I hadn’t really been listening, but that part broke through. The day before Arnie passed? Did this man really just say that?
I struggled to get my hands free. It didn’t feel like rope. It felt more like something rubber, with a little give to it. It was tight. But maybe …
“It kinda got a little funny there. Maybe just my overactive imagination, but he was saying how if Darryl King didn’t kill Elana, then he wanted to find out who did. Make up for the big mistake he’d made. He said he’d owe me a big apology if that ended up happening, because he knew it would be a shock for me. Kinda funny he would say it that way, looking back on it, but he asked me if I thought Ryan should know, and I said no, not yet. That’s why Ryan was so surprised when you brought it up.”
I had to close my eyes again. I had to lie still for a while, let the pounding in my head settle into some kind of rhythm.
“Poor Arnie. You really got to him, Alex. When we were done talking, he said he had to make the hardest phone call of all. He had to call you up and tell you he was wrong. Or might have been wrong. Was probably wrong. Whatever. It was really eating him up. Although I could tell he was kind of excited about maybe the two of you guys working together again. Going back over the old case, just like old times. I told him it sounded like he was trying to bring back those days when he was a young hotshot detective. Back when he owned the city, but he said no, he just wanted to make things right.”
Those words again. Even now, those words haunting me. To make things right.
“As far as Ryan goes … Yeah, poor Ryan. He passed today, too. As you can see. So that got me to thinking, maybe it would be better if people thought he ran away. Couldn’t take it anymore. You see where I’m going with this? His safe is open, all the cash is gone. Yeah, if he just goes, and this car goes … That’ll probably be easier for everyone to deal with.”
I could feel the minivan accelerating. I looked up and saw a truck on the right side. For one brief second, the face of the truck driver. Another human being who could theoretically help me. Then he was gone.
“I do feel bad for Ryan, but maybe this was all for the best anyway. He was in such pain, Alex. He was so obsessed about finding the man who killed his sister. Kind of funny, again, looking back on it. That I would be helping him, but he made it easy. All I had to do was point to Trey and say, ‘That’s him!’ He didn’t even think about it. He just reacted.”
The back windows were tinted. A fact that just came to me then. Even if we passed another truck, I don’t think anyone could see inside.
“Of course, after all the dust settled, Ryan asked the same question you did. It finally came to him today. How did you even know who that man was? That’s when I realized that, no matter what I said, it would only be a matter of time until Ryan started looking a little deeper. How I was alone that day, the day Elana passed, supposedly playing a practice round at the club. Good excuse to disappear for four hours, by the way, but then also all the traveling I’ve been doing. I’m a manufacturer’s rep for a golf club company. Don’t know if I told you that. I’ve got the whole eastern half of the U.S. I’ll go and do a demo day at a golf club somewhere, pack up and go somewhere else the same day. Go south in the winter, where people are still playing golf. It keeps me pretty busy.”
I concentrated on my hands. This is why a cop handcuffs you this way, because it makes you pretty much useless. Even getting to my feet would be a monumental chore right now, but if I can get these hands free …
“It gave me a chance to work things out, too. All that time on the road. It really helped me. It was good therapy, reliving that day, seeing if I could be a little less angry each time. A little more in control of myself.”
His words breaking through again. Good therapy? Reliving that day? Is that what he’s really calling it? Murdering seven women?
“Do you play golf, Alex? You look like you could be a good golfer.”
Focus, God damn it. Your hands are tied crossways. There’s something looped around them in both directions …
“Ryan was terrible at golf. No patience at all. He was about as good at golf as he was at shooting a gun.”
If I can flex my wrists. Work them one way, then the other. Back and forth.
“Although, I’ll be honest with you, Alex. I’m kinda glad he didn’t kill Trey. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him, but he still looked like that old kid in the train station. I’d meet him there at the station most every Saturday morning. It was a lot better than playing golf with those guys at the club, believe me.”
Trey. He keeps calling him Trey. His pet name for Tremont?
