After the Dark (Killer Instinct 1)

Josh frowned at her. “Sam?”

Blake came to her side.

“That’s Cameron’s—that’s Latham’s voice.” And her own voice had gone hoarse. She cleared her throat and tried again. “I know that’s him. Begin the footage again, Alex. We need to focus on that guy.” And she prayed that John hadn’t stopped filming.

As the video rolled again, Janice narrowed her eyes, as if searching for the speaker.

“You handled the segment with tact and class, I was impressed.”

Janice threw the speaker a megawatt smile. “Thank you. I always try to present my stories in a way that will do justice to the victims.”

“John didn’t turn to film the guy,” Tucker muttered. “Shit!”

The camera jerked once more. “Here we fucking go again.” John’s voice. A low mutter. And...

He swung the camera down, but not before it panned over and caught Janice—shaking the hand of a tall, dark-haired man.

For an instant, Samantha couldn’t even breathe.

“Freeze that frame!” Blake barked.

Alex immediately froze that frame. Then he started tapping on the keyboard he’d connected to the video system.

“Enlarge the image.” Blake marched closer to the screen.

“Already on it,” Alex said. He kept tapping.

Samantha didn’t move. Her gaze locked on the image. Janice, shaking the hand of the man who’d approached her. He was tall, with broad shoulders, his hair was dark and a dark beard covered half of his face.

“Looks like Latham dyed his hair,” Tucker mused.

“The beard is a nice touch,” Josh added. “Changes up his jaw shape.”

“Advance the frame.” Samantha wanted to see more. “Slowly.”

Very, very slowly, the video continued as Alex advanced the frame. John’s camera swung to the ground. The clip ended.

“Rewind it,” Samantha ordered. “Play it at regular speed.”

The footage rewound.

“You handled the segment with tact and class, I was impressed.”

They shook hands. The camera swung toward the ground.

“You a sailor, sir?”

The footage ended.

“A sailor,” Samantha whispered. She looked at Blake. “Bass said the guy in his backseat had a trident tattoo on his inner wrist.”

Blake’s lips parted as he began to speak—

“Son of a bitch!”

Her head swung toward Lewis. He’d jumped out of his chair. His hands were clenched into fists. “That bastard was here!”

“What?” Josh barked. “When?”

Lewis pointed a finger toward him. “Same day you arrived. Guy showed up—big, dark-haired, saying he was ex-Navy and wanted to help with the search for Tammy White.” That finger slowly curled back as his hand fisted once more. “He stood right in front of me. Introduced his damn self to me. Hell, I even told him to give his contact info to the desk clerk.” His laughter was rough. “Played me for a fool.”

Samantha was already running for the door. Her shoes clicked on the tiled floor as she rushed toward the front desk. She slapped her hands on the counter, startling the cop behind the desk.

“Ms. Dark?” Brian Titus frowned at her. Poor guy was always pulling desk duty.

“Give me the contact cards for everyone who came in and volunteered to help on the search.”

Brian looked over her shoulder. She knew the others had followed her; she’d heard their thundering steps.

“Give her the cards!” Lewis yelled.

Brian turned away, fumbling with a desk drawer to his right.

“Not like the guy was going to put his actual address down,” Josh said. “That would be too easy.”

“No.” Samantha considered the situation. “That would be arrogant.” Just like Cameron.

“Name was something with a B...” Lewis tapped his fingers on the counter. “Ben... Brent... Bryce...”

Brian lifted a card. “Brock? I got a Brock Chambers.”

She snatched the card right out of his hand. Her gaze flew over it, reading the address as her insides shook. 609 Persephone Way. Cameron—still with the mythology obsession. Obviously, the address was pure bull, but there was a telephone number listed on the card, too.

Blake pulled out his phone. She knew he was getting the FBI to run a trace on that number, and, sure enough, that was the order she heard him give. As soon as he ended the call, he put his phone on the counter in front of Samantha. He turned on the speaker option, and he dialed the number that “Brock” had listed on his contact card—the number they were supposed to call if they wanted the guy’s help in finding Tammy White.

It rang once, twice.

“He’s not going to answer,” Josh growled. “I mean, come on, obviously, that number is as bogus as the address—”

On the third ring, the phone was picked up. “Hello?” A deep, familiar voice spoke. There was a slight pause, and then he said, “Agent Gamble, your number just appeared on my caller ID. I know it’s you, so don’t waste my time with silence.”

“And I know it’s fucking you,” Blake snarled right back. “We’ve got pictures of you—those pictures are going out to the media right the hell now.”

Or rather, they would be, as soon as possible. But Cameron didn’t need to know that.

Cameron laughed. “I left the number at the station because I wanted you to call me. Though I had just about given up hope of that happening.”

“Bullshit,” Samantha said, unable to hold back. “You left the number because you were enjoying jerking around the local cops. You actually thought they’d call you in on the investigation, and you liked the idea of being on the hunt for a body. You thought they might lead you to Burke, but—”

“Samantha.” Excitement roughened his voice. “I should have known you’d find me first. Gamble was always the clueless one.” He sounded so pleased. “Missed me, did you?”

