Sight Unseen(57)
Colby’s lips curled into a sly grin. “Only if you do it right.”
“Tell us how your DNA got into that murder scene,” Griffin said.
“You’re asking the wrong question. The question isn’t how, it’s why.”
“Okay,” Griffin said. “Let’s start there. Why?”
Colby slowly stood up. “It wasn’t a clue, gentlemen. It was an invitation.”
“An invitation to what?” Lynch asked.
“Again, you ask the wrong question.” Colby moved to stand before the one-way glass.
“Sit down,” one of the guards ordered.
“What you should want to know is to whom was the invitation addressed?” Colby stared into the glass. “She is here, isn’t she?”
Kendra felt a jolt of shock.
He was staring at her.
He was only inches away, and there was no way he could see through that glass. Yet she could swear he could see her.
Colby smiled. “Of course she’s here,” he said softly. “Hello, Kendra.”
Kendra couldn’t take her eyes from Colby’s icy stare.
“I’d like to say I missed you,” he said. “But it wouldn’t be true. Because you’ve always been with me.” He paused. “Just as I’ve always been with you. Do you remember the gully? Do you still wake at night with the stench of death in your nostrils?”
She instinctively shrank back, away from the glass.
“I dream about it, too. But it’s a pleasant scent to me because I know what horror it brought you.”
“Get him,” Lynch told the guards sharply. “Get him away from that glass.”
The guards grabbed Colby and literally dragged him back to his chair. He laughed, but his eyes never left the one-way glass.
Lynch leaned forward across the table. “Enough,” he said tightly. He struck the table with his fist. “She has nothing to do with this.”
“She has everything to do with this, Mr. Lynch.” As Colby finally turned to face him, Colby picked up on his surprised expression. “Yes, I know who you are. I know who all of you are. Has it occurred to you that every single thing that has happened these past few weeks … just might have been all for one reason and one reason only?”
“What’s that?” Griffin asked.
Colby smiled. “To bring me face-to-face with Kendra Michaels once more.”
“Yes.” Lynch’s face was expressionless. “I’ve been considering it as a distinct possibility since I arrived here.”
“My God,” Kendra whispered.
Griffin shook his head, as if trying to comprehend what he’d just heard.
Colby smiled. “Think about it. How else could I have ever gotten her here? How else could you have gotten her here?”
Griffin finally spoke. “You’re positively insane.”
“No. If that was the case, I never would have had to stand trial.”
Lynch’s hands clenched into fists. “So you’re taking at least partial responsibility for these new copycat murders?”
“I’m doing nothing of the sort. But what I’m telling you is … if you want this conversation to continue, Kendra Michaels must join us.”
Lynch shook his head. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Then we’re finished here.”
“We’ll decide when we’re finished,” Griffin said.
“Actually, no.” Colby tapped his fingertips together. “The moment I accepted my death sentence, I became free. It was incredibly liberating, believe it or not. I simply cannot be compelled to do anything I don’t want to do. How many people can say that? There’s nothing more you can do to me, nothing more you can take away from me. You should envy me.”
“The hell we should,” Griffin said.
“Not you.” Colby’s gaze turned to Lynch. “But I think you’d have the imagination to grasp what I’m saying, Lynch. I believe that you may think outside the box.”
“We’ve seen your cell,” Lynch said. “And I don’t envy you.”
“Not until you have the same sentence pronounced on you.” He shrugged. “Those are my last words until Kendra joins us. If she chooses not to come in here, I wish you all a pleasant journey home. And good luck with your investigation.”
Colby folded his hands in front of him on the table and gazed straight ahead.
On the other side of the glass, Kendra stared at Colby in helpless fascination. He was wrapped in silent power, shutting them all out.
And he’d meant every word he’d said.
Don’t make me do this.
She’d fought against it, told herself that she could dip her toe in the ugliness that was Colby and not be pulled beneath the murky wasteland.