Killer Dreams (4 page)

“Why did he do that?”

“He doesn’t like Sanborne,” Jock said. “I’d say on the same scale that you don’t.”

“Why?” Her gaze searched Jock’s face as she recalled everything Royd had said to her in those moments in her bedroom. And then Jock had said they’d gone to the same school. She felt sickness churn through her. “Another one? Like you, Jock?”

Jock nodded. “A little different circumstances but the result was much the same.”

“Oh, God.”

“We’re not talking about me,” Royd said. “I’m not hearing anything that convinces me she’s not in Sanborne’s pocket, Jock.”

Jock was silent a moment. “Two years ago her father shot her mother, tried to kill her son, and ended up shooting Sophie before he killed himself. No apparent reason. The attack came out of the blue.”

Royd’s cool glance shifted to Sophie. “One of your experiments that backfired?”

“No.” Her stomach twisted. “God, no.”

“Rough,” Jock said quietly. “Too rough, Royd.”

Royd’s gaze never left Sophie’s face. “It’s possible. How do we know?”

She shook her head. “I would never—I loved him. I loved both of them.”

“And you weren’t to blame for anything. Your name figured prominently in Sanborne’s file on the initial experiments on REM-4 but it didn’t mean a thing.”

“I didn’t say that.” She reached blindly for the coffee in front of her. “It meant something. It meant everything.”

“Why? How?”

She felt as if he were battering her, ripping at her. “I was to blame. It was my fault. All of it was—”

“Easy, Sophie.” Jock reached out and covered her hand. “I can tell him later. You don’t have to go through this.”

“You can’t protect me.” She moistened her lips. “And I can’t hide from what I did. I have to face it every day. Every time I look at Michael and know I—” She stopped and then her eyes lifted to Royd’s face. “And nothing you can say can make me feel any worse than I do now. You can tear open the wound but it can’t go any deeper. You want to know what happened? I was young and smart and thought I could change the world. I was fresh out of medical school and went to work for Sanborne Pharmaceutical because they promised me I could devote my time to working on research I’d been doing on the side all through med school. I’d gotten a doctorate in chemistry as well as medicine and I was specializing in sleep disorders because my father had been plagued by insomnia and night terrors most of the years of my childhood. I thought I could help him and other people like him.”

“How?”

“I’d developed a process to chemically induce the subject to immediately go to REM-4, the most psychologically active level of sleep. While in that state, it was also possible to give suggestions to encourage pleasant dreams instead of night terrors, even to rid the subject of insomnia. Sanborne was very excited and enthusiastic. He coaxed me to bypass the FDA and go to Amsterdam for tests. He wanted it kept top secret until we were sure they were as promising as we thought they’d be. He didn’t have to work very hard to persuade me into getting on the fast track. I knew the FDA took forever to approve anything and I had complete faith in the safety of the process. The tests were amazingly successful. People who’d been victims of terrors all their lives were free of them. They became happier, more productive people with no obvious side effects. I was over the moon.”

“And?”

“Sanborne said we had to slow down. He took the tests out of my hands and tried to persuade me to turn over the research I’d done for all the enhancements for REM-4. When I refused, he shut me out. I was angry and frustrated but I didn’t suspect anything criminal.” She paused. “But I wanted to know how the tests were going so I went to the lab and rifled through the files one night.” She drew a ragged breath. “You can guess what I found. They were using the vulnerability that the drug induced to develop mind control. There was correspondence between Sanborne and a General Boch about the advantage that such control could offer during wartime. I went to Sanborne and told him I was quitting, taking my research, and opting out. I could tell he was angry, but then he seemed to simmer down.

“The next day I had two lawyers knocking on the door. They claimed since I was employed by Sanborne at the time, the research was legally his. I could either sign a release or go to court.” Her lips twisted. “You know what chance I would have had against Sanborne’s legal eagles. I didn’t want to pursue the research any further. It was clearly too potentially dangerous. But I didn’t want Sanborne to go forward with it in his direction either. I told him I’d go to the media and tell them what he was doing if he continued the mind-control experiments. He agreed. I thought I’d won. I got another job with a university hospital in Atlanta and tried to put it all behind me.”

