Close to Home

by Nolon King

But then Dane came over, uninvited.

  He wasn’t exactly acting like an asshole. It was weird, Dane was a brooder in general, but today his pouting felt almost vicious, and instead of being like his usual darkly funny self, he seemed downright mean.

  Levi kept trying to make it better. “Dude, we’ll call Elliot. He’ll bring the weed. Then you can chill the fuck out.”

  “Don’t call anyone,” he growled, glancing at Kari. “She shouldn’t even be here.”

  What was his problem with Kari? Corban was about to tell him to go fuck off when he asked again, “Where’s your mom?”

  “He told you,” Corban said. “She’s in L.A.”

  “Why is she there, and when will she be back?”

  Levi took the ball. “We told you, she’s there for some show or something, and she’ll probably be back tonight. She’s been trying to call, but we agreed that neither one of us would answer. Maybe there’s a voicemail, I haven’t checked.”

  Dane took out his phone and looked at the screen, then glanced up at the wall clock, looking uncharacteristically, and unnecessarily, nervous.

  All of a sudden, his expression changed. “Let’s go play a game.”

  Corban looked at Levi: What should we do?

  “What do you want to play?” Levi asked.

  “Anything. HardCorps.”

  “But you hate HardCorps,” Corban said.

  “Let’s just go to the game room.”

  Now Levi looked at Corban: Something’s not right.

  Kari spoke their minds. “Why do you want to go to the game room so bad?”

  That was the wrong thing to say. Dane’s face twisted into something ugly, lips sneering, eyes going dark. “We’re going to the game room.”

  This time it didn’t sound like a suggestion.

  Levi looked around the living room, then he gestured at the couch, where three of the four of them were comfortably sitting. “I think we’re all good here.” Then he tried again. “Maybe you don’t want to see Elliot. Why don’t I hop on over, then come right back with the weed?” A smile. “You’ll still get to chill the fuck out.”

  “I don’t need to chill out. Now let’s get upstairs.”

  Dane’s expression twisted into something even uglier.

  What the hell was wrong with him?

  Corban put his arm around Kari’s shoulders, gave her a protective squeeze as he pulled her close and whispered, “I think you should go home.”

  She gave no sign that she’d heard him, but a moment later, she checked her phone and said, “Whoa, just got a text from my dad, I better go.”

  Dane stood and reached for the small of his back — holy shit, he had a gun! It looked nothing like the big purple bazookas in HardCorps. It was small and black. He held it in a way that made Corban think it was heavier than it looked.

  “Duuude,” Levi said, raising his hands like he was being robbed in a comedy sketch. “If you wanted to get your ass kicked at HardCorps that bad, you just had to say so.

  Dane pointed the gun at Kari’s face. “Now. We go. Corban, Levi, Kari, in that order.”

  What. The. Fuck.

  They trudged up the stairs. Corban longed to turn around, see that the other two were still okay, but he was afraid that Dane might lose it and kill Kari. Then Levi.

  Once they made it to the game room, Levi said, “Okay, we’re here. Tell us what this is all about.”

  Dane switched the gun to his left hand and held out his right. “Unlock your phone, then give it to me.”

  Levi shook his head. Dane shifted the gun toward him. Aiming right between the eyes. Levi swallowed and delivered his phone.

  Dane turned to Corban next. “You too.”

  Corban didn’t argue.

  He didn’t ask for Kari’s. Instead, he sent texts, first from Levi’s phone and then from Corban’s.

  “What did you do?” Kari asked.

  “What had to be done.”

  Then Dane closed the door, and they heard the hall tree being dragged across the floor, then anchored against their exit to keep them prisoners inside.

  Oh shit. How did he not see it?

  “What the hell is happening?” Levi asked.

  “Don’t you get it?” Corban said. “Dane is the Almond Park Killer.”

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  Going over ninety the entire way, Selena was nearly to Almond Park.

  She’d be grateful for flashing sirens in the rearview. Let them follow her home. She could explain that it was life or death, and thank the officers for their help once she got there.

  Her family was ignoring her, and she deserved it. So Selena was surprised when her phone buzzed on the passenger seat. Twice, with twin texts.

  She asked her phone to read them out loud.

  “One text from Corban,” announced the blandly feminine voice. “Hey mom emergency at home get here fast.”

  “One text from Levi,” it continued. “Help we need you.”

  Neither message sounded like her sons. It was Dane, doing his best to grab her attention again. Selena did the only thing she could. She drove even faster.

  Where’s a cop with a radar gun when you need one?

  She teetered on the edge of an unfamiliar abyss, knowing that panic waited at the bottom. Because even though she’d thought she understood the darkness, in truth she was a fraud. And that self-deception had put her family’s lives on the line.

  If she was reading the situation right, she had a little leverage with Dane. Because he was infatuated, and had been for a while. She had just been too stupid or self-absorbed or selfish to see it for what it was, too busy luxuriating in the attention to recognize the peril. She’d thought he was a normal teenage boy crushing on her, the MILF he’d happened to fixate on.

  She’d been ninety percent right. He was fixated on her. But he’d been expressing his crush by murdering innocent families — because what better way to woo a serial killer expert than to give her a new case to solve?

