She ended the call quickly, not wanting to get into a longer discussion with Travis at the moment. But as she turned her attention back to the board, his words kept floating in her mind. You hardly know him all that well anyway. I know you better.
Like gears coming together, thoughts suddenly began to fall into place. She looked at the dates of the victims again. Victim one, raped and strangled in southern Maine—July. Victim two, June of the next year. By the time she reached victim six, she felt like she was going to throw up.
“Viv?” Nick said from beside her. She looked away from the board. Everyone in the room had stopped what they were doing and was now staring at her. She opened her mouth to say something and was, thankfully, cut off by the sound of her own cell. She wasn't ready to voice her thoughts yet. She wasn't ready to let herself even think them.
“Vivi?” Naomi's voice cut through the haze.
“Yeah?”
“I have Ian's cell at some farm out about four miles as the crow flies from his house. I pulled up the satellite maps and it looks like there's a barn there. It looks to have been built recently and not at all the kind of place Travis said he was looking for, so I don't understand what Ian would be doing there.”
Vivi's heart sank. “Can you tell if his phone is moving?”
“Not if it's moving a couple of feet here or there, but if he moved more than, say, thirty feet or so, I would see it.”
“And has it? Moved?”
“Vivi, what's going on? Is something wrong?”
“Just answer me. Has his phone moved since you located it?”
“Uh, no.”
When she'd lost her brother and her parents in the same day, there had been no fear, just the searing pain of loss and sorrow because it had all come as a surprise. But she knew that what gripped her now was an entirely different kind of emotion, a sense of panic and terror she had never, in all her life, experienced before. Because she knew very well what could happen next.
Think, she ordered herself. Forcing in a deep breath, she tried as best she could to focus. There could be any number of reasons Ian's phone wasn't moving, but of the two that came to mind, neither were any good. Either the phone was on Ian and Ian wasn't moving, or the phone had been tossed. That it was simply lost wasn't a viable option in her mind, since she knew he clipped it to his belt and it would never just fall off.
“Okay,” she took a deep breath. “Give me a second.” Turning to Nick she motioned to his cell. “Call Jesse Baker at Riverside hospital and see if Ian is there.” Without question, Nick did as she asked. While he was on task, she returned to her call with Naomi.
“Naomi, can you tell me where Travis's phone is?”
“Uh, sure, but why?” Vivi heard the question even as she heard Naomi clicking away on her keyboard, but her attention was on Nick whose eyes kept darting in her direction.
“Thank you, Jesse. No, everything is fine. Yes, please do let us know if he shows up.” Nick ended the call and looked at her with a shake of his head. “No, he hasn't been by since we left yesterday.”
“Vivi?” Naomi brought her attention back to the phone. “This is really weird but Travis is with Ian. Or, at least according to what I'm seeing, their phones are together. I mean, I know they're supposed to be together, but Travis is looking to scout locations for a Revolutionary War–era movie. What would they be doing in a barn made of corrugated metal?”
That was the question Vivi didn't want to think about.
* * *
“Viv, talk to me,” Nick ordered as they followed the directions to the barn Naomi had sent them. Marcus, Carly, and Wyatt were in the cruiser behind them. Vivi felt a sense of urgency to the core of her bones, but at her orders there were no sirens. If Travis and Ian were in there, she didn't want to make the situation worse by ratcheting up the tension. Nor did she want to give Travis any cause to do what she was certain he intended.
“It's Travis we're looking for, Nick. He's the one who killed all those women, the one who went after Ian last week.” God, it hurt to say those words. She could feel Nick's doubt, and she could hardly blame him. She hadn't quite wrapped her mind around it either, but she knew she was right.
“Travis?”
“Yes, he said something to me on the phone a little while ago. He said he knows me better and that I hardly know Ian at all.”
“He has a point, Viv. It seems an awfully big leap from that to him being a serial killer and Ian being in danger. And you do think Ian is in danger right now, don't you?”
“I do. I think Travis is obsessed with me and is going to do something to Ian I don't even want to consider, because he knows how Ian feels about me, he knows what we mean to each other. And, as to the other, as to being a serial killer, his words kept bothering me, and then when I looked at the dates the victims had all gone missing, I realized that, for those I could remember, Travis and I had had very similar arguments just before each of them.”
“As in, you would do something, the two of you would argue, and then he'd go out and kill someone?”
“I think it's probably more complex than that, but that's what I'm working on right now. I think after every argument he'd go out and kill someone who looked like me.”
“Because he couldn't have you. Or control you.” Nick went silent for a moment as he sped along the country road, driving like he'd lived there his whole life. “I might be able to buy that, but tell me why the arguments would spur the behavior? ”
“The only two things Travis and I ever argued about were men and me doing things he didn't agree with, usually things that took me away from Boston.”
“Away from him and out into a world he couldn't control, which left him feeling helpless and impotent.”
“That's my thinking.”
“Viv, you know this all still sounds a little crazy. Not that you may not be right, but if you are, it's going to devastate your family.”
