He kept working to loosen the ropes, taking advantage of being alone in the room because he had a fair idea that wouldn't last long. And it didn't.
When the man walked into the room a few minutes later, pushing some kind of rolling cart covered with a white cloth, Ben's first realization was that he was a total stranger. He was a medium-sized man on the wiry side, not particularly tall or particularly powerful in appearance, with straight hair-colored hair and the pasty skin of someone who didn't spend much time outdoors. The only unusual physical characteristic Ben noticed was that he had incongruously large hands and feet, both of which lent him a slightly ludicrous air. His features were regular, even pleasant, and he wore a small half-smile.
It was the smile that made Ben suddenly, acutely, aware of the chill in the room.
'Hello, Judge. That's what they call you, isn't it? Judge?' His voice was deep, the tone amiable.
'Some do.' All his instincts told Ben to hold on to both his wits and his temper, to keep his body relaxed and his own voice calm. But the hair on the back of his neck was standing straight out.
'Oh, I think most do. And I think you like it.' 'What do I call you?' Ben asked. The man smiled, revealing even white teeth. 'What is that thing you see on T-shirts everywhere these days? Bob's wife, Bob's boss, Bob's brother. Just call me Bob.'
'Okay, Bob. Should I know what it is I've done to piss you off?'
'Should – but don't.' He got the chair that was by the door and placed it in front of Ben a few feet away, beside the covered cart, and sat down. The picture of relaxed interest, he clasped his big hands together in his lap and continued to smile pleasantly at his captive. 'Do we play a guessing game?' 'Bob' shook his head. 'Oh, I'm quite willing to tell you, Judge. That's the whole point of this, after all. No one should ever die without knowing why.' 'So tell me.'
'The oldest male game in the world, Judge. Rivalry.' 'I see. So what are we competing for?'
'Why, for her, of course. For Cassie.'
Ben controlled the urge to lunge at the other man, and kept his voice cool. 'And here I thought all I had to worry about was an FBI agent.'
Bob's smile widened. 'Bishop? Neither of us has to worry about him, not where Cassie's concerned. He's not in love with her. He likes to believe he understands her, but he doesn't really. I'm the only one who really understands Cassie.'
That his captor knew Bishop was bad enough; the caressing way his voice dropped whenever he said Cassie's name was beginning to make Ben's skin crawl. 'What gives you this special insight?' he asked.
'It's very simple, Judge. I understand Cassie because, unlike you or Bishop or any other man in her life, I'm a part of her. I've been inside her head for years.'
Matt said, 'Bishop had much the same reaction and refused to explain. So why don't you? What does this paper flower mean to both of you?'
Cassie swallowed hard and forced herself to remain calm. 'It started… more than four years ago. The L.A. police called me in on a series of murders. It was unusual because the killer hit all age groups, from little girls to elderly women, and all races. The victims had nothing in common except that they were female. He killed them in different ways, tortured some but not others, hid some bodies while leaving others out in the open so they could be easily found. It seemed to be almost a game to him to keep everybody guessing. The FBI profiler they called in was tearing his hair out.'
'So the police called you in,' Matt said. 'And?' 'He always left a paper rose on his victim's body, and I used that to connect with him. I tapped into him pretty easily just as he was stalking his next victim. The police were able to save the girl, but the killer slipped away in the confusions And vanished.' 'You mean he stopped killing?' Cassie nodded. 'For a while, at least that's what the police believe. It was more than six months later when three more bodies turned up, each left with one of his trademark paper roses. Again I was able to tap into his mind, and again he managed to slip away. For the next couple of years he'd suddenly go active, kill two or three times, then vanish before anybody could get close. Including me. There was no pattern we could fix on, no way we could anticipate when and where he'd begin killing again. Then…' 'Then?'
It was Bishop who took up the story, his voice cool. 'Then he killed a series of children in rapid succession, and the entire city was going crazy. Finally, and for the first time, the killer left behind more than a rose. He left a fingerprint. The police were able to identify him as one Conrad Vasek, an escaped mental patient with the distinction of having terrified every doctor forced to try treating him in the twenty years since he was committed at the age of twelve.'
Matt said, 'And they had no luck finding him even though they knew who he was.'
'None. The man was acknowledged as a twisted genius, psychopathic since birth but brilliant. And he loved games.' Bishop's gaze shifted to Cassie. 'Especially new ones.'
'You weren't there,' Cassie murmured, staring down at the rose.
'I heard about it afterward,' Bishop said. He looked at Matt. 'Just about the time Vasek killed an elderly woman and then a teenager, word leaked out to the press that the L.A. police were trying to track him using a psychic. Vasek must have seen it as a challenge. He grabbed a little girl but didn't kill her right away. Instead, when Cassie connected to him, he led the police a long and merry chase and then was somehow able to distract Cassie just long enough.'
'I misinterpreted what I saw,' Cassie said. 'Sent the police the wrong way. When they found the little girl, her body was still warm.'
'And you got the blame?' Matt demanded incredulously.
'I blamed myself. And it was… just too much. I couldn't handle it anymore. That's when I left L.A. and came here.'
Softly Bishop said, 'I wonder how long it took Vasek to find you.'
Cassie stared at him, with dawning understanding. 'Of course,' she whispered. 'That's why the light was falling from two different directions when I tried to reach Mike Shaw. That's how Mike was able to push me out with such strength, to block me for so long even though he isn't telepathic. Because it wasn't him. Somehow Vasek was linked to Mike's mind, controlling him. Vasek was controlling him all along.'
'Inside her head.' Ben spoke slowly.
'She didn't know I was there, of course. She thought we were in contact only whenever she was helping the police try to catch me. But I've been able to slip into her mind virtually at will for a long time now. Into her thoughts. Her dreams.'
'Her nightmares.' Until that moment Ben had never been able to truly see the substance, the reality, of Cassie's monsters. But then he saw. Finally he understood. And it wasn't the chill of the room that sank deeper into his bones and left shards of ice so cold they burned.
The monster calling himself Bob continued to smile. 'Her nightmares? Oh, I don't think so. All I did was… encourage her… to use her natural gifts. Remind her who she really was. That's why I followed her here. She thought she could run away from who she was, but I couldn't let her. We were meant to be together, Cassie and I, and I had to show her that. I had to show her that our minds were already joined.'
'By killing more women?'
'By making certain she used her natural gifts.'
Ben swallowed the bile rising up in his throat and forced himself to say calmly, 'So you came here and looked for a tool you could use to attract her attention. To impress her with your own abilities. You needed someone with a weak mind you could control, someone with the instincts – if not the expertise – of a natural killer. Mike Shaw.'
'You must admit, Michael was perfect. And I was quite lucky to find him in this pissant little town of yours. A sociopath more than ready for his first real kill. All he needed was a little guidance, and that was simple enough.'
'How did it feel,' Ben asked, 'to kill by remote control?'
Bob seemed gratified by the question, clearly happy to explain. 'Interesting, actually. And more satisfying than I had expected. He's totally primitive, of course, driven by rage and imagined slights, and with absolutely no finesse. I'm sure your experts will find he's clinically insane. Not too bright either, I'm afraid. But he made excellent clay I could mold to fit my needs.'
'And your need was to impress Cassie.'
'I wanted her to understand,' Bob said reasonably. 'That we were two halves of a whole, that we belonged
