Chapter nine

Chauncey Barber, whose bail Rainey was about to revoke, was a suspect in some gang related shootings, but he was on bond for charges relating to criminal enterprise. Rainey didn’t really care. She just wanted him locked up. She knew he’d run when she bailed him out. That’s why she paid someone to watch him. If she revoked, more than likely no one else would pick up the bond, and the judge might raise the amount anyway. Either way, Chauncey would be out of Rainey’s hair, back in jail, and she had his non-refundable premium of $20,000.

Chauncey was a former basketball star at a local high school that couldn’t shake the gang life. He already spent several years in prison for armed robbery. He was six-feet-five-inches tall and used his time inside the walls of Central State Prison to become tattooed and thickly muscled. He was known to have a quick temper and an even swifter trigger finger. He was armed, according to her informant. There were also several guns in the house they were going to raid. She was very happy the fugitive squad was willing to lend a hand on this one. Chauncey had, like so many before him, sworn he was not going back to prison.

Rainey concentrated on putting her emotions back in their proper boxes, while she sped to Mackie’s side. She left Katie to explain to Ernie what was happening. Rainey never had anyone worry about her the way Katie did. It was an awesome responsibility to take someone’s hopes and dreams with you when you went out to do the job. Her dad had worried, but she never thought of his concerns as she did Katie’s. This thinking was a distraction and she needed to be focused on the task at hand, bust this guy, and get back home as quickly as possible, without getting dead in the process. By the time she reached the scene, she was back in control.

True to her word, Rainey took all precautions. Four blocks away from the target house, she stood at the back of the Charger gearing up. Her Sarkar IV, bulletproof vest came with removable attachments. She rarely wore the extra protection, but considering the amount of firepower that was going into this situation, she feared being shot in the crossfire more than she feared Chauncey. She added the upper arm and throat pieces, along with the collar. She even put on her helmet, which she never wore. Mackie helped her get the collar to stay on right. He wore his normal vest, but he made Junior wear the collar on his, and borrowed a helmet for him from the fugitive apprehension team.

In order to make this work, Rainey had to take custody of Chauncey. The police could go in first, if he broke a law, but could not enter the house without a warrant. He had not violated his bond, yet. Rainey needed to get him to come out the door voluntarily. The plan was for Junior and Mackie to go around back with two guys from the fugitive team, while Rainey knocked on the front door. She would have four officers with her. The police presence could convince Chauncey to surrender peacefully, or send him over the edge into the “going out in a blaze of glory” mentality. Rainey hoped everything went easy. She sure didn’t want to shoot the guy.

Junior’s cell rang. He answered it, listened for a few seconds, and then said, “All right, we’re comin’ in.” He hung up and looked at Rainey. “Chauncey’s getting’ antsy. He don’t want to wait. Says the boys can bring him the money later. Bobo says he’s messed up on somethin’. There’s three people in the house. Bobo says don’t fuck up and shoot him, he’s wearin’ a NC State hoodie.”

“Okay, I guess we better go. He’ll be in the wind if we don’t.” Rainey pointed at Junior. “Let the other guys know Bobo’s a good guy and what he’s wearing.”

When they were alone, Mackie got Rainey’s attention. “You don’t have to do this. Let me go in the front.”

Rainey had not told Mackie about the copycat, yet. She wanted him focused on the task at hand.

“No, he’ll probably run out the back. I doubt he’ll come at me with four cops on my hip. Let’s just try and talk him out of there.”

“It’s your call, but if he flinches…”

Rainey nodded. “Chill out, big guy. I’ve been face to face with worse than Chauncey Barber.”

“Don’t get cocky,” Mackie warned.

“You’re the second person to tell me that in the last hour.”

Mackie stared down at her. “Then, I guess you better heed the warning.”

Three minutes later, Rainey stood at the end of the walkway leading up to the little white house. The place belonged to Chauncey’s grandmother, who was at Bingo for the moment. On either side of Rainey, two officers with rifles, trained on the front of the house, kept pace with her as she walked up to the porch. She stopped on the top step, watching for signs of movement. Her pistol was drawn and secured with both hands. She listened for a moment before moving closer to the door. She could hear male voices coming from the front room on her right. She moved to the left of the door and waited for the four officers to take positions.

“Chauncey!” Rainey yelled. “Chauncey come on out. It’s Rainey Bell… I got to take you in … Back on out this door with your hands in the air… You hear me Chauncey?”

There was movement behind the door. A scared voice said, “Hey man, don’t shoot my ass. I’m comin’ out. I ain’t Chauncey, but I don’t want to get my ass shot. You feelin’ me?”

“Yeah, I feel ya’,” Rainey yelled back. “Open that door nice and slow. Back out with your hands clasped behind your head. You flinch and four of Raleigh’s finest are going to light you up. You got it?”

“Okay man, here I come.”

One of the cops grabbed the storm door and held it open. The wooden door creaked open slowly, revealing Bobo in his red hoodie. He backed out and went to his knees on the porch, hands quickly placed on the back of his head. The wooden door slammed shut again.

Bobo looked up at Rainey. “Man, he’s nuts. Y’all better call some more cops. He ain’t coming out of there.”

