Obsession (17 page)

Amazing
, Kendra thought now,
that so many basic needs are so dependent on electricity
. She was beyond grateful that Charlie had stocked up on oil for the lantern he’d bought and that he had proven to be quite adept at cooking on the wood stove.

Although preparing food was a constant chore, Kendra found that mealtime was her favorite part of the day. She liked working side by side with Charlie and sitting down across from him at the table as they shared that time together.

She smiled as she considered the way they had settled into their easy, almost domestic routine. They had breakfast together each morning, and then Charlie spent time reading through his stack of files while she worked on her music. After lunch each day, they played games or did various chores around the cabin. Then night came, and Kendra could revel in the quiet, undisturbed conversations they shared. Typically, he convinced her to play him one of her songs, not the popular ones he knew from the radio but whatever she was working on that day.

Normally, she didn’t like to share her music until it was more polished, but she found she enjoyed playing for Charlie. He didn’t seem to care that she often zoned out while she was fiddling with a new melody. At times, she even found herself bouncing ideas off him, surprised at how helpful his comments could be, even though he wasn’t a musician.

She could feel herself drawing closer to him, falling for him in a way she hadn’t expected. The more those feelings intensified, the more frustrated she became.
If only I had more experience with men
, she thought to herself. Of course, with her career it was unlikely things would work out with Charlie anyway. She supposed she should just enjoy the moment and not worry about the future until she really had to.

She thought about the way she had waited each day, hoping that Charlie would do or say something to give her a glimpse of how he was feeling.

Suddenly, her fingertips brushed his as she handed him a plate, and the resulting spark of attraction drew her back to the present.

Pulling the plug on the sink, she looked over at him and told herself to stop obsessing. Then she opened her mouth and couldn’t stop the words from escaping. “Are you going to want to see me once we get out of here?”

Charlie shifted to face her. “What do you mean?”

“You know, get together.” Her shoulders lifted. “Go out.”

He looked down at her for a moment, as though debating what he should say. Then slowly, he nodded. “I would like to go out with you once this whole ordeal is over, but there’s something I need to tell you.”

“What?” Kendra asked, instinctively bracing against Charlie’s serious tone.

“Kendra, the real reason I came up here was to—” The phone rang, interrupting whatever he might have said.

Charlie’s jaw clenched, and he pulled his phone from his pocket. The moment he looked down at the caller ID, his whole body tensed. He looked down at Kendra, shook his head, and said apologetically, “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to take this.”

Kendra nodded automatically. She watched helplessly as he flipped the phone open, barked out a hello, disappeared into the bedroom, and closed the door between them.

“What?” Charlie snapped, not quite able to keep the frustration out of his voice.

“Can you talk?” Elias asked in lieu of a greeting.

“I can now.” He glanced at the closed door and tried to steady his emotions. “What’s going on?”

“A couple of things you need to know,” Elias began. “First of all, we haven’t been able to locate Jed Burgess. It looks like he may have left town because of the power outage.”

“Great,” Charlie muttered as he considered the possibilities.

“Coramavich paid a visit to his parents’ place, and they said he went to Flagstaff, but they didn’t know where he was staying.”

“Any more details on whether he was in California at the time of the other murders?”

“Yeah. So far we can place him in the LA area for four out of the six,” Elias told him. “We’re still waiting on the last of his credit card records to see if we can place him there for the other two.”

“What’s taking so long to get the credit card records?”

“It was a mix up with the credit card company. They gave us access to the wrong account,” Elias said with a touch of annoyance in his voice. “That should be cleared up today.”

“You said you had a couple things to tell me. What else is going on?”

“The LA office did some digging on Steve DeFoe. It turns out he was at her concert the night of the incident.”

“Really?” Charlie considered this newest information. “Did you track down the arrest record for DeFoe?”

“Yeah. It looks like the break-up with Kendra happened just over three years ago.”

An uncomfortable thought weaved through Charlie’s mind, one he hadn’t entertained before, and one he hoped to put to rest quickly. “Did the break-up happen before or after the first murder?”

