She tried to jerk her head away from his touch, but his fingers slid through her hair, holding her in place with a tight grip.
“You never told me you had a sister,” said Gary.
It took a moment for the meaning of his words to sink in. “You stay away from her,” warned Ashley.
Gary let out a laugh that sounded cultured and elegant, like he was at some kind of cocktail party. “She’s looking for you. I think I’m going to let her find you.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“She’ll take good care of you, I’m sure. Right to the very end.”
Dear God, no. Not that. Ashley couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t let Elise go through what she had gone through with Constance.
Gary leaned forward until his nose was against her neck, and he breathed in deeply. “I love that smell,” he said. “Terror and helplessness. I just can’t get enough.”
He pulled back to look down at her. “I’m not going to be able to wait much longer. Good thing your sister is clever and resourceful. It won’t take her long to figure out the clue I left her.”
“What clue?” asked Ashley, dreading the knowledge even as she asked for it.
“The one I carved into Constance’s stomach.”
Elise woke up to find Trent watching her. Judging from the fading light outside, she’d slept the whole day away.
“Did you get any rest?” she asked him. He was fully dressed, unlike herself. It had been hot in the bedroom. The southern windows had allowed the sun to heat the room all day, and now it was nearly stifling. She’d kicked the sheet off at some point, leaving her completely nude.
“Enough.” The golden flecks in his eyes were glowing bright as he stared down at her naked body.
“What time is it?”
“Almost seven.”
She’d been asleep for hours, despite the heat. Apparently, she’d reached the end of her strength and needed to recharge. She only hoped it made a difference in the search for Ashley. “Has Detective Woodward called?”
“Not yet. He probably didn’t have anything new to report.”
Disappointment rose in the back of her throat, bitter and searing. “I was hoping he would. I’m not sure where we go from here without any leads.”
“I’ll call him for you.” Trent fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed. “Hi, Ed.”
He listened briefly and from the way his face hardened, Elise knew it wasn’t good news.
She pressed a hand to her mouth to hold back the cry of denial. She was tired of jumping to the conclusion that Ashley was dead every time the phone rang, but she couldn’t seem to make herself stop. Her mind just went there of its own volition, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
“It’s not Ashley,” Trent said to her. Into the phone, he said, “We’ll be there as soon as we can.” He hung up.
“What?” asked Elise.
“You need to get dressed. They found another body—Susan Maloney. Or what’s left of her.”
Ashley’s hands shook as she used the strip of fabric stretched across a plastic hanger to spin the pencil, trying to create enough friction to light the little pile of wood shavings and paper strips on fire.
Her dinner sat untouched next to her. The condensation forming on the plastic cup of ice water slid down the side, marking off the seconds as they passed. Every slow drip made it less likely that Gary was still here to die along with them in the fire.
If she could get the blasted thing started.
Frustration rose up in her, hot enough to make her throat burn, but it did no good in helping spark a blaze. Her arm was tired, but she refused to give up so soon. A rest break might allow that devil to get away to kill again.
He wanted Elise. Ashley wasn’t going to let him find her.
She forced her arm to move faster, ignoring the burn deep in her muscles.
A wisp of smoke more delicate than her last shred of hope wafted up from the pencil.
Ashley held her breath, fearing she’d blow out the spark before it had time to take root.
A bigger tendril of smoke rose up, and inside the nest of pencil shavings, she could hear a faint crackle of burning wood.
She kept the pencil spinning, and in seconds, the infant fire was born. With as much care as her trembling hands allowed, she moved a crumpled ball of paper near the tiny glowing spot. It blackened, then glowed as it caught fire.
Everything she needed was close at hand. She grabbed the roll of toilet paper and fed it to the small fire, making it grow. Next, she lit the edge of her sketchbook and took it over to the bed.
The blanket went up in a whoosh of heat and light, giving off acrid smoke.
Ashley coughed and stepped away, instinctively covering her face with her hands. Not that it was going to help her much. In a few more minutes, the smoke would overpower her and she wouldn’t live long enough to know whether or not her plan to kill Gary had worked.
She backed against the wall and slid down to the ground, watching as the flames crept higher.
T
here was no way Trent was going to let Elise see Susan Maloney’s body. She didn’t need that kind of image in her head at all, much less tied to her sister.
If they never found her, this was the picture that would fill Elise’s mind every time she wondered what had happened to Ashley.
Both her hands were missing, as was her left leg from the knee down. Her head was also gone. A perfect two-inch square of skin had been removed from her stomach, leaving a gaping wound. There was no blood, but streaks of mud were smeared across her pale flesh. Bits of vegetation were tangled in her pubic hair, along with a film of green slime from the water.
Trent looked back up the weed-infested hill to where Elise stood behind the yellow plastic tape. She was wringing her hands, standing on tiptoe in an effort to see what they’d found. Trent was confident she couldn’t see the body from there. It was in a shallow depression near the water’s edge, hidden by grass and debris.
Detective Woodward had been right to make her stay back. He’d given her the story that she didn’t know how to not contaminate a crime scene. Trent could go because he did, which was why he was well back from the area, but that’s not why he was standing here over the mutilated body of this poor woman.
He was there because Woodward knew Elise shouldn’t be, and unless Trent was here, she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
“How did you know it was Susan?” Trent asked Woodward.
“Birthmark. Her mother told us about it when she went missing. We’ll have Mrs. Maloney ID her, just to be sure, but it’s a safe bet that the head we found downstream belongs to this body.”
