When Joe came to, it took a few moments for him to register where he was. He had a sharp throbbing pain in his head and he couldn't seem to remember what had happened to him. He slowly looked around and realized that he was lying on the floor of Nancy's kitchen.
How did I get here? he wondered.
And then it came to him–he had been getting something to drink when he was hit from behind. He touched the back of his head and felt a golf ball sized lump.
A stab of terror went through Joe's body as he had a sudden thought: Nancy!
Joe got up from the floor quickly, ignoring the pain in his head. He then hurried into the living room, searching for Nancy.
"Nancy!" he called. He kept calling her name and searching every room in the house but could find no sign of her.
Don't panic, he kept telling himself–which was easier said than done. Frank would kill him if he knew he had let something happen to Nancy. Joe's worries were interrupted by a pounding on the door, which caused his head to throb even more.
Joe walked to the door and opened it to find B.D. with a worried look on his face.
"What happened?" they both asked at the same time.
"You first," Joe said, letting him in the house.
"Is Frank here?" B.D. asked.
"No, why?" Joe asked.
"He never showed up at the station. I've been calling his phone but there's been no answer," B.D. explained.
Joe felt the blood drain from his face.
"How long ago was he supposed to be there?" Joe asked.
"Thirty minutes ago," B.D. answered. He looked behind Joe. "Where's Nancy?"
"She's not here," Joe answered timidly.
"What do you mean?" B.D. asked. "Where is she?"
Joe shrugged. "I don't know," he answered. "I think she may have been taken."
"What?" B.D. exploded. "You were supposed to be looking after her!"
"I was!" Joe shouted. "And what about you? Someone should have been watching after my brother!"
"Your brother knew the risks!" B.D. said. "He never asked for any help!"
Joe was about to say something else, but couldn't. They wouldn't get anywhere if they stood here all day accusing each other.
B.D. pulled out his cell phone and dialed. "I need a unit at 1013 River Drive–pronto." He hung up the phone and turned to Joe. "Tell me what happened."
"Let me sit down," Joe said. "My head is killing me."
They both sat down in the living room and B.D. listened intently as Joe told him what had happened.
"It was right after Frank called us. Nancy got off the phone with him and went upstairs to take a shower. I was down here watching TV and I went into the kitchen to get a drink. Before I knew it, I heard a noise behind me and someone hit me from behind. I never even had time to shout out to Nancy,"Joe explained.
B.D. shook his head sadly. "Frank called me and told me to run the picture through the database. As soon as he got off the phone the killer must have snatched him. That means he has the both of them now."
"Actually he has three of them," Joe corrected. "He has Ned, too."
"Unless he's already killed Ned," B.D. said almost to himself.
"Do you really think that?" Joe asked.
"I don't know," B.D. answered. "But why would he keep Ned around?"
Joe and B.D. looked at each other, neither wanting to fathom the answer.
"Did you get anything out of the database?" Joe asked.
"We got a hit," B.D. said, pulling out a sheet of paper from his pocket. "Arrested a couple of years ago for DUI."
Joe took the paper from B.D. and unfolded it. "Dominic Shepard," Joe said. "Does he live in River Heights?"
"If he does, we haven't been able to find it yet," B.D. said. "Did he say anything to you before he attacked you? Something that may help us find the others?"
Joe thought and was about to shake his head when he thought of something. "He said it was time for the final act," Joe said. "But it could have just been mutterings of a madman."
"But it may also be something," B.D. said. "You ought to know that oftentimes killers slip up and let out something that may be damaging to them and useful to us."
Joe thought for a second and a thought hit him. He felt stupid for not thinking about it before. "Frank's phone," he said.
B.D. looked at him confused. "What about it?"
"There's a GPS chip in it," Joe said, perking up. "If we find out where the phone is, we find them."
"Why would Frank's phone have a GPS chip in it?" B.D. asked.
"We do some side work for the government sometimes," Joe explained.
"What if the killer got rid of the phone?" B.D. asked.
"That negative thinking will pull you down," Joe said. "Be optimistic."
"It's getting hard to be that right now," B.D. commented as another police unit pulled up.
Joe reached for the portable phone and dialed a number. "I'll call my dad and we'll get the chip activated. With luck, we'll know where they are in no time."
B.D. silently crossed his fingers and walked to the door. "You work on that, but I have another angle I can work on."
