Conduit (31 page)

Emily moved her head from side to
side and rubbed her forehead. Her eyelids fluttered open and she yawned. The dark
room helped ease her pounding headache, but it took a few moments for her eyes
to adjust. The shape of a lamp on the bedside table next to her caught her
attention, and she groped the lamp’s base until her fingers fumbled over the switch.

The blurry bedroom was completely unfamiliar to her, but her
memory of events in the early morning hours came back to her. Though he had
Emily, David had still shot Cassie. She had no way to know if Cassie survived
the gunshot that threw her to the ground, but she didn’t feel a sense of loss
like she would have expected if the gunshots had been fatal.

She had to trust that Cassie’s survival instincts had kicked
in and she found her way to safety. Emily didn’t have the luxury of wondering
what may or may not have happened to Cassie. She needed all her faculties to
focus on getting away from David.

Her vision cleared. She lifted her body up and balanced on
her elbows to get a better look at her surroundings. A flowered comforter
covered her body, and the aged dresser across from her needed to be refinished.
The heavy drapes that blocked out the world from view were covered in the same flower
design as the comforter.

Emily rolled over on her side and saw three doors. One was
slightly ajar, and she could see enough of the room to tell it was a bathroom.
The door next to it had a hook on the outside with a light blue sundress
hanging from it. Emily surmised there was a closet behind the door. The third
door was near the bedside table, and she guessed it led to the rest of the
house.

On the bedside table, next to a vintage alarm clock whose
second hand failed to tick, Emily noticed a piece of paper folded in half with
her name on the outside. She picked up the paper and recognized the handwriting
as the same one from the automatic writings. She opened the note and read it out
loud. “Dear Emily. Take your time getting out of bed. You will be weak from the
drug I gave you. When you’re ready, you can clean up with a shower and put on the
dress I picked out for you. I can’t wait to see you wearing it. David.”

She placed the note back on the table. The note made the
nightmare real. He had used the women to call to her, to connect with her. Once
he was in her mind, he took Cassie to bring her to him. And now she was here,
just as he planned.

The window caught her attention. She would never be able to
escape through the front door, but maybe she could get through the window. She
swung her tingling legs over the edge of the bed, realizing for the first time that
she was barefoot. As soon as her weight shifted onto her legs, they turned into
gelatin. She grasped for the edge of the unsteady bedside table and pulled it
down with her. The lamp shattered on the hardwood floor and the table knocked
against her head. Her arm landed on the shattered glass and cut her skin, while
her head crashed into the hard floor.

Heavy footsteps closed in on the bedroom door. Despite the
pain from her fall, Emily bounced into a sitting position, scrambled back
against the bed, and pulled her knees up to her chest. She wrapped her arms
around her weak legs and put her head down. Drops of blood from the wound on
her head dripped onto her bare forearm while her upper arm stung from the cuts.

The bedroom door flung open and she kept her body secure in
a tight, protective ball.

“Oh no,” David said. “What happened?”

She lifted her eyes toward the deep voice and saw legs moving
in her direction.

David crouched in front of her and touched her arm. “It’s
okay, Emily. I’m not upset with you. It’s only a lamp that we can replace. I’m
more worried about you.”

Her body shuddered so hard she thought she might start
crying. She was really here with David, a killer who had mutilated eight women
and shot her best friend. Tears spilled from her eyes and she lifted a shaky
hand to her face.

“That Ketamine really has you a mess, doesn’t it? Let’s get
you back into bed. After you rest, you’ll feel so much better.” He put one arm
around her and slipped his other arm between the backs of her calves and
thighs. She swung her arm around his shoulder, and he lifted her up and laid
her down in the bed.

He knelt down beside the bed and caressed her cheek. “You’re
going to be okay, it will just take a little bit for the Ketamine to wear off. That’s
why I left you the note, so you wouldn’t accidentally hurt yourself.”

The note, Emily thought. She should have listened to the
instructions on his note. Eager to find a way out, she didn’t realize his words
were intended to help her.

