Abduction (23 page)

“Yes.”

Her response
was terse. Her voice harsh. He paused. “Don’t you think you should at least ask
who it is before you open the door?”

“I looked
through the peephole. I knew it was you.”

He shifted his
weight from one foot to the other. “I brought this. . .”
He thrust the blanket at her. “From the Matthews’ baby crib.”

“I see,” she
replied coolly. She stepped back from the door and waved him in.

The tension
was a thick fog, but JJ tried to ignore it.

Zoe took the
blanket and sat down on the sofa, ignoring JJ. She closed her eyes, fingering
the fabric.

“That’s odd.”

JJ, who was
looking around the room, turned back to her. “What is?”

“I can usually
pick up something, even if it’s just a sense of the person. But there’s nothing
on this blanket at all. It might as well have come straight from a store. I
can’t pick up anything.”

“We took it
out of the child’s crib. Karen Matthews said Jessica was sleeping on it when
she was taken.”

Zoe shook her
head. “I can’t pick up anything.” She folded the blanket, stood up stiffly, and
handed it back to him. “Will there be anything else?”

JJ took his
time standing up. “I’m sorry, but am I missing something here? What’s with the
attitude?”

“You’ll have
to excuse me, but I see no reason to pretend that yesterday morning didn’t
happen.”

“Hey, I
haven’t forgotten what happened yesterday morning. I just don’t think it was
very smart.”

Zoe jammed her
fists on her hips, the fire in her eyes nearly incinerating him on the spot.
“I’m not the one who started it, so don’t make me out to be the bad guy.”

“Did I say you
started it?” he snapped.

“You’re doing
a great job of implying it!”

JJ raised his voice to match hers. “All I said was
that it should
n’t have happened!”

“And it won’t
happen again!”

“Not in this
lifetime!”

“
Then I see no reason to continue this discussion!”
She marched
over to the front door
and yanked it open. “I think this is the way out
.”

“Fine!”

He started for
the door, but something in her face stopped him. His gaze followed hers down to
the threshold. “Oh!”

Dropping the
blanket, JJ ran forward as Zoe backed away. She closed her eyes and leaned
against the wall.

He knelt down.
Without touching the bloody garment, he determined it was the same color and
pattern shirt that Lisa Brandt was supposed to have been wearing.

The killer was
taunting them—daring to come up to the house while she was home. Not only at
home but in the company of the police. He was thumbing his nose at all of them.
Anger surged as JJ pulled out his cell phone and called Matt.

“We’re talking
within the last ten or fifteen minutes. If there’s anyone patrolling nearby,
have them sweep. I doubt they’ll find anything, but do it anyway. And I need an
evidence bag.”

He glanced at
Zoe. Her pale, bloodless face pulled at him even as he fought it. “Go sit
down,” he told her, trying not to snap at her.

She
disappeared into the kitchen, where she made herself a cup of tea. He joined
her there half an hour later. “Go pack a bag. You’re not staying here.”

She raised one
eyebrow. “I beg your pardon.”

“This guy is
not kidding around, Zoe. I can’t leave you here alone. He may come back.”

“I don’t think
that’s your problem, Detective Johnson. Now, if you don’t mind, I had some
reading I wanted to do this evening.”

He pulled out
a chair and propped one foot up on it. “Look, I can’t leave you here. Now, be a
good girl, pack a bag, grab your book, and let’s go.”

“I’d
appreciate it very much if you would leave.”

“Do you have a
death wish or something? This guy wants you dead. Do you understand that?”

“I understand
quite well, Detective. I’m not a child and I’m not stupid.”

“But you are one of the most obstinate women I’ve
ever known.”

“I feel sad
for you.”

“Yeah, I can
tell you’re just bleeding all over the place for me. Come on, pack some
things.”

Zoe stood up
and carried her cup to the sink. “I will say this one more time. Please leave.
If you don’t, I will call your boss and tell him that you have attacked me,
kissed me, and now refuse to leave my home.”

