I'm Watching You (25 page)

Warwick opened Nicole's door. She looked so small and delicate
next to the detective, who stood a good ten inches taller. Nicole held her
shoulders back. If she was afraid, she was doing her best to hide it.

The screened door opened and out stepped Mr. and Mrs. Kier. They were
smiling, but Lindsay saw the strain in their eyes.

Audrey Kier was a tall woman with silver hair, which she'd swept
into a ponytail. Mr. Kier's dark hair had turned salt and pepper and the
sun had left deep wrinkles around his blue eyes.

Audrey came straight up to Lindsay and gave her a hug. "It's
so good to see you, dear."

Lindsay tried to relax but the unexpected contact felt awkward.
"Thank you for having us, Audrey. I really do appreciate it."

The older woman stepped away and let her gaze drift over Lindsay.
"Ellie said you were too thin."

Lindsay pretended she didn't hear the comment or the genuine
concern in Audrey's voice. The less attached she remained, the better.

Audrey's vivid gray eyes, so like her son's, shifted to
Nicole. Her assessing gaze took in a dozen different details in a split second.
"Welcome."

Nicole seemed stiff and nervous. "Thank you for having us, Mrs.
Kier."

Audrey smiled. "Please call me Audrey. Mrs. Kier always sounded so
formal to me."

Mr. Kier cleared his throat. He was as tall as Zack and his shoulders as
broad. His body remained fit. Only the deep wrinkles around his eyes and the
calloused palms from working his hands gave his age away. "She's
been Mrs. Kier for almost forty years and she's never gotten used to
it."

Audrey tossed her husband a bemused look. "Why don't you
girls come inside and I'll make you something to eat."

Lindsay's mother-in-law had always fretted over Lindsay's
eating habits. "Thanks, Audrey. It's very generous of you to open
your home."

"Nonsense, honey.
You're family."

Family.
Lindsay's throat tightened.
Fearful her voice would crack, she simply nodded.

The older woman hooked her arm around Nicole's shoulder and led
her into the house.

Warwick looked to Mr. Kier. "I've numbers for you in case of
an emergency."

Mr. Kier tossed a curious look at Lindsay and Zack. "Come inside.
I'll write them down."

Warwick nodded. "Sure." Mr. Kier and the detective
disappeared inside the house.

Lindsay hesitated on the second step. For better or worse she owed Zack.
"I'd forgotten how nice your mom is."

He stopped at the bottom stair. They were almost eye to eye. "She
was glad to do it."

It was hard to hold his piercing gaze. "I know I'm not her
favorite person these days."

He took her hand in his. "Lindsay..."

She pulled away. "Please, don't."

Zack shoved his hands in his pockets. "She loves you, Lindsay,
like a daughter. Nothing has changed that."

The loss of the Kier family stung. "She's a nice woman.
It's in her DNA to be kind."

"Oh, Mom has her dark side. She's let me have it more than a
few times this past year. She knows why we split up."

Zack's infidelity and drinking had humiliated her. And now his
mother, a woman she'd always respected and liked, knew. "Why did
you tell her?"

He didn't look away. "I wanted her to understand why you
were so angry."

Frustration spilled from her. "What I don't understand is
why you did it. I know that that last night we fought bitterly, but to just run
to another woman's bed?"

His face was rock hard, expressionless. "The booze was a big part
of it. It clouded my mind. You'd tossed me out. That hurt like hell. You
were the savior for so many wounded souls and when I hit trouble you ditched
me."

Guilt mingled with anger. "You were addicted to alcohol. Throwing
you out was the only thing I could think of to get your attention."

His jaw tightened and released. "I see that now. Hell, I'd
have done the same thing to me if I were you. But then I was angry as hell. And
I wanted to hurt you back."

Tears burned the back of her eyes. "You couldn't have done a
better job if you'd planned it."

He sighed. "I know and for that I will always be sorry. I'd
never cheat on you again, Lindsay."

As much as she wanted to believe, she refused to allow herself. "I
know you believe that."

Zack raked his hands through his hair. "I've waited a year
to talk to you, for us to be clearheaded enough so we could say what needed to
be said. I want to fix this."

Pain pierced her heart. "Some things can't be put back the
way they were."

