Chapter 51

Sarra heard Brian come in the hallway at eleven thirty, just as the news ended. She skimmed her hands over the cards on the coffee table, pushing them into a pile. Solitaire is an awful game, you only play it when you are lonely or worried or tired or bored. Or all the above.:

"Hey." He said, coming in. He crossed to the table and picked up her mug, and sniffed. "Leaded?"

"I was trying to stay up and hear what is going on."

"No you were not. You were trying to make sure you won't sleep deep enough or long enough tonight to have nightmares." Her cheeks grew hot, and Brian said. "Jesus Sarra I'm only in the next room. You don't think I hear you pacing around half the night, crying in sleep the other half."

"I saw the news," Sarra said as he sat down beside her. "Is there really a caller?"

" No, we want Brandon to think there is. He called again today near your house."

"My god."

"Listen, Sarra, There are some things you should know."

Brian was true to his word, catching her up on things the task force had been working on, each more shocking than the last, Damien's murder. The discovery of two additional victims from years ago. The murdered women mimicking Chadbornes dolls. Sarra's stomach soured as she remembered testing the first dolls eyelids and now the thought the poor women in Seattle. And the idea the idea that a woman's leg's had been cut to match the cracks in the second doll made her down right nauseous.

Brian had one more thing, Brandon had attended the antique shows.

"He started cozying up to Mrs. Chadborne months ago. And stalking you."

She hugged her arms to herself, trying to contain a shiver of revulsion.

Brian said. "Can you think of anything, anything Chadborne ever told you about her husbands doll collection? Something that would tell us what else Brandon might be planning to do with.?"

Sarra shook her head. Feeling her skin start to crawl. Mrs. Chadborne had been in enigma. Always asking about Abby and Sarra and interested in the antiques business but not giving up much about herself.

"OK". Brian said and shifted. "Listen, there's one more thing. We put an agent in your house posing as you."

Sarra gasped. " You did what?"

"She is a pro, sweetie. Her name is Lexi. we have people all over your street watching out for her, watching for Brandon."

"And this Lexi is supposed to just sit in my house and wait to be attacked?"

He cursed, which told Sarra she had pretty much hit the nail on the head, then handed her phone. " All your numbers will ring to this now. Don't say anything that would lead him to believe you are not there. And we need for you to keep him on the phone, sets us up for a good trace.

"Ask him about his day talk dirty to him?"

A nerve twitched in Brian's jaw. "Stard says let him jerk you around a little act scared."

'Oh I don't think that would be a problem." She said pacing.

"Yes it will because you can't just get mad and hang up on him anymore. You have to play him, Cry, Whimper. Stard thinks he will stay on the phone longer if he hears you messed up."

"You mean don't make the same mistake I made seven years ago.

That stopped him. "Fuck." He said and closed the distance between them in two strides. He took her shoulders. " Fuck Stard, do you hear me? Don't say a word to Brandon unless it is go to hell bastard."

Never mind what Stard or anyone else wanted if Sarra decided she didn't want to do it. She gazed up at the tortured lines on his face and thought that, at this very moment, he might be willing to do anything to keep her from hurting. Even risk not being able to to trace Brandon. "Why?" she asked quietly.

"Why what?"

"Why is it so important for you to fight my monsters?" she paused. " Is it because of your wife?"

"Christ Sarra." he dropped his hands. "Where did that come from?"

"I have been thinking ya know like you told me too."

"About my wife?"

"About us. About the fact we both have history. You know mine"

"All of it?"

Ouch she lifted her chin. "Alot more than I know of yours."

Sarra waited. watching him turn it all over in his mind, trying to decide he would say. For a second it seemed almost comical, the epitome of the male dilemma. "All right then." she said and headed to the bedroom.

"I had a daughter." Brian said.

Sarra stopped. "Oh my god." she turned and stared but Brian didn't notice. His eyes were glued to a piece of ribbon on a beret a Beret with a lavender bow. It had seen better days.

"Her name was McKenzie. She was almost three years old."

"Oh No." she whispered "What happened?"

He crossed the sofa and sat down fingering the barrette. "I was working a kidnapping case with the bureau , a college girl named Gloria Michaels. She was Brandon's first murder."

Sarra went still.

"I was gone on Gloria's case for a month, During that time an old boyfriend of Lorra's showed up..Tony. He just split with his wife." He sighed. " Honest to god, there was nothing sexual going on, I know it wasn't like that. But Lorra was a nurse and Tony was an addict. Crack, Meth, Heroine. Lorra didn't tell me."

"She knew you would worry that is all."

"She knew I would bust that son of a bitch." He drew a deep breath. " I nailed a man named Anthony Russell for Gloria's murder. The wrong man, but I didn't know that then. I was headed home when he escaped. Lorra said she needed me but wouldn't tell me why. I told her to handle it herself until I finished with Russel."

"Did you find him?"

"Almost three weeks later, yeah. But by then Tony was over the edge. Blackouts, hallucination's. One night Lorra pulled some drugs from the shelves at hospital and went to get him. She thought she could help him come down. Kenzi was in the car seat asleep." A muscle worked in his jaw." Tony was scoring a deal when Lorra pulled up, and the drug dealer freaked. Started shooting."

Sarra could barely breath. Tears leaked from his eyes. "Kenzie never woke up. A stray bullet went through her chest." For a long moment he said nothing more. just sat with his right hand flexing and fisting. Sarra had seen him do that whenever something bothered him. She moved to her knees on the floor in front of him, taking the hand in hers.

Her touch seemed to pull him back. "I put it through a wall when they told me," he explained. "Got a couple of metal plates and screws holding it together now."

"Did you ever find him? The drug dealer?"

"Yes." The word was the chip of the ice. He pointed to the scar on his face. "That is when this happened."

"Is he...Dead?"

"No I wasn't alone. Stard damn her made sure a slew of federal agents went with me." The subtext was clear, If Brian was alone the outcome would have been different. "He has three more years on his sentence. Then he will be out."

"Oh, Brian. What about Lorra and___"

"Tony? He committed suicide. And Lorra ..... She never forgave me for not being there. A couple years later she bailed."

"And you?"

"I bailed to Columbia, China. Iraq. Anywhere they needed a gun with no conscience to hinder it. Fuck the world. It would be ok until my brother almost died." He met her eyes. "and I met you."

"I didn't mean to drag you into my problems," Sarra said honestly.

"Yeah you were pretty clear about that. But everything about you set me off. Beautiful secretive, independent. The mother of a little girl who might get dragged into someth__" He took a moment to regroup. :" I couldn't walk away."

So that is why he wanted to slay her dragons.

Sarra laid her cheek against his knees, and they sat there in silence. One of his hands stroked her hair, the other one held McKenzie's Barrette.

She climbed up onto the sofa and curled her knees beneath her keeping her hand in his. "Tell me about McKenzie." She said quietly.

And he did.