Vanished in the Night (26 page)

“Find her, Zach. Find her now.”

“I’m doing my best.” He hung up and told Frank, “We have to assume that Havens already has her. Call in her car. Sounds like he’s got her in her own Honda.”

Zach turned his attention to Lyle Burton. “Tell me what you know, right now.”

“He’s been killing people based on . . . based on things they used to do to the boys back at the Sierra School,” Burton stammered.

Zach stared at him. “Excuse me?”

“Susan Tennant used to restrain the boys if they got out of hand, got too wild, talked back, whatever. She’d put them in soft restraints. That’s how you found her, right? She was tied up? Facedown?” Burton rubbed at his wrists where they’d been bound.

Zach nodded. “Go on.”

“Ryan Arnott used to put the boys in ice baths. At first he said he did it to calm them down. Then he started using it as a punishment. Dunking them over and over until they begged.” Burton’s voice was shaking.

“And the broomstick up his ass?” Frank asked in a nearly conversational tone.

Burton looked up at him. “I think you can figure that one out?”

“So what would he do to Veronica? She didn’t beat anyone. She didn’t drown anyone. She didn’t rape anyone.”

“But she’s the reason Max got sent away.” Frank’s eyes narrowed as he thought it through. “If Max blamed her for his being sent away, then Gary would blame her, too.”

“I bet he’s taking her to the school,” Zach said. “He
blames her for Max having been sent there, so he’s taking her there to kill her.”

He flipped the keys to Frank. “You drive. I’m calling Janice Lam on our way.”

“I’m coming, too.”

They turned to stare at Lyle Burton.

“I’m deadly serious. This is all connected to me. He’s killed two people after I’ve gone to see them. He took Veronica after I came here. I think somehow it’s connected to me. If anyone can stop him, it’s me.”

“There’s no time to argue and he might well have a point,” Frank said.

“Get in the back and buckle your damn seat belt, Burton,” Zach said as he shoved him toward the car.

Zach started making calls. The first was to warn Lam about what was going down.

“You want me to send someone up there to check things out?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“I’ll keep you posted.”

The next call was to Josh Wolfe at headquarters. After Zach reported what was happening and where they were headed, he asked, “Any vehicles registered to Havens?”

“Hold on a minute. Yeah. A truck. White pickup. License plate 4C98765.”

Zach froze. A white pickup truck. They were common as dirt, but he’d seen one recently. More than one?

The white pickup leaving the parking lot following George Osborne, the night Osborne was murdered. The white pickup sitting outside Veronica’s condo before she disappeared.

He’d assumed it belonged there. He’d fucked up, and Veronica was going to pay the price.

“Crap, Frank. He’s been stalking her for days.”

19

Gary set the cruise control on the Honda. Once he’d gotten out of Sacramento there’d been almost no traffic, and it would have been easy to start to speed. He couldn’t afford to be pulled over. He was pretty sure he’d heard the Pop-Tart kicking in the trunk. As long as he kept going, he didn’t think it would be a problem.

He was still breathing hard, but from excitement now. It was all coming to a glorious conclusion. He’d take the Pop-Tart up to the school. He’d show her what kind of hell she’d sent her brother into, and then he’d make her pay.

He wondered how long it would take before someone found her body up there. Weeks? Months? Years?

It had taken them twenty years to find Max. It
would be sweet if it took them that long to find her. He might even go up and visit her sometimes.

He changed lanes, careful not to exceed the speed limit, and started to whistle.

“Anything?” Zach asked Janice Lam over the phone.

“No. Nothing’s been disturbed since my crime-scene guys left. You want me to station someone up here? Just for tonight?” she asked.

“Absolutely.” He hung up. “There’s no sign of him yet. Do you think we have this wrong?”

Frank kept his eyes on the road, which was good considering how fast he was driving. “Do you?”

“No.”

“Me, neither.”

Zach called Janice Lam again. “Anything from your man up at the school?”

“Nope. He’s not due to check in for another fifteen minutes, though. Want me to radio up?”

