Page 39 of You Can Make Me (Carnival of Mysteries #28)

Twenty-One

D enny

I woke in the dark, my chest killing me, and tried to reach for my pills.

My hands were duct-taped behind me, and my ankles were wrapped tight as well.

Fuck.

Why all villains thought duct tape was the premier restraint material, I’ll never know. What happened to good ole rope? Or handcuffs? I could get out of handcuffs in thirty seconds, and ropes weren’t terrible unless tied by a true torture master.

Tape? Shit. Without something sharp to cut with, it wasn’t going to feel good, but I could do it. And fuck, my chest really hurt. How much was from the damned Taser and how much was from my damn heart, I had no idea. I needed to assess my situation fast.

Dax had pulled his fucking weapon on me. He was done when I got my hands on him. And his accomplice?

Chills went down my spine when I realized who’d Tased me.

Retired CHP Officer John Soto.

We’d met him at a bar at the start of this whole saga. I recalled seeing his scarred hand as we discussed missing persons cases. How the hell had he gotten involved with Evans?

Unless he’d been in on it the entire time.

At least no one had shot me. As long as my heart held up, I’d make it out of this.

I couldn’t tell the time of day, nor how long I’d been out, but I didn’t think it was that long.

The air smelled of earth, mildew, and soot, as if someone had burned wood in here recently.

If there were no windows, that wouldn’t go well.

I moved my foot and heard the scrape echo, as if the space was cavernous. Thank God for room to move.

I was able to get to my feet. I balanced myself as best I could, lifted my hands up high behind my back, and brought them down hard, splitting the tape and taking skin and hair with it. I lost my balance and drove my shoulder into a wall of stone and dirt.

Okay. I was in a basement or underground. Fuck me . I could be anywhere.

Think, Hamilton.

At least I knew Cooper and the others were safe.

I had to believe they got to the panic room, and that they’d be fine.

No one could get past Walter’s security without calling attention to themselves in that tight-knit community up there, and the guys couldn’t leave unless Dane used his password on the inside.

Walter let me know they’d built the security plan together.

He’d stay put until Walter contacted him and gave him the okay.

If something happened to Walter, Gene also had the all-clear message.

“He’s so strong, D. He’s terrified, but he can handle anything. So can Kal. They’re stronger together. That carnival did something to them. Changed them. And given what we’re dealing with, they may be the ones who hold the power to get us out of it.”

Walter’s words had turned prophetic. Sure, I could have told Dax to fuck off, but then he and his accomplice would have tried to get into the house. Now, at least Dane and Walter would be alerted, would see what happened on the camera, and Walter would get back there with a quickness.

I had to hope. Because if I’d just left Cooper for the last time and anything happened to him, I’d never forgive myself. If I managed to survive.

A door opened somewhere nearby, and since my ankles weren’t free yet and I had no idea where I was, I opted to put my hands back behind me and sit down. Let them think my hands were still trapped.

Footsteps crunched on a stone floor littered in some sort of grit or gravel. Heavy boots. A small flashlight allowed me to track their movement as they approached.

“You awake, Detective?”

He blinded me with the light. I did my best to focus through the searing pain in my head.

“I am now. What the hell are you doing here, Soto?”

“Oh, so you do remember me. For a bunch of decorated detectives, you boys sure let a lot of shit get by you. And your detective friend Dax couldn’t shake the feeling he had something important to do.

The lack of communication between departments helped me out for years.

Helped Evans, too. Holland had to go and ruin it for the rest of us, though, so here we are.

I would have preferred to leave you in your ignorance. ”

The older man crouched down in front of me, but back far enough that if I lunged for him, I’d faceplant at his feet.

“Evans get to you?”

He nodded slowly. “He showed me the way. Because of his power, I’ve been able to enjoy my particular tastes that society frowns upon unimpeded.”

I glanced at the hand resting on his knee and recalled the strange scar I’d seen that night at the bar so long ago. He’d overheard us talking about Dane’s disappearance when a story came on the bar’s TV and offered what he knew. Guess he’d left out a few important details.

“You a firebug, Soto?” I needed to keep him talking so I could figure out where the hell we were. I noticed a code stamped on the rough stone wall like the one we’d used to find Evans the last time.

Caltrans.

Were we in one of their substations? Where?

Some of these maintenance facilities were old and had been abandoned decades ago.

The task force had been searching all of the places Cooper had shared with us from his research.

I remembered Gene telling me they’d found a spot where they thought someone had been living, but if the cops found that one, these evil fucks wouldn’t still be using it, would they? This had to be someplace else.

“Firebug. Very good. You do pay attention.” He pulled back his sleeve, and I saw the mangled flesh that had once probably experienced third-degree burns. “Evans recognized my philia when we met all those years ago.”

“You told us you found a guy getting dragged away and you scared off the perp.”

“I did. That time.”

My chest tightened, and I had to work to control my breathing. Even though my hands weren’t taped, keeping them behind my back was putting a strain on my already sore body from the fucking Taser. Such a bullshit move. I’d have preferred a knock to the head.

