by PJ Fernor
I was still a good five minutes away, if not more, depending on what back roads I had to take. Or to start walking since my SUV could only go so far into the woods and up the mountain.
The dot kept moving so I decided to keep driving.
After about a minute of driving, I blinked and the dot moved quite a bit.
“He’s driving,” I whispered.
He was driving away from me.
I picked up speed.
So did the dot on the screen.
I hit a little bit of a busier part of town and found myself moving in, out and around other vehicles. Going as fast as I could without putting myself or others in harm’s way. Especially since I was in an area where there were a lot of kids outside playing.
I watched the black dot gain more and more distance away from me.
When I was finally able to get to a quieter part of the road, I stepped on the gas pedal and picked up speed again.
I soon found myself feeling like I was going in one big circle.
Which I was.
The black dot ended up on the south part of Sandemor, going back around where I had just come from.
I growled under my breath and drove faster.
I knew I was going to end up in a busier spot of town again, so I gripped the steering wheel tight with my left hand and concentrated on the road.
I told myself that no matter what happened here, I knew where Lizzy’s phone was.
All I could hope for was that the killer didn’t know I was following.
Or maybe they expected me to follow and I was walking into a trap.
If that were the case, I would only follow so far.
If Lizzy’s phone exited Sandemor, then I would make phone calls and get help.
For now, I just had to keep going.
Which I did.
I moved through the busy part of town slowly.
I watched the black dot slow, turn, speed up, slow, turn… and then stop.
I gasped when the black dot stopped for good.
As I continued driving, my eyes moved from the road to the screen.
I was finally gaining ground.
When I realized I was going toward the business area of Sandemor, my interest grew quite a bit.
Maybe the killer didn’t know about Lizzy’s phone after all.
Maybe Lizzy wasn’t in trouble… maybe that bloody pillowcase had been under the bed before she arrived…
I made one more turn and slowed my SUV all the way down.
I zoomed in on the tablet screen again and saw right where the phone was.
When I looked to see exactly where, I lifted my eyebrow and felt more confused than ever.
According to Lizzy’s phone… it was located inside Mayor Jim’s car.
Chapter Seventy-Seven
I opened my SUV door but quickly shut it when I saw Mayor Jim throw open the door of his. I watched him climb out and look down at what I assumed to be a cell phone. After a few seconds, he tucked the phone into his suit jacket pocket and he shut the door.
As he walked around the front of his vehicle, I inched down in my seat.
I glanced at the tablet next to me and sure enough, Lizzy’s phone began to move again.
That meant Mayor Jim had the phone with him.
In his pocket.
“What are you doing with Lizzy’s phone?” I whispered.
My head scrambled for a few seconds.
None of this made sense.
If Mayor Jim had the phone, where was Lizzy?
Better yet, why didn’t Mayor Jim answer the phone when I called it?
This was all wrong.
Wrong and backwards.
I thought back to the theory Lizzy and I had.
Whoever the killer is… they’re close to us. Really close.
I swallowed hard and felt my heart race a little.
The killer had to have been close because the notes and the threats seem to get worse the more Lizzy and I worked to solve the past and present cases.
I shook my head and looked at the tablet screen.
The back dot was still moving.
Right into the building where Mayor Jim’s office was located.
I now needed my next move.
A very careful move at that.
Either this was one gigantic coincidence that had a simple solution, or Mayor Jim was not the person we all thought he was.
I reached for my door and my phone began to ring.
“Ben,” I whispered.
I answered the call.
“Allie Down,” he said. “Where are you?”
“Is everything okay there?” I asked.
“For the most part.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I mean, it’s fine,” Ben said. “Just feels eerie. That’s all. I wanted to check up on you. Did you get in touch with Lizzy?”
“Not exactly,” I said. “I… I think…”
“Hey, Lo, are you okay?” I heard Ben ask.
“What’s wrong?” I yelled into the phone.
“Oh, okay, that’s fine,” Ben said. “I knew that. He told me.”
“Who told you what?” I yelled. “Ben?”
“I’m right here,” Ben said. “Sorry. Lo was getting a cup of coffee and something to eat. Don’t worry, I’m keeping an eye on everything. Trevor had to leave. He came to tell me. I give that kid credit. He’s not afraid of anything. And before you ask, my father is fine. The nurse is here. Muldavey is back out front again too. We’re good.”
“I’m not,” I said.
“What?”
“Ben, I think Lizzy might be in some trouble,” I said. “I’m trying to piece things together and this might be bad.”
“Where are you?”
I ignored the question. “Ben, I went to Lizzy’s room and she wasn’t there. Her car is though. I got a key and went into the room. It was empty. No sign of her.”
“Keys? Phone?”
“Not sure about her keys, but her phone was gone. I’ve been tracking it.”
“You’ve been tracking Lizzy’s phone?” Ben asked. “Well, where is she?”
“There was blood too.”
