Seeking Evil (Looking Into The Mind Of A Killer Series)

by Mary Eason

  "What? Oh my God, I had no idea. Why didn't you tell me?"

  Her sister's reaction made the secret appear darker. "I couldn't. I was embarrassed. I was a failure at my marriage. I let you down."

  Bev sighed and squeezed her arm. "You know you could never let me down. I guess I just don't understand. You guys were always so good together. It doesn't make sense. What happened?"

  If only Anna could answer that question for herself. "I don't know. Aaron wouldn't talk to me about it. He was the one who filed. He just moved out and refused to talk."

  "You had to have some indication, though."

  "That's just it, there wasn't anything. We fought a lot, but it was more than that, I could feel it. He just refused to tell me what was wrong."

  "People fight. It's normal in a marriage. You know Ed and I went through a rough patch a while back. It happens.”

  Anna shook her head. “But you worked it out. You talked. Aaron wouldn't talk to me. He just told me he'd had enough and he wanted a divorce. We were still sharing the same house until the divorce was final, although Aaron was rarely home. Afterwards, well, he moved into a hotel, although he didn't take anything with him except his clothes. I suspected that he waited until I was at work to go back to the house. I'd find little telltale signs he'd been there, I think mostly to work on his book. I did everything I could think of to get him to tell me what was wrong between us, but he refused."

  "Is that why you turned to John?" Bev asked quietly.

  It was so hard to say the words. She'd given up on her marriage at that point. Aaron made it clear there would be no reconciling. "Yes."

  Bev never let her down. “Anna you didn't do anything wrong. Stop blaming yourself. Whatever happened between you and John, you did nothing wrong. I don't understand what went wrong in Aaron's mind, but his job was intense. So was yours. You two worked side by side under the worst possible circumstances. I’m sure it had to be hard. Lots of marriages would have struggled.”

  That much was certainly true. “Yes. But we’d worked through some difficult cases before in the past. Something changed with the Rock Creek murders. Aaron changed.”

  Anna could feel Bev studying her in the dark. “In what way?”

  It had been hard to pin down. The subtle change in Aaron. She’d noticed it even before the Rock Creek murders began. In fact, if she were being honest, it had started several years before. She’d just chosen to ignore it, refusing to believe their marriage might be in trouble.

  After the first killing, the changes in Aaron intensified. It was as if he was looking for ways to start an argument. At the time of the first murder, Anna had been teaching criminal profiling at Quantico for a couple of years. As one of the top criminal profilers at the Bureau, she’d been called in to work the case. On more than one occasion, Aaron challenged her conclusions. With the death of Cheryl Larsen, Aaron’s animosity toward Anna assessments turned vicious and personal.

  “It’s hard to explain. Like I said, we argued all the time. Aaron was openly critical of my work. I learned from John that he’d tried to have me taken off the case. Aaron was old school and he didn’t always agree with my science, yet he was never publicly disrespectful before. But it was more than just work. Aaron used every excuse to be away. Put distance between us. Whenever we did actually find time to be alone, he ended up working on his book until late into the night. Usually he’d fall asleep on the sofa in his office. It was as if he were deliberately avoiding being close to me.”

  “That doesn’t sound like Aaron.”

  Anna's laughter didn’t mask the bitterness. “He told me I was being paranoid. Profiling our marriage. He told me I should give it a rest.” Anna took a deep breath and went on. “So, I went to John for. He was the closest thing I had to Aaron. I thought, well, maybe he could tell me what was worrying Aaron. Of course, he refused. John always kept Aaron’s secrets.”

  “So how did your relationship with John start?” Bev asked quietly.

  Anna grinned at her. “How do you think? Like any other in the history of the world. John talked to me. He was interested in what I had to say. Our friendship grew then led to something more.”

  Whatever Bev’s opinion of the relationship was she kept it to herself. “And was that where it ended?”

  Anna knew Bev had guessed there was more to the story than what she was telling her. “What do you mean?”

