Silent Ridge: A gripping crime thriller and mystery (Detective Megan Carpenter Book 3)

by Gregg Olsen

She pulls a second syringe from her pocket. “Don’t worry. I have enough for you.”

  “You skanky insane bitch. I can’t imagine what either of the Raders saw in you. Were you their maid? I mean, look at you. Alex preferred sweet young blonds like me.”

  She laughs but I can tell I’ve struck a nerve, so I go on.

  “Michael probably couldn’t get it up. Maybe that’s why he killed men. Did you kill Michael because he liked men?”

  She steps over to me and stares into my face. Her lips are a pencil line.

  “Michael wasn’t my lover. And he was never my partner. He was stupid.”

  “He was smart enough to kill those prisoners who might have become a complication for Alex.”

  She smiles. “You think so, huh? He wasn’t protecting his brother. Michael and Marie were having an affair. He was protecting himself. And her.”

  I always wondered why Michael would take all the pictures of the dead girls from Monique. He wasn’t protecting his brother’s name. He was protecting himself. “Michael was helping Marie select the victims. He took some of the pictures, didn’t he?”

  She doesn’t answer. She holds the syringe up and readies it.

  “You’re from Central America.” It’s a guess. I don’t care where the hell she’s from. I just want to stall. I can feel my feet and fingers now. I can imagine my fingers jamming a syringe in her eye.

  She says, “Ecuador. I escaped and came here only to be a slave. Alex saved me. He gave me everything. Told me everything. He hated Marie. She was making him kill.”

  “How?” I already know she was using emotional blackmail to get Alex to do whatever she wanted.

  She says, “Marie was paralyzed from the waist down from a car accident. Alex was driving. She used his guilt to make him kidnap and kill for her. She got off on it.”

  “Why are you doing this? Do you get off on it too?”

  “I loved Alex. He was going to leave Marie and run away with me. But you killed him. I don’t care that you killed Marie. If you hadn’t, I would have. I tried telling him the accident wasn’t his fault. But he had a big heart. He tried to make it up to her, but she was sick.”

  Yeah. She was sick. Not Alex. He was just following orders. He had such a big heart that he tortured the girls almost to death for seven days, raped them over and over, killed them and dumped their naked bodies to be found like roadkill. And this sick bitch knew all about it.

  “How did you talk Michael into helping you?”

  The corners of her mouth turn up in a smile. “I know you’re stalling but it won’t matter. No one knows you’re here or they would have shown themselves by now. So I’ll tell you. I’ve got time.

  “Michael was in trouble at work. He killed a couple of prisoners and he was under investigation. He was paranoid. I convinced him that he needed to kill you. He tracked you down for me. Gave me the information I needed on Monique and her daughter.”

  I ask, “You killed Monique just to get my attention? You killed Michael because you didn’t need him? Or are you going to blame all of this on him?”

  “You’re smart. Alex told me you were. That’s part of the reason Michael was afraid of you.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes. Michael is the killer. Okay. But how did you get Monique to come to Port Townsend? Was she looking for me?”

  “I joined Monique’s little group of do-gooders. We became friends. It wasn’t hard. She was a very lonely woman. I convinced her you were in danger from Michael. I showed her the articles in the paper about the prisoners dying and told her I had sources inside the prison who said Michael was under suspicion. I was the one making hang-up calls to her phone. And to the other phones. Gabrielle’s, the Blumes’, Moriarty’s. I knew you’d check.”

  She’d drawn me in like a moth to a flame. Made me think it was Michael I was after. I didn’t know Alex had a mistress. Or that she would be crazy as bat shit and a killer like Marie.

  Dan said nothing through all of this, but I could feel his eyes on me. If we live through this I will have to move. Change identities again. Start over. I’ll probably lose any chance I have of making up with Hayden.

  Right now all I can think of is protecting Dan.

  “If it gives you any peace, after I kill you and your boyfriend, I’m done.”

  “I’ll make you a deal,” I say.

  I’m in no position to deal. But she’s curious.

  “If you let Dan go, I won’t find you and kill you.”

  She throws her head back and laughs so hard and long that tears run from her eyes. She catches her breath.

