Shield of Justice (26 page)

“You’re right, Watts. Let’s send someone out to pick up the note. Maybe there’s something in it that will give us a handle on him.”

“Wait!” Catherine cried, ignoring the flash of anger in Rebecca’s eyes as she spun around to stare at her. “You can’t do that. If I don’t go…if I disappoint him…he’s going to kill again. Believe me, he’s serious about that. And there’s every possibility that he won’t harm me. It doesn’t matter
why
he fixated on me. He did. He thinks of me as someone special—he wants to share his victories with me. I’m his
audience;
I validate him, and he needs that. There’s a chance if I can talk to him that I might be able to convince him to surrender.”

“Can you guarantee that he won’t harm you, Dr. Rawlings?” Rebecca asked pointedly.

“No, I can’t.” Catherine spoke softly, but her voice was steady. She looked at Rebecca with a plea for understanding in her eyes, and with a tenderness that said she appreciated Rebecca’s concern for her. “But I can guarantee he’ll harm someone else if I’m not there to pick up his note at seven o’clock tonight. There must be a way.”

“There is,” Captain Henry said from the doorway, where he had been standing quietly. “It’s almost five. We have time to fill the park with undercover people between now and seven o’clock. We’ll put a two-way microphone on you and a tracer on your car so we know where you’re going at all times. And we’ll put one detail behind you on foot when you get out of your car. They’ll be close enough to intercept him if he gets close to you.”

“It’s loose, Captain,” Rebecca interjected, her voice steady. “She might go where we don’t have any people, or the tail might lose her. It’s still risky.”

“If it looks bad, you can pull the plug, Frye,” Henry said. He watched her carefully, wondering what he would do in her situation. He thought he knew, but like so many things, you never know what you were made of until you were tested. And Detective Sergeant Frye was being tested now.

“I want to do it,” Catherine said, pleading with her eyes for Rebecca’s support.

“We go,” she said. “I want everyone in the command room in ten minutes for a briefing.”

Henry nodded and left the room, satisfied that he had made the right call in putting Frye in charge. Every cop there knew Rebecca Frye had put her career on the line by openly challenging her superior officer. To everyone’s stunned surprise, he had handed the reins to her. If things went wrong, she’d bear the brunt of the censure. If they went right, she was looking at lieutenant’s bars.

“Well, you heard the Sarge,” Watts said grumpily. “Come on, everybody. Let’s go. You’ve got ten minutes to piss before things really start rolling.”

He succeeded in emptying the room, and Catherine found herself alone with Rebecca for the first time in eighteen hours.

“I don’t suppose there’s any way to change your mind?” Rebecca asked, her voice resigned.

“No.”

“For God’s sake, Catherine,
why
?” She ran her hand through her short blond hair, trying not to pull it out in frustration.

“Because he’s got to be stopped, Rebecca! And this may be the only chance.” Catherine’s heart ached at the anguish in Rebecca’s eyes. She did not want to be the cause of it, for any reason, ever. “I’m not a fool, Rebecca, and believe me, I have no desire to be a hero. But surely you must see that I am the best person to draw him out.”

“What I
see
,” Rebecca replied angrily, “is you as his next victim.” She turned her back and leaned both arms down on the desktop, breathing rapidly, desperate to dispel the nightmare images of Catherine on the ground, bloodied and violated. Every woman she had ever found, broken and abused, flooded her memory. All of them had Catherine’s face. “God,” Rebecca said, her voice breaking. “I couldn’t bear it.”

Catherine went to her, wrapping her arms around her, pressing her cheek to Rebecca’s back. Softly, she confessed, “I’m falling in love with you, Rebecca Frye. And I have absolutely no intention of leaving you.”

Falling in love.
Rebecca closed her eyes, shutting out everything except those words—precious words, terrifying words—stirring emotions at once joyous and fearsome. Faced with her desire for Catherine, she was forced to confront her own loneliness and need. It was far too late to pretend that she could walk away from this woman and far too late to return to her safe, well-defended world where she kept her feelings buried.

