CHAPTER SEVEN
“JINX?” DAWN POUNDED on her friend’s door. “Jinx, please open up if you’re in there, okay?”
There was no sound from inside the condo.
Dawn turned toward Tucker. “I don’t like this.”
Neither did he. Not for one damn moment. Dawn didn’t think he’d been serious about the protective custody bit. She was dead wrong. The way this game was playing out—hell, no, it wasn’t going to end well. He could see the danger and the death coming. Since he’d been working in Violent Crimes, he’d learned too much about killers.
And the bastard who’d killed Heather? He wasn’t going to be the one-and-done type. If he truly wanted to be like the Iceman, then more bodies would be piling up.
Hell, there could already be more victims out there. Victims that just hadn’t been found yet. Victims who were already in their frozen graves.
“I think I should get my key.” Dawn bit her lower lip. “Just to make sure everything is okay in there.”
Sounded like one hell of an idea to him.
“It’s upstairs. Come on.”
He was right behind her. She’d scared the hell out of him when he couldn’t get her to answer the phone earlier, and then when she’d said that she needed backup, he hadn’t been able to get to her side fast enough. When he’d gotten to the scene, he’d wanted to race up to Dawn and pull her into his arms.
Instead, he’d locked down his emotions and gotten the fucking job done.
But...
She breaks my control. She always has. That was one of the most dangerous things about Dawn.
He watched as she unlocked her door and tapped in her alarm code. “The key is in my bedroom,” she threw over her shoulder as she headed toward the room. “Just give me a second to get it—”
She’d vanished inside the bedroom. And her voice had abruptly cut away.
“Dawn?” He took a step toward her room, expecting her to reappear. In just a second. Exactly as she’d promised.
But she didn’t appear. And it had gone dead silent in that condo.
“Dawn!” He shouted her name even as he yanked his gun out of his holster and ran after her. He rushed into her bedroom, searching for a threat, but Dawn was alone in there. She’d frozen just steps inside of her doorway.
He kept his gun in one hand even as he reached for her shoulder with the other. “Baby, you just—”
He saw the roses. Blood red. A bouquet of them, placed right on her pillow.
“They weren’t here when I left,” Dawn whispered.
Rage boiled inside of him. He’d seen her turn off the alarm himself, and there had been no sign of forced entry at her front door. He hurried around her bedroom, checking under the bed, going into her closet, searching the bathroom...then searching every room in her condo to make sure the SOB wasn’t still inside the place.
But no one else was there. Nothing else was disturbed. Exactly the way Dawn described the other break-ins.
He went back to her side. She was still standing just inside her bedroom, her eyes on the bed.
“He knows about my tattoos.” Her voice was quiet, whispery, as if she were afraid someone would overhear her. Her head turned and she stared at him with eyes gone dark. Her pupils were too big. Her expression too stark. “I put roses over the worst of my scars. Jinx did that for me. She...she tried to make my past less ugly.”
And some bastard had just delivered roses to her bed.
His gaze flew around the room. “You have a motion detector attached to your security system?” She’d told him that before, but he needed to be sure.
“In the den, yes, there’s one in there. I made sure one was in there because any intruder would have to come in through the front door in order to get to my bedroom.”
Not necessarily.
“Not like he could scale the side of the building and come in through the balcony,” she murmured.
Maybe. Maybe not.
His gaze swept the floor. He didn’t see any dirt there. No tracks left behind. Slowly now, he backed away from her. He went back to her closet. A big, walk-in closet. He opened the door there.
“Tucker?” She followed behind him.
He surveyed the clothes that were neatly hung, and the shoes that were arranged so carefully. “Everything look the same to you in here?”
“Yes.”
The bastard was in her bedroom. He’d believed her story before and now his rage was even greater. It was—
“Everything but that rose petal.” She brushed past him and knelt on the floor. “That wasn’t here before.”
And sure enough, there was a small rose petal—actually, more like half of a petal—that had been dropped and forgotten on the floor of the closet.
