“Thanks, Judah,” Rocky said. “You haven’t approached him yet, have you?” he asked Sam and Jenna.
“No, we were waiting for you,” Jenna said. “We just kept our eyes on him—made sure he stayed around.”
“Thanks,” Rocky said. “Judah, can you give me a club soda with lime?”
Judah quickly filled a glass, and Rocky took his drink and joined the unkempt man at his table. “Hello,” Rocky said.
Up close, the guy looked even more like a down-and-outer. He was at least seventy and had a stained white beard and haggard features. He was skinny, and wearing worn jeans along with the stained shirt. He was holding on to the beer he was slowly sipping as if it were liquid gold.
“Yeah, uh, hello,” the man said without meeting Rocky’s eyes.
“You look like you’re having a rough time of things,” Rocky said. “What’s your name?”
“Chris—Chris. Yeah, I’m Chris.”
“Craig Rockwell. My friends call me Rocky.”
The man nodded. “Rocky. Hey, Rocky.”
“Do you want something to eat? Looks like you could use a meal.”
Chris looked at him. “You’d do that for me?”
“Sure.”
Chris nodded. “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind a meal.”
Rocky turned and flagged down Brenda, who was just passing by. “Hey, Brenda—can we get this gentleman something? A hamburger? How about a hamburger, Chris?”
Chris nodded fervently.
“Sure thing,” Brenda said.
“Chris, I gotta tell ya, that looks like blood on your shirt. Are you hurt?”
“Hurt?” Puzzled, he looked at his shirt. “No...no. It must be from the knives.”
“The knives?”
Chris nodded. “I didn’t steal them—I swear it. I don’t steal. I found the knives, and then I sold one. That’s how I paid for this beer.”
“Might be better to buy food than beer, Chris,” Rocky said. “But tell me about the knives. How many knives? Where did you find them?”
“I still got two of them. Found them. Buried. Buried deep.”
“Buried where?”
“In the woods.”
“Which woods, Chris?”
“By that cottage—the fairy-tale one down the road a bit.”
Rocky felt his stomach churn. “You mean out off Derby?”
“Yeah, out off Derby.”
Rocky got his phone out of his pocket and pulled up the internet. He brought up a picture of an athame. “Chris, do the knives look like this?”
Chris nodded. “Yeah, almost. A little different.”
“Who did you sell the one knife to? It’s really important, Chris.”
Chris shook his head. “Some guy. Some guy on the street.”
“Thank you, Chris. How did you find the knives?”
“Not all nights. I try a lot of nights. But not all nights.”
“But on those nights, how do you know when to look?”
Chris looked around. “I wait. When there’s a pretty girl here and I see the two women with a strange looking guy—kinda long hair, kind of...out of time, I know. A day later, I’ll find a knife. Buried deep. But I find it.”
Rocky stood. “Thank you, Chris. Your food is coming. My friend there—” he pointed at Sam and Sam waved “—is going to take care of you.”
“Thank you, man, thank you,” Chris said.
Rocky hurried back to the bar. “We finally have a real clue. I’m going back to Devin’s. He found knives—athames—buried in the woods by Devin’s house. I know Jack is there but...I’m not leaving her again until this is over. I’m pretty sure that it’s Theo. Make sure that this guy eats—and keep him in custody. I’ll get Jack to see how we can hang on to him, sober him up and get him to hand over the knives.”
“Gotcha,” Sam said. “Call when you get there.”
* * *
Devin liked Jack and it wasn’t a terrible thing to be stuck with him at the house.
He spent a good thirty minutes after Rocky left just showing her pictures of his little boy. He seemed to be an A1 father.
“When this is over, I’m taking him and Haley to Disneyland,” Jack said. “It’s been rough—I’ve hardly been home.”
“Haley seems like the type to understand,” Devin said.
“Haley’s great,” Jack said. “She always wanted marriage and children, and she’s bright and fun and has her own career. I’m a lucky man.” He grimaced. “Strange, because for years, it was Haley and Rocky. They were one of those perfect couples.”
“Aw, come on. You’re not exactly a dud,” Devin teased.
“Maybe not, but Rocky...he was a star. He was unstoppable on the football field, a great son, great student...he just had something else in mind than settling down in his hometown, and doing the wife-and-kids thing. Worked out for all of us in the end. There’s something pretty special about the two of you together.”
Devin flushed. “Thanks, but who knows what will happen, you know? What about Vince? He never married, huh?”
“Don’t worry about Vince. He does just fine. Great career and all the women he wants. Go figure. He was the one we worried about the most when we were kids. He had no ambition to do anything, but look at him now.”
Devin’s phone rang, and she nearly jumped out of her chair. When she answered it, she heard Rocky’s voice. “We may have a real lead,” he told her. “Let Jack know I’m on my way back. Sam is staying with the guy here at the bar. I’ll be there soon.”
“Sure.”
“Devin.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s looking more and more like Theo’s involved somehow. If this guy can give us something...we may get the physical evidence we need to close this case.”
