Heron Park

by C. K. Raggio

  “Okay.” Her father took a shaky breath. He glanced from Sam to Cassie.

  She leaned her head against his shoulder, fighting back tears.

  “May I see her?” her father asked.

  The doctor cleared her throat. “Normally, I would say no, but under the circumstances… follow me, Mr. Logan.”

  Her father squeezed her hand, then hurried after the vet.

  “Oh, God, if he loses that dog,” Cassie whispered, sitting back down next to Sam and placing her head against his chest.

  “I know,” he said. “Your father thinks Snow was a gift from your mom in heaven.”

  She lifted her head. “What are you talking about?”

  Sam shifted in his seat. “Shit. He’d kill me if he knew I was telling you this.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Sam, I swear, if you don’t tell me I’ll sock you one like I did when we were kids.”

  He put his hands up. “No reason to get violent. I’ll tell you.” He rubbed his thumb across his jaw. “We had a few too many one night while we were fishing off the beach. He started talking about your mom and the accident. You heard the stories about your dad when he was a kid, the dogs he owned?”

  “Yeah, he had another pit bull who saved his life too.”

  Sam took her hand. “That’s what got your parents talking the first time they met. He told your mom as soon as he had a family of his own, he was going to get another one. A pure white one.”

  Cassie chewed on the inside of her cheek. She wasn’t sure where he was going with the story, but a knot of dread in the pit of her stomach told her nowhere happy.

  “You know most of the story,” Sam said. “Your mom went upstate to visit a friend, but on the way home she got lost. The road was dark, no lights or cars. She was run off the road. Down a ravine. She wasn’t found until the next morning. What you don’t know is that she didn’t go to visit a friend.”

  Cassie’s breath caught. What the hell was he talking about?

  “When they finally were able to get her out of the car she was holding a lifeless white pit bull puppy in her arms. She’d gone up there to get your dad an early birthday present.”

  Why hadn’t her father ever told her about the dead puppy? She put her head in her hands, not sure how much more of an emotional roller coaster she could handle tonight.

  “He didn’t want you to know, thought in some way you’d blame him for her death. Anyway, remember when you brought your dad and me to Josh’s to see Snow and Sable?”

  “Yes.” A dark hatred tore through her veins at the mention of the killer’s name.

  “That was only two days after he told me that story. You walked away to do something and I had to grab onto your dad to hold him up. He swore your mother must have sent you to that dog to give to him. That she found a way to bring him the birthday gift she never had the chance to give him.”

  Cassie held in the sob that threatened to spill from her lips. Sure, her father was a big strong fisherman, but he had a romantic side, a softer side. A side that still hadn’t been able to let go of her mother, even after all these years. “Sam, Snow can’t die. It’ll kill him.”

  “I know.” He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight to his chest.

  “It would be like him losing Mom all over again. First Izzy, now Dad. This is all my fault.”

  Sam tilted her chin up and gazed into her face. “Don’t say that. You know he’d never blame you. You have a job to do, Cass. Your dad knows that, and he’s so proud of you. Don’t start the ‘woe is me’ shit. Just find Josh.” His eyes darkened as the name left his lips. “I’ll take care of Snow and your dad.”

  Her phone vibrated. She glanced at it. A text from Rick: Gary’s awake. Anger warred with her despair. Sam was right, she needed to find the bastard and put an end to all of this.

  “I need to go.” She wiped the remaining tears on her shirt. “Tell Dad I love him, and I’ll call him later.” She rushed for the door, but stopped and returned to Sam's side. She threw her arms around his neck. “I love you, Sam. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  His eyes widened as she leaned in and laid her lips against his. His lips were warm, inviting. Safe. Emotionally, she panicked as love seeped from deep inside. She’d known Sam forever. He was her best friend. She wouldn’t ruin that. She tried to move away quickly, not wanting to hear his response.

  She pushed open the door, cold air blasting her face, her fingers touching her lips where they had pressed against Sam's.

