Aidan had had enough. He clutched the phone tighter to his ear. Closing his eyes, he reminded himself to not allow the offender to get under his skin.
“I will find you. And I will kill you. You'll never hurt anyone else again. Sooner or later, you will make a mistake. And I'll be there to catch you when you do.”
“Really?” His laugh was dark and demeaning. “No, Agent O'Reilly, you won't. I've escaped the clutches of the world for sixteen years and going strong. You don't know me. Know who I am.” Then he said, his voice almost like he was singing: “But I know you.” He sighed again. “I know your strengths and I know your weaknesses. I know your fears. You think you're hunting me. But you're wrong—I'm hunting you. I'm your shadow, Agent O’Reilly. I'm your worst nightmare.” Another sigh. “Well, it's been such a pleasure chatting with you. We'll have to do it again sometime soon.”
He ended the call.
Aidan sat in the darkness, staring across the room. His phone vibrated, and he looked down. It said he had one text message.
He opened the text.
Just wanted to send something as a show of good faith. Take a good long look, because it'll be the last time you'll ever see your lovely Cheyenne.
—Your friend,
The Carnations Killer
Another text followed a few seconds later. It was an emoticon of a smiley face. The third was a video of Cheyenne chained to a wall. She was crying, dirty and had minimal cuts and bruises.
“I’m going to find you,” he promised the video of Cheyenne. “I know it.”
Aidan continued playing the video until he had no trace remaining.
He stared at the blank message screen on his phone, replaying in his mind what he'd just seen.
66
AIDAN WOKE THE next morning in a daze and wasn’t sure where he was. He wasn’t in his bed. He was laying on something hard and something heavy seemed to be weighing him down.
He blinked his eyes to clear his vision.
It was dawn.
Aidan sat upright and realized the hard surface he slept on was the floor, next to the couch. The quilt was tangled between his legs.
The light was on in the kitchen.
His first thought was that he'd fallen asleep on the couch and Cheyenne had gotten up early to make breakfast.
Well, one of two theories was correct.
He started remembering the night before.
Jordan Blake had called him to tell him The Carnations Killer murdered his dog, and then when he returned home, Aidan found Cheyenne missing.
Your move.
Aidan shivered as a wave of cold air climbed up his back.
He struggled to his feet to peer into the kitchen.
Shaun’s back was to him and he was pouring himself a cup of coffee, staring at a bunch of papers.
Aidan assumed he was searching for answers, determined to find something—anything—to find the offender or Cheyenne or both. But the answers just weren’t there.
They never were.
Aidan remembered Shaun had insisted on staying the night, despite being told his partner and friend was fine to be alone.
Rather than letting him know he'd woken, Aidan turned to ascend the stairs. The crime scene unit had cleaned the bed of the carnation petals and taken the book with them. The only reminder that the offender had been in the room were the words on the wall.
“There you are,” Shaun said as he came up the steps.
Aidan kept his focus on the wall, tracing the letters with his eyes.
Shaun remained silent before placing a hand on Aidan's shoulder.
“Do we know anything yet?” Aidan asked him, his eyes still glued to the words.
“No,” he admitted. “I’m going to head over to the office and see what they found.”
“All right,” Aidan said. “Let me take a quick shower first.”
“Monroe wants you to have the day off,” Shaun replied. “She’s insisting.”
Aidan shook his head with determination. “No way. This is my case, Cheyenne’s my girlfriend. She’s not going to remove me. I won’t let her.”
“Aidan, you need to—”
“I need to what?” Aidan turned to face Shaun, his arms crossed over his chest. Narrowing his eyes, Aidan added, “Need to sit around in this empty house? Need to do nothing while a psychopath is doing whatever he wants to Cheyenne? Shaun, I’m not going to sit back while he’s holding her. He took her only because she means something to me. He only did it to try and hurt me. I'm not going to sit around and let him think he’s succeeding.”
“I’ll be downstairs, then,” Shaun said after a brief hesitation.
Aidan went into the bedroom, a coldness enveloping him. Gathering clean clothes, he left the room to shower in the guest bathroom.
It only took a few minutes to clean up, so he went into the kitchen to pour himself a thermos full of coffee.
Despite the dreams the night before—most of which he'd begun to remember were about Cheyenne—he slept a good while. But he continued to feel the sleep deprivation over the last few years, so he relied on the unadulterated caffeinated coffee to keep him alert.
Aidan was resolved to work today, no matter what anyone said. Even if he were forced to leave and work from home.
He wasn’t going to let Cheyenne become another one of his victims.
He couldn’t.
Fired with determination and strong coffee, Shaun and Aidan left the house.
67
EARLY THAT MORNING, Monroe held a press conference informing the reporters they had reasons to believe The Carnations Killer had murdered not fifty, but a total of eighty-nine women, not including Keisha Moffett or Jamal
