Chapter
Thirty-Six
Tony woke up to the smell of coffee and bacon. He sniffed the air a couple of times just to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. He’d slept like a baby last night and awoken ravenous. What was it about food that made bad times seem better? He swung his legs off the couch and sat up. After running his hands through his hair, he got up. A hot shower last night had made him feel human again. He pulled his suitcase over near the couch, took out some jeans, and looked for a shirt. He’d had to quickly stuff everything into his suitcase last night, so most of his clothes were wrinkled. Thankfully, he found a blue sweater that wasn’t too bad. He grabbed it and hurried into the bathroom to change. Even though his sweats were modest, he still felt undressed somehow. A few minutes later, he emerged fully dressed and feeling more presentable.
“Something smells good,” he said, walking into the kitchen.
Kate smiled at him. She was wearing jeans and a green blouse that highlighted her red hair. She looked incredible.
“Here’s your coffee,” she said, pouring a large cup and putting it on the kitchen table. “Your breakfast will be ready in a few minutes.”
“Thanks. Think I’ll go out on the porch for a bit, if you don’t mind. I’m getting addicted to country air, I’m afraid.”
Kate laughed. “Go right ahead. There’s plenty of time.”
Tony walked over to the front door and pulled it open. But before he stepped out on the porch, he froze. There was a package in front of the door with his name and Kate’s name on it. And under their names someone had drawn an angel . . . in blue.
“Thanks for calling us and not picking it up.”
Tony stood with Agent Phillips and Kate, watching as a crime scene tech carefully put the package in a large plastic bag.
“Look,” Tony said. “This is actually addressed to us. We want to see what’s inside.” He frowned at the FBI agent, who at first appeared to ignore him.
Finally, Phillips sighed. “Why don’t you come with us to our command center? I can’t allow you to touch it, but I don’t see why you can’t watch while we take a look at it.”
“Thanks.” He turned toward Kate. “Do you want to come?”
She shook her head. “I’m really tired, Tony. I need a break from . . . all this.”
“I understand.” Tony frowned at Phillips. “I would feel better if you’d post someone outside this house. Just in case.”
Phillips nodded. “I’ll ask someone to drive over and keep an eye on the place.” He walked out the front door and called someone on his cell phone.
Tony turned back to Kate. “Are you sure you don’t want to come?”
She nodded. “I’d rather have you tell me what it says. I don’t want Darrell’s voice in my head again. Are you able to understand that?”
He nodded. “Absolutely. Can you keep breakfast warm? I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“I’ll do my best. And don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
He nodded and stepped outside. He and Phillips waited until the other agent pulled up. Although Tony felt better when the man had stationed himself outside Kate’s house, he still sent up a quick prayer for Kate’s protection.
Kate waited impatiently for Tony to return. It had been almost two hours. His breakfast was waiting in the oven. She’d covered his plate with tin foil and put the oven on low. Hopefully, the food would still be edible by the time he returned. She was thinking about calling him when she finally saw his car driving toward the house. She jumped up and grabbed the coffeepot. She’d just made a fresh pot, since the other coffee had been sitting for so long. She poured the coffee into a cup and set it on the table. Then she got two pot holders and removed Tony’s plate from the oven. She’d just put that on the table when the front door opened and he came in.
“Took you long enough,” she scolded.
“I know. Sorry. They were being really careful with the package. It was a letter. A really long letter. I had to wait for them to process each page. I thought I’d be there forever.”
Kate pointed at the table. “Sit down and eat your breakfast. I’m sure you’re starving.”
“I am. Thanks.” He sat down and picked up his coffee cup. After taking several sips, he grabbed a fork and took several bites of eggs and bacon.
Kate waited as patiently as she could, but she really wanted to find out what Tony had learned. He seemed to understand that she was anxious.
“Okay,” he said, “I’m going to try to remember everything. I wanted to take notes, but I was afraid of upsetting Agent Phillips. He didn’t seem real happy to have me there in the first place. I’m surprised he let me come at all.”
“He’s not a bad man,” Kate said. “He’s just trying to do his job. I think he realizes you and I have the right to know what Darrell wrote to us.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Tony picked up a piece of bacon and put the whole slice in his mouth. “This is delicious,” he said once he’d chewed.
“Thanks. Now talk.”
“Okay. Well, first of all, Darrell wasn’t sure who I was when I first came to town. I had a file about you. He went into my room and found it. Realized I was the Marshal assigned to you during the trials.”
“But he didn’t hurt you.”
“No. It seems he appreciated knowing I was here to protect you.”
“Thank God for that. So tell me more about Gerard and his relationship with Darrell.”
Tony nodded. “Well, as Gerard told us, it seems he didn’t like prison as much as he thought he would. Once people quit paying so much attention to him, he decided to let Darrell know if he didn’t get him out, he was going to tell people about him.”
“Yeah. That’s what Gerard told us in the cabin. Not a very smart thing to do.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Tony agreed. “But Darrell got him out. He put Ann Barton’s necklace in Dorothy’s gravesite. He knew Barney’s fingerprint was on it.” Tony shook his head. “I have to wonder if the print would have shown up if it had really been in the ground that long. But no one questioned it. Anyway, after he planted the necklace, he called the police. You know the rest. Gerard was already out of prison because of the tainted blood evidence. This made it seem as if he’d never really been the Blue-Eyed Killer.”
