by Lolli Powell
CHAPTER 43
Hank killed the lights and the motor and coasted to the curb in the 900 block of Eleventh. Jen turned the radio volume down to a bare murmur, and they sat for a minute listening to the sounds of the night and their pounding hearts. In the distance, a dog barked, and Jen wondered if the killer heard it, too.
She took a long, slow, deep breath to steady her nerves and patted the reassuring hardness of her two-inch Smith & Wesson resting in its ankle holster. She keyed the mike.
“Zebra 5, David 10 to Zebra 5. We’re in the 900 block of Eleventh. Do you want us to move in?”
“That’s affirmative. We’ll be moving in from Tenth. Rover 2, move in.”
Jen could hear the excitement in Will’s voice as he acknowledged the transmission. She wondered if he was remembering a similar night in Minneapolis sixteen years before when he finally avenged the death of his sister.
Was their killer the son of that long ago madman? What a waste if he was, she thought sadly as she opened the door of the unmarked and eased it shut without a sound. Maybe if someone had intervened back then, they wouldn’t be here now, and Trish and the other women would still be alive.
Hank eased the driver’s door open, sliding the portable radio into his jacket pocket. He looked at Jen and grinned. She could see the excitement in his eyes and felt a thrill run through her. She had almost forgotten how it was on the street.
“Watch your butt, babe,” he whispered.
“You, too, old man,” she whispered back and saw him grin.
They moved quickly into the shadow of a low-hanging tree, slipped quietly along the sidewalk and across the street into the 800 block of Eleventh. Jen’s senses were razor sharp. She was aware of a bird rustling in its sleep on a limb above her, a late-night audience laughing on a television, and a plane passing high overhead.
They counted carefully, and when they were one house away from the one in the rear of Sue Carpenter’s, they cut into the yard, moving silently. A light was on in the rear of Carpenter’s house. They saw her pass in front of the window wearing a blue robe, a glass of something in her hand. She passed out of their line of vision, and the light flicked off.
The line of bushes extended to the rear of the lot, and two large trees shadowed the back yard. Hank and Jen moved into the shadow of the trunk of the tree nearest the bush line. They crouched down, straining their eyes to see the figure that they knew was out there in the dark but saw nothing. Jen guessed he was out of their line of sight around the corner of the house. All they could do now was wait for Vic and his partner to move in from the front and flush him out of his cover and toward them.
On the second floor, a light flicked on. Sue Carpenter was going to bed. He might make his move now, or he might wait until she’d had enough time to fall asleep. Hank motioned that he was going to move to the corner of the house. She nodded and returned her attention to the space of ground between the house and the bushes. Any time now, she thought, any time.
It seemed an eternity before she saw movement near the bushes. She went to a crouch, gun in hand, tensed and ready. A figure moved slowly and carefully along the bush line, but she couldn’t make out details. The figure moved closer, and she recognized Vic Hensley.
She stood and moved quickly across the yard. Hank had also recognized Vic and come forward. As she neared Vic, the deputy who had been his partner rounded the other corner of the house.
“Where the hell is he?” Vic muttered angrily.
“Maybe he cut through the bushes,” Hank suggested.
Vic keyed his portable, calling Will, and they heard the muted sound through the heavy growth. In a few seconds, Will rounded the bush line at the rear of the property.
“He didn’t come through,” he advised in a low voice. “Don’s at the front, still watching.”
“We’d better check the bushes,” Jen said. “Maybe he’s hiding in there.”
Vic returned to the front corner of the house while the deputy stayed at the rear. From their positions, they had a clear view of all sides of the house. Will returned to the other side of the bush line and began to work his way along it from the rear, while Jen and Hank did the same from the side nearest the house. It took only a few minutes to work their way to the sidewalk. No one was hiding in the bushes.
Vic radioed instructions to the marked units set up in the quadrant to stop anything that moved, including all vehicles leaving the area. Then he turned to Jen and Hank.
“The last time we saw him he was moving toward the rear of the house. Are you sure he didn’t get past you guys?”
“Come on, Vic,” Jen said, exasperated. “You think we’d have been sitting with our heads up our butts if he had?”
“Sorry,” Vic said. “Stupid question…but somebody was here, hiding in those bushes, and now he’s gone.”
Will had been flashing his light under the bushes. Now he called to them and pointed to a clear area. There were several broken branches and the weeds smashed down. Someone had been standing there all right. Vic and his partner hadn’t been imagining things, but where had that someone gone? Suddenly Jen had a chilling thought.
“What about inside? Maybe he already got inside the house?”
Startled, they stared at her. Jen instructed Hank to join the deputy covering the rear and instructed Don and Vic to take positions at the front of the house. She and Will moved to the door, and Will tried the knob. The door was locked, and he rang the bell.
“A light just came on upstairs rear,” Hank reported on the portable.
A few minutes later, they heard a frightened female voice asking who it was. They identified themselves, and the porch light clicked on. The door inched open, held in place by a security chain, and Sue Carpenter peered out. Jen and Will held out their identification. She read the IDs carefully, squinted at the photos, then at them, and closed the door. They heard the chain being removed before she opened the door wide.
