“Speaking of the gun, how was that going to be explained? You know, that I flew to Vegas but then somehow had my gun and killed myself with it? Seems like a flaw in the plan, doesn’t it?”
He outright laughed this time.
“Jack, you are not in possession of all the facts yet, are you? When you are, then you will understand how flawless the plan was. My one mistake was the girl in the room. I didn’t see that coming.”
Neither did I but I wasn’t saying so.
“Then I guess it wasn’t so flawless, was it?”
“I can make up for it.”
“Look, I’m having a busy day here. Why are you calling me?”
“I told you, to see how you are. To make your acquaintance. We’re now going to be linked forever, aren’t we?”
“Well, while I’ve got you on the line, can I ask you a few questions for the story we’re putting together?”
“I don’t think so, Jack. This is between you and me, not your readers.”
“You know, you’re right. The truth is, I wouldn’t give you the space. You think I’m going to let you try to explain your sick fucking world in my newspaper?”
A dark silence followed.
“You,” he finally said, his voice tight with anger. “You should respect me.”
Now I laughed.
“Respect you? How about, Fuck you. You took a young girl who had nothing but—”
He interrupted me by making a noise like a muffled cough.
“Did you hear that, Jack? Do you know what that was?”
I didn’t respond and then he made the sound again. Muffled, one syllable, quick. Then he did it a third time.
“Okay, I give up,” I said.
“That was her, saying your name through plastic when there was no air left.”
He laughed. I said nothing.
“You know what I tell them, Jack? I say, ‘Breathe deep and it will all be over a lot faster.’ ”
He laughed again, long and hard, and made sure I heard it all before abruptly hanging up. I sat there for a long time with the phone still pressed against my ear.
“Sssst.”
I looked up. It was Larry Bernard looking over the sound wall of my cubicle. He thought I was still on the line.
“How much longer?” he whispered.
I took the phone from my ear and covered the mouthpiece with my palm.
“A few more minutes. I’ll come right back in.”
“Okay. I’m going to go take a leak.”
He left me then and I immediately called Rachel. The call was answered after four rings.
“Jack, I can’t talk,” she said by way of a greeting.
“You would’ve won the bet.”
“What bet?”
“He just called me. The Unsub. He has Angela’s cell phone.”
“What did he say?”
“Not a lot. I think he was trying to find out who you are.”
“What do you mean? How would he know about me?”
“He doesn’t. He was trying to find out who the woman in the room back in Ely was. You spoiled everything by being there and he’s curious.”
“Look, Jack, whatever he said, you can’t quote him in the paper. That sort of thing feeds the fire. If he gets hooked on headlines, then he’s going to speed up his cycle. He could start killing for headlines.”
“Don’t worry. Nobody here knows he called me and I’m not writing the story, so he’s not going in it. I’ll save it for when I do write the story. I’ll save it for the book.”
It was the first time I had mentioned the possibility of getting a book out of this. But now it seemed entirely plausible. One way or another I was going to write this story.
“Did you record it?” Rachel asked.
“No, because I wasn’t expecting it.”
“We need to get your phone. We’ll be able to ping the call and get the originating tower. It will get us close to where he’s at. At least where he was when he made the call.”
“It sounded like he was someplace where he had to speak quietly or it would attract attention. Like an office or something. He also made one slip.”
“What was that?”
“I tried to bait him, to get him mad, and—”
“Jack, are you crazy? What are you doing?”
“I didn’t want to be intimidated by him. So I went after him, only he thought I was working off a script given to me by you guys. He thought I was intentionally baiting him into coming after me. That’s when he slipped. He said I was baiting him into coming to L.A. That’s how he said it. Coming to L.A. So he’s somewhere outside of L.A.”
“That’s good, Jack. But he could have been playing you. Intentionally saying that because he actually is in L.A. That’s why I wish it was taped. So we could have it analyzed.”
I hadn’t thought of the reverse play.
“Well, sorry, no tape. There’s one other thing, too.”
“What is it?”
She seemed so short and to the point, I wondered if our conversation was being listened to.
“He’s either still hacking into the computer system over here or he left some kind of spy program on it.”
“At the Times? Why do you say that?”
“He knew about the story budget for tomorrow. He knew I wasn’t writing any of the stories.”
“That sounds like something we might be able to trace,” she said excitedly.
“Yeah, well, good luck getting the Times to cooperate. And besides, if this guy’s as smart as you’re saying, he knows what he just told me and he knows the bug he planted is either untraceable or he’ll just shut it down and zip it up.”
“It’s still worth a try. I will get somebody in our media office to make an approach to the Times. It’s worth the shot.”
I nodded.
“You never know. It could usher in a whole new era of media and law enforcement cooperation. Sort of like you and me, Rachel, but bigger.”
I smiled and hoped she was smiling too.
“You are such an optimist, Jack. Speaking of cooperation, can I send somebody over for your phone now?”
“Yes, but what about sending yourself?”
“I can’t. I’m in the middle of something here. I told you.”
I didn’t know how to read that.
“Are you in trouble, Rachel?”
“I don’t know yet, but I have to go.”
“Well, are you on the task force? Are they letting you work the case?”
“For now, yes.”
“Okay, well, that’s good.”
“Yes.”
We made arrangements for me to meet the agent she would send for the phone outside the door of the globe lobby in a half hour. It was then time for both of us to go back to work.
“Hang in there, Rachel,” I said.
She was silent for a moment and then said, “You too, Jack.”
We hung up then. And somehow, with all that had transpired in the last thirty-six hours, with what had happened to Angela and my having just been threatened by a serial killer, a part of me felt happy and hopeful.
I had a feeling, though, that it wasn’t going to last.