“Would you? Let him know we’re almost there. I don’t want to startle him and have him take a shot at us. I’ll hold.” He looked over at Frank. “Nothing so far. If we get there and Havens isn’t there, what’s our plan B?”

“We’ve already got a BOLO on him and Veronica’s car. They’ll turn up,” Frank said.

A Be On the Look Out was no guarantee they’d be found, let alone that they’d be found before it was too late.

Janice Lam came back on the line. “Kaminsky isn’t answering his radio.” Her voice sounded tense.

“Keep trying him. We’re almost there.”

“I’m right behind you, McKnight.”

Zach hung up and looked over at Frank. “Drive, Frank.”

“I’m driving as fast as I can.”

Gary bumped the Honda up the dirt track to the site of the old Sierra School for Boys. He wondered how shaken up the Pop-Tart would be back there, flopping around with no seat belt or any way to brace herself. He did want her to be conscious, so he drove carefully.

He’d worried that maybe he wouldn’t be able to find it at one point, but it turned out that every turn and twist up the road to the place that had broken him was indelibly imprinted on his brain.

It was overgrown, but other than that, it was just like he remembered it.

Except for the police car parked in the clearing
when he arrived. The only time cops had shown up at Sierra was when somebody tried to escape.

Gary made sure the sap was still in his pocket and got out of the car. He was instantly blinded by the glare of a powerful flashlight. He held his hands up in surrender.

“Hey, I’m a little lost. Do you think you could help me?” he said, doing his best to sound like a regular guy with nothing to hide. He’d spent years perfecting the act. It was barely even an effort anymore.

The light dipped a little. “This is private property, sir. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“That’s all I want to do. I’m trying to find County Road 15. I think I took a wrong turn.” He smiled and let his hands drop a little.

“You definitely took a wrong turn.” The light dropped farther. Gary could see the police officer’s face now; he was young. Figured. “You need to go back to the main road, turn left, and then take a right when you get to 89. Road 15 will be on your left another mile or two down the road.”

Gary turned to face where he’d come in. “So go right out of here and then right on the main road?” he asked, doing his best to sound confused.

“No. Turn left on the main road.” The officer walked up to Gary and gestured back to the road. “And then right onto 89.”

Gary let the officer take one more step in front of him as he pointed out the general direction, then he slammed him in the back of the head.

When the car finally stopped moving, Veronica nearly wept with relief. She had no idea how long she’d been thrown around in the back of the car, but she could barely think. The fumes from the car were making her head throb and her stomach lurch. She was terrified that she would throw up and die like Susan Tennant, choking on her own vomit. She tried to take deep breaths to calm her head and her stomach, but with her mouth taped shut, she felt like she could barely get enough oxygen in.

She had a blessed few moments after the car stopped. She could hear voices, but couldn’t make out what anyone was saying. She had to have a plan. She had to
do
something. She couldn’t lie here in the trunk and wait for whatever this lunatic had planned for her. She had no idea what was going on, but it couldn’t possibly be good.

She squirmed around so that her feet were toward the back of the car and coiled her legs to her chest. Then she waited.

When the trunk finally opened after what seemed like an eternity, she stayed as still as she could. She
waited until the silhouetted figure over her leaned in—then she kicked out as hard as she could with her bound feet.

The figure reeled back with a grunt and she felt a grim satisfaction. This might be the end of the line for her, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight.

As fresh, clean air finally reached her starving lungs, she breathed in through her nose as hard as she could, struggling to her knees.

The figure was back before her then. This time, he had a gun trained on her. “You always were a nasty one, weren’t you, Pop-Tart?” he said. He reached in and ripped the duct tape off her mouth.

She cried out in pain as the tape ripped her skin.

“Go ahead, scream as much as you want. There’s nobody here to hear you. Trust me. I know. I screamed plenty when they had me out here. Nobody ever came to help. Not for me. Not for Max. Not for anybody.”

Veronica sat back on her heels. “Who are you? What are you doing to me?”

“My name is Gary Havens and I was with your brother right before they murdered him. I couldn’t help him then, but I can help him now. I’m making sure that all the people responsible for his death are finally punished.” He sounded so reasonable, so calm.

