by Kate Morris
“Yeah, I guess so,” she conceded. “I thought I was being paranoid.”
“That’s the thing that keeps us alive, Evans,” he said as they got out.
Lorena went to the front door and knocked. After a moment, a woman answered, and Lorena recognized her as the woman they’d interviewed, Mrs. Rudolph Martin.
“Hello, Mrs. Martin,” she said, greeting her. “I don’t know if you remember…”
“Oh, yes, come in, Detectives,” she said. “It looks like it’s going to rain. You’d better come in out of it.”
“Thank you,” Jack said agreeably.
They stood in the foyer until she insisted they come in the rest of the way.
“Can I offer you something to drink?” she asked.
Lorena noted that her hair was dark brown, straight and shoulder length. Rudolph Martin was fifty-two, but his wife looked to be a few years younger in her late forties.
“No, ma’am,” they both answered. “We just need to speak with your husband.”
“He’s not here,” she said. “I’m sorry. If I’d have known, I would’ve called Rudolph to let him know you were coming.”
Lorena was thankful that she did not. “Do you know where he is?”
“Is this about that Neumann girl disappearing?”
“Yes, ma’am,” she said.
“So terrible. Hailee is such a nice young girl. Look, my husband even bought a few of her paintings for above the mantle.”
“She wants to be an artist?” Lorena asked although she knew the answer already. She wished the woman had told her this on their first visit. It was more proof that he’d obsessed over Hailee Neumann. Lorena wondered if she’d taken him down to the boathouse and shown him her artwork. She glanced to her left and noticed along the long, floor-to-ceiling windows of the living room stood a telescope. Had Rudolph Martin stood at that telescope pretending to look up at the stars only to actually have been spying on Hailee? It made her sick to think it.
“I’m not sure,” she said. “I’m sorry. This sounds terrible, but Rudolph is the more sociable one in our relationship. I am just always so busy. I don’t get to all the neighborhood parties and all that.”
“Did he ever take the Neumann kids out on his boat?”
“Oh, yes. Quite a few times last summer. Hailee is a patient of Rudolph’s. As a matter of fact, she just got her braces removed! Now her teeth are perfect.”
“And he took the kids out on the lake?”
“Yes, and some of the other kids around here, too. Sometimes parents just get busy. I don’t care much for boating. When we first moved here, it was fun, but then it just became a hassle. The kids keep me busy running them here and there. I’ll tell you, I’m nervous about the time when they start driving, but I’ll kind of be glad for it, too.”
“Right,” she said with a sympathetic smile. Lorena wondered if Rudolph took other kids out on the lake as a way of getting to know them, learning about them, studying the teen girls, prepping for his next victim. “It seems like with your husband’s busy practice, he wouldn’t have the time, either.”
“He’s only working part-time now.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, he’s always worked so hard for so many years. Last year, he started working three days a week. He has a partner, so it’s good to let the younger guys start taking some of the extra workload. It’s been great for Rudy. He’s also investing in local real estate with a few other doctors and some friends. He meets with them a lot, especially lately to go over potential investments.”
“Rudy?”
“Just a nickname I like to call him. He doesn’t care for it all that much, truth be told. Anyway, he works part-time, and that gives him so much more time for the things he enjoys now.”
“Like what?” Lorena asked, biting her tongue not to say something like ‘murder.’ She wasn’t sure if the investment club was true or not, but it did give him an alibi and a reason to take off at a moment’s notice.
“He loves going up to our other house. It’s very private. Too private, if you ask me. I don’t like being that far out of the city. It just doesn’t seem safe, you know?”
Lorena smiled and said, “Yes, I know what you mean.”
Suddenly, a teenage girl blasted into the room chasing after her dog. “Lucy! Lucy, stop! Sorry, Mom!”
The Golden Retriever bounded past them and up the stairs. Lorena tried to remain calm. Everything clicked into place. She could hear Jack talking for both of them since she was in another world. He’d texted her about loving his Golden Retriever, Lucy, more than his wife.