Dawn stared up at him, not touching the petal.
Think, fucking think. “You said this building was historic.”
She nodded as she rose once more.
He glanced at the wall behind her. And then he went to it. He started rapping his knuckles against the wood.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking to see if anything is—” He rapped again. Only this time, the resulting sound was different. Pay dirt. “Hollow.”
His hands slid around the wood. It looked like a wall, but at the very bottom of that frame, he found a ridge of wood that stuck out. He pulled on that wood...
The wall popped open.
“You are freaking kidding me,” Dawn said, voice stunned.
No, he wasn’t.
He pulled out his phone and used the flashlight app to shine light down into what looked like an old laundry shoot. “It goes down to the bottom floor.” And there was a damn rope there. Tied off right near the small door he’d just managed to open. The bastard had been using that rope and climbing up to her room.
The perp had been letting himself inside her home, slipping right past her security when she was gone.
Only... Hell. He might not have gotten inside just when Dawn was away. The bastard could have been sneaking into her room when she was asleep. She wouldn’t have even realized it. She’d said that when she woke up, she smelled him.
Because he was with her when she slept.
His head turned toward her.
“Tucker...” Horror was on her face.
“He came up from downstairs. Get that damn key to Jinx’s place, right now.” His temples were throbbing, his blood heating. This guy had been stalking Dawn. Coming into her home. And she’d been all alone.
Again, I wasn’t there for her. A second time I’ve let her down.
She grabbed the key from her nightstand drawer. She hadn’t touched the flowers on her bed. Neither had he. Tucker planned to get a crime scene analysis team in there right away.
As they rushed back down the stairs, he put in a fast and urgent call to his team. And when they got to Jinx’s door, this time, Dawn didn’t bother knocking on the door to her friend’s home. She shoved the key in the lock and they ran inside.
No alarm beeped. No lights were on. The place was as dark and quiet as a tomb.
“Jinx?” He could hear the worry in Dawn’s voice as they searched the rooms. There was no sign of Jinx, though. No sign of her, no sign of any struggle, either, but...
He looked up at the ceiling, then gauged where he thought Dawn’s closet would be.
“Our condos are almost exact duplicates of each other,” Dawn said, as if reading his mind.
He went into Jinx’s closet. Sure enough, he found the entrance to that shoot. Easy to spot, since the SOB who’d used it had left it partially open.
“I need her to be okay.” Dawn’s voice was quiet. He looked back at her and saw that her skin had turned ashen. “I need it.” Then she turned and began to walk very slowly and very determinedly out of the closet.
Out of the closet.
Out of the bedroom.
Down the hallway.
Into the kitchen...
Then she paused. “I saw her get a delivery a few months back.” She was staring at a white door to the right. And her hand rose and she pointed. “That’s her pantry. It must be in there.”
It?
Eyes narrowed, he opened the door. And he saw the freezer.
“I need her to be okay,” Dawn said again.
He needed to get a team out to that building.
“Open it.” Dawn was close beside him in that narrow space. “I have to know.” She grabbed his arm and when he looked at her, there were tears gleaming in Dawn’s beautiful eyes. “I have to be wrong. She has to be out on a date. Or...or she has to be at the tattoo shop now. She has to be anywhere but here.”
She was breaking his heart. “Dawn...”
Her lips trembled and she suddenly jerked away from him. She yanked open the top on that freezer—
And when he heard the sob that broke from her, he realized that her friend was far, far from okay.
* * *
HER SKIN WAS ICE. Her breath was cold. She couldn’t stop shaking.
Dawn watched as Jinx’s body was removed from their building. Not just the body. They’re taking everything. The freezer, too. Because they hadn’t wanted to lose evidence. Julia had wanted to move the entire machine so that when Jinx thawed out, all of the potential evidence would still be present.
When she thaws out. My God.
A crowd had gathered on the street. Everyone was watching and whispering. News crews were filming.