“You should have seen him back then. What a sweet thing he was. My God did I love that kid.”
Stay calm. Work your hands. Ignore the way your head feels. Ignore the bile rising in your throat. Just stay calm and work your hands.
“He wasn’t supposed to be there on a Thursday. That part wasn’t planned. I was not happy with him, believe me.”
Damn it damn it damn it.
“I told Trey, I said, this was supposed to be between Elana and me, and nobody else. That’s why I told her to come down to the station because I was going to surprise her, and not to tell anybody because I knew we weren’t supposed to be up there, but there’s this place in the old part of the station where the light comes through those big windows and I knew she’d love it and be able to get some great shots there, you know? And she really did love it, I gotta say, I mean I totally nailed it, but then that’s not why we were there, not really, which kind of became obvious, I guess.”
Don’t listen to him, I told myself. Don’t get sucked into this. Just keep concentrating.
“So when Trey was there, I was like, you and I have a secret now, my little sweet thing. We’re in this together now.”
Work the hands. God, my head hurts so much.
“That was a long time ago, Alex. I swear, things were really getting better. I was in such a better place mentally. I’d worked it all out of my system, I think. I was even ready to forgive her for what she did to me.”
Shut up, you goddamned psychopath. Just shut the hell up.
“None of it would have happened if she wasn’t planning on leaving me. You realize that.”
It’s working, I told myself. You can move your hands a little bit more now. I was rubbing them raw, but I was making progress.
“Her family never thought I was good enough for her. Not rich enough, not successful enough. I wasn’t a County Amateur champion like her father, but that stuff isn’t supposed to matter, right? I thought me and Elana had something there. I thought we had something bulletproof.”
You’re going to get free. Then you’re going to crawl up behind him and you’re going to grab him by the neck. Even if that means sending this vehicle right off the road.
“Listen to me. I just got done telling you I’m finally ready to forgive her, and now here I go again. I guess I’ll never really be over it, huh?”
I felt the vehicle slowing down. Then turning right. I had no idea how long I had been out. Five minutes or five hours.
“You want to hear something funny? You’ll like this. We’re going to this golf club where I did a demo day in the spring. The pro there, thinks he’s a real hotshot, thinks he’s got the greatest little gem of a golf course, the best in all of Western Michigan.”
Western Michigan. A piece of information, not that it will do me any good.
“He’s got this house across the river, raised up a little bit so it’s got a little view, right? All you can really see is the water treatment plant, but I wasn’t going to say anything to him. I was just like, oh yeah, this is so nice. Anyway, he takes me out to the back of his property, down by the river. There’s a bend there and it gets kinda deep, and he actually says to me, he says, ‘You could dump a body back here, huh?’ Can you believe that? He actually said that to me.”
The vehicle was slowing down again. This time we came to a complete stop. I looked up at th
e hazy sunshine coming through the tinted windows. I wondered how many minutes of sunlight I had left.
No, do not think this way. You still have a shot as long as you’re breathing. As long as you’re thinking. Keep working those hands.
“He’s golfing in Scotland this week. Think he was bragging about that trip a little bit? Even six months beforehand? But now it all kinda works out, so I hope he’s having a good time.”
The vehicle turned right again, then left. Then it slowed down almost completely.
“Now, where was that turn again?”
I slowly brought my knees up toward my chest. I knew we had to be getting close. I’d be lucky to get one chance to do something. If I got that chance, could I even move?
“Ah, right here.”
He turned hard to the right, sending me sliding against the side of the minivan. I hit my head and everything went out of focus again.
I lay there for the next minute, just trying to get my head back on. Then he turned hard to the right again. He was driving slowly now. I knew I was running out of time. I gave up trying to sit up. I closed my eyes and tried to work my hands free. I was sweating, and I could feel the blood on the back of my head, running down my neck.
