Laying Down the Law (16 page)

Willie Lee shook his head. “I haven’t seen my brother in twenty-nine years. People change. And Nicky and I were only six when he was taken away.”

True. And the problem with Harley was that even if there’d been a brotherly resemblance, his scars would have hidden it. Besides, she wasn’t even sure Willie Lee had ever actually met Harley or Rocky. Harley and Willie Lee had been at the same army training base, but that didn’t mean they knew each other.

“Sarah had nothing to do with any of this,” Willie Lee added. “She told me what happened that night. How he took her. How he hurt all of you. She was just trying to save you.”

Since that no-touching rule didn’t apply to Cord and her, and because Karina was pretty sure they could both use it, she took Cord’s hand in hers. Their gazes met. Held. And she saw it all sink in.

Willie Lee and Sarah were telling the truth. They were his parents.

That meant the real Moonlight Strangler was still out there. Plus, he might not even be one of their suspects. Nicky Burnell could be anyone now.

And could be anywhere.

Cord used his free hand to scrub it over his face. “What about Lonny Ogden?”

Sarah and Willie Lee exchanged glances. “Wasn’t he the man arrested for trying to hurt Addie?” Sarah asked.

“He was,” Cord confirmed. “But Addie, he and I have enough DNA in common that he could be my half brother or some other close relative.”

“Or Nicky’s son,” Willie Lee suggested. “I don’t have any other siblings. No other children, either. And, yes, I’m sure.”

Even though Willie Lee seemed so certain of that, Karina knew that Cord would check it out. He’d check out a lot of things. Hopefully, somewhere during that, maybe he’d be able to catch his monster and make peace with his parents.

And himself.

“Mrs. Samuels,” Dr. Kenney said to Sarah. “You really do have to go now.”

Sarah nodded, reached out as if to touch Willie Lee, but then she pulled back her hand at the last second. “I’ll be back as soon as they let me see you again.”

“Be careful.” Willie Lee then looked at Cord and Karina and he repeated what he’d said.

Sarah started for the door, but Cord didn’t budge. Clearly, he had some other questions on his mind. Ones that maybe he didn’t want to ask in from of Sarah.

However, before Cord could say anything else, the overhead lights flickered. And then went out.

Just like that, they were plunged into total darkness.

Chapter Seventeen

“What the heck is going on?” the guard grumbled.

Cord was wondering the same thing. He automatically reached for Karina, pulling her closer to him, and he waited.

“The generator should kick in,” Cord told her.

“It should have already kicked in,” the guard said.

That sped up Cord’s heart rate. Here he was with Karina in a prison, and he had no gun or phone, and something had gone wrong. Well, maybe. Cord held out hope that it was just some kind of malfunction even though he knew systems like this had backups for the backups.

“Everybody stay put,” the guard ordered, and Cord heard him head toward the door.

“Shane, make sure no one’s trying to get in,” Dr. Kenney said to the guard.

“Nobody gets through me,” the guard assured her. “You just stay where you are.”

Cord didn’t know this Shane, but he was big, and he was wearing a sidearm. That didn’t exactly steady Cord’s nerves because Shane could turn out to be dirty. Or someone could just overpower him, but for now Shane was their best bet at putting an end to whatever the hell was happening here.

“I got a really bad feeling about this,” Willie Lee whispered. “Undo my restraints, please.”

Cord had no intention of doing that, but Karina started fumbling around as if she might. “He’s right. Something’s going on,” she agreed.

Cord was still holding out hope, and he also held on to Karina to stop her. He didn’t want Willie Lee untied. Not just yet.

But Cord’s hope quickly died when he heard the guard curse.

“The door’s locked,” the guard said. “It shouldn’t be locked. And my communicator’s not working, either.”

Cord cursed, too. He didn’t know the ins and outs of this prison, but the locks often required a code to activate them. No one in the room had done that, so maybe that meant someone had locked it from outside.

Could Sarah have done it?

She didn’t seem the sort to be able to negotiate a prison’s security system and block a communicator, but if she had indeed managed it, she could be trying to break Willie Lee out of here. Out of some of the scenarios his mind came up with, that was one of the better options. At least he could best Willie Lee and Sarah if it came down to a physical fight.

Shane would be much harder since he had that gun.

