Into the Dark (10 page)

Alongside the paintings, Miss Emilie’s face adorned the walls of his study—sketches he had drawn from memory. Every picture was different, but each was perfection.

He had to be free once again to observe her life and figure out a new way for them to be together.

But that would require a carefully thought out plan. Police were undoubtedly watching her apartment, hoping he would make a mistake. Common sense said to pack up and move on as he’d done before. There were plenty of warm places to go, and he could adapt anywhere. The past few years had proven that. But he just couldn’t leave her, not after spending those blissful hours together.

He had to send her a message. She had to know he would find another way for them to be together. And perhaps her memory could be tweaked. If Miss Emilie could only recall their first connection, she would understand. Maybe even come to him on her own.

Chapter Eleven

Nathan laid the fragrant white roses at the base of the graying stone and brushed away dried leaves and grass. The flowers would soon wither and die. But for now, they were beautiful.

“I miss you, Jimmy.” A hot breeze rustled the bright yellow flowers of the Palo Verde trees. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about what happened to you. About what I did to you.”

Guilt had consumed Nathan for the past fourteen years. His life was literally a gift—that’s why he’d become a cop. Atonement, his sister called it. Maybe it was. Nathan figured saving others was the least he could do.

While Nathan negotiated for the hostages’ lives yesterday, his family had gathered here for Jimmy’s anniversary. Kelsi left yellow daisies like she did every year. Nathan always chose roses. The flowers on Jimmy’s casket had been roses.

The wind blew one of the delicate roses away from the rest. Nathan caught the flower before it was damaged. Turning it over in his hand, he thought of the Taker and his fixation on the color white.

White meant innocence. Purity. Was that how the Taker saw Emilie? Did he see himself as some sort of savior or protector?

“Not my problem anymore.” Nathan traced the words etched across the granite:
Loving son, brother, and uncle. Beneath this simple stone that marks his resting place, our precious darling sleeps alone in the Lord’s long embrace.

Knees aching, Nathan stood. He dropped the escaped rose to the ground. “I’m sorry, Jimmy. It should have been me.”

Nathan whipped his Toyota Camry into a vacant spot two blocks away from Chicago Joe’s. He and Kelsi had been having their weekly lunch dates at the popular Italian restaurant since Nathan joined the police force.

He wasn’t looking forward to today’s meeting. The story of the bank and the partner’s astonishing escape had been all over the news, and Kelsi would no doubt have a thousand questions. Questions he had no idea how to answer.

His mind was also preoccupied with Emilie Davis. The torment from her past and present bubbled just underneath the surface of her bravado, and she teetered on the edge of a breakdown.

Kelsi lounged in a booth, impatiently tapping her foot. Nathan kissed the top of her head. “I see you got new highlights. Purple, huh?”

“You’re color blind. They’re dark red. And you’re late, as usual.”

“Only a couple of minutes, so that doesn’t count.”

Kelsi huffed and flagged down the waitress, ordering the usual for both of them.

“Read the paper.” She cut right to the chase. “Sounds like things got messy.”

Nathan scowled. No one pushed him harder than Kelsi. She was only eleven months older than he, and they’d always been close. When Nathan skipped third grade and joined her in the classroom, she’d helped him to fit in. Kelsi encouraged him to step outside of his comfort zone and to appreciate his gifts. If it weren’t for his sister, he never would have had the guts to do anything but bury his nose in books.

“We couldn’t believe it, Kels. A bootlegging room with an escape route into the storm drains. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Why’d he try to take the branch manager? You think he was after her all along?”

“Yep.”

“At least he didn’t manage to kidnap her.”

“But that’s what I can’t figure out,” Nathan said. “Why didn’t he just go ahead and take
her? The guys were preoccupied with Adam. The partner had the time.”

“If you want me to analyze the guy without speaking to him, I’d guess he was a control freak. Sounds like his planning was meticulous, and something didn’t go his way. People like that don’t react well to sudden change.”

Kelsi was no stranger to violent criminals. She’d worked in the psychiatric ward at Nevada State Prison for her required internship before getting her doctorate in clinical psychology and going into private practice.

“And we know absolutely nothing about him.”

