Love on the Edge: Nine Shades of Romantic Suspense, page 93
Confusion, fatigue and she’d admit a little shock linked and twisted everything together. She needed rest. Then she’d sort this out after a few hours.
Putting the Jeep into reverse, she backed out of her parking spot, stopping when Grant walked toward her again.
“You two did really well tonight. Don’t forget that.”
She whispered to the dark empty interior, “So why do I feel like such a failure?”
*
“Damn it.” As soon as Kali turned onto the highway, Grant regretted not driving her home. She might want to be alone, but she probably shouldn’t be. He was needed here. Yet he couldn’t shake the bad feeling in his gut. He wasn’t really psychic, with effort he could see some energy, like Kali’s, but he’d learned to trust his intuition. He called to one of the junior team members returning with equipment.
“Grab a car and see that Kali gets to her house safe and sound.” He pointed to the taillights disappearing down the road. Grant watched the second car peel out after her. With a marginally better frame of mind, he returned to the crime scene. Clouds whispered across the moon, giving the night a surreal look.
That went along with the surreal events of the night.
Thomas approached. “I don’t know, Grant. You sure collect weird friends.”
Grant laughed, a sound at odds with the scene open around them. Still, he appreciated the easing of the macabre tension. “That I do. Have you ever seen anything like this?”
Thomas, his demeanor grimmer than usual, said, “Never. To imagine one person carrying this guy all this way is pretty unbelievable. He is small and wiry, but still…unless he was forced to walk in at gunpoint.”
“I mentioned that to Kali. She said the training is not only extensive, but also intensive, with some people becoming fanatical about their fitness levels. She said this level of fitness wasn’t out of line with some of the stronger people.”
“Then those are the ones we should be focusing on.” Thomas glanced over at him. “Did she really draw a picture of this scene?” He waved his arm to the controlled chaos going on around them. “Cause that’s beyond bizarre.”
“I know. I need her to connect with Stefan. He could help her a lot.”
“I have to ask.” Thomas hesitated. “I know you don’t believe it, and that people are working in the background to verify it, but are you absolutely sure she isn’t involved? It wouldn’t take much for an artist to draw this image if she’d participated in the events.”
Grant knew Thomas well. They’d worked together for over a decade and often spent time off, together. He’d been Thomas’s best man three years ago. In fact, Thomas had attended the same seminar where Grant had first laid eyes on Kali. They’d spoken about it several times.
“I’m asking you, both a friend and as an FBI agent, do you believe Kali is innocent of any wrongdoing here?”
“Yes.” Simple, clear and the truth. “She had nothing to do with this. In fact, I’d wager my career on it.”
“You realize that’s exactly what you’re doing?”
Grant stared calmly back at his friend. “I am and that’s fine. She didn’t do this. I know it, and the truth will prove it.”
Some of the rigidity slipped off Thomas’s shoulders. He slapped Grant on the shoulder. “Good enough. So who the hell did?”
*
Kali wished she could have slept longer. Sandpaper hid under her eyelids, and her muscles ached after her midnight run. Shiloh joined her, limping, her joints moving stiffly as she walked into the kitchen. Last night had been hard on both of them. They needed a week of physical and mental healing time.
In the kitchen she turned on her computer and checked her answering machine as she waited. Pressing the play button, she listened to the messages. One from Dan, updating her on Brad’s disappearance—no word on his whereabouts. The next was from Brenda, who wanted to do lunch now that Kali was back from Sacramento. The last two were business calls.
Kali wasn’t up to returning any of them. She forced herself to the beach for a short run to loosen up her legs. She couldn’t shake her awareness of the security Grant had provided for her protection. Just to make sure, she checked that her cell phone was tucked in her pocket.
She’d just made it back to the bottom of the steps when the phone rang.
“Kali, it’s Jarl. You called yesterday?”
His thick European accent came through loud and clear. Still gasping for breath, it took a moment before she could speak normally. She started to walk in a circle to cool down. “Hi, Jarl. Glad to hear you’re home safe and sound.”
It took her a moment to remember why she’d called him. All thoughts of Brad had been forced from her mind after the crazy midnight hunt.
“Except I’m not home yet. Should be there tomorrow. God looks after those that do his work.”
Kali frowned. Though she didn’t share his beliefs, she was happy to leave him to them. “Did you see Brad over in Sacramento this last week?”
“Sure I did,” he said comfortably. “Why? What’s the problem?”
“He’s gone AWOL again. I was hoping you might have seen him after I left.”
“That I did. Saw him a couple of times, in fact. That Sergeant of his is hell on wheels with cadavers, isn’t he?”
“Isn’t that the truth?” Shiloh was better at finding live victims, Sergeant had made a name for himself in recovery operations locating the dead.
“Time is still messed up for me. All this traveling and weird hours. If you’re wondering when I last saw him, it was right after you went home. I passed him outside drinking with some of the locals.” Jarl’s disapproval laced his tone.
“He does struggle with his demons. It’s the work we do.”
“Aye, a man’s got to do what he’s got to do.”
