Exit Strategy Read online

  “I’m not asking you to apologize. It was only a blip on the radar. We contained it, it would have been fine. This is different. It’s possible that when Preston came here, he already knew about you, and if that’s true…He likely had a plan that included your father and Nate Gibson’s wife.”

  “And, apparently, breaking Grace out of prison.”

  Talking about the woman never failed to make her sick. Their hook-up at a time when desperate times had seemed to call for even more desperate measures would haunt her forever, regardless of the fact that she hadn’t known who, what Grace Lester was.

  “They started out trying to frame you, but now they’re already following their own ritual. It’s something that points to them rather to you. I wonder why.”

  “Because they can’t help themselves?” Rue suggested, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

  “Oh, they can,” Joanna said grimly. “They just choose not to. Whatever their plan is with me, instant gratification is more important to them. Who is the victim?”

  Truth be told, it wasn’t the first thing she’d wanted to ask. Theo still hadn’t given away the reason for his impromptu visit.

  “A woman, late twenties, was last seen in a club talking to a good-looking guy.”

  “They can’t be this fast without a lot of planning. Appearance, a place to stay. He studied Short and Lester’s M.O. before he set the plan in motion. He has to have some money too.”

  She didn’t like that Theo looked guilty at that.

  “All right, as much fun as this is—no, I’m not serious, but it’s a fact that I’m not on the department’s payroll. Before I share any more of my valuable insights, I want the truth. Why are you really here?”

  Rue sat up straighter.

  Theo picked up his cup, drank a sip and set it down.

  “I need you to come with me.”

  Her stomach lurched, even though this wasn’t a huge surprise for Joanna. No cuffs, that was merely decorum.

  “How is this going to work?”

  “No,” Rue said, startling them both. “That’s not the question here at all. Can he make us go?”

  The lines were drawn. Joanna looked at Theo, waiting for an answer—to both questions.

  “Rue, I can’t make you do anything,” he said as he took a folder out of the bag he’d brought. “Joanna—that’s more complicated, but I think I found a solution that’s going to work for all of us.”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “I’ll go with the bad news first.”

  Rue scoffed. Joanna shook her head.

  “The escaped serial murderer who’s on the prowl again, wasn’t the bad news? Jesus.”

  He took a copy out of the folder and laid it onto the table. “In addition to this, we have an audio recording, a conversation you had with Preston. It might be manipulated. In any case, they forced our hand, and we needed to get ahead of all of this. You remember Marian Rickers.”

  “Faith’s aunt,” Joanna said immediately.

  “You know we need to do all of this by the book, so when we find them, we can make sure none of them will ever see the light of day. Thanks to Marian, I was able to talk to Governor O’Neal and explain our situation.”

  “What does that mean?” Rue’s suspicion had given way to confusion.

  “Joanna, I promise you it’s safe for you to come with me. We need all the information we can get on this guy, and Grace, anything you can think of. Logistically, it just makes more sense for you to be there. We have your back. The governor is on our side.”

  Something still didn’t add up. Joanna didn’t think it was time for relief yet.

  “A quid pro quo? I help you with the case, and if that works out, everyone will continue to look the other way?”

  Theo didn’t deny the truth of her statement.

  “You have nothing to fear. I swear.”

  “We can’t just talk here, and you make a note in your report? If the governor is on our side, can’t she take my word for it? You know everything I know about Lester. Preston was hitting on me, to get a picture and some audio, or he meant it, I don’t know. He had several hookups while he was here. That’s all I know.”

  “Perhaps more will come to you. I could have you take a look at the evidence.”

  “I don’t want that. In fact, I don’t want anything to do with this, but I can understand you had some questions. I answered them best I could.”

  “Joanna.” Theo sighed. “Governor O’Neal wants to see you.”

  “Why?” The question came from Joanna and Rue in perfect unison.

  “I don’t know, closure? Isn’t that something we could all use? You can come back here and live happily ever after, and no one’s ever going to bother you, ever again.”

  “That’s motivating.” Rue mumbled. “When do we have to go?”

  “I’m not sure you should. I don’t want you anywhere near her.”

  “Well, you won’t have a choice, because I’m not staying here by myself.”

  Theo looked from her to Joanna, the semblance of a smile on his face.

  “You have until noon to pack. We’ll take the chopper, and the plane leaves at 2:15.”

  Joanna had the sudden urge to lean forward and put her head between her knees, lightheaded at the idea that tonight, they could be back in the city, a place she never wanted to see again.

  “I swear this isn’t some sort of trap. It’s the best we can do.”

  “You need something, someone to bait her.”

  “No, Joanna. You know that’s not how it works. We don’t put civilians at risk.”

  He looked embarrassed though which told her she hadn’t been too far off. To her surprise, Joanna realized the term civilian still struck her as strange—and he knew it, playing to her ego just a little bit. Or maybe he was telling the whole truth, desperate to get a couple of murderers off the streets.

  “I’m not saying it won’t work. My only condition is that Rue be safe, whatever she decides.”

  “Whatever I decide?” Rue echoed, sounding exasperated. “You are really going to do this?”

