Conduit

  “I still blame you,” Emily said. She picked up her wine glass and drained the rest of the liquid at the bottom. “You knew it would make me cry.”

  “Guilty.” He settled down next to her on the couch. “But if you didn’t cry when Frank Castle’s entire family was murdered, then I would think you’re completely devoid of all emotion.”

  “It was a really great movie.” She snatched the case out of his hands. “The Punisher,” she read. “Wouldn’t it be great if he was out there now, taking care of all those criminals his way?”

  “Vigilante justice is highly debatable,” he said. “Besides, he’s not a real person. What he does on-screen would never be allowed in the real world.”

  Emily giggled. “He did blow up a lot of stuff.” She handed the movie back to Jake. “You know you cried a little, too.”

  Her words pricked his ego. “I did not cry.”

  “I think I saw a little tearing up there.”

  “You were looking at me through a mass of tears in your own eyes. That’s all you were seeing.”

  Emily leaned in, and all playfulness left her voice. “I don’t think so.”

  Her kiss was soft at first, but Jake grabbed the back of her head and kept her close to him. Their lips matched each other in a heated battle, and her sweet breath entered his lungs. Jake tasted remnants of rich, full-bodied red wine on her sensuous mouth, fueling his desire. He entangled his hands in her hair as her smooth, flushed skin caressed the rough stubble on his face. He never wanted to let her go.

  The nagging voice in the back of his head started up again, the same one that rambled about commitment and settling down. It told him to go slow with Emily, and that they needed to wait to take their relationship further until that perfect moment. It whispered Emily was the girl he had been searching for his entire life and he’d better not screw it up for what he assumed would be an amazing night in bed with her.

  The voice won and he parted from her. He realized she must have the same badgering voice in her mind when she said, “We need to start having all of our dates in a very public location.”

  He moistened his lips, the lingering taste of her mouth a nice surprise. “I think we’ve shown incredible self-control thus far.”

  “I don’t know how much longer that will last.”

  A nudge on his calf grabbed his attention. He leaned over to get a look at the freshly groomed Bob. “Now that the movie’s over, tell me how you just so happened to end up with this guy between last night and now.”

  Emily scooped Bob into her arms. The cat responded by rubbing his cheek against hers. “Cassie and I were helping out Uncle Leo on a case—”

  “Wait a minute. First you go to a memorial service for a case, and now you adopt a cat. What kind of crazy private detective agency are you running?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “It does seem kind of strange, but our cases usually aren’t this interesting.”

  “Uncle Leo. Tell me about him again. Is he Cassie’s uncle?”

  “Lionel is her mom’s brother. Because I’ve known Cassie since high school, Uncle Leo and his wife, Aunt Barbara, have always been like family to me.”

  “Where are Cassie’s parents?”

  “When Cassie turned eighteen, they took the idea of starting their lives over as a literal concept and moved overseas to England. They’re living their dream.”

  “Cassie must love to go on visits.”

  “She does, but we’re so busy at the office that she rarely gets to go. We have each other and we have Uncle Leo and Aunt Barbara.”

  Jake scratched under Bob’s chin, and Bob closed his eyes to enjoy the massage. “How did Bob end up coming home with you during your case today?”

  “We were helping Uncle Leo out on a case when we met Sam. He’s a homeless guy who also happens to be a witness Uncle Leo desperately needed. I convinced Sam to help the police, but he would only do it on the condition that I take Bob and give him a good home. He didn’t think Bob would make it much longer if he stayed on the streets.”

  Jake regarded Bob’s thin sides. “I think Sam may have been right about that.”

  Emily smiled at the cat. “He’s already fattened up since I brought him home from the vet today. The vet cleaned him up, gave him his shots, and declared him good to go. He has a checkup next week to make sure he’s doing well. I’m just glad he was already neutered.”

  “And just like that, Bob gets a good home and you become a responsible cat owner.”

  “Do you like cats?”

