Authors: R. E. Bradshaw
RAINEY DAYS (18 page)
“Have you seen this yet?” he spit out.
He opened the paper to the front page, “Y-Man Killer Returns,” screamed across the headline, in bold black letters. JW finally looked away from his paper, to see what all the fuss was about. Rainey’s jaw dropped. It had been only twenty-four hours and the media was all over the story. Danny paced the room, while Rainey scanned the article, with Katie reading over her shoulder. When Rainey finished, she handed the paper to Katie, so she could continue reading and took Danny into the den.
Once they were alone, he started, “Who did this, Rainey?”
Rainey was confused. “What, do you think I know something about this?”
Danny’s anger had not subsided. He flashed, “There are only two people alive that know the details, of what he said and did to you, and I am one of them. I sure as hell didn’t contact the media, so that leaves you.”
Rainey could not believe this was happening. “Are you serious? Do you think I told anyone else what he did to me, unless you wrote it down and left it lying somewhere.”
“What are you talking about?” Danny said, topping her incredulous tone.
“I saw a folder on the table, clearly marked Rainey Bell, just lying out for anyone to see. How would you like your deepest secrets lying in a pile of folders, like just some old file, like those files don’t represent real human beings, real feelings?”
Danny lowered his voice, “Rainey that file never contained what you told me, never. I am the only one that has a file with that information and it is locked in my briefcase.”
“If I didn’t do it and you didn’t do it, there is only one way some of those facts made that paper this morning,” Rainey said, calming down, too.
Danny put his hand over his brow and let out a, “Shit!” followed by, “I hate this fucker.”
“It’s the only way,” Rainey said and sat down on the couch, amazed at the audacity of this killer.
Danny plopped down beside her with a sigh. “We’re already getting the writer, an editor and a judge together for a first amendment pow-wow. We should have his source soon.”
“It won’t help us,” Rainey said. “He’s too smart to get caught that way.”
“They all make mistakes,” Danny replied. “That’s how we catch them.”
“We’ll catch this one when we figure out what he’s planning,” Rainey said, beginning to think more like an analyst than a victim. It was the only way she was going to survive this. “He must be experiencing some significant stress right now. Something has brought him back out, after almost a year of inactivity.”
Danny got on board, “He is escalating at an accelerated pace. He’s gone from one serial murder a month, to nothing, that we know of. Now he’s turned to long term stalking, but his contact with his victim has multiplied since he recognized you.”
Rainey wrinkled her brow, saying, “Why does he contact the media? He’s never done that before.”
“He wants credit for being the one who attacked you. He thinks he’ll humiliate you by publishing some of the more gruesome details of what he did to you,” Danny said to her, more as a fellow agent than a victim.
Rainey continued, “And he’s trying to show that he’s smarter than the FBI, after all he nearly killed an agent and he got away. In fact, he is responsible for bringing the FBI back to his case. He had to know, when he identified himself to me, I would call you immediately.”
Danny stood and began to pace the room. “So, you’re convinced that it’s just dumb luck that he stumbles across you. Why doesn’t he just try to kill you? Why bring this heat down on himself again?”
Rainey sat up on the edge of the couch. “Because he needs to feel that rush again. When he saw me, he remembered how exhilarating it felt to capture an FBI agent. He can’t get the thrill, from the hookers he killed, that he got from taking on the most powerful federal law enforcement agency in the country, and winning.”
Danny countered, “But he didn’t win. He didn’t kill you.”
“No, but he got away,” Rainey answered. “Imagine what he must have thought it would feel like to get the second chance to outsmart the FBI and accomplish his goal of killing me. It would be too much for him to resist.”
“So, your conclusion is that he is now using the Wilson’s as a ploy, and has switched his focus to you? You are the real target?” Danny wanted to confirm.
“Yes, and you need to take advantage of that knowledge. Let me go home, set up surveillance, he won’t be able to resist, I’m telling you,” Rainey argued.
