“You can buy almost any drug in the world online now without a prescription—illegally, of course.” He shrugged. “Or a doctor would have access to it. At least we have a place to look now.”
She shifted in her seat. “You said it’s used to treat sleeping disorders?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Mark, my reporter friend. He’s always talking about having insomnia. Do you think…?”
“We’ll look into it.” He leaned forward and swiped a hair out of her eye. “Don’t worry too much right now. I’ve got someone watching Mark, just in case he is our man.”
She nodded, still pensive.
Brody rested his hand atop hers. “You okay with coming with me today, Madison? I don’t want to leave you alone, but I’ve got to keep investigating.”
She remembered her photography appointments, her bills, Lincoln. She needed to spend some quality time with her son. This past week she’d been so focused on catching the killer and dealing with other stress that they’d spent little time together. “Lincoln needs me. I feel like an absentee mom lately.”
“He knows you love him. I can see it in the way you interact with each other. Soon this case will be behind us and things will return to normal. It seems impossible right now, but this will end.” He gazed intently at her. “In order to keep Lincoln safe, I’ve got to keep you safe.”
“I owe Kayla big time. I don’t even know if she can watch Lincoln again today. I probably should have just sent him down to stay with my parents, but I just didn’t want them to stress out over what was happening. Especially since my dad has a heart condition.”
He nudged her chin up. “You’re doing the right thing. And Kayla doesn’t seem to mind. She mentioned that she had to go to the church today and work on a bulletin board. I’m sure Lincoln could go with her.”
Madison sighed, still feeling burdened. “And aside from Lincoln, I don’t know if I can afford to miss work. Actually, there’s no ‘I don’t know’ about it. I can’t afford it.” She rubbed her temples, suddenly overwhelmed.
Brody put his hand on her knee. “We can squeeze some of your appointments in between what I need to do. I don’t want you going anywhere alone, though. Not until this man is caught. It’s too apparent that he’s got his eyes set on you.”
She nodded heavily. “You’re right. I’ll just bring my laptop and work on some of the images I’ve taken lately. I can email some digital proofs to my clients.”
“No problem. Can you be ready in thirty?”
She nodded and placed the coffee mug in the sink. “I better get busy.”
She started to walk away when he tugged at her arm. She paused and looked at him.
“One more thing. There’s a crew coming over today to install that security system and cameras around your house. If the Suicide Bandit comes back, I want to see what he looks like, how he moves, what he’s doing.”
She shivered, but didn’t argue. “Okay.” She had moments of feeling normal, but just as quickly as they appeared, reality dropped like a hundred-pound brick, crushing her temporary peace.
She closed her eyes, tired of living under this fear.
Faith, she remembered. She was supposed to be a person of faith. But instead of trusting God, she’d let fear invade every second, it seemed.
She’d start working on that faith today. And she’d start by trusting that God would provide for them, even when she wasn’t able to complete all of her photography jobs.
Faith, not fear, she repeated to herself as she got ready. Faith, not fear.
* * *
While Brody made phone calls and consulted other detectives in the office, Madison worked on her computer, cropping photos and fixing various problems. She needed to send the baseball pictures to Coach Daniel and some of the real-estate photos to the agency who’d hired her.
“Do you work on your photos in public a lot?”
Madison looked up and saw Brody staring at her from his desk. Her heart sped at the sight of him, as it did every time. His perceptive, warm green eyes watched her. The hard lines of his muscles pulled taut against his shirt, showing off his well-sculpted frame. His thick hair looked tousled, as if he’d just run his hand through it. The sight of the wayward strands made Madison want to reach over and comb her fingers through the mess. Why did the man have to have that effect on her? She almost wished that she felt nothing toward the man. Life would be much simpler that way.
She thought about his question a moment before shrugging. “It depends. If I’m out and between assignments I might stop by a coffeehouse to work for a little while. Why?”
“You know it’s possible that someone could have jumped on your network and grabbed your pictures from there.”
“Really? People can do that? I have a firewall.”
“Yeah, but when you jump onto another connection, you open yourself up to all kinds of threats.”
“So what you’re saying is that Mark may not be the bad guy here? It could have been anybody.”
His expression remained grim. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” He let out a breath and a glimmer of hope returned to his eyes. “I do have some good news, though.”
“What’s that?”
“There are some drugs missing from the hospital in Newport News.”
Madison straightened. “That’s the one where I was treated after my attack.”
“It is. There’s more to it. The doctor who treated you used to live in Brooklyn.”
“Coincidence?”
“Maybe…maybe not,” he said. “I’m going to go with Detective Blackston to question him. The man definitely had a connection to the nurse. Apparently Deputy Victor had given him a speeding ticket once, so the man has affiliations with some of the victims. We’ll see if any of this pans out.”
