Deadly Dreams

by Mary Stone

  Even now, the thought tore him up from the inside. He closed his mouth and fought the urge to gag.

  How long ago was that? Maybe it was more than twenty-two months. Not one of his brightest moments in SAR. Certainly, one he didn’t care to relive. In fact, it was one that made him question why he didn’t just go and get a boring desk job. Become a blood-sucking lawyer like his father and brothers. Losing an adult was painful enough, but a kid? Those losses were definitely the most agonizing. He hadn’t had many, but they stuck with him hard, haunting him sometimes, just like Syria did.

  He flashed back to the parents. Small, frail couple made smaller by the loss of their child. He’d had to break the news to them, and they’d been beside themselves with grief. They’d fallen down into a huddle and screamed their daughter’s name, again and again. Every time they said it, “Jill, Jill, Jill,” it was like an arrow to his heart.

  Could one of them be holding a grudge?

  No. They’d been distraught, but even in their profound grief, they’d thanked the team for everything they’d done. They’d been grateful. The whole team had shown up at the funeral, and the parents had been glad that they were there to express their sympathies. Now, that had been a sad funeral. Sunny, too, he remembered.

  But time had a way of changing things. And now, he knew not to dismiss Kylie and her theories so easily. So, possibly…

  He looked up, feeling like a sitting duck staying still like this. He started up the rental car, wondering if he was being watched from afar. From what he was able to hypothesize, both Will and Dina had been followed while in their cars.

  He engaged the locks, just in case, and punched in a call to Kylie.

  As it started to ring, another call came through. He went to put that one to voicemail when the name appeared on his screen.

  Holy shit.

  It was Dina Avery.

  He ended the call to Kylie. He had to. This was one call he definitely had to take.

  26

  Kylie grabbed the “dead” folder, as she called it, and rushed downstairs, the two dogs at her heels.

  Didn’t matter how important her research was. She couldn’t put this off any longer. The dogs had all but turned on her and were about to eat her alive.

  “Okay, okay, guys,” she said to them, pretty sure they were conspiring against her. “I’m delivering.”

  She went into the bin under the kitchen cabinets and brought out their bag of dog food. She gave them each two healthy scoops in their bowls. They dug in at once, like hungry wolves devouring their prey.

  “Go ahead, pigs,” she muttered, changing out their water bowls.

  Once she’d done that, she headed to the barn to take care of the other chores before all the animals gathered together to lynch her. She was especially careful around the llamas, who looked like they were close to taking her head off with great big balls of spit.

  Back in the house, she settled on a stool at the island with the file open in front of her.

  Linc was fortunate, really. Of all the cases he’d been on, relatively few had ended up with the subject being deceased. There was a reason the SAR community called Linc the best in the business.

  She felt a surge of pride for him as she flipped away from the file with the prison inmates. That one didn’t really even count. He’d located them as required; it was the inmate’s own fault for pulling the gun on the police officer.

  She swallowed as she looked at the next case. It was for an inexperienced solo hiker on the Appalachian Trail. Found dead from hypothermia after wandering off the trail. The profile photo was that of a grandmotherly woman.

  Kylie’s heart ached. Knowing Linc, he probably took every one of these deaths personally. Hell, he probably even felt guilty about the inmate. That was him. He was just so good, so selfless. Wired to be the hero, every single time, as unrealistic as that was.

  Because really, no one, not even Superman, was the hero every time.

  Her eyes went to her phone. No text or call from him.

  That seriously had to have been the longest funeral in the history of funerals. What were they doing over there? Burying him twice?

  She felt guilty, thinking something so bad about a good man like Will. But god, this was driving her crazy. Where was Linc, and why hadn’t he called her yet?

  What if the killer had gotten to him already? What if he was already dead?

  She shook those thoughts away, lifted up the phone, and sent him another text. This time, in all caps. That made an even twelve. Then she told herself that she wouldn’t send him another text, even if she had to chop her thumbs off.

