by JANIE CROUGH
“Seth, Adrienne said Simon looked up at the spotlight and waved, right before he jumped off the stage and ran down the aisle to the front door. He had to have been standing right here when he did that.”
“Damn, Con. Why is that light even on? It wouldn’t have been on the house lights switch.”
They both sprinted to the metal ladder leading up to the theater’s catwalk. They quickly made their way to where the spotlight stood attached to a lighting batten. Sure enough, there lay a young woman, bound and gagged.
But very much alive.
“We found her! We need a medic up here,” Seth yelled out, as Conner reached down to remove the gag wrapped around the woman’s head. She immediately began sobbing.
“Are you all right?” Conner asked her, helping her sit up. “Are you injured in any way?”
The woman shook her head. “No, I’m f-fine...” The medic rushed over the catwalk to where Conner knelt beside the woman. Conner stood to give him room. He wanted to ask the woman questions, but it could wait the few minutes until she was checked out. Conner watched as the medic cut away the zip-tie that tied her hands and feet, and checked over her body for broken bones or injury. When he got to her back, the medic stopped. Frowning, he unpinned something that was attached to the woman’s clothing.
“Special Agent Perigo?” The medic looked over at Conner.
“Yes?” Conner frowned at Seth then looked over at the medic. How did the medic know his name?
“I think this is for you.” He handed Conner a note with his name on the front. Seth rushed over as Conner opened it.
Simon says, never mind. I found someone better.
* * *
WAITING AT CONNER’S desk back at the field office, Adrienne thought she might go out of her mind. They hadn’t heard anything from the crime scene—that was good news. If anything catastrophic had happened, they would’ve heard about it.
That still didn’t stop her from worrying. Had they found the woman? Was she alive? Had Simon Says tried anything to hurt them?
Adrienne ran her hands over her face wearily. Being here in this office was painful without Conner. Too much buzzing, too many voices and images trying to push their way through to her mind. She had to constantly battle to keep them out. It was exhausting.
Adrienne looked down at the file she had brought in with her—the picture of Josie Paton still on top. Maybe she could start searching for this church she had seen. But there were hundreds of churches in San Francisco. Adrienne had no idea where to begin.
Or maybe she should focus on Simon’s vertigo. Was that something requiring medical treatment? Could the FBI find a record of him through that? And why had Simon seemed so happy about his vertigo?
Adrienne did a quick search of vertigo on the computer to get an understanding of exactly what it was. A feeling of motion when one is stationary. It seemed like a dead end, not something likely to require long-term medical treatment or records.
Adrienne spotted it as she was about to turn the computer off.
Vertigo. Vertigo with a capital V. The famous Alfred Hitchcock movie.
As soon as she read it, everything clicked into place. Simon didn’t have vertigo. He was thinking of the famous scene from Vertigo while he stood outside San Francisco’s Mission Dolores Basilica. Simon was proud he was right in the middle of the most upper crust of San Francisco, and no one was any the wiser. That was why he was so gleeful when he thought of the word vertigo.
Adrienne printed out a map of Dolores Street and the surrounding areas. Based on Simon’s thoughts about the church, and the inside of the building she had seen, there were only a few places where his hideout could be. Adrienne marked them carefully on the map. As soon as Conner and Seth got back, she would take them there.
She briefly considered going there herself, but deemed it too stupid to act on. Wasn’t that always how people got killed in movies—by doing something brash and alone like that? But she definitely wanted to take Conner and Seth to check it out as soon as they could.
“Ms. Jeffries?” One of the FBI photographers rushed up to where she sat at Conner’s desk. What was his name? Adrienne had seen him around but couldn’t remember.
“Yes? I’m sorry I’ve forgotten your name.”
The man smiled, but Adrienne could tell the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m Victor Faraday, a photographer. A report just came in from the scene everyone is at.”
Adrienne stood up. “Yes?”
“Evidently there was a woman dead by the time they got there.”
Adrienne was crushed. She was so sure the woman had been alive. Maybe they had been too late.
“There’s no cell phone coverage in the theater, so Special Agent Perigo couldn’t call you. But he had someone radio in and wants you out there as soon as possible.”
Adrienne took a deep breath. Another crime scene. She wasn’t looking forward to it. “Sure, I’m ready whenever.”
“Okay, I’ll give you a ride, if you want. I’ve got to go out there, too.”
Adrienne hesitated for just a second. She had seen Victor around, but she didn’t really know him. But she knew if he had any malicious intent toward her she would sense it, since Conner wasn’t around. “That would be great, Victor. Thanks so much.”
They walked together down to the parking lot and got into Victor’s SUV. Adrienne was overwhelmed again with sadness that the woman was dead. The last time Simon Says had seen her, she had been alive, that much Adrienne knew from touching the lock of hair he had sent. Something must have happened to her between the time Simon had left and when the FBI had gotten to the theater.