“What’s wrong?”
She was a pretty woman, but at this moment, she was also a frightened one. Jen didn’t blame her.
“We don’t mean to alarm you,” Jen said, “but we spotted a prowler near your house. He seems to have given us the slip. If you don’t mind, we’d like to check inside.”
“Oh, my God!” Sue Carpenter turned pale. She pulled her robe tightly around her body and looked nervously over her shoulder. “There’s somebody in my house?”
“We’re just being careful, that’s all,” Will reassured her. “Your doors and windows look okay from the outside, so I wouldn’t worry too much. Do you mind if we come in?”
“No, of course not.” She stood aside to let them enter. “If there’s somebody in here, I’d rather you found them.”
Jen and Will made a thorough search of the house, checking under beds, behind clothing in closets, and even inside large kitchen cabinets. There was no one inside the house except themselves and Sue Carpenter.
“We’re sorry we disturbed you and got you upset over nothing,” Jen said when they returned to the living room where Sue was sitting huddled on the couch.
“That’s okay.” She’d had time to think while they were searching and had come to the obvious conclusion. “There was somebody out there watching me, wasn’t there? You think it was the guy who’s been killing all those women, don’t you?”
“No, no, it was probably just a kid trying to window peep.” Jen tried to sound casual, knowing she was failing. “We get that all the time.”
“I’m sure you do,” Sue said, “but your identification says you’re a detective and he’s an FBI agent. I find it hard to believe detectives and FBI agents are out in the middle of the night trying to catch peeping toms. Why were you here in the first place?”
Jen looked at Will. He shrugged, indicating the decision was hers. She looked at Sue Carpenter, debating how much to tell her.
“May I sit down?” she said.
She told Sue everything, starting with her theory about how the killer p
icked his victims and ending with the figure in the bushes. The woman listened calmly. When Jen finished, Sue sat for a moment, thinking.
“This is wild,” she said finally. “There’s just one favor I’d like to ask you.”
“What’s that?”
“I’d like you to stick around while I get dressed and pack some things. Then I’d like you to follow me to my parents’ house. They live in Eastgate Heights.”
“That’s not really necessary. We plan to have someone watch your house the rest of the night.”
“Detective Dillon, I’m not trying to cast aspersions on your department’s ability, but you said yourself there was someone outside my house, and he got away in spite of your best efforts. If you don’t mind, I think I’d feel safer at my parents. There’s my mother and father, five brothers and sisters, and one crotchety old aunt living there. Not to mention, a yappy little dog. If he can get in and kill me there, then I must be meant to die.”
“I see your point,” Jen said, “and I guess I don’t blame you. Get your things. We’ll wait, and then I’ll have a cruiser escort you to your parents’ house.”
She and Will waited in the living room. Will looked angry, and Jen couldn’t blame him. She was angry herself. Somewhere out there, a killer walked loose, probably laughing at them for not having caught him when they had the chance. Not only that, but their presence here tonight had tipped him off that they were on to his method of operation.
Jen knew now that her theory was likely right. Of course, the figure in the bushes really could have been a prowler, but she didn’t believe that any more than Sue Carpenter had. It had been the killer, and now he was on the alert.
Sue returned carrying a large suitcase and several garments on a hanger. Will helped her carry her things to her car. Vic and the deputy volunteered to follow her to her parents, then relieve Will and Don as a roving unit.
“We can sleep in,” Vic argued when Will declined the offer. “You guys need to be back in to coordinate things and deal with the brass and press. Besides, we’re both used to working nights. We couldn’t sleep anyway if we went home.”
Will finally agreed. Jen was relieved he’d be going home with her when she finished the paperwork involved with the arrests. The incident at Carpenter’s had spooked her, and she didn’t relish the thought of returning to a dark, empty apartment alone.
CHAPTER 44
The man who used to be Arthur Kelty lay still for a long time after they’d gone. He strained his ears, listening for the slightest indication that they had left a trap for him, but all he heard were the now familiar night sounds. His prey was gone. It wouldn’t make sense that they would stay all night guarding an empty house. He finally summoned his courage and eased forward quietly from beneath Sue Carpenter’s front porch.
As he crept along the silent streets to his car, he thought about how close it had been. He hadn’t suspected anything when he arrived at her house. He’d concealed himself in the bushes only minutes before she pulled to the curb. Now he remembered a car passing seconds later and knew that must have been them.
He shivered. He’d toyed with the idea of jumping her at the front door the way he had the cop but had rejected the idea in favor of the tried and true method of waiting until the prey was asleep. If he had made his move at the front door, it would all be over now.
His car was where he’d left it. He started the engine and drove off through the quiet streets, his mind replaying the events of the past hours. He’d been waiting for his prey to settle in when he’d heard the sound that didn’t belong in the night and seen the man creeping behind a tree across the street. The identity of the sound came to him then. It was the rasping noise a two-way radio makes as the mike is keyed. He had known the man was a cop as surely as a hunted animal knows its predator.
