Sweet Dreams Boxed Set (103 page)

“Yeah, well, thanks for the lack of faith.”

His father ignored his sarcasm. “Then you won’t come to your mother’s 50
th
birthday party? We’ll all be there—for the first time in years.”

“I won’t be there. I don’t wish her ill; I just don’t care to associate with her.”

“All right. I won’t ask again,” he said. “So, will you be visiting Anchorage any time soon?”

Amarok rubbed his forehead. His father seemed happier than he’d ever been. His seafood exporting business had been picking up, and Joanne treated him a great deal better than his first wife. Amarok was grateful for that, didn’t want to ruin it. “I’ll come this weekend or the next.”

“Great. Let us know what day you pick. We’ll make you a nice dinner.”

“Thanks,” he said. Then he told his father he had to go, that he had to be up early and took Makita outside before heading to bed.

***

Evelyn felt uneasy. She wasn’t sure why. She supposed she was still getting used to her new home. She was also beginning to regret building where she had. While the other doctors on her team had chosen to live close together, in a small, rather exclusive enclave north of town, she’d come out this way to take advantage of the view. She’d also wanted some space, the ability to break away from those she worked with, at least at night. But the only neighbor she’d met so far had a mentally handicapped son who stared at her whenever she drove by, without blinking or waving or responding in any way. And that gave her chills, even though she knew it was just her background coming into play. She saw danger lurking around every corner. The mayor and several other people had told her that Kit was harmless and, when she was thinking clearly, she believed it.

Determined not to succumb to the fear that could so easily creep into her consciousness, she tore her gaze away from the darkness behind the edges of the blind that covered her office window and continued to pore over the file she’d been reading on a man by the name of Cary Wolff. Like Jasper, Cary had started killing when he was only in his teens. Unlike Jasper, Cary had been caught and was currently in a Colorado maximum-security prison.

She wanted to add him to the roster for Hanover House, but that meant she’d have to forego another inmate she’d already put on the list. She was just trying to decide which one to replace when a noise from outside brought her head up. It sounded like a vehicle had pulled into her drive, and yet, when she went out into the living room and parted the drapes to look out, she didn’t see anyone.

Feeling even more anxious, she dug her cell out of her purse and stared at the “no service” message at the top. She hated that she couldn’t use her smartphone in Hilltop. She’d come to rely on it for almost everything, from email to directions to listening to music to reading and watching movies.

At least she had a land line, she told herself. It wasn’t as if she was completely cut off.

“Why did the government have to pick
Alaska
?” she mumbled and was about to head back to her study when she spotted a pair of headlights. She might not have thought anything about a car being in the area—she did have a few neighbors—but they were down the street to her right, not her left. Her street turned into a dirt road that led up into the mountains about a mile after her place. Why would anyone be up that direction so late at night?

And it was odd the way they were angling their car, because it made the lights shine right on her house.

Could it be a couple of kids, making out? She could see someone parking on the hill to enjoy the few scattered lights of Hilltop below. But why would they park in such a strange fashion—and why wouldn’t they turn off their lights?

Once again, she wished she’d brought her gun, knew she’d feel safer if she had it. But she’d been in too much of a hurry. When she traveled with it, she had to disclose that she had one even though she always checked it with her baggage, and that extended the time it took to get through security, because they had to search her bag to make sure it was in a locked case and that she’d conformed to their other rules and regulations.

For this trip, she hadn’t been planning to be gone long, had figured the chances of anything happening to her while she was here had to be minimal. None of the psychopaths she was bringing to town had been moved yet, and Hilltop hadn’t had a murder or anything like it in years.

Now she felt as if letting those practical concerns overcome her usual caution had been a mistake, however. Staring back at those headlights gave her the creeps. What was that person—or people—doing? Why were they there?

She thought of Amarok, wanted to call him. She’d wanted to call him all night, but now she felt as if she might be justified. Like she’d told her mother, it was better to be safe and wrong than not safe and sorry.