One of the cops patted Bobo down and then told him to get across the street. Rainey looked at the four men holding rifles on the front of the house. Each man nodded it was time to make a move.

“Chauncey, don’t make me have to shoot you,” she tried one more time. “Come on out and we’ll go straighten this out at the courthouse. You could be back on the street by suppertime.”

“Fuck you! You come in that door, bitch, and I’m going to blow you up,” Chauncey shouted from behind the door.

“Is that a threat, Chauncey? You packin’? You know that’s a violation of your bail. Now the cops can come on in. Are you sure that’s what you want?”

Rainey moved as she talked. She slid down by the door handle, with the wall protecting her back. She signaled the cop to her right, who in turn said into his headset, “Go, go, go.”

They heard the back door splinter, as Mackie and the others gained access rather rapidly. Rainey turned the handle on the door and the four cops entered one behind the other. By the time Rainey made it into the house, Chauncey was face down in the floor. He had been too drugged up to take the safety off his gun.

Rainey was standing in the hallway, holstering her weapon, when Junior said, “Where’s the third guy?”

She heard the distinct click-click of a revolver being cocked behind her. She looked up at the top of the small staircase to see a young boy, probably thirteen or fourteen, with the barrel of a gun pointed squarely at her.

“Chauncey, who’s this young man with the weapon aimed at me?” Rainey said, as calmly as she could muster.

“That’s my sister’s boy. Don’t shoot him.”

“I’m more worried about him shooting me at the moment, and you know these guys are going to blow him away after that, right?”

“Darnell, put that gun down fool,” Chauncey said. The cuffs seemed to have cleared his mind some.

Darnell was trembling, the gun barrel wavering in the air. He looked like a child with a toy, but the voice that spoke was not childlike. “I’m going to pop this bitch. I’ll make my bones and be out in seven years.”

One of the cops peeked around the corner at Darnell and Rainey. He tried to reason with the kid. “Son, that ‘bitch’ is a former FBI agent. You don’t know the world of hurt that’s going to come down if I let you shoot her, so I’m not going to let you do that. You’ll be dead before you can pull the trigger. Now drop the weapon and no harm done.”

“Shit, I’ll be famous if I pop a FBI bitch and if you shoot me I’ll be a legend.”

“Then dead it is,” the cop said.

Rainey saw the grin creep across Darnell’s face. She saw his finger twitch and knew she was about to be shot. It all happened so fast. In one move the cop stepped in front of Rainey, as she dove for the floor. He fired his weapon at the boy. The bullet from his gun crashed into Darnell’s leg milliseconds before the bullet from his revolver smashed into Rainey’s right shoulder. The force of the bullet rolled her. She lay there taking stock of her condition. Her shoulder hurt like hell, but when she looked she could clearly see the end of the bullet sticking out of the ballistic material on the shoulder pad she had added.

“Thank God for small miracles,” she said under her breath.

Darnell was in a pile at the top of the stairs. He dropped his gun and was now screaming like the kid he was. The cop stood over him.

“Shut up. You’ll live a long and happy life in prison. Maybe your uncle there will teach you the ropes when you get to the big house.”

Mackie was suddenly standing over Rainey. “You all right?”

“Yeah, the shoulder pad caught it. Gonna bruise like hell. What the fuck? I thought one of those guys was supposed to clear the upstairs.”

“That young one was supposed to, but I think he got excited,” Mackie said, nodding toward the young cop being chewed out by an older one.

Rainey could hear the sirens coming. “Shit. Katie.”

Mackie looked confused. “What about Katie?”

“You know this hit the scanner. The news trucks will be here in a minute. I have to call her, before she sees this.”

Mackie helped her to her feet. She walked out onto the porch and dialed home. Katie picked up on the first ring.

Rainey spoke quickly, “It’s over. Everything’s all right.”

“Then, why do I here sirens in the background?” Katie asked.

“Cause the guy’s nephew decided to shoot at me and one of the cops shot him.” No sense in lying, she would see the news.

Katie’s voice was strained with worry. “Are you okay? Did he hit you?”

“Just a graze on the shoulder. It hit the vest, so no harm done. I wanted you to know I’m okay, in case the news trucks show up. You good?”

“Rainey, can we seriously talk about you getting shot at all the time? I mean is this normal?”

“Honey, we’ll talk when I get home, okay? I love you. I have to go.”

“Okay, but we’re going to talk about this.”

“I gotta go, Katie. Bye.”

Rainey didn’t want to talk about it now. She wanted to get this asshole booked, along with his wanna-be gang banging nephew, and get home. Her boxes were coming open, and her walls were crashing in.

#

Paperwork and interviews with the police about the incident took up the whole afternoon. When she wasn’t dealing with the police, she explained to Mackie who Dalton was and how his copycat might be after her. Mackie did not appear surprised; in fact, it seemed he had been expecting it.

“Baby girl,” he said, his big bass voice rumbling in the narrow hallway, “We knew this day could come. You got a plan?”

“I had a plan, but that went out the window when I met Katie.”

