Hunter wasn’t in the mood to be psychoanalyzed. He needed to end this. And he needed to do it now. Any answer would do. ‘Yes, that’s the reason. Now tell us where Madeleine is.’
‘In a moment. You haven’t satisfied the psychologist in me yet, Robert. What I really want to know about is what happened inside your head after Jessica was murdered. The earthquake of feelings that I know you went through. You tell me that, and I’ll give you Madeleine.’
After twenty years, Hunter had learned how to live with those feelings.
‘What is there to know?’ he asked evenly.
‘I want to know about the anger inside you, Robert. The rage. I want to know if you were angry enough to kill. Did you go after them?’ Lucien asked. ‘The perpetrators? Jessica’s killers?’
‘An investigation was launched,’ Hunter said.
‘That’s not what I asked,’ Lucien shot back with a shake of the head. ‘I want to know if you launched your own crusade to find her killers, Robert.’
Hunter was about to reply when Lucien interrupted him.
‘Don’t lie to me now, Robert. Madeleine’s life depends on it.’
Hunter could feel Taylor’s eyes on him.
‘Yes. I have never stopped searching for them.’
Hunter’s answer seemed to excite Lucien.
‘So here’s the million-dollar question, Robert,’ he said. ‘If you found them, would you take them in, or would you impose your own justice on them. . your own revenge.’
In silence Hunter scratched the back of his hand.
‘You would kill them yourself, wouldn’t you?’ Lucien’s smile was confident. ‘I can see it in your eyes, Robert. I saw it while you were reliving that night. I bet Agent Taylor saw it too. The anger. The rage. The hurt. Fuck being a detective. Fuck the law that you swore to uphold. This would take priority over everything. Over your own life. If you came face to face with the people who took Jessica from you, you’d murder them without an ounce of hesitation. I know you would. I know you’ve thought about it hundreds, maybe thousands of times.’
Hunter breathed in through his nose, and out through his mouth.
‘Hell, you might even torture them a while just to see them suffering for what they did. That would be fun, wouldn’t it?’
Lucien saw a muscle flex on Hunter’s jaw.
‘As I’ve said before,’ he continued, ‘under the right circumstances, anyone can become a killer. Even those who are supposed “to protect and to serve”.’ His dead stare could’ve melted ice. ‘Remember, Robert, a murder is a murder. The reasons behind it have no relevance, be it justified revenge or a sadistic urge.’ He brought his face to less than an inch from the Plexiglas. ‘So one day, you still might become the same as me.’
Lucien was indeed using Jessica’s murder to, in a sick way, give reason to the things he’d done,’ Hunter thought. First appealing to psychological reason, now the emotional ones. Hunter was sure that Lucien had read the police reports. Knowing Hunter as well as he had all those years ago, he would’ve figured out that Hunter had never stopped searching for Jessica’s killers. He had pushed for Hunter to tell the story purposefully, so that he could degrade it and use it as an example and rationale for his own twisted acts.
Despite Hunter’s anger, he still had only one priority in his mind. He’d figured that in his head, Lucien had achieved what he wanted. There was nothing else to say.
‘Tell us where Madeleine is, Lucien.’
Lucien chuckled. ‘OK. But I can’t just tell you the location, Robert. I have to take you there.’
Seventy-Five
It took Taylor a moment to register what Lucien had said. She scowled at him.
‘Come again?’
Lucien stepped away from the Plexiglas. His expression showed no concern at all.
‘I can’t just give you instructions to where she is, Agent Taylor. That won’t work. I have to take you there myself.’
Hunter didn’t seem surprised. In fact, he was expecting it. It was only logical. Because Madeleine’s life depended on them getting to her fast, it was too risky to rely on simple verbal or written instructions. What if when they got to the vicinity of where she was supposed to have been held captive, the instructions suddenly became unclear because the surroundings had changed? What if they took a wrong turn? What if there was a mistake in the instructions, deliberate or not? They would’ve lost valuable time trying to get Lucien to re-explain everything over a phone line, or video link.
No, Lucien had to go with them. He had to personally guide them there.
Taylor’s eyes sought Hunter. He gave her a subtle nod.
Lucien smiled. ‘There’s one more thing,’ he said, winking at her. ‘There will be only the three of us on this trip. No other FBI agents. No one following us either, by land or air. You, Robert, and I will go, not a person more, not a person less. That’s the deal. No negotiation. You break the deal, or I suspect that we’re being followed in any way, I guide you nowhere. Madeleine dies alone, forgotten and forsaken, and I’ll make sure the press finds out why. I can live with that. Can you?’
Taylor knew she was in a no win situation. Nothing had changed since they’d discovered that Lucien was the only one who could guide them to his victims’ remains. He still held all the cards, even more so now that there was supposedly a live victim. He could call the shots any way he saw fit, and at the moment, there was nothing either Hunter or Taylor could do about it.
‘As long as you understand that you’ll be hand-and ankle-cuffed, and we’ll be armed. You try anything, and I swear we’ll gun you down.’
‘I would’ve expected nothing less,’ Lucien replied.
‘We’ll be ready to leave in fifteen minutes.’ She stood up. ‘Where are we going?’
‘I’ll tell you when we’re on our way,’ Lucien replied.
‘I need to know if we need a plane or a car.’
Lucien nodded his agreement. ‘A plane first. Then a car.’
‘I need to know how much fuel we’ll need.’
‘Enough to get us to Illinois.’
As Hunter and Taylor took their first steps back toward the door at the end of the corridor, Lucien halted them.
‘I guess that day is closer than you think, Robert,’ he said.
Hunter and Taylor both paused and turned around to face Lucien again.
‘What day is that?’ Hunter asked.
‘The day that you might become the same as me.’ If Lucien’s voice had sounded cold and emotionless before, this time it sounded like it could’ve come from some ancient devil. . completely heartless. ‘Because for the past two days, my friend, you’ve been sitting before the man you’ve been seeking for twenty years.’
Hunter felt his stomach curl into a ball.
‘I was the one who took Jessica from you.’
Seventy-Six
Hunter didn’t move, didn’t breathe, didn’t blink. It was like his whole body went into lockdown.
‘What was that?’ Taylor was the one who asked the question.
Lucien’s gaze was cemented on Hunter, but other than the initial frown of confusion at his statement, he got nothing else from the LAPD detective.
‘You think I’m saying this just to get under your skin, don’t you, Robert?’
Despite the awkward feeling starting to gain momentum deep inside of him, Hunter still looked calm.
‘Which you obviously are,’ Taylor cut in. There was no disguising the irritation in her voice. ‘You ran out of tricks and now you’re just stalling. You know what? I wouldn’t be surprised if there is no Madeleine Reed held captive anywhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d just made her up because you ran out of acts for this little performance of yours. I think your chamber is empty. You’re panicking, and now you’re firing blanks because you know the game is really up.’