by Rita Herron
“You think Charlene is the Bride Killer?” Cal asked. “But why would she start killing again after all this time? She can’t be strong enough to have carried the victims to the falls by herself.”
Johnny made a low sound in his throat. “I don’t know. But when I saw the article about the Toyton woman being found in a wedding dress and heard the guards talking about another victim it made me think about Charlene. She was abused, emotionally unstable. What if she abused the boy? He would be thirty now.”
“He could be following in his mother’s footsteps. There are similarities in the MOs.” Cal reached for his cell phone, then remembered they’d turned them in at security. “I’ll get a warrant and find out where she lives. If she and her son have Josie, we’ll find them.”
He hurried from the room, and Anna laid her hands over Johnny’s. She’d waited so long to see him, had yearned for him forever. And now here he was, offering a suspect who could clear him and set him free.
And hopefully help them find Josie.
“Johnny, I . . . I’m sorry I left town and didn’t come to see you. I . . . didn’t want to go.”
Johnny shrugged. “I understand. I mean, back then I was angry and hurt, but you had your life ahead of you and I couldn’t blame you for not wanting to be saddled with a felon.”
Tears clogged her throat as the painful memories bombarded her. “That’s not why I left,” Anna said softly.
Confusion clouded Johnny’s eyes as he looked at her. He had aged, and so had she. But he was still the boy she loved.
The only man she’d ever loved.
“I know how your father was,” he said.
“That was hard, and he tried every way possible to make me hate you,” she admitted. “But that wasn’t the real reason I left.” She took a deep breath for courage. “You see, Johnny, I was pregnant, too.”
Johnny paled. “What?”
A sob escaped Anna. “I was pregnant. When my father found out, he forced me to leave town so no one would know I was carrying your baby.”
Mona had ended her show and was just about to leave the station when another call came in. She snatched it up, anxious for information that might help the police find Anna’s daughter.
“This is Mona.”
“Mona, you have to help me.” A heavy breath rattled over the line.
“Talk to me, then.”
“Josie was supposed to be the one, but now everything’s all wrong.”
Mona forced her voice to be level. “Josie is with you now?”
“Yes, but it’s all messed up. She says she’s my sister.”
“Your sister?”
“Yes,” he said brokenly. “Johnny Pike is my daddy, and she says he’s her daddy, too!”
Mona’s heart raced. “Let me come to you. Please just tell me where you are, and I’ll help you.”
“No, I’m scared.”
“It’ll be all right. Tell me where to meet you.”
Tension vibrated between them, his breathing unsteady. Then he finally mumbled an address.
“Hang on, Will, I’ll be right there. Just don’t hurt Josie.”
But a second later, a female scream pierced the air.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Mona punched Cal’s number. As much as she didn’t want to talk to him or see him, it was foolish to meet this killer on her own.
She couldn’t ignore his plea for help or the fact that he was unbalanced and could kill Josie any minute. If there was a chance she could save her, she had to try.
Cal’s phone buzzed but rolled over to voice mail. She made the turn off the main highway onto the mountain road that, according to her GPS, would lead her to the Bride Killer.
“Cal, it’s Mona. I got a call from that man Will. He has Josie. He was distraught and said Josie told him that Johnny Pike is her father. He also said Pike is his father. I convinced him to let me come to him.” She hesitated, her tires screeching over black ice as she maneuvered a switchback. “I wanted to wait for you, but I heard Josie scream, and I had to leave. I’m texting you the address.”
A beep on his machine cut her off, and she ended the call. Hopefully Cal would get the message soon and be right behind her. She called the sheriff’s office as well, but the phone cut out as she lost service ascending into the mountains.
The car skidded, and she gripped the steering wheel to maintain control, then veered toward the right onto a gravel road. One hand slid to the gun inside her coat pocket. If she needed it, she’d use it.
The car bounced over potholes as she drove deeper into the woods. Gravel spun behind her tires, spitting into the icy slush. She shifted into low gear to climb the ridge and saw a cabin sitting on a hill in a thicket of trees.
A detached garage held a sign for a taxidermist office, and she swallowed hard as she slowed and parked. The wind caught the handmade wooden sign and swung it wildly, banging it against the side of the building. The office looked closed, though.
She wrapped her coat around her and checked her gun, praying she didn’t need it.
Battling nerves, she made her way up the path to the door. Lights burned low inside the cabin. Smoke curled from the chimney into the sky, and wind shook snow from the trees to the ground as she climbed the porch.
She peeked inside the window. A shadow moved, and she heard crying inside.
Josie?
Suddenly a cold, hard hand clamped over her mouth from behind, and she felt something jab her in the back. A gun? A knife?
“Please, don’t hurt me, I’m here to help,” she said in a muffled whisper.
He shoved the door open and pushed her inside. The first thing she saw was a multitude of dead animals, all preserved, their wide eyes staring at her in the bleak light.
She held her breath as she scanned the room for Josie, then spotted her on the floor tied to the bed next to a pale woman slumped in a wheelchair.
