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  “I hope so, Del. I really do. I’d love nothing more than the chance to meet that bastard one-on-one.”

  “Not if I can help it. Take a breather, and I’ll see you when I get in.” After hanging up the phone, Delta made her way over to the crime scene. Leonard met her half-way.

  “Stevie,” Leonard yelled as he approached her. “Damn it, you knew something and didn’t let me in on it. Shame, shame. You know better than that.”

  “It was a lucky guess, Leonard.”

  Chomping on his cigar, Leonard shook his head. “Maybe I oughtta look into that game you gave me after all. Seems you know when crimes are going to happen before anyone else. Either that, or you’ve got a crystal ball hidden somewheres.”

  Delta shrugged, resisting the urge to knock his cigar down his throat. “I’m just a good cop, Leonard, that’s all. I follow my gut and it lead me here.”

  Moving away from Leonard, Delta inhaled a few deep breaths and watched as Jan walked over holding a soda. “You okay?” Delta asked, noticing for the first time how pale Jan had become. Suddenly, Delta realized how difficult it must be for Jan to see a child her daughter’s age lying in a crumpled heap. How close to home this crime must have hit.

  “Jan?”

  “I’m okay. I just need to call home, that’s all. Let me know if I can help out here.” Handing Delta the soda, Jan walked back over to use the phone.

  As the crime unit snapped photos, took measurements and dusted for prints, Delta surveyed the area just beyond the midway.

  With all the noise, flashing lights, and smells of the carnival pervading her senses, Delta felt it as surely as if he had reached out with a gloved hand and touched her.

  He was watching. And waiting.

  Chapter 30

  Delta was not the least bit surprised when she received a call the next day from Detective Leonard. Everyone from the Police Chief to the District Attorney would be on Leonard’s case for a suspect, and Delta knew he was as empty-handed as a street bum. Before the carnival murder, they were pressing Leonard for a suspect, and they got one when they arrested a local man for the shooting death. But now, with that man in custody and another murder on their hands, the tide had turned.

  Tides always turned when a child was the victim. Even the press, which had shown only a passing interest in the other murders, now dug for a better story. The heat was on, and it was burning Leonard’s ass.

  Opening the door to his office, Delta found him poring over reports, chomping on his unlit cigar and running his hand over the bald spot on his head. His clothes looked like they’d been slept in, and his face had aged overnight.

  Leonard glanced up at Delta and gestured toward the chair across from his desk. “Sit down, Stevie.” His tone was more weary than commanding. It had clearly been an extra long night for him.

  Rubbing his red eyes, Leonard took the cigar from his mouth and pushed himself away from the stacks of paper on his desk. “Stevie, would you like to tell me just what the hell is going on down on your beat?”

  Delta fixed her eyes on him. He was desperate for a suspect. Probably got his ass chewed on for not having one sooner. “What would you like to know?”

  Leonard leaned across the desk and attempted a snarl. “Damn it, Stevens, don’t play games with me.”

  Delta wondered at his choice of words, but let it go. It would do her no good to press his overly sensitive buttons at this point.

  “Stevens, I’ve got one witness who claims you knew this asshole was wearing gloves. I’ve got dozens of witnesses who saw you and Bowers moving toward the merry-go-round with your guns drawn just prior to his abducting the girl. I have a ferris wheel operator who heard you say something about ‘it’ being too obvious. I have a teenager who nearly shit his pants when you grabbed him and barked at him to shut the damn ride off. Do I have to go on?”

  Delta leaned back in the chair. She had to give it to him—Leonard and his men had been thorough in an area with too many wanna-be witnesses, where the noise level was nearly impossible, and the real witnesses a little buzzed off beer. “Leonard, I don’t know why it’s so hard for you to accept, but we’re on the same side. Although there are times when I wish we weren’t, the fact remains. Just what is it you want me to tell you?”

  “The truth, damn it! You and Rivera came here babbling some horseshit story about a computer game, you’re only seconds behind every murder, you have information you’re very clearly withholding, and I’m totally in the dark. The suspect held for the first whack is out, and I feel like I’m left stuffing the bag. What the hell is going on?”

