R. E. Bradshaw - Rainey Nights (23 page)

Danny answered, “I want to know who you’ve been talking to. We have your Virginia lawyer in custody. After spending the night in jail, she should be spilling her guts, about now. She’ll bargain a deal with anything we want to know, or go to prison herself for slipping you those newspaper articles.”

“I have a right to read the paper,” Dalton shot back.

“Yes, you do, but within the limits set by the court, which specifically stated that you could not possess any information of a personal nature concerning the law enforcement officers who investigated you. Once you threatened Agent Bell here, you lost your right to have that information.”

“I don’t have to tell you who I have been corresponding with.”

Danny shook his head in disagreement. “You really don’t get it. You’re a felon. You don’t have many rights left. The prison, however, does have the right to know who you talk to. You need to have your lawyers explain that to you.”

Dalton ignored Danny, refocusing on Rainey. “Before they moved me in here, I heard they found a body. They say it’s my copycat. Did they find the head, yet?”

Rainey knew Dalton did not have the details of the crime. He was arrogant enough to believe his copycat would have followed his instructions to the letter. She returned his volley.

“As a matter of fact, we did. Seems the master doesn’t have total control of his puppet. He couldn’t leave her tied to a tree. He covered her with plastic and threw her in the river, head and all. ”

Dalton sneered at her. “Why do you think he’s killing lesbians?”

She ignored his question. She looked over at Danny. “I don’t think this guy is copying Dalton at all, too many dissimilarities. It’s obvious he’s communicated with Messiah here, but this UNSUB covered the victims eyes.”

Dalton’s whole motive for his crimes was seeing the terror in his victims. Rainey just ruined Dalton’s fantasies. He could no longer sit in his cell and daydream about his copycat’s crimes. She put the image of the blindfolded victim in his mind, even if it wasn’t true. Dalton would never know, at least, until they had caught the other killer. He was isolated and the only information he could get was from the investigators that came to see him. Rainey used that to her advantage.

“And there was that other glaring difference…” She paused and watched Dalton lean forward a little. He was predictably intrigued. “This UNSUB doesn’t seem to have Dalton’s taste for playing with the body after death. No evidence this guy even got much blood on him. He never touched her after she died. Doesn’t have the stomach for Dalton’s real depravities.”

Dalton reacted by going on the attack. “One less dyke in the world. No great loss. Or is that two? There is another perverted cunt missing. He must be ridding the world of abominations like you. I’ll pray for your soul, Agent Bell.”

Rainey sneered back at him. “And what, pray tell, does the good book say about men who get off having sex with dead bodies?”

Danny jumped in the conversation. “We can prove that you and only you could have told your boy on the outside some of the aspects of your crimes. Conspiracy to commit murder, I think that’s a death penalty charge in this state, isn’t it? For a guy who thinks he’s so smart, that was a stupid ass thing to do.”

Dalton laughed loudly. “You have no clue who committed this murder, and without the killer being caught, you’ll never prove a thing.”

“What makes you think we won’t catch him?” Danny asked.

“Because, you’re here asking me who it is. Agent Bell came to talk me into giving the killer up. No chance of that happening. I’d rather take the needle and know this dyke is looking over her shoulder every minute.”

Rainey slammed her hand down on the table to get his attention. “Look at me, you piece of shit. The only thing I’m looking over is the sight of my gun. When I find your little boyfriend he’ll talk or he’ll die, it’s that simple.”

Dalton’s head snapped back to focus on Rainey, his facial expression one of pure hatred. When he spoke, his words were pure venom. “When the time comes, I’ve given special instructions on what to do with you. Still out at your dead father’s lake cottage, I understand. Shouldn’t be hard to get to you out there. This one’s going to practice on the little blonde first.”

The words hit their mark, but Rainey did not show any reaction to Dalton. Instead, she said, “I hope he’s ready to die then, because that little blonde is prepared and willing to put a bullet in him.”

“She’ll never see it coming,” he paused, leaning forward again, smiling with evil intent, “and neither will you. I wish I could be there to see the surprise on your face.”

