by Paris Morgan
“I make furniture. They sell it over at Larry’s Furniture Mart.”
“You’re the mysterious wood maker? Well, living like you do, I can see how you wouldn’t want people to know because they might not buy the same way. You’d never have a moment’s piece either.” The sheriff nodded in satisfaction.
“That’s it? You’re going take his word that all the money is his?” Agent Perez almost shrieked.
“Tom,” the sheriff calmly addressed, “how come the people who own that land let you stay there?”
“When they bought the property, I made that part of the deal. I get to live there until I die, and then they can do whatever they want with it afterward,” Tom replied in a clear, distinct voice.
“What about your brother? Wouldn’t he have a say if you sold it?”
Tom stared off into the corner as he answered. “My brother is dead. Had him declared so years ago after Mama and Papa died in that fire. Besides, he wouldn’t want anything to do with me or the land. The people that bought it made the deal, and it keeps the developers from ripping up my forest until I’m gone.”
Something was bothering me about Tom’s answers. Many people would have someone declared dead if they had been missing or they’d tried to find them. Tom seemed very certain that his brother wasn’t coming back, though, as if he knew that his brother was for sure dead.
“Where are you holding the girls?” Agent Watson asked calmly, hoping to get a better response than the other two had.
“I’m not holding any girls. What would I want with girls?” Tom questioned.
“So you’re gay?”
“No. If I wanted to date a woman then I would, but I wouldn’t have nothing to do with little girls. That’s just sick, man,” Tom clarified.
Sheriff Turner stood up. “Tom, I’m going to put you in one of the cells tonight. If the FBI doesn’t charge you with something in the morning, I’ll let you go home. Until then, I think it will be safer if someone is guarding your cell that’s from around here.”
Agent Perez started to protest, but he stopped her. “No. My people can verify that Tom isn’t a problem. If we keep him overnight, that should give you enough time to finish searching for whatever you were expecting to find in his cabin. I also want every dollar returned to him in the morning. If any of its missing, I’ll not only call your boss, but I’ll make a call to the Governor’s office.”
As they led him past, I spoke up. “Tom, I put your groceries up for you.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” Tom looked up for only a moment, and all I saw was genuine gratitude.
Looking over his shoulder, I saw Agent Perez shooting daggers at me with her eyes.
“You got my back, Ryan?” I turned to whisper.
“Absolutely. This is going to be fun.”
I walked past her without a word, and went over to the headquarters where everyone had been working on different parts of the puzzle for the past several days.
The boards had been updated with ten confirmed bodies, but I knew that there were at least five more out there.
“How dare you!” Her voice made the few people in the room stop what they were doing immediately.
I was about to get the brunt of the anger she couldn’t take out on the sheriff after his threats.
“Oh, were you talking to me?” I looked around the room, feigning confusion.
“Yes, you. You came here and are constantly suggesting ideas about the killer. Then you go and put his groceries up for him like he’s somebody special instead of a suspect. I don’t know how you do it back in Texas, but the FBI doesn’t help suspects.”
“See, that’s where I’m confused. He may be a suspect, and that’s fine, but there was no sense in wasting good groceries. Where I come from, it’s the neighborly thing to do, instead of letting all that money go to waste. If he is the killer, then cleaning out his fridge is someone else’s problem. At least they won’t have to take the soured milk out of his front seat or move the rotten tomatoes.
“Also, you’re the one who invited me. I mean, I can see how threatening it is for detectives to come in and lend a hand with a serial killer. Being petty is such a great idea when women are dying, and we still don’t have the person responsible. I’ve already seen what this person is capable of, and I’m not talking about the local guy,” I calmly stated, and waited for her to respond.
“Well, you’re going to regret this when I prove that we have the murderer locked up.” She turned and left the room with a trail of steam following her.
The past twenty-four hours were catching up to me, and I was in serious need of some food and sleep.
“Agent Watson, is there any way we can get our luggage out of the car? I think we’re going to stay here tonight, just in case the old-fashioned form of a lynch mobs makes a comeback.”
“Certainly.” He leaned in to whisper, “She’s going to be getting a phone call from her boss shortly. The sheriff and I are both going to be making calls tonight. In the meantime, there’s a diner across the street where you can get some food while I arrange for a place for you to stay tonight.”
“Thank you. I don’t know which is more important right now, food or sleep. I can eat while you work on the sleep.” I walked out of the temporary headquarters with my head up. I wasn’t going to let that woman beat me.
Chapter 8
Ryan
Leslie had been right the night before. We needed to get some sleep, but I was still having problems, and it was only seven at night. I’d made sure that she was settled in before I left the room.
The only thing that Gavin had been able to find was one lone room with queen beds. One of the news crews had been called back to L.A., leaving the room empty. Housekeeping had given us new sheets and Lysol spray, but they wouldn’t be able to do a deep clean until the next morning.
