Riptide

I don't think I was afraid of
    anything. It was a side effect of the drug, he said, and he didn't like
    it. He wanted me to be real afraid, he wanted me to beg and plead,
    just like Linda Cartwright did." She shuddered as she said the
    name. "He said she didn't matter. She was just his present to me."
    "Did he tell you his name?"
    She shook her head. She said to her father,"! can't even describe
    him. He never let me see him. When he had me tied down to a bed, he always stood in the shadows, just beyond what I could
    make out. I don't think he was old, but I can't be one hundred percent
    certain. Was he young? I just don't know. But when he cursed,
    he used a mixture, some American, some British, and some in a
    language I didn't recognize. Isn't that strange?"
    "Yes, but we'll figure it out."
    Thomas was standing beside her bed, opposite Adam. He was
    wearing a dark suit, the dark-red tie loosened. He looked tired and
    worried and, oddly enough, happy. Because of her? Evidently so,
    and that pleased her very much. He picked up her left hand and
    held it. His hand was strong, lightly tanned. He was wearing a
    wedding ring. She stared at that ring, just stared and stared, touched
    her fingers to it, then said finally, "My mother gave you that ring?"
    "Yes, when we got married. I wore it all our married lives. I plan
    to wear it until it finally dissolves off my finger sometime in the
    distant future. I loved your mother very much, Becca. Like I said, I
    had to leave both of you so you wouldn't be killed. I know it's all

still very confusing. There are lots of facts and details, but the bottom
    line is exactly what I already told you. I accidentally killed a
    man's wife and he swore he would kill my family, and then he
    would kill me, but only after I saw, firsthand, how he had killed
    everyone I loved. I had no choice. I had to leave my family in order
    to protect them."
    Adam said, "We believe this man who is stalking you, who murdered
    that old bag lady, who shot the governor, we believe it's Krimakov
    and somehow he found you and began terrorizing you." He
    paused for a moment, nodding to Thomas.
    Thomas was looking down at this lovely young woman who
    was his only child. It took him a moment before he said, "Vasili
    Krimakov was one of the KGB's top agents back in the seventies,
    as I was for the CIA. Again, there's a whole lot more, but it can wait
    for a while. Right now, what's important is that we find him, that
    we neutralize him once and for all."
    "You're sure it's Krimakov."
    He smiled then. "Oh yes, I'm very sure, particularly after what
    he told you."
    " 'Say hello to your daddy.' "
    "Yes. No one else would know that."
    "My mom wore a ring just like yours. When she died--" She
    couldn't speak, the tears clogged her throat, burned her eyes. He
    said nothing at all, just held her hand, squeezed it a bit more tightly.
    She swallowed, looked away from him toward the window. It was
    black out there, no sign of stars from her vantage point. "--I
    wanted desperately to have something to connect me to her and I
    almost took that ring, but then I remembered how much she loved
    you, and I just couldn't take it from her.
    "Sometimes when she spoke to me of you, she would start

crying and I hated you for leaving us, for leaving her, for dying. I
    remember when I was a teenager I told her she should get married
    again, that I would be going off to college, and she needed to put
    you in the past. She needed to find someone else. She was so
    young and beautiful, I didn't want her to be alone. I remember
    she'd only smile at me and say she was just fine." Then, suddenly,
    Becca said, "Oh God, he came after me so he could get to you."
    "Yes," Adam said. "That's exactly right. But he didn't know
    where Thomas was, so he came up with a way to flush Thomas out.
    He dumped you right in front of One Police Plaza."
    "What I don't understand," Thomas said, "is why he didn't simply
    announce all over the media that he had her, threaten to kill her
    if I didn't show myself in Times Square. He must have known that
    I would be there. But he didn't."
    Adam said, "Who knows? Maybe a cop saw him, saw an unconscious
    woman in the backseat, and he was forced to dump Becca in
    order to escape. However, it's far more likely that he planned this
    down to the exact spot he'd leave her. I think it's gamesmanship.
    He wants to prove he's better than you, smarter than all of us, and
    he wants you to suffer big-time in the process."
    "He's