The Sleeping Doll (Kathryn Dance 1)

Dance wiped her palm on her slacks and closed it around the grip of her weapon.

" . . . three . . . four . . . five, go!"

The men and women dashed around the corner and Dance's eyes flipped back and forth from Kellogg to O'Neil.

Please, she thought. No more deaths . . .

Had they structured it right?

Had they recognized the patterns?

Kellogg got to the door first, giving a nod to the MCSO officer carrying a battering ram. The big man swung the weighty tube into the fancy door and it crashed open. Kellogg pitched in one of the grenades. Two officers rushed into the room beside Pell's and others pulled the maids behind parked cars. When the flash-bang detonated with a stunning explosion Kellogg's and O'Neil's teams raced inside.

Then: silence.

No gunshots, no screams.

Finally she heard Kellogg's voice, lost in a staticky transmission, ending with " . . . him."

"Say again," Dance transmitted urgently. "Say again, Win. Do you have him?"

A crackle. "Negative. He's gone."

*

Her Daniel was brilliant, her Daniel knew everything.

As they drove, fast but not over the limit, away from the motel, Jennie Marston looked back.

No squad cars yet, no lights, no sirens.

Angel songs, she recited to herself. Angel songs, protect us.

Her Daniel was a genius.

Twenty minutes ago, as they'd started to make love, he'd frozen, sitting up in bed.

"What, honey?" she'd asked, alarmed.

"Housekeeping. Have they ever called about making up the room?"

"I don't think so."

"Why would they today? And it's early. They wouldn't call until later. Somebody wanted to see if we were in. The police! Get dressed. Now."

"You want--"

"Get dressed!"

She leapt from bed.

"Grab what you can. Get your computer and don't leave anything personal." He'd put a porn movie on TV, looked outside, then walked to the adjoining door, held the gun up and kicked it in, startling two young men inside.

At first she thought he'd kill them but he just told them to stand up and turn around, tied their hands with fishing line and taped washcloths in their mouths. He pulled their wallets out and looked them over. "I've got your names and addresses. You stay here and be quiet. If you say anything to anybody, your families're dead. Okay?"

They nodded and Daniel closed the adjoining door and blocked it with a chair. He dumped out the contents of the fishermen's cooler and tackle boxes and put their own bags inside. They dressed in the men's yellow slickers and, wearing baseball caps, they carried the gear and the fishing rods outside.

"Don't look around. Walk right to our car. But slow." They headed across the parking lot. He spent some minutes loading the car, trying to look casual. They then climbed in and drove away, Jennie struggling to keep calm. She wanted to cry, she was so nervous.