Khan (20 page)

It took him ten minutes of watching the
CIA building to see the woman he was after. He didn’t follow her directly home
and had lost her twice. The only reason he had been able to figure out where
she lived at all was because he’d taken a left when there had been a road
barricaded off and had seen her car pull into a gated area. When he drove by
the place slowly, he saw the big gate and realized it wasn’t a gated community
like where his parents lived, but a single residence. He pulled over his car
down the street and walked to the gate. He slipped into the yard across the
street from the big house and knocked on the door.

He looked around the neighborhood and
saw that it was sparse when it came to houses. When the elderly woman opened
the door, he pulled his gun up and shot her in the forehead. As she tumbled back,
he stepped over her and dragged her lifeless body into the house with him. Closing
the door, he left the woman lying where she was and went to the living room to
spy on the gate just in front of him.

“Now we wait.” He got up a few minutes
later and got the meal that had been cooking in the microwave. He thanked the
dead woman and ate it sitting in front of the window. Drinking the unopened
bottle of water he’d found on the counter, he settled in to wait for Monica to
come out. Two hours later, a limo pulled out.

Finding the old lady’s keys, he went to
the garage and got into her vehicle. He was pulling out when a second car came
out of the gate. He could see that this one held who he was looking for and she
was alone. Alone, he supposed, if you didn’t count the dark sedan behind her. He
didn’t care. He had a plan.

~~~

Monica pulled into the dry cleaners ten
minutes before they closed. The lady had told her that she had found something
in her pocket and wanted to know if Monica could come and get it. She thought
it had value, and as they had no safe, she wanted to make sure it was returned.
It was the necklace that Khan had given her.

“One day,” Monica mumbled to herself. “I
have it one day and I lose it. Or nearly so. Damn it.”

She didn’t tell anyone where she was
going except the guard on her tail. She had to tell him because, while she was
embarrassed, she wasn’t stupid. Besides, she was a little afraid after last
night. She shivered while she drove and turned up the heat. She wondered if she’d
ever be warm again.

The woman that had been killed last
night had been another look alike. But this time, he’d taken his time with
killing her. After who they all knew was Tony had tied her to a chair, he’d cut
off all her hair. And not, the police had said, with a pair of scissors. He’d
peeled her hair from her scalp as if he was scalping her.

He’d also raped her repeatedly with
several different objects, the last being a knife. Caitlynne hadn’t told them
this part, but Monica had seen it in her mind. Had the woman not had her throat
slit, she would have hemorrhaged to death from the wounds to her vagina. Tony’s
rage had escalated. And it was directed at her.

The lady at the dry cleaners was very
nice. She’d asked about the necklace, and Monica had told her it was a wedding
gift from her new husband. When the lady had remembered seeing her in the
paper, she asked to have it signed. Monica waited at the counter for her to get
it when she glanced out the window.

The sedan that had been following her
was still there, but a man was walking away from it. She could see the window
down on the car and thought that he’d been talking to them. The guards were
very nice, and she didn’t doubt they had plenty of friends around. She knew
that these two men were from this area. By the time she had signed the
newspaper article and collected her now clean dress, she went out the door and
smiled at the car. She was in her own car when she felt something touch the
back of her head. She heard Tony’s laughter seconds before he spoke.

“You have been a very naughty girl,
Monica. I have been looking for you for days and days. We had plans, you and I,
and now you’ve messed them up.” She glanced at the other car to try and get
their attention. “Oh they won’t be able to help you. I had to make sure that
when I took you, I’d have you all for myself. They both died for you…because of
you.”

“Please don’t do this. I just got
married and I want to spend the rest of my life with…”

The pain exploded in her head. When he
hit her, she slammed her head forward on the steering wheel. Blood poured from
the wound as stars danced in front of her eyes.

“I want you to do just what I say and I
won’t have to kill anyone else because of you. You’re going to drive correctly
and do just what I tell you. If you don’t, I’ll shoot everyone we come across
until you listen to me.” She nodded and felt the gun press harder into her
head. “Turn out of this parking lot and toward Stadium Street. Make a left
there.”

She drove for twenty-five minutes,
knowing that if she did anything wrong or even looked at someone wrong, he
would kill them. Terrified more than she’d ever been, she knew something was
different about Tony. He was…she supposed the word would be confident, and
seemed to have something completely worked out in his mind. She had a feeling
that it was her being dead, and she wondered how she was going to get out of
this.

Reaching out with her mind, she captured
the mind of someone. She told him about the men at the dry cleaners. Since she
was driving, she couldn’t hold onto any one person for very long so she told
six people the same thing.

“Dead men at Washington State Dry
Cleaners. Have Monica.” Over and over she would tell them and hoped that at
least one of them would relay the information. When he had her pull up behind
what she knew was his car, she turned off the engine to her car and knew that
this was it. When he had her get into the passenger seat of his car, she
dropped the necklace on the seat beside her and got out. There was no way she
was letting him touch it.

She told six more people where to find
her car. “Milner Street. Stolen car. Call police.” Monica didn’t know if that
would really get her car stolen or someone would report it. She hoped someone
would find it.

Monica expected him to shoot her as soon
as they got in the car together. But he held the gun on her as he drove. When
he started to sing to the music, she looked around for an opportunity to jump
from the car. Then he reached over and grabbed her hand with his armed hand.

“You try anything and I will find a
grade school, run this car into it, then shoot every child I see. You know that
I’ll do it too. I’m a man with a plan.”