  She read a little more about the grandmother who’d died, then lost interest when she realized it had happened north of Asheville, in Pisgah. If she was looking for a killer, she expected the murderer to have some connection to the Tallulah Gorge area.

  She flipped through the next few—another in North Carolina, two in Tennessee. All very sad cases. One of a pretty woman with a perfect smile who’d disappeared while hiking with her new husband, another of an autistic teenager who’d wandered away from his family during a camping trip. She paged through them, sickness blooming in her stomach.

  So much death. And she hadn’t even been a part of the SAR crew for these.

  She flipped the page and froze when she came to the picture of a tiny young girl in a pink unicorn sweatshirt, with thick glasses, bright blue eyes, freckles, and stringy red hair.

  Kylie’s heart squeezed at the sight of such a vivacious little girl with the wide smile and the two missing eye teeth, in this file…this file of death.

  Jill Peck. That was her name.

  Kylie stared at the picture, wondering why it was that Linc had never mentioned this child. It had to have been one of his more memorable cases. Just glancing at the beautiful, innocent face of the little girl, Kylie felt hard-pressed to forget little Jill. In fact, she knew she’d probably dream of her at night.

  She read the location. Someplace called Smithgall Woods State Park in Helen, Georgia. She wasn’t quite sure where that was, so she picked up her phone and searched for it on her maps app. It was in the northeast corner of Georgia, just like Tallulah Gorge. Not more than thirty miles away.

  She read the names of the SAR team. Linc Coulter, Dina Avery, Will Santos, Kevin Friedman, and Beez Crosby.

  The fabulous five. The same five who were now all either dead or injured.

  All except for Linc.

  Her spidey sense leapt into overdrive. This is it, this is it, this is it, it seemed to whisper to her.

  Kylie shifted on her seat, hugging herself, reading on, her eyes quickly absorbing all the information. The little girl, Jill, had been on a scouting trip and had gotten separated from her troop. She read the account, written in Linc’s own words, her heart tightening as she imagined him trying to put the heart-wrenching details down on paper:

  Arrived at SWSP after 2200 hours. Met with DA, WS, KF, and BC for briefing. Regular SAR familiar with terrain unable to make it to site due to illness, received briefing from ranger instead. Heavy downpours in the area. Ranger stated most trails would be unsafe and to use extreme caution. Upon studying map, advised BC to take VCT, DA to take ACT, WS to take MMT, and KF to take CET, I took LRT. Set out at 2245.

  Visibility poor. Fog and rain. Upon radio calls from BC and KF indicating difficulties navigating trails and extreme dangers pulled back SAR team. Advised to begin search at 0600 hours.

  Set out at 0600 hours, same trails as above. Approximately 1.2 MM of LRT Storm located scent. Followed to a steep drop-off. Upon looking over the edge of the drop found subject facedown, submerged in pond. Efforts to resuscitate were attempted but failed. Time 0632.

  Kylie looked up, tears clouding her eyes. Linc had been through a lot, but she knew, without a doubt, that this would have been the most difficult thing that he’d ever gone through. Linc loved kids. During family get-togethers, he loved playing with his nieces and nephews so much more than he care
d to converse with the adults. Everywhere they went, he always seemed to gravitate to the dogs and the kids…and they to him.

  It suddenly hit her, why he never talked about it. It was why he never talked about his time in Syria, until she’d dragged it out of him. It was just too hard. Linc buried the things that hurt him the most.

  She wiped at her eyes as Vader nudged her knee, sensing her pain. She patted him gently, noticing the two dogs had handily finished all of their food. She reached into a drawer and tossed them each a couple of treats.

  Then she looked back at the poor little girl. Jill Peck looked back at her with those big blue eyes. What a tiny, innocent little thing. Only nine years old.

  Her death had doubtlessly been painful to so many people. Not just Linc.

  Was this the case that all the other murders hinged on? If so…who was responsible?

  She turned the page, reading on about the parents, who’d been notified of the death. They’d both been understandably distraught. Was one of them the culprit?

