Skye and Josh took the high-volume setting, the place Elias had mentioned the most, a large house near the end of the block where two elderly sisters lived together. Elias had described many times that the situation there was “easy pickings.”
A scary prospect.
“You realize we’ll be lucky if ten neighbors don’t call the police on us tonight,” Josh mused. “We’re not exactly what you’d call a stellar bunch.”
“Just in spirit,” Skye noted. “Our hearts are in the right place. Sometimes that has to count as much as anything else. These guys need to get their feet wet. They’ve gone on and on in the past about wanting to do what we do. Tonight, they’ll either cement that goal or change their minds entirely.”
“But this is a helluva time to experiment.”
“Yeah, it is. But all killers are basically the same. Ruthless. Coldblooded. Heartless. I can’t pick the least dangerous one and send them up against that for their benefit. It doesn’t work that way.”
“We’ve gone up against some soulless monsters, haven’t we?”
“We have. And taken them all down. Wonder what makes them the way they are? Who creates a serial murderer? How do they get to that point where they no longer value human life?”
Nothing much happened between eleven and midnight. Chatting in whispers seemed the only pastime they had to fall back on. The other teams were doing the same. Travis and Judd talked about horses. Leo and Brayden discussed video games. Harry and Deborah got to know each other better. Judy and Reggie made plans to see a movie when this was all over.
Midnight to one a.m. was another story. Brayden spotted a man out walking that fit the general description, dressed in all black, and heading toward Judy and Reggie’s location. Speaking into his headset, Brayden alerted the teams to the man’s whereabouts.
Reggie was able to pick him up some twenty yards away. He radioed the sighting. Everyone began closing ranks around the stranger, moving in one block at a time.
By the time the man realized he’d been spotted, he was mere feet from Judy, who jumped out of the laurel bushes and tackled him. Reggie followed suit and wrestled him to the ground. But the man showed some willingness to fight when he hit Judy over the head with his nightstick. He turned the baton on Reggie for a few whacks until he got to his feet and hot-footed it down the pathway heading north.
Josh zeroed in on the man’s movements and took off in pursuit. Skye stopped to see if Judy was okay and saw trickles of blood streaming down her face.
“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. Go get him!”
Skye took off running, closing the distance between Josh. For several blocks, they kept up the pace as the suspect headed toward West Commodore Way and the Lockhaven Marina. Josh was about ten feet away and tightening the gap when the guy turned and pointed a Taser at him. Skye watched in horror as Josh dropped to the ground, stunned and shaking. Just as she was about to jump on his back, the suspect hit her with a round of voltage. That’s the last thing she tried to do as she fell where she stood. But in the distance, she could hear the water lapping at dockside and a boat roar off through the channel. It disappeared into the misty waters of Shilshole Bay.
****
Back at the safe house, they regrouped in the library, but everyone was talking a mile a minute about what had happened.
“I blew it,” Judy admitted. “I shouldn’t have jumped out when I did. I should’ve waited until he’d passed by us.”
“No, I should’ve taken point and responded quicker,” Travis said, beating himself up for not getting to Skye faster.
“Me too,” Brayden voiced, his tone laced with apprehension. “I held back too long. I didn’t pursue. I waited…too long to go on the attack.”
“If anyone’s to blame, it’s me,” Josh added, looking over at Skye. “I should have known he’d react and try to take us out again. I let my guard down again just for a second and it cost us.”
Tanner had poured everyone a stiff drink of whiskey, but it did nothing to alleviate the bone-chilling idea that they’d let a serial killer slip through their grasps again.
“Stop it,” Skye said quietly from her spot nearest the fire. Her voice lifted when all eyes turned back to her. “All of you, just stop second-guessing yourselves. Let’s build on what happened tonight. Let’s consider the intel we gathered. You have to ask yourself why does he keep hanging around marinas? This is the second time he’s led us on a chase to a body of water. The answer is he’s escaping in a boat. He owns his own boat. I heard him start the engine up. He fled using a large cabin cruiser. I’m sure of it. We need to run the membership list of both marinas and see if there’s a match to Elias Pope. In case he registered it under an alias, check boat identification numbers and see if we get a match to both marinas.”