Leslie hadn’t cared. She’d been asleep before her head hit the pillow. I had to admire the way she lived. All passion and go until her energy died, and then she was down for the count.
Not only were my thoughts keeping me up, but I wanted to see if the sheriff had any ideas on where another local burial ground could be located.
He was taking the first shift of guarding Tom to keep the FBI from absconding with him in the middle of the night.
“Sheriff Turner, got a minute?” I knocked at the door of the cells.
“Yeah. What’s on your mind, Detective?” He closed the door between the cell and the hallway. “Have a seat.”
“I’m curious. If you don’t think that Tom’s responsible, who do you think could be capable of something like this?”
“That’s a really hard question. I don’t want to believe that anyone I know could be capable of this type of horror. I think that he’s got everyone fooled. He might be a resident that’s on the newer side, but not many people would have used those two burial sites unless you’d lived here most of your life.” He ran a frustrated hand through his hair.
“I’m starting to be suspicious of everyone, but my mother at this point. Since she’s a woman and doesn’t fit the profile, I think it’s safe for me to trust her.” He gave a wry grin. “Seriously, I asked the FBI to step in, but I didn’t know what I was going to get with Agent Perez.”
“I think she means well. She’s just going about it backwards.” I hated to give her credit, but she wasn’t a dumb woman.
“What would you suggest we do next to prevent him from taking more women?” He got up to glance through the small window into the cells.
“We need to think like a hunter. Where would he feel comfortable hunting, even with all of this publicity going on? Someplace that he’d done it many times before, right? He might not have stayed here, but maybe he grew up in the area? It takes years of running through the woods in the dark to be able to hunt others in them. He might even live somewhere else and come back here just for this purpose.”
“It would need to be somewhere that if she escaped, she couldn’t make it to safety. That’
s why the camping area where that father and son found those graves made sense. It’s not heavily populated, and he couldn’t have known they were going to go hunting. He made a mistake,” he said thoughtfully, considering the possibilities.
“What if it wasn’t a mistake? What if he wanted them to possibly be found? Where would be someplace sort of obscure, but someone might find the graves before they had been there very long?” I broached the question, “It doesn’t have to be in this county, but could be in a bordering one.”
“Nothing is coming to mind, but then again, I’ve been at this for over a week now. I think we lost our opportunity to get our missing woman back, but I don’t want to give up hope.”
“Sheriff, I speak from personal experience with this, but we can’t save everyone. I’d like to, but we just have to hope that we can save someone.” I stood and stretched. “I think I’ll get some sleep. You might want to see if you can switch out with someone and get some rest yourself. I don’t think Agent Perez is going to do anything before morning. It’s a long way to transport someone to L.A., and a lot of things can go wrong.”
“I heard about what happened with you and your partner. You guys were lucky. There isn’t much traffic on that old highway these days. Most people take the interstate, and those who want to fly under cover take the back roads.” He slapped his forehead. “Of course that’s why you were followed. The killer is using the old highway to transport the women from where he picks them up to his hunting grounds.”
“Glad I could help, but I’m not sure what you figured out. Most of the delivery or transportation trucks would only use the freeway unless they stopped in all of the little towns. You guys were right. He’s got some type of delivery system, and that’s how he hides the women until he gets back here.”
“Now, if we could just figure out what profession he’s working in that would make people trust him enough to not question his presence, that he could come and go easily.” He checked on his prisoner again. “He’s just watching the TV.”
“You look exhausted. Go get some sleep.” He started pacing again.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, but you’re right, I do need to rest. Night.” I walked out through the very quiet station and down the street to the hotel.
Leslie was asleep when I got inside, and she didn’t even move when I tripped over the edge of the bed in the dark.
I laid there, trying to think about our killer. What was motivating him? I understood the idea of hunting something and the satisfaction of finding your prize at the end—a reward. But this was more of a job, something he had to do, which also brought a little bit of pleasure.
Our killer had been doing this for years, and he was enjoying trying to outsmart us. He would never have left graves for us to find, and that’s what we’d been missing. Concentrated areas with missing women that would follow the California highway.
At some point, my body had gotten still enough that I’d dozed off fitfully.
My head was pounding like a drum when I rolled over to see Leslie letting Gavin into the room. It wasn’t my head doing the pounding, which was at least a slight improvement.
“Still asleep? Well, the missing town’s girl just showed up.” Gavin had a smile on his face. “Perez got called back to L.A., so the sheriff is going to take over and see where she’s been the past few days.”
Leslie was dressed already, but she didn’t have any coffee yet.
“Why don’t I go with Gavin while you get a shower?” she suggested.
“I stink, huh?” I didn’t even have to do a sniff test to know that it was needed. “Go on without me. I thought of a couple ideas that I’m going to try to remember in the light of day. I’ll meet you over there.”
“If you’re sure.” She waited for me to protest, and when I didn’t, she grabbed her badge and room key off the dresser.
