“Perhaps,” Mac answered. “He can change hair color, beards, mustaches and all that, but his nose is what it is. His eyes are what they are, his gait is what it is and his height and weight aren’t really changeable, so hopefully there would still be some recognition there. We have some good images of him, not to mention the descriptions and sketches. We’re continuing to put all of that out there. People, and women in particular, are going to be on guard and looking for him, wary that their new boyfriend is potentially a serial killer. That was part of the reason I spoke the other day, to get women to be honest with themselves and ask is this new man real? If a woman is more on guard, they have a better chance of protecting themselves.”
“That’s all true,” Greene replied agreeably.
Mac broke away from Greene and went to the whiteboard and stood in front of it for several minutes, focusing on the street map of the immediate area around Eleanor Eagleson’s apartment building, tracing the route of the sewer tunnel with his finger to where they came up in the alley and then noting the location of the cell phone tower on Kansas Avenue. Eleanor’s condo. The phone call. We go on. Whatever I think I know, Rubens says I don’t know. No clue as to the identity of the fourth victim. They had to find him now. The sewer pipe. The cell tower. He just kept looking at it all, arms folded, quietly taking it all in, starting to slowly shake his head.
Wire approached, took one look at him and said, “What?”
“What do you mean, what?”
“The look on your face,” Wire answered knowingly. “I’ve seen it before. You’re staring at this map in a way that says something is bothering you.”
Mac nodded. “We’re missing something here. I keep running the sequence and elements of tonight’s events through my mind. There is something about the call that is eating at me. I keep thinking there is more to this.”
“More to what? Is it something at the scene? Was it something on the phone call? Was it something Rubens said?” Wire fired at him rapidly.
“Maybe,” Mac answered, but in his mind, something else was getting to him. “Something that happened isn’t sitting right with me but I can’t for the life of me figure out why I think that right now. It’s teasing me like a fly that I can’t swat.”
“It’s late,” Coolidge suggested as he approached. “And I know all about your legendary ability to keep going, Mac, both you and Wire, but it’s nearly 3:00 A.M. and you two need rest. We all do. Even just a little, a few hours will do wonders.”
“Then let’s get some,” Mac replied. “Let’s all go home,” he said and led everyone out of the conference room. “Get some rest and we’ll get back at it by 7:30.”
In the parking garage, Ridge lingered at his car, waiting for the others to pull out. Wire was the last one out of the elevator lobby and he approached as she hit the key fob to unlock her Range Rover.
“Hey, I wanted to say thanks for letting me hang around tonight.”
“I’m a little amazed Mac let you do it,” she replied with a smile. “He must really be tired.”
“Or desperate times call for desperate measures,” Ridge replied with a wry smile. “What a night. The rush of it—it’s intoxicating.”
“The rush of a case can do that.”
“In all my time, I’ve never got to be that close to it all. How do you come down from that?”
“You really want to know?”
“Yeah, what do you do?”
“Let’s go back to my place and I’ll show you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Oh shit! Shit! If I’m right…oh man, that really changes things.”
Sally was up and rustling around, getting ready for work and the activity snapped him awake. Mac was a light sleeper, always had been, even as a child. He didn’t suffer from insomnia necessarily but he was a fitful sleeper at best and, as Sally frequently warned, around the time he would turn forty he’d probably start snoring like a chainsaw. That day was coming.
“Keep running and your weight down and sleep on your side, and maybe you’ll be okay,” she playfully warned one morning.
“And if I don’t?” he replied while he poured her a cup of coffee.
“I’ll make you wear one of those sleep apnea masks that make you look like a pilot,” she snorted. “And then every day I’ll ask you how many MIGs you shot down last night.”
“I think I need to go out and run. I need to keep my weight down and sleep on my side.”
He wanted to sleep more; he probably should sleep more and he really needed to sleep more.
That was not an option.
Rubens gave them forty-seven hours. They were now down to thirty-nine. Mac needed to get moving.
