Insidious (37 page)

“I saw him again the evening before Missy left, not that I knew then she was leaving town. He was wearing the same hoodie, jeans, running shoes—that’s how I recognized him. I waited to see what he was up to. As I said, he cased Missy’s cottage, maybe trying to get a look at her. I left after he did, haven’t seen him again.

“That’s all I remember about him.” Blinker stared at them. “Hey, do you think he’s the sick dude who’s killing off the young actresses?” Blinker looked about to faint. “Do you think he was planning on killing Missy?”

“It’s very possible,” Cam said.

Blinker weaved where he stood. Cam laid her hand on his arm to steady him. He whispered, “If Missy hadn’t left for Las Vegas, he might have killed her, like all the others? Someone else was killed in Las Vegas when Missy was there, isn’t that right? Maybe he couldn’t get to Missy, so he killed someone else? That means I saved her, right?” He pulled away from Cam, stood straight, shoulders back. “Imagine that, me, John Bayley, mild-mannered bond trader. You won’t forget I picked him out of your photo lineup, will you?”

“No, we won’t forget,” Daniel said. “You did good, Blinker.”

Blinker sat down hard on his sofa. “This is scary, dude. You’ll keep Missy safe, won’t you? You’ll get that guy? Will you tell Missy how helpful I was? Maybe she’ll be grateful and—”

Daniel leaned down, gave his face a pat. “
Bon voyage
, Blinker. Have a nice life.”

64

42 LASSITER AVENUE

SANTA MONICA

FRIDAY NIGHT, 11:00 P.M.

It took far too long to find the house Doc and Deborah had rented together because Cam and Daniel didn’t have the address on file. They’d gone to Doc’s old apartment, a half a block from the hospital, only to find it empty. It took fast-talking the hospital administrator to get them to the right address. Finally, Cam and Daniel pulled up a block from the new rental, Arturo right behind them. Their house one of many ranch-style homes built in the seventies, well maintained, its front yard lush with oaks and palm trees. Lights shined in many of the houses, and canned laughter sounded from a TV comedy through an open window. Doc’s house was dark.

Arturo said, “With any luck, he’s already in bed asleep.”

Cam said, “I hope you’re right, but there’s a good chance he isn’t here. He’s not stupid, he had to know today didn’t go well for him, that we were putting things together, Blinker aside. Maybe he figured he’d have to run someday, and he decided not to wait.”

Daniel said, “No sign of Elman and his group. I say we go get him.”

Arturo grabbed Cam’s sleeve. “Look, in the side window—flames! Doc might be in there. Cam, call 911.”

Arturo and Daniel ran to the front door, Cam on their heels, her cell phone to her ear. The door was locked. Daniel stepped back and kicked the door handle. The door shuddered, held. He kicked it again and the door flew open. Arturo called back as he ran into the house. “Stay here, I’ll check the bedrooms!”

“No way,” Daniel said. “Cam, we’ve got this. Keep a lookout for Doc.” He took off after Arturo.

It seemed like forever but only a few moments passed. She wanted to go in after them but held herself back. What could she do to help them? The house was going up quickly, heat and smoke was pouring out at her. She heard sirens in the distance and prayed. She heard Arturo yell. She couldn’t just stand there. She started into the house as Daniel came staggering out, carrying Arturo over his shoulder and dragging an unconscious man behind him. Arturo’s jacket was on fire, flames leaping up from his back. Cam slapped at the flames as Daniel dropped the unconscious man and threw Arturo onto his back on the grass, smothering out the last of the flames. “He’s inhaled a lot of smoke.” He slapped Arturo’s face. “Come on, you badass, breathe, no way do you want your ex-wife to get your pension. Arturo!”

Arturo heaved out a breath, choked, coughed as Daniel jerked him upright and pounded his back. Finally, through the coughing, he wheezed out, “What, Montoya, were you going to put your tongue down my throat?”

Daniel lightly tapped his face. “You wish, Loomis. Can you breathe okay?”

“Well, pretty good, but my back feels like it’s on fire.”

Cam pulled off his still-steaming jacket, ripped away his partly burned shirt and examined his back in the streetlight. It was bright red. She was afraid to touch him.

