Seeking Evil (Looking Into The Mind Of A Killer Series) (33 page)

He turned off the highway into Arlington National Cemetery.

The truck’s headlights swept over the pink marble stone. He could find her gravesite even in the pitch-dark moonless night.

Rebecca Kate Willows. Patriot.
Bullshit. She was just a woman who believed in a cause that didn’t exist. In the end, it had gotten her killed. Barely thirty and dead.

There were times at night when he could almost imagine her lying next to him in bed. Her lean sexy body tanned and firm from the constant workouts, the six-mile-a-day runs. Kate was just shy of six foot. If she stood on her tiptoes, she matched his six-foot-two. He still pictured her long black hair sprayed across her pillow, dark, sultry brown eyes watching his every move, reading him like a book. His Kate.

A vegan and a health nut, she'd been trying to convert him since day one. She’d failed miserably. Growing up on a cattle ranch in central Texas, he'd been raised on beef and lots of it. He wasn’t about to give it up now, not even for Kate.

He hadn’t realized how much he loved her until it was too late. God he missed her badly. He’d give just about anything to hold her one more time.

The sight of the simple headstone was too much. He lost it. He’d shed a thousand tears, thought a dozen times he’d reached the end of them, and yet every little memory brought the return of them.

He could almost hear her laughing at this new, sentimental Booth.

“You wait until now to tell me how you feel about me? You always were slow on the uptake, Booth.”

He scrubbed a calloused hand over bloodshot eyes. Kate always said what she felt, thought, or suspected. She was quick to give you a piece of her mind and usually she was right. If the tables were turned, she’d analyze every clue without emotion. She say, “Find my contact, and you’ll find out who did this. Find who killed me, Booth. Bring them to justice. For me. You owe me that much.”

He dug in his pocket and brought out the locket he’d found amongst her things. The only piece of jewelry she ever wore. She’d told him her grandmother gave it too her on her sixteenth birthday. Booth placed it on the headstone.

He'd forgotten his passenger and his purpose for a moment. Seeing Kate’s name carved in stone always got to him. As did the quiet of the place. It cried out the finality of death. There was no second chances here. No coming back from the dead.

He became aware of Carrie seconds before she dropped to her knees in front of the headstone. “No.” He barely caught the word. He didn’t need to look at her to realize she'd starting crying too. The sound of her heartbreak seemed fitting in such a somber place.

Booth didn’t try to comfort her. He didn't have it in him. He was grieving himself. He leaned against the hood of the truck and listened to a total stranger crying over the loss of someone he loved.

It felt like hours, in reality it was probably only a handful of minutes before the deathly silence of the place overtook them once more. She reached for the locket and gathered it against her heart. He didn't stop her. He couldn't stand to look at it any longer. Maybe it would bring her some peace.

Neither of them spoke. She stood slowly and got back into the truck. Booth drove the distance to her place in silence. He parked one street over and killed the engine.

“We're watching your apartment. It’s best if no one knows I was here.”

She nodded and got out of the truck and slammed the door. Carrie Sierra never looked back. And he let her go. Because there was nothing left to say between them. Kate's grave had said it all.