“Oh,” Rick continued, sighing pleasurably at the memory. “He was so sweet. He took such a long time to die, Maddie. It was the greatest bliss I’ve ever known. I thought he’d be enough. And for a while he was, but then I started to have those cravings again. So I watched your house some more and followed the lady with the fur coat to the next little lamb. And, Maddie, he was even sweeter than the first.”
I was crying now in earnest, and it was hard to breathe. I desperately wanted to pass out, to shut my ears to the horrors Rick was whispering to me. How had I not seen it? How had I not guessed?
“I thought little Tevon would satisfy the cravings, but the opposite happened. They got worse. I kept thinking that you were the key, Maddie. You’d led me to this new freedom, and you kept connecting me to all the right lambs. I thought it must be kismet. Maybe if I got very close to you, I could find one that would satisfy me enough until I died.”
Rick was whispering into my ear, and he ran his cheek along mine seductively. I stiffened, and my stomach lurched. I squeezed my eyes shut even tighter and tried not to be sick, but I could taste the bile at the back of my throat.
He continued as if he hadn’t noticed. “That kid you hang out with, he looked interesting. So I followed him for a day, and he led me to the girl…Payton. She was so ripe for the picking that I couldn’t resist. I set up a roadblock and snatched her right off the street. But she died too fast—hardly worth the effort. The cravings started right back up. I thought again about taking you, but then I missed you that night at the park. So I decided to go back to the summer when I trailed you to your babysitting job.”
I stiffened again, and Rick laughed. “Ah, you didn’t know I was watching you back then, did you? It paid off when I grabbed Nathan. I wanted to take my time with him, stretch it out over a few days, you know? I wanted to get the most pleasure out of it, and I thought it’d be so easy to hide him in my hunting shack. Nathan was so scared…I didn’t think he was very smart, but he was. He got away from me before I could do much damage, but I doubt he’ll remember me.”
I shuddered. I was so petrified it was hard to think.
“Yeah,” Rick whispered, stroking my cheek again with his. “That’s it, honey. Be scared. Be terrified. I saw you downtown with the feds, and I knew you were working with them. Eventually you were going to lead them to me, but I only had a few days left to worry about. I thought I could control the cravings and wait for that heart attack, but every day the cravings got worse, even though physically I felt fine.
“I told my wife that I wasn’t feeling good. I called off work a few times and watched you and the feds as much as I could. That’s how I found the key to your house, Maddie. It was hidden in that fake rock by the back door. You were going to be my ultimate prize, but I didn’t think I’d be able to grab you with the feds watching your house while they closed in on me. And then, I remembered you said that my cousin was going to die on the same day as me. I know what you were thinking, that we’d be in some sort of accident. But I had a better idea.
“See, Wes wasn’t a very smart guy. In fact, he was pretty stupid. But he’d seen the blood in the back of the truck from that day I nabbed Payton. Wes had called off to go buy some weed, and I’d had to make the deliveries myself. He knew we were delivering in Jupiter that day, and when he saw the blood I could tell he’d put two and two together.
“So, this morning I went over to his house, and I shot him.”
I made an involuntary squeak, and Rick laughed. “Yeah, I shot him in the head and then I shot that FBI agent. I saw him through the window about a second after I shot Wesley. He was too slow with his gun. Then I rigged the house to explode, and took Wes’s body up to my hunting shack. I made sure to leave Wes’s suicide note and his confession to the murders next to his body. They probably won’t find him for months.”
“Anyway, after dealing with Wes, I went to my favorite fishing spot. I figured I’d be dead in a matter of hours, so I waited. And waited. And waited.”
Rick stopped talking for a long moment, and I was so afraid I didn’t think I could stand it. “Do you know what happened all day today and tonight as I was waiting, Maddie?” he finally asked. I didn’t answer, and he squeezed me tighter, hurting me. “I said, do you?”
I shook my head a fraction.
“Nothing happened,” he spat. “Nothing at all.”
With a jolt I realized what he meant. Rick hadn’t died.
