Level Five (31 page)

Her eardrum was broken.  She couldn’t hear out of it and the sense of vertigo kept her flat on the floor.  But her ear wasn’t the only part that he’d damaged.  She was fairly certain a couple of ribs were broken, her thighs were already turning purple and blue with bruises and her left shoulder felt like it had been pulled out of its socket.

It was the worst beating he’d given her.  If it had lasted another two minutes, she had a feeling she’d be dead.  He couldn’t control himself.  It was only sheer luck that had kept her alive to this point.

              Once the rage took hold of him he was lost to it, as lost as she was at this moment in her pain. Each beating he’d given her had been longer and more intense than the last one. 

She’d hoped that by bringing up the idea of the book she’d buy herself time, but she knew now she’d never finish his book.  He would kill her long before that happened, his rage would spiral completely out of control. When he finally regained his senses, she would be dead.

Tears burned her eyes as she spat out a mouthful of blood.  “My name is Edie Carpenter and I want to live.”

                  Chapter 29

It was after midnight.  Jake and Teddy had been watching the security video from the McDonalds where Maggie Black had disappeared for ten hours.

They had stopped only long enough for bathroom breaks and to eat burgers brought in by one of the other detectives. They had a total of sixteen hours of film of Maggie’s work shifts. 
The last two days and nights before her disappearance.  They’d been lucky to get that much as the security video was taped over every five days.

This was the third time they had watched it.  The first two times had been in the first couple of days that Maggie had been reported missing.

Just as it had before, it broke Jake’s heart, to see the pretty young woman’s smile as she greeted customer after customer. She joked with her co-workers and never seemed to lose her patience.  Still, after ten hours Jake was beginning to wonder what in the hell they were doing. 

Had he been wrong about the man at Edie’s book signing?   He’d been fairly
non-descript, a pleasant looking man who could easily be mistaken for anyone.  Had Jake really seen him someplace other than the book signing or had it just been the wistful want of a desperate heart?

“Go home, Teddy.”  Jake
paused the video and rubbed his eyes tiredly.  “Go home to your wife and kids.”

“Are you heading home?” Teddy asked.

Jake frowned thoughtfully.  He knew he should go back to Edie’s. Rufus had probably made a couple of messes on the kitchen floor since Jake had left the doggie door locked, but he was reluctant to leave this undone even though he knew it was probably a fool’s errand.

“Nah, I think I’ll stick around a little while longer and watch a bit more.”

“Then I’m sticking here with you.” Teddy settled back in his chair.

Emotion choked in Jake’s throat as he gazed at the man who was his partner, his best friend.  “I’m sorry I yell at you all the time about burping.”

Teddy grinned at him and waved his hand to dismiss Jake’s apology.  “It’s an irritating, childish habit. You have a right to yell at me, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to quit.  Now, start the video again before we both get too damned sappy.”

Once again they focused their attention on the computer screen in front of them.  The time stamp in the corner let them know it was eleven o’clock in the morning on the day of Maggie’s disappearance. 

She was supposed to have gotten off work at seven, but had agreed to work extra hours when another worker had called in sick.

“Lunch rush,” Jake murmured as he watched the people starting to line up at the counter and the pace of the workers picked up.

He and Teddy watched mothers with children, women and men in suits, joggers and teenagers line up to order fast food.  It was easy to see why Maggie was not only a favorite among her co-workers, but with her managers as well.  She worked quickly and efficiently, her smile never wavering as the lunch crowd grew.

It was just after noon on the time stamp when Maggie served a man who had come in with several other people.  As the man turned with his tray in hand, Jake hit the pause button.

“Son-of-a-bitch.”  Teddy leaned forward and stared at the screen.  “It’s him.  It’s the same guy that was at Edie’s book signing.”  Teddy slammed his hands down on the table.  “What are the odds?  It’s him.  It’s our guy.”

Jake tried not to feel the excitement that radiated from Teddy.  It might just be a coincidence that this man was at both places, he told himself even though he didn’t believe it.  In his gut, in his very soul, Jake knew he was looking at the face of the man who had taken Edie. 

Now all they had to do was put a name to the face.

Colette shot up in the bed, her heart pounding so fast she threw a hand over it to keep it from beating out of her chest.  Frank was instantly awake next to her, his big hand on her back.

“Bad dream?”

She nodded, for a moment unable to speak. She swallowed against the horror that her dreams had brought.

Frank wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her tight against him.  “No boogie man will ever get close to you again.”

He smelled faintly of the cologne he’d splashed on early that morning, a scent that filled her with a sense of safety, of security.

“The dream wasn’t about me,” she finally said as she leaned heavily into him.

“Edie,” he said softly. His big hand rubbed up and down her back.

She nodded in the darkness.  “Yes, it was about Edie.  I’m so afraid for her, Frank.  And for Jake,” she added.

“You think she’s gone.”  Frank didn’t ask it as a question but said it as a statement of fact.  He knew her so well.

“We can’t all be Colette Merriweather.  Face
it, I survived because I was lucky.”  She moved from Frank’s arms and turned on the lamp on the bedside table.  “I’ve been telling Edie all the little tricks I used to survive, pretending that I was smarter than other victims, that I had all the secrets on how to beat a psychopath at his own game.”

