Playing Dead (42 page)

And wasn’t Claire just a pale imitation of Bridget?

He couldn’t kill Bridget again. He wished he could. He dreamed of it, tried to re-create it, but her death had happened too fast, without thought. When he stood over her dead body he wanted to do it all over again. Experience every sensation again. And again. For everything Bridget had done to him, and everything she hadn’t.

Killing Claire would satisfy him more than the runaways. Like Bridget, he’d loved and protected Claire for years. And like Bridget, Claire never returned his feelings. She never would. Just teased him, took other lovers and rubbed them in his face. The damn Fed was the worst, the way she was all over him at the Fox & Goose. Touching him. Kissing him. Sliding her body over his, her breasts rubbing against his chest.

He’d sacrificed everything for her, and she’d never give him what he needed most from her. But he could take it. He could take everything, including her last breath.

After she was dead, he’d disappear. He didn’t have much time. It wouldn’t take the FBI long to discover Claire was missing. The truth would come out.

Claire needed to die before then.

He had his police scanner on, listening for odd chatter. If they figured it out, they would demand radio silence—in case he was listening. Radio silence was as good as announcing they were coming for him.

The sound of an approaching car disturbed his work. He jumped off the backhoe and looked into the newly dug grave. It was deep enough. He walked quickly toward the house, rounding the corner at the same time Jeffrey Riordan stepped from his car.

“You fucking lunatic!” Riordan screamed at him. “You screwed up everything. You killed Hamilton and Richie. Now the cops are all over my ass.”

What was Riordan thinking, coming out here to confront him? Bruce Langstrom was a hired assassin. Riordan knew that; he’d paid him enough money over the years. Did the idiot really think he was just another employee he could jerk around?

Riordan had a gun in his hand.

As if that would do him any good.

FORTY

Claire had the worst hangover of her life.

She couldn’t open her eyes, her tongue was thick, her mouth dry. All she wanted was a gallon of water and sleep. In the back of her mind she imagined she’d heard a gunshot, but it was quiet now. She was alone.

As she became more alert, she dismissed the idea that she had a hangover. She hadn’t been drinking. She’d been drugged.

The first sign that something was really, really wrong came from her sense of smell. She wasn’t in her house. She breathed deeply, struggled to open her eyes—but every time she opened them, they closed, the strain too much. And everything was blurry and out of focus, all light and dark with no form.

Maybe she’d passed out and Dave had taken her to the hospital. She’d been sitting on the couch talking to Bill. They’d just had lunch . . .

There were no hospital sounds. Total silence. This place smelled clean—Pine-Sol and bleach and some other fruity fragrance that made Claire’s stomach turn. But definitely not the antiseptic scent of the hospital.

When she tried to speak, only a moan escaped. Every limb felt heavy, but her mind awakened as a faint sense of panic pumped adrenaline through her body. She continued breathing deeply, trying to regain full use of her eyes and body. It seemed to be working. She still felt sluggish, but at least she could open her eyes and focus on her surroundings.

A bright pink wall. She’d had a bright pink wall when she was a kid. In the old house, the house where her mother was killed.

She turned her head and saw white furniture with pink and green flowers. Her heart raced. This was her furniture! Or it used to be hers. Hands fisting in the comforter, trying to push herself up, she saw the myriad brightly colored pillows on the bed.

And the bear.

As if in a trance, Claire sat up on the bed and struggled to stand. Unsteadily she crossed to the rocking chair and picked up the teddy bear. It was brown, a plain, ordinary stuffed bear, but she’d had one just like it growing up. She’d had it for as long as she could remember. It was well-worn, like this one. It was missing an eye. Like this bear.

She turned it over and stared at the embroidery on the paw. At one time, the thread had been bright pink. It was faded now.

She dropped the bear as if he burned her hands. It had been months after her mother had been killed when she realized Bill hadn’t brought the bear when he packed up her old room. She’d asked him to go back and look for it; he did. He said there were no teddy bears in the house. She had cried over it, certain that someone who didn’t like her dad was punishing her. Stupid to cry over a stuffed animal.

