by Tim Kizer
Eric texted Ralph: “I think his partner is following us.”
Ralph’s phone was on silent, and Eric hoped his friend had seen him type the message.
A few seconds later, Ralph pulled out his cell and checked his text messages.
Maybe they should cancel? The killer’s partner might be armed with a gun, and he would not hesitate to shoot them all dead when they tried to apprehend the killer.
Eric texted Ralph: “Maybe we should cancel?”
What if the killer figured out he was messaging Ralph? Would he think they were up to something?
Ralph typed a message on his cell and sent it. When Eric glanced at his phone, he saw no new texts from Ralph. He guessed it was a message to Holly.
2
Fifteenth Street was less than fifty yards from Fourteenth Street and ran alongside a railroad track. The cemetery mentioned by Nick was on the other side of the track, north of Main Street. It was enclosed by a wrought-iron fence and looked well kept.
Nick motioned Harry, Charlie, and Holly to turn left.
“What’s the cemetery’s name?” Charlie asked.
“Saint Joseph Catholic Cemetery,” Nick replied.
“Is that a mausoleum?” Harry said, pointing to a mausoleum-like structure with a cross on top about fifty feet from the fence.
“I think it is,” Holly said.
If it the mausoleum was unlocked, they could have staged the attack on Holly there.
There were a number of mausoleums in the cemetery, but Nick doubted any of them were unlocked.
“Do you believe in an afterlife?” Holly asked Nick.
Nick nodded. “Yes.”
“I hope there is an afterlife,” Holly said.
“Do you ever wonder why rich people live so long?” Harry said. “David Rockefeller was one hundred and one when he died.”
“Why do you think they live so long?” Nick asked.
“I think they take special drugs that prolong their lives, and they don’t let the public know about those drugs.”
“You may be right,” Nick said. “Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan were over ninety when they died. Carter and Bush Senior are over ninety. It can’t be a coincidence.”
“Yeah,” Harry said.
Holly asked Nick, “How long do you want to live?”
“One hundred and twenty years.”
“In the future you’ll be able to have your consciousness transferred into a robot,” Harry said. “That will allow you to live forever.”
They were nearing the end of the block; the woods were a four-minute walk away.
Holly stopped, glanced at her watch, and said, “Let’s go back to the station. I’m really hungry.”
Nick looked at her questioningly.
Had she changed her mind? Had she gotten cold feet?
“You want to go back?” he asked.
Holly nodded. “Yes. I haven’t eaten since this morning.”
She turned around and headed back toward Main Street.
Will Harry and Charlie attack her now?
A police cruiser pulled up to the intersection on their right and stopped. They were standing near a streetlamp, so the cop could see them.
“Let’s go.” Nick started after Holly, and Harry and Charlie followed.
The cruiser drove through the intersection.
Are they waiting for me to make the first move?
“Let’s do it in New Orleans,” Harry said in a low voice.
“Okay,” Nick replied.
Harry and his partner might change their minds and attack Holly on the way back to the bus station.
They caught up with Holly, and when they turned onto Fourteenth Street, Nick said to her, “There’s a convenience store down the street. Want to go there?”
“Sure.”
At the store, Holly bought three sandwiches and a bottle of water, and Nick a box of energy bars and two bottles of water. Harry and Charlie purchased nothing. Nick scanned the racks and shelves for pepper spray and didn’t find it. Holly didn’t ask the clerk about the spray, and Nick decided not to bring up the subject.
When they came out of the store, Holly unwrapped a sandwich and started eating. Nick pulled out two energy bars and offered them to Harry and Charlie. They each took one.
“You’re not hungry?” Nick asked Harry.
“I had a sandwich in Houston.”
The fact that Harry and Charlie hadn’t attacked Holly on the way back to the bus station indicated that they were patient, and it was a good thing.
It was 10:14 p.m. when they returned to the terminal. Nick and Holly went to the restroom, and Harry and Charlie got back on the bus. As he walked out of the men’s room, Nick checked his messages and saw a new text from Harry: “Do you think she suspects something?”
He replied: “No, I don’t think so.”
When he got on the bus, Nick saw that Charlie had moved to the seat next to Harry. He winked to the men, and they nodded in response. Holly wasn’t back yet. She was probably still in the restroom.
Nick sent Holly a message reminding her that the bus left at 10:25 p.m.
Holly showed up a few minutes later, and Nick asked her why she had changed her mind.
“I’m afraid we can’t handle them,” Holly said. “They look strong, and they may have a gun.”
“If they have a gun, it’s in the bag. I’ll take the bag from them as soon as one of them attacks you. And you don’t have to help me fight them. You can just run away.”
Chapter 27
1
Osiris pulled out his encrypted phone, switched it on, and left the restroom. He punched in his passcode as he walked to the exit. Outside, he dialed Peter Sheridan’s number and stepped fifty feet away from the terminal entrance so no one would hear him.
His boss answered on the third ring.
“Can you talk?” Osiris asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s about Rachel. Your Rachel.”