“Okay, well, I thought I’d check.” Kali had hoped for better news.
“Let me know if I can help you with anything else.”
Jarl rang off, and Kali climbed the steep set of stairs cut into the cliff.
Showered and refreshed half an hour later, she poured a glass of orange juice, then sat down at her computer to check her emails. Forty-two. Several were spam telling her how to enlarge her penis. She snorted. As if. Even with her email filters, she received several a day. There were a couple of work-related emails, one from The Picasso Gallery owner who carried a few of her prettier paintings. Good news. They’d sold the last painting and wondered if she’d be interested in placing more with them. A good idea, if and when life returned to normal and she could actually think in terms of pretty again.
She clicked on the last email. No sender listed. She frowned. “The game is up. If you don’t tell, I will.”
Kali could feel the tension build inside of her. “What the hell?” she whispered. As she scrolled down, her shoulders slumped and tears came to her eyes when the picture came into view.
The picture showed a dead or dying man, an oxygen mask on his face.
It looked like the man they’d found last night.
Kali reached for her cell phone and called Grant.
“Finally woke up, did you?”
“I have an email from the killer.”
Grant’s voice snapped to business mode. “I’m on my way.”
Kali signed off and returned to the kitchen. She put on coffee and turned her attention to food. Anything to stay busy and keep her mind off that email. Besides, Shiloh had missed enough meals. Searching the fridge, she realized it had to be a skinny omelet and toast again for her.
Shiloh dug into her breakfast with gusto. Kali ate hers more slowly, her mind now locked onto her weird sketches.
If they’d come at any other time, she’d have assumed they were an outpouring of ugly memories. Yet they’d proven vital in sending her, for all the wrong reasons, straight to the wrong victim—but a victim nonetheless.
Kali stared at the Julie sketch, as she’d come to think of it, even though it had led to a man and not Julie. It looked the same as it had five minutes ago—if anything, a bit freakier. She’d used it as a map straight to a dead body last night. That would freak anyone out.
She needed to take another look at her painting.
Kali opened the door to her studio, grimacing at the mess. Tubes and brushes were now sitting amongst her paints, fingerprint dust covered most surfaces and her stack of canvases had fallen askew.
Snatching up a cloth from a cupboard under the counters, she quickly put things back to rights. While she worked she puzzled over the time frame. It really bothered her.
Turning her attention to the canvas, she flipped back the cover, struck anew by the power streaming off the painting.
Then it hit her.
She’d done this painting before she’d traveled to the apartment disaster in Sacramento. If, and it was a big if, she’d done the same thing again, it meant that her doodle of Julie, should have happened before Julie was snatched. Then, theoretically, Julie should not have been kidnapped…yet.
Which meant she was in danger even now. Thank God, Grant had left someone at her house last night.
And she needed to talk to him.
But it was a hell of an assumption to think this sketch had anything to do with her oil painting. Or that either picture depicted real-life murders, which brought her full circle to one indisputable fact. The last sketch had led them to a victim.
Hearing the crunch of tires, she raced to the front door. Grant walked toward her as a second vehicle pulled in behind him.
She sighed. How was it that he could appear handsome despite his exhaustion? She sighed. “You don’t look like you got much rest.”
“Thanks for reminding me. Where’s the coffee?”
“In the kitchen,” she answered tartly. “Go get a cup.”
Leaving Grant to direct his men as needed, Kali walked straight out to the porch with her cup, biting her lips to keep from blurting out her fear about Julie. She’d give him some time before she dumped that on his shoulders. “The email is up.” From the porch, she heard another vehicle arriving. More of his team, she supposed.
Turning, she found Grant standing in the doorway. “Did you get the name or email of the sender?”
Grant shook his head. “I can’t, our specialist…” He nodded toward to the man she could barely see behind him. “Should be able to.”
“Does he have to take it away? I need my laptop.”
It was Grant’s turn to shrug. “Probably.” Frustration colored his voice.
“Did you learn anything about last night’s victim?” She hadn’t wanted to think about him, and therefore hadn’t been able to put him out of her mind.
“Yes and no. His ID said David Stewart. A fifty-year-old trucker. We’re waiting on confirmation but there’s no reason to doubt that’s his name at this point.”
Kali stared at him. “A trucker. How did this guy get to him?”
Grant looked up into the sky and then dropped his gaze to her. “We don’t know. Or what the connection is to the killer or to the other victims.
Bitterness rose up. “We don’t know very much at all, do we?”
“Without you, he could have been left there for a long time.” Grant reached out and squeezed her shoulder gently, before dropping his arm. “You brought him home. For that, we are all grateful.”
Tears rose, surprising her. How could such a simple touch comfort her? Disturbed, she blinked the tears away, rubbing the back of her neck, feeling a stiffness she hadn’t noticed earlier. “He’d have been found soon anyway, since we do regular training there.”
“The killer probably counted on that.”
“Only it happened sooner, rather than later through dumb luck.” Kali looked over at him. “We focused on that stupid picture.”
“Regardless, we did hit the right destination.”
“But not in time.” The bitterness returned.
