“I’m coming. And it’s Nelson’s car.” He beat her to the car. “Where are we going?”
“I know the way. It’ll be quicker if I drive.” She held out her hand. “Please, don’t argue, Lynch. Not now.”
His gaze narrowed on her face, and he dropped the keys in her palm. “Though it’s against my better judgment. I’m not sure you’re in any shape to drive.”
“That makes two of us.” She got into the driver’s seat. “Get in, Lynch. We’ve got to get going.”
“Why the hurry?”
“Get in.” The car roared as she turned on the ignition. “I have to know…”
Coachella Valley, California
KENDRA PUT ON THE BRAKES, and the car skidded to a stop. She stared out into the darkness, her hands clenched on the steering wheel.
Fear.
Death.
It was here again, taking her breath, assaulting her.
“May I ask where we are?” Lynch asked. “What is this place?”
“Hell,” Kendra said unsteadily. “It’s hell.”
“Hell?” Lynch gazed thoughtfully at the cliffs and the rutted landscape. “Everyone has their own hell. I should have guessed this would be yours.” He gazed down into the deep gully a few yards away. “That’s the place where they discovered all those bodies. The place where you captured Colby.”
“Yes.” She couldn’t take her gaze from the gully. “The bodies have been gone a long time. Why do I still smell the stench?” She had to move. She couldn’t just sit here. She grabbed her computer and got out of the car. She knelt in the sand and flipped it open. She stayed there, staring blindly at the screen.
Do it.
Her shaking hands flew over the keys. She pulled up the site and scrolled down.
Find the name.
Find the name.
Find the name.
Halfway down the page she found the name.
She couldn’t breathe. She felt sick.
“Okay. Tell me. Let me do something besides worry, dammit.” Lynch was a shadow standing over her.
She nodded jerkily. “I was looking for a name. The name that was in Chatsworth’s notebook. I … found it.”
“Where?”
“San Quentin personnel.” She was dialing her phone. “But I have to be—it doesn’t have to be true. I have to call Warden Salazar.”
Salazar answered in three rings. He sounded drowsy. “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you this soon, Dr. Michaels. And certainly not at this hour of the night. Is there something I can do to help you?”
“Yes. I need information about someone on your staff. Edward Pralgo. Does he have a wife or daughter named Maria?”
“Yes, Maria Pralgo is his wife.” Salazar answered, puzzled. “Do you need to talk to her? I can give you Pralgo’s phone number, but he may be difficult to reach. He and Maria left on vacation this morning. Hawaii, I think. He said he needed it.” He added grimly. “I can’t blame him. We all need a spot of paradise after the ugliness we’ve gone through.”
“Give me the number.” She quickly took it down. “Thanks.”
“Do you need their address?”
“No, I have the address.” She hung up. The next moment, she was dialing the number she’d been given.
No answer.
No voice mail.
“The phone’s been turned off,” she told Lynch as she hung up. “And I’d bet that so have Pralgo and his wife, Maria.”
“Pralgo?”
“Dr. Edward Pralgo, the physician who was in attendance at Colby’s execution. It wasn’t coincidence that name was in Chatsworth’s notebook. He had a duty to perform.”
“Colby ordered him to kill the physician who was scheduled to perform his execution? Some kind of weird revenge?”
Kendra didn’t answer. She was once more delving into information on her laptop. She had to be sure she wasn’t mistaken.
Tetrodotoxin.
There it was, in as much detail as was available.
She carefully scanned the info, then slowly closed the computer. “No revenge. Not on Pralgo. He was just a means to an end.”
“What end?”
Her head lifted, and she gazed down at the gully. “Colby is still alive, Lynch.”
He was silent, his body stiffening with shock.
“No way,” he finally said. “It couldn’t happen. There are too many checks and balances. Even Salazar examined his dead body.”
“He’s alive. Chatsworth whispered two words to me before he died. One was Mereor. The other was tetrodotoxin.”
“Mereor means I win. The other?”
