is called for in our relationship.”
She inhaled sharply. Not Lynch. She knew that voice even though she had only heard it one time, on the roof of the shipyard building. “Dietrich,” she whispered.
“You see, you feel the intimacy, too, if you recognize my voice so easily. But you don’t sound pleased that I’m calling you. I thought you looked so eager when you were running through those trees today.” He added mockingly, “Oh, that’s right, you were running away from me, weren’t you? And it wasn’t eagerness, it was terror. What would your friends at the FBI have thought if they’d seen you? You have such a fine reputation and it would have been ruined.”
“They would have thought I was smart.” Her hand was shaking as she pressed the RECORD button. “Because I was avoiding an ambush. You did have a gun pointed at me, didn’t you?”
“Only toward the end. Though I had every intention of shooting you once I saw you heading for the cliff path. It would have been a shame to lose the opportunity.”
“Why? Do you regard me as that much of a threat?”
“More of a nuisance than a threat. I never expected you to be this annoying when I started out. You were going to be just a minor challenge, the icing on the cake. I should have known you’d be tougher than that. You’ve been getting in my way and it’s time I put an end to it.”
“With a bullet in my brain as you did with Hayes and Cardona? Isn’t that the way you usually handle nuisances?”
“Why not? Everyone needs a signature, and mine is so dramatic and unique. And neither Hayes nor Cardona expected it. They’d served their initial purposes very well, Hayes by obediently following my orders and Cardona with his contacts south of the border. But it was time for them to serve one last purpose for me. That was to remove the threat that they might be too talkative. Actually, you should be glad that my method of removal is usually very quick.” He paused. “Your friend Ronald Kim didn’t suffer long at all. Not at the end. Elaine Wessler was different. She decided she had to be brave and surprised me and I had to use the knife. Before the end she was shaking and crying and begging me not to do it.”
“Shut up!”
“Does it bother you? Good. Then I’ll tell you how she got down on her knees and pleaded with me. The slut said she’d do anything I wanted her to do if I just wouldn’t kill her.”
He was trying to hurt her, frighten her, she realized. And he was succeeding. But why was he doing it? There had to be a reason. “I don’t believe any of this. Why did you call me? Were you angry because I got away from you today?”
“You didn’t get away from me,” he said quickly. “I don’t make mistakes like that. I’m an expert. Everyone knows when I take on a job, I get it done. I could have killed you anytime I wanted if I hadn’t wanted to toy with you later. I let you go on purpose.”
He was lying, Kendra thought. The phrasing, the sudden harshness, the arrogance, were sure signs. “We both know that’s not true. You were clumsy and I picked up on it and I got away from you. Why don’t you admit it?”
“Because it’s not true, bitch,” he said harshly. “I just called to tell you that your time’s run out and you should get ready to die. Keep looking over your shoulder because I’m going to be there. I decided that you’re not worth me wasting my time making you cringe and cry like Elaine Wessler. I’ll just blow your head off.”
He cut the connection.
Kendra’s hand was shaking as she punched in Lynch’s number.
“I haven’t heard from Metcalf yet, Kendra,” Lynch said when he picked up. “I promised you I’d call when I did. The good thing is that he must be doing a really thorough job of searching that area if he—”
“I want you to come back here,” she said unevenly. “Right now. Will you do that?”
Silence. “What’s wrong?”
“Dietrich called me.”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
He arrived in seventeen minutes and she’d had time to make coffee and pull herself together before he walked in the door.
She pointed to her phone on the coffee table. “I didn’t record the first part of the call, I was too shocked. But I got the