TWENTY-FOUR
He ducked down when Kaely drove by. She wouldn’t recognize his car, so he was safe. He watched carefully as she pulled up to the guard shack. After talking to Ernie, she entered the complex. He waited a few minutes and then started his car. When Ernie saw him, the smile he’d given to Kaely vanished. He knew Ernie was uncomfortable with their arrangement, but he was determined to get Kaely alone.
“I don’t know about this,” Ernie said when he pulled up.
“I’m sorry you’re bothered by it, but you’re too far in to pull out now.”
Ernie’s expression went slack. It was evident he had no choice. He sighed and pushed a button, causing the gate to slide open.
“Don’t call her. Don’t warn her. I mean it,” he said before he drove past the guard shack. As he rounded the corner, he realized she was still sitting in her car. He quickly pulled into an empty parking space. Hopefully, the owner wouldn’t show up before Kaely went inside. Finally, she got out of her car and headed for her apartment.
He smiled in the dark. He was nothing if not patient. He’d waited for the right moment. And it was now.
When Kaely pulled into her parking spot, she was so tired she sat there for a moment and tried to gather her thoughts. She and Noah had taken the poem apart several times and tried to make sense of it. She was still worried about the reference to fire. It was too close to Louis. She had to find a way to protect him.
She looked forward to moving to the CP, and she was grateful for the help that would be provided by CIRG and the police departments in St. Louis and Illinois. She was pretty sure Reinhardt would be there, but he was smart and perceptive. Even if he didn’t like her, she welcomed his input.
She finally opened her car door and got out. She was hungry and glad she still had some chicken left. She unlocked her front door, went inside, then carefully locked the door behind her. She put her purse and briefcase down on the kitchen table and went to the fridge. She pulled out the roasted chicken, got a plate, pulled more meat off the bones, and stuck it in the microwave. While it heated, she grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator, along with the rest of the macaroni salad.
When the microwave dinged, she took the plate out, dumped the macaroni salad on it, and grabbed a fork. After carrying her food into the living room, she plopped down on the couch and switched on the TV. She selected the only news channel she trusted and watched for a while. Kaely could do without TV—especially the news—but she felt she should at least attempt to stay current with what was going on in the world, especially when it came to the Bureau. After she finished eating, she turned off the TV and headed to her war room, where she perused the notes and pictures she had on her boards. She opened her briefcase and took out new information. Copies of reports, notes she made while talking to Noah. After staring at the boards for several minutes, she sat down at the table in the corner. She didn’t feel quite ready for this, but she was at a standstill. She needed to see the UNSUB a little more clearly.
She scooted a little closer. She had two empty plates and glasses on the table. She didn’t really need them, but it gave a sense of reality to what she was doing. She laughed to herself. Not that many people thought she had a close relationship with reality anyway. Over the past year, she’d felt herself moving away from her profiling technique more and more. Alex used to tell her she didn’t need it, that it had become a crutch. Maybe he was right. But on this case she could use all the help she could get. She sat for a while, staring at the empty chair. She felt unsettled. Maybe it was a sign she really wasn’t ready to proceed. But she had to try.
She stared up at the board and began. “You’re a white male. Can’t quite nail your age, but I feel as if you’re in your thirties or forties. Maybe older. You don’t feel young to me.”
“You’re in your thirties. Does that mean you’re not young?” she heard in a whisper.
The more she used this method, the more control she seemed to lose. In the past, the UNSUB never spoke unless she allowed it. But lately, comments kept slipping past her. Even though she didn’t like it, she realized it was just her subconscious and she probably needed to give it the freedom to speak. It helped her to understand her own thought processes better.
“I’m young enough to catch you,” she responded with a smile.
“You won’t win this one.” The voice was low and menacing.
Kaely laughed and leaned back in her chair, ignoring a cold wiggle of shock that danced up her spine. “I always win. Always.”
“You didn’t win with your father.”
She frowned and stared at the chair. Why was this coming up now? “That wasn’t my fault. I was a child.”
“That’s enough,” she said firmly. “You’re not here to badger me. Shut up.”
“What about that scar?” he hissed.
“I told you to be quiet. Now do it.”
Her last rebuke seemed to finally quiet him. She fought the urge to reach up and touch the scar that ran along the side of her face, near her hairline. Her mother had told her she’d fallen off her tricycle when she was two and cut herself. She had no memory of it. Kaely’s attention went back to her incident board, but ignoring the question about her scar was harder than it should have been. Why had he brought it up? Finally, she said, “This is personal. I’ve affected your life in some way. You’re angry. You want more than to kill me. You want to humiliate me. Frustrate me. Show me you’re smarter than I am.”
“I am smart—”
“Quit talking!” Kaely said loudly. She was uncomfortable with the degree of anger and bravado coming from the UNSUB. Was she really this intimidated by him? She prayed silently for help from God. When she prayed, she felt something odd emanating from the other side of the table. What was it? Why did this feel so different from the many other times she’d used this procedure to profile an adversary? She cleared her throat. “You’re taking the time to find victims who are connected to me in some way. But I’m not close to them. Why would you do that?”
There was no response. Nothing but silence. Time to move on.
Kaely sighed deeply. What else did she know? “You’re educated. Successful. Not the usual loser who kills people to get his kicks. Something happened to set you off, but what? Did you get fired?” Even though job loss could prime a killer, it didn’t feel right. “Someone rejected you? Or did someone die?” The death would have been recent. “Is this connected to the Reagan case?”
Still no response.
She paused for a moment. “Jason?” she said finally, giving voice to a possibility she really didn’t want to let into her mind. “Is that you?”
As soon as she gave voice to the fear that her brother might be involved, the lights outside her window shifted. Kaely jumped up from her chair and hurried to the stairs. She gazed down at her front windows. Something moved by them and stopped. Something or someone. As she watched, the lights from the parking lot made it easy to see the figure that stood outside her door, although he was only in shadow. Kaely hurried down the stairs and into the living room, where she grabbed her gun from its holster. She held her weapon in front of her and was headed toward the front door when the knob rattled. Someone was trying to open the door. Ernie was supposed to call if anyone else entered the property. Who could it be?
She took a stance and waited. The door slowly opened and a figure stood there.
“Hey, put your gun away,” he said. “I would have called, but I was afraid you might tell me to go away.”
Kaely took a quick, ragged breath and lowered her gun. “I could have killed you,” she said, her voice higher than it should have been.
Alex smiled. “Yeah, I know. Thanks for not doing that.”