40. Garrett
CHAPTER 40
Garrett
The pain brought me back to consciousness.
Everything hurt. I’d been tased before, in training, so I knew what the aftermath felt like. But Phillip had hit the trigger multiple times, so this was worse. My muscles ached right down to my bones.
And my head. Fuck. He’d scored a perfect blow to my temple. Lights out.
Vaguely, I wondered if I had a concussion. The knock-out meant it was likely. Although, severe as a head injury could be, it was kind of the least of my problems.
Trying not to groan, I opened my eyes. I was on a floor, bound at the wrists and ankles. My head was on something hard—not the dirt of a root cellar. Metal. He’d moved me.
Which meant Luke wasn’t going to find us.
“Are you waking up this time?”
I didn’t answer. Just blinked, trying to get my head to clear. Trying to think through the pain.
“Welcome back.”
Things started coming into focus. A small space with a metal floor and bare walls. And Phillip seated in a folding chair, one ankle crossed over his knee .
Where was Harper?
He tilted his head, regarding me with calculating eyes. “You’re every bit as heavy as I thought you’d be. It wasn’t easy to move you.”
A coal of rage burned hot in my gut. “Where’s Harper.”
“She’s fine.”
“Tell me where she is.”
He uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. His hands were covered with supple leather gloves. He watched me for a long moment, like a predator toying with his prey. “You’ve been an interesting challenge, Haven. A worthy adversary. It’s going to be an honor to kill you.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
He smiled. “I think I was clear.”
“Why?”
“Why am I going to kill you?” He leaned back in his chair. “Because I can.”
“That’s it?”
“No, I suppose that’s not it. It’s been too long. I’ve been craving it. After a while, the craving becomes too strong and I have to give in. And once the idea came to me, I couldn’t get it out of my head. Plus, I knew you’d never give up on a cold case.”
“You did kill Jasmine.”
He nodded slowly, his eyes unfocused, as if he were remembering the murder with pleasure. “She was my first.”
“But not your last.”
“No. Trust me, once you get a taste for it, there’s no going back.”
“Who else?”
“Sorry, Haven. You’re not getting out of this alive, but I’m not stupid. Besides, none of them were in your jurisdiction. With the exception of Jasmine, and now you, I don’t shit where I eat. ”
Hunting and fishing trips. Phillip Lancaster was known for going out of town on hunting and fishing trips.
My stomach turned at the implications. How many victims had he claimed?
“I do prefer women, though. We’ll see how it feels to actually kill you. I might enjoy it more than I think.”
Wait. My pain-addled brain was having a hard time keeping up. He was going to kill me . Had that been his plan all along?
“What did you do to Harper?”
A slow smile spread across his face. “Nothing. Yet.”
I gritted my teeth and strained against my bonds.
“I don’t have her.” He pulled a phone out of his pocket. Harper’s phone. “But I did manage to lift this when she wasn’t looking.”
“You sent a picture.”
“I’d love to take credit, as it is a convincing picture. But AI software makes it all too easy.”
The photo was fake. He didn’t have her. But he’d said yet .
“Here’s the part where I am going to let you in on a few things.” He leaned forward again and looked me in the eyes. “Because I want you to know. I want you to know what I did to you. How I beat you.”
He paused for a long moment, the dramatic bastard.
“I’d been thinking I needed a new challenge. Nothing was inspiring me. My last victim was so… unfulfilling. I wanted more. Something to really test me. And then you found Jasmine’s bracelet.” He shook his head slowly. “That fucking bracelet. I thought I’d attended to every detail, and there it was, all these years later, just waiting for some eager investigator to find it. That was when it hit me. You were my next challenge. And with you, I could recapture the magic I had with Jasmine.”
“Magic?”
“Oh, yeah. Killing in my own town is, of course, incredibly risky. But it gave me a chance to play first. That’s what I’ve been missing all these years. It’s always so hurried. So rushed. I can’t take my time. Get to know her first. Show her something’s wrong, someone’s watching. That was what I had with Jasmine. I watched her, tracked her, learned her schedule. And I was able to set the stage. Make sure that by the time I took her, she was already terrified.”
