Lou had left listening devices all around the pub and when she’d heard that Eva was going to get Bobby, the opportunity to strike was too perfect to resist. Standing near the school, Lou waited for Eva and tried to picture the latest crime scene.
By now the cops would have roped off the area around the bodies and marked patrol cars would have blocked off the streets to keep all onlookers away. The forensics van would have arrived. There’d be chaos.
Excitement burned. Killing had become a drug that Lou now craved. Each kill brought with it release, but the calm didn’t last. In fact, it faded faster and faster with each death. Perhaps, when Eva was dead the peace would finally come. Yes, maybe once the stars marked her belly and her eyes grew glassy with death everything would feel normal again.
Normal. It had been so long since a normal day. For so long, it had been necessary to hide and stay out of sight. Too long, the worry of being discovered hovered liked Damocles’ sword.
“I just want the anger to go away,” she whispered. “I want to be happy. I want to live.”
Maybe once Eva paid for her sins the clouds would be lifted.
Eva dug her phone out of her purse as she ran into the park looking for Bobby. She glanced at the phone and saw that she’d missed a call. Angie Carlson. She’d not heard the phone ring while she was driving and she realized she’d put it on silent mode.
Eva shoved out a breath and turned up the volume. She and Angie did need to talk. Hell, she and Garrison needed to talk. For so long she’d been alone. And now her life had filled with so many people. People she did not want to lose.
She stared at the swing set, watching the swings sway in the wind. Where was Bobby? He’d said the park by the school. “Bobby!”
She checked her watch. Maybe it was time to call Garrison.
“Eva.”
The sound of Bobby’s voice had her turning in a rush of excitement and relief. He stood on the other side of the park, waving at her.
She’d never been happier to see anyone than that kid. Without a thought she ran toward him, closing the gap between them in seconds. Breathless, she stopped in front of him. “Thank God you’re okay.”
His face was tight with tension.
“What’s wrong, Bobby?” She knelt down in front of him and laid her hands on his shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
Tears welled in his eyes and flowed down his cheeks.
She gripped his shoulders. “Honey, what’s the problem?”
“I’m sorry. She told me she’d caught Merlin.”
“I don’t understand. Merlin is back in the alley.”
In that moment, a bolt of electricity shot through her body. All her muscles collapsed, and before she realized what had happened, she lay on the ground, feeling consciousness slip away.
Garrison’s phone rang as he strode into King’s. “Yeah.”
“I’m texting you a picture,” Malcolm said. “It’s the artist’s latest sketch. Will you look at it now?”
“I’ll have a look and call you right back.”
He flipped open the phone and looked at the image. The artist had taken away the man’s glasses, the beard and added long hair. The few changes had transformed a stranger into someone he knew. Sally Walton.
“Shit.” He called Malcolm. “I want Sally Walton in my office now.”
“I’ve already sent cars to her apartment and they just reported back that she’s not there.”
“I want every uniform to have that sketch.”
“Right.”
Garrison strode through the pub past the customers and a harried waitress and pushed through the kitchen door. King stood at the stove, cursing as he pulled a burning pan from the oven.
“King. We need to talk,” Garrison said.
The older man looked up, his face a mixture of relief and anger.
“Where the hell is Eva?” Garrison asked.
“I don’t know. I thought you would.” He dropped the pan on the stovetop and started toward the back door. “I’ve got to go to the school. Bobby’s teacher can’t find him. He didn’t come back from his music class.”
“Is he with Eva? ”
“I don’t know!” King shouted.
“King, I want to help you but you have got to tell me what the hell is going on.”
The old man looked frazzled and for the first time frail. “I don’t know what’s happening.”
“You know a hell of a lot more. How did you know Louise Cross was alive?”
King paused by the back door. “Eva told you.”
“Yes. What the hell have you been doing?”
“I’ve been trying to clean up some of the damn mess the Cross family made. Those bloodsuckers leave destruction everywhere they go.”
“That’s why you brought Eva here?”
“Yes.”
“Why the boy?”
“His mother worked at Price. She was a maid. Josiah got her pregnant and then threatened to ruin her if she ever told anyone.”
“Josiah Cross is the kid’s father?”
“I’m not certain. But if I had to bet I’d say yes.”
Garrison clenched his fingers around his car keys. “How long since you last saw Eva?”
“I’m not sure. An hour. I even called her sister and she doesn’t know where Eva is. Some shit is going down. And I’m scared.”
“What about Sally? Has she been around?”
“Sally? Why? What does she have to do with anything? ”
“I think she’s Louise Cross.”
“What? That can’t be! That woman’s face is burned into my brain.”
“Nineteen years changes a lot.”
King drew in a breath as if he’d been punched. “No way. No way that bitch could be in my place and I’d not know it. She killed my family.”
“I’ll bet she looks very different than the last time you saw her.”
“But I would know. ”
“Not necessarily.”
“If she’s Louise Cross then you’ve got to find her fast. That bitch is evil. Josiah got all his evil from her. She’s got my boy and Eva. Please find her.”
“I will.” Garrison didn’t wait to reach his car before he started dialing Angie’s number. She answered immediately.
“What’s the number of the phone you gave her?”
Without hesitating, Angie recited the numbers. “Are you going to trace her phone?”
“I sure am.”
Malcolm met Garrison when he arrived at the office. “I have information for you.”
“About?” He didn’t stop to talk, but charged ahead to get the warrant he needed to trace Eva’s phone.
“The Cross family. They’re a real Addams Family, if you know what I mean. ”
“I don’t.”
“Old man Darius was a bit of a rebel back in the day. Bent his share of laws. He married Louise Winters while she was still in high schoo
l. A couple of years later Louise gave birth to twins. ”
“Josiah and Micah. ”
“Bingo. But from that moment on the marriage started to go downhill. Darius had lots of mistresses.”
“How do you know that? ”
“Rokov tracked down Darius’s former driver who worked for the family for thirty-plus years.”
Impatience wrapped around Garrison’s chest. “Okay. Bad marriage. What’s the point?”
“King was right. Louise didn’t die in a car accident as Darius told his sons and everyone else. Darius had his wife committed to a mental hospital up in western Maryland. And here’s the pisser. Six months before he died, Darius checked his wife out of the hospital.”
“Lisa tells him about The Secret. He knows he was dying, so he turns Louise loose, and creates a new identity for her so she can go out to do what he couldn’t.”
“Exactly. And here’s another tidbit. Darius bought Louise a house.”
When Eva awoke and opened her eyes she thought for a moment that she might be dead. She was sur- rounded by darkness. She blinked, but the darkness remained.
Then she noticed the ache in her side still tender from the shock she’d received. God, she felt like a truck had hit her.
She shook her head and tried to raise her hands, only to discover they were tied to the arms of a chair. Her blood pressure rose like a rocket, sending her heartbeat and mind into overdrive.
Bobby. Where was Bobby? The boy had been standing right in front of her when she’d been shocked. Had he seen who’d done this? Had he run to safety? Or was he tied up in this room somewhere?
“Bobby?” she whispered. “Bobby, are you in this room? Wake up, honey.”
No voice or sound came out of the darkness; only the silence.
Her cell phone started to vibrate somewhere. Her purse. It must be somewhere close. She strained against her bindings, trying to break free so that she could feel around the room for her purse. But her hands were tied so tight, her fingers tingled. Finally, the vibrating stopped and the phone sunk into the darkness.
A lifeline was so close to her and she couldn’t reach it. She tried to rock her chair from side to side but found it was bolted.She was trapped.