"We could have used Quinn."
"And chance having Dom butcher him? He’s done too much for me already.”
“I should have known that protective streak would raise its head. Don’t hesitate to use that gun." He hung up.
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She sat in the car, staring up at the candles on the hill. Five minutes.
Seven minutes. The phone rang.
"Are you enjoying my candles?" Dom asked. "I want to talk to Jane."
"Do you doubt me? I told you I wanted you to die first.”
“Let me talk to Jane."
"Oh, very well."
"Eve, don’t you do what he says," Jane yelled into the phone. "He’s a slimy creep and I—"
Dom took the phone away. "Is that enough? It’s all you’ll get. I’ve been very patient with Jane since she woke, but she’s really beginning to annoy me."
"It’s enough."
"Then step into my parlor. I’ll be there in ten minutes."
She pressed the off button and quickly dialed Sarah. "Ten minute-walk from here."
“That could cover a lot of territory."
"Find her. If he manages to kill me and escapes, you can’t let him get back to Jane."
"We’ll do our best." Nine minutes.
Stay in the car. Be safe for just a little longer. Sit and watch the flickering lights on the hill.
Sarah put on her utility belt and Monty tensed.
"That’s right, boy. Time to get to work." She let Monty sniff Jane’s T-shirt. "Find her." She started down the trail at a trot. She’d already scoped out the lay of the land and come up with the two most logical possibilities.
He wouldn’t keep Jane out in the open. So there was the stand of woods near the base of the mountains to the west.
Or there was the bush-covered ravine to the east. Either was a fast ten-minute walk to the plateau. Which direction?
She’d make the decision when she got closer. Pray to God she’d make the right one. Monty was stretched out, almost running. Child…
Ten minutes.
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Eve opened the door and got out of the car. The air was knife sharp, cutting her to the bone. It was a moonless night, icy cold with a promise of snow.
She started up the hill.
Candles.
Flames.
Are you there yet, Dom? She reached the top. No one.
Just the candles and the flames and the flickering shadows on the desolate earth. It wasn’t as brightly lit as she’d thought from down below. There was a patch of deep shadow at the far corner of the site.
She moved farther into the circle of light. Was he watching her, or was it her imagination? She whirled around.
No one.
Or was there?
Something in those shadows…
She hesitated and then moved away from the light toward the patch of darkness. "Dom? You wanted me here. Come and get me." No sound.
Decision time.
Sarah paused to catch her breath. The woods or the ravine?
Monty had already made a decision. He was tearing across the ground toward the woods. He stopped, sniffed, and took off again.
He’d caught Jane’s scent.
The substance in the shadow was no standing figure, Eve realized. Something on the ground…
She drew closer.
She still couldn’t make it out. A few steps closer.
It was taking on a vague shape. She was almost on top of it. A body?
Oh, God.
Jane?
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She screamed.
The man’s body was tied spread-eagled to four pegs, and his eyes were wide open. His features were contorted in a silent howl of agony.
Mark Grunard.
"That’s how I staked out my father." She whirled to see Spiro behind her.
He smiled. "A little welcome present. It was going to be the little girl, but I knew you wouldn’t come unless you thought you had a chance of saving her."
"You," she whispered. "Dom?"
"Of course it was me."
A man who stared into the faces of monsters.
But he was the monster himself. "God, what a fool I am. No trap. No FBI agents swarming in at the last minute to save me."
"Unfortunately not." He stepped closer and was almost lost in the shadows. "Don’t put your hands in your pockets. I have a knife in my hand and I can reach you in a heartbeat, but I don’t want it to end that soon. It’s been a superb game, and I want to savor the win."
"You haven’t won yet."
"That’s what I admire about you. You never give up. But you should be more generous. I was very clever with every move. I deserve to win."
"You were clever. You set Grunard up perfectly. You even gave me the characteristics of the serial killer so I’d be able to associate them with Grunard later. It never occurred to me that they might also apply to you. You associate with the police as Grunard did, but even more, you’re an FBI profiler. You could move from place to place. You liked to be in the field, you said.
That means you were contacted by your digital phone and no one actually knew where you were at a given time. You could say you were in Talladega when you were in Atlanta."
"I do regard the digital phone as one of the most helpful inventions. And it was a real challenge to become an FBI agent. Background checks that had to be foolproof, psychological tests that had to show me as completely normal. I prepared for almost two years before I applied. Setting up the personal interviews with people from my supposed past was the most difficult. It took finesse, bribery, and a psychological sleight of hand that would fill you with admiration."
"No, it wouldn’t."
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had to keep an eye on where and when any of my kills surfaced so I could erase the records."
"But the VICAP analysis uncovered the Harding kills.”
“Most annoying."
"But you led me here to find Debby Jordan."
“I’m a fatalist. I saw that everything was leading back to my roots. I wanted you here to help me start again, to revive that splendid surge of power." He smiled. "It did do that. When I killed Grunard, it was almost like the old days. But he wasn’t you. It will be much better with you."
"Did you always plan to kill Grunard?"
"After I examined the situation and all the possibilities. I realized that his death would accomplish two ends, create a red herring and make our game more complicated. How could I resist? He would become Dom and disappear." He shook his head. "But that complication may cause me to have to move on and reinvent myself. Grunard’s background is pretty solid. There may be questions." He shrugged. "Oh, well, I’ll have plenty of warning and I’ve already set up an identity in Montana. It may be good for me. Being Robert Spiro made everything too easy for me. The kill, the cover-up… It may have been part of my problem."
"You’ll move on and you’ll kill again." Her voice was shaking. "Over and over.”
“Of course, that’s what I do."
"How many?"
"I really don’t remember. I was drunk with the pleasure during those first years. I went out every night. Later everything blurred. More than thirty years… A thousand? I don’t know.
Maybe more."
"My God."
"But don’t feel bad. You won’t be like the others. I’ll remember you.”
“You have me. Let Jane go."
"You know I won’t do that. She knows my face and the little bitch would try to find a way to hurt me. She’s like you."
"But you were wrong about her being like Bonnie."
"But I set up an interesting scenario, didn’t I? It pulled you in. The bones and then sweet little Jane."
"Whose bones were they?" He was silent.
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