  Grabbing her phone, she quickly typed in the words: Jill Peck death GA

  The first thing she saw was an article from a year after the case. It mentioned the suicide of John Peck, the father of Jill Peck. He’d died from a single gunshot wound to the head. Kylie read on and saw a quote from a neighbor: He never was the same after the death of his little girl.

  Kylie wiped a tear from her eye.

  Then she typed in: Jill Peck obituary GA

  The first result was from a local funeral home in Helen, GA. She quickly opened it and scanned the names of her relatives: Mother, Anna Law Peck, father, John Peck, loving brother, Tanner Peck, paternal grandmother, Violet…

  Kylie froze. Tanner Peck. Now, why did that name sound so familiar? Not only that, why did it seem to have a very strong connection to the Tallulah Gorge area?

  She vised her head in her hands, trying to think. Slowly, it came to her. That first day they’d arrived at Tallulah Gorge State Park. It was pouring out, and that young, barely legal looking park ranger with the acne scars had been there. He’d said he was new to the place, thanked them for coming out, and had given them maps…

  The hair raised on the back of Kylie’s neck.

  And he was a killer.

  Kylie jumped straight up, knocking into the low-hanging lamp with her forehead, making both dogs jump too. “Oh my god!” she said aloud, ignoring the pain screaming through the sore spot on her hairline. “Of course! Jill Peck’s brother is a ranger at Tallulah Gorge State Park.”

  She grabbed for her phone, not sure who she was going to call—the police or the ranger’s office—when it began to ring in her hands. Her heart leapt when Linc’s name popped up on the display.

  She couldn’t pick it up fast enough. “Linc!”

  “Yeah, it’s me,” he said quickly. “Listen.”

  She heard the rush of air in the background and guessed he must’ve been driving somewhere.

  “No! You have to listen! I found something out!” she said, looking at the clock on the microwave. It was after seven by now, and the sun was sinking down. It suddenly hit her as he began to talk over her that his flight wasn’t even supposed to land until eight. “Wait, why are you not on your flight? Did it get in early?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I’m driving the rental. To Tallulah Gorge.”

  Her mouth opened. That was the absolute last place she wanted him to be. “The gorge? Why? No!”

  “Listen to me. I got a call from Dina. She’s in trouble. I need to get there right away.”

  “What? How do you know you’re not walking into a trap?” Her heart was pounding in her chest. “You can’t go there, Linc! It’s not safe. I know who’s doing this! That little girl, the scout. Jill Peck. Her brother is Tanner Peck, the ranger at the park. He’s going to kill you and Dina.”

  A pause. “Well, then, I guarantee I am walking into a trap.”

  “Linc,” she begged. “Don’t do this. You can’t—”

  “I have to.” He sounded remarkably calm. “I’m not just going to let Dina die.”

  She knew that about him. In his mind, better they both die than for his fellow SAR to die and Linc do absolutely nothing. “If you are going there, I’m going too!”

  “Hell no. Did you hear me, Kylie? Hell. No. And I mean it. You stay put. And don’t call the police. She said that if anyone else shows up, he’ll kill her. So just let me do this alone. All right? I’ll call you when I can.”

  “No!” Kylie shouted. “No! This is crazy. Please, Linc. Don’t go. Please, just come home to me. Please.”

  “I can’t, Kylie. Just…remember,” he said, his voice shifting from calm to strained. “I love you.”

  And then he hung up.

  Kylie stood up and screamed at the phone, stunned by what he’d just said. No. This couldn’t be happening. She grabbed hold of it and called him, but it went right to voicemail. She dialed again. Voicemail again. Voicemail, voicemail, voicemail, for each one of the ten times she called afterward.

  Slamming the phone on the counter, she gave it the finger. “You bastard!” she screamed.

  Then she sank down onto the stool and started to sob.

  Vader came by a moment later and laid his head on her knee. A second after that, Storm came and did the same thing. Peanut butter and jelly.

  She looked up. “You’re exactly right, you guys. I don’t care what he says. Peanut butter without jelly is pretty useless.”