His fingers touched the side of her head. When he brought
them back into view, her blood clung to his fingertips. He took her arm and
turned it so he could see the wounds. “It’s not as bad as it looks, but you do
have a few pieces of glass stuck in your arm. We’ll get you cleaned up, but you
shouldn’t need stitches. If it turns out you do need them, I can fix that up
for you right here. I’ll be right back.” He walked to the door, and lifted up
the bedside table back to its spot by the bed.

“David?” she called before he left the room.

He turned around and smiled.

Emily needed to use his infatuation and apparent kindness
toward her to her advantage. “My head really aches.”

“I’ll bring you some aspirin.”

She forced a smile. “Thank you.”

David stood in the doorway and watched her for a few moments
before disappearing into the hallway.

Emily let out a long breath. Though her body continued
shaking, she tried to calm her mind. David believed he was in love with her,
and in his own sick way, he probably did have feelings for her. Because of
that, he would do his best to take care of her, at least for the time being. If
she wanted to survive long enough to escape, she would have to pay attention to
everything he said and did, and follow his every instruction.

She turned her head and looked at the covered window.
Somewhere out there, Jake was searching for her. She wished she could sense him
and reach out to him to let him know where she was, but David’s darkness
overshadowed Jake’s presence. David had latched onto her mind so well that it
made it hard for her to feel anything else but him.

David came back into the room with a small bowl, a glass of
water, and some medical supplies. He set everything down on the bedside table,
and helped her get into a sitting position. He took a washcloth out of the bowl
and squeezed the water out of it. Pushing back the hair from the side of her
head, he dabbed at the wound with the warm, damp washcloth.

She grimaced with the first couple of touches, and he
apologized. He lightened his touch and wiped away the blood, taking time to
rinse the cloth in the warm water several times. Once he was done with her
head, he picked up a pair of tweezers. She pulled her arm away at his first
attempt to take the glass out of her skin, but he coaxed her to stay as still
as possible. Though pain shot through her arm as he worked, she did as he asked.

Emily watched his face as he tended to her wounds. He wasn’t
what she expected in a serial killer. Had she passed him on the street she might
have considered him attractive. She had heard stories from Cassie about murderers
like Ted Bundy who used their looks to disarm their victims, and she was sure
David had done the same thing. His face had kindness in it while he fixed her
up, something for which she had not been prepared. She would always have to remember
his deadly façade so as not to let her guard down, not even for a moment.

Her wounds cleaned and bandaged, David set his tools down on
the table. He caught her watching him and smiled at her. He touched his hand to
her cheek. “I still can’t believe you’re here. I’ve waited so long for this. We
are going to be so happy together.”

She tucked her fear deep down, hiding it far away from David
so he couldn’t feel it. If he sensed her terror, he might turn on her or even
hurt her. She needed to remain strong and play into his fantasy. She lifted her
hand, placed it over his, and returned his smile.

Appearing pleased, David rose from the bed. He picked up two
white pills from the bedside table and handed them to her along with the glass
of water. The white pills looked different than the generic aspirin Emily had
at home, but she didn’t want to antagonize him by asking if he had anything
different for her to take. She thanked him, washed the pills down with the
water, and returned the glass to the bedside table.

“Maybe some sunlight will help you get your strength back a
little faster,” he said.

Emily caught her breath. If he opened the drapes, she could
see outside the window and plan her escape. David yanked back the drapes and
Emily’s heart dropped into her stomach. Black wrought iron bars ran vertically
across the outside of the windows. Though barred windows often contained a
locking mechanism in case of a fire, she was sure he had removed it in
anticipation of an escape attempt. She doubted that the window itself could
even open.

She regained her composure before he turned around. “Thank
you,” she said. “The sunlight will definitely help.”

“If you need anything, let me know and you’ll have it. For
now, just rest and don’t worry about the lamp. I’ll get that picked up so you
don’t step on the glass and cut yourself again. Regain your strength and then
you can get dressed and we can have lunch. Everything is ready for you in the bathroom,
and there are clothes in the dresser for you as well.”

Emily glanced at the dress hanging from the closet door. “It’s
very nice.”

