Double Cross

Chapter 82

BREE SAW TO IT that just about every available cruiser in the entire city was put on standby. I called Sampson myself and told him to keep his line open. I tried Kitz to see if we could preemptively trace an incoming e-mail, but I got his voice mail-and the same thing when I tried his assistant. I fielded calls from Superintendent Davies, the chief’s office, the mayor’s office, and then Nana herself. DCAK’s story was already out there on the airwaves. Of course it was. He’d put it there to stoke all the fires that he possibly could.

Word from downstairs was that we had a growing press army waiting for us on the street too. It didn’t feel like anything was going our way, probably because it wasn’t, and that wasn’t likely to change anytime soon, from what I could tell.

Finally Bree and I stopped taking calls altogether. We holed up in the office, waiting, just like the bastard wanted us to. We put our energy into examining the latest e-mail, scanning for a hidden meaning, some indication of his state of mind, anything we might use-anything to keep us from spinning our wheels in another wrong direction.

The MO was basically the same. His online stuff was just another kind of disguise-electronic-but it all came from the same narcissistic mind. This was a deeply disturbed person, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t enjoying himself. He was organized and clever, and he knew it.

Three thirty came and went.

Then four o’clock.

Then five.

He was obviously toying with us, saying in no uncertain terms, I’m in control here. Bree and I eventually began to wonder if another e-mail was coming at all.

Then at five thirty, it arrived.

The message we’d been waiting for was all of six words. He was efficient, wasn’t he?

19th SE and Independence Ave. Now.