His first instinct had been to run for the rear of the house, but he had stopped himself. Naturally they would have posted someone there. For a second, he had panicked, feeling trapped, but then he had seen the hole. There was a lattice grating around the front porch, reaching from the porch floor to the ground. Old and not well maintained, there was a small hole in the side nearest the bushes. He’d dropped to the ground and inched through, catching his clothing and feeling cobwebs sticking to his face and hair.
He’d lain motionless, the smell of damp, foul earth in his nostrils, invisible insects scampering across his outstretched hands, listening while the man who’d trapped his father and the bitch he was rutting with walked and talked above him. He’d heard the chatter from the radios carried by the officers still outside the house, and when he heard the order to stop cars leaving the area, he knew he’d be in his hole for a while. He could wait them out. In a sense, it was no different than waiting in a hunting blind for four-legged prey to pass within range, and he’d had plenty of experience with that when Father started his training years ago. The only difference now was that he was the prey. The thought made his head start to ache, at first just a minor irritation, then growing to a pounding as they walked and talked above him. Once he passed out for a few seconds.
He doubled his fist and struck the steering wheel hard. He’d show them. They might trap him in one place, but he would show up in another. A fragment of a childhood rhyme ran through his head: “I’m the gingerbread man, catch me if you can.” That would be his message to them. Catch me if you can.
He drove past the duplex and parked three blocks down. The lights were out on her side. The other apartment’s windows were void of curtains, indicating it was still vacant. She was one of the recent additions to his list, and he didn’t think they would be expecting him here. Still, he would use more caution than usual. It was risky going after her. He hadn’t watched her all evening like he had the other one, and she might not be alone.
He pulled her picture from the glove compartment and looked at it in the light from the street lamp. He had snapped the picture of her walking back to her office after a lunch with co-workers. Her heart-shaped lips had been parted in a smile as she flirted shamelessly with the men in the group, making it clear to anyone watching that she’d spread her legs for any who wanted her. His breath quickened in anticipation. Yes, it was a risk going after her, but it was a risk he’d decided to take.
CHAPTER 45
The incessant jangling of the telephone invaded Jen’s sleep by bits. She sat up, groggy. Her clock showed eight-twenty. She felt a moment of panic, thinking she was late for work, then remembered it was Sunday. She and Will had gotten home at four in the morning. They’d been too keyed up to sleep and had made love until daylight. He was snoring lightly beside her, oblivious to the ringing phone.
Whoever was on the other end wasn’t giving up. She swung her feet out of bed and shivered. The temperature seemed to have dropped, and she slipped into her robe. As she reached for the phone, Will stirred behind her.
“Jen?” Lonnie’s voice was hoarse with sleep. “Sorry to wake you, but dispatch just called. He got another one.”
“Oh, God!” Jen closed her eyes and rested her face in her free hand, the robe hanging forgotten from one shoulder.
“She’s on our list,” Lonnie continued. “From the last batch of divorce notices, the ones we weren’t watching.”
She raised her head and opened her eyes. Will was sitting up now, watching her. She nodded at the question in his eyes, and he flopped back on the bed, cursing softly.
“What’s the address?” She jotted it down on the notepad by the phone.
“Her name’s Reyna Lin,” Lonnie continued. “It’s a first for him. She’s Asian—from the Philippines.”
“We’ll meet you at the scene,” she said, knowing Lonnie would understand Will was there. Funny, she thought, a few days ago that would have worried me. Now it seems natural. Or maybe it’s just that considering a woman had lost her life, it just doesn’t matter anymore if people know about my love life.
She hung up and lay back down next to Will. They held one another, deriving comfo
rt from each other’s presence, as Jen filled him in on the details of the call.
“Do you want to shower first or should I?” she said when she finished.
“You go ahead.”
She stood under the shower, letting the sharp spray drive the sleep from her eyes and mind. She tried not to think of what lay ahead, wondering how much the human psyche could stand before it broke. How much misery, depravity, and ugliness could it take?
Maybe Al was right. If she and Al had been together last night, would they have gotten the killer? Was it predestined, as Al seemed to believe? Ridiculous, she thought, but she shivered in spite of the hot spray.
Will was sitting on the bed, staring at the floor when she entered the bedroom. She put her arms around him. He looked beaten.
“We should have gotten him last night,” he said. “He was right there, waiting for us, and we blew it. She paid the price.”
“Will, we didn’t blow it. I don’t know what went wrong, but we did everything we were supposed to do.” She turned his head with her hands and looked into his sad, blue eyes. “Stop blaming yourself. If there’s any blame to be had, then we all share it. But we did do our best.”
“And it wasn’t good enough.” He stood and walked to the door. “I’m going to take a shower.”
She dressed while he showered. When he returned to the bedroom, he looked a little better.
“Do you want some breakfast?” she said.
“I don’t think so. I can always grab something later.” He put his arms around her from behind and hugged her tightly. “Have I told you lately how glad I am I met you?”
“Probably, but it’s nice to hear it again anyway.” She turned and kissed the tip of his nose. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be all right. You can’t keep a good man down.” He began dressing. “At least we seem to be on the right track about how he picks his victims—thanks to you.”