The horrible stench of sickness and decay swirled around her. But it was the shiny jewelry adorning the woman’s skeletal frame that made a shudder course up her spine.
They were the souvenirs taken from his victims, and he’d given them to his mother.
Cal’s blood ran cold when he heard the message from Mona.
Jesus God. She was on her way to meet Charlene’s son. Johnny Pike’s son.
The man Pike believed was a serial killer just as Charlene was.
He explained to the guard that he needed to get back to the room with Pike, and he escorted him down the hall. When the guard opened the door, Cal saw Anna enclosed in Johnny’s arms.
He didn’t have time to question what was going on. “Anna, I need to go. Mona is on her way to Charlene’s. Her son has Josie.”
Pike paled and stepped back from Anna, his handcuffs rattling as he absorbed the news. “Maybe if I went . . .”
Cal shook his head. “Sorry, Pike, but I don’t have time to wait for you to get cleared.” Besides, he had no proof the man was telling the truth. Although his gut told him Pike had been framed as a kid.
“I’m going with you.” Anna stepped toward Cal. “I’m sorry, Johnny. About everything.”
“Me too,” Pike said. “Just go, save Josie.”
Cal reached for the door and Anna followed, both of them silent as the guard led them through the prison to the exit.
They had to hurry.
The older woman cried out her son’s name, and the man holding Mona choked on a sob. “It’s okay, Mama. Everything’s gonna be all right.”
“Billy,” Mona said in a soothing voice, calling him by the name his mother used. “You don’t want to hurt me. I’m here to help.”
She met Josie’s eyes, a silent understanding passing between them. They had to stay calm, keep him calm.
Help was on the way.
At least she prayed it was on t
he way, that Cal had received her message and was flying toward this place.
“But I wanted to show Mama my bride before she died. She doesn’t want me to be alone.”
“You’re not alone,” Josie said. “Remember what I told you. We’re sister and brother, Billy. That means we have to take care of each other.”
Mona had no idea if what Josie was saying was true, but she admired her courage.
Billy pushed Mona to the floor beside Josie.
Obviously his mother’s illness had triggered a psychotic break. He was lost somewhere between reality and his delusions.
“But Mama never told me I had a sister. Why wouldn’t she tell me that?”
Billy ran his hands through his hair and began to pull at it, yanking strands from the roots. He seemed oblivious, though. He’d also done it before. Tufts of his hair lay scattered on the floor beside his mother’s wheelchair.
“That’s because she didn’t know,” Josie said hurriedly. “My mother was pregnant when Johnny was arrested. Her father, my grandfather, was sheriff back then, and he arrested Johnny. Then he forced her to leave Graveyard Falls to have me so no one in town would know that I was Johnny Pike’s illegitimate daughter.”
Mona struggled not to gag at the smell and grisly sight of the woman in the wheelchair’s deteriorated condition. She should have been in a hospital.
“Tell us about your mother, Billy,” Mona said softly. “You obviously love her very much. Did she make the wedding gowns?”
Billy touched the wedding dress hanging on the hook of the bedroom door, then gave her a predatory look. “Yes, she used to sew for other people just like my grandma did.”
Billy ran his finger over the sequins lining the bodice of the gown. “She was alone all her life—well, except for me—and she wanted me to have the family she never had.”
He removed the hanger holding the gown and turned to Mona, a gleam in his eyes. “I can’t marry Josie ’cause she’s my sister, but you can be my wife, Mona.” He leaned over and kissed the skeletal jaw of his mother’s face. “She’ll do, Mama. She can be my wife and give me babies. And you and Josie can celebrate with us after we say our vows.”
Mona trembled inside as he reached for her hand and pulled her toward the bedroom to change into the dress.
Cold fear gripped Cal as he maneuvered down the icy mountain road toward Charlene Linder’s cabin.
Once he had this lunatic in custody, he wanted to talk to Felicity Hacker. If she’d lied about Pike’s attack it could help Johnny get released.
And the sheriff . . . he’d deal with him, too. He’d railroaded a young man and ruined his life.
Anna clutched the seat with a white-knuckle grip, obviously terrified for her daughter’s life and still shaken from her meeting with Pike.
“We’ll get to them in time,” he said, reassuring himself as much as her.
She nodded mutely, but the tight set of her mouth and her strained face suggested she was desperately praying he was right.
He was praying the same thing.
He’d phoned the deputy and left a message filling him in, and asking for backup. His phone buzzed. Kimball.
“I just talked to a woman from that church sewing circle. She said Charlene specialized in wedding dresses. But Charlene hasn’t been to church in weeks. She also mentioned that the son has mental problems. She suspects abuse in the family running back generations. Thinks Charlene’s daddy molested her. He died suddenly. Then she had this baby boy, but there was something weird about their relationship.”
Unwanted images played through Cal’s head. “So if this man’s mother is near death, it could have triggered him to have a breakdown.”
“That’s what she thought. Said the kid was obsessed with animals when he was little. He’s a taxidermist now.”
“I saw some of his work at the Boar’s Head,” Cal said.
“That’s his?”
“Yes. I’m almost to the Linder house now.”
“I’m on my way.”
