Nowhere to Run (Stephanie Carovella) Read online

  Seeing the steely determination in her amber-brown eyes, he reluctantly agreed. “You might want to sit down first.”

  She sat down on the velvet red loveseat, patting the seat for him to join her. He sat down next to her, unsure of where to begin.

  “You know Angel had her fair share of stalkers,” he said.

  Stephanie nodded, sighing heavily. “It was part of the job. All the freaks came out to play.”

  Jesse half-smiled at her choice of words. “Yeah, and then some but she had one she just couldn’t shake. She didn’t know who he was – whether he was a client or someone who had taken more than a passing fancy to her. But he had her running scared.

  At first, she didn’t think too much of it, at least not until Mystique went missing.”

  “Mystique?” Stephanie interrupted.

  “This god damn kitten Ben and I bought her for her last birthday. It was nothing more than a fur ball,” Jesse’s voice was choked. “It used to follow me around the house. I was always tripping over it. It annoyed the hell out of me.”

  ”What’s this got to do with her stalker?” Stephanie asked cautiously, certain she wasn’t going to like his answer.

  “Angel was frantic. She loved that kitten to pieces. When it went missing, she was completely devastated. She even put up posters everywhere and offered a reward in the hope someone would find Mystique.”

  “You didn’t find her?”

  Jesse clasped his hands together, refusing to look at Stephanie. When he finally raised his eyes to meet her gaze, pain was etched in them.

  “One morning, about a week after Mystique went missing, Angel opened up her front door to find Mystique on the doorstep, dead. Her little neck had been broken. The sick bastard positioned her on the doorstep.”

  “Just like cats do with mice,” Stephanie murmured, smiling coldly at the twisted irony.

  “What?” Jesse asked distractedly.

  “Cats do this with mice. They dump their prey at the feet of their owners. They seek gratification for their gifts. Maybe this stalker was doing the same with Angel, and got angry when she didn’t react the way he wanted.”

  Ignoring Jesse, she stood up and began to unconsciously pace the room, speaking her thoughts aloud.

  “He wanted her attention. He wanted gratification for his gift, and Angel didn’t give it to him so he killed her.”

  Breaking her train of thought, she noticed Jesse’s horrified expression. Quickly she added, “Still, it’s wrong. How could anyone do that to a small defenseless kitten?”

  “The very same person, who would rape and murder Angeline,” Jesse answered harshly, his breathing uneven.

  He watched Stephanie return to the loveseat before he stood and began his own agitated pace of the room. “Angel really freaked out. She took a leave of absence from work, and skipped the country. She went to London to see Colin, and just tried to forget everything.”

  “Colin?” Stephanie said. “I don’t think I know about him.”

  “Colin Masters.” He spat out, distaste sliding across his face.

  “The actor?” Stephanie said, unable to hide her surprise. “She dated Colin Masters? Damn, I can’t believe she didn’t tell me about him.” She grinned widely. “She always did like the bad boys.”

  “You two were probably fighting at the time.” Jesse said, absentmindedly running his hand along the back of the loveseat.

  He paused, flashing Stephanie a grin of his own. “Besides, I wouldn’t use the term dating.”

  “Oh, it was like that huh?” Stephanie said, shaking her head. She never understood how Angel went through men like others went through tissues.

  “By the time you were best friends again, he was out of the picture and she’d started seeing the ex-cop.”

  “Jase Devlin?” Stephanie asked quietly.

  “I guess Angel told you about him then,” Jesse said with a snort.

  Stephanie nodded, unable to hide her smirk. “Jase I have heard about.”

  Jesse scowled at her comment. “She went to London, thinking she could get away from her stalker but somehow he tracked her down. He found her and started sending notes to her hotel room. Then he began calling her.”

  “Calling her?”

  “Yeah, heavy breathing and hang ups.”

  Stephanie shook her head in disgust. “Sweet Jesus, she was fucking an actor. Let’s face it she couldn’t have been an easier target.”

  “You don’t know that, Stephanie,” Jesse admonished.

