by Linzi Baxter
Rolling over to the metal wall, I used it to brace myself and sit up. Now I wished I would’ve done the exercise classes with Kaylene so I could do a sit-up. Using every bit of strength I had, I pushed myself into a seated position and took stock of the room.
It felt like a shed more than a room. On the far wall, wood shelves held jars of pickles and beets. The small mattress in the center of the room was no longer white but stained brown and yellow. The far right corner was covered in blood.
On the other side of the room lay three people wrapped in plastic. That explained the smell. Before I had time to look closer at the bodies, the metal door creaked open, and a small woman no taller than five three, with messy gray hair walked in, holding a syringe in one hand and a gun in the other.
“Oh goody, you’re awake!” She walked to the center of the room. “I’m so excited to meet my nephew’s future bride. You know, I had Kevin spy on him for me over the years, and I watched him grow into a fine man, but I really wish he would’ve followed in his mother’s footsteps and not his worthless father’s.” With each word, she took another step closer to me.
I struggled to move further down the wall, but no matter how hard I tried, my ass wouldn’t slide across the wood floor. My degree in computer programming and aerospace didn’t cover how to escape a serial killer.
Brandon would come for me. I just needed to bide my time. “I’m sorry, Brandon never mentioned what his mother did for a living.”
“Tsk, tsk… we followed in my mother’s footsteps, making the evil men and women in the world pay for their crimes!”
“His mother killed people?”
She glared down at me and lowered herself so she was within inches of my face. The smell of her body odor wafted off, covering up the smell of the decaying flesh. Both had my stomach on the edge of throwing up. I held my breath as she spoke into my face. “Frannie and I eliminated bad people from the world.”
“But what about Detective Tammy?”
“She went looking for something she should’ve stayed out of,” the woman whined.
“I never hurt anyone, why are you going to kill me?”
“Oh, I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to train you like my mom trained Frannie and me…”
I closed my eyes and hoped when I opened them, it was a dream. I wasn’t that lucky. “Don’t we only kill on the third of each month?” I asked, hoping to stall as long as possible.
The woman stepped back and a smile spread across her face. “I knew you would want to learn. I saw it in your eyes. Frannie always had the kill on the third of each month. Since I’m no longer going by her and her husband’s rules, we can do whatever we want.”
“How will we know who to kill?” I figured playing along would keep me alive longer than fighting. Brandon would come looking for me soon. Hell, he was already looking for his aunt.
“Kevin hacks into the police databases and tracks where the police are looking. Like now, Brandon is on a goose chase to his old childhood vacation spots, but he doesn’t have to worry. I left a present for him at one of the locations. Maybe once he sees his latest victim dead, he will actually join the family business like his worthless father did. But this time, I will make sure I’m not double-crossed like Frannie was.”
“Why did Brandon’s father kill your sister?” The more I heard of the stories, the more I knew I wasn’t going to make it out of this alive. Brandon was over an hour away and not even close to looking for me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”
“Oh, yes, how rude of me. I’m Kathy.” She came over and plopped right down on the floor next to me. “We’re going to be just as close as I was with Frannie—before Fredrick killed her.”
“I’m sorry he killed your sister. Why didn’t you kill him?”
She jumped back up and paced the small room, becoming more agitated by the moment. I tried to work my hands out of the duct tape, but it didn’t work.
“Nobody knew except Frannie and Fredrick that I stayed in the secret room. Fredrick said if I ever interacted with the kids, he wouldn’t help bring me and Frannie our presents. And I loved getting our presents on the third of the month. I was playing with my new set of knives in the secret room in the house when little Susie came running in and scared me. I thought it was an intruder.” She pouted. “Frannie told me to go to the store and buy some bleach. We never killed in the main house. All the supplies were here at mom’s,” Kathy muttered.
“How awful that must’ve been, hiding from your family.”
Her yellowed teeth showed as she smiled, “I made sure Brandon didn’t see me, but I always watched him grow up from my hiding spots. I was an excellent hider. Frannie promised we could train Brandon.”
“I’m sure Brandon would love to learn you watched him when he was younger.” In a creepy-seral-killer way. I left that the last part out.
She cupped her hands together, “I’m so excited to be reunited with him. I’ve been sending him bodies and testing his loyalty to his aunty. So far he is looking in the right spots, soon he will figure out we’re at his grandma’s house. I’m sure Frannie would be proud of me if she hadn’t died.”
A little piece of hope bloomed in my chest. I was at a place linked to Brandon, and he was already searching the other areas, so maybe he would find this one.
“So, how did your sister die?”
“When Brandon’s dad came home early for a shift, he found his daughter dead on the floor and accused Frannie, and instead of listening to her, he shot her and called the cops and said it was an intruder. Then he made sure I was committed to the mental hospital.” She threw her hands up in the air. “I could’ve raised Brandon, but they wouldn’t let me out of the hospital. Instead, he was shipped off to foster care.”
I wanted to meet the doctor who let Frannie out of the hospital. Talking to her for one minute, I knew she should be locked behind a white padded door and never let out. “You’re free now. So, his plan didn’t work.”
