Before Bobby jumped him.
Before Dryden decided to make the cutting real.
Even if it meant opening her own private horrors to him.
“Yes. I’m afraid…”
“Afraid of what?”
“That you’ll… That you’ll hunt me like the professor did.”
“The professor. What a loser. Sad. He could never be like me.”
“He brought me to the place you hunted those girls.”
“He was weak. No imagination.”
“But Louis, he hunted somewhere else.”
“So he did.” Dryden smiled, lips pulling back from straight, white teeth. “Your father is an amazing man, Diana. The greatest. Even from prison, I did whatever I wanted. Even from prison, I called the shots.”
“Where Louis hunted… I never knew. The police never knew.”
“Of course, they didn’t. They think small. They are small.”
“Louis must have come up with the perfect place. I think he might have been brilliant.”
“Smart enough to come to me for direction. Not brilliant.”
“I don’t know, he—”
Dryden tangled a fist in her hair and pulled her head back. “I told him who to take, where to hunt, how to kill. Your father is brilliant.”
Diana let out the whimper pressing in her throat.
Dryden’s smile grew wider. “There are islands in Lake Superior where no one lives.”
The mint of his breath wafted against her face, turning her stomach. She swallowed hard. She had to hold on. She had to know.
He released her hair, then, standing up, he circled her, the knife’s blade glinting in one fist. “I’d like to take you there, Diana.”
“Where?”
“Just Daddy and his favorite little girl. A lighthouse all our own. That’s where I’d hunt you. But first…”
He crouched on the other side of her and slipped the knife between the cups of her bra. Then he pulled the sharp edge upward, steel slicing through lace. He set the blade to the side and was about to spread the cups of her bra open when—
Dryden lurched forward. The knife skittered across the floor. And then Bobby was straddling his back. Gripping Dryden’s head in both hands, Bobby slammed the killer’s face against the concrete.
Once.
Twice.
Until Ed Dryden’s face was bloody and his body limp.
Bobby fastened Dryden’s hands behind his back, and then he was untying her, holding her, wrapping his suit coat around her shoulders.
“He could have killed you, Diana. My God, he could have killed you.” His tone was hard, balancing on the sharp edge of anger and fear.
She pressed her face into his shoulder. Tears misted her vision. “The Apostle Islands. Did you hear?”
“The islands with vacant lighthouses will be swarming with local sheriff’s deputies within the hour. We’ll find her. Thanks to you, we’ll find her.”
***
After being taken to the Lake Loyal police station, Diana fielded questions from police and prison officials far into the night. As the adrenaline faded, she became unbearably tired, and finally after what was hopefully the last interview, she leaned forward on the conference table and fell asleep.
She jolted awake at the sound of the door closing. And when she looked up, Bobby stood just inside the conference room. Diana scrambled out of her chair, raced around the table, and threw herself into his arms.
For a long time, they just held each other. The solid feel of him, the sound of his breath in her ear, the smell of his skin was all Diana needed.
“They found her, Diana.”
Diana pulled back and looked into his eyes. “She’s…”
“Okay. Scared but okay. She’s on her way home now.”
“Thank God.”
“And thank you. You did it, Diana. You saved that woman. She never would have been found in time without you. She would have died in that lighthouse. But…”
Diana frowned. “But?”
“If you ever do anything that crazy again…”
She let out a laugh. It had been crazy. She still couldn’t quite wrap her mind around it. But she’d done what she had to, made the choices she’d had to make.
What she couldn’t figure out was why he’d made the choices he had. “How about you?”
“Me?”
“You didn’t jump Dryden. You waited. Why?”
The hard line of his jaw softened. He raised a hand to her face, tracing her cheekbone with one finger. “You seemed to have things under control.”
Tears stung her eyes, turning Bobby into a blur of color. “How did you know? Even I didn’t know that for sure.”
“I didn’t know either. Not for sure.” He brushed a strand of hair back from her cheek. “But that’s what having faith in someone is about, isn’t it?”
Her throat ached. Warmth radiated from the center of her chest. She’d waited a long time for him to have faith in her. But she’d waited even longer to have faith in herself. And it was something she wanted to hold onto. A confidence she never wanted to slip away.
“How about Dryden?” she asked.
“Unfortunately, he’s going to be okay too.”
“I have to admit, I'd hoped you killed him.”
Bobby let out a heavy sigh. “Killing one serial killer today is probably enough.”
“Yesterday.”
He checked his watch. “The sun is going to be up soon. At least we don’t have to go back to those taskforce offices in Madison.”
“I do.”
Bobby’s eyebrows pinched together, as if he didn’t follow.
Diana took a deep breath. “Are you done… you know, working with Perreth?”
“Should be. I’m on administrative leave until the shooting investigation is over.” Bobby studied her.
“Good. Because I’m going to file a complaint.”
“You sure?” Bobby ran his hands down her arms. “It’s your decision.”
For the second time since he’d walked in the room, Diana’s eyes misted over. “Yeah. It is. And if he did the same thing to other women and I didn’t say anything, I just couldn’t live with that.”
Bobby raised a hand to her face and gently wiped away an escaped tear. “You don’t have to worry about needing me, Diana. You don’t. You can deal with life just fine on your own.”
Yes, she could. For the first time in her life, she knew it. “I might not need you anymore, Bobby, not like I used to. But I want you. I want to be with you. I want to share my life with you. You make me happy. And I want to be happy.”
A smile touched his lips. A smile that bubbled through her blood and made her want to dance.
“I love you, Diana. I always have.” He brought his mouth to hers, his kiss full of need and want and love. And when the kiss ended, she looked into his eyes and found a reflection of the strength she’d dreamed of. And she knew deep in her heart it was coming from her and no one could take it away.
“I love you, too, Bobby. And I always will.”
Curt Tillman
A month later…
Curt stood in the shadow of the park shelter and watched the wedding party assembled on the north shore of Lake Mendota.
A month had passed since he’d met his sister, since he’d read in the newspaper about how she and that cop had brought down the Copycat Killer and saved the governor’s daughter-in-law. A month since he’d learned about his father.
Dryden was scheduled to be transferred back to the Supermax or whatever the hell they called the place now. Fine with Curt. He didn’t want to think about the bastard. He sure as hell didn’t want to know him.