“Where is Dr. Martin, ma’am?” she interrupted Jack.
“Up at the lake house,” she said. “Well, the forest house is more like. I don’t care for it there. Too dark. All those trees. The bugs! No thank you.”
“Thanks for your time, ma’am,” she said. Then she lied her ass off so that the wife wouldn’t call and warn her husband, “And can you not call him to tell him we’re coming? We need help with this case, and sometimes, well, we just don’t like people to put too much thought into what they’re going to say. We like the answers to come more organically. It helps jog the memory better. And we could use your husband’s help solving this case.”
“Oh, sure,” she said. “But I doubt you’ll find the place, not in this rain and at night.”
She wrote down the address, although Lorena already had it. Then she and Jack left in a hurry. When she got to the car, her phone rang. It was Craig, and she put him on speaker. Her hands were shaking. Her adrenaline was pumping on high. She felt short of breath from her damn cold.
“Got the warrant. I’m heading to the two commercial properties here in the city.”
“Two?” Lorena asked since she’d only found one.
“Yeah, he’s in some real estate investment thing with other investors. One is a bar and grill, a pub to be exact. The other is a warehouse. We’re thinking he could be hiding women there or hiding evidence, treasures and trophies and whatnot.”
“Good,” Jack said. “We’re going north to his vacation home. His wife just told us that he should be there.”
“I’ll send backup,” he said. “Most of us are still south of the city. Try to wait for the backup to get there before breaching if you can. It’ll go easier if we can serve him with a legal warrant.”
They disconnected a second later and got on the road to find Trix.
“Jack,” she said, “I’m looking at the file on the night I was supposed to meet with him on that trail.”
“Yeah?”
“They interviewed three people who were in the area, remember? The teenagers making out in the parking lot and the old man walking his dog. Jack, I’m looking at his name right now. It’s him. The man walking his dog was named Dr. Rudolph Michael Martin. He gave me his real name. Remember? He said his name was Michael? It’s just his middle name. He was there all along. That’s how he took the pictures. He got there ahead of us and planted the bag at the base of the tree. He saw us come in together. Nobody suspected him of anything because he was supposedly just an old man walking his dog.”
“He’s not that old,” Jack said.
“No, but maybe he was playing it up. He does have salt-and-pepper hair and wears big, thick glasses. Hell, I’m a seasoned detective, and looking at him, I wouldn’t have guessed he was even strong enough to do the things he’s been doing. He seemed weak and old.”
Jack nodded and said, “We need to be careful up there, Evans. We can’t underestimate this guy. He’s unhinged, pissed off that we’re narrowing this down, cornering him, and he’s obsessed with you now. Let’s play this one by the books and wait for backup from the feds.”
“I’m okay with that. I’m not looking to be a hero. I just want to see him in cuffs with enough forensics to put him away for life. And I want to know where she is.”
“Me, too, chief,” he said and sped up.
It took a full hour to get there, and they passed t
he turnoff for his lane twice and had to back up. The tax map stated that the address was Kalama, Washington, but it was nowhere near any city at all and took a long time to navigate to the actual address. There wasn’t another home around for miles. According to the aerial picture of the property, the home and land were situated with views of the Kalama and Columbia Rivers. Lorena wondered how many bodies he’d dumped near each.
Although there wasn’t a gate at the end of the driveway, there wasn’t much of a driveway, either. It was gravel, rutted with holes and dips, steep and winding. With the rain, it was even harder to see where the driveway ended and the unclaimed land and forest began. His wife hadn’t exaggerated. It was remote, private, and extremely wild.
“This is perfect for what he needs it for,” she said.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Jack added. “I don’t know how he’d keep women up here locked away if this was a family vacation home.”
“She said she doesn’t like it here, so she probably doesn’t come up with him. It’s a win-win situation for Martin.”
Jack pulled to a stop off the driveway and cut the engine, effectively killing the lights.
“We’ll wait here for the big guys,” he said with a grin.
“Sounds good,” she said.
