The sound of Catherines name over the loudspeaker interrupted them. Rebecca was reviewing her notes from her first interrogation of Janet Ryan when Catherine motioned to her to pick up the extension line.

"Im so glad I found you in, Dr. Rawlings."

Rebecca recoiled slightly when she recognized the same smooth voice from the tape of the previous night. She swore under her breath in utter frustration. He seemed to be able to get to Catherine despite all her efforts to prevent it. Rebecca felt powerless to shield her lover from this invasion. All her training, all that shewas, seemed inadequate to protect the one person who meant more to her than any other. She forced herself to remain silent as she listened.

"Why are you calling?" Catherine asked, her eyes on Rebecca.

"I must see you."

"All right," Catherine answered quickly, ignoring the violent negative gestures from Rebecca. "Come here to the hospital. Ill see you this evening."

Soft laughter. "Oh, Doctor -- I cant do that. I want this meeting to be private and romantic. I wantyouto meetmetonight. Ill tell you where."

Catherine looked quickly to Rebecca for direction. Rebecca shook her head "No."

"I want to talk with you. I find you very interesting," Catherine responded, "but Im afraid that I cant meet you tonight. Wont you tell me your name so that I can reach you, too?"

"Good try, Doctor," he said, his voice suddenly harsh. "The next time I talk to you, youll be ready to do whatever I ask."

"Wait" Catherine cried as he broke the connection. She settled the receiver slowly into the cradle and stared at Rebecca, who hurried to her side. "I didnt handle that very well, did I?"

Rebecca covered Catherines hand with her own. "You were fine. You had to tell him no."

"Perhaps I should meet him," Catherine mused. "I might be able to talk him into surrendering."

Rebeccas eyes flashed and her fingers tightened on Catherines arm. "There is no way Im going to let this guy anywhere near you. Dont even think about it; its not going to happen. Let me call this in, then lets go home. Youre safer there than here where anyone could walk in unnoticed."

Catherine nodded, her thoughts elsewhere.

Chapter Twenty-Six

The call came at a little after twoA.M. Rebecca was awakened from an uneasy sleep by the voice of the night dispatcher.

"Sorry to bother you, Frye, but I got a girl on the line who says she has to speak to you and nobody else. I should be so popular."

"What does she want?" Rebecca asked.

"Wont say. Just says her name is Sandy and youd know --"

"Patch her through," Rebecca instructed.

"Frye?" a faint voice questioned.

"Yeah, its me, Sandy. What is it?"

"Anne Marie is missing. She was supposed to meet Claire and Rosie at the diner at one and she never showed."

Rebecca didnt bother with the routine questions; she knew Sandy would never have called if there hadnt been real cause for alarm. "When and where did someone last see her?"

"She was working the corner at Thirteenth and Comac, about eleven-thirty."

"Ill be there in twenty minutes. In the mean time, try to find anyone who saw her with a john tonight. Ill find you. And Sandy-- get the girls off the streets." As Rebecca rose from the bed, Catherine sat up, pulling the sheet up around her bare breasts.

"What is it?" Catherine asked.

Rebecca pulled her shoulder rig over a black turtleneck sweater and reached for her jacket.

"Probably nothing."

For some reason, Rebecca couldnt tell her of the dread that descended when she heard Sandys voice. She had a bad feeling, and over the years she had come to trust these premonitions. Shewantedto tell Catherine; she knew Catherine was waiting for her to speak, but she had hidden these feelings from everyone for so long that she couldnt put words to them now.

"Ill have someone stay with you until I get back. Please stay here, all right?"

Catherine nodded. She knew Rebecca was struggling to bridge the distance between them, and she knew it would not be an easy victory. Knowing, however, did not make it easier. Catherine hoped she would have the strength and patience to wait for Rebecca to trust her.

"Please be careful. Ill be here when you get back," was all Catherine said.

Rebecca turned to look back from the bedroom door and found Catherines calm gaze upon her. It was a look of tenderness and caring that she would carry with her into the night.

"Thank you."

