Page 26 of Counter Attack

“Children often believe they are the cause of their parents’ problems, like divorce, when in fact, they aren’t. Any other memories come to mind?”

She picked at her cuticle. “The storm. I have recurring nightmares about the night my mom died.”

“I thought she died in a wreck.”

“She did, but wind and driving rain swept her off the road.”

“Tell me about that night.”

She did not come here to relive her childhood, and normally Alex would simply clam up like the last time Dr. Hudson tried to dig into her past. But this was a special circumstance. She pressed her fingers to her temples as she dredged up the memory. “They’d been fighting again, and Mom stormed out of the house. If it hadn’t been for me, Dad probably would’ve gone after her. There were tornado watches and warnings out, but we hadn’t heard any of the reports. It was pitch black, and she drove right into a storm.”

“Is that when you went to live with your grandparents?”

“Yes, right after the funeral.” She shook her head, trying to clear it. “What does all this have to do with you releasing me? Not that I have to have the release to take the chief deputy job, but I’d feel better about taking the position if you were on board.”

“Nothing ... and everything. When you came to see me after the Denton shooting, I couldn’t get past your walls. You’ve told me more today than all those sessions put together.”

It was true that when she was here before she’d been reluctant to talk about her past, but that’s what it was—her past. What difference did it make that her mother hadn’t gotten on well with Alex’s grandparents, or that she’d had little contact with them and was virtually a stranger when they took her in when she was six? That hadn’t stopped Gram and Gramps from opening their hearts to Alex. All of that had nothing to do with her job as a police officer.

“Will you sign a release?” If she was taking the job, Alex didn’t want anyone to question whether or not she was mentally fit. “It’s not a dangerous job, at least it hasn’t been. Russell County is a small, peaceful place. Shouldn’t be the level of pressure I have as a Chattanooga detective.”

“Will you be satisfied with that?”

“I’ll have to be if I want to help my grandfather. It’s like my grandmother always says—be satisfied in whatever condition you find yourself.”

“Philippians four-twelve.”

Alex nodded. “Is it a go?”

The doctor looked at her notes and jotted something down, then she leaned forward. “You don’t need my permission to take the job. But I want to caution you—if you start exhibiting signs of post-traumatic stress, come see me.”

“Don’t worry. I will.”

Dr. Hudson put her notes down. “You will of course be resigning from the Chattanooga police department, right?”

Alex’s heart sank. She hadn’t had time to think that far ahead. Resigning would stall her plan to become the first female chief of the Chattanooga Police Department.

On the other hand, how could she disappoint the man who had raised her?

15

Phame inserted a USB drive into the computer and thought about Alex Stone while waiting for the dark web to boot up. It had taken a while to track Stone to Pearl Springs in the Cumberland Plateau north of Chattanooga.

It’d been totally unexpected that she would leave the Chattanooga police department, especially after the way the second victim talked about Stone and how she wanted to be the top police official. A rather lofty goal for a woman. So why leave Chattanooga for Pearl Springs? To recover, most likely from George Smith’s bullet.

“Copycat.” Smith had tried to cash in on the Queen’s Gambit killings. If Stone hadn’t shot and killed Smith, Phame would have tracked him down and done the job.

The dark web filled the computer screen. With a click, the video game appeared, and Phame uploaded new photos of the victims and revised the game slightly, making it more difficult for the players to get through the twists and turns where gunmen lay in wait to ambush them. Only the best players made it to the top where the prize was a video of the latest victim’s death.

Phame had thought about killing Stone’s grandparents, heronly living relatives, but the deaths of two old people wouldn’t be interesting to the players of the video game. They wanted mystery and young victims who looked like Stone. Playing with her mind was half the fun of the killings.

The early killings had been retribution for Phillip’s death, but now it was more about the game—the video game, of course, but also the game of outsmarting the police ... particularly Alex Stone.

Perhaps a Queen’s Gambit victim should show up in Pearl Springs...

16

Nathan’s phone buzzed, and he checked it. Alexis was walking over to the police department and would meet him out front. He texted back.

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