by Virna DePaul
The job was a priority, but it wasn’t her only priority. It wasn’t even her first priority. Not anymore.
There would always be bad guys. Those compelled to hurt others.
And there would always be good guys. Like SIG. Like Jase and Carrie.
But the only way the good guys could do their jobs and fight the bad guys was if they loved their own lives enough to truly live, and lived well enough to truly love.
Love was what was important. Love.
“Carrie. Carrie, baby, can you hear me?”
She jolted at Jase’s insistent voice in her ear and came back to herself. She’d been speaking her thoughts out loud, she realized.
“Love is the most important thing, Carrie, and we have it. You and me, it’s going to give us strength. We will beat him, do you understand?”
She forced herself to respond firmly. “Yes. We will beat him.” She couldn’t have him worrying about her. He needed to keep his focus on what was coming. It was almost time.
She saw her turnoff and maneuvered the car toward the exit. The SWAT van was right behind her, its headlights shining in the twilight. They were positioning themselves on a roof about forty yards away from the spot where Darwin had said he’d be waiting for Jase. Ten minutes later, they were in position. “We’re in place, Jase. Do you see him?”
“He’s here,” Jase said. “It’s not Brad Turner.”
“Not Turner? But that can’t be right…. The coffee shop, Tony, the connection to Dr. Bowers. It all made sense.”
“We’ll deal with Turner later, but this isn’t him, Carrie. He’s a couple of inches shorter than me. Dark hair. Slim. He’s holding Lana in front of him.”
“Fine. Maybe Turner and this man are working together. Lana, is she wearing the red jacket and gray skirt?”
“Yes. And she’s got the duct tape on her eyes. And blood. Damn it, there’s lots of blood.”
“Wait. Let us look. Does anyone see him?” she asked.
“Negative,” Bo responded, who was looking through a pair of binoculars, as were Luke and Andrews.
“Where is he?” she muttered. “Wait!” She moved her scope back to the left until she saw them. “Damn it, he’s holding her in front of him as a shield. He keeps moving behind a tree, and I can’t quite get a spot on him. But I will. As soon as he lets her go, I’ll have a shot. Hang back a bit.”
“I can’t. He’s seen me. I’m going in.”
“Jase, wait—”
“It’s okay, Carrie. I know you have my back.”
“Jase. Damn it.” But he was already walking toward Darwin. When he stopped, he partially blocked Carrie’s view of Darwin in her scope.
“Jase, you need to move to the right,” she said. “Two steps.”
Jase obeyed her instruction, but then something completely unexpected happened.
The man holding Lana dropped her and held up his hands in surrender. Lana dropped like a dead weight, making no effort to catch herself with her hands. The man who’d dropped her was talking. Screaming actually.
She could just hear the man’s frantic words through Jase’s mic.
“I’m not him. Don’t shoot me. Please! I didn’t kill her. He has my wife. He has my wife.”
Jase cursed and snapped, “Hang back, Ward,” he said. “Hold your fire.” Through her scope, she saw Jase bend over Lana’s prone body. “Lana’s dead. She’s already dead. And this isn’t Darwin. Hell, the guy’s pissed his pants. He says his name is Mark Nelson and that Darwin has his wife, Maria. We need to—” Carrie raised her head to look at the rest of the team and—
A gun fired. Over her transmitter, Jase screamed.
And Carrie screamed, too. “Jase!”
Heart thundering wildly, she looked through her scope again. Jase was on the ground, and the man he’d called Mark Nelson was standing over him with a gun. “No, no,” Carrie muttered at the same time she automatically aimed. She was just about to pull the trigger and shoot when Nelson dropped the gun and fell to his knees. He covered his face with his hands and sobbed. Once again, his voice drifted toward her over Jase’s mic.
“I’m sorry. I had to. He’s watching. I had to shoot or he’ll kill her. He said he’d kill Maria.”
* * *
EVEN AS JASE KEPT REASSURING them that he was okay, that Nelson had shot him in the leg, Carrie and the others scrambled to get to him. When they finally got there, she dropped to her knees beside him. Only after examining the gunshot wound to his leg was she reassured that he’d be okay; the bullet had passed clean through his outer thigh and hadn’t hit any major arteries. She threw her arms around him. “Thank God you’re okay,” she breathed.
