Killer Moves (11 page)

“I’m sorry, Davis.” He started for the elevator, forcing her to scramble to catch up with him.

“She’s not there, Davis.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Agent Martin, the director is holding for you,” the assistant announced in an annoyed tone.

Davis didn’t bother answering her. He hit the elevator button a couple of times and waited only a moment before heading for the stairwell with Kara following close behind.

When they’d reached ground level, he turned to her. “Kara, go back inside. I don’t want you to be part of this.”

She ignored his attempts at protecting her. “I
am
part of it, and you know it. I’ve been part of it from the beginning. I’m coming with you.”

He hesitated a second longer then unlocked the passenger door to his car. “Here, take my backup weapon, okay?” Davis reached under the driver’s seat and pulled out a Glock, never questioning her skills. He knew she was an expert shooter. He’d taught her himself.

As they worked their way through the congested federal traffic, Davis continually tried reaching Jessica by phone. Then he called Ryan and told him to step up the search for the latest victim.

“We think he’s taken Jessica. Get the word out as quickly as possible but make sure her parents don’t hear about this just yet.”

“Do you know Jessica’s parents?” Kara asked once they left the busy Capitol area, heading toward a residential neighborhood.

“Yes, they’re friends of mine. Jessica’s father was an assistant district attorney at the time of the original Angel murders. He would have handled the case had it gone to trial.”

Once Davis parked the car in front of a small house on a quiet street, Kara began to see a pattern emerge that was frightening. First Rachel, now Jessica. Possibly Ava. Herself. Davis knew most of the victims. Had he known the first two as well?

“This is it,” he told her, looking at her curiously. “What is it?”

“Nothing.” Now was not the time. They needed to find Jessica first before it was too late.

She waited while Davis retrieved the key from the fake hanging plant on the porch and unlocked the door. As Kara stepped inside the house, one thing became immediately clear. Jessica knew her assailant. Nothing appeared out of place. She’d let this person into her life.

“Did she have a boyfriend? Anyone special in her life?”

“No, she dated someone pretty steady for a while but they broke up… Wait, before I left for El Paso, she mentioned someone she’d been seeing for a few weeks. Someone she said she met in one of her Criminal Justice classes at the University of Virginia. I got the impression he wasn’t a student, maybe her professor. She called him Alec. But then…”

“Then what?”

Davis suddenly looked uncomfortable. Kara wondered about his relationship with the girl.

“Jessica told me she wasn’t ready for anything too serious. She just wanted to have a little fun.”

Kara nodded then began to walk through each room of the tiny house. Nothing appeared out of place.

“What are you thinking, Kara?”

“Isn’t it obvious? She knew her attacker. This wasn’t random like the others. Jessica knew who took her.”

He looked uncomfortable.

“What is it, Davis? What aren’t you telling me?”

He followed her into the tidy kitchen. “It is like the others,” he insisted quietly. The look in his eyes frightened her.

Kara forced the question out. “What do you mean?”

“There’s evidence that Rachel may have known her assailant as well.” After a moment, he added, “There’s more. You remember in El Paso you asked me about the connection between the victims. You thought that maybe they knew the same people. Well, you were right. They did. They all knew me. I’m the connection between the victims.”

“Oh my God,” Kara whispered into the shocked silence that followed his confession. She saw Davis’s mouth twist into a bitter grin.

“Yeah, I thought that would be your reaction. I went to university with one and I dated the other. I was married to Rachel and then you know I stopped in at your shop and talked to Justine, so I guess in a way I knew her as well. So, there’s your connection. Are you satisfied?”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“
Why
? Why do you think? It would have changed your mind about the case and about me, that’s why.”

“Yes.” Kara turned away. “Probably—I don’t know.” It took everything inside her to let the obvious questions go for the moment. She was there for Ava and the other victims. Nothing more.

“But the first Angel killings were all picked at random, except for Amy. This is clearly different.”

Davis looked relieved that she wasn’t walking away just yet.

“Or maybe it’s not. Maybe he’s just perfecting his MO.”

Davis retrieved his cell phone and called Ryan. “The place is clean. She’s gone. Yes, it appears she knew her attacker. What?”

Something in Davis’s voice drew Kara’s attention back to him. He sounded frustrated. He hung up the phone and turned to her, his expression scaring her again.

“What is it?”

“Nothing. Let’s get out of here, okay? I can’t think straight in here.” He held the door open and waited for her before relocking it and placing the key back inside the plant.

They drove in silence for a time. But Kara couldn’t let Davis’s connection to all the victims go. If he’d lied about knowing all the victims, what else hadn’t he told her about the case?

He brought the car to a stop in front of a sprawling, red brick home in the affluent Georgetown neighborhood.

Davis got out of the car and waited for her to do the same. Kara realized her things were still at the Bureau.

And no one knew where she was.

“Don’t worry, Kara. I would never hurt you.”

She forced aside her fear at those words. “Where are we?”

“Home. We’re home. This is my home.”

“Why are we here?” she asked, but Davis ignored the question. Unlocking the door, he waited for her. Reluctantly, Kara stepped inside the two-story house, not sure what to expect.

Davis closed the door behind her but made no move to step away.

“You didn’t answer my question.” She tried to keep her voice steady. She couldn’t let him see she’d become frightened of him.

“No, I didn’t,” he said with a heavy sigh before stepping past her into the living room. “I expected more from you, Kara. I never expected you to turn on me.”

She followed him slowly, waiting for him to say more. When he didn’t, she asked, “So why are we here, Davis? We should be out working the case.” When he ignored her entirely, she added, “Davis, we’re running out of time!”

