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“Right,” Kendra said. “A naiad is a water nymph.” She put her hand on his arm and stared him straight in the eye. “She’s a swimmer, Lynch.”
Chapter
8
Aswimmer.” Lynch had caught the connection immediately. “You’re thinking about Tricia Walton. You’re reaching, Kendra. It could be coincidence. The same man who was James Barrett’s prime influencer also David Spalman’s Alpha? Barrett a mass murderer, the Spalman boy a college kid. What are the chances?”
“How the hell do I know?” Kendra’s hand tightened on his arm. “As far as I’ve heard, there aren’t any firm statistics that would tell anyone what kind of choices a power-hungry monster with a passion for molding everyone’s lives to suit himself would make. I can only look at the similarities and possibilities.” She was trying to quickly mentally separate and go through both. “First, we can’t be sure when he made contact with Barrett. We do have to assume that his meeting with Spalman was within the last couple of years. For that matter we don’t know how many subjects this Alpha would have at the same time anyway. Jackie seemed to think that the Alpha had all the rights and privileges in the relationship.”
“What are you getting at?” Lynch asked.
“I’m thinking that if this Alpha wanted to maintain both relationships, he could have decided to use Spalman to pacify Barrett. If Barrett wanted Tricia punished or killed, the Alpha might influence Spalman to do it for him. The killing of those four football players may have been a method to prepare Spalman for the murder of Tricia Walton. It could have been more difficult for Spalman to kill a young woman. The Alpha had the kid position the statue in his bedroom so that he had to look at it every night…He chose a naiad because the legend had already designated her as a killer.”
“But he didn’t do it,” Lynch pointed out.
“He didn’t have time. Because he knew the police suspected him of the other killings. His father said they were closing in on him the night he drove off that cliff. He killed himself before he could be arrested.” Her gaze was searching his face. “I realize it’s fairly thin, but it could have happened that way. He did want to keep Barrett pacified or he would never have arranged for Dusenberry to smuggle those goggles into Barrett’s cell.” She frowned, feeling her way through the puzzle. “I think he might have done it as a kind of promise. He knew Barrett wanted Tricia dead, and giving Barrett her goggles would have been proof that he’d make it happen.”
“All supposition, Kendra,” Lynch said. “But very good supposition.” He grinned. “All we have to do is figure out who the Alpha is, and a few other small items like when, where, and how.”
She made a face. “I don’t see any other leads on the horizon, so I’ll go with these until you come up with something else.” Then she shook her head, troubled. “Or maybe even a bit beyond that time. I don’t like the idea of that statue of the swimmer. This creep has already made two promises that Tricia Walton would die. The first were the goggles sent to Barrett, the second the statue given to Spalman.”
“So? Both men are dead. Wouldn’t that make the promises null and void?”
“I don’tknow,” she said. “Neither do you. All we know is that this guy is probably crazy, and we don’t have any idea how he thinks.” She added bitterly, “Oh, yes. And he kills people. We have to remember that.”
“We will,” Lynch said. “You’ve got a three-day promise of surveillance from Griffin. We can build on that.”
“That’s not enough. We’ll have to warn Tricia, too. I have to be honest with her.” She was frowning. “And I want to call Jackie Gabert.”
“Why?”
“Because if anyone knows how those crazy Alphas think, it would probably be her. She obviously regards herself as belonging to the club. I’ll tell her what we discovered here today and see what she says.”
“I can’t imagine she’d be helpful.”
“Neither do I, but I’ve got to try.” She fastened her seat belt. “You go talk to Griffin and see if you can persuade him to extend the agent surveillance time he’ll give Tricia. Drop me off at the condo. I’ll see what I can get out of Jackie.”
“You want me to spin the tale you just concocted about the Spalman kid to Griffin? I thought you’d want to do it.”
She shook her head. “Griffin’s more likely to believe it coming from you. You’re the golden boy as far as the Bureau is concerned. I get a certain amount of respect, but they definitely don’t believe I’m one of the crew. I always have to talk them into accepting anything I say.”
His gaze searched her expression. “And you’re tired of it, and you can’t see why they can’t see what you see. Sometimes it’s worse than others. This is one of those times.”
She shrugged. “At least I’m not alone. You could see what I saw this time.”
“Even if I question you?”
“Questions are good. They keep us honest. I question you, too.”
“True.” He was driving away from the house. “If we’re being honest, we both know I don’t always see what you see right away. There are times when I have to probe and analyze.”
“But even then, you don’t turn your back and leave me alone with it,” she said. “That’s important.”
“I can understand how it could be,” he said quietly. “But you don’t have to worry about that. As long as you’ll let me stick around, that kind of loneliness isn’t going to be a problem for you…”
***
“All that power,” Jackie murmured when Kendra had finished speaking. “Really incredible, and terribly exciting. What did you say was the name of the victim?”
