sounded like a threat, and Gemma was certain they’d be hearing from her again soon. Maybe though, Amanda wouldn’t try to put her in a new WITSEC location until they had some answers about this latest attack.
“Do you trust her?” Kellan asked when he put his phone away.
Gemma opened her mouth to answer yes, but she stopped. The truth was, she didn’t know Amanda that well at all. They’d only met twice in the months that Amanda had been her handler.
“I don’t have any reason not to trust her,” Gemma settled for saying.
“Other than someone compromised your location, a location that only a handful of people knew, and Amanda was one of them.” Kellan paused, and then he huffed even louder than he had when he’d been talking to Amanda. “I just don’t want to make another mistake.”
Gemma could have said those same words to him. If she’d just lived up to her reputation of being a top-notch profiler, she could have stopped him.
“I owe you,” Kellan added a moment later.
That got her attention, and Gemma turned in the seat to face him. “You owe me?” she repeated.
Again, that was something she could have said to him. She’d been the one to mess up, not Kellan. But before she could press him on that, his phone rang again, and this time it wasn’t Amanda. It was Unknown Caller on the screen.
“Eric,” she whispered on a rise of breath.
Owen must have thought it was him, too. “I’ll try to trace it while he’s on the line.” Owen quickly handed his brother a small recorder, and Kellan clicked it on before he hit the answer button.
“So, I guess you’re both still alive and kicking?” Eric asked the moment he was on the line. “If Gemma had died, my little bird would have told me.”
“And who exactly is that little bird?” Kellan snapped.
“Someone in a very good seat for birds.” Eric chuckled.
Maybe a marshal or a cop. But Gemma tried not to react to that because this could be just another of Eric’s taunts. The word was probably already out that she’d survived, and he could have heard about it through any means from gossip to even a news report. Then again, maybe he knew she wasn’t dead because he’d had no intentions of killing—yet. Not until he’d made her suffer.
“Sorry, but I need to keep my bird’s name to myself for now,” Eric added a moment later. “Might need him...or her again.”
Kellan’s eyes narrowed. Obviously, he also hated these games that Eric loved to play. “I’m guessing you blew up Gemma’s house just in case there was any evidence left behind. That tells me you were actually in it.”
“I was,” Eric admitted, causing her skin to crawl. “It was fun to see how she’s living her life these days. So much security! You could practically feel the worry when you stepped into the house.”
Three bullets could do that, and it twisted away at her that just by hearing his voice, he could pull that old fear from her.
“I left that little microphone so I could talk to you,” Eric admitted.
“You mean so you could try to make us believe you were still inside,” Kellan snapped. “But you weren’t. No way would you have risked getting blown up, because you’re a coward.”
“Sticks and stones,” Eric joked, but there was just enough edge to his voice that made Gemma wonder if Kellan had hit a nerve.
At one time Eric had wanted to be an FBI agent. Or so he’d led her to believe. And maybe that was true. If so, that coward insult would have stung.
“Too bad you didn’t blow up her neighbor’s house where you had your hired thug shoot at us,” Kellan went on. “It wasn’t very smart of him to leave a spent shell casing behind. Sometimes there are fingerprints on those.”
It was a bluff. If the CSIs had indeed found something like that, they would have mentioned it in the calls Kellan had made to them. Still, it got a reaction from Eric.
Silence.
She doubted this would send Eric into a rage or panic, but maybe it would rattle his cage enough for him to make a mistake.
“If there really is a casing,” Eric said, his words clipped, “then I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.”
“Oh, there’s a casing all right,” Kellan assured him, “and if we use it to ID the shooter, then there’ll be a trail to you.”
“No, there won’t be. But good luck wasting your time with that.”
“It might not be a waste of time,” Gemma reminded him. And it earned her a glare from Kellan. But she finished what she intended to say, and she made sure her voice was as steeled up as she could manage. “You believe you covered your tracks, but maybe you didn’t. You’re not perfect. You were in a panic the night Caroline and I found out what you were, and you took us hostage, remember? That wasn’t the well thought out actions of a cocky killer.”
Eric paused for a long time. “I remember,” he snapped. “And I’m sure you do, too. All that research we did together on Geo-Trace, and you didn’t have a clue.”
She hadn’t. She, Eric and Caroline had worked for two years on Geo-Trace, the name of their project for profiling and predicting specific areas of cities where violent crimes were most likely to occur. It could have helped law enforcement if Eric hadn’t been manipulating the data. He’d done that by murdering his victims in those predicted areas.
“Why did you do it? Why did you kill all those people?” Gemma asked Eric, earning her another glare from Kellan.
Yes, those were questions that could wait, and Eric likely wouldn’t even give her an honest answer, but maybe by keeping him on the line, Owen would be able to trace the call.
“That’s a conversation for another time,” Eric snarled.
“Not really. My guess is that you were in love with me and wanted to impress me.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, sweetheart. I never loved you. It was never about you.”
There’d never been any hints that Eric had indeed had any romantic interest in her, but it twisted away at her to think that Eric could have done those monstrous crimes because of feelings that she hadn’t picked up on. That was yet another layer of guilt she could add to her life.
“Sheriff Slater, are you going to let Gemma do all the talking?” Eric pressed. “I wouldn’t if I were you. After all, if it wasn’t for Gemma, your daddy and that deputy would still be alive.”
“If it weren’t for you, they’d be alive,” Kellan corrected.
“Oh, but you’re wrong about that,” Eric quickly answered.
Kellan cursed. “Quit playing mind games and tell me what the hell it is you want.”
“Always did enjoy your direct approach.