“So why did Gerard come here? And how did he know I was in Shelter Cove?” Kate asked.
“Darrell is a computer genius. Ran the B.E.K. Lives website without ever being tracked. Used it to control Barney. When a scripture verse was posted, it was a call for a new murder. However, toward the end of Barney’s time as B.E.K., he lost the will to kill. That’s why there were scriptures but no disappearances. That’s also why Gerard murdered him.”
“Back to how he found me?”
“Oh, sure. Sorry. Just trying to remember everything. Anyway, he hacked into the U.S. Marshals’ private files and found out where you were. The government was aware of the hack but assumed it was random when nothing came of it.”
“They didn’t realize that Darrell was only after one bit of information.”
“Right. Well, Darrell wasn’t happy with Gerard. Hadn’t been since he attacked you and killed Kelly. So he contacted Gerard and told him where you were. Gave him the chance to come to Shelter Cove and finish what he’d started.”
“Wait a minute,” Kate said, her eyes full of alarm. “I thought Darrell wanted me alive.”
“He did. He only brought Gerard here so he could kill him. He told him how to find you and gave him directions to the cabin. Even lied to him about some kind of safe way down the mountain. It doesn’t exist.”
“So Darrell planned to kill Gerard all along?”
Tony grunted. “Yeah. Here’s where it gets even crazier. Supposedly, the original plan was to allow Gerard to kidnap you. Darrell . . . as Bobby . . . was going to rescue you. He was going to shoot Gerard and make it look as if he was saving your life. But then the rains came, and I was here . . .”
“So Darrell decided to take you with him? Why?”
“Actually, Darrell told him he was going to kill me. Get me out of the way. Darrell injected me with a drug the night before Gerard planned to take you. But he only gave me enough to knock me out. After I came to, he called Gerard and told him I was alive. Since I hadn’t died, Darrell told Gerard he had a new plan. He was going to get me to come up the mountain with him. He convinced Gerard that having me there would ensure Gerard was identified as the Blue-Eyed Killer. My testimony would be much more convincing than Darrell’s. Gerard didn’t like it, but somehow Darrell convinced him it was a good idea. Actually, it shows how clueless Gerard really was. Having a trained law enforcement officer on the scene made him more vulnerable. But Gerard didn’t understand that, I guess. Or he put more stock in what Darrell told him than his own common sense.”
Kate shook her head. “One thing that confuses me. Well, one of the many things that confuse me, I should say. Wasn’t Darrell taking a chance that Gerard would kill me before you two got there?”
“Actually, Darrell mentioned that. He’d ordered Gerard to wait until he arrived. He believed Gerard would obey him.”
“So Darrell was convinced he had time to get there and save me.”
“As you can imagine, he was relieved when we found you. Ensured his plan was still in effect.”
“But then Darrell betrayed Gerard. He came back and shot him.”
Tony nodded. “That was always his intention. To murder Gerard. And I was there to tell the story. That Gerard was planning to kill you, and Darrell rescued us. That he was a hero.”
“But what if law enforcement looked into Darrell’s past? Couldn’t they find out who he was?”
“With his computer skills?” Tony shook his head. “My guess is that they’d find exactly what Darrell wanted them to find. I’m certain there’s a death certificate out there somewhere for Darrell R. Fisher. And a birth certificate and Social Security number for Robert Wade.”
She was quiet a moment before saying, “But why did Darrell come to Shelter Cove in the first place, Tony? What did he want?”
“Believe it or not, he wanted to watch over you. Make sure you were okay. It was his way of . . . paying penance for his part in hurting you. He takes this destiny thing seriously and believes you were wronged by Gerard.”
Kate shivered, but it wasn’t because she was cold. To think someone like Darrell Fisher was watching over her was like being told you were being guarded by a cat—when you’re a mouse. “So what happened when Gerard pushed him outside the cabin and there was a gunshot?”
“Prearranged. It was supposed to be Darrell’s chance to go back to town. Tell everyone that B.E.K. had killed you. Gerard thought he had plenty of time to take care of you. Of course, Darrell just waited until he could come back and be our savior.”
“Wow. This whole thing is so convoluted it almost hurts my brain.”
Tony nodded. “But Gerard bought it. He played right into Darrell’s hands.”
“So Darrell had everything figured out—except for the rain.”
“Yeah, and that almost ruined his entire plan in one way. Saved it in another.”
Kate looked at him quizzically.
“You see, Gerard was supposed to take you straight to the cabin, but you got out of his car. If it hadn’t been raining, you could have made it back to one of the main roads and flagged down help. But with the rain, no one was out there, and we had to head for shelter. Darrell led us right to the cabin, and the plan was on again.”
“One thing I don’t understand.”
Kate smiled. “What if you hadn’t given Bobby your gun?”
