The Third Victim Part 79

"G.o.ddammit." She dropped the handgun to his kneecap, and when he took another step toward her, she fired.

And the automatic weapon uttered a hollow little click.

Richard laughed. He picked up her mother's shotgun, holding it loosely in his arms.

"Keeping a gun in a shoe box in your closet? You don't even make my life that difficult."

Rainie was still staring at her Beretta.

"How? I just cleaned it, loaded it.. ."

"The firing pin. Filed it down a fraction of an inch, just enough so it can't hit the firing cap. That was the night you woke up, but I was already outside by then." He held up the shotgun to her gaze.

"You removed the firing pin. I know, I checked. Take it from me too obvious. Never do a lot, Lorraine, if just a little will get you by.

It's grand deceptions that always come back to haunt you."

"I wouldn't be polishing up your lectures just yet," Rainie countered.

She let the 9 mm fall from her fingers, then eased back, trying to give

herself more time for her nextmove. Her ankle holster. She'd kept the .22 locked in a box in the trunk of her police cruiser. She couldn't believe he'd been able to get to that.

"You're not doing too well this time. The clean shot to the forehead for Melissa Avalon ' "Have done it three times now. Always the information teacher, always a single shot to the forehead. No one's ever put the pieces together. Once a ma.s.s murderer is in custody, who starts comparing his work to other homicides? Ask your friend Quincy.

Shooting rampages are considered one-off crimes."

"But we knew you were involved ' "Please, the sabot was a calling card.

Sooner or later I needed someone to pay attention in order to have any fun. For G.o.d's sake, I gave you No Lava. I even invited you to personally visit my office so you could stare at the window I used to exit the building and rendezvous with Danny outside. You could've at least considered the possibility."

"We did. It seemed farfetched."

"Yes, well, cops have singularly linear minds," Richard conceded with a shrug.

"It's where you go wrong. Violence is a creative act. It requires patience and care. I've been nursing Danny O'grady along for over a year, you know. Slowly making him feel comfortable on-line. Letting him know his feelings of rage and inadequacy are common and acceptable.

Then it was easy. Met him in person. Showed him I'm a legitimate guy his own school counselor, in fact. How can you doubt what the school counselor is telling you?

"You need to stand up for yourself, Danny. Show everyone, including your father, who's boss."

"Of course, I never mentioned Melissa Avalon. I left that as a last-minute surprise. He just had to bring the guns and his backbone; I'd help him take a stand. When we walked into the side entrance of the school, the boy was shaking like a leaf. But you should've seen the look of determination on his face. Man, I was proud. Ironically enough, I kind of felt like a father. And then I walked into the computer lab and drew down on pretty Melissa Avalon." Richard's voice lowered. He leaned forward conspiratorially.

"The trick is to hesitate," he confided.

"Let the kid apprise the situation. Let him understand he has the chance to intervene. And then, while he's still shocked and dazed and trying to find his conscience, Bam! Pull the trigger. Down goes the precious little teacher. And the kid is all yours. He didn't stand up for good. Now he's gotta be evil. I told the boy to let it rip, and he bawled like a baby, but he didn't disappoint. Not bad shooting, really, considering he was too frightened to leave the doorway of the computer room. Shep might be a decent teacher after all at least when it comes to guns."

Mann rocked back on his heels. He sighed and finished up contentedly, "Danny killed himself two little girls. And as soon as everyone left the building in a wave of ma.s.s confusion, I calmly exited stage right.

Piece of cake, just like the times before."

"Not quite. Becky saw you."

Mann merely shrugged.

"Guess she tried to play hero and find her brother. Bad break for her, when she ran down the hall and discovered her own brother and school counselor holding the proverbial smoking guns. But not so bad for me.

I simply threatened to kill Danny if Becky talked, and threatened to kill Becky if Danny talked. Voila. If people would raise children who were more callous, my job might actually be difficult. Without a guilty conscience, of course, there is very little to manipulate."

"And is that why you created Dave Duncan, some stranger running around Seaside? More need to manipulate?"

Mann smiled wolfishly.

"Come on, Rainie. A murder has been committed what do the brilliant cops do? They line up the locals. Now before, that was my whole advantage. I had no apparent ties to what happened, so no one ever thought to even question me. But that got boring. This time I became a local quite nicely, if I do say so myself. But now I will be subject to questioning, and I kind of stole an ident.i.ty, which might come up if somebody pushes too hard. How to cover? I know. I'll create some out-of-town stranger for you to chase. Clever and ironic. Someday I'm

gonna have to write a book.""Not to burst your bubble, Richard, but if you're so good, why do I know you're the shooter? And Danny's admitted that you are. For that matter, I've already called and left messages for the others about you. Face it, the jig is up." Rainie was lying about having left messages for Sanders and Luke, but Mann didn't seem to care.

"They aren't coming, Lorraine. Don't you understand that yet? Your hero Quincy is rushing into the arms of his ex-wife. And your friends Detective Sanders and Officer Hayes are dealing with another shooting across town. Or didn't you hear? It seems that someone sent Daniel Avalon a copy of a private tape his daughter made of her and her new lover, in flagrante delicto. I guess it was a little much for Mr.

Avalon. He looked up good old Princ.i.p.al VanderZanden. He brought his favorite shotgun." Richard covered his lips delicately.

"Oops. It's just you and me, Lorraine. Let's talk."

"Why? You had your fun. What do I have to do with anything?"

"Tell me how it felt that afternoon. Tell me how much you enjoyed killing the man who shot your mother."

"Go to h.e.l.l."

"It felt great, didn't it? You don't like to admit it, but it gave you a secret thrill. And you like to relive it, don't you, Lorraine? Every time you step onto your back deck. Every time you raise your beer in a silent toast to the man you blew away."

"Richard, I changed my mind." Rainie sat down on a nearby bench. She watched him still.

"I will tell you what I say each time I dump out a beer."

"What?" He was honestly breathless.

"I toast my mother." Her fingers trailed down to her ankle.

"You tell her off? You send her a giant, postmortem f.u.c.k you? Oh, I like that. I do the same thing once a year."

"No." Her hand closed around the small handle of her gun.

"I don't tell her, f.u.c.k you. She tried to stop him, you a.s.shole. She was slow to believe, but she finally told him a few choice words. And then he blew off her head. So no, I don't tell her, f.u.c.k you. I tell her I'm sorry. I tell her I should've killed him sooner. And then I tell him I hope it's hot enough down there in h.e.l.l." She whipped out her .22.. "Bye-bye, Richard."

"Too late, Rainie. Danny's right behind you." Rainie heard a board creak. She turned reflexively, saw Danny's shocked, pale face. Too late she realized her mistake. She tried to turn back around. She squeezed off one wild, desperate shot. Then Richard savagely slammed her mother's shotgun into the side of her head.

Richard stepped forward quickly. He leveled the unfirable shotgun at Danny and said, "Gimme the gun."

Danny looked at Rainie's crumpled form. The boy handed over his firearm.

Richard smiled. Like candy from a baby. He tucked the gun in the back waistband of his jeans and left Rainie's shotgun on the deck.

"Your daddy sprung you, didn't he?"

The boy didn't say a word. He simply gazed hungrily at Richard's gun.