Page 86 of Ace of Spades
“How about I don’t, but you answer my questions anyway?”
“I don’t think so.”
“So be it.” She stood. “Someone will come shortly to escort you back to your cell.”
“Wait.”
She sat back down, but didn’t say anything.
“That was a mean trick you played, giving me a gun without any bullets.”
“I thought it was rather clever, myself. Did you really want to kill me? I ask because I remember you leaning over my bed and telling me I was such a pretty girl.” He was creeping her out with the way he stared at her mouth as she talked. “So I have to wonder if your original plan was to kidnap me, take me someplace where you thought no one would find us.”
“You belonged to me, pretty little girl. If your mother had married me like I wanted, we would have been a family. I even bought her a beautiful white dress for our wedding, but she refused to put it on. Then I saw you, so pretty in your fear, and I knew you were mine. If that bitch hadn’t come in with her baseball bat ...”
Interesting. His voice had risen until he was almost shouting before he clamped his mouth shut.He wants to think he’s in charge and didn’t like losing control.
She leaned closer to him, keeping just out of touching range. “I was never yours, Wayne. Whether you’d taken me back then or found a way to do it today, I would have fought you with every bone in my body.” Okay, now she was losing her cool, and she could almost hear Nate whispering in her ear, “Easy, tiger.” She pressed her back to her chair.I never knew how much I owed you for saving me, Rosie.
Tompkins’s smile was pure evil, and the cunning in his eyes reminded her of the way Hannibal Lecter had looked at Clarice inThe Silence of the Lambs. She suppressed a shudder.
“I would have liked you fighting me, Taylor, as a little girl or the woman you are now.”
If he knew how close she was to pulling the gun out of her shoulder holster and shooting him, he’d be the one shuddering. It was time to throw him off balance.
“How did you feel when you watched Doug Emmitt strangle your mother, Wayne? Do you relive that moment each time you put your hands around a woman’s throat? Do you—”
“Shut up!” He banged the chains on the table. “You don’t talk about her.”
“Okay, then let’s talk about the women you killed.”
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them moments later, all expression was gone from his face. “You have no proof I killed anyone. I’d rather talk about you. How did you feel when you saw your pictures on my wall?”
There was no reason to lie to him. “I was angry. And a little sad for the boy who had to watch his mother die, and what you became because of that. But you’re wrong, Wayne. We have plenty of proof that you killed those women. Confess or don’t, doesn’t matter. You’re going away for the rest of your life.”
“You’re lying. I never left any evidence or DNA behind.”
“Not even when you fucked them?”
Rage filled his eyes, and red creeped up his neck. “Don’t say that word. I never did that to them. I saved them. Made them angels.”
Gotcha!Not that they needed his confession. They had shown Delaney photos of a group of men, and she’d picked him out. They had his wall with all the pictures and his hair souvenirs. Along with the murder charges, they’d add kidnapping and assaulting a federal officer, in addition to Delaney and Nichole.
“You tricked me. I want a lawyer,” he said, apparently realizing he’d just confessed.
“You were read your rights when you were brought into this room. Remember the part about anything you say can be used against you? But sure, we’ll get you a court-appointed attorney. Have a nice day, Mr.Tompkins.”
When she walked out of the room, Nate was waiting. He gave her a high five. “Well done, tiger.”
“Thanks.” She was just glad it was over.
It hadn’t been easy keeping her cool in front of the man who’d killed her mother and those other poor women. What she wasn’t expectingto feel was empty. Finally seeing Tompkins behind bars wouldn’t bring her mother back, and he was such a pathetic excuse for a man that she couldn’t even bring herself to hate him.
It wasn’t lost on her that as children, they’d both been witnesses to their mothers’ murders. If not for Rosie, there was no telling how she would have turned out. She almost felt sorry for him, for the boy who hadn’t had a Rosie in his life when he’d needed one the most.
And then there was the man walking next to her with his hand on her back. She loved when he did that, but she wished he wouldn’t. When he touched her, it made her want to nestle into him, made her want more from him than he was willing to give. And that, more than anything, was the reason for the emptiness residing inside her.
“Now that I don’t need a bodyguard, would you drop me off at my apartment so I can get my car?”
