QR Code Killer (20 page)

The echo of something from her past, some
vital little nugget of memory, was growing stronger. Maddie knew it
would come to her. She just hoped it would be soon. Time was not on
their side and the likelihood that Zeus would come completely
unhinged in the very near future was all too real.

By one in the morning, Maddie was exhausted
and could no longer keep her eyes open. She went and roused Danny
out of bed and collapsed in the spot he vacated.

When she awoke the next morning, Erik and
Danny were both nursing cups of strong black coffee, looking
gritty-eyed and bone-tired.

“You both look like you got dragged through a
knot-hole upside down and backward.”

“Well, I’ve seen you looking more glamorous a
time or two yourself, Miss Beauty Queen,” Danny commented, sipping
his coffee. “Or is it Little Miss Maddie-Pants?”

Her appearance was about the farthest thing
from her mind at the moment. Every time she would drift off to
sleep a voice, Zeus’ voice minus the accent, would trip around her
mind, poking at the embers of something just out of her mental
grasp. It was about to drive her mad.

At John’s arrival, Danny accompanied him back
out to yesterday’s crime scene while Erik did the few chores that
needed done in the barn, fed and watered the livestock nearby, and
looked with regret at the crops that needed attention. The wheat
harvest should be starting any day and hay bales still stood
waiting to be picked up in one field. He itched to climb in the
stacker and scoop up the bales, layering them into neat stacks.

Instead he turned and looked at the old farm
house. This farm had been his home for almost four months. He’d
come to love not only Maddie, but the land, and her family. He
missed her dad and could only imagine the grief she had packed away
so she could keep focused on the case. He had never met a woman
like Maddie - so strong and determined to do what was right, no
matter the personal cost to her.

She was one of a kind.

While he was standing in the shade of the
barn, Boone wandered over to him and sat whining by his knee. The
dog was usually full of pep and vigor. Today, he was oddly subdued
and unsure.

Even before Boone started to growl, Erik felt
the hair on his neck stand on end. Zeus was here, close enough to
smell his fear, close enough to get to Maddie if he let him. Erik
might be a simple farmer, but he was also a resourceful one.
Stretching out his hand, quietly and slowly, he grasped the handle
of a nearby pitchfork where it stuck in a bale of hay. He left
Zach’s pistol in the house, forgetting to bring it with him
outside. He had a gun in his pickup, but it was parked across the
yard by the machine shed. Zeus would riddle him full of holes
before he took three steps in that direction.

Feeling cold steel against his neck, Erik
knew the time had come to end this nightmare.

<><><>

Maddie sat at the table, ready to scream. Why
would the one elusive little bit of information not come to the
surface of her tormented mind? Resting her head in her hands, she
took deep breaths and let her thoughts tumble. Devin had once told
her she needed to learn to better control her mind and she could
better control what was going on around her.

She thought of Devin, her parents, of Danny’s
partner, the countless others who had died by Zeus’ tainted hand.
There was no reason for it. No personal gain for him other than to
watch the suffering of others.

Suddenly, the cobwebs in Maddie’s mind
cleared and she realized with perfect, absolute clarity who Zeus
really was.

Digging for her phone, she called Tom. He
answered on the first ring.

“Maddie, Erik was right,” Tom said, so
excited he didn’t give her a chance to talk. “There is a huge
bronze oak tree in the art gallery. The base was hollow. You’ll
never guess what we found there. Zeus is really…”

“I know, Tom. I just figured it out. The
photos, the details. How did we miss this all along? He played us
all for fools.”

“Well, we’ve got him now. We just need to
find him. I’m sending a team out on the first flight this morning.
They’ll be there soon.”

It was then Maddie noticed a small brown
envelope peeking out from the pile of papers scattered across the
table.

“He’s been in the house, Tom,” Maddie said,
ripping open the envelope and finding another QR Code. Using her
old phone she scanned it while keeping Tom on the other phone.

Sucking in her breath, it was a photo of Erik
with a message.

“
Goodbye, lover boy. You could do so much
better than a stupid farmer.”