“Ryan’s got it covered for now. He promised to let me know the moment he hears anything. Look, I just needed to think for a minute, okay? Clear my head. Explain to you privately what’s happening,” he added quietly.

Kara stood before him, trying to control her anger and frustration. None of this made any sense. Davis had been determined to find Jessica just a short time earlier.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked at last.

He walked over to the bar and poured a drink, downing it in a single gulp. “My director—you remember Ed Zamora, right—well, he wants me to distance myself from the case for a while. ‘Let Ryan take the lead,’ he told me. At least to the public eye.” When his eyes met hers, the fear left her. This was Davis. This was the man she loved. But Davis was hurting.

Kara remembered Ed only too well. She and Ed had butted heads from day one. “Why? I mean, didn’t you tell Ed about your connection to the victims in the beginning?” Then she added slowly, “Is it because of me?”

He smiled once more mockingly then poured another drink. “You were just the final straw. No, they want me away from the case for the same reason you’re starting to suspect me. Because I might have personal knowledge of the killer.”

“Because of your relationship with the victims?”

Davis took another sip of the whiskey before answering. “The first victim, Amanda, I met at the academy. She never finished. She decided it wasn’t for her. Once she left the academy, well, I never saw her again. And Camille, well, it happened years ago, before Rachel and I, and it was one night. I forgot about her until I saw a photo of her. Her name didn’t ring a bell…”

“Oh, Davis.”

“Kara, I know how this is beginning to look, but for God’s sake I need you of all people to believe in me. Please.”

“I do,” she told him and meant it. Kara moved to his side and took the glass from his hand. His fingers shook. “Davis, I do believe in you, but there’s something going on here you can’t deny. Somehow the Angel has decided to make this personal for you. Do you have any idea why? I mean, you and I haven’t spoken in years. It can’t all be because of me.”

He ran a shaky hand through his hair. “I thought of that after Rachel’s death. I’ve gone over all of my cases with a fine-tooth comb but there’s nothing.”

The pain in his eyes was hard to face. Slowly, Kara took him in her arms and held him close. “It’s okay. We’ll get through this together. We’ll figure it out together, Davis.

“You’re not alone in this, okay. But I need you to help me. Ava needs you—you can’t give up.”

For a long time, he didn’t answer, and then she felt him grow restless in her arms.

“I’m not giving up, Kara. I want this guy as much as you do. And I won’t let him hurt Ava, I promise.”

When he looked down at her, all the old feelings resurfaced. Her body ached for him. She responded without hesitation to the open need in his eyes. Kara leaned against him and felt his hands tighten around her waist. Lifting her fingers, she cupped his face. The moment their lips touched, the years melted away. It never felt more right. This was what she’d wanted for so long. Even when she tried hating him, she still craved his touch.

“I want to make love to you, Kara. Dear God, I’ve thought of making love to you again for so long.”

Her eyes searched his for a long time. It would be so easy to give in. After all, she wanted the same thing, but too many things stood in the way. And a killer was on the hunt again.

Slowly, she untangled herself from his arms. His mouth hardened into a frown at her rejection.

“And then what? What happens when the job needs you or Ed or the next killer comes along?’” The look in his eyes was hard to take.

“Kara…” Davis Martin had never looked more vulnerable.

“I’m sorry, Davis, but I think we need to stay focused on the case.”

Chapter Six

Letting Kara go was impossible to do but he did it. In his head, he understood where she was coming from. She’d been hurt. He’d screwed things up terribly and it would take some time for her to trust him again. But his heart and his body weren’t nearly so patient.

With her absence from his arms, the world and its troubles crowded in again.

His conversation with Ed Zamora had come as the biggest shock in a week full of them. That his commanding officer, the man he’d worked with for almost ten years, could think he in some way might be involved in these deaths was hard to accept.

“Where are you going?” Kara asked when Davis reached for his keys and headed for the door.

“Ed suggested it might be in my best interest to back off these cases and let Ryan take the lead. I won’t accept that, Kara. Not now with Jessica involved. I owe it to her and to her parents to figure out what’s happened to her.”

He opened the door and turned back to her. “And I don’t want you involved in this. I was wrong to bring you here in the first place. I’m going to send you to Ava and Maggie.”

He wasn’t surprised that she followed him, or that she was ready to argue her case. “No, you’re not. Whether I’m with you or not, I’m still going to be getting the visions from the Angel. I’m involved. I’m here and I can help. I want to. I need to for Ava’s sake. She needs both of her parents, Davis. So you can just forget sending me away. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Kara.” Davis closed the door and touched her face. “I can’t let anything happen to you. I almost lost you the last time. I did lose you in a way. I don’t want that to happen again.”

“We’re both involved in this. We both need to settle the Angel case once and for all, otherwise it will always haunt us. We’ll never be able to move on with our lives.”

He didn’t want to move on. For Kara, moving on meant letting go. He couldn’t let her go.

He closed his eyes before finally giving in. “All right, I guess I don’t really have a choice in the matter, do I? I know how stubborn you are. I’m going back to the office and talk to Ed. If you want, I’ll drop you off with the task force and you can start going over the evidence with them.”

“No. I’m coming with you to talk to Ed. It’s the least I can do. Whatever Ed has to say to you, he can just say it with me there as well.”

Ed Zamora was not happy to see Kara again. When she’d worked with the Bureau before, Ed had been her biggest skeptic. In the end, after the kidnapping and the scandal that followed, he’d been only too happy to see Kara leave.