“I know, Nick. Believe me, I know. I can't,” Vivi paused and intentionally reined her emotions back in, “I can't think about that right now. Right now, I just want to be sure Ian is okay. If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong. But if I'm right, the conversation Ian had with Travis and the twins this morning could have pushed Travis over the edge.”
“What conversation was that?” Nick asked, pulling onto the long, gravel driveway that would take them closer to the barn.
“Naomi said Ian was talking long term, maybe even marriage. If it is Travis, he's already taken a shot at Ian, and that was just because we decided to stay in the same house. If his mind is so tainted, so unhinged, that he'd do that, I don't even want to think about how he might handle the idea of me getting married.”
Nick pulled to the side of the road, still a good distance from and out of sight of the barn. The others pulled up behind them.
Nick put a hand on her arm, stopping her from getting out. “Viv, luv, I don't think you're the right person to be going in there. If it's you he wants and you who sets him off, if you walk in there and aren't able to hide your fear or feelings for Ian, it may set things in motion in a way you don't want it to.”
Vivi knew this, it was actually her worst fear right now—well her second-worst fear, her first being that Travis had already taken out his frustration on Ian. But it had to be her because she was pretty sure that, at this point, she was the only person who had any chance of reaching Travis. Once he understood that she and the entire team suspected him, he'd have nothing left to lose and she was hoping, that his feelings for her, no matter how warped, would slow him down enough that one of the others would have a chance to intervene.
“It has to be me and you know it. I know I'll be a sitting duck when I walk from here to the barn. I'll be out in the open and exposed. We don't know if he has a weapon, but we should assume he does and that he's not afraid to use it. I'll need you to cover me and lead the rest of the team. I won't be able to carry a weapon, because I don't want Travis to see me as a threat.”
Nick's jaw ticked.
He didn't like it, but at this point, there was no other way.
“Fine,” he finally conceded. “But you don't go in until I get the others on the ground and in a position where they can assist if it comes to that.” They climbed out of the car and met the three officers. Motioning them all into a copse of trees, Nick started issuing orders. Nick would cover Marcus as Marcus scoped out the barn. Once they had a general idea of the layout, Nick would put folks in place and only then would Vivi be allowed to move toward the barn. The wait was torture, but she knew it was the right thing to do, for her and also for Ian.
Using a scope to look through a window, Marcus spotted Ian inside, lying on his side with his feet and hands bound. As this bit of news crackled softly over the radio, Vivi's stomach plummeted; it crashed even more when Marcus reported that Ian wasn't moving. Vivi forced a breath in and told herself he wasn't moving because he was tied up, not for any other reason. So focused on maintaining control over her own self, she didn't even notice that Nick had already processed Marcus's intel and positioned Carly and Wyatt.
“Give me forty-five seconds to get into position then start walking toward the barn,” he directed.
Vivi nodded at the order.
“And so help me god, do not let anything happen to you. MacAllister would never forgive me and, as much as I hate to admit it, I kind of like it here and wouldn't mind coming for a visit or two, which isn't as much fun when you're on the police department's shit list.”
Despite everything, a smile crept onto her lips. “Thanks, Nick.”
He gave her one last look, nodded, then vanished into the woods. Vivi glanced down at her watch and began to plan what she might say to the man she had played with as a child, the man she had grown up with and thought of as family. The man she now believed killed so many women because of her.
CHAPTER 30
LYING ON THE PACKED DIRT FLOOR, Ian's body felt twice its normal weight. Disjointed thoughts floated through his mind including an abstract awareness that his hands and feet were restrained. The various times and ways he'd used duct tape throughout his career flashed in random images in his head. He could feel the slow rhythm of his heart, much too slow to be healthy, and he could feel the familiar effects of a prescription painkiller.
Vaguely, he remembered drinking a flavored water Travis had given him in the car. He thought he'd pulled out his cell to call Vivienne, but couldn't say for certain. And he had no idea what had happened—or how much time had passed—between drinking the water, which must have been laced, and semi–waking up on the ground just now.
Some latent instinct from his days as a Ranger must have kicked in; he had managed to keep his breathing intentional and slow and he hadn't opened his eyes yet. Travis, if it was Travis who had done this, would likely think he was still unconscious. Ian wasn't sure what he was going to do about the situation—he wasn't thinking that clearly yet—but given that he was still alive, he was hoping that by playing dead he might stay that way long enough for the fog to clear.
“Vivi! What are you doing here?”
Travis's voice and, more to the point, his question, did more to focus Ian's mind than probably anything else could have. Shit, he had no idea why he was where he was, or what Travis had to do with the price of bread, but whatever it was, it wasn't good and he didn't want Vivienne anywhere near it.
“I'm looking for Ian,” she answered. Judging by their voices, the two were standing a bit away and maybe in another room. Choosing to take the risk, Ian cracked an eye. When he didn't see anyone, he opened both and tried to assess his situation. He was lying on the floor of what looked like a hay storage barn. Being spring, it was empty but, taking a deep breath, he recognized the scent of alfalfa and timothy hay.
There was a large door, and though it was open and Ian could see the field beyond, he couldn't see either Travis or Vivienne.
“I told you, I dropped him at the hospital, did you check there?” Ian heard Travis say.
