A Dark Mind (31 page)

Thump. Thump.

What was going on over there?

The neighbor was probably working inside the garage.
No big deal. Focus
. She needed to finish looking around and get out before Jessica called the police. Upon returning to the bedroom, Hayley noticed that the rectangular table at the end of the bed was actually a wooden chest. She lifted the lid. The chest was filled with women’s clothes, everything neatly folded. There was a pair of black pumps and a pair of size 8 leather boots. She reached for a cloth bag, tied with a silk rope. Inside were two blonde wigs. She pulled one out. It was shoulder length, with a wispy modern side-sweep of bang. It felt like real human hair.

At the sound of a scraping noise in the other room, Hayley shoved everything into the chest, closed the lid, and hurried back to the main room. She stood there for a moment, listening,
waiting to see if she would hear the noise again. That’s when she saw movement beneath a table between two chairs. A large section of the shag carpet was coming loose.

A trapdoor?

Shit!

She made a run for it. Before she could escape, a hand shot out and large fingers grasped her ankle. She fell and hit her head on the corner of a chair. Rolling to her side, she used her free leg to kick him in the face.

He grunted, but held tight. “Who the hell are you?”

“Who the hell are you?” she shouted.

“I’m just making my weekly rounds,” he gritted out, “looking for my sister.”

Hayley’s eyes narrowed. “Eli Simpson?”

“Now how in the world would you know that?”

“I work for Lizzy Gardner.”

He released a frustrated breath and let go of her ankle. “Is that an ankle monitor?”

“What’s it to you?”

“Nothing, I guess.” He climbed out of the hole and replaced the lid to the trapdoor. “This creep has more traps and rickety stairs than the Mousetrap game.”

Hayley came to her feet and brushed herself off. “Anything down there?”

“Nothing but an empty, windowless room with a workbench and some tools. I’ve been wondering how the guy has been getting in and out without being seen. He had some work done on his backyard a while ago. Sure enough, I found a tunnel leading from the greenbelt behind his house to the room below.”

“Did you find anything in the tunnel?”

He shook his head. “Did Lizzy send you here?”

“No.” Hayley pointed toward the front door. “I’ve gotta go or the crazy girl who drove me here is going to call the cops.”

He pointed at her face. “You’re bleeding.”

She touched her face, felt the blood with her finger, surprised at how fast her heart was beating as she headed for the door.

“What about you?” he asked before she left. “Did you find anything?”

“A chest full of women’s clothes and some wigs.”

“Yeah, he likes to play dress-up,” he said, waving her out. “I’ll take it from here.”

She looked over her shoulder at Eli, even felt sorry for him as she shut the door behind her. She jogged across the street. Jessica had the passenger door open and ready.

Hayley climbed in and Jessica took off the minute she shut the car door.

Hayley’s heart thumped hard against her chest. She kept waiting for Jessica to ask her what had happened or at least yell at her and tell her she was a crazy bitch, but she was driving at the perfect speed limit and stopping at the end of every street, checking both ways before hitting the gas. If it weren’t for the big droplets of tears running down the side of her pale face, Hayley never would have guessed that Jessica was feeling any emotion at all.

One side of me says, I’d like to talk to her, date her. The other side of me says, I wonder what her head would look like on a stick?

—Edmund Kemper

Sacramento

Friday, June 8, 2012

The metal garage door made a loud whirring noise as it closed. Once it shut, he pulled off his wig, tossed it on the passenger seat, laid his head on the headrest, and took a breath.

He was still feeling the lingering effects of his talk with Lizzy Gardner. She was a sassy bitch. Just the way he liked them. She was cocky and overly confident and she wanted him to think she had him right where she wanted him. The notion made him smile.

She had no idea what was coming, no idea what he had planned for her. If only he had a way to videotape her reaction when her life came tumbling down around her.

A loud thumping noise caught his attention. No doubt about it, he thought as he climbed out of the car and shut the door,
Kassie Scott was a stubborn one. And she would regret causing him so much grief.

He used the key to unlock the trunk, and when he lifted it open, he saw a flash of movement and felt a sharp ache in his side. He staggered backward and looked down at the knife protruding from his body.

Clever girl.

Dazed, he watched her climb from the trunk.