I missed the friend I had. I don’t miss the man you are. She drew in a steadying breath and continued, “You wanted the local cops to lead you to Burke. When you realized he was the one hunting here, you wanted them to help you find the guy.”

“It was one idea I had briefly.” He dismissed that. “But then I located him on my own. If you want the honest truth...”

She laughed. “Can you even give it?” She felt Blake’s gaze on her.

“I wanted to meet Lewis. You talked about him so much that I just had to shake the hand of your father figure.”

Her stare shot to Lewis. His eyes blazed. Josh was behind him, his face hard and tight. Tucker stood silently at Josh’s side. She didn’t see Alex. Maybe he was still working on the footage?

“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Cameron reassured her. “I wasn’t going to hurt him. I know how you feel about Lewis. But getting close to him, well, it was a way for me to get close to you.” He made a faint humming sound. She remembered that he’d always made that sound when he was particularly pleased with something. A grade, a promotion. “Got to say, the timing of this call is absolutely perfect. I was just about to contact good old Agent Gamble.”

“Oh, really?” Blake demanded. “’Cause you’re ready to turn your sorry ass in to the FBI?”

Again, Cameron laughed, sounding truly amused. “Good God, no. I was just ready for you to come to me. All this running around is quite tiring, so let’s just stop that, shall we? You come to me. Unarmed.”

“Why would I do that shit?”

His phone gave a little ding as it sat on the counter. A text had just come through.

“Might want to take a look at that,” Cameron advised.

Blake picked up the phone. Samantha edged closer to him.

Not another one.

A blonde woman was in that image. Blood trickled from her nose. Duct tape was over her mouth, and her hands were duct-taped to her ankles. She was in a twisted heap, thrown in...a trunk?

“I met a new friend tonight,” Cameron announced.

“Damn it, stop.” Samantha’s voice rang with fury. “Stop hurting her! Stop hurting everyone! Stop doing this!

“Make me...” The low taunt cut right to her soul.

I should have made him stop months ago.

“Agent Gamble...” The whip of wind broke over the line as Cameron spoke once again. “You can save this girl. You see, what I want is for you to come to me. I’ll swap you for the coed. A simple exchange. You can save a life today, if you just follow my orders.”

Samantha shook her head. This is just like Burke’s deal. Cameron wasn’t going to let the woman go. She could already be dead.

“You’re tracking this call, right? Well, this is how it is going to work. I’ll leave the phone on, I’ll let the FBI agents home in on my location, but I have conditions.”

“He has insanity,” Josh muttered.

But Josh was wrong. Cameron was completely sane. Just twisted. And he had very little value for human life.

“I don’t know who the fuck that was talking,” Cameron said, voice mocking, “but he’s obviously an idiot.” Again, he paused. “Sam, love, aren’t you tired of being with people who just don’t understand?” His sigh rustled over the phone. “I am. I miss our talks. I miss the way you could always understand.”

Samantha stared straight at Blake.

“I miss you,” Cameron said. And he actually sounded as if he meant those words.

Because he does.

But then he cleared his throat. “So here’s the deal. I’ve got this blonde coed, blonde from a bottle by the way. I already checked.”

Samantha’s eyes squeezed shut.

“And Agent Gamble, if you don’t do exactly what I say, I will kill her.”

“You don’t get to call the shots,” Blake snapped at the guy.

“Uh, yes, of course I do. It’s not like you’ll just stand by and let me torture and kill some innocent woman. That capacity isn’t in that true-blue DNA of yours.”

“You don’t know me.” A low growl from Blake.

“Maybe not as well as I’d thought,” Cameron allowed. “Because you didn’t lose your fucking shit the way I’d hoped at Sam’s house.”

Her eyes opened. Blake’s face was so hard and angry.

“Oh, I may have been watching,” Cameron murmured.

“From your boat,” Samantha said.

A quick moment of silence. Then, Cameron asked, voice only vaguely curious, “Have the agents traced the call already?”

No, I just know how you think, bastard.

He must have taken the silence for assent. “Well, then let’s cut to business. Yes, I’m on a boat. And, Agent Gamble, you are to come out to the boat. Specifically, I want you to swim out to me. Start at the shore next to the main Fairhope Pier. Go into the water and keep coming. I don’t give a shit how tired you get. Keep coming until you reach my boat. Once you get there, I’ll let the woman go. I’ll toss her into the water, and she’ll be free.”

The wording he used...toss her into the water, and she’ll be free. “No,” Samantha bit off. “That’s not good enough. You have to promise not to kill her. If we follow your orders, you can’t kill the woman.”

He laughed. “It was just semantics, sweetheart.”

No, it hadn’t been. He’d just promised that once Blake got to the boat, then Cameron would kill the woman and toss her overboard. Semantics, her ass. She knew exactly what he’d meant.

“I’m coming, too.” Samantha said.

Blake gave a frantic shake of his head.

But Cameron replied, “Well, of course you are. That’s condition number two. For you to swim with him. Just the two of you. No helicopters—I’d hear them, and they’d just make me reach for my knife, and then I might start slicing on the blonde.”