He rolled onto his back, looked into the walk-in closet and saw Sally’s pale, magnificent naked body in the reflection of the wall mirror. Mac smiled, pushed himself out of bed, went to the door of the large closet and leaned against the door frame. His fiancée was a beautiful woman in so many ways. At this moment, he was admiring her physical beauty as she wrapped a long white towel around her curvy body.
She noticed him watching. “What?”
“I could really use a quick fifteen minutes,” he said as he flicked his eyebrows.
She glanced furtively at the clock on the vanity and then back to him, thinking and then seductively started biting her left lower lip. “I can give you an enthusiastic ten,” she replied as she dropped the towel, rushed him and pushed him into the closet and down to the floor.
“This is new,” Mac remarked with a smile as Sally quickly slid off his boxers and jumped back on top of him.
“Did I ever tell you how much I love this closet you built me?” she said in a hushed voice as she kissed his neck.
“No, but I must have done a really good job.”
“Oh, you did,” Sally replied, her lips a centimeter from his. “You definitely, definitely did.”
What started and quickly finished in the walk-in closet was then immediately restarted and then refinished again in the shower. In all, Sally gave him a good twenty-five minutes and was scrambling to get out the door as he poured her a coffee and spread cream cheese on a toasted bagel for her.
“I have to say,” Sally said, her smile beaming as she came rushing into the kitchen, “that was a heck of a way to start the day.”
“What can I say,” Mac answered with a grin, still feeling tired but significantly lighter and looser. “You motivate me.”
“I’d like to keep on motivating you,” she replied as she leaned in to kiss him again, lingering at his mouth. Her right arm curved around his neck and she kissed him again, a slow soft lingering kiss. “We haven’t had nearly enough of that lately.”
“I agree.”
“Then catch this asshole,” she ordered, softly pecking his lips one more time.
“I’m working on it,” he replied and broke away before he made an attempt at wrestling her back upstairs.
Sally looked at her watch. “Not bad. I should still make it kind of on time.”
“In that case,” he teased, reaching for her hand.
“Easy, tiger,” she laughed, slapping away his hand while she sipped from the coffee mug. “I can’t believe we did all of that in twenty-five minutes as it is.” A seductive grin spread across her face. “We shouldn’t have been able to do it twice in that …”
“Short of a time frame,” Mac finished and was suddenly slack-jawed. “He couldn’t have done it in that … short … of a time.”
“Are we talking about what just happened upstairs or something else?” Sally asked, seeing the sudden change in his expression. “We’re not talking about upstairs, are we?”
Mac stared at the ceiling. “If he couldn’t have done that—” His voice trailed off and then he wheeled toward Sally, his eyes wide. “Oh shit! Shit! If I’m right…oh man, that really changes things. And that’s why he said we go on. That’s what he said. I can’t believe it! That really, really changes things. But I gotta confirm it first.”
>
“What? What are you talking about?”
“You gotta be kidding. You have got to be effin’ kidding me,” Mac just kept muttering over and over as he paced around the kitchen.
“Mac, what is it? Is it about the case?”
“Yeah? Oh yeah,” he finally answered as if just realizing she was still there. He kissed Sally quickly and ran toward the stairs, yelling, “I gotta call Wire. I gotta call Wire right now! This could be huge.”
As he sprinted back upstairs, Sally smiled in amusement. “I guess I cleared his mind.”
• • •
She was deep in sleep, a comfortable, relaxed, exhilarating sleep, so comfortable she ignored the phone and let the call roll to voicemail.
That didn’t stop the caller and the phone from immediately ringing again. She rolled over and saw that it was Mac. Of course it was Mac. It was always Mac at times like this. “Yeah?” she answered sleepily.
“Get up and get to Eleanor Eagleson’s.”
“It’s early.”
“It’s 6:39 A.M. to be exact.”
“Right, like I said, it’s early.”
“But now you’re up, so let’s go.”
