Ice streamed through Cassie’s veins. Her heart ramped up to two beats every second. There wasn’t enough air in the room. Her extremities began to tingle and her head felt light. Thirty-seven scars on her neck and torso and arms raged with fire. Though she’d been shielded from his view, she would never forget the sound of his voice. She’d heard it every day in the courtroom for two straight weeks. It grated against her soul every day since.
“I thought I’d never see you again, Cassie,” Novak said. “It always made me so sad. No, frustrated is a better way to put it. I’d sit in my cell thinking over our special night. Over and over and over.” His head bobbed with each utterance of the word. “What more could I have done to you to achieve my goal of killing you? I mean, I stabbed you, what, forty times?”
“You…” She choked on the word. “You know how many times you stabbed me. And you did kill me.”
“Yet here you stand.” The floorboards creaked as he stepped closer. “Here you crumble.” He laughed softly. “I don’t believe all that ‘died and came back’ shit, either. Just lucid consciousness. Know what I mean?”
Cassie fought her frozen muscles and turned to face the man who’d left her for dead. All she had to do was slip her hand into her pocket. The pistol was there. Use it, girl!
“What are you doing here?” she said. “They sent you away. Locked you up.”
He shrugged, both hands out. One clutched a knife. “I escaped. Imagine that. They blinked for a second too long and I was gone.”
“How did…how’d you find me?”
“Please,” he said. “It wasn’t that hard. They took your picture in front of this house, my special house, and put it in the paper. They begged me to find you, for Pete’s sake.”
“Your special house?” She retreated backward, stumbled over her feet and fell. His image in her dream had been more than simple imagery. They were telling her who did it. “You did this?”
“I’m sure you saw the crime scene photos if the police went through the trouble of bringing you here. Aren’t I the reason they involved you? The similarities? Young women, stabbed and assaulted violently. I suppose that’s not quite a single person’s MO, but really, in this small town, it’s not too much of a stretch. Especially when you consider how long I’ve been out of jail.”
Through his babbling she determined he didn’t know about her ability. He thought she was there because of him. What did the paper say? What did the photo show? It had to have been taken yesterday, with the crowd surrounding the house. They saw an arrest at a house where three, maybe four, women had been murdered, and she was caught in the photographic crossfire.
“Now, Cassie—lovely name by the way, and you know, they never told me that. I’m surprised I can even remember your face. It was so dark out there that night, and they never let me see you in court. I get this feeling we’ve been meeting in another world, in our dreams. Anyway, I’ve been thinking since I saw your picture this morning, what to do with you?”
She backed up to the window to create some space between them. It would take a few seconds to draw on him with the pistol. He’d come at her with the knife. “Let me go. Please. You’ve done enough already. I’ll lead them in a different direction. I promise.”
“Lead them? What?”
The last thing she wanted to do was let him in on her secret, and she’d almost blurted it out.
“I’ll tell them it’s not the same,” she said. “Just go, Novak.”
“Hmmm, let me think about that.” He turned and walked to the door. Slammed it shut. “How about no.”
She reached into her pocket when he turned his back, but the pistol snagged when she tried to pull it out. Novak spotted it and rushed forward with the knife leveled at her throat.
“Remove your hand at once.”
She choked down a sob to go with the tears flooding her eyes. This was how it ended? Why? And then it happened. Something gripped at her soul and pulled.
Not now!
She needed her wits about her more than ever before. Novak was not without reason. As insane a person as he was, Cassie knew she could buy some time and get him to take her out of the house.
But it didn’t matter. The walls closed in and immobilized her. She was on the floor. Had he hit her? She couldn’t tell. Her body was numb. A voice, loud, distinct, female, spoke to her. The same woman she encountered the first time.
“Him. It’s him.”
Then it was over. He yanked the 9mm free and laughed. “Safety on. Half-loaded magazine. You did yourself a favor letting me see you reach for this. Had you pulled it on me, you’d be dead right now.
She rolled over and shuffled backward on her elbows, scraping her feet against the floor, until her head touched the wall.
“Where are you going?” Novak approached, no longer wielding the blade. In its place was the pistol. He racked the slide and thumbed down the safety. He moved a few more feet forward, aiming the weapon at Cassie’s head.
“Don’t,” she whispered.
“So many choices, Cassie. I could kill you.” He paused while his gaze traveled to her chest, then crotch. “Or I could have fun with you, then kill you. Damn these decisions.”
Think, Cassie. Throw him off.
“What did you do with Alice?” she blurted out.
Novak cocked his head and smiled. He tapped her forehead with the pistol. “What do you know about Alice?”
“I know this is her room. I know you were in it the night of the homicides and her disappearance. What did you do with her? Is she dead, too?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much about Alice. She’s doing just fine. Better than you at the moment, that’s for sure.” He took a step back, nodded at her. “In fact, I think it’s time you found out, Cassie. Get up.”
Fear immobilized her, but after a few seconds her limbs responded to his demands. Did she have a choice? She could handle herself, but he was bigger and stronger. The deciding factor was he had armed himself with her weapon. Combine that with a confined space that had only one means of egress leading to a long corridor, and she knew her chances of survival plummeted.
“Now I want you to turn around, cross your legs, and hold your hands behind your back.” When she didn’t respond, he shouted at her. “Do it!”
Novak twisted a towel and wrapped it around her wrists, binding them together. It wasn’t foolproof. Once outside, she could throw her weight to the side or the ground and take him with her.
“Good girl, Cassie. Now let’s get out of here. I’ve got someplace special to take you.”
His hand grabbed her hip, pulling her back tight to him.
“What are you doing?”
He said nothing. His fingers worked their way into her pocket. They wriggled against her leg. She tried to jerk away, but that resulted in Novak tightening his grip. He found what he wanted and pulled her car keys out.
They walked through the house, stopping at the end of the hallway, and again by the back door. The towel went slack. Her arms parted and swung freely to her side.
“You run,” he said, “Alice dies. If I don’t return to where she is, she dies. Got it?”
It was a punch to the gut, and Cassie felt as though the wind had been sucked from her lungs. She tried to breathe, but her muscles were too constricted. Her one chance to get away was on the line. Was he serious? Would he do it? And would he just let her go? She could risk it. Now that she knew who did it, there might be enough there to help lead them to Novak and Alice. But would it happen fast enough?
Cassie knew it wouldn’t. So she opened the door and led him through the back yards to where her car waited, slipping in behind the wheel, while Novak kept the pistol aimed at her.