Kitabı oku: «The Blackest Crimson»

Chapter One

Ryan Ridge, Montgomery, Alabama

Friday, December 24, 6:30 p.m.

“It’s snowing!” Detective Bobbie Gentry smiled, her heart feeling glad for the first time in nearly a month. It rarely snowed for Christmas in Alabama. If they got snow at all, it usually showed up in January or February. She pressed her hand to the glass of the big bay window that overlooked their front yard. All the houses in the cul-de-sac, including theirs, were decorated with twinkling lights and garland, chasing away the darkness of the cold winter night. She needed this Christmas to be peaceful. She yearned for the normalness of family, for the roar and crackle of a fire as they gathered around the tree they had spent the day decorating.

A contented sigh slipped past her lips. The way those big flakes were falling the neighborhood would look like a classic Christmas card within the hour. Maybe tonight would make up for the endless hours of overtime and weekends away from her family she’d put in this month.

Her husband moved up behind her and circled her waist with his arms. “Man, it’s really coming down out there. The weatherman said we’re on the lower edge of the storm, but we could get several inches. Maybe more. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“Very nice.” Bobbie leaned into him and covered his forearms with hers. A snowstorm bringing more than an inch or two was nearly unheard of this far south. Suited her just fine. In fact, the timing couldn’t be better. Today was her first day off this month. She’d slept late and she’d been wearing her husband’s Alabama sweatshirt and a pair of lounge pants all day. She might not bother with real clothes until after the holidays. She was so damned glad just to be home. “I really needed this.”

James nuzzled her neck. “I’m glad it’s over.”

Would it ever really be over? The killer was still out there. God only knew where.

For the last three weeks Bobbie and her partner had been working with the FBI on a serial murder case. The Storyteller. If she lived ten lifetimes she wouldn’t be able to adequately clear the horrors she had seen and heard from her mind. The images of his victims... The endless reports and profiles about the unknown subject’s—the killer’s—methodology and psychopathy. The Storyteller was the sickest bastard Bobbie had encountered during her career with law enforcement. If she were lucky, she would never encounter that level of pure evil again.

As rough as the past twenty or so days had been, she was home tonight. She could stand right here for hours and watch the beauty of nature turn the landscape white. When she was a little girl her mother used to tell her that snow was a gift from God to brighten the long, dark winters. Those words had never been truer than they were at this moment.

Bobbie turned in her husband’s arms and smiled. “Thank you for taking care of everything while—” she shook her head “—while I was so involved in the case. I was afraid Jamie wouldn’t even remember who I was.”

James pressed his forehead to hers. “No need to thank me.” His arms tightened around her waist. “And, for your information, our son thinks you’re a superhero.”

She searched his eyes, so very grateful for this wonderful man. “Really?”

James nodded. “I told him Mommy was keeping the monsters away.”

How in the world had she gotten so lucky?

“Mommy!”

Jamie slammed into Bobbie’s legs. She leaned down and scooped up her little boy. “Look at all the snow. Tomorrow we can make a snowman with Daddy.”

“Santa help, too?”

Bobbie kissed his soft cheek, deeply inhaled his baby shampoo scent. He was growing up so fast. In just four months he would be three years old. She wished time would slow down just a little. “I don’t know about Santa, sweetie. Tomorrow’s Christmas and he’ll be very busy.”

Her precious little boy had blond hair and gray eyes exactly like his father. Jamie had made her life complete. As much as she valued her career as a homicide detective, this—she smiled at her husband and then at their child—was her world. Maybe one of these days Jamie would have a little brother or sister. She and James had discussed the possibility after making love this morning. They were both ready.

Jamie pressed his forehead against her cheek. “Wudolph.”

She grinned. “Is it time for Rudolph?”

Her son nodded, those big gray eyes twinkling with anticipation.

“Start the movie.” James ushered them toward the sofa. “I’ll put the cookies for Santa in the oven.”

“Santa! Santa!” Jamie bounced in Bobbie’s arms.

“Thanks.” She gave her handsome husband a kiss on the jaw.

He smiled. “Love you.”

“Love you more.”

“Wuv you!” Jamie shouted in his sweet little-boy voice.

“Wuv you, buddy.” James backed toward the kitchen. “Save me a seat.”

“You got it,” Bobbie promised.

As she curled up on the sofa, Jamie snuggled in next to her. She picked up the remote, found the movie they had recorded on the DVR and saved just for tonight, and then hit play. As the credits rolled and the celebrated Christmas song began to play, Bobbie sang along. “Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer...”

Jamie burst into his own rendition of the tune and her heart swelled with happiness. She kissed the top of his blond head and hugged him tight.