“It was before the first murder,” Elias said, and Charlie could hear him rustling through papers. “A little more than three months before.” Silence hung on the line for a moment, and then Elias voiced Charlie’s fears. “You’re wondering if Steve DeFoe is the Malibu Stalker? If he’s killing people who remind him of Kendra?”

“I hope not, but the timing would fit.” Charlie ran a hand over his face. “What if Kendra is the person the stalker is fixated on? If she is, it doesn’t matter where she tries to hide; he’s going to keep coming after her.”

“Ray and I were talking about that earlier. The LA office is going to look into his whereabouts for the dates of all the murders. And, of course, we’ll keep checking out Burgess, especially since we can place him in California for four of the murders.”

“Again, what is Burgess’s tie to Malibu? The only one I can think of is his association with the Blake family,” Charlie said, his stomach churning as he spoke. “Think about it. Kendra has had heavy security most of her life, especially since she was a teenager. One of these guys fixates on her but can’t get past the bodyguards to see or talk to her. He then takes out his frustration by finding substitutes.”

“It would fit the psychological profile of the killer,” Elias said. “If the Malibu Stalker has fixated on her, that might also explain why she’s the only one with the spyware program on her computer.”

“What spyware?”

“Apparently, someone managed to plant some kind of high-tech spyware on Kendra’s laptop. We haven’t been able to track down the guy who was monitoring it.”

“It’s sounding more and more like she could be the real target.” Charlie let out a shaky breath. “Look, I’ve got to tell Kendra who I am.”

“Do you think she’ll accept protection?”

“I don’t know.” Charlie ran his fingers through his hair. “When I was talking to her earlier, she mentioned staying clear of Malibu for the time being.”

“But if you’re right, she may be the primary target,” Elias commented. “Maybe it’s time you convince her to hide out somewhere else for a while. Would she trust you enough to go with you to a safer location?”

“Are you asking me to trick her into going to a safe house?”

“It may be necessary for her own protection,” Elias said. “You said yourself that she was planning on hiding out for a few weeks anyway. What are the chances she would go with you?”

“I don’t know.” Dozens of thoughts raced through his head, but at the heart of them all were his developing feelings for Kendra. He hesitated a moment. Then with a sigh, he admitted, “She thinks she has feelings for me.”

“That’s good.”

“Not really. Not when I have to lie to her.”

“Just give us another day or two. A plow is supposed to be coming down from Flagstaff to clear the road by tomorrow or the next day. If one of these leads doesn’t pan out, we’re going to have to convince Kendra to let us protect her somewhere else, especially since you’re without power,” Elias insisted.

“I just don’t see her buying into it. She’s Mormon. The only reason she’s willing to spend the night in the same house with me right now is for survival,” Charlie insisted. “I can’t imagine she would be willing to set up house somewhere with me under normal circumstances. Maybe we should bring in a female agent.”

“That will only work if she agrees to protection. And she trusts you,” Elias reminded him, sending another wave of guilt through Charlie.

“Do you have someplace in mind?”

“Actually, I do. There’s a cabin in Oak Creek Canyon I used a few years ago. It’s secluded enough that no one’s going to find you, but it’s close enough to where you are now that we won’t have any trouble relocating you.”

“What story am I using?”

“A friend from work found out you didn’t have electricity and offered to lend you his cabin in Oak Creek. Keep it simple,” Elias told him.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Charlie said. As soon as he hung up the phone, he closed his eyes for a moment, praying she would agree to protection. If he was right, if she really was the person the stalker was obsessed with, she was in more danger than either of them could have imagined. Charlie was afraid to think about how she would react to the news and to the fact that he had been hiding the truth from her all this time.

Charlie stuck his phone back in his pocket and walked back out into the living room. Kendra was sitting on the couch, fiddling on her guitar. When she looked up, her expression was guarded.

Charlie thought of Elias’s words and of his suggestion to use Kendra’s feelings to let him take her somewhere safe. Moving forward, Charlie tried to convince himself that it was that suggestion, not his own selfish interests, that gave him the courage to sit beside her. He was on the job, and he couldn’t fail.