“All those plans,” he snarled, squeezing my wrist. “All that extra life insurance, and making sure my family would be taken care of…all of it wasted. By eleven o’clock tonight I knew you’d lied to me. I knew you were wrong.”
I felt cold all over.
Rick tilted my chin with his arm, and I saw that he wanted me to read the clock above the mantel. “It’s two minutes to midnight, Maddie, and I’m not dead. My family isn’t getting their money, and now that I’ve had a taste of those sweet little lambs, I know I can’t stop. It’s only a matter of time before your FBI buddies catch up with me, isn’t it, Maddie?”
He snarled out my name and pulled up on my arm with a jerk. There was a loud pop, and I screamed as a pain like lightning radiated up and down from my shoulder to my fingertips.
Rick pressed his arm over my mouth to muffle the scream. “Shhhhhhhhh. Quiet down, Maddie, or I’ll rip your arm right off.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and ground my teeth together to keep from crying out again, but it was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do. The pain was excruciating. In the back of my mind I wondered where the patrolman was. How had Rick come into the house without being seen? Why was there no one to save me?
“I know what you’re thinking,” he told me. “You’re thinking, why doesn’t Rick kill himself? That would solve all his problems, wouldn’t it? But that would nullify the life insurance. My family would get zip. And here it is, Maddie, one minute to midnight, and I’m still alive.”
I was sobbing so much that it was hard to breathe. I thought I was going to pass out, and I prayed for it. I wanted to black out and not hear or feel one more thing.
“I’ll make you a deal, Maddie. Want to hear it?”
I didn’t reply, because I couldn’t. Rick started talking again anyway. “The deal is that we’ll watch the time together, and if the clock strikes midnight, and I’m still alive, then I get to finish what I started with you. You get to be my next little lamb, but I’m going to drag it out for as long as I can, because people who lie about such important things, well, they deserve to feel some pain, don’t you think?”
I shook my head; the terror and physical agony I felt was overwhelming. And then I heard a soft click as the big hand on my dad’s clock slid over the little hand and it began to chime softly. One chime…two chimes…three chimes…
I realized Rick was waiting out the chimes. He’d wait until exactly midnight to begin the real torture, and I was beyond desperate. I acted without thinking. A rush of adrenaline coursed through me and I remembered a move from a self-defense class I’d taken freshman year. Wedging my hand between the blade and my neck, I let my legs go limp, sinking down in Rick’s arms. He bent forward, and as he did I swiveled in a tight circle, relieving the pressure on my arm but taking a deep slice to my hand.
Ignoring the pain I focused on aiming my knee up into his groin and kicked him as hard as I could. With a loud grunt he let go of me and bent double. I took a step back, moving my weight to the other foot, and I kicked out at him again just as he swung his fist in an arc to punch me in the side of the head. We both reeled away from each other. I saw stars from the force of Rick’s blow and staggering back, I lost my footing and fell, slamming my head against the window. There was a second explosion of bright sparks behind my eyes, and shards of glass clinked to the ground. Searing heat erupted at the back of my scalp. I sank to the floor, knocking over the lamp next to Dad’s chair as I went.
Once on the floor, I didn’t think I could move or even breathe. I lay there, trying d
esperately to stay conscious. Dully, I was aware that the clock had finished chiming and across the room Rick was cursing and spitting with rage. He’d tripped over the ottoman and had fallen against the opposite wall. He held his left hand up, and I saw the handle of the knife sticking out of his palm.
I struggled to take a deep breath, and as I did, some of the stars crowding my vision dimmed. I took another shuddering breath and willed myself to move, but none of my limbs would cooperate. My good arm flailed next to me, and my legs only bent at the knees. I had no strength left to fight, and then the stars started to spark again and a wave of dizziness washed over me.
“You little bitch!” Rick screamed, gripping his wrist and rocking in pain.
I took a third deep breath and tried in vain again to get up, kicking my legs feebly. The world was fading in and out of darkness, and I fought as hard as I could to focus my eyes. In a haze I saw Rick lurch himself to a crouched position, baring his teeth at me, and then he pulled down hard on the handle of the knife. With a loud growl he freed it from his hand and then he started for me again. “You’re going to pay for that!”
