Hollywood Scream (The Hollywood Alphabet Series Book 19) Read online

  Eva pushed her short hair off her forehead. “Do you know who his father is?”

  Alexis Turner nodded, then said something that struck us like a bolt of lightning. “His name is Hayden Kinnear.”

  SIXTY-ONE

  “She is the one,” Anne Parker told her son. “She is a pretender, here to steal my power.”

  Alexander watched as the young woman walked through the house known as Stone Castle. “She will die.”

  They stayed in the shadows of the yard, watching her for several minutes before Alexander found the courage to ask, “How many more?”

  He felt his mother’s gaze move over to him, trying to make out his image in the dark of night as she asked, “What do you mean?”

  “How many more must die to protect your power?”

  “You know that the children have been taken. They can no longer help us defeat your father. It is all up to you now.”

  “But how many more, Mother?”

  “It is unknown. There are several factors.” Her voice became more strident. “Why all the questions?”

  Alexander took his time answering her, still watching the girl through her bedroom window. Images of his victims, all those who had come to try and take his mother’s power, skittered through his mind. Then the reel of images stopped, and his mind fixed on a single image.

  Father.

  A year ago, he’d found some papers hidden in his mother’s closet that had revealed his father’s identity. He remembered his anger boiling over, when he’d learned he was a cop. Then his rage had turned to resolve. He’d gone to his father’s office in the city and planned to murder him, but something had stopped him at the last moment. It was Mother. He’d been told his entire life that he must kill his father to defend her. To kill Father in this situation, without his mother being present, was not as it had been prophesized. He had decided to wait until the time was right, when Mother told him to act.

  “Alexander.”

  His thoughts surfaced, and he looked in the direction of his mother, only seeing her ghostly visage in the darkness. “Father. When will he be coming?”

  “You know I can’t predict that. It all depends...”

  “I want to kill him.”

  Anne rested a hand on her son’s shoulder. “I know you do. The Prophecy will be fulfilled, just as it is written, but you must be patient.”

  Alexander sighed as the light in the girl’s bedroom was extinguished. He stood and inhaled the cool night air. “Then let’s go defend your power.”

  SIXTY-TWO

  We spent most of the morning with Alexis Turner. Immediately after hearing what she’d said about Hayden Kinnear, Joe had excused himself to call John Greer.

  When we finished with Alexis and met with Joe on the street, he told us, “Kinnear’s gone missing. Greer said he hasn’t been seen at FBI headquarters in a couple days and isn’t answering his phone. He’s sending a team to his place in New York City.” He looked at Eva. “Looks like you were right all along about someone being on the inside.”

  Eva leaned against the car and exhaled, probably realizing that was of little consolation. “I saw a café on the way over here,” she said. “Let’s get a bite to eat and try to piece together what we know.”

  We got sandwiches and met on the patio of Elmer’s café in a strip mall, where Eva gave us her thoughts. “If what Alexis said is true, and I have no reason to believe it’s not, Anne Parker has been living out a fantasy imprinted during her childhood through extreme isolation and physical abuse.”

  Olivia agreed. “As a woman, I find it particularly heartbreaking. It can be every little girl’s fantasy that she is a princess in a magical kingdom. Anne is living out a fairy tale that’s gone horribly wrong.”

  “And pulled her son into her own madness,” I said.

  “Let’s walk this back at bit,” Joe said, after giving us a moment to vent. “How does Kinnear fit into the picture?”

  Eva answered. “We can only assume that he and Anne became involved sometime after she graduated from college, maybe after the infant she stole died, or was murdered by her. She became pregnant by him and he probably walked away, fulfilling her conviction that he had abandoned her, just like in Bellamy’s play.”

  “And, at some point, he must have become aware that his son was the Angel,” I said, “and he’s tried to use his profiling skills to stop him.”

  “I agree with what you’re saying,” Eva said, “but I also think Kinnear missed the point.”

  Joe regarded her. “In what way?”

  “Anne Parker is the serial killer, acting through her son.”

  “A son who believes he must protect his mother, no matter what the cost,” I said. “That compulsion is rooted in a biological imperative that makes Alexander especially dangerous.”

  Eva nodded. “He’s been radicalized since childhood, believing everything his mother has told him. She has all the power in their relationship.”

  “I think we all get the picture,” Joe said, displaying his characteristic impatience. “Where does it leave us?”

  “With a young prince who must protect his queen from those who would steal her power and take over her Realm,” Eva said.

  “Yeah, so how do we find them?”

  Eva’s eyes became unfocused as her thoughts apparently turned inward. The seconds ticked by before she finally said, “She’ll be returning to The Realm. It’s her place of power.”

  “But The Realm has been abandoned. It’s nothing but a bunch of empty buildings.”

  “True, but this world is vast and full of many realms.” Eva stood. “Let’s head to the airport.”

  SIXTY-THREE

  When we got to LAX, Joe had given our pilot instructions to head to New Haven, near Anne Parker’s now defunct school, despite us having no idea where she and her son had gone. Subsequent to that, he’d learned that John Greer had sent a team to search the school, but they’d come up empty.

