The path to righteousness is lined with suffering, he reminded himself as he turned up the voltage on the machine that was delivering electric shocks to Stevens’s wrists and ankles. Think of our Lord in Gethsemane. Even He felt abandoned.
Tracy should have been here by now.
Where is she? Didn’t she get my message?
It was hard to keep faith. But Daniel Cooper trusted in the Lord.
BLAKE CARTER HAD JUST put Nick to bed and was about to make himself some supper when the phone rang. Tracy had left for Europe that morning and Blake was home alone.
“Schmidt residence.”
“Blake. How are you?” Jean Rizzo’s voice was the last sound on earth Blake wanted to hear. “It’s Jean Rizzo here. Tracy’s friend.”
“I know who you are.”
“I’m sorry to call so late but I need to speak to Tracy. I’m afraid it’s rather urgent.”
“Well, you can’t speak to her.”
“I’m sorry?”
The old cowboy’s anger crackled down the line. “Why don’t you just crawl on back to wherever it is you came from and leave Tracy the hell alone?”
“You don’t understand . . .”
“No, mister. YOU don’t understand. She’s not here. She flew to Europe this morning. Now, why don’t you tell me what business that lady has in Europe? With her son and her life back here? You put her up to this, Rizzo! If anything happens to that woman I swear to God—”
Jean interrupted him. “Where did she fly to, Blake?”
Carter didn’t answer.
With an effort, Jean controlled his temper. “It’s vitally important that you tell me what you know.”
Blake recognized the note of panic in Jean’s voice. He was doing his best to sound calm, but he was worried. So I was right. Tracy really is in danger. If she hasn’t even confided in Rizzo, it could be serious. “Italy. That’s what she told me. Rome. But I don’t know if she was telling the truth. She’s been lying a lot lately. All I know for sure is that she got in a cab to Denver Airport this morning.”
“Did she say anything else? Anything at all?”
“She said she was trying to help a friend. Someone who’d saved her life once. She said she’d be back in a week. That’s it. Now, are you going to tell me what’s happening?”
“I wish I could,” said Jean, and hung up.
Jean stood in his apartment with the phone in his hand, frozen, for almost a minute. Blake Carter’s words had hit him like a glass of acid in the face. He’d been afraid that Tracy might do this. That she might be crazy enough to try to confront Daniel Cooper on her own, if she believed Jeff Stevens’s life might depend on it. Had something in Cooper’s letter, in the riddle, convinced her that it did? Jean had hoped that some sense of self-preservation, and concern for her son, would kick in at the last minute and pull Tracy back from the brink.
No such luck. Tracy Whitney always had been impulsive. Apparently the leopard hadn’t changed its spots.
Jean had to find her before she found Cooper.
If anything happened to Tracy, Jean thought, Blake Carter wouldn’t need to kill me. Jean Rizzo would never be able to live with the guilt. He’d already failed his sister, and his wife, and his children and all those poor, dead, murdered women. If he lost Tracy too . . .
Think, Jean. Think! Where is she?
He picked up the phone and started to dial.
JEFF DRIFTED IN AND out of consciousness.
It couldn’t be long now. His body would shut down. The pain would end.
It had to. The alternative was unthinkable.