Justin. She’d adored her nephew. Who wouldn’t have loved that little hellion? The first grandchild, the first nephew, the first of the next generation. With dimples like his mom and the statesmanship of his political dad, he would have been a heartbreaker, or president, when he grew up.
She missed him.
“I’m sorry I brought it up,” Nick said. “I’ve upset you.”
“I’m okay.” She pulled the car into the Kincaid family driveway and turned off the ignition. “I just miss him. But my feelings are nothing like Nelia’s, my sister. His mom. She was devastated, but she kept everything bottled up for so long. When she finally burst…it wasn’t pretty. She and Andrew divorced, then she just left, moved to Idaho. More than anyone, my parents want her home so badly. They built the apartment you’re staying in for her. But she won’t come back. Maybe she can’t. Maybe she just can’t be anywhere near the family.”
She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “Justin was kidnapped when I was babysitting. Taken right from his bed in the middle of the night. I didn’t hear a thing.”
Nick touched her cheek and she found herself leaning into the light caress before realizing how inappropriate it was.
“It’s not your fault,” he said.
“I know that up here,” she tapped her head, then put her hand over her heart, “but in here I can’t help but blame myself.”
He took her hand. “What happened?”
“Nelia worked as an attorney for a defense contractor. She was working late nights, and Andrew-her husband, who was a prosecutor-was in the middle of a big case. I was in college, I could give up a few nights, study at their house. I remember that day so clearly. I had two midterms and a swim meet. I was wiped out. My mom always watched Justin after school…he and Lucy were born a month apart. Justin loved to tease Lucy and call her ‘Auntie Lu’ though she was twenty-seven days younger than him.” She smiled at the bittersweet memory. “My mom thought she was in menopause, and was shocked when she found out she was pregnant at the age of forty-five.”
“Nice surprise, anyway.”
“Yeah. Lucy can be a pain in the neck because she’s a bit spoiled. But she’s fun and I was really happy to have a baby sister.”
She didn’t say anything for a long minute, and Nick didn’t interrupt. She entwined her fingers with his and it felt right to sit here with him, touching him, sharing her worst nightmare.
“So, anyway, I picked Justin up when I got out of class. My mom said he could spend the night at the house, but I knew she and dad were beat. I even offered to take Lucy with me.” Her voice hitched. “But,” she said, “it was a school night. So I took Justin over to his house. We ordered out for pizza. Together, Justin and I devoured an extra-large pizza with the works, minus mushrooms because I can’t fathom eating anything that is grown in animal dung.”
She remembered when her older brother Connor used to chase her around the house with mushrooms her mom bought for the spaghetti sauce. “It’s alive! It’s going to con-shroom you!”
“We watched Star Wars together. Still the single best movie of the twentieth century. I let Justin stay up past his bedtime. I was studying, then Nelia called, said she was running later than she thought and why wasn’t Andrew home? Hell if I knew, and I told her so. I never liked him, anyway. Still don’t, even if he is a good DA.
“Then I fell asleep.”
Why hadn’t Justin screamed? Had the killer subdued him while he slept? There was no evidence of a struggle. Justin was just…gone. And the window to his bedroom was open. Had she forgotten to check it? Nelia was a stickler for always checking doors and windows. She had been sure she’d checked it…
“I woke up to Nelia screaming.”
Carina! Where’s Justin? Where’s Justin?
“I didn’t know what was going on. I looked at the clock. It was two in the morning.
“But Justin was missing. His bedroom window wide open. No sign of forced entry.” Carina looked at Nick, saw the sympathy and understanding in his eyes. “Nelia blamed me. For not locking the window. I thought I had, but I don’t know anymore.” She took a deep breath. “She hasn’t spoken to me since.”
Nick rubbed her neck. The gesture soothed her even more than their entwined fingers, made her say more than she’d intended. She had never told anyone the whole story, not like that. It was oddly cathartic. Even though she couldn’t forgive herself completely, telling Nick had helped purge something that had been eating her inside.
“I’m sorry to dump all that on you. It’s probably the last thing you wanted to hear.”
“No.” He cleared his throat. “I’m glad you told me. I wish I had answers. The only thing I’ve learned being a cop is that good people get hurt and bad people enjoy it. Our job isn’t to stop the pain, but to prevent it in the future.”
His hand cupped her cheek and this time she let herself relax, just for a minute, and savor the affection.
Suddenly the car started moving violently up and down.
“What the hell?” Carina exclaimed, reaching for her gun. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw her brothers Connor and Patrick pushing up and down on the trunk. “You immature brats!” she yelled, biting back a smile. “I’ll get you back!”
“Oh, we’re so scared,” Patrick laughed.
“Come on, you might as well meet the rest of the clan,” she told Nick, reluctantly letting his hand go.
Maybe it was for the best. She’d been close to kissing him.
Everything had worked exactly like he’d planned.
After Becca died, he watched the webcam he’d planted in Jodi’s apartment and saw Abby making two drinks with the spiked Coke. Then Jodi came in and made two more drinks. That was certainly enough to knock them out.
At midnight he left Becca in the library parking lot. It was fitting, really. He’d first met Angie on the beach, so he’d left her there. He met Becca at the library, so naturally he left her there. It seemed somehow complete, finished. A circle. He couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.
Jodi was going to be more difficult. He didn’t dare leave her where he’d first met her, but he had a couple of ideas that might work.
Getting into her apartment was easy enough-he’d unlocked Jodi’s bedroom window the day before when he’d planted the webcam.
At first he was scared-Jodi wasn’t in her bed. He listened, fearing the drugs hadn’t worked, that Abby and Jodi were awake and would scream as soon as they saw him. He listened carefully. In the apartment upstairs the drone of a late-night talk show. In the far distance, a siren. He listened until the siren stopped.
Nothing in the apartment stirred.
The kitchen light was on, casting an odd glow over the living room, which had only a dim, solitary lamp in the corner. Jodi was sleeping on the couch, her arm hanging over, her hair in her face.
Out cold.
Abby was in the chair, her head back, spittle dribbling out the corner of her open mouth.
He crossed the living room, unhooked the chain on the front door, and carefully opened the deadbolt. Neither girl stirred.
This was the dangerous part, but just like when he took Becca from the library parking lot, he felt an odd, rumbling thrill deep inside. He couldn’t help but think he was smarter than most everyone out there. He’d broken into the apartment yesterday morning and no one had noticed. He’d drugged their drinks and they drank without thinking anything was strange.
There was no doubt in his mind that he could take Jodi and leave the apartment without being seen.
He picked her up and she gave a slight moan. He froze, watched her face, glanced at Abby. No movement. Good. With Jodi in his arms, he left the apartment as quickly as possible.
To his left, he heard a group of young men coming up the the street toward the apartment building. He was parked in the rear, in a vacant carport, and he now quickly turned to the right, going around the building. It was late and a weeknight, but being a building dominated by college students, there were a lot of lights still on.