“Without proof Sanborne was complying?”

“I had friends in the lab. There was an excellent chance that I’d be told if he wasn’t.”

“A chance?”

“All right, I was naive. I should have gone to the media right away. But I’d spent most of my adult life studying medicine and I didn’t want to blow it. Those lawyers would have made mincemeat of my career and my life.” She drew a deep breath. “And the experiments stopped. I checked periodically during the next six months and the project was shut down.”

“And after the six months?”

Her hands tightened on her cup. “After that, I didn’t have to worry about my life exploding in my face. It already had. I went fishing one day with my father and mother. Jock told you what happened. My father went crazy. One moment he was perfectly loving and sane and the next he’d killed the woman he’d loved for most of his life. He would have killed my son if I hadn’t gotten between them. The bullet still struck him but it went through me and was deflected. I woke up a day later in the hospital. I fell apart when I realized what had happened. It made no sense. Things like that couldn’t happen. I ended up in a mental hospital for a couple months.” She clenched her fists. “I was weak. I should have been there for Michael but Dave never told me that he was having problems. I should have been there.”

“It was two months, Sophie,” Jock said quietly. “And you were having a few problems yourself.”

“I’m not a child,” she said harshly. “I’m a mother and I should have been there for him.”

“Very touching,” Royd said. “But I’d like to get back to Sanborne.”

Christ, he was a tough bastard. “Sorry to waste your time. I wasn’t trying to play on your sympathies. I doubt if you have any. Actually, we never got away from Sanborne.” She lifted her cup to her lips. “When I was in that mental hospital, the only way I could survive was to try to understand what had happened. I couldn’t believe my father had just gone insane. He was…wonderful. Kind and normal in every way.” She paused. “Except for the sleep disorders he’d suffered since he was a child. But even those were dwindling in the past few months. He was going to a new specialist, Dr. Paul Dwight. I checked him out and he was very well respected. He was seeing him much more frequently than he had his last therapist and it seemed to work. He was sleeping through the night and the night terrors were coming less frequently. My mother was very happy for him. That last day he looked more rested than I can remember seeing him. And then I remembered how rested and happy those volunteers in Amsterdam looked when they woke after the REM-4 therapy.” She shook her head. “I thought I was reaching, imagining, making connections where none existed. But I had to make sure. After all, wouldn’t it be the perfect way to get rid of me? I haven’t the slightest doubt my father would have turned the pistol on me if I hadn’t already taken the bullet meant for Michael. You hear about madmen who kill their entire families and then themselves. A family tragedy. No mysterious assassin that might spark an investigation. I’d be gone and then Sanborne would be free to go on with his plans for REM-4.”

“And what did you do about it?”

“When I got out of the hospital, I went through my father’s records and got the name and address of his therapist. I called to make an appointment. The phone had been disconnected. The doctor had been killed in an automobile accident three weeks before.”

“Convenient,” Jock murmured.

“That was what I thought. I hired a private detective to try to trace a connection between Dr. Dwight and Sanborne. The only thing he could come up with was a meeting at a convention in Chicago that same year. And bank deposits of close to half a million dollars Dwight made in regular intervals during the last few months.”

“Not conclusive.”

“Not for a court of law, but it was enough for me. It gave me a lead, a rope to pull me out of the quicksand. But I had to know more. I still had friends at Sanborne’s company and I started asking questions. I was assured no more experiments had been done on the premises. The department had been completely closed down and the personnel had all been transferred to other projects. I didn’t believe it. I asked my friend Dr. Cindy Hodge to snoop around and see what she could come up with.” She paused. “She came up with a list of names. And she came up with a place. Garwood, North Dakota.” She stopped as she sensed a change in Royd’s demeanor.

“You recognize the name?”

“Oh, yes. I’m very familiar with Garwood.” He glanced at Jock.

