by T. R. Ragan
Saturday, February 20, 2010 8:52 AM
The door to Jimmy Martin’s office was wide open when Lizzy and Jared entered.
“Good timing,” Jimmy said as he gestured to the chairs in front of his desk. “I just finished talking to Betsy Raeburn’s brother.”
Jared pulled out a chair for Lizzy and took a seat in the chair next to her. “Does he know where Betsy is?”
“She’s practically around the corner,” Jimmy said. “After getting her third DUI in less than a year, Betsy Raeburn is being held in the Sacramento County Main Jail.”
“Has anyone talked to her?”
“I thought the two of you could stop over there after you leave here.” Jimmy shuffled through papers on his desk. “Sean Davis isn’t a fan of his sister’s. He was more than happy to tell me she’s been drinking and driving for as long as he can remember—including the day she found Lizzy.”
Lizzy’s gaze fell on Jimmy’s watch. It was a Rolex. A Sea-Dweller.
“Sean Davis told me Betsy admitted she had no idea of her exact location when she picked up Lizzy,” Jimmy finished.
“Lizzy?” Jared reached over and touched her arm. “That means you were right about the house not being where they’ve been looking all this time.”
Lizzy wasn’t paying any attention. She was focused on Jimmy’s watch...it was unusual and she was sure she’d seen it before. But where? The answer hit her hard and fast. “Can I have a closer look at your watch?”
Jimmy slid it off his wrist and handed it to her.
“That’s what he was talking about,” she said, “when he accused me of being a thief and taking things that didn’t belong to me.”
“Who?” Jimmy asked.
“The killer,” Jared said. “Spiderman.”
“When he called me,” she reminded Jimmy, turning the watch over in her hands, “he said I never should have gotten away and I never should have taken something that didn’t belong to me. He called me a thief, but until this moment I didn’t know what he was talking about.”
Neither man said a word.
“He was talking about his watch,” she said. “Before I escaped I saw his coveted watch on the bathroom counter. I scooped it up, stepped onto the bathtub, and squeezed my way through the window.”
“Where’s the watch now?” Jimmy wanted to know.
“It was a Rolex very much like this one,” she said again as she thought about what she’d done with the watch after she escaped. “I never saw Spiderman without his watch. He would constantly touch it as if it was his pet.” She closed her eyes. “I had a dream the other night. I was escaping. I fell out of the window and I had to climb out of the bushes that had broken my fall. I was bleeding, but I didn’t care. I wanted...needed to get away. I ran as fast I could. I remember feeling the watch bobble against my arm.” She rubbed her temple as she tried to remember. “I was afraid I was going to lose the watch because I’d lost so much weight.” Inwardly, she wondered why she had worried about losing the watch at all, and then she remembered the feeling of elation when she’d scooped it up...knowing she’d taken something that mattered to him...something she knew he loved.
“Take your time,” Jared told her.
She recalled running down the street and seeing a dry cleaning truck parked in front of a house. She saw Betsy Raeburn leave clothes wrapped in plastic hanging on the front door. Lizzy cried out to her and grabbed a fistful of the woman’s coat as Betsy made her way back to her truck. Betsy was friendly and she tried to calm Lizzy. After Lizzy was seated in the truck, Betsy took the watch.
Lizzy’s heart raced. She opened her eyes. “Betsy told me she would hold the watch for me. She placed it in her pocket and promised to keep it safe.”
“Looks like we have another reason to pay Betsy Raeburn a visit,” Jimmy said.
Jared’s phone rang. He flipped it open and held it to his ear. Thirty seconds later, he clicked it shut. “Somebody recognized the picture we left at Cosumnes River College. They’ve contacted the student and he’s willing to talk.”
Jared stood. “Come on. The kid who delivered the money is going to meet us at Starbucks downtown, next to the school. After that we’ll visit the jail and have a talk with Betsy Raeburn.”
