by Gary Hancock
Entering the old looking house did not prepare us for what was inside. The ultra modern layout and electronics made you feel like you were stepping out of a time machine. I looked around the room and saw the doorway set into the wall and the concealing bookcase. One of the agents said, "You are not going to believe what is below." The tour of the contents of the basement and the book that was still laying out on the writing desk, provided a unbelievable look into the mind of one of the most mysterious killers ever to terrorize the country. Maggie just stared at the name that was revealed to be the true identity of The Twin Killer. We had bought all of his books for Sara Grace and I felt a shiver go down my spine.
All his book tours and signings gave him the opportunity to spy on the scenes and future victims without drawing any attention. The money he made gave him the means to finance an unlimited tour de force. His death caused an interruption of the murders. All the clues were there but no way to link them up. How Sally found his house was a mystery. None of his writing in his journal mentioned that anyone knew his secret. That will be the first question for our missing suspect. But where was she and her sister? Were they out stalking another set of twins or would they wait six months?
The agent in charge of the crime scene came forward and said, "This might help." He was holding boxes from Wal-Mart that had contained pay as you go cell phones. He had already started a warrant for the provider's records and a tracking request. It should be available in a couple of hours and then we would see where our young ladies were.
The answers surprised us. Both phones were only fifty miles away in the Teddy Roosevelt National Park, straight down Interstate 95. Maggie told them to get the helicopter and a medical response team to the park, we were going there now. I jumped into the SUV with her glaring at me. "You are not going into danger without me and that is it." I said. She motioned to the rear seat and told me to climb into a vest and hold on. Forty minutes later we were inside the park and heading to where the phones were suppose to be. Maggie slid the truck to a stop and told me to get out and stay by the vehicle while she and the other officers closed in on the sisters. She hugged me and I felt her slip something into my hand. After they had left I saw it was a small derringer that I knew she kept strapped to her ankle. The little Taurus forty four she carried and this even smaller gun shot the same big 44 magnum bullet. She had taught me to shoot both her favorite and this smaller gun. I remembered her saying that the derringer was only good for a couple of feet and it was the last resort weapon.
Just then Maggie came back to where I was. They had found the car and bike parked in the lot by the museum. There was a nylon rifle case on the backseat of the car and it was empty. She walked to the back of the black SUV, opened the hatch and pulled out a thirty ought six Remington Model 700 rifle. Like I said she has been training me in all aspects of her trade. I knew that in a fight with rifles, my wife was better than anyone else. She then kissed me again and reached up and patted my head and said, "Stay".
I was leaning against the truck when I heard something on the other side of the parking lot. I thought it was the search party returning, so I walked around to the pile of large boulders that were arranged like the side of a mountain. I then heard someone behind me and turned. She shot me as I came around and the world turned black.
Now here I am sitting on the ground leaning against one of the large rocks. As my vision slowly returned to normal, I tried to move but I didn't have the strength. My right hand had been trapped under my body when I fell and I just couldn't pull it out from underneath me. I looked up and saw this dark haired woman standing about five feet away. Her shoes were almost against my out stretched legs and she was holding a small pistol with one of those tube shaped silencers on the end of the barrel. A smile was on her face as she looked down on my collapsed form.
"Well mister writer man, I see you are awake," Sally said. "I didn't want to spoil my sisters fun, so I made sure no one else could hear me shoot you." "Good trick with Mary carrying both phones. Huh." She then told me about her sister training to use one of Ralphie's rifles. The last five years had been spent joining a local shooting club and competing in matches. Mary had came in second in the state last year and how proud it had made her. Sally told me that pistols were more of her thing, that and locks. Sally informed me that now they were going to take down a entire FBI team. Once Mary had killed my wife and maybe one or two of them at a distance that made their pistols useless, then Sally would come up behind and start quietly picking off the survivors one at a time. They had known that the FBI would sooner or later find their hideout and had rented a house in the next town and spied on us when we had shown up in Lemmon. The hunter never suspects that another hunter is watching. The boxes with the phones had been left so that the Agents would track them. Both of the phones had the batteries removed and only activated when the trap was set here in the Park.
I began to evaluate my situation. She had shot me with that damn little twenty two. The space between the top of the vest and my neck had a hole in it that probably went all the way through and out my back. I could feel the blood running down the inside of my vest all the way to the waist. It was on my left side above my heart, but I could move my fingers on my left hand a little and thought that maybe it was just a flesh wound and hadn't hit any bones. Let me tell you that it had shocked my body and I couldn't move much. Just a little wiggle here and there. I concentrated on the bitch standing before me and willed all my strength into my arms and that was when we heard the shot in the distance.
Sally's head jerked around automatically and when she turn back to look at me, I had managed to pulled my hand from out behind me and shot her in the face with the little forty four. At the distance of only five or six feet it blew a hole right through her nose and the back of her head exploded. When I had jerked my body to get the gun clear, I could feel the wound in my neck open back up and as blood gushed out, I once again faded into the darkness.
There was an angel singing my name. Wait a minute, angels don't use that kind of language. I could here "Frank, Frank. Don't you die on me you S.O.B. We have a daughter and she is not going to grow up without a father." I realized that we were in the whirlybird and a EMT was working on me as we were flying. I don't remember much about that day after I shot Sally. Maggie had to tell me all the details two days later. I was right about the bullet passing through my body and once they had hung a IV of blood and stopped the bleeding, I was out of danger. The hospital had cleaned up the wound and injected me with enough drugs to kill all the infections know to man and enough painkillers to make me sleep both days, while my little wife was stretched out on the cot in my room. I woke up starving to death and Maggie fussing with me for not staying when she told me to.
The story of what had gone on while I was sitting on the ground with Sally hovering over me was textbook. The FBI team had use caution tracking what they thought was both of the sisters into the badlands of the park. Maggie had climbed up as high as she could before the rest started out. A glint of light off the telescopic sight of the rifle of Mary's caught Maggie's attention and when she swung her Remington toward it, she saw Mary raise up and look in her direction. Maggie's sudden movement had caught her eye. Then it was a race to who could shoot first. Mary may have come in second in the state, but she was still not in the same class as my wife. It was the last second place Mary Pride would ever have.
Well folks, that is the story of the Twin Killer and his two followers. You don't know what you can lose until you are faced with the possibility. I am going to stick with writing from now on where the only threats are on Twitter. My wife however is still in the crosshairs. Oh one last thing, we had a little book burning and now that Bunny is no more in out life.
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