A Killer's Watch (25 page)

The live feed would also help him control Aubrey. It was
proof that he could get to her children, her husband, as easily as he got to
her. It was an ingenious part of his plan, one that he knew would tear out her
heart, just as she had torn out his.

Whistling, Graham closed the door to Aubrey’s room. It was
time to bring her inside, time for their relationship to begin anew.

~~~

“I can’t believe that Grant took another victim, and I’m
supposed to have a rest. It’s preposterous!” Monique fumed, not for the first
time.

“Look at it this way, if you rest now, while there is
nothing that you can do, you’ll be better able to help when we get a break.”
Chloe had been trying to reason with her all the way to the hotel room.

“But surely there is something we can do now! We should be
on our way to Clevestone.” Monique dropped into the chair nearest the door of
their room. She hated to admit it, but her body was screaming for her to lay
down.

“Jeri thinks he’s headed for Nebraska, or at least out of
state. Our being in Clevestone wouldn’t help anything. We need to wait here,
see if they get a hit on the BOLO, or find some other clue as to where he’s
taken her.”

“But…”

“Just go rest, will you? I get it, you want to be doing
something. So do I. But Jeri said to rest or you’re fired. I think she meant
it.”

“No, she didn’t,” Monique grumbled, then stood. “Okay, I’ll
go. But you promise to wake me, as soon as anything happens.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Chloe watched as Monique made her way,
unsteadily, to the bedroom. She would die before she would ask for help. Chloe
got that, too. As soon as the bedroom door closed, she was on the phone with
Anna.

“Jeri wants a deep background check on Aubrey Watson. I can
help with that, if you tell me which interface to use.”

Within moments, Chloe was up and running, digging into
Aubrey’s life with a very large shovel.

~~~

Jeri slipped through the back door of Aubrey’s home, leaving
Ethan to deal with the forensics unit, and the local police. Joe Watson was
wearing a hole in the living room carpet, along with his brother, and Aubrey’s
mother. The family had gathered almost immediately, peppering Jeri and Ethan
with questions that had no answers. At least not ones they were at liberty to
divulge.

Thanks to Graham Grant’s political clout, Nate had received
a call from the governor and some high muckety-muck in Washington, advising EJB
Global to avoid mentioning Graham Grant’s name in relation with the
disappearance of Aubrey Watson, or anyone else. Without some way to connect
Grant to the crimes, their hands were tied. Jeri couldn’t even ask the family
if Aubrey knew Grant. It was ridiculous.

Needing time to think, Jeri found her way to the same lounge
chair that Aubrey had used, only a few hours ago. Something was off, she knew
it, but she couldn’t put her finger on it, especially with so much going on
inside the house.

Outside, the only noise came from the birds, flitting from
tree to tree, calling out to their mates. For the first time since arriving in
Kansas, Jeri took a deep breath, and noticed her surroundings. Aubrey and Joe
had done a beautiful job with the landscape. Mature trees created a private
border, enclosing the yard like an oasis. Cheery plantings, offset by small
solar lights, encircled a rock patio. Cushioned outdoor furniture created a
variety of seating options, opening the space to entertaining, and family fun.

Closing her eyes, Jeri could imagine Aubrey out here,
laughing with her children, relaxing in the sun, hosting parties with her
friends. From everything she could see, Aubrey had a wonderful life. But Graham
Grant was determined to steal it.

“Not if I can help it,” Jeri whispered softly. “There is a
connection, Grant. And when I find it, you’re mine.”

Connection.

The meaning hit her like a ton of bricks. It was what she
had been missing, the one thing she knew about Grant’s connection to the other
girls.

Reaching for her phone, she dialed Anna as she walked back
to the house.

“Anna, we need to check video feeds from the computers in
the Watson home. What do you need?”

“You’ve aged well, my lovely Aubrey,” Graham whispered as he
removed the last of Aubrey’s clothes. He wanted her to feel vulnerable, needed
her to fear him, as soon as she awakened.

