The Competition

44

We found Mikayla Cutter on the front porch shivering under her long down coat, her face swollen and blotchy with grief. I’d expected her to be holed up in her bedroom, where she wouldn’t have to see the swarm of cops and reporters, but she was staring past it all, into the farther reaches of the Valley. Mikayla glanced at us, then turned back to her vigil. “He can’t be far, can he?” Her voice was small and far away.

“No,” I said. I reached out and squeezed her arm. “We’re going to do everything we can to get him home as soon as possible, I promise.”

Mikayla bit her lip and nodded as tears leaked out of the sides of her eyes. We wove our way through the police line toward Bailey’s car. By the time we hit the freeway, the fog had lifted and left behind a fresh, clean blue sky. “We’d better get our shrinks in on this.”

Bailey nodded. “And we need to tell Dr. Malloy about the letter.”

I stared down the freeway at the sea of red taillights. We’d hit a nasty traffic snarl dead center. With the threat of another shooting hanging over our heads, no clue where to find the killers, and now Evan’s disappearance, being trapped in traffic was so agonizing it made my stomach churn. “Can this goddamned case get any more bizarre?”

Bailey winced. “Must you? Really?”

She was right. I definitely should know better than to tempt fate with a question like that.

As we inched along, I thought about where Evan might have gone. “Are the unis digging into Evan’s background?”

“Of course.”

“God, if anything happens to him…”

“Don’t go there. We’ll find him. We have to.”

“But when Logan hears he’s running-”

“I said, don’t go there.”

Logan knew Evan better than we did, which meant the odds that he’d find Evan before we did were pretty damn good. And he’d never have a more risk-free chance to kill Evan. By running away, Evan had managed to put himself in a thousand times greater peril.

It felt like a knife was twisting in my stomach. I wrapped my arms around my torso and tried to catch my breath. We should have given Evan protection. If we’d had a car posted in his driveway, this would never have happened. I should’ve insisted on it. This was my fault, all my fault.

Bailey grabbed my arm. “I told you to stop it. We had no way of knowing Evan would pull a stunt like this-”

“The shrinks warned us he was unstable. Hell, all these kids are off-kilter right now. We should’ve had someone sit on his house.”

“We were trying, remember? Besides, it wouldn’t have helped. Evan’s window faced the backyard. The cop wouldn’t have seen a thing.” Bailey sighed. “There’s only so much we can do.”

I could hear the logic in what Bailey said. It just didn’t change the way I felt. But I also knew I didn’t have the luxury of wallowing in my guilt. We had two killers out there bent on committing an atrocity that might well eclipse Oklahoma City. Finding Evan was a job for the Valley Division, who knew the territory best. Evan couldn’t have gotten far. Not on foot. Besides, the biggest threat to Evan was Logan. Capturing him was the best protection we could give Evan right now.

I forced myself to focus on the matter at hand. Even if we were right about Shane being the second shooter, we hadn’t had any tips worth diddly-squat regarding his whereabouts. Same for Logan.

“What drives me nuts is, I think we’re right about them still being close by.” I folded my arms and stared out the window. “With their faces all over the news, and all our manpower, how come no one has seen them?”

Bailey sighed. “I know.”

Logan’s parents had been questioned ad nauseam about where he might be hiding. Nothing had panned out. Bailey and I tossed ideas back and forth till we were nearly downtown, but the maddening truth was that with no leads of any substance, we were just churning.

I pulled out my cell phone. “I’m going to set up a meeting with the shrinks to give them the update.” Though by the time we saw them, they’d undoubtedly already have heard about it on the news. “Maybe they’ll have some bright ideas.”

“See if we can meet at Jenny’s,” Bailey said.

The Bradbury Building where Jenny had her office was an iconic landmark. With its old-fashioned cage lift, art deco decor, and zigzagging wooden staircases, it had the kind of historic charm that sadly was rare in Los Angeles. But more important, it was a quieter, more private place to meet.

I made the calls and found both doctors ready and willing to meet there in half an hour.