She heard a reporter saying the coroner had to be careful with the body transfer. The man stared earnestly into a video camera and explained to the viewers at home that there could be evidence in the freezer. Evidence that they didn’t want washed away as the body melted.
I’m so sorry, Jinx.
“She wasn’t in there long.” Macey came to Dawn’s side. Her voice was low, probably because she didn’t want her words carrying to any of the reporters who watched the scene with eager gazes. “I could tell that much. She wasn’t—”
“I saw her two days ago.” Just two days. So she’d already known that her friend hadn’t been in the freezer for an extended time. Is that supposed to make it better? Because it doesn’t. Knowing that she was alive forty-eight hours ago means that she died while I was close by. She could have been dying when Dawn was pounding on her door that morning. She could have still been alive then—
Macey caught her hand. Squeezed tight. “This isn’t on you.”
“No, it’s on the sick bastard who tortured my friend and then shoved her into her own freezer to die.”
An image flashed in her mind. Jinx, tied, bound, slices all over her body. She squeezed her eyes shut, but when the vision was forever branded in your head, there was nothing you could do to block it out. “She died when I was one floor above her.” And Dawn had never heard a thing.
“We are going to find him.”
Her eyes opened. She stared into Macey’s gaze. Dawn saw the other woman for exactly what she was. A kindred spirit. A survivor. She’d known that, though, long before she’d seen the scars that Macey carried.
It’s in our eyes. The truth is there. She’d gone to a few support groups over the years, and the survivors always looked the same.
“Two more of our team members are flying in from DC,” Macey told her. “With the second victim—”
“It confirms he’s a serial.” She already knew this.
But Macey nodded. “And the fact that he killed your friend, that he left roses on your bed...that means he’s put a big, shining target on you.”
Tucker was just steps away. He’d looked different ever since they’d found Jinx. His features were sharper, his gaze harder. She could practically feel the tension rolling off him. He hadn’t wanted her opening that freezer, probably because he didn’t want her to have that last image of Jinx branded in her mind.
“She was my friend,” Dawn murmured. “I had to lift up the freezer and look inside. I had to find her.” Her gaze was on Tucker as she said those words. Was he close enough to hear her?
Macey looked over her shoulder. “There are things we all have to do.” She squeezed Dawn’s hand and then let her go. “I hope you remember that. I hope you understand just what he has to do now.”
Dawn opened her mouth to reply, but Tucker was already there. He lifted his hand, offering his palm to Dawn. “We need to go now.”
“But...that’s my home.” She’d left a light on in the bedroom. She could see it glowing as the sun started to dip beneath the sky. Just how long had she been out there, watching the authorities work? Watching as Jinx was slowly removed and taken away by Julia? “I have to stay here.”
“Both floors are crime scenes. You’re not getting back in there tonight.” He still had his hand out, waiting for her. Her hand lifted and pressed to his. Seemed to fit his. “I’m going to take you someplace safe.”
Safe. She stiffened.
“I’ll follow Julia and assist with the exam,” Macey murmured. “I’ll see you both later.” Then she slipped away.
Dawn didn’t move. “You’re talking about a safe house.” He was talking protective custody again. Basically, locking her up.
“I’m talking about a secure environment for the night. A place I know that bastard can’t get to.” He stepped even closer to her. “He was in your bedroom. He killed your friend. He is coming for you. The son of a bitch wants to finish what the Iceman started.”
What if the Iceman didn’t die? What if it’s Jason, finally coming back to kill me? But she didn’t say those words. She’d already told Tucker what she feared once. He’d been so adamant that Jason was long dead.
What if you’re wrong, Tucker?
“So I’m just supposed to run and hide?” Before he could speak, she shook her head. “That’s not really my style.” She didn’t hide from life. “Not anymore. But then, I guess you wouldn’t know that, since you don’t know me any longer.” He only knew the girl she’d been. The broken girl who hadn’t even been able to let her lover touch her without seeing a monster coming at her.
