Erica Spindler - Copy Cat

“Cut the crap. Did you call to gloat about Brian? About killing him?”

“I don’t know what or who you’re talking about.”

“Lieutenant Brian Spillare.” To her horror, her throat closed over his name. “My friend. My former partner.”

For long moments he said nothing. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“I should believe you, right? A liar and a murderer? Are you a cop, too? Are you, Peanut?”

He sucked in a sharp breath. She pressed on. “Did he get too close? Ask the wrong question? So you killed him.”

“Not mine, Kitten. You’ll have to look elsewhere this time.”

He attempted to be flip, but Kitt detected the slightest tremor in his voice. She had shaken him. Why? If he was being honest and hadn’t killed Brian, why care?

Because she’d asked if he was a cop?

“A child killer and a cop killer.” She paused. “But I forgot the little old ladies. We could rename you the Granny Basher.”

“The cop’s not mine,” he said again. His voice rose. “That’s not why I called.”

“Why did you call, Peanut? Not to gloat? Then why? Why bother me?”

“To talk.” His voice shook. “To make you understand. Without others listening.”

She laughed at him, at the tremor and the notion that she should listen to him. “Understand what? That you’re a yellow son of a bitch. A chicken-shit who murders children and grandmothers?”

“Careful-”

“Why should I be? No one’s listening, remember?” She spun around, facing the dark street. She held out her free arm. “Come get me, asshole! Here I am!”

“You’re hysterical. Calm down.”

“And you’re a monster. Go to hell.”

“I’m not a monster!” He fell silent; she heard the crackle and hiss of flame touching tobacco. His deep inhalation. “I’m not one of those animals who kills for pleasure. I get no thrill from taking a life.”

“Then why?” she asked.

“It’s an intellectual pursuit. Like chess. Crime and investigation. Criminal and cop. Don’t you see?”

“Nobody dies in chess.”

“Higher stakes, that’s all.”

Kitt thought of the dead children, their families. She thought of the three old ladies he claimed were his victims, that they’d been someone’s mother, sister, grandmother. She made a sound of disgust. “Those girls were playing a game with you? Give me a break.”

“No, Kitten.” She heard the admonishment in his voice, the disappointment. “You and I are playing. Now. And five years ago.”

“I’m not playing with you now. I wasn’t then.”

“You are. You were. Five years ago, I won.”

“Winning is getting away with the crime?”

“Yes. Outsmarting and outmaneuvering you. The police.”

“And if I win, I catch you.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “We both want to win. I have the edge, of course.”

“Why’s that?”

“I’m not emotionally involved. You are.”

He wasn’t, she realized. Which made him a true psychopath. No remorse. No empathy. No moral sense of right and wrong.

It also made him that much more difficult to catch.

“Taking a life is not a game move.”

“To you,” he said softly. “Exactly why I have the advantage.”

“Are you the Copycat?”

He paused. “No. I’m not.”

No innuendo this time, no infuriating maybe. She sat down hard on the front steps as the realization hit her: Two killers. Six dead children. A span of five years. And she was no closer to an answer.

She couldn’t do this.

She didn’t have a choice.

“Giving up, Kitten?”

He knew her so well. Did he read her mind? Or the tone of her voice? Or was he a distorted version of herself, a cop obsessed with committing crime instead of stopping it.

“Never. I’ll never give up or stop searching for you.”

“I’m sorry.” The regret in his voice sounded genuine. “It’s hard for you to lose, isn’t it?”

“I’ve already lost everything. This is nothing.”

“Not your life. Surely, you fear death?”

She pictured Sadie and smiled. “No. Death isn’t an ending, but a beginning.”

“Then why fight so hard to hold on to life?” His voice deepened, took on the quality of a caress. “Why the outrage when it’s taken?”

“Because life has value. It’s a gift, a blessing from God. And it’s not yours, or anyone else’s, to take.”

“My Kitten has a spiritual side.”

“Whose hair is this?”

“That’s what DNA testing is for.”

“Is it one of the original Angels’?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know who the Copycat killer is?”

“Yes.”

In the past he had been coy with her. Tonight he seemed bent on taking their “game” to a new level. Or was it their relationship he wanted to take to the next level? she wondered. A step past teasing, toward the intimacy of real sharing.

He thought of this as a relationship, she realized.

She worked to keep her excitement at bay. “Give me a name. I’ll get him-or her-out of the picture. Then it’ll be just you and me.”

“Her?” He sounded pleased.

“Is that what you planted for me to find in the storage locker?”

“No. But you’ve surprised me. Until now I’ve been…less than impressed with your deductive skills.”

There was something else there.

She tucked that away for later. “A name. Then it’ll be just you and me. I’d like that. Wouldn’t you?”

“Things like that aren’t free.”

“What do you want in return?”

“You, Kitt.” She could almost hear his smile. “I want to know you better.”

“I invited you to come out of the shadows. There’s no one here but me.”

“We do not have to see each other for me to know you. I want inside your head. I want to know how you think, what you feel. Your dreams. And your fears.”

“But you already know,” she said softly. “Don’t you?”

“Not enough,” he said simply. “I want more. Tell me about your marriage.”

“My marriage?” she repeated, off balance.

“About Joe. Your love affair.”

She hadn’t expect this. He seemed determined to peel back her self-protective layers and peer beneath. What did he intend to do with her once he had examined each and exposed her soft, inner core?

He meant to kill her.

No, he meant to destroy her.

As if once again reading her thoughts, he laughed. “A name, Kitt. Do it for the children.”

The children. The angels. That he used them as a bargaining chip infuriated her. “Bastard. Ask me a question.”

“How did you meet?”

“We were high school sweethearts,” she said grudgingly. “We met when I was a freshman and he was a sophomore.”

“How?”

His questions, coming so close on the heels of Joe being interrogated, were weird.

“It’s a cliché. He bumped into me, I dropped my books. He helped me pick them up.” She drew a deep breath, realizing that she was trembling. “He had the bluest eyes I’d ever seen.”

“And you fell in love with him, just like that?”

“Yes. Just like that.”

“Love at first sight, how sweet.”

She could tell he was laughing at her. That sweet was synonymous with naive and ridiculous. “I didn’t know that’s what it was. Only now, in retrospect.”

“Why him? The blue eyes?”

“Joe’s kind. The kindest, most gentle man I’ve ever known.” She smiled to herself, recalling. “Not just to me. He loves others. Appreciates people. Their differences. Even their flaws.”

“He’s a fucking saint, isn’t he? Saint Joe.”

“We had the same dreams,” she went on, his ugliness rolling off her. This wasn’t about him, she realized. The SAK or Copycat; it wasn’t about the investigation.