The Forgotten

by Linda S. Prather

  “Maybe he did work while he was here,” Loki said. “Grace said she wasn’t allowed outside. He could have gone places without her knowing it.”

  Wilkes jotted down a note. “I hadn’t thought of that. He could be a traveling salesman. I’ll have Rosetta check into it.”

  “A salesman who happened to be there when Penelope was there, followed her home, and knew if he dropped a hundred-dollar bill on the porch, the mother would find it, go to a bar, and stay gone all night? Sounds a little too coincidental to me,” Jake grumbled.

  Wilkes rubbed the stubble on his chin and grunted. “And since Grace’s mother is gone, we can’t question her and find out if something similar happened there.”

  Loki met his gaze, her hands clenching in her lap. “You know it did. She died from an overdose two days after Grace disappeared. She owed everyone money, according to Officer Berneski. Where would she get the money to buy enough to overdose?”

  “Good deduction. I’m going to place a call and see if we’ve got any information on the other two bodies.”

  “What about the babies?” Loki asked again. “Shouldn’t we also be looking for them?”

  Wilkes shook his head. “We’ve got enough on our plate already. I put Cody Allen on it. He’s part of my team. He’s searching through the normal channels first, and then he’ll have to go through the underground channels. It’ll be difficult, but if anyone can uncover something, I’d put my money on him.”

  Jake scowled. “Another psychic?”

  Teresa choked on the sip of coffee she’d taken and coughed between words. “If you get a chance to meet him…I would suggest…you don’t mention that.” She wiped her eyes on a napkin. “Allen is a former homicide sergeant from Kentucky, and one of the best in the business. But he’s a little touchy about his psychic abilities.”

  Wilkes looked around the room. “Where’s Grace, the baby, and your brothers? And where’s Karen?”

  “Dadron and Jules took them to a cabin here on the property. We felt it was safer there for all of them.”

  “When are they coming back?” Wilkes asked.

  “When I tell them to,” Loki said. “And before we go any further with this, I think there’s some things we need to discuss.”

  Wilkes smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes, which were wary at best. “Such as?”

  “Such as your interest in me.”

  “I’d be interested in that myself.” Jake turned his chair around and straddled it, his eyes leveled on Wilkes’s face.

  “It’s no secret I run a group with certain paranormal skills. Someone with your ability to sense the presence of a person who had recently died, and perhaps even have a discussion with that person, would be an asset.” Wilkes shrugged. “But I’ll say it again, although no one seems to believe me, that’s not why I’m here.”

  Loki took the drawing from her pocket. “What’s missing from this drawing?”

  He met her gaze across the table. “That’s what I drew.”

  “It may be, but it’s not what you saw, so what’s missing?”

  Wilkes pushed back his chair. “The original drawing also included Grace and Hope.”

  Teresa tutted loudly. “So that’s how you knew there was a girl and a baby. Karen was beginning to believe you’d developed some other sixth sense.”

  “So if the picture isn’t real, the scene isn’t real, either.” Jake scoffed. “So much for trusting you to share things.”

  Wilkes turned, and Loki watched his eyes darken from a cool green to the deep, shadowed green of the forest. “It’s real, Jake. The reason I didn’t give you the one with Grace was her position kept changing. In some she’s on the ground dead or dying. In others she’s standing. She’s there, but how she deals with the situation is her choice, not set in stone. One possible outcome is up to her.”

  “Shouldn’t we show the drawing to her and tell her?” Loki asked.

  Wilkes ran a hand through his thick black hair, then over the dark stubble on his chin before answering. “I wish it were that simple, but she’s too young and too damaged at the moment to understand. If you tell her, she’ll only think about it, worry about it, and in the end, she’ll be afraid to do anything. Whatever she does has to be instinct, not preplanned.”

  “All right, but if we’re going to work together, no more secrets,” Loki said. “Sometimes trust is all we have, and when that’s gone, there’s nothing left.”