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When Nancy woke up, she was sitting up in a chair and it was completely dark. She felt nauseous from the chloroform and she was having a hard time getting her bearings. She tried to move her arms, but found that they were tied tightly behind her.
She tried to remember what had happened and it came to her in an instant: she had found Joe unconscious in the kitchen and then she had been attacked. And she didn't have to guess who had attacked her. Well, he had told her that he would be back for her.
Looks like he kept his promise, she thought ruefully.
Clapping sounded from somewhere in the room and Nancy jerked her head up, not sure where to look. She didn't want to panic, but she had to admit that it was hard when she was in a room that was enveloped in pure darkness. But the darkness quickly went away when a light came on directly above her. She turned her head away and closed her eyes, begging for the darkness to come back.
When she finally became accustomed to sudden brightness, she looked around to see that she was on a stage with her back towards the seats. But another sight took her breath away; everywhere she looked, there were pictures of her and the victims he had gone after.
"What do you think, Katie?" a man's voice asked.
Nancy looked at the left wing and saw a face that she recognized immediately–it was the man from the book signing. And she saw that he was dressed in a tuxedo. She immediately tried to loosen the rope around her hands.
"You won't be able to get out of those ropes. I learned quite a few things about knots in the Boy Scouts. Why aren't you answering me, Katie?" he asked. He waved his arm around, indicating the whole theater. "Don't you like this place?"
Nancy inwardly sighed when she realized that he was right–every time she struggled with the ropes, they seemed to get tighter. And she wasn't sure how she should answer his question. She didn't want to make him angry, but she also didn't want to flatter him. She decided she would go with the simplest answer. "It's nice."
The man smiled at her. "I thought you would like it. That's why I picked it out."
"Will you answer something for me?" Nancy asked.
The man seemed to consider for a moment. "Maybe," he said, finally answering.
Well, that's better than nothing, Nancy thought. "Why do you keep calling me Katie?"
He started to chuckle. "It's your name, silly."
Nancy slowly shook her head. "My name is Nancy."
"That's what they call you," he said. He dropped his voice to a stage whisper "But I know your name is Katie."
"Who are they?" Nancy asked.
"The detectives and your friends," he answered.
"Are you going to tell me your name?" Nancy asked.
"Dominic," he said softly. "But everyone calls me Dom."
Nancy felt a shiver go through her body. "Why are you in a tuxedo?"
Dom smiled. "You're about to give your final performance. I wanted to look perfect for you and the grand finale."
"How long have you been taking pictures of me?" she asked.
"Just a couple of weeks," Dom answered. "You happen to be very photogenic, Katie."
Nancy ignored that and plunged ahead with questions. He thought she was just going to allow him to kill her, but he had another thing coming. "Why have you been killing innocent people, Dom?"
Dom took a slow step towards her and she forced herself to remain calm. "What makes you think they were innocent?"
"What did they do to deserve to be murdered?" Nancy asked.
"You would probably think it was nothing," Dom said, walking behind her "But they all have their reasons." He leaned down so he could talk softly into her ear. "Just like you have your reasons, Katie."
Nancy swallowed hard and tried not to show any fear.
"I killed Ann just to do it. I mean, after all...she did give me some great material," Dom said standing up straight. "I wanted to see how many people her death would affect and apparently it was a great deal. And there were some things in her book I didn't agree with–mostly the ending."
Nancy knew exactly what he was talking about. He didn't think the heroine should have lived and he was about to fix that.
"Why did you pick me to go after?" Nancy asked.
Dom shrugged. "I saw you at the book signing. Now keep in mind, I've been planning these murders for a long time. When I saw you talking with Ann, everything just seemed to fall into place. It was almost as if you had been there just for me. And on top of that, I realized you had a lot of connections in River Heights. You needed to suffer, Katie."
"What about Brenda?" Nancy asked. "If you had done your homework, you would know we didn't get along very well."
Dom seemed to think about that. "I did it as a favor for you," he said.
"A favor?" Nancy repeated, horrified.
"I could see how upset she always made you," Dom explained. "I didn't like that."
"And that justifies you killing her?" Nancy asked, appalled.
Dom knelt in front of her and grabbed her face to make her look at him. "I did it all for you! Don't you understand, Katie? Everything that I have done has been for you!"
Nancy tried to pull her face away, wanting desperately to get away from him. She could see that she had pushed him too far that time. But he continued to hold onto her.
