The Watched (CSI Reilly Steel #4) (35 page)

‘
So we’re just supposed to sit here and wait for this guy to finish writing some death scene so Lennox can put Todd in it like he did with his other victims?’ Daniel glared down at her. ‘For God’s sake, Reilly . . .’

‘It’s the only option we have.’
Reilly’s tone softened at the anguish on her friend’s face. ‘There’s just no way the Feds will be able to find Todd before Lennox figures out Sheldon isn’t doing as he was told.’ She paused, then said, ‘And you know they’ll make you sit on the sidelines while they look. Could you really do that? I know I can’t.’

Daniel swore, his expression resigned as he realized she was right
. ‘So how do we do this?’

‘
Once Sheldon’s done with the script, we call Kent and tell the Feds that we’ve found our missing screenwriter. Sheldon’s agreed to say that I found him after he’d already finished his finale. We might get a slap on the wrist, but it’s not going to be their main concern. Once Kent and the department know the location of the perp, they’ll go after him and since we’re here . . .’

‘They’ll let us
tag along,’ Daniel finished, nodding, understanding that at times like this nobody would be worrying too much about loose ends. That would happen afterward, once the killer was brought down.

Reilly
nodded. ‘It’ll be crazy, lots of stuff going down during all of the chaos.’

‘
All right. What’s the writer’s great idea? Have some kind of massive showdown at the police station?’

‘
While the irony of that would be entertaining,’ Sheldon’s voice commented from the dark depths behind them, ‘I doubt Lennox would be quite that adventurous or stupid.’

‘
All right then, Shakespeare,’ Daniel snapped. ‘What’s your big finale?’

The
Maestro laughed out loud as he read what his pet writer had created. ‘Classic motif with a twist. Just a touch of irony. I like it.’

He’d been concerned that
Sheldon wouldn’t be at his best at this point; that he’d be too worried about what would happen when it was all done. It wasn’t like the writer was entirely unintelligent. He knew that his life wasn’t going to be worth much when he was no longer needed.

He
had always intended to kill Sheldon, of course. It wasn’t anything personal, but he had been truthful about making it as painless as possible as long as Sheldon had done his job. It now looked like it was going to be a syringe of morphine or a chloroform-laced pillow over the face rather than the other option. He was glad it was going this way. Aside from being painless for a man who’d helped him so much, it was so much less messy than a meat cleaver and bucket of toilet-bowl cleaner à la
Misery
.

He
stood and crossed to the basement door, then reached for the doorknob and hesitated. The investigator had proven himself to be arrogant and cocky, a dangerous combination.

In hindsight, he probably should’ve left him in the handcuffs, but
he’d seen way too many movies where guards or villains were strangled by a pair of cuffed hands. The Maestro reached for his weapon, considered it, then added a can of pepper spray for good measure.

He was nothing if not thorough.

He opened the door quickly, hoping to catch his prisoner off guard. It worked. Todd stood halfway down the stairs, a surprised look on his face. It didn’t last long, but the half-second was enough for him to get the cattle prod in place and kick the door shut.

The electricity crackled as he made
his way slowly down the stairs, infinitely pleased with himself as pretty boy backed up.

‘Why don’t you have a seat?’ T
he Maestro gestured with the prod.

Todd scowled but did as he was told. That was good. The last thing he needed when
composing the scene that would make him famous was a temperamental star. He’d had his fill of that with Bruce ‘Nut-job’ Reynolds.

‘
Just give it up, Fisher,’ the investigator glared. ‘You’re never going to get away with this.’

The
Maestro shook his head and smiled, amused. ‘You don’t have a clue, do you? I’m disappointed. And is that really the best line you can come up with? I’m glad I had someone write for you. Because, to be honest, you suck at improvisation. Good thing you didn’t decide to pursue a career in acting, though you certainly have the face for it.’ After a moment’s consideration, he decided against sitting too. This one was a bit more volatile than Sheldon.

‘
Come on, you’ve seen all the movies.’ Todd’s voice changed tone. ‘You know how this ends. The bad guy makes a mistake, and either gets captured or dies. No matter what, he loses.’

The
Maestro laughed. ‘I don’t know what movies you’ve been watching lately, but the best thing about horror films is that the antagonist never really disappears. Ever seen
Friday the 13th
? How many
Nightmare on Elm Street
and
Halloween
sequels are there? And they just keep on coming . . .’

‘
But the killer did die in the first
Friday the 13th
,’ Todd countered. ‘Remember, it wasn’t actually Jason, but his mom. And the last woman standing chopped Mrs Voorhees’ head off with a machete.’

The
Maestro smiled and shook his head. OK, so Todd knew movies. ‘But that wasn’t the end,’ he countered. ‘Jason’s mom may have died, but Jason got his revenge and he kept coming back for more.’

‘
All right then, what about
Scream
?’ Todd asked.

‘Faulty comparison.’ T
he Maestro was beginning to enjoy the discussion. ‘
Scream
was originally written by Williamson as a trilogy satire to provide commentary on the horror genre. Though the fourth did end up proving my point that there’s always someone willing to come forward to fill an empty space. Nature does abhor a vacuum.’

‘True.’
Todd nodded. ‘There are copycats, but that just means the original killers were still captured or killed. The movies you mentioned before where the original killer – with the exception of Jason’s mother – either survives or returns, the killers are supernatural, which is how they keep coming back. You are not.’

The
Maestro scowled. This wasn’t fun anymore. ‘You are forgetting something vitally important though, about all of those films. It’s never the cocky male hero who survives. Only the virginal heroine. And you are neither.’