Rainey kicked Dalton’s leg, where she splintered his bone with a bullet four years ago. He screamed in pain. She smiled wickedly. “Oh, I’m sorry. Is that where I shot you? That scar tissue builds up in there and hurts like hell, doesn’t it?”

Dalton glared at her. “You bitch. If you came here to make a deal, so I would tell you who the killer is, then you just fucked that up. When your pretty head comes off, I want your last thoughts to be of me. I told you I would get you, Rainey Bell, and now the time has come.”

Rainey let loose with a fury. “Deal? Who said anything about a deal? I would rather die knowing you’re on death row than make a deal with you. That’s what this is all about. You thought you could threaten me with one of your sick puppets and make a deal to give him up, so you could avoid the needle. We both know you get no satisfaction from these murders. You can’t get off without a dead body to abuse, you fucking twisted freak. ”

“You won’t live long enough to testify,” Dalton hissed

Danny had remained silent until now. “Come on, let’s go. We’re not going to get anything out of this guy we don’t already know.”

Rainey wasn’t finished. “You better hope I die before I get to tell the world about all your perversions. I hope your momma will be there. I want her to know just what kind of inhuman animal she raised.”

That got under Dalton’s wall of psychopathology. He may not feel remorse, but he didn’t want his momma to know the level of depravity he had stooped to. Rainey knew that from her previous interviews. Dalton’s face flushed red.

“She won’t believe a word of what you say. My mother will know you for the whore you are. She will know your sin of lying with a woman. God knows it, too. You and me, we’re going to fry in hell together for eternity and that gives me great peace, that and knowing you will die with your precious Katie Meyers’ head on a stake in front of you. Oh, darn, I let part of the plan out of the bag. I so wanted that to be a surprise.”

Rainey stood up to leave. Danny was right. They had all they were going to get out of Dalton. If she stayed in the room much longer, she’d be up on charges for assaulting a prisoner in chains. She knew he wasn’t going to tell her anything before she arrived. She just wanted to show him that she wasn’t sitting at home, in fear for her life.

She had one more thing to say before she left. “I promised you I would be at your execution, but I’m going to take that back.” She placed her hands on the table and leaned in to within an inch of Dalton’s nose. Very softly, so no one else could hear, she said, “If anything happens to Katie, I will come back here and kill you myself. Don’t be afraid of God’s punishment. Be afraid of me.”

He lunged for her, but the guard with the box in his hand was faster. Dalton let out a roar, when his body went rigid. He fell off the stainless steel stool and landed on the floor. Rainey squatted down beside him.

“You picked the wrong person to fuck with. See, I’ve already faced death. It doesn’t scare me. You, on the other hand, are scared out of your mind of the hell fire you will roast in. That, Dalton, gives
me
great peace.”

#

On the way to Durham, after leaving the prison, they stopped to feed Rainey’s hangover and grab a Coke at a drive thru. Once back on the road, Danny started laughing unexpectedly.

Rainey looked over at him and asked, “What’s so funny?”

This made Danny laugh harder. When he regained control, he blurted out, “When you said that thing about getting pussy and licked your lips, I thought I was going to lose it.”

Rainey started chuckling and then fell into all out laughter with Danny. Once again, she was reminded how much she missed him. They had survived their stint in the BAU by making each other laugh.

“I’m not sure where that came from,” she said, once her breathing returned to normal. “I swear it just popped into my head.”

Danny’s body shook again with another round of snickers. “The look on Dalton’s face was priceless. He sure as hell wasn’t expecting that. It was certainly a side of you I had never seen.”

“It’s a side of me I’ve never seen. I think I might really be losing it.”

“Those guards will be reviewing that piece of security tape for years. Bet it ends up on YouTube.”

“Oh, my God,” Rainey exclaimed. “You have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Her expression of horror made Danny laugh harder. When the laughter subsided, Danny grew serious.

“You know I should take your shield for threatening to kill him.”

“You heard that? I thought I was whispering.” Rainey wondered aloud, “Did the guards hear me?”

“No, I don’t think so, but you need to rein it in a little bit. I don’t want you accused of being a loose cannon.”

Rainey turned in the seat so she was facing him. “I would, you know.”

Danny took his eyes from the road and gave her a warning look.

