Oh yeah, that was rage flaring in the man’s eyes.
“Maggie Dunning is already dead,” Dane said flatly.
Meadows swore behind him. Like Dane, the DA must have thought that Harley was watching from the observation room. By this point, Dane was pretty sure that room had to be packed.
“Not yet, she isn’t,” Valentine snapped back. “But you just keep wasting my time.”
“And we’re supposed to believe the serial killer?” Mac said.
Valentine spared Mac an annoyed glance. He hadn’t lunged to his feet. Hadn’t attacked. “Why would I lie?”
Why would you tell the truth? “To save your own skin,” Dane told him, fighting to keep a tight rein on his own fury. This was the man who’d made Katherine’s life hell. The man who’d killed and tortured so many women. “You’d say anything to avoid getting a needle in your arm.” He kept his arms loose at his sides, a fake pose because his body was tight with battle-ready tension.
“You keep wasting so much time.” Valentine sighed. “But if you just want more deaths on you, that’s fine with me.”
“So you admit to murdering Trent Lancaster?” Dane fired out the question. Valentine had said that Evelyn confessed to killing Savannah and Amy, and that fit—those victims had been drugged with the fentanyl.
The drug that Evelyn had used on both Katherine and Ronnie.
But no fentanyl had been found in Trent Lancaster’s tox screen.
After a moment, Valentine nodded.
“Say it,” Dane snarled. “Admit what you did.”
Katherine stepped forward, putting her body next to Dane’s.
Valentine’s eyes found hers once more. His face seemed to soften as he stared at her. “You aren’t damaged, Kat. I knew what he’d said. I knew how he talked to you. He didn’t deserve to be anywhere near you.”
Katherine’s breath rushed out. “You shoved a knife into his chest and you left him for me to find.”
“He was a present.”
“A dead body isn’t the kind of present that I wanted!”
Valentine’s eyes slid over her. “You needed to know that someone was looking out for you. I didn’t want you to worry that you’d be a target.” His voice dropped. “Never you. That’s why I stayed in the gallery, so you’d understand.”
“Is that why you killed Evelyn?” Dane asked. If the idiot wanted to talk, he’d let the guy bury himself. “Because she was targeting Katherine?”
“She tried to kill my Kat. She was dead the minute I knew.” He sucked in a breath, as if trying to regain his control. “Besides, Evelyn thought she was something that she wasn’t.”
“And what was that?” Dane pushed.
“Good enough for me. Only one woman has ever been good enough.” His shoulders rolled back. “For a shrink, the woman was pretty f**king crazy.”
It takes a psycho to recognize one.
“And you set the bomb to explode at the house on Oakland?” Now it was Meadows asking the question. The guy had composed himself a bit. Good.
Valentine focused on Katherine. “I knew you’d make the right choice.”
“You almost killed a dozen cops!” Her cheeks had flushed a dark pink.
“You could have let them all burn. Could have just killed me and let them burn.”
“That wasn’t a choice for me. Saving them was the only option.”
Valentine lunged to his feet.
Dane and Mac both yanked out their guns.
But Valentine made no move to attack. He just stared at Katherine. “That’s why you’re different. You keep choosing life, when you should choose death. When you were fifteen, you should have let that bitch die in that car without a backward glance. And at Oakland, you should have laughed and watched the fire as the cops burned.” He shook his head. “How? How do you do it? Didn’t you want to hurt your mother? Didn’t a little part of you want to see that house burn with all those bastards inside?”
Valentine jerked his head toward Dane. “He understands. He killed his old man, did you know that? Dane wanted him to die. Why are you different from him? From me?”
Katherine moved toward him. Dane put his arm in front of her, but she shoved it away. “Take me to Maggie and Ross, and I’ll tell you why. Take us to them now, get us there while they are still alive, and I’ll tell you.”
Valentine’s eyes lit up. “Deal.”
Take me to Margaret and Ross.
“I haven’t agreed to take the death penalty off the table,” Meadows said, sounding a bit strained, “but you just promised to take us to the missing victims.”
“Yes, I did…as long as Kat goes with me.” Valentine’s gaze swept the small circle in the room. “Kat. Dane, and Mac. Just them. No one else.”
Meadows shook his head. “No dice, no—”
“You really think your two detectives aren’t competent enough to keep me in check? Even handcuffed?” Valentine looked sad for them. “And here I thought the New Orleans PD was supposed to be tough.”
“We’re tough,” Dane agreed. “Not stupid.” The guy wanted them out of the station. Who the hell knew where he’d lead them?
“Then get a helicopter to do aerial surveillance on us as we move.” Valentine sighed. “Get your eyes in the sky to keep track of us, if that makes you all feel better, but do it fast. Based on my rather extensive experience with death, I’d say one of our missing has only about an hour to live, maybe less.” Then he pursed his lips thoughtfully. “The chopper should probably be one of those medevac units. Because once you find the victims, they’ll need immediate medical care.”
Shit.
“Deal,” Meadows said, sealing their fates.
Mac shoved Valentine back in his chair. The interrogation room door opened. As uniformed cops spilled inside for guard duty, Dane followed Katherine toward the door. He wanted her out of there. Meadows was hurrying behind him.
They all wanted away from the grim reaper.
“Oh, Meadows?” Valentine’s voice called after them.
Dane glanced back. So did Meadows.
“You are taking the death penalty off the table.”
Meadows laughed. “Your dumb mistake. I told you, that wasn’t part of the deal for Ross and Margaret.”
“No, not their deal. But if you want to know the locations of the other bodies, then you’ll make sure I live for a very, very long time.”