One Step Ahead, Audrey Walker [best book club books of all time TXT] 📗

The voice continued to echo in her head, and Robin started shaking.

“No!” she shouted. “No! Don’t hurt me!”

“You can run from me!” the voice shouted. “But you can’t run from the darkness in you! You can’t run from the monster in you!”

“No!” Robin shouted again.

“Alright, Robin, calm down,” the doctor said. “You are safe. You are secure. You will come out now. You will come out of the memories. You will come back to me!”

“No!” Robin shouted, thrashing around. “Please. Don’t!”

“Come back to me, Robin,” the doctor said with an urgency in her voice. “Come back to me. Now!”

Robin’s eyes shot open, and she lay there, gasping.

“I need to be alone!” Robin gasped, picking up her jacket.

“Robin –” James called out, but Robin ignored him.

She ran out into the streets, the voice echoing in her head.

“You promised.”

Chapter Ten

Robin’s head ached and throbbed. She felt weak and exhausted. Probably because she hadn’t slept all night, it had been a week since the hypnosis, and Robin only got worse. She kept getting flashes of memories, and every time the flashes happened, she was left tired and lethargic. She couldn’t remember the last time her head didn’t hurt. The headache was constant. Almost permanent. She hadn’t slept more than two hours at night. Every time she closed her eyes, the memories would return to plague and haunt her. The hypnosis had opened some sort of door. It had triggered something in her, and now she couldn’t stop it.

Everyone thought she was losing it. She could see it in their eyes. She could see the way they all looked at her. Even Kyle. Her tired eyes with dark circles under them, her shivering body. The look of pity in their eyes every time she was left screaming after a sudden bout of memories hit her. She was always scared, and she couldn’t shake off the feeling that she was always being watched.

Every night in her nightmares, the Butcher would come alive again. He would torture her again, but try as she might; she could never remember anything else. Every time she tried, a searing pain would spread through her head, and she would collapse. The atmosphere at the station was constantly depressing. No one joked or laughed anymore. The pain of losing one of their own kept them all somber. And they were not even a step closer to catching the killer.

The pressure was mounting on Robin’s shoulders. She had to find him and stop him, but she didn’t know how. The public was shouting and screaming. Every news channel just talked about the murders and how they all seemed to be linked to Robin. They called her out, and Robin was lost. She wished Abby was here, but Abby was gone. She and Jim left on their honeymoon after the wedding. Robin had no one. The only one she could talk to was James. He was her friend, supporting her and helping her. Kyle didn’t even deem her worthy enough to look at anymore.

Robin felt as if she was teetering on edge. If there were another push, she would fall down an abyss and never get out. She was slowly reaching her end, and no one would ever be able to help her.

“I don’t understand,” Robin muttered to herself. “There has to be a pattern. There has to be. Every place he picked has a link to me. What place will he pick next? Where will the next murder be? I have to be ahead of him. I have to catch him in action.”

She looked up and saw Kyle observing her. He had a look in his eyes that Robin didn’t understand, but at the moment, she didn’t care. She had to solve this crime. Robin had to remember. She forced her mind down memory lane again, hoping to find any information that would help her, anything at all. Why was it that her memory always blanked out when she looked at the corner under the stairs? Why couldn’t she remember? What had been there?

She closed her eyes and forced herself to remember. She thought back to the Butcher’s basement. The pole where she had been chained; the small, dingy room and the way it had smelled—the table in the corner where the Butcher kept the tools he used to torture his victims with. And then, under the stairs was darkness. And from the darkness extended a hand, and a voice whispered, “Robin. I am –”

“Detective Matthews?” She heard a voice behind her, pulling her out of the memory. “Can I have a word –?”

Robin looked at the face of Andrews, who stood in front of her, babbling about some case file. She felt so angry and furious that she felt like strangling him.

“– And I was wondering if you know where I kept the file, because –?” he was saying.

“How would I know?” Robin said scathingly. “If you were stupid enough to lose it, then you should be the one to find it!”

“But Robin –” he stammered.

“Go!” Robin shouted at him. The entire station was looking toward her, but she didn’t care. She was so close. So close to remembering, and then suddenly this buffoon had shown up and ruined everything. Andrews backed off, looking hurt, and Robin closed her eyes again. She tried to remember, but nothing came. No hand extended from the dark corner; no voice whispered. Whatever she was remembering was now lost.

Robin slammed her hands on the table, shouting in frustration. She opened her tired eyes and looked up, her eyes meeting Kyle’s. He was looking at her with disapproval and something more.

“When was the last time you slept?” Kyle asked.

“I don’t know,” Robin muttered. “I don’t need sleep. I need to solve this. I know I can do this. I just have to remember.”

“You need to sleep and rest,” Kyle said. “You look exhausted and scary. This is starting to take a toll on you, little bird. Maybe you