  It was a relief to see her house still standing as she drove down their street. On the trip home, she’d struggle to block out images of Corban and Levi inside, passed out from smoke inhalation while the house burned down around them. It had happened before in Almond Park, and not long ago.

  But that didn’t mean they were safe. Each of Dane’s murders had been executed differently. Who knew what she would find inside?

  Dane’s Explorer sat in the driveway. Selena parked next to it, then got out and glanced in the garage. Adam wasn’t home.

  Maybe that was best. If she could use their connection to manipulate Dane, she might convince him to leave them alone. Or leave, long enough for Selena to get the boys to safety.

  She took out her phone, set her dictation app to record, and slipped it into her purse’s mesh outer pocket, screen facing in so Dane wouldn’t see that it was on.

  Then, hand on the doorknob, she braced herself for the worst and prepared to do whatever had to be done to keep her family safe, even if it meant surrendering herself to Dane and doing whatever horrific things he surely had in mind.

  Dane was waiting in the kitchen with a smile, alone and unarmed.

  Her heart raced, but she couldn’t let him know she’d figured out that he was the killer. So Selena smiled back, pretending that she was on TV and playing for the most important cameras of her life, setting her purse on the counter, mesh pocket aimed at her foe.

  “Where is everyone? I just got texts from the boys that asked me to come home right away, so I didn’t even stop for groceries.”

  “They’re up in the game room, having fun.”

  She had to lower his defenses and keep him talking. “Why aren’t you with them?”

  “It’s the game room. They’re playing games. But none of that HardCorp shit. They’re playing analog. I think they’re having an air hockey tournament or something.”

  “You didn’t want to play?”

  “No.” Dane shook his head. “I wanted to wait here for you.�
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  It was chilling, the way he said it. His smile was crooked and his eyes were flooded with the shadows of emotion — she’d been assuming it was the pain he carried around from the loss of his mother, but now she recognized it for what it was. Dane’s body language was too relaxed for the mayhem that was surely inhabiting his mind.

  With a roiling stomach, she took her voice low, almost purring. “And what were you waiting for?”

  His smile straightened and his eyes got brighter. “I thought that maybe we could talk.”

  “About?”

  Dane looked thoughtful, and paused before answering. Not too long, maybe twenty seconds or so, it was hard to know for sure. But standing there across the counter from Dane in her kitchen, like she had so many times before, pretending that nothing had changed, terrified that her family was in imminent danger, it sure as hell felt like forever.

  He finally answered with a question of his own, and one Selena was glad that he asked.

  “What do you want to talk about?”

  She already knew the answer. Not the one that she wanted to give, but the one that Dane needed to hear, maybe the only one that might open the door for a negotiation. As seductively as she could manage, Selena said, “Let’s talk about us.”

  As she hoped, this seemed to ever so slightly relax him.

  Selena perched on a barstool, making a coy moue as she touched the corner of her mouth, drawing his attention to her lips.

  “What about us?” He licked his lips.

  Ha. Gotcha.

  She’d established a connection and caught his interest.

  Now to move the charade along, see if he would open up.

  “Everything, silly.” Her laugh sounded natural enough, but it was pouring acid into her stomach. “I think there are some things that you’ve been waiting to share with me.”

  Selena leaned forward, made her voice conspiratorial, and ever so slightly sexy. With a peek down her blouse, of course. “Is there something you want to tell me … maybe about Adam?”

  That last part hurt the worst, but it was the prompt that Dane had been waiting for.

  “He’s not the right guy for you.”

  “Oh?” Selena smiled, as if it had occurred to her too, but she needed Dane to say it out loud. “What makes you say that?”

  This is your chance to say all the things you’ve been bottling up since you met me.

  “He bores you.”

  She nodded like he’d made a good point. “I can’t argue with that! But he’s my husband, Dane. We have a life together.”

  “I could give you an exciting life.” He leaned forward too, until they were nearly nose-to-nose across the counter.

  If she kissed him, would he be easier to manipulate? Or was keeping the tease going more likely to work?

  But he drew back before she could make up her mind. “You have a decision to make.”

  She made her face curious, because she had to ask, couldn’t stand not knowing for even one second longer. “The house is so quiet. I don’t hear anyone up in the game room.”

  But that was the wrong thing to say. His smile fled. He wanted it to be all about him, and here she was bringing up her children.

  “Quiet as a tomb. Have you ever heard us up there with the door closed?” Now his smile was back, and more sinister than she’d ever seen it. “No, you haven’t. Because I’m sure you would have objected to some of what you heard.”

  He laughed. A hateful, hellish cackle.

  This was going in the wrong direction. Selena had to do something.

  “I want to check in on them, Dane, and then we can finish this conversation. We can do whatever you want.” She looked up at him, pouting a little. His eyes went back to her lips. He wanted her, and it made him forget how angry he was for a moment. “But first, I need to know that they’re safe.”

  Selena could see it immediately. She shouldn’t have used that word. Safe.

  She had showed her hand, and now Dane was showing his.

  She expected a knife, so the pistol surprised her. He held it casually, like a bottle of water. But then he turned it toward her.

