Cold raindrops hit his face and he closed his eyes, feeling the cool wetness slide down his skin. They started slowly and built as the minutes ticked by until the rain turned into a downpour. Still he stood without moving, letting the rainstorm assail him. With his mind he searched for her spirit, at first finding nothing but a vast, empty expanse. His patience won, and slowly the thread of connection began to grow stronger.
With his face still turned upward and his eyes closed, he clasped his hands together and began to pray,
Father in Heaven, hear my words. Blessed is she who sees the souls of the hurt, the abused, the lost. Father in Heaven, give her the strength of the ages to save those souls and to bring them into your Kingdom. Father in Heaven, watch over her and lead her home safely. In your name, I pray. Amen.
And then he was gone and the rain continued to fall on the empty sands of the beach.
*
The moment Lorna’s feet touched the ground, a small earthquake seemed to rumble beneath her. Vibrations flowed from the soil, up her legs and into her shoulders. She glanced around to see if Thea, Katie, and Jeremy felt it too. Renee, who was usually in tune with her, was back at Thea’s house with Merry. Months into her pregnancy, Merry wasn’t feeling well so Renee stayed behind with her to make an herbal tea sure to settle her nausea. Just another thing about Renee that Lorna loved.
The three with her now didn’t appear to notice anything out of the ordinary. Not the case for her. Tiny earthquakes weren’t uncommon here, but she was convinced nature wasn’t the cause of the trembles beneath her feet right now. Whatever was coursing through her body, it wasn’t nature-made.
She gazed up at the cemetery entrance and was instantly plunged back into the vision. As she stood beneath the arching sign, the wind picked up and the trees began to sway. Overhead the moon was climbing in the sky, sending shafts of butter-gold light down on the rows of century-old headstones. Some of the headstones still stood straight while others leaned, and years of snow, rain, and hot sun had worn the names of the dead smooth.
“Is this it?” Katie asked as she turned full circle, taking in everything. “I can’t see anything unusual. Even though it’s getting dark, it looks just like all the others we went to today.”
“Lorna,” Jeremy said as he put a hand on her shoulder. “This is it, isn’t it?” He didn’t wait for an answer, asking instead, “What do you see?”
The second his hand touched her shoulder a roar began in her ears, and she dropped to her knees. For the first time she welcomed what came next. “Show me,” she said under her breath,
A mist covered the ground, and the moon that just a moment ago had been so bright was now a muted glow that turned the mist pale gold. She looked around and realized she was alone.
Or was she?
She rose from the mist undefined and shadowy. The ghost of a figure, at least at first, before she began to take form. Petite, with long dark hair, she was beautiful and unfamiliar. A second woman appeared, young and pale, equally unknown. The first two were followed by a third, a fourth. They kept rising until seven stood in the silence, all eyes turned to her in an unspoken plea only she could understand, and indeed she did. Tears fell from her eyes.
She thought the veil had parted enough to show her all the secrets of this place. She was wrong. An eighth came to her feet from the mist that still swirled and pulsed. At first she was nothing more than a vague shape. Lorna’s breath caught in her throat as the features became clear…and recognizable. Her heart broke.
Alida.
Chapter Twenty-four
No damn way. How was it possible? How could someone be here, of all places? This was his place, and he’d eliminated the one and only threat to his secret mission.
For a second, he thought about turning around and going home. Even if they found them, they’d never trace any of it back to him. But these were his women, and she was here. He would never, ever allow anyone to take her from him. Their bond would last forever.
Slowly, he drove down the quiet country road, fixated on the lights that spilled across the cemetery. Who would be here and at this time of night? It wasn’t just his place; it was also his time. It had always been his time, when most of the community was tucked nice and warm in their beds, oblivious to what went on in the shadows and alleys of their cities. It always seemed to him that he, alone, cut through the darkness to reveal the truth. And he alone made the effort to wash the stain from the streets.