“Okay.”
“How’s she doing?”
“She’s doing okay.”
“I found a donor for her. She has O negative blood.”
“Who is it?”
“A young woman. The thing is, she’s an involuntary donor, if you know what I mean.”
After a silence, Sheridan said, “Go on.”
“Is Rachel in the hospital?”
“Yes.”
“The donor is in Louisiana. I can get her to Washington in two days. Are you interested?”
“Yes.”
“The hospital paperwork will need to be taken care of.”
“Okay.”
“We’ll be in Washington by Wednesday afternoon.”
“Okay. How much do I owe you?”
“It’s a gift. You look out for me, I look out for you.”
“Thank you, Gordon.”
“No problem, jefe.”
Osiris hung up and went back inside.
He wasn’t particularly upset that he’d had to postpone killing Holly. The delay was only one hour and forty minutes. He would either kill or kidnap her in New Orleans no matter what.
As he walked through the terminal, he texted Castor: “Is everything OK?”
Castor replied a few moments later: “Yes. Are u finished?”
“Yes. Change of plans. We’ll do it in New Orleans. You can leave now.”
“OK.”
“Are u having a good time?”
“Yep.”
“We’ll go to DC after Harry and I kill Holly.”
“Cool.”
Osiris was thinking about telling Harry and Charlie about Castor and the two women they had snatched. He was still undecided because it was risky to give away too much information. What if Harry and Charlie got caught? They might sell him and Castor out to get a better deal.
If he showed Harry and Charlie the women, he would have to explain why they couldn’t kill Veronica. He couldn’t tell them the real reason, so he would have to make one up.
Shortly before the bus left the station, Osiris walked over to Harry and his partner and asked him, “Can I have your email address?”
“Sure.”
Osiris gave him his phone and Harry wrote down a Gmail address in the Notes app.
“What’s yours?” Harry asked, handing Osiris his cell.
Osiris typed [email protected] and returned the phone.
Osiris had chosen Mail.ru, a Russian email provider, because American law enforcement agencies had a hard time getting Russian Internet companies to cooperate.
“Do you have a cap?” Osiris asked Harry.
“Not with me. Why?”
Osiris leaned down to Harry and lowered his voice. “They help you hide your face from security cameras.” He touched the bill of his cap. “There are security cameras at this bus station.” He shifted his eyes to Charlie. “You can't be too careful.”
A saying of Oscar Wilde’s popped into Nick’s mind: Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. Hopefully, none of the mistakes Harry would make would cost him his freedom or life.
Experience is a comb which nature gives us when we are bald. That was one of his favorite Chinese proverbs; he always smiled when he recalled it.
2
When Holly and Nick separated from them and went to the restroom, Eric asked Ralph if he had told Holly to cancel.
“No,” Ralph said. “I told her his partner might be following us. Maybe that’s why she changed her mind?”
They took their seats, and Eric told his friend about the white panel van in the station parking lot. Then Ralph texted Holly: “Why did you go back to the station?”
Her reply was: “You said his partner might be following us. It was too risky.”
“So what’s the plan?”
“Let’s try to find out who his partner is.”
Then Holly sent another text: “We’ll get him in New Orleans regardless of whether or not we figure it out.”
As he read Holly’s last message, a thought came to Eric that made him freeze.
Veronica might be in that van, tied up and gagged.
The killer’s partner might have kidnapped another woman between Buffalo and Baton Rouge, and she might be in the van, too.
Eric looked around to make sure the killer’s partner, who might be on the bus, wasn’t near them.
The teenage girl and the woman sitting behind them had boarded the bus in Houston, so neither of them could be the killer’s partner. The passengers in front of them and across the aisle had gotten on the bus in Houston, too.
“I think Veronica might be in that van,” Eric whispered to Ralph.
“Should we call the police?”
“He’s probably left already.”
Eric glanced at his watch. The bus departed in eight minutes.
“I’ll go check,” he said. “If it’s still there, I’ll tell the security guards.”
“Okay. Be careful.”
Ralph paused when Nick got on the bus. He gave them a wink, and they nodded in response.
“Don’t approach the van,” Ralph said.
“Okay.”
When Eric reached the bus station parking lot, he saw a white panel van (he was sure it was the van he’d seen earlier) pulling out of it onto Twelfth Street. The van turned right onto Florida Boulevard, heading west, toward Interstate 110, and picked up speed. South of the bus station, I-110 merged with I-10, which connected Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Was the killer’s partner going to New Orleans?
He should have taken a picture of the van. Dammit!
It would have been useless, because the license plate would have been unreadable.
As he went back to the bus, Eric texted Holly: “I think Veronica might still be alive. She might be in his partner’s van. I think I saw it in the bus station parking lot.”
“He left just before I got there,” Eric informed Ralph as he took his seat. “Why not ask him if he has a partner?”
“He may get suspicious,” Ralph said.
Why hadn’t the killer told them about his partner? He didn’t trust them?
Eric texted Holly: “Chapman’s partner might be driving a white windowless van.”