  Jake hesitated. “They like me.”

  She grinned and swatted Jake’s arm. “That’s not an answer. Cats always like people like us.”

  “Fine,” he said. “I like your cat.”

  Emily smiled with satisfaction. “Bob likes you, too.” She put the cat back down on the floor and picked up their empty wine glasses off the coffee table. “Would you like another one?”

  “No, thank you,” he said, as she walked toward the kitchen. “You go ahead.”

  “You won’t think I’m a drunk if I do?”

  “Never.” Bob jumped up on the couch and climbed on his lap. “You deserve it for rescuing this cute little guy here.” Jake resumed scratching his chin.

  A minute later, Emily sauntered back into the living room with a half-filled wine glass. “He is adorable, isn’t he?”

  “He is,” Jake said. Bob walked across his lap and onto Emily’s. “What kind of cop is your Uncle Leo?” He didn’t know where the question came from, but the idea of her working on a case with him lingered in his mind as an unresolved thought.

  Oblivious to his concerned tone, she stroked Bob’s fur. “Lieutenant in the Homicide Division.”

  “Lieutenant in Homicide.” He remembered a press conference he saw on the news a few days earlier. “Isn’t that a pretty important position on the force?”

  “Absolutely,” she said, her voice laced with pride.

  “Lieutenant Lionel Edwards?”

  Her hand slowed in traveling across Bob’s back. “Yes, that’s him.”

  “I suppose with the task force he’s heading up for the Wichita Police Department on that serial killer case, he doesn’t have much time for other cases.”

  “How do you know what case he’s working on?”

  “There was a press conference last week and he was mentioned several times.” Jake’s stomach twisted into little knots of anxiety. “If he’s working on the serial killer case, then what case are you working with him?”

  Bob jumped off her lap, and she reached for her glass of wine. She took a long sip without saying a word.

  “No, Emily. Tell me you’re not working on that case.”

  Emily shrugged. “I wish I could.”

  “What memorial service did you go to Sunday?” he asked.

  “I shouldn’t talk about it.”

  “Em, it’s important.”

  “The one for Diane Murphy, the fifth victim.”

  “And where did you get Bob from today?”

  “From the crime scene of the body found this morning. Sam witnessed the killer leaving the body last night.” She twisted in her seat and faced him. “But the body wasn’t there when we visited the crime scene, so it’s okay.”

  Panic swallowed him, and he said, “Emily, nothing about this is okay. There’s a guy out there killing women. What if he was watching the crime scene and saw you and Cassie there? Or what if he was at the memorial service on Sunday? You and Cassie could have unknowingly put yourselves in danger. Why would your Uncle Leo have either of you working on this case?”

  Her eyes pleaded with Jake to understand. “The police have nothing on the killer at all. The FBI is coming on Monday to help out, but until then, Cassie and I agreed to take a look at things and see if we could find anything new, and we did. We not only found a witness who saw the killer dumping the body last night, but we got him to agree to cooperate with police. He sat down with a sketch artist this afternoon and—”

 
“Emily, I don’t...” Jake paused. He knew what he wanted to say, but he didn’t want the words to come out wrong. “Look, we’ve known each other since Saturday night. That’s only three days, but I feel like it’s been a lot longer than that. With you, I...I know and...and you know.” He took a deep breath. His mind battled against everything his heart wanted to say. “I knew the moment I saw you Saturday night.”

  Emily’s teeth tugged at her bottom lip. “I knew then, too.”

  “Because of that, I think I have the right to tell you that I don’t want you anywhere near this case.”

  “But Jake, just as we know with each other, it’s the same thing with this case. I knew the minute Uncle Leo walked into our office that I had to be involved in it.”

  “No,” Jake said, shaking his head. “That means you shouldn’t be involved in this case. You should run like hell and forget you ever heard about it.” His heart jumped into his throat. He moved closer to her on the couch and gently took hold of her arms. “I want you far away from this case. Tell your Uncle Leo that he needs to find someone else.” The tears that she joked about him having during the movie stung his eyes. “Please, Emily.”

