“Lucy needs you.”
So does Kate, Dillon thought but didn’t say. “Lucy is in good hands. I need to do this, Carina. Adam Scott is still out there.”
“You’re not a cop,” Carina snapped, irritated. “The FBI has taken over the investigation.”
“Which they fucked up five years ago,” Jack interjected.
“I have a strong sense about Scott,” Dillon said.
“The FBI has its own profilers,” Carina argued. “It doesn’t need you.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way, Sis, but I’m staying. I’m going to talk to Lucy and then go back to FBI headquarters.”
Jack nodded. “You do what you have to in order to find the scum who hurt Lucy. And I’ll make sure he doesn’t hurt her again.”
Now that his real name and image were known to the authorities, Trask had to plan carefully. Fortunately he had always thought this day was inevitable. While he couldn’t travel as freely as he wanted until he underwent plastic surgery, he knew what superficial changes to make to his appearance to blend in. He didn’t need that much time. Just long enough to get to Lucy again and use her to lure Kate Donovan into a trap.
He realized that the reason the bitch he’d followed home from the docks wasn’t good was because she looked like Kate but wasn’t Kate. Kate would fight and scream and claw at him. She wouldn’t beg for her life. She wouldn’t tell him she’d do anything he wanted. Instead she would try to get away. Just the thought of her fighting him gave him a hard-on.
And Lucy-she was his. She had volunteered to meet him. She was everything he needed. He might not kill her, not right away. Use her to get to Kate and kill her, purge Mina and all the whores from his body. Once that happened, he’d be free. He could have the life he’d envisioned with Monique. Where he was in charge and she did what he said. He’d just have to be very careful not to accidentally kill her. He might have to take a few whores on the side. But Lucy would learn quickly that she had to behave or she’d be dead, too. Fear would keep her in line.
He downloaded all the messages from Mick Mallory’s PDA. Some were cryptic, but he began to build an understanding that Mallory and his supervisor, Jeff Merritt, were acting on their own. Mallory had been sent to kill him.
What a fool. Mallory should have known immediately that Trask was untouchable.
With his network broken, he didn’t know everything that was going on. He went online to see if Kate was surfing around, trying to locate him. Saw that she had downloaded the video. He smiled. Good, now she knew what her fate was. Make her scared. She’d fight him all the more.
But he didn’t know where she was. Her mountain hideout was inactive. This frustrated him to no end, and he ended up calling his attorney, the one who had warned him about Ullman’s betrayal yesterday.
“Where’s Kate Donovan?”
“How should I know?”
“That’s what I pay you for.”
“Don’t call me, Adam.”
“You’re my attorney! I pay you to talk to me.”
“I have to advise you to turn yourself in. There’s a warrant for your arrest.”
“Fuck that, and fuck you!”
“Turn yourself in and I’ll be able to help you.”
“You’ll help me now.”
“I can’t do that. They’re watching. Closely.”
“You’re a fool.”
He slammed down the phone. He had a fake ID and passport all ready, but he wasn’t done. He had to find Monique and Mina.
Lucy and Kate.
And what about that shrink Dillon Kincaid? Who would have thought a fucking doctor would have it in him to shoot a man in cold blood? Frank didn’t even have a gun on him.
Trask called the hospital. Maybe this would be easier than he thought.
“This is Connor Kincaid,” Trask said. “My sister Lucia Kincaid is a patient. She’s being released today and I don’t want to miss her.”
“One moment.”
He waited. Then the nurse came back on the line. “I’m sorry. Ms. Kincaid has already been discharged.”
Discharged? Where would she go? Of course, he thought.
Home.
Trask went online and bought a ticket for that afternoon. One-way to San Diego.
TWENTY-EIGHT
QUINN MET DILLON in the lobby of the field office and led him into the rear. “Morton’s on his way over.”
“Where’s Kate?”
“She’s cooling off in an interview room. She and Merritt went at it. Verbally,” he added.
“I want to see her.”
Quinn glanced at his watch. “Ten minutes, if you want to be in with Morton.”
“Come get me.”
Quinn led Dillon to the room where Kate was being held. There was a plainclothes guard at the door. “Merritt insisted,” Quinn said before Dillon could ask.
“She’s not going to jail.”
Quinn shook his head. “We’re keeping her here overnight. It’s not very comfortable, but better than going to Seattle PD and being processed.” He cleared Dillon with the guard. “I’ll be back when Morton arrives.” He left Dillon alone with Kate.
Kate jumped up and ran into his arms. He held her tight. A wave of relief that she was okay, that she was safe, washed over him. And something more-a deep need to be with her.
He kissed her repeatedly, then held her at arm’s length to take in her appearance fully. She looked more like a cop than when he’d first met her two days before, but weariness clouded her expression. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “You came back.”
“I said I would.”
“How’s Lucy?”
“She has Carina and Jack taking her back to San Diego. They’ll take care of her.”
“Jack?”
“He’s staying until Scott is captured.”
She nodded. “You think Lucy is in danger.”
“Absolutely. Both you and Lucy.”
Kate sank into one of the chairs around the conference table. Dillon sat next to her, turning his chair so they were knee to knee and he could hold her hands. “Why does he want me now?” she asked. “I understood his frustration before-Paige and I slowed down his operation, forced him to go underground. I can see that he wanted revenge. But now we know who he is. He has the money to disappear-why doesn’t he just disappear? It doesn’t make sense.”
“It does make sense,” Dillon said. “You’re thinking about this logically from your experience. But Adam Scott has a different background. It’s personal.”
“I never knew him before we started investigating April Klinger’s disappearance.”
“What I mean is, for him it’s personal. You remind him of another woman who took something from him. Maybe he was unable to fight back or reclaim what he lost, so he’s put you in her role. On the surface, he can convince himself that he’s getting back at you because of what you stole from him-his legal porn operation, his freedom of movement, and now Lucy. But it’s an act. What he really wants is revenge on someone he could never get revenge on. By killing you, he’s avenging his own failures, hurting the person who hurt him.”
“I guess that makes sense. But if I were him, I’d lay low for a couple of years and come after me when I’d least expect it.”
“That’s logical, and up until now Scott has been smart. But we’ve exposed his identity. We took away his support-Roger Morton and Denise Arno. And remember, for him this is not so much a game as a show. He sees himself as Trask, the actor. Onstage. Performing. His public persona is much different from his inner person. In fact, on the surface Trask is amiable, charismatic, attractive. Inside, where he’s Adam Scott, he’s dark and twisted. He’s been able to keep them separate-meaning, if we saw his dark side, we’d recognize it immediately. But Trask the actor has taken over. A man who can trick teenage girls into meeting him. A man who probably didn’t seem like he’d hurt anyone. He looked safe. But in exposing Adam Scott, the weaknesses and insecurities that he has long suppressed are coming out. That’s why he couldn’t rape the woman last night. That’s why he couldn’t climax. It was in his face-the rage, the frustration, and fear.”