by catt dahman
“But I bested you.”
“I guess.”
“This isn’t about anything except you against me. We aren’t partners working together. You want to get the solve from a jail cell and best me, but you already know who it is. You’re cheating, Doctor. You’ll lose all respect.”
Hollingsworth stood, making his guards move closer, “I am preparing a perfect profile of our killer, and I will catch him first.” He lowered his voice, “Go ask Kirby about my first interview with him. Oh, I picked at his scabs, but I also gave him the solve on Starla Stoker. I am the reason he arrested her. It took you days, but I read the file and told him she did it all. And you know how I knew? So simple, really.”
“Oh?”
“She wears a lovely hand cream, French, expensive. It’s thick, and she wears it at night. I could smell it, like a peach melon made of some exotic bird oil and seaweed. And she used it for her neck and arms where she also slathered the stuff. Anyway, I asked the sheriff to have the ME check for that cream where the deep wounds were, where her hands would have touched if she had plunged a knife in to its hilt. Bingo, as they say. It was all over the knife’s hilt. All over the blade.”
“I see.”
“And you see that I bested you on that one. One to one. You were the one who didn’t want a lot of information before hand and thought you could get a solve by talking and walking the case.”
“And I did.”
“I was first,” Hollingsworth grinned.
“Who is your partner? Who are we looking for?” Tina interrupted.
“I can’t share that, Deputy Rant. The sheriff bested me once, so I really have to hold my own in the situation. I do have some pride. I’m awaiting for the crime and suspects, and then I can solve it with my profile and provide all the answers to questions that will be asked.”
Virgil tried bait, “Unless you can’t control him anymore. Maybe your partner has bested the master.”
Hollingsworth laughed. “Everything is in motion. You’re far too late, dear Sheriff.”
“I hope I have the chance to see you writhing with the pain, Doctor. I think Fate is very fair,” Virgil said.
“Sheriff, keep in mind, I have been at this a while. You have no idea what I have placed in motion. I have irons in the fire, so to speak. Whatever you solve will be a fraction of what I have designed.”
“Tina, take the agents, and go get some iced coffee.
Hollingsworth snickered.
“Oh, I don’t think so, Boss. I’m not going to be a part of your killing anyone.” She shook her head. She was worried for the first time ever about Virgil. He was frustrated and angry.
Virgil stormed out, going into the main area of the station. Seeing Sheriff Kirby, he groused, “We may be looking at the killer going after a babysitter or a couple or maybe some young campers….”
Kimiko squeaked and looked stricken as she eased into a chair, her face ashen. She covered her face with her small hands and shook her head in denial, clearly upset.
Tina looked at her, confused. ”What’s wrong?”
Kirby eased himself into another chair and sipped on iced coffee, his face full of lines. “Kimmy just got a call from her mama Candace who got a hinky feeling and called over to one of the girl’s houses to check on Kimiko’s kid sister. Sure enough they weren’t there, so they called another girl’s house, Nada.”
“Oh, she’s worried about where the girls are?” Tina asked.
“She knows. Candace is a savvy gal. She called over to Keri’s boyfriend’s house…that’s her sister...Keri. She got the runaround again but followed it, and she ended up talking to Dion Williams’ mama, and let me tell you that I would hire Janique Williams as a deputy any day of the week ‘cause she can beat and scold the truth out of anyone. Janique got Dion’s little brother, Devon, by his ear and told him he better ‘fess up, or she would tan the skin off his ass, six ways to Sunday.”
Tina and Virgil couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Eight of them seniors in high school and clean as can be, good kids. They decided they would get away and have a camp out with hotdogs and s’mores and maybe some liquor. They took a couple of tents and headed out to Grubber’s pond which is a pretty, clear pool that used to be a limestone quarry way back, and now it is a favorite swimming hole for the kids.”
Virgil spun and went back to Hollingsworth. “Grubber’s Quarry? Is that the place? Kids out there camping are being hunted? I want to know if it’s too late. Are they dead yet?”
Hollingsworth blinked lazily. “That’s your task, Sheriff McLendon, to see if you can get to them in time and figure out who is hunting them. Good luck. Had you read all my books, you’d have your answers.
