by PJ Fernor
As I lowered the gun, my finger touched the trigger and it locked up.
“I loved you,” he said. “And you ruined it all. Now I have to start over again. This isn’t going to work for us…”
Pull the trigger! Pull the trigger!
My mind screamed.
I pictured Patrick.
I pictured killing him.
My mind went blank for one second.
That was the second Jerry lunged at me again.
His shoulder collided with my body, causing me to drop my gun while sending me down to the floor.
I looked for my gun and didn’t brace myself.
My head smacked the floor and the room swirled around three times.
I reached for Jerry but he was standing and a blur.
I shook my head and saw him leaving the apartment.
I tried to stand but fell back down to the floor.
I was dazed.
And I just screwed everything up.
Chapter Seventy-Three
The room spun a few more times as I rolled to my belly and pushed myself up to my knees. I reached back and touched the back of my head to check for blood.
There wasn’t any.
I had just smacked my head at the perfect spot and angle right on the floor so hard that…
I took a deep breath and shut my eyes.
I felt myself spinning for a few more seconds and then it began to ease up.
When I opened my eyes, I saw my gun on the floor.
Within reach.
Which meant I could have grabbed it. I could have shot at him.
I crawled to my gun and put it back in its holster.
I reached for the wall and slowly helped myself to my feet.
Once standing, I looked around the apartment and felt okay enough to just stand.
I reached for my phone and called Ben.
“Allie!” his voice boomed through the phone. “Where the hell are you?”
“I’m at his place,” I said. “His apartment.”
“What’s wrong? You sound hurt.”
“Just dazed,” I said. “I hit my head.”
“He attacked you?” Ben asked.
“Sort of. He got away, Ben. He took off.”
“Stay there,” Ben said. “I’m on my way right now. We tracked you.”
“Figured you would,” I said. “I had to come here. I had to face him alone, Ben. He took Lo. He admitted to it. He said there’s a house. That’s where Lo is. He’s got cages. And girls. Not just Lo.”
“Let me call an ambulance for you, Allie,” Ben said.
“No,” I said. “I’m not going anywhere. Not until I find Lo. She’s dying, Ben.”
“You don’t know that,” he said.
“I do know that,” I said. I stepped forward and regained my balance. “Ben, listen to me. You need to call Laura and start looking for him. Call county. Bring everyone in. He’s on the run. He’s going to leave the girls to die in his house. He’s slowly killing them.”
“How?” Ben asked.
“He said something about chemicals,” I said. “Chemicals are being released slowly. He wanted me to go with him to the house to save Lo and Lea. I think Lea is Steph. That poor girl too. Steph. Leslie. Lea. It’s so confusing.”
“Seems that way,” Ben said. “You need to sit down. You need to let me get you help.”
“Ben, I’m fine,” I said. “I need to look around here. There has to be something here that leads me to where this house is. Please just make the calls like I said. You know what he looks like. I’m not sure if he has any other aliases or not, but he can’t be far right now. Get everyone involved and looking.”
“Why did you take off alone?” Ben asked. “I can’t lose you, Allie. I… I need you in my life…”
I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. “We can talk about that later. Go, Ben. Do what I said. I’m going to look around here.”
“If you find this house, you’re not going alone. Got it?”
“Deal,” I said. “Goodbye.”
I ended the call and slipped my phone into my pocket.
I walked forward to the table I had bumped into and put my hands on it.
The pain and dizziness were slowly going away.
I looked at the open front door and I felt sick.
Jerry - Gerard - was gone.
I started to shake, fearing he was going to go to the house and kill Lo.
Kill whoever he had captive there.
Which meant I needed to move and move fast.
The only thing I knew was that it was a house.
Which wasn’t much.
There were houses everywhere.
I shuffled from the table to the living room.
The coffee table was clear of any folders and papers.
So were the end tables.
I rushed into the kitchen.
My adrenaline finally kicked in and I was able to function like normal.
I opened every drawer in the kitchen and found nothing but a meticulous and organized psychopath’s kitchen. Even his junk drawer was organized. That was scary in itself.
From the kitchen, I went into the bedroom.
When I open the door and turned on the lights, I froze in place.
The bed was perfectly made.
Just like it was the night Jerry and I… were together.
I felt sick again.
The fact that I let that man win me over. That he touched me. He kissed me. His good looks and sweet charm led me to this bedroom and he shared his bed with me where I was more than willing to join him.
That while he and I were sleeping together there was some house somewhere with girls locked in cages. Scared out of their minds. Numb to their cores. Waiting to be sold to someone.
I reached for the dresser and felt like I was going to vomit.
How could you have let this happen, Allie? How could you have let it all happen this way?
I had no explanation for my conscience.
I worked my way through Jerry’s room.
