"Is that what I did?"

"We both know it is. She was completely untouched, innocent, and you ruined that. You preyed on her weak female body to scramble her instincts and senses, used your experience to teach her a passion of the flesh." For just an instant he seemed faintly distracted, as though hearing a distant sound, but then he shook his head. "You corrupted her."

"Then I'm surprised you still want her."

"I'll have to purify her, naturally. She can never return to her untouched state, but she can be made more worthy of my love."

Ben wasn't about to ask how. Instead, he said coolly, "Well, I didn't butcher other women for her, but I'm willing to bet Cassie prefers my ideas of romance to yours."

"You confused her. She was completely focused on me and what I could do when she was in California, and she would have regained that focus. If not for you." His smile was thin and particularly unpleasant. "You told her you loved her, didn't you, Judge?"

"Don't you know?" Ben taunted softly. "Weren't you in her mind when I was in her bed?"

The odd shine in those ordinary eyes intensified, but a fragment of Bob's smile remained. "You know, I sat in court one day and watched you, Judge. You're very good. Quite skilled at… going for the jugular. But there's something you've forgotten, I'm afraid."

"Oh? And what's that, Bob?"

Bob reached over to flip back a corner of the white cloth on the cart beside him, revealing a varied selection of implements that had only one thing in common. They were all very, very sharp. He picked up what looked like a scalpel and tested the edge with his thumb, then smiled at Ben.

"When I go for the jugular, I use a real knife."

Matt hung up the phone and turned to Cassie. "You were right about the damned boots. They practically had to cut them off Shaw, but Vasek had scrawled his name inside sure enough. How the hell -?"

"They were always too tight," Cassie murmured from her position near the fireplace, where she stood, petting Max. She couldn't sit still any longer, and for the past few minutes had been restlessly prowling the room.

Matt was baffled. "Why did Vasek have him wear his boots?"

"Connections. Vasek is an amazingly strong telepath, but what he was trying to do was incredible. To control another mind like that, even a sick and broken one… He needed something of his always touching Shaw, so the connection would be almost automatic. According to what the L.A. police found out about him, he's quite a bit smaller than Shaw, so none of his clothing would fit, but a physical oddity is that he has large hands and feet. Shaw could wear his boots, even though they were a bit too tight. It worked quite well."

Matt shook his head. "One of my deputies is bringing them out here. What makes you think you'll be able to connect with Vasek using the boots when the flower didn't even get you close?"

"Because he's been using them as a conduit." Cassie drew a deep breath, trying to keep herself calm and centered, trying to save her energy. "I don't know if it'll work, Matt. But I have to try."

Matt didn't ask if she'd tried to contact Ben telepathi-cally. He knew she had, and had failed, and her desolation had been so painful to see that he had turned away.

He looked at the FBI agent and said, "What I can't understand is this. If he did all this to impress Cassie, then how does grabbing Ben and suddenly going silent figure into his plans? Is it because we caught Mike? Because his tool isn't available any longer?"

Bishop's gaze was on Cassie. "He grabbed Ryan out of pure jealousy, I'd say. It's been fairly obvious in the last few days that Cassie's in love with him, and that he had elected himself her protector." She flinched but said nothing.

Matt asked bluntly, "Then why not just kill Ben outright? Why take him alive?"

Even with a face as unexpressive as granite, it was still obvious that Bishop didn't want to answer that question. But finally, softly, he did. "Because he wants to play with him for a while. To appease his jealousy and to punish Cassie."

Cassie made a smothered little sound, then said, "I'm going to shut Max up in the kitchen before the deputy gets here," and hurriedly led the dog from the room.

"Next time," Matt said grimly to Bishop, "just tell me it's a dumb question, all right?"

"All right. Any luck with those tire tracks?" "I've got people combing both sides of that road trying to pick them up again. With so much sleet and mud, we've at least got a shot." He fell silent for several minutes, then said, "Do you think Ben's still alive?" "Yes."

Matt looked at him curiously. "Why?" "Because a cat likes to torment its prey before it kills it."

"I'm sorry I asked."

Bishop shook his head. "It won't be physical torture, not at first. From what I know of Vasek, he'll want to talk, brag about what he was able to do, probably try to show himself off as a better match for Cassie. Plus, it should throw him off stride to have a male victim. Ryan can work that to his advantage if he's smart enough to use it."

Matt hoped his friend was smart enough.

When Cassie came back into the living room a few minutes later, she was calm again. And if the two men noticed that her eyes were red-rimmed, neither commented.

"Where's that deputy?" she demanded of Matt.

"Another five minutes, Cassie. Be patient."

"I can't be patient."

"Try. And when the boots are here, assuming they work for you, what do you mean to do? If Vasek is as strong as you claim, how the hell can you get into his mind without his knowing?"

"I will, that's all." Her voice was flat. "I just will."

Matt might have continued to object, but the phone rang just then and he went quickly to answer it. "I told everybody to shut off the walkie-talkies. The damn things can be heard for miles," he muttered in an explanation nobody asked for.

He said hello, then "yeah" a couple of times. Cassie watched him and without even trying caught a few flashes of a narrow dirt road and an old house in the distance. A knock on the door distracted her, and by the time Bishop answered it and brought one of Matt's deputies into the living room, the sheriff was hanging up the phone.

"They've found the place," she said to Matt.

"Maybe." He was more grim than hopeful. "The tire tracks match, and they lead to what's supposed to be a deserted house. It would help if we could have verification."

Cassie took the pair of gleaming snakeskin boots from the young deputy, who looked bewildered but gave them up without a protest.

Matt said to him, "Stand there in the doorway and keep your mouth shut, Danny."

"Yes, sir."

Cassie sat down on the sofa, holding the boots in her hands and staring at them.

Remembering what Ben usually did, Matt asked, "Will you need a lifeline?"

"Not for this. I just want to see if I can…" She closed her eyes and after a moment murmured, "I can get in. There's one part of his mind he's not guarding, the part that used to be connected to Mike Shaw. It isn't a large doorway, but it's there. And it's big enough."

"Can you tell me where he is, what he's doing?" Matt asked.

She frowned slightly, then started and opened her eyes. "He almost caught me. He's quick. Very quick." She chewed on her bottom lip as she set the boots on the coffee table. Her voice was steady when she said, "I wasn't deep enough to see through his eyes. But for an instant he thought about where he was, and I saw the same house I saw in your mind, Matt."

"I was afraid of that. The house is very isolated, Cassie, practically out in the middle of a field," the sheriff said. "No cover at all." His brooding gaze shifted to Bishop. "If Vasek sees us coming, he could hold us off indefinitely. With Ben as his hostage. And if he's armed – "

"He usually is," Bishop said.