Frank attempted to pull her back into his arms. Instead she got out of the bed, not wanting the comfort of his arms.  “It’s been lies, all lies and I’m nothing but a fraud.  I lived because he let me live. No other reason.”  Tears blurred her vision as Frank got out of bed and circled it to reach her.

He grabbed her by the shoulders.  “That’s not true,” he protested.  “You were smart and that’s what kept you alive.  You did outplay him, outwit him.  Otherwise you would have been dead within the first twenty-four hours he held you.”   

He gave her a gentle shake.  “Don’t you dare discount what you
did. Don’t you dare question that it was your mind and your will that kept you alive, not him.”

Yanking her to him, he held her tight against his broad, naked chest. She melted into him as she cried in earnest.  The tears didn’t last long but even after she’d stopped, she clung to Frank, the man who had waited three years for her, the man who had never lost the belief that she would be with him again.

She finally raised her head and looked at him.  “I wish I had your faith.  I wish I could truly believe in my heart that I’m going to see my friend again. I’m so afraid that I’ll never see her again, that she’s gone forever.”

She buried her face in the hollow of Frank’s neck as a new wave of tears overwhelmed her.  For the first time in his life Frank had no words to comfort her, he simply held her tight.

It was Monday morning and Jake was a mess.  Since the moment they’d identified the man at the signing and at McDonalds the entire task force had pulled out all the stops to try to identify him. So far there had been no success.

They’d gone through receipts both at the book store and the fast food restaurant in the hopes that he’d used a credit or debit card to pay for his purchases. He’d used cash. 

Nobody at the McDonalds knew who he was although several people who regularly worked the day shift thought he came in occasionally for lunch.  They now had undercover cops sitting in the restaurant between eleven and two in the hopes of finding him there.

              The staff at the bookstore professed to never seeing him before, so there was no point in staking out that establishment. Despite the lack of any real evidence, there was no doubt in Jake’s mind that the man was responsible for both Edie and Maggie’s disappearances.  As far as the police department was concerned, he was officially a person of interest they would like to question.

             
It was ten o’clock when Jake took Rufus out to romp in the backyard.  Although it was difficult for him to stay away from the investigation, he knew there wasn’t anything he could do.  He was still officially on vacation. He had been warned by Chief Decker to stay away, to let his brothers in law enforcement do their job.  There was no way anyone wanted a question of impropriety if and when they found the man.

             
Rufus ambled to his usual bush to relieve himself and then came back to where Jake sat at the umbrella table on the deck.  He slumped down next to Jake and looked up at him with sad eyes. 

             
Jake scratched him behind his ears.  “I know, buddy.  I miss her, too.”  It seemed that when it was just Jake and Rufus in the house, they wandered the rooms as if hoping to find Edie hiding in a closet or under a bed. 

             
There was no doubt in Jake’s mind that Rufus was depressed.  The dog didn’t beg when Jake was eating.  He didn’t chase rabbits or run the length of the fence in the backyard. 

             
Jake feared the day when Rufus stopped looking around the house for Edie.  He worried that a time would come that Edie’s slipper would remain on the floor next to the bed instead of with Rufus’s head resting on it. 

             
He had no idea how long a dog’s memory might be, but the idea of Rufus forgetting Edie filled Jake with desolation. 

Rufus had become the keeper of the dream that Edie would return.  As long as Rufus sat up with eager expectation each time somebody entered the front door, as long as he carried Edie’s
slipper to bed each night, Jake could believe that she’d come back home safe and sound.

                       Chapter 30

              Monday morning Edie awoke to the sound of running water and thanked God that it was Monday.  He’d left her alone the day before. She’d been grateful.  She’d spent most of the time curled up in a fetal ball, escaping from her pain into sleep.

             
She’d dreamed Colette was telling her to be strong, reminding her that he couldn’t take her dignity no matter how badly he beat her.

             
Then she’d dreamed of Rufus, his furry face seeming to smile at her.  She felt his warmth as if he was curled up at her side and she wondered if she were dying.

             
She’d thought of Lisa and Frank’s children and wished she’d had a baby of her own. Then she had taken the wish back, for she’d never want to have a baby and not be there to see him or her grow up.

             
Finally she dreamed of Jake, of being held in his arms, of feeling his naked body close to hers as they made love.  She’d underestimated him, she knew that now.  She should have told him about her father. She should have confessed her burden, her guilt.  

             
It was when she woke up that her thoughts went to Francine.  A little girl who’d never realized her potential. A child whose adulthood had been stolen from her.  Edie realized she and Francine had suffered the same fate.  Francine’s death had stolen Edie’s childhood and robbed her of becoming the adult she should have been, a woman capable of accepting love.

             
She finally roused herself from her place on the floor, her body screaming in protest and her ear still painful and deaf.  He was going to kill her. She had a feeling it was going to be sooner rather than later. 

             
The stacks of paper closed in around her as she sat with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her knees.  A paper prison.  She eyed the stacks and thought about death…a painful death that she knew would have her begging for mercy before the final blow.