Vanished in the Night (25 page)

“You mean Matt? I’m kind of wondering that myself.” Tina scowled.

Veronica looked up. Tina generally had quite a bit to say about her relationships; she didn’t spend much time wondering. “What does that mean?”

“We went out. We had a nice time. He took me for sushi and then to the Torch Club. We danced a little. Made out a little.”

It sounded like a good date to Veronica, but Tina wasn’t smiling. “What’s wrong with that? Sounds like solid first-date material to me.”

“Yeah. The conversation was weird, though.”

“In what way? Like he thinks he’s been probed by aliens weird? Or maybe he was nervous and said stupid stuff weird?”

“Like he kept asking about you kind of weird.” Tina leaned on the counter and looked at Veronica, her eyes narrowed.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. I haven’t been poaching. Don’t be giving me the stink eye.” Veronica lifted her hands up in protest.

“I’m not giving you the stink eye. I’m trying to figure it out. I know he likes me. He doesn’t flirt with you when I’m around.” She paused. “Does he flirt with you when I’m
not
around?”

“Nope. I’ve seen him hanging around the doors a few times as I’m leaving, but I figured he was just waiting for you. We’ve never spoken when you’re not there.”

“Okay. It was just strange. He wanted to know about you and your dad, and if you ever talked about your brother.” Tina chewed on her lower lip.

“It has been in the news. Maybe he was just curious.” A lot of people were. Veronica was getting plenty of second glances in the hallways and whispered conversations behind her back. The gossip would die down soon.

“You’re right. I’m sure that’s all it is.” Tina smiled.
“I’m off to check on that little boy who broke his wrist on the soccer field, okay?”

“You bet. I’m going to run some stuff down to the lab.”

“Can you wait a few? I’ll have some stuff to go in a little while. I’ll cover up here when you go.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

It wasn’t hard to find Matthew Cassell. He was right next to his rig, parked in front of the emergency room ambulance entry. He had no reason to hide. He could hang out there watching Veronica whenever he wanted and no one would think anything of it.

Like now.

“Cassell?” Zach said as he approached from the front of the vehicle, having already signaled to Frank to go around the back in case the guy tried to make a break for it.

He straightened. “Yeah?”

“I have a few questions for you,” Zach said as he came toe-to-toe with the man. They were about the same height. Cassell was in good shape, but Zach was younger. He was pretty sure he could take him, especially with Frank to back him up.

“About what?” Cassell looked him up and down, eyes narrowed.

“About the Sierra School for Boys and what’s been happening to the former staff members.”

Cassell raised one eyebrow. “So you finally connected them, did you?”

“When did you?”

“I didn’t have to. They came preconnected for me.” He turned away and started to get back in the ambulance. “Personally I’d rather not have any connection with any of the rat bastards, but there you have it. My connection with them was not exactly pleasant.”

Zach grabbed his arm. “Not so fast, Cassell. We’re going to want to know where you were at a few key points in time.”

Cassell shook Zach’s hand off his arm. “You’re kidding, right? You think I had something to do with it? Hell, I was the one who tried to save Susan Tennant.”

“It’d be a heck of a cover,” Frank pointed out from behind him.

Cassell whirled. For a second it looked like he might be getting ready to fight them. Then he put his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Whatever. You want to know where I was? Check the ambulance logs.”

“Don’t think we won’t.” The guy was too cool, too easy.

“Look, I don’t blame you for being suspicious. I moved down here to finally get away from that place.
Every time I had to drive near there, I’d practically break out in hives. I thought I was losing my mind when one of my first runs here was the bitch who used to tie us up. And then to find out Max Shelden’s baby sister was one of the nurses in the emergency room? I’ve been spending plenty of time with my therapist this week.”

Frank climbed down from the rig, the log in hand. “It’s not him. Not unless he can be doing CPR on a kid by a pool at the same time he’s drowning Ryan Arnott in a bathtub.”

Cassell turned. “Arnott? Arnott’s dead?” He turned pale.

“You remember him, too?” Zach asked.

“You don’t forget a man like that. I bet he plays a starring role in a lot of men’s nightmares.” Cassell ran his hand across his face.