“That’s why you took her underwear.”
“It’s kind of a cliché, I know. But effective. It made it look like her ex was stalking her, but more importantly, it made her afraid. And I was the one who got to see her fear.”
“You’re a sick fuck.”
“You have no idea.”
“And funeral flowers?”
He waved a hand. “My attempt at being poetic, I guess. Until recently, I kind of regretted those. They were a bit too on the nose; not subtle. Of course, the idiot investigators had no clue. But as I was planning all this, I realized how much of a genius I really am. They gave me one more way to convince you your girlfriend was in danger.”
Had it been me all along? He hadn’t been targeting Harper. He’d been targeting me.
“How the fuck did you get in her house? And mine?”
“Easy. How do you think I put myself through law school? I’ve been breaking into houses since I was twelve.”
“Was all this just to keep me from solving the Joyner case?”
“That’s more like a bonus. You picking up that case gave me the inspiration I was craving. The challenge I’ve been wanting.”
“Even if you kill me, someone else will pick up the pieces. You’re going to get caught.”
“Will I, though? Your department is strapped for resources. No one has time. Not many are as dedicated and single-minded as you are. Besides, in the aftermath of your death, they’re going to discover just how disorganized you were. How much evidence you misplaced. The entire case is going to look like such a mess, no one’s going to touch it. It’ll be unsolvable. Kind of like the issues with the Trent Jones arrest, only on a bigger scale.”
That bastard. He’d set me up.
“And that pristine, good guy reputation of yours? That’ll be gone too. I’ve already started. A few complaints, unfounded or not, to sow the seeds of doubt. Then convince you someone’s reenacting the Joyner murder with your girlfriend as the target, but without enough evidence to trigger a full-on investigation. Make it look like maybe you’re a little off, and a lot paranoid.”
“You piece of shit.”
“That’s not all, Haven.” His voice hardened. “Jack shouldn’t have just sent you home. I already told him that. I told him earlier I saw you in town and you didn’t look good. There was something in your eyes. He should have ordered a mental health evaluation. But he didn’t, did he? And now look what Garrett Haven did. He snapped. He murdered his lovely girlfriend, then killed himself.”
I struggled against my bonds, itching to rip his face off.
“I don’t have Harper, yet. But that’s the next step. And it doesn’t matter where she is right now. I’ll get her. You’re going to wait here and, trust me, no one is going to find you.” He got off the chair and knelt next to me. “Then I’m going to bring her here and make you watch while I kill her. That’s what I want. What I’ve been craving. Not just to kill someone stronger and more powerful than me. I want someone to watch. You get to witness something special, Haven. Something glorious. The power of life and death. I’m going to break you before I kill you.”
He paused again. My heart hammered against my chest and the bonds chafed against my skin. Rage burned in my veins like fire .
“Everyone is going to think you did it. You killed her. All the evidence will point to you, and you’ll be dead too, so you won’t be able to defend yourself. And I get to stand by and watch it all unfold, knowing that it was me. I’m the genius. I made this happen.”
He stood and looked down at me. “I wanted you to know that before I go so you can picture it happening. I want you to sit with it until I get back. I’m going to kill you both and I’m going to love every second of it.”
My control was on the verge of snapping. I strained against the bonds, teeth gritted, pain exploding through my entire body. He was not going to hurt her. I was not going to let it happen.
“Fuck!”
He took the chair, stepped over me, and I heard the sound of metal creaking. A heavy door? I craned my head but couldn’t quite see where he went. It creaked again and the door shut.
I was alone.
Bound. Captured. Helpless.
For a second, a wave of despair crashed over me. It was my fault Harper and our child were in danger. I’d failed.
No. This was not how it ended.
Hot anger swept through me, burning away the doubt, the despair, the failure. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I was going to save her. She was not going to die.
Phillip Lancaster had made a fatal mistake. He’d picked the wrong fucking man.