Sense of Evil (38 page)

Looking at Rafe, Hollis said, “You realize what you’re letting yourself in for? She can’t
not
be flippant.”

“I know. It’s a character flaw.”

“I resent that,” Isabel said.

“You shouldn’t. It happens to be a flaw I enjoy.”

“Oh, well, in that case.”

Hollis shifted slightly in the hospital bed to get more comfortable. Or try to. “I’m just lucky you two managed to stop Mallory’s evil twin before he could finish me off.”

They all found it less painful to refer to the creature they had destroyed there at the end as Mallory’s evil twin—a phrase naturally coined by Isabel. Not that it could be anything but painful, especially for Rafe.

Or Alan, who was still bewildered and in shock.

“What I can’t figure out,” Isabel said, “is what he planned to do once he left Hastings. He really was trapped in a woman’s body—and had been since the male personality split off from Mallory when she was twelve.”

“A sex-change operation?” Hollis suggested.

Rafe said, “I don’t think so. I think
he
saw a male when he saw himself.”

“A very confused male,” Isabel pointed out. “He wanted Mallory to be involved with men, not women. But I’m willing to bet he would have been angry and insulted to be called homosexual.”

“Didn’t Bishop offer a theory?” Hollis asked. “I seem to recall a discussion going on over my mostly unconscious self a couple of days ago.”

“We had to talk about something,” Isabel told her. “The doctors said you were pretty out of it.”

“I was. Mostly. But I remember Bishop and Miranda being here. And talking, like I said. What was the theory?”

“That Mallory’s evil twin was delusional. We haven’t really gotten past that part.”

“It’s complicated,” Hollis agreed.

“She—he—was right about me, anyway,” Rafe said. “I had seen something unconsciously when we were at the first murder scene. From the corner of my eye, I suppose. I’d seen Mallory touch Jamie’s hair. Something about it, about the way she did it, was like a red flag.”

“And a subconscious shock,” Isabel said. “The hardest thing to accept about evil is that it can wear a familiar face. He was very good at hiding.”

“Until Mallory did something he couldn’t accept,” Rafe said. He sighed. “Just . . . thinking of her dying inside all those years, bit by bit. I keep thinking I should have known. Should have been able to help her.”

“Nobody could help her,” Isabel told him quietly. “Nobody was there when that boat overturned and six little girls drowned. Nobody but him. Mallory was doomed from that moment.”

“And too many other women along with her,” Hollis said. “Plus Ginny’s father, and that poor older lady, and Dean Emery. And God knows how many others would have died if you two hadn’t stopped it.”

“It doesn’t feel very heroic, what we did,” Rafe said.

Isabel smiled at him. “It seldom does. Evil leaves so much destruction behind it that it’s like a train wreck. You don’t think about what was saved ahead on the tracks, just the devastation of the crash.”

“And yet you’re inviting me to jump on the train with you.”

“Well, I’m sort of committed. To the journey, I mean. It’s not something where you can just get off at the next station.”

“Excuse me,” Hollis said, “but are you two still speaking in metaphors?”

“You noticed that?” Isabel said earnestly.

“It amuses her,” Rafe said.

Hollis shook her head. “One for the books, you two. I bet Bishop can hardly wait to get you up to Quantico.”

“There was an invitation,” Rafe admitted. “He didn’t mention trains, though.”

“So, did you accept?” Hollis asked.

“What do you think?”

“I think . . . that the SCU just took on a whole new dimension.”

“How about that?” Isabel said. “And she’s not even precognitive.”

BANTAM BOOKS BY KAY HOOPER

The Bishop Trilogies

S
TEALING
S
HADOWS

H
IDING IN THE
S
HADOWS

O
UT OF THE
S
HADOWS

T
OUCHING
E
VIL

W
HISPER OF
E
VIL

S
ENSE OF
E
VIL

The Quinn Novels

O
NCE A
T
HIEF

A
LWAYS A
T
HIEF

Romantic Suspense

A
MANDA

A
FTER
C
AROLINE

F
INDING
L
AURA

H
AUNTING
R
ACHEL

Classic Fantasy and Romance

O
N
W
INGS OF
M
AGIC

T
HE
W
IZARD OF
S
EATTLE

M
Y
G
UARDIAN
A
NGEL

(anthology)

Y
OURS TO
K
EEP

(anthology)

SENSE OF EVIL
A Bantam Book / August 2003

Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2003 by Kay Hooper

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

Bantam Books® is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Visit our website at
www.bantamdell.com

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Hooper, Kay.
Sense of evil./Kay Hooper.
p. cm.
eISBN 0-553-89724-1
I. Title

PS3558.O587 S46 2003
2003056270
813/.54 21

Published simultaneously in Canada

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