There was
something in her tone of voice that let him know she wasn’t kidding. But he
still couldn’t keep himself from saying, “You wouldn’t.”

She turned
around at the sink and leaned back against it, folding her arms across her
chest. “Oh, I would. No one is running me out of my home.”

“Then we’ll
carry you out in a body bag.”

She stood
there, staring him down. He quickly realized that pushing wasn’t getting
anywhere. “Fine. Have it your way.”

#

Zoe waited
until she heard the last car pull away from the curb, then curled up in a chair
with a book. Everything fell silent again. It had taken hours for JJ to leave,
but at least he had stayed outside, directing the investigation and sending
Matt in if there were questions. It rankled her, but she did her best to ignore
the fact that he was still out there.

It didn’t matter
that the words ran together on the pages or that she had been staring at the
same page for nearly an hour. What mattered was that she told JJ she was going
to read, and by golly, she was going to read.

Slowly she began to hear every little noise. The house
creaked. A dog barked. A car backfired. Something scraped across the window.

She jumped at
every sound. Even after turning on every light in the house, she wondered if
her pride hadn’t made her foolish. She could be someplace safe. Instead, she
was holed up in her home, skittish and afraid.

Trust me.

Zoe closed her eyes. Trust who? Her father? He’d
already proven that he couldn’t be trusted. Good old Detective Josiah Johnson
with the penetrating eyes and devastating kiss? Right. The killer had JJ running
around in circles. She had no one to depend on but herself. She had a knife
tucked under her thigh, although she didn’t expect the killer to show up
tonight. He wasn’t done playing with her yet. She knew that. Just as she knew
she would face him.

He’d taken her
innocent little sister away from her, and she was going to make him pay dearly
for it. She was going to make him suffer. He was going to feel every inch of
pain he’d ever inflicted on a child. He was going to beg to die. And then,
maybe, she’d let him. Let him go straight to hell where he’d suffer for all
eternity. And that wasn’t even long enough.

“He’s going to
pay, Amy. I promise you, he’s going to pay.”

Trust me. I
will never leave you nor forsake you.

Zoe picked up
her book. There was no one she could trust. Not now. Not with this. She had
been born for this: to confront a man who had nothing but evil in his heart.
She would succeed. Alone. She could do this.
She could.

In the
meantime, it was going to be a long night.

#

Karen closed
her eyes and willed herself to go to sleep. Ray was snoring softly across the
hall in the guest room, and her father had finally left.

When Ray asked
if she’d killed Jess or Ted, she’d felt the floor tilt under her feet. Her
answer was an almost inaudible “No.”

Then Ray had
turned to their father. “Good enough for me.”

Why Ray had
come was still a mystery. She hadn’t expected him. But he was here, and she
felt nothing but gratitude and relief.

They had
retreated to the living room after their father stormed out of the house.
There, curled up on opposite sides of the sofa, they had discussed Ted’s
disappearance. Ray was convinced Ted had met with foul play after messing
around with someone’s wife.

“Ted wouldn’t
do that,” she’d claimed, but Ray had only snorted in disbelief.

“I never
trusted him, Sis. Trust me, he isn’t worth defending.”

But she’d
tried to defend him, finding it more difficult with each passing minute as Ray
pointed out the obvious. Suitcases had been found in Ted’s car. He had packed
his clothes and lied about going off to meet with the kidnappers. Karen
remembered how the police had been anxious to talk to him, claiming he’d agreed
to answer some questions. But he disappeared instead. This, as Ray had
emphasized, was the behavior of a man with something to hide. Karen’s faith in
Ted had slowly begun to crumble, until finally she’d retreated to bed with a
headache.

She vacillated
between confusion, pain, and numbness. She was no longer sure what she believed
or why. Ray accused her of avoiding the truth because it was easier to pretend.
She was starting to believe he was right. She’d been so miserable for so long
that pretending had become her escape.

