Don't Look (Pike, Wisconsin #1) - Alexandra Ivy Page 0,117
harsh voice. “Tell me what you would have said if I hadn’t been too stupid to listen.”
The whistle of the wind and the cry of a nearby crow were his only answer.
Glancing toward the ridge where the house had once stood, he allowed his gaze to trace the hillside down to the frozen lake. Then he studied the line of pine trees in the distance. He was just turning away when he noticed the radar towers of the air base etched against the blue sky. And something else. The outline of a truck parked in the vast, empty lot. Why would someone be there? The place had been shut down for years. Plus the government had big signs posted that it was off-limits. Not that the warnings had stopped him when he was a teenager.
Kir narrowed his eyes, trying to make out the details of the vehicle. It was definitely a pickup. And even at a distance he was guessing it was a dark color. Black or navy or . . . red.
Just like Lynne’s.
Muttering a string of curses, Kir whirled around and battled his way through the snow to where he’d left his SUV.
He’d had the answer the minute the pastor had told him his father had been fishing at his little slice of heaven. What else was out here to see except the old air base?
Now he could only hope his inability to recognize a clue beneath his very nose hadn’t made him too late. If something happened to Lynne, he would never forgive himself.
Chapter 30
Lynne pressed her hands flat against the cement, preparing to shove herself upright as fury darkened Parker’s eyes. Obviously, she’d made a mistake to remind him of how helpless he’d been as a child. But then again, he was crazy. She was fairly certain that every subject had the potential to set him off.
Besides, her attempts to pacify him weren’t offering her an opportunity to escape. Maybe if she rattled him, it would . . .
Well, she didn’t know what. But the longer she sat on the frozen floor, the more likely her legs were going to go back to sleep.
“When did Carl become Parker Bowen?”
He stiffened, and for a heart-thumping second she was terrified she’d pushed too hard. Parker had clearly managed to separate the child he’d been from the man he’d become. Not a split personality. But an indestructible barrier that kept him from drowning in the pain of his past.
She wanted him rattled, not ballistic.
His nose flared, as if he was sucking in a deep breath, then he surprisingly forced himself to answer her question. “When I went to college. My middle name was Parker, and Mother’s maiden name was Bowen, so it was easy enough to get it legally changed.”
“You started a new life?”
“That was the plan.”
She studied his finely chiseled features and glossy dark hair. On the surface he looked so normal. Not that she expected the killer to creep around in a black cloak and hockey mask. But surely such evil should have left some mark on the surface?
“Something went wrong?”
He slowly nodded, his eyes distant as if he was recalling the moment he’d decided to become a serial killer. “It started with the dreams.”
“About the monster?”
He sliced his hand through the air in a gesture of denial. “No. He’s dead and gone. He never enters my thoughts.”
“What were your dreams?”
“The blood in the snow.”
A sharp shiver raced through Lynne. Not just from his whispered words, but the image that formed in her mind.
A terrified woman whose life had been shaped and ended by violence.
She struggled to speak. “Your mother?”
“Yes.”
“Did you regret what you did to her?”
He jerked his head toward her, seemingly astonished by her question. “Regret? No. I . . .”
“You what?”
A strange, taunting smile curved his lips. “I fantasized about doing it again.”
Revulsion rolled through her with a physical force. “Oh.”
He turned to fully reveal the sick pleasure that made his face glow beneath the fluorescent light. Suddenly the evil was all too easy to see.
“It was so beautiful. Her naked body lying beneath the moonlight, the dark pool of blood staining the snow.”
“Beautiful?” she choked out.
“I wanted to see it again, but at that point in my life I still hoped I could be normal.” The glow dimmed, his lips pursing. “So I had to purge my dark desires.”
Lynne scooted back another inch. She was almost at the edge of the pool of light. “What does purge mean?”