“You’ll stay with me tonight,” he said in the softest voice. “That was so beautiful, Naomi. You are so beautiful, the most beautiful one here. Do you know that, sweetheart? Of course you do.”
Brave, strong, confident, Naomi told herself. She was a Cross. She wouldn’t let him see her fear. She would find a way to beat him.
CHAPTER 59
KATE AND I were working at her apartment in Chapel Hill. We’d been talking about the disappearing house again, still trying to figure out that mind-bending mystery. At a little past eight the front doorbell rang. Kate went to see who it was.
I could see her talking to someone, but I couldn’t tell who. My hand went for my revolver, touched the handle. She let the visitor come inside.
It was Kyle Craig. I was immediately struck by the drawn and somber look on his face. Something must have happened.
“Kyle says he has something you’re going to want to see,” Kate said as she led the FBI man into the living room.
“I tracked you down, Alex. It wasn’t too hard,” Kyle said. He sat on the sofa arm next to me. He looked as if he needed to sit down.
“I told the hotel desk and the operator where I’d be until nine or so.”
“Like I said, it wasn’t hard. Check out the look on Alex’s face, Kate. Now you see why he’s still a detective. He’s hooked on The Job, wants to solve all the great puzzles, even the not-so-great ones.”
I smiled, and shook my head. Kyle was partly right. “I love my work, mostly because I get to spend time with sophisticated and high-minded individuals like yourself. What’s happened, Kyle? Tell me right now.”
“The Gentleman made a personal call on Beth Lieberman. She’s dead. He cut off her fingers, Alex. After he killed her, he torched her studio apartment in West Los Angeles. He set half her building on fire.”
Beth Lieberman hadn’t exactly endeared herself to me, but I was shocked and saddened to hear about her murder. I’d taken Kyle’s word that she had nothing worth traveling to Los Angeles for. “Maybe he knew there was something in her apartment that needed to be torched. Maybe she actually had something important.”
Kyle glanced over at Kate again. “You see how good he is? He’s a machine. She did have something incriminating,” he said to both of us. “Only she had it on her computer at the Times. So now we have it.”
Kyle handed me a long, curling fax. He pointed to some copy at the very bottom of the sheet. The fax was from the FBI’s office in Los Angeles.
I glanced down the page and read the entry that was underscored.
Possible Casanova!!! it said. Very possible suspect.
Dr. William Rudolph. First-class creep.
Home: the Beverly Comstock. Work: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Los Angeles.
“We’ve finally got our break. We’ve got a first-class lead, anyway,” Kyle said. “The Gentleman could be this doctor. This creep, as she calls him.”
Kate looked at me, then at Kyle. She had told both of us that Casanova might be a doctor.
“Anything else in Lieberman’s notes?” I asked Kyle.
“Not that we’ve been able to find so far,” Kyle said. “Unfortunately, we can’t ask Ms. Lieberman about Dr. William Rudolph, or why she made the note in her computer. Let me tell you two new theories that are making the rounds with our profilers out on the West Coast,” Kyle went on. “Are you ready for a little outrageous mind trip, my friend? Some profiler speculation?”
“I’m ready. Let’s hear the latest and greatest theories from FBI West.”
“The first theory is that he’s sending the diary entries to himself. That he’s Casanova and the Gentleman Caller. He could be both killers, Alex. They each specialize in ‘perfect’ crimes. There are other similarities, too. Maybe he’s a split personality. FBI West, as you call it, would like Dr. McTiernan to fly out to Los Angeles right away. They’d like to talk to her.”
I didn’t like the first West Coast theor
y too much myself, but I couldn’t completely discount it. “What’s the other theory from the wild, wild West?” I asked Kyle.
“The other theory,” he said, “is that there are two men. But that they aren’t just communicating, they’re competing. This could be a scary competition, Alex. This could all be a scary game they’ve invented.”
PART THREE