  “You know what I mean. Are you in love with John Delaney?”

  Anna took a deep breath and tried to deny it. “No. Bev, how can you even ask me such a thing? I loved Aaron. My marriage had just fallen apart. John was just my rebound, I guess.”

  Bev was silent for a long time, watching Anna carefully. “The baby?”

  This was the hardest of her mistakes to confess. Bev believed the child she’d lost was Aaron’s.

  She took a deep breath and told her sister everything. “You mean was she John’s? Yes.”

  Bev nodded against the pillow. “That explains a lot. John certainly acted like a man who’d lost his child that day at the hospital.”

  Anna swallowed hard. That final scene between herself and John still stood out fresh in her mind. John had wept for the loss of his daughter. She couldn’t. “Yes.”

  “Did Aaron know about your relationship with John?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t want to believe he did, but I’m not sure. Maybe because I'm not sure it would have mattered to him. At times, there were things he’d say when he did actually talk to me, usually at work and about the case, that made me wonder, but then he’d go off on another tangent and I’d think, no way. He just doesn’t love me anymore.”

  “Oh, Anna. I don’t believe that for a minute. Not the man I knew. He adored you. Maybe it was just the pressure of the job, and the book, and teaching the classes at the academy. I don't know what was going on in his head, but he did love you. I'd bet my life on it. ”

  “Maybe, but I know there are things John knew about Aaron, secrets that he never told me. Something was going on in Aaron’s life. He just wasn’t sharing it with me.”

  After the funeral, Anna had been so angry and bitter. She’d torn apart Aaron’s hotel room and then his office, looking for answers. She’d found nothing. Not a clue as to what might have been troubling Aaron in the months before his death.

  She’d even read the manuscript Aaron had told her he’d been so close to completing. He’d started it five years earlier. He was writing on the making of a serial killer. For the most part, it was brilliant. At least in the beginning. Aaron’s later work took a turn toward disturbing. She'd make sure Aaron’s book never became a published work. Because there was no way she’d let the world see the delusional insights of the man who’d once been so brilliant. She owed Aaron as much.

  Anna had fallen asleep thinking maybe she’d try the mountains once this thing was over. That had been the last coherent thought she had before sleep overtook her and the dreams returned, robbing her of a peaceful rest. Strange dreams of a mysterious woman. Even though Anna didn’t recognize her, she could feel her desperation. It was etched on every inch of her face. Anna tried to reach out to her, to bring her comfort, understand her pain, but each time, just before she reached the woman's side, she disappeared only to be replaced by dreams of Aaron along with John, mingled together until it was impossible to tell the one from the other. Or if the storm that raged close by was happening or just another part of her troubled dreams.

  But the sound of gunshots was real. She could almost smell the gunpowder.

  “Anna, wake up.”

  Anna opened her eyes to find Bev leaning over her, shaking her.

  She sat up in bed. “What is it?”

  “Gunshots. Three of them, I think. Didn't you hear them?” Bev whispered breathlessly.

  Anna grabbed her robe and started for the door, but Bev reached for her sister's arm, stopping her. “No, you can’t go out there. You don’t know what’s happening. It could be him.”

  Th
ey stood huddled together, trying to decide what to do next when John threw open the door in a rush, sending it slamming against the neighboring wall. “Get dressed and get your things. We’re moving you out of here right now. We’ve been compromised.”

  Anna was ready to argue but he didn’t let her. “Now, Anna. It’s not safe here anymore.”

  Anna and Bev rushed to get dressed and to throw essentials into a bag before they were whisked into the depths of an unmarked police car in the middle of the night with John driving at breakneck speed over the causeway. His partner frantically checking behind them for any sign they might be followed.

  “What happened?” Anna finally asked.

  John spared her a glance. “Someone tried to break into the house.”

  “How? What about the two officers outside.”

  “There’re dead. He killed them both. They never stood a chance. They had no idea what was coming until it was too late.”

