“I’m going to get caught, Noah. I’ll have to give up what makes me get up in the morning.” She swallowed hard. “And it’s killing me. But if I stand by and do nothing, I slide back into the dark. I can feel it, always there at my back, luring me back to where it’s safe. But even though it’s safe, it’s not right. I can’t expect you to understand that.”
But he did, more than she knew. In his mind he could see himself clawing his way out of the bottle. Out of the dark. Trying to escape the demons that had driven him there. Every day he had to renew that resolution. Every day he staved off the dark.
One day at a time had always seemed like a corny metaphor. Until it became his life. “I do understand.” He made himself smile. “It’s why I drink tonic water.”
She drew a quick breath, her eyes widening. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”
He brushed his palm down her arm, just once. “I didn’t want you to. But you’re not alone and I do understand. Will you keep trying to get into the Shadowland files?”
“Do you want me to?” she asked and he carefully considered his answer. She had a purpose and he suspected she’d sacrifice a great deal to keep that purpose alive. But right now, he was more concerned about keeping her alive. And out of jail.
“What I want is to stop this guy before he kills anyone else. Including you. But I don’t want you to break the law. Jack is right on that. Nothing you give us that’s a product of an illegal enterprise can be used in court. We could catch him, but have to let him go. And, Eve, if you did something illegal, I couldn’t protect you either.”
“I don’t expect you to.” She turned suddenly, looking up with eyes that were almost black. Intense. He couldn’t have turned away had he tried. “Do you want me to stop?”
Desire surged through him like a storm and he tightened his hands into fists to keep them to himself. This is not the time, Webster. Focus. “Are you close?”
Her dark eyes flashed dangerously. She felt it too. “Very.”
He made himself think of Martha and Christy and Samantha. He thought of Eve, drawn into this mess because she couldn’t, wouldn’t look away. Then he thought of the other names on her list and wondered who would be next because a killer was playing a damned game. “No,” he whispered hoarsely. “I don’t want you to stop.”
She settled. “All right then. I’ll call you when I have something I think you can use.”
Cautiously he lifted his hand to touch her cheek. “Earlier, in the Deli…”
Her cheek grew flushed beneath his fingertips. “It won’t happen again.”
“Yes, it will. And when it does, it won’t be an act. For either of us.” He took a step back, dropping his hand from her face. “I need to go.”
She nodded, unsteadily, making his blood churn. “Don’t forget your hat.”
Noah took his hat from the bookshelf where he’d left it the night before. Questions filled his mind, too many to ask. But she’d opened the door to her life and he’d ask a question before she closed it again. “I read about what happened to you six years ago. But I couldn’t find anything about why. Why did that man try to kill you?”
“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.”