“Good thing he’s no longer your concern,” she reminded him. “How’s Adam? You know Aunt Kay’s freaking out someone got shot, right?”

“Fine. He’s probably out for a month or more.” He glared at her. “Why’d you tell Kay?

“I didn’t, jackass. She does read the paper, you know.”

Nathan grunted and poured extra sugar in his coffee. He hated the black goop, but his body was begging for caffeine.

Kelsi took a sip of her tea. “Any leads?”

“You know I can’t discuss specifics with you, Kels.”

“He could be anywhere by now,” she said. “Remember the Weber case in 2002? He escaped into the tunnels with no prior knowledge of them and eluded cops for three weeks. The partner obviously had prior knowledge.”

A group of laughing tourists wearing sun visors and carrying bags stuffed with souvenirs entered the café. They sat down at the table next to Nathan and Kesli and chatted about all the amazing things they’d enjoyed in Las Vegas.

“What were they like?” Kelsi asked.

“What?”

“The tunnels. How far did you guys go?”

“Few hundred feet at most. They stunk.”

“Did you see any of the camps?”

“Nah, they’re much farther in,” Nathan said. “The drains are a giant maze, and cops don’t know them very well.”

“Any idea who helped him? His dead buddy, maybe?”

“Couldn’t have been him. He had help from someone with inside knowledge of the bank.”

“What about the branch manager? Paper said she was taken to the hospital. How’s she handling it? Did anyone refer her to counseling?”

“Yeah, me,” Nathan said. “I ran into her today at the station. She had a flashback and was really shaken up.”

“Poor thing. What do you think he wanted with her? Did she know the guy? Any dangerous exes in her past?”

“Stop asking questions I can’t answer.”

Kelsi smirked, making the family resemblance even more pronounced. The Madigan siblings had fair complexions, blue eyes, and black hair—Irish traits inherited from their father. “In your
opinion
, then.”

He coughed as the hot coffee burned his throat. “In my opinion, she was clueless about his interest in her and has no idea who he might be. I don’t think she associates with too many people.”

“You should have been a detective, you know. You’d be damned good at it.”

“You’re biased.”

“I’m also right. You’ve always had a sense about people, Nathan. I know that’s what makes you such an excellent negotiator, but you’d make a great detective, too.”

His mouth watered as a huge plate of pancakes was placed in front of him. He hadn’t eaten since scarfing down a protein bar sometime yesterday afternoon. “I like to be where the action is, Sis. Detectives have to do too much legwork.”

“Remember the guy at the police academy said to get some experience and then apply to the Bureau? I specifically remember him saying you have instincts that can’t be taught.”

“Just because he said that doesn’t mean the FBI would agree,” Nathan said.

“I just think you should keep your options open. You’ve been in SWAT four years now, and you’ve spent a lot of that as a hostage negotiator. I’m sure the FBI—”

“Kels, I like my job, okay?”

“Whatever. We’ll talk about it later.”

“I’m sure you will.”

“Anything else you can tell me about this guy?”

“Not a lot to tell,” Nathan said. “He stayed in the background most of the day. I didn’t figure him out soon enough. If I had, we might have had a chance to catch him.”

“Don’t be an idiot. He had to have spent months working out his escape. I’m sure he considered every scenario. You never had a chance to catch him.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Do we have to go through this again?” Kelsi clunked her glass down on the table. “You set unfair standards for yourself. If another negotiator were on the scene and didn’t figure out what was going on, would you be this hard on him?”

“If I’d realized his intentions, the team could have gone in earlier and surprised him. We wasted too much time talking to Joe.”

“You’re not seriously blaming yourself for this.”

“Like I said, I should have figured him out. Isn’t that my job?”

“Even if you’d realized what he was up to sooner, you couldn’t have done things much differently. The team would have gone in the same way, and he would have still escaped.”

“Maybe. Guess we’ll never know.” Nathan snatched a french fry off her plate.

“This goes deeper than the ridiculous expectations you put on yourself. This is about Jimmy. Every time you think you fail, that sense of failure goes back to him. You blame yourself. You force yourself to atone over and over again.”

