Page 42

FORTY-ONE

The day passed by quickly. As promised, the second wave of the storm moved in. The wind picked up, and the snow came down in sheets of white, mixed with pellets of ice that gleamed like diamonds. The world outside was silent and peaceful. Erin loved the feeling of being safe inside the cabin, evil held at bay. Not even a serial killer would venture out in this. His murderous spree was at a standstill, and Erin could breathe.

She, Kaely, and Chester watched three movies, All About Eve , Notorious , and Gaslight . Erin loved old movies and was glad to find out that Kaely did as well. Some of the newer suspense movies were too violent for her liking. When she was on the job, classic movies became an escape. Enough mystery and intrigue to keep her interested, but not so much that it reminded her of what she had to face every day on the streets.

She and Kaely could watch the snow falling through the floor-to-ceiling windows on each side of the fireplace. The porch light illuminated the white flakes as they twirled through the air, the wind pushing them into a frenzy of motion.

As they prepared dinner, Kaely found some brownie mix in the pantry and soon had them baking in the oven, the aroma of chocolate permeating the cabin.

“I’m not trying to replace your Mallomars,” Kaely said. “Just give us another choice.”

“You don’t like my Mallomars, do you?” Erin asked with a grin.

“I actually do like them but probably not as much as you. Of course, I’ve never met anyone who loves them the way you do.”

After they ate and as the brownies cooled, she and Kaely sat down at the table once again. They took their places at each end with an empty chair between them. Kaely had her notebook with her.

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to play the recording I made last time,” Kaely said. “It will help me to remember what I saw. I have my notes, but listening to me talk about him is more helpful.”

Erin nodded. “I understand.” She didn’t really, but whatever worked for Kaely was fine with her.

Kaely lowered her head and prayed silently before turning on the recording she’d made previously.

Erin listened as Kaely’s voice came over the phone. Once again, she felt something in the room. An energy. A presence. What was it? Better yet, who was it?

Erin listened as Kaely said, “You’re angry. You’ve been angry a long time. Ever since you were a child. Something happened to make you this way. You’ve been planning to pay someone back for a while. Not long ago, you started practicing. Practicing for vengeance. Against God. Against the angels. You’re in your late twenties, early thirties. You’re considered good-looking.”

Kaely suddenly paused the recording. “I’m changing this,” she said. “I think he’s closer to forty.”

“Why?” Erin asked.

“Hailey. Hailey Duncan. She was in her late thirties. Active in her church and by all accounts happily married. She wasn’t meeting this man for a date. This was something else. It has to do with his job. She met with him because she trusted him because of that job. His position. I don’t think a really young man would be able to have the kind of persona that these women, including Hailey, would trust.”

“Kaely, there’s something that’s been bothering me.”

“Tell me.”

“Your profile. The last time you did this something occurred to me. I hate to even think about this but...”

“Profiling is educated guessing,” Kaely said. “If you have a guess, I want to hear it.”

“You keep talking about his job. That he has a position of respect. That these women come with him because they feel safe?”

“Yes, I stick by that.”

“Wouldn’t a police officer fit your profile?”

Kaely frowned. “Yes, it would. Why?”

“I don’t know. I hate to bring it up since I was a police officer, but it’s been on my mind.”

“You think a police officer could hide his own evidence,” Kaely said. “Like Sergeant Johnson?”

Erin nodded. “Or... or even Adrian?”

“I don’t see anything in his personality that makes me believe he’s involved,” Kaely said. “But no one should be off the table.”

“I feel terrible pointing the finger at either one of them,” Erin said. She liked Adrian and Timothy and hated to think either one of them could be a serial killer.

“I’ve been wrong before. Besides, you need to remember that we’re not accusing anyone of anything.” Kaely shook her head. “I’ve wondered about Steve. He fits the profile too.” She sighed. “If we let our minds wander, we could start thinking everyone looks like a possible suspect. That can be dangerous.”

“Okay.”

“So, let’s get back to the profile.” She smiled. “Try not to see anyone specific sitting in the chair. Instead, let a picture come to you from the profile, not your preconceived ideas.”

Erin nodded, but she wasn’t sure she could do what Kaely asked.

Kaely focused her attention on the empty chair between them. “Everything else I said about you is true. You hate women, but I think you see them every day with your job. Maybe this is how you scout them out.” She turned the recording back on and fast forwarded it a bit. “The most important thing isn’t the woman— it’s the figurine you force them to hold. You’re uncomfortable touching them. You have no physical attraction to them. You want to kill them in a certain way. You practiced it several times before you killed Chloe. However, what you did to them wasn’t perfect, so you buried them. But you got it right when you killed Chloe. That’s why you displayed her. She was perfection.” Kaely stopped the recording again. She clicked over to the picture of Hailey. “The connection between these women is your job. If we can figure that out, we’ve got you.”

Kaely stared at the chair for a moment. Erin wrapped her arms around herself as the wind outside howled like a woman in pain. She shivered as a chill ran down her back. Kaely was watching the chair, but she couldn’t bring herself to look. However, out of the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw something dark sitting there.