The entire room she now stood in had been designed exactly like the room she’d lived in when she was fourteen. One pink and three blue walls. On the back of the door was a corkboard, but instead of the collage of photos she’d kept, there was only one.

It was of her. A snapshot that looked like the pictures she’d had in her old room. Her and her best friend, Amy, who’d been killed by a drunk driver when they were freshmen in college. Amy had been the only one of her childhood friends who’d supported her unconditionally all those hard years.

This wasn’t right. Where was she? Who knew about her old life?

She turned the doorknob. Locked. She was locked in this room. Heart thudding painfully, she pulled and pushed and kicked and couldn’t get out.

There was only one window. She ran to it, pushed open the blinds. The light had changed—it had to be five or six in the evening. How long had she been unconscious? How long had she been held captive? What had happened to her friends and the bodyguard?

The landscape was unfamiliar. She was on the second floor of a house in the country, but there were no other houses she could see, no landmark to tell her anything about her location. It was mostly flat, but with some small hills and large trees. Not the mountains, not quite the foothills.

She tried the window. Nailed shut. She pounded on the glass. She’d have to break it to escape.

She looked around the room for a weapon, for anything she could use to defend herself or break this window. There was nothing. While at first it looked just like her room, it was a fake.

The drawers didn’t open on the dresser. The closet was empty. Could she break the mirror and use the glass as a weapon? It wasn’t thick enough; she wouldn’t be able to wield the shards in her hands with enough force to hurt someone.

The door opened.

She swung around. A wave of relief rushed over her. She ran to Dave’s partner and hugged him.

“Phil! Thank God. What happened? Where am I?”

He hugged her back, but he wasn’t talking. She slowly pulled away.

“What’s going on?” she asked, her voice cracking. She swallowed and took a step back. Her temporary relief was replaced by fear.

He stepped forward. “I’m sorry, Claire, but it’s over.”

She kept backing up until she was against the wall. He followed.

Phil put his hands on her shoulders, touched the ends of her hair. “Fate brought us together fifteen years ago, but it’s time to move on.”

Claire had no idea what Phil was talking about, what drugs he was on, why he was so creepy—

Fate brought us together fifteen years ago . . .

—but she knew she had to get out of here now.

She kneed him hard in the groin. Her lack of strength from whatever drugs she’d been fed prevented her from causing him debilitating pain, but she had the element of surprise on her side.

Hands clasped, she brought her arms up between them and hit him dead-on in the face as he stumbled back from the blow to his balls. Now she had the room and momentum to kick him in the stomach. She pivoted, kicked him again, and he staggered against the bed.

It all took only seconds, and then she was out the door. Running.

She heard the echo of the gunshot at the same time her calf burned in pain. She fell to her knees and tried to crawl.

Phil pulled her up by her hair. His eyes were narrow, furious. His face full of hate and rage. This couldn’t be the Phil she’d gone to Kings games with, who had taught her to shoot at the police range with Dave and Eric. This couldn’t be . . .

“What happened to Bill and Dave? The others? What did you do to them?”

“They’ll be waking up soon enough, but they’ll never find us. At least not until they find your grave.”

She screamed at the top of her lungs. Phil didn’t show any reaction. “No one can hear you, Claire. Not where we are. I’m sorry it has to end like this, but I have no choice.” He pulled handcuffs from his rear pocket and cuffed one of her wrists. “I’ll bandage your leg. I don’t want you to bleed to death.”

“Why not? You plan to kill me, right? Why? What did I ever do to you?” She tried to sound tough, but she was terrified. She didn’t see a way out. She was injured and Phil was insane.

He didn’t answer her question, instead grabbing her under the arms and dragging her into another bedroom. A larger room, all white and too clean. A large-screen television was on the wall. On the screen was a still shot of her from years ago. In her old bedroom at Bill’s house, a shot from above.

A camera in the ceiling.

She whimpered, then swallowed her fear. She couldn’t let him know how scared she was. But she couldn’t stop her body from shaking violently.

Focus, Claire! You have to get out of here. Dave will find you. Someone will find you. Get to a road, get anywhere away from this fucking lunatic!

Phil secured the handcuff to a post on the bed. She pulled, but it was locked tight.