**********

Rebecca found Watts on the landing outside a numberless door in a nondescript hotel in the tenderloin. Their routine checks of all the establishments which provided rooms for prostitutes to frequent had paid off. The night manager of this one thought the last girl to use the room on the second floor hadnt come down. However, he was much too involved with a bottle of thunderbird to remember who she went upstairs with or when the john might have left. When Watts checked the room, he knew he had found Rebeccas missing girl.

"Looks like its our boy again," he said as Rebecca approached. His characteristic nonchalance was absent, and if Rebecca didnt consider it impossible, she would have thought he was upset.

"Dead?"

"Yeah."

Rebecca steeled herself against the anger -- at the senseless waste, at her own inability to put an end to it. Silently, she pushed the door open.

A glance confirmed Wattss impression that they were dealing with the same perpetrator. The victim, young and slender, was lying face down on the thin mattress, a pair of blue nylon shorts pulled down around her ankles. It looked like she had died from a blow to the head. Her street clothes were neatly folded on the cane chair that stood forlornly against a bare, water-stained wall.

"Be sure to check if all her clothes are here after the crime scene team finishes," she said. Watts grunted and made a note in his ever present tattered notebook. "Did you get anything at all from the guy downstairs?"

"No, and I dont think we will. He remembers handing her the key. He didnt see the john go in or out. Didnt hear anything either."

"Well have to round up all the prostitutes for questioning. Chances are this guy has been around for a while and maybe started getting rougher as hes come unglued. And well need to find out who she was with tonight. Someone may have seen her with him."

"Ill get some uniforms on it," Watts responded.

The homicide team and the lab van were arriving as Rebecca and Watts left the building. Rebecca turned at the sound of her name and saw Sandy approaching. She steeled herself for what she had to do.

"I want you to come upstairs with me and see if you recognize this girl," Rebecca said before Sandy could say anything. Sandys eyes widened, but she didnt protest. Rebecca took her through the crowd of police who were pushing in and out of the room and led her to the bed.

Sandy stared motionlessly at the figure for a long moment, then turned away.

"Thats Anne Marie," she said, no hint of emotion in her voice.

Rebecca nodded and took her by the arm. "Come on, lets get out of here." She felt Sandy begin to tremble as they descended the stairs, the delayed reaction that Rebecca had expected was setting in. By the time they stepped outside, Sandy was sobbing. Rebecca gently put her arms around the shaking girl and held her close. Watts watched expressionlessly.

"Im sorry, Sandy," Rebecca whispered, rocking her gently as she cried. "Im sorry."

"Never thought Id be getting this close to a cop," Sandy said, wiping her eyes and straightening her shoulders. "Especially a lady cop." She looked into Rebeccas eyes, read the undisguised pain in them, and said softly, "Thanks."

Sandy promised to talk to all of Anne Maries friends for any clue as to who she might have picked up earlier that night. She would call Rebecca at the station with any news.

Rebecca and Watts headed in to begin the long process of writing up the report and reviewing the entire case, looking for some small item they might have overlooked. Rebecca drove silently, struggling to suppress the depression that threatened to immobilize her. She didnt think she could stand to see one more woman brutalized by this shadow of a man who continued to elude them. Watts was uncharacteristically silent as well.

They had barely begun their paperwork when the Captain strode through the squad room and gestured for them to follow him to his office. Rebecca glanced at the plain clock on the wall. It must be something big to get the Captain in here at five am.

"We need a break on this case," he said without preamble. He waved them to chairs and loosened the collar of his immaculate white shirt. The snowy collar contrasted dramatically with his deep mahogany skin tones. Regardless of the time, or the level of tension in his office, Captain John Henry was always the picture of composure. "When the media makes the connection between these dead prostitutes and the River Drive rapes, theyre going to have a field day with us. We have one -- andonlyone -- thing going for us at this point, and thats the psychiatrist hes contacted. Weve got to use her, and soon."

Rebeccas throat constricted and her head pounded. This was the last thing she expected, although if she had been thinking clearly she would have anticipated it. Where Catherine was concerned, she seemed to be incapable of thinking like a cop.

"No, sir -- you cant," she began, only to be interrupted by Watts.

"Uh, what she means, Captain, is that the shrinks probably a long shot. You know, a red herring kind of thing. Hes not going to be stupid enough to come after someone we know about."