by Mahle, Robin
Katie was left standing between the two men who obviously disliked each other; a result of her own doing. Of course, up to that point, Aguilar had been a thorn in her side. But Marshall hadn’t just spent the past several hours with a man who had flown up to meet her in Sacramento based solely on her hunch. It would take some convincing on her part to get Marshall to see that Aguilar had become their ally.
“It’s been a long day. I’d really like to go get cleaned up and changed. Can I go up to your room?” she asked Marshall.
Marshall seemed shocked by her lack of discretion.
“It’s fine; he knows about us.” Katie held out her hand for his key and once it was in her grasp, she left the room, leaving the men staring at one another with little to say.
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They were to meet with Scarborough back downstairs in only minutes. The quick shower and sparse makeup was enough to make Katie feel human again. Now it was time to find out if her little disappearing act had been in vain and if she had jeopardized everything only to find nothing.
The elevator in the old hotel inched along and Katie could think of nothing to say to Marshall that would make him understand why she had left on her own. Standing inside, they both turned their gaze upward to the floor numbers as they lit up. The uncomfortable silence could not be broken.
The doors parted in the lobby to reveal Aguilar checking into a room at the front desk. It appeared he wasn’t going back to San Diego anytime soon and Marshall’s expression confirmed to Katie that he was displeased. Nevertheless, she would not try to sway Marc otherwise for the sake of Marshall’s feelings. They were well beyond that now.
“Avery, over here.” Scarborough waved them over and Aguilar wasted no time in joining the team.
They followed him into the small dining room that had been transformed into a mini command center.
“Is anyone left at the warehouse?” Katie asked Marshall.
“They’ve still got a small team running evidence over there, but here and the station are the primary posts. You wouldn’t believe what’s been happening around here in the twenty-four hours since you left, Kate. Your disappearance brought in all the big boys.”
Scarborough took a seat at a small table and the others followed. He opened his laptop and slid a photograph of Joseph Hendrickson out of his files and toward Katie.
She gasped at the face of the teenager in the picture.
Scarborough then showed her another picture. “This just came in from Oregon City.”
An older version of the teenager; this photo was of a man everyone could see was a match to the one in Katie’s sketch.
“That’s him,” she whispered.
“You were right. You both were right,” Marshall replied.
“We’re tracking down the chief now,” Scarborough began. “Last anyone saw him, he was at the station. I think we should head over there and have a talk with him. Katie, you should have come to us with this. It would’ve saved us a lot of grief and we could have been a day closer to finding the killer.”
She wanted to defend herself, tell him that she’d tried, but it didn’t matter now. “What’s going to happen to Wilson?”
“He’ll be booked for questioning. We need to understand what he knows, if he knows where his brother is. We have to give the guy a chance to explain why it was he didn’t tell us he suspected his brother and said nothing.”
“Do you think it’s as simple as that? You don’t think he was working with the brother?” Marshall asked.
“Based on what we know of Wilson right now, I’d say no. But he’s known, I expect, since the beginning. Brother or not, he’s been protecting a killer.”
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Inside the Rio Dell Police Station, a chaotic scene had erupted. Marshall, Katie and Marc Aguilar, who’d inserted himself as a member of the team, waited for Agent Scarborough to make his way inside, hoping he could shed light on what was happening.
Scarborough raced past them. “He’s gone. Wilson’s gone.”
“Son of a bitch!” Marshall chased after Scarborough, leaving Katie and Aguilar to catch up.
“What happened?” Marshall asked the agent.
“I don’t know. He caught wind we were coming down here to talk to him. Someone opened their goddamned mouth.”
They ran into Wilson’s office. A few file cabinet drawers had been emptied and his computer was gone.
“What the hell? Did no one see him do this?” Scarborough shouted.
Katie could hear him yelling as she and Aguilar approached Wilson’s office. “Oh my God. He can’t be far, right?”
“Call his wife! Find out where the hell he is!” Scarborough barked orders to another agent.
“We need to get to his house now.” Marshall took Katie by the hand and dragged her through the hordes of FBI agents crowding around.
She looked back, but couldn’t see Aguilar. No time to worry about that now. She saw Scarborough emerge through the crowd and push his way out the door just in time to get into Marshall’s car with them.
“He lives about a mile from here, off of Harrison Street. Go!” Scarborough shouted.
Katie knew where Harrison Street was and directed Marshall where to turn. Within minutes, they raced up the driveway of Wilson’s home. Marshall jammed the car into park and they jumped out, sprinting toward the front door.
“Kate, stay here!” Marshall said.
Upon reaching the door, Marshall and Scarborough forced it open and Wilson’s wife screamed from the living room.
“Where is he?” Marshall yelled.
She cast her reddened eyes toward the kitchen.
The men moved forward, guns drawn.
Katie would not be made to wait inside that car. She had to see him for herself. She had to ask him why he did it. Why he protected the monster. She approached the front door and stepped inside.
Marshall and Scarborough continued their approach, stepping into the hall, not realizing that Katie was only feet behind them now. Mrs. Wilson remained frozen, standing inside the living room.
An absolute hush overcame the home. Katie advanced toward Marshall. He’d spotted her now and shook his head. He wanted her to stop.