"Why are you making me angry, Katie?" Dom asked. "You know what happened the last time you upset me."
Nancy decided she would go for it. "Thanks to you, I'll have the scar to remind me."
Dom let go of her and slapped her hard across her face. "Don't worry, Katie. When I'm done with you, the scar will be the last of your worries," he said, menacingly.
Nancy coughed, tasting blood in her mouth. She felt the right side of her face throbbing and her head was starting to pound even more.
But she now had something she could use against him. He didn't seem to like it when she was disgusted with him. Maybe she could push him far enough where he would make a mistake and she could get away.
He pulled something from his pocket and Nancy recognized it immediately. It was the picture of her and Ned that went missing from her house. "You were with me the whole time, Katie. You helped me kill them all."
Nancy felt sick to her stomach. She really was worried with how delusional he was. Well, it was time to drop him down a level. "There's something you should know, Dom."
"What's that?" Dom asked, amused.
"The last girl you went after–she's not dead," Nancy said, watching his reaction.
Dom's eyes widened. "What are you talking about? Of course, she's dead."
"Then how do you explain the fact that she's in the hospital right now, talking to the police?" Nancy asked.
"That's why you were in the hospital," Dom commented, as if he had an epiphany.
"So you were following me," Nancy said.
"I had to know what you were doing," Dom said. Then he shrugged. "I guess I'll have to take care of her when I'm done with you."
"The police will know who you are by then," Nancy said.
"I'm not too worried about them," Dom said. "If they had managed to do their job so far, you wouldn't be here with me right now."
Nancy couldn't think of how to respond to that. He seemed to know he had her at a loss of words.
"I'm surprised you haven't asked about your boyfriends," Dom commented.
"Boyfriends?" Nancy asked. "What are you talking about?"
"That's right," Dom said, smiling. "You think I only have Ned, but I have the other one as well."
Nancy looked at him confused. What in the world was he talking about?
Dom walked to the back of the stage and pulled on some rope. The curtains in the back moved back to reveal Ned and Frank both tied to chairs and apparently unconscious. Nancy looked at him with horror all over her face.
"No," she whispered.
Dom gave her a chilling smile. "I thought you would like that."
"What do you want with them?" Nancy yelled. "This is between you and me."
"You're right, it is between the two of us," Dom said. "But I want you to suffer one last time as final blow to you before you die, Katie."
Nancy could feel her heart pounding loudly in her chest. It was bad enough that he wanted to kill her, but he wanted to get rid of Frank and Ned as well. Her eyes flickered over to them as they started to stir in their chairs.
"Oh, good," Dom said, gleefully. "They're starting to wake up."
"Why?" Nancy asked.
Dom smirked at her. "Why not?"
Nancy looked back over at the boys as they seemed to realize where they were. They both looked at Nancy tied up across the stage from them. They immediately started to struggle in their chairs.
"Nancy, what's going on?" Frank asked.
"Are you okay?" Ned asked.
"Her name is Katie!" Dom yelled at them.
Nancy flinched and nodded her head slowly. She looked up as Dom walked towards her.
"You don't even notice the two of them vying for your attention," Dom said, looking at the boys. "It's really sad, Katie. You don't know how many women would love to have even one man look at them the way they look at you."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Nancy said. She glanced at Frank to see him barely nodding his head at her. He wiggled his arms around, telling her that he was trying to get free.
"Really?" Dom asked. He turned around to look at Nancy again. "Why don't you ask them?"
"I'm not asking them that," Nancy said.
"Because you know I'm right," Dom said simply. He started to caress her cheek, and Nancy didn't fight him. She needed to try to keep his attention focused on her. "But I don't like that because, sweet Katie, you belong to me."
Nancy glanced at Frank and Ned and they looked at Dom as if he was out of his mind. Dom just smiled at Nancy and said, "I'll make it very simple for you, Katie."
"How's that?" Nancy asked, suddenly worried.
"Well, just to show you that I have a tiny bit of humanity left in me, I'm going to let you make a choice," Dom said.
"I don't see what kind of choice I have if you're going to kill us anyway," Nancy said.
Dom smiled at her coldly and walked behind her. "I'll let you choose who lives and who dies: Ned or Frank."
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Author's Note: I didn't know how the whole GPS thing worked so I had to guess! Let me know what you think!