“Sounds like your plan was, “bring it on, let the assholes come,” but now that you have Katie, your life means more to you.”

Rainey’s father had been killed just weeks before the attack that nearly killed her. From that moment until she met Katie, Rainey was prepared to challenge all comers. She didn’t care if someone from her past came looking for her. If she survived the next attempt on her life, great, if she didn’t, then so be it. That type of thinking did not jive with the added responsibility, for not only Katie’s life, but also their lives together.

“Mackie, I’ve never been accountable for someone else’s hopes and dreams. It’s overwhelming sometimes. I’m afraid I can’t protect us both.”

Mackie lowered his voice. “You’ll be surprised at what you can do when you love someone. Loving someone gives you strength. Your daddy didn’t survive the jungle because he was some badass. Nobody was going to kill him, because he had to get back to his baby girl.”

“Dad was never afraid of anything.”

“Not true. He just channeled his fear into action. As smart as you are, you should know that fear can do two things. It can paralyze you, or it can be a powerful motivator.”

“Everything is happening so fast. I can’t think.”

“Let your instincts kick in. It’s like when you are in an accident, how everything slows down. You see it all happening in slow motion.”

Rainey nodded in agreement and added, “That’s your brain shutting down all the processes it doesn’t need to survive the threat.”

“Then clear your mind. Let your training take over. The only thing you need to be thinking about is how to catch this fucker, before he makes his move.”

“I’ll have a better idea what I’m dealing with after I talk to Danny.”

Mackie was making his own plans. He said, “I’ll look after Ernie and the business. Use your training. Profile him and send Danny after his ass.” He put his bear paw size hands on her shoulders. “You call me, I come running. You don’t go nowhere alone. Day or night, you call me. You got that?”

“Yeah, I got that.” Rainey could barely reach around Mackie’s giant shoulders when she hugged him. She whispered, “You stay safe.”

Mackie squeezed her tightly. “You too, baby girl.”

“Always.”

#

Three and a half hours after being shot, Rainey pulled the Charger under the cottage. She checked her shoulder in the bathroom just before she left the police station. It was already deep shades of purple and black. The throbbing heat from the bruise was becoming distracting. When she got out of her car, Rainey saw a black SUV, typical of the BAU team, coming down the road toward her. Damn, she still had to meet with Danny. All Rainey wanted was an ice pack and some Ibuprofen. She certainly was in no mood to deal with Dalton’s copycat, or Katie’s reaction to her being shot. She sighed loudly, knowing the chances of avoiding either one of those things was slim.

Katie was standing on the deck, looking down at Rainey when she emerged from under the cottage. Rainey smiled for the first time in hours.

“That’s Danny coming now,” Rainey called up to Katie, as she began to climb the stairs. “I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you he was coming.”

Katie rushed Rainey when she reached the deck. She wrapped her arms around Rainey and hugged her tightly, too tightly. Rainey wriggled loose.

“Ouch!” She exclaimed, and rubbed her bruised shoulder.

Katie stepped back. “Oh, I’m sorry. Are you hurt? You said you weren’t hurt.”

“Calm down. It’s just a bruise,” Rainey said a little sharply, still smarting from the pain.

Katie tilted her head and looked at Rainey. “I’m going to assume that tone is because you are hurt and hungry. Have you eaten?”

Rainey felt stupid. Near-death experiences tended to make her short tempered and cranky. Katie didn’t deserve the attitude. “I’m sorry. I am hungry and I want to change my clothes.”

“Ernie’s still here. Just walk through, be nice, and I’ll explain that Danny’s coming and you need to change. I’ll even make you a sandwich, okay?”

“Come here,” Rainey said. Making sure her arm was on the outside this time, she hugged Katie and kissed her. “Thank you. That would be fantastic.”

Rainey followed Katie into the house. She detoured into the kitchen long enough to grab an ice pack from the freezer. Ernie tried to question Rainey. Katie interceded, which she greatly appreciated.

“Rainey wants to put on a clean shirt and Danny is on his way in.”

“I love you, Ernie, but I know you have a thousand questions, and I just can’t answer them right now,” Rainey added.

Ernie looked at Rainey with concern, but she didn’t push the issue. She said, “I’m going to go on home, now.” Then uncharacteristic of their usual teasing banter, she added, “I love you, Rainey. Be safe.”

“Watch your back, Ernie. I love you, too.” Rainey bowed out and went to the master bedroom.

She pulled off the black turtleneck she was wearing, careful of her bruised shoulder, and tossed it into the hamper. She looked in the mirror at the swelling contusion and winced. The bullet may not have pierced the skin, but an object in motion stays in motion until acted upon by an unbalanced force. A thirty-eight caliber bullet could travel anywhere between six hundred and ninety to upwards of eleven hundred feet per second, depending on the load. The law of inertia was clearly visible on Rainey’s skin. She reached down to pick up the icepack from the bathroom sink just as Katie appeared in the doorway. Katie saw the bruise and reacted.

“Jesus Rainey, that wasn’t a graze was it? He shot you.”

Rainey covered the bruise with the ice pack, flinching when the frosty plastic hit her tender skin. “It hit my vest. No harm done.”

