Evidence of Marriage (3 page)

“He took her last night. After stopping in at your sister's wedding reception to pay his respects.”

“The Copycat Killer?”

“Of course.”

“How do you know this?”

“I know a lot of things, Diana. Like the desperation a parent feels when kept away from a child. Especially when she needs you most. I could tell you all about it if you would visit me.”

“Where did he take her?”

“I'm not asking you to do anything a good daughter wouldn't do anyway.”

She didn't have to close her eyes to see the nightmare she'd gone through in the professor's cabin play out in front of her like a movie. But where the professor was a grief-crazed father after revenge, the Copycat killed for pleasure. And part
of his pleasure revolved around torture and humiliation. “You can't let him kill another woman.”

“Can't I? What am I going to do about it? I'm in prison.”

Her stomach swirled, with anger, with nausea. As much as she wanted to walk away, as much as she needed to retain control over her life, she couldn't let an innocent woman suffer. She couldn't let an innocent woman die. Not if she had a chance to save her. “What do you want me to do?”

“Visit. Like a good daughter.” Thin lips pulled back in an icy smile. “I'll see you again tomorrow. We'll have a nice chat.”

“I told you not to promise him anything.” Reed paused behind their prison escort's broad shoulders to let the barred door slide open in front of them. He couldn't wait to get Diana out of this damn prison and as far away from Dryden Kane as possible. He knew allowing her to talk to Kane was a bad idea. He'd been right and then some. Now it was all he could do to keep himself from throwing her over his shoulder and hauling her off somewhere the killer would never find her. Door fully open, the three of them stepped up to the next barred door.

Diana shot Reed a frown. “You heard Kane. The Copycat Killer has kidnapped another woman. What would you have me do? Turn my back and let her die?”

The door slid closed behind them, enclosing them in a sally port between two sets of iron bars.
Trapped. Exactly how Reed was feeling right now. Trapped by Kane's manipulations. “You're assuming the copycat actually
has
another woman.”

Diana's eyes flew wide. “You think Kane lied?”

“I didn't say that. But I think he
would
say anything it took to convince you to visit.”

“You must be able to find out, though, right? I mean, can't you check missing-person reports or something?”

“Nikki's already on it.
If
this woman exists,
if
she's been identified as missing, we'll find her.” The door slid open in front of them, allowing them to continue down the long hall to the prison entrance.

“I want to help.”

She couldn't be serious. “Like you helped with Kane?”

“What do you mean? I
did
help with Kane. Weren't you paying attention?”

“Enough to hear you promise to visit him
every day.
”

“I didn't have a choice.”

“You had a choice, and you made it.”

She pushed a stream of air through tight lips. “Didn't you hear anything else he said?”

“I heard it all.” He tapped his jacket pocket, his fingertips rapping against the videotape from the camera in the interview room.

“Did you notice what he said about his lawyer? And the copycat? Did you hear him say he thought of him as a son?”

“I heard.” And his mind was already whirring wildly, trying to figure out what it all meant. Or if Kane's slips were merely leading them down another path Kane wanted them to take.

“What are you going to do?”

As if he was going to share those thoughts with her. Or worse yet, include her in the investigation. He might not be able to keep her away from Kane, but he could insulate her from the rest. “I'm going to look into it.”

“I can help.”

They reached another set of bars blocking their way. The broad-shouldered guard, Corrections Officer Seides, punched a button on the wall and all three of them faced the camera, waiting to be buzzed through.

Reed glanced at Diana out of the corner of his eye. “Sylvie and Bryce checked into a hotel. They booked you an adjoining room.”

“I'm not going to sit around in a hotel room.”

“Yes, you are.”

“This is my fault, Reed. If I hadn't had to find out who my birth parents were, if I hadn't visited him in the first place, none of this would be happening.”

“You're more powerful than I ever guessed.”
He let the sarcasm slide thickly off his tongue. “Kane would have found his copycat no matter what you did.”

“Sylvie wouldn't be in danger.”

“So that's what this is about. Guilt?” Something he knew far too much about. “So now you're set on sacrificing yourself? You feel you need to visit Kane daily to pay for your sins?”

“Don't psychoanalyze me. I feel like I might be able to help. That's all.”

