There had been thirteen tally marks on that wall. Lily was one mark. The remains they’d found in the Statue of Liberty chamber were another.
Judith made three.
The fourth tally mark? That would have been poor Fiona.
And they’d found six skulls tonight.
That leaves two more victims. One tally mark could belong to Lily.
But what about the last mark? Where is she?
“He kept them separated,” she said softly. “Isolated. Three containment areas we know of…” What if there were more?
The number of spots spoke of his confidence. His absolute control.
At first, he’d probably kept his prey in one location.
Here.
This was where he’d kept the skeletons. The presence of the bones indicated this spot was special to him.
But he’d branched out as his confidence grew, as the years passed and no one stopped him. No one but Kyle had even realized he was hunting.
No one but Kyle.
And the killer had called Kyle. Directly taunted him.
She frowned as she gazed at her partner. He was stalking toward her.
“We found a recording device in one of the chambers.” Kyle’s voice was cold. Distant. But his eyes were blazing with fire.
Ben released her and turned to face him.
“I think he watched the women. Used infrared filming. He wanted to see them in the dark.”
Why was the dark so important to him?
The dark… “He controlled the light,” Cadence said. She’d been trapped in the darkness. Not able to make a sound. He hadn’t wanted her to scream.
Why?
There was silence in the caves.
Silence in the isolated cabin.
Darkness. Silence.
That he controlled.
“We missed it,” Cadence said as a burst of adrenaline pumped through her.
Dani had just left the caverns. She hurried toward them, her eyes wide and haunted.
Dani had gone back into the field…for me.
When she reached their group, Dani wrapped her arms around Cadence and held her tightly. “Don’t ever scare me like that again,” she gritted.
Dani had scared her once, years before. When she’d been stabbed fifteen times in the chest and left for dead by a perp. Dani had survived the attack, barely.
Her blood had coated Cadence’s fingers as surely as Fiona’s had.
But Dani had survived.
Only she’d never quite been the same. All the psych evaluations had said she wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure of fieldwork.
She should have left the FBI.
She hadn’t.
Ben had just made a new job for her. One that kept her safe.
Until now.
Dani had lain in the hospital bed for weeks. Her eyes shut. Trapped in her own body. Unable to speak or move without help.
A prisoner.
Every muscle in Cadence’s body locked. “He’s doing to them what was done to him.”
Dani pulled back, frowning at her. “What do you mean?”
“We need to do a search, pull medical records. This man may have even been blinded temporarily. He wasn’t able to communicate with others. He was hurt and now he’s doing the same thing to his victims.” Controlling them, as he’d been controlled.
Kyle’s eyes narrowed.
“We need to go back.” Cadence tried to figure out the time line. “It would have been before Maria’s disappearance. Probably several years before.” Her heart was pounding because now, she saw.
The victims had been the key for her. She’d seen what they’d seen. Heard what they heard.
What the killer had heard.
“We’re looking for a car accident. On an old highway.” The victims had vehicles abandoned on old highways. The SOB had come after her car with such intensity. There was a pattern, a reason, behind everything he did. “He was probably hurt in the wreck. He would have stayed in the hospital for a long time. Weeks, maybe months.”
He kept his victims for a long time.
Years?
“You can find him, can’t you, Dani?” she pushed.
Dani nodded. “I can search through accident reports. Check the databases for hospitals in the area.”
“All four states,” Cadence pressed as Kyle and Ben watched her in silence. “All from his kill zones. Don’t overlook any of them.”
Dani nodded.
“The guy was smart. He deliberately crossed state lines, deliberately spread out the abductions into different jurisdictions so that it would be harder for law enforcement to connect his crimes. But we know what he did, and we can find him now.” This was it. This was how they would figure out the perp’s identity. Then there would be no hiding for him. No pretending.
No blending in.
They’d have him.
“Our crime team from Quantico is flying in,” Ben said, but his voice was considering. He went with her hunches, always had. No, not a hunch. Profile. She was certain. “They’ll search the caverns. The professor from Auburn said he’d have his team out here at first light.”
She could hear the approach of more vehicles. The professor was already arriving?
“I think there’s more video equipment in those caves,” Kyle said. His voice was still off. Too unemotional to match the discoveries they’d made. One of those skeletons could be his sister’s, but the man was acting like ice water poured through his veins.
This wasn’t the man she knew.
Cadence tried to slide closer to him.
He stiffened, then backed up a step.
Cadence’s breath caught. He’d never withdrawn from her before, and that small move hurt.
“A signal wouldn’t go far, not down in a place like that,” Kyle continued in his wooden voice. “So he must have a base room down there. If there’s more equipment…”
“We’ll find it.” Ben’s voice held plenty of emotion. And confidence. “We’ve got the equipment and the manpower coming in. Every damn secret he has down there, we’ll discover.”
“But you don’t think he’s there,” Cadence said. She’d caught what Ben said—and what he hadn’t. “You don’t think he’s hiding inside.”