‘
Come on,’ Todd said, grinning maniacally. ‘I could play the virginal heroine just as well as . . . oh, who am I kidding? I couldn’t pretend to be a virgin any more than you could pretend to be talented.’

He’d had enough; the barb hit his ego harder than it should have.
‘I didn’t come down here to argue plotlines with you. I just came to let you know that we’re going to be leaving shortly. Sheldon came through. Looks like you’ll be getting your big break soon enough.’

‘
Oh goody,’ Todd deadpanned, not looking nearly as terrified as the Maestro wanted him to be. ‘Like they say on TV, I’ve been dreaming of something like this all my life.’

‘
It’s a classic that even a plebeian such as yourself should be able to appreciate,’ he went on, without acknowledging Todd’s quip. He needed to get back in the right mind-set to direct. ‘Combined with enough bang for any dumb blockbuster audience.’ His eyes narrowed as he watched Todd’s muscles tense. ‘I was going to ask for your preferred method of being knocked out for our little trip to the train yard, but I think I’m going to play it safe.’

He
darted forward before Todd could react and triggered enough voltage to make Todd’s body jerk and spasm. The investigator’s eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped onto the cot. The Maestro considered the unconscious body for a moment before heading upstairs to get his new bottle of chloroform.

Better safe than sorry.

CHAPTER
42

Reilly watched Sheldon pace back and forth, and fought back the urge to join him.

The screenwriter’s
nerves had been showing from the moment he’d announced that the scene was finished. She had purposefully asked that he not share the location until the authorities arrived. She didn’t trust Daniel, or herself for that matter, not to act on it.

Reilly knew that the moment either of them
heard where Todd would be, they wouldn’t be able to stop themselves from going straight there, and while that was what she wanted, she knew it wasn’t the smartest thing to do. And now they had to put personal involvement aside, try and forget it was Todd they were looking for, and start thinking smart. It was the only way to save him.

‘
I thought you said they’d be here by now.’ Sheldon glanced back at the storage unit. Once Daniel had managed to get through the chain, the writer had asked if they could all move outside. Reilly couldn’t blame him. Given the length of the writer’s incarceration, the interior of that unit was pretty ripe. She didn’t envy the people who would have to clean it.

‘
Yeah, well, Agent Kent said they were on their way,’ she replied, irritated too, ‘but he’s not exactly the fastest responder.’

‘Here’s the thing . . .’
Sheldon wiped his hand across his sweaty forehead, leaving streaks of dirt and other things Reilly wasn’t sure she wanted to identify. ‘The final scene’s a little time sensitive.’

‘
What do you mean?’ Her stomach clenched. That didn’t sound good.

‘
I know you said you didn’t want to know before the Feds got here,’ Sheldon said, ‘but I don’t think it can wait.’

‘Just spill it already.’
Reilly glanced at Daniel. He looked as tense as she felt.

‘
The scene takes place just outside of Orton train station, right where the tracks split. I’ve always liked steam trains and I’d planned on taking Kai this week to see one of the few that still come through there. We were going to go today . . .’

‘What happens in the scene, Mr
Sheldon?’ Daniel urged, and Reilly closed her eyes, now almost entirely certain she didn’t actually want to know the answer.

‘
I had to appeal to Lennox’s love of twists on the classics. In the scene, the killer ties the hero to the northbound track and then, just around the bend – hidden by a clump of trees – parks a truck full of gas. After the train kills the hero, it’ll plow into the gas truck and . . .’

Daniel
and Reilly both swore.

‘Wait.’
Sheldon held up his hands. ‘One of the reasons I wrote it that way is because it meant Lennox would have to stay on location to get the second shot. The ground drops off to a slant there so he can’t put up a second camera to capture the explosion remotely. He’s going to have to manually move the camera from the westbound track to get the angle right. It’s the only way it works.’

Reilly
glanced at her watch. ‘How far is it from here?’

‘
Ten minutes or so.’ Daniel handed his phone to Sheldon. ‘When Agent Kent gets here, tell him everything. If you think of anything else we need to know, call this number.’ He indicated Reilly’s number in the contacts list.

Sheldon
nodded. ‘Go.’

Reilly
and Daniel jogged to his car, a grimace of pain on Daniel’s face with every step. She looked at him strangely and then remembered. Beach volleyball . . .

She’d barely pulled her door shut before Daniel was peeling out of the parking lot, sending a spray of gravel out behind them. As they raced away, Reilly glanced out the back window. The familiar blue and white of the City of Tampa police cars could be seen speeding toward the rental office. She estimated they were about five minutes away. Even if they went straight to Sheldon and instantly believed him, chances were slim they’d make it to the train station in time.

It was up to her and
Daniel.

‘The case on the floor.’
Daniel broke the tense silence. His eyes never left the road in front of him. ‘The gun you asked for is in there, and there’s one for me too. They both need loading.’

Reilly
nodded and pulled the case onto her lap. Daniel rattled off the combination and she lifted the lid. He’d been the one to teach her how to shoot, and she’d maintained her monthly trips to the range up until the week before she’d left for Dublin. Just how rusty would she be?

Inside the case,
was a matte-black Beretta nestled next to his silver Desert Eagle. She hadn’t gone shooting while in Dublin, and she just hoped it all came back.

‘
I’ve kept them both in working condition.’ Daniel’s voice was tense. ‘Fired at the range just a few weeks ago.’

‘Good to know
,’ said Reilly as she set the weapons on the console and pushed the case back down to the floor. Her fingers tapped a staccato on the armrest, the only sound other than the hiss of the air conditioning and the gentle rumble of the Chrysler’s engine.