“No!” Dr. Kenney said. Not a shout for help. It was more of a muffled whisper, and she could have just been reacting to the fact that the lights hadn’t come back on yet.

“Dr. Kenney, are you all right?” Cord asked.

No answer.

He tried again and got the same result.

All right. So, she hadn’t just been reacting to the door being locked. Something had gone wrong. But what?

Cord tried to pick through the darkness, but he couldn’t see a darn thing. Even the machines next to Willie Lee’s bed had quit working and no longer had the blinking lights. He wanted to go to the doctor, to try to help her if something bad was happening, but that would mean leaving Karina alone.

Since Karina had already been the target of three attacks, Cord had to consider that this might be attempt number four.

“Shane, can you see Dr. Kenney?” Cord asked. He asked the guard that for two reasons. Because he really did want to know if the doctor was okay, but Cord also wanted to know Shane’s position. He didn’t seem like a man who was light on his feet, but he didn’t want Shane or anyone else trying to sneak up on them.

“No. I can’t see her.” Shane sounded scared.

There was no table next to the bed, but Cord grabbed the metal pole that was holding Willie Lee’s IV. Not an ideal weapon, especially since the IV needle was still in Willie Lee’s arm. But it was better than nothing.

Cord listened for shouts from outside the door. Maybe someone trying to get to them. But nothing.

Damn.

Was it possible that no one else at the prison knew what was happening in here?

“I’m gonna start pounding on the door,” the guard said. “Nobody’s out in the hall, but if I pound hard enough, they’ll hear me.”

However, he had no sooner said that when Cord did hear something. It was some movement coming from the direction where he’d last seen the doctor. He figured it was too much to hope that she’d just fainted and was now regaining consciousness.

“Is someone else in here?” Karina whispered to him.

“Maybe.”

And Cord cursed himself for that. There were plenty of beds and machines in this room, and he’d been so focused on getting answers from Willie Lee and Sarah that he hadn’t thought to search the place.

Maybe that wouldn’t turn out to be a fatal mistake.

“I’m taking off Willie Lee’s restraints,” Karina said, her voice barely audible. Because her arm was touching his, Cord could feel her shaking.

This time he didn’t stop Karina when she reached out for the straps that anchored Willie Lee’s arms and legs to the bed. Whoever was in here with them could be there to kill Willie Lee. After all, if Willie Lee was dead, then the real Moonlight Strangler might get away scot-free. Cord wanted to give Willie Lee a fighting chance while at the same time protecting Karina.

That’s why Cord worked with her to remove the restraints.

“So help me, if you try to hurt Karina, you’re a dead man,” Cord warned him. “I don’t care if you’re my father or not.”

“I’d never hurt her,” Willie Lee insisted. “Or you.”

While the man sounded sincere enough, Cord would decide later if he was telling the truth. After the restraints were off, Cord moved Karina to the side, away from Willie Lee, while putting himself between her and the door.

But Cord had no idea if the threat would even come from the door. It could come from anywhere.

“He could have Sarah,” Willie Lee said, his voice frantic now.

True. If the woman wasn’t behind this, then the killer could have taken her again. That put a tight vise on his chest, but Cord couldn’t borrow trouble. Not when they already had enough of it.

“Dr. Kenney?” Cord asked again.

There were more sounds that came from her direction. Sounds that Cord didn’t want to hear.

Some fast clicks. Then a groan, followed by a heavy thud. Someone had fallen to the floor.

* * *

K
ARINA
’
S
FIRST
INSTINCT
was to run across the room and help the doctor. But Cord held her back.

“It could be a trap,” he whispered to her.

Mercy, she hadn’t even considered that. Her mind was racing, and it was hard for her to think. But she didn’t need to think to know they were in danger.

Again.

What was going on?

“Shane?” Cord called out to the guard.

Nothing. Not at first anyway, but then she heard another groan. Definitely not from a woman. That was a man, and it was likely the guard.

“I think someone hit Shane with a stun gun,” Cord said. “Did you hear the clicks?”

Karina had, but she hadn’t known what it was. However, she’d had no trouble figuring out that someone had fallen. And that someone was probably Shane.

She tried to rein in her breathing. Her heartbeat, too. Hard to do, though, now that there was proof they were in trouble. Someone had taken out the guard, the biggest threat in the room since Cord wasn’t armed.

Had Dr. Kenney done this?

