Red Widow (Vivian Xu, Book 1) (33 page)

“
Nikolai—”

“
You have the right to
remain silent, and anything you say can be used against you in
court. You have the right to consult with an attorney and to have
that attorney present during questioning—” Screeching tires wailed
in the distance as Vivian crumpled to her knees. “—if you are
indigent, an attorney will be provided at no cost to represent you.
Do you understand your rights?”

Vivian bowed her head in
despair.

“
No…”

Tires screamed in agony as a dark
sedan rounded the alley. Vivian paled in the glare of the
headlights as it bore down on her like a bullet. Nikolai dove out
of its path, leaving Vivian unguarded. The car slammed to a halt
mere inches away from her.

“
Get in!” Camilla screamed
from behind the wheel. Vivian mindlessly yanked open the passenger
door and dove inside.

“
Vivian!” Nikolai roared,
brandishing his gun. A bullet spat against the gravel as the tires
spun and took off. She rocked in her seat as they veered onto the
main roads. Oncoming traffic screeched to a halt as Camilla cut
across several lanes brimming with taxis. Vivian almost leaped out
of her seat when she heard Nikolai’s voice.

“
We are in pursuit of a
suspect in a dark green sedan with a busted tail light. They’re
heading south along the D2 motorway. We need road block assistance
immediately!”

Vivian looked at the police scanner in
Camilla’s car. So that’s how she found her…

The blistering engine roared as the
speedometer veered toward 90 miles per hour.

“
You’re going to kill us
both!” Vivian screamed above the grating police chatter.

“
Just shut up and hold on!”
Vivian flailed with her seat belt and strapped herself in. A
beaming police car crested the horizon behind them, wailing in
fury.

Camilla’s car peeled off the road and
barreled through an overgrown field. An autumn forest sprouted on
the horizon, heralding them away from their pursuers. Camilla
viciously slammed her foot on the gas. Vivian shut her eyes as
branches clawed against the windshield. The car veered
psychotically past a lofty oak that threatened to tear the speeding
vehicle in half.

“
Camilla!
”

Vivian watched helplessly as she
wrenched the steering wheel to the left, just skirting another tree
that reared up to block them. Camilla’s foot felt glued to the
accelerator in a symbiotic dance of destruction. They careened onto
a natural dirt path as they bucked toward 70 miles an
hour.

Before they knew it, a red stag
appeared in their path. They screamed simultaneously as the car
swerved to avoid it. Vivian closed her eyes just before the
sickening crunch.

While she expected to feel shards of
glass digging into her flesh and a blood-stained fur clotting her
lungs, there was only silence. Had her soul already been torn from
her body and ejected into the void?

No, that couldn’t be. She shouldn’t be
feeling pain in the afterlife.

She bravely opened her eyes. The car
had barreled into the thickets, averting disaster by some stroke of
luck. She turned to Camilla, whose face was veiled behind a
disarray of hair. A fresh bruise was stamped on her lip.

The police scanner sizzled and the
voices on the other end dwindled to whispers.

“
They shouldn’t find us out
here unless they bring dogs,” Camilla said. She watched the
branches sigh and bend in the melancholy wind. For the longest
time, neither of them spoke. “I’m sorry about the article. It was a
mistake.”

Vivian was even quieter than the
leaves falling.

“
You still saved me,” she
finally said. “Even after I beat the shit out of your
recorder…”

Camilla broke the silence with wild
laughter.

“
Yeah. That was my only
recorder.”

“
Sorry. I’ll buy you a new
one once I get out of this mess.” Vivian kicked open the passenger
door and emerged into the forested wasteland. Camilla gripped the
steering wheel tight until her knuckles glowed.

“
Nikolai wants to kill
you!” she cried. Vivian spun around in the paper-thin
leaves.

“
What?
”

“
I heard him talking in his
house—rambling about how you knew too much. What did you do to
frighten him? He has some role in the investigation that he’s
afraid you’ll expose.”

“
Like what?”

Camilla bit her lip, chewing over her
doubts.

“
I searched his house and
found syringes in his drawer.” A chill ran up Vivian’s spine to the
base of her skull.

“
No… He can’t be the
killer. It’s not possible. If he was responsible for these murders,
why would he force me to track down the killer?” She shook her head
so vigorously that her thoughts collided. “No, damn it! I have
proof of Viktor Rezník’s guilt!”

“
I don’t suspect Nikolai of
killing these women either. Frankly, I think he has an entirely
different motive for catching the murderer. I saw Nikolai inject
himself with what appeared to be Syllax.”

Vivian almost choked. She remembered
the way Nikolai reacted when he saw the injection site on her arm.
Did he know, in that moment, what she had been exposed to? She
almost thought she saw a flicker of betrayal in his eyes. Yes, he
knew.

She clapped a hand over the needle
mark, feeling naked and helpless.

“…
I think I understand now.
Nikolai never cared about the women who were abducted, tortured,
and killed. This whole thing has been a clean-up operation from the
start. He plans to kill Viktor. He doesn’t want anyone to know the
true nature of Syllax—his addiction. Any evidence must be
eliminated.”

She looked hard at Camilla.

“
That includes you and
me.”

* * *

Dr. Radik Cervenka peered from behind
his owlish glasses as a knock sounded on the office door. A
receding hairline swept over his forehead in a wave of soothing
gray. A neatly trimmed goatee bordered his lips and chin. He was
expecting one final guest before closing hours.

The door opened and Nikolai
entered.

“
Good evening, Dr.
Cervenka.”

“
Greetings, Detective
Koslov. I don’t suppose you’re here for personal
reasons?”

“
I guess you could say I
came in search of help.”