“And what about the Wilson’s, do you think they are out of danger?” Danny said.
Rainey had an answer, “Leave the four guys you have here now. Make sure that at least two of them go with Katie, everywhere, even to school. JW is too much of a threat for this guy. He doesn’t get off on playing doctor with men. I really think they would be safer, if I wasn’t with them.”
“Will you stay here one more evening, until I can get my guys set up in the woods around your place? We’re going to want to video all the activity coming and going, even from the boat dock day and night. I need time to get the equipment here,” Danny said, without any more argument.
He had to know Rainey was right. He knew it when he barged in here this morning. He needed to hear her say it. If the Wilson’s were not targets, then they would just get in the way of catching this guy. They were the killer’s distraction. If they were removed, he would have to come after Rainey directly. Rainey did not mind spending another night with Katie, and she would be glad to have Katie out of the crosshairs of this maniac when Rainey finally went home. She wanted him to stay as far away from Katie as possible. Rainey had to believe she was right. Katie was safer with the other agents, than being guarded by his real target.
Danny and Rainey talked a few minutes more about the set up at her place. She told him where the best angles and vantage points were. Danny asked for Mackie’s number, so he could call him to help with the local traffic, maybe turn the boaters away for a day.
“We don’t want to be seen,” he said.
Rainey told him, “He can say it’s rented to a private party. My dad used to do that sometimes.” She handed him Mackie’s number, having written it on a sticky note, from a pad lying by the phone.
Danny tucked the note in his shirt pocket. “You know I didn’t really think it was you,” he said.
Rainey questioned him with her eyes.
He continued, “I never thought you were the one who contacted the media. I had to ask.”
Rainey was sorry she said those things about him being the leak. She knew he must have had some real pressure from up high to make sure it was not her.
“What, do the guys at Quantico think I’ve cooked this whole thing up as an attempt to draw attention to myself?” Rainey asked.
“Yeah, something like that,” Danny replied.
She was more sad than angry, when she said, “Those fucking assholes don’t have a clue, do they?”
“Nope, not a one,” Danny said, matter-of-factly.
The crash of glass breaking and raised voices sent Danny and Rainey, guns drawn, running to the kitchen. They met two of the new agents in the hall, giving the slow down hand sign, indicating that everything was okay.
Rainey heard Katie yell, “I know you did it, you sick bastard.”
When Rainey made it into the kitchen there was a cup in pieces and coffee flowing down the wall, near where JW had been standing. JW had backed across the room and one of the agents was trying to prevent Katie from getting to him.
“Whoa, what’s going on?” Rainey said.
“He did it, Rainey. He’s the one,” Katie said, making another attempt to get to her husband.
Rainey stepped in between the agent and Katie, doing a dance back and forth in front of JW.
“Katie, calm down. Talk to me,” Rainey said. “Tell me what you think he’s done.”
JW answered for her, “Your girlfriend thinks I called the media. That I’ve tried to spin this thing somehow.”
The word girlfriend stung a little. Because of the sexual attraction she was now feeling for Katie, a simple word she had used last week had taken on a whole new context. She tried briefly to determine which one he meant, but then quickly got back to the matter at hand.
“Katie, JW didn’t leak that story. He couldn’t have. There is no way he could have known some of the things written in that story,” Rainey said. “The Y-Man is the leak.”
Katie looked puzzled. “Why would he do that? Why would he want everyone to know he’s out there?”
“Because he gets off on the attention,” Rainey answered.
“Aren’t you going to apologize to me, now?” JW asked, and Rainey wished he had not.
Katie lashed at him, “Oh, shut up! You know you’re glad he did it. You would have done it yourself, if he hadn’t. Tell me you didn’t count the number of times your name was mentioned.”
JW threw his hands up, saying, “There’s just no winning with you.”
Katie was not finished. “That’s right. It’s about time you gave up, don’t you think?”