Karina hadn’t heard anything from the woman since she’d muttered that
no
, not long after the lights had gone out. But she could have been faking. Could have gotten in a stun gun, as well.

But had she?

Or was she incapacitated like the guard?

“My brother’s behind this,” Willie Lee whispered.

He’d moved, though Karina hadn’t heard him do that. Judging from the sound of his voice, he was no longer on the bed. That was good if he had to fight back, but he wasn’t in any shape for fighting. Just the day before, he’d had that seizure.

Well, maybe that’s what had happened to him.

She was rethinking that. If Dr. Kenney was helping the Moonlight Strangler, then she could have given Willie Lee something to trigger a seizure or make it look as if he’d had one. If so, that meant the doctor heard everything Willie Lee had said to them. Everything Sarah had said, as well.

“Sarah,” Karina whispered. She hadn’t meant to say the woman’s name aloud, but Sarah had left only seconds before the lights went out. Whoever was behind this could have taken her. She could be in danger.

“He’ll kill her if he gets his hands on her.” Willie Lee’s voice was filled with pain and fear for his wife. “Sarah and I are the ones he wants.”

“Well, whoever he is, he’s not going to get us,” Cord insisted. “Karina, stay close and follow me. I need to get the guard’s gun. Willie Lee, stay here, and use this if you have to.”

Since her eyes were finally adjusting to the darkness, she saw Cord handing off the IV pole to Willie Lee. That’s when she noticed that Willie Lee no longer had the IV needle in his arm.

Cord pulled a fire extinguisher from the wall, and he unpinned his badge and handed it to her. “It’s not much, but if you have to, you could maybe stab someone with it.”

A sickening thought, especially since she had stabbed a man in that diner. Karina prayed she wouldn’t have to do that again. Prayed also that they’d get out of this safely. Certainly by now someone knew something had gone wrong. The Moonlight Strangler couldn’t have bought off every single guard and doctor in the place.

She hoped.

Cord and she started moving. Karina did as he said and followed him, staying close while they inched farther and farther away from Willie Lee. Maybe the killer wouldn’t use this chance to go after him.

A sound caused Cord and her to freeze. A footstep, maybe. And once again, it’d come from the direction of Dr. Kenney. If she wasn’t on the take, maybe she was trying to get to the guard, too. But then, who’d gotten to guard already?

“Get down on the floor,” Cord said directly against her ear. “We’ll crawl the rest of the way.”

Maybe because he thought it would be harder for someone to shoot them that way.

With his badge still gripped in her hand, she went to her knees. Cord, too, and he didn’t waste even a second getting them moving again.

The floor was tile. Hard and cold. And even though they were moving quickly, it seemed to take an eternity, but it was probably only a few seconds before they reached him. He was definitely on the floor.

Not moving.

But she could hear him breathing so he was alive. She also heard Cord when he cursed.

“His gun’s gone. Someone took it.”

No doubt the same person who was responsible for him being unconscious.

Before she could ask Cord what they were going to do next, she heard the clicking sound again. The stun gun. Someone else groaned. But it wasn’t Dr. Kenney or the guard this time.

It was Willie Lee.

Oh, mercy.

She looked behind her and saw him fall to the floor. Cord must have seen it, too, because he hauled her behind some of the machines and moved in front of her again.

It took her a moment to see him, but there was a man near him. Someone dressed all in black, and he blended right into the shadows and the darkness.

“Well, well,” he said. “We all meet again. Isn’t this special?”

God. “That’s him,” Karina blurted out. “That’s the man who attacked me in the barn.”

“The man who made the phone calls, too,” he proudly admitted. “And sent those texts from God. But I didn’t kill you in that barn, did I? No. Because that was just the appetizer. I wanted to finish the job here.”

“Who are you?” she asked, her words mostly breath.

“I’m the Moonlight Strangler, of course. And I’m here to settle an old score. A couple of new ones, too.”

She shook her head. “That’s not the voice of any of our suspects.”

The man laughed. “Confusing, huh? Well, I practiced using this voice for a long time, and I only use it for special occasions. Like now. Want to hear my real voice, Karina? How about you, Cord?”

“Yeah,” Cord snapped. “I want to hear it. Just quit hiding behind that
voice
and tell me who you are.”

He laughed again, stepping over Willie Lee, to move closer. And closer.

Until Karina could see his face.