“I think our boy had an escape plan in place, but I don’t think he’ll run forever.” Ben gave her another nod. “I told you, you did well on this one, Cadence. Now get back to your motel room before you collapse.” His voice hardened. “’Cause if you don’t get some rest soon, I’ll make those EMTs take you to the hospital.”
She started to shake her head.
Ben pointed to Kyle. “Take her to the motel.”
Kyle’s jaw locked. Cadence was sure he didn’t want to leave the scene.
“You both need time to rest, and this scene is covered, okay? I’ll supervise every move until you get back.”
A car door slammed. “Cadence?”
It was Aaron. Shouting her name. Running toward her and looking incredibly relieved when he saw her face.
“I can’t believe…” He stumbled to a stop. “I’m so glad you’re all right!”
He was tall. Just around Kyle’s height of six foot three. His shoulders weren’t as broad as Kyle’s but with the right coat in the dark, they could appear stronger.
“You didn’t mention the caverns tracked this far over,” she said to him.
Dani and Ben were both regarding him with suspicion.
But Kyle just looked on with those glacial eyes of his. Blue flames in ice.
That’s not Kyle.
“I didn’t know!” Aaron jerked a hand through his hair, causing it to jut out at rough angles. “I never explored this far!”
“Marsh told me stories have circulated up here ever since the Civil War.” Kyle’s voice was as cold as his eyes. She wanted to shake him. To make the real man come back out. “Confederates hid weapons up here.”
“And gangsters used caverns as speakeasies. Yes, yes, I know, bu
t finding these places, after all this time, it’s next to impossible.” Aaron’s breath heaved out. “If I’d known, I would have told you! I didn’t! No one on my team knew about this area!” He gave some fast nods. “But I’m here to help you. Anything I or my team can do—”
“Don’t worry,” replied Ben’s certain voice. “You’ll help us plenty.” Ben’s gaze met hers. He understood. She could see it in Ben’s stare. Aaron was on their suspect list. To be watched, questioned, and certainly not trusted.
“Take her back to the motel,” Ben told Kyle once more. “We’ll meet back up at noon and see what’s been discovered.”
She expected Kyle to argue. Instead, he took her hand in a grip that was too light. As if she were too delicate. Or as if he didn’t want to touch her at all.
He led her away from the others. Opened the passenger side door of his vehicle. Giant streaks of mud covered much of the SUV.
She didn’t speak, not until he was in the vehicle with her. Not until the others were shut out and they were on their way back down the mountain. “Kyle?” She hated the hesitation in her own voice.
The fear.
“When I found your car, I thought you were already dead,” he said. There was still no emotion in his voice.
She had to break through his ice. “You saw the tracking device, though. You found me.” You kept your promise. She’d known he would come for her.
“How did Fiona die?”
She glanced out the window at the swirl of the trees. “When she wouldn’t kill me, he killed her.”
“That’s what I thought.”
How could he sound so cold?
“But what if she had gone after you, Cadence? Would you have killed her in order to save yourself?”
She hated that question. Deep inside, she wasn’t sure of her answer.
Fiona had suffered so much.
“The plan didn’t fucking work.” The words sliced like ice. No, like a knife. “I could have walked into that chamber and found you on the ground, with a knife in your chest.”
She glanced back at him. His knuckles had whitened around the wheel.
“Kyle…”
“What do you think I would have done then?”
She had to be careful. The ice was a lie, a protection to keep the fire inside him from raging out of control. “Our job is about risk.”
“Fuck the risk. What do you think I would have done?” The words were a lethal whisper.
Before she could respond, he said, “I can’t lose you. I won’t. I’ll do any damn thing necessary to make sure you’re never in his sights again.”
They’d found his girls. Soon, they would be brought out of the darkness. They’d be identified. Their families would be contacted.
The FBI would keep searching. The unit director was there now, a self-important jerk who was barking orders. He wanted everyone to be careful.
The guy was afraid traps were inside.
But he hadn’t put traps in this area. He hadn’t thought the FBI would be coming to this spot. This was his.
No one should have found it.
The bitch had been tracked. He shouldn’t have taken her. He should have just killed her.
He would kill her.
He had unfinished business. He should have stuck to his original plan.
His original victim.
By letting Lily go, by letting her live, everything had unraveled. She’d been chosen, she was the one who had to join him.
Or else she had to die.
He wasn’t going to lose all he’d built. The FBI was supposed to see how powerful he was. That was the point. He’d gone too many years with no one knowing, no one realizing all he’d done.
Time is running out. The world needed to know about him.
While others had their names splashed in papers. The Valentine Killer. The Bayou Butcher. Twisted freaks who didn’t understand the value of a perfect victim.
He understood. He was better than all the others. So different. He deserved the attention. The FBI—everyone—had to recognize just how great he was.
How weak they were.
He wasn’t going down easily. The end would come, but the end would be on his terms. Just the way he’d planned.
He’d faced the darkness. He controlled the darkness.