When the door clicked shut, I flopped back onto the bed, wishing for just one moment that I led a normal life, where everything wasn’t so life or death. I almost envied those that held down nine-to-five jobs.
Unable to just lay there when parts of the case were coming unraveled, I jumped up and headed for the shower. We were going to have to take advantage of the cleaning services if we wanted to have another change of clean clothes.
***
Thirty minutes later, I felt fresh and ready to see the better side of the job. There wasn’t a line at the diner next door, so getting two coffees went quickly.
It was obvious why there’d been no one around as soon as I left the diner. Every news station was facing the entrance to the sheriff’s office. They were waiting like vultures for the poor woman to come walking out the door so they could make a sensational story for their deadlines.
Bypassing the police lines that were holding them back, I went to the headquarters area to stare at the boards.
Maps covered a large amount of space, while another wall held the victims and the possible suspects. No one even bothered with me as I sat perched on the edge of the conference table, looking at the facts before me.
We were twenty days into the Aries cycle, and only had ten bodies. That meant at least one, if not two more burial sites were waiting for us to discover them. The map had both locations marked out where we’d found bodies, but there wasn’t any specific thing that made them stand out.
I added a dot to the map where we’d found the vehicles the day before. Feeling bold, I added another dot where we’d had our wreck. I was willing to bet if we looked for land that had public access near the area where we’d been run off the road, we’d find one of the two burial grounds.
He invited them to celebrate, and then, just like a spider weaving his web, lured them in while he spun them into a trap.
A road block would just make him go to plan B. These killers had specific instructions, and didn’t deviate unless it meant not getting the job done. They couldn’t continue if they were in jail or dead.
I was willing to bet that he had someplace to stash the women close to where he’d buried them. Changing locations would make the hunt more fun because he’d be at a disadvantage as well. That wouldn’t mean that he’d be dumb and use it without scoping it out first, though. He’d have done his homework.
The area on the map near our wreck was mostly beaches, with very little vegetation, except for one spot near a lake.
“Um, excuse me.” I waved my hands at those in the room in case being polite didn’t get their attention. “Who can look up land titles for me? I think I have a possible burial ground.”
All the others had looked up, but the one guy still working was who they all pointed to. “Bart’s the one who’s been doing that for us on this case.”
When I started toward Bart, who was huddled over a laptop attached to the lone outlet near the corner, I smiled. Maybe I hadn’t lost my mojo after all.
“Bart, can you help me out for a minute?” I tapped him on the shoulder when he didn’t respond, causing him to jump three feet.
He landed back in his chair and pulled his earbuds out. “Dude, all you had to do was ask without scaring me.”
“I did.” I pointed to his ears.
“Oh yeah, right. What can I do for you?” He pushed his glasses back up onto his nose.
“Here, follow me.” I walked over to the map and pointed to the one tree filled area. “Can you tell me who owns that and where exactly it is?”
“Sure. It’ll take me about five minutes.”
I slapped him on the back. “Great. I’ll owe you one.”
“Owe me one what?” He looked puzzled.
“Nothing. Great job. Thanks for doing it.” I was pretty sure that I was speaking English, but maybe nerd was a different language.
***
Agents started filing in, so while I waited for Leslie, I continued to look for other spots where he could hunt unrestricted.
She and Gavin walked over to the wall I was staring at.
“Well, was it the local girl?”
> “Yeah. She and her boyfriend had decided not to wait for fall and went to Vegas to get married. They had phones, but because they left in a hurry, forgot their chargers. Then they were married, and didn’t really need the phones if you know what I mean.” She wagged her eyebrows suggestively at me.
“I don’t need the details. Why did we think she was one of the murdered women?”
“We didn’t. When she went missing, it wasn’t a big jump from that to she must be dead because of her birthday. That’s why they went ahead and got married. She’s old enough to gamble now.”
I just shook my head. “Oh, young love. At least she’s alive and back home. We can use those man-hours that we were spending to find her on the other women who don’t have much time left.”
“Why is that guy watching us?” Gavin whispered without turning around.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the nerd waving. “He’s got a potential burial site for us to go check out.”
“What are we waiting for?” Leslie started for the corner before I could stop her. “Did you find it?”
He looked to me for permission before answering. “Yeah, it belongs to one of the founders of the town. It’s a place where everyone is allowed to go camping and hang out as long as they clean up whatever they bring in.”
“Where is this wonderful wooded land?” Gavin asked, looking at the map on his screen. “It’s about twenty minutes from where they ran you off the road.”
“Maybe he wasn’t trying to kill us, but he wanted us in the area since he was done using it,” Leslie suggested with excitement.
“I think we should check it out.”
“There’s no one here to stop us. Agent Perez is going to be busy for the day, so I’m in charge. I can’t leave everyone here, but I can send a few people with a team to help you look.” Gavin grinned. “It’s good to be in charge for a change.”
“Is she coming back?” I wondered casually.
“Unfortunately,” he whispered behind his hand to us. “She had to go home on a personal matter.”