Dane opened the door. "Stay out here," he said.
She glanced over her shoulder. Dane wasn"t talking to her. Marcus had come along too. The profiler nodded slowly, but the guy didn"t exactly look happy to be left behind.
Hesitant, she stepped into the room. Heard the fast beep of machines. The soft rumble of a voice. Dane grabbed the thin curtain that blocked the bed and pushed it aside.
Mac was there. Leaning over the bed. Smoothing his fingers over the ME"s pale cheek.
At the sound of the sliding curtain, Ronnie glanced over at Dane and Katherine. She had on a pair of wire-framed gla.s.ses, and when her gaze found Katherine"s, Ronnie"s lower lip began to tremble.
"Ronnie," Mac said, sounding as if he were being torn apart. "There"s nothing for you to be scared of, love. I"m right here. I"ll keep you safe, I swear."
Still looking right at Katherine, Ronnie said, "You can"t." Absolute certainty.
Dane stepped forward. Katherine didn"t move.
"Tell us who hurt you," Dane said, voice soft and gentle. "h.e.l.l, Ronnie, we"ve already pieced it all together anyway, we just need you to confirm-"
Ronnie shook her head.
"It wasn"t Valentine, was it?" Dane asked.
"It was that b.i.t.c.h Evelyn Knight!" Mac surged to his feet. The machines beeped louder. Faster. "We know it was her! Screw dancing around, it"s just us in this room, and protocol can be f.u.c.ked!"
His rage and fear had obviously taken over. Katherine watched his desperate gaze slide back to the Ronnie. He loves her.
"We"re gonna find her," Mac promised the pale woman in the bed. "She"s never gonna hurt you again."
Ronnie was still looking just at Katherine. "I want..." Her voice was hoa.r.s.e. Dane had said that he heard her scream on the phone. "I want to talk to her." She lifted a hand, one attached to an IV, and pointed to Katherine. "Alone."
"I don"t want to leave you," Mac said immediately in a gruff voice.
Ronnie"s heart rate spiked. The machines were going crazy. "Please."
Katherine could tell by the expression on Mac"s face that the guy would deny her nothing. He nodded and said, "I"ll be right outside the door." Mac pressed a gentle kiss to Ronnie"s cheek.
Dane glanced at Katherine, brows up.
"Go," she told him.
Dane and Mac shuffled out to join Marcus. Katherine came closer to the bed.
"I"m scared," Ronnie whispered.
Katherine found herself taking Ronnie"s hand. She noticed that Ronnie"s other wrist had been set in a cast. So much pain. "It"s all right. After what you"ve been through, I think you"re ent.i.tled to be scared."
But Ronnie shook her head. "Not scared because of what happened. Scared of what will happen."
Katherine leaned toward her. "Nothing else is going to happen to you. You"re safe. You"ve got a guard at your door, and you have one very devoted detective who won"t-"
"Mac can"t protect me. No one can."
"You"ve been through a nightmare." One Katherine sure as h.e.l.l understood.
"Only you."
Katherine leaned even closer because she"d almost missed Ronnie"s soft words.
"You can stop him," Ronnie continued.
The machine was still beeping too fast, a beep that now matched the frantic rhythm of Katherine"s heart too. "How did you get away?" she asked.
Ronnie"s lips trembled. "I can"t."
"Did Evelyn let you go?"
Ronnie shook her head.
As she stared into Ronnie"s terrified eyes, Katherine felt her own cheeks ice. "Someone else was there."
A slow nod.
"You saw him."
"I couldn"t see much of anything without my gla.s.ses."
Katherine just stared at her.
"If I tell, I"ll die." Ronnie"s hand turned and clasped Katherine"s wrist. "Please, help me. I don"t want to die." Tears leaked down her cheeks.
"You"re not going to die!" Katherine told her at once, voice sharp. "You"re safe here. There are two detectives and an FBI agent right outside that door."
"They can"t protect me. No one can. Not from-"
Ronnie broke off, not saying any more, but Katherine knew what she"d meant.
Not from him.
"Valentine."
A shudder shook Ronnie"s body.
"He was there?"
Ronnie didn"t confirm or deny it.
If I tell, I"ll die.
"Is he working with Evelyn?" She was very afraid that he might be. A perfect, deadly team.
Ronnie"s lips trembled, then she whispered, "I think Dr. Knight isn"t...a threat anymore."
