Normally, Karina would have been pleased to see someone showing affection to a man she cared about, but she wasn’t sure she could trust Sarah. Even if everything the woman had told them was true, that didn’t mean she hadn’t come here to try to hurt Willie Lee.
Still, that hand-holding had Karina rethinking that particular worry.
“I was going to have you wait until his other visitor left,” Dr. Kenney explained, “but Willie Lee said he’d like to see all of you. She can’t stay much longer, though. Personal visits are limited to an hour, and she’s been here longer than that.”
“Why are you here?” Cord’s eyes were narrowed and fixed on Sarah.
Dr. Kenney, however, answered before Sarah could say anything. “She’s been trying to see him for a while, but it took several weeks to get the paperwork approved for a visit.”
“And who exactly did she say she was?” he asked the doctor.
That put some alarm on Dr. Kenney’s face. “His wife. Is that not right? Did they make a mistake with the paperwork?”
“She’s my wife,” Willie Lee insisted. He sounded a lot stronger than he had the day before.
Good.
Because he needed to answer some questions. So did Sarah.
“No touching,” the doctor said when she noticed the hand-holding. She aimed a look at the guard, no doubt a reminder for him to do his job and reinforce the rules.
Sarah eased back her hand, slowly, and Karina couldn’t be sure, but it seemed as if both Willie Lee and the woman hated the loss of physical contact. Heck, maybe they were in love. Or at least had been at one time.
As the doctor had done with their other visit, she stepped to the back of the room and got busy writing on a chart. The guard, a huge bald guy, didn’t budge, but he didn’t especially seem interested in what was playing out in front of him, either.
“You sneaked off yesterday,” Cord said, walking closer to the bed and with his attention still on Sarah. “Why?”
“The photographer was snapping all those pictures in and around the diner,” Sarah answered without hesitation. “I was afraid my photo would turn up in the papers, and he’s still out there. I didn’t want him to see me.”
He.
The stalker.
And maybe the killer, too.
Sarah’s excuse was pretty weak, considering she was at the prison now, where lots of people could see her, but Karina would give her the benefit of the doubt. If Sarah had told them the truth, she’d lived her life on the run and in hiding for the past three decades. She probably didn’t trust easily and didn’t take many risks. Having her picture in the paper would have been a risk.
Besides, it wasn’t Sarah she wanted to talk to today. That could come later. For now, both Cord and Karina turned to Willie Lee.
“Start talking,” Cord insisted. “And this time, no memory lapses. I want a name and details.”
Willie Lee nodded. “My brother’s name is...was,” he amended, “Nicky Burnell. I don’t know what name he’s using these days, but I’m betting it’s not his real one.”
Karina silently repeated the name, and she figured Cord was doing the same thing. But it wasn’t a name that had come up in the investigations.
“Where is he?” Cord snapped.
“I don’t know. That’s the truth,” Willie Lee added when Cord gave him a hard look. “My parents divorced when Nicky and I were just six. We’re fraternal twins. Nicky went to live with my father—I never saw or heard from either of them again—and when my mother remarried, my stepfather adopted me, and I took his surname.”
Cord huffed. “So, let me get this straight. You haven’t seen or heard from your brother in fifty or more years, but yet you believe he’s the Moonlight Strangler? And even though you’ve been struggling to remember things, you just happen to remember that?”
“I didn’t piece it together until Sarah told me what went on that night you and Addie were taken, and it triggered the rest of the memories. I’m not sure why Sarah would have helped with that, but she did. Maybe because this is the first time I’ve seen her since all of that happened.”
“Because I thought it best if I stayed away,” Sarah whispered. “I didn’t want to get him killed, and I didn’t want that monster going after my babies again. I figured if I started looking for you, that it would make waves. And that he would find out about it.”
She’d been crying again. Or maybe she’d never stopped. Her eyes were red and swollen, but even with that and this awful situation, every time her gaze landed on Willie Lee, Karina saw the love Sarah had for him.
Cord obviously didn’t see the love, though. Or if he did, it didn’t play in to his emotions right now. He was all lawman and looked ready to pick Willie Lee’s story apart word for word.
“What did you piece together?” Cord asked him.
“That day he took Sarah and you kids, he left a dead woman at our house.”
Cord nodded. “I saw the picture. There was a picture of you, too, and you were holding a knife. Want to explain that?”
The sigh Willie Lee exhaled was a weary one. “He made me pose for it. Held a gun to my spine and said if I didn’t take it, he wouldn’t tell me where Sarah and my kids were. Of course, at the time I didn’t know that you’d been abandoned and that Addie and Sarah had escaped.”
Cord’s hands went on his hips. “You’re still not giving me what I want here. Why would you think that was your brother?”
“Because of something he said to me when he was cutting me,” Sarah explained. “He said this was to settle an old score with his brother. I wasn’t sure what it meant at the time. Truth is, I tried to forget what he’d said. And what he’d done.”
Even now, after all this time, Karina could see that just repeating those words shook Sarah to the core.
“What old score did he have to settle?” Cord asked, glancing at both Willie Lee and Sarah.
