Killing Me Softly

“I know what it means,” Bryan said, and he met his father’s eyes.

Josh’s face fell.

“What does it mean?” Dawn asked.

“How do you know?” Josh whispered, as if she hadn’t even spoken.

Bryan knew she was confused, but he had to get this out to his father now. There was no point in doing less than laying his cards on the table where his family was concerned. He didn’t want tidbits of information surfacing later on and shaking their belief in him. With a deep sigh, he said, “Two weeks ago, I signed out all the files on the Nightcap Strangler case.”

Dawn dropped her fork. “Nightcap Strangler? Bryan, that sounds like the name of some kind of…of a serial killer or something.”

“It is,” he said. “Or was.”

She blinked. “What the hell is going on?”

Bryan set down his silverware. “There’s a lot you don’t know.”

“Like that Bette was killed by a serial killer, you mean? And that now they think it might be you? A serial killer? God, Bryan!”

“It’s even more complicated than that. The Nightcap Strangler was a man named Johnny Lee Jackson. He was arrested sixteen years ago, and there hasn’t been a killing fitting his M.O. since. He died in prison just last month. I think this has to be a copycat crime.”

“But why?” Dawn asked. “Why would this…this copycat want to kill your girlfriend, in your bed, while you were sleeping in the next room?”

“I don’t know why.”

“Yes, you do,” she accused. “Bryan, what were you doing with those files? The timing of this, of you going through those old files, that can’t be a coincidence. The police certainly aren’t going to see it as one. What aren’t you telling me?”

“Nothing.”

Dawn noted, though, that Beth and Josh were looking at him with the very same questions in their eyes. Oh, none of them believed Bryan was capable of murder, but there was clearly some kind of link between him and those crimes—or this criminal.

And Dawn had the feeling he knew what it was.

“I think this is all about Nick,” he said, confirming her belief.

Josh nodded as if he understood, while Beth kept staring at him, waiting for further clarification.

“Nick?” Dawn asked. “The Nick?”

“Nick Di Marco,” Bryan said. “He was one of my professors back in college, my mentor. We’re tight. Hell, I trust him more than anyone in the world, except maybe my dad. Anyway, he’s the cop who solved the Nightcap Strangler case sixteen years ago, before he retired from the force and took up teaching.”

“I know,” Dawn said. “I’d forgotten what they called the killer, is all.” She’d heard all about Nick the supercop, and his book and his movie deal, from Beth. If she’d ever actually lived in Blackberry, she would probably have heard about him far sooner. He was the nearby town of Shadow Falls’s version of a living legend.

“I think Bette was chosen because of her connection to me and my connection to Nick,” Bryan said. “Someone is trying to set me up, but I think they’re also trying to get to him, somehow, through me. But whoever it is, it’s not the Nightcap Strangler. Probably just some lunatic with an obsession or a bad case of hero worship. A wannabe.”

“A wannabe who somehow got information only known by the police?” Josh asked.

“And by Nightcap himself,” Bryan said.

“He could have told someone, a friend, a relative—even a cell mate.”

“Do you think this copycat will kill again?” Beth asked softly.

“Oh, he’ll kill again,” said a new voice from just beyond the screen door off the foyer. They all turned, and the man standing there went on. “I just hope Bryan here is safely behind bars or surrounded by cops when he does.” He grinned, and every part of his face joined in on the smile. “Can’t get a better alibi than that now, can you?”

4

Dawn was startled, probably because of the dark feeling that had crept over her entire soul as the dinner conversation had unfolded. Nightcap Strangler. Serial killer. Copycat crime. A dead girlfriend. And all of it tied up with Bryan. What the hell?

“Hey, Nick,” Bryan said, his expression lightening. “Dawn, come meet Nick.” Bryan got up, and she followed him out of the dining room, across the living room and into the foyer. Beth and Josh remained at the table, and Dawn could hear them speaking softly, probably trying to reassure each other that everything would be all right.

Nick, who looked as if he’d been buff once but now had the proverbial muffin top spilling over his belt, pushed the screen door open and entered, still smiling. He had blue eyes that won you over with a single glance. His hair looked like onyx in a snowstorm. And when his warm smile landed on Dawn, it somehow managed to broaden.

“You’ve gotta be Beth’s little girl, Dawnie. I’ve been hearing about you for years. It’s good to finally meet you. I’m Nick Di Marco, an old friend of Bryan’s.”

Dawn couldn’t help but return the infectious smile. Somehow his demeanor made the tension she’d been feeling a few moments ago fade away.

“Hello, Nick. I’ve been hearing about you for years, too. Bryan tells me you’re the man he trusts most in the world, after his dad, and that’s saying something.” She extended a hand, and Nick took it. His was big and very warm, but she felt the strength beneath the friendliness.

“Sorry we’re meeting under such dire circumstances,” he said, and then he shifted his gaze to Bryan. “You didn’t tell me how closely she fit.”

Bryan frowned hard, but nodded at his mentor. “I didn’t even think about it myself until she got here.”

“She can’t set foot in Shadow Falls, Bryan. She might not even be safe here in Blackberry, even though it’s almost an hour away. You know that, right?”

“I know,” Bryan agreed.

“Whoa, wait a minute.” Dawn was shifting her curious blue eyes from one of them to the other. “Fit what?”

“She’s got the look,” Nick said. But he said it quietly, as if he didn’t want Beth and Josh, who were still in the other room, to hear.

Bryan ignored her question and said, “I know, Nick,” he said. “I was going to get to that.”

“Get to what?” Dawn frowned at Bryan, puzzled and irritated at being ignored.

He quickly covered her hand with his and gave it a squeeze that made her heart beat faster, despite the situation.

“Nick, go on in and have something to eat. I’ll be back.” Then, finally, Bryan met Dawn’s probing stare. “Come for a walk with me?”

She looked down at his hand still holding hers and felt such a rush of confused emotions that her eyes started to burn. She blinked against the feeling and nodded once, not quite trusting herself to speak, because her throat was so tight. Bryan was in more trouble than she had begun to imagine, and it seemed she cared a whole lot more than she had allowed herself to acknowledge.

Bryan walked Nick to the dining room and waved him into a seat as Beth invited him to join them for the meal. “Dawn and I are going for a short walk. We’ll be back soon,” Bryan told them.

“Don’t parade her all over the neighborhood, Bryan,” Nick said. “The more people who see her, the greater the risk.”

Risk? Dawn shot Bryan a “what the hell is he talking about” look as he returned to her. But he just took her hand and gave it another squeeze, then walked with her to the door. The screen door creaked, and as they stepped outside and let it close behind them, she felt the warm kiss of a summer night and heard the crickets chirping in a way she hadn’t heard in five long years. God, she’d missed Vermont.

They walked down the porch steps, and Bryan seemed to be avoiding looking at her, even though she was staring at him as she kept in step at his side.