Susan’s head.
“Is he getting sloppy?”
“A few hours ago, I would have said yes.”
“But not now?”
Woodward shook his head. He hadn’t stopped looking at Susan’s corpse, like he was trying to memorize it or something.
Maybe he was forcing himself to face the consequences of not finding this psycho yet.
Woodward sighed. “I didn’t want Elise to know yet, not until I talked to you, but we found another body three miles from here.”
A sick sense of doom cascaded through Trent’s limbs. “Ashley?”
“No. This time he left all the pieces together in a trash bag so we could ID her.”
“Then why don’t you want Elise to know?”
“Because her name was carved into this woman’s body.”
“Elise’s name?”
“Yeah. Along with a bunch of numbers. We’ve got guys working on what it might mean, but it’s clear the message was for Elise.”
“He wants her,” said Trent, feeling the truth of it sitting cold in his belly.
“That was my guess.”
“He’s not going to get her.” No way was Trent going to allow that asshole to lay a finger on Elise. Not while he still drew breath.
“I figured you’d say something like that, which is why I was hoping you could help me convince her to go into protective custody.”
“She’s not a witness.”
“No, but the Bureau is stepping in to help with the case, and they’re willing to foot the bill.”
“What are they getting out of it?”
Woodward finally took his eyes off Susan and gave Trent a guilty stare. “Bait.”
“Fuck that,” snarled Trent. “There’s no way I’m letting her put herself out there like that.”
“It’s not your decision. I know she’ll want to do this.”
“So do I, which is why we need to convince her not to, rather than trying to talk her into dangling herself in front of this psycho like a worm on a hook.”
“I know these guys,” said Woodward. “They’d be careful with her. She’d be safer than she is now.”
“I don’t see how.”
“For one thing, she won’t have armed assassins breaking into her hotel room anymore. She’d be under guard 24/7.”
“It’s not worth the risk.”
“Maybe to you it’s not, but what about to her?”
“Don’t you dare tell her about the other body, or the message.”
“I don’t want to tell her unless she’s willing to go with the feds. Otherwise, she might try something stupid and try to take the killer down herself. That’s why I need your help here.”
“If she doesn’t know, she can’t act.”
“It’s not like she won’t find out. It’s not exactly easy to hide news about a dead body from the press.”
“Fine, then hide the message. Cover it up. Don’t publicize it.”
“So, you think we should pretend we never saw it, let Elise go along her merry way and hope this guy doesn’t catch up to her before we can find him? I’ve found unsolved cases dating back ten years that might be connected to this guy. Do you really think a guy who can kill for that long and get away with it—without us even knowing he exists—is going to be easy to find?”
“I know he’s not, but you’ve got to be closer now. There’s got to be evidence somewhere on these bodies, surveillance footage, people who saw him. Something.”
“Believe me, we’re working all the angles. There just isn’t anything solid to go on right now. The bodies are clean. No fibers, no prints, no skin under the fingernails, no semen. If we found the bone saw he used, we could probably connect it to the bodies, but we have no idea where to start looking. We’ve got young, blond, female undercover officers working to bring him out of hiding, but so far, he hasn’t taken any of our bait. That’s why we need Elise.”
“No. You can’t ask her to do this.”
“I’m sorry, Trent. I thought you’d see how important this is, but since you don’t, I have no choice but to tell her everything and let her make up her own mind.”
“If you do, she’ll get herself killed.” Mutilated and sliced up into pieces like the woman lying in the muddy weeds.
“If I don’t, a lot more women are going to die. I can’t take that chance.”
“It’s not your chance to take. It’s hers.” And Trent was going to see to it that Elise left the country before she could.
Elise saw Trent march up the riverbank, his face grim. An officer lifted the yellow police tape to let him pass, and he headed right for her.
Trent took her arm and swept her up in his wake. “Time to go,” he said.
“Where?”
“To the airport. I’m getting you on the next flight out of here. Decide where you want to go.”
“Go?” She had no idea what was going on, or what he’d seen that had spooked him, but she wasn’t about to let him manhandle her like this.
Elise straightened her legs, trying to stop him, but he simply lifted her up with one strong arm and kept on walking toward the car. She swatted him, but he didn’t slow.
“Put me down right now and tell me what the hell happened down there.”
“I will. On the way to the airport.”
They reached the car, and he set her down long enough to unlock the doors with the remote. Elise took the opportunity to swipe it away from him and tucked the keys deep into her pocket.
She backed up so he couldn’t reach her. “Now, Trent. You’re going to tell me now.”
His face had hardened into a murderous expression, making the muscles in his jaw bulge. “Give me the keys.”
“Not until you stop acting like a Neanderthal, tossing me around as you please, ordering me to do things. I don’t take kindly to being bossed around.”
He pulled in a deep breath that stretched his shirt over his pecs, then let it out slowly. “I’m sorry if I offended you. I’ll explain everything if you just get in the car. Please.”
Detective Woodward walked toward them, his stride hurried. He had a worried look on his face, but when he saw Elise standing there, it changed to relief.
“Good. You haven’t left yet,” he said. “My friend from the FBI is at the station asking for you.”
“Me?” said Elise.
“Yeah. She wants some time with you, if you don’t mind.”
“Why?”
“She thinks it will help complete her profile of the killer.”
Elise had no idea how it could help, but she was willing to play along. “Sure. Anything I can do to help.”