Cold & Deadly (Cold Justice: Crossfire #1)(103)

“You knew what he did to women?” Ava asked, incredulous.

Suzanna snorted. “Of course, I knew. He was a brilliant and fascinating man. Jesus, you are all so stupid.”

Better than insane, lady.

Mallory cried out again then seemed to manage to somehow breathe through the pain.

“What happened to your child?” Ava asked.

The wild light was back in Suzanna’s eyes, and her throat worked visibly. “He was beautiful and wondrous, but his heart didn’t work properly. He died two years ago.”

He was the skeleton they’d dug up with Peter Galveston at the cabin. That had to have been the trigger for this woman’s appalling actions.

“So, you dug Peter up so they could be together?” Ava asked.

Suzanna nodded. “So, I could keep them both close to me.”

“You lived in the cabin?”

Suzanna jerked her chin. “It went up for sale about five years ago, and I moved in with little Pete. I couldn’t stop thinking about them all, what they’d done to him. What they’d stolen from us.”

“The FBI?”

Another sharp nod. “I collected information on them all and started tracking them down. I’ve been planning my revenge from the day they killed Peter, but I waited because I didn’t want to lose my son. When he died from a heart attack, I didn’t have any reason left not to kill them.”

Ava shuddered. This woman had hunted those law enforcement officials like dogs for doing their jobs and keeping civilians safe.

“I found out where Sheridan lived in Virginia. I drove by one day about eighteen months ago, trying to figure out the best way to get to him. Then I spotted the house across the road for sale.” She cackled. “It seemed like fate.”

Where the hell did she get all her money from? Ava wanted to know but figured there were more important questions.

“Why not kill Dominic when you had the chance? He was unconscious in his bed that night, right?” She must have drugged him too. Obviously, it was a technique that had worked for her and her accomplice, Caroline Perry, on more than one occasion.

Suzanna took a turn so fast Ava and Mallory were both pressed against their doors.

“I almost did,” Suzanna confessed. “I slipped a knife against his ribs and felt for the space between them, ready to slide it deep into his heart.” She came out of the curve, and Ava sat up straight. “It was too easy. I wasn’t ready for him to die yet. He needed to understand who was doing this and why he deserved everything that was coming to him.”

“You enjoyed torturing him.”

“I did.” Suzanna’s smiling face met hers in the mirror. “I snooped through his house and all his photo albums. I spat in his milk. I stripped him bare and pressed myself against his naked body when he started to rouse. I touched him intimately. I watched his confusion turn to horror, but it was never quite enough. He never had quite enough to lose. Until he met you.”

Ava watched Mallory’s fingers clench over her abdomen. This was serious. Stalling for time was fine when someone wasn’t giving birth. Ava had to get her medical help, but how?

“Let her go. Take me as a hostage, and let her go. She has nothing to do with any of this.”

“No.” The wild eyes gleamed. “This is perfect. A sign.”

A fucking sign?

Mallory was writhing in pain in the front seat, her feet straining against the floor.

“I’m getting a new baby. A gift from Peter.” Suzanna smiled like the psycho she was and terror invaded every single cell of Ava’s body. There was no way this bitch was getting hold of that baby.

They’d crossed the river and were heading along a quiet road. Ava saw signs to a private airstrip. “You’ve been planning this for a long time.”

“This I didn’t plan at all. I’d decided to walk away for a little while. To let Sheridan drop his guard. Maybe kill him with another poisoned casserole.”

Ava gaped. If Dominic hadn’t have tripped over his dog, he and Mallory and her baby might already be dead…and Ava had never suspected a thing. The woman was a hell of an actress.

“When I saw you on the sidewalk it was like all my prayers were answered.” Suzanna looked at her with eerily empty eyes. “Peter even gifted me another baby.”

Over Ava’s dead body.

Mallory was resolutely silent, concentrating on the internal battle she was fighting.

“What about Caroline Perry and Robin Elgin? What was their connection?” Ava needed to distract her. To make a plan. That’s what Dominic would do. She slipped the phone into her purse. She hoped he could still hear them talking. That he understood the conversation and what it meant. Record it for criminal proceedings.

Suzanna shrugged. “Caroline was someone I brought home once. She proved useful, especially when she told me that the bar where she worked was run by drug dealers. I kept her around for a while. Then she almost killed Sheridan—without my permission. That would never do.”

So, Suzanna had drowned her in the tub. “And Robin Elgin?” Ava pushed.

Suzanna sighed. “Robin was a dear friend. He was involved in our…activities. Peter used to like to watch him with me.” Suzanna sobbed and covered her mouth with the back of her gun hand as if overcome with emotion. Ava braced herself. She fought the urge to grab the wheel. If they crashed it might hurt the baby. Ava had to protect Mallory and the baby at all costs.