Kaely clicked the recording on, but once again fast forwarded it. When she stopped, her voice filled the room. She spoke distinctly, with assurance. “ You’re killing because of someone else. And the angels? What does that have to do with it?” She paused. “Okay, let’s move on. You don’t mind the makeup, their shoes, or their jewelry. Why? Is it because you’re not attracted to them that way? ”

She stopped the recording and stared down at her phone. It was obvious she was thinking. Once again, she skipped over some of it. When she started it again, Erin listened as she said “They told you the angels took someone away that you loved, didn’t they? And that’s why you dress these women up as angels and put that figurine in their hands. You think you’re paying the angels back for what they did to you. ” Another pause. Fast forward. “ You don’t take off their makeup or their shoes because your mother wore makeup and liked high heels. You can’t remove them because it would betray her in some way. My guess is whoever told you that the angels took her also believed your mother shouldn’t wear makeup or wear high heels. That ’s it, isn’t it? Two of these women wore heels. One didn’t. But that doesn’t really matter . I already know about the shoes .”

Kaely stopped the tape again and looked at Erin. “Hailey was wearing heels and makeup, so this confirms my profile. These things don’t matter to him.” She looked at the empty chair and sighed. “I still believe that your victims are picked at random, but now I’m thinking you use your job to lure them. I stand by my conjecture that you don’t care about them, and you’re not choosing them by type, job, or personality. Only by convenience. I’m not sure why you don’t have elderly victims, but my guess is that unless you’re stopped, that could happen.”

Erin was startled to hear Kaely mention this since it was exactly what she’d thought at one time.

Kaely pushed the phone away from her as if she were finished with it. “I’m missing something,” she said to the empty chair. “You hate the angels, you have a religious background, but not one that had solid doctrine. But you’re smart. I’ve seen killers like you before. You like to play games. And you like attention. So why no letters to the local newspaper or to the police? That element should have shown itself by now. There’s something...”

As before, Erin could swear there was a presence in the room. In that chair. She wanted to look at it, but she was afraid.

“I can see him,” Kaely said, swinging her gaze toward Erin. “He’s a little older. Probably late thirties, early forties. Superior. Thinks we’re stupid. He may be able to hide himself from most people, but we can see him.”

“I... I can’t,” Erin said. “I mean, it’s like I can feel someone there, but I...”

“You’re afraid to look. Don’t be. He can’t hurt you, Erin. This is just a way of profiling that helps you to move your thoughts from paper to the real world. See someone a little older. Create a man with a superior countenance. Someone who believes he’s smarter than you.”

“You think he’s killed others? Before Sanctuary?” Erin asked.

Kaely shook her head. “No. I think Sanctuary is the place where he was damaged, and he has to kill here. Although most serial killers have a comfort zone, there have been exceptions to that rule. Robert Ben Rhodes was nicknamed the Truck Stop Killer. He raped and murdered women in different states. And the man known as the Train Man, traveled the rails and killed people in different parts of the country. But this man—he is tied to Sanctuary by something. There’s too much symbolism in the way he kills. He’s not killing for the sake of taking lives. I think he grew up here and is angry about it. Angry at the people who raised him, angry at a town that didn’t protect him—and trying to avenge the person he lost.”

“You said you would expect someone like him to leave messages,” Erin said. “To contact the press. When writing Dark Matters , you told me that psychopaths crave attention. They want people to know how exceptional they are.”

“Exactly.” Kaely looked at the empty chair once more. “Where is it? Where’s your message?”

Erin looked at the list of the women that had been found in Sanctuary. “Do you think there might be something special about the order he killed them in?”

“Possibly. Can you read me the list of the victims in order?”

Erin opened her notebook. “The oldest corpse belonged to Willow Abbot. Then there was Annie Squires.”

Another gust of wind shrieked loudly and rattled the windows. Erin had the strangest feeling that something outside didn’t want her to say the names out loud. Get a grip, Erin. You’re going bonkers. She purposely refused to look at the chair she knew was empty. Why did she feel that someone sat there, staring at her? She cleared her throat. “The next victim is Terri Rupp. After that, there’s Chloe Banner, the first one found with the angel figurine.”

“I’m still a little surprised that he allowed us to find the first three victims without the figurine,” Kaely said slowly. “Most of the time these killers are so obsessed with their signature, that they won’t allow any of their failures to be discovered.”

“But if there’s a pattern or a signature that we’re missing...”

Kaely nodded. “That would explain it.”

“And then the most recent victim, Hailey Duncan.”

Erin could have sworn she heard something coming from the empty chair. A sound, like a low growl. She looked down over by the fire and realized that Chester was staring at them. He was growling at something they couldn’t see.

Erin swallowed hard. She looked down at the names again. She felt as if the blood in her body had turned to ice. She lifted her eyes to meet Kaely’s.

“I know who it is,” she whispered. “And it’s not Detective Johnson.”

Chester growled again.

“I know who the killer is, and I think I’m the next one on his list.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the lights went out.