Tony took a big bite of scrambled eggs and washed them down with coffee. “He had a gun strapped to his ankle. I don’t know how he would have explained it, but he would have found a way.”
“You didn’t drop your phone, did you?”
“Nope. Bobby’s slide down the embankment was planned. He’d already taken my phone out of my jacket when we found Gerard’s car. Then he used his . . . accident to explain why my phone was missing. Couldn’t take a chance that I’d call for help before his mission was complete. And he actually called it a mission. Crazy.”
Kate noticed Tony staring longingly at the remainder of his breakfast. She laughed. “Finish up. I’ll hold my questions until you’re done.”
“Sorry,” he said, looking somewhat guilty. “This is delicious, and I’m starved.”
Kate got up and began cleaning the kitchen. She turned over in her head everything Tony had said. At least some of it was making sense. But she realized that dealing with a crazy person meant any explanation would probably just leave her with more questions. The odd thing was, she found she actually missed Bobby. Felt as if he’d died. She’d cared about him and couldn’t quite reconcile the knowledge that Bobby had never really existed. He still felt real to her.
“Could I have another cup of coffee?” Tony asked.
Kate brought the pot over and poured his coffee. His breakfast had disappeared. “Boy, you really were hungry.”
“Yeah. Thanks. It was great.”
Kate took the pot back over and set it on the coffeemaker. “Did Darrell know who Warren was?”
“Yeah. But Warren didn’t know who Bobby was until right before you were kidnapped. When I took off with Darrell, Warren went after us. He was trying to save you.”
“But Gil shot him before he could explain.”
“That’s right.”
Kate sat down, her eyes wide. “If Warren had died, Darrell could have gone back to being Bobby and no one would have been the wiser.”
“Actually, that’s not true. First of all, Bobby made a mistake. One that I would have noticed eventually. He mentioned the name Bodine before the name was released to the public. He started planning to leave town right after he flubbed up. He knew I’d remember it at some point. And then there’s the picture. That’s what finally led me to the truth.”
“What picture?”
“Batterson sent me some stuff about Killian. Attached to his email were some photos from a high-school yearbook. At first I didn’t recognize him, but then I realized it was Bobby . . . Darrell. He was friends with Barney Clevenger, the man who would eventually call himself Malcolm Bodine.”
“The real Blue-Eyed Killer.”
Tony nodded. “That meant Bobby knew a lot more than he’d been saying. And if Warren wasn’t Gerard’s mentor . . .”
“Bobby was.”
Tony stopped and took a sip of coffee. When he put down the cup, he leaned back in his chair and sighed. “I’m really not sure Darrell planned to hang around much longer anyway. I mean, if he intends to keep the Blue-Eyed Killer alive, I’m not sure Shelter Cove would work for him anymore. Not after everything that’s happened. Even if he hadn’t tripped up, I think he was planning to leave. He just wanted to make sure Gerard was dead and you were finally safe.”
“Is that it?” Kate asked.
“Not quite. He told us that all the missing women are buried in graves with the name Dorothy.” Tony sighed. “The FBI is going to be visiting a lot of graveyards. Hopefully, they’ll recover some remains.”
“That’s . . . disturbing.”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Anything else?”
Tony picked up his cup, stared at it, and then put it back down, an odd look on his face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “What else did he say?”
Tony sniffed, and Kate’s stomach tightened. “You sniff when you’re getting ready to lie.”
“I wasn’t going to lie.”
“Maybe not, but you’re thinking about how to soften the blow. Tell me. Remember, no secrets. Just honesty.”
“I sniff?”
Kate smiled. “Yes. You did it during the trials. When you told me what you thought I wanted to hear, you sniffed first. I watched for it. Knew when you were being straight with me and when you were trying to protect me.”
Tony sighed. “Well, great. Now I’ll have to think about not sniffing when I talk to witnesses.”
“It’s not a bad thing. You cared. I knew that.”
“Good. Well, I wasn’t going to get into this, but Darrell said he never had real feelings for anyone except his uncle—and us.”
Kate felt her face grow hot. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“No, I’m not. And I think he meant it, Kate. In his own insane way, he cares about us.”
“I don’t want someone like Darrell Fisher caring about either one of us.”
Tony shook his head. “Then you really won’t like this.”
Kate raised her eyebrows. “What?”
“He said that before he left Shelter Cove, Steven would be dead. He was going to be Darrell’s next apprentice, but he found a flaw in him. Darrell’s word, not mine. He didn’t trust Steven, and he was determined to keep you out of danger. He said he was going back to the internet and would recruit his next protégé from there. He wanted you to know that when the next Blue-Eyed Killer emerges, he will never come anywhere near you. He promised that you will always be safe. He wrote a letter years ago and sent it to the police. I still remember it word for word. It said, ‘Everyone has a destiny. Every step we take only brings us closer to the inevitable. There is no way to change what must happen. Kate O’Brien’s course is ordained, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Accepting this truth is the only thing that can free our souls.’ At the time, that letter worried me. But now I realize he was saying you were destined to live. And he truly believes that.”
Kate shuddered. Somehow Darrell’s reassurance was even more frightening than if he’d threatened her life.