“I’ll get on that,” Reggie offered, grabbing his laptop. “Crosscheck the Lockhaven Marina register to that of the Elliott Bay Yacht Club, correct?”
“That’s the two we know about.”
Winston sidled up to Skye. “I’m sorry about earlier.”
“Don’t be. You didn’t miss much.”
“That’s not true,” Josh protested. “I could see in that guy’s eyes he wanted to amp up the voltage and keep it up until he’d killed someone. But he heard the footsteps behind us and knew he had to get out of there. I looked into the killer’s dead eyes. There was pretty much nothing there.”
“I echo that sentiment,” Skye muttered, taking another sip of bourbon.
A little uncomfortable about the scene earlier, Winston cleared his throat. “Yeah, but while you guys were out at Lawton Park, I ran a search on who had purchased sub-zero industrial slash commercial walk-in freezers within the last fifteen years.”
Suddenly, Skye was riveted to what he had to say. “And?”
“I assumed the walk-in had to be large enough to store at least six bodies, maybe more. I adjusted for that in my search. After compiling my original list, I pared it down further by eliminating restaurants, meatpacking facilities, small local grocery stores in the area, as well as major supermarket chains. That left me with five orders from ordinary people. I checked the names. I was able to track down two of them already. I discovered those were purchased by people renovating old mansions into bed and breakfasts. They needed a walk-in freezer for their attached restaurants. Makes sense, right? Anyway, the other three I haven’t been able to track down. But one of them stands out as having been delivered to an industrial warehouse address. And get this, there’s no actual business there, not since the 1960s. It’s vacant and has been for almost forty years.”
“Great job, Winston,” Skye said with a pat on his shoulder. “Since you know the date of delivery, check to see if any freight companies picked up anything at that address and delivered it someplace else. Keep running that sort of thing to the ground. If it turns out there’s a connection to Elias Pope or a viable address we can check out, we need to know that by morning.”
Josh lifted his glass. “We have him on the run, now let’s keep up the pressure.”
Alone together in their bedroom, Josh huddled under the covers with Skye. As he toyed with strands of her hair, he tried not to think about what had happened near the marina. “Do you ever wonder about getting away from all of this and maybe build a hut on a tropical beach somewhere? Chuck Seattle behind and head to Belize?”
Skye snickered and snuggled into the crook of his arm. “What? And leave all this fame and excitement behind us? What we do for an adrenaline rush then?”
“We’d live a nice, quiet, peaceful life in our rocking chairs.”
“That sounds wonderful,” she said dreamily as she drifted off. “Let’s put that on our bucket list. Tropical beach. Collecting seashells when we’re old and gray.”
Twenty-Two
A full house at breakfast kept Tanner hopping. As Deborah made her way through the serving line, she dished out a helping of scrambled eggs but spared a glance in Skye’s direction. “I just want
to say how grateful I am that you do what you do. It’s amazing how you and Josh have dedicated your lives to helping victims like Jennifer. Your entire team is so knowledgeable and dedicated. Thank you for going out there last night. Watching you guys in action was a thrill for me.”
Skye smiled. “If only that thrill could’ve included actually catching the guy.”
“But you’re trying, you’re out there giving it your best shot. That’s more than I can say for the police. Did you know the police haven’t even followed up with me on Jennifer’s case? Five days later and not a word from anyone in law enforcement.”
“Sadly, that happens a lot. The police want to believe these people disappear on their own, especially when there are no obvious signs of foul play.”
“If I ever get Jennifer back, I’m making it my mission in life to change that way of thinking.”
“Do you think you’ll stay in Seattle?”