  Anna couldn’t think clearly. “How could you let that happen? You promised you’d protect me, for God’s sake,” she demanded while trying to hold on to what was left of her self-control.

  John didn’t react to her outburst. “I am protecting you, Anna. You’re safe. I’m not going to let anyone near you again.”

  She drew in a steadying breath. “Where are you taking us?”

  In her heart, Anna knew the answer already.

  In the rearview mirror his eyes met hers. “Somewhere safe. Somewhere that I can keep a close eye on you. We’re going back to D.C.”

  To the one place she feared the most. Back to a past she wasn't sure she wanted to uncover.

  Chapter Six

  The closer they got to D.C., the more Anna's fears increased. It was as if they’d taken on a life of their own. It had nothing to do with the killer who stalked her, and everything to do with the past. Her past with Aaron. Something she’d tried to outrun for more than a year was waiting for her, rearing its ugly head once more.

  They’d stopped once to refuel and make a bathroom break. While his partner paid for the gas and Bev took Gemma for a walk, John didn’t let Anna out of his sight.

  “Anna, relax. We’ll get him.”

  More than anything she wanted to believe him. “How? You don’t ever know who he is.”

  John glanced at Bev then moved closer. He reached for her hand and held it. Just a simple touch and yet the gentleness in him brought tears to her eyes. “Because I promise we’ll get him and I’d never break my promise to you.”

  They stood side by side, leaning against the car and holding hands. They could have been anyone, just two normal people with nothing but happiness ahead of them.

  Bev had called Ed the minute she got the okay from John to tell him what was happening. He’d caught the next possible flight out to Dulles. Two agents would meet him at the airport and bring him to the undisclosed location where John would be stashing them.

  Anna wished she could share her fears with Bev, but she couldn’t bring herself to open that door. Not even for her own peace of mind.

  “We’ll be arriving at in a couple of hours,” John broke the unbearable silence that had plagued them for hours. “Bev, your husband’s flight is on schedule.”

  “Thank you, John.” Bev turned to Anna and made the goofy face of hers that always had Anna cracking up.

  “Stop it.” Anna pretended to be angry with her, but she was actually grateful.

  “At least I made you smile.”

  “You’re always good at making me laugh.”

  The smile left Bev's face. Her sister's tone turned serious once more. “Don’t worry. It will all work out, you’ll see.”

  “Promise?”

  Only a second passed before Bev gave her sister her word, but it was enough to scare the hell out of Anna. If her big sister couldn’t make her a promise and mean it, things were bad.

  * * * * *

  The Hoover Building had never appeared more ominous then it did with the sun shimmering off the Federal Bureau of Investigation logo. Anna squeezed Bev’s hand tighter and tugged Gemma’s mutinous body closer against her chest. She wondered if Gemma would ever forgive her. She’d been whimpering and pouting ever since Anna forced her into the government-issued car.

  A virtual battalion of federal agents met Anna and Bev at the steps of the building, including Agents Hays and Brady who’d followed them from Pensacola.

  John got out of the car and opened her door. “Anna, Rick and I have a lead we have to act on. I have to go, but I’ll be back soon. Hays and Brady will be with you until then. You’re safe. I promise you’re safe.”

  She swallowed back the need to ask him to stay. All the old feelings resurfaced. It was like being sucked into a whirlpool of desire.

  John held her hand and looked into her eyes. “I promise this will end soon. This time it will be over.”

  She nodded. She wanted to believe him. She didn’t.

  They were escorted them up to a sterile conference room lacking in any human warmth.

  For the first time, Anna understood the emotional rollercoaster ride those who entered the doors of this world faced. They’d come to Bureau for help. In the past, Anna had always been able to keep a certain distance from their pain. Not anymore. She was one of them now.

  They barely had time to enter the room before Assistant Director Mark Warren joined them.

  “Anna, it’s good to see you again. I’m sorry it has to be under these circumstances.”