Katie turned pale and looked sick. She backed up and sat down on the trunk at the end of the bed. Rainey followed her into the bedroom. She knelt down in front of Katie, still holding the ice to her shoulder.

“Hey, it’s okay, really. It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Three inches higher and I’d be picking out your funeral clothes,” Katie snapped. She looked into Rainey’s eyes and said, “I can’t live like this.”

The statement hit Rainey hard. She stood up and took a step back. After a moment, she went back to the bathroom. Katie remained silent. Rainey taped the icepack to her upper arm with athletic tape, splashed water on her face, and then stared in the mirror as she dried her skin. “Fuck it,” she said, to no one. She walked into the bedroom where Katie sat, still stunned. Finding a sweatshirt in the drawer of the dresser, Rainey eased it on, careful with her shoulder. She turned to Katie finally.

“Katie, now is not the time to have this conversation. Danny is here and I have to talk to him. So, if you think you can live with it just a little bit longer, I’ll be available to have this discussion in about an hour.” The sarcasm was intentional.

“Rainey, I didn’t…”

“Save it. You said what you meant.”

Katie protested, “Hey, wait a minute.”

“No, you wait a minute. I’ve bent over backwards to insulate you from what I do for a living. This has nothing to do with my FBI career. You can hold me responsible for not telling you someone from my past might come after me, but you knew this was my job. I don’t know what else I can do about that.” Frustrated, Rainey stormed out of the bedroom and went to the living room to fix a drink.

By the time Rainey walked in the room, where Danny and Ernie were waiting, she was mad as hell. Ernie took one look at Rainey and did not say a word, just picked up her purse, told Danny goodbye, and exited the cottage. Rainey poured a drink without speaking to Danny. She hadn’t been this angry in a very long time. The waves of fury just kept coming. A voice in her head said this was more than an argument with Katie. This rage was coming from everything that happened today and long before. She walked by Danny, going into the kitchen, disarmed the alarm on the backdoor, and stepped out onto the deck. She slammed her fist on the deck railing.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

A light tap on the door alerted her to Danny’s presence. She turned to see him in the doorway.

“May I come out there or would you rather continue to abuse the woodwork a bit longer?”

Rainey glared at him, unspeaking.

“Let me see, either you’re mad cause you got into a fight with Katie or you’re mad cause you almost got killed. Which is it?”

Rainey was off on a much-needed rant. She didn’t have them often. In fact, she once heard herself referred to, by a fellow agent, as having ice water in her veins. She remained tight vested with most of her feelings, but on rare occasions she would vent. When she finally blew up, Danny was often the sounding board. He was probably expecting it.

Rainey turned and shouted at Danny. “I am pissed that I didn’t climb those stairs and strangle the shit out of that kid for almost shooting me in the head. I could kill that fucking cop that didn’t do his goddamn job and got me shot. I am livid that I let that happen, because I wasn’t focused enough to do my job. And most of all, I am really fucking pissed that you didn’t tell me about Dalton Chambers being moved to within twenty miles of me. Jesus Christ, Danny, what were you thinking?”

Danny remained silent. He sensed she wasn’t finished.

Rainey paused, took a deep breath, and then continued with less venom and volume. “I terrified Katie, not once, but twice today. Once, by telling her that a serial killer is again threatening our lives and then nearly dying shortly after. And to top it all off, she says she can’t live like this. She’s scared that every time I walk out the door it will be the last time.”

Danny who never took it easy on Rainey, said, “I can’t believe you didn’t see that coming.”

“She knew who and what I was when she met me. I’m not giving up the bond business. It’s all I have left.”

Danny spoke softly, “You have her. Isn’t that enough? Let someone else do the criminal catching. Sit in the office, go fishing, enjoy your life.”

The words left Rainey’s mouth, before she really thought them, “What if that is not enough? What if I can’t live like that?”

“I was wondering when your feet were going to come back to the ground. You know our relationships rarely work. It’s not a bed of roses for Katie, either. Welcome to the real world.”

“What does she expect from me?”

Danny tilted his head and wrinkled his brow in question. “You really don’t know, do you?”

“No, enlighten me,” Rainey shot back.

“Rainey, everybody is not like us. They can’t turn their emotions on and off.”

“That’s funny. I can’t seem to turn them off these days.”

Danny pointed a finger at Rainey. “You know damn well what I’m talking about. Something horrible happened to you. You dealt with it and now you’re moving on. You may have some residual fears and distrust, but you put the big hurts and terrors in a box and filed them away for future study.”

Rainey interrupted, “I’m not as cold blooded as everybody thinks.”

“I didn’t say you were. I, of all people, know what you went through.”

“I had to let it go, Danny. When I met Katie that was easier to do.”

“You’ve had more training and time, than Katie, to come to that conclusion. Nine months ago, her world was turned upside down. Is it too much to ask for her to want some safety and security for a while? You’re out there kicking in a major violent felon’s door, and for what, twenty grand? You know you shouldn’t have bailed him out in the first place. You did it for the money. Why, because of Katie wanting a new house.”