She sensed renewed enthusiasm in his voice. “Mac, why?”
“Just be there in fifteen minutes. I’ll have coffee. I might have figured something out. It could be big, it could crack this thing wide open, but I need your help to confirm it.”
Wire sat up, sensing the excitement in her partner’s voice. “Okay, easy there, pal. I need at least a half-hour.”
“Okay, okay, just get up and get going, will ya? Time’s a-wasting.”
She hung up and rolled over to her left to find Ridge, now awake lying flat on his back, staring at the ceiling.
“Good morning,” he smirked as she looked down at him.
“Morning.”
“Quite the night,” he continued.
“It had its moments.”
They’d raced to her place and started in the living room before making it up to the bed for round two. Round three occurred a little later, after they’d first raided the refrigerator, emptying her temple of takeout food boxes. She found Ridge to be an energetic lover and then some, and he had a couple of moves she’d never experienced. She had to admit as she stared down at his cheesy grin surrounded by stylish stubble that it left her feeling a little more alive. But she wasn’t kidding herself. Ridge lived in New York and wasn’t any sort of a long-term option. He was too much of a poser for her, long term. But in the here and now, she could definitely do with a couple of more nights like that one.
“I gotta get going,” she said.
“So early?”
“It was Mac. He has something he wants to get after and get after now. When you’re on a case with him, you move at his pace, which is generally warp speed.” She leaned down, quickly pecked him on the lips and rolled out of bed.
Ridge sat up and admired her naked body, her long legs, toned stomach and smaller but firm breasts as she stumbled across the room to the closet and grabbed a robe. She worked out. Her body was quite feminine but exceedingly taut and, he thought, incredibly sexy.
“It was interesting to be on the inside of the investigation like that last night.”
“Don’t make too big a habit of it,” Dara cautioned with a smile as she started assembling a wardrobe, pulling out a pair of skinny blue jeans. “You don’t want to get on Mac’s bad side. I’ve seen people on that. Trust me—you don’t ever want to be there.”
“Good to know,” Ridge answered, not particularly concerned. Then he changed subjects. “Look, at the risk of killing the mood, I do have to ask one question…”
“What’s that?”
“You and McRyan, you two ever … you know?”
Dara put her hands on her hips and her relaxed look suddenly turned dark. “Really? You think that is a wise question to ask right now, Ridge? Do you want me to hurt you?”
“I’m just curious. Have you?”
“No, we haven’t,” she bit out and studied his expression. “You’re surprised?”
“Given the night I just had with you, I’m amazed.”
“Have you seen his wife-to-be, Sally Kennedy? You want to talk about amazing?”
“Yeah, but you aren’t exactly bad looking,” Ridge answered. “So again, I find it hard to believe …”
“Not everyone is a walking hard-on like you, Ridge,” Dara threw over her shoulder as she turned to open a dresser drawer.
“Maybe not, but come on—you have to have at least thought about it. I’m secure in my masculinity so I can say this: McRyan is a good-looking guy. I mean, he really strikes me as your type and you two have chemistry. I can see it.”
Dara thought for a second and then answered honestly. “If Mac wasn’t head over heels in love with Sally, I’d have had him in this bed a long time ago. And you know what? I think he’d tell you the same thing.”
“Yet you two haven’t given into it?”
“No,” Dara replied. “Not even close, and there have been plenty of times where we could have.”
“And no?” Ridge didn’t believe her.
“We’re really good friends and occasional partners, and that’s as far as it goes. And I count Sally Kennedy as a very good friend of mine. Heck, I’m a bridesmaid in her wedding. So, Mac and I?” She shook her head. “It ain’t gonna happen.”
“We’ll see.”
“No,” Dara answered sharply. “We won’t, and I’m just fine with that. Besides, Mac is not a cheater. He’s one of the most loyal people I’ve ever met. And not just to Sally. If you are one of his friends, one of his good, good friends, he’d do just about anything for you.”
