The First Victim (14 page)

Emily Wright had seen him. Almost.

At least that’s what it had felt like. He’d been out on the boat. A rowboat, chosen because it was quieter than a motorboat and less likely to catch someone’s eye than a sailboat. He’d taken it out on the water to see if he could catch a glimpse of her in the house. He couldn’t risk getting any closer during the day, not yet anyway. It wasn’t time.

He’d rowed out to the middle of lake, snatched up his binoculars and trained them in the direction of the Wright property. He’d been disappointed when he spotted no activity in the house. Then his gaze had drifted down to the shoreline and he’d spotted her.

Shocked, he almost fell off his seat. As far as he knew, she hadn’t been down to the water’s edge since before her abduction. For weeks after she’d been taken, he’d watched for her, but she never again lazed lakeside as had been her habit before she’d been taken.

Now she was there. A quick sweep of the area revealed that damn Fed was with her. They were sitting at the table, having a fucking picnic or something. The bastard.

He was the one who was supposed to be playing with her. She was his. He was the one who’d gone to so much trouble to bring her here. It was his plan.

Stick to the plan. Stick to the plan.

The younger agent came flying down the path.

He smiled. They’d found his note. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all. He watched as the two men conferred. Emily turned and looked out at the lake. Her gaze spun in his direction.

Dropping the binoculars, he balled himself into the basin of the boat. It wasn’t time for her to see him. Not yet.

He didn’t dare sit back up for fear she’d point him out to the men she was with. Instead he waited, hiding. He was good at waiting, having done it for fifteen years for her. He was good at hiding. The police and FBI had never caught him. They’d never even gotten so much as a sketch of him.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the lock of hair he’d snipped from Jackie Willet. Raising it to his nose, he inhaled deeply.

So sweet.

Closing his eyes, rocked by the gentle undulations of the water, he imagined that the sweet, silky softness was actually Emily. Fingers fumbling with the zipper of his jeans, he imagined that he was touching her, tasting her.

“Soon Emily. Soon.”

Emily waited to pick up Laurie outside of Lakeside High.

She glanced at her cell phone as she stood there. Marisol had called twice, but Emily didn’t have the energy to even listen to the messages she had left. She had too much on her plate already.

Laurie had not wanted to go to school today, but Emily had insisted, believing as Anna did that talking to other kids about the loss of her friend would be healthier than sitting around an empty house moping all day. She’d practically had to frog-march the younger girl through the doors of the school that morning, and she didn’t know what to expect when her sister walked back out them.

Her cell buzzed as she held it. Emily didn’t recognize the number. Was it him, calling? The creep? The killer? She answered tentatively. “Hello?”

“Miss Wright?”

“Yes.” She exhaled a sigh of relief when she realized it was a woman on the other side of the call.

“This is Doctor Wyatt. We met the other day. I’m your father’s physician.”

“Yes, yes of course, Doctor Wyatt.”

“I wanted to call and tell you personally. Your father’s regained consciousness.”

“What?”

“He’s awake.”

All the air and energy spluttered out of Emily. She leaned weakly against the SUV.

“Miss Wright?”

“I thought…You said…”

“I don’t want you to get your hopes up, Miss Wright. He’s still in critical condition.”

“Okay, I understand. Thank you for calling, Doctor.” Ending the call, Emily had an almost overwhelming urge to smash the phone into the ground.

Slowly, students began to trickle out of the building. Like the day before, the lot was crammed with nervous parents. For a moment, Emily considered getting back into the SUV and driving off. She could just keep going, heading back to the city. She could leave this place behind and never look back. After all, she wasn’t equipped to deal with Laurie. Wouldn’t she be better off here, in familiar surroundings, with her friend? Maybe she could move in with Anna. Emily would be more than happy to compensate Anna’s parents for serving as her little sister’s guardian. That way Laurie’s life wouldn’t be uprooted and Emily could get back hers.

Hating herself for her selfish thoughts, Emily scanned the sea of faces now streaming out of the school. Spotting Anna’s pink hair, she was then able to see her sister walking beside her pierced friend.

She’d gone to school without her usual face of makeup today. Her fresh-scrubbed countenance looked heartbreakingly vulnerable.

Emily sighed. She could never abandon Laurie again. Never. No matter how much she might want to.

Anna waved cheerily, and even Laurie managed a half smile when they saw her. Emily’s gut twisted guiltily. How could she even consider the idea of leaving her sister to fend for herself?

“Hi, Emily!” Anna chirped. “My mom’s working late tonight. She asked if it would be okay if I hung out with you guys until they get home.”