Ernie had obviously been shooting her mouth off. Rainey had the money to build a house without Katie’s help. She invested well and had her Bureau severance, but it was all tied up in accounts with penalties if she touched it. So she took Chauncey as a client when no one else would. She knew he was a risk, but she wanted to pad her bank account a bit with all the expenses they were about to have with the house and a baby. Danny was right. She’d taken a lot of sketchy clients lately. It didn’t matter to Rainey that Katie could finance it all and not put a dent in her trust. It was just part of Rainey’s character that she needed to pull her own weight. Rainey tried to speak, but Danny wouldn’t let her.

He continued his analysis of Rainey’s situation. “Rainey, you jumped into this relationship during the worst possible time. You were already traumatized and then you were re-victimized by the same attacker. In the middle of a fight for both your lives, you found each other. You’ve studied human behavior as much as anybody. You know the adrenaline of new love is wearing off. The glasses of romantic illusion are losing their power. The day-to-day realities of what you did and do for a living are finally hitting home with Katie, and you are realizing that maybe you made a mistake subjecting her to this. I think the question is, what do you expect from her?”

The doggie door popped opened, startling both of them. Freddie ran by, as if something were chasing him. Rainey looked in through the kitchen window. Katie was loading the dishwasher rather forcefully. Rainey thought Freddie had the right idea in running. Rainey looked back at Danny, whose attention had been drawn to the blonde slamming pots and pans around. They couldn’t see her face or hear her voice, but her body language strongly suggested that Katie was mumbling under her breath. Rainey knew most of what Katie was saying had her name spattered in it a few times, probably with, “Fuck you,” in front of it.

“Hell hath no fury…” Danny said, chuckling.

“How would you know? You haven’t kept one long enough to make her that mad.”

“So, are you going in there?”

Rainey shook her head from side to side. In her best Carolina hick accent, she said, “No. That there, Danny, is an extremely angry little ball of fire. I’m not touching it until it burns down to an ember.” Rainey rubbed her aching shoulder, before adding, “Let’s go down to the office. I have some bourbon down there, and I’m thinking I’m going to need a whole lot more to drink, before this night is over.”

Danny laughed and followed her down the back steps. “You stay gone too long, and those embers might turn to ashes.”

“Danny, why do you think you know so much about women? I am one, and half the time I can’t figure her out.”

Danny retorted, “I don’t have to know much about women. I know you and what a pain in the ass you can be.”

#

“So, what did you find?” Rainey asked, pouring them both a drink.

Danny sat in one of the old leather chairs in front of Rainey’s desk. Rainey had calmed down considerably and was now focused on finding out what Dalton had been up to. Danny pulled a small notebook from his inside coat pocket and began flipping pages. Rainey approached with his drink and put it on the table. She sat in the chair beside him, took a drink, and laid her head back.

While Danny organized his thoughts, Rainey organized her mental boxes. She closed the one where she put Katie, and all that came with her, when she needed to focus elsewhere. The box for the bail bond business, another one where her fears and doubts resided, and all the boxes not needed for the task of the moment were snapped shut. Then she opened the one containing her behavioral analyst tools, along with one of the other dusty containers in the corners of her mind, Dalton’s box. Rainey was the expert on Dalton Chambers. If anyone knew his motives, it was Rainey. This old box had been closed for three years. She was preparing herself to do battle with Dalton, again. If she let her emotions run wild, she wouldn’t be able to process the information Danny needed to nail this fucker once and for all.

Danny took a sip of his drink, before he began. “Rainey, I tossed his cell. I mean we tore it apart. There was no obvious communication between Chamber’s and his copycat. I found lots of correspondence, but none that jumped out at me as anything other than the basic serial killer fan bullshit. There were church bulletins from several churches, a few books on psychology, and a bible, of course. We took it all, every shred of paper we could find. I sent it all to Quantico.”

Rainey did not open her eyes when she asked, “What are you not telling me? I hear it in your voice and you’ve never needed to read from that damn notebook the whole time I’ve known you. You could recite whole crime scenes by heart. So, you were just killing time, trying to figure out how to tell me they screwed up and let stuff get through to him that he should not have.”

Danny cleared his throat. “I found a bunch of newspaper articles. They were all from last summer. All the details he would need to find you were in those articles. He highlighted your address, Katie’s name, her parents’ names, your mother’s name, Ernie, and Mackie’s, too. He had the pictures that went with the articles, as well. He also had the stories on your father’s murder. These were all copied on computer paper from the originals, and stuck inside his legal papers. It would have been easy to miss them. If it came in a package marked legal, all they could do was search for contraband, they couldn’t read any of it.”

Rainey remained perfectly still. “Does he still have that female lawyer, the one who wanted to marry him?”

“Yep. She saw him on the day he left ‘The Onion.’ Someone from the Roanoke field office has been sent to pick her up. A night sitting in an interview room should loosen her tongue. We’ll know if she gave him the information on you, by morning.”

Rainey’s eyes remained closed. “What exactly did Dalton say when he saw you?”

Danny didn’t sugarcoat his answer. He repeated the conversation verbatim. “He said, ‘Agent McNally, what a distinct non-pleasure. So, Rainey Bell is a dyke. I guess that makes you a faggot. Come to save the dyke’s ass, have you? I can’t see why. She prefers pussy. Now, you really don’t stand a chance.”

