“Yeah. Should I just … throw it out? I can’t believe I ever pushed you to take his calls, can’t believe I ever felt sorry for him. You’ve told me that psychopaths are charming, that I shouldn’t fall for their act. But I didn’t want to believe he was a psychopath. He was supposed to be one of the good guys.”
Evelyn had wanted Tim Fitzpatrick out of her life almost since the day Hilltop had opened. Older by nearly two decades, he’d had quite an illustrious career by the time they joined forces, and since she was a relative newcomer, she’d needed the credibility his support provided. But after they came to live in Alaska, she’d begun to realize that he wanted much more than a professional relationship. And once she’d made it clear that she had no interest, he’d changed to the point that she almost couldn’t tolerate him.
Still, she was having trouble believing the man she’d worked with was guilty of killing Mandy Walker and Charlotte Zimmerman Pine, two women she’d been friends with in high school. She didn’t like him and had a hard time forgiving him for what he’d done before quitting and returning to the Lower 48 a year and a half ago. But would he really murder two people in order to convince her Jasper was once again murdering friends she’d had more than twenty years ago?
She couldn’t say for sure. Now that she and Amarok had Jasper’s DNA, she planned to have it compared to the DNA found at the crime scene where Charlotte was killed. A match would rule Fitzpatrick out. So instead of telling Penny to throw away his letter, she took it, figuring she might as well let him know that much. “No, I’ll have a look. Thank you.”
After shoving the letter in her desk to read later, she skirted around her assistant and headed over to the double glass doors that separated their offices from the rest of the prison.
The phone rang as she was leaving, and Penny stopped her just before she could walk out. “Dr. Talbot?”
She turned. “Yes?”
“Janice is on line one.”
Janice Holt, her boss at the Bureau of Prisons. Evelyn hesitated. She didn’t want to be any later for her appointment with Bobby Knox, but she’d been waiting for this call and Bobby wasn’t going anywhere. “Let the COs who are with Mr. Knox know I’m running a few minutes late and will be down as soon as I can,” she told Penny.
“Will do.”
Evelyn returned to her office and closed the door behind her before picking up the phone. “Dr. Talbot.”
“Evelyn, I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you.”
“No problem.” She didn’t sit down. She didn’t plan to let this conversation take that long. Instead, she walked over to look out the window. Everything was covered with a thick blanket of snow, but the storm had, for the most part, cleared. Although it was still dark out, it was now just dark and wintry. “I hope you have good news.”
“Actually, I do. You’ll be getting your first female inmate on Monday.”
The department had been planning to fill the new section with more men, but Evelyn had pushed to use the expansion for another purpose—to bring a few female psychopaths to Hanover House instead.
Fortunately, Janice had liked the idea from the beginning. She saw it the way Evelyn did—why shouldn’t they study both sexes? Especially because, with the addition of the new section, it was now possible. “Wow. You did it! I can’t believe it.”
“You doubted me?” Janice teased.
“I shouldn’t have. You’re a force of nature.”
“We faced our usual opponents—all the people who’re afraid of change and want everything to be done the same old way. But I pointed out that what you’re doing is making a difference. Beth Bishop is a prime example. If not for you, she’d still be living with her brother and Lyman would probably still be kidnapping women and performing icepick lobotomies on them. You’re doing good work. I believe in you.”
Evelyn gripped the handset a little tighter. Janice didn’t know about the girl who’d gone missing from the cabin last night. She didn’t know that just hearing about someone who couldn’t be found, who could be lost or hurt in this lonely place, made Evelyn fear the worst. She couldn’t help wondering if someone from Hanover House could be responsible for whatever had happened. She’d checked to make sure all inmates were present and accounted for when she’d arrived at the prison this morning, but that didn’t mean this incident wasn’t connected in some peripheral way. “Thank you,” she said, and hoped to God Janice’s faith hadn’t been misplaced.
After that compliment, Evelyn knew she couldn’t get counseling. Any hint of instability would hamstring her boss when it came to lobbying for anything else she requested or needed up here.
She had to soldier on and pray the missing woman would soon be found safe, that whatever happened had nothing to do with the institution and that the psychological scars she bore wouldn’t cause her to unravel and ruin everything she’d set in motion.
*
Most days Jasper craved a glimpse of Evelyn like an alcoholic craved booze. He thought of her constantly, peered around every corner, loitered near the mental health department if he could come up with an excuse to be there. So it was ironic that today, the one day he didn’t want to bump into her and had stayed away from that side of the prison entirely, she happened to get on the same elevator.
She wasn’t wearing a lab coat, like so many of the other doctors did, or a name tag. But everyone, both inside and outside the institution, knew who she was. He’d made her famous, made her Important with a capital I. The whole world was watching to see what the “brilliant and beautiful psychiatrist” would accomplish in her “fight against the conscienceless,” but she’d accomplished all she was going to. He’d make sure of that—once he got out of the mess he’d created in the past week. He couldn’t wait until she realized that she hadn’t been able to escape him, after all.
She wore her silky dark hair in a ponytail and had a folder under her arm. The crease of concentration on her forehead suggested she was deep in thought. He could tell she wasn’t paying any attention to her surroundings. Since she was all business today, he doubted she’d acknowledge him, and that bothered him. He hated the way she could so easily overlook him. He’d once been one of the most important people in her life.
And he would be again.
After the elevator doors glided shut, she looked over and did a double take. “Andy, I’m sorry. I was so preoccupied I didn’t even recognize you.”
She still didn’t recognize him. Not really. But the cosmetic surgeon who’d reconstructed his face had been one of the best in the world. His own parents, who’d had the money to pay handsomely for the tremendous amount of work he’d had done, hadn’t recognized him when he first returned to the States, and that was years ago, before he’d aged by two decades.
Besides, no one would ever dream he’d be bold enough to pursue employment at Hanover House. Certainly not Evelyn. Amarok, either. The uniform Jasper wore gave him instant credibility. And the fact that he’d been the man to step in and save Evelyn from Lyman Bishop last winter?
He was golden.
He managed not to smile at the fact that she was alone in an elevator with the man who’d once cut her throat and she didn’t even know it. She had to want closure, had to want him caught more than anything else in the world. He knew she did. And yet … here he was.
So much for her ability to spot danger.
“No problem.” He kept his hands locked behind his back and his eyes focused toward the front, as most people did in an elevator, but it wasn’t easy to appear so unaffected. Just the sight of Evelyn, the way she dressed and the woman she’d become______so elegant and refined and intelligent______aroused him. Neither of his ex-wives could compare. None of his other victims could, either.
But he had to be careful not to let her sense his interest.
He was doing such a good job of maintaining a businesslike air, he expected that to be the end of the exchange, but she surprised him.