Part 14 (2/2)
”Well, h.e.l.lo Rainey. I can call you Rainey, can't I? Can't call you Agent Bell anymore. I hear you've left the Bureau.”
Rainey stepped back and took a seat at the table opposite Dalton. She smiled, saying, ”It's Agent Bell again. I got my credentials back, just so I can testify at the death penalty stage of your upcoming trial.”
”Well, tried and convicted in your mind already, is it? They have nothing on me, but what I told you after I made a deal. My lawyers tell me they'll have all that thrown out. I'll be back in Virginia within the year.”
Danny sat down. He spent the drive to the prison filling Rainey in on the details of the recent body find, and a bit of information that made Rainey ecstatic. He now repeated it for Dalton.
”I'm surprised your lawyers haven't told you why North Carolina is so interested in prosecuting you, now. Maybe they don't know, yet. They'll find out at the arraignment on the sixteenth, I guess. No harm in telling you now, though.” Danny paused to let Dalton sweat a bit. ”You weren't such a careful killer on that first one. We found DNA on the head, in the mouth to be exact. It was too little to test back then, but tests became available, making it possible to identify you positively as the killer. You're toast, Chambers.”
Dalton's reaction was typical of his previous behavior when caught. He turned his frustration on Rainey. He leaned forward, placing his cuffed hands on the table. ”I can see the top of the scar where he cut you. Were you scared, Agent Bell? Were you terrified? Do you dream about what happened? Do you scream at night when he comes for you?”
Rainey answered with no emotion, ”No, actually I have very little memory of the attack and he's dead. So no, I don't dream about him.”
”Yeah, I read about that, how your girlfriend stepped in to save your life.”
Rainey laughed. ”Don't believe everything you read in the paper, Dalton.”
Dalton smirked. ”But that stuff about you being a p.u.s.s.y licker, that's true, isn't it?”
He was trying to make Rainey lash out at him. His whole game was to try and shock her into losing her cool. She didn't take the bait. She leaned in closer and whispered, ”Is that why you're so obsessed with me, cause I'm getting some p.u.s.s.y and you're not?” She ran the tip of her tongue across her upper lip.
Dalton had not expected that response. It startled him. This was a different Rainey Bell than he had dealt with before. The Y-man a.s.sault had affected her, but not in the way he wanted. He sat back away from her and turned his attention to Danny, while Rainey was sure he was plotting his next attempt to break her. ”You tossed my cell yesterday and got me put in isolation. What else can I do for you, today?”
Danny answered, ”I want to know who you've been talking to. We have your Virginia lawyer in custody. After spending the night in jail, she should be spilling her guts, about now. She'll bargain a deal with anything we want to know, or go to prison herself for slipping you those newspaper articles.”
”I have a right to read the paper,” Dalton shot back.
”Yes, you do, but within the limits set by the court, which specifically stated that you could not possess any information of a personal nature concerning the law enforcement officers who investigated you. Once you threatened Agent Bell here, you lost your right to have that information.”
”I don't have to tell you who I have been corresponding with.”
Danny shook his head in disagreement. ”You really don't get it. You're a felon. You don't have many rights left. The prison, however, does have the right to know who you talk to. You need to have your lawyers explain that to you.”
Dalton ignored Danny, refocusing on Rainey. ”Before they moved me in here, I heard they found a body. They say it's my copycat. Did they find the head, yet?”
Rainey knew Dalton did not have the details of the crime. He was arrogant enough to believe his copycat would have followed his instructions to the letter. She returned his volley.
”As a matter of fact, we did. Seems the master doesn't have total control of his puppet. He couldn't leave her tied to a tree. He covered her with plastic and threw her in the river, head and all. ”
Dalton sneered at her. ”Why do you think he's killing lesbians?”
She ignored his question. She looked over at Danny. ”I don't think this guy is copying Dalton at all, too many dissimilarities. It's obvious he's communicated with Messiah here, but this UNSUB covered the victims eyes.”
Dalton's whole motive for his crimes was seeing the terror in his victims. Rainey just ruined Dalton's fantasies. He could no longer sit in his cell and daydream about his copycat's crimes. She put the image of the blindfolded victim in his mind, even if it wasn't true. Dalton would never know, at least, until they had caught the other killer. He was isolated and the only information he could get was from the investigators that came to see him. Rainey used that to her advantage.
”And there was that other glaring difference...” She paused and watched Dalton lean forward a little. He was predictably intrigued. ”This UNSUB doesn't seem to have Dalton's taste for playing with the body after death. No evidence this guy even got much blood on him. He never touched her after she died. Doesn't have the stomach for Dalton's real depravities.”
Dalton reacted by going on the attack. ”One less d.y.k.e in the world. No great loss. Or is that two? There is another perverted c.u.n.t missing. He must be ridding the world of abominations like you. I'll pray for your soul, Agent Bell.”
