She snapped the phone shut and dropped it in her purse. With a deep breath, Kaitlan swiveled toward the bathroom to make herself presentable for her boyfriend-a man who had killed three women.

CHAPTER nineteen

He was right. Darell knew knew it. He was right! it. He was right!

Perched in his office chair, back erect, he stared at his monitor. But his mind barely registered the empty page that had once taunted him so. The angst of the past year, that gut-churning fear of a career in the dust-now stunningly behind him. The freedom he felt! How true the saying-one didn't know how heavy the burden until it was gone. His fingers weren't flying over the keys just yet. But the story would come as this true-life trauma unfolded. He need only wait and watch.

And catch this killer.

Darell crossed his arms and focused out the window. The straggly end of an oak branch pushed against the edge of the gla.s.s, its leaves trembling in the breeze. He narrowed his eyes, listening to the scratch of wood. Skreek, skreek. Skreek, skreek. A nerve-whittling sound. One he might use in a dark and threatening climactic scene ... A nerve-whittling sound. One he might use in a dark and threatening climactic scene ...

Why did Craig Barlow kill?

Darell pondered that. His gaze returned to the white of the screen-and in that second, out of nowhere, the shock of reality hit.

This wasn't a novel. This was real.

Kaitlan wasn't a character, she was his granddaughter. Her boyfriend had killed three women. And he-who knew the criminal mind-had forced her right back to the man.

What was he thinking? thinking?

Fear curdled Darell's blood. He sagged back in his chair, palms pressed against his chest. Air clogged his throat like mud.

He had sent his only granddaughter off to die.

How was he supposed to protect her from here? As if he could guide an aberrant criminal mind from afar.

Dread encased Darell in a blanket of metal. He put a hand to his sweating forehead. How had he allowed this to happen? Just this morning a mere fictional murderer had outwitted him. Oh, to have that back as his only problem.

Darell fumbled for his cane and pulled to his feet. "Margaret!" He thudded across the office. "Marrrgaarettt!"

The door flew open and she rushed in. "What? What is it?"

"I need ..." His arm flailed. He could barely breathe. "I need Kaitlan's cell number. Have to call her, tell her to get out of that apartment-now!"

"It's too late, D. It's six-forty. He picked her up ten minutes ago."

No. Darell shook his head until his brain rattled. "No. Not too late. We have to reach her. We have to get her Darell shook his head until his brain rattled. "No. Not too late. We have to reach her. We have to get her out out of there." of there."

Margaret's cheeks paled. "Come on now, let's get you to your chair." She nudged him back toward the desk.

No, no rest in the chair. He had to move, do something!

But his body betrayed him. Sickness oozed through Darell's limbs. Like an old man he allowed himself to be propelled to the desk. He half fell into his seat, beaten and worn. Dropped his head into his hands.

"Listen to me." Margaret knelt down, pushing her face close to his. Her words came in short breaths. "You are going to help Kaitlan. You can do this, D. I believe in you." She squeezed his wrists. "You were right about the empty apartment, weren't you? Saw straight into that crazed mind. You started this; now you have to finish it."

Darell felt stripped to the soul. "But she's with him right now. She might already be dead."

"No. You read him right. He's playing the game he started. We have time to figure this out. "

"But I-"

Margaret made a furious sound in her throat. She grabbed Darell's shoulders and shook him. He ogled her in dull surprise. "Listen to me, Darell Brooke. You can't afford to lose yourself in confusion now. You have no right. This isn't about you anymore. You sent Kaitlan back there. You're in this now, and you have to finish it!"

The words sank into Darell. Down ... down until they took hold.

He sat back, spent. Blinking rapidly.

Margaret was right. He had to do this.

Darell cleared his throat. He searched within himself for the King of Suspense. What would that man do?

"I need more data," he said. "I need to know about the other two murders."

Relief fluttered across Margaret's face. "We can look up news stories online."

"You'll help?"

"Of course."

He nodded. "Okay."

Margaret stood up and backed away a few steps, still watching him-as if he might collapse any minute.

He straightened his shoulders. What did she think he was-some flighty invalid?

Darell turned to look at his computer monitor. The white page stared at him.

In all the novels he'd finished, he'd known the story's ending from the very first page. He just wasn't always quite sure how to get there. Same with Kaitlan's story, right? He knew the ending: Craig was caught. Solidly. Irrevocably. Darell just hadn't figured out how to make that happen yet.