Zach looked down at his list. “You remember another kid up there named Gary Havens?”

Cassell nodded. “Yeah. A little guy. Got picked on by everyone—staff and kids. He’s got to be one damaged piece of goods.”

Zach looked over at Frank. “Let’s go check him out.”

Veronica hurried down the corridor. It was a good shortcut to the lab. It was a little serpentine, but had a lot less traffic. Right now there was just a janitor mopping
with one of those big yellow buckets. Veronica didn’t recognize him. She tried to be on good terms with all the janitorial staff. There were messes that got made in the ER that she didn’t want to ever touch. A smile and a pleasant word occasionally got her out of dealing with some nasty shit. Literally.

She looked for his name badge, but didn’t see one hanging around his neck. “Hey, are you new?”

The man looked around as if to see who she might be talking to, though the two of them were the only ones in the hallways. “Uh, yeah,” he stammered out.

She pointed to his chest. “You forgot your ID card. I don’t care, but the security guards make a fuss sometimes. I can’t tell you how many times I forgot mine when I first started here. I think Joe was getting ready to strangle me.”

He looked confused for a second and then looked down at his chest. “Oh, man. There are so many rules to remember. I must have forgotten my ID down in my locker. I’ll go get it right now.”

“Don’t do it on my account,” she said, smiling. “I’m just giving you a friendly heads-up.”

“Gotcha,” he said.

“I’m Veronica, by the way.” She stuck out her hand.

He stared at her hand for a moment and then gave it a quick shake. “Gary,” he said. “Gary Havens.”

“Nice to meet you, Gary,” Veronica said and
walked past him. She heard a quick movement behind her and then the sound of something whistling through the air.

Then everything went black.

It was a good thing she was such a little thing. Even so, Gary was sweating by the time he’d managed to get Veronica out of the hospital without anyone seeing.

With the keys clipped to Veronica’s belt, it had been easy to locate a laundry cart, but dumping her into it took some effort. He’d tried to act normally, but every time he pushed the cart past someone, he kept waiting for them to notice how heavy it looked or the strange bulge where her legs pressed against the side.

But no one did. Pretty much no one looked at him at all. Give him a uniform and a mop, and nobody ever looked. Some even made a point of looking away.

Not the Pop-Tart, though. She’d walked right up to him, bold as brass. That had been his first sign.

Then she’d started talking about the security guard wanting to strangle her. That made Gary think about what it might be like to strangle her, to wrap his hands around her throat, to choke the life from her. He’d stared at her neck. Her skin was so white, so pale. His hands would look dark against it. He was
strong. She wouldn’t be able to do a thing. He could see it so clearly.

Then she’d started to walk away, and he couldn’t let that happen. The two of them alone in an empty part of the hospital? How much more of a sign did he need? Once again, the bones had put him in the right place at the right time. The Devil had come to Gary’s own home. Surely that was a sign that it was time for the end of all this.

He’d pulled out the leather-covered sap hidden in his utility belt and smacked her on the back of the head, right behind her right ear.

She went down like a ton of bricks.

“Last house,” Frank said.

Zach looked down at the name on his printout. “Gary Havens.”

“You think he’ll be the one?”

Zach shrugged. “It’s always in the last place you look.”

“True enough,” Frank said.

Elise and Josh had hit their last place and found that their last Sierra School alumni had been out of town for the last two weeks. Gary Havens was either their guy, or they’d be back to the drawing board tomorrow.

He knocked. No answer.

Frank rang the bell. They both stood still and listened.

“You hear that?” Frank asked.

“Hear what?”

“That thumping noise.”

Zach had been vaguely aware of the noise as they walked up to the house, but it wasn’t coming from inside, so he’d ignored it. “It’s coming from somewhere in back.”

Frank pressed the bell again. The thumping got faster.

“That’s a little strange.” Zach looked up at the house. There were no lights on and no cars in the driveway.

“Strange enough to check out?”

Zach hesitated. If they went onto Havens’s property without a warrant and he was the perp, they could lose whatever evidence they found in court.

The thumping got more frantic. This time, it was followed by a crash.