Then Lorena took a small pair of compact binoculars out of her backpack and looked through them at the house below. Jack pulled out a pair from the console between them.
“He’s definitely here,” Lorena said. “I can see lights on in that house.”
“Yeah, me….”
“What is it?”
“Evans,” he said. “Shit! The house is on fire!”
She looked closer and could see smoke, as well. It wasn’t the kind that came from a chimney, either. Smoke was billowing out of the open windows.
“He’s destroying evidence,” Lorena said, already opening her door.
Jack led the way down the drive, and as they drew nearer to the massive log home, he skirted sideways and into the weeds. She followed closely with her weapon drawn. She could see flames somewhere in the interior of the home glowing brilliant oranges and reds and emitting black smoke.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, “Little Lorena, I am truly sorry we didn’t get speak more at the clinic. That was certainly a missed opportunity.”
“Where are you, Dr. Martin?”
“I wanted so badly to drag you into another room and have my way with you, dig through your mind, manipulate you, break you.”
“Where are you?”
“I really thought you’d suspect Nathan Willoughby. I worked for a very long time pinning it all on him. Years, actually. As a matter of fact, your case is going to be so weak in court because all of the evidence you need on me is in Nathan’s home.”
“That doesn’t matter, Doctor,” she said. “I have enough. Let’s just end this peacefully.”
“End?” he asked, chuckling. “My dear, I have no intention of ending this. I’ll simply use another identity. Do you really think a man of my stature, wealth, and intelligence is simply going to allow you to cart me away in handcuffs like a common street thug?”
“What about your family, sir? Think what it will do to them.”
There was a very long pause.
“Sir?”
He disconnected. She wondered if she’d hit a nerve. Lorena continued moving forward and staying semi-crouched in case he was still on the property. A moment later, as they both set foot on the first step of the front porch, their borrowed SUV at the top of the steep drive exploded behind them. Lorena jumped a foot, the sound frightening and startling her so badly. Jack grabbed her arm and ushered her inside the burning house. Then he took the rim of her turtleneck and pulled it up, showing her to keep her mouth and nose covered. He signaled with his hand to stay low.
“We need to search the house, make sure nobody’s still in here,” he said in their squatted position. “Then I need to get out there and look for him. He just blew up our car. He flanked us.”
“I’ll go high. You search the basement.”
“No, we should stick together,” Jack argued.
“There’s no time, Jack,” she pleaded. “We’ve gotta check the house.”
He nodded, “Fine. But be quick, Lorena, in case he comes back down here. You search the basement. The smoke on the top floors will be worse.”
They split up, going their own ways. Without knowing the way around the home, she didn’t know where she was going. However, she did keep her pistol out in front of her. Past the chef-sized kitchen with high-end appliances and black granite countertops was a pantry that led to the garage. A sleek, black Mercedes sport utility vehicle rested in one bay and two four-wheelers in the other. Another doorway from the kitchen led to a half bath. Lorena coughed as quietly as she could and readjusted the neck of her shirt over her mouth. Then she took her .45 in both hands again and went to another door. It opened into a stairwell that went down. There wasn’t smoke coming from the basement, so she felt safer going in that direction. She descended slowly, a sudden feeling coming over her that she was walking down into the pits of hell itself. She shook her head to clear it, paused and continued on until she arrived on the bottom floor. She cleared three bedrooms that held bunk beds meant for housing a large family and their weekend guests. The hall then opened up into a long living room. It was more of a rec room with a pool table, gaming table and a wall-sized screen with comfortable recliners in front of it for having a movie night in. Lorena went in that direction and kept the lights off. She turned left through a doorway.
She walked into a utility room with a washer and dryer, furnace, sink, and shelving units. Beyond that was a narrow corridor. Lorena kept her sidearm out front in case he jumped at her. Then she heard a woman coughing and picked up the pace.
Lorena found the end of the room where a massive vault door was located and standing slightly ajar. She kept her right hand with the gun raised and pried with just three fingers at the heavy door to open it further. She tried to slow her fast breathing. He could be in this room waiting to pounce.