  “I love you too, Cass,” he whispered. “I always have.”

  ~~~

  Rick studied Cassie as she exited the elevator and jogged over. Her shoulders were squared, her chin up. She appeared to be in control. Beautiful and tough as always. It amazed him how she seemed to grow tougher with each obstacle they faced.

  “Have you spoken to Gary yet?” she asked. “Did you find anything out?”

  “No, not yet. He’s been awake since last night, but the doctors are running tests on him. How’s your dad?”

  Cassie averted her gaze. “He’d be better if Snow was okay. Thanks for all your help back there.”

  “No need to thank me. I’m sorry about the dog. I’m sure if she makes it through the night, her chances of pulling out will get better.”

  She let out a short laugh. “Yeah, that’s what the vet said.”

  Rick stepped in to give her a hug, hoping to comfort her in some small way, but the door to Gary’s room opened. He dropped his arms to his sides. A doctor and two nurses walked out.

  The doctor frowned and adjusted his glasses. “He’s on a morphine drip and hasn’t been awake long. You have fifteen minutes.”

  “Of course,” Rick said. “The murder suspect needs his beauty sleep.”

  They nodded at the guard, stepped into the room and shut the door.

  Gary was pale, bruises the color of the rainbow covered his face and neck. The left side of his face and head were wrapped in gauze where the dog had bitten him. Both legs were in casts, suspended by slings.

  Rick moved to Gary’s bedside. “Mr. White. We have a few questions for you about Josh Meyer, or as you knew him from your childhood, Steven Bailey.”

  “That asshole tried to kill me, and his dog bit out my eye,” he mumbled. Then his good eye widened. “How do you guys know about Steven?”

  Rick sat in the chair beside him. “What’s your relationship with him?”

  Gary sighed, his tongue swept across his cracked lips. He shifted his head and winced. “Am I under arrest?”

  “We didn’t read you your rights, did we?” Cassie asked. “Unless you’d like to admit to something?”

  Gary stared down at his casts. “No.”

  “Okay,” Rick said. “Then just some really simple questions. Have you stayed in touch with Steven since you left Bayhead?”

  Sweat beaded along Gary’s forehead. “Should I get a lawyer?”

  Rick leaned forward. “If you think you need one, we would be more than happy to send for one for you. But, these won’t be complicated questions. And they’re all about Steven, not you.”

  “What did you ask again?”

  “If you stayed in touch with Steven all these years?” Cassie asked.

  Gary paused for a moment, like he was contemplating speaking with them at all. He glanced at his casts, his eyes hardened. “I lost touch with him after I came here. Then he showed up at my place one day.”

  “And you became close again?” Cassie asked.

  “Yes.”

  Rick kept his gaze fixed on Gary. They had to be very careful on how they asked these questions, if they didn’t want him to lawyer up. “Steven had a lot of dogs at his rehab center. Did you spend much time there?”

  “Once or twice a week I’d stop by.” Gary’s chin trembled.

  “Did he have any really big dogs that you know of?” Cassie asked.

  “N-no.”

  “Mr. White.” Rick laced his hands in his lap. “We need y
ou to be honest with us. We are looking at Steven Bailey for homicide. Ten innocent women, maybe more. I – ”

  “I didn’t kill Peggy!” Gary yelled.

  Oh, shit. Rick didn’t want him talking about Peggy. They’d decided not to touch on her now because they’d have to read him his rights. He may clam up and not want to talk at all.

  Gary went on, sweat dripping from his face. “I only kept his dogs at my place every once in a while. Sometimes his boat. I didn’t do anything else.”

  Rick put his hands up. “We’re not here to talk about Peggy.”

  Gary’s eyes darted back and forth across the room. They knew there was no way Steven could’ve abducted Peggy. Not when he was busy torturing Izzy. Gary had to have done it. “Right now, we just need to find Steven. That’s it.”

  Cassie touched his arm. “Please, Gary. Do you know where he may have gone?”

  “You think if I help you, then… ah… you could help me?”

  Rick stole a glance at Cassie. The guy obviously knew he was a horrible liar as Kurt Mason said he was. If they hooked him up to a lie detector, he’d fail miserably. “Let’s hear what you know first.”

  “He had a list of parks all over the US. He says he wants to hit them all.”

  “Do you know any of the park’s names?” Cassie asked. “Where he would start?”

  “N-no.” Gary stared at the IV in his arm. “He never let me s-see them. He did slip once, said he’d head south first before heading west.”

  Gary’s rancid breath made Rick’s eyes water. “What would he need to go down south for?”

  “I think he has another center down there. Somewhere outside of Atlanta. Marietta or someplace.”

  “How many dogs does Steven have?”

  “Um… four here, and oh, I don’t know, a whole kennel down south. He’s been breeding them for years, working out all the kinks. He bred mastiffs with cane corsos with hybrid wolves, and some other rare breed of dog. It’s from the Middle East.” He touched the gauze on his head as if remembering what the animal’s teeth felt like sinking into his skin.

  “At least we have two down,” Cassie said.

  “What? You guys got two of them? Which ones?”

  Rick shrugged. “Why?”

  Gary sunk down into his pillow, looking like he said more than he wanted. “It’s just that, if you got the bigger ones, the smaller ones aren’t as well trained. They’re much younger.”

  Rick’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and checked the screen. It was Hill, maybe he had something new for them. “I need to get this.” He thought Gary knew something he wasn’t telling them. Maybe since he knew Cassie for so long she’d have a better time getting him to open up. He whispered in her ear, “Keep him talking.”