“I call that exigent, dude,” Frank said.

Zach nodded.

He motioned Frank to go first down the side of the house and crept along behind him into the shadows. Frank slipped the latch on the gate that led into the backyard and looked over at Zach. He nodded. Frank flung the gate open and Zach barreled through.

Nothing. Just an empty backyard. As he turned to tell Frank that, the thumping started again. This time, there was no doubt about where it was coming from. Zach motioned Frank toward the shed that stood at the back of the property.

The door was padlocked, but the wood was cheap and flimsy. Frank nodded at Zach, who lifted his foot and kicked the door in with one good blow.

On the floor they found Lyle Burton, bound and gagged and kicking his tied feet against the wall for all he was worth.

Veronica woke in the dark, being tossed around like a pea in a frying pan. She tried to put her hands out to brace herself but they wouldn’t move. They were tied behind her back.

Where was she? What was going on? She tried to use her feet to push herself upright, but they, too, had been bound.

Panic rose in her throat, threatening to strangle her. She couldn’t even open her mouth to scream. It had been taped shut.

She tried to piece it together. She’d been in the hospital. She’d gone down a corridor and seen the new janitor . . .

After that she got nothing.

She rolled again, cracking her head against something hard. Where could she be?

It was dark. It was moving. She smelled exhaust. Slowly her confused brain added it all up. She was in the trunk of a car.

She didn’t know why she was there, who’d put her there, or where they were headed, but she knew that it wasn’t good news.

“He’s crazy!” Burton screamed the second Frank pulled the duct tape off his mouth. “You’ve got to stop him. He’s nuts. He’s killing everyone.”

“You’re talking about Havens?” Zach asked.

“Yes, Gary Havens! Put out an APB, call something in! He’s killed twice and he’s going to do it again.” Burton began to weep. “Thank God you found me. I was going to be next.”

“Next after whom?”

“I don’t know. He kept talking about the Pop-Tart.”

Zach froze. That was Max’s nickname for Veronica. That’s what was written on the back of the photo that had shown up on her doorstep: “Me and Pop-Tart.”

Zach pulled out his phone and called Veronica’s cell. No answer. She might not have it on her; she didn’t always carry it when she was working.

He hung up, called information, and had them connect him to the St. Elizabeth emergency room.

“Emergency room. This is Tina.”

Thank goodness. “Tina, this Zach McKnight. Can I talk to Veronica?”

“I hear you’ve been doing a whole lot more than talking, big guy.” She laughed, a throaty chuckle.

“Listen, Tina, this is important. Veronica might be in danger. I need to talk to her. I need to warn her.”

“Okay, keep your pants on. I’ll go find her. I haven’t seen her for a couple of hours, but she’s around here somewhere.”

Frank was undoing the rest of the ropes that had bound Lyle Burton. “So do you want to explain how you ended up here in the shed?”

“I had to find out who was doing it.”

“Who was doing what?”

“Killing the staff from the Sierra School.”

“Did you ever think about maybe letting us do that? It’s our job.”

“I couldn’t let that happen, either. I couldn’t.” Burton began to sob.

Tina came back on the phone. “Something’s wrong. Veronica’s missing.”

Zach shoved his hand through his hair. “What do you mean by ‘missing’?”

“She’s not here. Not where she’s supposed to be.
Not anywhere that I can figure out.” Tina sounded tense, but calm.

“Should I call her cell?”

“I already did and I can hear it ringing inside her locker, which means her purse is probably in there, too.”

Crap. “What about her car? Is it in the lot?”

“It’s not there.”

“Would she have left without saying anything?”

“No way. That could get her fired. She’d let someone know.”

“Okay. Have you seen anyone hanging around who shouldn’t be there? Or someone new?”

“No. Well, there was a new janitor tonight who didn’t seem to know what he was doing, but that’s typical. What do you think happened?”

“A janitor? What’d he look like?”

“I don’t know. Who looks at janitors? Maybe six feet tall. Brown hair. He was kind of an average white guy.”

Burton was signaling frantically to Zach. “Havens is a janitor at a school.”

“Tina, I’ve got to go. If you see her, call me.”