“Chances are David wouldn’t have survived anyway.”
Kali stared at him in shock. “What? I thought we’d just missed saving his life.”
“That’s what we all thought. His head injury was severe and the oxygen mask hadn’t sealed around his face. The coroner should be…” Grant looked at his watch and finished, saying, “Doing the autopsy right now.”
Kali’s cell phone rang. Turning away slightly, she clicked it open. “Hello.”
“Hi, Kali. Did you get my message?”
“I did, Dan,” she answered. “Sorry for not getting back to you sooner.”
She could hear the happiness in his voice. “No problem. I’m calling about Julie. We upset her last night. Can we give her a better explanation now?”
“Ask Grant. Here.”
Grant raised an eyebrow and accepted the phone. “Hi, Dan.”
Kali shut off the rest of the conversation and headed to the far end of the deck where she could catch a glimpse of the ocean through the treetops.
Grant joined her a few minutes later. “We’re done here. The email was sent through a special server and that account has been closed already. I doubt we’ll get anything from it.” His voice shifted, becoming brisk. “I need you to take another look at your sketch to see if you notice anything else we can use.”
“Damn it, Grant, I’ve stared at it for hours already. I thought it was Julie. Honestly, I’m still afraid it is—or will be—Julie.”
Silence.
“You think she’s the next victim?”
Kali turned, propped one hip against the railing and closed her eyes, her head bowed in thought. “I don’t know what to think.” That was the truth. At least as far as it went. She’d refrained from telling him one tiny little detail. He’d freak.
“Yet something is bugging you.”
She gave him a sideways look. “I think it’s fair to say that a lot is bugging me.”
He narrowed his gaze. “You know what I mean.”
Wrinkling up her nose, she admitted, “I might not have told you everything.”
That same eyebrow shot up. His cheeks hollowed as his chin firmed. When she didn’t speak, a glint came into his eye. “Speak.”
Kali didn’t know how to begin.
“Kali? Please.”
She nodded. Reaching up, she ran her fingers through the strands, collecting her thoughts. “It’s about my painting.”
He glanced in the direction of the studio. “That painting?”
“Yes.”
She hesitated, then the words erupted from her mouth. “I painted it before I went to Sacramento.”
He blinked. Then he got it. “Precognitive painting?”
Kali stared at him. “Is there such a thing?”
With a half laugh, he asked, “You tell me?”
“It was only when I got home from that trip and took a closer look that I understood.”
“Except we don’t know when that victim was kidnapped. Does the rest of the painting fairly represent the scene you found down there?”
Mute, she considered the question. “Yes, it does. So now I have to wonder if this Julie sketch is something similar. I’m just too new to this psychic stuff to know.”
“Has this happened to you before?”
“Drawings like this? No. Never!” Or had it? She frowned pensively. Would she have recognized other paintings for what they were? Not likely. “At least I don’t think so? I’ve drawn for years, like I told you. I’ve never mentally connected the image to a specific event before. Especially not something like this.”
“Could they have been precognitive in nature?”
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe you should check?” He studied her features curiously.
Kali spun around and headed to the small studio, Grant at her heels. Opening the door, she walked in. “Uhmm, .there should be some around here somewhere.” As she talked, Kali opened cupboards and drawers. The big storage closet held her overload of art supplies and it was full, very full.
“Wow. Maybe check your artwork from the last couple of years. Your precognitive skills could have been developing for a long time.”
The smaller closet contained an organized stack of her sketchbooks. “Maybe when this mess is over and I get a minute.” She turned to face him. “Still if I’m right, Julie could be the next victim.”
Grant’s eyes narrowed, his focus shifting inward. She could almost see him tick off each point in his head. “We’ll talk with her.”
Kali closed her eyes briefly. “Thank you. I should have considered it earlier, but, honestly, it only crossed my mind just before you arrived.”
He snorted. “And when were you supposed to think of it? You drew the picture last night. We found the trucker within hours and you’ve caught a few hours of rest. There hasn’t been any extra time. Stop with the guilt trip. We’ll speak with her.”
He strode to the front door. “I’m going back into town. I’ll call you later.”
Kali felt torn as she watched him leave. She connected to the nasty turn her life had taken, yet he was comforting to have around. He’d become a rock in her world of quicksand.
She hadn’t thought she’d be willing to lean on anyone else again after so many years alone. True, it was a rare disaster where she didn’t break down at least once. Death and hopelessness did that to a person when blended with exhaustion. Dan had lent his shoulder a time or two, as had Brad. Her heart swelled. God, she missed him. Though she wasn’t as tough as everyone assumed, she always pulled up her socks and carried on. She was no quitter.
So what now? Grant had set up security, surveillance but she hadn’t asked him about new locks. That she could do. The last thing she wanted was another visit from this asshole. She should have done it earlier. Kali picked up her phone and by promising to pay extra, she secured the locksmith’s promise to come out within the next hour. That done, Kali noted down things she had to do.
Talk with Julie.
Catch killer.
Figure out what she wanted from Grant.
But no pressure, Kali!
