Predatory Game
Page 49
Saber laughed and sank into a chair. “Do you have any more questions?”
“A dozen or so.” Brian gave her a reluctant answering smile. “But tell me if Patsy’s all right.”
“Yes. She’s in the hospital. She had a heart attack.”
Brian’s color paled. “A heart attack? But, she’s too young.”
“I think she had a heart problem and with the assault on her, her heart couldn’t take it and reacted. She’s in the hospital and she’s better.”
His boyish good looks suddenly hardened, and for one brief second he looked scary. “Who attacked her?”
Saber shrugged, trying to appear casual. “I have no idea who they were.” Usually she liked the radio station at night, sitting in the booth, talking to unseen listeners, but she was so tired and so many things had gone so wrong, that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to come in to work. Now she was looking at Brian as if he were a suspect. “Do you know Patsy very well? I didn’t think she came to the station that much.”
“Actually Jess interviewed me for the job at his home, not here at the station, and Patsy was there. I was new in town and she had coffee with me a couple of times. Not like a date or anything, she was just being nice to me. But I like her.”
Saber grinned at him.
Brian raked a hand through his hair. “Not like that. Don’t start. And at least tell me if Calhoun is all right. He must have been really upset over his sister being attacked.”
Saber settled into her familiar chair. “Yeah, you could say he was upset. He’s pretty amazing for being in a wheelchair. I was impressed.” She tapped the mike, a habit she couldn’t break, her restless fingers moving everything around within reach. “It feels good to be back.”
“That nutcase that keeps calling you,” Brian said, “I’ve been listening to the tapes over and over and he’s distorting his voice, not a lot, but enough that I’m beginning to think that it’s someone you know. And some of the calls were prerecorded.”
Saber’s head snapped up. “What do you mean, prerecorded?”
“I don’t think he’s there. I think…” He broke off abruptly and shook his head.
“Oh no, you don’t. You can’t just stop there. This whack job records his distorted voice on tape and then calls the station and uses the recording?” That made no sense at all.
“I think he arranges for the phone to call in automatically, like the telemarketers, and when the phone on our end answers, the recording kicks on.”
“Why would he do that?”
“You tell me.”
Frustrated, Saber glared at him. “You’re driving me crazy. Men are crazy. Whoever said they were the logical sex? You’ve obviously been thinking about this and you must have a theory.”
“I’m not stupid enough to tell it to you, because it’s so farfetched. Figure it out yourself and tell me what you come up with.” He glanced at the clock. “You’re on in five.”
Brian had jinxed her for the entire night. She just couldn’t get into her normal rhythm. It wasn’t a bad show, but she didn’t shine, that was for sure. Why would someone use a device to make a call demanding to talk to her? What if she’d agreed to talk to him? What if he’d gotten past Brian? So the object of the phone call hadn’t really been to talk to her at all.
Whoever had broken into her house likely would be the same nut. Surely, there couldn’t be two separate people fixating on her. So why would he call and not be on the other end of the phone to talk to her if she took his call?
Her gaze strayed to Brian several times over the course of the next few hours, her body slowly growing tense. She studied his face. He had a boyish face, laugh lines around his eyes, his mouth always ready to smile. But when she really examined him, it occurred to her that those boyish good looks could be hiding something much more sinister beneath. Goose bumps raised along her skin.
She did another short broadcast, talking about nothing she could remember, her mind suddenly consumed with the reality that Brian moved with grace and carried himself like a man who could handle himself. And what did she really know about him? He’d arrived in town right before she had. And he saw Patsy occasionally. Her pulse thundered in her ears and her mouth went dry.
Had he said that to subtly warn her that he could hurt Patsy anytime he wanted? When had she let her guard down enough to stop being suspicious of everyone around her? She snuck another look at him-the set of his shoulders, the smooth way he moved. He was good at his work, easy to work with, he fit in.