  Wilkes nodded, his eyes homing in on Teresa’s face. “I’ll agree if everyone else does.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Robert drove past the entrance to the farm, immediately noticing the crushed grass. “Damn it.” He pressed down on the accelerator and sped down the road. It had to be the Indian. Somehow they’d found the house. A chill ran down his spine, and he slowed near a driveway, whipped in, and backed out fast.

  If the Dillon girl is still alive, they may have found the graves. I have to check. He raced down the road, turned in to the drive he’d carved out over the years, and parked in the tall weeds lining each side of it. He’d have to walk and keep an eye out for anyone watching the area. The odds were they wouldn’t be expecting him to come back, but he wouldn’t take any chances. He took the high-powered rifle from the backseat and fit it with a scope and light. As long as he stuck to the high weeds and trees, until he got close enough to see what he was looking for, he should be safe.

  The night was quiet, and he treaded lightly but could still hear the crunch of his boots on the frozen ground. The sound carried, and he rushed for the edge of the forest, slipped behind a tree, and stopped to listen. No answering crunch of boots or voices carried back to him. Maybe I got lucky and the bitch blew herself to hell. He started to walk again, sticking close to the tree line. It took him thirty minutes to reach the edge of the creek. The house he’d labored on for months was nothing but a pile of rubbish, but the holes in the creek bank spiked fear in his heart and an empty feeling of darkness in his stomach. The girl was alive. They might have found the newest one, but they wouldn’t have found the other two unless she showed them.

  He clenched his teeth against the primal urge to scream at the night and curse the day she’d ever been born.

  “Clean it up, Robert.”

  His mother’s voice whirled inside his head as images of mutilated bodies swam before his eyes. He’d been ten the first time he’d stumbled upon her carnage. She’d killed a teenage girl, and her eyes had been wild, possessed by a hatred he’d been too young to understand at the time. She’d fallen to her knees, holding out her bloody hands as sobs shook her body. “Clean it up, Robert. Please, clean it up.”

  He’d buried the body in the backyard, one piece at a time, then he’d returned to the house and cleaned her up. Over the years there had been more, and he’d known eventually she would be caught unless he found a way to help her. His brides had been the perfect solution. She’d been content to help with them and wait until the babies were born. And selling the children had provided a financial stability that meant he had to work only when he wanted to, leaving him free to keep an eye on Mother. And he’d never had to kill anyone. Until now. Now he had a mess to deal with that wasn’t Mother’s. It was his.

  He turned and made his way up the hill. He would have to tell her. She’d be upset she’d fallen asleep and missed an opportunity to go to the park, but that wouldn’t last long. She wasn’t crazy all the time, and maybe between the two of them, they could come up with a plan to save them both.

  ~ ~ ~

  Dadron turned to watch Jules playing with Hope. It was the happiest he’d seen his brother in a long time.

  Grace came to stand beside him. “Can I help?”

  Dadron handed her the spoon, glad to see she had recovered from her meltdown the day before. Of course, if Dr. Coomer were right, there could be more of those episodes. Loki had warned him to be alert. “Keep stirring this so it doesn’t stick, and I’ll get the bread ready.”

  “This smells good. What is
it?” Grace asked.

  “Beef stew,” Dadron answered. “After we finish dinner and clean up, we’ll roast some marshmallows over the fire.”

  Grace gave him a quizzical look. “What’s that?”

  Dadron grinned. “You’re in for a treat. We’ll cut some sticks, and I’ll teach you.”

  “Where did Karen go?”

  “She got a call from Wilkes and went to the house. Said she’d be back by morning.”

  Grace stirred the stew, but Dadron could tell her mind was someplace else. He couldn’t blame her for being worried. The guy that had held her for three years was one real sick bastard.

  “Would you teach me how to shoot a gun, Dadron?”

  “I’ll teach you how to make and shoot a bow and arrow. It’s too easy to hurt yourself with a gun, or if someone gets close enough they can always take it away from you.”