“Let’s get them farther away from the flames first,” Daniel said. “
First Arturo. No, dude, don’t you even think about trying to move.” He and Cam pulled him beneath an acacia tree near the sidewalk. He let them, his head hanging forward, breathing fast.

“How bad is it?”

“Not bad, only a little red,” Cam said. Arturo hoped she wasn’t lying through her teeth, but it hurt so much he figured she probably was. He didn’t move.

“I’m okay, see to that guy we pulled out. He’s in worse shape than I am.”

Daniel pulled the other man farther from the house and fell to his knees beside him. “He’s alive, breathing. He’s got some bad burns, and a head wound that’s still bleeding.” He grabbed Arturo’s discarded shirt and pushed down on the gash, relieved to hear the wail of sirens.

Cam said, “The fire was just starting. Doc couldn’t have left more than a few minutes before we got here. I’ve put a BOLO out for him already. The DMV has him driving a Volkswagen Beetle. The question is, where did he go?”

Daniel looked up at her. “And who is that guy who was in Doc’s house?”

Before Cam could answer him, everything happened at once. Supervisor Elman, Corinne Hill, and Morley Jagger, their flashers flooding the neighborhood with red light, pulled up across the street as two fire trucks stopped in front, two ambulances screaming to a halt behind them. Neighbors poured out of their houses, everyone staring at the flames leaping out of the burning house, grabbing garden hoses to soak down their own houses. Elman set Hill and Jagger to keep them back.

Cam checked the man’s pockets as the EMT quickly placed an oxygen mask over his face and examined his head wound. She found
only some wadded up Kleenex and a half packet of sugarless gum. “He has no ID on him,” Cam said over her shoulder to Daniel.

Daniel squatted down beside her, looked at the EMT’s nameplate. “Josh, will he make it?”

“Don’t know,” Josh said. “Pete, get a gurney over here, notify the ER at SMH that we’re coming with a major head trauma, smoke inhalation, burns.”

Another EMT was looking at Arturo’s back. “The detective’s got second-degree burns, but he’s not critical.” She patted his arm. “You aren’t going to have much fun for a while, Detective, but you’ll be okay. You shouldn’t need any grafting, good thing, that’s a bitch.” She jerked her head toward the unconscious man being lifted onto a gurney. “Were you the one who saved that guy’s life?”

Elman walked over to them. “What in the name of heaven happened here, Arturo?”

Cam answered for him. “Arturo and Daniel went in there, pulled that man out. He’s got no ID, and his head wound’s bad enough to have knocked him out. He’s about the same size and build as Mark Richards—Doc. My guess is Doc decided to run, but he didn’t want us chasing him, so he found a man who was similar in build to him, knocked him out, and left him behind so he’d burn with the house. If not for a guy named Blinker we talked to tonight, we wouldn’t have found out about Doc’s house burning down at least until the morning, and we’d have assumed the burned corpse was Doc. It would have taken several days for the DNA to prove us wrong. By then Doc would have been long gone, probably on a beach in Mexico.”

Daniel said, “I agree with Cam. After that lie detector test today, he knew it was only a matter of time before we got everything nailed down.”

“I want to hear about this Blinker,” Elman said.

“
Actually, sir, you probably don’t,” Daniel said.

Elman stared back at the house, still spurting flames. It was going to burn to its foundation. He looked back at Daniel. “Hey, Montoya, your jacket’s burned. Did it go through to your back?”

Daniel hadn’t felt a thing, but now he did, and he didn’t like it. “Yeah, I guess it did.”

Elman called out, “Hey, over here. We’ve got some more burns.”

Josh jogged over, stepped behind him. Daniel said, “Don’t tell me what the jacket looks like, I don’t want to know. Listen, I’m all right, you need to look at Cam’s hands, she was beating out the flames on Arturo’s jacket.”

“No, I’m fine, a couple of blisters, not bad at all.”

Josh helped Daniel out of his jacket, eased down his shirt. “I gotta say, Detective, it’s a good thing you were wearing this jacket. It saved you a world of hurt. Still, you should come to the hospital, let the doctors have a look—”

“Thanks, Josh, maybe later.”

Cam dusted off her jeans, clipped her Glock back onto her belt. She looked at Arturo, who was breathing hard, his eyes closed. She said a prayer, then turned to Elman and Daniel. “Doc isn’t more than a half hour ahead of us, maybe less. He could be headed anywhere—but probably the border.”