Cal hung up and veered onto the side road leading to the mountain cabin where Charlene and Billy lived.
“I can’t lose Josie,” Anna whispered into the darkness. “She’s all I’ve got.”
He gave her a sympathetic look. “I have a feeling she’s not all—Pike still loves you.”
She made a strangled sound. “But how could he ever forgive me for what I did back then? For deserting him?”
He had no answer for that. He wanted Mona’s forgiveness more than anything in the world.
But first he had to make sure this madman didn’t kill her. Then he’d beg her to give him a chance.
To let him love her the way he’d always loved her in his heart.
He chugged up the winding road past the Boar’s Head, then climbed the hill toward the cabin. When he spotted the glow of a lamp in the house and saw smoke curling from the chimney, he cut the lights and shifted to low gear, coasting the rest of the way so he wouldn’t alert anyone to his arrival. Mona’s Honda was parked by the house.
God, he hoped he was in time.
Anna’s breath echoed in the silence as he parked between some trees. “Stay here,” he said as he removed his gun and slipped his car door open.
“No way.” Anna eased her door open and was sliding out. “This is my daughter we’re talking about. I’ll do whatever’s necessary to save her life.”
“I understand,” Cal said. “But this man is dangerous, and you have to stay behind me, Anna. I can’t be worrying about you if I’m going to take him down.”
Anna nodded and fell in step behind him as they inched their way through the sludge to the front porch. Cal raised his finger to warn her to be quiet as he crept up the steps.
When he looked through the curtains in the front window, fear threatened to immobilize him.
Mona was dressed in a wedding gown as she stood beside a big, burly man in front of the glowing fire. Josie was chained to the bed by a skeletal-looking woman obviously near death. He couldn’t tell if Josie was hurt, but she appeared to be alive.
And Mona . . . Billy was about to marry her. At least his version of marriage.
But the other women he’d brought home to marry had ended up dead.
Cal reached for the door handle. He didn’t intend to let the sick bastard take Mona’s life.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“There’s Josie,” Anna whispered.
“Shh. We don’t want him to know we’re here.”
Anna stooped behind him. “What are we going to do?”
“Save them. Stay behind me and don’t do anything rash,” Cal told Anna. “We don’t know if he’s armed.”
She gave a slight nod, and he removed his gun from his holster, motioned for her to wait, then glanced through the window again.
Billy pushed Mona in front of the fireplace, fixed the veil around her head, fluffed out the skirt of her wedding dress, then stepped back and snapped a picture.
Cal gritted his teeth. Had he taken photographs of all his victims dressed in their wedding dresses as part of his signature? He’d kept a piece of jewelry from each of them—just like the Thorn Ripper had.
If this man’s mother had killed the teenagers thirty years ago, would they find the girls’ missing jewelry inside?
Every muscle in Cal’s body quivered with anger as Billy lowered the camera and clasped Mona’s hand. She looked frightened, but unharmed at the moment.
But if she crossed Billy or didn’t please him, he might crack.
Cal squinted in search of a weapon, but didn’t see a gun. He slowly tried the door, trying to keep it from making a noise, but it was locked. He raised his fingers in a count of one, two, three to signal to Anna what he intended to do, then kicked the wood door open and burst in, his gun aimed.
Billy jerked around and dragge
d Mona in front of him, then wrapped his arm around her throat in a choke hold.
Mona gasped, her eyes widening as she spotted Cal and Anna, while Josie yanked at the chains holding her to the metal bed.
“Let her go, it’s over,” Cal said between clenched teeth.
“No, she’s going to be my wife!” Billy shouted.
He sounded almost childlike, and a deep psychosis glinted in his eyes.
“We know who you are now,” Cal said.
Cal grimaced at the sight of the jewelry on the woman’s sickly frame. He recognized the jewelry from the descriptions given by the victims’ families.
“Billy, listen to him,” Mona said softly. “I care about you. Now let me go, and we’ll get you the help you need.”
“You’re just saying that ’cause you’re scared,” Billy snarled. “You tell everyone how important marriage is and how we should love each other. That’s all I want. Someone to love me like that.”
Cal saw red. “It’s over, man. Let her go.”
Josie inched forward as far as she could with the chains, trying to get the sick man’s attention. “I told you you’re not alone. I’m your sister, Billy. We’re family now.”
Anna’s heart was racing. She had to save Josie.
And she had to tell her the truth.
She suddenly stepped inside behind the agent. “No, Josie, honey, you misunderstood.”
Billy jerked his head toward her. “Stay out of here! Just leave us alone!”
“I’m Josie’s mother, and I can’t do that,” Anna said. “Just like your mother always wanted to protect you, I want to protect my daughter.”
“But Mama . . .” Billy’s voice cracked. “Mama isn’t supposed to die . . .”
“No, and I’m sorry she’s sick,” Anna said. “But Mona is a kind person. She wants to help you. And my daughter Josie is just an innocent young woman.”
“I do want to help you,” Mona said. “Just release me, Billy, and it’ll be all right. I promise.”
“But what about Mama?” Billy said brokenly.