“Well, good,” Ridge answered. “It actually gives me a little more faith in people. And …”
“And what?”
“And I suppose an angle to cover in my coming book.”
In a flash Wire jumped on the bed and was on top of Ridge, forcefully pinning his arms down while squeezing his ribs with her thighs. “Ridge, if you mention this conversation in your book… If you even make a vague reference to it, or to Mac and I…” She moved her face close to his and whispered in her most threatening, gravelly voice, “If you even in the most obscure subtext imaginable allude to it, trust me—you’ll need a chapter in that book on the castration of your amazing dick at my hands. Do you understand?”
“You think my dick is amazing?”
“Ridge, don’t test me.”
“I won’t.”
She dug her nails deeply into his wrists. “Ridge,” she warned in a hiss.
“It won’t happen. I promise, I promise, I promise!” Ridge pleaded with pain in his voice, but apparently not enough.
Wire twisted even tighter.
“Ow!” he screamed loudly, now in considerable pain. “Dara, I promise. I absolutely, positively, cross my heart and hope to die, promise not a word. Never, never.”
She looked down into his face. Could she trust him? This was important. He must have been able to tell she was suspicious. She was contemplating whether her night was a massive mistake.
“Dara, not a word, I promise,” Ridge answered seriously and he could tell she finally started to believe him. Then he lost his somber demeanor. “As long as—you know—maybe me and my amazing dick can keep coming by for a while?” he suggested with a goofy smile.
“I’ll think about it,” she replied, maintaining her grip.
“So how long until you have to meet McRyan?”
“I said a half-hour,” Dara smirked as she released Ridge’s arms and slowly lowered herself down on top of him, “but I left some wiggle room.”
• • •
Wire pulled up and Mac had a tall coffee waiting for her, along with a croissant.
He gave his watch a dramatic stare.
It had been fifty minutes, but she blocked it out, reached for the coffee and took a long drink from the tall, now lukewarm mocha. “So is it just the two of us?”
“Yes,” Mac answered. “For now, at least, other than the two uniform cops hanging around and keeping people away, I kind of told them what we’d be doing and bought their silence with supplies from Dunkin’ Donuts.”
“What are we doing?” she asked while drinking her coffee and following Mac back into the woods behind Eleanor Eagleson’s condominium building.
“Testing a theory.”
“Which is what, exactly?”
“In due time, partner. But first, you’re going to time me.”
“From where and why?”
“I’m going to start from here. You’re timing me from here until I come out the tunnel where Rubens did last night.”
“So I start, go to my car and …”
“Meet me at the manhole cover in the alley.”
Mac took out his flashlight and lowered himself down to the floor of the tunnel as he heard Wire yell, “I’ll meet you on the street.”
He went through the sewer as quickly as he could with the flashlight. The night before he and the others picked their way slowly through the passage, having to crouch and proceed carefully, unsure of what awaited them ahead.
No such caution was now required.
This morning he knew what to expect, not needing to hold his gun. So he jogged slightly hunched. Did Rubens, he wondered? Maybe he didn’t have to. Mac was a tall six-one, nearly six-two. Rubens was shorter, five-ten at best. It might have been easier for him. Mac would have to account for that.
The other thing he checked for intermittently was whether there was cell phone reception. There were no bars. At one point, he tried making a call but the phone remained silent.
He reached the “T”, turned left and took off at a more rapid sprint. He reached the ladder and climbed his way up and pushed the cover up and off.
Wire was waiting for him. “Eleven minutes, seven seconds,” she reported, holding up her cell phone display.
“Okay. I want to take one more run at it.”
The second time he really pushed it, now familiar with the tunnel, not checking his phone. Mac just hunched over jogging, and then when he reached the “T” in the tunnel he ran at nearly a full sprint until he reached the ladder up to the street.
Next Girl On The List - A serial killer thriller (McRyan Mystery Series Book) Page 23
