The Night Bird (Frost Easton #1)(99)

There he was.

She didn’t know where he’d come from, but now he was directly ahead of her, no more than fifty yards away. His back was to her. He faced the water.

“I see him,” Frankie murmured.

“Say again. You’re breaking up.”

“I see him.”

Todd had tramped away from the trail through the brush to the fragile clifftop. Bits of wet dirt trickled away under his feet toward the beach. Blooms of California poppies dotted the land around him like orange drips of paint. He wore no coat, just a gray sweatshirt and jeans. His thinning hair blew back over his forehead. His eyes looked out into the distance of the ocean, but he knew she was there.

“Where is he?”

“At the cliff.”

“Stay away from him. Let us take it from here.”

“No, I can’t do that,” she said.

In her ear, Frost swore. She knew he was running, but they were far behind her. Frost, Jess, the police officers, the helicopters, all were minutes away. For now, she and Todd had the cliff to themselves.

She left the path and pushed through the sandy soil. The wind nearly lifted her body from the ground. The waves and the gales screamed. So did the white-and-black gulls, hovering gracefully on the currents of air beyond the cliff, as if to taunt those who couldn’t fly.

Todd’s head swiveled as she approached him. He stared at her with his dreamy eyes, but now she could see what was behind those eyes. Loss. Tragedy. Madness. And more than anything else, anger. Fury at the world. Fury at her.

“Frankie,” he chanted, using the Night Bird’s voice. “Frankie.”

She felt an instant chill. She was conscious of the long drop beside her. In both directions, up and down the coast, she saw no one at all.

“I know who you are,” she told him, raising her voice to be heard over the wind.

He shook his head. When he spoke, he used his own voice again, and she had to come closer to hear him. They were near enough that he could have sent her off the cliff with a swipe of his hand. “You don’t have any idea who I am.”

“You’re Todd Farley. You were in love with Merrilyn Somers. I’m sorry. Really, Todd. I hate what you’ve done, but I’m sorry, too. I know you lost someone you loved. I know the pain you must have felt.”

“Todd Farley is who I was,” he replied. “That’s not who I am anymore. I’m someone different.”

She wondered if Frost could hear him talking, or if the wind drowned Todd’s soft voice.

“Merrilyn would hate that,” Frankie said.

“Don’t pretend that you understand me, and don’t you dare mention her name. You made me what I am now. You. Darren Newman. And the worthless police who couldn’t even put him behind bars. All of you—you’re the ones to blame. You can crucify me if you want, but everyone who died is because of you. You’re the guilty ones.”

“I’m not saying I’m innocent,” she told him. “I made a mistake about Darren Newman.”

“Well, we all have to pay for our mistakes,” Todd said. He stared along the length of the headlands in both directions. “I imagine we have about five minutes before the police get here?”

She didn’t try to lie. “Yes, they’re coming. You can’t get away.”

“I don’t care about getting away.”

“I figured that,” she said.

“Are they listening to us?”

Frankie nodded. “Yes.”

“You know how easy it would be to throw you from this cliff, right?” he said.

“Frankie, get away. Run. Right now. Run.”

She heard Frost in her ear, but she didn’t move. “Is that what you want?”

Todd turned and faced the ocean again. “I told you that I wanted to watch you die, but it was supposed to be one of your patients who plunged in the knife. I thought you would appreciate the irony, having your methods turned against you. Just like I did with those other women. First I wanted to destroy you. Your career. Your reputation. And then I wanted to watch that girl kill you right in front of me. One more second, and she would have done it.”

“And Darren Newman?”

Todd moved as swiftly as a cat. He spun toward her and slid both arms under hers and locked her torso against his chest. She fought, but she couldn’t move. His face was an inch away. He bent to her ear and whispered in a voice that dripped malevolence. “That was all me. Do you really think I’d come this far and let anyone else put a blade down through that monster’s flesh and bone? Do you think I wouldn’t take my revenge on him myself? That I wouldn’t feel his heart slice open under my hand? That I wouldn’t be there to do to him what he did to Merrilyn?”

Todd let go, and she stumbled backward, taking a step away from him. She was breathing hard. She had her chance now. She could turn and run. But they both knew she wouldn’t do that.

“That’s not why you’re here, is it, Frankie?” Todd asked.

“No.”

“No, you have to know the truth. You’d risk my killing you to find out what you forgot. To get your memory back. Imagine that, Dr. Frankenstein. You play your little mind games with everyone else, as if there are no consequences to having part of your soul erased like a defective silicon chip. Well, now you know what it’s really like, don’t you?”