“At parents’ weekend, I saw your young friend in the hallway of your building, and Laura, I couldn’t resist her. I had to take her, and so I did. The girls I claim, they don’t feel a thing. I make sure they’re fast asleep before I . . . anyway . . . the very next day, you and I had our father-daughter breakfast. Remember that?”
She nodded, too nauseated to speak.
“And you told me you thought someone sick murdered Angelina, but not a kidnapper. You said you’d been thinking about our travels. How sometimes the news would report a woman missing just as we departed. You said the women looked like Angelina, and that someone evil had to be near us. And do you remember what you planned to do about your theory?”
She clutched her throat. If only she hadn’t told her father she was going to meet with the newspaper editor, with Ronald Saas.
“Who was the man who bought me dinner?” She forced herself to look him in the eyes.
“Someone I hired. A homeless fellow no one will ever miss—I’ve taken care of him like the rest. Whose blood do you think was all over this cabin? Not yours. It was mostly his. I’d already cleaned up after I killed Harriet.”
“You can’t get away with this. When they find the homeless man . . .”
He laughed, seeming genuinely amused. “They’ll never find his body. Anyway, I hired him to bring you to the cabin, but I made sure he kept you asleep until I could get here the next day. I wouldn’t trust something so important as your death to a bum. But I admit I made my own mistakes. You were barely breathing when I left, and I didn’t think it was possible for you to survive, not after the huge overdose I gave you. And I had to get back. The police were waiting to interview me, and I didn’t want them to get suspicious. But don’t worry.” The sincere look he gave her made her blood curdle in her veins. “I’m right here, baby. I won’t leave you this time until it’s all over.”
His shoulders sagged, as though he’d grown weary of conversation. But there was so much more she wanted to know. And she needed more time to gather her breath, to steel her nerves for what was to come. She had to keep him talking.
“Did you shoot Cayman?”
“In the back. He was trying to save you from me—your own father, if you can believe that. Once, I slipped and mentioned this cabin to him. I think he suspected this was where I would hide you.”
She forged on, she had to keep him talking. “Why does Dr. Webber think I’m a murderer?”
“Because of all the little lies I tell him. Things like how you have a habit of sleepwalking with knives. I hoped it would never come to this, but I’ve been laying the groundwork for years, in case I needed someone to take the fall for me. Unfortunately for you, my window of opportunity is closing. I can surely convince the law that you killed Angelina and your friend . . . and yourself. But if they ever catch on to all the others, that would be a hard sell, indeed. So you understand why I had to act quickly, once you said you were going to the newspapers.”
The web of evil her father had spun was so elaborate, so sticky—it seemed impossible to escape. Oh how she wished she hadn’t confided in him about her theories and told him she was going to take them to Ronald Saas.
Now, with the confessional note, and her death staged to look like a suicide, he might get away with it all. If Cassidy and Spenser didn’t put the pieces together, if she died here in this cabin, he would go on killing as he pleased. There would be no one left to stop him. “Water . . . I need water for the pills.”
He looked at the empty cup and picked it up off the mattress. “I’ll get some, but you have to come with me.”
Taking hold of her arm, he yanked her off the bed. No way she could get to the knife, now. Not while he had hold of her. She went as numb inside as if she’d swallowed a vial of Lidocaine, but she knew exactly what she had to do.
Her own father was the monster, and the monster had to die.
He dragged her a step toward the door. Then, from somewhere outside, a mechanical sound whirred, like the noise of a motor sputtering. Growing louder, closer.
Her father froze and turned his face away from her and toward the sound.
Now!
She bit his hand, jerked free of his grasp and lunged for the knife.
The ATV screeched to a halt. Spense jumped off and raced up the steps to the cabin three at a time. He could hear Caity panting behind him. If Cayman was their UNSUB, he might have Laura with him, or hidden nearby.
“Bitch!” A male voice carried to him on the wind.
Spense’s brain and body kicked into auto-mode. He held out a back away hand to Caity, at the same instant he drew his Glock and stuck it out in front.