Evidence of Marriage

by Ann Voss Peterson

  She sucked in another breath. If Sylvie was willing to face whatever was in the package, so was she. “Okay. Let’s open the thing.”

  She led Bryce and Sylvie into the living room. Bryce and Sylvie took their places on the couch. Diana propped a hip on the couch’s arm. Grabbing the corner of the gift wrap, Sylvie tore a corner of the paper free and slid out a simple black frame holding a family portrait. A father, a mother and two little girls around three years old smiled for the camera. Soft blond hair curled around the girls’ nearly identical faces. One of the girls cradled a clown puppet. The other tangled her fingers together in her lap, her face chalky and frail-looking. The mother held her blond head high, her lips pressed into a commanding smile. The father stood behind the three, staring directly into the camera with ice-blue eyes.

  The perfect family. The family of serial killer Dryden Kane.

  “It’s us,” whispered Sylvie. “My God, it’s us.”

  Diana stared at the portrait, a mixture of heat and nerves descending into her chest. “I’m so sorry, Sylvie.”

  “For what?”

  “For bringing him into your life.” She rubbed her forehead with shaking fingers. “What was I thinking? When I found out he was my father, why couldn’t I have just left well enough alone? Why did I have to see him in the first place?”

  “Because you needed to know where you came from. You needed to understand who you were.”

  “Which is what?” The daughter of a serial killer? Her mind shuddered at the thought.

  “Which is my sister.” Sylvie touched her hand to Diana’s arm, her trembling fingers belying the steadiness in her voice. “Sometimes we just need to know. No matter what the consequences. I would have done the same thing, Diana. You know that.”

  She did. But that didn’t make her feel any less responsible. “I have to stop him.”

  Bryce looked from one sister to the other, worry heavy on his brow. “What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know yet. But I know who might.” She forced a breath into aching lungs. Although eight months had passed since she’d given him back his ring, the pain pulsing behind her eyes made it feel like yesterday. “I’m going to take the portrait and card to Reed.”

  Sylvie thrust to her feet. “I’ll go with you.”

  Diana held out a palm as if that would hold Sylvie in place. “You have a baby to worry about.”

  “I’m pregnant, not crippled.”

  “No, but you’re sick.”

  She gave a shrug, as if morning sickness were nothing. But the pale sheen to her skin told the real story.

  “And you don’t want that baby to get sick. Besides, you still have guests to deal with. The last thing we need is to have Lisa storming back, demanding answers.”

  Sylvie opened her mouth to protest, but Bryce cut her off. “We’ll take care of Lisa. Tell Reed to call me.”

  “Of course.”

  Sylvie pressed her lips together in a frown. Finally she nodded and gave Diana’s arm a squeeze. “We’re in this together, Diana. Remember that.”

  Diana nodded. They were in this together. Whether Sylvie deserved to be or not. And now it was Diana’s turn to contribute—to bring what she’d started to an end.

  “TELL ME THAT’S SYLVIE.”

  Reed McCaskey glanced up from the reports scattering the table he and his partner Nikki Valducci had commandeered at the Easy Street Café.

  A young woman pushed through the café door and scanned the worn Formica tables and coffee-sipping crowd. From her cascading blond hair and light blue eyes to the soft line of her cheeks that made him ache to protect her, she hadn’t changed. And although she and her sister were identical, there was no doubt in his mind which twin he was looking at. He could feel her presence in the churning of his blood. “It’s Diana.”

  His day had started with being kicked out of his office in the City County Building after inmates in the sixth-floor jail had spent the night stuffing whatever they could find down the toilets until sewage had backed up in the first-floor police station. With the station so pungent it had brought tears to his eyes, he’d traded that smell for the burned-coffee-and-stale-grease aroma of the Easy Street Café. At least until the cleanup crew had a chance to do their thing. But as badly as his day had begun, it was about to get worse.

  He dropped his gaze to the reports. “Why don’t you take this one?”

  “Somehow I doubt she’s here to see me.” Nikki let out a pained sigh. “Aren’t you even curious about what she wants?”

  “No.”

  Another sigh.

  Of course Nikki wouldn’t understand. She always had to stick her nose in everything. Especially things that were none of her business. A good characteristic for a detective—especially one as ambitious as Nikki—but not a trait he appreciated when the subject was him. “Go up to the counter and ask for some refills, will you?”

  “Are you kidding? I’m not going to miss this show.” Nikki leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. Picking up her coffee cup, she took a long, leisurely sip.

  So much for keeping his pain to himself.

  “Reed?”

  No matter how braced he thought he was, the sound of Diana’s voice hit him in the gut like a full-fledged ulcer. He kept his eyes riveted to the report in front of him. He didn’t need a close-up view. He still saw her face nearly every night in his dreams. And in his nightmares. “I’m busy here, Diana.”

  “Dryden Kane contacted us.”

  Kane. An extra shot of acid added to his misery. He looked up, searching her face. “When?”

  “He sent Sylvie a wedding gift. A family portrait of us as children.”

  “Nice.”

  “She’s kind of upset.”