She turned and glared at me. “I’m only out now because Kevin changed the medical records to have me released.”
I bet money she hadn’t taken a single drug since being out, either. “I can’t help you if you have my hands and feet duct-taped together.”
She tilted her head from side to side and finally put the items in her hand down on the ground and grabbed my hands. “Kevin said we shouldn’t trust you, but you wouldn’t hurt your new aunt, would you?”
“No… I want to help you.” Go back to a mental institution. I didn’t think it would help my cause if I said the latter aloud.
Kathy ripped the duct tape off my wrists. I couldn’t hold back the scream as she ripped the hairs from my arms, but she kept pulling the tape as she went. When she was done with my arms, I rotated my wrist to get some circulations back. She ripped off the tape around my ankles with as much force as she’d used on my arms. The pain was just as intense, if not worse.
“Come on.” She held out a hand to help me stand.
I stood next to her, still feeling light-headed.
“Sorry, we had to give you propofol. I didn’t know if you would come with us or fight. I figured it would be easier to get you to come knocked out.”
I took a step, testing my legs, and followed Kathy as she pointed a gun at me. I hoped Brandon would come soon.
16
Brandon
Ten men huddled around an aerial image of the cabin. SA Carson stood next to him, followed by six FBI agents and two Houston Swat officers. The surveillance department had tried to get a satellite feed directly on the building, but the trees covering the area made it impossible to see.
The cabin ran completely off nature's resources and didn’t have electricity. I remembered my aunt taking me into the storm cellar behind the cabin when I was a kid. This building was our last hope of finding the woman alive.
“Detective Quinn and I will come from this angle. You three,” he pointed to the FBI agents, “come up the front, and you guys t
ake this side.”
“Everyone have their comms?” the lead Swat officer, Chris, asked.
Each person said yes.
My eyes were focused on the small cabin sixty feet from me. I was ready to take my aunt down and send her back to the mental hospital or prison. Team Two was in place, and we were waiting on the last group to get into position before we access the old cabin. Team Two reported fresh tire tracks, and I hoped we weren’t too late.
Team Three’s leader came over the comm. “We’re ready.”
“On my command,” SA Carson immediately returned. “Go.”
SA Carson and I hurried across the grass to the back door of the house. I reached into my pocket and placed a small explosive on the back door. The door popped open, and we worked our way through the house.
The kitchen was the first room, groceries sat on the counter, and a pot of water sat on the stove. We continued to the next room, the master bedroom. No suitcase or any other items told us someone was there. I heard each team yell “clear” after they went through a room. It took a matter of two minutes to clear the small cabin.
She wasn’t there. I walked to the living room to find both teams standing and talking.
“I’m going to go check the back cellar.” I walked out the back door to the left. To the side of the house was a wooden door leading down into the underground cellar. The grass was pushed up on the side, making it look like nobody had access to the storm cellar in ages, but the door opened easily.
SA Carson handed me a flashlight. I shined it down the stairs but couldn’t see much. Placing the flashlight between my teeth, I climbed down the old wooden ladder. I shined the light around the small area, and the beam stopped on a blonde woman. SA Carson swore next to me as I ran to her side and kneeled next to her.
Using my gloved hand, I pulled the hair back from her face. It was the woman from the photo. She had been killed less than twenty-four hours after her abduction. Needing fresh air, I climbed back up the ladder and radioed in the call.
I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, but I didn’t have time to take a call.
SA Carson ran his hand through his hair. “We will know when the forensic team gets here, but I would guess she was killed about six hours ago.”
We didn’t know how long we had before she decided to take another victim. What once was a ritual had turned into a game. Something caused the change in her behavior.
My phone started to ring in my pocket again.
“You going to get that?”
I pulled the phone out. An unknown number flashed across the screen. My finger hovered over the decline button, but I decided at the last minute to answer the call. “Hello?”
The phone scratched on the other line, sounding more like a landline than a cell phone. “You found the present I left for you.”
My heart sped up. It had been years since I heard her voice. It was raspy and didn’t sound anything like I remembered. I put the phone on speaker. SA Carson frowned at me for a second.
“Hello, Aunt Kathy.”
“I knew you would remember who I was. While you were out following the trail I left you, I got someone else.”
Everything around me stopped as I heard the faint sound of Sasha’s voice in the background. SA Carson placed a hand on my shoulder. “Play along,” he whispered.
“Who did you get, Aunt Kathy?”
“My lovely future niece, Sasha. She is such a good girl, and I’m going to enjoy training her. You know I don’t like you sharing our conversations with others.” Her voice went from light and chipper to harsh.
“I’m not sharing our conversation. This is between you and me. Can I speak to Sasha for a second?”
A loud bang sound on the other end of the phone was followed by a blood-curdling scream. My hand tightened around the phone. “Kathy, did someone get hurt?”
She huffed on the other end. “Every time you lie to me, I will hurt her. I don’t like hurting her, but you must learn. I know and see everything. Sasha said I could trust you, but it doesn’t seem like I can.”