She nodded, terrified he’d do just that.
She didn’t want any more deaths because of her. He told her good girl and
continued driving.

By the time they were pulling into the
parking garage, she was nearly doubled over sick with terror. He held the gun
to her as he took his suitcase out of the back seat and motioned for her to
precede him. When they entered the hotel, she couldn’t make her mind touch
anyone else’s. She was going to die was all that kept going through her mind. She
was going to die one day after saying, “I do.”

When he opened the door with his card,
she walked into the room. She saw the suitcase go tumbling before pain exploded
in her head again. This time, it took her to her knees. Before she could move
away, a second blast of pain took her. As she was tumbling to the floor, she
reached for anyone and touched the mind of Tony. Christ, he was going to make
her suffer.

Khan was sitting at the table talking to
his mom and dad when Caitlynne and his brothers came in. He knew immediately
that something had happened. When he stood up, his mother leaned into him. He
held her. Caitlynne told him to sit.

“I’d rather stand. I don’t know what you
have to tell me, but if I’m standing, I can fall to the chair. If I’m already
there, I’ll hit the floor.” He was babbling. He knew it, and so did everyone
else. “Please tell me she’s still alive.”

“As far as we know. There’s no reason to
believe he’s killed her.” He finally sat. “Someone called the…six people called
the police about dead men at the Washington State Dry Cleaners. They were the
men assigned to follow Monica. Both men were shot at close range by the same
gun that killed two other people over the past two weeks. The callers had no
idea why they called because, as they told the dispatcher, they didn’t have any
dry cleaning, but they had to call. Also, they were to tell us that someone had
Monica.”

“She contacted them.”

Caitlynne nodded.

“So she is alive to do that. Was
there…what else?”

“A stolen car was reported. On Milner
Street. When the police arrived, they hadn’t put the two incidents together yet
and ran the plates on every car there. Luckily, there were only nine. None had
been reported stolen, but Walker’s car came up and that he was related to me. They
called my office first and informed me what was going on. They also told me
they found something in the front seat.”

She handed him the necklace. Khan
gripped it in his hand and looked up at Dylan when he touched his shoulder. He
handed it to him when he’d asked. His brother held it tightly.

“She’s afraid, terrified. She left this
so that he wouldn’t touch it. She is hoping that when this is over, you will
put it back on her and love her.” Dylan handed him the necklace. “If the
emotion is really strong, I can get it. She is very frightened, but she’s
really pissed too. She isn’t going to go down easy.”

Khan didn’t even ask. He knew that his
brother had secrets that he would share when he wanted to. He thanked him and
looked at Caitlynne. She looked grim.

“She’ll get us to her. No matter how she
has to do it. We’ll find her. She managed to get us this far, she’ll get us to
her.”

He believed it too. Khan didn’t leave
the kitchen. There was a phone there, and this room led out of the house and
was closest to the garage. When she contacted someone else, he was going to be
ready to go. He’d already taken Caitlynne’s truck keys. He was going to be
prepared when he went to get her.

Agents came in and out all afternoon. He
watched them quietly and tried not to glare at them. He’d been told by his
mother that he was scaring them. He had the look of a man posed on the edge. He
felt that way too. The last time he’d stood up when one of them were in the
room, the man actually put his hand on his gun. It might have been funny if he
wasn’t so afraid.

It was four hours later when he received
a phone call. The cook had answered the phone and handed it to him without
saying anything. He asked if it was Monica, and the man shook his head. He said
hello, and the man at the other end sounded confused.

“I’m at the Wilkinson Hotel. I’m not
real sure why you want to know that, but I just called to let you know.” Khan
asked him who he was. “Tim Daily. Do I know you?”

Khan hung up on him. Some idiot trying
to get something from his family, no doubt, or had read about the wedding in
the paper. He was just sitting back down when the phone rang again. The cook
handed it to him again.

“Hey, I don’t think I know you, but I’m
staying at the Wilkinson Hotel. Out off Walden Road. You know where that’s at?”

Khan hung up. He heard the phone ring
before he stepped away and reached for it before the cook could. He didn’t have
time for this shit. Dylan walked in just as he blasted the man.

“Look, buddy, I don’t give a shit where
you are or where you work. We need this line open for important calls.” He slammed
the phone down and looked at the cook. “If anyone else calls that line, tell
them we’re using it for the police. Maybe that’ll stop them.”

“Did Monica ever use this phone?”

Khan looked at his brother and shrugged.
He asked the cook the same question.

“Yes. She wanted to make a few phone
calls this morning to go and get her dry cleaning.” The cook frowned. “That
number is private. No one else has it but the staff, and I guess Miss Monica.”

The phone rang again. This time Khan
reached for it with a shaky hand. When he said hello this time, he had a pen
and paper shoved at him from Dylan. The person at the other end wanted to speak
to Bill, the cook. He took it.

It was about an order he’d placed. He
hurried through the conversation and hung up. He stepped back when Khan asked
him too. The phone rang twice more, but it was for the staff. He looked at the
agent when he walked in.

“I think she’s at the Wilkinson. There
have been several calls of people telling us that they’re there. I don’t know
if she’s actually there, but she might be.”

The man nodded and walked out. Caitlynne
walked back in a minute later.

“I think she’s there. Can we go and get
her?”

“Not yet. My men are checking to see if
someone fitting the description has checked in with a woman. We can’t go in and
close the place down without all our Ts crossed.” An hour later, they said that
no one had checked in under the name of Barr and that no one had come in with a
woman in the past three days.

Khan slumped in the chair. “It has to be
her. Why would those people call and tell us where they were if not for her
asking them to?” Caitlynne said she didn’t know. “I have to have her back,
Caitlynne. She’s all I have in the world.”