“Can I tag along?”
He shook his head. “Not a good idea. I think you should stay here.”
Madison frowned, though she understood.
“I won’t be gone long. You going to be okay here?”
“I’ll be fine,” she insisted.
* * *
The good doctor checked out. For a majority of the times the attacks occurred, the doctor’s time was accounted for and verified by several people. Plus, there was no way the doctor would have been able to get from Madison’s house after her attack back to the hospital to treat her in time. Just another dead end.
Brody sighed. He wished he had some good news to take back to Madison, but he didn’t.
As he drove back to the station, deep in thought, he knew he was falling for the woman. Falling like he hadn’t fallen in a very long time.
He thought about the happiness that he saw in her. It seemed to come from a place much deeper than just external pleasures. She was content at her core. He admired that, even desired that for his own life.
Before he went back to the sheriff’s office, he called the men he’d hired to install the security system. The man who owned the company had done the job himself and told Brody that they were finished. Brody decided to swing by the station to pick up Madison and then head over to the house to check everything out.
He couldn’t help but notice that Madison’s face lit up when she saw him. Maybe she did feel the same way about him that he felt about her. He wanted to tread carefully when it came to a relationship with her. He had so much baggage. Had he really let go of it? Or was he simply ignoring his underlying issues because his feelings for Madison superseded everything else at the moment? He didn’t know for sure, but it was something to keep in mind.
“It looks like you made out okay while I was gone.” He noted the Chinese food on his desk.
“Bonnie stopped by for a visit. She was kind enough to bring lunch. Just left a few minutes
ago.”
Brody smiled. Sheriff Carl’s wife was always kind and gracious. “I need to stop by your house for a few minutes. Want to come?”
“Absolutely.”
Madison slipped her hand into his outstretched one. Her soft skin made his heart lurch unexpectedly. He forced himself to let go after he helped her to her feet.
After they were snug in his car, air conditioning blaring, Madison turned to him. “What about the doctor?”
“He’s clear.”
She sighed and leaned back into the seat. “So we’re back to square one?”
“It appears. I even did a background check on your reporter friend Mark.”
“And…?”
“Aside from one arrest in college for drunk and disorderly conduct, his record is clear. There’s nothing that would indicate he’s involved in any of this.”
Madison shook her head. “Sometimes I don’t feel like this is ever going to end.”
“We’re getting closer and closer every day. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but we are. Just hang on.”
As they pulled onto their street, Brody followed Madison’s gaze to the pier.
“Mr. Steinbeck’s not out there today,” she mumbled.
“We probably scared him away.”
“I don’t think I ever remember him missing a day out there during the summer and any other day when school’s not in session. He lives to fish and be on the water. It’s only too bad he couldn’t afford his own place on the bay.”
“It’s nice that you let him use yours,” he murmured.
“It was practically written in the contract before we bought the house. The previous owners thought the world of him, and begged us to let him continue using it. Reid and I didn’t care.” She shrugged. “He can be a little rough around the edges, but he’s never been a problem. I’m just sorry he got pulled into the mess last night.”
“I think he’ll recover. In fact, maybe that’s exactly what he’s doing this morning—resting.”
“Maybe I’ll make him some soup. I know he lives alone and it’s always nice to have someone watching out for you on days when you’re under the weather.”
The woman seemed to have a heart of gold. She constantly thought of others before she thought of herself. Brody never thought he could be that selfless. But when he thought about Madison and Lincoln, he knew more than anything that he wanted them to be safe and cared for. Something about them made him want to protect them, to support them and provide for them. He would go without sleep, food, shelter, whatever it took if he knew they were safe.
They pulled into Madison’s driveway. Brody’s gaze searched the surroundings as they walked up to the house. Everything appeared in place. Until this madman was caught, Brody vowed to stay on guard at all times, however.
They stepped inside, and he turned to Madison. “Stay here for a minute.”
She nodded, and Brody checked out the rest of the house. Everything appeared clear. He met her in the entryway again and reached for her hand. “Let me show you this new system.”
He led her into the dining room where the monitor for the outside cameras had been set up. He sat at one chair and she pulled up a seat beside him.
“It’s going to take me a few minutes to figure this system out,” he told her.
“I’ll start some soup, then.”
He read the instructions that the installer had left. In the other room Madison hummed in the kitchen as pots and pans banged around. Something about the scenario felt right, something about the two of them sharing the same space, working side by side, sharing their thoughts and feelings.
Oh, man, he had it bad. He shook his head and kept reading the instructions. Finally Madison came and sat beside him again. He was keenly aware of her presence, so much that the words began blurring across the paper for a moment. He forced himself to focus.
