“To get to his wife and his son. They’d run away because he’d beaten them for years. I knew them, loved them both. I didn’t know who he was at first, but figured it out. I was afraid he’d find Caroline and Tom and make their lives a living hell all over again.”
“So he was trying to stop you from warning them?”
“Partly, yes. But he had a gun. He could have just shot me and finished the job. Mercifully. But he didn’t.” She swallowed hard. “Instead, he stabbed me eight times. Slashed my face open. Nearly filleted my hand. Then he strangled me.”
“Because it gave him pleasure,” Noah said grimly.
“Yes.” She crossed her arms over her chest, body language screaming volumes. “I know the kind of monster you’re seeking, Noah. I stared mine in the eyes as he pulled that twine tighter around my throat. Yours won’t stop. He won’t stop until you stop him.”
“And you?” He had to force the words from his tight throat. “Until you stop him?”
Her eyes were dark. Stark. So incredibly alone. “I didn’t stop my monster. In my dreams he comes back, again and again. I’d do almost anything to stop yours.”
He nodded hard. “Lock your door.” He waited until he heard the deadbolt slide into place, then went back to the car where Jack was drumming his fingers impatiently.
“Are we ready to go to work now?” he asked acidly.
“In a minute.” Noah dialed Abbott. “It’s Web. Eve’s fine, but she’s had Buckland from the Mirror and her advisor’s secretary on her ass.”
“Where’s her ass now?” Abbott asked dryly.
“We just took her home. We’re going to Marshall to talk to Lyons and Donner, then work the waffle houses. Has Faye run checks on Jeremy Lyons and Donald Donner?”
“I’ll check and call you,” Abbott said.
Noah made himself say it. “We need to make a formal request to the university for their subject files. Eve said each participant listed their worst fear on a questionnaire.”
“The snake,” Abbott said. “That actually makes sense. As soon as we make the request, Eve’s going to be the first person they look to for the leak.”
“She knows that. She’s prepared to take the consequences.”
Abbott sighed. “Maybe Carleton can help her so this doesn’t damage her too much.”
“Damage control,” Noah murmured, fighting the urge to lick his lips. “I hope so.”
Jack’s jaw was tight when he’d hung up. “Now we get to work?”
Noah took one last look in his rearview before putting the car into gear. “Yes.”
Tuesday, February 23, 10:45 a.m.
Frowning, Harvey watched Webster and Phelps drive away. “Who lives here?”
Dell was busily inputting the address into the property tax web-site he’d brought up on his BlackBerry. “Deed’s held by a Myron Daulton.”
“Webster was here three times last night. She’s important. I got a picture of Webster walking her inside. Unfortunately, he didn’t touch her, today or last night.”
Dell snorted. “He sure did at that coffee place. Take a look.”
Harvey looked at Dell’s camera display where Noah Webster and the woman were locked in a passionate embrace. “Webster is using taxpayers’ vehicles on taxpayers’ time to drive his lady friend around. But that’s not nearly enough.”
“No,” Dell murmured. “It’s not. Not nearly enough.”
“Dell. Remember our plan.”
Dell smiled slightly. “Of course. The plan that’s working so well.”
Harvey’s hand was slapping Dell’s mouth before he knew it. “Watch your mouth.”
Dell touched the corner of his lip. “Whatever you say, Pop.” But his eyes were hard and angry and Harvey wondered how much longer he’d be able to control his own son.
“Which way are they headed now?” Harvey asked.
Dell checked the navsat screen he held. Planting a tracking device under each of the detectives’ cars had been Dell’s idea, and a damn good one. “Toward the city.”
“Then follow. I’m right behind you.” Dell got out of the Subaru and went back to his own car while Harvey thought about Webster having a girlfriend. Women were weak. They’d be able to get all kinds of good information out of her with the right inducement.
Tuesday, February 23, 12:15 p.m.
“Thanks.” Eve glanced up briefly as David put a sandwich next to her elbow, then returned her eyes to her computer screen. “I appreciate you doing the shopping.”
“I thought I’d better, since I’d like to eat while I’m here,” he said. “Are you in?”
“Finally. ShadowCo’s security is better than average. Took longer than I thought.”
“And? What did you find?”
“What I expected. He altered the avatar files on both Martha’s Desiree and Christy’s Gwenivere. It’s how he made their faces look as if they’d been made up. He also changed the rooms in their virtual homes with the rope and the shoes he left behind.”
“And so? Can you figure out who he was?”
“Not directly. He made these changes using his victims’ user IDs. But both avatars have been changed the same way. If you dig deep enough, the graphics are just lines of code. The code gets kind of clunky, where he changed it.”
“Clunky.” He gave her an amused look. “So he’s an amateur?”
“Perhaps. The code he wrote gets the job done-the avatar’s face changed. But a professional programmer would have done it more elegantly.”
“Now you sound like Ethan,” David commented blandly. “He likes to say ‘elegant.’ ”
“Ethan taught me a lot,” she said cautiously. To love Dana could have meant David had to hate Ethan, but Eve knew that wasn’t true. Still, she was careful not to lavish too much praise on the man who’d made her guardian happy and her friend miserable.
“Like how to break and enter, virtually. Which can get you arrested in the real world.”
“Now you sound like Noah.”
“Whose hat is no longer on your bookshelf.”
Irritated, she kept her eyes on the screen. “You get the stuff to fix my roof?”
“Ordered it. I pick it up after three. I can take you up to get your car on the way.”
“Thank you. I’ll pay you for all the supplies.” She had enough put aside. She hoped.
“Miss Moneybags,” he scoffed gently. “I’ll pay for it. You do know you’re ultimately helping your landlord? Once he kicks you out, he’ll have an improved roof at no cost.”
“But he’ll learn that he can’t kick people around. That he can’t kick me around.” Then she understood. “You’re helping because you don’t want him kicking me around, either.”
“Too many people have,” he said quietly. “You’ve pulled yourself out of something that would have broken most people. I’m proud of you.” Her throat closed, her eyes filled. There were no words, but she knew he understood. “Get back to your virtual B &E. But I want you to give Webster a chance. That’s my price for fixing your roof.”
He left her alone, but Eve couldn’t focus. She saw Noah’s face reflected in the window, worried and understanding. That’s why I drink tonic water. She wondered what journey had brought him to the place of a recovering alcoholic.
She chided herself for being so selfish that she hadn’t seen, or cared for, his feelings. And for just a second she let herself remember how he’d tasted when she’d kissed him. How good she’d felt when his arms wrapped tight around her.
But giving him a chance? No. Not even for David. Because in the end she didn’t want to hurt Noah Webster or any other nice guy who was looking for a future, because in the end, there would be none. Not with me. That was Eve’s reality.