“What you’re supposed to do is stay alive.” Flat. Hard. His fingers closed around hers. “And I know you. I know you soul-fucking-deep. You’re torn up right now because your friend is dead and you’re putting the blame on yourself.” He gave a grim shake of his head. “Not happening. He did this—some sick bastard who wants to be like the Iceman. And he did it deliberately.” With his left hand, he gestured toward the reporters. “So they’d swarm in. So he’d get his fifteen minutes of fame at the cost of an innocent woman’s life.”
“You’re profiling him.” Because that was what he did now. He profiled killers.
Has he ever tried to profile me? If he really knew her “soul-fucking-deep” then he must have wondered about the dark spaces inside of her. Those yawning places that had grown over the years, after they’d been created by Jason.
And by Tucker.
Do you see what I’ve become?
“We’re taking this one step at a time. Step one...let the crime scene guys do their job. We brought in backup from the local FBI and Detective Deveraux is on hand, too. They’re securing the scene. And my job right now—my priority—is to protect you.”
Not because of any personal reason, she got that. “You’re supposed to protect the only surviving victim of the Iceman.”
“And the next potential victim of this bastard.”
She didn’t flinch, but her heartbeat stuttered.
“Step two is getting you away from this scene. I know who you are...and any moment, one of those reporters will be figuring it out, too. They’ll figure out your past.”
Her anonymity would be blown to hell.
“They’ll pull records on this building. They’ll get your name. They’ll make the connection. They wouldn’t be worth their salt as reporters if they didn’t.” He looked toward his waiting SUV. “So come away with me now. Let’s get away clean for the night. I’ll take you away from the crowd, to a place where we can regroup for the night. By morning we’ll have more evidence to follow. The rest of my team will be here. We can hit the ground running.”
He kept using that tempting word, we. “You’re going to let me help? No more trying to shut me out?”
“I’m going to make sure you’re at my side. He’s coming for you. I’m not going to bullshit and tell you that you’re safe. We both know that’s not true. So I figure the best place for you is with me. With my team. You proved today at the warehouse that you’ve got good instincts. I’m not going to shove you on the sidelines. I want you with me.”
That was where she wanted to be. It took two tries but Dawn swallowed the lump in her throat. “Jinx is—was—my friend.” She didn’t let too many people get close. Occupational hazard. “This shouldn’t have happened.” A tear leaked down her cheek. Her hand rose to brush it away, but Tucker beat her. His fingertips slid over her cheek.
“No,” he said quietly. “It shouldn’t have. But we’re going to find the son of a bitch. We will stop him.”
She nodded and peered up at him a moment longer. Dawn could feel stares on her. They’d already attracted attention from reporters. She knew he was right. Her identity would come out. With this case, with this situation, it would have to come out.
Without another word, she turned and headed for his SUV. Her clothes were upstairs. Her bag—upstairs. But all of that was part of a crime scene now.
How many times did he come in my home and I didn’t know it?
Tucker opened the passenger door for her. She slid inside and when the door shut, she glanced back at the scene.
Was he there when I slept? Was that bastard right beside me and I didn’t know it? He must have been. That was why she’d woken to his scent all around her.
Tucker slid into the driver’s seat and slammed the door.
“This is different,” she murmured. “Jason never broke into my room. He never came inside. I don’t...I don’t think he did that with any of his victims.”
“This isn’t Jason. It’s some bastard who’s obsessed with his crimes and living out a fantasy where he becomes the Iceman.” He cranked the vehicle. “That fantasy is about to fucking end.”
* * *
HIS DARKEST DREAM was finally a reality.
Dawn’s home was lit up with the swirl of police lights. Uniforms made sure the crowd didn’t get too close. Local FBI agents were all over the scene. And Jinx...
They found you. He’d hoped they’d make that discovery soon. He’d waited patiently for so long, but now everything was falling into place.
The Iceman lived again. The press would be spreading his story to the world. All eyes would be on him. They’d see just what he could do.
Justice was coming. Payback.
And it would be an ice-cold son of a bitch.