He’d already attached the shackles to the posts on her bed,
now he quickly secured one to each of her limbs. She would have slightly more
range of movement than his other victims, but that would only increase her
frustration. Finally, he covered her with his version of a veil, a transparent
slip of fabric that hid nothing.

Stepping back, he positioned the cameras, one to her left,
and one to her right. Together with the one in the television, he would be able
to see her from every angle.

“What did we ever do without this technology?” he mumbled,
leaving the room.

Now that he had Aubrey squared away, he could focus on his
playroom, the place where he would spend wonderful hours with his beloved.
Watching Anson’s videos had awakened a taste for blood that he never knew was
part of him. Now that he’d experienced it first hand, he couldn’t seem to get
enough.

There was something about watching a woman’s eyes as he
lowered the blade that made him feel power like he’d never felt before. Cutting
them was better than abduction, better than sex, better than anything he had
ever known.

“And to think that the others were only practice runs. You
are the real thing, my sweet, sweet Aubrey.”

~~~

Aubrey opened her eyes slowly, the mountain of pain in her
head intensifying as light hit her eyes. Instinct had her reaching for the
pain, but the shackles stopped her halfway.

“What the…” Momentarily forgetting her discomfort, Aubrey
tried to pull her hand loose from whatever held her, but it didn’t budge.
Raising her head, she was shocked to find that she lay naked in a huge bed, covered
in only a sheer piece of fabric, reminiscent of a curtain, her legs and arms
chained to the posts.

Flopping her head back against the pillow, she closed her
eyes and tried to remember what had happened.

She was in her kitchen, getting ready to leave for the
bazaar. She was carrying the pies to the car when something stopped her.

A man.

Someone familiar, but she couldn’t place him. Try as she
might to conjure his image, she couldn’t. Her brain was too fuzzy to focus.

Darting her eyes around the room, she saw the cameras first.
Again, her first instinct was to cover herself, but she couldn’t.

“Creep,” she spat, looking directly into one of the lens.

Her eyes traveled beyond the tripods to the rest of the
room. Under different circumstances, she would have appreciated it. The
furniture was lovely, and a vase of fresh flowers stood on the dresser, in
front of the mirror. She could see part of a bathroom through an open doorway,
and a very large television, hanging directly opposite the bed. Hanging in the
center of the wall, with no furniture around it, the television seemed out of
place.

Twisting her head back, she looked for windows, but there
were none. The realization made her feel more trapped than she already did, for
some unknown reason.

Next, she examined the shackles. Large, heavy chains
attached to metal rings around each of her wrists, and her ankles. They looked
like something a prisoner wore in the movies. She could move her limbs a
little, but not enough to sit up, or get comfortable.

Throwing her head back in frustration, she considered
screaming, but an inner voice told her it would do no good. And it might bring
her abductor into the room, something she was definitely
not
ready to
do.

She needed to get her wits about her, needed to come with a
way to escape.

Since the shackles were impenetrable, she considered her
surroundings. He obviously meant for her to be comfortable, in a way. The
flowers, the bathroom, even the television spoke to the fact that he, whoever
he was, had considered her conditions carefully.

Maybe he wasn’t a monster, maybe she could talk her way out
of it. She knew from watching crime shows that she should make him think of her
as a person. She would tell him about her family, about her kids, try and tug
on his heart strings, assuming he had one.

She would be pleasant, not fearful. She would try and gain
his confidence.

But what if he tries to rape me, what will I do then?

Given the way she was tied to the bed, it wasn’t a stretch
to think that her abductor wanted her for sex. Instantly, tears filled her
eyes, but she did her best to contain them.

For twelve years, Joe had been the only man to touch her. He
was the only man she ever wanted to touch her, for the rest of her life. The
connection they shared was more than physical, it was spiritual, mindless,
all-consuming. How would she ever let another man have her body that way?

“I’ll do what I have to, to get back to my kids, back to
Joe,” she whispered, resigning herself to the unthinkable. Not fighting him may
win him over faster.

She shuddered at the thought.

