Mariah Stewart - Cold Truth

He nodded. “You hit it right on the head. That’s exactly it. I couldn’t have said it better myself. She’s one of the strongest women I’ve ever met, and yes, one of the smartest as well, but she has this gentle side to her. She’s been a good friend. And I guess that’s why we all love her.”

Lucky Annie, Cass was thinking as Rick backed out of the parking space. What, she wondered, would it be like to have not one, but a whole passel of hunky FBI men in love with you?

And she was certain they were all hunky, if the others in his unit were anything like Rick. In her mind they were. A whole entire crew of great-looking men was so much more fun to imagine than solemn-looking men in dark suits wearing the requisite dark glasses-though it occurred to her that Rick did look pretty hot in his shades.

The thought of all those great-looking guys lined up made her smile.

The smile faded a bit when she realized this had been the first light thought she’d had in… she couldn’t remember when. When had she last wanted to smile, or laugh, or make a joke? The events of the past two weeks clearly had not presented many opportunities for humor.

“Cass.”

“What?”

“I said, what would you like to do now?” He glanced at the clock on the dashboard. “It’s almost six. Dinnertime for most folks.”

“Well, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to stop at the hospital to see how Lucy’s doing, but beyond that, we need to know if she thinks she’s ready to meet with the sketch artist. Lucy is the only person who’s been face-to-face with this guy and lived to tell about it. The sooner we can get a sketch, the better. Especially now that it appears this might be someone who could be easily recognized by people in town.”

“Say the word, and I’ll have the Bureau’s best up here in a flash.”

“Lucy will tell me if she’s up to it. She seemed to be making progress yesterday. I can’t imagine they’ll make her stay too much longer.”

“We may want to stretch out that hospital stay, if for no other reason than to keep her under lock and key. Denver ’s had the guard at her door twenty-four/seven, but once she leaves there, it’s going to be harder to keep an eye on her. I don’t know that the cops in the town where she lives would be willing or able to put her under constant surveillance. We could ask for someone from the Bureau, though.”

“I can’t believe the rat-bastard husband of hers is actually going to take her home with him. Or that she’ll go.”

“What makes him a rat bastard? Other than the fact that he looks a little shifty.”

“You caught that? And you don’t even know him.” She leaned back into her seat, a satisfied smile on her lips. “Of course, if she goes home, she’ll get to see her kids, and that’s going to be really important to her. I’m sure he’ll take her to see the boys. They’re away at sports camp.”

“I did sports camps when I was a kid. Of course, we didn’t have what kids today have. Not just the variety to choose from, but the opportunity to learn from professional athletes was never an option for us. Today, these kids can go to football camp or basketball camp or softball camp and actually get pointers from some of the best in the business.”

“Lucy’s boys are at a camp where they do two weeks each of several different sports, and they do have pro athletes come in to work with the kids. I know she’s said they’re having a ball. They don’t want to come home.”

“Do they know about the attack on her?”

“No. She didn’t want them told. She figures she’s better off telling them when she sees them. She’ll still be bruised, but at least they’ll be able to see that she’s okay.” Her voice dropped a bit. “It will be important for them to see that she’s okay…” Her voice trailed off.

Rick reached over and took her left hand in his.

“This has been a rough day for you. You’ve held up remarkably well. If there’s anything you want to do, or anyplace you want to go…”

“Just to the hospital.” She made no effort to pull her hand away. That small bit of closeness seemed to offer reassurance, and made her feel, for the first time in a very long time, that she was not alone. It was part of his job to set her at ease, she knew. She’d played the same role-that of comforter-to others many times in the past. Still, his touch was soothing, and she was grateful for it.

They drove in silence for the remaining four blocks to the hospital. Rick parked in the garage and started to open his car door, when his cell phone rang.

“Mitch,” he answered the call, “what do you have for us?”

“I’ll only be a few minutes,” Cass whispered as she got out of the car.

“Wait a minute… wait for me. Mitch, hold for a second…”

“I won’t be long. I just want to see her, see how she’s feeling. You don’t have to come. Look, there are guards everywhere. I’ll be fine.” She was off before he could loosen his seat belt.

Rick watched her through the rearview mirror, as she disappeared into the stairwell.

He got out of the car and followed her while listening to Mitch’s rundown of victims they’d found from across the country and across the years that matched the MO of the Bayside Strangler.

“Any DNA testing results available?” he asked as he opened the stairwell door and climbed the single flight of steps from parking level B to the lobby.

“How many matches?” He walked into the lobby and crossed to the elevator.

“Are you serious? And no one’s put this together… oh, of course, right. You’re right…” Rick punched the button for the sixth floor. “So we have a whole long string of offenses that match perfectly, a good number of DNA matches, but no description of this guy.” He shook his head. “He must be incredibly good or incredibly lucky-maybe both-to have kept it going all these years without being seen.”

Rick stepped off the elevator and walked to Lucy’s door, where he nodded to the police officer who’d been assigned the afternoon shift, then leaned back against the door frame and lowered his voice to continue the conversation. From Lucy’s bedside, Cass looked over her shoulder. She locked eyes with Rick for a moment before turning back to her cousin.

“Can you follow up with those?” Rick asked. “Sure. I can be there in the morning. One thing I should mention, though. I’ll be bringing Cass along with me… yeah, well, what did Annie tell you?” He glanced into the hospital room as he listened. His gaze fell on Lucy’s husband, David, who sat on an uncomfortable-looking orange plastic chair, his arms folded over his chest. His every effort to join in the conversation between Lucy and Cass having been ignored, he now pretended to ignore them.

“Give me some quick directions…” Rick kept his eyes on the scene unfolding in the room. Lucy was wiping her eyes, while Cass appeared to be speaking softly, something comforting, he was sure. How could the woman do that, he wondered, after the afternoon she’d had? Surely, looking back on that horrific day, even from a deep hypnotic state, must have taken a toll on her emotions. He’d figured she was tough, but he hadn’t known she was that tough.

“Give me that again,” he was saying, when Cass turned and looked at him. She stood and rested a hand on Lucy’s cheek, then walked toward Rick.

“Anytime.” She mouthed the word, so as to not disturb his conversation.

“Was that a right or a left off Route One?” He indicated to Cass that he could talk and walk to the elevator at the same time. Once inside the car, however, his phone went dead.

“Damn,” he muttered, “I was almost there.”

“Almost where?” Cass asked.