Jimmy also came to his feet. “Odds are the watch is long gone. I’m heading over to the Walker house to see where they’re at with the excavation.”
After Lizzy disappeared through the door, Jimmy pulled Jared back and said, “The ME found spider bites on Sophie Madison’s thigh and on her right arm. We were also able to use the wire found around the cat’s neck and match it to the markings on Sophie’s wrists.”
“Lizzy mentioned Spiderman’s affection for tarantulas,” Jared said. “Tarantulas don’t often bite, not even after being provoked. If we can determine the breed of spider, we could do a search on where these particular spiders are sold.”
“A field biologist is examining the bites,” Jimmy said. “I also called in a tool examiner to determine what sort of wire was used on both the cat and the girl.”
Jared nodded. “If the student we’re meeting with got a good look at the man who hired him to deliver money to Lizzy’s office, I’ll need to call in a forensic sketch artist.”
“Yeah.” Jimmy’s mouth tightened. “If Betsy was drunk when she was making deliveries, it looks like I might owe your girlfriend an apology.”
“I’m not his girlfriend,” Lizzy said from outside the door. “But I’ll accept your apology.”
Jimmy shook his head as he made his way back to his desk.
Jared exited the office and put his arm around Lizzy’s shoulders. He escorted her through the maze of cubicles and out the main entrance. Outside, the wind had died down although dark clouds still huddled in the south. The storm had pulled down a few trees last night. According to the morning news, more than one neighborhood was left without power this morning.
They walked through the parking lot in silence. Jared aimed his key at his car and hit the unlock button. His car whistled back. Once Lizzy was situated, he came around the front, slid in behind the wheel and looked at her.
“What?”
“You’re not my girlfriend?”
She rolled her eyes. “Until Monday night I hadn’t seen you in years. Last night was great, but one roll in the hay does not a girlfriend make.”
“You sure know how to cut a guy to the quick.”
“It takes years of practice.” She sighed. “Besides, you only called me because of the note.”
“I called you because we needed your help. But I always intended to call.” He started the engine. “So, how long or what do I have to do before I can call you my girl?”
“Just drive,” she said.
Saturday, February 20, 2010 9:08 AM
“So who are you?” Hayley asked the man when he peeked his head inside the bedroom door. “Just some pervert who gets his kicks scaring young girls with spiders?” Her arms were held high above her head, her wrists duct taped to the bedpost behind her. The asshole had also wrapped wire around her wrists for good measure.
Her shoulders were sore.
He shut the door. “That’s so sad,” she shouted after him.
For some reason, the sick bastard had taken off her shoes, socks, and pants, but she still had on her snug nylon undershorts and her death angel reaper T-shirt. For just this occasion she’d worn her favorite T-shirt with a detailed picture of the grim reaper using a human bone as a flute.
Hayley had felt nauseous this morning when she first awoke. To her surprise, the small folding knife she’d slipped inside her nylon shorts was still in place. What had he given her to make her sleep for so long?
Blurred images of fighting him, kicking and screaming swirled around in her mind. She must have scared him off. With her arms raised high above her head, she wasn’t sure how she was going to get to the knife tucked neatly under her ass. She strained her forearms, trying hard to push her arms apart and loosen the tape and the wi
re, but the wire kept cutting into her skin. Blood trickled down her arm and over her elbow.
The weirdo looked like a moron in his little Batman mask. He used some trippy voice device, too, that made him sound like a ridiculous robot. The bedroom was no bigger than the room she slept in back home.
The room smelled like mothballs. She had smelled worse.
She leaned closer to the bed and took a whiff. Okay, maybe not. She listened. There he was again, pacing the hallway just outside the door. Every once in a while he would stick his head in as if to make sure she was still there. Earlier this morning, he’d come all the way inside and she spit on him, right in the eye. She had laughed, too. He hadn’t been happy about that. It was almost comical the way he seemed to be almost afraid of her. Clearly, he hadn’t planned to abduct her. She obviously made him very nervous. Rightly so.