While the other officers detained and dealt with Nelson, Jase hugged her tightly. “I’m okay, but Lana— God, Carrie, she’s dead.”
She pulled back and glanced at Lana’s body, where Bo was bent over her. Bo met her gaze and shook his head slightly. Grief for the other woman rained down on her, but she turned to Jase and said, “You did everything you could. You were willing to die for her, Jase. It’s not your fault.”
But his expression was one of devastation and pain, both physical and emotional, and she knew her words weren’t a comfort to him.
Within minutes, backup and an ambulance had arrived. In the commotion, they confirmed Mark Nelson’s identity. He was just another one of Darwin’s victims. He’d kidnapped Nelson and his wife shortly after Jase had demanded proof that Lana was alive.
“He taped up my eyes so I didn’t see where he brought us. But he told me he has video equipment set up here,” Nelson sobbed. “He’s watching us right now. It’s the only reason I shot you,” he said, looking at Jase. “He has my Maria…. God, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Although Carrie knew the man had been acting under duress, it took everything she had not to go after him. Thank God he’d shot Jase in the leg and not to kill. Jase would be okay.
Lana, however, had been dead for a while. It had been Maria wearing Lana’s clothes in the video. And the fact Jase had heard Lana’s voice on the phone? Probably a recording spliced together from the TV interview they’d done. Darwin was proving himself to be smarter and more ruthless than they could have ever anticipated.
Carrie was watching the medics dressing Jase’s wound when her cell phone rang. Thinking it might be Stevens or Simon, she answered. “Special Agent Carrie Ward,” she answered.
“I’m watching you right now. I can see you standing next to the woman in the blue shirt. Look up and blink three times if you understand.”
With fear paralyzing her, Carrie did as he’d ordered. To her right was a female EMT in a blue shirt, jotting down some notes. Carrie scanned the area, but there were too many places to hide cameras. They hadn’t found any of them yet. She gave three exaggerated blinks.
“Good,” he said, confirming he indeed had his sights on her. “Now listen to me very carefully. No more games. You know how smart I am. I’ll know if you disobey me again. I want you to come to me. Alone. Turn around. Throw your cell phone and your gun into the trash can to your right. Make sure no one sees you. Get in your car and drive to Dr. Odell Bowers’s house. Do you know where that is?”
She nodded slightly.
“Good. Normally, the drive would take you ten minutes. I’m giving you seven, just to make sure you don’t have time to make any stops along the way. Don’t say a word. Don’t hesitate. Don’t do a thing to make me suspicious. If you do or if you’re not here in the seven minutes I’m giving you, I swear I will slice Mark Nelson’s pretty wife up the same way I did the doctor. And this time, I won’t be nice about it.”
He hung up.
Carrie took in a shuddering breath. Jase was lying back on the stretcher and talking to Bo. Andrews had begun looking for Darwin’s cameras while Luke stayed with Nelson. Slowly, carefully, Carrie turned. At the same time, she removed her gun from her holster. Covertly, she dropped her gun and phone in the trash, made her way to her car and left.
Her mind was sp
inning with questions. What did Darwin want with her? What was she doing, going to meet him alone? He wouldn’t have placed a camera in her car, so she could call for backup, right? She reached for her radio but…Darwin had been two steps ahead of them all along. Hell, he’d gotten to Lana. How did she know he hadn’t wired her car? That he wouldn’t know immediately she’d called for backup and kill an innocent woman?
She withdrew her hand from the radio and made it to Bowers’s home in just over seven minutes. She threw open her car door, bolted outside and ran up the stairs to his front door. She reached for the doorknob, praying that Darwin hadn’t started hurting Maria Nelson.
Pain exploded through her head as someone hit her from behind.
* * *
WHEN CARRIE CAME TO, the world was pitch-dark. A sharp, insistent throbbing drummed at her temples where she’d been hit, as well as in her neck, back and shoulders. Her arms were pulled back tightly and tied to her feet. She couldn’t open her eyes and knew they’d probably been taped shut with duct tape. Her mind was muddled and she was confused. Where was she? Where was Jase? What had—
Suddenly, memory returned. She remembered everything. How Darwin had kidnapped Lana and bartered for a trade. How Jase had gone to meet him, only to discover that Lana was dead and the man they’d thought was Darwin was a bystander desperate enough to shoot Jase. How Darwin had called her and ordered her to come to him.