“Hey,” Virgil called to one of the agents on guard duty, “make sure he gets chorizo and salsa omelets for breakfast. He’s too special for dry toast and tea.
He’d like the chili for lunch, and he wants the jalapeno barbeque for dinner.” Virgil winked at Hollingsworth and said, “Enjoy.”
Kimiko paced. “Can we go now?”
Sheriff Kirby nodded and said, “You and Deputy Rant head out, and Sheriff McLendon and I will follow in my car. Tackett and Gunn, be ready if I call in. We may need back-up and emergency services. If we’re lucky, we’ll bring back eight sleepy teens.”
“What if Keri is in trouble?” Kimiko chewed her bottom lip.
“That’s why we need to hurry,” Virgil said. He meant to drive to the area where the kids were camping, but Kimiko drove and drove fast, and he could imagine that Tina, riding in the other car, gripped the arm rest as Kimiko took sliding turns.
Virgil had Sheriff Kirby fill him in about what to expect if this were the next crime scene.
Hollingsworth did a number on some teen kids. He posed as a friendly camper next to them and then picked them off one at a time. It was neat and low-key as far as the actions. He wanted the bodies in order to pose them in horrific ways around his own site. “Tied them with their own entrails and beheaded them. He went way off his usual, except he used a knife and there was lot of blood and false clues. He brought in all kinds of crap that he littered the place with, trying to confuse investigators, but by then, your friend, Agent Lord, had a feel for the way Hollingsworth liked to stage.”
“Mason Lord is brilliant. He really beat Hollingsworth in that test.”
“I wish we had him along with us. I know the kids may be fine, but as long as I have been doing this, Virgil, I still have a bad feeling.”
Virgil nodded. “Hollingsworth evaluated my work on other cases, and each time, he found a lot of fault.”
“I bet,” Reb Kirby chuckled tightly.
“His concerns were that I had let my emotions get involved, that I was slow to gather a big picture, and that I was distracted and failed to stay focused. I am angry now and unfocused. He’s right.”
“All normal. Thing is, Virgil, the cases you’ve solved were particularly difficult ones, ones that some had given up on. He’s full of shit, Boy, he couldn’t have done any better; he’s just running off at the mouth.”
Virgil thought about that and said, “He’s had me chasing my tail, directing me so I wasn’t watching what I needed to see. Whatever his plan, he was determined to see if it played out, but again, I don’t see the big picture. Why is a Copycat killing so vital? What does he want?”
“I have no idea, but we’ll figure it out one step at a time, okay? Let me make sure Kimmy stays on task.” Reb Kirby heaved out of his car and pulled his deputy to the side, warning her to follow procedures. He let her impatiently stand and watch the woods, snapping her gum as he did a look-over at the vehicles.
“How far is the pond?” Tina asked.
Kimiko pointed, “That way and not far at all.”
“If they had trouble, it would be nothing to get back here to the cars, right?”
“Harder in the dark, but maybe. Sheriff? Ready?”
Virgil moved alongside her, “I’ll go ahead with you. Let’
s get Sheriff Kirby and Tina to watch our backs, okay? Let’s go in quietly.”
Kimiko led the way, pausing a few times to listen to the night’s sounds. In a few minutes, they saw the campfire, a small, bright light in a clearing. Kimiko started to run, but Virgil slung an arm across her and shook his head. He clicked his radio, sending a message to the other pair who quickly came to join them.
Kirby removed his gun and nodded, motioning the others to spread out and be ready. The campfire area looked calm except for two bodies lying slumped over.
He knelt by the first and said, “This is Ted. God A’mighty he’s got some lumps on his head. Looks like someone lobbed rocks at him. He is barely hanging on.” Kirby looked sick. He couldn’t bring in medical help with a scene unsecured.
“Dion?”
Dion muttered at Kimiko, tears on his face, “I tried. Find Keri and the rest. Sam. Maybe Sam.”
Kimiko took Virgil’s tee shirt, ripped it apart and tied it around Dion’s leg, hoping it wasn’t too late. “We can’t move him, and he needed surgery about two hours ago.”