“Of course.” Anna’s presence was always a pleasure. Emily waited until they were all buckled into the Escalade before revealing, “Doctor Wyatt just called me.”

Laurie paled, her eyes instantly filling with tears and her lower lip trembling.

“No, no, no,” Emily soothed in a rush, wanting to wipe the stricken expression from her sister’s face. “Apparently your…Dad has woken up.”

Laurie’s eyes grew wide. “Really?”

“But she also said that we shouldn’t get our hopes up. He’s still in grave condition.”

“I have to go see him!”

“I know.” Emily put the vehicle into Drive and for the second time that day headed to the hospital.

Emily stared dejectedly at the tower of pretzels she’d made. She was getting really sick of these things. She’d spent way too much time in the hospital’s excuse for a coffee shop over the past few days.

She’d finally listened to Marisol’s calls. She’d assumed that her partner had been calling with one of her usual “disasters,” but had been pleasantly surprised to find that both times her friend had just called to let her know she was thinking about her and to find out if there was anything she could do to help. Marisol assured her that, having landed the Armstrong account, the team had gotten right to work and everything was flowing smoothly.

Soon, Emily might take her up on that offer and ask Marisol to find her a good lawyer. She wanted to figure out how to get custody of Laurie. Her sister deserved to have someone take exceptional care of her. Emily knew that despite her misgivings, she was the only person for the job.

Laurie was visiting their now-conscious father, while Anna, ever the loyal friend, stood guard in the hallway, doodling in her notebook.

“Hey.”

Emily looked up and smiled. It shook her a bit to realize how happy she was to see Bailey leaning in the doorway. Dressed in uniform, he once again looked like a man in charge. The memory of their earlier sizzling kiss warmed her despite the chill of the hospital air-conditioning. She found herself focusing on his lips. “Hey, yourself.”

Snatching the topmost pretzel without upsetting the tower, he sat down opposite her. “Just saw your father.”

Pulling another salty treat from the bag, she focused on placing it atop the others without knocking them all over.

“You’re here on official business?”

“Rumor has it your father woke up. Since his accident is still being investigated, I thought I’d stop by and ask him about it.”

“He’s got a breathing tube so he can’t talk.”

“I also thought it might be a good excuse to see you.”

She looked up at him to find that he was angling a blatantly flirtatious smile her way.

Her heart beat a little faster as she grinned back at him.

“Have you seen him?” Bailey asked, bringing the conversation back to business.

She shook her head. “Laurie’s with him.”

He took the top two pretzels off the pile.

She wondered if the FBI agents had told him about the note Black had found. Since he hadn’t mentioned it, she doubted it. Maybe they didn’t want him to know, but she had to talk to someone about it. “Did you hear about the note?”

Something in her voice must have signaled her distress because he leaned in closer. “What note?”

“Agent Black found a note on the back of one of the signs that Jackie’s friends had made and left at that shrine in front of the house. It said ‘WELCOME HOME EMILY.’” Her hand shook slightly as she lifted another pretzel atop the tower. “It’s not the first. One was left outside my room at The Garden Gate along with a dozen roses, and another was left on the windshield of the car the first time I came here.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You had other things on your mind. Besides I didn’t think it was that important. They seemed harmless. All they said was ‘Welcome Home Emily.’ It wasn’t until after Jackie had been killed that…” She hesitated for a moment as Bailey winced at the mention of the murdered girl. “But this one…Agents Morgan and Black seemed to think it was significant.” Her hand was shaking too badly to continue her stacking game. She put it down on the table. He immediately covered it with his. On a whisper she confessed, “I’m scared, Bay.”

He squeezed her trembling fingers. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Em.”

She raised her eyes to meet his. They were a stormy green, a porthole to the emotions churning inside him. As horrible as the situation was, she had to admit that it felt good to know he cared. With a weak smile, she asked, “Swear?”

His eyes cleared a bit as he answered. “Blood oath if that’s what you want.”

“Naah, your word is good enough for me.”

“I don’t think you should stay in that house. Stay at The Gate. I’m sure Mark would be happy to put you up.”

“I know he would, but I don’t want to do that to Laurie. She’s so fragile right now. I can’t see upsetting her any more. I don’t want her to have to worry about this too.”

Releasing her hand, Bailey sat back in his chair. His withdrawal stung, feeling like a slap in the face. “There are more important things than Laurie’s feelings. I’ve got a killer on the loose, and it looks like he might be targeting you.”

“But I’m fine.”

“So far.”