  An hour from landing, Eva’s frustration with our case had grown. “Based on his usual timeline, Parker’s probably already taken another girl.”

  “And I’ll bet mama’s right there with him,” Joe said. His phone rang, and he stepped away to take the call.

  “Have either of you ever worked a case similar to this one?” Eva asked Olivia and me when Joe was gone.

  “I’ve had cases where the perpetrator acted out of extreme beliefs that had no basis in reality,” I said. “That makes it imperative that we stop him.”

  Olivia agreed. “Alexander Parker has a compulsion to kill, thanks to his mother. If we find Anne, we stop Alexander.”

  Joe ended his call, came back over, and joined us. “That was Greer. They searched Kinnear’s house, but there was no sign of him. They did find evidence that he knows Alexander Parker is his kid. They also took a look at his laptop and determined that he’d been looking at maps of Connecticut. They think he might have figured out that the Parkers are somewhere in the state and he’s headed there.”

  Eva took out her iPad and brought up a map of Connecticut. “It’s a big piece of real estate. Anybody have any thoughts on where they might have gone?”

  “Maybe one of the urban areas,” Olivia suggested. “They’d want to remain anonymous, lose themselves in a city, and look for a victim.”

  Eva looked at me, raising her brows.

  I gave voice to what I’d been thinking. “Maybe we need to think about this from Anne’s perspective. We know that she’s living out a fantasy, believing that she’s royalty.”

  “And where would someone with royal blood go?” Eva said, her voice pitching higher as she understood what had occurred to me.

  “A castle or palace,” Olivia said, now also onboard.

  “Exactly,” I said.

  Olivia worked the keyboard on her iPad. “Let’s see what we can find.” After doing a Google search, she turned the screen so that we could see what she’d pulled up. “This is Gillette Castle, near East Haddam. It looks like something
you’d see in medieval Europe.”

  I studied the photos for a moment. “It’s part of the state park system, so I doubt anyone would be living there.”

  Olivia moved on, pulling up a couple other sites, including a private mansion that looked like a castle, built by a mega-millionaire. We realized the place was for sale and reasoned it might not be occupied.

  She then came across something called the Stone Castle. “It’s a private residence, built about a hundred years ago,” she said, reading from the site. “It was modeled after a small castle in Europe. The place looks a bit secluded, down a long driveway.” She tilted the screen so that we could see the stone structure.

  “How far is it from Anne’s school?” Joe asked, his interest apparently growing.

  Eva checked the map, her voice pitching higher. “It’s less than twenty miles.”

  Joe stood. “I’ll tell the pilot we’re going to need a chopper when we land. Maybe we can set down near the house.”

  After he was gone, I asked the others what they thought the chances were that Anne and her son would be there.

  Olivia answered. “I’d say it’s the only hand we’ve got to play. Let’s just pray that it’s a royal flush.”

  SIXTY-FOUR

  Alexander Parker put the finishing touches on his alter ego’s makeup, using the vanity mirror in his victim’s bedroom. The girl’s name was Vivian Cox. She was a dark-haired eighteen-year-old, about to start her first year of college. When he’d taken her, she’d told him that her parents had gone away for a couple days. Little did they know that when they returned, they would never recognize their little sweetheart again.

  As he affixed the wings to his back, he listened to his mother as she told the girl why she had been chosen.

  “The hour of your sentence grows near,” Anne said. “Your attempt at taking down my kingdom has failed.”

  “What...? What kingdom?” Vivian asked, her voice breaking with emotion. “My...my parents...they will be coming home soon.”

  Anne reached out and slapped the girl. “Lying is a mortal sin in my realm. That will only add to your punishment.”

  Vivian broke down crying and shrank back against the headboard where she’d been chained. Alexander, now the physical embodiment of the Angel, came over to his mother. “What did she say about Father?”

  “You heard her, she denied everything, even the affair.”

  “Whore!” he screamed at the girl. The Angel took a step closer to his victim, as she continued to weep. He then turned back to his mother. “Do we want this on camera? It will only take a few minutes to set things up.”

  “Of course. The world needs to see the pretender to my empire die.”

  As Alexander worked, setting his laptop and camera in place, he glanced in the girl’s direction. Her blue eyes found him for a moment. Her eyes reminded him of his father’s, that instant a year earlier when Father had seen him at police headquarters, but had walked away, not realizing he was his son.

  “Tell me about you and my father,” he said to his mother.

  The tone of Mother’s voice pitched up. “Why...? What does it matter now? It was a long time ago.”

  “Yes, but...did...did he ever know about me?”

  Anne’s gaze moved away from him. “Yes. He said he wanted nothing to do with you.”

  “The bastard. Just so you know, I almost killed him.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I went to see him, at the police department. Why didn’t you tell me he’s a cop?”

  Mother stood and came over to him. Her voice took on a sharp, angry edge. “You had no right. You know how The Prophecy is written. He cannot die until the proper time comes.”

  Alexander’s gaze fell away from her. “Of course. What I did was stupid.”

  “See to it that it never happens again. Now, finish up, so we can deal with her.”

