Page 93 of Mastermind

And then light walked in. A light with a long shadow, but a light nonetheless.

I’ve watched Jessica as she faces each difficult decision. She’s learned that sometimes the right thing isn’t written down anywhere. Sometimes it’s the opposite of what we’ve been told.

I didn’t know if Heywood, this man who calls himself the Warlock, really wasn’t going to kill her when we set foot in the elevator. What I did know—and I at least suspect Jessica realized on some level—was that Heywood was watching us.

For my part, I accepted her kiss in an act of defiance. I wanted him to see that I have the thing that he desires. I wanted him to see that instead of being pushed off the chessboard, I got the queen.

And if in some petulant act, Heywood pulled a trigger from wherever he’s hiding, he’d do it knowing that he’d permanently lost the one thing he could never have.

A tone chimes in the quiet elevator car as we reach the top floor. Jessica is standing perfectly straight, and her eyes are facing forward as she waits for the doors to open. Her hands are at her sides, not ready to pull the gun from her waist like when we first met.

Like me, she must assume that whatever situation we’re about to set foot in, a sidearm won’t decide the outcome. Heywood is playing a game I can’t fathom and one that I don’t think Jessica understands, either. We’re simply incapable of understanding him.

The elevator opens to a foyer. The large double doors to the only apartment on this floor stand before us, ten feet tall and presumably leading to a penthouse with a high ceiling and expansive view of the city. And quite possibly a trap set specifically for us.

Every rational part of me says we should leave. A voice in the back of my mind whispers that whatever’s on the other side of those doors will change us. More specifically, it’s been designed to change Jessica.

I grasp her elbow. “He wants you to step through those doors.”

“I know,” she replies. “I know.” Her beautiful green eyes search the wall around the doors and land on a small section near the ceiling where a camera is visible, mounted on the trim. “He’s been watching.”

She uses the word been, letting me know that she understands the potential consequences of the kiss. Perhaps intentionally letting me off the hook for the guilt I feel.

A small smile forms at the corner of her mouth. “We could just flip a coin. Heads we enter. Tails we don’t.” She shrugs. “We’ll have to find out sometime.”

She unlocks the doors with the key card, and her hand reaches for the knob. She twists it and opens the door. A twenty-foot floor-to-ceiling window stands at the far end of the room. Three white couches sit in the middle, and a stainless steel telescope is aimed out at the city.

Jessica turns to me and rolls her eyes. “Of course. It’s one big scavenger hunt.”

She strides across the room and leans over the telescope to look through the eyepiece. I consider stopping her in case it’s a trap, but it’s too late.

Instead, I join her and watch as she adjusts the focus on the scope. Her free hand tucks a loose strand of her hair behind her ear as she squints.

“The first time he saw me was in Fort Lauderdale, when the FBI brought me onto the case. He watched me from a telescope.”

A familiar voice speaks from within the room. “No, Jessica. The first time I saw you was long before that . . .”

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

BACKPROPAGATION

Jessica’s eyes go wide, and there’s a flash of motion as she pulls her gun from her waist too fast for me to see her arm move. The barrel of the pistol is already pointed at the far end of the room by the time I realize what she’s done.

“FBI! Hands behind your head. On the floor! Now!” she shouts as she advances toward him.

He raises his hands and drops to his knees on the tile floor.

He’s an ordinary-looking man. He could play a dad in a car commercial. Midforties. Slight but athletic build. Graying hair at the temples. But there’s something about the way his eyes watch her and me. They dart back and forth like he’s looking for something between us.

Jessica puts the barrel of her gun at his temple and pushes him flat.

Heywood complies and allows himself to be cuffed with his wrists behind him.

Jessica pushes him down and tosses a set of keys and a phone to the side. “Theo, call the dispatcher. Tell them we need a team here now.”

I pull my phone from my pocket and look at the screen. There’s no signal. “I don’t have reception.”

Jessica pulls her phone from her pocket with her free hand and slides it across the floor to me. “Use mine.”