  Her shoulders slumped, and she stared into the pot of stew. “Isabella says he’s coming back.”

  “Who’s Isabella?” Dadron shuddered, the hair on the back of his arms beginning to rise.

  “She was Husband’s wife before me.” Grace glanced at him and frowned. “She’s standing right next to you. Loki says she senses them. I thought you could too.”

  Jules laughed. “She’s been here ever since we got here, Dadron.”

  A smile creased Grace’s face, and she stopped stirring and rushed to the couch to sit beside him. “You can see her, Jules? Please tell me you can see her.”

  Dadron watched the two of them as they chattered excitedly. A heaviness around his heart lifted. I’ll be damned. After all these years, Jules not only found someone who believes him and doesn’t think he’s crazy, she sees them too.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Loki smiled as she sat down across from Jake hovering over his cup of coffee as if it were his best friend, his face a billboard for “I feel like shit.” He probably has a pounding headache, and what I’m about to tell him isn’t going to make it better.

  He gave her a weak smile. “Next time I decide to drink two beers after midnight, slap me, will you?”

  “Gladly. Do you feel like talking? We need to come up with some plans.”

  Jake swallowed hard and rubbed his stomach. “Serious talk or just talk? Not sure I can do much serious thinking right now.”

  “It’s serious, so try to focus. I was thinking last night we don’t have a lot of time left to find this guy. Either he’s going to come back to try to kill me or he’ll simply move on and keep taking children. I don’t think I can live with that knowledge, Jake. Not after seeing what he did to Grace and the others.”

  Jake headed for the back door. “Give me a minute.” He opened the door and stepped into the chilly wind. “Damn, it’s cold out there.” He closed the door and returned to the table. “Okay, I think I’m awake now, but before we start, where are the others?”

  “Wilkes and Teresa went to the motel. Karen is asleep in Grace’s bedroom. She told Dadron she’d be back at the cabin this morning.”

  “So what’s on your mind?”

  “We’re out of leads, and this is taking too long. Even if we find out who the other two bodies belonged to, go interview the officers or clinics, too much time has passed. I don’t think anyone is going to recognize him or remember him. He may have a thousand aliases and a dozen different types of jobs at different clinics throughout the country. And we’re not even sure the clinics are a clue. All we know is Grace and Penelope were both ill and at home the day he took them. If would be different if we were gathering evidence to try to make a case against him. We’re not. I know what he looks like, and Grace knows him and this old woman. We don’t need any other evidence. I think we need to flush him out. Make him come to us.”

  Loki gave him a minute to think about what she’d said. “Karen told me last night they wouldn’t be broadcasting the image, as we didn’t have a good enough profile to know what he might do, and they’re afraid he’ll go underground. I don’t think he’s going to do that.”

  “What do you think he’s going to do?”

  “I think he’ll start cleaning up loose ends, including killing me and Grace, and he’ll find a new place to continue his baby business.”

  “Grace didn’t see his face, according to her, so you’re the major loose end.” Jake took the cup and sniffed it with a sigh. “And if you’re thinking about using yourself as bait, forget it. We may not have a profile on this guy, but I can tell you he’s insane, which makes him extremely dangerous. There’s no way to judge or prepare for what the insane will do.”

  “Grace is still a loose end. She saw Mother even if she didn’t see the man she called Husband. So is Mrs. Gardina—and anyone else who’s worked with him still in a position to recognize him.”

  “That could be a lot of people, Loki. He can’t possibly kill all of them.”

  Loki shook her head. “He doesn’t have to. All he has to do is kill a few and let it be known he’s the killer. The rest will be too scared to come forward. Besides, there’s plastic surgery, contacts that change the color of your eyes, hair dye. He can do a thousand things not to be recognized, and if he does, we’ll never find him before he takes another child.”

  “Maybe he won’t come back. As you said, he could simply disguise himself and keep moving.”

  “He killed Midnight and Fawn. That was a warning. If he doesn’t come after me, he’ll at least come after Bruiser. I don’t know why I think that, but I know it’s true.”