“I have a feeling he isn’t going to be hard
to find. I better go let Erik…” Maddie heard gunshots out at the
barn and ran for the door. “Tom, he’s here. He’s here right now. I
hear gunfire. Erik is out there and he doesn’t even have a gun on
him. Call Danny for me.”

Quietly opening the kitchen door, Maddie
cautiously worked her way from the house, keeping an eye on the
barn. As she got closer, she found their dog Rose dead, then saw
Boone lying in a pool of blood by the barn’s double doors. Wanting
to run to the dog as she watched his erratic breathing, she instead
circled carefully around to the barn’s side door, which was
open.

Stepping inside, she willed her eyes to
quickly adjust to the dim interior. The smells of hay, manure and
horse wafted around her along with the smell of gun powder.

Keeping her Glock drawn, she worked her way
farther into the barn, moving slowly. Listening intently, she could
hear the rasp of labored breathing coming from behind her. Turning,
she made her way down the barn aisle without making a sound,
terrified of what she would find. A pair of brown leather work
boots stuck out in the aisle. As she got closer, she could see a
trickle of blood soaking into a blue-jean clad leg. Erik’s leg.

Wanting to cry out, Maddie continued to move
with stealth and purpose. When she reached the stall, Erik sat
propped against the door, holding his fist to his stomach while his
life-blood poured out around him. A wound to his leg bled
profusely.

Looking up at Maddie with anguish-filled
eyes, he mouthed, “Run,” before Maddie felt her feet kicked out
from under her. Rolling, she brought her gun up with her as she
gained her feet and turned to face Zeus head on.

“Maddie, dear, how lovely for you to come out
and join us this morning,” Zeus said, waving a semi-automatic in
her face. “Beautiful day for a killing, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Yours,” Maddie said. Out of respect to
everything her mother had tried to instill in her about being a
lady, she refrained from spitting on the wretched man in front of
her.

“Maddie, you wound me so,” Zeus said, taking
a step toward her, his brown eyes filled with lust and an odd,
deranged light. “I only want…”

“I don’t care what you want, you foul,
despicable vermin,” Maddie said, taking a step back. She wanted to
get Zeus away from Erik. If she could disarm him, she might have
time to save Erik before he bled to death. “And you can drop the
lousy accent.”

“Fine, have it your way,” Zeus said, losing
the accent and his patience, running a hand through his ebony hair.
“You need to make a choice, Maddie. I’m willing to forgive your
little transgressions, you’re digging into my personal life, but I
can't abide the fact that you’re trying to ruin the empire I’ve
created. All you have to do is promise to be mine. I’ll give you
the best of everything. You’ll never want for anything at all.”

“Yes, I would,” Maddie said, continuing to
back away from Erik while Zeus followed. “I’d want for love. I’d
want for real affection. I’d want for mercy and grace and truth.
You are one of the most cold-hearted, manipulative, soulless
animals that I’ve ever seen. You know I’ve seen a lot, don’t
you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You,” Maddie said, taunting Zeus. “You think
you are a God. You think you’re better than everyone else. That all
people are beneath you. Isn’t that right?”

Zeus said nothing, just smiled a demented
smile.

“You are a nobody. A nothing. You could fall
off the face of the earth and not one single person would care. You
know why? Because you aren’t a God, Zeus. You aren’t even a man.
You are spineless coward.”

“Shut up,” Zeus said, advancing toward her,
malice settling around him like a dark cloud. “Just shut up,
Maddie. You never did know when to stop talking, when to let things
rest.”

“No, I never did,” Maddie said, looking at
him intently. “I never learned that lesson, did I, Devin?”

Zeus’s head shot up in surprise.

“Go on and deny it, but I know it’s you,”
Maddie said, almost to the open barn door. Her partner and former
boyfriend had been a handsome, happy-go-lucky guy with blond hair
and blue eyes. The monster in front of her had dark hair, dark eyes
and a dark stubble of growth on his cheeks and chin. Studying him,
though, she could see a glimpse of the Devin she knew in his face.
“Why, Devin? Why did you fake your death? Why did you turn into
this horrid person? What did I ever do to you to create this
vendetta you have against me?”