He spoke slowly, patiently, as if he'd practiced a thousand times.
"So we build something different and stronger this time. Different
doesn't mean it won't be better. We're stronger
together."

His words tempted. She wanted to give herself to Zack and love him like
she once had. "Forgiveness leads to terrible things."

"I'm not your father, Lindsay. We're not like your
parents."

Lindsay shook her head. "I saw my mother return to him too many
times. Each time he hurt her. I can't do it."

"Lindsay, we can work through this."

Her chest tightened and her breathing felt labored. "I've
got to get out of here."

"You don't have a car and you have nowhere to go. Your
apartment isn't safe. The Guardian knows where you live."

She couldn't stay here. This place reminded her of what she wanted
most and what she'd never have again--a family. "I work the
hotline tonight at Mental Health Services. It's not my regular night but
they always can use the help. I'll be in a lockdown facility with security
guards."

"Lindsay, stay with my folks." He enunciated each word
carefully.

"I need to work."

"You need to worry about yourself. The world can survive a night
without you working."

Lindsay felt anxious. "I don't know how to be still."

Zack laid his hand on her shoulder. "For your own well-being,
figure it out. You need the night off."

The front door opened and Warwick appeared. He glanced between the two
and then said, "I just got a call from Ayden. We need to head back to the
office."

Lindsay looked at Warwick. "Can I snag a ride back? I've got
to get my car."

Warwick lifted a brow. "Sure."

Zack glared at him. "She's staying put. End of story. Call
the office and tell them to get someone else."

"But..."

"No," Zack said. "It's too dangerous now."

They left Lindsay standing in the front drive, looking as if she could
kill.

Wednesday, July 9, 3:00
P.M
.

When Zack arrived at headquarters, the rest of
the homicide division was in the conference room. Ricker, Warwick, Vega, and
Ayden had the television on and were watching Kendall Shaw's latest
report.

According to my contacts on the scene, the
killer is mutilating his victims by cutting off their left hands and delivering
the hands to Lindsay O'Neil. Police won't confirm these reports
but...

Shaw's report continued.

Zack turned away, disgusted. "Jesus, that woman is determined to
blow our case."

"How did she find out about the hands?" Ayden asked. His
words were laced with restrained fury.

A headache pounded behind Zack's eyes. "Shaw arrived at
Lindsay's just after I did. She might have caught a glimpse of the hand
on the sidewalk before I covered it. And I saw her talking to the maintenance
man."

Grim faced, Ayden sat across from Zack. Vega sat down on Zack's
right and Warwick on his left. Ricker took a seat next to Ayden.

"So what do we have?" Ayden said. "And tell me we have
something. Two murders in three days and the chief and county manager are
breathing down my neck. Ricker, you lead off."

"I've been through Turner's phone records," C.C.
said. "All his calls pan out expect one. The questionable call was placed
at one
A.M
. Monday morning to Turner's cell.
The call came from a prepaid phone purchased at a local store. I'm trying
to trace the phone to the store. Once I have the store, I'll start
sifting through register receipts and if we're lucky surveillance
cameras."

A long and tedious process that was necessary. "Okay," Ayden
said. "What about Turner's car?"

"Found at the mall near the shelter. Forensics is going over it
now, but so far it looks clean," Vega said.

Ricker shifted the papers in front of her. "Lindsay and I spoke a
half hour ago. She did help me with deciphering her files. We discussed her
twelve hottest cases. Six of the abusers are in prison now, five have
rock-solid alibis, and one is unaccounted for. We're looking for him now.
But it's not likely he'd go to Lindsay's aid. She has a
restraining order against him."

"What about Sam Begley?" Zack asked.

C.C. checked her notes.
"Been at Mercy about
eight months.
No record.
Liked by his coworkers.
Last random drug test at Mercy was negative." She flipped a page and
lifted a brow. "I did discover the guy likes to gamble. He owes over ten
grand to a local bookie."

Ayden rubbed the back of his neck. "That doesn't make him a
killer."

Zack was sorry they couldn't pin more on the guy. He didn't
like or trust him. "I'd still like to talk to him."

Warwick's cell vibrated. He checked the number and rose to take
the call in the hallway.

Ayden shifted his gaze to Warwick.
"Neighbors?
Her assistant, Ruby?"