“You killed Susan Tennant?” Veronica asked, still trying to make sense of what this madman was saying to her.

“And Ryan Arnott, too.” He sounded proud.

“Did you kill my father?” she asked.

“No. That was the Devil’s handiwork. I didn’t have to take care of that particular person.” The man reached in and hauled Veronica out of the trunk, heaving her onto the ground.

She cried out again as she hit the ground, unable to protect her head or her shoulders. “What are you going to do to me?”

“Whatever I want to.” He reached down and cut the tape that bound her feet. “First, though, I’m going to give you a little tour.”

“We need to stop here,” Zach told Frank.

“It’s at least another half mile up to the school,” Frank said.

“That’s why we need to stop. The element of surprise might be all we have. Pull over to the side and we’ll hike the rest of the way in.” Zach took off his seat belt and got out of the car as soon as it came to a stop, then opened the door for Lyle. “Is there a good way in? One he won’t be watching?”

Burton nodded. “Follow me.”

*     *     *

“This is where Ryan Arnott raped your brother.” The man named Gary had shoved Veronica down a flight of stairs, gun constantly at her back. Her legs were still numb and stiff and she had stumbled more than once.

She backed away from the filthy tub in the basement room, feeling like she might vomit.

“Go ahead. Take a good look at it. This is where you sent him, Pop-Tart. This is where he went after you ratted him out to your bastard father.”

Veronica looked away.

“I said look at it!” Gary screamed. He grabbed her hair and forced her to her knees, pressing her face against the tub.

“Arnott took quite a few of us down here. None of us talked about it afterward. We were all too ashamed. So take a good look, you stupid little slut. This is where your brother was raped.” He hauled her up by her hair.

Tears streamed down Veronica’s cheeks as much from horror as from the pain. “I didn’t send him here. I didn’t.”

He backhanded her across the face. “Take responsibility for what you did. You turned him in. You might as well have signed the forms sending him here.”

“I was a little girl. I didn’t even know what I’d
found.” She had just wanted to play with the things she’d found in Max’s sock drawer. She hadn’t known her father would see them. She hadn’t known he would use them to get rid of her brother.

“You were evil then, and you’re evil now. I want to make sure you know how evil before I cleanse us both of your sins.” He forced her up the stairs and back into the cold night air.

Veronica gulped in more air, trying to breathe deep without hyperventilating, but the panic was nearly overwhelming. No one knew where she was. No one knew who she was with. She was going to die up here. Would they even find her body? Or would she lie up here like Max, alone in the wood for decades? Oh, poor Max. Her poor sweet brother.

“And now, as the pièce de résistance, let me show you where they buried him.” Gary shoved her through the maze of buildings.

If she slowed even a step, he pushed her again, making her stumble. She fell once and he hauled her up by her arm. She felt as if it might come right out of her shoulder socket.

They finally came to an open pit in the ground. “This is where your brother was for twenty years. It took the Whore, Susan Tennant, to dig him up.”

“Why would Susan Tennant dig up my brother’s grave?” Veronica felt like her head was spinning.

“Apparently she didn’t want the Devil to get his next promotion. That’s all I could get out of her before I shoved the rag in her mouth. The one that made her choke on her own puke.” Gary laughed. “I saw her do that to dozens of boys. I just didn’t take the rag out, like she used to. I let it stay in and I watched the life drain out of her, and with it, my sins.”

Veronica looked down into the pit. This was where Max had been for all those years she’d waited for him. This was where he’d been when she secretly lit a candle on his birthday. This was where he’d been as she’d scanned the faces of strangers on the street, hoping and praying that he would come home.

She began to weep.

“Oh, please. Do you expect me to be fooled by those alligator tears?” Then Gary shoved her in the back with the gun, and she fell into her brother’s grave.

“Gary, don’t.”

Gary whirled around. He knew that voice. He knew it all too well.

“What are you doing here?” Gary asked the Devil. “How did you get here?”

“The police brought me, Gary. This has to end. Let the girl go. None of this is her fault.” He still had that same deep voice. It made him sound like
he was always right, but Gary knew better now. The Devil was never right.