Ruthless Game (A Captivating Suspense Novel) (45 page)

Alex watched Judith's eyes, devoid of reaction or emotion. "It's been hectic," she lied.

"Looks like you've hurt your arm."

Alex nodded, knowing she needed to make a move before the receptionist had time to leave, if she hadn't already. With a deep breath, she launched into her story, praying it would work. "I came by because James located a doctor at Stanford named Blake Hennigan who performed a research study back in the late sixties. Do you know him?"

Judith didn't respond.

Alex forced herself to continue. "Walter Androus participated in that study and we were hoping to get some information. Hennigan is in London, but I figured you might know of some other doctors who participated in the study."

Judith shrugged. "I'm afraid I can't help."

Alex rose from the couch. "Well, we thought it was worth a try. I told James you would be too young to know them, but he insisted we check it out. Maybe we can have dinner again."

"I enjoyed that," she said without feeling.

"Okay, well, I'll call you later in the week."

Judith didn't move from her chair as Alex walked as calmly as possible toward the door. Her pulse drummed a steely rhythm in her ears, making every step feel like a mile. Closing her eyes, she put her hand on the knob and turned.

The door didn't open.

"It's locked."

Alex turned back. "I didn't realize. How do we unlock it?"

Judith smiled for the first time. "We don't, Alex."

"We don't?" she breathed.

Judith shook her head. "I'm afraid not."

Alex turned and tried the door again, wrestling with the knob and then pounding on the door. She felt her waistband for her gun. It wasn't there. She had left it in her car.

"Don't touch it," Judith snapped. "Turn around slowly."

Alex did as she was instructed.

The small box Judith had been holding was now open on the table, a nine-millimeter in her hand pointed at Alex.

Alex took a breath. "Judith, James and Greg know I'm here. They'll be here any minute."

Judith shook her head. "It won't matter. By then, it won't matter."

Reason slipped from Alex's grasp like sand. Turning back, she kicked the door hard without making the slightest dent. Like a caged animal, she searched the room. There were no windows. She hadn't noticed it earlier. How could there be no windows?

Judith approached her slowly, and Alex prepared to strike. She would wait until Judith looked away and knock the gun from her hands, if only she could distract her. She forced breath into her lungs. "It was you. All this time. We trusted you. I was beginning to think it was Ben Androus, finishing his brother's work."

Judith shook her head. "He's been dead for years. His sister, too."

"You killed Loeffler and Nader."

Judith laughed loudly. "Loeffler deserved it. He was into kiddy porn and all sorts of stuff. Can you believe they let scum like that into the justice system?"

"The porn was probably a result of what happened to him as a child," Alex snapped back.

"Really?" Judith leaned toward her, interested. "And what sort of kinky stuff are you into as a result?"

Alex refused to be provoked. Judith would not kill her without a fight. Keep stalling. "I was there—that night at Loeffler's?"

She nodded. "Loeffler called you. I waited until you had arrived. You showed up at the door and I had the needle in your arm before you had taken three steps. I'd intended to kill you, too, but when Loeffler told me you didn't remember anything, I was so curious.

"I wanted to see if I could make you remember. What a fascinating experiment to see what it would take. Of course, I had no way of knowing you wouldn't remember being at Loeffler's. I had to be sure."

"How? How could you be sure?" Alex realized the combination of Restoril and whatever Judith had drugged her with had probably blocked her memories.

"It was a gamble, I admit. But I had an alibi for that night. So I walked you to your car, watched you spend the night there, even snapped a photo for evidence just in case. I left before you were dressed and went to the station. I met you coming down the stairs that next morning. Don't you remember?"

Alex looked at Judith. "No."

"I was coming out of the station when you were coming in. I dropped some files. You looked right at me and didn't even blink." She smiled and spread her arms like a magician at the end of a trick. "I knew then that it had worked. You had no idea you had just seen me."

"You bet that I wouldn't remember, but what if I had?"

She shrugged. "Like I said, I had an airtight alibi for the night before. I spoke at a benefit for children and spent the rest of the evening milling around a party with more than a hundred people.

"Plus, there was all sorts of evidence that you killed Loeffler. Even a chewed up pen I was ready to plant if need be. And I treated you after the trauma you suffered as a child. It's natural for you to have aggression toward me. Blaming me for the murder you committed would be a perfect example of that." She hiked the gun up a bit higher.

"You planted the earring."

"The earring, the blood on your pants, his hand, the watch." She smiled. "It was all me."

Alex shook her head, watching the gun in her peripheral vision. "Why not kill me when you had the chance? The other night when you shot Alfred. Why not me?"

Judith beamed. "I was still waiting for you to remember. Imagine it. You were the only one to see me that day in the warehouse. And yet, you had no memory of any of it."

"You were at the warehouse."

"Oh, yes. And you saw me. You were the only one." She paused. "Of course, I never thought you would remember me, specifically. I was wearing a wig and was very made-up. But, the fact that you didn't remember any of it—" She shook her head. "It was too exciting a study to pass up."

"A study?"

Judith just smiled.

She was a study. All of this had been some sort of sick experiment. She thought about Stanford, about Androus's history. She noticed the gun had dropped slowly.
Keep talking.
"You knew Androus through the research study?"

"He was my patient." Judith's chest rose like that of a proud mother. "When Walter started coming to me in late 1970, he was concerned because he had grotesque fantasies about the children he taught."

"But how did that involve you in his crimes?"

"I involved myself. It was all about controlling him. What he thought, what he did."

Alex's jaw dropped. "You suggested he kidnap and kill children?"