Devin hung up and told Jack what Rocky had said.
“Rocky thinks he can lead us to the killer, huh?”
For a moment Devin felt a sense of fear.
Had Jack’s question been strange? Was he afraid that the evidence was going to lead to him?
The thought occurred to her just as a terrified shriek sounded from outside. Devin and Jack leaped to their feet simultaneously.
They stared at each other for a split second as if frozen.
“Angela? Jane?” Devin said, her heart seeming to leap into her throat.
The scream sounded again—and again.
Then they heard a desperate cry, “Help me!”
“Fuck!” Jack muttered.
“You’ve got to go out. I’m inside—locked in. Someone could be dying out there!” Devin said.
Jack was torn. He looked at her, expression uncertain.
“You’ve got to go out there, Jack. Dammit—you’ve got a gun. Get out there and use it!”
Jack pulled out his radio, identified himself and where he was, requested backup and walked to the door. He turned and looked at Devin.
“Jack, get out there. I have the pepper spray. I’ll be fine in here.”
“Lock the door behind me,” he told her.
“Immediately, I swear—you’ll hear the bolt slide,” she promised.
Jack drew his gun and left. Devin locked the door behind him, as promised, then stood there, her pepper spray in her hand, waiting.
Poe let out a squawk. She spoke gently to the bird. “It’s all right, buddy. Any second now we’ll be surrounded by cops. And Rocky will be here.”
She waited, barely daring to breathe. Jack was out there. Rocky was on his way. She just had to hold on.
But just as she leaned against the door and assured her thundering heart that she would be okay, she felt something slam forcefully against the wood.
“Help! Oh, my God, help me!”
Devin recognized the voice. It wasn’t Angela or Jane, it was Gayle Alden. The pounding on the door increased. Gayle was hysterical. Devin looked out the peephole and saw that Gayle was alone and clearly terrified. She kept looking back over her shoulder as if she thought the devil himself was behind her.
Devin threw open the door, dragging Gayle in. Then she slammed the door closed and quickly slid the bolt.
Poe screamed again, and Gayle jumped and screamed, then gasped and leaned against the door, looking at Devin with huge, panicked eyes.
“He’s out there,” she said.
“Who?” Devin asked.
“Theo said we had to come here...that we had to come and save you. He said he had a vision, and then he said you were in the woods. He pulled the car up on the side of the road, and got out and went tearing into the trees...and then I heard him scream. He didn’t come back. Beth went after him, and now she’s out there and, oh, Lord, I heard the leaves rustling and saw someone coming toward the car.... I saw the knife. He had a knife. I got out and I ran here as fast as I could. Devin—he’s out there! The killer is out there. He’s got Theo, I think. And Beth...Beth is going to die out there, I just know it. Why did Theo go into the woods? What was wrong with him?”
“Calm down, Gayle,” Devin said. “Start at the beginning.”
“Theo...we were closing, ready to leave. All of a sudden he got this weird look, like he was going to black out or something, and he said he’d had a vision. He said we had to get you and bring you into town with us. So we came out. But then he stopped the car and raced into the woods. And then he screamed and Beth went out and I saw a guy with a knife—an athame, it was an athame—and that’s when I ran.”
“Gayle, it’s all right. Jack Grail is out there. He’ll save them.”
Gayle’s eyes grew wider; she was obviously still afraid. “No, no! I have to get out there and stop him. He’ll think it’s Theo. He’ll kill him!”
“Gayle, no—”
“Listen!” Gayle said.
Devin went silent and listened. For a moment there was dead silence. And then she heard it.
Someone was at her back door.
“It’s locked, Gayle. No one can get in—it’s locked and bolted.”
Suddenly they heard the sound of shattering glass.
Before Devin could stop her, Gayle had thrown the front door open.
“Gayle, get back here!”
“No! He’s here—he’s in here now. I have to find them—Oh, my God. I have to find them!”
And then Gayle was gone, heading through the falling darkness toward the woods.
And one of her back windows had been shattered.
The killer was coming in, and Gayle had run into the woods alone.
“Gayle, wait! I’m coming! There will be two of us—and I have pepper spray!”
Gayle disappeared into the darkness and the trees. Devin paused, ready to turn back. Then something dark flapped past her. Poe. Cawing loudly enough to wake the dead, he soared outside, heading toward the forest in Gayle’s wake.
The killer was in her house!
As she ran outside, slamming the door behind her, she heard Gayle calling Beth’s name.
“Dammit,” Devin muttered. “Gayle, Beth, come out here! Now!” she shouted.
No one appeared. And then she heard Gayle screaming again. “Help me! Help!”
“Jack!” Devin shouted. There was no answer.
She looked back and saw the front door open, revealing someone standing there in the doorway.
Someone in a long black hooded robe—with an athame held high.
And that person could see her, she thought as she stood there on the lawn.
She turned and fled into the woods, clutching the pepper spray, and almost immediately she tripped over something.
She reached out to catch hold of a tree limb but missed and fell right onto the thing she had tripped over.