I opened my mouth to scream, but only a hoarse whisper came out, and then there was a loud BOOM from the kitchen, like the door being kicked open, and from the light in there I saw a figure emerge. I blinked again as Rick turned toward the figure, raising the knife. I squinted through the fog and haze of my clouded vision, and suddenly, I saw my dad standing in the doorway, his black hair sleek and his blue eyes bright. He grinned at me, looking proud. Then he raised his arm to wave.
“Dad?” I croaked, drinking in the sight of him. “Daddy!” And then the most incredible thing happened. His waving hand made a loud popping sound. Then another. Then two more times. In front of me, Rick Kane dropped like a stone, and a red stain began to spread across the carpet like a burgundy stream.
I shut my eyes and fought another wave of dizziness, and when I opened them again I saw that Dad was gone, and in his place was Agent Faraday, holding a smoking gun. He holstered the weapon, pulled out his phone, and began to speak into it so rapidly that I couldn’t catch any of the words. As he talked he moved over to Rick, kicking the knife out of his hand before bending to check for a pulse. He stood up again, clicked off the phone, and rushed over to me, stooping low to try and pick me up, but I cried out when he touched my arm.
He backed away and looked me over. “Your arm’s out of the socket, Maddie,” he said gently. The pain in my shoulder began to flood back, and I whimpered.
“I can put it back in,” he said. “It’ll hurt like hell for a second, but you’ll feel a whole lot better after it’s done.” I nodded. If it would stop the terrible throbbing, I’d do anything.
Faraday gingerly sat me forward, lifted my arm above my head, and stood up. I was trying with all my might not to give in to a sob that would only cause more pain, and as I was concentrating on that, Faraday pulled up hard on my arm and there was a loud snap and I screamed.
Once that initial agonizing pain had faded, my shoulder felt sore, but the pain was bearable.
I realized then that Faraday was talking to me. “Maddie?” he said as he wiped the hair away from my face. “Look at me, sweetheart. Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” I croaked.
“You okay?”
I nodded dully, but then a wave of emotion came over me and that sob I’d fought so hard to hold inside gushed out, and it was followed by so many more.
Faraday lifted me into his arms and carried me over to the couch, where he held me protectively against his chest. “You poor kid,” he said. “The ambulance should be here in a minute, honey.” In the distance I heard the sounds of sirens closing in.
I leaned against his chest and shut my eyes, grateful to be alive.
“Hey,” Faraday said after a few seconds. “Did you know your clock’s still ten minutes fast?”
FARADAY STUCK TO MY SIDE LIKE GLUE. He rode with me in the ambulance even though I overheard someone tell him to stay at the house and give a statement. He’d told that guy to stuff it…or something to that effect. He’d said they could find him at the hospital and take his statement there.
I was so glad he came with me. I felt beaten to a pulp, both emotionally and physically. When the ER doc ordered Faraday to go wait in the lobby, he glared hard but muttered something about needing to give his statement anyway. He promised me he’d be back soon and left.
I had a long slice in the palm of my hand and a bad cut on the back of my head that both needed stitches, and my shoulder was X-rayed. Then they put my arm in a sling, but the doctor didn’t think there would be any lasting damage. He said I’d be free to go home as soon as they could find someone to drive me.
I pressed my lips together. I no more wanted to go home than I wanted my arm out of the socket again. But a few minutes later the curtain around my bed was pulled back, and Mrs. Duncan was there, wearing a coat over her nightgown and looking more concerned than I’d ever seen her.
“Oh, Maddie!” she gasped when she saw me. She shuffled over to my bed and wrapped her thin arms around me, hugging me very gently before stepping back. “I can hardly believe what Agent Faraday was telling me!”
My gaze dropped to my lap. I didn’t know what to say, because the nightmare was still too fresh.
“And that poor patrolman,” Mrs. Duncan added. My chin lifted, and I saw that her eyes were shiny.
“He’s…dead?” I guessed. And then I knew how Rick had gotten into my house. He’d killed the patrolman and walked right up the drive to the back door.
