“Sylvie isn’t turning her back.”
“I’ve only seen her once since she was three.”
“She isn’t doing anything against you at all. She’s just trying to move on with her life.”
He studied her, his emotionless eyes boring into her, through her. “On the day you get married, I want to see you in your wedding dress. Sylvie denied me that privilege, but you won’t.”
“I’m not getting married.”
“You might change your mind once you find someone worthy.”
“I’ve worked too hard to control my own life. I’m not giving it up for a white satin dress.” She wasn’t giving it up for the opportunity to visit a serial killer in prison either. She pushed up from her chair. “It’s time for me to go.”
“Are you going to cut me out of your life as well?”
She had to remain firm. She couldn’t let him push her around. “I have to get on with my life too.”
“I need you, Diana. And you need your father. Any problems you’re having now is because they took me away from you. It isn’t right.”
“Goodbye.”
“If someone ever threatens you again, I want to know about it.”
“Why? What would you do?”
“What any good father would do. I would protect you.”
“From prison?”
He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I’d find a way. If something is important to me, I always find a way.”
“I can protect myself.” She turned away from Dryden and took a step toward the door.
“He has another one, you know.”
The tremble in her legs spread through her body, centering just under her rib cage. She turned back. “What did you say?”
“He took her last night. After stopping in at your sister’s wedding reception to pay his respects.”
“The Copycat Killer?”
“Of course.”
“How do you know this?”
“I know a lot of things, Diana. Like the desperation a parent feels when kept away from a child. Especially when she needs you most. I could tell you all about it if you would visit me.”
“Where did he take her?”
“I’m not asking you to do anything a good daughter wouldn’t do anyway.”
“You can’t let him kill another woman.”
“What am I going to do about it? I’m in prison.”
Her stomach swirled, with anger, with nausea. As much as she wanted to walk away, she couldn’t let an innocent woman suffer. She couldn’t let an innocent woman die. Not if she had a chance to save her. “What do you want me to do?”
“I already told you. Visit. Like a good daughter.” Thin lips pulled back in an icy smile. “I’ll see you again tomorrow. We’ll have a nice chat.”
Bobby
“I told you not to promise him anything.” Bobby paused behind their prison escort’s broad shoulders to let the barred door slide open in front of them.
Allowing Diana to talk to Dryden was a bad idea. Bobby had been right and then some. Now it was all he could do to keep himself from throwing her over his shoulder and hauling her off somewhere the killer would never find her.
Door fully open, the three of them stepped up to the next barred door.
Diana shot Bobby a frown. “The copycat kidnapped another woman. What would you have me do? Turn my back and let her die?”
The door slid closed behind them, trapping them in a sally port between two sets of iron bars.
Exactly how Bobby was feeling right now. “You’re assuming Dryden’s telling the truth.”
“You think he lied?”
“That never occurred to you?”
Her face flushed. “You must be able to find out, right? I mean, can’t you check missing-person reports or something?”
“Val is already on it. But that doesn’t guarantee we’ll get definitive answers.” The door slid open in front of them, allowing them to continue down the long hall to the prison entrance.
“I want to help.”
She couldn’t be serious. “Like you helped with Dryden?”
“I did help with Dryden. Weren’t you paying attention?”
“Enough to hear you promise to visit him every day.”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“You had a choice and you made it.”
She pushed a stream of air through tight lips. “Didn’t you hear anything else he said?”
“I heard it all. And have a copy.” He was already cataloging the people he wanted to take a look. Val Ryker, for sure. Maybe the FBI. And the detective still working the case in Madison, Stan Perreth…
Perreth. Ugh. If Dryden was telling the truth, and the copycat was active again, Bobby would be seeing a lot more of Perreth.
They’d once worked together at the sheriff’s department, a match not made in heaven. But since the first copycat victim was found in Bobby’s county and the second in the nearby city of Madison where Perreth was now a detective, they’d had little choice but to team up again.
“Did you notice what he said about his lawyer?”
Bobby snapped his attention back to Diana. “His lawyer, Unger, yeah.”
“And the copycat? Did you hear him say he thought of him as a son?”
“I heard.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m looking into it.”
“I can help.”
“What do you want? To spend the day hanging out in a building that smells like sewage, fetching coffee? Because that’s all I can offer.”
“I can’t think of a safer place for me to be than the sheriff’s department, can you?”
They reached another set of bars blocking their way. The broad-shouldered guard, Corrections Officer Wilson Seides, punched a button on the wall and all three of them faced the camera, waiting to be buzzed through.
“Actually, I can think of a safer place.” Bobby glanced at Diana out of the corner of his eye. “Sylvie and Bryce checked into a hotel. They booked you an adjoining room.”
“I’m not going to hide. If I hadn’t visited him in the first place, none of this would be happening.”
“You’re more powerful than I ever guessed.” He let the sarcasm slide thickly off his tongue.
“I meant Sylvie wouldn’t be getting upsetting gifts and vague threats.”
“So how does visiting Dryden help? I’m sure she’s worried about you too.” Bobby narrowed his eyes on Diana. “Unless she doesn’t know.”
Diana shook her head. “You’re making this personal. Your job isn’t to protect only me.”
Her words stung. Being a cop was more than what he did. Being a cop was who he was. And no one knew that better than Diana.
But in a way, she was right. Between the two of them, it would always be personal. However, if someone else told Diana to stay away from Dryden—someone she would have to listen to—maybe she would see reason.
And he had just the someone in mind.
The door buzzed and slid open, bringing them back to the security area. Bobby retrieved his service weapon, they signed out, and got into his sedan.
Bobby drove the winding roads circling Lake Loyal and the small town that was named for it in silence and climbed the bluffs. When he spotted a farmhouse-turned-tavern called The Doghouse, he turned into its gravel parking lot.
“A bar?”
“You look thirsty.” Bobby parked next to the handful of vehicles in the lot, got out, and entered the building.