He took off to claim his victim.
Dr. Kate Mctiernan was next again.
He missed her so much.
He loved her.
Alex Cross 2 - Kiss the Girls
CHAPTER 90.
THE GENTLEMAN CALLER was on the move. Dr. Will Rudolph passed inexorably through the night toward his unsuspecting prey. His juices were surging. Sloshing. He was going to make a house call, as an outstanding doctor should, at least a doctor who really cared.
Casanova didn't want him out roaming the streets of Durham or Chapel Hill. He'd forbidden it, in fact. Understandable enough, admirable, but not possible. They were working together again. Besides, the danger was minimal at night and the rewards far exceeded the risks.
This next scene in the drama had to be done just right, and he was the one to do it. Will Rudolph was certain of that. He had no emotional baggage. No Achilles' heel. Casanova did ... Her name was Kate Mctiernan.
In a strange way, he thought, she had become his competition. Casanova had bonded with her in a special way. She was very close to the “lover” he claimed to be obsessively searching for. As such, she was dangerous to his own special relationship with Casanova.
As he drove into Chapel Hill, he thought about his “friend.” Something was different and even more satisfying between them now. Being torn apart for almost a year made him appreciate the strange relationship.
It was more powerful than ever. There was no one else he could talk to, not one person.
How very sad, Rudolph thought.
How droll.
During his year in California, Will Rudolph had remembered all too well the searing loneliness he had experienced as a boy. He'd grown up at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, then in Asheville. He was a bird colonel's boy, an army brat, a true son of the South. Right from the beginning, he had been clever enough to keep up a facade: honor student; polite, helpful, social graces to beat all. The perfect gentleman. No one had guessed the truth about his desires and needs ... which was exactly why the loneliness had been so unbearable.
He knew when the loneliness had ended. Exactly when and where. He remembered the first dizzying meeting with Casanova. It had taken place right on the Duke campus, and it was a dangerous meeting for both of them.
The Gentleman remembered the scene so well. He had a small room, like any other student on campus. Casanova had shown up one night well past midnight, closer to two. Scared the shit out of him.
He seemed so sure of himself when Rudolph opened the door and saw him there. There was a theatrical suspense movie called Rope. The scene reminded him of the movie, “You going to invite me in? I don't think you want what I have to say broadcast out here in a public hallway.” Rudolph had let him in. Shut the door. His heart was thundering.
“What do you want? It's almost two in the morning. Christ.” The smile again. So cocksure. Knowing. "You killed Roe Tierney and Thomas Hutchinson. You were stalking her for over a year.
You have a loving remembrance of Roe right here in this room. Her tongue, I believe."
It was the most dramatic moment of Will Rudolph's life. Someone actually knew who he was. Someone had found him out.
“Don't be frightened. I also know there's no way they'll ever prove you committed the murders. You committed perfect crimes. Well, near perfect. Congratulations.” Acting as well as he could under the circumstances, Rudolph had laughed in his accuser's face. “You're completely out of your mind. I'd like you to leave now. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard.” “Yes, it is,” the accuser said, “but you've been waiting to hear it all your life ... Let me tell you something else you've wanted to hear. I understand what you did and why. I've done it myself. I'm a lot like you, Will.” Rudolph had felt a powerful connection immediately. The first real human connection of his life. Perhaps that was what love was? Did ordinary people feel so much more than he did? Or were they deluding themselves? Creating grandiose romantic fantasies around the mundane exchange of seminal fluids?
He was at his final destination before he knew it. He stopped the car under a towering, old elm and switched off the headlamps. Two black men were standing on the porch of Kate Mctiernan's house.
One of them was Alex Cross.
Alex Cross 2 - Kiss the Girls
CHAPTER 91.
AT A LITTLE PAST TEN, Sampson and I rode down a dark, winding street on the outskirts of Chapel Hill. It had been a long day in the tank for both of us.
I'd taken Sampson to meet Seth Samuel Taylor earlier that evening. We had also spoken to one of Seth's former teachers, Dr. Louis Freed. I gave Dr. Freed my theory about the “disappearing house”; he agreed to help me with some important research for the investigation on where it might be located.
I hadn't told Sampson too much about Kate Mctiernan yet. It was time for them to meet, though. I didn't know exactly what our friendship was about, and neither did Kate. Maybe Sampson could add a few thoughts after he saw her. I was sure he would.
“You working late hours like this every night?” Sampson wanted to know as we eased down Kate's street, Old Ladies Lane, as she called it.
“Until I find Scootchie, or admit that I can't,” I told him. “Then I plan to take a whole night off.” Sampson chortled. “You devil, you.” We hopped out of the car and went to the door. I rang the bell. “No key?” Sampson deadpanned.
Kate flipped on the outdoor light for us. I wondered why she didn't keep it on all the time. Because she would save five cents a month if she didn't use the light? Because the light would attract bugs?
Because she was stubborn, and maybe wanted another shot at Casanova?
That was more like it, knowing Kate the way I was starting to. She wanted Casanova as badly as I did.
She came to the door in an old gray sweatshirt, tattered, holey jeans, bare feet with playfully red toenails. Her dark hair was bobbed at shoulder length, and she looked beautiful. No getting away from that.
“It's like a damn bughouse out here,” Kate commented as she looked around her porch.
She hugged me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I had a thought about the two of us holding each other the night before. Where was this going? I wondered. Did it have to be going anywhere?
“Hi, John Sampson,” she greeted him with a pumping handshake. “I know a few things about you, ever since you two met when you were ten. You can fill me in on the rest over a cold beer or two. Tell your side.” She smiled then. It always felt good to be on the other side of one of her smiles.
“So you're the famous Kate.” Sampson held on to her hand, and stared into the deep pools of her brown eyes. “I hear you worked your way through medical school at a truck stop, or some such apocryphal nonsense. Second degree black belt, too. A Nidan.” He started to smile and bowed respectfully.
Kate grinned at Sampson as she bowed back. “Come in out of the eternal bugs and the infernal heat. Looks like Alex has been talking behind our backs. We'll get him for that. Let's both gang up on him.” “That's Kate,” I said to Sampson as I followed him inside. “What do you think?” He looked back at me. “She likes you for some strange reason. She even likes me, which makes a lot more sense.” We sat in her kitchen and the talk was easy and comfortable, the way it usually was around her. Sampson and I drank beer, and Kate had several iced teas. I could tell that Kate and Sampson liked each other fine.
There was nothing not to like about either of them. They were both independent spirits, very smart, generous.
I filled her in on our latest day of detective work, our disappointing meeting with Ruskin and Sikes, and she told us about her day at the hospital, even some verbatims from her off-service notes.