going to the crime scene,” he told her with a hint of excitement creeping into his tone.

“Why? I thought Ed wanted to meet us at Davis’s place.”

Ryan gave her a gleeful look but didn’t answer.

“Ryan?”

“Just shut up and enjoy the game, Kara! This is going to be good for both of us. It had better be. I’ve waited long enough for you.”

She fought to control the fear inside her from spinning out of control as the truth at last became apparent. His deranged laugher followed her realization. She glanced at the back seat and saw it. The white Hermès scarf. She didn’t even have to ask to know it would be her scarf.

“Took you long enough! You didn’t have a clue, did you? Isn’t it rich? The big-time psychic responsible for solving all the cases didn’t have a clue. You didn’t see that coming, did you?” He tapped his palm against her forehead with another chilling laugh. “The Hermès scarves were a nice touch, don’t you think? Using the originals from the first victims was sheer brilliance on my part. Just enough of a subtle hint to question whether or not you and Davis actually solved the first set of murders and shed more doubt on Davis’s guilt. I used his name to sign off on the evidence. I admit you had me going for a little while. I couldn’t figure out when your scarf had gone missing, and then it hit me. I had to make a special trip to that hellhole you call home to get the scarf…just for you. You’d better be worth it.”

“You did this? You killed Davis?”

“You did this? You killed Davis?” he mimicked. “Of course it was me,” he told her as if he were merely commenting on the weather. “And I had so much fun fooling you, Davis, the freaking FBI! What a joke.”

For a moment, Kara’s thoughts jumbled together. A thousand different questions floated through her mind but she couldn’t bring a single coherent thought to her lips.

“You’re impressed. I can see it. You’ve met someone worthy of you.”

“Why?”

“Why? Why? You stupid cow! How can you ask me that?”

Kara shrank away from the insanity she saw in his eyes. Ryan had finally slipped over the edge, taking on the full identity of the Death Angel. The calm, in-control man he presented to the world was completely gone.

“Davis was your friend! Jessica? Rachel?” She couldn’t seem to grasp it all.

“Davis wasn’t my friend. He was nothing but in the way. He should have gone down the first time, along with you. I had it all planned. He should have been dismissed, dammit! Humiliated! You were out of the picture. I was supposed to be in charge.”

She stared at him for a moment, speechless. “This was all about getting ahead? You wanted Davis’s job?”

“You don’t have a clue, do you, Kara?” He laughed before swerving off the main road onto East Capitol Street. Then he turned to her again. She could hardly breathe. She knew exactly what he planned to do to her.

“Don’t worry, Kara,” he said with satisfied smile. “You’ll know all the answers soon enough.”

Chapter Fourteen

They stopped in front of the abandoned apartment building. Instinctively, she knew this was where he’d shot Davis. The place was now devoid of any activity. Davis had been tried and found guilty by a jury of his coworkers. There would be no need for a lengthy investigation. The Bureau would just want to put the whole nasty business to bed as quickly as possible.

“Are you ready?” Ryan asked as if he were merely asking her about the weather. She could only stare at him in horror. Not that he seemed to mind. He was too far gone for reasoning with now.

Once he got out of the car, she tried to force her grief aside long enough to think of some way out of this. She must stay alive. Ava needed her. She’d lost one parent today already.

Kara remembered the gun she’d given to Davis. She had nothing to use as a weapon of defense.

Ryan reached for her arm and pulled her from the car. “Stop stalling, bitch. It’s time. I’ve waited six damn years for you. I’m not waiting any longer.”

She stumbled to keep up as he dragged her inside the building. Her thoughts were all for Ava. She couldn’t think about what he had planned for her and not fall apart.

Kara forced herself to speak. She needed to distract him from the inevitable.

“You knew where to find me all these years. Why didn’t you just come for me? Why hurt the others?”

He laughed with amusement before forcing her up the stairs to the second floor.

“For a psychic you really don’t understand anything, do you?” he said as he opened the door and shoved her inside. It was like going back in time to the past. Everything looked the same as it had six years earlier. The room had been gone over with a fine-tooth comb by the Bureau, but the stage had been set just for her, right down to the bunch of lilacs.

“This isn’t about you or Davis, you stupid idiot! This is about me! What I’ve accomplished. What I will accomplish still. I will be the greatest of them all. Better than Gacy, Bundy, Dahmer, The Ripper. I walked among the Bureau’s best—the ones who were sworn to capture me, and they never had a clue. Even the great Kara Bryant was clueless. I will be the best. This is only beginning. I’m not done. Not by a long shot.”

“What do you mean?” she couldn’t help but ask.

“I’m thinking, why not keep going? After all, who’s to stop me now?”

“What about me? Davis is dead, remember? How are you going to explain killing me?”

He leered at her before answering. “I’m thinking suicide for you. I’ll tell them you insisted I bring you here and then you just went crazy. You took the knife you brought with you.” He reached inside his jacket and produced it for her to see. “This knife. And you used it on yourself. I’ve got plans for Ava as well.” He spotted Kara’s terror and grinned. “Maybe I’ll keep in touch. Watch her grow up. Maybe I’ll even marry her. She could be my Kara. What do you think?”

“No.” The word slipped out into the thick air. Kara forced herself to hang on. She was close to losing control. The thought of her precious daughter going through what she would suffer was too much to think about. It terrified her. “Don’t you dare touch her.”

“Who’s going to stop me, Kara? You? You’ll be dead, remember? Tragic really. Father a serial killer, mother committed suicide. The poor child will be starved for attention. I can’t wait.”

She lunged at him but he easily deflected her blows. Ryan was much too strong for her.

He pulled her hard against his body. She could feel his excitement.

“Do you like it rough, Kara? Rachel did. So did Jessica. They loved it when I hurt them.”

His hands slipped over her body. Kara closed her eyes, repulsed by the thought of him, by the pain Rachel and Jessica and his other victims must have endured.

Ryan’s face was inches from hers. “Are you going to fight me like the others?” His hot breath washed over her before his mouth clamped down on hers. Kara struggled for an advantage and managed to catch his bottom lip between her teeth.

Ryan screamed in pain, loosening his hold for a moment. She ran for the door but he caught her and brought her back against his body.

“You’ll pay for that, bitch. Repeatedly you’ll pay. I’m going to enjoy hurting you.”

She tried to kick him but he lifted her up and threw her down against the filthy mattress. For a moment, the force of her body being slammed against the floor stunned her. Her thoughts rattled. She tried to react but he forced his body down on top of her, knocking the wind out of her again.

In his hand, she saw the knife. The one the Angel used to take the lives of his victims. Kara stopped resisting.