Devin laughed, the echo reverberating off the
barn walls with a sound of mad desperation. “It didn’t take long to
figure out the bad guys pay really well. And when you become more
masterful than all of them, there is no limit to the money, the
luxury, the power that is yours for the taking. Zeus was the
perfect name don’t you think? My last name, spelled backwards. I’m
surprised it took you this long to figure out, but then you
wouldn’t want to believe the worst of me. Zeus is who I became.
Every one feared me. I could control anyone I wanted simply by
telling them my name. Others fell at my feet to do my bidding. But
you, Maddie, were going to mess up all my plans. You were too good
of a cop. You were getting too close to figuring out who Zeus
really was. So I decided killing Devin was the only way to maintain
my new identity. Devin really did die that day because when I came
out of the water, I was one hundred percent Zeus. There was one
thing I regretted - leaving you behind. I really missed you.”

Devin reached out a hand and ran it over
Maddie’s hair, the crazed light in his eyes growing brighter.
Maddie forced herself not to shudder in revulsion. How could she
have once thought this sick monster was someone worthy of holding
her heart?

“We were good together, Maddie. And I loved
you. Not as much as being Zeus, but enough to want you with me. If
you had just listened to me, heeded my warnings, so much of this
could have been avoided.”

“You knew I couldn’t stop doing my job,
Devin. You knew you couldn’t scare me off. You shouldn’t have
wasted your time trying. Look what it’s gotten you.”

A snide scowl crossed Devin’s face. “It’s
gotten me riches beyond measure, influence, status, everything I’ve
ever wanted. Well, nearly everything. And I’ll have it all before I
kill you.”

“No, you won’t,” Maddie said, taking another
step back. She could feel the sunshine on her back, just a few more
steps and she could run for cover, get some help and save Erik.

“I will, Maddie. I must have you, once and
for all, then I’ll say goodbye with a bullet to that lovely little
head of yours.”

Devin lunged forward and grabbed Maddie in a
death grip. She struggled against him, but it was no use. She
decided to save her strength and gathered her wits. She had a knife
in her boot and the Glock was crushed between her and Devin. She
could pull the trigger now, but odds were high she’d injure herself
instead of him.

Maddie let him drag her back toward Erik,
knowing she would have one chance to finish this.

“I think it would be fun for your boyfriend
to watch what I’m going to do to you, provided he isn’t yet
dead.”

“You’re disgusting,” Maddie said, kicking
half-heartedly against him. She wanted him to think she was weak
and tired with no strength left to fight.

“Must you continue with the degrading labels,
Maddie? You used to say such nice things to me. Can’t you say them
again?”

“Like what things?” Maddie asked, wanting to
distract him.

“You mean you don’t remember?” Devin asked,
sounding truly wounded. “I thought you loved me, Maddie. You said
you did. You told me I was the most handsome man you ever met. You
used to kiss me like you couldn’t get enough of me. You honestly
don’t remember?”

Maddie noticed Erik’s legs were no longer
sticking out of the stall. Hoping he was hiding somewhere safe, she
kept Devin occupied.

“It’s starting to come back to me,” Maddie
purred against Devin. “Maybe if you let me go, I can see about
remembering.”

Devin set her down, keeping a tight grip on
one arm, grasping her Glock in the other. Maddie pulled his head
down toward hers, turning his head so she could suck on his
earlobe. She heard him groan and ran her lips down his jaw. Devin
closed his eyes and started to sway toward her. Just when he
reached out for her, Erik came from behind the stall door and
slammed the back of Devin’s head with a shovel handle.

Momentarily stunned and unable to move, Erik
shoved at Maddie and yelled “Run!” while Devin regained his
equilibrium. Maddie took a huge step back only to watch Devin level
her Glock and aim it at Erik’s head.

“Say goodbye to your simpleton farmer,
Maddie,” Devin said before slumping to the ground, clutching his
chest.

“I always was a better shot than you,” Maddie
said, firing the derringer she kept hidden in her pocket. Running
to Erik as he collapsed, she cradled him to her and cried. “Hang
on, baby. Please, hang on.”

Just a few moments passed when she heard the
approach of a vehicle and Danny calling her name.