“And you?”

“My training was different from yours. I didn’t even remember Garwood until last year when my mind was drifting back to me.” He nodded at Sophie. “And Sophie nudged that memory when she came looking for me.”

“She was looking for you?” Royd asked.

“Did you think I was tracking her down? I was trying to come to terms with what I was and am. I didn’t break free as quickly as you did.”

“I was at Garwood a long time before you were brought there. And it didn’t seem quick,” Royd said. “Any more than fighting your way through hell is quick.”

“You weren’t together at Garwood?” Sophie asked. “I don’t understand.”

“Jock was brought to Garwood at the request of Thomas Reilly, who was training his own mind-control zombies,” Royd said. “He paid Sanborne to use REM-4 to help manipulate Jock’s and some of his other victims’ wills. But he had other methods he was experimenting with too, and Sanborne was only a tool.”

“And you?”

“Oh, I was a present from General Boch to Sanborne when they opened the lab at Garwood.” He smiled mirthlessly. “The General wanted to get rid of me and he couldn’t think of a more advantageous demise than to send me to Garwood to his partner in crime. He liked the idea of breaking my will and, if it didn’t work, there was always the chance of my going insane. It happened to two men while I was at Garwood.”

Horror surged through her. “No,” she whispered.

He gazed at her skeptically. “You had to know about it if you knew about Garwood.”

She shook her head. “It wasn’t in the records at Sanborne’s.”

“From what I hear, the villagers living near Auschwitz claimed they didn’t know either.”

“I tell you, I didn’t—”

“If she says she didn’t know, she’s telling the truth,” Jock said. “Sanborne wouldn’t have kept records of a failure. He’d eliminate the subject and wipe the slate clean.”

“You’re sure?” Sophie asked. “The REM-4 I created was physically and mentally safe. I swear it was safe.”

“Not when they got through with altering it,” Royd said. “They increased the suggestibility factor enormously. Some minds couldn’t accept that degree of submission without breaking. Oh, yes, it was definitely changed. There were fifty-two men at Garwood who’ll testify to that.”

“There were only records on thirty-four,” Sophie said.

Royd just looked at her.

“He…killed them?”

He shrugged. “I counted fifty-two before I took off. I don’t know what happened to them. I can guess. I was in hiding for over three months and it was during that time that the CIA uncovered Thomas Reilly’s installation. Sanborne was scared that Reilly’s records might lead the CIA to Garwood so he cleaned it up so well that no one could possibly know what it was used for. Then he closed it down and moved the operation.”

“To his plant in Maryland,” Sophie said. “Why didn’t you go to the police?”

“The police aren’t inclined to listen to assassins. And I’m sure the General would have made sure that at least one of the kills I was sent on was documented.” His lips tightened. “After all, it was perfectly reasonable I’d go off on a killing tangent. I was a SEAL for four years and everyone knows that we’re trained in violence and death. I had to find another way to get them.”

“What way?”

“I had to make enough money to buy information. It took me a while but I managed to find the REM-4 facility and put a mole into Sanborne’s company.” He met her eyes. “And that led me to you.”

“I didn’t—I wouldn’t ever—” She stopped and wearily shook her head. “But I did do it. I started it. It was my fault. I can’t blame you for—”

Michael’s monitor was going off.

“Jesus!” She jumped to her feet. “Michael…”

She ran out of the room.

4

R
oyd muttered an oath and started to get to his feet.

“She’s not trying to get away,” Jock said. “Sit down and finish your coffee. She’s just going to take care of her son. She’ll be back.”

Royd slowly sat back down. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Night terrors. Occasionally he has an apnea episode when he stops breathing.”

“Christ.”

“And, before you ask, she didn’t experiment on him either. He started having the episodes after his grandfather tried to kill him and he saw his grandmother and mother shot. She tells me he used to be much worse and he may be on the way to recovery.” He grimaced. “It’s still pretty rough watching him. He’s only a kid.”

“You said she found you. How?”