No. I thought of Cooper and all of his struggles. We couldn’t have both of us nursing brain injuries, although if that shock did more damage to my heart…

“That time.”

“Yeah.”

Soto smiled in that sick way that Holland had. He didn’t have the fucked-up teeth that guy did, but calling his facial expression a smile was like saying the Joker was simply happy.

“He use that mind-control shit on you, then?”

“Hell no. No one controls me,” Soto said, standing up.

“We were partners. I caught him while on surveillance after the first attempted kidnapping. Caught him red-handed slicing up another young male. The technique, the care with which he performed his craft… Instead of being repulsed, I was mesmerized. He dragged it out, kept the blood flowing so the kid remained alive. He couldn’t yell, he was terrified, frozen in place. It was…riveting to watch.”

The old guy turned, and I nearly gagged when I noticed the bulge in the front of his pants.

“But blood didn’t do it for you.”

“Uh-uh. I liked to burn things. I kept thinking while I was watching him, what would it be like if I could burn someone slow like that?”

“Fucking cruel is what that is. So what did you do?” I asked, trying to carefully slip my hand into the back of my pants.

They’d removed my gun, of course, but I hoped the panic button hadn’t fallen out.

I didn’t know if it had a tracker or not.

All I could do was hope. Then again, if we were far underground, it might not matter.

“I turned the other way. Let Evans know where patrols were, gave him my schedule so he’d be less likely to get caught.

In exchange, he gave me this workspace to practice.

He brought victims here for me,” he said.

“For years—’til he got sloppy over that Miller woman.

When he went to prison, I had to find other ways to enjoy my art. ”

“That how you knew so much about gay men and the rest stops? Were you picking up young kids while you were on duty?”

He shrugged a shoulder and his eyes flared. “Lotta people come through. Lotta people with nowhere to go. I simply showed them the way.”

Bile rose in my throat as I thought of kids like Dane, who’d seen a guy in uniform and thought they were safe. Law enforcement who abused their power were the worst of the worst, and all who’ve abused deserved to burn in hell.

“Lotta burnt-out cars found in rest area parking lots for a while.” He chuckled.

“I’d tie ’em up, tie ’em to the steering wheel, and I’d stay there as long as I could, watching.

’Til one night I stayed too long. State gave me a commendation, said I was a hero for trying to save that boy. Got my full pension.

“Evans got out, called me up from his halfway house, said he had a whole new way to get what he wanted, but I didn’t want that no more.

Spending weeks in the burn unit cured me of my pyrophilic ways.

Still get off watching stuff burn, but I ain’t set no fires in years.

” His smile faded. “But Evans don’t take no for an answer.

He had me helping him with his ‘sentinels,’ he called ’em.

I knew all his hiding spots. He showed me over the years.

He called on me to help this one last time, then I’m out for good…

even if I gotta go out like Holland did. ”

I swallowed down the bile and shifted to ease some of the discomfort on my shoulders. I had to concentrate on not letting him know my hands were free.

“So what’s the plan?”

“Simple. Keep you away. Once he gets what he wants, he’s promised to release us from our service. I get the sense he don’t think he’s coming back from his last act.” He stared at me for a long moment. “I don’t get the sense I’m coming back either.”

“That why you’re unloading this load of crap on me?”

He grinned. “Clear my conscience before I reach the afterlife, yessir. Maybe you should do the same, detective. You probably have plenty to atone for.”

My heart pounded in my chest. Fuck, Walter. I failed you. And Cooper. God, he’d be traumatized all over again. If Evans didn’t come back, did that mean he had a whole suicide plan worked out?

“Sounds like a blast.”

“Funny you should say that. Because if they don’t give Evans what he wants, that fortress your pal built is gonna go up in flames.” He made an explosion gesture with his hands, and then he rubbed them together. “I worked up something special for ’em.”

“And how you figure they’ll give up Dane?”

That evil fucking grin was back. He stood and flicked on a couple of floodlights.

The room was probably about thirty feet across, square, and there were indeed no windows, but high walls with some sort of shutters around the top.

I had my back against a wall, but about six feet in front of me there was a rounded pile of rocks, and everything on my side of them was black, like a giant firepit.

He had some sort of black tarp over a pile in front of me.

Against the far corner of the blackened area, as if they’d been swept into a pile, there were…remains.

I shuddered. What the fuck had I gotten myself into?

“You and me are gonna put on a show. See, Evans knows all about you and the reporter. He managed to get into the reporter’s head and saw everything. He can get in anyone’s head and show them things. Didn’t guess you were a queer, too. Makes my job easy.”

I looked at his midsection and didn’t see any signs of him carrying a gun, no bulge near the ankle. If he didn’t have a gun, I could easily get past him. But that Taser…

“I see your wheels turning. You’re going to cooperate with me, Hamilton. Trust me.” He pulled a drape off of a pile of wood. He started throwing the wood at my feet. It had been treated with something flammable. I could smell it. Burned my sinuses.

“Hope you don’t mind the heat.”

The stabbing pain in my chest was back, but I tried to breathe through it.

Stay calm.

Teenaged Cooper’s big eyes full of tears appeared in my mind.

Stay calm for Cooper.