Rainey sneered back at him. ”And what, pray tell, does the good book say about men who get off having s.e.x with dead bodies?”
Danny jumped in the conversation. ”We can prove that you and only you could have told your boy on the outside some of the aspects of your crimes. Conspiracy to commit murder, I think that's a death penalty charge in this state, isn't it? For a guy who thinks he's so smart, that was a stupid a.s.s thing to do.”
Dalton laughed loudly. ”You have no clue who committed this murder, and without the killer being caught, you'll never prove a thing.”
”What makes you think we won't catch him?” Danny asked.
”Because, you're here asking me who it is. Agent Bell came to talk me into giving the killer up. No chance of that happening. I'd rather take the needle and know this d.y.k.e is looking over her shoulder every minute.”
Rainey slammed her hand down on the table to get his attention. ”Look at me, you piece of s.h.i.+t. The only thing I'm looking over is the sight of my gun. When I find your little boyfriend he'll talk or he'll die, it's that simple.”
Dalton's head snapped back to focus on Rainey, his facial expression one of pure hatred. When he spoke, his words were pure venom. ”When the time comes, I've given special instructions on what to do with you. Still out at your dead father's lake cottage, I understand. Shouldn't be hard to get to you out there. This one's going to practice on the little blonde first.”
The words. .h.i.t their mark, but Rainey did not show any reaction to Dalton. Instead, she said, ”I hope he's ready to die then, because that little blonde is prepared and willing to put a bullet in him.”
”She'll never see it coming,” he paused, leaning forward again, smiling with evil intent, ”and neither will you. I wish I could be there to see the surprise on your face.”
Rainey kicked Dalton's leg, where she splintered his bone with a bullet four years ago. He screamed in pain. She smiled wickedly. ”Oh, I'm sorry. Is that where I shot you? That scar tissue builds up in there and hurts like h.e.l.l, doesn't it?”
Dalton glared at her. ”You b.i.t.c.h. If you came here to make a deal, so I would tell you who the killer is, then you just f.u.c.ked that up. When your pretty head comes off, I want your last thoughts to be of me. I told you I would get you, Rainey Bell, and now the time has come.”
Rainey let loose with a fury. ”Deal? Who said anything about a deal? I would rather die knowing you're on death row than make a deal with you. That's what this is all about. You thought you could threaten me with one of your sick puppets and make a deal to give him up, so you could avoid the needle. We both know you get no satisfaction from these murders. You can't get off without a dead body to abuse, you f.u.c.king twisted freak. ”
”You won't live long enough to testify,” Dalton hissed Danny had remained silent until now. ”Come on, let's go. We're not going to get anything out of this guy we don't already know.”
Rainey wasn't finished. ”You better hope I die before I get to tell the world about all your perversions. I hope your momma will be there. I want her to know just what kind of inhuman animal she raised.”
That got under Dalton's wall of psychopathology. He may not feel remorse, but he didn't want his momma to know the level of depravity he had stooped to. Rainey knew that from her previous interviews. Dalton's face flushed red.
”She won't believe a word of what you say. My mother will know you for the wh.o.r.e you are. She will know your sin of lying with a woman. G.o.d knows it, too. You and me, we're going to fry in h.e.l.l together for eternity and that gives me great peace, that and knowing you will die with your precious Katie Meyers' head on a stake in front of you. Oh, darn, I let part of the plan out of the bag. I so wanted that to be a surprise.”
Rainey stood up to leave. Danny was right. They had all they were going to get out of Dalton. If she stayed in the room much longer, she'd be up on charges for a.s.saulting a prisoner in chains. She knew he wasn't going to tell her anything before she arrived. She just wanted to show him that she wasn't sitting at home, in fear for her life.
She had one more thing to say before she left. ”I promised you I would be at your execution, but I'm going to take that back.” She placed her hands on the table and leaned in to within an inch of Dalton's nose. Very softly, so no one else could hear, she said, ”If anything happens to Katie, I will come back here and kill you myself. Don't be afraid of G.o.d's punishment. Be afraid of me.”
He lunged for her, but the guard with the box in his hand was faster. Dalton let out a roar, when his body went rigid. He fell off the stainless steel stool and landed on the floor. Rainey squatted down beside him.
”You picked the wrong person to f.u.c.k with. See, I've already faced death. It doesn't scare me. You, on the other hand, are scared out of your mind of the h.e.l.l fire you will roast in. That, Dalton, gives me great peace.”
On the way to Durham, after leaving the prison, they stopped to feed Rainey's hangover and grab a c.o.ke at a drive thru. Once back on the road, Danny started laughing unexpectedly.
Rainey looked over at him and asked, ”What's so funny?”
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