Page 105 of In His Sights

Dan managed an eye roll. “I think all of Boston heard me scream your name.”

“I’m not talking about that. I meanbefore.”

He frowned. “What?”

“Imean, I heard your voice inside my head. I could feel the terror like it was my own. You kept crying out that you needed me.”

“But… you couldn’t have. My gift doesn’t work like that.”

Gary held up his hands. “Hey, I’m just telling you what I heard, okay? Itwasyour voice. I didn’t imagine it.”

Dan kissed him. “I believe you. Now, are you going to tell me how Riley seems to know about us?”

“Later. When I’ve got you far away from this place and the doc has checked you out. He drugged you, didn’t he? He put something in your coffee.”

Dan gaped. “How did you know that?”

Gary smiled. “A lot has happened since I left you at the hotel this morning. And once you’ve been declared fit, I’m going to take you back there, and I’m not going to leave your side all night.”

“What makes you think I’d let you?”

Dan needed to be held, reassured… treasured. But his joy at being rescued was tempered with the shock of what he’d seen when he’d held Paul’s gold chain. He couldn’t keep quiet about that, even if it meant one man’s life was going to change dramatically.I was given this knowledge for a reason.

Yeah. Sometimes he hated his gift.

Chapter 40

Thursday, June 7

LIEUTENANT TRAVERSpoured whiskey into five paper cups. “You had an eventful day, didn’t you, Mr. Porter?”

“This is obviously some new meaning of the word ‘eventful’ that I haven’t previously encountered.” Waking in Gary’s arms that morning, it had seemed like a really bad dream—until he saw the red scratch on his neck in the bathroom mirror.

Yeah. That had been a little too close for comfort.

Gary leaned forward, picked up two cups, and handed one to Riley. “The doc says Dan was lucky. Ludlow could just as easily have pushed the needle in.”

“But he didn’t,” Dan remonstrated. He took a cup and gave the other to Lewis, who took it almost absentmindedly. And then Dan’s fingertips brushed against Lewis’s hand, and it was as if Dan had delivered an electric shock. Lewis straightened in his chair, his eyes alert.

None of the others appeared to notice.

Travers raised his cup. “Well, you did it. One serial killer off the streets, no more calls from Adam Winton, and the chief is off my back. I call that a successful conclusion.”

“Amen to that,” Gary murmured.

“Ludlow isn’t talking, by the way,” Travers remarked.

“Did he really believe he could kill twenty-two men and not get caught?” Riley shook his head. “Because thatwashis plan.”

“Ludlow can clam up all he likes. We’ve got enough of his DNA to sink him,” Gary declared emphatically. “Not to mention a drawer full of the victims’ phones. It still amazes me that he kept them. What were they, trophies?”

“Maybe he saw it as confiscating the tools those men had used to ensnare Paul. The apps, the messaging…. And maybe he truly believed he was invisible to the police.” Dan was still in awe of how Gary, Riley, and Lewis had pieced it all together, especially Lewis. Travers had listened as they’d recounted the events of the previous day, Dan chipping in here and there to share what he’d learned about Christopher.

“I think you were very brave, Mr. Porter, keeping him talking like that. You had no way of knowing help was on the way.”

“I wanted him off balance,” Dan told Travers. “Once I knew what lay at the heart of all this—his guilt—I kept pushing the knife in.” He shivered. “Perhaps I pushed a little too far. He was more than ready to dispatch me by the time the cavalry arrived.” He had to resist the urge to take Gary’s hand, even though he needed that physical connection.

“Thereisone more thing I’d like to know.” Travers gave Dan a keen glance. “Did you really know who was responsible for his brother’s death, or was that a ruse to play for time?”

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