The Bride Collector (26 page)

“What’s your point, Roudy?” Paradise was the most lucid of the three, the ace in the hole here. The glue that held them together.
And although her constant apologetic glances at Brad indicated that she knew this, she rarely tried to set them straight except
through a gentle nudge.

Roudy rolled his eyes as if his point should be painfully obvious. “He gives them apples, not worms. He tempts them. They
like what he says. Apples, apples, Paradise!” He snapped his fingers twice. “Focus!”

“I am, Roudy, and I’m seeing the snake plucking the apple with his skillful tail and hurling it at the girl with so much force
that it knocks her out. Then he wraps himself around her throat and drags her into his hole.” It was undoubtedly only a fraction
of the fully fleshed story that had mushroomed in her mind. Her mind was a fertile, exotic jungle teeming with life.

“Men are like snakes,” Andrea said without turning from the whiteboard. “Only one thing on the mind. You tell them, Paradise.”

“Men are like snakes, Roudy,” Paradise agreed. Then added with another glance at Brad, “Most men.”

“Most men,” Andrea agreed. “Twice perfect. Twice perfect.” She whimpered.

Roudy looked at her. “Seven is perfect.”

Brad had trouble containing his amusement. Unrestrained as they were, their thoughts jumped from track to track like a train
with a mind of its own. Still, there was method to the madness in their world without rules.

He couldn’t help feeling like they were on the cusp of discovering the solution to the perfect mud pie. It was every child’s
playtime fantasy. There was a perfect mud pie here, they just had to keep kneading the dirt until they formed it. And in the
process they would throw a few globs of mud at each other and laugh and stomp off angry, because that’s what children did
when they played with mud.

“Are you okay?” Paradise asked, walking up to him at the back of the room.

“Couldn’t be better.”

“I doubt that’s entirely true.”

“Well… we
are
running out of daylight.”

“I told you it might all be pointless. But you’re okay, right? I mean… you’re not bored?”

“Impossible.” And it was the bone-dry truth.

She grinned. “Nothing like a trip to the zoo, right?”

“If this is the zoo, then I’m the monkey,” he said.

She stared into his eyes for a moment, then blushed. Which concerned him a little because he wasn’t sure his earlier exchange
with her had quite dismissed the awkward connection between them.

They had reentered the room and thrown themselves into the puzzle-solving like best friends. Relieved of any pretense, Paradise
had opened up and bounced around with a bright smile. But the old, unspoken awkwardness had started to creep back in as the
hours ticked by.

Brad was no stranger to relationships with women as long as they didn’t demand commitment. If he could take any lesson away
from his thirty-two years, it might be that any bond with Paradise would be a disaster in the making, for her and for him.

Not that he could afford to be even remotely interested in that way.

At first his thinking was that he had to protect her. He couldn’t give her hope while earning her trust, just to drop her
later. Then again, Allison had made a good point: Even a short relationship that ended in disappointment might be beneficial
to Paradise.

Either way, it didn’t matter. His fear wasn’t for Paradise, was it? He was more disturbed by his own reaction to her, however
shameful that was to admit. And that thought gave birth to another, even more disturbing: Could he truly love someone like
Paradise? The notion struck him as absurd! He had to end it completely, so he had.

But now she was blushing, as she had several times over the last half hour.

Her white cheeks were flushed with just a hint of red to match her ruby lips. She smiled, perfect white teeth. It made him
wonder if she’d ever been kissed. She was frail and fair, as innocent as a broken dove. She had no fashion sense, choosing
today to wear button-fly Levi’s that were wrinkled and an inch too short, and a sleeveless yellow collared shirt that was
tucked in. Also wrinkled. The outfit was accessorized with a pink vinyl belt.

She’d dressed up for him, he thought, and ninety-nine out of a hundred people would think of her as fool for doing so.

He couldn’t do this.

“H and O,” Andrea said. “Ho.”

“Who’s the ho?” Roudy came back. “He isn’t killing whores.”

“No, ‘h’ and ‘o’ then ‘perfect twice.’ Fourteen.” She spoke quickly, drawing a shaky finger along the line. “… ‘join him in
the hole. Perfect twice. Me. Paradise lost.’ That’s fourteen letters, perfect twice.”

