Part Five:

Nora swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat. She refused to let him see how scared she really was. She sidestepped him and walked over to the opposite side of the room. He watched her from afar. He could tell she was thinking, always a thinker he thought to himself.

After a few minutes, and once he had walked over to the sit in the chair across from her, she walked back over to the wall, looking into the faces of his victims. She took a deep breath before speaking, hoping her voice wouldn’t betray her fear, “Susan Gelman…you chose her because she was Jewish…NoraLynn Atkins…I assume you chose her because of her name…Jane Small…was married to an African American…Elyssa Collins…attended law school if I remember correctly…Karen Reeder,” she looks over at him for a moment, “we never figured out the connection there.”

“She was a party girl” he pointed at her, “You, my dear were a party girl.”

Nora shook her head, wondering when that part of the past would stop coming back to haunt her. She turned and looked back at the wall, attempting to find a moment to compose herself before she spoke. She turned back and faced him, “You tried to kill Jen Rappaport because you found out she was a witness,” he nods, “So she wasn’t a part of your original plan.” She looks at the picture of Madison, “You killed her because I had been scheduled to prosecute the case against her.” He silently claps his hands. She paused for a moment staring at Gabrielle’s picture. She turned back and looked at him, “You killed her because you found out she had seen Troy while out on the passes that you arranged for him. You were afraid of what he might have told her, what she might have known.”

“He was the perfect scapegoat, Nora. An extremely unstable man who had almost killed you, it really wasn’t hard at all to frame him.”

“We had him in custody, your plan had worked. Why did you attack Sarah?”

“Killing Gabrielle hurt Bo, which in a way hurt you but also helped you. I know a lot about your relationship with Bo, that Jessica is quite the talker. She told me how he was the great love of your life, the only man you had truly given your whole self to. She told me that she thinks you’ll never stop loving him. So removing Gabrielle would only end up giving you what you long for, but back to Troy. You hated what was happening to him, and yes I could tell you felt sorry for him, but it wasn’t enough. You hadn’t suffered enough.”

“Don’t you DARE talk about my relationship with Bo! You can’t even BEGIN to know about the kind of love that Bo and I shared. It was pure and all consuming, the kind of love you’re NOT capable of, a love you’ll never know.” She had to steer her thoughts away from Bo, the memories of him and what they shared were threatening to overcome her.” She focused her attention back on why he wanted her to suffer, “And as far as my suffering, you were there Shawn; you saw how much pain I was in, how scared I was when Matthew was missing. You saw how much it hurt me to see Bo grieving for Gabrielle. How can you say I haven’t suffered!” she shouts, her emotions beginning to surface as exhaustion and fear took their toll.

“Matthew’s kidnapping was not a part of my plan, and yes, for a minute there I had decided it was going to end with Gabrielle’s death, but Matthew came back, he was fine. You were happy; you and Bo had your son back. I saw the looks between you and Bo, I saw the way you longed to reach out to him; how he wanted to comfort you.” He stood up and started to walk towards her, “I couldn’t allow you to be happy. I had to make you hurt.” He stands in front of her, reaching out and laying his hand on Sarah’s picture, “Sarah put up such a fight, Nora, just like you did all those years ago.  And you know, I did contemplate killing her, but letting her live, destroying her ability to do the one thing she loved, that you had helped her achieve, well that seemed good enough.”

“You destroyed her life because of me, because I rejected you over thirty some years ago? You’re still the same disgusting twisted bastard you were when you stalked me in college!”

She stared at him, watching the different emotions play across his face, “I’m going to ignore that little outburst, for now.” He walks over and stands directly in front of her, “We’ll just stick to the facts at hand for now. You destroyed Sarah’s life, Nora! You killed all these women. You have to pay for what you let them do to me.”

“Then why not just come after me, why kill them, why attack Sarah?”

He walked towards her once again backing her against the wall. He placed a hand against the wall on either side of her head, “You haven’t been listening, Nora. Killing you once wouldn’t have been enough.” He leans in and whispers in her ear, “I’ve been killing you over and over again for years. Now you’ll have to live, for now of course, knowing that they died because of you, that lives were changed forever because of you.”

She stared at him, her eyes growing angry and defiant, “They were right, Shawn, you ARE insane!”

He slammed his hands against the wall causing her to jump, “Don’t say it again” he said through clenched teeth, “not if you value your daughter’s life.”

Bo walked back into the station that night. He had checked into every lead that had come into the station, but none panned out. The trail ended at the last service station out of town. They had teams of officers searching the mountain, searching each side road, each cabin. The back wall of Bo’s office now held a map of Llanview and the surrounding area. A list of every cabin, home, and building in the surrounding mountain area was hanging beside it. They would search every building; they would work around the clock until she was found.