As the scene unfolded before him, he realized watching Kassie’s escape would be funny if it weren’t so ludicrous. Feisty little lady obviously thought one little steak knife would be the end of him. She had no idea who she was dealing with. All he could see in his mind were all the ways in which he wanted to and, more importantly,
would
cause her pain. A lot of pain.

Taking unhurried steps, he followed after her, determined to show her who was boss.

As she tried to slide open the bolt that would allow her to escape, he pulled the knife from his side and plunged it into her thigh. Her high-pitched scream forced him to slam her head into the wall and knock her out. He grabbed some rope and tape from his work area, tied her hands and feet, and then placed duct tape over her mouth.

Standing straight and tall, he looked down at her for a moment before bending down so that his face was level with hers. After a while, her eyes fluttered open as she slowly became aware.

“This is only the beginning,” he warned her. “In the end, when you come to terms with death and believe dying will bring you peace, you’ll be wrong. I will be sleeping with your corpse. These hands,” he said, showing her both hands, palms flat, fingers pointed upward, “will be playing with every part of you. These
fingers, each and every one, will be intimately devoted to your body for hours on end.”

She was trembling now, and he was glad. He closed his eyes and felt a shiver course through his body.

Friday, June 8, 2012

As her anger dissipated on the drive home, Lizzy stared at the road ahead and couldn’t help but wonder where she’d gone wrong. All the bravado she’d felt earlier on the phone had vanished. Just when she was beginning to think her future looked promising, everything began to disintegrate. She hadn’t talked to her sister or her niece in weeks. She missed them both. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d thought about her mother, but she thought about her now. Mom lived in Hawaii. Cathy and Brittany had visited her in Maui a few months ago. They said she looked healthy and happy. Cathy never mentioned whether or not Mom had asked about Lizzy, but she didn’t have to say anything; Lizzy knew. Even now, after all these years, her mother and father blamed her for everything that had gone wrong in their lives. Lizzy’s therapist often reminded her that her parents were deflecting the responsibility away from themselves. Blaming someone else helped relieve them of some of the guilt they felt.

And then there was Jessica. She was young and bright, and it seemed every time Lizzy looked at her lately, she could see that Jessica was scared. Lizzy knew what needed to be done. She needed to fire Jessica, force her to move on before she got in too deep and allowed the darkness to swallow her whole.

Her phone rang and the screen displayed the caller ID. It was Jared.
Thank God
. She had left him a message asking him to
call. She hit the Talk button on the console and said, “Are you OK?”

“I’m fine,” he said, his voice hurried. “I wanted to let you know that I won’t be coming home for a few days.”

“Are you going back to Quantico?”

“No. I’ll be here in Sacramento.”

“What’s going on?”

“A woman went missing today—Kassie Scott. Married for fourteen years. No kids.”

“Has it been on the news?”

“No. Her husband reported his wife missing a few hours ago. The FBI will be keeping this one under the radar. Every police department in Sacramento County was instructed to keep us informed in the event any females fitting the Lovebird Killer’s signature went missing.”

“I thought he didn’t have a signature.”

“He doesn’t, not really, since he tends to kill, kidnap, and dispose of the bodies in any number of ways. In the case of the most recent victims, though, the male was abducted twenty-four hours after he reported his partner missing. New evidence revealed the same thing happened with Rene and Harold Lofland. Apparently, one of Rene’s cleaning ladies had stayed behind to pocket a diamond bracelet, along with other expensive jewelry, when Mrs. Lofland arrived home. The cleaning lady was hiding out when she overheard Rene’s abductor tell her he would be returning for her husband.”

“And she didn’t report this until now?”

“She was caught trying to pawn the diamonds and was eager to escape jail time in exchange for information concerning Rene Lofland’s murder.”

“So, what’s the plan?”

“We need to act fast. This could be our chance to catch the Lovebird Killer in action. I’ll be staying with Drew Scott until the unsub makes contact.”

“What if the killer is expecting you?”

“There will be unmarked cars in the vicinity of where I’ll be staying. How’s your face?” Jared asked. “Are you still in pain?”

He was redirecting the conversation again, an art he had perfected. “I’m fine,” she said. “Don’t worry about me.”