I turned the phone off speaker and walked away from the other men. “I’m sorry, Kathy. I shouldn’t have done that. Nobody can hear our call, it’s just you and me. Now can I talk to Sasha?”
“Looks like you're not lying this time, but I’m not sure I’m ready to bring you into this part of the family. You were a bad boy and followed in your dad’s footsteps, not your mother’s. Frannie always told me you would join us. Why did you not come to see me?”
“Dad told me you died.” It was the first thing that came to mind.
“Hmm… Your dad was always out to get me. I think that’s why he killed your mom.”
I watched as SA Carson jaw ticked. He wanted to know every word being said, but I couldn’t chance it again. He still could hear my side of the conversation because I hadn’t removed the comm from my ear.
“Can I speak to Sasha, please?”
I paced back and forth near the cellar, waiting for Kathy to reply.
“Make it quick.”
Sasha whimpered into the phone. “Hi, Brandon.”
“Are you okay? Can you run?”
She cleared her throat. “I’ve decided to help your aunt with the family business. The only way that’s possible is to do what she wants. Please take Benji and don’t let him go in that old brown shed of your neighbor’s.”
“Are you hurt?”
“I love you, Brandon.”
I took a deep breath. “I love you.”
My aunt's voice came back over the phone. “Oh, how sweet. I will make sure to let Sasha know how you feel. But if you want to join Sasha and me moving forward, I need you to bring your father to meet me.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “He’s locked up for life. There is no way I can bring him to you.”
“Now I’ve watched you for years, thanks to my Kevin. I know you have friends in high places. Once I know he’s released into your custody, I will call back.” The phone went dead. She ended the call.
“Everyone turn your comms and radios off,” I yelled. “Anything that can be hacked and viewed.”
I watched as everyone turned their gadgets off one by one. The only thing on was the comm between the team. That wasn’t hackable because it was localized.
“She knew we were here. She knew you were listening. Kevin is giving her access to everything. I bet she watched us in the conference room. That’s why she’s been one step ahead of from the beginning, and now she wants me and Sasha to join her.”
“Join her?” Chris asked. “As in start killing people with her?”
“Yes.” I didn’t even hesitate to answer the question. I knew that was exactly what she wanted. “If I had to guess, she wants to start with my dad. I won’t get the next location until I have him in my custody.”
“It will take days to get a judge to sign off on releasing him to you.”
I reached up and rubbed my heart. We didn’t have days to get Sasha away from my aunt. She already sounded half unhinged. “We need to get a hold of the warden. This is our chance to bring her in. Hell, I don’t care if they implant a tracker in my father. He needs to let us come get him.”
SA Carson nodded and walked off with his phone to his ear. The second team leader for the FBI walked over. “Did Sasha give you any hints on to where she might be?”
“She mentioned something about not letting her dog go near my neighbor's shed, but he doesn’t have a shed. So, we are looking for a house with a brown shed.”
The agent shook his head and looked off into the instance. “That could be a million different places, but do you remember any place you’ve been where there was a brown shed.”
SA Carson came back and stood next to me. “They said we need to go through the proper channels.”
We didn’t have time for proper channels, and everything we did back at the station might be compromised. She would know if we were working a different angle. I was still trying to figure out what
Sasha meant by the brown shed. “I’m going to head to my house and go through photos and see what I can find.”
SA Carson followed me. He threw me the keys as I rounded the SUV and jumped in. The team leader from SWAT jumped in the back. I had known Chris for years. He would do anything to help me, and I knew it.
My fingers tapped against the steering wheel as we made the hour-and-half trip back to my house.
“Is this brown?” Chris held up a picture of me holding a pumpkin. If I had to guess, I was around five years old in the picture. Behind me was a dark-brown shed with a green mower out front.
I reached for the photo. “This could be it.” Turning it over, I hoped for an address, nothing on the photo jogged my memories of where it could be taken.
The clock chimed, letting me know another hour had passed. An officer had cleared out the conference room and brought all the photos to my house. SA Smith was back at the office, working on getting a judge to release my father on a reprieve. In the state of Texas, they only allowed reprieves for a family emergency such as a funeral or critical illness. Neither was the case in our instance, but the Director of the FBI wanted Kathy off the streets. Knowing she was using a hacker to watch inside the police station should benefit us.
“This photo doesn’t get us any closer than we know the stupid brown shed is real.”
SA Carson grabbed another stack of photos. “It’s so hard to picture your mother or your aunt as serial killers.”
He was looking at a picture of our family outside of the church. We all had on our Sunday best. Mom’s long hair was braided to the side, and Aunt Kathy smiled down at me.
“I guess that’s why she never got caught.” I grabbed the next photo album and propped it open. “My father continued to cover for her.”
Now he wanted to tell his story. SA Smith had looked into his claims that he was dying, and she said he had fourth-stage lung cancer. The doctors gave him about another month, if not less.
“I think I found it.” Chris held up a photo of an old white house with a brown shed in the back. The numbers on the side of the house were faint, but I didn’t need the numbers to know what the place was. I hadn’t gone there very often growing up, but it was my grandmother’s house on the south side of Houston, near the third ward.