What was she thinking? Where was she going with this and why was she suddenly tense and apprehensive? She bit down hard on her lip, distracted enough that she nearly missed her cue. At Brian’s frantic signals, she sent her soft, whispery siren’s voice out over the airwaves, gave a little commentary, and introduced the next run of songs. All the while her mind was turning over the puzzle, trying to piece together an answer.
Feeling Brian’s gaze on her, she turned and glared at him through the glass. She signaled him to come into the booth. Brian sauntered in, looking cockier than ever.
“I want to hear your theory.”
“What’s yours?” he countered.
“If I know him, obviously he’d have to disguise his voice.”
Brian nodded. “My feelings exactly.” He leaned one hip lazily against the console and regarded her from his lofty height.
Saber leaned close to him, moving her hand until it rested close to his arm right above his wrist. She drummed her fingers beside his arm, using her nervous habit to cover her movement. “And if he used a recorder, is it possible that he wants to be in two places at the same time?”
She tuned her heartbeat to his, listening to the rhythm, allowing her body to sync with his. If he was nervous, it didn’t show in his body rhythm. His heartbeat and pulse were steady. Her fingertips very lightly slid against his skin. “Like if it was you, Brian, you could call and still be here to take the call.” She made certain as she made the suggestion that even as she sounded casual, she checked to see if there was even a slight abnormality in his pulse.
He grinned at her. “Me? I like you, honey, but not that much. It’s a lot of trouble to go to, and I’m kinda on the lazy side.”
Absolutely no change in his rhythm. If Brian was lying, he would be able to beat a lie detector with no trouble at all. She didn’t believe he was that good. She slipped her fingers back to the surface of the console and resumed the “nervous” drumming. “It was a wild idea, but actually not a bad one. If the person is someone I know, wouldn’t it be a great way to keep suspicion from them? They could be with me when a call came in.”
“If you’re thinking Jess, I just can’t go there. I’m sure the man’s a perv, but if he wanted to get all freaky with your things, he’d have done it long before now.”
Everything in her stilled, but she hung on to her smile and the cool mask that was her face. Young. Innocent. So sweet and vulnerable. How had he known that the intruder had gotten into her things? No matter what he said to cover his tracks, Brian knew about the intruder, and no one should have that information. It hadn’t gone outside the GhostWalker circle at all.
“Not Jess, you dope.” She injected the right touch of humor.
She caught a glimpse of her face reflected in the glass surrounding her, and it was her heart that jumped. She was wearing her death mask. The innocent teenage one. Guileless. Little white teeth gleaming in a smile, eyes shining and friendly. She despised that mask, but there it was, an automatic reaction. She glanced down and found the pads of her fingers against his pulse, her body already syncing their rhythms. Even knowing from the easy relaxed rate of his pulse that he wasn’t the stalker, she instinctively had prepared to kill him to eliminate a threat, if she’d been wrong.
She jumped up so fast she knocked over her chair. Suddenly she wanted Jess’s arms around her, protecting her-or Brian. What was she thinking? That she could settle down with Jess in a fairy-tale world and have the happily-ever-after?
“What’s wrong, Saber?” Brian leaned down and picked up the chair, giving her a puzzled frown. “You really aren’t considering that it’s Jess-or me-are you? If you’re afraid, I’ll call Brady in. Hell.” He righted the chair and held up both hands palm out. “I was only trying to help. I didn’t want to scare you.”
“No, no, Brian.” She forced another babyfaced smile. “I’ve got an irrational fear of bugs, and I saw that spider.” She pointed to the little arachnid crawling innocently on the edge of the console. “I just reacted without thinking.”
Brian grinned at her and used his thumb to squash the spider. “I never expected such a girlie reaction from you.”
Saber rolled her eyes and forced an answering grin. “Well, don’t tell anyone.” She moved around him back to her chair, keeping her heart rate under control. She waved him out of the booth and turned back to the mike, talking nonsense and flirting a bit before she set up the next round of music.
Her first thought had been to eliminate the threat to her. She had been trained as a child to kill and she thought if she just refused, if she just walked away, she would be like everyone else. She’d stop and it would be over. But everywhere she went she had to take herself with her and she was an assassin-a trained killer. Her every instinct had been to destroy the threat.
