ask me.”
“I soon found getting close to you to be next to impossible, so the next best option was to get close to someone you trusted. Jenna. She was so desperate to fall in love with someone, it was perfect. While I was working you from one angle, Mills…or Collins, as he was now going by…had hired a private security company to work you from another, no questions asked.”
“Tyler…”
He nodded, devoting his attention to sharpening his knife again. The sound of metal against metal was like nails on a chalkboard, each drawn out motion unnerving me a little bit more.
“Everything was going great. I did everything I could to convince you to finally lower your guard and let this guy in, knowing if it worked between you two, you may just lead him, and me, to your father. Then it all started to spiral out of control. Charlie had escaped from Walter Reed, then Elizabeth overheard me talking to Whitman on the phone while I was at the Chamber of Commerce’s office, ordering him to do everything he could to spook you…so she had to be dealt with.”
“What was the point of having Whitman make those phone calls to me?”
“Charlie had escaped and I was certain his first stop would be to pay you a visit. I wanted you to think he was the one responsible for the phone calls so you wouldn’t trust him. The last thing I wanted was for you to put the pieces together before we could find your father.”
“And you didn’t think of just using me to get to him?”
“What do you think we were doing? Hell, I had people following you almost everywhere. Whitman had broken into your place on countless occasions to go through your mail, your cell phone, everything. And we got nothing! If you were communicating with him, we couldn’t figure it out.”
“Because my father is much smarter than you are,” I sneered.
“I’ll just let you believe that for now. We’ll soon see what kind of a man your father truly is.”
“What do you mean by–”
“All in due time.”
I studied him, hoping I could figure out what he meant by that, but he gave nothing away.
“Well, I can pretty much figure out the rest,” I said, breaking the heavy silence, trying to drown out the sound of him continually sharpening the blade. “Tyler ran the footage of Whitman breaking in. You freaked out that there was an ID of Whitman and a possible investigation, which could lead back to you, so you killed him. Then you were able to somehow hack into the database at Walter Reed and alter visitor records to make it appear as if Charlie had hired Whitman to commit all those murders Whitman had, in fact, committed at your instruction.”
“I particularly liked the special touch of leaving a photo of you and your mother at the crime scene.”
“Why did you do that?”
“So the police would reopen the investigation into her death and certain things may come out about your father. I knew he was still alive, and perhaps an open criminal investigation in which you were a possible victim would force you to finally divulge where he was hiding.”
“But Tyler beat you there and was smart enough to make sure law enforcement didn’t find those photos.”
“I certainly did underestimate his abilities. It was a mistake, but one I didn’t intend to repeat. After Charlie had been named as a suspect in all those murders, Mills, or Collins, came to me and said he was done, that he was ready to put an end to it and finally come clean. I had sensed his loyalty to me waning over the months, so I made sure I had a little insurance against that happening.”
“What did you do?”
“This…” He stalked toward me, revealing his iPad. I tried to make sense of what I was seeing… It was a live feed of what appeared to be surveillance footage. On the screen was a man about my age, chained to a wall of what I could only imagine to be a cold, cement cell. Surrounding him were several monitors and computers.
“What is–”
“Oh, of course you wouldn’t recognize him. It has been…what? Sixteen or seventeen years since you’ve seen each other?”
“Damian…?” I exhaled, a tear forming in my eye at the bruises and scars dotting his face, hands, and legs.
“Did you know he’s quite skilled with computers and hacking? So he had a dual purpose for me. Not only did he serve as