  Stephanie interrupted him. “Jesse, she was fucking one of the biggest names in Hollywood. Of course it would have been easy to find her. Knowing Angel, she reveled in the attention and niceties that came with sleeping with Masters. She probably went to all the red carpet events, and premieres. Hell, she might as well have painted a bull’s eye on herself,” she said in exasperation, running a hand through her fiery red hair.

  “Besides, “She continued meaningfully, “Even if she’d stayed out of the spotlight, she wouldn’t have been hard to find. It’s not hard to find someone if you really want to. Everybody leaves some kind of paper trail.”

  “Babe, I’m more than just a little freaked out by your knowledge of this psychopath’s mind,” Jesse tried to joke, shaking his head.

  Stephanie ignored him, asking impatiently, “What happened between Masters and Angel?”

  Jesse shrugged, sitting down beside her again. “They just ended. Like you said, maybe she realized seeing him made her a target. Anyway, after this freak started sending notes to her hotel room, she high-tailed it back to L.A and tried to live her life as if nothing was wrong, but she couldn’t live alone, so moved in with Dominic. After he died, well...you know how she fell apart.”

  Stephanie was silent, tracing her finger around the rim of her coffee cup. “We all did. Some of us were just better at hiding it than others,” she said quietly.

  Jesse took her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers. “I know it was tough for you too. And, I know how tough it is for you to be back here again, with all your memories.”

  She silently shrugged. “My memories stay with me no matter where I am,” she said with a half smile. Looking down at their intertwined fingers, she added, “Besides, you needed me.”

  Gently removing her hand from his, she wrapped both hands around her coffee cup. “I know she moved in with Ben after Dominic died, and well after...”

  “She tried to kill herself?” Jesse said bluntly, arching an eyebrow. “I didn’t think you knew about that.”

  “It was after she tried to kill herself that I realized she was going through her own hell and all the arguing and the accusations thrown about weren’t going to bring Dominic back.”

  Nodding, he kept his expression void of any of the surprise he felt in her openly admitting to the pain she’d felt at Dominic’s dying. Up until now, Stephanie had closely guarded her emotions, refusing to let anyone close enough to share her pain.

  Clearing his throat, he quickly added, “After this she moved in with Ben, but this animal broke in. He left semen all over Angel’s bed. He made a real mess.”

  “Semen? I didn’t know about this. Did Gena run it through Codex?” She asked, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

  Jesse ran a hand over his five o’clock shadow. “Ben called Gena immediately and Angel told her everything. She told her about Mystique, the notes, the hang ups – everything that had been happening to her.” He shook his head. “Gena brought in her people with their gadgets and what not. They ran tests. Everything came back negative. The guy wasn’t in any of their databases. Gena said he either shoots blanks, is a first time offender, or he’s smart.”

  Stephanie snorted indelicately, shifting in her chair to tuck one foot underneath her. She turned to face Jesse. “He’s no first time offender, Jess. This I can guarantee. He’s definitely smart. My guess is that Angel wasn’t his first kill,” she said flatly.

  Jesse’s eyes reflected his shock. “You don’t know that,”
he protested.

  Stephanie interrupted him. “You’ve seen the photos, Jesse. Hell, you were at the crime scene. This guy is practiced and methodical in every way. He came prepared. He knows what he’s doing and what’s more, he’s damn good at it. He doesn’t make mistakes. From what I’ve gathered, there’s no trace evidence. Nothing, at least, that would give us a suspect. That takes practice,” Stephanie said, shaking her head again.

  “This scares me. To me, it screams serial killer. I don’t think Angel was his first kill,” she whispered, her hardening gaze meeting Jesse’s. “And I’m certain she won’t be his last.”

  Jesse didn’t know how to respond to Stephanie. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Taking advantage of his silence, Stephanie said, “I’ve seen my fair share of crime scenes, and interviewed some sick bastards over the years, but this guy...he’s so...he’s so professional.”

