Khan (Bowen Boys, #2)(39)
“Look at her,” Monica snapped. “That woman could be me but for the eyes.” Picking up the remote, Caitlynne rewound the feed. Monica had tried that earlier and had ended up changing the channels three times before she set the stupid thing away from her and watched it live.
“I don’t know.” Caitlynne peered closer, then sat back and looked at her. “You think Barr did this?”
Monica nodded. “The woman has the same color hair as me and the same…same everything. You said he was in town. Maybe he thought I was there for whatever reason. Maybe he really is nuts like you said and he is going to kill more people until—”
“Calm down.” Khan had entered the room and shook her shoulder. “I need you to calm down and talk to me. I can feel your fear like it’s my own. You’re safe here. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
“Khan, I think she might be right.” He looked over at Caitlynne and asked her about what. “The woman on the news, the one that was killed in her house and her husband in his car? I think Monica is right; they do look a great deal alike. I’m going to make a couple of calls. I’ll be right back.”
When she left the room, Khan sat down in front of her. She took his warm hands into her cold ones. She was terrified out of her mind, but took several deep breaths to calm herself. “He thought it was me. I don’t know why I think that, but the second I saw her picture, I knew it was him.” He sat on the couch beside her. “That woman died because that man is a sick son of a bitch and he’s out there.” She heard him laugh and she looked up at him, ready to tear him apart for laughing at her.
“I was thinking you needed comfort, that you might be thinking this is your fault, but you’re a hell cat, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She tried to pull away from him and he pulled her back. “If you’re going to make fun of me, let me go. I can go and find someone else that will appreciate me and what I’m trying to do.”
“Oh I appreciate you all right. You’re one hell of a woman and I love you. But if you think I’m letting you go find someone else, you’re off your rocker. You belong to me to make fun of.”
She slugged him in the arm jokingly and laid her head on his chest, frowning. “What if I’m right? What if he starts killing women who look like me? We’re going to have to step this up or we might be in for a mass murder situation. More than we were before.”
“Caitlynne will figure it out. Maybe he left more clues behind and she can find him faster. Anything is possible. The guy has been killing and hurting people for days now and he leaves a little more behind every time.”
He had too. Just yesterday they had connected him to another murder, this time of a clerk in a store. And there had been video, but no sound of the entire incident. They had been talking, he and the clerk, and suddenly, there was a gun in Tony’s hand. When he started waving it around in what appeared to be an agitated state, the man dropped to his knees and looked to be praying. Tony simply shot him. Then he did the strangest thing. He began beating his head with the gun.
Then he walked around picking up items and putting them into a bag and walked out of the store. Caitlynne said that it looked as if he had gotten coffee, of all things, and a great deal of it.
She was still lying with her head on Khan’s chest when Caitlynne returned. She had one of the other men with her, one of the guards that had been sent to watch her today. Caitlynne didn’t look very happy.
“You’re right. His DNA was found at the scene. It had come up as a match, but they wanted to run it again because of how far this one was from the last murder. They think he went inside to get something to eat, he must be running low on money, and she tried to stop him. Apparently, he had made himself at home and rummaged through the house before he left. Drops of his blood were found throughout the house, including the children’s rooms.” Caitlynne nodded to the man who had entered with her. “This is Karl. He’s going to continue your shooting lessons today. I have to go to this crime scene and see what I can find out. We’re running out of time.”
Monica had nearly shut down when she’d heard that he’d been in the children’s rooms. She wondered if he had been looking for them to harm them. She wondered what, if anything, could be done to help these children get on with their lives. She stood up suddenly and looked around at the three people there. “I need to be alone. I know that someone has to watch over me, but I need to…really need to be in a quiet place to think. I’m sorry, but…” She looked at the man. “I’m sorry, but we can do this later? Right now I need—” She ran to the bathroom with her hand over her mouth. She was going to be sick right now. By the time she threw up a few times, she heard the door behind her open and close. She thought it was Caitlynne, but when Khan spoke, she moaned.
“I have some crackers for you. And I’ve got something here that Walker left in the event this got to be too much for you. I think you should take it.” She reached for the crackers, but left the little pink pill in his palm. “I don’t want to have to make you take this, but I will. You’re not going to be able to help when they need you if you’re too ill. I love you, babe. You need to rest.”
“He killed those people for no other reason than he thought she looked like me.” She took the pill, put it in her mouth, and swallowed. He handed her a glass of water, which she sipped.