  ~~~

  The door shut behind Rick and Cassie took his seat at Gary’s bedside. “You sure you can’t think of any of the parks names? He never said them in front of you?”

  Gary refused to meet her eyes. The gauze around his face grew damp with sweat. “I-I’m having a hard time thinking straight. Must be the drugs they have me on.”

  Cassie frowned at his blatant deceit. Enough was enough. She needed to go with a different approach. “You know your fiancée, Susan, didn’t run away.” She put her face a breath away from his. “She didn’t leave you.”

  He jerked back from her, his eye narrowed. “What are talking about?”

  “Do you remember Kurt Mason?”

  “Yeah, of course, he was the one who helped me start my business here.”

  This could work. Cassie smirked. “He told us all about how Steven killed Susan.”

  “That’s a lie.” The monitors at Gary’s bedside started to beep as his heart rate increased. “Steven loved Susan, he would’ve never hurt her. Not even after he caught us in his woods together.”

  Cassie scuffed her chair closer to the bed. “Yes, he did love her and you stole her from him. So what better way to get back at you? Think about it, Gary. Why didn’t she take anything with her? No clothes missing, no jewelry. You never thought about any of that?”

  Gary pinched his lips, his breathing ragged.

  “Not to mention, it seems kind of strange that Steven was the last one to see her. That she went to him for help. Were they still close after you two went behind his back? You didn’t find any of this peculiar?”

  She was breaking him down, but she needed more. Some sort of evidence. She circled his bed, stopped at the foot, staring at him from between his casted legs. “I hate to be the one to break it to you, but he did kill her. Kurt Mason was right.”

  “What do you mean?” His eye met hers, his lips quivered.

  Gotcha, bastard. The tests hadn’t been run yet, but at this point it was her best shot. She moved back to his side and lowered her voice. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but since we’ve known each other so long… We found a freezer in Steven’s barn in Bayhead. Hair samples and bits of human tissue inside of it matched your son’s DNA.”

  She let the words sink in. When Gary began to tremble she continued. “Susan Tanner’s head had been in that freezer. Steven carried it around with him, like it was his favorite teddy bear. Who knows what sick and twisted things he did with it, or actually, that he does with it.”

  The one side of Gary’s face that wasn’t covered in bandages filled with tears. He gritted his teeth. “I don’t know names, but he has a notebook. I saw him hide it. Out back of his rehab center, about a mile in, there’s a lake. If you dredge the bottom you’ll find it.”