She glanced through the glass at Brian. He was joking with Fred, the janitor. The kind older man cleaned the station every night, and Brian always, always, talked to him. Treated him with respect. Brought him food even, some little thing he’d found and thought Fred should try. Brian even got along with Les, the man who took his job during the day.
No one got along with Les. He kept to himself, was rude and insulting to and about women, and resented working for and having to take orders from a man in a wheelchair. He was good at his job, but basically he was just plain creepy…
Her breath came in a little rush. Les? Could the whack job be Les? But if it was Les, then how had Brian known about the intruder ruining her clothes? Patsy didn’t know. Only the GhostWalkers and…She picked up the phone. Jess answered on the third ring.
“Hey, quick question.” She glanced around to make certain no one could overhear. Brian was busy with Fred, not paying any attention. “Who knew about the whack job in my room?”
“The team of course.”
“Would they say anything?”
“No, of course not. Why?” Jess’s voice was filled with suspicion.
“No reason. I’m just trying to figure things out. Anyone else know? Patsy, for instance?”
“How the hell would Patsy know? Lily and Eric knew. I briefed them when we talked about…” He broke off, hesitated, and then supplied, “Things.”
“You meant me. You discussed me.”
“Among other things. You’re too sensitive, Saber.”
“Well, how many people know about you, Jesse? Not your SEAL background, but the GhostWalkers? Does Patsy? Your parents? Who knows? Who goes around discussing you?”
“What is wrong with you tonight?”
“I can’t talk right now, I have a show to do.”
She hung up, furious all over again. Damn him for sharing her life with those others. She didn’t know them. She didn’t trust them. They weren’t part of her world.
Brian knocked on the window and held his palms up in inquiry. Swearing under her breath, she leaned in to the mike and began another commentary, all the while her mind churning with myriad possibilities-or none at all. How had Brian found out? He had to be the intruder, but seriously-she studied him again through the glass-it just didn’t add up. No one that creepy could keep up that kind of pretense for long-could they?
“A dozen or so.” Brian gave her a reluctant answering smile. “But tell me if Patsy’s all right.”
“Yes. She’s in the hospital. She had a heart attack.”
Brian’s color paled. “A heart attack? But, she’s too young.”
“I think she had a heart problem and with the assault on her, her heart couldn’t take it and reacted. She’s in the hospital and she’s better.”
His boyish good looks suddenly hardened, and for one brief second he looked scary. “Who attacked her?”
Saber shrugged, trying to appear casual. “I have no idea who they were.” Usually she liked the radio station at night, sitting in the booth, talking to unseen listeners, but she was so tired and so many things had gone so wrong, that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to come in to work. Now she was looking at Brian as if he were a suspect. “Do you know Patsy very well? I didn’t think she came to the station that much.”
“Actually Jess interviewed me for the job at his home, not here at the station, and Patsy was there. I was new in town and she had coffee with me a couple of times. Not like a date or anything, she was just being nice to me. But I like her.”
Saber grinned at him.
Brian raked a hand through his hair. “Not like that. Don’t start. And at least tell me if Calhoun is all right. He must have been really upset over his sister being attacked.”
Saber settled into her familiar chair. “Yeah, you could say he was upset. He’s pretty amazing for being in a wheelchair. I was impressed.” She tapped the mike, a habit she couldn’t break, her restless fingers moving everything around within reach. “It feels good to be back.”
“That nutcase that keeps calling you,” Brian said, “I’ve been listening to the tapes over and over and he’s distorting his voice, not a lot, but enough that I’m beginning to think that it’s someone you know. And some of the calls were prerecorded.”
Saber’s head snapped up. “What do you mean, prerecorded?”
“I don’t think he’s there. I think…” He broke off abruptly and shook his head.
“Oh no, you don’t. You can’t just stop there. This whack job records his distorted voice on tape and then calls the station and uses the recording?” That made no sense at all.