Rainey remained still. She did not react to Danny’s statement.

Danny was quiet for a few moments, and then he said, “Rainey, the team is here in Durham. We’re going to stay on this until we find this guy. Trust me when I say, I will not rest until you and your family are safe.”

Rainey finally raised her head from the back of the chair. She finished her drink in one big gulp, before she spoke. “I will never be safe, as long as people like Dalton are out there; I will continually be looking over my shoulder. You and I both know there will always be Daltons to contend with. The best thing I can do is hope I see them coming. Other than that, my life is forever fucked.”

Danny tried to placate her mood, somewhat. “You put yourself in the line of fire for the greater good. It is unfortunate that the events of last summer made you vulnerable. Everyone knows who you are and what you look like. Some asshole is always going to want to challenge you. I know you didn’t ask for this and I wish it hadn’t happened, but you are a highly skilled former FBI agent. You can survive this. Look what you’ve already lived through. Your training saved your life and Katie’s. Trust your instincts Rainey. You have one of the best minds of all the agents I know. You can figure out how to live without fear.”

“It’s Katie, Danny. When she gets in my head, I don’t think straight. Pardon the pun. I’m afraid I won’t hear my little voice telling me what to do, because my focus is on keeping her safe. My being shot today was a direct result of not paying close attention to the details. She blurs the details. I’m afraid she can’t stay with me. I’m afraid I’ll have to let her go, because I love her too much to let her stay.”

“Fear is freezing you, don’t you see that? Stop being afraid of losing her and start making sure you can keep her. Go proactive. Help me find this guy. You know Dalton better than anyone, who are we looking for?”

“I can’t actively be involved in the investigation. That would scare Katie to death, but I will give you my opinion, and then you and the team are on your own. My job is to keep my family alive.”

In Rainey’s mind, Ernie and Mackie were part of her family. They were really all she had left, except for Katie, and she wasn’t sure how much more of this Katie would take. She would have to call her mother, which she dreaded immensely, but it was the right thing to do. Her mother and stepfather were in danger, just like the rest of them, even if Rainey never really spent any time with them.

Danny picked up a pen from Rainey’s desk, poised to take notes. He said, “Okay, fair enough. Just tell me what you think and I’ll share it with the team.”

Rainey stood up, walked to the counter, and poured another drink. She offered the bottle to Danny. He put his hand over his still full glass and waited for her to begin.

Rainey didn’t sit back down. She walked over to the window and peered into the darkness at the lake. She watched the tiny lights on a small boat, as it slowly passed the end of the dock, headed to the boat ramp just south of Rainey’s property. The lake closed to boat traffic at nine p.m. She let her mind wander, while it sorted through her encyclopedia of Dalton Chambers knowledge. When she was ready, she turned to Danny and began.

“The differences in the case, here in Durham, and Dalton’s crimes are what sticks out to me. The body was left in the death position for some time, before it and the head were packaged and thrown in the river. Why did he move the body? Was he trying to conceal it, or was he making sure it would be found, or did he panic and lose focus? The kill sight was probably on public land like Dalton’s. There isn’t much privacy here in the triangle, unlike where Dalton committed his murders. In order to have the seclusion he would need, for the amount of time he spends with the victims, he chose a place where he was positive no one would find him. That makes me think of avid hikers, hunters, even farmers in the area around the river, someone who knows the lay of the land.”

Rainey took a drink and began to pace. Her mind focused on the details. Things began to click. “I don’t think this guy is a controlled killer like Dalton. He may develop into one, but right now he is learning. He followed his instructions to create a copycat crime, but somewhere along the way I think he panicked, probably when the head came off. He is not a practiced killer. I think this victim may have been his first. When the next body is found, I think you will see signs of more control. The first kill didn’t turn him off. I’m sure he killed the woman that is still missing. There are too many coincidences in how the victims were taken, who the victims were, and where they were last seen. The most obvious difference in these victims and Dalton’s is they were not virgins, or even attempting to appear that way. From the reports I saw, I gathered these were staunch lesbians. How does a man get that type of woman to go willingly with him? He must use a ruse similar to Bundy. The ‘man in need of help’ con is my bet.”

Danny asked, “This bar where the women were last seen, I am assuming it’s a lesbian or gay bar.”

“Feme Sole, it’s a lesbian bar.”

“Have you been there?”

Rainey thought about her promise to Katie to take her dancing. “No, but I planned to take Katie, Saturday. That’s one more promise I’ll have to break.”

“Yes, you will break that promise,” Danny said. “If he’s hunting you and you show up in his territory, he won’t be able to resist coming after you. He wants to please Dalton and you are all that piece of shit thinks about.”

That didn’t make Rainey feel any better about the situation. She tried to move on. “Physically, I think this guy is like Dalton. Good looking, charming, you know, the boy next door. He gets these women isolated and then he strikes. The victims’ cars were parked, untouched, near the bar. So, he must lie in wait for them near there. Durham police and the Sheriff’s department are patrolling the area now, but I don’t think they will be able to spot him. He will blend in with the crowd. There are several bars in the area, so he could appear to be a young man leaving a bar. He won’t be sporting a flannel shirt and chewing tobacco, that’s for sure.”