That didn't make much sense, but Ian figured he could sort that out later. What he needed to do now was focus on getting his hands free.
“I did check, he wasn't there, and, since you're here, I thought I would ask you. Since you know me so well, it shouldn't come as a surprise to see me here.”
Vivienne's voice sounded strained—terse but also nervous.
“Look, I apologized for snapping at you earlier, Vivi. Really, I'm sorry. It's just been a hard few weeks, is all. I'm not sure what to tell you about Ian,” Travis responded.
“Other than I don't know him all that well,” Vivienne said.
The conversation wasn't making any sense to Ian, but he was following it even as he did his best to work the duct tape against his cast in the hopes of starting a tear.
“Well, you don't, Vivi. You never do,” Travis countered.
“Have you noticed Travis, the only times we fight it's always either about someone I'm seeing or because I'm making a decision to do something you think I shouldn't?” Vivienne pointed out.
“We don't fight all that much, Vivi, so I don't get what you're trying to say.”
“I'd say, over the last eighteen years or so, we've had at least twenty-one fights. Is that about right, Travis?” Vivienne asked.
Ian froze. Twenty-one. That wasn't a number Vivienne had pulled out of her hat. That was the number of potential victims they'd identified. Ian began to double-time his efforts.
“I don't know what you're talking about, Vivi,” Travis hedged.
“I think you do, Travis. And I think I want to see Ian now. After all, you know me better than to think I'm going to walk away from this barn without seeing him.”
Ian felt the start of a tear in the tape as the two came into view. Vivienne was leading, and for a split second, his eyes met hers before he went limp and feigned unconsciousness.
“What did you do to him?” Vivienne's voice came closer to him as she spoke.
“Don't go near him, Vivi. I swear to god I will kill him.”
In that moment, Travis's voice went dead flat—no inflection, nothing. Just the monotone speech of a man speaking with disinterested certainty. Ian fought the urge to open his eyes and see how Travis planned to do the job. It was possible Vivienne was between him and Travis, but he couldn't be certain.
“With his own service revolver. Nice Travis. Very clever. And what did you do to him?” Her voice was coming closer to Ian as she spoke, and he had no doubt she was speaking more to feed him information than for any other reason. And then he felt her fingers on his neck, checking his pulse. “You drugged him, didn't you? Probably with the painkillers the hospital sent home with him, or something similar. Is that right?”
She was putting herself between him and Travis, and though he didn't want her there, he wouldn't have expected anything different. That was why it came as such a surprise when she stood and walked behind him, exposing both of them to Travis and his weapon.
“Don't touch him again, Vivi.” Travis issued an order, but his voice had changed again. It was thin and high-pitched, and to Ian it sounded on the verge of hysterical. And Vivienne calmly ignored him.
“I want to look at his hands, Travis. He had surgery a few days ago, and I'm a doctor, remember. You know me better than to think I wouldn't want to check on him. But I won't touch him.”
More than a few times, Vivienne had referred to how well Travis knew her. Ian didn't understand the reference at all, but it was beginning to sound ominous and a harbinger of something to come.
“He should be dead already, but the stupid bastard didn't drink enough of the water.”
Vivienne nudged Ian in the back with the tip of her shoe. “Oh, you didn't know? Ian has an unusually high tolerance for pain medication. Comes from back in the day when he was recovering from an IED attack. He was a Ranger you know. An excellent marksman, too.”
Vivienne's tone was goading Travis, but Ian sensed she was trying to tell him something, too. And when she nudged him in the back again, it clicke
d into place. Doing his best to keep the rest of his body still, he wiggled his fingers until he felt her ankle. And the gun in her holster.
“I swear to god, Vivi, I will shoot him if you don't move away,” Travis said.
“You're not going to shoot him while I'm standing here, Travis. After all, everything you've done, you've done for me, haven't you?”
A terrible silence fell across the barn. Even the birds seemed to stop chirping in the field.
“Not for you, Vivi. Because of you.”
Ian knew in that instant that Travis had reached the point Vivienne referred to as devolved. His voice was shaking and, though Ian hadn't opened his eyes, he had no problem picturing Travis's expression: tight, white, and livid.
“Because I know you, and you—you don't seem to ever even see me,” he continued. “You never call me, you never listen to me, you never ask my opinion. And when I offer it, you never give it any credit. You never stop by and visit. You, the perfect specimen, top of your class in everything you do. You are so caught up in yourself that you never—” Travis cut himself off, but Vivienne finished his statement.
“I never noticed that you were in love with me. That you wanted me the way a man wants a woman.”
“I don't,” Travis spat.
“You do. And when you can't have me or when I do something that takes me completely out of your life, you look for a substitute you can control. Another woman you can take out your anger and frustration on. At least twenty-one times since I turned seventeen, Travis. Twenty-one women you've tortured and killed because I treated you like family.”
Vivienne's voice had a calm certainty to it that almost, but didn't quite, hide the sorrow Ian knew she was feeling. Sadness for the victims, but also for what this would do to her family.
Ian's fingers closed around the gun. He opened his eyes to see Travis raising his weapon, his hand eerily steady for someone so close to the edge.
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