Die for Me: A Novel of the Valentine Killer (37 page)

“And we just might have to get her in there.” Dane’s jaw ached from gritting his teeth. “He’s not going to tell Forrest and Smith
anything.
We’re wasting too much fucking time.”

Valentine stopped grinning. “Tick, tick, tick.”

Screw this. Dane shoved past Meadows and pushed the button for the intercom. “You took someone.”

Valentine raised his brows. “Did I, Detective Black?”

“He’s got them both,” Mac said. “
Both.
”

“You’re jumping to conclusions,” Meadows told them, but his voice was shaking. “We have no proof that…”

John cleared his throat and put down the phone he’d had at his ear. “Sir, a trace wasn’t necessary. We just located Ross’s phone.” Meadows looked relieved. “I
told
you—”

“The ME found it in Evelyn Knight’s coat pocket. She heard it ringing when Detective Black called—”

“
Sonofabitch.
” From Meadows.

“Tick, tick, tick,” Valentine said once more. “If you don’t hurry, you’re gonna be seeing red.” His head cocked as he studied the big, round clock on the wall to his right. “And look at that, it’s Valentine’s Day.”

Then Meadows was the one rushing from the room and heading into interrogation. Mac and Dane were with him, clearing a path.

Meadows shoved the door open, and it banged against the wall. “Do you have knowledge of Anthony Ross’s whereabouts?”

Valentine nodded. “I believe I do.” His fake drawl rolled beneath the words.

“
Where
is he?”

Valentine tapped his chin with his right index finger. “He’s dying right now. Every precious second just ticking past.” Valentine’s sigh held no regret. “I kept trying to tell you we don’t have time to dick around here.”

“
Where
—”

“Ah, Detective Black, I figured you’d join me, if I used the right bait.” Valentine’s eyes held no emotion. “Now that we’re all here and not pulling the ridiculous bullshit of talking through the glass, this is how the deal is going to work.” He leaned forward.

“I don’t deal with—” Meadows began.

“You deal with every murderer, rapist, and pedophile that you can.” Valentine’s voice was mild. “And you
will
fucking deal with me. Or I’ll make your world a nightmare.”

Meadows surged toward him. “You’re
threatening
me?”

“If I were, you’d already be dead.” Valentine inclined his head. “Right now, I’m dealing with you. Offering a trade. One life, for another.”

“We’re not letting you go, bastard.” Meadows glared at Valentine.

“Then I guess that will be one life lost.” Valentine didn’t look like he cared worth a damn. “But the marshal was always expendable, wasn’t he? It’s the girl, the pretty little blonde. I’m betting she’ll matter more.”

Hell. Until that moment, Dane had been holding out some hope that there was a mistake. That Maggie would turn up at the hospital, rushing to her father’s bedside.

The silence in the room was thick and dark and evil. Just like Valentine.

“You’re fucking enjoying this, aren’t you?” Dane knew it was true.

Valentine blinked, as if surprised. “Of course I enjoy my kills. Don’t
you
enjoy it when you have the power of life and death over someone? When you have all the control?”

“I don’t get off on killing,” Dane bit off the words through clenched teeth.

Anger flared in Valentine’s eyes, but the expression cooled quickly.
Control.
Yeah, that bastard wanted to have it, all right.

“Here’s how this deal will work,” Valentine said, his voice rumbling. “I’ll take you to the marshal, in exchange for your not seeking the death penalty.”

“And what will you want for Maggie’s life?” Dane demanded.

Meadows had backed away from Valentine. Smart move. The guy must have just noticed the blood on the floor, courtesy of Forrest. Forrest was currently leaning against the right wall. Meadows and Smith and Forrest and the uniforms were all afraid of Valentine. Their body language and their shifting eyes screamed their fear.

And Valentine
liked
for them to be afraid.

Dane stalked toward the guy. He grabbed Valentine’s chair and spun the bastard so that he had to fully face him. “What do you expect to get for her?”

Valentine blinked. “Isn’t it obvious? It should be. I mean, what’s the one thing I want in this world?”

Katherine.

Dane shoved his hands down on Valentine’s shoulders. The pressure would ensure that Valentine didn’t lunge up and attack him the way the guy had done with Forrest. Then Dane leaned closer to him and whispered, “You’re not getting near Katherine.”