She slinked in after glancing behind her. Lorena’s hands were shaking. There was a wall of closed-circuit television monitors. Chains in the stone wall were attached there by metal rings anchored in the stone and mortar. She’d arrived in his dungeon of terrors, his safe haven, his lair.
“Help me!” a girl screamed off to her right. “Help, please!”
Lorena whispered, “Shh.”
The girl ignored her, continued to scream frantically. Lorena swung left. She wasn’t doing anything until she had the room cleared. A desk with a chair stood in the corner. Thick sound-proofing padded most of the walls. On the desk were thick eyeglasses, a pocket protector full of pens, a box of condoms, red nail polish, hairpins and ribbons, and three boxes of L’Oreal women’s pale blonde hair dye. A bed around the corner and a dead-end presented itself next. There were chains and handcuffs and blood stains on the mattress, soiled towels and lingerie on the floor around it. Lorena rushed back to the girl she’d just barely glimpsed, having cleared all the spaces. She knelt beside her, tried to avoid her clawing, desperate fingers.
“What’s your name?” Lorena asked, looking at the blonde girl, who was sobbing and hysterical.
“Hailee. Hailee Neumann. Dr. Martin kidnapped me. He told me to ride over to his house on his boat to… to help him find Lucy, his dog, and then… and then…”
“It’s okay now,” she said to the girl that she did not recognize at all from the pictures. He’d transformed her appearance nearly completely. She was shaking like a frail leaf, which gave Lorena a little more fortitude. This girl needed her. “His boat? Not a car?”
“No, I went with him to his house on the boat. At first, he said he thought Lucy might’ve fallen into the lake. Then when we got to his dock, he asked if I’d ride around the neighborhood with him in his car to look for her. Then… then…”
“It’s okay. You can tell us later.”
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br /> “He pulled over and punched me. I didn’t know what to do,” she continued as if she needed Lorena to hear it. “He gave me a shot in the shoulder. I woke up here. I couldn’t get free. I want to go home. I want my mom.”
She cried in earnest, tears falling so quickly.
“I just want my mom.”
“It’s okay,” Lorena said and held the girl for a moment. “We’ll get you home to your parents.”
“I just want Elizabeth. I want my mom.”
For whatever reason, perhaps the bonding over Victor’s abuse or the fact that she was held captive by a madman, Elizabeth had become this girl’s only parental figure. She was even calling her ‘mom.’ She was glad for Jack’s ex that she had this young girl in her life. It spoke to Elizabeth’s character that Hailee trusted her so much and cared enough to ask for her in her darkest hour.
Lorena buzzed her partner.
“Find anyone? I’ve got a dead woman in the third-floor attic, but she’s chained to a bed. Probably dead about twelve hours. I couldn’t get her free. I’m coming your way. We gotta get outta here,” he said.
“I’ve got Hailee,” she told him quickly. “I need to get these cuffs off, and I’ll be right back up.”
She heard a gunshot through the phone and cried out, “Jack?”
“That wasn’t me. I’m at the top of the steps. I’m coming down. Don’t shoot me.”
Within seconds, he found her and was kneeling at her side.
“What’s going on up there? Who was shooting?”
“I don’t think it was shooting. I think it was another explosion outside.”
Jack had Hailee out of her handcuffs quickly and explained, “I called the local fire department. They’re on their way.”
“Mr. Foster?” the girl asked in confusion.
“Yes,” he said and touched her bruised cheek. “It’s me. You’re safe, Hailee. Let’s get you out of here.”
“Where’s my mom? Where’s Elizabeth, Mr. Foster?”
“She’s safe, kiddo. Don’t worry. We’re gonna get you out of here and home to her as soon as we can.”
“Yes, please. He told me if I didn’t cooperate, he’d kill Klaus and Elizabeth. Help me. He’s crazy. He…he killed two girls,” she said and began crying. “He killed them right over there.”