  The seriousness of his words touched her face with sadness. He could tell she wanted to convince him the case wasn’t a problem, but she remained silent. Jake had probably upset her, but he didn’t care as long as he got his point across and she listened. The idea of her being involved with this case in even the slightest manner terrified him beyond all understanding.

  Her resolve faded before his eyes. “The FBI is coming on Monday to help out the task force. Until then, I will only do very minimal work on the case, I promise. Is that okay?”

  It wasn’t okay, Jake thought. It wouldn’t be okay until she was back to her cheating spouse and insurance scamming cases, but since he couldn’t force her to stop, it would have to do for now. “I’ll check in with you a lot more,” he said. “Now that I’m off work until Friday, I have all the time in the world.”

  “I understand, and I’m fine with that. In fact, let’s have lunch tomorrow. I’m behind at the office so I can’t go out for long, but maybe I can sneak away for little bit.”

  “Then I’ll bring lunch to you.”

  “Thank you, Jake,” she said with a smile.

  He pulled her to him and circled his arms around her. She buried her head in his shoulder and he held her tight. He wanted nothing more than to keep her safe and provide everything she could ever want or need. Whatever it took, he would make sure she was protected at all times. He just hoped his instinct about her needing it was wrong.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Stephanie Price’s vehicle moved closer to his location on the GPS tracking application. For the past half hour, David hid in the dark depths of a cold ditch, waiting for her to drive by. If everything worked out right, her car would stop in the middle of the five-mile dead zone.

  As her car neared, he moved into a crouching position, where it would be difficult for her to see him in the dark. The black tarp he balanced on helped keep his clothing clean of any dirt or debris from the ditch. He pulled the dead opossum close and tightened the grip of his gloved hands, ready to pitch his football downfield for the winning touchdown. He had scooped up the road kill earlier in the day on a nearby road, and the size of the opossum was large enough to make an impact when it hit her fender.

  Headlights blared in his direction and he flung the opossum as hard as he could. It bounced off the top part of her fender and onto her windshield. Her car careened and David took off. Low to the ground, he ran in the opposite direction to his own hidden car. He jumped in his car and drove toward Stephanie’s stopped vehicle. He pulled over on the shoulder of the road, not too far from where he threw the opossum at her car.

  David flipped on his hazard lights and climbed out of his car. As he approached a bewildered Stephanie, she lifted her arms and shrugged in frustration.

  “What happened?” he asked, with a touch of concern in his voice. “Are you okay?”

  “I hit something. It flew onto my hood and smashed my windshield. The whole thing is cracked. You’d think I hit a deer.”

  He walked around the car and looked at the blood spattered across the top of the fender near the hood opening and on the windshield. A large, radial crack spread out from where the opossum crashed into the driver’s side of the glass, while steam from her radiator polluted the air in front of him. He couldn’t have planned the amount of damage the flying opossum caused to her vehicle, and it all worked in his favor.

  After hitting her car, the opossum had flown across the road to the other lane. Due to the kindness Stephanie exhibited with others, David decided to play overly nice and concerned to gain her trust. He pointed to the dead animal. “Opossum,” he said.

  “Ah, jeez,” Stephanie said. “I feel bad, but I never saw it coming so I couldn’t avoid it.”

  “I’m going to get the poor guy off the road before someone else runs him over.” David walked to the opossum. Using the insole of his boot, he pushed the animal into the ditch, careful not to step in blood and innards so he wouldn’t leave an impression of his boots.

  “That’s very kind and thoughtful of you,” Stephanie said. “I’m really glad you found me. I thought it might be a long time before someone came by.”

  “Do you need me to call someone or maybe AAA for you, or do you have your cell phone?”