There was no might about it.

“And no other boats,” he added sharply. “Same deal, I’d see them coming, and they’d just make me kill my coed long before help arrived.”

Make me, make me. He was putting the blame for his actions on everyone else. Take some fucking responsibility, Cam.

“And once we make the exchange, what happens?” Blake demanded.

“I guess you have to wait and find out.” Cameron made a faint humming sound. “So, get moving. If I have to wait too long, I’ll start to experiment. It’s been a while since I studied pain with my victims.”

“Sick son of a—” Josh began.

“And, Sam?” Cameron’s voice rose. “It will be good to see you again. Just like old times.”

He was about to hang up on them. “Proof of life!” Samantha cried out. “We won’t do anything without proof of life. If you really have a victim, let her talk to us right now. You could be making up this whole abduction, you could be—”

A woman screamed. A loud, desperate, pain-filled sound.

“Look what you made me do to her...”

The line went dead. Made me, made me. In her mind, Samantha saw Cameron with his knife, torturing, hurting that woman.

Blake’s eyes glittered at her.

“Hey, Captain Lewis! Blake!”

Samantha’s shoulders jerked as Brian rushed toward them.

“When I heard you say his name, I checked the FBI database.” Excitement lit his dark eyes. “Brock Chambers is a real person...got his social security number, his Navy records and his photo...” He pushed some printed papers toward Lewis. “He even looks like the guy we just saw in that video. Tall, dark-haired, and—”

“Latham stole the guy’s identity.” Blake was still staring at Samantha.

Swallowing, she looked away, trying to focus on Cameron, trying to make a plan. “That may not be all he stole.” She bit her lower lip. Think, Samantha. Think. “Did Brock own a boat, by any chance?”

Brian nodded, looking damn pleased with himself. He should. He just scored a home run for us. “Yeah, yeah, he did—does. A forty-foot yacht called the Circe. Supposed to be down in the Keys, though—”

Her heart was slamming into her chest. “It’s not. It’s right here.” The Circe. Cameron had probably been unable to resist taking the vessel when he saw the name. It would have been too perfect of an opportunity to pass up.

Blake had picked up his phone and was dialing quickly. A call back to the FBI contact who’d been monitoring the cell. A moment later he said, “Tell me you got the bastard’s location.”

They had the name of his boat and they had—

He nodded. “Give me the coordinates.”

The little group tensed as he took the coordinates.

“Let’s mount up,” Lewis snapped. “Let’s get on the water with the rest of your agents and the Coast Guard. Let’s surround that bastard. We will take him down, and there will be no more games. No more of my fucking dead cops left in his wake. He won’t hurt anyone else in my city.”

Going in with a full cavalry was one option, but Samantha shook her head. “You know he’ll kill her if we do that.” She believed that with utter certainty. She pinned everyone around her with a quick glance. “He wasn’t bluffing. If he sees a force coming for him, he will kill the victim. There’s no reason for him not to do it.”

Going in strong would mean just one thing...the blonde woman would be dead. It was just like the setup that Jason Burke had used before with her when he’d tried to lure her onto the pier in hopes of rescuing Tammy White...and Samantha knew it was no coincidence. Cameron was using this tactic deliberately. Coming full circle. He’d learned what Burke had done; he’d probably gotten Burke to tell him every single detail of

that attack, only now Cameron was perfecting things. Proving that he was better. Always better and smarter than everyone else. Jason Burke had been a pale imitation. Cameron was ready to show he was the real thing. No one could compare with him.

Josh’s face reflected his frustration. “The guy is a freaking psychopath! He will get you both on his boat, and then, for all we know, he’ll kill everyone out there. Maybe that’s what he’s planning...to go out with a bang. Only, he wants to take you two out with him.”

Samantha’s body was so tense her muscles ached. “We’re wasting time. He will start hurting her if we don’t move.” Though she feared he’d already begun.

Lewis grabbed her arm. “You can’t go out there. If he gets you on that boat, he’s not going to let you walk, Sammie. You see that. I know you do.” He huffed out a breath. “Shit. Didn’t we learn anything from the last damn trade? Perps can’t be trusted! It’s just a setup to kill!”

“Cameron learned from the last trade.” She paused a moment, then added, voice thoughtful, “I think he even learned from my last big case in Florida.”

Blake frowned at her. Then she saw the understanding settle in his eyes. It had been so long since that case... “Hope.”

Right. Hope, Florida. A city of sunshine and dark secrets. She and Blake had worked that case together.

A perp had been kidnapping young girls down there—and killing them. And the way he’d gotten away with his crimes for so long? He’d used a boat. No one had focused on the water, and they should have.

Cameron had paid attention to that case, the way he paid attention to all of her cases. “We talked about the perp when I got back. The story had made the news, so it was no secret. He even told me that he thought utilizing the boat had been a genius move for the killer.” That was Cameron, all right. He was always learning from the strengths and weaknesses of others. Always trying to push himself. “He probably got the idea to use a boat for his movements from that case.”