“Let’s take a test drive of these cameras.”
Madison stared at the screen. “So the cameras are on all the time? Recording everything that goes on outside?”
“That’s right. If the Suicide Bandit comes back, we’ll see him.”
He rewound the video feed. The crew had left two hours ago after installing the cameras and Brody had asked them to go ahead and start recording. He’d gotten a brief lesson on how the system worked over the phone. Now he wanted to put that knowledge into action.
Madison’s backyard showed up on the screen.
“That’s my yard with the grass that desperately needs to be cut,” Madison said with a smile.
“I can help you with that.”
He switched cameras and the front yard showed up, then switched again and saw the side yards, which included a view of his own home. It felt like forever since he’d actually lived in that house, but he didn’t mind. There were more important matters at stake.
The feed switched back to the front yard again.
“Seems pretty simple,” Madison said. “I can’t possibly pay for this, Brody. It looks expensive.”
“You’re not paying for it, Madison. You didn’t ask for the system to be put in, so it’s not your responsibility. I’m doing this as a part of the investigation.”
And it would cost him a pretty penny, but he wasn’t concerned about it. All he cared about was that Madison was safe and in order for her to be safe, they had to catch this guy.
Madison clutched his arm, her gaze widening as she stared at the screen. “What’s that?”
He leaned toward the monitor. A man wearing black slunk against the brick at the back of the house. The time stamp told him the recording had taken place an hour ago.
“It’s him,” Madison whispered, her grip on his arm tightening. “He was here. Today.”
Brody watched the man, who was cloaked in all black from head to toe. Once the man rounded the corner of the house, he paused. Then the man stepped away from the house. His head tilted toward the camera.
The ski mask the man wore only showed his eyes. Despite that, Brody was quite certain that the man was smiling.
Chills raced through him. The Suicide Bandit was more sinister than Brody had imagined. And coming from a New York City detective that said a lot.
SEVENTEEN
Madison poured herself another cup of coffee but the chills wouldn’t go away. The image of the man outside her home seemed a permanent stain on her thoughts. She lowered herself onto the couch beside Brody and slowly released the air she held in her lungs.
She shook her head. “He’s mocking us, isn’t he? He knew we had the cameras installed and he came by just to let us know that he’s a step ahead of us.”
Brody ran a hand through his hair, leaving strands of it standing on end. “That’s certainly how it seems.”
“He has no fear. It was broad daylight again when he came by. He must be watching the house, just waiting for appropriate times to terrorize me.”
Brody slipped his arm around her and pulled her toward him until her head rested against his chest. She didn’t argue. In fact, she welcomed the embrace. She listened for a moment to the steady rhythm of his heart. The beat seemed to calm down her own racing pulse.
In the kitchen the soup boiled and the lid clanged against the pot in protest. The coffeepot grunted as the last bit of liquid percolated. The oven beeped, telling her it was ready for the brownies she’d whipped up earlier. Everything felt so normal. Yet nothing was normal.
The crime-scene unit was on their way to see if the man had left any evidence. Madison already knew that he hadn’t. He never did. Brody had found a couple of footprints around the outside of her house, thanks to the storm last night softening up the
ground. But the footprint could have been left from the crew that had been over to install the cameras. It was hard to tell.
At least they had an image of the man from the camera. Certainly that would help the police…wouldn’t it? It verified, at least, that the man was built solid, that he was medium-tall, that he was probably fairly young and in good shape. That could describe a lot of people in town, though. Besides, the man didn’t even have to be from Seaford. There were surrounding communities where thousands of people lived, thousands of people, any of whom could be to Seaford in twenty minutes or less.
She needed to think about something else—anything else besides the killer.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Tomorrow was Sunday. Church day.
And tomorrow after church was the congregation’s annual summer cookout. How could she have forgotten? Lincoln had been looking forward to it, mostly because of the cornhole tournament that would take place there. She groaned and leaned her head against Brody.
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing. I just promised Lincoln we could go to the church picnic tomorrow. The last thing I feel like doing is being social right now, not with everything that happened.” She hadn’t felt like being social much since Reid had died, if she were to be honest with herself.
“It might be good for you, help you to feel halfway normal for a while. Of course with the hurricane coming, the whole event could be cancelled.”
“We never cancel our church picnics.” She smiled, saying the words lightly even though they were true. “Nothing comes between our congregation and food.” She turned toward him. “You should come.”
“Me—to church? I can’t even remember the last time I set foot inside a church building.”
“Then it’s time you do.”
“People will think I’ve lost my mind, that I have no place there.”
Race Against Time Page 15