The pool of anxiety that had swirled in her gut ever since he’d called and told her she had to come home, erupted. “What do you want me to do, Bailey? Run and hide? I’ve been there. I’ve done that. And I know from experience that it just doesn’t work. You’re the one who dragged me back here. You’re the one that said Laurie needs me. Well now I’m doing what I think Laurie needs and if you don’t like it, that’s just tough.”

Bailey blinked, dumbfounded by her assault.

“If you want to help me, then go out and find this creep, but don’t think for one, solitary minute that I’m going to let him scare me into leaving my home.”

Raising his eyebrows, Bailey drawled, “You mean the house that only a couple of nights ago you were telling me you’d sworn to never foot in again?”

Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. She so wanted to rub that smug look off his face. She’d always hated the fact that it was so difficult to get a rise out of him. The famed O’Neil family temper had either not been passed down to him, or he had it firmly contained under lock and key. Instead of losing his cool, he had the most annoying habit of, when faced with an argument, responding with…logic. “You’re not going to change my mind.”

He smiled. “I don’t doubt that. You always were the most stubborn…”

“This is serious!”

His grin faded. “I know, Em. Deadly serious.”

“Tell me about the notes.” Bailey didn’t offer any words of greeting when he found the two FBI agents in a back booth at the town’s diner. Chase was sipping a cup of tea, while Sebastian poked disdainfully at a wilted excuse of a salad.

Putting his fork down, Black frowned, obviously annoyed by the interruption, but Bailey didn’t give a damn. He needed the information and he needed it yesterday.

Chase slid over across the bench seat, making room for him to join them. “I take it Emily told you about them.”

Bailey sat. “Obviously.”

“All three say, ‘Welcome Home Emily.’ One left with flowers at The Garden Gate. One on the windshield of a car at the hospital—”

“And one left at the Willet girl’s shrine,” Sebastian supplied.

Bailey nodded. “This changes things.”

“Like what?” Sebastian asked.

“Like what you need to know.” The two younger men glared at one another.

“You’ve been holding out on us? You call us in and then don’t tell us what you know? What kind of game are you playing, O’Neil?”

Bailey grit his teeth, knowing that he deserved this tongue-lashing, but resenting it anyway. “I didn’t realize until now it could be relevant.”

“It’s not your job to determine—”

“Let the man speak, Sebastian.” Chase’s quiet interruption was laced with warning for his partner. He held the younger agent’s gaze as he deliberately sipped his tea.

Bailey took a deep breath before blurting out, “Emily was kidnapped.”

Spluttering into his napkin, Chase asked, “When?”

“Sixteen years ago.”

“Why the hell didn’t you tell us this sooner?” Black demanded.

“I thought it was ancient history.”

“Where?”

“Here in Lakeside Acres. At her house. Technically on the path, leading from the lake up to the house.”

“Oh crap.” Chase buried his head in his hands. “She seemed spooked on the path. When she flew past me, I just assumed she’d been sick of my snail’s pace. It never even occurred to me to ask her what was wrong.”

“She wouldn’t have told you anyway. She doesn’t talk about it. Ever.” He swallowed hard, hoping the other two men hadn’t noticed his voice crack.

“What happened back then?” Sebastian asked quietly.

“She was missing for three days. And when she…when she came back, she was a different girl. She never talked about what happened, but you could tell, you could just tell, that something inside her had broken.”

“Was her abductor caught?”

Bailey shook his head. “My dad tried but…” He trailed off reliving the scene that had haunted him for so many years.

One moment his teenage self had been easing their sedan down old Route 522, helping his father in the search for Emily, and the next he’d been slamming on the brakes to avoid hitting something in the road. Emily and Evan Swann stumbled out of the woods. Both covered with blood. Terror shining in their eyes. For months afterward he’d had nightmares about that very scene.

Shaking off the memory, Bailey said, “Jackie disappeared the day after Emily returned to town. I didn’t see the connection then, but…it can’t be a coincidence, can it?”

Schooling his features into a deliberately blank expression, Chase shrugged.

Bailey didn’t need an answer. He should have made the connection as soon as Jackie’s body was dumped in front of Emily’s house. Black was right, he was too close to this case to determine what was or was not relevant. “It’s him, isn’t it? The Baby Doll Strangler and Emily’s kidnapper, he’s the same guy.”

“Could be,” Chase agreed.

“Is there anything else you can tell us about the Wrights?” Sebastian had taken out a PDA and was scribbling notes into it.

“Anything you want.”

“Do you know whether your father had any theories as to who took Emily?”

