Exit Strategy Page 15

  “You don’t think…?”

  Of course that was what he was thinking, what they were all thinking.

  “She’s not in her apartment. Her car is missing. We have a BOLO out already.”

  “We’ll find her,” Joanna promised him without a second of hesitation. Because she knew they would. Because she knew this was the ultimate challenge Grace had issued to her, and she wouldn’t let her win.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Alison Kato came to in a panic, her heart beating painfully hard against her chest. The moments after she’d left the department remained fuzzy in her memory, but she knew one thing without a doubt: she was in trouble.

  Possibly, fatal trouble.

  She was sitting upright on the floor of what looked like an apartment, her hands tied behind her back, around the column separating kitchen and living space. She couldn’t make out any sounds. That meant she was alone. For now. Not that it helped her much: The cuffs around her wrists were tight, forcing her back in a straight position. At the moment, the metal cutting into her skin was the only source of pain. Allison wasn’t kidding herself. She had seen the crime scenes, Maggie Simmons, Peter Flint.

  The killers had been in a frenzy, and it wouldn’t really make a difference to her if Grace Lester was more or less uncomfortable with the setting. She wouldn’t make any attempt to hold him back.

  History repeated itself.

  She remembered every single moment of the search for Rue, time running out.

  But Rue had been lucky, because Joanna Mitchell was willing to risk everything for her. Maybe I should have been nicer to her. A sob rose in her throat, not because she thought Joanna didn’t care, but because the odds didn’t look good for her. They couldn’t always be so lucky.

  Maggie and Peter sure hadn’t been. She didn’t even know if Theo had received her message. Allison let the tears fall, determined to get them out of her system.

  She wasn’t going down without a fight.

  * * * *

  Laura Kingston had joined Theo at the station without protest when he told her that a woman had been murdered tonight, and another was missing.

  “I can talk to her,” Joanna offered. “It will be recorded.”

  He looked doubtful but didn’t put up a fight.

  “You are needed elsewhere.”

  “Okay. Be careful,” he warned her.

  “Of course. Good luck. Ms. Kingston, come with me please,” she instructed the pale woman. She opened the door to the interview room and waited for Laura Kingston to sit. Joanna closed the door and sat across from her. “As you can see, it’s very busy right now. If you could tell me everything you know about Liam, when you first met him, and the interactions you had?”

  Laura looked at her in confusion.

  “I know you!”

  Now, this could go either way.

  “On the island, at the inn! Why are you here? Why are they questioning me about Liam?”

  “He hurt a lot of people.” Even though they were alone in the room, Joanna lowered her voice. “Did he hurt you?”

  “No.” Laura’s denial was swift and believable. Her issue lay probably elsewhere, something Joanna could relate to. Like Joanna, Laura was the one who got away. “This is just so…It’s so hard to believe. We had a good time together. He told me to find him on this dating app, and that we could get together with his girlfriend, and she didn’t mind…”

  “You looked him up online?” Joanna was halfway out of her chair.

  “Yes, I thought that was why the detective asked me to come back?”

  “What kind of app? Was Maggie on it too?”

  “Yes, we both were. I just couldn’t believe…I’m so sorry.” She was crying in earnest now. “If it’s true what they said about him, if he killed those people, he might have done it before. And because I slept with him I was somehow…tainted? I’m so disgusted with myself right now.”

  “You couldn’t know,” Joanna reasoned. “We’ll figure it out. I need to see that app right now.”

  With shaking hands, Laura took out her phone. She went online, found the site of the dating app and logged into her account.

  “Check for a Peter Flint too.”

  “He’s here,” Laura said after a few seconds. “But I swear I never talked to him. This is Liam.”

  Joanna took the phone from her, looking at the photograph of a man she knew. A killer. Who might have gone after Allison Kato.

  “Okay, Laura, please stay here. I have to make some calls.”

  She needed Theo or anyone who could contact the D.A. for warrants on Preston’s account. They had to come up with some sort of personal information, an address, a real phone number…a chance to locate him.

  No, Joanna couldn’t stay away. It didn’t seem to be such a bad thing at the moment.

  * * * *

  Allison wasn’t alone any longer. They stood in a corner, talking quietly to each other, every once in a while regarding her like one would a bug under a microscope—moments before they’d rip off a leg. She was running out of time, and all she could think of were the gruesome details from the murders she’d worked on with Theo. The recent ones were enough to turn her stomach.

  Lester and Short had had their own ritual, and it included specifics she didn’t want to think about either. Preston just made everything so much worse. She almost hoped she’d faint, but no such luck.

  Allison had faced danger at times in her career, but nothing like this. She stiffened when Preston turned abruptly and walked over to her. She could see the smile forming on Grace’s face. By now, Theo must have gotten her message, but would talking to Kingston make a difference? Would it be soon enough?

  Preston crouched in front of her, grinning. “Detective Kato,” he said. “Welcome to your nightmare.”

  “You’re probably wondering, why you,” Grace added. “It’s true, you’re not all that important in the big scheme of things, but everyone is watching Joanna’s friends now. Too dangerous for us.”

  “They’ll figure it out,” Allison shot back. Her mouth was dry, adding to the impression that she could barely breathe.