  Delta rose slowly and walked over to the overstuffed bookcase. A couple of books were so close to the edge they looked like they might fall at any moment. “You have the disk, why don’t you tell me?” Delta tossed out a red herring. “You still have the disk, don’t you?”

  Leonard’s face dropped.

  “Don’t tell m––”

  “Misplaced is all.”

  “Then, I can’t help you.” Delta leaned over the back of the chair. “You blew me and Connie off like a couple of amateurs; like we go around inventing stories just so we can play detective. And now that you’re backed up against a hot stove and your ass is on fire, you want our help. We offered our help right from the start and you chumped us, Detective. What on earth makes you think I’m going to put myself in that position again?”

  Leonard shrugged, his body language shouting defeat. “I’m sorry, Stevie, if I made you feel that way. But you gotta admit—your story was a little way out there. If I jumped at leads like that all the time, I’d never solve a case. Cooperation would be nice.”

  Delta’s left eyebrow rose. “Are you asking for my help?”

  “I’m asking for your cooperation. I need a perp. Pendleton is all over my case, the media is making my department look like the key-stone cops, and I’ve got nothing but a bunch of bodies lyin’ on cement slabs in the morgue; one of which is a little girl. I know you don’t care for me much, Stevie, so do it for her.”

  Delta tried not to look taken aback.

  “I don’t know what it is you think I can do for you. I gave you a pretty accurate description of Elson with the Identikit. You had the disk and lost it. There’s not much else to work with.”

  “Bullshit. First off, it’ll be a cold day in hell before anyone convinces me there’s a disk that Rivera can’t copy. She’s a whiz, Stevie. You two have that game, and I’d bet a month’s salary on it.”

  Delta shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “I mean, how else is it that you’re always so close every time that motherfucker hits?”

  “I get feelings.”

  Leonard chuckled. “I’ve heard about cops like you, Stevie; cops who have a sixth sense. In all my life, I only saw two cops who really had it; one is my retired partner, and the other was Miles Brookman. You’ve inherited that trait from him, Stevie. I can see it in your eyes.”

  Delta shrugged again. “But feelings aren’t hard, concrete evidence, Leonard. I’m surprised you believe in them.”

  “Oh, I believe in them, when they lead me to hard, concrete evidence. Yours may be able to do that. Because whatever is going on down there, you got bit. Something’s under your skin, Stevie, and I want to know what it is.”

  Delta shrugged. “It’s my beat and my people who are dying, Leonard. Why don’t you give a little first? We can both give and take a little here without compromising either of our positions.”

  “You’re not giving me much of a choice, are you?”

  Delta shook her head. “I did, and you blew it.” Folding her arms across her chest, Delta waited.

  Leonard leaned on the desk and looked intently at Delta. “He’s clever, Stevie, whoever he is.”

  “Yes, he is. Very much so.”

  “There’s a pattern to his killings.”

  “Yes, there is. I know all of this. Tell me something I don’t know.”

  Leonard shoved himself away from the table and stoo
d at the window. For a moment, he held his hands behind his back and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. “Her name was Helen Carver,” he said quietly. “She was only eight.”

  A ball of sorrow rose in her throat as Helen’s innocent face hovered before her, her hollow eyes gazing into nowhere. Delta would see that picture for the rest of her life.

  “Can you give me the files to the other murders?”

  “You know I can’t do that. You may not give a rat’s patoot about regs, but I do. I’m not even supposed to release Helen’s name, but I know Rivera would find out eventually. Now, you give.”

  “What would you like to know?”

  “How did you know it was him on the merry-go-round?”

  “He was wearing gloves.”

  Leonard started to note this but stopped. “Gloves? You knew it was our man because he was wearing gloves?”

  Delta nodded. “He cut off the chauffeur’s hands to get the gloves so he could use them when he broke Helen’s neck. All of the murders are intricately linked together. The disk, Leonard, is our only real hope.”