“The Garwood records she’d gotten from her friend had cross-references to Thomas Reilly’s cases that were brought there. The Garwood subjects had ‘disappeared’ but there were still leads to some of Reilly’s. He had an entire compound of men to tap for service to the highest bidder. They dispersed when the CIA was closing in on Reilly. Most of them were picked up but some of us stayed free.” He paused. “But you knew all this. You tracked me down yourself almost a year ago.”

“And you told me you knew nothing about where Sanborne had moved his REM-4 experiments. Lies?”

Jock shook his head. “I didn’t remember much of anything at that time. It took a hell of a long time for me to heal enough to be able to put any kind of facts together. I was pretty much of a vegetable when MacDuff found me in that asylum in Denver after I’d broken free of Reilly. You were too early in my recovery. If you’d come a few months later you’d have gotten more out of me. Sophie came at just the right time. I was ready to remember. She prodded me and it came flowing back to me.”

Royd studied him. He was probably telling the truth. Jock was different from the man he’d first met. At that time he’d been a little vague and remote. There was nothing vague or remote about this man across the table from him. That Scottish brogue was soft but everything else about him was decisive and unyielding. “And what did you remember?”

“That Reilly was going to send a few of his newer subjects to another Sanborne location for training even before the CIA raid. Somewhere in Maryland.”

“And why didn’t you contact me? Dammit, you knew I had to know. It took me months to find out that information for myself.”

“I was a little busy with Sophie. I didn’t want interference.”

“Busy?”

“She didn’t really know the scope of what Sanborne had done until she met me. She was pretty devastated. She was going to go after Sanborne on her own.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t allow her to do it.”

“Why not?”

“She touched me,” he said simply. “She was full of guilt and pain and was no match for Sanborne and his goons. At first, she wanted to try to get into the facility and destroy the research that had created REM-4. But they had changed all the security codes and she couldn’t do it. So that left her with only cutting off the head of the snake and hoping that would destroy the poison.”

“So she asked you to do it?”

He shook his head again. “She’s so burdened by guilt at what she’d helped to do to me that there’s no way she’d let me kill him. The only thing she asked was for me to teach her how to kill a man.”

“And you did it?”

“Yes, she’s technically very good. She’s almost as fine a shot as I am. Can she do it? She thinks she can. It depends how much hate she has stored up. Hate can make the difference.” He stared Royd in the eye. “Can’t it?”

Royd ignored the question. “She
is
guilty. How do you know that she wasn’t involved with Sanborne’s scheme from the beginning and then had a falling-out?”

“I trust her.”

“And I don’t.”

“I’m not a fool, Royd. She told me the truth.” He studied him.

“You look frustrated as hell. Why do you want her to still be in Sanborne’s pocket?” “Because it was my chance to squeeze enough information out of her to locate the REM-4 formulas and bring down Sanborne and Boch. Now you tell me she’s practically an innocent bystander.” His hand clenched into a fist. “No, I won’t buy it.”

“You’ll buy it. You’re too smart to be blinded by the way you want things to be. You just have to get used to the idea.”

“Maybe.”

Jock’s gaze narrowed on his face. “What are you thinking?”

“Ever since I escaped Garwood I’ve had to manipulate every situation to make sure I survived and stayed on the road to Sanborne. I have to do the same with this one.” His lips clenched. “I’m too close, Jock. If I can’t use her, I’m not going to let Sophie Dunston get in my way. I’d have no compunction about—”

His cell phone rang and he glanced at the ID.

Nate Kelly.

“Cross your fingers he’s found out who that son of a bitch in the bedroom is,” he murmured as he pressed the button.

Sophie took a moment outside Michael’s bedroom door to take a deep breath and prepare to go back into the kitchen and face Matt Royd again.

Michael’s episode hadn’t been terrible tonight and she thanked God for it. The entire night had been a horror, and a bad night terror for Michael would have been the crowning blow. She wouldn’t have been able to bear it.

Yes, she would. What a wimp. She could bear anything life threw at her.