A crash in the kitchen had her twisting around toward the entry hall that led from the front door, past the living room and dining room, and into the kitchen. Their home was a traditional, center-hall Southern colonial and she loved it. It wasn’t the popular open concept, but the entire downstairs flowed from one room to the next.

“You having trouble with those cookies, James?” she teased.

Burl Ives’s deep baritone filled the room. Jamie was mesmerized by the classic animation. But it was the silence in the kitchen that held Bobbie in an ever-tightening grip. The fine hair on the back of her neck stood on end while her pulse bumped into a faster rhythm. She eased away from Jamie and moved around the sofa. “James?”

Another clang echoed from the kitchen.

For one endless moment time seemed to stop, even as denial and a hundred explanations that didn’t include what she understood was happening whirled in her head. Her gaze settled on the stairs. Her service weapon was in the lockbox on her bedside table. Seventeen steps up and then ten yards to the end of the hall, the door was on the left.

No time to go for it.

Adrenaline fired in her blood, jolting her into action. Bobbie reached across the back of the sofa and grabbed Jamie. Ignoring his protests, she ran to the front door. As she twisted the lock, her heart slamming mercilessly against her sternum, she heard the clump-clump-clump of rushing footfalls behind her. She jerked the door open and thrust her child onto the porch.

“Run, Jamie!” she screamed, frantic determination and utter certainty of what was coming coalescing into sheer terror.

Her little boy stared up at her, scared and confused, with those precious, precious gray eyes.

“Run for help like Mommy showed you!”

Brutal fingers fisted in her hair and yanked her back. She kicked at the door, sending it slamming closed. She prayed her baby would run to the neighbor’s house for help the way she had taught him. Over and over they had practiced what he was to do if she ever told him to run because something bad happened.

Please, please, please keep him safe.

“Merry Christmas, Detective Gentry,” a deep voice announced.

A sweater-clad forearm looped around her throat and dragged her backward. Her gaze zoomed in on the bloody knife in the hand at the end of that arm.

“James!”

The sound of her husband’s name echoing around her snapped her from the strange frozen place she’d slipped into. She clawed at the arm. Twisted hard to get free.

“I should be halfway across Mississippi by now,” the voice—male—said with a snarl. “But I simply couldn’t leave without coming back for you. I’ve done nothing but fantasize about you for weeks.”

Bobbie tried to dig her heels into the floor to slow down his momentum, but he was too strong. She gasped for air as his arm tightened on her throat.

Think, Bobbie!

Relax. Let him believe he’s won. She stopped struggling. Just let him drag her limp body as if she’d lost consciousness. The hardwood floor turned to tile. He was taking her into the kitchen.

James was in the kitchen.

Please, please, please let him be okay.

The bastard yanked her upright, pulling her around to face him, and pinned her against the island with his body. The bloody blade of the knife pressed against her throat. “I’ve never had a detective before. I can’t wait to write your story, Bobbie.”

Oh dear God. This couldn’t be happening. The Storyteller never struck twice in the same place. No one knew his name...or had seen his face.

“You are so beautiful,” he whispered roughly. “Even more beautiful than Alyssa or any of the others.”

Bobbie bit back the rage she wanted to hurl at him. Alyssa Powell had been his last victim. The one he’d brought from Georgia and dumped in the Montgomery Police Department’s jurisdiction.

“We’re going to have so much fun together.”

Look at him, Bobbie! Commit his features to memory. Brown hair and eyes. Soft jaw, narrow nose. Five-ten or—eleven. One-seventy or—eighty pounds. Late thirties. No noticeable facial scars or moles.

“We should go,” the bastard said. “That kid of yours has probably alerted the neighbors, who will no doubt call the police. They’ll surround your lovely home and make our escape problematic. Can’t have that.”

This was it. He was taking her.

Wait...where was James? Her heart threatened to burst. Please, please don’t let him be dead.

“Be a good girl now.”

The blade moved a fraction of an inch from her throat and she snapped into action, ramming her knee upward. He pivoted. She nailed his hip instead of his groin. Damn it! She clawed at his eyes. The blade slid across her forearm, slicing through the sweatshirt and her skin. She screamed and punched him in the face with all her might.

He grabbed a handful of her hair before she could twist away and slammed her head against the island’s unforgiving granite countertop. Pain split her skull. Her muscles went lax. The warmth of urine spread down her thighs.

She was falling...falling. Her body crumpled to the tile. She blinked, her vision narrowing.

Suddenly she was moving again. He was dragging her by her arm...moving toward the side exit to the garage.

Leaving.

James...where was James?

Her lids drooped lower, almost closing, but not before she saw her husband on the floor...his beautiful gray eyes wide open, frozen in fear...his mouth slack.

The tile around him was no longer white. It was the blackest crimson.