  Stephanie pursed her lips and shook her head. “Wouldn’t you know we’re in a dead zone? I was talking with my roommate, but the call dropped right before I hit that thing.”

  “Yeah, those critters sure come out at the worst times, don’t they?” He turned around and glanced at his car. “Why don’t I go check my phone? Maybe I can get service.”

  “Great idea,” Stephanie said. She shivered and rubbed her crossed arms. “I don’t think I could have picked a colder night for this.”

  “You won’t want to take a chance of doing more damage by starting your car with the radiator steaming. My car is nice and warm, if you want to hop in while I try to get service. I may even have to walk quite a ways, so you can wait there to stay warm.”

  “You’re such a blessing,” she said, and she started toward his car by his side. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along.”

  “I’m just glad I can help.” David opened the passenger side door for her and she climbed in. “Do you mind handing me my cell phone? It’s in the console in between the seats.”

  “Sure,” Stephanie said.

  She turned to get the cell phone, and David withdrew a syringe from his jacket pocket. He uncapped it with his teeth and wrapped his hand around her face, covering her mouth. She screamed into his hand and squirmed about the seat. The needle slipped into her neck. She slowed her fight, and surrendered to the Ketamine.

  After putting the syringe and cap back into his pocket, David twisted her body and faced her forward, with her head against the head rest. He leaned into the car and clicked her seatbelt into place. They would take side roads all the way to the farmhouse, but to any passing cars, Stephanie would appear to have fallen asleep.

  David shut the passenger side door and jogged back to her car. He reached under the passenger side of her car and removed the GPS tracking device. Should the police find her car after he dumped her body, he couldn’t leave that behind to trace back to him. After he got home and secured Stephanie in the last room she would ever see, he would use his car to run over both the GPS device and his cell phone to completely destroy them. The cell phone was a prepaid smartphone, and he had dozens more just like it, all paid for with cash in different stores.

  He slid into the driver’s seat and paused to look at Stephanie. Even asleep, he could still sense her conduit abilities. He brushed back her short blond hair, tucking it behind her ear so he could better see her kind face.

  Much stronger than Jillian and all of the conduits he used to connect with Emily, Stephanie would be the one he r
emembered long after he was with Emily. He buckled his seatbelt and shifted the car into drive. He would have to resist the strong temptation to speed home to get her in his basement and start his work.

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Lionel paced the hallway of the morgue, pent up anger fueling his movements. Shawn looked up at him from his seat outside the morgue doors. “What’s up?”

  Lionel stopped pacing. “This has to end. This is the last time we’re waiting outside these doors.” He sat down in a chair and slumped forward. “Seven women.”

  “You’re right, and we’ll find him. We’re getting closer, now that we not only have him on the security tape, but we also have the sketch from the witness.”

  “Even though we can only see the back of his head in the tape, his hair that the witness described is consistent with the tape.”

  “Are you sure you want to wait to release the sketch to the media?” Shawn asked.

  “Absolutely. I’m worried if he sees his picture on television he’ll run and just start killing elsewhere. Every cop on the force is looking for him. He’ll turn up soon.”

  “Did you talk to Aurelio or Timmons yet about the autopsy?”

  “Not yet. I had hoped they would be here still, but we must have missed them.”

  The doors to the morgue opened up. Perry held open one of the doors and slipped his glasses on top of his head. “You wanted a leg up on this guy,” he said.

  Lionel and Shawn both jumped up at the same time. “What is it?” Shawn asked.

  “This girl is different.” Perry said. “I know your victimology has been all over the map, but this one is not like the rest.”

  “How so?” Lionel asked.

  “Let me show you,” Perry said. “Aurelio and Timmons saw it at the autopsy, but I wanted you to see it as well.” He turned and walked back into the morgue with Lionel and Shawn at his heels.

  Lionel hated going inside the morgue. He saw enough death in his job without having to watch an autopsy as well. He had attended many autopsies in his career, more than he cared to remember, but he still had not grown accustomed to them.