After all this time.
I am still in control.
The others were just prey. It was time he eliminated them.
One by one.
Lily, my love. I’ll start with you.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“You’re not supposed to sleep when you have a concussion,” Cadence said softly.
Kyle was in her room. His back to her.
He wouldn’t look at her. “Then just rest.” He seemed to grit out the words.
His back was so tight. His shoulders tense.
She stepped toward him. Reached out her hand.
He spun toward her in an instant, his fingers locking around her wrist. “You don’t want to do that.”
“Why not?” From where she stood, it looked as if the man needed her. Perhaps far more than he realized.
“If sleep isn’t good for a concussion, then what I want to do to you sure isn’t either.” The words were a growled warning.
A warning she ignored. “Kyle.”
He pulled away from her. Dropped her hand. “Get in the bed, Cadence. Don’t sleep. I’ll stay with you. Make sure you just rest.” He turned his back on her. Again.
Resting wasn’t what she wanted.
“I need to wash away the blood.” Samples of the blood had been taken by the techs. Now she wanted to scrub herself clean. To get the smell of the caverns off her.
His shoulders tensed. “Your clothes are evidence. I’ll need to bag them. Send them to the lab.”
She glanced down at her torn clothes.
“Do you need help in the bathroom?” he asked.
“No,” Cadence said as she moved away from him. Whatever wall he was trying to put up between them, she wasn’t going to allow it. They’d come too far for that distance now.
“I don’t want you risking your life for me.” His words were a low rumble that stopped her at the bathroom door. “You think I don’t know what you were doing? You went in there, you put your life on the line, for me.”
She braced her hands on the door frame. “The victims needed me.” I’m sorry, Fiona. What if she’d recognized the woman when she first appeared at Cadence’s window? What if…
“What if you’d died for me? For a sister who’s probably been turned to bones for these last fifteen years?”
“Kyle!” She whirled toward him.
His jaw was clenched as he turned and stared at her with glittering eyes. “I saw her necklace. The half-moon charm I gave her when she turned eighteen. It was with the bones. I saw it when I was searching in the caverns.”
Cadence didn’t remember seeing a necklace. Just skulls. Femurs. Death.
“I didn’t touch it. I just saw it.” His shoulders rolled back. “She’s gone. You could have been, too.”
She hurt for him. Cadence wanted to wrap her arms around Kyle and just hold him.
He shook his head and retreated a step from her. “Take your shower. If you need me, I’m here.”
“What about what you need?” Cadence demanded. She wanted to scream at him. To break through to him. “Dammit, Kyle, talk to me.”
“What I need?” The words were so low, she strained to hear them. “I need him. Dead. In front of me.”
That wasn’t an agent talking. That was a grief-stricken, revenge-driven brother.
“That’s what I’ll have.”
She knew the words were a vow.
Danielle Burton stared at the entrance to the caverns. She didn’t want to go back inside. Ben was already in there, leading a group of local authorities. Searching deep into what she thought had to be the entrance to hell.
The bones were being brought out. Slowly. Carefully.
Th
e FBI’s forensics team had arrived moments earlier. As soon as Cadence had vanished the night before, Ben had ordered the team be brought in.
She wondered if he’d expected to find Cadence’s body.
Dani wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.
Then Ben appeared, striding from the caverns. His broad shoulders and handsome face were covered with dirt. He was walking fast, and his eyes shone with excited intensity.
He found something.
“Tapes,” he said as soon as he got close to her. “DVDs, CDs. We hit the freaking mother lode in there.”
Her breath blew out lightly as she tried to keep her expression blank. “You know what will be on those tapes.” There was only one reason for the perp to have kept them.
They were his trophies. The moments of his victims, recorded. Kept.
“I don’t want Kyle seeing them,” Ben said and some of the excitement faded from his gaze. “Not until you have a chance to view them first. See who’s on there. See what happened to them.”
Sometimes, she hated her job. “There aren’t any more survivors?”
“Not down there. We reached the cave-in wall, what I think is the cave-in, anyway, from the explosion at the last site.”
“If you reached the wall, then how’d he get out?” But she knew. Heather had already told her about Cadence’s orders to photograph and get the name of every man at the scene.
He just walked right out. He was beside us.
Ben nodded, obviously reading her expression. “The SOB is playing with us. I’m tired of playing.”
She didn’t think the guy was playing “with us.” She thought he was jerking Kyle around, and from what she’d seen, it appeared the agent was close to breaking.
Been there, done that.
“Cadence can go over the tapes with you. She’ll know what to look for.”
Terrible plan. It would be like making Cadence face her own hell, over and over again.
But…Cadence knows the victims. Dani swallowed. Some days, she wasn’t sure how Cadence stayed sane.
“I have to go in to the police station,” Dani said. She was surprised her voice came out sounding so normal. She didn’t feel normal. It was one hundred and ten degrees out there, and she had goose bumps. “I need to run the medical records check, and I can’t do it out here.”