Right now, he needed to stop and think. Perhaps he was jumping to conclusions. It was certainly unusual for anyone to be here this time of night. In fact, it was rare that anyone came to this place to mourn for those who rested below the old headstones, for the residents of this silent city were no longer alive in the memories of those who were still breathing. Too many generations had come and gone since they were laid to rest to make this a place of frequent visitors.
That’s what made the car parked at the edge, its lights on and sending a shaft of illumination across the small cemetery at the intersection of two country roads, so odd. And irritating as hell.
Like his home, he hated intrusions by those uninvited. They upset his sense of balance. Certainly he could work with the unanticipated, and he’d proved it in spades to himself earlier today. Still, this was a true blindside. He’d never seen it coming and it pissed him off.
He pulled up next to the car and studied what he realized now was a familiar vehicle. How did she get here? He’d been so incredibly careful, yet here she was sticking her nose into something she had no business being this close to. Not to mention the company she brought with her.
As he got out of the truck, he unclipped the rifle from its center console mount. His mind whirled with the possibilities for mitigating the potential damage of her discovery. No matter what direction he came at it, one solution kept coming to the forefront. Messy, yes, at least up front. In the end, it was surely the cleanest solution.
With his right arm he held the rifle against his back. He walked into the light and stopped at the edge of the cemetery. Four. Three women. One man. He liked those odds, with the possible exception of one member of the posse. She could be a problem. Not an insurmountable one, but a problem just the same.
He couldn’t help smiling. At first he’d thought this would be a terrible inconvenience. Now, as he stood here watching them help one of the women up from the ground, he decided it was just what he needed tonight. He’d been bored and restless when he started his drive out here. Now everything had turned around. This was definitely not boring.
The work he did was important, and what he must do next was another element of that effort. In a way it was quite different, yet it was just as important. The day might have started out frustrating, but it was ending on a completely different note. In fact, it was turning out to be a really good night after all.
*
Katie was holding one of Lorna’s arms as she stared at the figure that walked into the lights of her car and the pickup parked next to hers. Moonlight glinted off the shiny diamond-plate toolbox mounted in the back of the dark truck. At first she thought she must be seeing things. It wasn’t him, just someone who looked like him. Except her heart told her different. After Brandon’s creepy call and his admission to tracking her through GPS she was half expecting to see him show up here. Everything felt out of sync, especially what she was seeing at this moment.
“Chad?” His name floated across the night air.
“Hey, Katie, what are you doing out here?”
“What are you doing out here?” she asked. Shock at seeing him was an understatement for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, Chad wasn’t exactly the fieldwork kind of guy. He could do absolutely amazing computer research, and nobody came close to his skills in interviewing both victims and subjects. Out pounding the pavement just wasn’t his strongest asset, so to see him out here now didn’t sit well with her. Between the call from Don, the freaky call from Brandon, and now Chad, something was very o
ff. For all her trash-talking about psychics, she’d give a whole lot to be one at this second so she’d know what the hell was going on.
He casually said, “Heard you were here and thought I’d come out and see if I could help.”
Bells started going off in her head, and they weren’t the pretty church-bell variety. “Heard we were here? From whom?” She narrowed her eyes and let her hand drift in the direction of her gun. He was good. Very smooth. Then again, he usually was except all of a sudden that smoothness took on a sinister feel.
“Got it straight from the lips of the guy in charge. Don, of course. Who else do you think would send me out here?”
That would be true if she’d actually told Don where they were going. “From Don?”
“Yeah,” he drawled. “He called me, said you might need backup and suggested I come on out. Here I am.”
Wrong answer. Only one other person knew where she was, and even he shouldn’t. If her hunch about Brandon’s obsession with her was correct, the last thing he’d do was tell Chad. Her senses screamed beware and her fingers itched to grab the gun at her waist. “Did he say if Vince is coming too?”
