Kiss the Girls

She reminded Casanova of a young Grace Kelly.
    “Have you been saving yourself for me?” the Gentleman asked.
    Melissa’s smile was demure. “I’ve been saving my heart for someone.”
    Will Rudolph smiled at the clever answer. He ran the back of his hand across her cheek. He let his hand slowly track down her throat and over her firm breasts. She submitted without showing fear or revulsion. That was one of the rules when the games were played.
    “You’re very, very good at our little game,” he said. “You’re a worthy player, Melissa.”
    Naomi Cross was next in the line. She had on an ivory cocktail dress. Very chic. She would have been the belle at some Washington law firm’s ball. The scent of her perfume made Casanova feel a little giddy. He had been tempted to declare her off-limits to the Gentleman. He wasn’t fond of her uncle, Alex Cross, after all.
    “We might come back to visit with Naomi,” the Gentleman said. He lightly kissed her hand.
“Enchantŭ.”
    Rudolph nodded, then stopped at the sixth woman in the receiving line. He turned his head and checked out the final girl, then his eyes returned to number six.
    “You’re very special,” he spoke softly, almost shyly. “Extraordinary, actually.”
    “This is Christa,” Casanova said with a knowing smile.
    “Christa is my date for tonight,” the Gentleman exclaimed in an enthusiastic voice. He’d made his choice. Casanova had given him a present—to do with as he pleased.
    Christa Akers tried to smile. That was the house rule. But she couldn’t. That was what the Gentleman especially liked about her:
the delicious fear in her eyes.
    He was ready to play
kiss the eyes.
    One last time.

Part Five

    Kiss the Girls

Chapter 102

    T HE MORNING after the arrest of Dr. Wick Sachs, Casanova strolled the corridors of the Duke Medical Center. He calmly turned into Kate McTiernan’s private room.
    He could go anywhere now. He was free again.
    “Hello, my darling. How goes the wars?” he whispered to Kate.
    She was all by her lonesome, though there was still a Durham policeman stationed on the floor. Casanova sat on the straight–backed chair beside her bed. He looked at the sad physical wreck that had once been such an outstanding beauty.
    He wasn’t even angry with Kate anymore. There wasn’t much to be angry with now, was there?
The lights are still on,
he thought as he stared into the vacant blue
eyes, but there’s nobody home, is there, Katie?
    He enjoyed being in her hospital room—it got his juices going, turned him on, moved his spirit toward great things. Actually, just sitting beside Kate McTiernan’s bed made him feel at peace.
    That was important now. There were decisions to be made. How, exactly, to handle the situation with Dr. Wick Sachs? Did more tinder need to be thrown on that fire? Or would that be overkill, and therefore dangerous in itself?
    Another tricky decision would have to be made soon. Did he and Rudolph still have to leave the Research Triangle area? He didn’t want to—this was home—but maybe it had to be. And how about Will Rudolph? He had clearly been emotionally disturbed in California. He had been taking Valium, Halcion, and Xanax—that Casanova
knew
of. Sooner or later he was going to blow it for both of them, wasn’t he? On the other hand, it had been so unbearably lonely when Rudolph was away. He’d felt cut in half.
    Casanova heard a noise behind him at the hospital room door. He turned—
and smiled at the man.
    “I was just leaving, Alex,” he said, and got up from the chair. “No change here. What a damn shame.”
    Alex Cross let Casanova slide by him and out the door.
    He fit in anywhere,
Casanova thought to himself as he walked away and down the hospital corridor. He was never going to be caught. He had the perfect mask.

Chapter 103

    T HERE WAS a fine old upright piano inside the barroom at the Washington Duke Inn. I was there playing Big Joe Turner and Blind Lemon Jefferson tunes between four and five one morning. I played the blues, the blahs, the doldrums, the grumps, the red ass. The hotel maintenance staff sure was impressed.
    I was trying to put everything I knew together. I kept circling back to the same big three or four points, my pillars to build the investigation on.
    Perfect crimes, both here and in California. The killers’ knowledge of crime scenes and police forensics.
    Twinning between the monsters. Male bonding as it had never existed.
    The disappearing house