Ann Voss Peterson - Evidence Of Marriage

Crossing the aisle, he reached into his pocket. He had to be fast. He couldn’t let her catch on. Not until he had her where he wanted her. He tilted his head at the pink box, as if he really gave a damn about fabric softener. “Oh, I’ve seen commercials for that kind.” He reached out as if he intended to take a closer look at the package. Instead, he grabbed her arm.

Her eyes flew wide. She pulled back, trying to free herself, trying to fight.

He whipped his hand out of his pocket and stabbed the syringe into her arm. He held her as she fought. Finally the drug took effect, and she swayed and stumbled into him.

Moving quickly, before anyone else wandered into the Laundromat, he pulled his laundry bag over her head. When he’d pulled it down past her waist, he positioned her swaying body next to a laundry cart and flopped her over. Lifting her by the hips, he heaved her into the cart.

A tinge of pain shot through his back. They were always heavier when they were deadweight. Once he let her loose in the forest, once she was fighting for her life, he wouldn’t have to worry about back strain. Then the pain would all be hers.

He stuffed her feet into the oversize bag, pulled the drawstring closed and tied it. Smiling to himself, he wheeled the cart to the exit and his waiting van outside.

Yes, Laundromats were great for hunting. And he’d just bagged himself some prey.

Diana Gale had done everything she could think of to make her twin sister’s post-wedding gift opening a memory to cherish. She’d decorated her apartment with purple irises and white streamers. She’d poured mimosas and coffee for Sylvie’s handful of out-of-town friends. And, not much of a cook herself, she’d made brunch reservations at one of Madison’s best restaurants. But as Sylvie sat on the couch next to her groom and tore open the card attached to the last silver-and-white package, Diana knew something was wrong.

Sylvie’s face blanched. Clutching at the gift, she looked to her new groom with stricken eyes. “Bryce.”

“What is it?”

Sylvie spread the wedding card before Bryce Walker. She looked up at Diana.

She didn’t have to say who the gift was from. Diana knew by the alarm shining in her sister’s blue eyes—eyes identical to hers. And his.

A tremor crept up Diana’s spine, raising the hair on the back of her neck. She hadn’t spoken to their birth father in months, neither had Sylvie, but a day hadn’t passed that they didn’t think about him. Now the door of communication she’d thrown open would never be able to fully close.

“Who is it from?” One of Sylvie’s friends who’d traveled up from Chicago for the wedding eyed Sylvie with a curious smile.

Diana plastered a smile to her own lips. Lisa might have been one of Sylvie’s workmates from her previous life, but there was something about the woman Diana didn’t trust. It was as if she were constantly on the prowl for a wisp of gossip to provide herself with excitement, even at someone else’s expense. The last thing either Sylvie or Diana needed was for Lisa and Sylvie’s other friends at the morning gift opening to learn who had given this particular gift. “Just someone we know.”

Leaning the gift against the side of the couch where she and Bryce sat, Sylvie pushed to her feet. “You’ll have to excuse me. I’m not feeling so well.” She darted from the room and down the hall toward Diana’s bathroom.

Bryce handed the card to Diana and started after his bride.

She gripped the card with trembling hands. Opening it, her eyes flew to the simple message scrawled beneath the wedding verse. A message from their father, serial killer Dryden Kane.

A father should have the privilege of walking his daughter down the aisle. I miss my girls. I look forward to your visit.

A newspaper clipping lay between the tissue folds inside the card. Several months old, the newspaper article was dated October of the previous year.

Copycat Killer Claims Three

Cold filtered through her blood. She knew Dryden Kane’s silence wouldn’t last forever. She knew he’d find a way to contact them. She also knew in her bones that her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, hadn’t heard the last of the killer who was copying Kane’s crimes—a man the police believed was carrying out the orders of Kane himself.

“Is Sylvie okay?” Lisa looked down the hall, eyes glowing with predatory interest.

“Maybe we should see if she needs anything,” another friend offered.

“What is in that card?” asked a third.

Waving off their questions, Diana eyed the gift that leaned against the side of the couch still shrouded in its silver-and-white wedding-bell paper. She had to think. She had to figure out what to do. She had to talk to Sylvie and Bryce. But in order to do any of those things, first she must deflect Sylvie’s friends and their curiosity.

She made a show of looking at her watch. “Why don’t you guys head down to the restaurant?”

“The restaurant? Now?” Lisa shook her head. “I think we should help Sylvie.”

“Bryce is helping her.”

“There’s only so much a man can do.” Lisa stood up from her chair and plopped her hands on her hips. “I’ve been friends with Sylvie longer than any of you. It’s my duty to help her through this.”

Diana tried to tamp down her annoyance. Lisa might have known Sylvie the longest, but she had no clue about what they were dealing with. “Making sure the restaurant doesn’t give away our table will be the most help, Lisa. Really.”

Lisa frowned. Apparently she wanted more excitement than securing a spot for brunch would provide.

“Lisa, please.” Diana offered her best pleading smile, praying the woman had the sense to stop pushing. “It would really help out.”

Reluctantly, Lisa nodded. “All right. But if the three of you don’t join us soon, I’ll be back to check on you.” She gathered her posse and headed out of Diana’s apartment.

As soon as the door shut behind them, Diana set the card on the counter and rushed to check on Sylvie. She tapped on the bathroom door.

Bryce stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind him.

“How is she?”

“Sick. I’m sure all of us feel that way to some extent.”

Diana couldn’t agree more. But Diana’s nausea was mixed with a heavy dose of guilt. “Is she going to be okay?”

Bryce paused, studying Diana’s face. “We were going to wait to tell people, but you might as well know now.”

“Know what?”

“Sylvie’s pregnant.”

“Oh, Bryce! That’s wonderful. I know how much you both want kids. Congratulations.”

“Thanks.” Bryce smiled despite the concern still cloaking his brow. “But I’m worried about her. Especially with all this.”

“You’re leaving on your honeymoon tomorrow. She won’t have to worry about it. At least not for a few weeks.”

“If I can convince her to go.”

“She has to go.”

He shrugged. “You know Sylvie. She’s worried about you.”

Diana shook her head. Her sister’s concern for her would be touching, if Diana weren’t guilty of bringing this evil into Sylvie’s life in the first place. “I’ll be fine.”

He gave a shallow nod, as if he wasn’t so sure.

“Trust me. I can take care of myself this time. You and Sylvie have a baby to think about.”

He nodded, but again, his agreement wasn’t convincing.

She knew he was remembering last October, when he and Sylvie had saved her from becoming the victim of a grief-stricken man’s revenge. But that wasn’t all that had happened during that time. There had been more. Far more. “You’re thinking of your brother.”

“I promised him… I promised myself that I’d find his killer. Kane waving this Copycat Killer in our faces is a little hard to take.”