“Don’t pull your shrink stuff on me today.” Nathan glared at his sister. “That’s not what it’s about. I just wish the bastard wasn’t still out there. That’s it.”

“We’ll revisit the subject later when your head’s out of your ass.”

“Whatever.” He took a handful of her fries this time. “How’d things go after I left yesterday?”

“Annual mourning session, like always. We stuffed ourselves with food and wine. We talked about Jimmy. Dad was quiet. Didn’t say a word when we visited the grave.”

“I saw the flowers.”

“You went?”

“This morning.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“Sure it wasn’t.” Nathan watched the laughing tourists cackle over their gaudy souvenirs. “I was just the reason Jimmy was there in the first place.”

“You made a mistake.”

“And it got Jimmy killed. Please, can we talk about something else?”

A devious smile spread over her face. “Fine. How’s Ava?”

Nathan groaned. “Here we go.”

“You said to change the subject. Have you seen her lately?”

“No, and I’m not going to, either.”

“She still begging for a second chance?”

“Yeah, but it’s not happening. Catching her with another guy once was enough.”

Kelsi snatched the check from the server. “I’m paying. And good for you.”

“Really?”

“Of course. That bitch was never good enough for you, Nathan. She was too concerned with the prestige of dating a cop instead of being with you. Good riddance.”

For all of his people skills, Nathan had lousy luck with the opposite sex. The ones who weren’t turned off by his job ran for the hills after they learned the truth about the long hours and the risks. Ava was one of the few who lasted more than three dates. But she’d cared more about his looks and status than about his safety or company.

“Again, you’re biased,” he told his sister. “I’ll never find anyone good enough by your standards.”

“Sure you will. You just have to stop letting your buddies set you up. I know a girl who would be perfect for you.”

Nathan ignored her and rose to leave. “Gotta run, Kels. Have a meeting.”

“I bet.”

“No, I really do. We’ve got two raids scheduled this week. The boss wants to discuss the logistics of being a man short.”

Kelsi wrapped her small arms around Nathan and squeezed hard. “Tell Adam I said hi.”

“I will.”

“Can I ask one more question about last night?”

“Go ahead. Doesn’t mean I’ll answer.”

“Do you think this FBI agent is good enough to catch the partner, especially with Avery as her handicap?”

Another group of laughing tourists walked by. So easy for a man as nondescript as the Taker to disappear forever in a city like Las Vegas. “I don’t know. What this guy did—finding that tunnel and how it connected to the storm drains—tells me he’s way too invested to allow himself to be caught or to give up on Emilie. We haven’t seen the last of him.”

* * * *

Emilie tossed and turned in the queen-sized bed. She kicked off the blankets and then pulled them back on. The air conditioning blasted, and her bedroom was cold. But every time she snuggled underneath the blankets, the smothering torment of darkness crept up on her. She couldn’t stand it.

She flicked on the bedside lamp and stared at the ceiling fan. Round and round it turned, the base rocking slightly. She needed to tighten the thing before the sound drove her mad.

Her mind would not shut off. The Taker was out there somewhere. Was he planning his next move? Had he crawled out of the tunnels and slipped back into a normal life, or did he remain down below, hiding like a coward? And who had helped him? Was it someone she knew, a person she’d have to work with?

Nathan Madigan’s words came back to her. Was he right? Was the Taker so good no one could catch him?

Nathan didn’t actually say that
. Emilie thought about the hostage negotiator’s kind smile. He was definitely the kind of cop that looked good in a uniform, but it was his sense of honor and compassion that made him compelling.

Otis crept beside Emilie and flopped against her head. His purring motor rumbled in her ear.

That’s how he got me running off at the mouth about my parents.

Thankfully she wouldn’t be seeing Nathan again. He posed too much of risk to her carefully walled-in secrets and made her want to talk about things she’d sealed away years ago.

Emilie closed her eyes. The fan continued its rhythmic turning, and she began to count the clicks as the base rattled. Her body relaxed.

A masked face hovered above her. Eyes, their depths black and soulless, gazed into hers.
Such a shame
, the Taker murmured.
Far too often, the great historical places of this country are tossed aside because of financial burden. Or because no one can see their potential. We know all about burdens, don’t we, Miss Emilie?