  Leonard nodded as he jotted this information down.

  “I can even tell you how the next one will be committed.”

  Leonard glanced up from his notes and frowned. “Excuse me?”

  “You’re right. We do have a copy of the disk and we’ve been playing the game for some time.”

  “I knew it.”

  “Yeah, but what you don’t know is that once we get ahead of Elson in the game, we should be able to head him off at the next murder. As long as we trail in the game, people will die.”

  Leonard’s eyebrows rose. “You can tell me how the next murder is going to happen?”

  “We think so.”

  “How?”

  “Was Helen wearing a ribbon in her hair when she left the house? It wasn’t anywhere on her or in the Goliath Cirrus after we found her.”

  Leonard shuffled through the reports. “A ribbon?”

  “Yes, Leonard. I assume you asked the mother what Helen was wearing when she left the house.”

  “Connell was in charge of that. I’ll have to check his report.”

  Delta shook her head. “You do that. And while you’re waiting for your concrete evidence, here’s some not-so-hard data. Each murder is directly linked to the one before and the one after. It’s the domino theory. These games require certain tasks to be completed before you can move on to the next level or challenge.”

  Leonard was quickly added to his notes.

  “He killed the pharmacist to get the poison to poison the dog to get the ax to kill the chauffeur to cut off the hands to get the gloves to break her neck and get the ribbon to strangle the next victim on his list.”

  Leonard laid his face in his hands and shook his head. “And this is the house that Elson built.”

  Delta shrugged. “That’s about it.”

  “Damn it, Stevie, this is less than proof. What you’re giving me here is pure speculation. I can’t take any of this to the D.A. She’d laugh me right outta court.”

  “Maybe. But until we work together on this, you’re going nowhere. You won’t even make it to court.”

  Leonard shoved his reports aside and leaned across the desk. “I wish I could give you more, Stevie, but right now, I can’t. You know how it goes with child homicides. If I give you any more information on her than I already have, I’m putting my job on the line.”

  Delta nodded. “I understand.” Delta moved to the door and gripped the tarnished knob. “And Elson is putting the life of my best friend on the line. It’s no competition. If I have to choose, I’ll always choose someone’s life over my career.”

  “What does that mean?”

  The corners of Delta’s mouth turned up slightly. “It means that this is a no holds barred contest, and the rules no longer apply to me. You stick to your regs, Leonard. I’ll take the low road and we’ll see who stops Zuckerman first.”

  Leonard slowly rose. “I didn’t hear that.”

  “Good.”

  Leonard moved slowly out from behind his desk. “You be careful, Stevie. The lines you cross could cost you more than your job.”

  Delta shrugged. “But then, that’s what we get paid the big bucks to do, isn’t it, Russ? To put our asses on the line.”

  As Delta pulled the door open, Leonard stopped her. “Stevie, I want him as bad as you do. You gotta know that. We just have different approaches to the same problem. You do what you need to do. If there’s anything I can kick over to you, I will. Just know that I want that bastard and I want him now.”

  Turning, hand still poised on the knob, Delta nodded. “Thanks. You know, that’s the first time you and I have agreed on anything.” Walking out the door and down the hall, Delta smiled.

  Maybe there was hope for Mr. Hard Evidence after all.

  Chapter 31

  When Delta returned to Connie’s, she wasn’t surprised to find her friend working on the game. Gina was asleep on the couch, and Megan was studying the now massive pile of charts, graphs, and maps lying in the middle of the floor.

  “He wanted to pick your brain, didn’t he?” came Connie’s voice from the table.

  Delta nodded. “He’s desperate. Alexandria is pressing him for a perp and they had to release the only suspect they had.”

  “Couldn’t tie him into the shooting, eh?” Connie said over her shoulder.

  “Guess not. He didn’t elaborate too much on it. He was really bummin’.”

  “Had he even looked at the disk?”

  Delta slipped her arms out of her windbreaker. “No. It’s been ‘misplaced’.”