Rainey felt as if the years melted away and she was back on the team when Danny jumped in. It was just like old times. “He definitely has a working vehicle. He transports the victims to remote locations, so it’s probably an SUV or truck. After “Silence of the Lambs,” no woman is going to follow a guy to the back of his van to lend a hand. He hunts on the weekends, so he probably has a nine to five job during the week. If he’s in a relationship, he is able to be gone for many hours without suspicion.”

Danny’s phone rang. He answered, “McNally.”

Rainey watched Danny’s facial expressions as he carried on a conversation with someone, apparently a member of the BAU team that accompanied him.

“Uh huh, yeah, I’ll be right there… No, Rainey is not consulting on this case… Yes, I will. See you in about thirty minutes… Yes, send the coordinates to my phone… Yeah, okay and make sure the locals don’t touch anything until I get there.” He hung up and turned his attention back to Rainey. “Glad I didn’t drink that booze. It’s going to be a long night. They found the missing girl.”

Rainey asked, knowing the answer before she did, “Is it him?”

“Looks that way. This one was still tied to the tree. And before I forget, Curtis says hello.”

Curtis joined the BAU four years before Rainey resigned. He was still young and new enough not to be jaded. Rainey had liked him and his young wife. They were such a cute couple. She wondered how their marriage was holding up under the stress of his job. If he had a secret, she wished he’d share. Rainey’s only real friends had been co-workers. She suddenly felt some of the isolation and loneliness Katie must be experiencing.

Danny looked at Rainey with his eyebrows raised. “You’re sure you don’t want in on this?”

Part of Rainey did want to go with Danny, but she knew she couldn’t. She had her own mess to deal with over at the cottage, and besides she was well on her way to getting drunk. Rainey was not an agent anymore; she would never be again, not as long as Katie was in her life.

“No, Danny. I can’t. I need to go home. Keep me informed and call me if you want more of my insights, but no, I can’t work this case. It would be too much to ask of Katie.”

They started for the door, Danny saying as they moved, “Okay, but if you change your mind, you know you are welcome to step in at any time.” He paused, put his arm around her shoulder and said, “I miss you, Rainey. I really do.”

“I miss you, too Danny.”

#

Danny waited while Rainey locked the office, then they walked back up the hill together. They said goodbye at the SUV and then Rainey made her way to the front steps. She watched until his taillights disappeared into the trees covering the road. Her shoulder was pounding again, the ice having long since melted. She approached the door, hoping Katie had calmed down by now. She looked around once more, taking in the property with a trained eye. Nothing looked out of place. Freddie joined her on the deck. She petted him on the head.

“I don’t know if you want to come in here, now. She might still be mad.” Freddie rubbed up against her, purring loudly, and meowed. “Easy for you to say. You have a doggie door to escape out of.” Freddie looked up at Rainey and meowed, louder this time. “Okay, if you think it’s safe, we’ll go in.”

Rainey took a deep breath. Reaching for the handle, she discovered the door was unlocked. A small act of rebellion on Katie’s part, Rainey was sure. Of course, Katie knew Rainey and Danny were only a few feet away, and would come running if anyone approached. Katie did leave the alarm on, which was loudly announcing Rainey’s presence. She peeked in and saw the living room was empty. Rainey locked the door behind her, reset the alarm, and went in search of the fuming little blonde. She found Katie in the bedroom, reading on her Kindle, by the window. Katie looked up for a second and then went right back to the screen. Okay, this was how Katie was going to play this, the silent treatment. Rainey could do that easy enough. She turned around and went to the kitchen in search of food. The alcohol had not landed well in her hollow stomach.

She found Freddie waiting by his empty bowl. “Looks like I’m not the only one being neglected. We’re on our own tonight, Bud.”

Rainey fed Freddie and then opened the refrigerator, looking for something to feed herself. On the top shelf, Katie had placed a sandwich wrapped in cellophane and a glass of milk. So Katie wasn’t so mad she wanted Rainey to starve. She took the sandwich and milk out to the living room. When she lived alone she always ate in front of the TV. Katie insisted on eating at the table. This was Rainey’s little act of rebellion.

She turned on the flat screen and settled into the couch. Katie would come out of the bedroom eventually. Rainey could wait. Right now she was looking for a basketball game to watch. It wasn’t basketball season, to Rainey’s chagrin, but she found a replay of the Duke – Carolina game from this past season, on one of the sports channels. Avoiding the problem wasn’t going to make it go away, but a little food and ACC basketball would make it easier to face. If she were lucky the fight would come and go before the second half.

Her stomach growled as she unwrapped the sandwich. Since Katie had her on a regular eating schedule, when she missed a meal Rainey felt like she was starving. She used to go a whole day on one quickly grabbed hamburger. She took a huge bite out of the sandwich just as Katie came into the room. Oh God, Rainey thought, could she just swallow this before the fighting started?

