The Burying Place

by Brian Freeman

  'Do you have the warrant?' Stride asked.

  Guppo yanked a folded white paper out of his back pocket. 'Judge Kassel isn't too happy with you. I interrupted her beauty sleep.'

  'She's never very happy with me,' Stride said. He looked at the two Duluth patrol cars parked behind Guppo's pickup. 'These guys didn't use sirens on the way in, right?'

  'Silent running,' Guppo said.

  Stride saw Serena staring at the farmhouse. She was unusually tense, and he didn't know if it was caused by the stress between the two of them or her anxiety over the investigation. He knew without her saying a word that she had become emotionally engaged with Valerie and Callie. It was one more thing they hadn't talked about.

  Serena turned to Guppo and asked, 'Have you been up to the house yet?'

  'No, I was waiting for the two of you.' He shoved his hands in his pockets and added, 'So how do you guys want to play it?'

  'I'm hoping we can do this the easy way,' Stride said. 'Whatever the hell is going on, I don't think anybody wants to get hurt. The biggest risk is someone bolting. Have one of the squad cars block the driveway, and keep your motors running.'

  'You want me to go with you?' Guppo asked.

  'We'll call you up when we're ready to do the search. But Serena and I want to go first and have a chat. I don't want anyone getting spooked, OK? The key is to do this calm and steady.'

  'You got it.'

  Guppo sloughed his body toward the patrol cars to give them instructions. Stride and Serena continued across the highway and stood at the base of the driveway. The farmhouse was fifty yards away, sheltered by trees. They could see lights inside.

  'Did you call Valerie?' Stride asked.

  Serena shook her head. 'We don't know what we're going to find up there. We could be wrong about this.'

  'I said we want to do this the easy way, but do you have your gun with you?' he asked.

  She looked at him. 'I have it, but do you really think that's necessary?'

  'I don't know. I hope not, but they could be desperate.' He added, 'I didn't want to say anything, not until we knew, but this whole thing raises a lot of questions.'

  'You mean Regan,' Serena said.

  'Not just her.'

  Serena thought about it and cursed under her breath. 'My God. Do you really think that's possible?'

  'Right now, anything's possible,' Stride said. He heard his phone ringing, and he pulled it out of his pocket. He held it closely against his ear to hear the call over the roaring of the wind. 'This is Stride.'

  'Lieutenant, it's Troy Grange calling.'

  Stride was surprised. 'Troy, what's going on?'

  'I'm sorry to call you so late, but this has been bothering me, and I couldn't sleep.'

  'What is it?'

  'Maggie stopped by my house earlier this evening. While she was here, she got a call from a security guard who keeps an eye on the Buckthorn School property. You know, it's that ruined building out on Township Road.'

  'I know it,' Stride said. 'Was this about Nick Garaldo?'

  'Yeah, exactly. The guard told Maggie he found something out there, and he wanted a police escort before he went inside the school. The old building's not too far from me, so Maggie told him she'd meet him there herself.' 'OK.'

  'The thing is, I thought about it afterward, and I realized that the guard at the school was the same guy who did the security installation on my house. That was right after the killings began up here.'

  'Is that a problem?'

  Troy hesitated. 'Oh, hell, I don't know. I just don't like coincidences, you know. And to tell you the truth, I didn't really like the guy. So I called Matt Clayton, the township administrator. He and I play tennis a couple of times a year. I asked Matt what he knew about this security guy, Jim Nieman.'

  'What did he say?' Stride asked.

  'He said he's never had any complaints. But here's the thing. When I asked if he'd checked references on Nieman, he said he had. Nieman gave him the name of a guy who owns a strip mall in Pueblo.'

  'I'm still not following you, Troy.'

  'Pueblo's half an hour from Colorado Springs. Maggie told me that the van the killer was using was stolen in Colorado Springs.'

  Stride gripped the phone tighter.

  'I called Maggie to tell her about it,' Troy continued, 'but just as she answered, the phone cut out. I've tried her several times since then, and there's no answer.'

  'I'll check it out, Troy,' Stride told him. 'You did the right thing by calling.'

  'Let me know when you talk to her, OK?'

  'I will.'

