The River's Secret

by Peggy Dulle

  “Not in his mind.” William shook his head. “He's a killer and you catch killers. It's the perfect game. You both are doing something that you love. By the way, did your house get trashed?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “I vaguely remember him saying that he went into your house to find your notes about him. I think he thought you would have a board set up with maps and information about his victims. He thought you’d be spending all your spare time hunting for him. When he couldn’t find any trace of a Jackal investigation in your house, he went a little crazy.”

  “You mean a little more crazy?” I asked.

  William laughed, then grabbed his side, closed his eyes and moaned in pain.

  When he recovered and his eyes were open again, I asked, “Okay, this might sound a little crazy, but - why does he take you and not kill you?”

  “Oh, you're going to love this. He took me because he thinks you and I are in love,” he stared deeply into my eyes, then glanced away. “Just my luck. If you'd still been married to Matthew, he'd have been the one taken.”

  “And if he finds out we're not?”

  “Then the game's up. I'm expendable. I think he'll probably let you go, or, more likely, let you escape at some point. What good is the game if you're not around to chase him?”

  “Just your luck, huh?” I glanced around the room, looking for something that I could use as a weapon against Ron.

  “Yes.” William touched my arm, bringing my attention back to him. “But since we're on the subject, and I'm probably going to die anyway, why aren't you in love with me?”

  I met his gaze but avoided the question by asking one of my own. “Why aren't you in love with me?”

  A spasm of irritation crossed his face and his eyebrows rose. “Who says I’m not?”

  My stomach quivered and my heart leapt to my throat. I pushed the emotions aside. “William, this isn't the time or the place for this conversation. In fact, this is a ridiculous time to have it. We need to get out of here.”

  He sat up again. “Stupid or not, we're stuck in this room for a while. Let's have the discussion.”

  “You want to know why I don't love you.”

  “Yes.”

  “I don't know you. I just found out yesterday that you have a brother. People who are in love know things like that about each other.”

  “I also have a sister.”

  I lifted my eyebrows. “See, I didn't know that either.”

  “But you do now, so why don't you love me?”

  I dropped my head into my hands and rubbed my temples. “William, this is ludicrous.”

  He reached down, took my face in his hands, and brought it up so our eyes met. “I remember the first time I saw you. It was at the firing range. Matthew was there with you and you'd gotten a better score than him. You laughed and he frowned as he looked at your paper target.” He pushed my hair behind my ears.

  “You have a wonderful laugh, Constance.”

  “I don't remember seeing you there.”

  “No, you only had eyes for Matthew and I was amazed by the way you looked at him.” He shook his head. “I hoped that someday, someone would look at me that way.”

  I didn't know what to say. “I'm sorry, William.”

  “No, let me finish. We started working together. You're a great agent and could be a profiler, you know that. You have an uncanny way of thinking like the killers, really getting into their heads. I have to work at it and I envied you. And I envied Matthew.”

  My stomach tightened at each word. I needed to stop him, so I tried to speak, but he put his hand up.

  “Let me continue. Then you were taken. God, it was the worst day of my life. I was out of my mind searching for you. So was your husband. It was weird working next to him, both of us frantic to find you. I spotted the grave first and when our eyes met, it felt like I was hit with a thunderbolt. At that moment I realized that I didn't want just anyone to look at me the way that I'd seen you gaze at Matthew, I wanted you.”

  “William,” I closed my eyes and pleaded. “Please.”

  “Nope.” He shook his head. “I've started and I'm going to finish it. Did you know that Matthew stood just a few feet behind me when I found you?”

  “No, I never saw him.”

  “He couldn't go anywhere near you. I think he was afraid you were already dead. Then when the EMTs took you out of that hole, he asked me to ride with you in the ambulance to the hospital, telling me that he needed to secure the dump site.”

  “He was afraid I’d die on the way to the hospital or when I got there?” I asked.

  William shrugged. “I don't know, that's not for me to say. I'm telling you what happened from my perspective. The next week you were in and out of consciousness and I deliberately stayed away from the hospital.”

  “Why?”

  “Do you always interrupt this much?” He scowled at me, which looked bizarre because of the injuries to the side of his face.

  I closed my mouth.

  “Okay. I worked with the Dry Creek police to wrap up the Jackal's dump site and the millions of reports that had to be finished. The day I was supposed to go back to D.C., I stopped by the hospital to check on you. You really hadn't regained full consciousness. When you did come to, if anyone was in your room, you went ballistic - screaming, yelling, and eventually passing out. I found Matthew outside your hospital room.”

  “He was there?” This was the first I heard that he had come the hospital. I thought he went home as soon as I was found. My stomach knotted. What a sad surprise to find out so late that he was there when I thought all along he had abandoned me from the beginning.

  “Oh yeah, he sat outside your room for the entire week, but every time he'd be in your room and you'd wake up, you'd go crazy and pass out.”

  I shook my head. “That must have been hard on him.”

  “It was, but not the hardest part.”

  “Excuse me?”