“I see your basic needs are being met,” Katie said, sarcasm dripping from her words.

“wthawnk yuuu fo thw san wooch,” Rainey tried to say, the sandwich hanging out both sides of her mouth. She swallowed and tried again. “Thank you for the sandwich.”

“I made it before you ran off with Danny for your secret meeting.”

“I didn’t run off with Danny to have a secret meeting. You were slamming pots around, so I thought you needed some space.” That sounded like a plausible answer. Rainey didn’t want to admit that she was afraid of Katie’s anger, and ran like a scared little girl to the safety of her office. She thought about taking another bite of the sandwich, but that might send Katie over the edge.

“You don’t think I need to know what’s going on, here? Is this something I don’t,” Katie made quotation marks in the air around her next words, “need to know?”

“No, you should know everything, but Danny didn’t have much on this guy, yet. I know Dalton, but he’s locked up. They found the missing girl. That’s why Danny left. I’m sure we’ll know more tomorrow.”

“You could have included me in the conversation with Danny. I have a right to know who’s trying to kill me,” Katie argued.

“You didn’t give me a chance.” Rainey threw the sandwich down on the plate and stood up. “Jesus Katie, what the hell is wrong with you? First you tell me you can’t live with my job, which is the reason we met in the first place, and now you’re accusing me of keeping something important from you. You were angry and not in a talking mood, from what I could tell. I’m sure the dishwasher can testify to that.”

“You weren’t exactly in a cheerful mood yourself.” Katie hesitated and then said, “I don’t know why you insist on chasing down criminals. This isn’t any safer than your FBI job, maybe even worse. You said you stayed at Quantico doing research most of the time, and at least you weren’t the first to go in when you were in the field. Haven’t you faced enough life and death situations to last a lifetime? What is it Rainey? Do you need the thrill?”

“I resigned to be with you.”

Katie shouted, “Then be with me! Not out risking your life on a daily basis.”

Rainey was angry, Katie was angry, and this conversation was going nowhere unless they figured out what they were angry about. Rainey knew anger was usually a symptom of a deeper emotion, like fear. The analyst in Rainey watched Katie’s body language. She listened to the tone of Katie’s voice. Rainey needed to be calm and rational, in response. As long as they remained standing and confrontational, nothing would be accomplished.

“Katie, sit down,” Rainey said, in her best soothing voice.

Rainey learned something at that moment about women, for which her behavioral analyst job did not prepare her. Never tell an angry woman to sit down. She had faced off men twice her size and told them to sit their asses down, she had taken control of drug crazed bond skippers, but she would never again tell Katie to sit down during an argument. It had the same effect as throwing water on a grease fire. Katie stood on her tiptoes and let fly with everything that had been bothering her since they met. Rainey could only stand by and watch.

“I will not sit down! I have a few things to say and I intend to stand here and say them. First of all, yes, I did know what you did for a living and I have done my best to accept the fact that every time you walk out that door could be the last, but you take unnecessary risks and that is selfish. Do you ever think about how I feel? You walk around fully armed and alarmed, but you put yourself in situations that are dangerous for no reason. Do you have a death wish? If you do, tell me now, so I can try to fall out of love with you.”

“Katie, I…” Rainey tried to say something, but it was no use.

“Second, if you think for one minute I’m going to live the rest of my life in fear, you are sadly mistaken. I will not live like that and you don’t have to, either.”

Rainey saw her opportunity to respond. “I don’t take unnecessary risks and I don’t want you to live in fear. I just want you to be cautious and aware.”

“Bull shit, Rainey. You want me in this cottage where you think you can protect me. I see the apprehension in your eyes every time I get in the car. I have accommodated your fears and stayed close to home, most of the time, but I have been alone about as much as I intend to be. I’m re-entering my life and I won’t be looking at every person I meet as a potential threat.”

“So, this really isn’t about me, is it?” Rainey shot back. She could remain calm in the worst of situations, but Katie could make her crazy. Like now, when Rainey should have shut up, but didn’t. “Now that the fog of your trauma is lifting, you can see the future, and you don’t like what you see. Is that it?”

“Don’t analyze me. I did not say I didn’t want a future with you. I said I don’t want to live in fear. We don’t have to. We could leave here and never look back. I have enough money for both of us. You don’t have to risk your life every day… I’m not good cop wife material, Rainey.”

Rainey had this conversation, albeit a bit differently, with Bobby. She knew where this was going and the pain caused her to lash out. “You picked a fine time to come to that conclusion.”

“We can’t bring a child into this environment of fear and mistrust,” Katie said, emphatically.

“Then don’t!”

That was the deal breaker. Katie left the room. Rainey did not follow her. She grabbed a bottle of bourbon from the cabinet and went to the kitchen for a glass, to await what she knew was coming next.

A few minutes later, Katie came out of the bedroom carrying a suitcase. Rainey couldn’t stop her if she tried, so she didn’t. Rainey stood in the archway to the kitchen, as Katie passed without a word. Katie turned at the door, looking back at Rainey. Katie started to say something, but changed her mind. With tears streaming down her face, she disarmed the alarm, opened the door, and walked out of Rainey’s life.