The question made her hold her breath. She already knew the answer. This man, whom she’d seen every day for the last three years, was suddenly a stranger. A cold-eyed and dangerous stranger who made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
Illuminated by the headlights, the look on his face made her cop senses go on hyper-alert. He was shaking his head slowly. “Katie, Katie, Katie, you and I both know Vince isn’t going to make it. You’re just trying to play me now.”
The charade was up, for both of them. “Yes, Chad, we do both know that. But why would you hurt him? He was your friend.”
He shrugged and smiled. “Trust me, Carlisle, he wasn’t my friend, and he thought he was so flipping smart. Stupid bastard didn’t think I’d notice him following me. He was trying to catch me making a mistake. You may not have noticed, but he was a nosy SOB.” The sound of his laugh was terrifying. “He learned the hard way it doesn’t pay to be nosy.”
“You caught him instead, didn’t you?” Her fingers tightened on her gun as she unsnapped it from the holster. She had to keep him talking until she had it at the ready.
“Of course I did. Pretty boy was no match for me. None of you are. You see me in the station every day and think to yourselves, good old Chad. A great guy to throw scraps at, but did you ever once think of me as a partner, someone you could depend on? No, all I was good for was to do your paperwork.” His voice was full of bitterness and anger. This wasn’t the Chad she saw in the office. She didn’t know this man and didn’t want to.
“I thought you were my friend.” So far so good. She was keeping him talking and working her way as close as possible. Right now she was too far away to be able to stop him from hurting anyone else. It was critical to get closer.
His laughter turned loud and bitter, and it suddenly struck her he really was right. She’d never thought of him in the same way she did Vince or any of the other guys she worked with. He was okay, but in a pinch she’d have asked Vince to watch her back. Chad was part of the boring background.
“Fuck friendship,” he said in an icy voice. “I don’t need any of you. Never have and never will.”
“Dive!” Katie screamed at the others at the same time she saw Chad pull a rifle from behind his back.
*
In the quiet night, the shot sounded like a cannon going off, the roar echoing on the cool evening air. Lorna dove, and for the second time that night found herself facedown in the damp grass, or what passed for grass in this place. But this time it wasn’t in a vision. It was real. For a moment everything was silent, and then she heard the groan.
“Jeremy?” She turned her head in the direction of his voice. There he was, sitting on the ground rocking from side to side while holding both his hands to his thigh. “Are you okay?” she asked in a desperate whisper.
“That fucker shot me,” he ground out in a low, tight voice, “and it hurts like a sonofabitch.”
On her stomach she crawled toward him. Before she got more than a foot, a shot hit the dirt inches in front of her face. “I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” a hard male voice said. “Stay right where you’re at or I’ll put a bullet in you too.”
“Fuck you,” Lorna returned, and his response was another shot, closer this time.
Movement to her left made her turn her head in time to see Katie scrambling to her feet. “Don’t,” Lorna whispered. “He’ll hit you.”
The lights of the vehicles shone on them like a spotlight on a Broadway stage. The term sitting duck took on a brand-new meaning. Katie didn’t pause as she moved in a motion that was swift and precise, her arm coming up, and a gun was in her hand. In four swift shots, the cemetery was plunged into darkness. Smart thinking to take out the headlights.
The sick laughter came across the night air again. “Well played, lovely Katie. You’ve always been smarter than the brass gives you credit for.”
“You’re outnumbered, Chad. You can’t possibly hope to take us all out,” Katie cried.
“No hope about it, girlfriend. You signed your own death warrant the moment you stepped onto my hallowed ground.”
“Why?” Thea’s plea was wracked with sobs. “Why would you kill my sister?”
His voice seemed filled with genuine emotion as he answered. “I didn’t kill her, my dear. I love your sister and want her by my side always. When she said she wanted to go back to her worthless husband, giving her a place of honor in my special garden was the right thing to do. Here, she and I can be together forever. I saved her from a lifetime of boredom with that no-good cheat she called her husband.”