  “You’re not very smart, but you’ve got nerve. I’m going to give you just a little of my special concoction. Enough so you can hear your boyfriend scream while I flay his skin off. If you’re a good girl, I’ll give him a little near the end, but I think he’ll pass out before he needs it.”

  “You’re going to kill me,” I say. “Why not tell me your name?”

  “I’m no one. I’m everything you hate. I’m the one who got away. Everyone I killed is down to you.”

  She takes the plastic guard off the tip of one syringe and holds the other between her teeth. She lifts the front of my shirt and leans over to inject it into my stomach.

  The drug has worn off enough that I knee her under the jaw as hard as I can. She stumbles back and falls hard on the ground. She looks at me and the hate in her eyes has turned to panic. I can see the dark serum run down her chin. I don’t know how much of the serum she got in her mouth but it wasn’t enough. She gets unsteadily to her feet and tries to spit the paralytic out. She pulls the long-bladed knife from her belt and moves toward me in jerking strides like she’s drunk.

  She isn’t stopping and I know I’m as good as dead. She’ll stab me and might have enough strength to kill Dan. I feel tears of rage build up in my eyes. I turn my head toward Dan and he’s looking at me. There’s no fear or panic in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Megan,” he says. “This isn’t your fault.”

  I feel a lump in my throat and a tightness in my chest. I realize that I love him with all my heart. I’ve not felt this strong an emotion since I had to leave Hayden behind. I feel my heart breaking and wish I could say the words to him, but I can’t.

  She intends to kill me first. It’s what I deserve, but I’m not giving up. If she gets close again I’m going to kick her in the groin. I’m going to get loose somehow and shove that knife down her throat and then slit her open to see if she has a heart. I’m going to—

  She raises the knife over her head and runs toward me with the blade pointed at my chest. I hear a loud crack and then someone yells, “Drop the knife! Police!”

  A hole appears in one side of her head and brains blow out the other side. She crumples like a marionette with its strings cut. My eyes won’t leave her, expecting her to get up.

  Dan says, “My god, Megan.” His head has turned toward the sound.

  Ronnie is standing twenty feet away, her gun thrust forward in both hands; her eyes are slits, as if she closed them. Sheriff Gray comes running up, out of breath.

  “My god, Megan,” he says, repeating what Dan said.

  Sixty

  Dan is on a gurney in the back of an ambulance. I’m in another but refusing treatment until Sheriff Gray reminds me that I need evidence of my imminent demise to justify the shooting. For Ronnie’s sake, I allow them to check me over and draw blood. I’m bruised and scraped with some small cuts on the back of my head and shoulders from being dragged. My wrists are bruised but the paramedic doesn’t think I have nerve damage. He suggests I go to the hospital. I thank him for his concern and go over to see Dan.

  Dan hasn’t fared as well. He’s been beaten severely. Some of the cuts will need stitches and he will be hospitalized to see if the poison he was injected with has caused permanent muscle and nerve damage. Where I only got a taste, Dan got a full dose when she surprised him in Snow Creek. I heard him telling the Clallam County Sheriff’s Detective that he ans
wered the door to a woman saying her car broke down. Next thing he knew, he was trussed up next to me. He was still pretty out of it.

  He opens his eyes when I pull myself into the back of the ambulance and sit on the bench beside him.

  “I’m so sorry, Dan.”

  He turns his head away. He won’t look at me. I’m humiliated. He heard every poisonous word spoken. He knows more about me than anyone now. Even some things I just learned from her. He pretty well knows the whole story except for what I’ve done since ending Alex and Marie Rader.

  My first “almost boyfriend,” Caleb Hunter, couldn’t look at me either after he witnessed what I was capable of.

  My hand is on Dan’s. “Can we talk?”

  He doesn’t respond.

  The paramedic says, “We’re taking him to the hospital. The other ambulance will take you.”

  I want to ride in the back with Dan, but I’m sure Dan doesn’t want me there. Maybe when he feels better and has some time to digest all this, he will want to talk about it.

  His creations are burnt to ashes. I lean over and kiss him on the temple. He doesn’t pull away, but he doesn’t turn toward me, either. I get out and walk over to Sheriff Gray and Ronnie.