Scarborough was the first to break the silence. “Chief, put the gun down. We just want to talk to you.”
Wilson sat alone at the kitchen table. “It’s all my fault. I tried to stop him. I stopped him before, but this time, he was different; determined to find Katie. God, if only she had listened to me. I warned her so many times to stop. Stop digging around, stop looking for him.”
“Where is he, Chief?” Marshall asked.
“He just wasn’t right, you know?” Wilson continued. “Our parents knew it. I know my mother killed herself because of him. He would threaten to hurt me when we were kids and my sister—my baby sister. They shouldn’t have left him alone with her. I tried to tell them, but they didn’t believe me.” Wilson rested his elbows on the table, waving his gun around as he spoke. “After I became a cop, I tracked him down. He seemed—changed; better. It wasn’t until we had Marisa that I knew he hadn’t changed at all. She was just a toddler and I saw the way he looked at her. He looked at our sister the same way.”
Katie caught just a glimpse of Wilson, but Marshall stepped in front of her.
“We need you to tell us where he is, Chief; before someone else gets hurt. You know it’s the right thing to do.” Scarborough had been an expert negotiator before he worked in the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.
“Is she here?” Wilson tried to peer around the men who were pointing guns at him.
“No. She’s somewhere safe,” Scarborough replied.
“You’re lying, Agent Scarborough.” He looked again toward the hall. “Katie?”
She began to move out from behind Marshall.
“No,” he whispered to her.
“I’m here, Chief.”
“I’m so sorry, Katie. I wanted to stop him when you were taken. He’d already killed those other
children. He didn’t admit it, but I knew. I could see it in his eyes. That’s why I moved up here because I had to control him and stop him from hurting anyone else.”
“Why didn’t you turn him in, Robert?” Katie’s eyes filled with tears at his admission.
“I abandoned him. I left him to spend his childhood in a mental institution while I went on to have a good life with my new family. It’s my fault; I should have been there to help him. All that damn hospital did was turn him into something evil. And, I was afraid. Afraid of what he might do to my little girl if I turned him in.” Wilson dropped his head and began to sob.
“Please, tell us where he is,” she pleaded.
“I warned you, Katie. I warned you to stop and now look what you’ve done. I can’t control him any more. Why couldn’t you let it go? You had a good life, too. You were the lucky one. I was able to keep an eye on him here; keep him under control. But then you came to me and I knew if he found out that your memory was back, he would revert to the monster he was.”
“Did you tell him she remembered what happened?” Marshall asked.
“I didn’t have to. He already knew. He’d been watching her for years. But I didn’t know it. He called me and told me he knew I’d been hiding it from him. That’s when it all changed and I couldn’t stop it. He threatened my family, my daughter.
“And when she came forward with the sketch, I sent my daughter away, someplace far, where he couldn’t find her, because I knew it was only a matter of time. And now, here we are.”
“How’s this going to end?” Scarborough asked. “You help us now, Chief and they’ll take into account your family history. It doesn’t have to end badly for you, but only if you tell us where he is. You can make things right.”
Wilson laughed. “It’ll never be right. I’m responsible for my brother’s actions. I’m responsible for the deaths of those children.” Wilson closed his eyes and wiped the tears that had run down his cheeks. “He’s here, in Rio Dell. I was supposed to tell him when Katie was going to be transferred into custody; tell him where he could find her before she left. If I didn’t, he threatened to kill my wife. He’s at the vacant cabin our parents owned; the place where he took the children, including Katie. It’s north off Highway 101, just before the Arcata exit.”
“Did you know he was going to kill Sam?” Katie battled for control of the anger that raged inside over what Wilson had done.
“No, I swear. He called and told me where she was. I made the arrangements for her to be found.”
Katie closed her eyes and wept.
“I’m so sorry, Katie,” Wilson said.
Marshall and Agent Scarborough began to yell when the loud crack of a gunshot rang out and Katie’s eyes flew open again. It was the thump of Wilson’s head hitting the kitchen table that made Katie scramble to see what had happened. Marshall held her back, but it was too late. She saw the blood pouring from him, running off the table and pooling onto the floor.
Katie grew dizzy as the ringing in her ears worsened and the sound of Mrs. Wilson’s screams echoed in her head. Marshall yanked her from where she stood and dragged her out of the house. Everything around her was spinning; she leaned over the porch rail and retched and then collapsed onto the deck. Marshall’s voice was muffled in her mind. Her eyes opened as he tapped her cheeks to revive her.
“Kate, wake up. Come on, babe. Wake up.”
His face came into focus. She was being propped up by him as he knelt down on the ground.
“You’re okay. You’re okay,” he said.
She could hear Scarborough talking on his phone, barking more orders. Mrs. Wilson cried hysterically inside. Two police units screeched their tires as they raced up the driveway, the men running by her into the house.
“Hold up! Hold up!” Marshall yelled at them. “It’s over. Go see Scarborough.” He brought his tone down again to speak to her. “Come on and sit up now, Kate. You can do it; you’re all right.”
Amidst the confusion, she soon reared herself up and the sobs came harder than ever.