Andrea’s mind was lost in numbers, but her voice carried an urgency that made Paradise turn and face the board. “What’s fourteen
letters, Andrea?”

Brad’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket and he slipped it out. The screen read
NIKKI HOLDEN
. She was checking in as agreed. He thumbed the green talk button.

Andrea was clearly excited now. “‘Ho,’ then fourteen letters. Then ‘me.’ It happens twice, here and here.”

Brad lifted his phone to his ear. “Hello, Nikki. How goes it?”

The small speaker on his cell phone hissed. Then another sound popped softly. The sound of someone trying to speak and unable
to get words past raw emotion.

There are times in life when that dreaded phone call comes, making real the stuff of nightmares… a car accident, a broken
back, a death… and Brad knew immediately that this was one of those dreaded calls. His heart thumped hard once, then seemed
to seize up. But his mind was racing, desperate to know that he was wrong.

“Nikki?”

She was trying to speak. Brad shivered.

“What’s wrong?” He couldn’t move. “Nikki?”

She found her voice, but it came out tight and stretched to the breaking point. “Brad…”

“What is it? What’s going on?”

She was crying. “Brad, he…”

That was all she got. He. There was only one “he” that came to mind.

And then “he” spoke. “Hello, Rain Man. Did you find my jack in the whole? It wasn’t supposed to be her, you know? Come and
get me, Rain Man. Time’s running out.”

The connection ended.

“Nikki! Nikki!”

His world compressed around him. Andrea was talking about perfection and Paradise was asking something, but all Brad could
hear was the dead silence on the phone.

He had Nikki. The Bride Collector had Nikki.

That couldn’t be right. There was a mistake, Nikki was at her mother’s! She wasn’t even on the case today. But…

Brad couldn’t breathe. The phone was still pressed against his cheek, silent. Everything seemed to have stalled and he couldn’t
remember what he was supposed to do.

Then training and instinct dropped into his mind and resumed a semblance of control.

He jerked the phone from his ear. “It’s Nikki,” he said.

They stared at him, unsure what was expected of them.

“The Bride Collector has Nikki.”

“We’re too late?” Roudy asked. “What did I say, what was I saying? Hurry, hurry, and now look at this!”

“Nikki,” Paradise said, unbelieving. “He’s taken Nikki?”

“Yes.” Brad was punching in James Temple’s number, hand shaking like a leaf in the wind.
Get control, calm down. Take a deep breath, just calm down
.

The special agent in charge answered on the third ring. “Temple.”

“He’s got Nikki. I just got a call from her cell phone. The killer’s got her—”

“Slow down. She had a protective—”

“Call the unit. Get a car from Castle Rock PD out to her mother’s house immediately. I’m going to call her back.”

“You’re sure—”

“Get out to her mother’s house!” Brad snapped. “Now!” He disconnected, brought up recent calls, and selected Nikki’s number.
Hit send.

The phone rang him right into her voice mail.

Think. Think!

Andrea was speaking again, sweet and soft. “Home,” she said. “‘Ho’ followed by fourteen letters then ‘me.’ That sequence occurs
twice. That’s perfect seven times two, perfect twice, and that happens twice. Perfect, twice. H… O… M… E… Home.” She had the
pattern underlined in red.

The snake waits in the garden, seeking a new bride to join him in the
hol
e. Perfect twice.
Me
.

Paradise lost. It takes one to know one. To know the insane. When the jack is in the w
hol
e. Does jack want
me
to hide from you?

“That’s it,” Roudy said. “The jack in the whole! Home. He wrote this note after he planned on taking her. He has her at home.”

Silence gripped the room.

Paradise looked up at him and blinked. “Where does Nikki live?”

The pattern filled Brad’s mind like fireflies, almost impossible to see now that Andrea had illuminated the darkness.

Home
.

“How do we know it’s
her
home?” he asked aloud.

“He wouldn’t hide a key in his message unless it unlocked meaning,” Paradise said. “His home would have no meaning to us unless
you know where it is. Nikki’s home would. The killer has Nikki in her home.” She paused. “And if you were just on the phone
with her, she’s still alive.”