“Blood?” Ben whispered. “Hold on a second, let me get into the other room.”
I heard Ben shuffling around.
I looked at the tablet and the black dot was no longer moving.
That meant Mayor Jim was in his office.
Now was maybe my chance to go see him. To sneak up on him like he had been doing to me for so long. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say. I needed to keep calm and play everything off. I could pressure him. Tell him I was seconds away from figuring the case out.
“Allie Down, what’s happening over there?” Ben asked.
I blinked a few times. “Listen to me, Ben. I think something very strange and bad is happening here right now. I tracked Lizzy’s phone to the other side of town. Off the road. But as I got closer to that spot, it began to move again. Almost in a big circle but back to the business part of town.”
“Okay. Where is it at now?”
I lifted my gaze. “I’m looking at Mayor Jim’s office right now.”
“Mayor Jim?” Ben asked. “What?”
“Ben, I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s not good. Mayor Jim has Lizzy’s phone.”
“Why would Mayor Jim have Lizzy’s phone?” Ben asked.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” I said. “I’m sitting here plotting out my next move. I need to go talk to him.”
“No,” Ben said. “Not until I get there. It’s too dangerous to be alone.”
“I already am alone,” I said. “You should stay there.”
“I can’t do that,” Ben said. “If this is what I think it is, there’s no point in me being here at the house. And you cannot be alone. Maybe this makes sense. Too much sense.”
“I’m thinking that too,” I said. “He’s been up our backsides from the second this started. Leaning on th
e parade. He’s a smooth talker, Ben. A very smooth talker.”
“Which is why I don’t want you alone. Just to be safe.”
“I can handle myself. Lizzy is in trouble. She might be hurt. She might be…”
“No,” Ben said. “Listen to me. I want you to drive away. Get out of sight. Okay?”
“Ben, I’m safe right here. Nobody has seen me. I’ll be-”
I heard a knock on my window.
I turned my head and let out a yelp and dropped my phone.
It was Mayor Jim, holding a gun.
Chapter Seventy-Eight
BEN
I heard the sound of a struggle.
Then a voice said, “I’ll take that.”
And the call ended.
The voice was very familiar.
Mayor Jim?
I ran out of the dining room for the stairs.
My jeans and keys were all upstairs. I had hastily gotten changed the night before so I could sleep downstairs and make my point to Trevor.
I took the stairs three at a time and ran into the master bedroom.
The bed was messy.
It was always messy.
Neither Allie nor myself ever really cared to make the bed. It was a once-a-week kind of thing versus a daily thing.
I had never met a woman that didn’t care about making the bed.
Chalk that up to reason five million why I fell in love with Allie Down.
I saw the messy pile of her pillows and I shook my head.
“This is not happening to her,” I whispered.
Not that it would have been the first time she found herself in serious trouble or anything. I just couldn’t take much more. Between my father getting sick and the past how many months of Allie getting the department back in order after what Laura did…
And as much as I hated to admit it, I missed Garrison hanging around the station.
I almost missed seeing Johnny Barby too.
For a second I thought about calling him but decided against it.
This was personal. This was between me and the mayor of Sandemor.
Well, me, the mayor, Allie, Lizzy, and three victims who no longer had a voice in anything.
Once dressed, I ran back down the stairs to find Lo waiting for me.
“Ben, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I lied. “I have to go.”
“It’s Allie, isn’t it?”
“No,” I lied again.
I tried to move and Lo grabbed my arm. “Ben…”
I looked into Lo’s eyes.
She was terrified.
The poor girl had lost her mother. And she also lost Miss Kesslier. The sweet, old lady neighbor who had taken to Allie and Lo as a mother and grandmother figure. Brutally killed at the hands of The One.
“Lo, I have to go,” I said. “I need you to stay right here. Do not leave. Do not do anything.” I took a step and stopped. “Actually, call Trevor. Get him back here. Tell him I said it was an order. He needs to be here to protect you. Got it?”
“Ben, how bad is it?”
“It’s Allie,” I said. I smiled. “You know how she is.”
“Great,” Lo said.
“I really have to go.”
I exited the house and ran to my vehicle and began my drive to Mayor Jim’s office.
It didn’t make an ounce of sense to me.
Mayor Jim? Why Mayor Jim? What did he get out of this?
The only part that maybe made sense was his involvement in the first case. If he was the killer and he committed that murder, of course it was easy to cover up and shift attention away from himself. But why wait all these years to do it again? Why do it knowing the kind of person Allie was? There was no quitting when it came to Allie. Not to mention she had me in her corner. She had Johnny Barby in her corner. And she had Detective Lizzy Cold…
“Lizzy,” I whispered.
My heart sank even more.
If that poor woman came all the way up here to help with a cold case only to end up… dead…
I gritted my teeth and told myself to never think that thought again.
I gripped the wheel tight and drove faster.
When I arrived at Mayor Jim’s office, I saw Allie’s SUV.