“Get me medical here now. Tim, grab whomever you can find for a skeleton crew, and then you get out here. Turnbow and Gunn, I want you providing escort and security for medical. We are unsecured.”
“Dion, you hang on, fellow. I’m gonna need you to help me understand all this.”
“Sheriff, we have bodies,” Tina said.
Kimiko bolted to her feet and ran over to look under the tarp of the tent, scared but sure she had to know. Tina started to say something, but there was no stopping the young deputy. Kimiko took a huge step and vomited in the brush.
“Jered, Christy.” She wiped her eyes and mouth and went into her training. “Sheriff, Jered looks cut up in the stomach, and his head has been hacked off. He’s been mangled badly by a knife and a cleaver or axe. Been dead a while.”
Tina touched Kimiko’s arm while still looking around.
“I can do it. Christy is dead, decapitated and cut up as well.”
Tina called out, “Virgil, look at this tent.”
He went to the canvas and shuddered. The back was cut in a way that had allowed someone to reach in and drag someone out. It was close in resemblance to the first case he worked on when a young girl was taken from her tent. Flashbacks from those horrific scenes filled his mind. “Not again….”
“Virgil, it’s not David Gaither. Come on. Vivian is fine, and there are no girl scouts. Come on. Stay with me.”
“He’s playing games, “ Virgil said as he took a big breath.
Tina didn’t know which he that Virgil meant.
Dawn began, lightning the skies as the radio picked up noise. Deputy Gunn walked out with a medical team, and Sheriff Kirby motioned to Dion, “Get him on some blood and out of here fast.” He helped the men lift Dion onto a stretcher and leaned in, “Dion, I need you, so you get to feeling better, and then tell me your story, okay?”
Dion managed a wink. He was so weak and dizzy that the movements confused him, but he knew he was safe now, that he was going to have help, and that the sheriff would fix everything.
“Maybe Sam,” Was all he could say. Kirby nodded though, and Dion felt he understood.
One of the doctors and a nurse had responded as people in a small town do, and they knelt around Ted, checking him over. They ignored the nervous sheriff and deputies as they worked.
Gunn went back with the medical attendants, and Dion motioned two high school boys to come into the camp. “We need to get Ted out.”
Sheriff Kirby agreed and understood why Gunn had allowed the boys to come with them, “Gentle now, get him out of here, and Doc, fix him up.”
“He needs a hospital,” the nurse complained.
“So, get him to one,” Kirby spoke into his radio, “Keep the others away. No one else comes through. We are not secure. Tackett, if you have two men with guns, come on down with them, and make sure they get deputized. I got my hands full. I need them guarding only. And get a few more there to keep everyone away. Hell yes, I know they’re worried, but I can’t let parents down here.”
“The Medical Examiner? We need photos, too.”
“We aren’t secure,” Kirby snapped at Virgil, who shrugged. “Tackett, get me some body bags and the M E. I’ll take a photographer, too, and any medical personnel not related to the kids. What? Shit, if I know. Two. Three. Hell, bring a half dozen. Yes, Tackett, I am serious. Try to keep those bags unseen and the parents calm.”
“Word is out, huh?”
“Seems like it.”
“Kimiko? I’m sorry, but I need you to make an ID,” Virgil pulled back another tarp, grimacing. The female was bloody and cut across her side and her feet and buttocks.
“Diane,” Kimiko said. Her emotion was zero now as she stared blankly. Three dead and two seriously injured. Three missing. She didn’t like the odds.
“We have blood down at the pond and all over here. They were attacked, picked off maybe, and Dion and Ted were here, waiting for the light, I guess. I can’t imagine the fear.”
Virgil nodded to Tina and patted Kimiko, “We have three to find, and I am seeing nothing else here to indicate they were killed here, so let’s keep looking.” He wondered how some person could hide and throw rocks to torture his victims.
“Hollingsworth didn’t throw rocks,” Kirby said, echoing Virgil’s thoughts. ”This wasn’t a fair fight, not one on one. Dion could have taken a man with or without a knife. That Dion is a helluva kid, smart and athletic. He’s got sense, and he’s brave. I used to like watching him play football on Friday nights.”
