Little Belle Gone (35 page)

Arrons chuckled slightly, “Oh, didn’t you know? No, I guess you wouldn’t, it was before your time. I married my first partner and she is still the best partner I have ever had. We worked well together, but when our twins were born she retired to be a mom. There’s not a day goes by I don’t wish she was working with me again. Don’t get me wrong, she’s an amazing mother, but I could think more clearly with her around. Things seemed to make more sense. I’m just glad to see it happen for someone else. No one will ever understand you better, boy, trust me.”

“Very true.” Matt held Liz a little closer, emboldened by his friend’s acceptance and support. Elizabeth seemed to be just as relieved as she allowed the tension in her arm to go slack, holding him more intimately than supportively now.

As they drew within a few steps of the first floor landing, the door to the condo swung open and several C.S.I.s, carrying large collection kits, filed in. The leader, presumably the Sharon he had mentioned, approached them. Matt nodded to her as he and Elizabeth maneuvered their way out of the unit, leaving Arrons to deliver his instructions. Once they were outside, in the cold breeze of the brisk autumn afternoon, Elizabeth leaned into his side a little deeper. “Do you really think he went to the apartment?” Matt couldn’t stand the fear in her voice. Unable to reassure her, he tucked her into him and bent over her. Resting his forehead against hers, he sighed. The sound drew her mouth and he fell into the kiss with the full force of all the pent up need he had managed to conceal throughout the day. Her mouth was sweet and soft and warm. Home. Sighing against her again, he whispered, “If he hasn’t, I say we call it a day. I could use a little R and R. This day off has been a bitch.” She laughed loudly before he silenced her with another kiss.

He was still reveling in her bottom lip when Arrons cleared his throat beside them. They broke apart quickly, both flushing with the embarrassment of being found in such a compromising embrace. It was one thing for him to give them his blessing, it was quite another to force him to watch them make-out in the middle of the sidewalk.

“You two are as bad as a couple of teenagers. Get in the car.” He barked teasingly. Matt and Elizabeth flashed each other a wicked smile before obeying. That wasn’t the first time they had behaved like teenagers in heat, and it was most likely not the last. “The techs are on their way. Considering traffic, they will beat us. I told them to get your super to let them in. Hope that’s okay with you two.” Matt nodded as he pulled his seat belt on. Arrons nodded in return and pulled out into traffic.

Matt had never been so nervous,
no
, he thought,
that’s not entirely true
. He sat remembering the night before and his request,
almost
never been as nervous. As he went over possible places for Moreano to hide a camera, his thoughts fell on Bucky. He worried over the little white puff ball for a second before he remembered his adept hiding skills. Thoughts of the dog drug his memory to the night Elizabeth was in the hospital. While the memory made him cringe, he realized that he should have known then that Moreano was not innocent in this. Bucky had tried to bite him, Moreano had said that much himself. Matt snickered. “Bucky knew this whole time, Liz.”

“Whose Bucky?” Jack seemed genuinely confused by the comment. They had ridden for nearly fifteen minutes in utter silence before Matt had broken the stillness with the left field comment.

“He tried to attack him in the hospital! I remember now! I should have known. He’s so smart.” Elizabeth snickered from the back seat and together they sat chuckling and shaking their heads.

“
Who
is Bucky?” Arrons asked again, more insistently this time.

“You’ll find out in a minute, we are nearly there.” Matt decided to leave it at that. He rather liked the idea that Arrons was at a loss, leaving he and Elizabeth to share in a private moment. As they pulled up in front of his building five minutes later, he spotted the familiar police vans parked along the street. Arrons’ department was nothing if not efficient. The three made their way into the elevator. After Matt pressed the button for the thirty-second floor, he and Elizabeth leaned lazily against the back wall, settling in. Arrons, on the other hand, stood nervously poised in front of the doors. “You might want to relax, Jack. This takes longer than the elevator in the Empire State Building.”