“I love you,” he said. “I have to go. I’ll talk to you in a few days.”

“Jared,” she said, but the call was disconnected before she could tell him about the threatening phone call she’d received. She pulled into the driveway and sat in the car for a moment. She dialed his number. No answer.

She closed her eyes and tried to imagine a life without Jared in it. For the first time since she’d moved in with him, she knew that she was right where she needed to be. This was their home. This was where she belonged.

Jessica and Hayley had returned moments before they heard Lizzy’s car pull into the driveway. Files and papers were spread across the coffee table. They quickly moved things around, trying to make it look like they had been at the house all along.

Lizzy walked through the door at the same moment they both took a seat on the couch.

Although Lizzy’s face was still bruised from the attack in the park, Jessica saw dark shadows of exhaustion making half-circles under her eyes. Lizzy said a quick hello and then told them she was going to change her clothes and be right down.

While Lizzy was upstairs, Jessica whispered to Hayley, “That was too close.”

“Stop worrying. We made it back in time.”

“I’m going to tell Lizzy about Magnus and what’s going on with the Povo case.”

“Do what you have to,” Hayley said, “but leave out anything to do with my involvement. If Lizzy found out about my copycat ankle bracelet, she would be obligated to tell Jared since they’re both under court order to see that I follow the rules. They are officially, albeit temporarily, my legal guardians.”

“Got it,” Jessica said.

“I would leave out the part about the men wrestling with the knife, too.”

“Why?”

“What if she feels the need to call the police? What if they figure out where he lives? What would happen to your friend?”

Jessica didn’t like keeping anything from Lizzy, but Hayley was right. She didn’t know what Magnus was up to, and therefore she didn’t like the idea of getting him into trouble. Not yet. Not until she had a chance to talk to him. She needed to calm down and stop being so paranoid. Before she could say anything more to Hayley, she turned toward Lizzy, who was already making her way down the stairs.

Lizzy looked from Hayley to Jessica. “What’s going on?”

Without taking an extra breath, Jessica told Lizzy all about the Dominic Povo case: the bulky garbage bags and the impromptu meetings held in Povo’s trailer and the possible blood splatter. She also mentioned that she’d met with Magnus at a coffee shop and later went to the construction site again and saw Magnus threatened by two men. She left out anything to do with Hayley’s involvement.

“I don’t want you going anywhere near that construction site again, do you understand?”

The panic in Lizzy’s voice was unmistakable. “You don’t have to tell me twice,” Jessica said, “but what about Magnus?”

“Magnus is the man you met in the coffee shop?” Lizzy asked.

Jessica nodded. “He works for Dominic and I’m worried about him.”

“He’s bad news,” Hayley told Lizzy. “Magnus knows that Jessica works for you. How would he know that unless he did some investigating of his own? And why would he investigate some girl sitting in a car watching them unless he was up to no good?”

Jessica gave Hayley dagger eyes. “But—”

“No buts,” Lizzy said, stopping Jessica from saying anything more. “We’re going to drop the Povo case until Danielle Cartwright returns from Europe. She’s our client. We’ll hear what Danielle has to say and then take it from there.”

“OK, fine,” Jessica said, sinking back into the couch.

Lizzy took a seat and looked directly at Hayley. “Why don’t you get me up to date on the Adele Hampton adoption case?”

“I made some calls, but long story short, the few leads I had turned cold,” she lied. “I’ve talked to Adele’s mom and I have to say…I believe she wants to find Adele so she can use her daughter as a publicity stunt for her husband’s campaign.”

“What did she say to make you think that?” Lizzy asked.

“It’s what she didn’t say.” Hayley exhaled. “Either way, I’m working a few different angles, and I should have more information in a few days.”

Jessica pretended to take notes, but she felt a tremendous urge to quit right then and there. She was tired of all the lying, the danger, and the stress that came with the job. Unfortunately, she needed the money and she happened to adore Lizzy Gardner. The last thing she would do was leave Lizzy when she needed her most. Hayley was another story. Jessica was tired of being manipulated
by her, tired of her constant lying and playing games—tired of breaking the law. They had barely escaped John Robinson’s neighborhood unnoticed, and she was still feeling the effects. If Lizzy knew they had gone anywhere near John Robinson’s house today, what would she do?