It was time to
see truth for what it was and deal with it. But was she strong enough to handle
it?

She stared at
the ceiling with more questions than answers. Had Ted been avoiding the police?
Why? Had he lied? Had someone killed him?

Her heart
jumped with pain as she twisted her fingers into the blanket and fought back
hysteria.
He just couldn’t be dead.

#

JJ couldn’t shake the feeling he’d made a mistake
with Zoe. Stretched
out on his bed, he went over the entire scene with
her again in his mind. He’d strong-armed her and he shouldn’t have.

With arms
folded under his head, he stared at the ceiling and wondered how to protect Zoe
without getting her all riled up. If he hadn’t called her onto the case, she
wouldn’t even be a target. But she
had
become a target, so he was honor
bound to protect her.

His fingers
itched to pick up the phone and call her—to see if she was okay.

But the phone
rang before he could gather the courage to call. He glanced at the clock. It
was just after 2:00
a.m.
He
reached over and picked up the receiver. “Johnson.”

“JJ? It’s
Matt. We have another missing child.”

#

JJ zipped up his sweatshirt against the cool
spring night as he stood
outside the
apartment building and talked to a police officer. He
couldn’t begin to describe the relief when he
arrived on the scene and learned that the killer hadn’t struck again after all.
It was a case of parental abduction. The mother had called in a panic sometime
after midnight when she woke on the sofa to find that her husband hadn’t
returned their son at nine the way he was supposed to. After
calling his
apartment and finding the phone number disconnected, she’d called the police.

Someone at the
station heard that a child was missing and turned it over to Matt Casto, who
was on call. Matt had called JJ. Now they could both go home.

JJ climbed into his Cherokee and took a deep
breath. He had
n’t realized how tense he was until that moment. With one
hand on the wheel and one elbow propped up on the window’s edge with fingers
buried in his hair, JJ drove down empty streets through quiet neighborhoods.
Except for the occasional flicker of a television through someone’s curtains,
houses were dark. Until he reached Jasper Drive.

He pulled up
to the curb in front of her house and stared. The house was ablaze with light.

She had to be
scared out of her mind.

Climbing out
of his vehicle, he walked up to the house and knocked on the door. Zoe opened
the door, looking much the same as she had a few hours earlier, but this time
there were dark circles under her eyes and tightness around her mouth.

“I was responding to another call and drove by. I
saw the lights.”

She stepped
back, silently inviting him in. “I just made some coffee. Would you like some?”

He noticed the
tension in her voice and wondered if it was
because
he was there or because she was frightened. Following her into
the
kitchen, he spotted the book on the arm of the sofa. She should have finished
it by now.

He waited
until they were back in the living room with their coffee before he asked,
“Having a problem sleeping?”

“I guess you
could say that.” She tucked her feet under her.

“You have good
enough reason. If I had a killer stalking me, I don’t think I’d be sleeping.”

“I didn’t
think it would bother me.”

“Then you’re
crazy.”

She shrugged,
a little smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “You’ve been implying that
all along.”

“I didn’t mean
to.” He sipped his coffee, struggling to break the tension between them.

He set down his coffee cup on the table next to
his chair, clasped his hands between his knees, and leaned forward. “Look,
we’ve been at each other’s throats since this began. I’ve made no secret of the
fact that I don’t think much of this psychic business.
But I don’t want
you dead.”

“So you’re
concerned for my life,” she said dryly.

“Look, Zoe.
Miss Shefford. I can’t deny that I find you attractive, but I’m not looking to
get involved with anyone.”

“That makes
two of us.” She lifted her cup and took another sip, her eyes downcast.

“Then you
understand that my interest is purely in the line of duty. This man is serious
about wanting you dead. I’m serious about making sure he doesn’t get what he
wants.”

“I understand
completely.”

“And I want it
to stay purely business. My. . .I stepped over the line. It won’t happen
again.”

“Of course
not.”

“Good. Then
why don’t you go get some sleep while I keep watch.”