Adrienne didn’t know where the theater was, so she was glad Victor was driving. As they got farther away from the FBI building Adrienne noticed the visions and voices pressing in on her were getting more insistent rather than less. Usually outside the FBI office, the noise got a little softer—there weren’t so many suspects and so much evidence trying to tell its story to her.
But something in this vehicle was demanding her attention. She looked over at Victor—it wasn’t him. She looked around and noticed how dark all the windows were tinted.
“Your windows are really dark.”
Victor nodded at her. “Yes, I had to get a special permit for the tinting. It keeps sun off my equipment. Also helps prevent theft.”
Maybe that was it. Theft. Maybe someone had tried to break into this SUV recently, and that was what Adrienne was picking up on. Whatever it was, it was getting worse.
Adrienne rubbed her head. She reached into her purse for some aspirin.
“Head hurt?” Victor asked.
“Yeah. I’m not sure what’s going on.”
“I hope it feels better soon.”
Adrienne looked over at Victor sharply. Was she imagining things or did his voice just change a little bit? Become a little higher. And a little more whiny.
Just like the voice she had heard in her head earlier when she had opened Simon’s note.
The SUV pulled up to a curb and stopped. But they weren’t at the Eureka Theater. They were in front of the building Adrienne had been scoping out and researching this morning. The building where Simon was killing his victims.
Adrienne turned to Victor to get a good look at him and watched as everything about his demeanor changed before her eyes. He went from an unassuming, soft-spoken photographer to a furious, violent killer Adrienne had never seen.
Without warning everything in Adrienne’s head exploded as the malice radiating from Victor hit her. She felt her nose begin bleeding, and she barely held on to consciousness under the onslaught.
“Victor?”
A high-pitched voice—not Victor’s—responded in a whiny tone. “Sorry, Victor’s not here right now. I’m Simon. And I’m going to need a little piec
e of your hair.”
Chapter Fifteen
Conner and Seth arrived back at the FBI field office a few hours later, happy they had gotten to the woman and the trap had been avoided. This entire situation definitely had been a departure from Simon’s usual course of action. What Conner couldn’t figure out was the why of it all. If it wasn’t for Adrienne’s description and explanation of the scene and the note found with the woman, Conner wouldn’t have believed it was Simon at all.
After answering what questions she could—and there weren’t very many she could answer since she had not seen or heard much of anything that could give them a lead on Simon—the woman had been taken to the hospital. She was dehydrated and scared out of her mind, but otherwise unharmed. Conner planned to take Adrienne to see her as soon as possible, and take Adrienne to the Eureka Theater, to see if she could pick up anything.
He had been trying to call Adrienne since they had found the woman alive. He knew Adrienne would want to know, that it would perhaps lift some of the burden she carried. But Adrienne wasn’t picking up her cell. Conner knew the field office was a difficult and mentally loud place for her to be without him, so he wasn’t surprised she wasn’t paying attention to her phone. He was excited to be able to tell her face-to-face.
Conner was also anxious for Adrienne to provide her insight on what the newest note meant. Simon says, never mind. I found someone better. Upon reading that note, Conner’s first thought had been concern for Adrienne. But he had believed Adrienne when she had said she would see Simon coming—he couldn’t sneak up on her. In order for Simon to take her, he would have to use brute force, which wasn’t going to happen with Adrienne in the middle of an FBI office.
Conner tried Adrienne’s cell again as he walked into the office from the garage. Things should be quieter in her head now he was back. But there was still no answer.
“Dammit,” Conner muttered.
“Still can’t get a hold of Adrienne?”
“No. I can understand why she didn’t answer while we were at the crime scene. But I thought she’d answer now.”
There was more urgency to both their steps as they headed from the elevator down the hall to their desks. Conner scanned the area for Adrienne but didn’t see her. Maybe she was in the conference room. The office seemed to be buzzing with activity. Conner understood why a moment later when Victor Faraday came up to him with a package in his hands.
“Agent Perigo?” Faraday said. “This came in a few minutes ago. I was already coming through the security area, so they asked me to bring it to you.”
Conner frowned. Another package had arrived from Simon Says? He and Seth looked at each other without saying anything. Two packages in one day? Something was definitely not right.
“Has it already been scanned and vetted?” Seth asked.
Faraday nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, sir. It was cleared to bring up here. This one was different. It was left by the door, not mailed.”
“Thanks.” Conner took the package from Faraday. Faraday nodded again and gave Conner a weird smile. The man was acting odd, but, hell, they all acted odd every time a package came in.
Chief Kelly met them at their desks. “That the new package?”
“Yeah, we just got it,” Seth responded. “We haven’t opened it. This one is different—it wasn’t mailed.”
“Has it been scanned?” the chief asked. After the close call with the explosives earlier today, they weren’t going to take any chances.
“Yes, came through clean,” Conner told him. He looked for Faraday to reconfirm, but the photographer was gone.
Chief Kelly looked down at the package. “Okay, let’s not waste any time. Get Adrienne and let’s open it.”
