BEVERLY BARTON - The Fifth Victim

“Just so happens he is. Hold on and I’ll get him for you. I know he was expecting you in tonight.”

“I got held up,” Dallas said. “I won’t be able to make it into town until tomorrow.”

Dallas waited for a reply. None came. Then he realized the phone was dead. Damn. Now he wouldn’t get a chance to speak to Butler tonight.

“Did you get Jacob?” the woman asked as she entered the living room carrying a silver tray.

Dallas came to his feet instantly and went to her. He took the tray from her and carried it across the room, then placed it on the table to the left of the fireplace where she indicated with a wave of her open palm.

“I got hold of a Deputy Harte, but the line went dead before I could speak to the sheriff.”

She motioned for him to take a seat, which he did.

“Well, that means the ice has gotten heavy on some of the phone lines and snapped them.” She lifted a silver teapot and poured a reddish-brown liquid into a china cup. “I fixed you a chicken salad sandwich. Is that all right?”

“Are you always so accommodating to strangers stranded on your mountain?” He accepted the cup of tea she held out to him. “If so, then I’m surprised your cousin Jacob hasn’t cautioned you to be more careful. Even with Drudwyn around”—he scanned the room—“by the way, where is your companion?”

She sat across from Dallas and removed a linen napkin from atop a china plate with roses on it, revealing a large, thick sandwich. Dallas’s mouth watered. He hadn’t had a bite to eat since lunch, which had been over ten hours ago.

“He stayed in the kitchen,” she replied.

“By choice?”

“By mutual agreement.”

She stared at him unabashedly. An odd sensation hit him square in the gut. “Please, Dallas, go ahead and eat.”

His named rolled off her tongue as if coated in honey. A sweet Southern drawl. A tight fist clutched at his insides. Something was definitely wrong here. He didn’t go around reacting this way to women. Not ever.

“I don’t know your name.” He forced a smile. Hell, he didn’t feel like smiling; he felt like running scared out of this house and away from this strange yet oddly appealing woman.

“Genevieve Madoc. But people call me Genny.”

Genevieve. The name suited her. And yet so did Genny. Old-fashioned, even a bit romantic.

“I appreciate your hospitality, Genny.”

“You’re quite welcome.”

Once again she reached out and touched his hand, but this time she closed her eyes. What the hell was she doing? Suddenly, she jerked her hand away.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Your pain is very great,” she told him. “Almost more than you can bear. It wasn’t your fault that she died. And it isn’t your fault that you haven’t found her killer. But you will. And soon.”

Dallas dropped the cup; it crashed into pieces as it hit the hard wooden floor. Hot tea spread out across the shiny surface. He sat there staring at Genny for several minutes. Moments out of time.

“I’m sorry about the cup,” he said as he reached down to pick up the pieces. “If you’ll get me a mop, I’ll—”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it. Here—” she took her cup, filled it with tea, and handed it to him. “Drink, eat, relax. Let me take care of you.”

Before he could reply, she rose to her feet and hurried from the room. Dallas stared after her, stunned by her words. Let me take care of you .

“How did you know about my niece?” he asked.

“I’m sure Jacob must have mentioned it,” she replied as she paused in the doorway.

He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but there was something peculiar about Genny, something that didn’t quite add up. Get real, Sloan , he chastised himself. You’re tired, you’re stressed, and you haven’t gotten laid in six months. You’re overreacting to simple human kindness .

Maybe so, but he couldn’t shake the unnerving feeling that Genevieve Madoc was going to change his life forever.

He laid her limp body in the middle of the bed, gazed down at her, and smiled.

The second victim had fallen into his arms as easily as the first had. Providence always provided. He never had to choose the first four—they always came to him. He simply waited for them. Sometimes it took only days. Other times it might take weeks. But they were essential. Their blood sustained him, strengthened him, prepared him for the fifth victim.

She would remain unconscious for several hours. Long enough for him to remove her clothes and pleasure himself. With the weather so nasty, he didn’t believe an outdoor setting was wise. Where could he find an appropriate place to make the sacrifice? Only two things were necessary for him to accomplish the deed: an altar and complete privacy.

He couldn’t keep her here for very long. Not without risking being found out. No, he’d have to choose a place quickly, somewhere close by, since traveling very far would be out of the question in this winter storm. Before daybreak he would place her on the altar, speak the solemn, sacred words he’d been taught as a boy, then, when dawn broke over the eastern horizon, he would make the sacrifice.

One sacrifice had already been made and there were three more to make before he could take her, the one who would give him more power than all the other victims combined. Just the thought of taking her, consuming her, aroused him unbearably.

While a drugged Cindy Todd lay on the cot in the basement, he unzipped his slacks, eased his penis free and jerked off. Within moments his cum spewed out over her naked belly.

Big Jim Upton poured himself a brandy and tried his best to shut out the sound of his wife’s droning voice. It wasn’t that he didn’t love Reba. He did. She was a good woman, but not an endearing one. He’d married her on the rebound over fifty-five years ago, when the love of his life married another man. He didn’t regret marrying her—at least not until recently. Reba had given him a son and a daughter; and together they had survived the loss of both children. For years they had clung to the hope that their only grandchild would eventually mature into a decent, responsible human being. Jamie was thirty now and it was past time for him to settle down, but Jim didn’t see any evidence of that happening anytime soon.

“Where on earth could he be?” Reba whined as she paced the floor in the living room. “How could he leave his own welcome-home party without so much as a by-your-leave?”

Jim glanced across the room at Jamie’s most recent fiancée. Laura Willis sat on the sofa, her eyes downcast and her hands folded in her lap. The girl was a great improvement over some of the other women the boy had brought home—two other fiancées during the past eight years. Jamie wouldn’t marry this girl, just as he hadn’t married the ones that had come before her, but she probably didn’t realize it—not yet. But she would. Possibly tonight. Jim had a pretty good idea where Jamie had gone. Once he was back in Cherokee County, not even a winter storm could keep him away from Jazzy Talbot.

“Do you suppose he had car trouble and that’s why he hasn’t returned?” Laura lifted her head but didn’t make eye contact with either Jim or Reba.

“He could have called,” Reba said. “The phone is not out of order. I checked myself only a few minutes ago.”

“What’s the point of our staying up any longer?” Jim asked. “Jamie will come home when he comes home. That boy doesn’t have a responsible, reliable bone in his body.”

“Jim, really!” Reba’s voice screeched. “What will dear Laura think, hearing you speak about your own grandson in such a manner?”