Descario’s house?
Descario was either dead inside the house, or not home. The message Glenn left for Will wasn’t the ravings of a lunatic, but a man with a purpose. He’d wanted Will to come here. Why?
To show his power. That he could walk free when every law enforcement agency was looking for him.
“Oh, yes, Theodore, you’re very, very smart,” Will whispered. “Is that what you want? Me to acknowledge your genius?”
“Excuse me?” Carina said.
“Nothing.” But Will was getting a far greater sense of his prey now, much better than he had seven years ago.
They skirted the edge of the large, private house in Rancho Santa Margarita. The wealthy neighborhood was quiet, which wasn’t surprising. Will rarely came to this neighborhood. Crime was minimal. In fact, the last time he’d been here was ten months ago, when a prominent psychiatrist was thought to have committed suicide. Property crimes, occasional domestics, rarely anything violent. Nothing that would come to the attention of a homicide detective.
It was when he and Carina met back up at the front that he realized exactly what was wrong.
“Security.”
“What?”
“Where are the lights? Virtually every house in this neighborhood had security lights. A cat walks across the yard, and spotlights come on.”
“If the power was cut, wouldn’t the alarm company have called? Checked it out?”
“Depends.”
“On?”
“If the security system was activated.”
Will hesitated. If he was wrong and Descario had left town or was out with his girlfriend tonight, he’d be putting the department in a bad light. Cops breaking into homes. Still, an escaped convict had threatened the former district attorney. What more probable cause did he need?
“I’ll go around back. Count to thirty and then we both go in.”
Carina nodded. Will motioned to the uniform to back his partner up. He went around to the back, counting. Two sets of French doors opened into the backyard off the breakfast nook. He was there at count twenty-four.
Twenty-five.
Twenty-six.
Who was Glenn going after next? How could they stop him if he had help?
Twenty-nine.
Thirty.
Simultaneously, Will and Carina broke down the doors of the house.
No alarm went off.
Will searched the rear half of the house. He met up with Carina in the foyer. She’d already covered the living and dining rooms. She shook her head and Will motioned to go upstairs. She nodded, covering his back.
The master bedroom doors were closed. Will held up three fingers. One. Two. Three.
They pushed open the doors.
A piercing alarm sounded. Spotlights went on all around the house.
And no one was in the bed.
“Shit,” Will said. “He played us.”
“Human beings are so predictable,” Theodore told Sara, enjoying the spectacle down the street, a faint smile on his lips.
“You’re so smart, Teddy.” Sara rested her hand on his arm, her fingers tracing his bicep.
Not just humans in general, but William Hooper in particular was predictable. Theodore had, of course, imagined killing Bryce Descario. But in the end, when he had the chance, he let it go.
Watching William’s reaction to the setup was far more fun than killing the pathetic former district attorney. His letter to William had done exactly what he expected-sent them to Descario’s house. So predictable, and that helped him know how to handle his next few moves.
Through binoculars Theodore watched Descario drive up in his slick Mercedes. The fat little dictator started pointing fingers, yelling at William, threatening him. And the detective took it. Of course he did. He wouldn’t fight back, not like that. He didn’t have it in him.
William Hooper would sacrifice his life for Robin McKenna. He wouldn’t fight back, he would give it. On Theodore’s word? Hmm, perhaps. That would be very interesting now, wouldn’t it?
Would the cop agree? Would Theodore even give him the choice?
There was nothing Theodore wanted more than to have William Hooper and Robin McKenna at the opposite ends of the same rope. He wanted
That small feeling, a minimal emotion, which Theodore kept alive through sheer determination and constant thought about Robin McKenna, consumed him. This was no longer a simple game, where he would prove (again) that he was smarter than the police and everyone they put against him. This was bigger than winning or losing. It was destiny, as if everything he’d done, learned, tried, put him here, at this point in time, to destroy two people.
It was heady, really, something few people had the capacity to understand. It was more than the game, more than the risk, and for the first time, it was more than the thrill.
For the first time, he knew he would be sustained after everything played out. After pitting Romeo against Juliet.
“Teddy?”
Theodore faced Sara, held her face in his hands. He could snap her neck without a thought. He could slice her throat. But not now.
Not yet.
Sara had been productive during her excursion to the gaslamp district. Not only had she taken care of the letter to Robin, she’d learned that Robin was thinking about not opening the Sin tomorrow.
“I think we need to wait until her art show,” Sara said.
Theodore tensed. “Since when did I ask you to plan anything? I will make all the decisions.”
“I just-”
He slapped her. Not because he received any pleasure from hitting her, but because he wanted her to shut up.
“You’ve been valuable to me for the past year. Don’t fuck with me now, Sara.”
“I–I-Teddy, I love you.”
He swallowed back a biting comment. He needed this woman, as much as he loathed to admit it.
But he wouldn’t need her forever.
He forced himself to soften his tone. “Sara, you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.” He touched her face softly, remembering how William had touched Robin the night Anna was killed.
She melted into his hand, much like Robin had done to William. Was this a female response? Theodore closed his eyes, imagining Robin leaning into his caress. Parting her lips for him. Giving herself to him, only him.
“Let me kill her for you,” she said.
Theodore opened his eyes, genuinely surprised for the first time in his life. Sara looked at him, an earnest expression on her face.
He hadn’t expected this. He looked at Sara with a renewed respect, and a touch of suspicion. Was she trying to pull something on him?
“I have to do it myself.”
Sara shook her head. “She’ll be the death of you, Teddy. They’re looking for you. You won’t get near her. But I have an in, I can get to her-”
“You don’t know me, woman. You don’t know anything about me. I can and will kill Robin McKenna, right in front of that bastard cop.” But he was curious. “What is your plan?”
