“I “met” her on a social media site and quickly talked her into giving me her phone number. I began calling her, probing her, learning her secrets.”
“Why would she talk to you? You’re old enough to be her grandfather.”
“She doesn’t know how old I am, but believes I’m old enough to be her father. I used a voice altering device. You probably think something like that would scare the average young lady, but as you may get the opportunity to learn, Kimberly is not your average young lady.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s inherited the killing gene from her father.”
“That’s possible?”
“Entirely. And I’ve hired someone to pose as Kimberly at her college, taking her classes, so she could be trained by professional assassins. At first she didn’t know they were assassins. She thought they were kickboxing champions and exercise experts who were getting her in shape. But after getting her in shape, they taught her how to fight, how to shoot, and lately they’ve taught her about poisons.”
“To what end?”
“To turn her into a paid assassin.”
Sam listened to all this with his mouth hanging open. “Does Creed know?”
“Of course not.”
“This is insane.”
“Why?”
“How can someone who’s never met the girl get her to start killing people based on a telephone relationship?”
“She actually killed a boy before I contacted her. So she had the raw talent and innate ability to begin with. The rest is mind control. And, of course, I believe she inherited the most important quality a contract killer can have.”
“What’s that?”
“A taste for killing.”
“You mean she likes it?”
“She’s a natural. Of course, there’s a very thin line between being a contract killer and a serial killer. If she’s not guided properly, Kimberly could easily go off the deep end.”
Sam was speechless.
“So anyway,” Doc Howard said, “I found her deepest, darkest secret, and moved forward from there.”
“What’s her secret?”
“I’ll tell you, if we work a deal.”
“I’m in.”
“You haven’t heard the deal.”
“Okay, tell me.”
“What you get is Kimberly. You won’t have complete control over her mind and body, but you’ll be well- positioned to influence her.”
“Influence her to do what?
“Steal for you, kill for you, and possibly even sleep with you, if that’s your wish.”
“Turn Creed’s daughter into a killer and get her to fall in love with me? This is a joke, right? I bet Creed’s watching us right now on a monitor somewhere!”
Sam looked around the room.
“If you recall, the monitors in this room have been destroyed or removed. You’ll have your proof within minutes, if I get what I want. But let me address the idea of getting her to fall in love with you. I wouldn’t count on that happening. But you’re a hop, skip and a jump from being able to seduce her.”
“You said you can furnish proof?”
“I’ve made tapes of every conversation I’ve had with Kimberly. Hundreds of hours. I’ll turn those over to you, to study carefully over the next few weeks. I’ll sneak you onto some of our calls so you can get a real-time feel for the way I work her mind. When you’re ready, you can take over. In your real voice.”
“Won’t she know it’s not you?”
“No. You’ll have memorized our entire history of conversations. You’ll have me down cold.” He pauses. “But there is one issue you’ll have to get past.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve made her call me Daddy.”
“What? Why?”
“Part of the mind control. She craves her father’s love, so I’m transferring that emotion. She’s a very smart young lady. She knows I’m manipulating her. Which gives her the false sense she’s maintaining control in the relationship. But her weakness is logic. If you can make an extremely logical case for something, you can probably get her to do it.”
“I could make it sound logical to fall in love with me.”
“She’s twenty.”
“So?”
“Girls that age are biologically drawn to strong young men of a similar age. Love is not a logical act.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not saying it’s impossible to make her fall in love with you, but I doubt you can. Your age and your looks are acceptable, but not an advantage for a nice looking twenty-year-old, in my opinion. Killing and copulating are acts. They’re specific, physical acts that take place and are quickly ended. Love is an emotion. It’s a feeling you have, not an act you perform.”
“Example?”
“Do you ever play poker?”
“I’ve played a couple of times.”
“And Kimberly’s fallen in love a couple of times.”
“So?”
“Trying to get you to play poker with me at one o’clock this afternoon is an act. I might have to persist, but I could probably talk you into playing a few games of poker with me today, or some other day. But trying to talk you into become a professional poker player today is too much to shoot for. Do you understand?”
“Getting her to fuck me is easier than getting her to fall in love with me.”
“Crude, but accurate.”
“And she calls you Daddy.”
“She calls me Daddy, yes. And she goes by the name, Maybe Taylor. Thinks I don’t know Taylor’s the name of the young man she killed. Her former boyfriend. In fact, I’m not supposed to know anything about the boyfriend, so put that part out of your mind.”
“Why Maybe?”
“Her choice of names. It means maybe she’ll kill for me, maybe she won’t. It’s her way of not having to think about killing as a profession.”
“The Daddy thing will be hard to navigate around, if I’m going to seduce her.”
“You’ll work it out. She already loves me, or at least, the idea of me. I’m her closest confidante, her only true friend. But I haven’t taken our relationship into any sort of sexual area. It’s a logical extension for her, but impractical for me. You, on the other hand, are young enough. And you’re cunning, and manipulating, given you haven’t tipped your hand to Creed about Area B. And Kimberly’s extremely vulnerable to a sexual relationship.”
“Why’s that?”
“She has female problems that can be exploited. She thinks I’m older, despite the voice disguising equipment. So when you speak to her in your real voice, she’ll be curious enough to open her mind to the possibility of romance. At that point you can confess you’ve fallen for her.”
“You think it’ll work?”
“Yes.”
“Because?”