Including Royd, who stared at her with that icy coldness and accusing animosity.

She squared her shoulders and walked down the hall and into the kitchen.

Jock looked up. “Michael back to sleep?”

She nodded. “It wasn’t too bad. I just sat and talked to him for a while and he drifted off.”

“Good,” Jock said. “Let’s hope he stays asleep. We have some business to take care of. Royd just got an E-mail from his man at the facility.”

Her gaze flew to Royd’s face. “You found who that killer was?”

“One of Sanborne’s bodyguards,” Royd said. “At least that’s how he’s listed on the personnel records. Arnold Caprio.”

“Caprio,” Sophie repeated.

“You’ve heard of him?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. But the name sounds familiar….”

“Think.”

“I told you, I don’t think I’ve—” She broke off. “Yes, I have. I know who—” She strode out of the kitchen to the living room and opened the top desk drawer. The list was tucked in a leather ledger. She flipped it open and her index finger ran down the list.

Arnold Caprio’s name was in the middle of the list.

She closed her eyes. “God.”

“Who is he?”

She opened her eyes and turned to face Jock and Royd. “Caprio was one of the names on the list Cindy gave me of the men who’d undergone the Garwood experiments. Sanborne must have kept him close to act as his bodyguard. Only it seems he wasn’t just a bodyguard. He evidently used him to rid himself of threats like me.” She had to stop shaking. “It’s rather ironic, isn’t it? Sanborne sent me one of the victims I’m responsible for to take my life.”

“You’re not responsible,” Jock said. “You never meant this to happen. You tried to stop it.”

“Tell that to Caprio.” She looked at Royd. “Tell that to Royd. You think I’m responsible, don’t you?”

He stared at her for a moment and then shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what I think right now. I should tell you that Sanborne didn’t always pick up young kids to train as assassins like Reilly did. He liked a head start. He thought the experiments worked best on men with an ingrained streak of violence. Boch often sent him military snipers and ex-SEALs like me. He’d trump up so-called sensitive missions to get them to the area and then have Sanborne send his goons to collect them. And I know of two drug runners and at least three hit men at Garwood.”

She stared at him in surprise. “Jesus, are you trying to make me feel better?”

“No. You asked me a question. Now I’ll ask you one. You didn’t recognize my name. Wasn’t it on the list?”

She thought about it. “No, but Jock’s name was there.”

Royd shrugged. “Maybe the list only covered Sanborne’s recruits and the subjects he personally acquired. I was a gift from his partner.” He turned to Jock. “We’d better get rid of Caprio. Do you know a place?”

“The marshes west of here,” Jock said. “He won’t be found for months, maybe years.”

“Write down the directions. I’ll get some garbage bags from the kitchen and bundle him up. You go scout around and make sure this neighborhood is as sleepy as it looks before I take him to the car.”

“Do you have to—” Sophie started again. “Isn’t there some way we can get him out of my house without throwing him into a swamp to rot?”

“Yes,” Royd said. “Would you like me to just toss him on Sanborne’s front lawn? It would be my pleasure.”

He’d do it, Sophie realized, and with every bit of the savage enjoyment she saw in his expression. “I can see that.”

“But it wouldn’t be smart,” Royd said. “A slap in the face is a warning and I don’t want to give Sanborne and Boch any warning. I’m the one who killed Caprio and I don’t need anything in my way. So we’ll get rid of Caprio because not to do it might give Sanborne an edge. He might find a way to twist the attempt and incriminate you. With his money and influence it’s possible.” He started to turn away. “And before you start feeling sorry about getting rid of that scum I believe I should show you something I found on the floor of your bedroom.” He was gone for only a minute and when he returned he threw two objects on the coffee table. “He came prepared.”

She stared down at the rope. “Nooses?”

“The knife was an afterthought. Caprio obviously wasn’t nearly as well trained as Jock and me. He lost his temper and his focus. He was sent to hang you and make it look like an accident. But there were two nooses. What does that tell you?”

“Michael?” she whispered.