Vega shook his head. "Ruby and the neighbors have nothing new to
offer." He flipped through his notes. "Also, Saunders was last seen
in Byrd's Bar. The bartender stopped serving the guy around eleven and sent
him on his way. No one saw him after that and he didn't appear at work in
the morning." He raised an eyebrow. "Here's an interesting
note. Remember Pam Rogers? She has two brothers and one is a minister close to
Sanctuary. And his church has taken the shelter under its wing."

Warwick returned to the room. "That was the medical examiner. It
appears Saunders's hand was cut off before he died. But the veins and
arteries collapsed and blood flow slowed to a trickle. That explains why the
killer cut the femoral artery. He wanted his victim to bleed to death."

A heavy silence settled in the room.

"The killer is getting more violent," Zack said.

Ayden pinched the bridge of his nose. "Let's dig a little
deeper into the minister's comings and goings. What do we have on
Lindsay's roommate?"

Vega scanned his notes. "Nicole Piper's prints do match
Christina Braxton's, which were on file, because she was arrested at an
animal rights rally when she was in college. No missing person reports have
been filed on Ms. Braxton. However, the phone number for her photography studio
has been disconnected and her Web site is off-line. She was building quite a
name for herself on the West Coast as a photographer. But she stopped taking
clients and showing her work about a year ago."

"That fits with a domestic-abuse situation," Ayden said.
"Her husband was isolating her."

Vega nodded. "She appeared out here as Nicole Piper two weeks ago
and started working at a mall portrait studio ten days ago. I spoke to her
current boss. Nicole is already very popular with his customers. Basically, her
story checks out."

"Still," Ayden said, "she came out of nowhere, moved
in with Lindsay just two weeks before the Guardian started killing
people."

Warwick shook his head. "She's just over five feet and
weighs a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet. Maybe she could have gotten the
jump on Turner, but there's no way she could have subdued a man like
Saunders. The guy outweighs her by a hundred pounds."

"She could have drugged him," Ricker offered. "Just
because she's small doesn't mean she's not cunning. Do we
have the toxicology reports on Lindsay and Nicole?"

"They were negative," Zack replied.

Vega said, "I spoke to Sara. She has nothing to report on the
second note. It's as clean as the first. No prints. No hair fibers.
Standard paper.
Standard printer."

Ayden again rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. He looked like he
hadn't slept last night. "So the only link we have to this guy is
Lindsay O'Neil. '
Be careful of cars when you
jog.'
The tone of the note sounds paternal. It's something
I'd say to my own boys. He was worried about her." His gaze flicked
to the television screen. "Shaw could be right. This killer could be from
her past."

"What do you know about her extended family?" Vega asked
Zack.

"When her folks died she ran away. She was seventeen and Social
Services didn't make an effort to track her down. She said something
about family in California. I'll ask."

Ayden nodded. "Every family tree has its nuts. Let's shake
hers and see what falls out."

"Gin!"
Eleanor laid down her cards on the
kitchen table.

Lindsay laid down hers. She'd not been able to make a single match
or straight during this round. "You got me again."

Eleanor frowned. "You used to play better, Lindsay. Today
you're awful."

Audrey, who stood at the kitchen sink, frowned. "Eleanor."

Eleanor shrugged. "Sorry, but she
is
an
awful player today."

Lindsay rose and watched Eleanor gather the cards to shuffle again.
"My mind is distracted. I'm just worried about work."

Eleanor started to deal the cards. "
It's
okay, Lindsay. We can try another game."

Lindsay thought she was going to go mad. She'd had to call in and
get a replacement for tonight. Her boss had been happy to accommodate her and,
in fact, had sounded a little relieved. But she felt as if she was letting
everyone down.

Still, Lindsay smiled. "Eleanor, let's take a break.
I'd like to go outside for a minute."

Eleanor rolled her eyes. "It's a thousand degrees out
there."

"I love the heat," she lied. "I'll be
back."

Before anyone could disagree, she bolted outside. The afternoon sun bore
through the trees and the humidity hit her like a brick. Sweat started to bead
on her forehead. At least outside, she could breathe.

She stared at the line of trees wondering why the Guardian had chosen
her. Had they randomly crossed paths? Had she done something inadvertently to
trigger this chain of events? She dug her hands through her hair and paced back
and forth.