“Don’t do that, or it’ll get tighter. You should know that.”

“Bastard! Let me go.”

Her eyes went from him to the picture of her on the television screen. It wasn’t a photograph. It was a still shot from a tape.

He leaned over her and whispered in her ear, “I’ve been watching you for a long time.” He pressed a button on a remote on the nightstand and the image moved.

He’d had a video camera on her. He’d taped her. Oh God, how long? He’d been watching her, filming her . . . On the screen she was undressing, oblivious that she was being recorded.

“You were so beautiful,” Phil murmured as her bra came off. She tossed it in the laundry and pulled on a T-shirt that barely covered her butt.

Claire’s face reddened; she was hot and embarrassed and angry.

But more than the anger, cold terror froze her body.

“I’ll get the first aid kit.” Phil left her restrained on the bed watching her younger self reading a book on her bed.

He was going to kill her. And Claire had no idea how she was going to stop him.

FORTY-ONE

Dave Kamanski was the first to regain consciousness.

Mitch insinuated himself between two paramedics working on the younger Kamanski. “Dave,” he said. “Dave, come on, Claire needs your help.”

Dave blinked, his eyes squeezing shut at the light. “Wh-what?” he asked, his mouth thick. He looked around at Claire’s house.

“Who took Claire? Dave, come on, man, I’m counting on you. Who has Claire?”

“Claire?”

A paramedic said, “Sir, you’ll have to—”

“This is a matter of life or death,” Mitch said without budging. “Dave, snap out of it.”

“Where’s Claire?” Dave tried to sit up. He held his head.

“Sir, lie down—”

Mitch interrupted the medic. “Dave, someone kidnapped Claire. Did you get a good look at him? How were you all knocked out?”

Hans said from across the room, “Warren is the only victim with a visible injury.”

“Then how—” Mitch paused. “Poison?”

Grant came in from the kitchen. “There’s a lot of food spread out on the table. We’re bagging it for testing.”

“Poison?” Dave squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them wide and looked around. They were still at Claire’s house. “We all ate the same food. From Claire’s favorite Italian place, just up the street.”

“Who? Did you pick up the food?”

“Phil and Eric got it.”

“Phil?” Mitch questioned. “There’re only four of you here—you, your father, Agent Warren, and someone with an ID and badge named Eric Jordan.”

“Phil—what happened to Phil?”

“That’s a damn good question,” Mitch said, jumping up. He remembered Claire talking about Phil Palmer being Dave’s partner and closest friend. He dialed Meg. “I need everything on Philip Palmer. He’s a cop with Sac PD. Start with his address.”

“I can tell you that,” Dave said, mouth tight. “He lives in South Land Park on Robertson. I’m going with you.”

He tried to stand, then sat down heavily.

“I’ll keep you informed,” Mitch promised Dave and left.

Meg had told him to stand down until backup arrived, but if Phil Palmer had Claire inside, there was no way in hell that Mitch was going to give him one more minute alone with her.

He had Grant and Hans with him outside Phil Palmer’s small post-WWII bungalow in an older, well-maintained Sacramento neighborhood. Grant motioned he would go around back, and held up two fingers.

Mitch painstakingly counted to one hundred and twenty to give Grant enough time to get into place.

Hans had his back, and Mitch knocked on the door.

No answer. Total silence inside.

He knocked again. “Officer Palmer?” he said, forcing his voice to be calm. “There’s been an attack on your partner and we’re concerned about your safety.”

No answer, total silence.

No one was there.

Mitch pounded on the door. “Palmer! This is the FBI! Open up!”

Moments later, gun drawn, Mitch kicked the door twice and it swung in.

Grant came in from the rear entrance. They quickly searched the residence.

No one.

They went through the house again, methodically. It was obvious that Phil Palmer didn’t actually live here. There was some food in the freezer and pantry, but only enough to provide a meal if he had to be here. The house was devoid of clutter, a file cabinet was empty, a computer on the desk had nothing saved to the hard drive.

The house was a front. Phil Palmer had created a public image and Sac PD bought it. So had his friends, partner, and Claire.