“I think he arranges for the phone to call in automatically, like the telemarketers, and when the phone on our end answers, the recording kicks on.”
“Why would he do that?”
“You tell me.”
Frustrated, Saber glared at him. “You’re driving me crazy. Men are crazy. Whoever said they were the logical sex? You’ve obviously been thinking about this and you must have a theory.”
“I’m not stupid enough to tell it to you, because it’s so farfetched. Figure it out yourself and tell me what you come up with.” He glanced at the clock. “You’re on in five.”
Brian had jinxed her for the entire night. She just couldn’t get into her normal rhythm. It wasn’t a bad show, but she didn’t shine, that was for sure. Why would someone use a device to make a call demanding to talk to her? What if she’d agreed to talk to him? What if he’d gotten past Brian? So the object of the phone call hadn’t really been to talk to her at all.
Whoever had broken into her house likely would be the same nut. Surely, there couldn’t be two separate people fixating on her. So why would he call and not be on the other end of the phone to talk to her if she took his call?
Her gaze strayed to Brian several times over the course of the next few hours, her body slowly growing tense. She studied his face. He had a boyish face, laugh lines around his eyes, his mouth always ready to smile. But when she really examined him, it occurred to her that those boyish good looks could be hiding something much more sinister beneath. Goose bumps raised along her skin.
She did another short broadcast, talking about nothing she could remember, her mind suddenly consumed with the reality that Brian moved with grace and carried himself like a man who could handle himself. And what did she really know about him? He’d arrived in town right before she had. And he saw Patsy occasionally. Her pulse thundered in her ears and her mouth went dry.
Had he said that to subtly warn her that he could hurt Patsy anytime he wanted? When had she let her guard down enough to stop being suspicious of everyone around her? She snuck another look at him-the set of his shoulders, the smooth way he moved. He was good at his work, easy to work with, he fit in.
What was she thinking? Where was she going with this and why was she suddenly tense and apprehensive? She bit down hard on her lip, distracted enough that she nearly missed her cue. At Brian’s frantic signals, she sent her soft, whispery siren’s voice out over the airwaves, gave a little commentary, and introduced the next run of songs. All the while her mind was turning over the puzzle, trying to piece together an answer.
Feeling Brian’s gaze on her, she turned and glared at him through the glass. She signaled him to come into the booth. Brian sauntered in, looking cockier than ever.
“I want to hear your theory.”
“What’s yours?” he countered.
“If I know him, obviously he’d have to disguise his voice.”
Brian nodded. “My feelings exactly.” He leaned one hip lazily against the console and regarded her from his lofty height.
Saber leaned close to him, moving her hand until it rested close to his arm right above his wrist. She drummed her fingers beside his arm, using her nervous habit to cover her movement. “And if he used a recorder, is it possible that he wants to be in two places at the same time?”
She tuned her heartbeat to his, listening to the rhythm, allowing her body to sync with his. If he was nervous, it didn’t show in his body rhythm. His heartbeat and pulse were steady. Her fingertips very lightly slid against his skin. “Like if it was you, Brian, you could call and still be here to take the call.” She made certain as she made the suggestion that even as she sounded casual, she checked to see if there was even a slight abnormality in his pulse.
He grinned at her. “Me? I like you, honey, but not that much. It’s a lot of trouble to go to, and I’m kinda on the lazy side.”
Absolutely no change in his rhythm. If Brian was lying, he would be able to beat a lie detector with no trouble at all. She didn’t believe he was that good. She slipped her fingers back to the surface of the console and resumed the “nervous” drumming. “It was a wild idea, but actually not a bad one. If the person is someone I know, wouldn’t it be a great way to keep suspicion from them? They could be with me when a call came in.”
“If you’re thinking Jess, I just can’t go there. I’m sure the man’s a perv, but if he wanted to get all freaky with your things, he’d have done it long before now.”
Everything in her stilled, but she hung on to her smile and the cool mask that was her face. Young. Innocent. So sweet and vulnerable. How had he known that the intruder had gotten into her things? No matter what he said to cover his tracks, Brian knew about the intruder, and no one should have that information. It hadn’t gone outside the GhostWalker circle at all.
