Last Words

“No.”

Mia studied his back, and recognized the tension in the muscles of his neck. He’d been the intended target that night, and his brother had died instead of him. Surely his burden of guilt was greater than hers. If she could learn to work her way out of hers, perhaps in time he could as well.

She decided to let it go.

“I’m having di

“Andy has a new girlfriend?”

“Dorsey Collins, you know her? She’s terrific. She’s with the Bureau. They’re IN LOVE.” Mia smiled. “Maybe you can join us if you’re still here.”

“I’d love to,” he told her. “If I’m still here.”

“So when did you become such a gourmet?”

“When I started traveling so much. Now when I’m home, I want to stay home. I want to be comfortable and well-fed. If I want to eat well at home, I have to do it myself.”

“Yeah, well, if you were serious about being comfortable, you could have bought some furniture that had a little spring to the cushions.”

Mia leaned past him to the counter and turned down the radio. She’d left it on when she’d gone upstairs to shower.

“Now, maybe we can talk without shouting.” She leaned on the counter and sliced a cracker through the cream cheese on the plate, careful to scoop up a little of the hot pepper jelly before popping it into her mouth.

“Whoa, that’s a little spicier than you usually…” She stopped mid-sentence. Co

“The alarm’s been tripped.” He stood stock still, listening.

“I didn’t set an alarm,” she whispered.

“I did. It’s a sensor and it’s always on unless I disable it.”

“Great. When were you going to tell me? What if I’d tripped it?”

“You wouldn’t have. Unless, of course, you were trying to break in through one of the basement windows.” He lifted his jacket and took out a small, lethal looking handgun.

“Co

“I imagine you don’t.” He opened the basement door silently, and descended.

Mia ran up the steps as quickly and as quietly as she could, grabbed her own Sig Sauer from her purse, and came back down. She stood at the top of the steps, listening.

She was about to call his name when she heard glass shatter. She ran down the steps and stopped at the bottom to get her bearings.

Co

“Get John Mancini on the phone,” he told her. “It looks like we’ve had a visitor…”

He looked over his shoulder to meet her eyes. “But I don’t know if he was looking for me, or looking for you…”

“Who’d be looking for me?” She frowned.

“I don’t know. But I do know that only three people know I’m here in the country, and two of them are in this room.”

“The third being John.”

“Right. So give him a call, and tell him we need a little backup here ASAP.”

He started up the steps.

“Where are you going?” She paused in mid-dial.

“I’m just going to take a look around outside.” He grabbed a large flashlight from an old wooden workbench and headed up the stairs. “You need to think about what it is you’re working on right now, and why someone might want to take you out of the game.”

23

Mia listened as the phone rang and rang. Finally, a gruff, “Yes?”

“Beck?”

“Yes.”

“It’s Mia. Listen, I’m going to be late today. Last night…”

“Let me guess. You couldn’t get to sleep on your own, so now you’re hung over?” His voice held an edge she had not heard there before. “Can’t clear your head this morning?”

“I’m going to pretend you did not say that.”

“Is that all? Is that what you called for?”

“I just wanted you to know I was going to be late. This was supposed to be a courtesy call, Beck, but I guess you’ll see me when you see me.” She fought back an urge to curse. It had been a very long night. “How’s that for courtesy?”

“Lisa’s missing,” he said tersely.

“Missing? What do you mean, she’s…” The words caught in her throat. “Missing? You mean…missing? You think…?”

“Yeah, Mia. I do. And if you’d answered your phone last night, or maybe checked your voice mail once in a while, you’d already know. So you can understand why right now I’m not particularly sympathetic to how you feel this morning. I think you need to get some help if you plan on staying in this line of work.”

The line went dead. She barely noticed.

If the killer had Lisa…

She grabbed her bag from the kitchen counter and hurried outside. Checking for messages on her cell. Damn. Four missed calls. Two new voice mail messages. She played them back, listening to Beck’s terse voice as she searched for Co

A half-dozen agents had been combing the woods and the fields and every square inch of ground around the house. So far, they’d found tire prints down the road and some impressions next to the basement window, but little else.

“I have to go,” she told Co

“Not a good idea, Mia.” Co

“Doesn’t matter. If he makes the mistake of coming after me, he’ll wish he hadn’t.”

“Brave words, little cousin.” Co

“This killer…he abducts women and keeps them someplace. Keeps them alive, rapes them, tortures them. When he’s finished with them, he kills them by wrapping them up in plastic wrap and watches them suffocate.”

“Jesus.”

“Right. Well, he’s killed three women that we know of. And apparently, yesterday he took a fourth victim. She’s a cop, Con. I was just starting to get to know her. I like her. Just yesterday she was telling me how happy she was, how she married the man of her dreams and has this perfect life. And just hours later, she was gone.” She cleared her throat. “I have to go. You don’t really need me here.”

“You have someone there who’ll watch your back?”

“Beck.” She called over her shoulder as she started down the road. “The chief of police in St. De

Mia hustled through the glass doors off the lobby of the St. De

“That’s a different look for you,” he said.

She looked down at her cutoffs and realized she was still dressed in the same shorts and T-shirt and flip flops she’d put on the night before.

“Yeah, well, it’s been a busy night.” She pointed to Beck’s office. “Is the chief in?”

“He’s in, but he’s downstairs in one of the interrogation rooms.”

“St. De

“They’re pretty much the same room,” Garland admitted. “We don’t hold prisoners here. If we arrest someone, we usually take them right to the county facility, or over to Ballard, if it’s only going to be for the night. We’ve never had cells here.”

“Who’s he interrogating?” she asked.

“Mickey.” Vanessa stepped through the open conference room door. “Beck’s questioning Mickey. He thinks he has something to do with Lisa being missing.”

Vanessa’s eyes were clouded with tears.

“He won’t let me come down there.” Vanessa pointed to the steps. “You go on down there and tell him that Mickey couldn’t have had anything to do with anything.”

“Vanessa, maybe you should go on back to the store.” Mia took her arm and tried to steer her gently in the direction of the lobby. “I’ll have Beck give you a call when they’re finished downstairs, okay?”