Blind Pursuit (5 page)

“That’s better.”

He sat down again. She fought to suppress the tremors shivering through her body. The dampness on the inside of the blindfold was a sprinkle of tears.

“I honestly don’t mean to hurt you.” He spoke in a gentler tone. “I will if I have to, but that’s not the way I want things to work between us. See, I have plans for you.”

His pause solicited a question. She obliged. “What plans?”

He didn’t answer directly. “I have a problem, Doc.”

This time she waited, asking nothing.

“A problem,” he said again, gently. “I guess you’d call it a compulsion. I’ve yielded to it more than once.”

“What sort of compulsion?”

“I kill people. Women. I kill women.”

Don’t lose it now. Come up with a response. Something noncommittal, until you know what he wants you to say.

Erin held her face rigidly composed. “I see.”

“Three women so far. Three over a period of fifteen years.” The chair creaked as he leaned forward. “You probably think I enjoy it. That violence gratifies some twisted desire of mine. But it’s not true. I don’t kill for fun. I get no pleasure from what I do. It makes me sick.”

His voice dropped with each of the last four words, ending in a whisper.

“I do it”—he spoke so softly she had to strain to hear—“because I can’t stop myself. I’ve tried. But I can’t. I swear I can’t. I hold off as long as I can, and then I cruise the streets and ... and I do it again.”

“You weren’t cruising the streets tonight,” Erin said slowly. “You targeted me specifically.”

“Because I need you.”

“What for?”

“You’re going to treat me, Doc. Cure me. Fix it so I don’t have to kill anymore. You’re going to set me free.”

9

Erin let the echo of his words settle in the room’s stillness. Though she knew what she had heard, somehow it seemed unreal to her, a ridiculous joke.

“That’s why you brought me here?” she said finally.

“Yes.”

“For ... therapy?”

“It was the only way.”

“If you were to turn yourself in, you’d receive comprehensive treatment—”

“
No.”
She’d pressed one of his buttons. Watch it. “I’ve got no intention of ending up in the nuthouse or on death row. I’m sorry for what I’ve done, but I’m not willing to submit to ... punishment.”

His voice quavered on the last word. Erin wondered what sort of punishment had been inflicted on him in the past, and by whom.

“Anyway,” he added, “it would be unfair.”

Careful now, no hint of judgment: “Would it?”

“Of course. I told you, I can’t help what I do. It’s outside my control. So why should I be held accountable?”

Pointless to argue. Better to change the subject, reinforce the connection he was looking for.

“And you feel I can help you,” she said.

“You’re a shrink. You’ve got the training. And unlike the so-called experts on TV, you won’t be engaged in armchair analysis. You’ll be working with me directly. Besides, you have specific qualifications for treating me.”

“Do I?”

“I’ve read your articles. Some of them, anyway. The one in the
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
was particularly interesting.”

How had he gotten hold of that? The
Journal
was a scholarly publication, not available at newsstands.

The university library carried it, though. Was he a professor? A part-time student?

“I’m not certain,” she said cautiously, “that my writings suggest any particular expertise in the area of ... multiple homicides.”

“You’ll see things differently once you’ve read the details of my case. It’s all there, in that folder you were so curious about.”

She remembered the sheaf of newspaper clippings. His resume, apparently. The public record of his crimes.

“Anyway,” he added coolly, “you don’t want to convince me that I picked the wrong person for the job. That would be counterproductive from a survival standpoint.”

Nice way of putting it. “You’re right.”

“Okay, then. Here are the terms of my deal with you. I’ll come in every night, for as many hours as necessary—intensive psychotherapy.” Every night. Presumably he had a day job. “You’ll get to the root of my problem and help me resolve it. After that, I’ll let you go, unharmed. You haven’t seen my face, don’t know where you’re being held, so you won’t be able to lead the police to me. It
is
possible for you to live through this ... if you can cure me.”

“I see.”

“But try any funny business—any more nonsense like that possum act—and you’ll pay for it. You’ll pay very dearly.”

“I won’t try anything.”

“Even assuming you cooperate fully, you’ll have to get results. If the treatment goes nowhere ...”

The chair squealed like an untuned violin under the restless shifting of his weight.

