“You left Will alive?” She felt bad for the doc. He’d been trying to explore his nature and it had gotten him in trouble, maybe dead.
He shrugged a little. “Sure. It’s better to have him alive and protesting. He won’t remember a thing and I made sure he doesn’t have an alibi for the other girls I did. You know that was the funniest thing of all. I thought I would hate it. I thought that killing those other girls was just smart. I thought I would tie them up and shoot them, but when I looked into that first girl’s eyes, I wanted my hands on her. I wanted her to know it was me killing her, judging her. And somehow, she became you, dear sister. She morphed into you.”
He’d gone way off the deep end. “This is not going down the way you want it to.”
He adjusted the ropes and pulled out his cell, frowning at it.
“She’s supposed to be here, isn’t she?” Karina walked through the plan. Maybe Starr was in another room, but then why would he keep glancing back at the door, checking his phone. Someone had to get Will’s car home. They wouldn’t risk coming together. If Starr got pulled over, she could claim her boyfriend was just drunk. She couldn’t get away with two bodies.
So she was missing in action. More time for Karina.
“It won’t work if he’s not here. You have to time this just right, Terry. If you’re even a little bit off, the cops are going to figure it out.”
His jaw tightened and he stood back up, looking out the window. “No. They won’t even bother. I’m handing them a great case. The cops will run with it. They’ll look like heroes for stopping this guy at five. I’ve taken little trophies from each girl and Starr hid them here. They’ll also find the rice. I thought that was pretty funny. She used to work at an amusement park. She ran a booth where she wrote people’s names on grains of rice. The stupid fuckers still haven’t found them. I laid out everything.”
It might have actually worked, except there was no way Derek let the little things slip. Maybe it was time to disrupt Terry’s calm. She needed him close. She didn’t need her hands to hurt him. She just needed to get her feet close enough.
“They found the rice, Terry. Why do you think Lieutenant Brighton has been living with me? He moved in the day after they found Amanda King’s body. He isn’t my boyfriend. He’s a cop and he’s looking for me right this second. There’s no way he buys this.”
He stared down at her. “No.”
“Yes. You watched me before. Did I have men over?”
“You went to that club all the time. It had too much security. I had to get you to go somewhere else. I met the mom of that girl. She told me she was worried about her daughter because she was into freaky stuff. That was when I came up with my plan.”
Oh, god, she’d been the reason for Tanya’s death. “I’m sure after she was killed, you were the one who sent her to me.”
“I did. I had to get you on the outside. I don’t care if your friend is a cop. He’s still going to see what I want him to see. Hell, I’ll even give him a call in the morning and he can tell me the sad news of my sister-in-law’s death. I’ll cry and shit and tell him I always knew you would come to a bad end. I always knew those clubs would be the death of you. Once I tell him about your background, he won’t question it. No one gives a shit about addicts, Karina. I’ll tell him about the arrests and what a piece of shit you were as a kid and he’ll shrug and probably think the world is better off.” He hissed through his teeth as he looked at his phone again. “Fuck this. I’m not waiting.”
“You need that car parked in his drive.” Karina thought through the situation quickly. Anything to keep his hands off her throat. “We’re in the city. Someone’s going to notice when his car gets here. You can’t go until she’s here. Think about it, Terry. What if she broke down? It could be hours. How do you explain that his car got here after my time of death? They can tell. You know that.”
He kicked her right in the gut. Karina moaned, but it was better than getting strangled to death.
He turned away.
Think. She looked around as much as she could. Will Daley’s house was neat and uncluttered. Damn tidy men. It didn’t give her much to work with. With sheer force of will, she turned herself on her back, biting back a moan against the pain. She was grateful her arms were a little numb now. She curled her legs up and swung them. Up and toward her abs, tightening them. Rolling ball. Thank god for Pilates.
And for working out four days a week and learning karate. She rolled until she had momentum and then planted her feet. It was just enough to let her roll and get to her knees.