Judith returned a tight smile. "You wouldn't understand. It's much too sophisticated for someone with no education on the subject."

Alex pressed her teeth hard against her tongue. "Please. I'm interested."

Judith didn't break eye contact as she continued. "We worked together for several months to try to rid him of the images he had of killing the children, but he was unable to stop them. I thought perhaps there was a way of purging the fantasies." She narrowed her eyes. "You must understand, there was very little known about mind control at the time. Charlie Manson had just been sentenced. Everyone wanted to understand his power. It was an incredible time for this sort of study.

"And I was conducting groundbreaking research. People die all the time, Alex—women, children." She waved her arms nonchalantly. "In wars, for the benefit of the whole. That's what this was. I was trying to understand the true nature of people's susceptibility to brainwashing. My work will provide insight into people like Androus. To that end, I helped him live out his fantasy."

Alex watched the woman's delusion emerge. "But you couldn't think you could control him."

"I did. That was the incredible thing. I learned so much more than I ever thought I would. Androus, Ferguson—" She smiled. "You. I controlled you all. I had you run, jump, and swing to my every whim. The mind is truly fascinating. You can convince someone to do something like kill or maim with the simple tool of words."

"You're talking about hypnosis."

"No. It's just the power of suggestion. The power of the mind."

"That's bullshit. You chose people who were predisposed to violence. You can't assume that would work with a normal person."

Judith raised an eyebrow. "But it worked with you, didn't it?"

"I never killed anyone, did I? You did it."

"Of course, but how close did you get? Stealing, breaking and entering, lying... the list goes on." She paused and took a few steps. "And how many times did you doubt yourself? You thought you might be a killer, you told me so yourself."

Alex shook her head.

Judith swept an arm across her room. "I've written volumes on the research I've done, and it all started with Androus. I was there, directing really. I even suggested the marks on the inner thigh. Have you ever seen yours, Alex?"

Alex willed herself not to flinch, but she felt a tremor deep inside.

"I told him serial killers needed a signature," Judith continued. "I think he could've chosen something more clever than an X but that was his entire problem. I saw it in his eyes once he'd gotten started on you kids. He wasn't especially bright and he wasn't going to stop. He would've come for me eventually. I had no choice but to shoot him."

"But I remember pulling the trigger."

"You did. I wanted you to have the gunpowder on your hands. But he was already dead."

"But how did you get away without leaving evidence—" Alex halted as she registered Chris's theory about the extra footprints. She pointed to Judith's feet—children's size. "Your shoes."

Judith smiled. "They're tiny. No one's ever paid much attention, but it came in very handy that day. The police all assumed the extra prints were a child's."

Alex flinched. It all made sense. She forced herself to speak. "Why risk letting any of us live?"

Judith's mouth formed a straight line. "Originally, I had intended to take care of you all that day, but I became curious about how you would all recover. The Palo Alto School District was more than happy to offer information to those of us at Stanford on the progress Nader and Loeffler were having with the school therapists. So, I knew I was safe with them. I assumed you were seeing a private therapist, but I figured even if you remembered something, you'd be the only one. It would be everyone's word against yours.

"When I met your mother and realized you didn't remember, I befriended her so I could watch you. I knew she'd never tell you. After a few years, I was confident you'd never remember on your own."

"How did Loeffler find out?" Alex asked.

"Unfortunately, a private investigator Nader was working with gave him my name. Nader had started to remember hearing another voice. He contacted Loeffler to talk about it. They talked to a retired cop who was convinced no kid could have pulled that trigger. They put their heads together and came up with a theory that there had to be someone else. Somehow, the Stanford research came up and so did my name."

She motioned to the photo on the shelf. "My maiden name. Loeffler had called me to ask some questions. I'm afraid I answered a few too candidly. He put it together." She shook her head. "I suppose I gave myself away. Unlike you, the others remembered the incident, so a few extra tidbits and Loeffler started to insinuate that I'd been involved. He called you to his house that night and I knew he was going to tell you. I had no choice but to take care of him. Then, it was only a matter of time before Nader figured it out, too."

The gun dipped and Alex shifted toward the edge of the couch.

"I wondered if his death might make you remember, how close to the edge of your memory the truth was. I couldn't resist the urge to find out. I've been feeding you clues, watching to see how you'd react to the news of your damaged childhood."

"So you framed Nat Taylor," Alex said.

Judith gave a nonchalant nod. "To get him out of the way."

"And Alfred?"

She shrugged. "Another patient."

Alex remembered Brittany's comment about Judith's patients. "Those two patients you had who shot each other—you rigged that, too? Another experiment?"

Judith just smiled.

"And you used Alfred to track me?"

"You're not as dumb as I would have thought. Too bad you didn't figure it out a little sooner. I had it all covered, though, Alex. You couldn't win. Like I said, if you tried to tell anyone, you'd simply look crazy in light of the evidence implicating you in the murders."

Alex felt her blood cool. "What about Tim?"

"Alfred's idea. Very dumb."

"How did Alfred get linked to Tim?"

She shook her head. "My fault, I'm afraid. Tim's a patient of mine as well. He and Alfred have met a few times here in the office. When I heard from the deputy chief that Loeffler had taken some pictures of you, I told Alfred it was a good idea. I bought him the camera and told him to go to Palo Alto. Alfred decided he didn't want to follow you around with a camera, so he gave it to the kid to do. He was lazy." She sounded angry. "But at least he paid Tim off to say you killed Nader. That was a nice touch. Too bad the kid has to be next."