by Cynthia Eden
Elizabeth had never been seen again after that.
Kyle came to stand behind her, reading over her shoulder. She tensed, hypersensitive to him, but she didn’t glance back. Right then, there was no way she could take her gaze from the laptop.
Another e-mail from Dani popped up on her screen. As she read it, her icy cheeks flushed.
I went back twenty years, just to be certain. Maria McKenzie was the earliest match I found.
Finally, she had to glance up. Glance back at Kyle. His jaw was locked. His eyes glittered.
“She found them,” he said, but he didn’t sound like himself. She’d never heard such an empty, hollow tone from Kyle before. Kyle was passion and fire. This…this wasn’t him.
She stood and reached for his hand because she had to touch him right then. “It’s all preliminary, you know that. Right now, we’re just dealing with links, with cases that match up.” They’d have to dig deeper for more conclusive proof, but it was sure looking like a serial killer was at work.
A perpetrator who hunted women, who got them alone on dark, empty roads. He disabled their vehicles. He timed their abductions to fall in the dead of night, when no one would be around to offer help. He took those women. And no one ever saw them again.
Just. Like. Maria.
“The cases fit. The pattern is there.” In her behavioral sciences classes at Quantico, Cadence had always been told to look for the pattern.
She’d go back, study all of the victims, learn who they’d been, but first…Kyle needs me. After that call last night, a direct taunt from the killer aimed straight at Kyle, she had to make sure her partner was in control.
That he was safe.
Sane. Because Cadence feared that the killer was trying to play a game with Kyle. A very deadly, twisted game.
She swallowed and told him what she’d learned from those files. “Three years after she vanished, another woman was taken.”
Three years.
Long enough for everyone to have forgotten Maria McKenzie. Everyone but her brother.
Her hand was still on Kyle’s. “After that, roughly a year later, another woman was taken. That’s the way it appears to have been since then, over and over, nearly a year passing in between disappearances.”
“Why the hell didn’t someone know?” He pulled away from her.
“He went across state lines. Four states.” She wanted to touch him again, but instead she balled her hands into fists. “Right now, right this minute…” He knew this. He knew the caseload authorities faced. “There are as many as one hundred thousand active missing-persons cases being investigated.” So many cases and not enough investigators.
Details, patterns weren’t noticed. They slipped through the cracks.
“He took Maria.” Kyle gave a hard shake of his head. “He took her and the others.”
He. The perp they hadn’t profiled. The serial killer they were just recognizing for exactly what he was.
“You said yourself,” she whispered. “Same city. Same abandoned vehicle. Same date.”
“He came back to where he started.” His voice was hollow, but his eyes burned with blue fire.
The killer had hunted again, in the place where the abductions had first begun.
“You’re sure she was the first?” he asked, his voice rasping.
Not 100 percent sure, but… “I can get Dani to keep looking, but she’s already gone back twenty years. Maria’s case was the first to match with the others.”
His hands had fisted. “The first is special.”
She could feel his pain. She hated it.
“That’s the spiel, isn’t it? With the first kill, something breaks in the serial—”
“Or is born.”
“He liked it.” That hollow voice hurt her. “He liked what he did to my sister, so he did it again and again, and no one stopped him. No one cared.”
She had to touch him. Cadence grabbed his shoulders, unable to hold back anymore. “You care. I care.” Her breath was coming too fast. Her heart racing too hard. “We’re here. We’re going to stop him.”
Did he even hear her? See her?
She shook him a little, tightening her hold on him. “He came back here for a reason. His first kill was here, for a reason.” He needed to think like an agent and think past the grief and rage. “Why, Kyle? Why did he come here?”
She needed him to say what she already knew.
His breath heaved out. “Paradox has meaning for him.”
The first kill was never random. Nothing about it was.
“That’s right,” she whispered. “It has meaning.” Then she whirled away from him and yanked down the map of the United States attached to the wall. She grabbed a pen, started circling cities. All of the cities in Dani’s files. The abduction sites.
Her palm was damp around the pen.
It slipped from her grip even as she put a star on Paradox. A star, because the city was nearly perfectly in the middle of the abduction sites on the map. “This could be his home base. He could still be here, Kyle.” The phone call that Kyle had received meant the perp had to be close enough to watch them.
“With Maria.” The words seemed torn from him.
She stilled. Fifteen years. “No.” Her voice was sad, soft. “He doesn’t still have Maria.”
Not after fifteen years.
Not after all of those other victims. In her experience, a killer only chose a new victim to take when—
When the other one was dead.
His chin lifted. “We only found one set of remains. If they aren’t—they aren’t hers, so we don’t know—”
“Kyle,” she began softly, sadly. “You have got to—”
“Fucking have hope, Cadence!” He was the one to grab her, to hold on tight now. “I need it. Let me have it.”
It seemed the noise outside of the office had quieted. Had the cops heard his cry?
His breath rasped out.
He wasn’t hurting her, had never hurt her, but he wasn’t letting her go, either. “This is the first break I’ve had on Maria’s case. The first one.” His forehead dropped, pressed to hers.