Marshall pulled her toward his chest. “It’s over. You’re safe.”
“It’s not over. He’s here and he won’t stop until he kills me.”
“He won’t hurt you, Kate. I swear to God, I won’t let that happen.” He continued to hold her as she cried without acknowledging the chaos that surrounded them.
Sam was dead and now the chief was dead. Katie knew she was next, regardless of what Marshall said. The monster would find her before they would find him. This was far from over.
The sirens grew louder as the ambulance and more FBI units approached Wilson’s house. Two paramedics ran onto the porch where Katie still sat, unable to stand on her own, fearing she would hurl once again. Her ears were still ringing, but she heard Marshall tell the EMTs to take her to the hospital to get checked out.
“I don’t need to go to the hospital. I’m fine,” she said as they began shining lights in her eyes and strapping a blood pressure cuff to her arm.
“They just want to make sure, okay? Let them take you in and I promise I won’t be far behind.”
Inside the ambulance and lying on a stretcher, Katie recalled Wilson’s final words. The abandoned cabin; where was it? They had traversed that forest months ago and found no signs of any homes. How far had the six-year-old version of herself run before being found along the roadside? A mile? Two miles? She would have had no real concept of distance at that age. But now that they had the birth name of Hendrickson, they could locate whatever properties the family might have owned.
For a moment, she felt sorry for Robert Wilson. He had a mother who had committed suicide and a brother who had “accidently” killed his baby sister. She wondered how he had managed to lead a normal life after realizing his brother had become a killer. But who knew the nightmares he faced every night when he slept? They must have been far worse than her own.
None of that mattered now. The killer was near and he would find out about his brother soon enough. He wouldn’t stay at the cabin; he was too smart for that. He’d eluded capture with the aid of his brother up until now. She was convinced he’d find a way out of town. Or, he would resign to the fact that he wasn’t going to make it out of town alive and do whatever it took to get to her.
Rio Dell didn’t have a hospital—only local practices—and so they had taken her to Arcata, to the same hospital where Sam’s body had been taken.
They wheeled her inside. She could probably stand on her own without any dizziness now that the ringing was subsiding. But when she attempted to rise, the paramedics insisted that she lie down while they talked to the Attending.
The doctor approached her and took her wrist to check her pulse. “How are you feeling, Katie? Any dizziness, nausea?”
“No, I’m feeling much better now. My ears are still ringing a little, but no more nausea.”
“Good. I think I’d like to just get you checked out and then you’ll be free to go home.”
“Uh, doctor?” One of the EMTs approached. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
The two moved several feet away and Katie couldn’t hear what he was saying. Although, based on the look on the doctor’s face, she figured the EMT filled him in on the situation.
The doctor approached her again. His face was changed and a look of pity replaced what had previously been just medical concern. “Okay, well, I think the best thing is to keep you overnight for observation.”
She suspected this was Marshall’s doing. “Can I have my cell phone?” Katie asked.
“I’ll have your things brought to your room once we get you admitted.” The doctor led the EMTs away.
Katie watched as they continued their conversation. She was going to be there for the night, by all accounts. It was probably the best place for her. But she was desperate to know what was happening with Marshall and if they’d found the cabin.
Soon after getting her into a room, a nurse brought her things to her. “Thank you.”
Katie rummaged through the bag in search of her cell phone. Her mind replayed the scene over and over. Wilson’s head on the table and his wife’s screams. The sounds pierced her ears like an ice pick.
Her phone revealed no messages. Why hadn’t Marshall called to check on her? She had to know what was happening. She’d expected him to be at the hospital by now.
His phone rang, once, twice, then to voicemail. She disconnected the call when the nurse leaned into the doorway.
“You have some visitors,” she said, leading Katie’s parents into the room.
“Oh, thank God you’re okay!” her mother said, rushing to Katie’s bedside.
“I’m fine, Mom, really. They’re just keeping me here for observation.”
“We heard what happened at Chief Wilson’s house,” her father said. “They’ve blocked off all the roads out of town and patrolmen are everywhere. Is he in Rio Dell, Katie?”
“They think so, Dad. I’m pretty sure that’s why they’re keeping me here tonight.”
“Well, why the hell aren’t there any officers posted out front here?”
“I’m sure they’re on their way, Dad. I’ll be safe here. They’ll find him. I’m sure of it and this nightmare will finally be over.”
Deborah reached around her daughter to embrace her as best she could. “It’ll finally be over for all of us, sweetheart.”
Katie had almost forgotten the toll this must have taken on her parents. They’d been living with this for so long. To have it finally nearing its end must be indescribable. Then, there were the families of the other victims. She could only hope that when they did catch Hendrickson, he’d tell the cops what he did with the others and let the parents finally bury their children.
“Thank you for coming to see me, but I think it’s best if you go back home. They’ve still got someone there at the house?”
John nodded. “One of them brought us down here.”
“Good. I’ll be fine. Marshall will be here soon. We just need to let the FBI do what they need to do.” Only now, during this hellish nightmare had she finally wanted to relinquish control of the situation. She realized there was nothing more for her to do. She did what needed to be done to get this far. It was time to let go.