But of course it would – and all too soon.
Chapter 18
THE HOTEL PHONE rang at almost exactly twelve o'clock. I'd realize later that it hadn't been a coincidence. Midnight is also the start of a new day, and the caller meant that, literally.
'Alex Cross,' I answered.
'All this, and romance, too? Tell me, Detective Cross, how do you manage it?'
Kyle Craig's voice registered like ice water – and just as fast as that, everything changed.
'Kyle,' I said for Bree's benefit. 'How long have you been in Washington?'
She was already sitting up, but as soon as she heard the name, she grabbed her cell out of the nightstand and took it into the bathroom.
'What makes you think I'm in Washington?' Kyle asked me. 'You know I've got eyes and ears everywhere. I don't have to be there, to be there.'
'True,' I said, trying hard to keep my voice calm. 'But I'm one of your favorite subjects.'
He laughed softly. 'I'd like to say you're flattering yourself, but I can't. So tell me about the family. How's Nana Mama doing? The kids?'
They weren't questions. They were threats, and we both knew it. Families were Kyle's thing, maybe because his own had been so messed up. In fact, he'd killed both of his parents, on separate occasions. It was everything I could do not to rise to the bait, but I held back my temper.
'Kyle, why are you calling? You never do anything without a good reason.'
'I haven't seen Damon around,' he went on. 'He must still be up at Cushing Academy, yes? That's due west of Worcester, correct? But Ali! Now there is the definition of a growing boy.'
I gripped the edge of the mattress with my free hand. Having my kids in Kyle Craig's thoughts was almost more than I could take.
But if there was one thing I knew, it was that idle threats and warnings only added fuel to his fire. He'd always been insanely competitive with me, and I mean that literally. It had been nearly impossible to bring him down the first time.
How in the hell was I going to do it again?
'Kyle,' I said as evenly as I could manage, 'I'm not going to have this conversation if I don't know where it's going. So if you have something to tell me -'
'Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust,' he said. 'It's no big secret, Alex.'
'What's that supposed to mean?'
'You asked where this is going. Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust – the same place everything goes. Of course, some of us get there faster than others, isn't that right? Your first wife, for example, but I can't take credit for that one.'
And then he got his wish – I snapped, lost it.
'Listen to me, you piece of shit! Stay away from us. I swear to God, if you ever -'
'If I what?' he fired back just as forcefully. 'Hurt your ridiculous family? Take away your precious fiancee?' His tone had changed on a dime to pure rage. 'How dare you talk to me about what's been taken away. What you get to keep! Just how many lives have you taken, Alex? How many families have you shattered with that nine millimeter of yours? You don't even know the meaning of loss – not yet, you fucking hypocrite!'
I'd never heard him go on like this before. In fact, Kyle rarely even cursed. Not the Kyle I'd known.
Was he devolving in some way? Or was this just another one of his carefully timed acts?
'Do you want to know the real difference between us, Alex?' he went on.
'I already know the difference,' I said. 'I'm still sane and you're not.'
'The difference is, I'm alive because none of you people have been able to bring me down, and you're alive because I haven't decided to kill you yet. Please tell me that obvious fact hasn't escaped you.'
'I'm not going to kill you, Kyle.' The words were just spilling out of me now. 'I'm going to make sure you rot to death, slowly, back in that cell in Colorado where you came from. You're going back.'
'Oh, that reminds me,' he said – and then abruptly hung up. It was pure Kyle, just one more way of saying he'd started this thing and he was going to finish it, his way. Control was like oxygen to him.
Suddenly, Bree was right there, with her arms around me. 'I spoke to Nana,' she said. 'Everything's fine, but she knows we're coming home. And I've got a squad car headed over there right now.'
I got up and started dressing as fast as I could. My body was shaking with anger, and not just at Kyle.
'I messed up, Bree,' I said. 'Bad. I can't let him get to me like that. I can't! It's only going to make things worse.'
If that was possible.
Chapter 19
GODDAMN HIM! For everything.
Kyle had just accomplished exactly what he wanted, which was to inject himself into my life. He had my number, in more ways than one. Now I had no choice but to respond.
An MPD cruiser was in front of the house when we got there, with another uniformed officer in the back by the garage. Sampson was there, too; I'm not even sure who called him, but I was glad he came.
'All cool, sugar, we're good here,' he said as we came in. He and Nana were hanging out in the kitchen. She'd even managed a ham sandwich and chips for him by then.
'This isn't over,' I said. It was a struggle to keep my voice down while the kids slept upstairs. 'We have to talk about moving the family.'
'Oh, is that so?' Nana said, and the temperature in the room dropped about twenty degrees.
'Nana -'
'Alex, no. Not again. You do what you need to with the children. I, for one, meant it the last time when I said it would be the last time. I'm not moving out of this house, and that's my final word on the subject.'
Before I could even respond, she decided she wasn't done after all.
'And another thing. If this Kyle Craig is as good as you say he is, then it doesn't matter where you put the children. What matters, Detective Cross, is that you protect them where they are.' Her voice was shaking, but her finger was steady as she pointed it right at my face. 'Defend your home, Alex. Make it happen! You're supposed to be good at your job.'
She smacked the table twice with the flat of her hand and leaned back again. My move.
First, I took a breath and counted to ten. Then I asked Bree to start the APB process right away. 'Get it out on WALES, all jurisdictions, and then NCIC at the Bureau as soon as we can.' For that, we'd need a warrant number, and Sampson got on the stick to track it down.
I put in my own call to the FBI field office in Denver. Technically, Kyle was their case, since he'd escaped from prison in Colorado.
Over the phone, an Agent Tremblay told me that they had nothing new to report but that he'd be in touch with all mid-Atlantic field offices right away. This was a priority case for them, too, and not just because of the damage Kyle had done to the Bureau's reputation the first time around. I had a feeling I'd be hearing from Jim Heekin at the Directorate in Washington first thing in the morning.
Meanwhile, I made another call – and woke up my good buddy and sometimes sparring mate Rakeem Powell.
Rakeem had been with the force for fifteen years, and a detective with the 103 for eight. Then, in the same six-month period, he'd gotten married and shot, in that order, and ended up taking early retirement.
No one ever thought Rakeem would leave the department, but then again, no one thought he'd ever settle down either. Now he had his own close-security firm in Silver Spring, and I was about to become a client.