  Several minutes later, the Internet camera was turned on. The Angel went over to his bag of supplies and brought out two long knives. He walked over to the girl. “These are called trench knives. They’re used in combat to kill an enemy at close quarters. In your case, they will be used to dismember you...very slowly.”

  The girl shrieked as Alexander, dressed as the Angel, brought one of the knives up to her. Her intense cry was so loud that, at first, he didn’t clearly hear the man’s voice behind him. Then he caught a glimpse of his mother looking toward the open bedroom door. He cut his eyes in that direction, now taking in the sight of the man holding a gun on his mother.

  It was Father.

  SIXTY-FIVE

  After landing in New Haven, we boarded a waiting helicopter for the short flight to the private home known as Stone Castle. Joe had been in contact with support staff at Quantico and told us what he’d learned.

  “The residence is owned by Jason and Pauline Cox. They own a telecommunications company in Boston and are worth a small fortune. The couple has a daughter, Vivian.”

  “Do we know if they’re home?” Eva asked.

  “Our people managed to get ahold of Vivian’s father. He and his wife went away for a couple days. Their daughter is home alone.”

  “It sounds like the perfect setup for the Angel,” I said over the steady thump of the rotor blades cutting the air.

  Twilight was setting in as we approached the residence. Just before landing, Joe got a call from John Greer. When the call ended, he said, “Greer says Parker just started streaming video of a girl. No way to know for sure if it’s Vivian.”

  “Is she still alive?” Eva asked.

  “So far.”

  Our pilot set the chopper down in a field a couple hundred yards from the massive residence known as Stone Castle. Any other time, the grandeur of the home would have appeared idyllic, sitting on a hill above the Shetucket River. As the shadows of night descended on the residence, it was dark and forbidding.

  “Let’s move,” Joe said, with his gun drawn, as we bounded out of the chopper. “Every second counts.”

  A flock of birds chirping in the trees and heralding the close of day greeted us as we made our way into the front yard of the residence. We were moving up the steps to the front door when the birds suddenly fell quiet, their twilight serenade shattered by an all too familiar popping sound.

  Someone was shooting!

  SIXTY-SIX

  Alexander Parker, dressed as the Angel, moved quickly when he saw his father. This was the moment he’d been waiting for all his life. He stepped in front of his mother, shielding her from the man who would slay her.

  “This is over,” Hayden Kinnear told him. “Drop the knife.”

  “I know why you’re here,” Alexander said. “You want my mother’s power.”

  “You don’t understand...”

  “He understands everything,” Anne said, stepping around her son. “The Prophecy will be fulfilled, just as it is written.”

  Alexander studied his father intently, every fiber of his being focused on the task at hand. Despite that, there were things he desperately wanted to know. “Why are you here?”

  “Because this has to stop.” Kinnear motioned to the hysterical girl chained to the bed. “Let her go.”

  Alexander ignored the sobbing girl, asking his father, “Why did you abandon us?”

  Kinnear’s brow tightened as he looked at Anne. “What did you tell him?”

  “The truth,” Anne said. “He knows how you left us to...” She glanced at Alexander. “It doesn’t matter now. What matters is The Prophecy.”

  “You truly are insane,” Kinnear said. He looked at Alexander. “We’ll talk when this is over, and I’ll explain everything. Put down the knife.”

  Alexander released a long breath and nodded. He dropped one of his knives, as his head slumped forward.

  His mother grabbed ahold of him, screaming, “What are you doing? You must fulfill...”

  Her words were interrupted by a sudden intense movement as Alexander brought his other hand up, the k
nife that he’d kept sailing across the room, even as his father fired his weapon. The knife, sharpened like a razor, hit its intended target, piercing his father’s chest. Blood poured from the mortal wound as his father fell to the floor.

  “He is dead,” Alexander shouted. “The Prophecy is fulfilled.” He turned to his mother, now realizing there was a red stain spreading across her white blouse.

  “Mother, no!” he screamed, grabbing hold of her as she slumped down. “God, no! This can’t be happening...”

  His mother’s lips moved. Alexander bent closer to her, hearing her last soft, breathless words. “The Prophecy...you did what was expected...” Her eyes fluttered, then closed.

  Alexander held his dead mother in his arms, his anguish palpable as he cried, “Please don’t leave me.”

  “Police!”

  A man’s voice was coming from the stairway outside the bedroom. Alexander picked up the knife he’d dropped and moved quickly. In that moment, he knew the kingdom now belonged to him. He must protect The Realm.

  SIXTY-SEVEN

  We moved up the stairway behind Joe, stopping on the upstairs landing. There was an open bedroom door ahead of us, the light spilling out into the hallway. Joe called out, announcing our presence, but there was no response. Then we heard footsteps, someone moving around inside the bedroom.

  “Last chance!” Joe said. “Come out now!”

  The movement inside the bedroom stopped, then we heard a girl’s voice calling out to us. “Please, help me!”

  We moved quickly, making entrance into the bedroom with our weapons at the ready. Hayden Kinnear was on the floor with a knife in his chest. Anne Parker was on the other side of the room, lying in a pool of blood.