“The explanation of why he thought he and Colby had won. Tetrodotoxin is a substance sometimes called the Romeo drug because in the death scene Romeo used a drug that faked his death. It’s also known as the poison in pufferfish and has been used by voodoo shamans to induce zombification. It lowers your pulse and body temperature while also creating an artificial coma. Unless screened for, it can easily be mistaken for death. But it has to be properly administered, or it can cause the paralysis of the diaphragm and can actually cause death.” She swallowed hard. “Colby had no intention of dying in that execution chamber. He set Myatt to seeing that he had an out.”
“Pralgo?”
“The physician was in charge of administrating the fatal dose and declaring the criminal dead. He’d be the one to switch the doses. The tetrodotoxin would do the rest.”
“This is all supposition.”
“Until we find Pralgo. That may be difficult. My guess is that Maria Pralgo was kidnapped by Chatsworth and held captive to force Pralgo to do what Colby wanted. After the fake execution, Pralgo would have cleaned up any evidence of what he’d done and gone to a meeting place where he’d been promised that his wife would be released.” She shook her head. “Pralgo must have been desperate to believe that anything he could do could keep his wife from being killed.”
“You think they’re both dead?”
She nodded. “Chatsworth killed Dean, then had time to fly up to San Quentin and take care of Pralgo and his wife. I doubt if we’ll ever find them. Colby would have told Chatsworth that no one could know that he wasn’t dead.” She smiled bitterly. “And Chatsworth was always very efficient obeying Colby.”
“Colby’s body?”
“Probably cremated. Why don’t you check with Salazar?”
“I will.” He moved a few feet away and dialed his phone.
Kendra didn’t bother listening to him. She was only aware of the whistle of the wind through the canyons and the yawning cavity of the gully only yards away.
Are you out there, Colby?
“Immediate cremation.” Lynch was back. “And the remains tossed in the Pacific Ocean off the Oregon coast early this morning.”
“Chatsworth probably substituted bodies. And the funeral director will also have an unfortunate accident.”
“But Chatsworth is dead now.”
“That only means Colby will have to take care of his own dirty work.” She shuddered. “And he’s much better at it than Chatsworth.”
“You can’t be sure of any of this. No proof. Griffin would say that it’s your imagination brought on by stress.”
“And what do you say?”
“I say that you’re the smartest woman I know, but I hope to hell you’re wrong.”
“So do I.” She slowly got to her feet. “But I don’t believe that I’m that lucky.” She moved closer to the gully. There were rocks along the edge. She half expected to see one stained with blood, Colby’s blood. Crazy. She bent over and picked up a good-sized black rock and looked down at it. No blood, of course.
Not yet. That was in the next act, the next story.
She closed her eyes and listened. Was that the wind … or something else?
“Kendra.” Lynch’s hand was on her shoulder. “Why are we here? Why were you determined to come to this godforsaken place?”
“Not because I wanted to be here.” Her ey
es opened. “But Chatsworth said that Colby was always talking about me … and the gully. Always the gully. And I remembered when I was Skyping with Colby he mentioned the gully and said it was important.”
“And you thought that Colby might be here?”
“I didn’t know. It might have been some kind of twisted message to me. It’s not really reasonable. Colby wouldn’t have had time to be running all over the state. And tetrodotoxin has a lingering effect in most cases. He probably wouldn’t have the strength to even get out of bed for a little while. If I’d reasoned clearly, I wouldn’t have panicked and come here.”
“But you did panic.”
“Because he’s not like anyone else.” She moved still closer to the rim of the gully. “He’s Satan Incarnate. And he might force himself to get out of a sick bed and come down here to torment me.”
That sound …
It was the wind. It had to be the wind.
But that wind breathed of Colby and carried the scent of death and those kills that had been here in this foul gully.
“He’s not here,” Lynch said. “You’ve gone through hell for the last few days, and I don’t want to see you hurting like this. Let’s go home, Kendra.”
She nodded. “In a minute.”