Bailey shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“How the hell can you not know?” Black snapped.

“I was just a kid. Only fifteen myself. All I know is he never caught the guy.”

“Neither have we,” Sebastian muttered. “But we will.”

Emily hesitated before snatching up the ringing kitchen phone in the Wright house. She worried it was presumptuous to answer. What if the caller on the end of the line didn’t know who she was? “Hello?”

“Have dinner with me, Em?” Bailey asked. “You don’t even have to cook. I’ll bring pizza.”

“Okay.” She did her best not to sound too excited to see him again, despite the fact she felt like a teenager getting the chance to see her first crush. “Bring enough for four. Anna’s here.”

“I’ll see you in less than an hour.”

She was more than a little relieved that Bailey was coming over, having spent the last hour recalling the worst days of her life.

Still she was glad she’d done it. She’d do anything to help protect Laurie.

She’d been surprised when Agents Black and Morgan had shown up at her door asking about her kidnapping. The three of them had sat in the kitchen and she’d done her best to answer their questions.

The two agents had thanked her for her help and left, leaving her feeling even more on edge than she had earlier. She had done her best to keep busy, scrubbing the kitchen sink like a madwoman, as she listened to the muted voices of the teenagers upstairs.

She was secretly glad that Bailey had offered to come over. Not only would he be a welcome distraction from her wayward thoughts, but it meant she and the girls wouldn’t be alone in the house.

Desperate to distract herself from the paranoia-inducing thoughts swirling in her head, she opened her laptop and did her best to focus on the work in front of her. Marisol had emailed the latest demands from Armstrong Security. They were all pretty much what the agency had anticipated and all of them were being completed in record time.

She’d never have thought that the office could continue to operate smoothly in her absence, but apparently it was. Everyone was doing their job and doing it well. At least something was going well in her life.

Laurie practically bounced into the kitchen, followed by a more sedate Anna. Her sister had been almost giddy ever since she’d visited with her father, probably because she believed a degree of normalcy was returning to their lives. Emily had tried to impress upon her that Doctor Wyatt had stressed that he was still in critical condition but Laurie was choosing to focus solely on what she considered to be the positive. “I’m starving.”

“Bailey’s bringing over pizza.”

“Oooh,” Laurie mocked, fluttering her eyelashes. “A date with Deputy Dimples.”

“It’s not a date. It’s dinner, but if you keep acting like that we won’t share it with you. And don’t call him that.” Emily made sure to turn the glare she was giving to her sister in Anna’s direction too.

Only Anna had the grace to look embarrassed. “Okay. He’s actually a pretty cool guy.”

The doorbell rang and they all jumped.

Shooing her away, Laurie ordered, “Go, go. I’ll let Deputy Dimples in.” She trotted out of the room, calling over her shoulder, “Don’t worry, I know how to operate the alarm better than you!”

Shaking her head, Emily went into the powder room, closing the door behind her. She splashed some water on her face, and took some long, slow breaths. Finger-combing her hair, she stared at the dark circles under her eyes. Plagued by nightmares, she hadn’t gotten a decent night’s sleep since she’d returned to Lakeside Acres. There was nothing she could do about that. Besides, she’d puked in Bailey’s arms the day before, how much more unattractive could one get after that?

Laurie’s melodious voice, and Bailey’s deeper tones, reached her as they entered the kitchen. Rubbing her cheeks to give them some color, Emily squared her shoulders and stepped out.

If Bailey noticed that she was a wreck he didn’t indicate it. Instead he followed Laurie’s instructions of where to put down the pizza boxes he carried. The teenagers pulled out plates, glasses and napkins with lightning precision. The girls certainly knew their way around the Wright home.

“Okay if Anna and I eat upstairs?” Laurie asked with an overly dramatic wink.

“Of course.”

A couple of moments and a flurry of activity later, and Emily and Bailey were alone in the kitchen.

“Quite the pair of dynamos those two.” His eyes roamed with undisguised curiosity over her face. “Something wrong, Em?”

“Everything?”

“Do you want me to tell me about what you told Chase and Sebastian?”

Tears filled her eyes and a painful lump clogged her throat. She’d told the story a number of times over the years to a succession of therapists, and she hadn’t had too difficult time telling the FBI agents, knowing that doing so could help protect Laurie, but the idea of telling Bailey…

She shook her head.

He caught her hand, turned it palm up, and ran his thumb along the faint scar. “Please, Em.”

“I can’t, Bay. I’ve never…I’ve never told anyone who wasn’t getting paid to listen,” she whispered.