  “Theo is asking nicely. I appreciate that. I don’t think the next cop coming here will do that.”

  “This is fucking unfair.”

  Rue barely ever swore, but Joanna couldn’t help thinking she had a point. Regardless.

  “All those promises you made, you got them in writing?”

  Theo nodded. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  * * * *

  In the privacy of their bedroom, Rue didn’t resist when Joanna embraced her from behind.

  “We knew this day might come.”

  “Sure,” Rue acknowledged. “I just wonder what it was all for, Vanessa pulling all those strings to get us here. If it’s safe for you to be back there, why didn’t they say so? What changed?” What if nothing had changed and Joanna would be arrested the moment they went through customs? “I think we could still run. I don’t even care about a house or jobs any longer.”

  “You heard Theo. There’s no need to run. And he could be right. I helped them with Grace the first time.”

  “For Christ’s sake, that shouldn’t be your job. They have actual cops for that, people who, as you pointed out earlier, get paid.”

  “I know, but…” Joanna sounded pensive. “Maybe this is a chance we can’t afford to miss.”

  “We already had that chance,” Rue pointed out. “We have a life here, work…Remember how unhappy you were when you found out I was working for your dad? I can finally breathe. We go back, it’s where it all happened. How can this be good for anything?”

  “I’ll have to see what Governor O’Neal has to say. We’ll go from there.”

  Abruptly, Rue stepped out of the embrace. “I’ll be back, but I need to talk to someone first.”

  “I understand. I’ll let Denise know, and we’ll come back here to pack?”

  Rue blinked back tears. “I guess that’s what we’ll do.”

  Chapter Se
venteen

  Zach didn’t seem surprised when Rue told him she wouldn’t come back for some time.

  “I heard you guys had a visitor.”

  “News travels fast,” she acknowledged. He sat next to her on a bench.

  “Listen, I haven’t known you for long, and you’ve made amazing progress. You’ll be okay.”

  Rue gave him a faint smile. “I appreciate you saying that.”

  “I’m not just saying that. You went at the bad guy during your therapy session. I think you can handle pretty much anything that comes your way.”

  “He was an average criminal. What we’re dealing with now is pure evil.”

  “You need some spiritual guidance?”

  “No,” she said right away. “I need them to leave us alone.”

  “Be careful,” he advised. “Don’t take on more than your share.”

  “That’s okay.” Rue got to her feet. “I’m just starting to take on my share. Thank you for everything.”

  “You did all the hard work. Take care, Rue.” The solemn exchange made it clear they both knew, this might be the last time they saw each other. She was fine with the firm hug that would have made her jump out of her skin when she first arrived on the island.

  She would do her share.

  * * * *

  Twenty-four hours ago, they hadn’t even known they’d have to leave. Now they were on a plane bringing them back to the place that harbored all of Joanna’s demons, still. The father who had rejected her. A serial killer, and then another, that had taunted her. The voice she’d almost silenced on the island, whispering to her that it was all her fault. She had no time for any of this. Look at the evidence, share her thoughts, speak to the governor.

  Joanna had to admit she was curious about this arrangement. She had met Marian Rickers when she and Theo worked the slasher case, had been vaguely aware of her association with the governor, but that was it.

  She studied Theo’s body language when they got into the customs line. He didn’t expect any bad surprises. Joanna’s stomach was in knots, and she could feel the tension radiate off of Rue’s body.

  The agent looked at her, her picture, and asked the standard questions.

  “It’s for work. We’ll be visiting friends too. I expect to be back in a couple of weeks,” she said. He stamped her passport and handed it back to her. Just like that.

  Rue followed, and then they were on the other side.

  “I feel hurt,” Theo said. “Neither one of you believed me.”

  “To be honest, I don’t know what to believe anymore, but I want Grace back behind bars just as much,” Joanna told him.

  “Good. I’ll bring you to the hotel, and I’ll get you in the morning so you can make your official statement.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  On another occasion, Joanna would have loved to be in this place with Rue. Someone had spared no expenses to make their stay comfortable. She was convinced it couldn’t be the department.

  They rode up the elevator to the fifteenth floor.

  “It’s at the end of the hall,” Theo explained.

  Joanna stiffened when she saw the woman standing next to the door, easily identified by her stance as a plain clothes law enforcement officer.

  “Breathe. You told me I had to make sure Rue was safe, and besides, you’re a valuable witness. We don’t want to take any chances.”

  Theo nodded to the officer, opened the door to the room and handed Joanna the key card.

  “Don’t raid the minibar.”

  Joanna stepped inside and found herself being enveloped into a tight hug the next moment.

  “Oh that’s right,” Theo said. “I thought we could all have dinner tonight.”

  Vanessa stepped back, smiling. “I hate the circumstances, I really do, but it’s good to see you both. You look amazing, but I guess that’s what being lazy on the beach for months does to a person.”

  “That, and catching a few criminals.”

  “Yeah, we’ll get to that part later. I’ll leave you alone for now. Dinner at seven?”

  “Sounds good.”

  They weren’t in this alone. With the support of Theo, Vanessa, and an influential politician, would the story change this time?