  “How do you plan on flushing him out?”

  “I do a live broadcast and describe him generally. Nothing good enough for him to be recognized, but I’ll drop the fact I’m getting ready to work with a forensic artist and we’re hoping to have a picture within forty-eight hours. If he’s going to come after me, he’ll have to do it quick.”

  “No. He’s too smart for that, and he’ll know it’s a trap. And there’s no way we could know for sure he’d see the broadcast.”

  “If he were smart, he would have killed me before he left here that night. He’s arrogant. He’s done this long enough he thinks he’s invincible. He’s never had to hide because he’s never made mistakes before. He isn’t going to like that, Jake, and even if he decides to change his looks, he’s still going to try to kill me and Grace.”

  “Wilkes will never go for it. And even if he does, Nikolic won’t. There’s some type of tension between those two, and I have a feeling it goes back to breaking the rules.”

  “I don’t care if they’re on board or not, as long as you are,” Loki said. “We need to make sure Grace and the baby are safe first.”

  “Might be a little hard to sneak them out now.”

  “I don’t think Karen is like the rest of them, and I think we can pull her in. Maybe even get her to take Grace and the baby and safeguard them so Dadron and Jules can have our back. I’d feel safer with our own crew here.”

  “Pull me into what?” Karen asked from the kitchen doorway. “But whatever it is, make it quick, as I’d like to get to the cabin soon.”

  Jake rose and smiled at Karen. “You can fill her in. I’ll make sure the UTV is gassed up and ready to go.”

  “We’ve come up with a plan to flush him out, but we don’t think your partners would go for it.”

  Karen poured a cup of coffee. “Is it dangerous?”

  “Mostly to me, but it could be dangerous for Grace and the baby.”

  “So what’s my part in it?” Karen asked, her eyes locking on Loki’s face. “I’m usually open to ideas as long as they have a possibility of working.”

  “If you could take Grace and the baby somewhere safe until it’s over, Dadron and Jules could help with guarding me. They know this land, and like me, they’re sensitive to changes around them. We should be able to spot him before anything happens.”

  “I’ve known Wilkes for about five years now. I’ve seen him draw before. What I haven’t seen is him ever make a mistake. Your life depends on Grace being here, Loki
.”

  Loki clenched her hands beneath the table, her right foot patting the floor. “My life depends on us being ready when this guy comes back. I can’t do that and worry about her and the baby.”

  Karen sighed, staring down into her cup. “I lied earlier when I said the director had given me permission to stay here. The truth is I took a leave of absence, and I’m probably going to be fired when I go back.”

  Loki’s stomach muscles tensed, and her heart pounded a little faster. “Why would you do that, Karen?”

  “Because it isn’t just your life we have to worry about, Loki. Grace has to be here.”

  Loki met and held her gaze. “Why?”

  “Because if she isn’t, Wilkes is going to die too.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Wilkes studied Teresa’s face as he waited for her to buckle her seat belt. The lines on her forehead seemed deeper this morning, and she kept puckering her lips as if something had left a bad taste in her mouth. “You got something on your mind this morning, Nik?”

  “You know, don’t you?” Teresa asked. “Did Karen tell you?”

  “No, she didn’t, but she should have.”

  “I’m surprised she didn’t. She’s a lot like you, Wilkes. She works for the Bureau, but she’s not part of the Bureau. The director considers her another rogue, and if she weren’t my cousin, he would have already canned her.”

  Wilkes started the car and turned onto the main highway. “Not everybody is like you. Willing to sell out their fellow officers to get a feather in their cap.”

  “I didn’t have to tell you.” Teresa chuckled. “Besides, if it wasn’t me, it would be someone else. The new director is after your hide, and he’ll eventually find someone to give him what he needs.”

  “I guess I should thank you for the heads-up, then,” Wilkes replied sarcastically. “So is that what your problem is with Vanderputt? You thought she told me something?”