I ran to it and the doors were locked.
The keys weren’t inside of it.
On the passenger seat was a tablet but the screen was turned off.
I went from window to window, my hands cupped together so I could see through the tinted glass.
Nothing was out of place.
No signs of a struggle.
No blood.
I set my sights on the office building itself.
I crossed the street and jogged into the building.
With my badge in my hand, I flashed it as needed, calling out that there was a possible situation with the mayor. That gave me all the access I needed.
I skipped the elevator and took the steps, knowing I could move faster.
At the top floor of the old building, my shoes echoed off the floor as I ran toward Mayor Jim’s office.
When I arrived and opened the door, it was empty.
Quiet.
The lingering smell of clean wood and expensive cologne in the air.
“Allie?” I called out. “Jim? Is anyone here?”
There was no response.
I walked to the desk and stood behind it.
There were folders and papers, everything perfectly organized.
I punched the wireless keyboard to the computer and the screen turned on, prompting me for a password.
My eyes moved down to the drawers on the desk.
The right side… locked.
I grabbed the left drawers, one by one, tugging.
All locked.
On a whim, I touched the narrow middle drawer and it slid open with ease.
The first thing I saw was a set of keys.
I grabbed them and looked at the other drawers again.
“What am I looking for?” I whispered to myself.
I honestly had no idea.
Keys weren’t going to help me. Opening the drawers weren’t going to help me.
I dropped the keys back into the drawer and slammed it shut.
I turned and looked out the office window.
I could see Allie’s SUV parked across the street.
“Where are you, Jim?” I whispered.
“Right here, Ben,” a voice said.
A spun around and before I could reach for my gun, Mayor Jim had a gun pointed at me.
“Where is she?” I asked. “Where is Allie?”
Mayor Jim smiled. “Tell you what, Ben, we’re going to need those keys out of the middle drawer.”
Chapter Seventy-Nine
BEN
“What are you trying to prove right now, Jim? Is this your confession? You killed those women? You killed Claire and Candice? And then all those years ago, you killed Maryse?”
“I never said a word,” Mayor Jim said. “But I really do need you to get those keys. We have to go for a walk, Ben.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said.
“Then you’ll never see Allie again. You want to see her, right? You want to see if she’s alive or not, right?”
Anger flooded my body.
“I need you to hand over that weapon too,” Mayor Jim said.
I couldn’t believe how calm his voice was. He was the same Mayor Jim I had known for so long. The same annoying tone and big, white-toothed smile. As though he wasn’t pointing a loaded gun at me.
“Where is Allie?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” he said.
“You took her?”
“I asked her to come with me, Ben. She listened.”
“What about Lizzy? What did you do to her?”
“You are full of a lot of questions,” Mayor Jim said. “You must be a detective, huh?”
Mayor Jim snorted and laughed.
I unholstered my gun and han
ded it to him.
With smooth precision, he unloaded the clip with one hand and put my gun on his desk.
“Get the keys and come with me,” he said. “Now.”
“I’m telling you right now, Jim, if you’ve hurt her…”
“Ben, just shut up,” Mayor Jim said. “What are you going to do about it? I’m in control. I run this entire town. Okay? You’re all part of this with me. If you want to know the truth about Allie, the longer we wait here, the more there’s a risk she can end up hurt.”
I tore open the drawer and got the keys.
Then I walked around the desk and Mayor Jim told me to keep my hands visible.
When we got to the door, he pressed the gun into the corner of my back.
“Let me very clear here, Ben,” he said. “If you do anything stupid right now, you will never see Allie again. Remember that. So you’re going to walk with me down the stairs and out the back of the building. That’s where I’m parked.”
“Got it,” I said.
“I have plans in place, Ben. Don’t make me do anything crazy or you will be responsible for the death of the woman you say you love.”
“I do love her,” I said.
“Perfect. Now you’re going to keep your mouth shut and come outside with me. If we see anyone, you smile. If anyone asks a question, we talk about the case. Understood?”
I nodded.
“I can’t hear you, Ben.”
Mayor Jim jabbed the gun into my side with force.
I grunted. “I understand, Jim.”
“Thank you,” he said.
We began our walk.
Down the hall to the stairs. Down the stairs and to the back door.
When sunlight and fresh air hit my face, I had the urge to run. Or to fight back.
But I couldn’t risk it.
I needed to know Allie was safe. Lizzy too.
When we got to Mayor Jim’s large SUV, he opened the back driver’s side door.
I let out a cry when I saw Allie on the floor of the SUV.
He hurried to shut the door and pressed the gun against my back again.
“She’s alive,” he whispered to me. “For now. What you’re going to do is walk around to the other side and climb into the back. Okay?”
I looked at Mayor Jim. “I’m going to kill you.”
“No, you’re not, Ben. You don’t even know what’s happening yet. Be mad at me all you want, I didn’t cause this to happen. I’m just fixing problems. Now move.”