  “Yeah, maybe, but I’m afraid it will be too late. This is really cool, isn’t it? No one thought that you were even on our radar. And they’ll also be busy with Anya.”

  “That was smart.” Perhaps flattery would buy her some time. Allison wasn’t sure, but at this point, she had to try anything.

  “Oh yes, I know.” Grace smiled as if pleased with the praise. She probably was. She knew that they had time. “Silly woman, she thought we had so much in common. She was also a whiner, so I think we can all agree everyone’s better off with this solution. What about you, Allison? How’s your tolerance for pain?”

  “What happened to offering something to your victims that was too good to refuse?”

  Grace shrugged. “You’re not interesting or young enough. But I can’t get to little Rue at the moment, and you’re the next best thing. Sorry.”

  The slap to her face came out of nowhere, making her teeth rattle. She couldn’t hold back the yelp.

  But looking at the object Preston was weighing in his hands, Allison went quiet.

  If there was ever a moment to pass out, it was now.

  * * * *

  “This is all my fault,” Theo said angrily. “We’ve dealt with her before. We knew she has no boundaries. Allison warned me, and now she’s paying for it.”

  “Allison’s savvy,” Joanna reminded him. “And whatever happens, it’s not your fault.” It was lip service at this point, she knew. If Short had murdered Rue, she wouldn’t have been able to live with herself. And Theo was aware of that too, so nothing she said could offer him real comfort as they waited for the warrant. Rue sat in the corner, quiet and withdrawn. Joanna felt sorry she had to relive her nightmare, but there was no way she could have left her at the hotel alone. Here at the station was still the safest place. “We’re going to get an address on Preston. We must be close, otherwise
they wouldn’t have moved so fast,” she tried again.

  “If it’s not too late,” Theo said darkly.

  “Anya Decker must have known quite a bit about them if they considered her a loose end,” Rue spoke up. “If she didn’t go back to stay in her house while she was stalking Joanna, where was she living? Did she have any family in town? Did anyone claim the body?”

  She sounded almost frantic, Joanna realized with a start, too much like Joanna herself. It was wrong. Neither of them should be here, but Grace, and from the grave, a couple of other serial killers left them no choice. Decker, Short, Grace and Liam Preston. So many connections, it was easy to ignore the forest for the trees.

  In his dating profile, Preston had listed true crime stories as one if his interests. That asshole.

  “Maybe that’s not the right question. What happened to Violet Short?”

  “She’s still in her house,” Theo said. “That’s all a bunch of nothing.”

  “Preston studied Grace, and the murders before he got her out. He wanted something to present to her.”

  “How is this helping?”

  They all jumped when Theo’s phone rang.

  “All right,” he said after listening to the caller for a couple of minutes. “Let’s do this.”

  Joanna hadn’t been so far off. The phone number Preston had listed belonged to Edward Short’s mother Violet, a detail Grace might appreciate. But the address Liam Preston had listed with his account on the dating app was an unfamiliar one.

  “You two stay here. I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”

  * * * *

  “I think I’m going to throw up,” Rue confessed when they were alone in the room. The frantic activity around them made her dizzy, and fear had a tight hold on her.

  “No one’s going to judge you for that.”

  She could tell Joanna was restless, on the verge of…something. Something stupid, or dangerous. Rue didn’t want to know.

  “There’s nothing you can do for her.” Like you did for me, remained unspoken. “They’ll find her.” One way or another. She didn’t say that out loud either.

  “I know. It’s been…tough,” Joanna admitted. “We still don’t know what the governor’s deal is. They want me here for something, but whenever there’s movement, they slam the door in my face.” She sighed. “Not that I’m complaining right now. Of course it’s all because of Grace. I thought she wanted to get back at me, but I’m starting to feel like that’s megalomaniacal. She just wants to wreak havoc, and found the right guy for it.”

  “We’ll see this through,” Rue said with a whole lot more confidence than she felt at the moment. So much violence and death. How could a person ever overcome that?

  * * * *

  Grace could see it in his gaze. He wanted to go in for the kill. Any other time, she wouldn’t mind, but this might be her last chance to have her ultimate showdown with Joanna.

  She didn’t want Allison Kato dead for that. Frankly, she was tired of the sloppy execution. Liam had made it look like he admired her, yet he wanted to control everything. Not that he had much of it, self-control.

  “No,” she said sharply when he approached Kato again.

  “No?” He turned to her with a grin that she had found charming when she realized the prison guard had turned out to be her rescuer. Now, Grace was annoyed with him. At least Edward was the devil she knew. “Did you really just say that?”

  She could sense that Allison was holding her breath. False hopes, sweetie, she thought. It doesn’t mean that I want to spare you.

  “What if I did? We have to wait. Joanna will find her way here, somehow.”

  “What if she doesn’t? She’s not clairvoyant.” For someone how liked to butcher his victims, Liam used big words sometimes. “I understand you wanted to rattle her a little, but we don’t need her.”

  “I thought you understood!” Grace’s voice rose to a higher pitch. “The lengths you went to in order to break me out, and you’re still too stupid to understand? I hate you.”

