Page 121 of Deadly Cry

‘You don’t get it,’ he said, losing patience.

She lowered herself to the ground. She had to create an intimacy with him, get him to focus his attention on her and not his hostage. The blade was moving perilously close to the tender skin of her wrist.

‘I do, Chris, I get it,’ she said, sitting on the floor. In doing so, she’d had to let the door close behind her, aware that there were no breadcrumbs to her current location. No one knew where she was in staircase 9. Previous experience told her there was no signal beyond corridor 8.

‘I understand that you didn’t want to hurt anyone; that you wrote to me after we met at the EPT briefing. You begged me to stop you from killing. You didn’t want to kill the woman in the park, but you’d been challenged, goaded into doing it.’

He nodded. ‘It’s there, you see, the voice. It’s in my head, always there, telling me what to do. I thought that once I fought back it would get better, but it got worse.’

The way he closed his eyes as though blocking out the sounds caused her to wonder if they’d been right in the first place: the voices were in his head. It wasn’t the first time she’d dealt with a split personality, but that time only one of the personalities had been doing the killing. The other had been unaware.

‘The messages,’ he said. ‘I kept getting messages. I’d think it was all over and then I’d get another message.’

Could he have been sending the messages to himself?

‘The crimes escalated, didn’t they, Chris?’ she asked. ‘It started with crimes that didn’t hurt anyone and then it turned violent. The sexual assault of Lesley Skipton was you, wasn’t it? She was leaving the music festival: an event that you managed,’ Kim said, remembering the details of the crimes. ‘Rhona Stubbs, the homeless lady you killed, was close to a housing development that was being looted. The site was being guarded by your team.’

These were the facts that had run through her mind outside the door, along with the fact that Noah had to have been someone she’d met before the press conference on Monday. The letters had indicated to Reginald that the person would appear to be a decent, upstanding guy: almost the exact words Bryant had used to describe this man. They had focused all their attention on Ella, and they’d been looking the wrong way the whole time.

‘I’d had the text and I wanted you to help me. I trusted you to help me. I knew you were the only one to stop—’

Chris stopped speaking as Lena made a choking sound.

Shit, this was taking too long. The woman was struggling to breathe.

Kim had to convince him to take the gag off her. Right now, she didn’t care that she was a police superintendent, and an unpleasant one at that. She was a victim in very real danger of losing her life.

‘Shut up,’ Chris spat at the officer. Rage burned in his eyes.

‘Chris, it’s not too late. No more innocent people have to die,’ she pleaded.

His expression changed to disappointment mixed with regret, and she could tell she was losing the bond she’d been trying to establish.

‘I thought you understood.’

Damn, what had she said wrong?

The knife in his hand nicked at the skin on Lena’s wrist. Blood appeared instantly.

‘Please, be careful, Chris, you could cause some damage there,’ she warned. The tip of the blade was perilously close to the artery.

His eyebrows drew together.

‘Why would I be careful when it’s what she’s been doing to me all my life?’

One Hundred Four

‘Tell her, go on, Lena, tell her,’ Chris screamed, loosening the gag.

Lena gasped before shaking her head, confused.

‘I have no clue what you’re talking about, Mr Manley. I arrived here with Tyra Brooks, there was some kind of commotion and you dragged me up here.’

Kim looked from one to the other. What the fuck was going on?

Lena turned her way. ‘Officer, I suggest you disarm this—’

Kim ignored her. ‘Hang on. Chris, are you saying Lena Wiley is your sister?’