It was Willie Lee who answered. “I’m the one who told my mother about Nicky. He wasn’t right in the head. He liked to torture and kill animals, and one night I woke up, and he was standing over me with a knife. I rolled away from him just as he stabbed the blade into my pillow. He was trying to kill me.”
Like Sarah, there was plenty of emotion in Willie Lee’s eyes and voice. Mercy. He’d lived with a nightmare, and it crushed her heart to think he’d held all of this inside.
“After that, my dad and mom divorced, and my dad took Nicky away,” Willie Lee continued. “He was going to have Nicky admitted to some mental hospital in Mexico. He wanted to go where no one knew them, where they could get a fresh start.”
And that could have happened. But she also knew that torturing animals was a red-flag warning.
“You know DeWayne,” Cord said. “Wouldn’t you be able to tell if he was your brother?”
Willie Lee shook his head. “I haven’t seen my brother in twenty-nine years. People change. And Nicky and I were only six when he was taken away.”
True. And the problem with Harley was that even if there’d been a brotherly resemblance, his scars would have hidden it. Besides, she wasn’t even sure Willie Lee had ever actually met Harley or Rocky. Harley and Willie Lee had been at the same army training base, but that didn’t mean they knew each other.
“Sarah had nothing to do with any of this,” Willie Lee added. “She told me what happened that night. How he took her. How he hurt all of you. She was just trying to save you.”
Since that no-touching rule didn’t apply to Cord and her, and because Karina was pretty sure they could both use it, she took Cord’s hand in hers. Their gazes met. Held. And she saw it all sink in.
Willie Lee and Sarah were telling the truth. They were his parents.
That meant the real Moonlight Strangler was still out there. Plus, he might not even be one of thei
r suspects. Nicky Burnell could be anyone now.
And could be anywhere.
Cord used his free hand to scrub it over his face. “What about Lonny Ogden?”
Sarah and Willie Lee exchanged glances. “Wasn’t he the man arrested for trying to hurt Addie?” Sarah asked.
“He was,” Cord confirmed. “But Addie, he and I have enough DNA in common that he could be my half brother or some other close relative.”
“Or Nicky’s son,” Willie Lee suggested. “I don’t have any other siblings. No other children, either. And, yes, I’m sure.”
Even though Willie Lee seemed so certain of that, Karina knew that Cord would check it out. He’d check out a lot of things. Hopefully, somewhere during that, maybe he’d be able to catch his monster and make peace with his parents.
And himself.
“Mrs. Samuels,” Dr. Kenney said to Sarah. “You really do have to go now.”
Sarah nodded, reached out as if to touch Willie Lee, but then she pulled back her hand at the last second. “I’ll be back as soon as they let me see you again.”
“Be careful.” Willie Lee then looked at Cord and Karina and he repeated what he’d said.
Sarah started for the door, but Cord didn’t budge. Clearly, he had some other questions on his mind. Ones that maybe he didn’t want to ask in from of Sarah.
However, before Cord could say anything else, the overhead lights flickered. And then went out.
Just like that, they were plunged into total darkness.
Chapter Seventeen
“What the heck is going on?” the guard grumbled.
Cord was wondering the same thing. He automatically reached for Karina, pulling her closer to him, and he waited.
“The generator should kick in,” Cord told her.
“It should have already kicked in,” the guard said.
That sped up Cord’s heart rate. Here he was with Karina in a prison, and he had no gun or phone, and something had gone wrong. Well, maybe. Cord held out hope that it was just some kind of malfunction even though he knew systems like this had backups for the backups.
“Everybody stay put,” the guard ordered, and Cord heard him head toward the door.
“Shane, make sure no one’s trying to get in,” Dr. Kenney said to the guard.
“Nobody gets through me,” the guard assured her. “You just stay where you are.”
Cord didn’t know this Shane, but he was big, and he was wearing a sidearm. That didn’t exactly steady Cord’s nerves because Shane could turn out to be dirty. Or someone could just overpower him, but for now Shane was their best bet at putting an end to whatever the hell was happening here.
“I got a really bad feeling about this,” Willie Lee whispered. “Undo my restraints, please.”
Cord had no intention of doing that, but Karina started fumbling around as if she might. “He’s right. Something’s going on,” she agreed.
Cord was still holding out hope, and he also held on to Karina to stop her. He didn’t want Willie Lee untied. Not just yet.
But Cord’s hope quickly died when he heard the guard curse.
“The door’s locked,” the guard said. “It shouldn’t be locked. And my communicator’s not working, either.”
Cord cursed, too. He didn’t know the ins and outs of this prison, but the locks often required a code to activate them. No one in the room had done that, so maybe that meant someone had locked it from outside.
Could Sarah have done it?
She didn’t seem the sort to be able to negotiate a prison’s security system and block a communicator, but if she had indeed managed it, she could be trying to break Willie Lee out of here. Out of some of the scenarios his mind came up with, that was one of the better options. At least he could best Willie Lee and Sarah if it came down to a physical fight.
Shane would be much harder since he had that gun.