How in her drive to get inside and save Maria Nelson, she’d let him get the jump on her.
Just like Kevin Porter had gotten the jump on her that first time. But she’d had a second chance to take Porter down, she reminded himself. And she still had the chance to take Darwin down. Because she was still alive.
Alive but freezing.
She lay on a cold surface and she was guessing it was the tile Dr. Bowers had installed in his basement. The rest of his house had carpet or hardwood floors. At first, she couldn’t hear anything, but then a door opened and she heard the sound of scuffling and a woman whimpering.
Maria Nelson, she thought.
Helplessness washed through her, escalating into terror. Suddenly, she struggled to breathe.
Stop it, she commanded. She couldn’t have a panic attack. Not now. She needed to be strong. Needed to be ready.
She forced herself to take deep breaths. Told herself she might be the only chance Maria had. The woman sounded so frightened. So—
“Shut up!” A man yelled.
Carrie heard flesh striking flesh. A moan of horror and pain. And then things went quiet again. But not for long.
“You’re going to feel so stupid, Special Agent Ward,” a man said from behind her. “You had me right in front of you but weren’t smart enough to realize it.”
No, they hadn’t been. They’d just figured out Brad Turner’s connection to Dr. Odell Bowers.
Brad Turner. The man from Steam. He was Darwin.
Carrie recognized his voice the moment he spoke, and she wanted to curl up and howl with fury and self-disgust. Stay calm, she told herself. Don’t panic. Eventually, Jase and the others would have noticed she was missing. Granted, they wouldn’t know where she’d gone, but they’d figure it out. Somehow, they’d figure it out.
“As for your good-looking partner?” he continued. “He was the one I needed all along. Beautiful. Perfect. Now that I have you here, he’ll follow, right? And I’ll have him where I need him. I’ll kill him and claim his perfection. I’ll be perfect and Nora will see that.”
Nora. The girl who’d grieved for Tony Higgs. She was the one. The angel he’d talked about. The one he’d believe he’d gain once Tony Higgs was out of the way.
He was right. They’d had him right in front of them and they’d failed to see him.
Now she and Maria Nelson were going to pay the price.
* * *
“WHERE’S CARRIE?” Jase asked Bo as he was being loaded into the ambulance.
Bo put his hand on his shoulder. “I’ll go get her.” He was back in minutes, a concerned frown on his face. “I can’t find her.”
“What do you mean you can’t find her?”
“She’s not here, Jase. She took her car. No one saw her, and we don’t know when she left.”
“Damn it,” Jase said. “Help me up.”
Bo looked at the EMT, shook his head. “Jase,” Bo began. “She might have gone for backup. Or food—”
“Without telling me? Without seeing for herself that I made it to the hospital? No, Bo. Listen to me,” Jase gritted out. “Carrie is missing. Help me get the fuck up so I can find her. Please.”
Bo helped Jase stand.
“The cameras,” he gasped. “He was watching us. He got to her somehow.”
“But why? Why would she gave gone without telling us?”
“Because he had cameras on us. Because he has an innocent woman held hostage. And because she’s Carrie. She—”
Jase abruptly stopped talking when he saw the flashing light on his phone. He had a text message. He looked at his screen.
Looking for someone? She’s at the scene of the crime. Guess which one. Come alone. If I see anyone else, she’s dead. Just like the doctor.
* * *
DARWIN GRABBED HER by her bindings and dragged her up. A small tremor of hope shook her when she felt him cut the rope holding her hands and feet together, releasing the tension in her neck and back. She prepared herself to move as soon as he untied the rest of the rope, but he never gave her the chance. With her hands and feet still bound, he lifted her up and into a straight-backed chair, smashing her hands behind her before securing her to the chair with more rope around her chest. She felt him kiss her cheek softly, and his warm breath puffed against her.