I dumped every drawer out, looking for a secret compartment with some kind of information.
After checking under the bed and in the closet, I stopped and grabbed for my phone.
I called Ben again.
“Did you find something?”
“No,” I said. “His office. Someone needs to go there right now.”
“I’m five minutes from your location,” he said.
“Call Muldavey or Garrison,” I said. “They need to trash the office.”
“Okay,” Ben said. “I just talked to Laura. Everything is in motion. We’re covering all over the area, including highways and interstates.”
“I’ll see you when you get here.”
I ended the call again.
I sent Ben a text with Jerry’s apartment number.
Then I went back to work.
I moved out of the bedroom.
There were three more doors in the apartment.
A bathroom.
A closet.
And the third door.
It was locked.
The second I felt the door was locked, I jumped back and took my gun out and shot the door.
Then I kicked it.
It flew open and I charged inside, touched the wall for a light switch.
When I found it, the lights clicked on and I looked around the room.
My jaw slowly began to fall open.
I was staring at the truth.
Chapter Seventy-Four
It was probably meant to be a guest bedroom. Designed as the second bedroom in the as luxurious as the area can get style of apartments. But for Jerry - Gerard - this was more like a command center. There were pictures and notes hung on all four walls. A large table in the center of floor, directly under the ceiling light, with even more papers. And folders. And more pictures. There were markings on the walls with arrows pointed in all directions. There were large, inked X’s on certain spots.
It was…
/> Chaotic yet organized.
This was a sense of home to Jerry. This was his true work. Forget the psychologist’s office. That was simply just a front. An image to show society, to keep anyone from ever suspecting that the doctor with a nice smile and a nicer jawline was capable of this.
I walked to the table and looked at the notes on top.
“Rachel,” I whispered.
Jerry had been following her. He marked down every move she made. What time she made those moves. He mastered her schedule. On top of that, he knew everything about her personal life. Family - or lack thereof. Friends. Anyone she came into contact with, he had notes on it.
It was just page after page about Rachel.
Then came the scribbled plan to kidnap her.
And what the plan was for her.
Status: inventory.
Keep in cage until buyer emerges. The One wants 75% capacity at all times. Too much, but I can deal with it. Late night calls - I’ll be prepared. Rachel is perfect.
Note: take pics before and after.
Give imagery of who she is and will be once calm.
I still felt sick… but now…
I flipped the page and saw another note written by Jerry.
Status: dead.
I shut my eyes.
“No,” I whispered. “Why…”
I opened my eyes and swallowed hard.
I kept reading.
Three days to cry. Refused to stop. She wasn’t ready. Had to dispose of her before she unsettled the others. Was done clean, quick, and she will never be found. Kept in storage as needed.
Note: watch for missing person report.
And then there it was.
The notice of Rachel’s disappearance.
It seemed as though nobody cared.
My best guess - as much as it pained me to think it - it was because Rachel had no real family to care about her. She was like the other young women under the bridge. The type Jerry liked. The ones he considered broken. Because he knew nobody would care after a little while.
Just to be sure of it, Jerry called in some tips that drove the police far away from him.
He was a sick mastermind at this job.
And Rachel was just one of too many to count.
The notes.
The pictures.
What he wrote in a great detail…
Transactions.
That was the part that really made my stomach turn.
He wrote in detail of how it happened.
Getting the call.
Getting a girl ready.
Making the exchange with The One.
And each girl had a price tag that came off of Jerry’s gambling debt.
That’s why he did it.
It wasn’t out of enjoyment or pleasure.
He did it to save his own life.
And he probably got so used to it, it was just routine by now.
I started to turn from the table when I noted the corner of a piece of paper.
Lo.
My heart sank.
I shoved all the other folders out of the way and opened the folder to see Lo’s picture glaring back at me.
She was smiling. Walking through a parking lot with friends.
I let out a groan and felt myself dry heave.
I looked at the floor just in case something was going to come up.
It didn’t.
Jerry had been following Lo for a while.
Tracking her moves.
Taking pictures of her.
Taking pictures of me…
My jaw shivered as it slowly fell open.
Jerry had pictures of me. Me and Ben. Me and Lo. My apartment building.
He had been working on this for…
She’s perfect. Lo fits everything I need. But she’s not alone. Her aunt is her sole caretaker. Lo’s mother died in a hit and run accident. Her aunt - Allie - moved back to care for Lo. They are perfect. Both broken and in need of a family. This one will be for me. I will complete my family and I will end my time with The One. He can’t kill us all. Or if he does, then I die with my family next to me.
Plan: keep my practice going with the sole intention of attracting Allie to call me. How to do it? Department flyer suggesting me to her. Leave it inside mailbox at home. It’ll be quiet as Allie is too prideful to admit needing therapy help.