  He scowled at me again, “I'm getting to it. As I said, I came to say goodbye to you. To really say goodbye, because I wanted to make sure that we never worked together again. I just didn't think I could work next to you knowing the way I felt about you. So I came to the hospital, Matthew sat outside your room. We shook hands and I said I just stopped by to say goodbye. He nodded at me and I think that on some level he knew the way I felt.”

  “Really?” I knew I was interrupting the story again, but this didn't make sense to me.

  “Yes, I think so, because of what happened next.”

  “What happened?”

  “I went inside, you came to and you smiled at me. God, you have a wonderful smile. Do you remember me coming in the first time?”

  “Not really.” I shook my head.

  “Well, you thanked me for finding you.” William laughed. “Although you said that it had taken me too long and what the hell kind of profiler was I anyway? Then you laughed and took my hand. Then Matthew came in and you took one look at him and had a full scale panic attack and passed out.”

  “Oh, that must have gone over well.”

  He nodded. “I let go of your hand and went into the corridor. Matthew leaned against the wall.”

  “He must have been really upset.”

  “I suppose, but he didn't show it. He walked up to me and pointed to your hospital door. Then he said, 'Stay with her.'”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, he told me to stay with you because right now I was better for you than he was. He had the most awful pained look on his face. Then he walked out of the hospital.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what Matthew had felt that day. He saw me holding William's hand, smiling and joking with him and then I went into a full scale panic attack when he came into the room. The anger I had built up since I had first came home to D.C. after my ordeal with the Jackal slipped away. Matthew had deliberately stepped away from me and left me with William. He had done what he thought was the best thing for me because he loved me. Ha
d he known what was going to happen?

  William touched my arm, bringing me back into the small cabin. He continued. “There were months of going back and forth to the hospital and the time at my apartment. God, I wanted you so badly. That day I kissed you and you told me you needed to go home, I was crushed.”

  I put my hand over his mouth this time. “Do we have to go through all this again?”

  “Yes, I need to say it.”

  I nodded.

  He continued, “When we went back to D.C., it was awful, knowing you were back with Matthew. Praying you would get your life back and also hoping that you wouldn't. The day you called me and asked for a board game was the happiest day of my life.”

  He had to know the truth. I couldn't lie to him anymore. “But, I . . .”

  “I know.” He stroked the side of my face. “I know you used me to get back at Matthew and to feel alive again, but I didn't care. I wanted you and I'd have taken you anyway I could.”

  “It wasn't fair to you.” I shook my head.

  “No, it wasn't. But it didn't matter. Then you left. I didn't know until later that Matthew had found out about our affair, had threatened to ruin our careers and that you'd gotten a call from your dad. I just assumed you were done with me and had moved on.”

  I would have liked to argue with him, but it was true. That was exactly what I had tried to do, move on.

  “So,” he dropped his hands into his lap. “If you can look me straight in my eyes and tell me that you don't love me, then that's exactly what you need to do. You need to move on.”

  That was it? I could do that. “William,” I tilted my head up and our eyes met. I took a deep breath. “I don't…”

  Just then Ron walked in. “Well, I see that your friend is awake, Connie. Glad to hear it. Are you two having a nice reunion?”

  I wanted to scream at him. Get the hell out! But I just smiled and said, “We're trying to.”

  “Well, time's up.” He walked over and zapped William with the stun gun.

  William flopped and then collapsed onto the bed.

  I screamed, “Why did you have to do that?”

  “He's easier to handle when he's unconscious,” Ron said matter–of-factly.

  “What about me?”

  “I'm going to need your help in lifting him. He's heavy.”

  “Where are you taking him?”

  “Into my car. It's time to move again.”

  “Why? I thought you said no one would look for us here.”

  “They shouldn't but I like to keep moving. It's safer that way.”

  “We don't really need William, do we? Why don't you and I just go away? We can keep playing the game, together.”

  “No, William's part of the game now.”

  “But you were wrong, I don't love him.”

  Ron laughed. “Connie. You can be so stupid sometimes.”

  “I am not stupid!”

  “I have never met anyone who buries their feelings as much as you do.”

  “I do not.”

  “Yes, you do, you bury them so deep that you don't even know they're there.”

  “So you're saying that I love William?” I shook my head. “You're wrong.”

  “Let's see.” Ron pulled out my gun and put it against William's temple.

  “No!” I screamed and reached for the gun.

  “See?”

  “No, I care about him. I don't want to see you kill him, but I'm not in love with him. Leave him here and let's go.”

  “You're a stubborn woman, Connie.” He shook his head. “If I told you that only one of you could live, what would you say?”

  I smiled and shrugged, “I'd say, can't we find another way?”

  “No, you'd take his place.” Ron put the barrel of the gun against William's head again and sneered. “You'd let me shoot you before you let me pull the trigger and kill him.”

  Would I? Could a madman be right about my feelings for William? Was the affair more than just using him? I didn't know, but I certainly did know that this wasn't the time or the place to argue with Ron.

  “Fine, I love him. I guess we take him with us.”

  “Good, now get up and pull William up with you.”

  I stood, put one arm under William's right arm and lifted him. Ron took the other side. We slowly walked out of the house, dragging William along.