“I knew you would love it. There are a few more in the
closet, but I didn’t get too much for you since we’ll have to move it all
tomorrow to our new home.”

Shock rippled through Emily. She hadn’t considered that he
would move her to a different location. She didn’t want to press the issue and
ask too many questions, in case he became suspicious. Smiling, she said, “I’m sure
everything you picked out for me is perfect. I can’t wait to try on the dress.”

“It will look beautiful on you,” he said. “Now get your
strength back, and we’ll take things one step at a time.”

He removed a couple pillows from behind her back and she curled
up on her side. As she watched him clean up the broken lamp from the floor,
Emily tried to push back against the darkness in her mind, but her efforts no
longer worked. Every so often, he threw a smile her way. With every exchanged
glance, she lost herself in the darkness a little more.

“Why would he tell you he’s killed
before?” Shawn asked.

“He started talking and I kept asking questions,” Cassie
said. “He always planned on killing me, so he probably didn’t care about revealing
all these details. He told me about his previous attempts.”

“What do you mean by previous attempts?” Shawn asked.

Cassie looked away and narrowed her eyes. “I’m not sure.
Maybe just killing women in other cities before he got his methods down.”

Jake picked up on her lie. He knew from the shadow that
crossed her eyes that she held something back, but he didn’t call her out on
her dishonesty in case she had a reason for withholding information from Lionel
and Shawn. They would question her further if they saw the same thing he did.

“If this isn’t the first place he’s killed, we need to find
out where he struck in the past,” Lionel said.

“Miami,” Cassie said. “Des Moines, Seattle.” Both Lionel and
Shawn looked at her dumbstruck, but she shrugged her shoulders in response. “I
got him talking and he told me. There were a few others I don’t remember, but
you can start with those three locations. You should look for similar M.O.s,
but probably not as aggressive or violent as here. Not nearly as many killings,
either.”

“That’s a lot of good information,” Lionel said. “He must
have planned to kill you for sure if he let all of that out.” He looked at Shawn.
“I think we need to check out this lead right away, along with everything else
we have.”

“I’ll get on contacting the police departments in the cities
if you want to check on the evidence,” Shawn said.

“Montana,” Cassie whispered.

“What?” Shawn asked.

“He started in Montana,” she said. “There was a girl.” She
hesitated, as if retrieving memories. “Julie. He killed her first. Picked her
up at a rest stop. He talked about her like he holds her in the highest regard,
right under Emily, that is. Julie started it all for him, so it was several
years ago.”

“You’ve given us a lot to go on,” Lionel said.

“Is there anything else?” Shawn asked.

“His name is David, but I don’t know his last name.”

Lionel and Shawn exchanged a look. “That’s also what we
found during our investigation,” Lionel said.

Jake’s words stuck in his dry throat, but he managed to get
them out. “You said he thinks he’s in love with Emily, so that means he won’t
hurt her or kill her, right?”

Cassie turned to Jake with such desperation on her face that
it did not require psychic abilities to read her thoughts. “He doesn’t plan on hurting
her or killing her, but he will.”

Fear seized his chest. He tried to speak, but nothing came
out.

“Eventually,” Cassie continued, “he will realize that Emily
doesn’t meet this high expectation he has of her. She won’t be everything he
thought and he’ll become angry with her. He won’t be able to help it. At first,
he’ll just hurt her, but he’ll get to the point where he will kill her.”

Tears seared Jake’s eyes. “How long would it take someone
like him to reach that breaking point?”

Cassie looked away from him. “48 hours if we’re lucky. As
volatile as he is, I’d be surprised if it’s any longer than that. I’m sorry,
Jake.”

Jake slumped over in the chair. He tried to fight the tears
welling in his eyes, but a few leaked out and rolled down his cheeks. He
shielded his eyes with his hand.

Lionel walked over to him and laid a firm hand on his
shoulder. “Jake, we’ll find her before anything happens to her.”

Jake used the last of his strength to look up at Lionel. “You
have to bring her home,” he said. “I can’t lose her.”

Lionel nodded and motioned for Shawn to follow him out of
the room. Shawn gave Cassie one last smile before he left.