  * * * *

  Rue was dangerously close again to feeling like she was going out of her skin. She was also irrationally angry at Joanna who acted like they were on a vacation, meeting up with a couple of old friends. She was aware that Theo and Vanessa had risked a great deal for both of them, and grateful for it, though she didn’t think she and Joanna owed them that much.

  Vanessa had been making up for the fact that she’d helped put Joanna in prison all those years ago. Theo, her former partner, had taken a long time to come around.

  As far as Rue was concerned, they were even. Friendly, polite, but even.

  “Grace thinks that these men are impressed with her, but she’s fooling herself,” she said. “Short said she wanted a ritual because she thought that was something real serial killers had to have. He mocked her for that.”

  It didn’t seem like appropriate dinner conversation, but as soon as the thought came to her mind, she couldn’t hold it back.

  Both Theo and Joanna stared at her in alarm.

  “What? It’s what he said to me. He wanted to record himself killing me, and get the footage to her somehow. I don’t think it was to share. He wanted to brag, show her what he could do while she was stuck in prison.”

  “Rue,” Theo said softly. “None of this was in your statement. You could barely remember anything.”

  “Nothing much has changed. It’s still a haze for the most part…” She didn’t finish her sentence, trying to grasp what had just happened. “But he said those things. I remember them.” Rue wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing, even though Dr. Shepherd had told her that some memories might come back to her, and when they did, they would work on containing them.

  “Grace was in over her head, though she’d never admit it,” Joanna said. She kept her voice low, for whose benefit, Rue wasn’t sure. It didn’t make the subject matter any less gruesome. “My guess is she found another guy, and soon enough he’ll try to make her take the fall for him. But I don’t want to discuss this now. There have to be some boundaries.”

  “I agree,” Vanessa said with a quick look to Rue. “First things first. Tomorrow, we’ll work at the station.”

  “Didn’t you say you left Internal Affairs?” Rue asked her.

  “Yes.”

  “So how did that go?” She wasn’t making polite small talk. She wanted to know for sure if Vanessa had any power to protect them.

  “Well,” Vanessa returned. “I’m in the private sector now, but I still consult with the department from time to time.”

  Rue wasn’t sure whether she’d gotten an answer to her question at all.

  * * * *

  Joanna hadn’t always been good at making the best out of a bad situation. She figured that this time, the best they could hope for was to stay under the radar until they could go back home. She was going to give her official statement. No one was going to arrest her. Grace couldn’t know that she and Rue were here. Everything was good, wasn’t it?

  “You’ve been ignoring me for her. That was always a mistake,” Grace whispered as she ran the cold blade across Joanna’s exposed skin, taunting her. She wasn’t afraid of her, not of pain, or death. What was making her sick to her stomach was that she once had willingly let the woman touch her. There was no excuse, no escape from that.

  Joanna shrank away when Grace turned the knife in her hand, the sharp side of the blade making contact, breaking skin.

  “I said I was sorry. Why do you want to hurt me?” She couldn’t move, or raise her voice below a whisper.

  “Because I get you. Because you want me to,” Grace said and pushed the knife into her stomach right where a line had been drawn with a black marker. Joanna’s own scream woke her up.

  “Joa
nna? It’s okay. Please come back to me.”

  Rue’s voice was calm and warm, slowly drawing her back into reality and her safe surroundings. There was no knife, no blood—no Grace. Joanna drew a shaky breath.

  “That was a bad one. I’m so sorry.” Rue reached out tentatively, touching her shoulder. “Not for the nightmare, that wasn’t me, obviously. But for being a bitch all evening. Come here.”

  “You weren’t. Not even close.” She let herself be drawn into an embrace, Rue’s heartbeat against her ear helping to calm her own.

  Joanna cursed the days when she’d thought nothing of sleeping with a woman she’d met the same night. Ironic that Rue might not be here with her if she hadn’t suspended her “no-one night stands” rule.

  “I hate giving her this much space in my brain,” she admitted. “Maybe Theo was right. If I can help catch her…That might make things better for all of us.”

  “I’m with you, whatever you need,” Rue murmured. “Just don’t take on more than your share.”

  * * * *

  After Joanna and Rue had breakfast from the hotel’s buffet, Theo came to get them. Just Joanna, in theory, but everyone had accepted that she wasn’t going anywhere without Rue.

  She wasn’t sure what kind of greeting she’d expected, but at the station, everyone was going about their work. No one paid much attention to them when they walked to the conference room Theo had reserved for this purpose.

  His partner Allison Kato was already there. She got up to greet both Joanna and Rue.

  “I’m glad you could both be here,” she said, her expression guarded. “We have coffee, tea, water, and pastries.” Allison gestured to a side table behind her. “Just help yourself if you’d like anything.”

  “That’s all right. We already had breakfast,” Joanna said.

  “Great. Then we can get started.” Allison cast a pensive look at Rue. “I’m generally not opposed to the idea of you being here, but there’s something I’d like to talk to Joanna about alone. If we could get this out of the way first?”

  The hesitation and dread was almost comical, Joanna thought. Separation anxiety. They’d managed eventually, on the island, but here, neither of them had a reason to be too trusting, or careless.