“Then your captain will find his little girl’s body.” A bitter laugh. “Or maybe he won’t. Maybe he won’t ever know what happened to her. Maybe he’ll spend his whole life searching for her bones.”

Dane stared into the man’s eyes. There should have been a soul there. There should have been emotions. Hate. Fury. Fear. There should have been something. “How the hell did you wind up this way?” he asked.

“Maybe I was always like this.” But Valentine’s eyelids flickered. “Now bring Kat to me, and let’s get this show on the road.”

Dane shook his head. Valentine was talking now. That was what they wanted. Step one was a success. As far as Katherine was concerned,
never gonna happen.
They’d keep the guy talking. Maybe break through that wall of ice he was using for protection, and then he’d slip up. Give them a clue to Ross’s or Maggie’s whereabouts.

The door opened behind him. Dane didn’t glance back over his shoulder. When a snake was about to strike, you damn well didn’t look away. Everyone knew that lesson. Every. One.

Footsteps shuffled toward him. Slow.

“Where is she?” The captain’s voice. Weak.

Fuck.
“You shouldn’t be here, Harley.” The captain still should have been in the hospital.

“Heard…you brought him in…had to come see…the others told me…on the way…
can’t find…my Maggie…
”

He’d never heard the captain sound so lost.

“She was crying for him when I left her,” Valentine said.

The captain sucked in a pained breath.

The guy had just damn well confessed to hurting Maggie, but Dane knew he had to push for more, so he said, “That’s bullshit. You put duct tape over your victims’ mouths. You don’t let them talk or cry or beg.” Maybe the guy didn’t have her. Maybe—

“I let Evelyn talk. When you got there, did you see duct tape on her mouth?”

No, there hadn’t been any duct tape on her.

“She confessed to killing Savannah Slater and Amy Evans.” He exhaled slowly. “Such a troubled woman. Dr. Knight was so very broken.”

And you’re not?

“Where is…Margaret?” Harley’s hand closed around Dane’s shoulder. Dane let the guy haul him back.

But then…

He never expected the captain to move so fast. In an instant, the captain had his gun out and the barrel shoved right against Valentine’s head. Dead center in the middle of his forehead. “
Where is my girl?
”

It seemed as if every cop in the room had stopped breathing. Except for the captain. His breath sawed in and out. In and out. Heavy and too hard.

Dane’s hands were in the air. Frozen. “You don’t want to do this, Harley.”

“He told me…I did…nothing.”

Dane took a cautious step toward the captain. The guy’s body was trembling.

“I let you…get hurt…all those…years.” The gun dug deeper into Valentine’s forehead. “I won’t…do nothing now.” His finger was squeezing the trigger. “
Where is she?
”

“If you kill me, she just dies a slower, more painful death.” Valentine’s voice was mild and even.
He’s taunting Harley.

Harley’s face crumbled. Dane lunged forward, grabbed the gun, and pushed the captain back.

“Good job, Detective,” Valentine murmured. He didn’t look even a
little
worried. “There just might be a hero in you yet.”

Pull the trigger.
The temptation whispered through Dane’s mind. One quick pull, and everything would be over.

His gaze held Valentine’s.
Do it.
The challenge seemed to be right there, but that didn’t make any sense. Valentine was fighting to get the death penalty off the table. So why would he also be pushing for death-by-cop?

“Bring Katherine Cole in here,
now
!” Meadows yelled. He pointed his finger, a shaking finger, at Harley. “And get the captain out of here.”

Smith and Forrest were only too happy to comply.

Dane didn’t move. He wasn’t sure he could.
Shoot the bastard.

“Detective, you need to step back,” Meadows told him.

Yes, he supposed that was what he needed to do.

“Want to pull that trigger, don’t you?” Valentine whispered to him.

“Yes.” His own voice was just as soft. The captain was gone. Only Dane, Mac, and Meadows were in that room.

“Making a deal with him will be a mistake,” Mac rasped.

“And if I don’t,” Meadows said, “then a man I’ve known for twenty years will probably eat his gun before the night’s over.”

Yes, Harley would.

More footsteps were heading toward them. Not heavy this time. Light.

Valentine’s nostrils flared, as if he were drinking in a scent.

“Dane?” Shock coated Katherine’s voice.

Because he had a gun at Valentine’s forehead.

“She’s seeing you for what you are,” Valentine told him with a flash of that maddening grin.

