The Night Killer

me.”
    Diane searched his eyes. They were dark blue and looked full of concern, verging on panic. It looked real. Everyone seemed to be able to read Diane’s face, but it was a struggle for her to read theirs. She let go of his shirt.
    “Yes, something’s happened. Damn it. Something terrible has happened.” Diane struggled to keep tears out of her eyes. Please, no emotions right now. She had to deal with this. She took a breath. “I’m going to the crime lab. I’ll explain there.”
    Her hand shook as she started the elevator back up and used her key to override any call from the second floor. They rode in silence. Liam stared at her, fear in his eyes, but he didn’t push.
    On the third floor they got out and Diane rushed to the west wing, waving away anyone who tried to catch her attention. When she entered the crime lab they all were there—David, Izzy, Neva, and Jin. Her team. People she trusted. They all looked grim. They had seen the e-mail attachment.
    “I’ve already started trying to identify the background sounds,” said David. He shook his head. “So far . . . white noise. Someone’s effort to stop me from doing what I’m trying to do.”
    “What’s going on?” said Liam.
    “Show him the video,” said Diane.
    They all crowded around the monitor in one of the glassed-in workstations. The video was already on the screen. David played it again. Diane grabbed his hand as it came on. David squeezed back.
    On the screen was Andie, her arms and legs bound to a chair with duct tape, sitting in front of a blue-white background that looked to be a sheet. Her Vitruvian Man T-shirt and jeans were drenched in blood . . . her head back . . . her neck glistening in deep red.
    Liam sucked in his breath. “Andie. God, no. Please, no.” He sank to the chair.
    As if instructed by someone out of sight, Andie lifted her head and stared into the camera. It was a recreation of the other murders. Designed to terrify, it had succeeded.
    The screen went blank for a moment and came back with Andie holding a piece of paper. She was shaking and dropped it. The screen went blank again. When it came back moments later she was holding the paper again. She read from the paper in a shaky voice, one that was hoarse . . . on the verge of tears. She stumbled several times in the reading, her eyes darting to her captor, terror on her face. Diane’s heart ached.
    “ ‘I want the diary, or this will be real,’ ” her shaky voice said. “ ‘I know you have it. Don’t go to the police. I will know. I will contact you when it suits me. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow. Right now, I want to have fun. Don’t fuck with me.’ ”
    “Oh, God, this is my fault,” said Liam. “This wouldn’t have happened if I’d kept my date with her. Now she’s . . .”
    “Don’t go there,” said David. “We don’t have time.”
    Diane turned to David. “Is he smart?” she asked.
    “Yes, but not real smart,” he said.
    “What does that mean?” said Liam, almost angrily.
    “He wants to set Diane up psychologically so she won’t have any choice but to do what he says. That’s why the opening scene—Diane’s seen the real thing. And that’s why the waiting game and the threat. He—or she, I suppose—wants to put Diane in a position of such anxiety that she’ll do anything to get Andie back.”
    “It’s working,” said Liam. “Where’s the part where he’s not real smart?”
    “He’s giving us time,” said David.
    “What are we going to do?” said Liam.
    “I’ve already started. You heard the white noise in the background? It kind of sounds like wind?”
    They nodded.
    “It’s not really white. It’s in the pink range—meaning that it’s a higher frequency. It’s probably being generated by a device for helping you sleep, giving you a pleasant sound. White noise isn’t pleasant. What I’m doing now is working on blocking that frequency in the video to hear any other sounds in the background. I’m also analyzing Andie’s voice to see what kind of space she might be held in. The computer is doing that right now. Also, I’m trying to backtrack where the e-mail originated from.”
    That was quick. Diane knew that as soon as David saw the video he would start to work. She loved him for that. He was the best.
    “He’s going to want a diary,” said Diane. “The diaries don’t have the location of the gold mine—I’m assuming that’s what he’s after. We have to get Andie before we give him the