  There was no way I would get back into a car with Ron. Who knew where we would end up? It was time to take a stand. If I let go of William, Ron would suddenly be hit with his full weight. Then I would have an advantage for a few seconds. If I could get control of the gun in those seconds or at least get it away from Ron, I'd have a better chance of taking him down. It was a great plan and I thought it would have worked if William hadn't awakened.

  William stumbled, threw his weight against Ron and both men rolled around the ground, each trying to get control of the gun. As I searched for something to hit Ron with, Ron kicked William away from him, leveled the gun and pulled the trigger. In those split seconds, I leapt between William and Ron. The force of the bullet threw me backwards and I stumbled as an excruciating pain burned in my chest. I put my hands on the wound to try and stop the flow of blood that pulsed out with each heartbeat.

  I landed on the car, then slid down and sat. My eyes began to blur. William and Ron were fighting over the gun. It went off again. I struggled to remain conscious.

  I felt someone pushing me down so I was lying on the ground. And then pressure, lots of pressure on my chest.

  As the darkness enveloped my body and mind, I heard William's panicked words. “Damn it, Constance. You finally admitted you love me, so you better not die!”

  Epilogue

  I remember dozing in and out for the next few days. But every time I woke up, William was by my bed holding my hand.

  When I finally regained full consciousness four days later, William sat in a chair, his head face down on my bed, snoring. I didn't move because I didn't want to wake him, I just needed to look at him.

  I spent a year talking myself out of loving him. But God help me, I did love him. The place in my heart that had felt torn and broken for so long seemed to mend and warmth spread through my body.

  The door to my hospital room opened and Matthew stuck his head in. I put my fingers to my lips and nodded down at William.

  Matthew smiled and walked silently into the room. “How are you doing?” he whispered.

  “I don’t know yet. How did I get here? What happened at the cabin?”

  “William called us from Ron's cell phone. It had a device attached to it to change Ron's voice so it took us a few minutes to figure out it was him. And luckily we were already in the area searching for you in a helicopter. It was Doc's idea. Ron was born in that cabin.”

  I nodded. “Did you understand my message?”

  Matthew let out a deep sigh. “It took me a few minutes. I was all the way back to the station before I realized that you'd actually admitted to incorrectly reading the clues and being wrong.” He laughed. “I turned around and raced back to your house, but you were gone.”

  “What happened to Ron?”

  “As he and William fought over the gun, it went off and the bullet struck Ron in the temple. He’s in intensive care downstairs and not expected to live. And even if he does, he’s probably going to have brain damage from the bullet that’s still lodged there. The surgeon says if they try to remove it with all the swelling on his brain, he’ll die for sure so they’ll wait until the swelling goes down and then attempt the surgery. They’re keeping him in a medically induced coma until then.”

  “Can you have the bureau look into all the places where he and his wife vacationed? There are more bodies out there and families missing their loved ones.”

  “I already have Sheryl on it. Erma kept a journal of their vacations and the recipes she collected.”

  “His little trophies,” I nodded.

  “This is the first time I’ve ever hunted a serial ki
ller who took trophies from a town rather than his victims.”

  “The victims weren’t that important to Ron,” I suggested.

  Matthew nodded, then took my hand, squeezed it, and glanced at William. “He hasn't left you since you were shot. In fact, they had to threaten to sedate him when you went in the OR so they could remove the bullet because he refused to leave your side. He's a good man, Connie.”

  “Even if he can't call me by my right name?” I teased.

  Matthew leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. Then he walked out of my hospital room.

  I reached over smoothed William's hair.

  He lifted his head. “Hello Constance.”

  “Hello William.” I smiled. “How about a board game?”

  A slow grin spread over his face. He stood, leaned over, and kissed me.

  God, I love those skyrockets!

  Get Away Diner

  Recipe Book

  Ron's Trophies!

  Erma’s Eggplosion

  Ingredients

  1/4 cup vegetable oil

  2 medium baking potatoes, peeled and diced

  1 medium onion, diced

  Salt and pepper, to taste

  8 large eggs

  1/4 cup Mexican cheese mixture (Monterey Jack, mild cheddar, Queso Quesadilla and Asadero cheeses)

  1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped

  ¼ teaspoon red chili peppers

  Cooking Directions

  Heat the oil in large nonstick ovenproof or cast iron skillet over medium heat. Fry the potatoes until tender and golden brown. Add the onion and salt and pepper. Continue to cook until the onion is translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes.

  Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs, cheese, cilantro, chili peppers, and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add the egg mixture to the potatoes and onions. Cook, shaking the pan and gently moving the mixture from side to side with a rubber spatula as some of the liquid from the top reaches the bottom of the pan. Cook until the bottom is set and beginning to brown and the top is still loose, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the eggs by sliding them onto a plate. Then invert and slide the eggs back into the pan, cooked side up. Cook until the eggs are set, 2 to 3 minutes more, shaking the pan often to prevent sticking. If you prefer, rather than inverting the eggs, you can place the skillet under the broiler for 2 to 3 minutes until the top is set and lightly browned. Unmold onto a plate, cut into wedges, and serve.