Chapter 106

I got home around one that afternoon. I needed to sleep, but I couldn’t stay down for more than a couple of hours. I got up and paced through the empty house on Fifth Street.  I kept walking from room to room. I felt the need to stop a terrible disaster from happening, but I didn’t know where to start. The possible hit lists for Kyle were continually running through my head: my family, Sampson, Christine, Jamilla Hughes, Kate McTiernan, my niece Naomi, Kyle’s own family.
I couldn’t get the image of Zach and Liz out of my head. They had
been executed in the prime of their lives - because of me. Finally, I was able to throw up, and it was the best thing that had happened to
me that day. I pushed out my guts¹. Then I slammed the bathroom mirror with the heel of my hand and nearly broke it.  Kyle was always a fucking step ahead, right? It had been that way for so many years now. He was such an unbelievable bastard².  He had complete confidence in his abilities, including his power to elude³ us any time he wanted to. What would be next? Who would he kill? Who? Who?
How could he make himself disappear after the killings⁴? How did he blend in and become invisible when so many people were looking for him?
He had money; he had taken care of that when he’d played the role of the Mastermind. So what was next for him?  I worked at my computer late into the night and early morning.
The computer was beside my bedroom window. Was he outside watching? I didn’t think even Kyle would take that kind of chance now. But hell, how could I rule anything out?
He was capable of large-scale mass murder. If that was his plan, where would he strike? Washington? New York City? LA? Chicago? His old hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina? Maybe somewhere in Europe? London?
Was his family safe - his wife and his two children? I had vacationed with them in Nags⁵ Head one summer. I’d stayed at their home in Virginia a few times over the years. His wife Louise was a dear friend. I had promised her I would try to bring Kyle in alive if I possibly could. But now I wondered - did I want to keep that promise? What would I do if I ever caught up with him?  He might go after his own parents, especially since he put part of the heavy blame for his behavior on his father. William Hyland Craig had been a general in the army, then chairman of the board of two Fortune 500 companies in and around Charlotte. Nowadays, he gave lectures at ten to twenty thousand a pop; he was on half a dozen boards. He had beaten Kyle as a boy, disciplined him ruthlessly, taught him to hate.
Sibling⁶ rivalry⁷? Kyle had brought it up himself. He had been highly competitive with his younger brother until Blake’s death in a hunting accident in 1991. Had Kyle actually killed Blake? What about the older brother, who still lived in North Carolina?  Did he think of me as a younger brother? Did Kyle see Blake in me? He was competing with me, and he’d tried to control me from the start. The women in my life might have represented a threat to him, an extreme variant⁸ of sibling rivalry. Was that why he had killed Betsey Cavalierre? What about Maureen Cooke in New Orleans? And Jamilla?
I made a note to think carefully and plot out one particular angle, a dysfunctional family triangle, with both Kyle and me a part of it.
One step ahead.
So far anyway.
If he came after his family, or his parents, we would have him. They were being closely protected in Charlotte. The FBI was all over them.
Kyle knew that. He wouldn’t do anything stupid - just cruel and nasty.
One step ahead.
That seemed to be the key to Kyle’s fantasy life, at least as I understood it so far. He wouldn’t make the obvious move. He would go at least one move, maybe two, beyond that. But how did he stay a step ahead, especially now? A very bad thought had been running through my head lately. Maybe there was someone in the FBI helping⁹ him - maybe Kyle had a partner.
I had finally drifted off to sleep when the phone in my bedroom woke me. It was three in the morning. Goddamn him. Doesn’t he ever sleep?
I picked it up, clicked it off, then unplugged the phone from the wall.
No more phone tag, Kyle. Fuck you.
I was setting the rules now. This was my game, not his.

1 guts   

v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠

参考例句：

• I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净，我只需烧一下即可。
• Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 bastard   

n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子

参考例句：

• He was never concerned about being born a bastard.他从不介意自己是私生子。
• There was supposed to be no way to get at the bastard.据说没有办法买通那个混蛋。

3 elude   

v.躲避，困惑

参考例句：

• If you chase it,it will elude you.如果你追逐着它， 它会躲避你。
• I had dared and baffled his fury.I must elude his sorrow.我曾经面对过他的愤怒，并且把它挫败了；现在我必须躲避他的悲哀。

4 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

5 nags   

n.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的名词复数 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的第三人称单数 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责

参考例句：

• The trouble nags at her. 那件麻烦事使她苦恼不已。 来自辞典例句
• She nags at her husBand aBout their lack of money. 她抱怨丈夫没钱。 来自互联网

6 sibling   

n.同胞手足(指兄、弟、姐或妹)

参考例句：

• Many of us hate living in the shadows of a more successful sibling.我们很多人都讨厌活在更为成功的手足的阴影下。
• Sibling ravalry has been common in this family.这个家里，兄弟姊妹之间的矛盾很平常。

7 rivalry   

n.竞争，竞赛，对抗

参考例句：

• The quarrel originated in rivalry between the two families.这次争吵是两家不和引起的。
• He had a lot of rivalry with his brothers and sisters.他和兄弟姐妹间经常较劲。

8 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。

9 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。