Rainey wanted to separate these two and was so relieved when JW said he had an early tee time. JW took one of the new agents as a fourth, after giving him a polo shirt and assuring him, he would get him clubs and shoes, at the pro shop. Danny reminded the agent to return the borrowed merchandise, before returning to the house. JW said he would just donate them to a charity auction, assuring Rainey they would end up in a Republican fundraising raffle. Whatever was going to happen to the clubs and shoes, she was so glad when JW finally left.
Danny followed shortly behind him, heading off to coordinate the move to Rainey’s house. Katie had dismissed herself, after telling everyone there were fruit slices and bagels for breakfast, then returned upstairs. Rainey cleaned up the mess from the shattered coffee cup. Rainey told the agent not to bother, when he was about to follow her, as she started up the stairs. She felt his services would be more useful downstairs, since there were no entrances up there. He was young and did as he was told. Rainey went to Katie’s door and knocked.
“It’s Rainey, Katie. May I come in?”
Soft steps hurried toward the door and the latch threw. Rainey heard the soft steps move away from the door again. She slowly opened the door. Rainey latched the door behind her. She found Katie face down in her pillows.
“It’s okay, he’s gone,” Rainey offered, as a way to help ease Katie’s hurt.
“Oh, fuck him!” was the muffled sound out of the pillows.
“I’ve got to say, you two have a strange way of communicating,” Rainey said.
Katie did not say anything.
Rainey tried again, “You know, I’ll listen, if you need to get something off your chest.”
Rainey was not expecting what came next. Katie sat up and turned to Rainey.
“I’m not crying because of JW. I’m crying for what that madman did to you, and then to tell everyone what he did in the paper. How could they print that?” Katie cried, as the tears fell and slid down her cheeks.
Rainey sat silently in shock. Somehow, she had transferred, to Katie, all the hurt and indignation she felt, when Rainey herself had read the article. She did not know how to react or have time.
“How can you sit there, so calmly?” Katie ranted.
Finally, something Rainey knew the answer to. “I have to, Katie, if I want to survive.”
Katie arms flew around Rainey and she cried into her shoulder, “I’m so sorry, so sorry.”
Rainey put her arms around Katie and could not resist pulling her closer. For Rainey, the next few moments went by in slow motion. Rainey felt Katie push back against her arms, pulling away from her. She had done the wrong thing. Katie did not want her to hold her tightly. She did not do it consciously, it just happened. Now, what was Katie thinking had just happened? Rainey let her arms fall down by Katie’s sides.
Instead of running from the room in terror, Katie pulled back until her face was inches from Rainey’s. She stared into Rainey’s eyes, as if searching for something. Rainey held her gaze, seeking her own answers, in the other woman’s eyes. What was happening to them? Why was this happening to two straight women, who barely knew each other? Rainey had no answer to the questions being asked by Katie’s expression, she did not know the answers to her own. But then, all of Rainey’s questions vanished from her thoughts. Katie placed her right hand behind Rainey’s head and pulled her down softly to her waiting lips.
Rainey had never felt a sweeter kiss. She closed her eyes and felt herself kissing Katie back, in almost an out of body experience. The room began to swim around her and desire tightened in her chest. Her arms found Katie’s body again and pulled her tightly to her. The breath caught in both of their chests, when what started so sweetly, quickly became a long deep kiss. Neither woman could control the soft sounds emanating from their throats, the sounds of want and need.
Katie slid the shoulder holster from Rainey’s shoulders and began falling back onto the bed, pulling Rainey down on top of her. Rainey fell into Katie’s arms and kissed a woman, as if she wanted to make love to her, for the first time in her life. It did not feel funny or weird. It felt as natural as coming home, after a long journey. Katie’s body felt warm underneath Rainey. She felt Katie arch into her, causing a longing between her legs, something she thought she would never feel again. Rainey was alive, from end to end, with feelings and emotions she had not thought she would remember.
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