Brad was already running for the door. Roudy was demanding to be taken along, but Brad didn’t have the presence of mind to
respond. He entered the hall at a full sprint, mind spinning with one question: What was the fastest way?

He tore past a dozen bewildered residents in the great room and raced across the yard.

Or was it
his
home? Or her mother’s home?

Nikki lived in a two-bedroom apartment on Simms Street west of Denver. He’d taken her home after the Christmas party last
year rather than allow her to drive after one too many drinks. A cruiser might be closer—he’d put out a call. But he was less
than fifteen minutes away himself, assuming traffic didn’t hold him up.

Brad hit seventy by the end of the driveway, honking for the guard to open the gate, which he did, but only after Brad slid
to a stop with two inches to spare.

If the killer had reduced Nikki to the woman he’d heard on the phone, he had to assume that the Bride Collector now knew everything
Nikki knew, including the fact that Brad was at the Center for Wellness and Intelligence, only fifteen minutes away without
traffic.

But the killer said he believed Brad hadn’t found the jack in the whole tipping them off to his location. He might not feel
any urgency.

Nikki was alive. If the Bride Collector intended to kill her the same way he’d killed the others, the operation would take
some doing. Even after the drilling, he would have to get her up on the wall and unplug the wounds before her blood would
drain. Kim had said it would take up to ten minutes for the heart to pump out five liters through the anterior tibial artery.

With any luck, Brad still had time to reach her.
Dear God, help me.

He got Temple back on the line as he hit Highway 170, doing ninety. “No time to explain now, but he’s got her at home. Either
my condo, her mother’s house, or her apartment on Simms. Get Frank down to my condo now, send backup to Nikki’s apartment.
I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“There’s no answer from the squad car that followed her. ETA two minutes.”

“Just send the cavalry out to Simms. Now, Temple. Now!”

SHE WASN’T COOPERATING
the way Quinton had hoped. Her spirit was too strong and she had a rebellious nature, making him second-guess his choice
to take her. The psycho-sedative was starting to kick in now, but he always preferred to get at least a nod of appreciation
for God’s plan before he gave the brides the rest of the drugs. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been easily convinced of her opportunity.

The reason for her stubbornness was quite plain. Unlike the others, she was a psychologist, and therefore her mind was badly
bent in the wrong direction. To complicate matters, she was full of antagonism toward him for taking the other favorites,
and she didn’t seem to be able to grasp that this was all in her best interest.

Which presented a problem for Quinton. As God’s messenger sent to find the bride, much like Isaac’s servant had been sent
off to find Rebecca, Quinton had to convince the bride. She had to become a willing participant, like the other five favorites.
But Nikki wasn’t submitting to her destiny as she should, perhaps because she was mentally ill.

“Now, listen to me, Nikki,” he reasoned, standing over her restrained form on the gurney. “You’re not listening very well.
I’m going to give you one more chance, but then I’m going to have to become more persuasive, and you won’t like that.”

The makeup he’d applied had smeared. He would have to touch it up. Time was running out. He couldn’t risk lingering with her
forever just because she wasn’t right in the head. God would take one flawed bride for the sake of all those in the world
who were equally flawed. And there were a lot of them. Perhaps that was why he’d chosen this one.

“Why is it so difficult to understand God’s love for you?” he asked. “Why don’t you want to be his bride?”

She’d finally settled down after the phone call to Rain Man and now seemed stoic. Perhaps she was ready to accept her fortune.

“You don’t want to be his bride?”

“It’s my choice, not yours,” she said quietly. Her face was flat and emotionless.

“It is. But in saying that, you’re only highlighting the fact that you’re
choosing
to turn your back on him. I could understand your rejection of him if you didn’t understand how much he’s taken with you.
You do understand that you are his favorite. Is that where your confusion comes in?”

“God loves me, so he wouldn’t force me. I am his favorite. We all are. Which is why he doesn’t force us.”

“I’m not forcing you. The choice is yours. Do you want to be with him?”

She refused to answer this question. There was no hope for her twisted mind.

“You need me to agree, don’t you?” she asked.