  Stride hung up. Serena studied him with her eyebrows arched in a question, but he didn't answer right away. Instead, he dialed Maggie's cell phone and listened. The call went directly into her voicemail.

  'Is something wrong?' Serena asked.

  He told himself that nothing was wrong, but his gut told him otherwise. Everything was wrong. The cold air wrapped fingers around his neck. His stomach knotted in fear. He didn't hesitate.

  'I have to go,' he told her. 'Maggie's in trouble.'

  * * *

  Chapter Fifty-one

  Kasey huddled in the darkness. She lay on her stomach, freezing and wet, hidden behind a stack of rotting wooden beams. Her hair fell in limp curls across her face, and she clenched her fists to keep her body from shivering. Cold water dripped from overhead, landing on her back and legs. She could barely feel her feet. She wasn't sure how long she had been hiding, but she knew he was looking for her, and sooner or later he would find her.

  The flashlight beam searched the room like a laser. He shot it into corners and crevices, hoping to surprise her. The light lingered over the wall just above her head, and she flattened herself further against the concrete floor and held her breath. Where the beam illuminated the wall, she could see orange rust stains, graffiti spray-painted by vandals, and pockmarks where someone had used the stone for target practice. Five seconds later, the light disappeared, and she was blind again.

  He spoke to her out of the darkness. He couldn't have been more than twenty feet away.

  'I know you're here, Kasey.'

  She waited with a growing desperation for him to search elsewhere in the school, but after a long minute of silence, he switched on the light again. It lit up the floor inches in front of her face, and she shrunk backwards. The concrete was littered with nails and bricks. A foot-long rat froze, staring at her with pink eyes. The animal was inches from her face. Caught in the light, it charged directly at her, and she had to cover her mouth not to scream as its furry body scratched across the skin of her back.

  'You can't hide forever, Kasey.' He added, 'Someone's waiting for you.'

  Kasey tensed and inched forward. She heard a violent clap and a wince of pain. 'Talk,' he barked.

  She heard a new voice.

  'Forget about me, Kasey. Save yourself.'

  Maggie. It was Maggie's voice. Kasey wanted to pound her fists on the floor. She pushed part of her face past the pile of wooden beams, far enough to see as he shone the light on Maggie's body. She was tied to a chair with her hands behind her back. Her neck was ringed in blood, and Kasey had a flashback of that night in the fog and of Susan Krauss appearing out of nowhere at her car window. Looking just like that, with her throat half cut. Behind Maggie, in the dim glow of the flashlight, she saw the other bodies, posed as if they were decomposing dolls.

  She was angry. Angry that God had dropped her in the middle of this, when she wasn't prepared. Angry that God had abandoned her. But maybe this was His revenge. Over the past year, she had stopped believing in God and found herself believing only in despair and betrayal. She had grown bitter at the world. She had simply never imagined that the awful road would lead her here.

  'You can't run, Kasey,' he taunted her. 'What do you do now?'

  She bit her lip, listening to his slow footsteps as he walked away. The beam of the flashlight shifted, streaming through a gaping hole in the far wall. His back was to
her. This was her chance, and she didn't dare wait any longer.

  I kill you, she vowed to herself. That's what I do now.

  She scrambled to her feet and picked up the heavy metal joist. She held it like a club as she edged around the stack of wooden pilings. She put a foot ahead of her, tested the ground, and laid her heel down without a sound. She kept an eye on the flashlight beam in the corridor as she inched across the floor, but as she watched, it went dark. She froze where she was, feeling exposed. She thought about retreating to her hiding place, but she knew she was close to Maggie. In a voice that was barely audible, she murmured, 'I'm here.'

  She heard noises of struggle. The chair to which Maggie was tied rocked loudly on the floor, and she heard Maggie grunting with effort as she strained against her bonds. Trying to free herself.

  She took another step and spoke again in a soft hiss. 'Maggie.'

  This time, Maggie whispered back immediately. 'Get out of here, Kasey.'

  It was too late to run. Light flooded the room and pinned Kasey like a convict in a searchlight. She still had the metal joist poised over her head, but he was in the doorway, twenty feet away, too far for her to charge him. Behind the light, he was in silhouette, but she could see that he held Maggie's gun, pointed at her chest. He walked closer, stepping over dirty glass, and stopped six feet away from her. The gun was outstretched in his left hand.