I shut the folder and turned away.
That’s how it all happened.
Jerry had been following me and he knew enough to make that bold move.
Here I thought it had been Ben or Laura - or someone from the department - that had slipped me that flyer. Knowing what I had gone through with the shooting of Patrick. Knowing what Lo had been going through with the death of her mother (among other things).
And it was all part of a setup.
To get to Lo.
To get to me.
Because he thought we were going to be part of… his family?
It was all sickening to think about and now we had to face it.
Jerry had the notes from each session with Lo.
He had plans written out on how to attract me to him.
Then came the murder of Nikki.
That’s when the story took a darker turn.
The second he realized I was going to be working the case, his plan became more sinister. He wanted to watch me work. He wanted to get to know Lo better. The end result was waiting for the perfect time to get Lo to go with him. After gaining her trust and gaining my trust…
I flipped the folder shut and wanted to scream.
There was one more note. Written directly on the back of the folder.
It was in big, sloppy handwriting.
Definitely Jerry’s, but maybe he had a little too much to drink when he wrote it.
Show her the Sunrise!
I read it twice.
Then again.
I put my index finger to the capital S.
And that’s when it all came crashing down on me.
Jerry’s original plan had been to lure Lo and me to him without us seeing the dark side of his life. But that changed as the case of Nikki’s murder changed. That’s why he followed me and killed everyone I talked to. That’s why he took Lo…
“To his house,” I whispered.
I fan my finger across the word Sunrise again.
I grabbed my phone and called Ben.
He answered on the first ring.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” he said.
“Ben… I know where Lo is.”
Chapter Seventy-Five
I met Ben outside the apartment building as I ran toward my car.
He stopped in the middle of the street, lights flashing, jumped out of his car and chased me down.
As I opened my door, he touched my arm and I looked back at him.
It took everything I had not to break down and cry.
First things first, I had to find Lo before it was too late.
“Just follow me,” I said.
“Of course,” he said. “Why don’t get you in my car? I can drive faster and you can think.”
I nodded and shut my car door.
Ben gently slipped an arm around my shoulder and we moved with speed back to his car.
His foot hit the pedal and the engine cried out and the car sped up in a few seconds.
He kept the lights on and only used the siren when we needed someone to move out of the way or to go through a red light.
Luckily the streets were not busy.
“Sunrise Court,” he said.
“That’s the spot,” I said. “Ben… it has to be. If it’s not…”
“It is then,” he said. “Allie, listen to me. Everyone is working on this right now. Laura didn’t spare a single resource. We’re going to find Lo. She’s going to be okay. And we’re going to find Jerry. Or Gerard. Or whatever this guy’s real name is. It’s happening right now.”
“It’s not just him, Ben,” I said. “He referred to someone a
s The One. Jerry is just a piece of this machine.”
“So be it,” Ben said. “Let me be really cliché here then. If you take a piece of the machine away, the machine won’t run.”
“That’s not always true,” I said. “If I took the passenger door off your car, it would still run.”
“I think Jerry is more important than a passenger door.”
“In a really sick way, I hope so too,” I said.
“Allie, he murdered all those women. He’s been kidnapping young women and girls to…”
“I know,” I said.
I couldn’t bear to hear the words again.
To sell the girls.
To traffic the girls.
To…
“Ben, he kidnaps girls he thinks are broken,” I said. “Because they won’t be missed. He has a system worked out. He puts them in cages. He gives them three days to be mentally broken.”
“Three days?”
“After three days, if they keep crying, he kills them,” I said.
Ben shook his head.
The car sped up.
“There was one girl. A little more recent. Someone did try looking for her. Jerry found out about it and threw everyone off his trail. He’s a mastermind at this stuff. He targeted me and Lo.”
“Allie…”
“Ben,” I snapped. “He targeted us. He made it so I would call him. So Lo would talk to him. He made it so… he used every vulnerability both Lo and I have against us and I fell for it. I thought I felt something for him…”
Ben reached across the car and squeezed my hand. “You did nothing wrong, Allie Down. And either way, our first goal is to save Lo. I promise you, when we have her safe and sound again, I’ll give you a few minutes to beat yourself up. But only a few minutes. You’re worth more than picking out everything you think you’ve done wrong. You said it yourself. This guy is a mastermind. He chose you. He chose Lo. He knew what he was doing. And it ends tonight.”
I had plenty more to say, but in my rambling, I didn’t realize that the small town appeal had turned into a long, dark road.
And that long, dark road only had turns to more long, dark roads.
Sunrise Court was one of these roads.
It had once been farmland area.
Then it became the kind of place to live if you didn’t want to have neighbors.
“We’re going to be there in a minute,” Ben said. “You have to listen to me. You can’t go inside the house. Not if there’s-”