Once Craved (a Riley Paige Mystery--Book #3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

I can tell you is what I told
Meredith.”
    “That you’ll think
about it.”
    “Right.”
    Bill let out a grunt
of discontentment.
    “Could we at least
get together and talk it over?” he asked. “Maybe tomorrow?”
    Riley fell silent
again for a moment.
    “Not tomorrow,” she
said. “Tomorrow I have to watch a man die.”

Chapter Five
     
    Riley looked through
the window into the room where Derrick Caldwell would soon die. She was sitting
beside Gail Bassett, the mother of Kelly Sue Bassett, Caldwell’s final victim.
The man had killed five women before Riley had stopped him.
    Riley had wavered
about accepting Gail’s invitation to the execution. She’d only seen one other,
that time as a volunteer witness sitting among reporters, lawyers, law
enforcement officers, spiritual advisors, and the jury foreman. Now she and
Gail were among nine relatives of women that Caldwell had murdered, all of them
crowded together in a tight space, sitting on plastic chairs.
    Gail, a small
sixty-year-old woman with a delicate, birdlike face, had kept up contact with
Riley over the years. By the time of the execution her husband had died, and
she had written Riley that she had no one to see her through the momentous
event. So Riley had agreed to join her.
    The death chamber
was right there on the other side of the window. The only furniture in the room
was the execution gurney, a cross-shaped table. A blue plastic curtain hung at
the head of the gurney. Riley knew that the IV lines and lethal chemicals were
behind that curtain.
    A red telephone on
the wall connected with the governor’s office. It would only ring in case of a
last-minute decision for clemency. No one expected that to happen this time. A
clock over the door to the room was the only other visible decor.
    In Virginia,
convicted offenders could choose between the electric chair and lethal
injection, but the chemicals were far more often chosen. If the prisoner made
no choice, injection was assigned.
    Riley was almost
surprised that Caldwell hadn’t opted for the electric chair. He was an
unrepentant monster who seemed to welcome his own death.
    The clock read 8:55
when the door opened. Riley heard a wordless murmur in the room as several
members of the execution team ushered Caldwell into the chamber. Two guards
flanked him, gripping each arm, and another followed right behind him. A
well-dressed man came in after all the rest—the prison warden.
    Caldwell was wearing
blue pants, a blue work shirt, and sandals with no socks. He was handcuffed and
shackled. Riley hadn’t seen him for years. During his brief stint as a serial
killer he’d had unruly long hair and a shaggy beard, a bohemian look befitting
a sidewalk artist. Now he was clean-shaven and ordinary looking.
    Although he didn’t
put up a struggle, he looked frightened.
    Good, Riley thought.
    He looked at the
gurney, then glanced quickly away. He seemed to be trying not to look at the
blue plastic curtain at the head of the gurney. For a moment, he stared into
the viewing room window. He suddenly seemed calmer and more collected.
    “I wish he could see
us,” Gail murmured.
    They were shielded
from his view behind one-way glass and Riley didn’t share Gail’s wish. Caldwell
had already looked at her much too closely for her liking. To capture him, she’d
gone undercover. She’d pretended to be a tourist on the Dunes Beach Boardwalk
and hired him to draw her portrait. As he worked, he’d showered her with
flowery flattery, telling her that she was the most beautiful woman he’d drawn
in a long time.
    She knew right then
that she was his next intended victim. That night she’d served as bait to draw
him out, letting him stalk her along the beach. When he had tried to attack
her, backup agents had no trouble catching him.
    His capture had been
pretty nondescript. The discovery of how he had carved up his victims and kept
them in his freezer had been another matter. Standing there when the freezer
was