rest.” She was pouring coffee into two cups. “Listen to it. It’s self-explanatory. Mostly intimidation and threats. I evidently pushed a button when I hurt his pride as an expert killing machine.”
He was already listening to the call and Kendra tried to block out the sound of Dietrich’s words and the viciousness of his tone. Once was more than enough. Every word, every inference, was engraved on her mind.
Lynch turned off the recording and walked toward her across the room. “Nasty,” he said quietly. “Are you all right?”
“No. But I will be when we put that asshole away.” She sat down at the table and picked up her coffee cup. “I was stunned that he called me, because I couldn’t understand why. But then I realized he was furious and only wanted to hurt me. He has such a tremendous ego, he couldn’t accept that I’d managed to escape him. He was angry that he wasn’t able to kill me so he thought he’d strike at me in a different way. He kept talking about Elaine and what he’d done to her…”
“I caught that,” Lynch said. He sat down opposite her. “And the fact that you were also taunting him.”
“I couldn’t let him think that he could hurt me.” She lifted her cup to her lips. “And I thought if I kept him talking I might find out something I could use later.”
“And did you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I’ll have to sort it all out.” She frowned. “But I did find out that he knew a lot about Elaine and how I felt about her. He knew talking about her like that would hurt me. How did he know that?”
“I told you that Dietrich carefully researched all of his jobs. He was meticulous about every single aspect. Maybe when he realized she might be a problem, he began researching Elaine and found out she was your teacher.”
“Maybe.” She thought of something else. “You said Laurent with the CIA told you how clever Dietrich is and so careful that no one could pin anything on him. But this phone call wasn’t clever. He wasn’t watching what he said or considering he might be recorded. Several things he said could have incriminated him. He didn’t care, Lynch.”
“I noticed that,” Lynch said. “Which means he felt protected because he has a safety net. Or that he wanted you to believe he was stupid enough to be vulnerable if you chose to lose your temper and go after him. He was clearly attempting to frighten or anger you enough to go that route.” He took a swallow of his coffee. “Or both. Anyway he’s bold as hell and not afraid. You agree?”
“How could I help but agree? He targeted me.” She looked down into her coffee. “I hated it. There were moments when he was talking to me that I actually felt helpless. I’m not going to let him make me feel like that again.” Her eyes lifted to meet his own and she said fiercely, “And I don’t want to hear you tell me how you’ll take care of me and everything will be all right. That would make me feel even more useless.”
“I wouldn’t dare.” A faint smile indented his lips. “That would bring mega-destruction on my own head. I was only going to offer my services to locate the bastard so that you could perform whatever torture or dismemberment you deem necessary. Will you accept that?”
She couldn’t help but smile. “I might.”
“Then we’d better get started trying to find him. Not that we weren’t before. But I’m definitely feeling an added sense of urgency after the bastard had the balls to actually call you.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone. “And I’m not waiting any longer for Metcalf’s call. He’s way overdue.”
She tensed. “You think something happened to him?”
“Not with an entire forensics crew up there with him on that cliff. And Dietrich was too busy harassing you tonight to bother about a humble FBI agent.” He was punching in the number. “I’m just curious and I’m looking for somewhere to start.”
Metcalf’s tone was sour when he picked up the call. “Don’t bother me, Lynch. I’m filthy, tired, and very bad-tempered. I won’t put up with your crap.”
“I’m not giving you any. Kendra is just a bit depressed and would like to know if there’s any progress?”
“No. Yes. Maybe. I thought it was going to be a complete bust at first and I was planning your immediate