“Don’t look at me like that. If anything happens to Katie, I’ll kill him. I don’t care if you have to testify that I said it. I wouldn’t care what happened to me after that.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.” Danny reached down and turned the radio on and the volume up, adding, “The radio is too loud.”

Rainey knew it would destroy him to have to testify against her, so she took the hint and let it drop. She turned the radio off and changed the subject. “The first woman went missing a month ago. The second went missing two weeks ago this Saturday. That makes his timeline ripe for another murder this weekend.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking. We need to stake out that bar and maybe get some cops on the inside.”

“I’ll go,” Rainey said. “At least, no one would suspect anything. It was plastered all over the local news that I am living with Katie.”

“Not a good idea,” Danny stated, categorically.

“I’ll take Sheila with me.”

“She’s a little old for you, don’t you think?”

“It’s not a fucking date, Danny.”

“Damn, I was just kidding. Anyway, I think you should get Sheila to provide officers to go in undercover.”

Rainey ignored Danny’s not too subtle objection to her going in undercover. “I think we should go by the bar and talk to the owner, before we go in Saturday. I would like a look at the place in the light of day.”

Danny looked at his watch. “Okay, but first we have to go to the Sheriff’s office. Sheila set us up in the conference room. I have some things I need to tell the team and I have to talk to Quantico. I want to know if they’ve found anything in the stuff I took out of Dalton’s cell.”

“Did you make copies before you sent it off?” Rainey asked.

“Yeah, the team is going over them now. I sent copies to Brooks, too. She’s scanning them and running them through one of her magic programs. She’ll call if she finds anything.”

“I’ll take a look. There may be something there that would be meaningful to me.” Rainey paused, then asked, “So, what did we learn from talking to Dalton?”

“He’s still a narcissistic puke.”

“Well that, but what else? Let’s see. He said I would be surprised at who the killer is. Why would he say that? Does that mean I know this person?”

“Or Katie does, possibly,” Danny answered. “He also made it clear that she is this guy’s first target, not you.”

“He did repeat that several times, but I think it was to scare me. He couldn’t get a rise out of me by threatening my life, so he tested the water to see if that would work.”

“It worked all right. I could see your jaw muscles tighten every time he mentioned her. I’m sure he noticed, too.”

Rainey was surprised. “I thought I covered my reaction pretty well, until the end when I threatened to kill him.”

“Even if you think it’s a threat to get at you, I’m going to talk to Katie. She needs round the clock protection. Do you want to go with me when I talk to her?”

Rainey thought about it and answered, “No, she doesn’t like me much right now. I think she still loves me, but I said something I shouldn’t have. I’d rather she listen to you than be sitting there thinking about how mad she is with me.”

Danny didn’t pry. He knew if Rainey wanted to tell him what happened, she would. He changed the subject. “If Dalton thinks you or Katie know this guy, then it has to be somebody from here. They didn’t follow him down here from Virginia. That narrows it to what, nearly one million males in the Triangle area.”

“You can narrow the search by age. I think this guy is probably Dalton’s age or close to it. He’s twenty-eight now. So, let’s say mid-twenties to mid-thirties on the UNSUB. He isn’t as smart as Dalton. He’s been manipulated into becoming a killer. He’s not a psychopath. He felt remorse on the first one. I think that’s why he covered her in plastic. He couldn’t look at her. I don’t think he has the social skills that Dalton had with his victims, either. We should get the word out before the weekend.”

“I’m going to talk to the media this afternoon, after we present the profile to Sheila’s people. We’ll warn the lesbian community to be on alert,” Danny said. “How many more do you think he’ll kill, before he comes for you or Katie?”

“He’s cut off from communication with Dalton, his master. He’s more likely to make a mistake, if he’s stressed. He may panic and go for me sooner than he anticipated. That may be how we catch him.”

Danny took his eyes from the road, glaring at Rainey. She pointed at the cars braking in front of him. He slammed on brakes, avoiding a rear-end collision by inches. Neither spoke until the traffic began to move again.

Danny gripped the wheel tightly, keeping his eyes on the cars in front of him, his tone somber when he spoke. “You want me to let you set yourself up as bait.”