  Kasey's back stiffened in defiance. 'You better shoot. That's the only way you're getting close to me again.'

  'That's not how this goes down, Kasey,' he said. 'You know what I want you to do.'

  'Fuck you, you sick bastard.'

  'I want to see you kill her,' he said.

  'You're crazy.'

  'Take the joist, and crush her skull.'

  'I won't do it.'

  'Yes, you will. You'll do whatever it takes to save yourself.'

  'You don't know me.'

  'I know you better than anyone,' he said. 'You're just like me.'

  'I'm not like you,' Kasey snapped, breathing harder, watching him.

  'We both know you are. Kill her.'

  'I'll kill you instead,' Kasey swore, raising the joist higher over her head and clutching it tightly with her hand.

  'Don't be stupid.'

  'I don't care what happens to me any more.'

  'Yes, you do. You know the stakes, Kasey. You know what happens if you fail the test.'

  'Leave my family alone. They're not part of this.'

  'You weren't a part of my game, but you put yourself in the middle of it. You can't stop playing now.'

  'You are done,' she shouted, taking a step toward him. 'You are dead:

  He read the violence in her face. 'It's a powerful feeling, isn't it? To hate so much you want to kill. That's when you know you're really alive.' 'This ends right now,' she said.

  'I'll sweeten the deal for you, Kasey. Kill her, and I'll let you go.'

  'What?'

  'I'll let you go,' he told her. 'Game over.'

  'You're a fucking liar.'

  'I'm not lying.'

  The joist felt slippery in Kasey's hand. 'You'll never let me go. I've seen you.'

  'But you're not going to turn me in, are you? You wouldn't take that chance. Come on, Kasey, what's another death on your conscience? I'm giving you a chance to walk away.'

  'Kasey.' It was Maggie's voice, interrupting him sharply. 'Kasey, look at me. Don't listen to him. Don't believe him.'

  Maggie's eyes were calm and focused, as if she were talking Kasey down off a high ledge.

  'This guy is pathetic,' Maggie went on, her voice growing loud and sarcastic. 'He's a joke. Look at him. Acne Face here probably had dates laughing at him in high school, and now he's taking it out on women everywhere. Or maybe Mommy liked to dress him up in her lingerie. Which was it, Nie-Man? Nie-Man, isn't that like German for "not a man"? Wow, the shrinks'll have a field day with that one.'

  'Maggie,' Kasey murmured.

  Nieman didn't move or say a word, but Kasey saw his muscles quiver as his body knotted up in rage. His smile froze on his face and turned ugly.

  'So what's your story, Nie-Man?' Maggie asked. 'What turned you into such a miserable excuse for a human life, huh? Did Aunt Penny like to take you into the closet when you were a boy and play with your little wee-wee? Did you grow up on a farm and spend too much time fucking the pigs and goats?'

  Nieman's eyes never left Kasey's face. 'Kill her, Kasey,' he said calmly. 'Kill her right now, and you are free.'

  'The whole school thing, what's that about?' Maggie persisted, buzzing around his brain like a mosquito. 'Was it a teacher? Did one of your teachers introduce your ass to the end of a broom handle? Or was it the other kids? Did they make the girls watch? Did they laugh at you? Poor, pitiful little Nie-Man.'

  'Kill her, Kasey,' he growled. 'Do it right now, or I'll torture both of you in ways you can't even imagine. Do you hear me? Do you think I won't do it?'

  Kasey recoiled as he shouted at her, but she understood. Maggie was trying to give her a split second to get to him. One moment of distraction. One chance to attack. And it was working.

  'So what's the deal? Are you just an impotent piece of shit, Nie-Man? Can't get your tiny noodle off your balls? You blame women because all you've got is a floppy inch of licorice between your legs? Maybe next time you should pick a name like Harry No-Dick, huh? That's a good name for you.'

  Kasey could see it in his eyes. So could Maggie. She had scored a direct hit. Nieman blinked faster, and his blood rage bubbled toward a boil.

  'Drop your pants, No-Dick. Go on, do it. Give us a last laugh.'

  'Shut the fuck up! Shut up! Shut up!'