  Cassie grinned. “Now that wasn’t so hard was it? Do you think it’s still there, or would he take it with him?”

  “No, he didn’t need it, had it all memorized.” He paused and let out a sob. “Think he just liked to look at it, liked that it would be right there under your noses.” Snot dripped onto his lips and he gagged. “I can’t believe he killed her. He made me think all these years that if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have Dave.”

  His bawling turned her stomach. She didn’t feel a strand of empathy for him; instead she wanted to prey on his guilt. She thought of Peggy. “The guy tortured small animals when he was eight. You knew what he was capable of, or you wouldn’t have taken my word about Susan so quickly. Honestly, you might as well have killed Susan yourself. Her murder was as much your fault as it was his.”

  Cassie knew she should stop now, but Izzy’s laugh sounded in her ears. Gary knew. Had staged an accident to get his son away from his post so Steven could take Izzy.

  A fire burned inside of her. She wanted Gary to feel like she did. “Susan was his first. Do you think he tortured her like he did the others? The mother of your son? I bet he slit her open and played with her insides. What do you think he did to her? How did he take her head off? I bet she screamed for you with her last breath.”

  Gary’s machines pinged and a monitor turned from green to orange to red. Cassie headed to the door, not exactly proud, but not feeling guilty either. Three nurses rushed past her.

  They threw her dirty looks then circled his bed, trying to calm him down. Finally, one of them stuck a needle into his shoulder and the room quieted.

  Cassie turned and bumped chest to chest with Rick. He grabbed her arms to steady her. “Sorry. What happened in there? I saw the nurse running.”

  “Nothing. I –”

  “They found Kurt Mason’s truck and trailer abandoned in the Bay Mall parking lot, a half hour away. So far, no other car has been reported stolen.”

  Made sense he’d swap cars again. “Can you tell Agent Hill and everyone to meet us back at Steven’s rehab center? We’ll need a diving crew.”

  He cocked his head. “What for?”

  “Gary said Steven has a notebook of all the parks he wanted to hit at the bottom of a lake. He may be trying to outsmart us by switching cars, but maybe we can stay close enough on his ass to catch him.”

  “How the hell did you get Gary to tell you that?”

  She yanked
on the cuff of her shirt, the words playing over in her mind. “Not in the most honorable way, but it worked.”

  CHAPTER 39

  Cassie sat on the couch between Hank and Phil in Steven Bailey’s living room. She placed her elbows on her knees. The divers had found four lobster pots at the bottom of the lake, burlap bags in each one.

  Inside the sacks were pocketbooks, cell phones, wallets, iPods, and clothing. The notebook had been sealed in four layers of airtight plastic.

  Hand-drawn maps and statistics of the amount of visitors for sixty parks lined Steven’s notebook. The parks ranged from Maine and down the east coast, then went west to Yellowstone. Addresses, directions, and phone numbers filled the margins. How many acres each park was, how many rangers watched each area, and their schedules. Xs seemed to mark the secluded areas where Steven felt he could do as he pleased. Everything written in perfect cursive script.

  Where would they start? She’d been so excited when they pulled the book from the lobster pot. But they’d never expected Steven would have this many parks picked out.

  Agent Hill, Flemings, and Rick crowded around the notebook.

  “You guys have any clue where we should go first?” Phil asked.

  A full minute went by and nobody answered him. Phil threw up his hands and sat back.

  Finally, Hill shrugged. He looked at her. “First off, good job, Cassie. Those hair and tissue samples from the freezer could take weeks to get back. I’m not a fan of lying to get information, but we may have lost Steven if it wasn’t for you.”

  Hank grinned like she’d just scored a winning goal and gave her shoulder a squeeze.

  She bared her teeth. That wasn’t an answer to Phil’s question. She wanted to know what the plan was, not sit around and stare at each other. She wondered since this was going out of state if she’d even still be a part of it. She took a breath.