But it would come.

It would come.

"Kaitlan promised to call when she gets back home," Margaret said.

That could be hours from now. If she made it home safely at all.

Darell's stomach growled.

He focused on the clock. Six-forty-five. Dinner was late.

"You ever going to feed me, woman?"

She blinked then almost smiled. "It's ready. Come on into the kitchen."

Darell shuffled out behind her, following the smell of baked chicken and rice. Something about that comforting scent got his mind chugging again.

This latest victim needed to be discovered. Immediately. Two victims may not be enough to connect every dot as to what commonalities they shared-and which were important. Three would be much more effective.

Besides, they needed to tie Craig to this third body.

Darell entered the kitchen and settled himself in his chair. Margaret filled a plate.

He'd been right about the body. He'd been right right.

Darell ate without tasting, thinking of Craig. Those thoughts soon drifted to plot points ... and characters ... and his lagging ma.n.u.script.

Why did Leland Hugh kill? did Leland Hugh kill?

UNt.i.tLED MS.

CHAPTER twenty

Deep in the night Leland Hugh walks the town.

Darkness is his ally.

In movies and in books the dark has been unworthily portrayed. Unpredictable, ferocious, protector of evil and ugliness. The hour of vampires and witches and goblins. Hider of sins.

The velvet blackness drapes soft on the back of Hugh's neck.

This night the pavement sheens from recentrain. Lamp post light glides across asphalt as he pa.s.ses, a ghost galleon in a shallow sea.

Although the air is warm, Hugh detects a whisper of coming autumn.

He traverses the central downtown street, nerves thrumming to the music of its silence. Twelve hours ago shoppers and lunchers filled these blocks, fiercely intent on their useless errands and gossip of the absurd. Their absence fills Hugh with a quiet joy. He entertains the thought of himself as sole survivor of the town, an unbridled and brilliant founder of new beginnings.

The world according to Leland Hugh.

He reaches an intersection and swerves diagonally to the opposite curb.

His footsteps strike without noise. This is an art he has perfected. Fear may be unleashed through the shriek of power, but nothing is as terrifying as soundless dread.

On the other side of the street he approaches the coffee shop where he first saw tonight's victim. He pauses, peering into the cafe's shadows. Round wood tables and straight-backed chairs speak of the day-timers who fill the place, the bustling chrome galley now polished and spa.r.s.e. At the far table-there-she sat two days ago, leaning over a latte in deep conversation with a girlfriend. She was black-haired, slender-shouldered, a small silver locket around her neck. Full pink-glossed lips. A trace of their color pressed into the tip of the straw protruding from her drink.

His eyes riveted, fascinated, to that tinted plastic. To the piece of her it had claimed as its own.

When his gaze lifted to her face, she glanced up and caught his stare. Her eyelids flickered, mouth curving slightly before she looked away.

Feeble female, mistaking his attention as admiration.

Hugh smiles as he turns from the window.

Her name is Mariah. Not surprising to Hugh, she works at a dress boutique catering to the wealthier of clientele over on Second Avenue. Mariah is twenty-eight and single. She lives a mere three blocks from where Hugh now walks. Alone-in a single-bedroom apartment on the ground floor of a three-story building. Yesterday he slipped through her place while she was at work, quiet and efficient, leaving nothing to hint of his exploration.

Her bedroom is pink. Hugh finds that highly appropriate.

At the next curb he veers right. Two blocks to go.

The familiar electricity in his veins powers on.

Were it not for Somewhere in the recesses A new and strange premonition rises in his At sight of her place Hugh stops. Something is wrong.

He

CHAPTER twenty-one

Wrapped in cellophane, the half dozen red roses lay on the pa.s.senger seat of Craig Barlow's convertible Mustang.

The engine roared to life. Craig backed out of his designated s.p.a.ce at the apartment complex. Rolling through the parking lot with the car top down, he caught the scent of grilling steaks.

He wasn't the least bit hungry.

His nerves still teemed with crawling insects. Anger, disbelief, and defense twitched along his limbs, just below the surface. Look at him wrong and he'd explode.

It would take every ounce of willpower he possessed to make it through his sister's party.

Containment. This was now about containment.

Craig pulled onto the street, and the cellophane crunched in the wind.