He had stopped by Asa and Renee’s to check on Matthew. He sat beside his bed for a few minutes watching him sleep, silently giving into the tears that had been threatening to fall. He filled Asa and Renee in on what had happened and they all decided it would be better to take Matthew out of town until Nora was found. They decided to take him to London, only telling him that he was going on a special trip to see Sarah and meet his Uncle Clint and Cord.  Bo would stop by the house before they left to say goodbye.

Marcie rushed into Bo’s office a few minutes after he had walked in, handing him a fresh cup of coffee and the latest reports. They had helicopters with searchlights circling the surrounding areas, hoping to spot her car. Bo walked back out into the squad room. Marcie looked up and gave him a sad smile before returning to her filing.

Bo was standing in the doorway of Nora’s office when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see who was standing behind him. He turned back around and walked towards her desk, “You better be here with that warrant, Colson, because if you’re not, I suggest you find a Judge who will give it to you.”

Daniel walked towards Bo and handed him the piece of paper, “Judge Fitzwater issued the warrant immediately. You have access to his office at the University and his home.”

Bo grabbed the warrant out of his hand and walked out the door without another word to Daniel. Fifteen minutes later there was a team of agents and officers searching his home and his office.

Bo looked up from the drawer he was searching when he heard his name. He stood up and walked over to the person standing across the room from him. The two men quickly embraced, “Hank.”

“Hey, there buddy.” He looked around at the officers quickly searching and gathering items in various boxes. He motioned for them to step out into the hallway. The two men walked over to the bench located in the hallway across from the office, “I just heard. I just got back from a long visit with Rachel and I was in the car on the way home from the airport, when the report came over the radio. What happened?”

“The good Doctor here,” gesturing towards Stephen’s office, “turned out to be the serial killer, seems he was setting Troy up to take the fall for these killings.”

“But what does this have to do with Nora? Why did he take her?”

“He set his sights on her a while ago. He had offered her support when Troy kidnapped Matthew; you know reassuring us that Troy wouldn’t hurt him, things like that. She trusted him and has sought his so called expert advice on a few of her cases. Hell, we used him as an expert profiler on this case. We all trusted him.”

“I’ve been trying to keep up with the case while I was on sabbatical. It seemed like such a cut and dry case against Troy. When did you start suspecting the Doctor?”

“We realized there was no way that Troy was our guy once Sarah was attacked. Troy was most definitely under lock and key that night. The killer began to taunt John, the FBI agent in charge. Once Rae turned up missing and John found his face in press photos, things just seemed to fall into place. He had set the stage so well for his frame of Troy; we could connect every victim to Nora.” He paused for a moment, “I know that Rae meant a lot to you, Hank. I’m sorry we weren’t able to keep him from getting to her.”

“I know Bo, and thanks.” He quickly steers the conversation back to their current situation, “Do you think Nora is still the connection?”

“I don’t know what to think anymore, Hank.”

Hank could see the mixture of pain, anger and fear in his best friend’s eyes. He had seen it when they weren’t sure if Nora would wake up from brain surgery. He saw it after the beach house, and after the train wreck. He wondered if these two would ever get a chance to set things right, to finally give into the feelings they’ve become so good at hiding from themselves.

Bo and Hank stood up when the officers began to file out of the office. They drove back to the station together. They head straight for the conference room where John and the other agents and officers had already laid out all the stuff they had collected from his house. They began to search through the items, categorizing them and discarding what wasn’t relevant.

Hank reached across the table, picking up another worn and tattered book. He opened it to the dog-eared page. He reached for one of Stephen’s books, turning it over to see the picture on the jacket cover, “Oh my God.”

Bo looked up when he heard Hank’s voice. He walked over and stood beside him, looking at what he was holding in his hands, “What’s going on Hank?”

“This is our yearbook from college.”

 He points to Nora’s picture first then to the picture beside hers, “Shawn Hanson,” Bo read aloud. He looked up at Hank and shrugged, “So?”

Hank removed the cover from the book and laid it beside the yearbook photo, “You don’t see the resemblance?”

Bo looked closely, “The facial structure is the same; hair is lighter, though. Can’t tell the color of his eyes in the black and white photo, but they seem to be set the same.” Bo looks back up at Hank, “Who is this guy?”

“One of Nora’s worse nightmares, Bo.”

He saw the flicker of fear dance across her eyes, bringing another smug smile to his face, “You leave my daughter out of this, Shawn. You leave her alone!”

“That all depends on you.”

“What the hell are you talking about? What do you want from me!?”

“You’re going to leave town with me.” He reaches out and runs his finger down her cheek, “We’re going to be together forever, Nora, just like it should’ve been all those years ago. Dead or alive, Nora, we’ll be together.”