“Let’s just say I’ve been feeling it again the past couple of months. Stronger and stronger. My ... compulsion. I’ve found myself making preparations, buying certain equipment, without even realizing it. Just like all the other times.” He took a breath. “My point is, I don’t know how long I can hold off doing what I’ve done three times before.”

She didn’t need to ask who his fourth victim would be. “How much time do I have?”

“I’m not sure.”

“You can’t expect immediate results.”

“Don’t tell me what I can or cannot expect.”

“I’m just trying to be realistic. Therapy normally doesn’t work overnight.”

“Well, you’ll have to speed up the process, won’t you? Push the envelope. I’d say you’ve got a powerful incentive.”

“I’ll do my best,” she said quietly. “There is, however, one potential ... complication.”

She hated to raise this issue, but she had no choice.

“Complication?” His tone was a blend of skepticism and impatience.

“You looked in my purse. You must have seen the little bottle of pills I carry.”

“Birth control. So what? You aren’t pregnant, are you?”

“They aren’t birth control. They’re carbamazeprine—brand name, Tegretol. Two hundred-milligram tablets.”

“None of that means anything to me.”

“Prescription medicine ... for epilepsy.”

“Hell.” Disgust in his voice, and anger at the unplanned, the unanticipated. “You’re not going to start pitching fits on me, are you?”

“I haven’t had a seizure since I was in high school. I’ve been on medication ever since. Nearly all cases of grand mal epilepsy can be controlled pharmaceutically.”

“So you’ve got your pills. What’s the problem?”

“The bottle is almost empty. I’ve got enough for twenty-four hours, but that’s it.”

“You mean—oh, Christ—you need to refill your prescription?”

“I already did. The new bottle is in my medicine cabinet at home. I see you took some things from my bathroom—but you didn’t take that.”

“What happens if you run out of this—this ...?”

“Tegretol.”

“Right. What then?”

“I’d have a serious problem. To go off the maintenance dosage overnight would almost certainly bring on a seizure. Possibly something worse than a grand mal episode.”

“I thought grand mal was as bad as epilepsy gets.”

“No, there’s what they call status epilepticus. It means a prolonged seizure that doesn’t end naturally. It can continue for hours, even days. If it’s a violent episode, it can kill you.”

“Shit.” He fell silent, and she let him think.

It was a risk, telling him this. He might conclude she was more trouble than she was worth. Might dispose of her and find another psychologist to do the job.

But she wasn’t lying. The danger of renewed seizures, even of a sustained status episode, was all too real.

“Well, what can I do about it?” he asked finally.

She was grateful for the question, which implied that he wanted to keep her alive. “Get me the other bottle.”

“In your apartment? Go back there?”

“It’s the only way.”

“I can’t take that kind of chance. You want me to get caught. That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? You’re trying to trick me—”

“Look at the pills in my purse if you don’t believe it. Check the label. Tegretol. I’m
not
playing games.”

Another long beat of silence.

“All right,” he whispered. “I’ll get your damn medicine. How long will the new prescription last, anyway?”

“A month.”

“That’ll be more than enough time. One way or the other.” The legs of his chair scraped on the concrete floor with a raw, throat-clearing sound. He was up. “You catch my meaning, Doc?”

“Fully.”

She listened as his footsteps receded.

“I’ll bring your meds this evening,” he said from what had to be the doorway. “That’s when our work together will start. And, Doc ... you’d better be real good at what you do.”

Slam, and she was alone.

10

A long-held breath shuddered out of her. She sagged in the chair, fumbling weakly at the blindfold until it came loose.

On the other side of the door, a key rattled in a keyhole. A moment later, footsteps thudded up the stairs. Creak of floorboards overhead; the distant closing of a door.

The house was empty. She waited, straining to hear, until faintly the growl of an engine reached her from far away. It grew slightly louder, perhaps as the vehicle pulled out of the garage, then quieter again; seconds later, it was gone.

Her abductor didn’t live here, it seemed. His home was somewhere else, and this place was simply a holding pen for her.

She stood, then sat again, surprised at the loose, watery trembling of her knees. Silently she counted to twenty, drawing slow, measured breaths. When she felt strong enough, she crossed the room to the door.

