From Darkness (Hearts & Arrows Book 3)(43)
He climbed on top of her and flipped her over while she kicked at him, but he was undeterred, his hands wrapping around her neck. She thrashed, her mouth opening and closing, hands scratching at his jacket, and he closed his eyes and breathed deep.
It was too much to resist.
He let her go, and she gasped and clawed at her throat, trying to scramble back as he unzipped his pants, but she was still too stunned to put up enough of a fight to matter. He shredded her clothes, opened her legs, laid his hands around her neck again and squeezed, feeling her pulse against his palms, watching her mouth search for air. Her eyes rolled back as her life slipped away, and he came as her body went limp, her fisted hands on his sleeves falling to the ground with a soft thump.
His heart beat like a piston as he pulled away and reached for her necklace, unclasping it as the reality of the situation hit him like a freight train. Rhodes stood, took off his glove, and looked down at the girl, then at the silver disc in his hand, touching the small bird imprinted there, and he felt the circle of his ritual close.
He pulled on the glove again and stuffed the necklace into his pocket before taking stock of the messy room, devising a plan. He picked her up and carried her to the bathroom where he laid her in the huge claw-foot tub. His eyes scanned the room for bleach, anything he could use to compromise the DNA that he’d left behind, and when he opened the cabinet under the sink, he found something even better. A bottle of Drano.
He turned to her where she lay in the tub and plugged the drain. He put the spout inside of her and squeezed before pouring what was left in the bottle into the bathtub. The faucet squeaked when he turned the handle, and the shower stream rained down on her body.
Satisfied, he went back to the living room to get what he’d come for. When he lifted the lid to the box, he found everything—photos of Jane sprawled out in the snow, interview tapes, his fingerprints—and he knew his concern was justified. He grabbed the girl’s laptop and made for the back window again where he placed the box on the platform and climbed out, closing the window behind him.
It wasn’t until he got home that he discovered that her necklace was gone.
He flew into a rage when he discovered it was missing and didn’t sleep for days. The papers and tapes, he’d burned that night, and the laptop he’d wiped and sold anonymously on Craigslist at a coffee shop the next day. He went back to her apartment three times but never found her necklace.
After a week, he knew no one else had found it either. It was little comfort. The necklace was not only the thing he needed for his own devices — he’d touched it. If it were ever found, it could be the end of him. His only hope was that it had fallen out somewhere far away from her apartment and would never come to light.
He sat in his basement, thinking back, forever sick at the thought of losing it, fighting the compulsion to go back as he had so many times before. Even if it were ever found, his prints weren’t on record anywhere. But one arrest would be all it took.
So he’d prepared everything he could to leave town at a moment’s notice, though he hoped he’d never have to. He’d kept his nose clean for his entire life and doubted he’d start being reckless anytime soon—or at least, never as reckless as he had been.
Rhodes’s fist was clenched; Hannah’s earring posts bit into his palm. He relaxed his fingers and laid the earrings in the drawer, next to Jane’s necklace, before closing it up and moving it back to its spot in the wall, reassuring himself as he climbed the stairs that, if he were going to get caught, it would have happened already.
Josie zipped up her leather jacket as she walked up 8th toward the Port Authority Bus Terminal. It was just after dark, and the chill of the evening was refreshing after being stuck inside all day. She’d been digging through the previous week’s police blotters, the master lists of crimes committed, looking for anything that fit Rhodes.
Hitting up her contacts was also on her to-do list, which was where she was headed. Over the months, she’d been making her way around the west side and east Jersey to the common haunts of the working girls. All the suspected victims had been hookers, and armed with a stack of photos, she’d gone in search of any information she could find. She had befriended more than a few of the girls, and they were always willing to help.
Something was going to change soon. She could feel it.
She knew a few girls who hung around the Port Authority and hoped to catch one of them before circling back to the garage where she kept her car. She had big plans for a long night of staking out Rhodes, complete with a full grocery bag of candy and her favorite book.
Josie passed the terminal and looped back up 9th without seeing any of the girls she knew, disappointed by her misfortune until she spotted Trish leaning against a brick wall. Her gold sequined miniskirt was short enough and her platform stilettos tall enough that her tan legs looked ten miles long. Her hands were in the pockets of her cropped jacket, and her hot-pink lips stretched into a big smile as Josie walked up.
“Josie! Hey, girl.”
She smiled back. “Hey, Trish. How’s it going?”
Her hazel eyes twinkled. “Slow, but the night is young. What’s up?”
Josie leaned against the wall next to her. “Nothing really. I’ve been researching all day and was just headed out for some surveillance. Just thought I’d check in. Any word?”
“Actually, I just ran into some girls from Jersey City the other day that I hadn’t seen in forever. Asked them if they knew anybody on your list, but they didn’t know any of your girls.”