  The paramedics close the ambulance doors. The emergency lights come on and they pull away. I tell myself that I don’t really love him. I tell myself that I was in an emotional state and didn’t think I’d survive. I push everything in a box and push it in the back of my mind. I can feel it like a weight.

  “This was reckless even for you, Megan,” Sheriff Gray says.

  Ronnie’s expression is frozen. She’s just killed someone and I can imagine the images and self-repugnance she is feeling.

  “How did you know where to find me?”

  “You can thank Ronnie for that,” the sheriff says. “She figured it out.”

  “But how did you get here so fast?” I left Ronnie on foot and at least twenty or thirty minutes from anywhere. Cell reception was spotty at best. It would have taken Sheriff Gray an hour to get to her even if he was running a Code 3 response.

  “She guessed where you were going and texted me while you were in the ladies’ room at headquarters. She said to give you a twenty-minute head start and follow. I caught up with Ronnie walking down SR-101. When you ditched her, she used your phone to track you.”

  Ronnie held her phone up. “Track My Device” she says. “I linked my phone to yours a while back. Good thing I did too.”

  I can’t argue with that, but I need to get a new cell phone number and burn mine. I don’t like being tracked.

  “So what did you hear?” I ask them.

  Ronnie says nothing. Smart girl. Sheriff Gray gives me a guarded look. “We wouldn’t let her give you or Dan another injection of that stuff.”

  That tells me what I need to know. They heard almost everything. My past is blown wide open and all they need to do is put the pieces together with police reports. I feel sick, but it’s over.

  Sheriff Gray hitches up his gun belt and looks away. “Looks to me like this Alex Rader killed his wife and went on the run. Did they ever find him?”

  He’s giving me an out, and so I shake my head.

  Ronnie looks at the woman’s body. “Any idea who she is?”

  “No clue.”

  Tony points and says, “We found the body of a man in a grave over there. His head was cut off. Was that Michael Rader?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did she kill him?” Tony asks.

  “She must have. She had some kind of grudge against him. Maybe she’s a family member or girlfriend of one of his prison victims.”

  “And that’s all you know?” he asks.

  “Yes, Sheriff.” It’s all I’m going to tell you.

  Ronnie asks, “Do you want to go to the hospital and check on Dan? I’ll take you.”

  I feel a spike driven into my chest. I want to go, but I know I’d better not. This problem between us is like a popped pimple. Best not to touch it. Let it heal so it doesn’t get infected.

  “No. I want to go back to the office. I have a lot of paperwork. I guess we all do.” Mine will be creative writing.

  The coroner for Clallam County shows up and is trundled off by one of the deputies in the direction of Michael Rader’s body.

  A detective finishes asking questions of the first arriving deputies and turns his attention to me and Ronnie.

  Sheriff Gray sees him and says, “I guess we’ll be here a while.”

  The detective comes up to us.

  “Howdy, Sheriff Gray.”

  “Hi, Mike. This is Detective Carpenter and Detective Marsh.”

  “Detective Mike Felson. I’d ask how you’re doing, but if you’ll excuse me saying so, you don’t look too good.”

  Sheriff Gray says, “If you can make your questions short, I’m sure we can all come to your office or you can come to mine in the morning and we’ll give complete statements.”

  Mike says, “Tony, I know where to find you. The deputies here have told me enough to piece this together for now, but I’ll come to your office around nine a.m. tomorrow if that’s doable. We haven’t found Detective Carpenter’s duty weapon yet, but if my guys find it I’ll bring it tomorrow. You can secure Detective Marsh’s weapon. For now you can go back home.” He looks at me. “Anything you need to tell me before you cut out?”

  “I had a knife in my boot. She threw it out there in the trees somewhere.”

  “We’ll look.”

  Sheriff Gray smiles and shakes his hand. Mike gives us a parting shot. “Don’t leave the country.”

  He’s a joker. Two dead bodies, two almost victims, and he’s making a joke.

  I like him.

  Sixty-One

  I ride back to the office with Tony and Ronnie. He will send a deputy to pick up my car and leave it at the office. We’re mostly silent the entire trip for different reasons but all pertain to the same incident. I’m in no shape to even go into the office. Ronnie offers to let me sleep on her couch and I take her up on it.