The vehicle left pavement. We were on gravel. I opened my eyes and looked at Paige. He was leaning forward in the driver’s seat, staring out at the road. I heard branches scratching on both sides. Then we hit a series of bumps that had me bouncing up and down. I cried out in pain, despite myself. A line of blood came trailing out from Grayson’s head.
“Sorry about that,” Paige said. “We’re almost done, I promise.”
I felt the incline. We were rumbling down one more stretch of rough road. I knew whatever came next would happen in a matter of minutes. My hands still weren’t free. I didn’t have any options left.
Except one. Maybe.
The minivan came to a stop. The driver’s side door opened. Paige got out. He closed the door. I could hear his footsteps coming around to the back. The rear door opened.
I stayed still. I kept my eyes open. I kept my mouth open. I did my absolute best impression of a man who had just breathed his last breath.
“See, it’s perfect,” he said. “The town’s right over the hill there, and yet nobody can see us here.”
Eyes staring dead ahead, looking at nothing. Not a muscle moving. Not a breath taken. I am a hunk of meat here, just like the hunk of meat lying next to me. You will look at me and realize this. Then you will let down your guard. You will pull me out of this minivan, thinking I’m nothing more than dead weight now.
Then I’ll have my only chance.
“I know they’ll find this thing eventually. I’m not an idiot, but it should be a while, I would think. By then I’ll have figured out where I need to go next.”
What did he just say? What is he going to do?
“Alex, you there?”
I felt a sharp jab on the back of my knee.
“Alex. Hey. Wake up.”
Come closer, I thought. Come see if I’m really dead.
The seconds passed. Then there was a loud thud as the tire iron landed on the floor next to me. Before I could even realize what he was doing, the rear door closed.
I heard the footsteps again. The driver’s side door opened, but he didn’t start the vehicle. Instead, he hit the gearshift, and then in the next second he was out and the door was closed. I felt the vehicle moving. It was rolling downhill. Faster and faster.
It was going into the water.
I felt the jolt as the front end hit. The momentum reclaimed the vehicle, only now the movement was smoother and even more downhill. I slid up against the back of the driver’s seat. My head slammed against it, then my shoulder, then my arms, still pinned behind me. Everything just a riot of pain as I was folded into a ball. The dead body hit me a second later, pinning me against the seat as the weight of the engine pitched everything forward. The vehicle was pointing almost straight down now, and as I looked back and up at the rear window, I saw the last of the daylight disappearing.
It wasn’t done moving. Down and down it went, impossibly deep. The pressure built in my ears and made my head pound even louder. It was getting darker. I could barely see a thing now. Then the one last interior light blinked off and it all went black.
I’m not dead yet, I thought. I have a little bit of air left. I need to gather whatever strength I have left. I need to get out of this thing and get back up to the surface. Yes, even with my goddamned arms tied behind my goddamned back.
It was time to move, no matter what it did to my head. I let out a loud yell as I moved my shoulder against the dead body. Nobody to hear you now, I thought. You might as well scream all you want.
I tucked my knees into my chest. I pushed myself up. God, my head was hurting so much. The water was starting to come inside the vehicle now. The dashboard was underwater.
The windows are closed, I thought. I need to break one open. I rolled over onto my back. I was on top of Ryan Grayson now. I kicked at the window. Then again and again, but I couldn’t get enough leverage.
The tire iron. I need that tire iron.
I spun over onto my stomach. I moved my body over the rumpled-up plastic, feeling with my face for the heavy weight of that tire iron.
I have to find it. Or else I will die.
I willed my body to move, to cover every inch I could reach, no matter how much it hurt.
Find it find it find it.
There.
I grabbed the thing with my teeth, feeling the cold sting of the iron. Then I worked myself into a sitting position and dropped it into my lap.
That’s useless, Alex. You need it in your hand.
Even then, can you hit the window hard enough?
I rolled my body and caught the tire iron as it hit my hand. The water was coming higher now. Soon the air would be gone.