After staring at those headlights for another several seconds, during which that vehicle didn’t move, she hurried over to her phone.

But when she lifted the receiver, she couldn’t get a dial tone.

***

Jasper put on the backpack he’d prepared in Anchorage. Then he pulled on his ski mask. There wasn’t anyone around, but in case the worst happened, he didn’t need someone who knew what he looked like these days helping the police build a composite sketch, and he sure as hell didn’t care to set himself up for more surgery. With all the empathy his parents felt for others, they wouldn’t be able to justify helping him if they learned that he’d killed again. They’d only done it the first time because he’d told them he was high on acid when he killed Evelyn’s friends and thought they were zombies—and then Evelyn had surprised him, and he’d panicked.

No, it was far more practical to protect his identity, to mitigate the risk. Although at first, he’d hated having to wear a mask, he’d used it so much in the past twenty years that it had become part of the fun. Feeling the heat of it, the scratchy fibers against his cheeks, signaled to his brain that he was about to engage in what he loved most.

That excitement nearly consumed him now. He wasn’t going out to kidnap another woman who
looked
like Evelyn; he was going to confront Evelyn herself.

He’d parked his car such that he’d been able to shine his lights on her house long enough to let her know
something
terrible was about to happen. He liked the idea of giving her a good scare, of making her wonder if her day of reckoning had come. Invoking that kind of terror was an important part of the foreplay, and he’d always been good at foreplay.

Since then he’d moved his rental car down the windy street and parked it off the road behind some trees. He was a stranger in the area. He didn’t want anyone else to spot it. The more careful he was, the less likely it would be that he’d have to answer for this later—and what good would it do to finally finish off Evelyn if he went to prison for it?

Careful not to make a sound, he crept around to the far side of the bungalow. He wasn’t concerned that she would figure out he was about to break in. She couldn’t get away, regardless. She couldn’t even call for help, since he’d cut her phone line. He was only being so quiet because he wanted to check things out before he made his move. He’d be a fool to underestimate her: She could be armed.

If he could get another glimpse of her, it would help him know if she was carrying a weapon, he thought, as he moved silently from window to window...

But she wasn’t in the living room anymore, where he’d briefly caught sight of her from the car. And he couldn’t tell if she was in the bedroom. There were blinds instead of drapes in the bedroom, and those blinds were down.

“Where are you, Evelyn?” he breathed to himself and paused to listen. He even put his ear to the back door.

Nothing.

He figured he might as well break a window. Someone with her background would have deadbolts on all the doors, so he doubted he’d be able to kick one in.

Closing his eyes, he reveled in a rush of anticipation while imagining how the next few seconds would go. If she had a gun, the noise he was about to make would most likely draw her to him—and he’d have to make sure, if she fired, that she missed. If she didn’t have a gun, she’d probably try to run.

Either way, he’d have to move quickly to subdue her. But she’d be scared shitless. She’d have to be. And there was nothing more debilitating than fear. He’d seen it so many times: people who could usually think and act quite rationally freezing up in terror. Since Evelyn, of all people, would have a clear knowledge of what was in store for her, he didn’t think it would be hard to gain the advantage. Even if she had a gun, she’d be lucky to get off one shot, which would probably go into a wall or the ceiling, before he could shove the barrel of his own firearm in her mouth.

He was fairly certain
that
would put an end to all resistance. Then he could put the gun in other orifices—and with someone as strong as Evelyn, the torture could last for days.

It had before, hadn’t it?

Choosing the widest window, he pulled out the small area rug he’d shoved in his backpack. It was thick enough to protect him from the broken glass, thicker than a blanket or a towel. But before he could lift the butt of his rifle, he heard the sound of a vehicle coming down the street. Then a car door slammed, a dog barked, and, almost right after, someone rang the doorbell.

Chapter 12

“Were you the one sitting down the street?” After checking the peephole, Evelyn had opened her front door to find Amarok, and the beautiful Alaskan Malamute she’d occasionally seen with him in town, standing on her front stoop.