She needed to call their boss. She could catch Ben en route to Paradox. Cadence had to brief Ben on the developments. When he found out the intimate link Kyle shared in this case, Cadence knew the director would order him off the case.
I can’t do that to him. She knew Kyle needed this.
“We’re following the leads we get,” she said carefully. “We’ll work up a profile. I won’t give up.” Not on Maria. Not on you.
After a moment, his head lifted. The blaze had died down in his eyes. More control had come back. Good. But she still had to warn him. “You have to be careful, Kyle. Don’t let your emotions take over. The killer is focusing on you. He wants you in his game.” That would be dangerous, for them both.
As they searched for the other victims, as they learned more about the perp, the case would become even harder for Kyle.
His control would fray.
Fray and fray until—it broke?
“We work together. We’re a team,” she reminded him.
His hands fell away from her. “I’ll remember that.”
Those weren’t the words she needed to hear. She needed more of a promise, but he had turned away. Moved to study the information on her computer.
Cadence glanced away, still trying to calm her racing heart. She looked to the left. The blinds were open. She’d forgotten about them.
Jason Marsh was watching her. Staring straight at her.
He’d seen the intimate interaction between her and Kyle. Had he heard them, too?
Marsh gave her a small nod, and then he turned away.
Cadence straightened her shoulders. She had a job to do. She would do it—the way she always did.
Start with the victims.
They were what mattered. In a case like this, victims held meaning to the killer. She would learn about the perp through them. Learn all of
his secrets.
Every. Last. One.
Cadence stared at the victim board she’d painstakingly created. She’d put up pictures of the twelve still-missing women—the women they believed had all been abducted by the same perp. Twelve missing. One recovered—Lily.
So many faces. Smiling images. Happy.
They’d had normal lives once. Hopes. Dreams.
Then they’d vanished.
Time to become them, for a few precious moments.
She’d already spent much of the morning poring over their files.
Emma Black. Twenty-two. A girl with dreams of becoming a singer in Nashville. She’d graduated from Ole Miss, then followed her dreams to the country music capital. Only she’d never arrived in Nashville.
Her car had been found, abandoned, on a Mississippi highway.
According to the report, her convertible had run out of gasoline.
Did you get out of your car and start walking? Did he come to you, drive out of the darkness, and offer to help?
She could see the image in her mind, so clearly. Emma with her dark-red hair, blue eyes, afraid.
Shelly Summers had been twenty-five when she vanished. She’d broken up with her boyfriend, said she was going back to Florida to be with her parents.
Shelly’s car had been found over the Georgia border.
The cave, the darkness, the gag…he’d done that to Shelly, too.
Held his victims prisoner in the darkness. Taken them in the darkness.
Always in the dead of night.
So they couldn’t see him?
Why didn’t he want his victims to see his face? What was he hiding?
And was it about hiding…or did he just like the dark? Did the night hold special meaning for him?
The women were all attractive. Different hair, different eyes, but all physically fit. Ages had varied, from Maria’s eighteen to another victim’s thirty-three.
“None of you had records,” Cadence said to the women who stared back at her. “Not so much as speeding tickets.” No trouble with the law. No trouble at work. All the women had been described as good, dependable.
Until they’d vanished.
They were good.
They were all women who’d never caused trouble. Women who were likely to go along with whatever a police officer said if he pulled them over on a long stretch of road.
Her heart started to pound faster. It wasn’t the physical traits linking the victims. They were too different. If it wasn’t physical traits, that meant—
Behavior?
“Cadence.”
She glanced back. This time, Kyle filled the doorway.
“I just got the call. Lily’s awake.”
“I don’t remember.” Lily Adams had bruises on her jaw, bandages around her wrists, and lips that wouldn’t stop quivering.
Her mother sat beside her, carefully stroking her hand. “It’s okay, baby,” Martha Lansing whispered.
Lily shook her head. Her gaze drifted from Cadence to Kyle. “My mom said you two saved me. Thank you.”
The woman was breaking her heart.
Cadence eased into the empty chair closest to Lily. “Can you recall any details of your abduction?”
Lily swallowed. The soft click was almost painful to hear. “I was working at Striker’s waiting tables.”
“What happened after Striker’s?” Kyle asked her, keeping his own voice low and calm. Since Cadence could practically feel the tension rolling off him, she was impressed he held himself in check that much.
After the phone call he’d gotten, the guy’s control had to be razor thin.
The perp wants him that way.
The killer was taunting Kyle, bringing him into a battle that wouldn’t—couldn’t—end well.
She had to stop the killer. She wasn’t about to risk Kyle.
“I don’t know.” Lily’s voice was raspy. So weak. Her gaze drifted to her bandaged wrists. “I don’t remember what happened to my hands or my hip.” Her lashes lifted. “My left hip is fractured.”
“You banged it into the side of the bed, again and again.”