Conner felt something in his gut tighten. “Adrienne’s not already in the conference room?”
“No. She was here earlier, waiting for you guys. You haven’t seen her since you got back?”
Conner already had his phone out of his pocket and was dialing her number again. It went straight to voice mail.
“Con, don’t panic,” Seth told him. “She didn’t know how long we were going to be gone. Maybe she’s down at the coffee shop or out at one of the parks. You know how this building can become too much for her.”
Conner took a deep breath. What Seth said made sense. But something was not sitting right with Conner.
“Perigo, we need to get this package opened,” Chief Kelly told him. “If Simon Says is changing his pattern, this may be our best opportunity to catch him. Adrienne will show up soon.”
Conner nodded, and they walked into the conference room where the new package sat. After donning gloves, they opened the outer box. It once again held a jewelry case, like always, and light enough only to hold a lock of hair. They opened it and found a lock—but instead of blond, as it had always been, the lock of hair was brown.
Brown with reddish tones. Conner knew the hair perfectly. He looked over at Seth who seemed to have lost all color. Conner took the note from Seth’s nerveless fingers.
Simon says, it’s not so easy without your little cheater, is it?
It took a moment for the facts to truly sink in. However impossible it seemed, Simon had Adrienne.
Conner heard shocked responses from around the room but couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. The panic seized Conner in such a way that he could barely function. That psycho had Adrienne.
Was she already dead?
Conner pushed that thought completely from his mind. There was no way he would be able to function if he even allowed that thought to enter his head. Adrienne was not dead.
“Perigo!” Conner finally heard the chief who had evidently called his name more than once.
“Chief?”
“Keep it together, Perigo. We’re going to find her.”
Conner tamped down the panic deep inside. Chief Kelly was right. He had to keep it together if he wanted to be any help to Adrienne at all. He turned away from the package.
Thinking about what had happened today, Conner could see it was a perfect setup. Simon had gotten them away from Adrienne with the only possible thing that assured they would leave—live bait. Adrienne had sensed it was a trap from the beginning—and it had been, just for her, not for them.
Simon had even planted those explosives at the scene to draw them off the scent of his real plan. And it had worked beautifully. Caught up in all the prospective danger at the crime scene, Conner had hardly been worried about Adrienne at all.
Conner turned to Seth. “The woman we rescued this morning was never one of Simon’s intended victims. Adrienne had always been the next target. We played right into his hands.”
“Chief,” Seth asked. “Did you see Adrienne here while we were gone?”
“Yeah. I saw her. She was talking to that photographer Victor Faraday when I saw her last.”
“I’ll go find him and see if he saw anything,” Seth offered.
“I’m going to see if I can track her phone. Worked before.” Conner headed to his desk to access the Bureau’s network. Not long after putting in her phone’s information, it came up with a location.
A spark of hope grew in Conner’s chest until he saw the address. Her phone was somewhere inside the FBI field office.
Conner slammed his fist down on his desk. A few moments later Seth came rushing up.
“Faraday’s gone, Conner. I went out and checked the garage myself and found this.” Seth held out a phone. Conner slid the power button to On and saw the last seven missed calls were from him. This was definitely Adrienne’s phone.
Chief Kelly walked up to their desks. The way he sighed, Conner knew the news was not good. “We pulled the camera footage from the parking garage camera. She definitely left with Faraday earlier today, about two hours before you guys got bac
k.”
The confusion that coursed through Conner quickly gave way to rage. Victor Faraday was Simon Says? How was that even possible? They had worked with the man for years.
And that bastard had been right here next to him, just a few minutes ago. Had the nerve to hand Conner a package, and smile at him, after he had already taken Adrienne.
The murderous rage was almost as incapacitating as the gut-wrenching fear Conner had felt when they had opened Simon’s package. It also had to be pushed away so Conner could function.
“I’ve already checked with security. No second package came in today. Faraday must have brought it in himself and said it was found outside the door,” the chief told them.
“We need every bit of information we have on Faraday. Right now.” Conner announced, eyes hardening.
It turned out every bit of information they had on Victor Faraday was not a great deal. He had worked for the San Francisco field office for two years, having transferred from the Austin, Texas, field office. A search through the Bureau’s systems confirmed a rash of unsolved murders had occurred in the Austin area around the same time Faraday had lived there. Once he had transferred here, the murders there had stopped.
“Hell if I can remember anything specific about him at all,” Seth said with disgust, throwing Faraday’s file on his desk. “Two years of working with him and I could barely pick him out of a lineup.”
“He’s played us from the start.” Conner sighed roughly. “It’s part of the reason Simon was always a step ahead of us.”
“How do you think he got around Adrienne’s abilities?” Seth asked.
“That’s what I can’t figure out. She should’ve been able to sense him coming. Hell, she should’ve sensed him the first time she was in the building. Or at least whenever I wasn’t around. I don’t understand it. She never had any specific insight to Simon at all. Except...”