  Nieman stormed toward Maggie with his right hand clenched into a fist and his arm cocked for a back-handed blow across her face. The barrel of the gun followed his body. His head turned. One split second.

  Kasey leaped. He wrenched back and fired as he saw her coming, but he wasn't fast enough. The gun went off with a flash and roar, burning past her ear, and before he could fire again, she hurtled the joist down on to his wrist. The heft of the metal snapped the joint with a loud crack. He howled in agony, and the gun tumbled to the floor.

  Kasey reared back to swing again, aiming at his head this time, but he grabbed her shoulders and toppled them both off their feet. They landed hard amid the glass and debris. The flashlight spun away but stayed lit, casting a tunnel of light across their bodies. Before she could twist free, she felt him on top of her, leaning into her throat with his thick forearm. He loomed above her, his eyes black and intense. Seeing his eyes, she took her index finger and jabbed a sharp nail directly into the moist center of his pupil. He screamed, loosening his grip and covering his face with his hand. She hammered a fist into the center of his throat, and then again, slamming the side of his head and rolling him off her.

  In the triangle of light, she saw the gun among the rubble on the floor and threw herself toward it. He kicked as he felt her move, and his boot connected with her skull, dizzying her and spinning her on to her back. He jumped and landed on her chest and drove the side of her head into the floor, where the broken glass sliced her cheek and lips. Before he could grab her skull again, she clutched his other hand and twisted his broken wrist. He let go with a screech of pain, and she wriggled backwards.

  Her hands scrabbled on the floor for the gun but couldn't find it. He crawled toward her, and she skittered away from him, bumping against something cold and wet. She wrapped her hand around it, and her fingers sank into dead, decaying flesh. She was among the bodies, drowning in the smell. She kept backing up, using the row of corpses to block him from her, but he came forward, climbing from his knees, towering above her. His right eye was squeezed shut. His left hand dangled at an odd angle. But he was standing, and she was on her back.

  Kasey reached the wall and couldn't go any further. He threw aside the chairs, grotesquely tumbling two bodies to the ground and scattering rats. Their eyes met. He smiled and came f
or her. As he landed, his body crushed her with his weight, forcing the air from her chest in a rush. His good hand locked around her throat like the jaws of a dog and choked off her windpipe. Kasey clawed at his fingers and pummeled his head and body with her fists, but he hung on.

  Blood pounded in her ears. Her open mouth sucked for air and found none. She pawed the ground, hunting for a weapon. When she found a shard of glass, she scored his skin in streaks, but the blood and pain didn't dislodge him. His hand was a clamp, crushing the cartilage of her neck.

  'You lose, Kasey,' he hissed.

  Maggie screamed at her. 'On your left! Kasey, on your left!'

  Her left arm swept the floor in a twitching, up-and-down motion. Blood vessels popped like firecrackers on her face.

  'Higher!'

  Kasey reached backward until her shoulder almost separated. That was when she felt it. Her fingers closed over a jagged block of heavy concrete. She clutched the stone like a baseball and hefted it off the floor. Her arms swayed with the weight, and she nearly lost her grip.

  'Yes! Do it! Hit him!'

  She took an unwieldy swing and missed. Her fingers grew numb. The brick tottered in her hand. Drunkenly, she swung again, down into the back of his head, and this time she heard the block land with a fierce, satisfying crack as it broke bone.

  His hand loosened from her throat. She felt him crumple and become dead weight, unconscious as he lay on her body. Lines of blood trickled through his hair and on to her face. With a heavy thrust, she flipped his body over and staggered to her feet. The world spun. She coughed, gasping for air.

  'Kasey!' Maggie shouted. 'Are you OK?'

  Kasey stumbled toward the flashlight. She bent down and picked it up, and the beam of light danced crazily in her hand as she steadied herself. She scanned the floor and located Maggie's gun, and she retrieved it and held it tightly in her other hand. She took a tentative step toward the wall and cast the light down on his body.

  'Is he dead?' Maggie asked.

  Kasey watched Nieman in the light. A dark pool grew under his skull, but she could see his chest rise and fall. She hadn't hit him hard enough to kill him. The nightmare wasn't over yet. He groaned, and his limbs moved. Blood bubbled from his mouth. His eyes fluttered as he began to wake up.