Page 7 of Secrets in the Dark
“He’s gone. Wherever he hides out, he’s there. He’s gone. We’re not going to get him tonight. Damn. We have a tab open across the street!”
“Paid it,” Mason assured him. “Well—”
He frowned, breaking off as his phone buzzed faintly. “Philip,” he said, glancing at his caller ID.
Della and Edmund watched him, frowning, as he listened to the caller.
“Philip is—”
“I know. I was there, in Louisiana, remember?” Edmund reminded him. “Special agent with the Krewe, psychiatrist working with Dante.”
If they’d been alone, Mason would have put the call on speaker, Della knew.
But they were standing in the street surrounded by Brixton nightlife.
He ended the call and looked at them. “We must take a quick hop home. Edmund, you’re free to come, or work the case from here. Philip has gotten a lot from Dante—including the fact that he did kill women in unsolved crimes where the officers came to suspect that they were hispracticekillings. He had details, so... Anyway, Philip thinks that we might get a great deal more on a suspect if he observes Dante talking to Della.”
“Private jet with sleeping quarters there and back?” Edmund said. “I’m with you. Unless, of course, you two want to be alone? I guess that—”
“We’ll be fine with you in the plane,” Della assured him quickly, looking at Mason and laughing. “We’re to be at the airport by seven a.m. The pilot has been informed.”
“So...let me get you to your hotel. I guess we all need some sleep,” Edmund said.
There was nothing else to do that night. There really hadn’t been much that they could have done, except...
Della couldn’t help but feel that something had happened.
And as they hurried back to Edmund’s car, they could hear people talking about the emergency news broadcast.
Jack’s back.
“You may have saved a life tonight!” Mason told her softly. She smiled and nodded.
Maybe. And yet...
It also felt as if they had just missed something.
They reached the hotel and there, they showered and fell into bed. Without words, Della turned into Mason, anxious that night to make love.
To see the beauty in the world.
In his arms, she slept.
But in her dreams, she suddenly saw the man’s face again, and in her mind’s eye, he smiled and whispered, “Jack’s back!”
She woke with a start, but Mason pulled her back into his arms.
“We will find this man, too. Get some sleep. Tomorrow, you face Dante again.”
She was tough, she assured herself. She was a good agent, trained, savvy and she knew it.
But it still felt good to pull his arms more tightly around her, knowing that there was support, in the field or in their minds, that only they could provide for one another.
It would all become much harder because...
She knew in her heart that it was no hoax. Jack was back.
Two