The screened door squeaked open. Lindsay turned and saw Audrey standing
outside with a pitcher of iced tea and a plate with a sandwich. Nervously,
Lindsay rubbed damp palms on her skirt.

"You've got to be thirsty and hungry," Audrey said.

Lindsay folded her arms over her chest. "You don't have to worry
over me."

Audrey frowned as she set down her tray on a small table. "Of
course I do."

Lindsay didn't want the Kiers to be kind. She'd bonded with
them once and she'd lost them once. She couldn't go through that a
second time. "Thanks, but I've been thinking that I'll call a
cab and head back to town."

Audrey didn't hide her shock and disappointment.
"A cab?
You can't leave now. It's not
safe."

"I'll go straight to the Mental Health Services building.
It's got locks and guards and I have tons of work."

Challenge had Audrey's back stiffening a little. "I'm
not going to argue with you, Lindsay. If you want to call a cab, then call one.
But for just five minutes, sit, relax, and eat something. At the rate
you're going you're going to collapse."

To appease Audrey, Lindsay took half the sandwich. She bit into it and
discovered it tasted good. "Thanks."

Audrey looked satisfied. "I saw the noon news report."

She felt so weary. "I missed it. What did it say?"

Disgust darkened her eyes. "Kendall Shaw talked about your
past."

An odd sense of acceptance rolled over her. How the reporter had found
out didn't matter at this point. "It was inevitable that it would
all come out. Frankly, I'm even a little relieved."

Audrey hesitated as if she wasn't sure she should speak. "I
knew you'd lost your parents, honey, but I had no idea that you'd
suffered such a tragedy. Zack never told me."

"I asked him not to tell you."

"Why?"

"I guess I was embarrassed. My home life wasn't exactly
Leave It to Beaver
. And your family life just seemed so
perfect." Her reasons for keeping silent sounded silly when she voiced
them. "I didn't want you to think less of me."

Audrey shook her head. "Perfect families don't exist,
Lindsay."

She pinched a corner of the sandwich off. "Yours seems pretty close
to perfect."

A sad smile tipped the edge of Audrey's lips. "Don't
be fooled. Robert and I have had our share of hard times. Things were
particularly bad after Eleanor was born. She was our first child and we had
such hopes. And then the doctor's told us she had Down's."

That surprised Lindsay. "You all adore her."

"Of course we do. But in the beginning, it was so hard to deal
with the fact that our firstborn wasn't perfect. All those dreams
we'd harbored when I was expecting her vanished. It was especially hard
on Robert." She slid her hands into the pockets of her khaki pants as if
the memory made her uncomfortable. "She was so sick in the beginning. Not
only did she have Down's but her heart was defective. A couple of times
we almost lost her. Robert and I were so tired, so scared, and we fought a lot
then. We even separated for a few months, because he simply couldn't
handle the stress."

"From what Zack said, Robert is Eleanor's staunchest ally.
He lobbied the schools, Girl Scouts, and the local soccer teams to make sure
she'd have a chance to do everything she wanted to do."

"Yes, he's great. But after Ellie was born, it was just too
hard for him. So he left." A shadow crossed her face as the memories
returned, and then she caught herself. "He learned that living without us
was unbearable. So he asked for a second chance. I wasn't going to give
it to him. I remember telling my mom we weren't meant to be.
Boy,
did that ruffle Mom's feathers. She said,
'Love may happen by chance but a good marriage is just plain hard
work.' I gave him--us--that second chance. And I thank God
every day I did."

Lindsay had fallen in love with Zack because he'd seemed so
strong. She'd felt safe with him. And when he'd failed to measure
up and showed weakness, she'd been devastated. And she'd run.

Now he wanted a second chance.

Was she ready to give him one?

Lindsay pinched a piece of crust off her sandwich. The question was too
huge for her to consider right now. "The gardens look great."

Audrey accepted the change in topic with grace. "It's
finally coming back after the hurricane last year."

The place looked perfect. "You had a lot of damage?"

"Thirty-three trees down. And we lost all the azaleas. But on the
bright side, the house didn't see any damage."

"That's good." She shoved her hands in her pockets.
"My mother used to take such pride in her gardens."

"I've never heard you talk about your mother."

Lindsay set her sandwich down. "I guess it just hurts too
much."

Audrey folded her arms and stared at her with interest. "What was
she like? What did she enjoy?"