Amarok seemed taken aback. “Sitting down the street?”

Pressing a hand to her chest in an effort to slow her heartbeat, Evelyn leaned out of her house to be able to see where that car had been. It wasn’t there any more. It had driven away ten or fifteen minutes earlier. She’d definitely taken note of that. But the memory alone made her uneasy. “Someone was parked right there.” She pointed to the spot. “They stayed for several minutes, but...I’m pretty sure it was a car, not a truck.”

“It wasn’t me,” he said. “Did you happen to get the make and model of the vehicle?”

“No. It had its headlights shining right on the front of my house. I couldn’t see anything for the glare.”

“When I was driving here, I didn’t pass anyone on
this
street.” He looked at her with concern, as if he could tell she was badly shaken. “Are you okay? Did whoever was driving that car threaten you in any way?”

She shook her head. “No. To my knowledge, they didn’t even come on to the property. But...my phone’s dead, which seemed significant, since there’s been no storm, no reason for it to go out—especially at the same time I have someone shining their lights into my house so late at night.”

He glanced up and down the street, which was perfectly dark and quiet. “Go back in and lock the door,” he said. “I’ll take a look around.”

She caught his arm. “Wait. How did you know?”

“How did I know what?”

“How did you know to come?”

“I didn’t,” he replied.

“So why are you here?”

When he paused, she didn’t think he was going to answer. But then he lifted her chin with one finger. “I wanted to see you before you left. I was afraid you’d go back to Boston in the morning and decide”—he shook his head as if he wasn’t convinced he should continue, but he did—“decide to carry on as usual, without giving me another thought.”

She didn’t know how to respond to that. What she wanted and what she could allow were two different things. But she was glad he’d shown up when he did. She’d had herself talked into all kinds of craziness—that Jasper had finally caught up with her, or one of the psychopaths she’d evaluated over the years had come to kill her. Even with her phone out, that seemed like an overreaction now, but it’d felt incredibly real a few seconds earlier.

When she slipped her arms around Amarok’s neck, she could feel his surprise. But then his hands slid up her back, and he held her against him. She needed the embrace, needed his warmth and the reassuring firmness of his body to help her stop shaking.

“It’s okay,” he whispered as his lips brushed the temple that didn’t have stitches. “I’m sorry you were frightened. But nothing bad’s going to happen. I promise.”

The problem was...she knew that something bad could
always
happen. “My phone’s out,” she said, going back to that. “Why would my phone be out unless—”

“Don’t assume the worst,” he broke in. “I’ll check it, see what’s going on. But even if someone cut the line, what you’ve been through is no secret. Whoever did it could simply be trying to scare you.”

They’d succeeded. It didn’t take much. Although she hated to admit it, those scars—the ones on the inside—made her so vulnerable. She’d probably always be easy to spook. A lot of times, even when she had her gun with her, she would lay awake at night, listening to every sound. “You think someone wants to scare me away from Hilltop? That it might be...might be the same person who vandalized Hanover House?”

“That, or it’s possible someone just thinks it’s funny. But if I find out who that someone is, I’m going to make them awfully sorry.” He stepped back and told his dog to go inside with her. “Makita will stay with you until I check things out.”

She nodded and closed the door so that Makita wouldn’t be tempted to follow his master.

She would never be without her gun again, Evelyn promised herself, would never leave herself so vulnerable, even if she was going to miss her plane or be gone for only a few days.

As she crouched in the middle of the living room and held Makita against her, she could see the shifting beam of Amarok’s flashlight through various windows as he moved around the house.

He knocked when he got back to the front. “You’re right. It looks like someone cut your phone line, but I can’t tell if they were also trying to peep in the windows. You have a cement pad that doesn’t show any footprints since there’s no mud or snow at the moment.” With a scowl, he rested his hands on his hips and faced the more populated end of the street. “Whoever did it doesn’t seem to be around now, though. Nothing else was disturbed. But why don’t I leave Makita with you and drive around a bit, see if I can find anyone lurking in the shadows?”