“
Well, you’ve come to the
right place, depending on what help you seek. You aren’t the first
man in law enforcement to consult me. Police work can place an
enormous burden on men such as yourself.” Nikolai scanned the psych
references accumulated on the shelves:
Overcoming Anger, Positive Encouragement in Children, The Five
Stages of Grief.
He glanced at abstract
statues on the shelf, a bronze male figure with his hand linked to
a young girl. Nikolai never cared much for modern art.

“
Actually, I’m here about a
patient you counseled from 1993 to 1995.” Cervenka cocked an
eyebrow in intrigue.

“
Who?”

“
A fellow psychiatrist
named Viktor Rezník. A mountain of evidence has linked this man to
the serial abductions in the downtown area. Six women between the
ages of 18 and 25 have already fallen victim to Mr. Rezník’s
twisted fantasies. I’m consulting you to ensure he doesn’t have the
chance to claim a seventh victim.”

“
How?
”

Nikolai settled into the couch much
like any patient would. The instant he touched down on those
cushions, he felt the transformation from a detective to a patient
under the microscope. Even now he suspected Dr. Cervenka was
analyzing his motives, studying him like a specimen on
display.

“
I need to understand Mr.
Rezník and the intimate details of his childhood. I want to know
what life events shaped him, which places held a special meaning to
him, where he felt safe. I need to think precisely like him. I
respectfully ask for your notes about Viktor from your counseling
sessions.”

The comment ignited an immediate
retort from Cervenka.

“
My therapist-patient
privilege prevents me from discussing my patients.”

“
I understand your
reluctance to disclose information about your patients, but I
wouldn’t ask this of you if there were any other way. In fact, I
wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have absolute confidence that Mr.
Rezník is the killer. My time is running out.”

“
I’m sorry, detective. I
can’t allow you to see my notes.” Nikolai almost catapulted off the
couch.

“
Young women are dying out
there because your patient is abducting and torturing them! What do
you hope to achieve by shielding this murderer?!”

“
I already told you, I am
bound by law to respect the confidence of my patients. You haven’t
produced any evidence that Viktor is guilty of these
crimes.”

“
Did Viktor ever talk about
his mother?” Nikolai spouted. “How much he hated her?” Cervenka
pursed his lips, denying Nikolai the satisfaction of an answer. His
eyes lit up when the detective slapped several photos on the table
between them. Agate, Krista, and Natalie stared up at
him.

“
The resemblance is
uncanny, isn’t it?” Nikolai goaded, drawing a shudder from
Cervenka. Agate’s harsh eyes pierced his soul, like a nun judging
him as unworthy of salvation.

“
Yes, I can see. But this
hardly merits a conviction of Viktor.”

“
I’m not obliged to provide
you with evidence linking Viktor to these crimes. It is your
responsibility to cooperate with authorities.”

“
I already told
you—”

“
In addition, I need the
records of every patient prescribed Syllax through your
clinic.”

“
Syllax?
Why?
I would never
disclose that kind of information, even to the police! What you’re
demanding is absurd!”

Nikolai seemed to calm down, absently
looking at the wall as if words were written there.

“
Radik, have you ever
counseled a killer? Someone who preys on others with callous
disregard for the pain he inflicts?”

“
I’m asking you for the
last time to leave.”

Nikolai didn’t flinch.

“
So you have. I’m sure
you’ve heard your share of tales that could frighten even the most
stoic cop. Maybe you’ve heard stories that would scar my
conscience. After all, it seems society’s aptitude for wrongdoing
is limitless.”

“
Leave now, Mr.
Koslov.
” Nikolai held his threatening gaze,
letting it burrow into Cervenka and take seed. At last, he trudged
toward the door, looking defeated. He cocked one final look over
his shoulder at Cervenka, perhaps expecting him to change his mind.
With a quick twist of the handle, he locked the door.

“
I can only imagine the
horror stories whispered in this office between your perverse
clientele.”

“
Get out now!”

“
That being said, consider
this, Dr. Cervenka. If I don’t leave this clinic with the documents
I’ve requested, I will give you a taste of what Viktor’s victims
suffered before they died. Perhaps this—” Dr. Cervenka’s eyes
widened as his guest produced a syringe from his pocket.

Nikolai stared feverishly at the
needle, at the delightful solution swirling inside.

“
Perhaps this will put
things in perspective.”

EIGHTEEN

Dawn rolled over the horizon like a
creeping tide of rust. The forest was awash in shades of vermillion
and muted brown. Vivian could hear Camilla stomping about in the
background, making an ungodly racket.

“
Any ideas where we should
go?” They had been wandering the wilderness since Camilla’s car
broke down in the thickets. Every now and then, the ferns rustled
behind Vivian as deer tiptoed through the early morning
mist.

“
We need to get as far away
from the city as possible,” she replied. “Nikolai doesn’t know
we’re stranded out here, so we have a small window of time before
he figures it out. He’ll bring a search team out here as soon as he
can round up enough bodies to do his work.”

“
You don’t think he’d come
alone?”

That thought unsettled Vivian’s
stomach. Nikolai would like nothing more than to come alone and
stifle the threat she posed. The forest would provide him all the
privacy he required to kill her and dump the remains at the bottom
of a lake.

“
With more eyes on the
ground, the greater his chances of cornering us,” Vivian argued.
“Besides, if Nikolai really wanted to kill me, why didn’t he come
alone last night? I believe he wants to contain us.”

“
You don’t get it, do
you?”

Camilla’s face was devoid of
emotion.

“
Nikolai was never looking
out for you, contrary to what you believe. He didn’t take you in
out of the pity of his heart. You’re a means to end, nothing more.
You were walking to your execution last night. Nikolai wanted you
to run or resist arrest, and then he would be free to shoot you and
claim self-defense. The officers would corroborate his story and
absolve him of any wrongdoing. Your death would tie up all the
loose ends. You’re fortunate I got there when I did.”