“Now.” His hands fell on her shoulders, and he turned her to face him. “If Colby wanted you to come here, we’re not going to satisfy the bastard by staying and brooding.” He cupped her face in his two hands and looked her in the eyes. “We’re going to ignore him until we’re ready to go after him, then we’re going to skin him alive. Okay?”
“How … violent.” Yet his harshness was sending a surge of warmth and comfort through her. She was not alone. If Colby was out there, she would not have to face him by herself. She dropped the rock on the ground. “But then it’s natural that you would be ready to confront anyone who—”
“Hush.” He kissed her, hard. “No more analyzing my motives or telling me what I want or don’t want. Accept or walk away.” He kissed her again and drew her back from the gully. “But I’d probably follow you. Now can we go home?”
“It’s your home, not mine.”
“Correction. Until Colby is no longer a factor in either of our lives, you don’t get more than a few yards away from me. Look what happens when you do. I told you once that I had your back. I can’t do that long-distance.”
And she didn’t want to leave Lynch. Not yet. She wanted his touch, his humor, his strength. She didn’t know where they were going after tonight, but he was her anchor in this storm. “I … guess I could stay at your place a little longer. After all, it won’t be forever.”
“No?” He smiled faintly. “We’ll have to see, won’t we?” He stepped back and picked up the stone from where she’d dropped it. “You won’t need this.” He reared back and threw the stone as far as he could. She heard the stone hit the canyon wall. “When the time comes, I’ll find you another weapon that will be much more efficient.”
“I’ll find my own weapons.” Once more, she moved away from him to the gully’s edge.
The wind was still moaning.
Death was still here.
Together with memories of horror that would never leave her.
And the fear that the monster was hovering close.
All of those sensations and emotions were still as alive as they had been moments before.
Yet everything was different now. She was different. She had let Colby and the shock intimidate her, and it had taken Lynch to jar her back to sanity.
The memory of the term Colby had carved on his chest returned to her.
Mereor?
Screw you, Colby.
I’m the one who is going to win.
She turned and moved back toward Lynch.
“Finished?”
“No. Not finished.” She impulsively stood up on her toes and gave him a quick kiss. Why not? She wanted to do it, and Lynch had been entirely too much in control of their situation. She might not be sure where their relationship was going, but she had no intention of having a passive role. Then she strode toward his car. “Watch me. I’m just beginning.”
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
IRIS JOHANSEN is the New York Times bestselling author of Live to See Tomorrow, Silencing Eve, Hunting Eve, Taking Eve, Sleep No More, What Doesn’t Kill You, Bonnie, Quinn, Eve, Chasing the Night, Eight Days to Live, Blood Game, Deadlock, Dark Summer, Pandora’s Daughter, Quicksand, Killer Dreams, On the Run, Countdown, Firestorm, Fatal Tide, Dead Aim, No One to Trust, and more.
ROY JOHANSEN is an Edgar Award—winning author and the son of Iris Johansen. He has written many well-received mysteries, including Deadly Visions, Beyond Belief, and The Answer Man.
Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen have together written Close Your Eyes, Shadow Zone, Storm Cycle, and Silent Thunder.
ALSO BY IRIS JOHANSEN AND ROY JOHANSEN
Close Your Eyes
Shadow Zone
Storm Cycle
Silent Thunder
ALSO BY IRIS JOHANSEN
Live to See Tomorrow
Silencing Eve
Hunting Eve
Taking Eve
Sleep No More
What Doesn’t Kill You
Bonnie
Quinn
Eve
Chasing the Night
Eight Days to Live
Blood Game
Deadlock
Dark Summer
Quicksand
Pandora’s Daughter
Stalemate
An Unexpected Song
Killer Dreams
On the Run
Countdown
Blind Alley
ALSO BY ROY JOHANSEN
Deadly Visions
Beyond Belief
The Answer Man
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.
SIGHT UNSEEN. Copyright © 2014 by Johansen Publishing LLLP. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover photograph © Bill Miles
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-02052-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-02053-6 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781250020536
First Edition: July 2014
Sight Unseen Page 30