By the time it reached his floor, all three passengers in the elevator were laughing heartily, expending the nervous energy they had stored up like batteries during the intense ride over. The guard posted outside the door informed them that the scan was in process as they approached. Entering, they were told that there didn’t appear to be any signs of forced entry and that, aside from the dog that was now bouncing and barking around Matt and Liz’s feet, that they had not yet found anything in the apartment.

“Bucky, I assume?” Arrons was bending down to greet the dog as he asked. The dog sniffed his hand wearily at first, but after only a second, he was licking and bouncing around him as well. “Friendly little guy. I can see why him trying to bite Harvey was strange. How long have you had him?”

The question had been directed at Matt, but Elizabeth chimed in. “Since the Lyski murders. He was theirs. The only family they had was Pam’s sister who hates dogs, so I took him in.”

“The dog toys we processed! I should have remembered that, put two and two together.” He was standing, preparing to continue their conversation, when a technician approached him.

“Sir, we haven’t found anything yet. As far as I can tell, there’s nothing here. We will be finished in a few minutes with the scan. Do you want us to process the whole apartment for fingerprints?” Arrons shook his head and the investigator moved away to resume her work.

“Looks like wherever he went, this wasn’t on his itinerary. That’s a little good news, I guess.”

“No, not really.” Matt’s voice was solemn as he slid his hands deep into his pockets. Elizabeth could feel the tension welling up inside him. She knew what he was about to say before he said it, wondering if that was how it felt for him when he anticipated her thoughts so often. “I was hoping he was here, then this whole mess would be over. The fact that he hasn’t even been here is more disturbing than you think. He now has a good three hour head start on us, Jack. That’s more than this bastard needs to leave us behind forever.”

“He’s not going anywhere without me.” Elizabeth felt her confidence swell as she said the words. She turned to face the two stunned looks that suddenly focused on her. “You saw that wall. Before he found me again I was just one of his collection. I have since become an obsession. He can’t live
without
me now. He’s not going to run, at least not far, and he’s certainly not gone forever. He needs me too much.” Her voice was calm. She felt calm. Perfectly at ease. She was the hunter now, and it felt amazingly good for once to be in control. He hadn’t managed to penetrate her new sanctuary. He didn’t have his possessions or his resources. His anonymity was gone, too. He was running scared, and she loved it. “He will try to collect me again, and when he does, we’ll be ready.”

“Detectives, there’s messages on the machine. Do you want me to play them?” The three exchanged glances before nodding to the technician from a few moments earlier. She pressed the button and Elizabeth braced herself to hear the dark, harsh voice of the killer, but instead, the round high tones of Claire’s voice broke the tension filled silence. The relief, however, was short lived. Liz had braced herself for the wrong possibility and now found all her new courage falling away into despair.

Claire’s voice was frantic and frail, and she was crying, sobbing, into the phone. She left three messages, each one even more disturbing that the one before it. As Elizabeth listened, she felt the floor beneath her open wide, swallowing her whole. Apparently, Alex was supposed to meet her for an early movie but never showed and didn’t call. Claire had tried to call her, but got no answer on her phone or at her apartment. If it had been anyone else she might have blown it off and watched the movie alone, but not with Alex. Elizabeth’s oldest friend was beyond reliable and
always
answered her phone. When she got no response, Claire had done the busybody code book’s rule number one, and gone to investigate. According to the second message, she had arrived to find Alex’s door kicked in, her apartment ransacked, and Alex missing. She had called the police who were now swarming over the apartment like bees while she tried desperately to reach Liz. After several failed attempts at her apartment and her cell phone, she had called the station house. They had given her Matt’s contact information after hearing the nature of the emergency and thus the messages.

Her final message was pleading, begging Liz to come home and help, since she was “what the kidnapper wanted in the first place.” The last line of the third message swirled around her ears like flies, drowning out all other sounds, voices, or sensations. She slumped to the ground with a thud, too suddenly for either man to catch her. “He has Alex!” She exclaimed more to herself than the room. “No, no, no ,no....” Her voice trailed off into her tears as the reality of what had happened in the last three hours became clear. When he realized he was discovered, he had not come after her, but had gone after bait. He was still trying to be in control, and he was succeeding. He hoped that her closest friend would lure her into his trap, and he was right. She would go. She
had
to. No one else would die for her,
no one
.