Chapter 28
1
As the bus accelerated up the entrance ramp to I-110, Holly said, “Ask him if he has a gun.”
Nick sent Harry a message asking if he had a gun, and the killer replied: “No.”
“He might be lying,” Holly said.
“Yeah.” Nick nodded. “We can’t let him and his partner get away, Holly. They know where you live. They’ll come for you.”
“I understand that.”
Nick studied the map for fifteen minutes and was unable to find a suitable secluded place within half a mile of the New Orleans bus station. The nearest woods were over two miles away, on the other side of the Mississippi River.
Neck texted Harry: “Do you know the area around the New Orleans bus station?”
Harry replied: “No.”
“I think we’ll have a hard time finding a suitable place near the bus station. I have an idea. We’ll steal a car, then I’ll roofie her and then we’ll put her in the trunk.”
“Let me think about it.”
“Does either of you know how to hotwire a car?”
“No.”
“OK. I know how to do it.”
“Where do u wanna take her?”
“The woods in Algiers. 5 miles from the station.”
Nick showed Holly the messages, and she asked, “You have roofies?”
“No. You’ll have to pretend to be asleep.”
“Okay.”
Nick put a hand on her arm. “We don’t have to do this, Holly. If you're scared, we can call the cops and let them handle this.”
“The police will have to let them go because they have no evidence against them.”
Holly was right: the police would have to release Harry and Charlie.
Holly said, “I’m not scared. I want to do this.”
Two minutes later Harry replied: “Stealing a car is a bit risky.”
Another idea occurred to Nick as they passed through a wooded area southwest of Lake Maurepas. It was prompted by something he had heard at the Houston bus station this afternoon.
He messaged Harry: “Here’s another idea. We’ll take a cab. I’ll tell her we’re going to see Beyoncé’s house.”
Harry responded: “Beyoncé has a house in New Orleans?”
“Yes.”
“I like this idea. Let’s do it.”
Holly read the messages and asked, “Where are we going?”
Nick opened Google Maps on his phone and showed her the spot he had picked.
“How will we catch up with the bus?” Holly asked. “All car rental offices will be closed.”
Nick checked his itinerary and found that after New Orleans the bus stopped in Slidell, Louisiana. Slidell was thirty-three miles from New Orleans.
“We’ll take a cab,” Nick said. “I’ll pay for it.”
2
Eric looked up the New Orleans neighborhood of Algiers on Google Maps and discovered that there were several wooded areas there. He liked the ones southwest of Behrman Highway.
What was their story going to be?
Nick took us to see Beyoncé’s house, we got lost, and then all of a sudden Nick pulled out a knife and attacked Holly. Ralph had a gun with him and he shot Nick to save Holly.
They would refer to him as Nick, although they knew that his real name was Michael Chapman. They would have to get rid of Chapman’s phone so the cops wouldn’t see the messages he and Ralph had sent each other.
They should try to find Chapman’s partner before heading to Algiers.
Eric checked the map and found that there was a large parking lot near the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, where the bus station was. He figured the killer’s partner would park his van there. The lot shouldn’t have many cars in it at midnight, so the van would be easy to spot.
Chapter 29
1
At half past eight, Castor stopped at a truck stop thirty miles west of Lafayette, Louisiana, where he filled his tank and injected Veronica with another dose of sedative.
As he waited in the parking lot of the Baton Rouge bus station, Castor thought of Lucia’s suitcase and decided to get rid of it before heading to New Orleans. He studied the map of the area for a few minutes and found a place to dump the suitcase—a residential block on Lakeland Drive, near Arsenal Park, less than a mile from the bus station.
At 10:18 p.m., Castor left the bus station parking lot and drove to the corner of Lakeland Drive and Costello Lane. He parked at the curb, pulled on his latex gloves, then wiped his fingerprints off Lucia’s suitcase and ripped the baggage tag from its handle. He looked up and down the street to make sure no one was around before he took the suitcase out of the van and put it beside a tree. The houses nearby were very modest and Castor didn’t think any of them had security cameras outside. The suitcase would probably be picked up by a passerby by tomorrow afternoon.
As soon as he arrived in New Orleans, Castor gave Lucia another shot of sedative. He was bursting with excitement: in a few hours he would rape and kill the woman.
2
Osiris was going to kill Holly in New Orleans even if she changed her mind again. He would rape her before ending her life.
When they were done with Holly, he would introduce Harry and Charlie to Castor. If the guys had time, he would suggest that they have a drink and talk about the women they’d killed and share tricks of the trade. It would be nice to meet Harry and his partner again and go on a hunt together.
They arrived in New Orleans at a quarter past midnight. When Osiris got off the bus, he texted Harry: “Go get a cab. Give the driver this address: 4011 Memorial Park Drive. Let’s meet at the terminal entrance.”
Harry replied: “OK.”
Osiris was laughing inside as he and Holly walked through the terminal. Poor stupid Holly. She thought she was the hunter when in reality she was the prey.