“Let’s hope you can do it again,” Virgil said.
“Help me,” a voice called.
Virgil spun, gun ready, but couldn’t place the voice.
“Identify yourself.”
“Sheriff K? It’s Sam, please?”
Kirby tilted his head, recalling what Dion had said. “Keep talking, and we’ll come to you.” He made a circle motion, and Virgil nodded.
Tina waited a second for Virgil to get around to the side and angled in. Sheriff Kirby walked straight to Sam, but Tina saw the teen first. He was at the top of a small ravine, and the ground showed a long, slow crawling process through pine needles, leaves, dirt, and pebbles. The boy lay on his stomach and was oozing blood from his shoulder. His leg was caked in blood that had partially dried, making his jeans like a cast.
“Your hands, please?”
Sam painfully held one out but couldn’t lift his inured shoulder anymore. With Kirby pointing his gun at the young man, Tina helped the boy roll over. She used the rest of Virgil’s tee shirt to hold against the fresh blood from a shoulder wound.
Sam held one hand out: his nails were dirty and split, his fingertips were cut, and a hole was gashed into and then across his palm. “He left me for dead at the bottom of that, but I heard Keri and Charlie.” Sam let his eyes flutter closed.
“I need medical,” Kirby demanded.
“He’s got defensive wounds, his shoulder is seriously damaged, and he’s got a lot of bumps, scrapes, and bruises. Looks like his leg is cut to the bone.”
“A lot of blood here,” Virgil called from the ravine.
“Hey, Sheriff,” a medical responder said, “I hate to see you guys again this soon.”
“Don’tcha know.” Kirby waved at the team from another small town that was close by. Deputy Turnbow had done well in getting help. “Kimmy, look for the other two.”
Kimiko, Tina, and Vigil stared at the ground, looking for signs there had been other people around. The bare, scraped ground was filled with prints.
“I see a small shoe print. Then rocks. Where is your sister, Kim? What do you think? Where would she run?” asked Virgil as he studied the prints.
“She’s smart and brave, and she’d be back at the pond and camp. Straight is deeper in the woods. She wouldn’t go down the ravine. Back towards the road maybe,” Kimiko replied as she turned and searched through the brush.
Under pine needles and leaves and deep in the brush, they saw clothing. As they approached, they saw it was a male, large, muscular, and young. “Charlie,” Kimiko called out.
The boy was beaten horribly, slashed, and struggled to breathe. Someone had thought he was dead and left him covered. Virgil turned him to the side so he could get air, and as he did, he found why the boy looked so strange. A girl was partially under the debris and partially under Charlie, stuffed into a crevasse of rocks.
“Jeez.” Tina let her jaw drop and whispered, “Kimiko, very quietly come here. Don’t go all crazy on me.”
Face pale, Kimiko walked over and struggled not to scream. Her hands shook so badly she holstered her gun and watched Virgil’s face for orders. He gave her a small nod, and Kimiko knelt, crawling the rest of the way to her sister. Keri’s eyes were open, and she was alive, but that was almost all the good news; the rest of the sight was too awful to look at.
Keri was nude except for one boot that was half off. Her clothing was ripped, cut into ribbons, and tossed several feet away, totally unusable. Kimiko first tried to find a place that was uncut or unbruised. Keri’s body was black and blue and covered with dried blood; her hands were like crab claws with deep cuts and slashes from fighting back. Her throat was cut, but while the cut had bled a lot and was deep, it had missed her carotid by millimeters, saving her life. Her thighs were deeply bruised, and it was clear she had been brutally raped before being left for dead.
Kimiko petted part of Keri’s hair, the few strands that weren’t matted to her skull with blood.
“She’s alive, Kimiko,” Virgil reminded her.
Kimiko nodded absently and started to ask if he were sure, but no, Keri had a heartbeat, and she was breathing. “Keri? Hey, sweetie. Big Sis is here, and we’ll get you out of here and somewhere clean, warm, and safe. You’ll feel better soon.”