“She’s dead,” Thea screamed. “You killed her. There’s no forever in that, you monster.”
“No, I didn’t kill her. I set her soul free. She’s with me forever. That is a precious gift.”
Lorna took the chance to crawl next to Jeremy as Chad’s attention was focused on Thea. She didn’t like that he could hear Thea clearly, even if he couldn’t see her. Rationally she understood all cops weren’t crack shots, but he’d already been accurate enough to hit her brother. She didn’t want to see her friend hurt too.
“Give it up, Katie.” His voice was hard and angry. “You can’t win. This is my game, and I have a hell of a lot of practice. You have no idea who you’re up against.”
Lorna glanced up, her eyes starting to adjust to the darkness. He wasn’t in sight, the vehicles presumably giving him coverage. Katie was a dark blur of movement, and with each step she took, Lorna’s heart raced. Katie was their only hope, and Lorna was terrified he was going to kill her too.
Seconds after she reached Jeremy, her hands were covered with blood. “How bad is it?” she whispered while putting pressure on the open wound.
“Flesh wound,” he answered just as quietly. “I’ll be dancing again in the morning.”
The pain in his voice didn’t fool her. “You don’t dance. How bad?”
He blew out a long breath. “Honestly, it hurts like a motherfucker. Looks a lot cooler on TV.”
She slipped out of her shirt and tied it tight around his leg. If nothing else, she needed to stop the bleeding. “This should help.”
As she tightened the shirt, he sucked in a breath. “911 would help,” he said weakly. “Nice warm ambulance, hot lady EMT laying hands on me.”
God, why hadn’t she thought of that? Not the last part, just the calling-911 part. “Stay still,” she warned him as she moved once more on her belly toward the big weeping-willow tree. It was the best cover she could ask for.
Once she was hidden among the overhanging willow branches, she pulled out her cell phone and hit 911. She would get Jeremy a nice warm ambulance, and she didn’t care if the EMT was hot as long as they showed up.
“You killed all the women we found here, didn’t you?” Katie’s voice was more of a taunt than a question. Lorna had the feeling
she was trying to make sure his attention was focused solely on her and as far away from the rest of them as possible. That was good. If he was listening to Katie, he wouldn’t be paying attention to her.
His laughter pealed. It was so creepy. How could a man who seemed so normal and nice morph into something like this? “Of course I did, you stupid bitch. Have plane, will travel.”
“Why, Chad? I don’t understand. What did any of them ever do to you?”
Lorna dared a look in Katie’s direction. She was inching slowly toward the place by the vehicles where Chad’s voice was coming from. Though it was hard to see in the darkness, she was pretty sure Katie was still holding the gun. It worried her that Katie was so exposed and she wanted to yell at her to be careful, but she didn’t dare.
She almost screamed when a hand clamped down on her shoulder. “Shhh,” Thea whispered in her ear. “We have to help her.”
“I just called in the cavalry.”
“They won’t get here in time.”
Across the cemetery Chad’s bitter voice made them both look his way. “Somebody has to clean things up, dear Katie. I mean none of you have been doing a damn thing. These women are trash. They pollute our streets. They spread disease and heartache to the good men of our community. The slaps all you liberal bleeding hearts deliver don’t do jack shit. I’m the only one with enough balls to do anything meaningful. I make a difference while you sit around talking about rehabilitation and helping tragic women start over.”
“You’re sick,” she snapped. “The only difference you’ve made is to bring heartache to families all over the Pacific Northwest. There’s nothing noble in that.”
“On the contrary, sweetheart, I’ve never felt better than I do right now. Those families you’re worried about have to bear the responsibility for the poor excuse for women they put out on the street. They didn’t just become trash one day. They had help, so if you expect me to feel sorry for their families, think again. The only thing I feel for them is contempt. They deserve the same fate.”
Twisted Whispers Page 24