“Congratulations. You helped. Now you're going to stay safe.”

“This isn't personal, Reed.”

“No, it's not. In this case, it's my job.”

“Your job is to serve and protect the citizens of Madison. Not just me,
all
of the citizens.”

Her words stung far more than he wanted to acknowledge. He'd given up everything to join the force, devoted everything he had to the job. Being a cop was more than what he did. Being a cop was who he was.

And no one knew that better than Diana.

“What do you want? To spend the day hanging out in a police station that smells like sewage, fetching coffee? Because if you insist on helping, that's all I can offer.”

“Sounds like heaven.”

“Right.”

“I can't think of a safer place for me to be than a police station, can you?”

He blew an impatient breath through his nose. He couldn't argue there. And judging from her victorious smile, she knew it. “If that's what you want…”

“That's what I want.”

He waited for the last barred door to slide open. But when he and Diana stepped through it, instead of feeling relief for getting her away from Kane, he couldn't shake the sense that he was only leading her deeper. And that there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

 

R
EED HADN'T BEEN KIDDING
about the smell.

Breathing shallowly through her mouth in an attempt to combat the stench of sewer, Diana wound through misplaced desks and ripped-out ceiling tiles, a foam cup of coffee in each hand. Reed also hadn't been kidding when he'd said he wasn't going to let her play the role of cop. Two hours had ticked by since they'd reached the station, and the biggest thing he'd allowed her to do was make a pot of coffee. At this point, she was so frustrated, she actually needed the caffeine to
calm
her nerves.

She set a cup in front of Nikki and raised the other to her lips. Since Reed had been so open and sharing with her, she'd decided to return the favor. Let him get his own coffee.

Sipping her hot brew, she craned her neck, trying to get a look at Nikki's computer screen. Late-afternoon sun slanted through the high windows in the partially underground first-floor station and glinted off the screen, hiding whatever Nikki was looking at in a blur of glaring light.

Just her luck. “Can I do something to help, Nikki?”

Nikki twisted to glance at her, her lips pressed into an apologetic expression. “Thanks for the coffee.”

“No problem.” Diana didn't have to look in Reed's direction to feel his glower. Reed's partner hadn't said much, but Diana didn't have to be a mind reader to sense Nikki's sentiments lay on her side. And that Reed wasn't happy about it. She kept her eyes on Nikki. “Have you talked to Kane's lawyer yet?”

“Can't locate her. She's probably out sailing on one of the lakes or whatever it is lawyers do on a Sunday around here.”

“Who is she?”

“Meredith Unger,” Reed supplied.

Nikki nodded. “She did some criminal work just out of college. But she's stuck to corporate work since. I guess she's branching out again with Kane.”

Diana thought back to what Kane had said about her. “What is the ‘extra' that Kane referred to?”

Nikki shrugged. “Don't know. She's attractive, in a she-wolf sort of way. It could be that.”

Possible, she supposed. But that wasn't what she'd thought of when Kane had mentioned his lawyer in the prison. “Do you think he's manipulating her? Getting her to convey messages between him and the copycat or something?”

“I think we can assume he's manipulating her in some way,” Nikki continued. “Kane would probably lose interest in her if he wasn't. The rest, we don't know. Not yet, anyway.”

“Why would she take Dryden Kane on as a client in the first place?”

Reed grunted. “The reason all of them take someone like Kane on. Notoriety. They like to see their names in the paper.”

“And some women think danger is sexy,” Nikki added.

Diana knew that was true, yet she would never understand it. All she'd ever wanted in a man was safety, tenderness, someone she could depend on. Of course, becoming too dependent turned out to be dangerous, too.

She yanked her thoughts from that painful path and focused on the missing-person reports piled on Nikki's desk. “What are you looking for? Missing college-age women with blond hair? Like the women the copycat killed last fall?”

“We'll tell you if we find something, Diana.”

Nikki gave Reed a guilty glance, then nodded anyway. “Usually when a serial killer kills several women who look alike, like this killer has done, it indicates the woman's look is part of what turns him on, part of his reason for committing the crime.”

When Diana had discovered Dryden Kane was her biological father, she'd read everything she could find on serial killers. And she'd discovered far more than she'd ever thought she wanted to know. “You're thinking the victim's hair color and age are part of his signature.”