“What about your parents?”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Or Ginny? Or Mark Castle?”

“Nope.”

Releasing her hand, Bailey brushed away the tears that had leaked onto her cheeks. “You don’t have to be afraid of me, Em, and you’re not going to scare me off. I’ve seen worse and my opinion of you isn’t going to change.”

She looked into his steady green gaze and knew he was telling the truth. “I never saw his face. He always wore a clown mask.”

Bailey nodded encouragingly. “He hurt you?”

“He…he spanked me.” Even though she’d told this exact story before, only a little while earlier, she felt as though she’d never revealed it before. Telling it to someone who truly cared about her, was both daunting and strangely liberating.

“He spanked you?” Bailey’s voice was calm and even, but she saw his jaw muscles jumping as he struggled to contain his emotion.

She closed her eyes as the memory assailed her. The sting of the slaps. How strong the man had been as he’d held her down. “He put me over his lap and spanked me.”

She winced at the way she squeaked the last few words, revealing how much they upset her. She hated the way her heartbeat thundered in her ears and her breathing had turned shallow, as though she was once again at the mercy of her kidnapper.

Bailey pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her in a protective embrace. Gratefully, she leaned into him, absorbing his strength.

“Did he…” Bailey paused, searching for the right words. “Was there…sexual contact?”

Grateful that she couldn’t see Bailey’s face and that hers was hidden from his view, she answered him in a breathless rush. “He had this rocking chair, and he’d make me sit on his lap.” Her heart was racing and she starting to get light-headed. She could feel the monster’s hands on her touching, rubbing.

“It’s all right, Em. Take your time,” Bailey murmured, reminding her that what had occurred in the past was not happening now.

“I’m okay.” She realized that here, in the cocoon of Bailey’s arms, she really was.

“He fondled you?”

“Yes.”

“Did he rape you?” His tone was soft, but the tension in his body had tightened every muscle in his body into granite.

She heard the way Bailey’s breath caught in his chest as he waited for her answer and hurried to assure him, “No. He liked to…he liked to have me—wearing these stupid pink baby-doll pajamas—sit on his lap while he touched me, but he never raped me.”

“You’re sure?”

Despite the seriousness of their conversation she chuckled a little. “Yes, Bay. I’m sure. It’s not like that would be something I wouldn’t notice.”

“Stupid question. Sorry. How did you escape?”

“Milk and cookies.”

“I don’t follow.”

“Every afternoon, at least I think it was afternoon. He kept me in the dark basement, so it was hard to keep track of time.”

“Isolation and sensory deprivation.”

“Except I never felt alone. I always felt like I was being watched. It was creepy.”

“Part of his fun could have been spying on you.”

“Maybe. Anyway, every afternoon he’d bring me milk and cookies. That’s all he would give me to eat all day—a glass of milk and three chocolate-chip cookies. On the fourth day, I broke the glass on purpose and took one of the shards to use as a weapon. The second he opened the door to the room that I was locked in, I cut him with it. I ran down a hallway, found the cellar doors and got outside. That’s when Evan found me.”

She said the words calmly, but her whole body was trembling as she remembered how close she had come to being dragged back down into that hellhole.

Bailey pressed a kiss to her forehead and her tremors subsided.

“And then you came along and rescued us.” She tried to sound lighthearted, but she knew from the way Bailey hugged her tighter she’d failed. “But I’m past all that. Right now…”

Their stomachs gurgled simultaneously, signaling their hunger.

Laughing they pulled apart. Having shared her story with him, Emily felt lighter than she could ever remember, and Bailey didn’t seem to be treating her any differently.

“Dinner time.” He pulled the bottom pizza box out, placing it on top. Flipping the lid he asked, “Black olive, mushroom and peppers still your favorite?”

“You remembered?” Peering into the box she confirmed that he had indeed brought just that.

“Of course. I remember everything about you, Em. But I’m all for making new memories.” The heat in his gaze made her forget the food. Wrapping an arm around her, he pulled her into him. This was no comforting embrace, but an invitation. “What about you?”

She nodded, a spark flaring to life within her, every cell on high alert.

He lowered his head, touching her waiting lips with his. Slowly his tongue teased, as he took his time tasting her. Intoxicated by both his strength and gentleness, she leaned in to him. She wanted more…needed more. At that moment she wasn’t sure if she could ever get enough of him.

The faraway laughter of the girls penetrated the haze of desire that had enveloped them, and slowly, grudgingly they pulled apart.

“No one said we had to make new memories tonight,” Bailey said easily, trying to dispel the tension that now stretched between them.