  “What makes you think they’re not safe?” And again he laughed, just as nasty.

  “I want to talk about this,” Selena said.

  “We were talking. You’re the one who suggested we stop. So what do you want to talk about now?”

  “Let’s start with the gun. Where did you get it, and what makes you think you need it?”

  “This thing?” Another laugh, this one tiny. “It’s my father’s. This hasn’t exactly gone as planned.”

  “What was your plan?”

  “I think you know.”

  Selena shook her head and in a sultry voice she said, “I don’t. Will you please tell me?”

  But this time he didn’t buy it. She should’ve suggested they go somewhere — anywhere he wanted — anywhere that her children weren’t.

  “You had your chance, Selena.”

  “My chance for what? Just tell me what you want, Dane. Maybe it’s what I want too.”

  “I doubt that.”

  “Please. Just give me a chance. Tell me what I can do to make you happy.” And then, a spark of inspiration. Or maybe a roll of the dice. Because if she said the wrong thing now, everything might end.

  “I want to hear about the murders.” She poured every ounce of genuine curiosity into her voice. “I want you to tell me everything. How you did it, why you did it, and how you were smart enough to not get caught.”

  And there it was, the truest smile she’d seen all day.

  This was what he wanted. It was more than attention or acknowledgement. Dane wanted recognition for his brilliance, for executing four families with surgical precision, then casting suspicion on others, and walking away unscathed. He wanted to prove that he was the best.

  She could play that game; she’d used it before to get serial killers to talk. But this time, everyone she loved depended on her ability to play it and win.

  “The first one was easy,” Dane admitted. “They got easier after that.”

  “Easy how? You mean in actually doing it, or do you mean in not getting caught?”

  He shrugged, then answered with a word. “Both.”

  She whispered, “Did you want to get caught?” Then, even more softly, “Did you want me to catch you?”

  Dane considered. His jaw moved. It looked like he was tasting the answer on his tongue. “I didn’t want to get caught, but I guess I always knew that I eventually would, and I was hoping that you would figure it out before anyone else.”

  “Did I?”

  This laugh sounded disgusted. “Not exactly?”

  Her heart might have stopped beating. “Who else knows?”

  “Your family.”

  She swallowed hard. “Who in my family?”

  “All of them.”

  She fought the dizzy sensation of stepping off the edge of a cliff. All of them. That meant all of them had to die, for Dane to believe that he’d succeeded.

  Selena said, “No one’s going to believe any of them. Who’s going to believe Adam, after reading my notes on his therapy sessions? And if Levi or Corban say anything, well, they’re just trying to protect their father.”

  He wasn’t buying that either.

  She had to give him something realistic. Something he could easily believe. If Selena promised that they could run off together, then he would see through her like a ghost.

  “I know how the police think. I know exactly how to throw them off y—”

  “I’m an adult, Selena. I won’t be tried as a minor. I’ll go away for the rest of my life. I can’t take the risk.”

  She laughed like that was ridiculous. “Oh honey, that’s not how this works. You of all people should know that. I thought you were a student of this stuff. Getting you off will be the easiest thing in the world.”

  Another slinky lilt to her voice and Selena could see his response to the innuendo. The flush i
n his cheeks. The shiver of anticipation that made his gun waver. The hint of a bulge at the crotch of his jeans.

  She had him. Now she just had to get him out of the house.

  “Do you have an idea?”

  “I do,” Selena said, practically purring.

  Unfortunately, it meant sacrificing herself to keep Adam and the boys safe.

  Dane exhaled as if he’d been holding his breath. “So tell me what you’re thinking.”

  As Selena opened her mouth to speak, Adam came charging in.

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  “Selena!”

  Adam stormed through the front door, stampeded inside, and stopped dead in his tracks in the kitchen entrance.

  Dane held a gun on his wife, and Adam had no doubt that he’d shoot. Whether his eyes were open or closed, he saw the blood everywhere. Smelled it. Tasted bile. As he remembered what Dane had done to the girl in the blood-red lipstick, he could easily imagine him doing the same to Selena.

  “Adam,” Dane said, perfectly calm. “Did you enjoy your present?”

  “Present?” Selena repeated.

  “I got him something special. To celebrate his coming out as The Virgin. Something like that really should be commemorated.” Then, Dane turned back to Adam. “So, did you like it?”

  “What is he talking about, Adam?”

  He swallowed, looked from his wife to the killer. “The girl, from the ice cream parlor. He killed her.”

  Pure horror stretched Selena’s face. “No.” She swayed, grabbed the edge of the counter.

  Dane laughed. “Someone had to do it.”

  “You’re a monster,” Adam said.

  “Takes one to know one.” And then Dane winked.

  Selena pulled herself together. “Dane, we can fix this.”

  What the hell was she talking about? Adam wished Selena would stop talking, so that Dane would focus on him.

  “You’re right. We’re both monsters. But my family is innocent.”

  “There are no innocents,” Dane scoffed.

  Adam swallowed. “Neither of us wants to go to jail. Let’s talk about how we keep that from happening.”

  “You’ve never wanted to talk to me,” Dane said.

  “I do,” Selena said. “I always have.”