"Did he take her?" Katherine asked.
Tears were in Ronnie"s eyes. Her hold on Katherine tightened.
"Ronnie, you have to tell Mac and Dane. Tell them what you saw. They can help you."
"I didn"t see anything!" Anger gave her words power. "I couldn"t see! Everything more than a foot away from me was a blur."
"You might not have seen his face, but you smelled him. You talked to him. You know he"s out there."
Ronnie"s chin dropped. "I heard her scream."
A chill skated over Katherine"s spine. "Evelyn?"
A nod. "She won"t be hurting anyone else."
"You have to tell Mac and Dane."
"He"ll come for me. He"ll kill me and maybe even Mac." Her gaze was on the bandages that covered her arms. On her broken wrist. "I don"t want to be on a slab in my own morgue."
"For three years," Katherine told her, "I"ve been looking over my shoulder. Wondering when I"d see him again."
Ronnie glanced back up at her. The ME"s eyes were so big and lost.
"You don"t want to live that way. You don"t want to always be glancing over your shoulder."
Ronnie pulled her hand away. "In Boston, why did he let you go?"
"That"s the million-dollar question," Katherine muttered.
"Why did he save me?" Now Ronnie sounded even more confused. "He tortures and kills. Why save me?"
"Because you weren"t the one he wanted." Marcus had been right. Valentine had found out that Evelyn was copying his crimes. Katherine headed for the door.
"Each time he goes after someone else, you have the guilt, don"t you?"
Katherine froze. "Yes."
This is why she wanted to see me. She wants someone to understand why she isn"t telling the police. She works with the cops, day in and day out, but she also sees the bodies. She doesn"t want to wind up as a victim in her own morgue.
"How do you live with it?"
"You don"t sleep. You jump at every sound. Then, one day, you walk into a police station and tell the world who you are." She glanced back over her shoulder. "Because you"ll get to the point where you can"t hold back any longer. You"ll want to stop him more than you want anything else."
Ronnie gazed helplessly back at her. The struggle was plain to see on her face.
"You have to get to that point," Katherine told her with a sad smile. "No one can make you do it." She reached out for the door.
The beeping of the machines finally slowed. "Bring them in," Ronnie said.
Katherine opened the door and waved in the detectives. Dane and Mac entered, faces grim.
Ronnie pulled in a deep breath. "Evelyn Knight...she was the one who took me. I didn"t even realize it was her at first because she was still distorting her voice, but after the phone call to you-"
"When I heard you scream," Dane cut in.
Ronnie shook her head. "That wasn"t me. She never took the duct tape off my mouth. That was her scream. She said that she hadn"t let her other victims scream either."
Savannah. Amy.
"She stopped using the voice distorter after she got off the phone with you. I guess because...it was time for me to die, and she wanted me to know that she was the one killing me." Ronnie swallowed. Mac eased closer to her. "But then she heard something upstairs. She thought someone else was in her house." Her voice dropped. "He was there."
"Valentine? You saw him?" Mac pushed.
"I didn"t look at his face." It was said with shame. "I didn"t want to see because if I did...I was afraid he"d kill me."
Dane glanced over at Katherine.
"He wasn"t there to kill me. He was there for Evelyn. He let me go, and I heard her scream."
Goose b.u.mps had risen on Katherine"s arms.
"He"s got her," Ronnie said, "and he"s killing her."
Evelyn was on a table. Her wrists and ankles were still bound with rope. The duct tape was still over her mouth. Evelyn struggled fiercely. If she could just get the duct tape off her mouth, then she could make him understand.
He appeared before her. A bright light had been positioned right over her head, so, beneath that light, she could see him perfectly.
He looked different from all the pictures she"d seen online.
Not what she"d expected at all.
But Evelyn wasn"t disappointed. She could never be disappointed in him.
He had a knife in his hand. He raised that knife, and she should have tensed. Should have tried to cry out.
She just stared up at him.
He won"t hurt me. He"ll see me for what I am. The knowledge was certain and sure within her. She knew him better than anyone else. Better than Katherine could ever hope.
The others had screamed. They"d fought.
He"d fought back.
Her struggles were gone now. Her body lay limp and relaxed on that hard table. She stared up at him, with all of her certainty and love shining in her eyes.
He brought the knife closer. "You should be afraid."