  In the past, Anna had only a limited amount of dealings with Mark Warren while Aaron was alive. With his death and because of her own professional connection to the team, Warren had made it his personal mandate to make a public showing of capturing the RCK. The pressure had been enormous to convict George Peterson for all the murders. There’d been whispers, even back then, that Peterson might not be responsible for the RCK murders. Anna suspected as much even though she’d removed herself from the case both professionally and emotionally with Aaron’s death.

  Anna somehow managed to answer Warren, but she couldn’t hide her resentment at being back in D.C. “Thank you. I wish my coming back here wasn’t necessary at all.” After Aaron’s death, and to his credit, AD Warren had insisted on putting Anna on an administrative leave of absence. Officially, she was still a government employee, although she knew in her heart she’d never return to this life.

  “I know and I’m sorry, Anna. Is there anything you need? We want to make this as tolerable as possible for both you and your family.”

  Need? She needed this nightmare to end. Whoever was responsible for these killings had a personal connection to the victims, or at least that’s what he believed in his delusional world. The criminal profiler in her had begun working the case the minute she found out about the other victims, although few of the details were being shared with her, purposely. As a victim, the less she knew about the others the more cooperative she’d be.

  “No, only can you tell us when my brother-in-law will be arriving? John said his flight was on schedule.”

  AD Warren glanced to Brady. “Where is Agent Delaney and Garner anyway. I was under the impression they were escorting you here.”

  “They did. They’re acting on a lead, sir.”

  The AD’s face turned bright red. “What lead? I wasn’t aware of any lead?” he barked the question back at Brady.

  “I’m not sure, sir, it came in while we were on the road. I believe the brother-in-law was being picked up as we speak. He’ll be here within the hour.”

  Warren recovered his composure and headed for the door, the unpleasantries over with in his mind. He stopped in the entrance and spared them another glance. “Good. Then just sit tight. As soon as Agent Delaney and his partner return, they’ll be taking over your case once I’ve had a word with Delaney.” If Warren noticed Hays’ pissed-off reaction, he did his best to ignore it.

  Only Brady appeared unaffected by it all. He had been busy roaming around the conference room with too much pent-up e
nergy. Just like John. John hated the business side of the business as he called it.

  He thrived on the details of the case. The hunt to capture a killer before he struck again was where John’s talents shone.

  With nothing else to do but wait, Anna and Bev honed in on the coffeemaker in the corner of the room.

  “You okay?” Bev, the constant big sister, had been keeping a motherly eye on her little sister for some time.

  Anna tried to smile to ease Bev’s fears. “I’m fine, just tired. Nothing like being woken up in the middle of the night to gunfire.”

  “Why don’t you try and get some rest?” She pointed to an uncomfortable-looking sofa someone had shoved in the corner of the room.

  Anna shook her head. “I’ll be okay.”

  Before Bev could answer, Ed arrived and Bev’s attention was distracted.

  Ed scanned the room until he spotted his wife. “Are you okay? I’ve been so worried.” He drew her into his arms. The tenderness in his eyes made Anna want to turn away. This was a private moment not meant to be witnessed by anyone both those two.

  “Yes, I’m fine, we’re both fine. Just shaken.” Bev kissed her husband then turned to Anna.

  Ed released his wife and took Anna in his arms. Ed was the big brother she’d always wanted. When he and Bev married, she’d gone to live with them in their small house near the campus of the University of Virginia where Ed had first started out his career.

  As usual, Ed tried to lighten the moment for everyone. “You look like any strong wind could blow you over. Is the dog eating all your food?” He tickled Gemma’s ears. Anna could almost swear she remembered him although it had been more than six months since he’d doted on her.

  Anna squeezed him tighter. “It’s good to have you here. Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For sending Bev. For letting her stay. For coming.”

  Ed wasn’t accustomed to this softer side of Anna. “As if I could have stopped her. Not when it comes to you. She’d move mountains to get to you if she thought you needed her.” He winked at his wife.