“Exactly. Age and hair color were the things all three victims had in common. Although we don't know much more than that about the third victim.”

The third victim. The woman whose body had been burned and mutilated so badly, police had never been able to determine her identity. For a couple of days, they'd even believed the body to be Diana's.

She pushed that morbid thought from her mind. “I guess my question is, whose signature are we talking about?”

Nikki tilted her head. “What are you thinking?”

Reed cleared his throat, as if warning Nikki not to go too far in including Diana.

Nikki didn't seem fazed.

Diana pushed on. “When Kane was working
up to killing my mother…” Diana swallowed. Even after all these months, she hadn't gotten used to the idea that her father had killed her mother. Somehow that fact was more difficult to process than her father being a serial killer. She could only speculate about what that said about her.

Nikki gave her an encouraging nod. “When he was working up to killing your mother, he looked for young, blond victims.”

“Yes. So when the copycat killed these women, was he just trying to emulate Kane's signature or is that part of his own?” Diana looked up at Reed to gauge his reaction.

Picking up his phone, he punched in a number and held it to his ear. He walked into a nearby conference room and closed the door behind him.

Diana's cheeks heated. She didn't have to ask what he thought of her observation. But as much as his dismissal stung, it was nothing compared to the realization that, even after all these months, looking to Reed for approval was as automatic as breathing.

Nikki leaned toward her. “Don't let him bug you. I think it's a good question.
And
I think it's a great idea to have you help in this case.”

“You do?”

“You bet. The FBI is using more and more pro-active techniques when it comes to finding unidentified subjects. I'd say you interrogating your
father has to be on the cutting edge.” Admiration filled her voice.

“You really want to get this guy, don't you?”

Nikki smiled. “You have to ask?”

No, she didn't. From the first time she'd met Nikki, she'd felt the hunger under that fashion-model facade. Nikki might look the part of a beautiful bimbo, but she had goals and grit. And heaven help the serial killer who got in her way. “I'm glad you're on this case.”

“What do we have here? A mutual-admiration society?”

Diana glanced up at the sound of the deep, cigarette-roughened voice. “Detective Perreth.”

“Nice to see you, Miz Gale.” Though the growl in his voice sounded anything but pleased to see her, Reed's old nemesis had the nerve to grin, his jowly face taking on the look of a panting bulldog. “Where's McCaskey?”

“Right here.” Reed emerged from the conference room. “What do you want, Perreth? Come to enjoy the smell?”

“I've been assigned to the task force.”

“Great.”

Reed didn't show any reaction, but Diana could guess how he felt about the news.

And how much Perreth was enjoying it. “It might be good if we coordinate what we're going to tell
the press. Starting with what Dryden Kane's daughter is doing with her nose in the copycat case.”

“We're not going to tell the press anything.”

“And you don't think word about who she is will get out now that the copycat is active again?”

Reed stepped close to Perreth, his taller frame towering over the squatty detective. “In the conference room. We need to talk.”

The men filed into the conference room and shut the door behind them.

Diana clenched her teeth until her jaw ached.

Nikki laid a hand on her arm. “He's Reed's problem. Not yours.”

Nikki was right. Whatever bad feelings Perreth had toward her had come from his conflicts with Reed. She hardly even knew the man. Nor did she want to. His condescending attitude and the cold way he stared at her shouldn't bother her. Of course, they did anyway.

She let out a pent-up breath and turned away from the conference-room door.

Nikki gave her an approving nod. She picked up a stack of missing-person reports from her desk and plunked them in front of Diana. “I could use your help now that Reed is busy dealing with Stan.”

Diana took the reports, not bothering to hide the smile on her face. As it turned out, that closed door worked both ways. “Thanks.”

“Don't mention it. Three women went missing this weekend. None of them match the copycat's previous victims.”

“Three women? In one weekend?”

Nikki waved away her surprise. “They all went missing last night. Chances are they are shacked up with boyfriends or forgot to tell their roommate or husband where they were going. Most show up.”

“But some don't.”

“Some don't.”

Diana shuddered. Just last fall, she'd been missing, just like these women. If Sylvie and Bryce hadn't kept pushing to find her, she would have been one of the ones who never showed up.