Before he could find any words to say, Kendra asked, “Who was that on the phone?”

“That was my boss. He’s a bit anxious for me to get back to work.”

Trepidation crept into her voice. “So you’ll be leaving soon?”

“Maybe.” Charlie considered his words carefully. “They’re supposed to clear the road in the next day or two. With the snow melting off a bit, I should be able to make it back down the mountain tomorrow or the next day.”

“Oh.” Kendra swallowed hard and looked away.

“I want you to come with me.”

Her eyes whipped around to meet his. “What?”

“The case I’m researching will only take me an hour or two a day, so I can take another week or two before I have to get back to the office. But I do need to be somewhere that has reliable electricity. My boss has a cabin down in Oak Creek Canyon. He offered to let us stay there.”

“You told him about me?”

“Not your name, just that I had a friend staying with me that I hoped could stay there too,” Charlie told her.

“Really?” Confusion, hope, and a touch of vulnerability flashed in her eyes.

Charlie reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Yeah. Really.”

The spark between them flickered, and Charlie felt his emotions tangling. He pushed aside his guilt for the moment, letting himself get lost in the sweet simplicity of two people finding friendship, and maybe something more.

He accepted the inevitable fact that he would hurt her before this ordeal was over, but he wouldn’t think about that now. Instead, he brought her hand to his lips. “What do you say? Will you come with me? I really don’t want to leave you here alone.” Her fingers briefly tensed in his before Charlie added, “Besides, I’d like the chance to spend more time with you.”

Slowly, a smile bloomed on her face. “I think I’d like that.”

Charlie’s smile mirrored hers. “Good. Now, I think it’s time for a rematch.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” Charlie reached for the deck of cards sitting on the end table. “It’s about time my luck changed.”

“Okay.” Kendra gave him a smug smile. “But remember. You asked for it.”

He slipped through the front door of her condominium, waiting motionlessly inside the door for a moment to make sure he really was alone. He already knew she wasn’t here, but he needed some kind of connection until the day he would see her again in person. Listening to her music no longer helped fill the void, nor did staring at photographs of her.

His gloved fingers curled around the shiny silver key in his hand. Picking the lock had been easy enough the first time he had come here looking for Kendra, but he had decided that she wouldn’t want him to have to break in. After all, they belonged together. She said so in one of her songs.

Making a key for himself had been simple enough once he’d taken the time to gather the right tools. And he wasn’t worried about anyone seeing him and being suspicious; he belonged there. Besides, the neighbors would certainly get used to seeing him once he and Kendra officially became a couple. For now, though, he would keep his presence a secret.

He pocketed the key and moved slowly through the living room. A single framed photo rested on an end table. His lips curved up when he lifted it to eye level. Kendra and her baby sister. Kendra wearing blue.

The photograph still in his hand, he continued into the hallway and made his way to her bedroom. A thick duvet in bronze and cream stripes covered the bed, pillows in varying earth tones artistically arranged on top of it. He picked up a pillow and held it to his face, slowly breathing in the scent. Was that a trace of her perfume he smelled? Could it have lingered here since her last visit?

Setting the photograph on the bedside table, he slipped his shoes off and gently climbed onto the bed. He let himself relax against the sea of pillows and then stared up at the ceiling. Hugging a pillow to his chest, he let himself imagine. Soon Kendra would be here beside him. Soon she would be his.

* * *

Kendra stretched her arms over her head as she shook the sleep out of her brain. She didn’t notice that she’d kicked off the top layer of her blankets during the night or that there was a whoosh of hot air blowing through the vents. Instead, she rolled out of bed and headed down the hall toward the living room to make sure the fire was still burning.

To her surprise, Charlie was stretched out on the couch, his Bible lying open on his chest and the lantern flickering on the table beside him. He stirred as she walked closer. His face was shadowed with a two-day beard, and even in sleep, there was a faint line between his eyes as though he were deep in concentration. She wondered for a moment if he was ever truly at peace. Then she noticed the splash of light spilling into the living room from the kitchen.