She’d made it so damn easy for him to take her though, how could he resist?
The door creaked open and the weirdo leaned inside and placed another ugly spider on the floor a few feet from her bare feet. The last spider he’d let loose had disappeared under the bed. Through the tiny holes in his mask where his eyes were, she could see excitement beaming from wide wild eyes.
What a dumb asshole. A spider the size of a golf ball. Is that all he had?
Her legs, starting at her ankles and ending below her knees, were bound with duct tape and wire just like her arms, but she could bend her knees and stretch out her legs without much pain or effort if she wanted to.
She watched the spider. The insect was big enough that she could hear its little feet pitter-patter across the wood floor as it came toward her. She watched the spider closely. Just a little closer. Come on, spider, you can do it.
A little excited gasp came out of the man’s throat the moment the spider’s hairy leg brushed against her big toe.
Hayley pretended to shudder. Yeah, he was excited all right.
Gritting her teeth, she lifted both feet in the air and dropped them to the floor, hard, slamming her bare heel downward, making contact with the spider’s round semi-soft body. The insect literally exploded, covering the floor with a sticky yucky mess. The sick bastard’s pet spider was dead.
“Ooops,” she said. She lifted her foot so he could see the mess on her heel. “Could you get me a wet rag and clean up this mess?”
He clicked on the little voice button and said in his fucked up robotic voice, “You’re going to regret that.”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s what they all say. So what’s your deal, old man? Are you a copycat or are you the real deal?”
Ignoring her, he left the room, returning a few minutes later with a broom and a dustpan. He cleaned up the mess and when he returned the second time he had a wet cloth in his hand. He kneeled down in his neatly pressed beige slacks and began wiping her feet.
She pulled back. “That tickles.”
The mask made it difficult to figure out if he was mad or amused or anything at all. It didn’t really tickle but she wanted to get him closer so she could slam her foot into his face, but apparently he wasn’t as stupid as he looked.
He kept his distance as he finished wiping her heels clean, squeezing her toes tight when she tried to pull away. He was stronger than he looked, too. She’d thought she had hurt him last night when she stabbed him. Apparently not.
“So what’s the deal?” she asked. “Did your daddy and mommy play with your private parts when you were little? Or maybe your twin uncles liked to play doctor?”
“Shut up,” he said through his synthesizer.
“Why can’t you take off the mask? If you’re planning on killing me anyhow and making my skin into a pillowcase or something, then you might as well come clean right now. Come on, show me what a real bad guy looks like.”
Ignoring her, he stood. When he got to the door, he looked back at her, unmoving. Although she’d never admit it, the mask was kinda creepy. “Do you have that mother-hate thing going on...you know, where you have to torture women to vent because of all the sick heinous things your mother did to—”
The door slammed shut before she could finish.
She laid her head back against the bedpost and let out a long shuddering breath. And then she began to work her arms again, wincing as the wire cut deeper into her flesh.
Chapter 27
Saturday, February 20, 2010 9:32 AM
Jared and Lizzy sat at a table in the coffee shop, waiting for the college student to arrive. Jared took a sip of the coffee he’d ordered and grimaced. “Good thing you didn’t order anything. Not good.”
“Have you always been so picky?”
He ignored her.
Lizzy glanced at her cell phone. “Our guy is two minutes late. Speaking of which, does our guy have a name?”
Jared shook his head. “The caller said that the student was scared and didn’t want to reveal his name yet.”
Lizzy grew quiet, worried about Brittany, hoping her niece was safe.
Jared leaned across the table, his eyes on hers. “We’re getting closer, Lizzy. We’re going to get him.”
She prayed he was right. “Look,” she said, gesturing with her chin toward the door, “there he is now.” She could tell by the curly hair alone that the young man entering the coffee shop was the same courier in the picture Jessica had taken on her phone.