Cadence stiffened at Kyle’s words. They weren’t supposed to tell the victim specific details yet. It would just compromise her ability to recall on her own. “Kyle…”
“You saved yourself, Ms. Adams,” Kyle continued, not backing down at the warning he had to hear in her voice. “We were leaving the caverns, almost out, but you kept banging, swinging out with your hip to catch our attention. You brought us to you.”
A tear leaked down Lily’s cheek.
“Lily, baby, it’s okay,” her mother murmured, voice cracking.
“I don’t know who took me.” Lily wet her lips. “He could be anyone. He could come for me again.”
“You’re going to have a guard with you,” Cadence said. She’d used some favors to call this one in. She didn’t want someone local watching Lily. A local man would know those caverns. A local man could be their killer. A local cop? Despite the interviews and alibis, she wasn’t ready to rule that one out. Not yet.
“What kind of guard?” Lily asked as her eyes darted to the door.
“A US marshal is out there right now. He’s going to be staying with you, twenty-four-seven, while we keep investigating this case.” He’d be coming in the room soon enough; she’d just asked Malcolm Williams to stay outside while she and Kyle spoke with Lily first. “Marshal Williams will make sure you stay safe.” Alive.
Lily’s mother turned her head to look at Cadence. “Are you going to be able to catch the bastard?”
“We’ll do everything we can,” Cadence said.
“Yes,” Kyle swore. “We’re going to catch him.”
Her stare cut to him. Don’t make promises we may not be able to keep. He knew they weren’t supposed to promise victims.
The machines near Lily were beeping too quickly. The doctor had warned them not to stress Lily too much. Cadence pulled out her card. Placed it on the small nightstand. “Your memory might come back to you.” With the drug dose she’d been given, there was no guarantee of that. The perp had known exactly what he was doing when he gave her the lethal mix of Rohypnol and chloroform. “If you remember anything about the killer or your ordeal, call me.”
A weak nod from Lily.
Cadence rose. Kyle followed behind her as they advanced toward the door.
“I didn’t scream.”
Cadence felt goose bumps rise on her arms. She looked back at Lily.
She seemed so small in the hospital bed.
Lily shook her head. “You found me,” Lily whispered. “But I didn’t scream.”
“No,” Cadence said. “You didn’t. We heard the thuds from where you were hitting the bed.” She’d had a gag in her mouth, so, of course, Lily hadn’t screamed.
There’s something more here.
“I didn’t scream,” Lily repeated. Another tear tracked down her cheek. She gave a slow nod, as if reaffirming she’d done the right thing.
Done as she’d been told?
Cadence pushed open the hospital room door. US Marshal Malcolm Williams waited outside.
“How is she?” he asked, dark eyes glinting.
“Breakable.” That was the word that came to mind. No—broken. “Protect her, Malcolm. If anything happens, if anything makes you nervous…”
His eyes held hers. She’d known Malcolm for years. He was a good man, a great marshal. “I’ll take care of her.”
She knew he would.
Kyle shook his hand.
Malcolm entered the hospital room.
“She’s not going to be able to help us,” Kyle said, voice rough as they walked down the hospital corridor.
“He made sure she couldn’t.” Actually, he’d tried to make sure Lily died. The dosage of Rohypnol and chloroform hadn’t been intended to knock her out. He’d wanted to kill her.
A very near thing.
They hurried into the elevator. The doors slid closed, sealing
them inside.
Cadence was too conscious of Kyle next to her. She glanced at him and found his bright gaze on her. “Are you all right?” Cadence had to ask him.
A grim nod. “I know he’s fucking with me. We can use that, Cadence.”
She didn’t want to use him. “I don’t—”
“As far as we know, he’s never reached out to any of the victims’ families before.”
He was right. They’d had Dani check in with the families—nothing.
“He called me,” Kyle continued as his eyes stared deeply into hers. “He let me hear Maria.”
He wasn’t giving up on the idea that he’d actually talked with his sister. And right then, she couldn’t push him to see the truth. Not when she hadn’t heard the call herself. Maybe I’m wrong. For him, she wanted to be. Cadence cleared her throat. “What does he hope to gain by contacting you?”
“Attention,” Kyle’s curt response. “He wants us to know who he is—and what he’s done.”
She didn’t think it was just about attention. Not with Kyle’s sister being so directly involved. It almost seemed more like a competition to her. A challenge, the killer versus Kyle. But she didn’t say that, not yet, because she needed to learn more about her victims first. Instead, Cadence told him, “I’ve got a profile developing. You and I need to compare notes and see what we have on this guy.”
“He’s going to take someone else.”
Cadence narrowed her eyes as she studied Kyle. “Another abduction so soon doesn’t seem to fit. From what I can tell, he’s taken a victim once a year.” Except…he started the one-a-year pattern three years after Maria vanished. Why the gap? Cadence didn’t know, not yet, but she would figure it out. Just as she would figure out the killer.
“And he’s kept the victim. We messed up his schedule. We changed his rules.” He ran a hard hand through his hair. “I’ve been building a profile, too.”
Kyle had his own background in behavioral science. He was good—damn good—at developing profiles. Only he didn’t work like Cadence. He focused on the killer from the word go.