Thing?
It was a body. Trying desperately not to cry out and reveal where she was, she scrambled away, trying to see through the darkness....
To see who it was.
When she did, she pressed her arm to her mouth to choke back her scream.
* * *
Rocky was already headed to Devin’s when he heard the voice in his head.
Help me, Rocky, help me!
For a moment he thought he was hearing Melissa calling out to him the same way she had thirteen years ago. But this time it wasn’t Melissa.
It was Devin.
Just as he heard her voice, his phone began to ring. He saw the number and answered quickly, his heart beating double-time.
“I’m in the woods—something’s going on. We heard screaming, and I went out. Devin was locked in. But I just heard a window break, and...” Jack took an audible breath. “Please tell me you’re close.”
“I’m on the way.”
“Get here—quickly,” Jack said, then, “Son of a bitch!”
“Jack—what is it?”
The phone went dead in Rocky’s hand.
He dropped it onto the seat and pushed the gas pedal flat to the floor.
* * *
Devin made it to her feet, then nearly screamed again when she felt the lightest of touches on her arm. She jerked around, ready to fight.
But there was no one to fight—not really.
It was Margaret Nottingham, her eyes huge. But she still didn’t speak, only shook her head.
“Someone is in trouble,” Devin said. “I have to help. I need your help.”
The woman only shook her head and brought her finger to her lips. Then she started to move, beckoning Devin to follow.
Though the night was nearly pitch-dark now, with only the glow from the half-moon filtering through the branches to light her way, Devin could see that she was moving toward a particularly large oak with gnarled branches.
The perfect hiding place.
Lying in front of it was another corpse. As Devin walked toward it, she felt as if something in the night had changed.
The wind whipped around her as if a storm had formed right there in the woods and only in the woods. Leaves rustled in the branches above her head.
Devin spun in circles, trying to figure out where the killer was.
The killer came up from behind his victims and sliced his knife across their throats.
And in the darkness and this strange wind, he could be anywhere.
She opened her mouth to cry out—to call for Jack.
But what if it was Jack—someone any woman would trust, someone who could get a woman to the woods, where he could slash her throat?
It could be Jack, she thought. He was a cop. If anyone could fake an alibi, it was a cop.
Because she knew for a fact that Theo wasn’t the killer. Because Theo was lying in a pool of blood under the trees where the woods began.
Devin kept turning in circles as she made her way through the clearing.
She realized that she’d been lured from her house. The scream had been intended to lure her out. Theo had wanted to warn her, but the attempt had failed. He was dead, and she had fallen for the ploy.
And now Gayle and Beth were out here, too, in danger. Perhaps already...
“Devin?”
Beth!
The hushed cry came from somewhere behind her. She whirled around. “Devin, help me...please.”
“Beth, where are you?” Devin called softly in return.
“Here...help me!”
Devin tried to follow the sound of Beth’s voice. As she moved carefully back through the trees, she felt a touch on her arm again.
Margaret Nottingham. The woman shook her head, urging her back.
�
�But Beth...”
The Puritan woman looked past Devin and opened her mouth in a silent scream.
Devin swung around to look and saw Beth.
Beth—with an athame in her hand.
Beth, ready to slit her throat.
* * *
Rocky skidded to a stop in front of Devin’s house and felt his stomach roll when he saw her front door standing open. He saw no one and started to open his mouth to shout out, then closed it, deciding stealth was his friend. He’d seen another car pulled off the road near the trees. He didn’t know who was in the woods at this point, as he headed into the trees as quietly as he could. He tried to concentrate on Devin—he tried to think like Devin.
That didn’t help. Devin was a fighter. If she thought a friend was threatened she’d rush into battle because she saw it as the right thing to do.
He had to find her.
Moving into the woods, he nearly tripped over something.
He hunkered down, his heart in his throat.
A body.
Not Devin! Thank God, not Devin.
But Theo. Theo...bleeding into the ground. He would be dead if help didn’t come soon. But help would come. Jack had called it in. He hoped....
He couldn’t stay by the fallen man; he had to find Devin.
Devin was the target.
As he stared into the darkness, desperately trying to figure out which way to go, he blinked. Someone seemed to be materializing in front of him.
He blinked again and gave himself a mental shake.
But the image remained.
Melissa. Melissa Wilson. Lovely and so young, with her long hair falling to her shoulders, wearing the white spring dress in which she had been buried.
She beckoned to him.
And he followed.
* * *
Pepper spray.
Rocky had showed her how to use it, and she’d held it tightly in her grasp since she’d left the house.
Beth had meant to get her from behind, but thanks to Margaret she’d swung around and ruined that plan. And now, while Beth was preparing to wield the knife again, Devin was ready.
And faster.
The pepper spray hit Beth right in the eyes. She screamed and instinctively tried to wipe her eyes.
Devin lunged forward, bringing Beth down to the ground and wrenching the athame from her hand.
Heather Graham Krewe of Hunters Series, Volume 4 Page 59