Lizzy waved him over to their table. He was tall and lanky and at closer view he looked like a seventeen-year old kid. Jared stood and pulled out a chair for him. “I’m Jared Shayne and this is Lizzy Gardner.”
The young man glanced at Lizzy, his grim expression making it clear this wasn’t a friendly visit.
He took a seat. His eyes darted about the coffee shop and then he looked over his shoulder at the view of the parking lot. “I don’t have much time.”
“We ordered you a latte.” Jared slid the steaming coffee closer to him.
“Thanks.” He took a sip.
Lizzy noticed his hand shake as he held the cup to his lips.
“What is it you people need to know?” he asked.
Jared spoke first. “Who hired you to deliver a package to Ms. Gardner’s office the other day?”
“I don’t know his name. It was a man who I would guess to be in his mid-forties.”
“How did he find you?”
“He was hanging around the campus the other morning when I pulled up on my bike. He asked if I knew anyone who would be interested in making a quick three hundred dollars to run an errand. He said the job had to be done right then or no deal.”
“Why are you so nervous?”
“There was something disturbing about the dude. He told me he would find me and take care of business if I talked to anyone.”
Lizzy looked at Jared and then back at the young man. Excitement rolled through her at the notion that they might actually be talking to someone who saw and spoke to Spiderman. They needed his help. She leaned forward. “What did he look like? Was the man thin? Heavyset? Any scars or tattoos?”
The boy exhaled. “He was a white man. He had a beard, a thick beard with lots of grey. The beard looked strange, almost fake, but I couldn’t see any glue. The man was of average weight.”
“How tall?”
“Not sure.” He looked Jared over. “About your size and height I would guess.”
“What about his eyes?” Lizzy asked, desperation lining her voice. “Big eyes? Narrow slits?”
“That’s all I remember,” he said, his face pinched, feeling the pressure.
“Three hundred dollars in cash,” Jared said, “if you’ll agree to meet with an artist.”
“Why?”
“We need you to give the artist a description of the man who hired you. The more details the better. The artist will make a sketch from your description so we can get his picture out to the public.”
“Who is this guy anyhow?”
“He’s a cold-blooded killer,” Lizzy said, hoping to make him understand how important it was for him to c
ooperate.
“He’s already killed one little girl that we know of,” Jared said. “We need to find him before he harms anyone else.”
“What about me?” The kid’s eyes widened. He put a hand to his chest. “He’s going to come after me.”
Jared handed him his card. “You’re a big guy. He’d be foolish to try and mess with you.”
The boy looked scared to death as he pushed his chair away from the table and stood. “I need to think about this. If I agree to meet with the artist, you’ll need to pay me at least a thousand bucks.”
“Call me once you decide,” Jared said.
Lizzy stood too. She couldn’t believe Jared was going to let him walk away. He was all they had and they didn’t even know his name. “Do you have any sisters?” she asked.
He turned, hesitated, and then nodded.
“You might want to think about them when you’re making your decision. What would you want someone else to do if this maniac ever got his hands on someone you cared about?”
“I’ll think about it,” the young man said before he turned and marched out the door.
Saturday, February 20, 2010 1:42 PM
Lizzy clapped when Brittany Warner’s name was announced on the loud speaker. She watched with pride as a gold medal was placed around Brittany’s neck. Eight days had passed since she’d seen her niece, but it felt like months.
Lizzy waved at her, but Brittany didn’t see her amid the sea of kids wrapped in towels. Lizzy turned to Jared seated next to her on the bleachers. “I’m going to say hello to Brittany before we head off. Do you want to come with me?”
“I’ll wait here. I’m already getting the evil eye from your sister.”
Brittany’s face lit up the moment she spotted Lizzy heading her way. Brittany dropped her towel and duffel bag and rushed to meet her halfway. They hugged for a long moment before Lizzy took a step back so she could take a good look at her niece. “You were amazing!”