“An unstable woman who kills her only child and then herself. You’d think it would be more likely for you to poison your son but Sanborne isn’t very clever about emotional reactions. I suppose considering your background the nooses aren’t entirely unreasonable.” He said over his shoulder to Jock, “I’ll finish the cleanup and be ready in ten minutes. Make sure it’s safe for me.” He gave Sophie a glance. “We’ll talk when I get back.”

She watched him go down the hall before she turned to Jock. “I should help if it has to be done.”

“And leave Michael alone?” Jock looked down at the nooses. “Royd could have spared you those ugly little objects.” He picked up the nooses and threw them in the wastebasket in the corner.

“He doesn’t want to spare me anything,” Sophie said wearily. “I can’t blame him. What can I do to help, Jock?”

“Stay here and take care of your son.” Jock shook his head as he headed for the front door. “We know what we’re doing. You’d get in our way.”

She watched in helpless frustration as the door shut behind him.

No, she couldn’t leave Michael, but she was letting Jock incriminate himself by helping her, and she’d never wanted that to happen.

And Royd. She should feel just as bad about letting Matt Royd run a risk. After all, he had saved her life when he’d killed Caprio. Yet it was difficult to feel either guilt or gratitude where Royd was concerned. He was too hard, too sharp, and his attitude toward her was antagonistic in the extreme.

And who could blame him? she thought. She was lucky Jock didn’t feel the same way. From the moment she had heard about Garwood she had been in an agony of self-recrimination. She had hurt those men, all of them, in ways too terrible to imagine.

But she did think and imagine and wonder. She couldn’t stop. She didn’t think she could ever stop.

Until she stopped Robert Sanborne.

Jock came back into the house almost immediately after they’d carried Caprio to Royd’s car.

“I thought you were going with him,” Sophie said.

“So did I. Royd said there was no use both of us being at risk when he could take care of it by himself. He didn’t like leaving you alone.”

“It’s hard to believe that would bother him. He’s not like you.”

“Yes and no. We have a good deal in common. When he came to see me a year ago, I felt a kind of bonding. We belong to a very exclusive club.”

She had sensed that tie when she had sat at the table with them. They were both so different and yet they had seemed to have a perfect understanding of each other. “He’s angry and bitter. The way you should be.”

“He’s frustrated. As I told you, I killed my demon when I killed Thomas Reilly. He’s still fighting his demons. He won’t rest until he puts down Boch and Sanborne.”

“And me?”

He shrugged. “Not if I can convince him you were telling the truth. He doesn’t want to believe it. He thought at last he had his hands on someone who could bring him close enough to Boch and Sanborne for him to do the job. He doesn’t want you to be another victim, he wants a key. It will take a little while for him to adjust but he’ll do it. But even when he accepts the truth he’s still not above using you if he can. He’s been searching for revenge for a long time.”

“I can understand that.”

“Not only because of REM-4. He lost his brother at Garwood.”

“What?”

“Boch needed to lure Royd to Garwood so he had Sanborne hire his younger brother to work there. Todd called him from the facility asking for help. Royd went after him.”

“How did his brother die?”

“Royd didn’t tell me. Whatever happened wasn’t pretty.”

“REM-4?”

“Sophie, all the ugliness that went on at Garwood wasn’t directly attributed to REM-4. Sanborne and Boch are complete bastards and they have very nasty agendas. Royd told me that the reason Boch wanted to take him out was that he’d witnessed a meeting between Boch and a Japanese narcotics kingpin in Tokyo. Boch needed to get rid of him. So he called his partner Sanborne and told him to find a way to get Royd to Garwood. But if it hadn’t been Garwood, they would have found another way to gather him in.”

Sophie wearily shook her head. “But there was Garwood. What was Royd doing in Japan?”

“He’d just gotten out of the SEALs and was kicking around the Orient before he went back to the U.S. He was thinking about starting an import company if he could get the funding. He told me he’d grown up in the slums of Chicago before he joined the service. A background like that usually sparks the desire for the security money brings.”