  She collapsed back into the couch, limp with exhaustion, her thoughts turning back to Angel. “She must have been so terrified after the break-in,” she whispered.

  “She was. She took off to a retreat, refusing to let anyone know her whereabouts. She just didn’t know whom to trust anymore. Every time she got close to someone, this guy would pop up like a recurring nightmare.”

  “For her, it would have been,” Stephanie said sadly.

  Jesse lightly ran his fingers across her hand, smiling at her. “After she came back from the retreat she was different. She seemed stronger, and more at peace with herself. She was finally happy with life. She stopped working as a Dominatrix and set up her business. She enrolled into university, and began to let someone in enough to love her. She moved back into her own apartment and built it into her fortress. I guess she figured no one would be able to penetrate it. She was finally turning her life around.”

  “And then the break-in?” Stephanie guessed.

  Jesse took a long sip of his coffee. His voice was husky when he spoke. “He trashed her place. He ruined nearly every photo she owned. He wrote ‘whore’ and ‘slut, you’re next’ in red paint all over the house. He did a real number on her place. But Angel, she refused to leave.”

  He clenched his jaw, remembering the way Angel had stuck to her guns.

  “Damn it Jesse, I can’t let him do this to me anymore. I refuse to let him make my life a living hell. I’ve been through this before, and I swore I would never let a man do this to me again. If he wants to come and get me, then so be it. He can come. I’m not going to run anymore. And if I go down, it will be with a fight.” Angeline said, her green eyes narrowing with determination.”

  “Angel, this is serious. You read the writing on the wall. You could be next. It’s not safe here. He got in once and he can get in again,” he said, frustration creeping in his voice.

  “So let him come. Just let him come, Jesse. I’m not scared anymore. I’m sick and tired of this. Do you know how many times he’s threatened me? How many times I’ve run? I’m tired of it.”

  She let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m finally getting things together. I think Jase and I could really be something. Something really special, and if I keep running I’m going to scare him away. I don’t want to ruin this. I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

  “Angel,” he pleaded.

  “No, Jesse. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not running this time.”

  ***

  “Jesse?” Stephanie’s voice intruded his thoughts.

  “I tried to convince her Steph. I tried to tell her she wasn’t safe there, but she didn’t want to leave. She said she’d been through it before, and she wasn’t going to spend the rest of her life running. She was so much stronger than we ever gave her credit for, you know.”

  Stephanie smiled tenderly. “I always knew it Jess. After everything she went through in her life, I knew.”

  “I killed her,” Jesse said suddenly, his voice almost a whisper.

  “What?” Stephanie asked incredulously.

  “Not the actual act, but I should have been there. I was supposed to be there. I had a photo shoot and I couldn’t get out of it. She said she’d be okay but when I came back…” His voice broke off. “I was only gone four hours.”

  “Jesse, that’s not your fault,” Stephanie whispered, putting her arms around him.

  “I should have stayed with her,” he insisted, leaning into her for comfort.

  “You couldn’t spend every second with her,” she protested, stroking his hair, her arms tightening around him. “Besides, I think, deep down you know this guy would have found a way to hurt Angel. I’d hate to think what could have happened if you’d been in his way. He could have hurt you, could have killed you,” Stephanie whispered.

  “And...”she broke off, a tremble in her voice. “And, I don’t know if I could have dealt with that, with losing you too.”

  Jesse pulled away from Stephanie, standing to pace agitatedly. “I went to the photo shoot, only to find it was a hoax. An elaborate set up to get me out of the house. There was no shoot and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. Whoever set this up, not only, had been planning this for a while but he studied me. He knew my career. The bastard wanted me out of the house and out of the way.”

  “Oh Jess,” she whispered, looking down at her hands.

  Jesse’s voice was gritty, as he spoke. “I knew then something wasn’t right. I could feel it in my gut. I tried to call Angel, but she never answered, so I called Gena. I just wanted Gena to go over and see if Angel was okay. I was over two hours away. Whoever planned the shoot wanted me far away from the house. I ended up leaving a message on Gena’s cell and drove home as fast as I could.”