  She would have said more if he hadn’t slapped her in the face, hard enough to make her stumble.

  “Remember who’s calling the shots here? Huh?”

  With him in her personal space, Grace should have sensed the danger, but she was too pissed for self-preservation. “I thought you were smarter than that, but you’re just another loser like—”

  She could hear Allison sob, wondering if she had overestimated herself—or Joanna Mitchell. She might not get her revenge after all. Mediocre men would always win.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The SWAT team breached the entrance of the apartment, and Theo ran inside, nearly slipping in a puddle of blood on the shiny hardwood floor. His heart skipped a beat as he fell to his knees next to Allison. Her wrists were still fastened with cuffs around the column, the keys tauntingly left behind on the kitchen counter. She was slumped forward, but flinched when he touched her shoulder gently, his fingers coming away wet.

  “It’s okay. You’re safe now. We got you.”

  From every room, members of the SWAT team returned, announcing that the place was clear.

  They were gone. He wanted them to pay for what they had done to Allison, make it painful, but that would have to wait. The paramedics brought in a stretcher, and he removed the cuffs with gloved hands. They put her on the stretcher, the pained whimpers branded on his mind.

  “I want this place searched from top to bottom,” he advised an officer. What he really wanted to do was what Joanna had done. He wasn’t sure if given how he had reacted before, that would make him a hypocrite or merely human.

  * * * *

  “They found Allison,” Joanna said, and after a small pause. “She has some injuries, but she’ll be okay.”

  Some injuries. Rue turned that over in her mind, wondering how they had talked about her after finding her in the place where Edward Short had held her. Some injuries. She’d survived with some cuts and shallow stab wounds, nothing life-threatening, but the invisible scars remained with her forever. She started to cry, barely getting the words out.

  “That’s good, right? So we…We can go to the hotel?”

  “I don’t know, maybe we should wait.” Joanna sounded worried.

  “Why?”

  “They left her.”

  To die, Rue supplied in her mind. “This is never going to end, is it?”

  “It has to. At some point, they’ll have nowhere left to go.”

  “Grace and Edward got away with it for eleven years. What makes you think they won’t?”

  Joanna had no answer for her. “Maybe you’re right,” she relented. “There’s nothing much we can do here.”

  * * * *

  Joanna sent Theo a text, with get well wishes for Allison and to ask him to bring her up to date whenever he was ready. In another time, she would have gone to the hospital, but she knew the waiting room would already be filled with cops. It wasn’t her tribe any longer. She had to come to terms with the fact that she’d been called here for one reason only, and even that seemed superfluous now.

  Grace had wanted to toy with her, and she’d had her day. They’d do everything to keep the investigators off balance, make them guess and change course again. She shuddered at the thought that leaving Allison alive was nothing but random.

  Or was it?

  When they sat in the car, she said, “I’d like to check in with Theo one more time.”

  Rue shrugged.

  A moment later, she had him on the phone. “Hey, I’m sorry to bother you, but is there anything new? You know why they left? Someone interrupted them, or somebody tipped them off?”

  “Slow down a second, Joanna. This was well planned out. The store downstairs was closed, and the other two apartments were empty. They made sure no one would hear anything.”

  Screams, she thought. “Okay, but don’t you think…?”

  “It’s strange that they left her alive? Allison couldn’t talk much, but she sa
id they had a fight. That’s why there was so much blood. It looks like he’s getting tired of her.”

  Something about that sentence bothered her, but Joanna acknowledged this probably wasn’t the time to address the subject. No one in their right mind could feel sorry for Grace. She hadn’t fallen into an age-old societal trap. She had chosen to be with a serial killer, all the way, twice.

  “That’s good news, then, right? He’s the sloppy one, she’s smart, but if they have a falling-out…”

  “It looks that way.” Theo sounded exhausted. “Let’s hope it will work in our favor.”

  This time, she knew she wasn’t included, and Joanna was strangely okay with that.

  “Okay. Thanks. We’ll talk tomorrow. Rue and I are going to the hotel now.”

  “Good idea. Get some rest.”

  If only.

  * * * *

  “It was scary. I thought he was going to kill her first, and then me. But he just dragged her out of the room, and then they were gone.”

  With her face cleaned up and her bloody clothes replaced with a hospital gown, Allison looked a lot better though the traces of her ordeal were obvious. Theo hadn’t completely lost the impulse to hurt somebody, specifically Lester and Preston. It was a bit easier to control now that they could have this calm conversation. He couldn’t help wonder if at some point, he, too, would feel like he had to do more than the powers given to him by the law allowed him. It didn’t seem enough. It hadn’t been enough for Joanna. While each of them understood what it was like, they had treated her like a shield to hide behind, let her take the fall by herself.

  “I’m not sure what to make of that face of yours,” Allison said. “No news yet?”

  “I’m sorry, no. I was just thinking how much I’d like to shoot that son of a bitch.”

  “I get the sentiment, believe me.” She shifted, pain making the color drain from her face. “Now what? You’re going to give Joanna a badge? Budget’s tight, and I’ll be out of commission for a while.”

  He couldn’t tell if she was serious or not, about Joanna anyway.