~~~

“He’s tapped into every computer in the house, and the
television in the main living area. It’s a smart television, with a camera that
he can use to watch the family.” Anna gave Jeri the report in a monotone, it
was the only way she could contain her disgust.

“Can you trace the feed?”

“No. Not yet, anyway. It’s the same as the ones coming from
the girl’s computers. He’s routed it all over the world, and hidden the servers
behind a dozen firewalls.”

“Do what you can, it may be the only way we stop him,” Jeri
lowered her voice. She didn’t want Aubrey’s family to hear her side of the
conversation. “Have you turned up anything on the background check?”

“Chloe’s on it, but I don’t think she’s found anything yet.”

“Okay, thanks.” Jeri hesitated a moment. “Anna? We can’t let
this bastard win. We
have
to find him. Get me a clue, anything that will
lead us in the right direction.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Was that Anna?” Ethan asked, joining Jeri in the laundry
room. It was the only room downstairs that wasn’t filled with people.

“Yes. He was watching the family through all of the
computers, and the television in the living room.”

“Son of a bitch!” Ethan swore. “Don’t tell me that Anna
can’t trace the feeds!” He, too, spoke softly.

“She’s working on it.”

 “This gag order is making me sick to my stomach. How can we
operate, if we’re unable to ask the right questions? Aubrey’s family is here,
not forty feet away. Her mother would know if she had a problem with Graham
Grant when she was a teenager.”

“Trust me, if I thought that knowing that would tell us
where he’s taking her, I would ignore the gag order. I don’t care who issued it.
But we already know it’s Grant. We just need to know how to find him.” Jeri
paced around the small space.

“The connection would help us get a court order to open his
finances.” Ethan moved out of her way.

“We’re not going to find what we need in his stateside bank
accounts,” Jeri reminded him. “And we’ve been working on the offshore accounts
for days, with little luck. Anna’s searching for property in the name of each
shell corporation that we know of, but we’ve got nothing yet.”

“As adept as Grant is in layering his companies, that’s a
real longshot. But at least it’s something.”

“We could search any surveillance videos along the route he
took out of here. I doubt that there are any, until he hit the main road, but
it’s worth a look.”

“I’ll get Dylan on it. We’ve got a pretty decent timeline to
narrow down the search. Good thinking!” Ethan took his phone outside.

Jeri’s phone rang, seconds after he closed the door.

“Jeri, you’re not going to believe this,” Chloe began.
“Aubrey took out a restraining order on Graham Grant when she was sixteen years
old. Apparently, he was stalking her.”

“Why didn’t we know about this?” Jeri stopped pacing, shock
holding her still.

“They were both minors, at the time. With Grant’s
connections, it was easy to have it sealed and buried. Don’t ask me how I found
it,” Chloe said, not wanting to talk about her methods, which weren’t exactly
by the book.

“I don’t care how you found the information, having it is
what’s important. Forward a copy to me, and to Anna, please. Good work, Chloe.”

“I’m on it. Thanks.”

Jeri met Ethan at the door.

“What’s up?” he asked as she joined him outside.

“Grant stalked Aubrey when she was sixteen. She took out a
restraining order, which Chloe just unearthed. The bastard had it buried,
thanks to Daddy and his money, I’m sure.”

“If we’d known this before, we could have protected Aubrey.
Dammit!” Ethan’s voice rose with the curse.

“Get with Nate, see if this is enough to have the gag order
lifted, and officially make Grant a person of interest. Then we can blast the
media with his picture. I’ll speak with Aubrey’s mother, get the details.”

Ethan nodded, already calling Nate.

Jeri approached Dorothy Bates quietly, and asked to speak
with her alone. The room was filled with cousins, uncles, aunts, and a myriad
of friends, all of whom had come to lend support.

Jeri had made it to the hallway with Dorothy, when Joe
joined them.

“What’s happening, did you find something?”

“Nothing that tells us where your wife is, Joe. Something
has come to light about Aubrey’s past, which is why I need to speak with her
mother. Is there somewhere we can go? Somewhere private?”