“Duncan?”

She ducked as something white flew at her, causing her heart to all but leap from her chest.

“Pigeons,” she grimaced as it flapped past her. “I really don’t like pigeons…”

Up ahead, at the end of the hall, was a closed door. A hint of light bled out from underneath, and she headed for it.

“Duncan?” she called as she pushed the door open and stepped into the room.

Hands grabbed her from behind and a voice whispered something unintelligible in her ear.

Searing pain, hot and white and sharp as a bolt of lightening, punched her squarely in the back between her shoulders. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was Duncan’s body stretched out before her on a bed covered with a bloody sheet.

26

Mia forced her eyes open, then squinted against the blaze of light that blinded her from every direction. She twisted and tried to turn over, but found she could not move. It took several minutes for her foggy brain to figure out that she was flat on her back on a narrow bed against a wall in a small yellow room. Her mind felt like mush. She tried to raise her hands but could not move her arms, tried to pull her legs up but they, too, remained motionless.

Good Lord. Duncan. Had she really seen him…?

“Duncan…” she whispered.

“Ah, there you are. Welcome back.”

A man sat just a few feet from the side of the bed, but with the harsh light in her eyes, she could not make out his face.

“Duncan…” she repeated.

“Duncan had to go,” the man told her. “He got in the way.”

Her brain was still fogged from the charge she’d taken from the Taser. She wet her lips and attempted to sit up again. She struggled against the leather straps that bound her ankles and wrists to the metal bed frame.

“Feeling vulnerable, Agent Shields?” He leaned in close and traced a finger from her neck to her navel, and that was when she realized to her horror that she’d been stripped naked.

“I’ve had my eyes on you from the day you arrived in St. Dennis.” His mouth was close to her ear. “And now I have you.”

“Todd?” She blinked, still trying to focus.

“Ah, you remember me.” He pulled back from her. “I’m flattered.”

“Lisa’s husband…”

“Make that, the grieving widower.”

“You killed her? How could you have done that?”

“How could I not? After you came up with that profile the other night, she was watching me, I know she was.” He pulled his metal folding chair closer. “It fit me like a glove. I’m surprised no one else realized it. Trauma at an early age…my parents died in a car accident when I was three, did she tell you that?”

She shook her head.

“Or that our grandparents raised us, me and my sister? That they used to bring us here for the summer? God, I hated it.” He got up and began to pace. “A toney boarding school during the school year, then in the summer, they brought me here. You can imagine how well I fit in with all the fishermen’s kids. To say they weren’t very kind to a boy like me would be an understatement.”

“Then why did you move back here?”

He shrugged. “I inherited the big house, the land along the waterfront. I built the marina, the showroom.” His smile was pure satisfaction. “I got to be a very big fish in a very small pond. Even the townies who’d made my life a living hell when I was a kid came around.”

“Even while you were thinking about ways of getting even with them.”

“I’d thought of that a long time ago.”

“Lisa…”

“Lisa should have stayed home with her children where she belonged,” he snapped.

“What happened to the grieving husband?”

“What better way for a grieving husband to get through the pain of losing his beloved wife than to have a handy replacement.” He reached over and drew a delicate circle around her right breast with his index finger. “Sort of like getting back on the bike after falling off, if you know what I mean. So we’re going to play a little house. I’m going to be the daddy, and you’re going to be the mommy…”

“You stupid son of a bitch, the FBI is going to be all over you before you can blink.” She struggled against the bindings.

“Oh?” He blinked several times, then looked around. “I don’t see anyone.”

“Duncan told me what he’d found. I told Garland to send the techs here to process…”

“Process all they want. I’ll be long gone by the time they get here. And so will you, pretty Mia.”

“It won’t take Beck long to figure out what you’ve done, Todd.”

“Beck’s a fool. He’s got Mickey Forbes locked up and he’s not looking beyond him. Besides, he’s too busy mourning my wife.” He stared at Mia, then asked, “Do you think they were lovers?”

“Beck and Lisa? Are you crazy?” Well, duh. What a stupid question. “They were friends. He liked and respected her. And she adored you.”

Mia almost choked on her words. “She told me you were her dream man.”

“Yes, well. Of course I was.” He looked away from her face. “Don’t think killing her was easy for me. She was a very good mother to my children.”

“Is that all you can say about her? That she was a good mother to your children?”

“That was all she had to be. That was her function. She did it well. I was sorry to have to kill her, for their sakes. They’ll be very unhappy when they find out she’s dead.”

“They’ll be even more unhappy when they find out who killed her.”

“You talk too much, you know that?” He took a white cloth out of his pocket, then forced it into her mouth. “There. That’s better. Now you truly are the perfect woman.”

She cursed behind the gag and he laughed.

“Do you like the water, Mia? I hope so.” He ran a hand over her bare arm and her stomach roiled. “I have it all worked out. There’s a boat down at the marina all stocked and ready to go. We’ll be living and loving on the high seas, won’t that be romantic? We can sail to the ends of the earth together. I have it all planned.”

She struggled against the restraints and he laughed again.

“Eager to get started, are you?” He glanced at his watch. “It won’t be long now. As soon as it gets dark, my sweet. As soon as it gets dark…”

He started whistling a tune it took her a few minutes to place. The chorus from Pink Floyd’s “Southern Cross.”

Todd rose from the chair and stood over her.

“You really are quite beautiful, you know that?”

He ran his fingers through her hair and fanned it out around her head, and she cringed at his touch. He smiled, then lowered his head, and licked her stomach. She drew away from him, drew into herself, and in spite of the heat, she chilled to the bone.

This cannot be happening to me. This cannot be happening…

She thought of all the many victims she’d seen in the past, all of the rape victims and the murder victims whose stories she’d heard and then forgotten, as their stories were replaced by those of other victims. They’d been women just like her, just as vulnerable, just as frightened. Their lives just as important as hers, their loves as deep, their dreams just as real. And surely they all had been just as surprised as she was to find themselves a victim.

And soon, she’d be just as dead.

She thought of Colleen Preston’s sad good-bye to her parents, Holly Sheridan’s sobbing declaration of love, and wondered if she’d be given the chance to leave something for her father, her brothers.

There were so many people she loved, so many who loved her.

The thought occurred to her then that there were those who would go after Todd with a vengeance, who would not rest until he was utterly destroyed. Andy-her brother would go to the ends of the earth to find Todd. Connor-he knew people in every dark corner of the world. There’d be no place on the planet where Todd would be safe, no place Connor could not track him.