“You bet. I’m making changes. I get Jennifer back, and I’m moving here. I’ve already decided. I might even join your team. What would you say about that?”
“The more, the merrier.”
“Really? Harry said you’d say that.”
“Well, no one’s known me for longer than Harry, except for maybe my dad.”
“Do you really believe the man who took Jennifer is this guy, this Elias Pope?”
Remembering the Eric Nunley mix up, Skye hesitated for several long minutes before answering. “We’re still gathering evidence, building a solid case with no detail too small. The man last night was definitely a mirror image of the guy who shot at Josh. But I want some kind of major proof that the man we’re hunting is actually Elias Pope before I commit.”
“We’re closer to having it,” Josh echoed as he picked up a plate and proceeded to fill it up with eggs and bacon. “We heard from the lab. They ran the tests twice. Blood on the tissue matches to what was found in the Jeep.”
Skye pumped a fist in the air. “Yessssss! I love it when things click into place. Anything else?”
“Reggie confirmed Elias has an older brother named Elijah. Elijah was arrested on the UDub campus back in the summer of 2007 for drunk and disorderly. After that, Reggie couldn’t find a single instance where Elijah shows up anywhere.”
“But the DNA match is true to Elias, correct? It’s not Elijah we’re after is it?”
“Nope. The DNA is all Elias Pope’s because it also tracks back to that rag found in the trash can at Nunley’s. I only bring up Elijah because there’s no record of him after the summer of 2007, which is odd. Anyone who’s around Elias Pope for long ends up missing or dead.”
“Then we should do a thorough search of the Pope family tree. We need to know where Elias grew up, where he lives, where he went to school, who his friends were. Because he’s not squatting at Nunley’s house, that’s for certain. I doubt he’ll ever go back there again. How are we progressing on boats registered to an Elias Pope?”
She looked up from her plate to see Winston drop into a chair across from her and push a piece of paper her way.
“After crosschecking the membership from the two marinas where Pope ditched us, one boat identification number rose to the top. It’s registered to a Ken Drake. Kendrake, one word, happens to be Elias Pope’s middle name. Elias Kendrake Pope.”
“I’ll be damned,” Skye said, her lips curving. “Way to go, Winston. What else? I know there’s more because you look like you’re about to burst with the news.”
“I ran the boat ID number through the Seattle Harbor Police database to check for any violations. I hit the jackpot because his cruiser is a forty-foot job named Evanesce.”
“That name’s gotta be a sick joke,” Josh stated.
“Do you know what it means?” Winston asked. “Because I had to look it up. It literally means, pass out of sight, memory, or existence.”
“Yup, that’s his own sick joke,” Josh lamented. “Bastard.”
“Anyway, the boat Evanesce had several speeding tickets around the Elliott Bay Marina which has a speed limit of only three knots when you’re moving anywhere near the Yacht Club. Pope or rather Ken Drake was also cited for speeding at the Lockhaven Marina. From there, I went to the Coast Guard database, where I found a whole list of boating violations occurring around Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, Protection Pointe Wildlife Refuge, Clallam Bay State Park, Neah Bay, and finally Cape Flattery.” He tapped the piece of paper with the mapping points and the red dots he’d added to it, indicating a path. “On these numerous trips, the Evanesce goes from Lockhaven Marina to these checkpoints right up to Cape Flattery. I think this is huge.”
“So do I.” Skye slid the documents over to Josh to inspect. “Look at the Coast Guard information. This guy also left a trail of violations from Vancouver all the way down to Big Sur. It could be a virtual road map of his movements and crime sites.”
Josh took a seat next to Skye. “Right now, I’m more interested in his path from Lockhaven Marina to Cape Flattery. That’s the Olympic Peninsula, rugged as hell up there. If we could somehow narrow it down and know for certain that’s the area he’s hiding out at, we could check it out ourselves.”