“Please don’t leave,” she whispered too quietly for Catherine to hear as she turned, slipping her arms around the other woman’s waist, brushing a kiss over the soft skin of her neck. She caressed her gently, running her hands over her back and arms. When she kissed her lips, all she knew was the rightness of holding her. “Catherine, I—”

A sharp knock on the door interrupted.

“Yeah?” she answered gruffly, reluctantly lowering her hands and stepping back a pace. Her eyes were fever bright as she stared at Catherine.

“Captain wants us, Sarge,” Watts announced, entering after a moment. “He wants to review the operation, get the doc wired, and start moving people into position.”

Rebecca continued to look into Catherine’s calm eyes. “Are you absolutely sure?”

“Yes.”

*

The next hour passed in a flurry of activity. Suddenly, it was nearly time for Catherine to drive to the statue of Jeanne D’Arc, situated along the Drive in the center of the large park, and pick up her next instructions.

“Let’s go over it again,” Rebecca said to the escort team waiting with Catherine. “Watts and I will be behind Dr. Rawlings with the directional receiver.” She looked at the short, wiry woman who was the department’s technical supervisor. “You’re sure the transmitter on her car is set to go?”

“I fixed it to the undercarriage of the doctor’s Audi myself,” the female officer replied. “It’s working fine. I set the frequency in your vehicle on the same channel. Readout is perfect.”

Rebecca nodded in satisfaction. “Okay. Once Dr. Rawlings reaches the final destination point, all teams will converge on that site but maintain a perimeter of a hundred yards until contact is confirmed. I’ll be on foot at that point.”

Watts gave her a quick look. They hadn’t discussed that part, but he knew better than to question her now. You didn’t contradict the quarterback in the middle of a play.

“If at any point the doctor’s safety is at issue, we will move in, whether we have contact with the suspect or not. Are we all clear on that?” She looked at each team leader individually, assuring herself that everyone understood that protecting Catherine was their top priority.

Reasoning that the suspect couldn’t possibly hope to leave the park undetected with Catherine in tow, she assumed that whatever he had planned, it was going to happen at the rendezvous point. If he did try to leave, there were officers posted at every parking area and all the crossroads that intersected with the main drive. The only time that Catherine would be at risk would be the window between the moment he made contact with her and the time it took for Rebecca to reach her. She estimated that interval to be thirty to sixty seconds. And if it were not his intention to kill Catherine immediately, she would have enough time to close the gap. She knew full well how slim the margin of safety was; she fervently hoped that Catherine did not.

“If at any time you want to call this off, for any reason,” Rebecca said firmly, looking at Catherine directly for the first time, “all you have to do is say so, and we’ll get you out immediately.”

“I understand,” Catherine replied steadily.

If she was worried, she did not appear so to the room full of police officers. She had paid little attention to the logistics and strategies they were planning. She had already been fashioning her own plan of action.

She wanted to be emotionally prepared to meet the man whom most people would consider hopelessly insane. Her training had taught her to reserve such judgment until she had firsthand experience. In this case, she had no idea what form that experience might take, and she knew that being caught off guard could mean her life. Nevertheless, there was a part of her that looked forward to the opportunity that few professionals in her position would ever have. Deep in thought, she had actually been startled when Rebecca addressed her.

“Are you ready, Dr. Rawlings?”

“I’m quite ready, Detective Frye.”

Rebecca straightened up, her eyes focused and intent. “Then let’s do it.”

“Roger that,” Watts seconded emphatically as he led the procession of officers out of the room.

“Is the wire comfortable?” Rebecca asked as they headed down the corridor to the rear exit. She put her hand lightly on Catherine’s elbow as they walked, just for the comfort of touching her.

Catherine smiled. “I won’t be sorry to take it off.”