  “Do you feel up to driving?” I ask her while Sheriff Gray goes into the office.

  “I’m fine, Megan,” she says. She doesn’t look fine. But I can drive if I have to.

  Sheriff Gray comes out. “You know the routine,” he says to Ronnie. “I have to send your weapon to Crime Scene for ballistics tests. But in the meantime, you both need to have something.” He has two .45 semiautomatics tucked into the back of his waistband. He hands one to me and one to Ronnie.

  “Don’t get into trouble with these,” he says. “Don’t go anywhere but straight home. Go to sleep. Be back here at nine o’clock to give your statements to Detective Felson. Then you’re off for a couple of days.”

  “What about the reports?” I ask.

  “You’ll do them tomorrow before you take some time off. Like last time.”

  I want to argue. I need to get the report done while this is fresh, but I can barely keep my eyes open.

  “Go home,” he says.

  “She’s staying with me tonight,” Ronnie says.

  “Okay. And, Ronnie?”

  “Yes, Sheriff.”

  “We’ll have that swearing-in ceremony in a few days. You did good out there. I’m proud of you.”

  How about me? I didn’t get killed. I think he should be proud of me. But he heard a lot of stuff the crazy woman said and I don’t think I’m his favorite person right now.

  Ronnie thanks him and we go to her place. The Big Red Barn is a B&B that Ronnie has on long-term lease. It’s fitting since it was the scene of last month’s drama. Neither of us want to go for a drink. I’m afraid of mixing alcohol with poison. Ronnie shouldn’t start drowning her stress with the stuff. We go straight to her place like the sheriff ordered.

  Once there, I plop down on the big leather comfortable couch. I may never move again.

  “Do you want the bedroom, Megan? It might be more comfortable.”

  “I’m fine here.”
<
br />   “Do you want to shower?” she asks.

  “Go to bed,” I say.

  She turns to go and comes back to the couch. “Megan.”

  “Yeah,” I say. I’m just about asleep. I’m safe-ish. I’m hungry but it’ll wait.

  “What’s it like?” she asks.

  “What’s what like?”

  She comes and sits at the end of the couch. There’s still enough room for a marching band.

  “What’s it like? I killed her. I…”

  “You saved me.” I feel a knot forming in my throat. “You did a good thing, Ronnie. Don’t ever think any differently. You didn’t hesitate.”

  “Yeah,” she says in a small voice. “I didn’t hesitate.”

  I sit up and slide up next to her and put my arm around her shoulders. It’s uncomfortable for me but I do it anyway. “It’s hard. You’ll think about it a lot. A lot. But you have to remind yourself why you did it. She was a killer. She was going to kill me and Dan. She almost did. She wouldn’t have hesitated to kill you.”

  I can see Ronnie’s face is pale. She faced death not long ago. That’s something you always remember. She lived. Because of me. Now I was alive because of her. That’s what friends are for. Or partners.

  “You’ve been a good partner,” I say, and I mean it this time. How can I not mean it?

  We sit like that for a few minutes. Neither of us talking. Not needing to. Then Ronnie sits up straight. “What’s next?”

  I remember all too well.

  “We are on paid leave. Me for almost getting killed. You for the shooting. We will both have to talk to the department shrink. She’ll ask a lot of questions about how you feel. Be honest with her.” I’m going to lie again and pretend like it bothers me. “Then she’ll file a report that you can go back to work and then the big day.” I force a smile.

  “Big day?” she asks.

  “You get sworn in. You’ll be a real cop. Now, go to bed and let me get to sleep.”

  Ronnie says good night and goes to her bedroom. I need to pee, but I’m too exhausted to get up. I close my eyes and a series of events runs through my mind. Alex Rader. Dead. Marie Rader. Dead. Monique Delmont. Dead. Michael Rader. Dead. Unknown killer bitch with a knife. Dead. Ronnie’s expression after the killer’s head exploded. Lifeless. She wasn’t shocked. She wasn’t angry. She was in the moment. She didn’t hesitate. She was more like me than I was comfortable with.