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

opened was one of the most harrowing moments of Riley’s career. She still
felt pity for the victims’ families—Gail among them—for having to identify
their dismembered wives, daughters, sisters …
    “Too beautiful to
live,” he had
called them.
    It chilled Riley
deeply that she had been one of the women he had seen that way. She’d never
thought of herself as beautiful, and men—even her ex-husband, Ryan—seldom told
her that she was. Caldwell was a stark and horrible exception.
    What did it mean,
she wondered, that a pathological monster had found her so perfectly lovely?
Had he recognized something inside her that was as monstrous as he? For a
couple of years after his trial and conviction, she’d had nightmares about his
admiring eyes, his honeyed words, and his freezer full of body parts.
    The execution team
got Caldwell up onto the execution gurney, removed the cuffs and shackles, took
off his sandals, and strapped him into place. They fastened him down with
leather bands—two across his chest, two to hold his legs, two around his
ankles, and two around his wrists. His bare feet were turned toward the window.
It was hard to see his face.
    Suddenly, the
curtains closed over the viewing room windows. Riley understood that this was
to conceal the phase of the execution where something was most likely to go
wrong—say, the team might have trouble finding a suitable vein. Still, she
found it peculiar. The people in both viewing rooms were about to watch
Caldwell die, but they were not allowed to witness the mundane insertion of the
needles. The curtains swayed a little, apparently brushed by one of the team
members moving around on the other side.
    When the curtains
opened again, the IV lines were in place, running from the prisoner’s arms
through holes in the blue plastic curtains. Some members of the execution team
had retreated behind those curtains, where they would administer the lethal
drugs.
    One man held the red
telephone receiver, ready to receive a call that would surely never come.
Another spoke to Caldwell, his words a barely audible crackle over the poor
sound system. He was asking Caldwell whether he had any last words.
    By contrast,
Caldwell’s response came through with startling clarity.
    “Is Agent Paige
here?” he asked.
    His words gave Riley
a jolt.
    The official didn’t
reply. It wasn’t a question that Caldwell had any right to have answered.
    After a tense
silence, Caldwell spoke again.
    “Tell Agent Paige
that I wish my art could have done justice to her.”
    Although Riley
couldn’t see his face clearly, she thought she heard him chuckle.
    “That’s all,” he
said. “I’m ready.”
    Riley was flooded by
rage, horror, and confusion. This was the last thing she had expected. Derrick
Caldwell had chosen to make his last living moments all about her. And
sitting here behind this unbreakable shield of glass, she was helpless to do
anything about it.
    She had brought him
to justice, but in the end, he had achieved a weird, sick kind of revenge.
    She felt Gail’s
small hand gripping her own.
    Good God, Riley thought. She’s
comforting me.
    Riley fought down a
wave of nausea.
    Caldwell said one
more thing.
    “Will I feel it when
it begins?”
    Again, he received
no reply. Riley could see fluid moving through the transparent IV tubes.
Caldwell took several deep breaths and appeared to fall asleep. His left foot
twitched a couple of times, then fell still.
    After a moment, one
of the guards pinched both feet and got no reaction. It seemed a peculiar sort
of gesture. But Riley realized that the guard was checking to make sure the
sedative was working and that Caldwell was fully unconscious.
    The guard called out
something inaudible to the people behind the curtain. Riley saw a renewed flow
of fluid through the IV tubes. She knew that a second drug was in the process
of stopping his lungs. In a little while, a third drug would stop his heart.
    As Caldwell’s
breathing slowed,