Mrs. Duncan wiped her eyes. “I’m so sad for his family, but at the same time, I’m so relieved and grateful that you’re still with us, Maddie.” She reached out and smoothed my hair. “Agent Faraday says I can bring you home to my house right after he gets your statement. But if you’re not up to it, then I’ll tell him to wait until you’ve had some rest.”
I swallowed hard and had to wipe my own eyes. “Thanks, Mrs. Duncan. I think I can talk to him now.”
She looked like she wanted to convince me otherwise, but then Faraday was pulling back the curtain and stepping over to stand next to Mrs. Duncan. “How’s she doing?” he asked her.
Mrs. Duncan smiled proudly at me and winked. “She’s her father’s daughter, Agent Faraday. And he had the heart of a hero.” Then she patted him on the chest and said, “I should let you two talk. Come find me in the lobby when Maddie is ready to leave, would you?”
“We won’t be long, Mrs. Duncan,” Faraday promised. After she’d gone he grinned at me, too. “She’s one tough cookie.”
I found the corners of my own mouth lifting. “She’s pretty great.”
Faraday looked around and grabbed a stool from right outside the curtain. Pulling it over to sit down, he took out a small notebook and said, “Tell me what happened tonight, Maddie.”
I did. It didn’t take very long. I’d been alone with Rick in my house for ten minutes. It’d just felt like an eternity. When I was finished, I had my own questions for Faraday.
“How did you know?” I asked him. “How did you know to come to the house?”
Faraday shrugged. I saw that he’d cleaned up a little from that afternoon. The soot from the fire had been washed away, but there was a good section of hair on the side of his head that was patchy and black. “I waited here until Kevin was out of surgery, and I was about to leave when one of the nurses found me and said that he was asking for me. He was pretty groggy, but when I got to him, all he kept saying was ‘Wrong guy.’ He said it over and over, like he was really worried about it, so I told him I’d look into it.
“Anyway,” Faraday continued, “at the time, that didn’t make much sense to me, so I headed back to Culligan’s to look through Wes’s locker, and you know what I found?”
I shook my head.
“I found a pair of Timberlands. Size nine and a half.”
“Wrong size,” I said, with a knowing nod.
“Exactly. So I st
arted digging a little more. Miller’s boss had said there were two guys on the crew. I asked the old man about the other guy. I finally got it out of him that Wes’s partner was his cousin, Rick Kane—a guy in his early fifties—right in the age range of the profile from my buddy in D.C. I checked out Kane’s work locker next, but it was empty. That seemed kind of odd to me, you know? Not even a jacket or an extra shirt in there. So I went to Kane’s house. His wife said she was worried about him because he hadn’t been feeling well lately. She had begged him to go to the doctor, but he’d refused. He’d also told her something that stuck with her—he’d said it wouldn’t do any good. I remember standing on her porch and thinking about that….That’s something a dying man says.
“Before I left her house, I asked if Rick owned a set of Timberlands. He did. Size twelve.”
“The size from the imprints at the crime scenes,” I said.
“Yep. Oh, and his wife said that after quitting for twenty years, her husband was back to smoking again. He’d started up again this past summer, and his brand of choice was Marlboro Lights. By the time I finished interviewing Mrs. Kane, it was going on seven o’clock. I tried calling your house, but I got no answer, so I sent a patrol car out there to watch over you until we could find Kane or his cousin.”
Faraday stopped talking again, and he dropped his gaze to the floor. I had the sense that he was feeling guilty over the patrolman. “Anyway,” he said, after clearing his throat, “to be sure I was on the right track, I headed back to the office and checked your notebook. I found Kane’s name in there, and his deathdate was for yesterday. I didn’t quite know what to make of that, but after I called his wife again, she told me he liked to go hunting and fishing up near the Waliki River. It took us almost two hours, but we found the hunting shack, and Wes Miller’s body, but no sign of Kane. I didn’t believe for a second that the suicide note and the confession Kane left for us to find was real. So I had dispatch look up Kane’s vehicle to put out the BOLO, and wouldn’t you know it, he also drove a pickup—but his was charcoal gray.”