No doorknob on her side. The smooth sheet of wood mocked her.

On tiptoe she looked through the peephole. The fish-eye lens revealed only darkness.

Crouching, she examined the clearance between the door and the jamb. It was wide enough to expose part of the bolt drawn into place by the turning of the key.

A dead bolt? Or a latch bolt, the kind with a beveled edge?

A latch bolt could be defeated with a credit card. There were some in her wallet. The cash had been removed, but not the plastic.

She tamped her MasterCard out of its acetate pouch, then knelt by the door. Her heart kept up a hard, steady beat as she inserted the rectangle of plastic into the crack between the door and the frame.

The MasterCard’s leading edge slipped past the gain of the faceplate and bumped up against the bolt. She pushed, trying to make the card flex. The trick was to snake it along the angle of the latch bolt, between the faceplate in the door and the striker plate in the jamb. Pop the latch, and the door would open.

“Come on,” she breathed, jiggling the card. “Come on,
please
, just do this for me, and I’ll never complain about the finance charges again.”

Nothing.

The card wouldn’t do the job. She removed her laminated driver’s license from the wallet and tried that. It was thinner than the MasterCard, more flexible, but it had no greater success.

Finally she gave up. The door must be secured either by a dead bolt or by a latch bolt with the diagonal edge facing away from her. Regardless of which was true, loiding the lock was impossible.

She wasn’t surprised, really. The man holding her prisoner was smart—too smart, possibly, to leave the charge cards and license in her wallet if they could be useful in opening the door.

There was a way of defeating a dead bolt, though. She had learned of the technique years ago, while living in a low-rent district near the university, earning her graduate degree. The other unit in her duplex had been broken into, her neighbors’ place cleaned out. She remembered the T.P.D. detective at the scene explaining how the dead bolt on the front door had been released.

Simple enough
, he’d said.
They just pried the bolt open with an ice pick. Happens all the time
.

All she needed was an ice pick. Too bad she didn’t happen to have one available.

Of course, any long, needlelike tool would do. She searched her purse, her suitcase, the box of foodstuffs.

The item nearest to what she needed was the ballpoint pen. But it was too big to fit between the door and the frame.

She unscrewed the pen’s metal casing, thinking that perhaps the ink cartridge inside might work, but although the tube was narrow enough, it was made of cheap, flexible plastic that would afford her no leverage.

One last point of attack presented itself. The hinges. Could she lift the pivot pins out of the barrels and simply detach the door from the wall?

The pins were in tight. Their caps were smooth and featureless, offering no grooves in which to fasten the tip of a screwdriver, even assuming she had one. If she could grip the caps with a pair of pliers, she might be able to tug the pins free. Pliers, however, were another item her abductor had neglected to leave in her possession.

Could she smash the hinges? They were old and rusty, vulnerable to a sharp hammer blow. She searched the room for a blunt instrument, found none. The sillcock would make a powerful weapon, but she saw no way to liberate it from the wall. A loose brick would serve almost equally well; frustratingly, a thorough patting of the walls established that all the bricks were mortared firmly in place.

Hopeless.

The bolt could not be loided or picked. The hinges could not be disassembled or broken. Unless she could flatten herself to the thinness of a pancake and ooze under the door, she was stuck.

It crashed down on her then—the full weight of her captivity. Strength left her. She sank to her knees, planting her hands on the floor to keep from falling prostrate.

Head lowered, eyes squeezed shut, she felt her shoulders shake with soundless sobs.

The patter of dampness on her knuckles was a steady rainfall of tears.

To lose her composure like this was humiliating, entirely unlike her, but she couldn’t help it. Her life, her world, her daily routine, so carefully ordered and meticulously maintained—all of it had exploded like a bomb, and screaming chaos was the aftermath.

What she wouldn’t give right now to be safe at home in her comfortable, familiar apartment, enclosed by walls that were not a prison, locked behind a door to which she held the key.

Her eyes burned. She heard herself sniffling miserably and dragged a hand across her nose.

“Help me,” she whispered to the unhearing room, the empty house, the vast stillness around her. “Help me, somebody. Help me, please.”