I gripped the tire iron and turned around so I was facing away from the window. I started swinging the iron at the glass. I felt it hit. The glass didn’t break. I swung again. Then again. Then again.
I felt the water on my legs. It was cold. I swung the iron. I fumbled with it, nearly dropping it. Then I recovered and swung again, trying to use my whole body to get more force behind the blow.
The water was rising. Shockingly cold. I was shivering already.
You are going to die, Alex. You are going to die right here with this other man. This fellow victim. They won’t find you for weeks, maybe months. Tanner Paige will go on killing while you slowly dissolve in this cold dark river.
Swing again. Like you mean it. Like you want to live. Like you want to get out of here and go find him.
I swung the iron. It hit the glass and broke through before falling from my hand. A rush of water hit me, wrapping its icy arms around my chest. I gasped for my last breath of air as it overtook me completely. Then I was under.
Get out. My only thought. The only two words in the language. Get out.
I kicked against Grayson’s body. I kicked against the seats. I felt my head knocking through the rest of the broken glass as I kicked again and again. My face out of the vehicle now, then my shoulder. Another kick. Another. My last breath dying in my lungs as I finally put my knee against the frame of the glass and pushed myself into the open water.
I didn’t know up from down at that point. I was moving, but I was in my wet clothes and it felt like I would sink to the very bottom. This way, I thought. No, this way, this way, and now my breath is gone, and the next thing that goes in will be the river itself, no, I must hold on for the air but I’m going the wrong way.
Then I saw light. I was going to the surface after all. It came closer and closer as I tried to dolphin kick, even with my hands still tied behind my back, with my lungs on fire now, until finally …
Air! I gasped for breath, my face just above the surface. I kicked and sputtered and took a breath of that beautiful air and filled my lungs with it. Then I gasped again and gagged on the
river water. I spit that out and coughed and wheezed, keeping up my dolphin kick somehow, finding the strength to keep my face above water.
A second breath, a third, a fourth. It was all I could do to keep my body in a position to keep breathing, but as my breath came back to me, I knew I had other problems. I was still in the water, still unable to swim. For all I knew Paige was standing on the shore, watching me and figuring out what he had to do next to deal with this last problem.
From somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered a technique for breathing in water. You arch your back and turn your face up so that your nose is the high point, and any buoyancy you have will naturally keep that one point above the water. You can do this without having to tread water, so you can regain your strength.
A fine theory, that may or may not work if you’re fully dressed. Worth a shot. I arched my back and put my head up.
Nice and easy, Alex. Stop kicking. See if this will work.
Yes. I think we’ve got something here. As long as I stay perfectly still.
Breathe. Yes. Breathe. Relax.
I did that for a full minute. Then the cold water started to get to me. It was time to move again. It was time to take whatever strength I had recovered and see if I could get to shore, and hope that Paige wasn’t waiting there for me.
I dolphin kicked one time, hard enough to drive my head up over the water. I took a quick look. I saw where the road led down to the river. What must have been the boat launch. I didn’t see Paige anywhere. I went back under, then dolphin kicked again, looking in the other direction. I was actually closer to the other shore.
I tried to flatten out my body on the water, but I was too bottom-heavy. I kicked and kicked and got nowhere, feeling the strength draining away again.
Turn over, you idiot. Do this on your back.
I flipped over and looked at the sky. I sucked in the air as I kicked and thrashed and finally started making progress, eventually settling into a cadence. Kick breathe kick breathe.
Until finally, I felt the bottom of the river under my feet. I turned over and went down to my knees, then stood up and stumbled out. I collapsed on the shore, feeling myself sinking into the black mire on the side of the river. I looked back behind me. I didn’t see Paige anywhere. He had left. The son of a bitch had turned and walked away, thinking I was already dead. Or if I came to, that I’d be dead in another few seconds anyway. Whatever, I didn’t even care. All I knew was that I was here on the shore, feeling like my head was about to explode—but alive.
Let It Burn Page 27