Winston nodded and took out his tablet. “This may help. In addition to the Coast Guard map and all the boating violations, I added the walk-in freezer information. These are the addresses where a freight company made deliveries for that specific type of unit. Larger than most. There’s only one delivery in the last fifteen years that coincides with the area near Cape Flattery. But I can’t get confirmation because the official line at the freight company is that their records don’t go back that far. My data comes directly from the manufacturer, who shows the walk-in unit was ordered, shipped, and delivered by said freight lines to a place called Madrigal Manor.”
“Maybe that’s it,” Skye said to Josh. “Maybe it’s just that simple, an obscure delivery to an obscure location backed up by his route along the northern part of Washington state.”
Pleased with their reaction, Winston went on, “There’s more. Not that you need it at this point, but the computer generated a likeness of Elias Pope, based on the DNA. I thought you might want to circulate this around town. You know, just in case he’s out roaming Seattle again. Pair it next to his actual DMV photo and it might generate tips.”
Over Skye’s shoulder, Deborah studied the composite. “This is the guy who kidnapped my Jennifer? He looks so…normal…like your typical thirty-year-old. Why would he do things like this to people like Jennifer? What did my daughter ever do to him?”
“No idea…yet. But he’s likely been doing it for a very long time,” Skye ascertained. “You and Judy should blast this to every business and apartment building citywide. Judy will show you the folder that already contains the email addresses.”
“Don’t you want us to hand out the flyers ourselves?” Deborah asked.
“And expose yourselves to Elias Pope out on the streets? No way. We’ll add a line to the top asking the business owners and apartment complexes to do it for us.”
Impressed with that answer, Deborah scuttled off to get Judy’s help.
Left alone in the dining room, Josh fiddled with his own iPad and showed what he’d spent the morning working on. “I blew up a satellite image of Copalis Beach, spent a lot of time going over the terrain. It occurs to me how somebody like Elias Pope could’ve picked this location as a dumpsite. It’s remote and isolated, surrounded by tall pine trees. And it basically offers everything wonderful, everything most of us love about the state we call home.”
“What are you getting at?”
“The question we’ve always wondered since day-one is why he keeps coming back to that location.”
“You’ve figured it out?”
“I think something significant or traumatic happened there for Elias Pope. So, I went back twenty years and pulled the records for any incidents where a body was discovered along Griffiths-Priday State Park or Copalis Beach. Turns out, there were four separ
ate incidents where body parts turned up. They were explained away by the state like all the rest. They listed them as suicides, drownings, or just plain accidental deaths.”
“Oh, jeez. How many victims do you suppose this guy has?”
“I think we should probably keep an open mind about that.”
****
They spent the morning paring down more information about Elias Pope and gathered in the library to go over what they’d learned.
Josh and Leo had their heads together working on numbers. It was Josh who took them through the guy’s portfolio. “The thing is, Elias Pope has a pedigree that goes back decades. His father was a man called Fincher, Fincher’s father, Elias’s grandfather was a Cyrus Pope. Back in the day, Cyrus was so wealthy he once loaned millions to a failing bank to keep it from going under. And these days, looking at his financials, he’s worth about twenty-five million and that’s after selling off daddy’s failing business.”
“When was that?” Skye wanted to know.
Josh slapped down paperwork that included bank statements. “First quarter of 2008 during his sophomore year at UDub. We’re talking major cash on hand here. His assets, like houses and land and warehouses, put another thirty million on the table.”
Leo showed off the pictures he’d retrieved from a historical website. “That’s not all. You want this guy, you’re gonna have to storm the castle. Literally.”
“Winston was right about the name of the place. Madrigal Manor, it’s called, located at the tip of the northernmost peninsula in the state. We’ve all talked it over and figure this has to be where he lives and where he’s hiding now after the Lawton Park incident.”
Skye studied the photos. “How can we be certain, though? I don’t want to waste time scaling walls if he’s not there.”
“Reggie’s trying to locate a cell phone number for him, something we can track,” Leo explained.
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