“You’ll be the first thing the woman sees when she wakes up. For a second, she’ll feel hope. Wonder if you’re here to save her. Then she’ll realize it doesn’t matter. That I’m going to kill you both. She’ll see what I really am then, just the way you will.” Without further warning, he ripped the duct tape from her eyes, not caring that he took flesh and hair with it. She let out an involuntary gasp, but then bit her lip hard, refusing to make another sound.
She slowly blinked her eyes, adjusting them to the light, and focused on the man standing in front of her. He wiggled the fingers of one hand and smiled tauntingly.
“Hello again.”
It was him, all right. Brad Turner. The same baby-faced, handsome boy whose complexion was completely unmarred. Unscarred.
The man she and Jase had both failed to see for what he was.
Had they been wrong about why he was killing, as well? After all, he’d come to Bowers with a disfigurement, but it had been one Bowers had cured. At least, that’s how it seemed.
She did a quick scan of the room. Saw a woman that looked startlingly like Lana crumpled in the corner. But since Carrie could see her breathing, she was alive. At least, for now.
She returned her gaze to Turner.
They’d thought he was killing because of his scars.
But he had no scars. None that she could see.
No scars, so no motive.
Had his talk of beauty and power all been a diversion? “You’re very handsome.” She obviously didn’t mean it as a compliment, but he took it as one.
He laughed. “Thank you. It’s come with a price, I must tell you.”
“So all your talk about scars was bullshit?”
He grabbed at his heart as if she’d wounded him. “Of course not. Don’t you see? That’s why I’ve been killing. I was born with a port-wine stain. It covered half of my face and caused me terrible grief growing up. Do you know what it’s like? Being the freak that everyone stares at? Being the one that your own parents give up because they can’t stand to look at you?”
Carrie snorted unsympathetically. “I know exactly what it’s like to feel like an outsider. It doesn’t give you a right to turn psycho and start killing people.”
He walked up to her and slapped her hard. The
n visibly tried to control himself. He laughed again, the sound high and jittery. “Don’t be condescending. It’s hardly the same thing. My defect wasn’t a choice. I tried everything. Paid thousands of dollars for laser surgery. One painful procedure after another committed by that damn crazy quack Odell Bowers. None of it worked. I even followed him from Fresno to San Francisco, but the stains kept coming back. Ruining my life. Ruining my chances to be with Nora. It wasn’t until I killed the prostitute that I found the cure. Found the way to get rid of my scars and Tony Higgs, once and for all.”
Understanding gripped Carrie. Understanding and despair. He’d called Odell Bowers a quack, but he was just as disturbed. Maybe even more so, if that was possible. So delusional that he didn’t even realize the surgeries had worked.
Suddenly, she remembered where she’d seen him before. Why he’d seemed familiar to her. It hadn’t been at McGill’s Bar, at least not exclusively. If she’d seen him there, it had been in passing, just as she’d seen him at the medical clinic where she had her P.T. appointments. She must have seen him coming to or leaving his appointments with Odell Bowers. She looked away, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing any kind of emotion on her face, be it compassion or disdain.
She concentrated on where he’d brought her. Dr. Bowers’s basement. It wasn’t as clean as it had once been because it had been processed ten times over, but the room still contained the steel operating table. Counters with lots of storage space inside for who knew what.
He looked around, as well. “It’s nice, don’t you think? Have you seen the upstairs? Dr. Bowers liked to live large.”
“I know,” she said. “I was the one who found him. I didn’t realize it at the time, but you killed him, didn’t you? Did you dress him in the women’s underwear and apply the makeup, too?”
Turner giggled. “I did. But it was all his stuff, so I’m sure it wasn’t anything new for him. Can you imagine? What a fucking psycho.”
“Yeah. A psycho. So did you work together? Before you decided to—what?—go off on your own?”
“I wasn’t involved with Dr. Bowers’s crimes, but I was smart enough to figure out what he was doing. As soon as I heard about the serial killer that was cutting off eyelids, that he’d committed crimes in Fresno, too, I knew it was him. Dr. Bowers was a huge fan of horror movies. I’ve spent practically half my life listening to him talk about them, in particular his favorite one, one where the killer cut the eyelids off his victims. Such a small thing but unique enough to be memorable, don’t you think?”