“You know I’ll be right behind you all the time. If you sense anything at all—a stranger approaching who looks odd, a noise that seems out of place,
anything
—just whisper. I have a receiver. I’ll hear you.”

They had reached the car, and Catherine turned to Rebecca, sliding her fingers along her sleeve and touching the back of her hand. “I know that you’ll be there. That’s what makes me feel safe. Don’t take any chances, Rebecca. I don’t think he’ll hurt me, at least not right away. He wants to talk to me; he needs to tell me what he’s done. He doesn’t want to kill me. And I don’t want
you
to get hurt.”

“I hope you’re right,” Rebecca said grimly.
But I’m not giving him the chance to change his mind. As soon as he shows, it’s over
.

Watts was already sitting in the car that would follow Catherine. Rebecca motioned that she would be right there. Now that she was faced with actually letting Catherine go, she wasn’t sure she could do it. She stepped close to her, blocked from Watts’s sight by Catherine’s open car door, and encircled her waist with one arm.

“Catherine,” she said urgently, aware that there was no more time. Suddenly, it was very important that she tell her. “I love you. Jesus…be careful.”

Catherine heard the fear in her lover’s voice and softly disengaged herself from Rebecca’s embrace. “I promise. I’ll see you soon.”

Quickly, she slid into the car and started the engine. She was afraid that if she looked at Rebecca again, her own resolve would weaken. She needed all her strength to do what she knew must be done.

Watts pulled the unmarked police car up beside Rebecca and pushed the passenger door open. He handed her a vest across the front seat. “Get in, Sarge. It’s time to nail this prick.”

Rebecca tossed the vest onto the seat beside her as she slid in, mentally holding Catherine’s image with the clarity of a photograph. She felt her fear turn to anger, and her anger focused into a raging fire. This was one woman he would not touch. She took a deep breath, her eyes on Catherine’s Audi ahead of them, her mind growing still and cold. “Let’s go earn our pay.”

Catherine made steady progress across town in the late rush-hour traffic. She searched her rearview mirror several times for signs of Rebecca and Watts, but she could see no trace of them. She put it from her mind, reassuring herself with the knowledge that they
were
there somewhere.

It was precisely 7:00 p.m. when she pulled over next to the solitary statue of the woman warrior and found the message from the killer in the spot he had described. She was surprised to find her hands were shaking as she lifted the damp envelope from its hiding place. She brought it to the car, as Rebecca had instructed her, before opening it.

“Walk north on the path along the water,” she read out loud, wondering if the police could really hear her. She reread the single sentence several times, thinking it was odd that he had chosen that path. The hard-packed dirt path had been nearly abandoned after a wider, paved path had been built nearer to the highway.
Of course.
She smiled at her own naïveté.
This route is perfect for someone who doesn’t want to be noticed
.

Rebecca, however, didn’t miss the significance for a second. “Hell,” she groaned. “That trail is four miles long, and a lot of it is overgrown with brush. He could be anywhere.”

“Well, at least you’ll have good cover,” Watts replied with uncharacteristic optimism.

“There she goes. Coordinate the teams to move in, Watts,” Rebecca said, reaching for the door handle. She was surprised by Watts’s restraining grip on her arm.

“Give her a few minutes, Sarge. You know where she’s headed. If he’s watching and sees you now, the deal’s off. And I say the lady is safer now than she would be if we
didn’t
know when he was coming.”

Rebecca forced herself to watch Catherine’s figure blur into the trees at the water’s edge before she left the car. Watts pulled away at the same time, planning to drive slowly along the road that meandered through the park, hoping to stay in the same vicinity by the bearings Rebecca transmitted to him by radio. It left Catherine and Rebecca fairly isolated, but it was the best they could do.

“There’s a runner coming this way,” Catherine’s voice announced in her ear, startling Rebecca with its clarity. She couldn’t see Catherine, who was probably only a hundred yards ahead of her. The dense foliage near the water made for poor visibility, especially in the rapidly deepening darkness.