Before Matt’s hands could mange to grip her well enough to lift her, she jumped to her feet. He staggered back from her, having forgotten just how powerful her little body could be when the need arose. If this murderer wanted a face to face, she would give him one. Resolving to kill him once and for all, with her bare hands if need be, she turned coldly to the man she loved most in the world. “I’m going, Matt. I’m going to end this, today, once and for all. He dies. If you plan to argue with me you can stay here.” Her tone was harsh and cruel, though it didn’t seem to upset him. Surprisingly, he seemed to understand her perfectly.

As she turned to leave, he called after her, “I’m coming. You’re not doing this without me. I said I was with you, and I meant it.” She didn’t stop, but her back straightened and her shoulders squared, a new confidence spreading through her. She needed him and he had not disappointed her. As they left together, headed at a fast pace for the elevator, Arrons called after them. He was coming, too.
Good
, she thought coldly. Three on one wasn’t fair, but
he
didn’t deserve fair. He was going to get what he deserved.
It ends tonight
.

Stuck in the chilly back seat of Arrons’ van as it rumbled over another bridge, Elizabeth had little more than silence as a companion. When the three colleagues had climbed into the van and set out, they had talked briefly of their trek to the Hamptons, deciding on a game plan and discussing who needed to be called, informed of the situation, what resources needed to be dispatched immediately, and who needed to be readied, just in case. It had been intense and fervent, but the conversation had been over now for nearly thirty minutes, and a roaring silence had fallen between them, filling the vehicle with a tangible tension that seemed to be strangling her. From where she sat, she could see Matt, though he couldn’t see her. Her eyes lingered on the side of his face. His profile was striking, the shadow of a day’s whisker growth accentuating the rugged, angular features of his jaw line, the glint of his blue eyes flashed as the dying light of the sun through the buildings lit through them. She couldn’t bring herself to appreciate his beauty though, not right now. His brows were pinched in anger and his mouth, his wonderful, strong, firm mouth, was turned down at the corners into a gruesome scowl. This new, fearsome, Matt sat behind the wheel, speeding through the traffic toward their destination.

Having him drive had been a spur of the moment decision, one that allowed Arrons to make all the calls they would require, but Elizabeth wished, suddenly, that he hadn’t agreed. Trapped in the encroaching silence, she wanted him next to her. Wanted his reassuring arms around her, to hear his strong heartbeat and know that she wasn’t as terrifyingly alone as she felt. She had been so sure of herself when the elevator had opened on the building’s lobby. So sure that she was doing the right thing by rushing into the waiting trap of a psychopath, but now she was starting to doubt. When the conversation had ended, she was left alone to think about everything she was about to face. What if they arrived too late? If she were to find Alex dead, would she have the courage to keep going, to fight back? Or would she crumble, as she had three times already that day? All the confidence in the world meant little if her knees gave out beneath her at the first sign of failure. She had tried to push thoughts of Alex, lying in a pool of her own blood, bound in the sickeningly familiar fashion, from her mind, but it had become futile. She was consumed by the horror of it and everywhere she turned were reminders of what it had been like, what it would feel like for her.

Unable to stifle her fear any longer, she whispered into the stillness, “What if we are too late?” Her own words choked her and she felt the bile rise in her throat.

“We won’t be.” Matt turned in his seat, chancing a momentary glance at her small figure in the backseat. She wanted to believe him, the surety with which he said the words, but she couldn’t. Still, the look in his eyes was bolstering and she nodded in return. A weak smile crossed his lips before they regained their former frown and he turned back to the road ahead of them.

“We will be crossing onto the island in a couple of minutes, Elizabeth. Where is Alex’s apartment? I think we should head there first.” Arrons was busy texting on his phone as he spoke. Elizabeth had almost forgotten he was with them. After his phone calls had finished he had disappeared behind the seat back in front of her, sending message after message silently from his phone.