“You liked meeting him that much, huh?”
She took a deep breath, wiping the frown from her face. It was no use trying to hide her feelings from Dryden. He could read her as easily as a traffic sign. “Why didn’t you tell me about him right away? Why the hints and games?”
“Games can be fun. Recreational.”
Games with people’s emotions. Games with people’s lives. “I know Curt isn’t the Copycat Killer.”
He crooked a brow. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because Louis Ingersoll is.”
He didn’t react. Not with the twitch of a brow. Not with the quirk of his lips. “Who is Louis Ingersoll?”
She thought of Bobby’s theory that the two killers had communicated by passing notes hidden in the fresh produce Louis delivered to the prison kitchen. Did Dryden really not know Louis’s name? It was possible. Or was he merely playing more of his games? “Louis was my next-door neighbor. I thought he was my friend.”
“Was?”
“He’s dead.”
Dryden licked his lower lip. “How did he die?”
Diana didn’t know the details. She hadn’t thought to ask. All she knew was who had shot him. “He was shot. That’s all I know.”
“You’re not in the loop? I find that hard to believe.”
“The police don’t know I’m here. They didn’t want me to come.”
“You mean Vaughan didn’t want you to come.” Dryden’s thin lips pulled back in a grin. “You’re too good for him, you know.”
“I’m not going to talk about Bobby with you.”
“No, you came to talk about this woman. The one with a baby. The one, I’m guessing, the police can’t find because they shot this Louis Ingersoll.”
“Where would he have taken her?”
“Why do you insist on doing the police’s job?”
“I’m not doing their job.”
“Then why are you bothering me with these questions? We have more important things to talk about.”
“More important than a woman dying?”
“A lot of women die.”
They certainly had at his hands. “This one has a baby. A baby who’s going to grow up without a mother.”
He looked at her with dead eyes. “And that’s supposed to make my heart bleed?”
Of course Dryden didn’t care. He wasn’t capable. “Please. For me. Will you do it for me?”
“For you?”
“Please.”
“I told you the next time we met, I wanted you on your knees.”
Diana figured their talk would lead to this. Now that the moment had come, she was ready to submit. Get on her knees. Humiliate herself. Do whatever stupid deferential things he asked of her. A small price to pay for getting a woman home safely to her child.
Here goes nothing.
Diana pushed up from her chair, circled the table, and knelt down on the floor in front of him. The hard concrete seemed to suck the warmth from her body. “Tell me where she is. Please.”
“Why? Why should I do this for you? You’ve been more loyal to the police than you have been to me.”
“I’m not with the police now.”
“A start. But it proves nothing.”
“What do you want from me?”
“That’s easy. I want my little girl.”
“I am your little girl.”
“No, you’re not. You’ve changed.”
“I can change back. I can be whatever you want.”
“Can you?” His eyes glinted. “Prove it.”
“What do you want?”
“I want you to call me Daddy.”
The word stuck in her throat. She forced it out. “Daddy.”
“That sounded more like a curse.” He yanked his arm upward, straining against the nylon. “Say it the right way.”
Fear crept up her throat, tasting metallic, like rusty tin. She thought of Trent Burnell’s warnings, of Bobby’s concerns. They were right. She couldn’t win.
She’d never be that little girl again. Dryden could manipulate and humiliate and bring her to her knees, but it would never make him feel the way he wanted because she’d never again look to her daddy with the tender, dependent, unblemished trust of a child.
And that wasn’t something she could fake.
She closed her eyes, blocking Dryden’s face from her mind. There was only one thing left to try. It probably wouldn’t work, but at least it didn’t require her to fake anything. “I can’t give you what you want. I won’t. But if you really want to win back a little of the respect I had for you once, you can tell me where that woman is.”
He stared at her for what felt like forever. When he finally spoke, his voice hissed barely above a whisper.
“Respect? Oh, I’ll have your respect.”
A chill seized her, colder than anything she’d ever known. She opened her eyes.
Dryden’s cruel face loomed inches from her own. He stood, free of his bindings, the light reflecting off a blade in one fist. “You will call me Daddy. And you’ll say it with love.”
Bobby
The moment Bobby opened the door and stepped into that empty office, he knew where Diana had gone. But the sting of her lying to him again was nothing compared to his uneasiness about her facing Dryden again… alone.
His debriefing and string of meetings after the shooting had taken a long time, plenty of time for Diana to have already made the drive up to the prison. So Bobby had jumped in the car and called the prison once he was on the road. He’d spent nearly the whole trip on hold, but just after he passed the turn off to Lake Loyal, Corrections Officer Seides finally picked up the line.
“Vaughan, right? Sure. She’s here. Are you saying you didn’t know about this?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. And she doesn’t have police clearance to talk to Dryden.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I’m sure.”
“Huh.”
Bobby wasn’t sure what kind of answer huh was. “So we’re on the same page, right? Don’t let her in.”
“I wish you’d called a little earlier.”
A hollow feeling opened up in Bobby’s gut. “Get her out of there.”
“She’s fine. They’re just talking.”
“Get her out of there.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what the harm is. He’s in prison, for cripe’s sake. It’s not like he can hurt her. And she said he could help find the governor’s daughter or whatever. Now if there’s nothing else, I have a job to do.”
Bobby turned into the drive leading to the prison and cut off the call. If Seides wouldn’t get Diana out of there, he’d do it himself. She would be angry. She’d probably accuse him of controlling her. But she’d just have to get over it or leave him all over again.
At least she’d be safe.
Diana
This couldn’t be happening.
Diana stared at Dryden. The nylon binders that had secured his hands lay on the floor. Cut. She couldn’t make sense of it. Any of it.
He reached a hand toward her and grabbed a fistful of hair. Pulling her face toward his, he smiled. The strong scent of mint carried on his breath. “I have some things to do, then we’ll talk like a father and daughter should.”
Diana looked to the camera. Where was Officer Seides? Wasn’t he watching? Didn’t he see?
“No one’s coming for you. That guard who brought you in here? He’s on a paid vacation.”