  He could imagine. He knew Sylvie wouldn’t want his pity, but he couldn’t help giving it all the same. The poor girl had grown up in foster homes, dreamed of having a family, only to discover her father was notorious serial killer Dryden Kane. To get this “gift” the day after her wedding had to be a blow. “How did the portrait arrive? Delivery service?”

  She shook her head. “It didn’t come in the mail either. The only thing I can figure is that he must have had someone drop it off at the reception last night.” She tensed her shoulders in a protective shiver.

  Reed knew what she was thinking. The same thing he was. That someone who’d delivered the package might very well be the Copycat Killer, the serial murderer who had claimed three women’s lives the past fall using the same techniques as Dryden Kane. The killer they believed was being controlled by Kane himself. “Do you have the portrait with you?”

  Nikki pulled the cup away from her lips. “Fingerprints?”

  He nodded.

  Diana gestured at the street outside the café. “It’s in my car.”

  “Good. Nikki can take it over to the lab. They can lift the prints there. Maybe the frame will tell us something, too.”

  “That’s not all.” She dipped her hand into her purse and pulled out a large plastic bag with a greeting card inside. She extended it to him.

  “A card. I guess he must have read the etiquette books.” He opened the card a crack through the plastic-bag cover. Bold handwriting scrawled at the bottom of a wedding verse. A father should have the privilege of walking his daughter down the aisle. I miss my girls. I look forward to your visit.

  “I’ll bet he does,” Reed muttered under his breath. The opportunity to emotionally torture his two beautiful adult daughters must be a dream come true for a sadist like Kane.

  “There was a newspaper clipping about the Copycat Killer inside, too. It’s tucked in the envelope.”

  Manipulating the bag, he opened the envelope. The slightly yellowed shadow of newsprint peeked from inside. He shook it out into the bag. The headline was more than six months old, originating from around the first time the press had officially named the Copycat Killer. The killer hadn’t killed since, at least not that they’d detected. But with summer here, Reed
feared the total would start to rise.

  The pain in his gut hardened to anger. Diana might not want him to take care of her anymore, but she’d have to accept certain precautions. “You and Sylvie need to move to a hotel for a few days. I’ll arrange for protection.” He braced himself for an argument.

  Diana merely nodded. “I’m worried about Sylvie. She’s pregnant.”

  Pregnant. So they couldn’t wait until the actual wedding to start their family. No surprise. Sylvie and Bryce were so in love and wanted a family so badly, he’d been amazed they’d put off marriage and babies for as long as they had.

  The familiar ache bored into his stomach wall. Last October he would have bet the couple married and expecting would be him and Diana. How things had changed. “Aren’t they planning a honeymoon?”

  “She won’t go. She says she doesn’t want to leave me alone with this.”

  “And Bryce?”

  “He wants to get his hands on the man who killed his brother, naturally. But he intends to do what’s best for Sylvie and the baby.”

  “I’ll see what I can do to convince her. And I’ll have an officer assigned to you.” He handed the plastic bag to Nikki. “Have the lab check for prints ASAP, then I want it back. The portrait, too.”

  Nikki set her coffee cup on the table and stood.

  He glanced up at Diana, meeting her eyes for as long as he dared. “Is that all?”

  “All Kane sent? Yes.”

  “Then Nikki will go with you to get the portrait.”

  Diana hesitated, watching him for a moment. “I need to talk to you.”

  “Nikki can handle it.” He nodded to his partner, praying she’d help him out this time. He was at the end of his tolerance. He couldn’t stand looking at Diana one more second and pretend she didn’t mean anything to him, that he was just doing his job, working on a case like any other. “Go ahead.”

  A knowing smile playing at the corner of her lips, Nikki made for the café door, her long, dark ponytail swinging down the middle of her back. “Save my seat.”

  Diana paused a second longer before following. When she finally disappeared through the glass door, Reed lowered his head into his hands.

  Even as an awkward teen with more pimples than confidence, he’d never found being near a woman this difficult. But then, it wasn’t every day he had to face the woman he’d loved for five years, the woman he’d finally convinced to say “I do,” the woman who’d turned around and kicked his guts out.

  Minutes passed as he delved into his stack of reports. He’d just reached the bottom of the first pile when the bell on the café door jingled, and the ache returned in full force. And as much as he wanted to blame it on the battery-acid coffee, he knew without looking up Diana was once again heading for his table.

  “We need to talk.”

  “Didn’t Nikki take care of things for you?”

  “I didn’t come here just to hand over the portrait and card.”

  Of course she didn’t. She couldn’t let him off that easily, after all. “Why did you come?”

  “I want to help.”

  “Help?”

  She pulled out a chair and slid into it, plunking her elbows on the table. “I want to go to the prison. I want to talk to Dryden Kane.”

  “And who is that going to help?”

  She tilted her head and looked at him as if he were an idiot. “In the card, he wrote that he wants to see us, talk to us, then he put in a news clipping about the killer.”

  “So you think he wants to talk to you about the Copycat Killer?”

  “Don’t you?”

  “No.”

  “Then why send the clipping?”

  “You haven’t seen him for months. Maybe he thought you could use a little incentive. Or maybe…” An extra shot of acid added to the swirl of pain in his gut.

