CHAPTER 12 #3
“I’m not sure he’s insane. I think he was born with something missing. He has no concept of right or wrong as we know it. What benefits Rudzak is right, what gets in his way is wrong.”
“A sociopath.”
“You can’t pigeonhole Rudzak that easily.” They had reached the rest stop, and his hand tightened on her arm when he saw the forensic team going over Smith’s car. “Why don’t we go inside? You don’t want to see this.”
He was right. She didn’t need to see another dead body, and neither did Monty. She headed for the building. “How long do we have to stay here?”
“The lieutenant wants to talk to you and take a statement, but I’ll see if he can send someone to the cabin to do the formal statement. You’re not classified as a suspect.”
She hadn’t thought she would be. “And what am I classified as?”
“Witness.” He shrugged. “Or maybe . . . victim.”
She remembered the terror and helplessness she had felt as she ran through the woods. She had felt like a victim then, and the memory filled her with anger. “The hell I am.”
They weren’t permitted to leave the rest stop for another four hours; by then Sarah was almost as drained as Monty.
“I’ll drive,” Logan said as he got into her jeep. “You rest.”
“I can do it. You have your own car to—”
“It’s Galen’s rental car. He’ll arrange to have it picked up.” He started the jeep. “Stop arguing and climb in. You know I’m in better shape emotionally right now. You wouldn’t want to crack up on that ugly road and hurt Monty.”
She hesitated and then got into the passenger seat.
“The one irresistible argument,” he murmured. “Lean back and close your eyes.”
She didn’t feel like closing her eyes. She was numb with exhaustion, but her mind wouldn’t stop working. Her gaze focused on the winding road ahead as the jeep slowly crept up the incline. “How’d you get Galen’s rental car?”
“I phoned him to come and wolf-sit and then took his car.”
“Galen’s at the ranch?” So many things had happened that she’d forgotten about Maggie. “You shouldn’t have left Maggie. I told you to take care—”
“Shut up,” he said roughly. “There was no way I wasn’t going to come after you. And you know Galen will be able to care for Maggie.”
Yes, Galen would be capable of doing anything he wanted to do. “I suppose she’ll be okay.”
“Better than you. She has a keen sense of self-preservation.”
“She walked into a trap too, like me with Rudzak. He knew I had to try to find those kids.”
“And if you got another call from Helen Peabody, you’d go traipsing off again.”
“Yes.”
Logan muttered a curse beneath his breath. “Stupid.”
“I wasn’t stupid,” she said, stung. “I got a call to do my job, and it seemed a legitimate search. How was I to know Rudzak would take advantage of those kids’ disappearance to set a trap?
He would have had to plan everything ahead with Chavez, the call from Hel— Oh, God.
” She closed her eyes. “The kids. Maybe he didn’t just take advantage of circumstances. Could he have killed them, Logan?”
“Yes.”
She opened her eyes and turned to look at him. “He’d kill three innocent kids just to set me up?”
“I think it’s likely. He’s very precise about his planning. He wouldn’t want the kids to show up and spoil everything after he’d gone to so much trouble.”
“I feel sick.” The image of a yellow buoy floating on the water came back to her. “The lake . . .”
“Lieutenant Carmichael told me he was sending a scuba team out to the buoy. I asked him to call me if he found out anything.”
“Kids . . . And you say he’s not insane.”
“He doesn’t enjoy killing, he just does it when it benefits him.” He smiled grimly. “Though I may be the exception to the rule. He’d definitely enjoy killing me.”
“I hope they don’t find the kids,” she whispered. “Dear Jesus, I hope he didn’t kill them to draw me here.”
He covered her hand clenched on her lap. “So do I, Sarah.”
Logan’s phone rang when they were only a few miles from the ranch. “Yes, Lieutenant.”
She tensed, watching his expression, but she couldn’t tell what Carmichael was saying to him.
He hung up. “There’s no trace of Rudzak. They think he’s gotten away.”
“What about the teenagers?”
“They found them under the buoy.” He looked straight ahead. “They haven’t gotten them out of the car yet, but the scuba divers say all three were bound with rope.”
She felt as if she’d been stabbed.
“Say something.”
She shook her head. What could she say? She just wanted to curl up and make the world go away.
“None of this is your fault, dammit.”
“I know.”
“Then stop looking like—”
“I can’t help how I look.” Her hands clenched into fists. “Were they alive when they went into the water? No, they couldn’t know that yet, could they?”
“No.”
“No one could be that terrible. To tie them up and then—”
“Don’t let your imagination run wild. It might not have been that way.”
“But it could have been.” She leaned her head against the window. “I don’t want to talk anymore, Logan.”
“Then don’t talk, but don’t think either, dammit.”
“I’ll try,” she whispered.
He muttered a curse and jammed his foot on the accelerator. A few minutes later he drew up before the cabin. She jumped out of the jeep and started for the front door.
“Wait a minute.” Logan came around the car. “You dropped something.”
She shook her head.
“I saw you kick something out of the car. It must have been on the floorboards.” He knelt in the dirt.
“What is it?” she asked dully.
“Nothing. Go inside.”
He had something in his hand. “What is it, dammit?”
“A comb.” He held out his hand and revealed the delicate ivory and jade comb. “A present from Rudzak.”
She shuddered. “Do you suppose it belonged to one of the kids?”
“No, it belonged to Chen Li.”
“Why would he—” She stared at him. “You expected it?”
“I didn’t expect it, but I’m not surprised. Go on to bed, we’ll talk about it later.”
“You bet we will.” But she couldn’t cope with anything more just then. Her nerves were shredded. She turned and went inside the house.
“Hi.” Galen came out of the back porch. “It’s about time you came home. I was beginning to feel like a— You look like hell.”
“I’m tired. I’m going to bed.” Monty. She had to take care of Monty. But Monty was already heading for the back porch and Maggie. “Good night, Galen.” She closed the door of the bedroom behind her.
She threw off her clothes, crawled into bed, and drew up the covers. The sheets smelled of Logan and their intimacy, she realized dimly. Sex and life and a joy those kids would never experience.
“Move over.” Logan slipped naked in bed beside her and pulled her into his arms.
“I don’t want you here.”
“Tough. You’ve got me.” He brushed his lips on her temple. “My God, have you got me. Now relax. I don’t want to do anything more than comfort you.”
“I just want to go to sleep.”
“And have nightmares?” He pushed her head into the hollow of his shoulder. “Talk it out.”
“What do you want me to say? That three kids died because some maniac wanted to draw me into his damn web.”
“That’s not your fault. I thought we agreed that I was to blame for everything.”
“I did what he wanted. He analyzed me like some Machiavellian shrink and then decided to kill innocent kids because that would make me do what he wanted. And he was right. He called and I came.”
“What else could you have done? You went there to— Stop crying. No, don’t stop. It’s probably good for you. It’s just hell for me.”
“It doesn’t feel good for me. It hurts.”
“That’s because you don’t do enough of it. You’re out of practice. When’s the last time you cried? When your grandfather died?”
“No, I promised him I’d be strong. It was when I found Monty at that police department in Italy.”
“I should have known.”
“Is Monty all right?”
“Monty’s with Maggie.”
“That’s right, I forgot. But he usually senses when I’m sad and comes and sleeps by my bed.”
“The poor mutt’s hormones are raging. You’ll have to make do with me.”
“I’m glad he has Maggie. Maybe it will distract him from what happened tonight.”
“It’s you we’re trying to distract.”