Jaw locked, Dane stepped back. He shoved the gun into the empty holster under his left shoulder.

“Ms. Cole,” Meadows began. “I’m very sorry to bring you in.”

“Don’t be sorry.” Her gaze swept the room. Lingered on Dane. Didn’t even glance at Valentine. “What has he done?”

There wasn’t time for sugarcoating. No time. No point. “Two people are missing. Valentine says he has them.”

She finally glanced at Valentine. “Do you?”

His eyes changed, flashing with an emotion—and not that smug confidence he’d shown since coming to the station. “Yes.”

“Who did you take?” she asked as she made her way to stand at Dane’s side. Her shoulder brushed his arm.

Valentine’s gaze darted down. Narrowed as he studied the point where they touched.
Another emotion. Anger.

Katherine was definitely the man’s trigger. But they’d known that all along.

He just hadn’t wanted to use her again. He’d wanted the nightmare to be over for her.

“The marshal.” Valentine’s shoes rocked back and forth on the floor. “That bastard should have protected you—it was his
job.
Instead, you almost died in that café when Evelyn drugged you.”

“That wasn’t Ross’s fault. He didn’t know that Evelyn was a threat. He was supposed to protect me—from you.” Katherine’s
voice was quiet. As calm as Valentine had been before.
Before she came into the room and the guy lit up like a Christmas tree.

Valentine licked his lips. “You’ve changed, Kat.”

Her eyelids lowered as she pressed even closer to Dane’s body. “Who else did you take?”

Valentine exhaled, as if annoyed. “Margaret Dunning. The police’s captain’s spoiled bitch of a daughter.”

“Watch your mouth,” Mac snapped.

Valentine couldn’t seem to look away from Katherine. Dane stepped forward and deliberately put his body in front of hers.

Oh yeah, that was rage flaring in the man’s eyes.

“Maggie Dunning is already dead,” Dane said flatly.

Meadows swore behind him. Like Dane, the DA must have thought that Harley was watching from the observation room. By this point, Dane was pretty sure that room had to be packed.

“Not yet, she isn’t,” Valentine snapped back. “But you just keep wasting my time.”

“And we’re supposed to believe the serial killer?” Mac said.

Valentine spared Mac an annoyed glance. He hadn’t lunged to his feet. Hadn’t attacked. “Why would I lie?”

Why would you tell the truth?
“To save your own skin,” Dane told him, fighting to keep a tight rein on his own fury. This was the man who’d made Katherine’s life hell. The man who’d killed and tortured so many women. “You’d say anything to avoid getting a needle in your arm.” He kept his arms loose at his sides, a fake pose because his body was tight with battle-ready tension.

“You keep wasting so much time.” Valentine sighed. “But if you just want more deaths on you, that’s fine with me.”

“So you admit to murdering Trent Lancaster?” Dane fired out the question. Valentine had said that Evelyn confessed to killing
Savannah and Amy, and that fit—those victims had been drugged with the fentanyl.

The drug that Evelyn had used on both Katherine and Ronnie.

But no fentanyl had been found in Trent Lancaster’s tox screen.

After a moment, Valentine nodded.

“Say it,” Dane snarled. “Admit what you did.”

Katherine stepped forward, putting her body next to Dane’s.

Valentine’s eyes found hers once more. His face seemed to soften as he stared at her. “You aren’t damaged, Kat. I knew what he’d said. I knew how he talked to you. He didn’t deserve to be anywhere near you.”

Katherine’s breath rushed out. “You shoved a knife into his chest and you left him for me to find.”

“He was a present.”

“A dead body
isn’t
the kind of present that I wanted!”

Valentine’s eyes slid over her. “You needed to know that someone was looking out for you. I didn’t want you to worry that you’d be a target.” His voice dropped. “Never you. That’s why I stayed in the gallery, so you’d understand.”

“Is that why you killed Evelyn?” Dane asked. If the idiot wanted to talk, he’d let the guy bury himself. “Because she was targeting Katherine?”

“She tried to kill my Kat. She was dead the minute I knew.” He sucked in a breath, as if trying to regain his control. “Besides, Evelyn thought she was something that she wasn’t.”

“And what was that?” Dane pushed.

“Good enough for me. Only one woman has ever been
good
enough.” His shoulders rolled back. “For a shrink, the woman was pretty fucking crazy.”

It takes a psycho to recognize one.