Evidence Of Marriage. Ann Voss Peterson

attorney.” He glanced around the room. “I mean look at this place. The main building is under construction. The cell blocks are old as dirt. A decent attorney could have gotten me transferred to a decent facility, don’t you think?”

      She didn’t answer.

      “I’d just hate to think he would try to come between a man and his daughter. Sylvie didn’t send me an invitation to her wedding, she didn’t come with you to see me.” He shook his head. “A girl shouldn’t turn her back on her family just because she’s married.”

      Fear for her sister spun through Diana’s mind, making her dizzy. She forced herself to breathe. “Sylvie isn’t turning her back. She isn’t doing anything against you at all. She’s just trying to move on with her life.”

      He studied her, his emotionless eyes boring into her, through her. “On the day you get married, I want to see you in your wedding dress. Sylvie denied me that privilege, but you won’t.”

      “I’m not getting married.”

      “You might change your mind once you find someone worthy.”

      “I’ve worked too hard to control my own life. I’m not giving it up for a white satin dress.” She wasn’t giving it up for the opportunity to visit her serial-killer father in prison either. She pushed up from her chair. “It’s time for me to go.”

      “Are you going to cut me out of your life as well?”

      She had to remain firm. She couldn’t let him push her around. “I have to get on with my life, too.”

      “You need your father, Diana.”

      “Goodbye.”

      “If someone like that professor ever threatens you again, I want to know about it.”

      She paused, memories of Professor Bertram holding her hostage for days, stripping her and hunting her in the forest swept through her mind. “Why? What would you do?”

      “What any good father would do. I would protect you.”

      “From prison?”

      He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I’d find a way.”

      What was he going to do? Sic the Copycat Killer on anyone who crossed her path? Was he forgetting he was the reason Professor Bertram had kidnapped her in the first place? That the man was desperate to avenge Kane’s brutal murder of his daughter? “I can protect myself.” Taking a deep breath, she turned away from Kane and took a step toward the door.

      “He has another one, you know.”

      The tremble in her legs spread through her body, centering just under her rib cage. She turned back to face him. “What did you say?”

      “He took her last night. After stopping in at your sister’s wedding reception to pay his respects.”

      “The Copycat Killer?”

      “Of course.”

      “How do you know this?”

      “I know a lot of things, Diana. Like the desperation a parent feels when kept away from a child. Especially when she needs you most. I could tell you all about it if you would visit me.”

      “Where did he take her?”

      “I’m not asking you to do anything a good daughter wouldn’t do anyway.”

      She didn’t have to close her eyes to see the nightmare she’d gone through in the professor’s cabin play out in front of her like a movie. But where the professor was a grief-crazed father after revenge, the Copycat killed for pleasure. And part of his pleasure revolved around torture and humiliation. “You can’t let him kill another woman.”

      “Can’t I? What am I going to do about it? I’m in prison.”

      Her stomach swirled, with anger, with nausea. As much as she wanted to walk away, as much as she needed to retain control over her life, she couldn’t let an innocent woman suffer. She couldn’t let an innocent woman die. Not if she had a chance to save her. “What do you want me to do?”

      “Visit. Like a good daughter.” Thin lips pulled back in an icy smile. “I’ll see you again tomorrow. We’ll have a nice chat.”