  “Maybe what?”

  “Maybe it’s a threat.”

  He expected a reaction. She didn’t give him one.

  And he knew why. “Of course, you’ve already thought of that, haven’t you? That’s why you didn’t object when I offered police protection.”

  She averted her gaze, studying a crack in the Formica. “He sent the card to Sylvie. He wrote that bit about her wedding. I’m afraid for her.”

  “You should be afraid for yourself, too.”

  “I brought him into Sylvie’s life and my own. I have to deal with him.”

  “By running to visit him? How do you think giving him exactly what he wants is dealing with him?”

  “If I can get him to talk to me, to tell me something, anything about the Copycat Killer, maybe you can use it to find him before he kills more women.”

  “And Kane?”

  “If you can get evidence tying him to the copycat, maybe you could justify sending him back into solitary confinement, no matter what kind of lawsuit he won against the department of corrections.”

  Not a bad idea, except for the part about her talking to Kane. “I’m sorry, Diana. It’s out of the question.”

  She leaned forward, her breasts brushing the tabletop. “I know he refuses to talk to anyone. But he’ll talk to me.”

  “I’m sure he will.”

  “What’s the problem then?”

  If she really didn’t think asking him to agree to put her in danger was a problem, he sure as hell wasn’t going to point it out. The last thing he needed was for her to cram his need to protect her back down his throat. It was a battle he couldn’t win. “My lieutenant will never go for the idea.”

  “I’ll talk to him.”

  “He’s up to his neck in sewage today. I don’t think he’ll have time for a meeting.”

  She narrowed her eyes, as if seeing straight through him. “This isn’t personal, Reed. I came to you because you’re the lead detective on the copycat case.”

  “Okay. It’s not personal. Then don’t take it personally when I tell you there’s no way in hell you’re getting near that prison.”

  “You can’t stop me. I’ll talk to Kane on my own. I did it before.”

  Her words pierced his chest like a well-aimed ice pick. She’d kept a lot of things from him in the months before their wedding—the fact that Kane was her biological father, her visits to the prison, her doubts concerning their marriage. She hadn’t trusted him with any of it. “And if I’d known, I would have stopped you then.”

  “Exactly why I didn’t tell you.” She pushed back her chair, the metal legs screeching against worn linoleum. “Obviously talking to you about this was a waste of time. I’ll just go straight to your lieutenant and see what he has to say.” Thrusting herself out of her chair, she turned and marched for the door.

  Watching the sharp kick of her hips, Reed gritted his teeth. He knew what the lieutenant would say. Months of no new leads and the return of summer squeezing down on his head, he’d probably jump at her offer. And in light of Reed’s past relationship with Diana, it was doubtful the lieutenant would assign him to accompany her to the prison. A more likely choice would be Nikki. Or, heaven help him, the publicity-seeking Stan Perreth. “Wait.”

  Diana stopped and spun to face him, hair flung over her shoulder, resolve glinting in her eyes, passion flushing her cheeks.

  For a second, he couldn’t breathe normally.

  He must be crazy for considering this. Certifiable. She’d told him she didn’t want his protection, hadn’t she? Hell, even back when she’d allowed him to take care of her, he’d failed. But somehow none of that, not even the ache of his own battered heart, could make a difference. He might not want to accompany Diana into that prison, but he couldn’t live with the idea of her walking in there alone. Whether he could protect her this time or not, he didn’t know. But he was certain to the marrow of his bones that he couldn’t stand by and not try. “Give me a second to clean up this mess, and I’ll drive you to Banesbridge.”

  Chapter Three

  Diana didn’t have to wonder how worried Reed was about her visit with Dryden
Kane. He spent the entire hour-long drive to the prison lecturing her about the psyche of the serial killer. The security screening and trek down the halls of the main building he filled with warnings about prison security. By the time they’d reached the tiny observation room next to the room where she would meet her father and he started jotting down a list of approved questions, she’d had enough. “Listen, I’m the one asking the questions. I’m the one who will decide what they are.”

  Reed paced across the closet-sized space. He stopped and peered at the television monitor showing four chairs arranged around a small table in the adjacent room. The table and one of the chairs were riveted to the floor. “Dryden Kane is a very smart and dangerous man. You may be his daughter, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to try to manipulate you just like he does everyone else. In fact, it’s probably even more important to him to control you.”

  “From where I’m standing, you’re the one who’s trying to control me.” She was sorry as soon as the words left her lips. Comparing Reed to Kane wasn’t even on the remote edges of fair. Reed was only doing his job. And despite their past together, she had to focus on what she needed to do, too. It was just that no matter how things had changed from the days when she’d been helpless and Reed had been her protector, the fact that she still felt that vulnerable flutter run through her every time he looked at her made her want to do anything she could to push him away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. But I can take care of myself, Reed. I have to take care of myself.” She’d learned that the hard way.

  “So you’ve said.”

  He didn’t get it. Maybe he never would. But it didn’t matter. She knew how much being dependent on other people had cost her. She had only to close her eyes and she was tied up in that cabin in the woods, waiting for her own death, reaching deep for the strength to see her nightmare through and coming up empty.