  And she jumped up and ran for her car keys.

  27

  Slipping his tie from around his collar, Linc made it to the park at a little after nine. Didn’t matter that the park had closed at 8:30, and now, it was deserted. Clouds covered the moon, threatening rain.

  He had a flashback to that dark, hopeless night, looking for Jill, and quickly squelched it.

  Night searches were not his favorite thing, especially considering all the death this park had seen lately. Not to mention that the thick foliage made it sometimes look like night, even in the day. It was damn dark. The headlights of Linc’s rental car, cutting through the blackness, felt like the only lights for miles.

  And in his rental car, he didn’t have a flashlight.

  On a trail, like this, in the dark of night? This could be a problem.

  There was a metal gate across the main road into the park, with a sign that said Park Closes at Sunset. Linc stopped there, recalling the phone call he’d had with Dina. She wasn’t one to wear her emotions on her sleeve, but this ordeal had gotten the better of her. Dina had been sobbing.

  “Come to the bridge or he’ll kill me. Bring no one else. Please!”

  “The bridge?” he’d said, having a good idea of which bridge she meant. There was a slim suspension bridge on the Hurricane Falls Trail Loop at Tallulah Gorge. He’d wanted to stall for time so he could make sure he understood what he needed to do.

  “Yes! Please hurry! He’s going to kill me!”

  “I’m in South Carolina right now. It’ll take me—”

  Dina screamed, and a rustling sound came over the line before a male voice. “Listen, asshole. You’d better drive ninety the whole way. Get here now, or I’ll slit her throat. You understand? I left the door open for you.”

  And then he hung up.

  Linc pulled to the side of the road and got out quickly, checking to make sure no one was coming. He went to the gate and tested it. Sure enough, though it was closed, it hadn’t been padlocked. He pushed it open and went to the back of the car, taking out his knife, which he slipped into the pocket of his slacks, before loading his Glock. He hopped back into the car, put the gun on the passenger seat, continuing down the winding road to the visitor’s center.

  When he pulled into the parking lot near the North Rim trailhead, he saw one vehicle there—appropriately, a white serial-killer van. He tore open the glove compartment and found a small flashlight. He turned it on and tested the light. It emitted only a dim gray glow. Pretty useless.<
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  He reached over and took his gun. As he opened the door, the clouds overhead parted, and a full November moon lit the way.

  It felt like a miracle.

  He just hoped that miracle would last for the next hour, so he could find his way down to the bridge. A glance at the night sky was evidence that his miracle probably wouldn’t be happening tonight. But he’d take advantage of the moments of moonlight as they came.

  He jumped out of the car, popped the trunk, and pulled his hiking boots out of his bag, glad he’d brought them with him. Slipping out of his dress shoes, he stepped into the comfort of his boots. At least he had those. He rolled up the cuffs on his dress shirt and hurried for the trail, holding the gun in both hands as he made his way across the uneven terrain.

  Two thousand. That’s how many steps he’d have to take down to the suspension bridge overlooking Hurricane Falls.

  A nice hike, in the day. He’d done it many times before.

  But as he thought of his conversation with Kylie, his chest tightened. She was right. It was a trap. Tanner Peck, the ranger from the station, was obviously holding a grudge against them. And he didn’t just want Dina’s blood. He wanted Linc’s too.

  So walking down into the gorge right now, unarmed, in absolute blackness? It felt like a death sentence.

  He tried to concentrate on the job at hand—one step at a time, that’s what his therapist said. Don’t get too far ahead of yourself. Take it little by little. Making sure Dina was safe. That was step one.

  But his thoughts kept going to Kylie. How frantic she’d been on the phone.

  He didn’t trust her to stay home, no matter what he said.

  Knowing her, she was on her way here, right now.

  Then he thought of Storm. His other girl. Couldn’t have asked for a better companion for all the shit he’d been through.

  He knew what he’d said. And he meant it. Better that Kylie and Storm stayed safe.

  But still, it would’ve been nice to see them again, just one more time.