Silver Falls - Anne Stuart [88]
“I’m afraid I’m not particularly well-versed in what serial killers do,” she said, her voice getting stronger.
“I know you haven’t been reading the papers, my love.” He voice was solicitous. “I don’t blame you. I can tell you anything you need to know. They simply have to find the barrettes and they’ll have an open and shut case. Means and opportunity. As for motive—a serial killer doesn’t need a motive. Though Caleb had one, illogical as it was. He was trying to frame me. He’s always been jealous of me, and childhood with him was a living hell. My parents tried to protect me, but they didn’t want to throw poor Caleb to the wolves. My mother paid with her life for that.”
They were finally back at the house. He pulled into the driveway and turned off the car. Rachel looked around her. She could see the deep grooves her tires had made in David’s perfect lawn, the split apple tree where her car had ended. All proof that this wasn’t a hideous dream.
He hadn’t denied it. He’d been right there, waiting for her after he’d tried to kill her. If Maggie and the police hadn’t shown up who knows what might have happened? She might be one more murder victim at the Bates Motel.
No, that wasn’t right. The strangler raped his victims post-mortem. And what had happened in that hotel was a far cry from rape, no matter what David said.
She got out of the car before David could come around to open the door for her. She thought she’d be unsteady on her feet, but the ground was firm beneath her, and the rain had stopped again. At least for the moment. The clouds were thick overhead, and it was only a matter of time before the darkness descended again.
“You go in and rest, Rachel. I’ll bring you a cup of tea before I go tell my father what’s happened. Do you want any lunch?”
She shook her head, every muscle in her body tight with her last effort at self-control. “Don’t worry about me. I can get my own tea if I want any. You’re right, you’d better go talk to Stephen Henry.”
“He’ll be devastated,” David said solemnly. “We’ve both been expecting this, both hoping we were wrong.”
From somewhere in the depths of her fast-draining reserves she managed to drag forth a smile. “You go see him. Give him my love. I think I’ll just go to bed.”
He came around the car and kissed her on the cheek, soft lips, so different from Caleb’s hard ones. “We’ll get through this,” he murmured. “Just sleep.” He brushed the hair away from her face, and unaccountably, she shuddered.
A moment later he was gone, and suddenly she could breathe again.
She went into the house, kicking off her muddy shoes, double locking the door behind her, moving through the muted darkness to her bedroom, leaving the lights off. She should call Sophie, just to make sure she was all right. Though in Maggie Bannister’s house, how could she not be?
She could also be reasonably sure that Sophie never knew she’d been missing. Maggie would have seen to that.
Besides, she was probably on her way to school right about now. There was no need to alarm her. She’d take a nap—she was bone tired and not up to facing anything. This afternoon would have time enough.
She almost took another shower, just to wash his touch off her skin, but the idea reminded her of what had gone on under the stream of water, and she couldn’t stand to think about it. It was going to be baths for a while, until she could stop thinking of him. Of what he’d done. Of what she’d done.
But right now it was bed. She stripped off her clothes and dumped everything in the trash, even her underwear.
She grabbed another pair of panties and a tank top, and all she could think of was Sigourney Weaver in Alien, blasting the bad guys. She climbed under the covers, pulling them up around her ears, and closed her eyes. She still wanted to talk to Sophie, to make sure she was all right, but just then she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Sophie would be heartbroken—she’d been charmed by David’s psychopath brother, as he’d meant her to be. The thought that she might have been his next victim was so horrifying that she almost bolted