  Connie did not move from the computer. Dori was in a swamp, using various floating objects in an attempt to jump to the other side. Sometimes, the objects were alligators which would eat her if she landed on them, and Connie would have to start again from the edge of the swamp.

  “I’m not surprised. He probably threw it away the second we walked out the door.” As an alligator rose and grabbed Dori, Connie slammed the joystick back down on the table. “I hate this part!”

  Delta shook her head and bent over to kiss Megan before walking over and giving Connie a hug. “Need a break?”

  Connie shook her head, but Delta saw Megan out of the corner of her eye. She was nodding.

  “Con, let me take over for a bit.”

  “But—”

  “No ‘buts.’ Go rest for a bit, and I’ll call you when I get her out of the swamp.”

  Pausing the game, Connie looked at the grandmother clock standing in the corner. “It’s already nine?”

  “Go rest, and take Gina with you.”

  Stretching, Connie rose slowly. “You’ll wake me as soon as you get her out?”

  “I promise.” Watching Connie and a sleepy Gina trudge down the hall, Delta turned to find Megan staring at her.

  “After you left this morning, Del, she broke down. Cried for almost an hour. That little girl’s death was more than she could take.”

  Delta nodded as she grabbed the controls. “Her name was Helen. She was eight.”

  “God, Del, what kind of a madman are we dealing with?”

  “One beyond help. One who needs a bullet between the eyes.”

  “She’s blaming herself, isn’t she?”

  “I’m afraid so.” Megan got off the floor and walked over to hug Delta’s neck. For a long, quiet moment, the two blocked out the pain of the real world and reconnecting their spirits in an embrace that meant more than just a simple show of affection.

  “I’m scared for you both,” Megan said quietly. “Very scared.”

  Delta did not let her go. “Because he’s getting to us?”

  Megan nodded, burying her face in Delta’s hair. “Because he’s very, very sick. If he could do that to a little girl, what would he do to you or Connie? His hatred of her must run very deep.”

  “Deep enough to pull his insanity to the surface.”

  “Aren’t y
ou scared?”

  Delta nodded, pulling Megan closer. “Shitless. I’m afraid for the people on my beat. I’m afraid of what he’s doing to Connie, and I’m scared to death we aren’t going to solve this damn game before he follows through with his greatest threat.”

  “You’ve faced worse odds before and come out on top.”

  Delta turned in Megan’s arms, stared into Megan’s electric blue eyes, and nodded. “That’s about the only thing that keeps me going. That, and you. You’ve been very understanding about all of this. We haven’t had much alone time lately.”

  Megan smiled warmly and kissed Delta’s nose. “She’s my friend, too. She was there when you needed her most and offered her home to me when I was a complete stranger. God only knows if you’d be alive if it wasn’t for her. She’s been a good friend to you—to us.”

  Delta winced at the thought of what might have happened during the investigation of Miles’s death if Connie hadn’t worked with her.

  “Yes, she has. Does it bother you that we haven’t had any time to work on our relationship? That we haven’t had any personal time at all? I mean, you mentioned therapy, yet—”

  “We will. We’ll make it a priority right after we get Connie out of this. Delta, don’t you know that I just want to be with you? Whatever you need from me, whether it’s to help map stuff or just stand by and be understanding, you have. I want to be in on this until the very end.”

  “And until then? What do you do about that big bag of fear you carry around?”

  “Fear is something I’ve learned to live with since we’ve been together.”

  Delta’s left eyebrow rose. “Oh? You’ve learned to live with it, have you?”

  Shrugging, Megan ran her hand through Delta’s hair, “I try hard. It isn’t easy to always wonder where you are and if you’re okay; if you’re coming home in one piece. It’s even harder to know that you’ll do whatever has to be done to save someone whose name you don’t even know. That fear eats me up sometimes.”

  “And now? Now we have some sick piece of shit out to kill our best friend.?”

  “Well, to be honest, since I’m involved in it with you, the fear isn’t overwhelming. That’s not to say I’m not frightened, because I am. At least now, I know what you’re looking for and where you’re going with this case. Sometimes, understanding why you love this job so much helps me understand you.”