“Not Jess, you dope.” She injected the right touch of humor.
She caught a glimpse of her face reflected in the glass surrounding her, and it was her heart that jumped. She was wearing her death mask. The innocent teenage one. Guileless. Little white teeth gleaming in a smile, eyes shining and friendly. She despised that mask, but there it was, an automatic reaction. She glanced down and found the pads of her fingers against his pulse, her body already syncing their rhythms. Even knowing from the easy relaxed rate of his pulse that he wasn’t the stalker, she instinctively had prepared to kill him to eliminate a threat, if she’d been wrong.
She jumped up so fast she knocked over her chair. Suddenly she wanted Jess’s arms around her, protecting her-or Brian. What was she thinking? That she could settle down with Jess in a fairy-tale world and have the happily-ever-after?
“What’s wrong, Saber?” Brian leaned down and picked up the chair, giving her a puzzled frown. “You really aren’t considering that it’s Jess-or me-are you? If you’re afraid, I’ll call Brady in. Hell.” He righted the chair and held up both hands palm out. “I was only trying to help. I didn’t want to scare you.”
“No, no, Brian.” She forced another babyfaced smile. “I’ve got an irrational fear of bugs, and I saw that spider.” She pointed to the little arachnid crawling innocently on the edge of the console. “I just reacted without thinking.”
Brian grinned at her and used his thumb to squash the spider. “I never expected such a girlie reaction from you.”
Saber rolled her eyes and forced an answering grin. “Well, don’t tell anyone.” She moved around him back to her chair, keeping her heart rate under control. She waved him out of the booth and turned back to the mike, talking nonsense and flirting a bit before she set up the next round of music.
Her first thought had been to eliminate the threat to her. She had been trained as a child to kill and she thought if she just refused, if she just walked away, she would be like everyone else. She’d stop and it would be over. But everywhere she went she had to take herself with her and she was an assassin-a trained killer. Her every instinct had been to destroy the threat.
She glanced through the glass at Brian. He was joking with Fred, the janitor. The kind older man cleaned the station every night, and Brian always, always, talked to him. Treated him with respect. Brought him food even, some little thing he’d found and thought Fred should try. Brian even got along with Les, the man who took his job during the day.
No one got along with Les. He kept to himself, was rude and insulting to and about women, and resented working for and having to take orders from a man in a wheelchair. He was good at his job, but basically he was just plain creepy…
Her breath came in a little rush. Les? Could the whack job be Les? But if it was Les, then how had Brian known about the intruder ruining her clothes? Patsy didn’t know. Only the GhostWalkers and…She picked up the phone. Jess answered on the third ring.
“Hey, quick question.” She glanced around to make certain no one could overhear. Brian was busy with Fred, not paying any attention. “Who knew about the whack job in my room?”
“The team of course.”
“Would they say anything?”
“No, of course not. Why?” Jess’s voice was filled with suspicion.
“No reason. I’m just trying to figure things out. Anyone else know? Patsy, for instance?”
“How the hell would Patsy know? Lily and Eric knew. I briefed them when we talked about…” He broke off, hesitated, and then supplied, “Things.”
“You meant me. You discussed me.”
“Among other things. You’re too sensitive, Saber.”
“Well, how many people know about you, Jesse? Not your SEAL background, but the GhostWalkers? Does Patsy? Your parents? Who knows? Who goes around discussing you?”
“What is wrong with you tonight?”
“I can’t talk right now, I have a show to do.”
She hung up, furious all over again. Damn him for sharing her life with those others. She didn’t know them. She didn’t trust them. They weren’t part of her world.
Brian knocked on the window and held his palms up in inquiry. Swearing under her breath, she leaned in to the mike and began another commentary, all the while her mind churning with myriad possibilities-or none at all. How had Brian found out? He had to be the intruder, but seriously-she studied him again through the glass-it just didn’t add up. No one that creepy could keep up that kind of pretense for long-could they?