  “When you got back, Angel was already gone,” Stephanie whispered brokenly.

  Jesse shook his head furiously. “No. She was still alive...barely, but still alive. The guy had really gone to work on her, Steph. She was barely recognizable. He’d used a knife on her. There were so many inflections, so much blood.” He spoke quickly, spitting out the words as if they were soured. “He’d raped her, and then shoved her own panties down her throat-”

  He broke off, unable to speak.

  Stephanie stood, walking towards him. She wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him. Jesse held her tight, glancing down at her.

  “What sick son of a bitch does that? Brutalizes someone like that? He tortured her for hours, Steph. And the blood...the blood, it was everywhere. There was so much blood.” His breathing raspy, he turned pain-stricken eyes towards Stephanie.

  “He brutalized her, and slit her throat, but not deep enough to let her die straight away. He left her battered, exposed, and bleeding out. He enjoyed it. He enjoyed torturing her-”

  Jesse broke off again, tears sliding down his cheeks.

  She reached up and wiped them away, cupping his cheek with the palm of her hand. He leaned into it, grief shadowing his eyes.

  “I called the ambulance, but there was nothing I could do. I watched her die. I held her broken and battered body in my arms, and watched her die. There wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.” He slammed his fist hard against the fireplace mantel. “Do you know how hard it was for me? How hard it was just to sit there and watch another friend die? It killed me. Angel may have been the one to die that night, but a part of me did too.”

  “Jesse, I didn’t know,” Stephanie said, her voice breaking with tears. She raised grieving eyes to look at Jesse, wiping away the tears rolling down her cheeks, with the back of her hand.

  “This is the reason I didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t want you to know about it, and deal with the pain. I don’t know why you would want to know about it anyway.”

  Stephanie wrapped her arms around herself, trying to ward off the chill in her bones. She was unable to suppress a shudder. “I just need to know everything.”

  Jesse shook his head angrily. “Damn it Steph. You did the same when Dominic died. You needed to know every little detail. I didn’t understand it then, and I sure as hell don’t unders
tand it now.” He broke off angrily, glaring at her. “I don’t understand why you want to put yourself through it. Tell me why. Make me understand what’s going on inside of you. Don’t shut Ben out. Don’t shut me out this time. Not like you did when Dominic died,” he demanded, grabbing her by her upper arms.

  She broke his grip, matching his fury with her own. “I needed to know, Jesse. I need to get inside his head. To find this son of a bitch, I need to get inside his head.” She bit out savagely.

  She cut Jesse off before he could speak again. “I’m going to find this son of a bitch, Jesse, and make him pay. I’ll find him and make him pay for it all. Pay for the hell he put Angel through, the hell you’re going through...” She broke off, her eyes glittering dangerously, as she stared at him. “I want justice.”

  Jesse nodded; his own darkening in turmoil. “I just want him dead.”

  “Then you understand? You understand why I need to know everything? Why I need to know every little detail from that night,” she said quietly. “I don’t want what was Angel’s life sitting in a box, just another cold case. I want her remembered. I want her to be laid to rest. I want her at peace with herself, and the world. Until her murderer is found, that’s never going to happen. I can’t just leave it like that. She wouldn’t do it to us. She’d crusade.”

  Jesse looked at her, a ghost of a smile on his lips. “Ben thought you’d only be here as long as you had to. You’d stay here for the funeral, and then disappear back to that hick little town you seem to love so much. I knew differently. You’re still the same, Carovella. You can leave L.A and change your lifestyle, but inside you’re no different than the day you left.”

  He shook his head when she opened her mouth to protest. “Whether you like it or not, Carovella, you need this. You need the action. You belong here.” He paused, shaking his head with a grin. “Ben’s not going to like this one damn bit.”

  Stephanie shrugged. “No, but he’ll understand it.” Her eyes narrowing, she said slowly, “But trust me on this, Jesse Carlisle, I don’t need this. I don’t want it. And, I happen to like that hick little town, I now live in.”