“No!” Dr. Kenney said. Not a shout for help. It was more of a muffled whisper, and she could have just been reacting to the fact that the lights hadn’t come back on yet.
“Dr. Kenney, are you all right?” Cord asked.
No answer.
He tried again and got the same result.
All right. So, she hadn’t just been reacting to the door being locked. Something had gone wrong. But what?
Cord tried to pick through the darkness, but he couldn’t see a darn thing. Even the machines next to Willie Lee’s bed had quit working and no longer had the blinking lights. He wanted to go to the doctor, to try to help her if something bad was happening, but that would mean leaving Karina alone.
Since Karina had already been the target of three attacks, Cord had to consider that this might be attempt number four.
“Shane, can you see Dr. Kenney?” Cord asked. He asked the guard that for two reasons. Because he really did want to know if the doctor was okay, but Cord also wanted to know Shane’s position. He didn’t seem like a man who was light on his feet, but he didn’t want Shane or anyone else trying to sneak up on them.
“No. I can’t see her.” Shane sounded scared.
There was no table next to the bed, but Cord grabbed the metal pole that was holding Willie Lee’s IV. Not an ideal weapon, especially since the IV needle was still in Willie Lee’s arm. But it was better than nothing.
Cord listened for shouts from outside the door. Maybe someone trying to get to them. But nothing.
Damn.
Was it possible that no one else at the prison knew what was happening in here?
“I’m gonna start pounding on the door,” the guard said. “Nobody’s out in the hall, but if I pound hard enough, they’ll hear me.”
However, he had no sooner said that when Cord did hear something. It was some movement coming from the direction where he’d last seen the doctor. He figured it was too much to hope that she’d just fainted and was now regaining consciousness.
“Is someone else in here?” Karina whispered to him.
“Maybe.”
And Cord cursed himself for that. There were plenty of beds and machines in this room, and he’d been so focused on getting answers from Willie Lee and Sarah that he hadn’t thought to search the place.
Maybe that wouldn’t turn out to be a fatal mistake.
“I’m taking off Willie Lee’s restraints,” Karina said, her voice barely audible. Because her arm was touching his, Cord could feel her shaking.
This time he didn’t stop Karina when she reached out for the straps that anchored Willie Lee’s arms and legs to the bed. Whoever was in here with them could be there to kill Willie Lee. After all, if Willie Lee was dead, then the real Moonlight Strangler might get away scot-free. Cord wanted to give Willie Lee a fighting chance while at the same time protecting Karina.
That’s why Cord worked with her to remove the restraints.
“So help me, if you try to hurt Karina, you’re a dead man,” Cord warned him. “I don’t care if you’re my father or not.”
“I’d never hurt her,” Willie Lee insisted. “Or you.”
While the man sounded sincere enough, Cord would decide later if he was telling the truth. After the restraints were off, Cord moved Karina to the side, away from Willie Lee, while putting himself between her and the door.
But Cord had no idea if the threat would even come from the door. It could come from anywhere.
“He could have Sarah,” Willie Lee said, his voice frantic now.
True. If the woman wasn’t behind this, then the killer could have taken her again. That put a tight vise on his chest, but Cord couldn’t borrow trouble. Not when they already had enough of it.
“Dr. Kenney?” Cord asked again.
There were more sounds that came from her direction. Sounds that Cord didn’t want to hear.
Some fast clicks. Then a groan, followed by a heavy thud. Someone had fallen to the floor.
* * *
KARINA’S FIRST INSTINCT was to run across the room and help the doctor. But Cord held her back.
“It could be a trap,” he whispered to her.
Mercy, she hadn’t even considered that. Her mind was racing, and it was hard for her to think. But she didn’t need to think to know they were in danger.
Again.
What was going on?
“Shane?” Cord called out to the guard.
Nothing. Not at first anyway, but then she heard another groan. Definitely not from a woman. That was a man, and it was likely the guard.
“I think someone hit Shane with a stun gun,” Cord said. “Did you hear the clicks?”
Karina had, but she hadn’t known what it was. However, she’d had no trouble figuring out that someone had fallen. And that someone was probably Shane.
She tried to rein in her breathing. Her heartbeat, too. Hard to do, though, now that there was proof they were in trouble. Someone had taken out the guard, the biggest threat in the room since Cord wasn’t armed.
Had Dr. Kenney done this?
Karina hadn’t heard anything from the woman since she’d muttered that no, not long after the lights had gone out. But she could have been faking. Could have gotten in a stun gun, as well.
But had she?
Or was she incapacitated like the guard?
“My brother’s behind this,” Willie Lee whispered.
He’d moved, though Karina hadn’t heard him do that. Judging from the sound of his voice, he was no longer on the bed. That was good if he had to fight back, but he wasn’t in any shape for fighting. Just the day before, he’d had that seizure.
Well, maybe that’s what had happened to him.
She was rethinking that. If Dr. Kenney was helping the Moonlight Strangler, then she could have given Willie Lee something to trigger a seizure or make it look as if he’d had one. If so, that meant the doctor heard everything Willie Lee had said to them. Everything Sarah had said, as well.
Laying Down the Law Page 16