“Unless he hasn’t run yet,” Daniel said. He straightened slowly, relieved he could. “I’m thinking he wasn’t done here, that he went back to the person who put him in our sights.”

“Where the end started for him,” Cam said. “Agreed. I’ll give Markham a call, warn him. You’re sure you’re good to go?” She didn’t expect him to say no, and he didn’t.

Arturo’s eyes flew open and he coughed out a pitiful shout. “Wait! Where are you guys going?” The EMTs ignored him, lifted him into the ambulance, slammed the door.

“
No answer. Let’s go, Daniel, we’ve got to hurry.”

Corinne jogged up. “Hey, wait, guys—is Doc the Serial?”

Daniel said, “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

Elman said, “We should call for backup, Cam. No way are you and Montoya going after this guy by yourself. Wait, where are you going?”

They were already running toward the Crown Vic, Daniel shrugging back into his jacket. Cam shouted over her shoulder, “Send units up the road to Theo Markham’s house in Pacific Palisades. Tell them to come in silent. If they beat us there, tell them to wait for us.”

65

PACIFIC PALISADES

FRIDAY NIGHT, NEARLY MIDNIGHT

After a nine-minute ride with his flashers on, Daniel pulled the Crown Vic to a stop on Minorca Drive a half block from the Markham house. They’d nearly gotten to the enclosed Markham estate when they saw a dark blue Volkswagen Beetle nearly hidden in bushes beside the road.

“Doc’s car,” Cam said, and checked it out. “He’s still here, Daniel. We’ve got to hurry.”

They saw the gate was locked, and climbed the six-foot wall. Before them was a sprawling two-story starkly modern glass and steel-beamed house, painted in a light stucco, a dozen skinny pillars lining the front. It was surrounded on three sides by thick oak trees, keeping it hidden from the neighbors. A huge swimming pool sprawled out beside the house. Incredible view, Cam saw, of both the famed golf course and the ocean.

“Some digs,” Daniel said. “Your hands okay?”

She waved away his concern. “Your back?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll deal with it later.”

Yeah, right, macho. “It’s dark, Daniel. I’m afraid of what we’re going to find inside.”

“Doc standing over Markham’s dead body?”

“
And maybe his wife’s as well,” Cam said.

“He’s already killed, and don’t forget the man we found in his house, all he was to Doc was a means to an end. That makes him a psychopath. And he’s desperate.”

“No backup here yet and we can’t afford to wait. Let’s go.”

They ran bent over toward the garage, hidden in the shadows. One of the three bay doors was open. They stepped inside and saw a new Mercedes in one of the bays, a Beemer in another. The third bay was empty. The door to the house was locked. They went around to the front door, hugging the side of the house, barely visible in the faint moonlight reflecting off the swimming pool. A huge glass window stretched out beside the front door. They looked in, saw only darkness.

Daniel turned the lion’s head knob on the front door. It was unlocked. “Not good,” Cam whispered. “He left it open.” She didn’t want to think about what he’d left behind. They went in high-low, guns at the ready, but saw nothing at all. They paused at the foot of a grand staircase.

“Daniel, I heard something coming from upstairs.”

They climbed the stairs as quietly as they could, straining to hear, and hugged the walls on opposite sides of the wide hallways at the top of the stairs. They eased open doors as they walked, looked inside. Two of the empty bedrooms were probably for the two Markham sons off at UCLA, but all the detritus of teenage boys was gone, replaced by bedrooms so magazine-perfect, they looked dressed for Hollywood sets. At the end of the hall, Daniel opened the large double doors, listened, and heard a woman’s groans.

When he turned on the light switch they saw a woman tied to a chair staring back at them, blood dripping down her face from a gash at her temple, her eyes frantic. A man’s tie was stuffed in her mouth and pulled painfully tight around her head. Her hands and feet were
bound to the chair with men’s ties. She strained wildly, trying to speak though the gag.

Cam ran to the woman, went down on her knees to untie her hands and feet as Daniel undid the gag.

For a moment, she couldn’t speak, trying to get saliva in her mouth. “You came,” she whispered. “I thought he was going to kill both of us, but he didn’t. He took Theo.”

“How long ago?”

“Maybe fifteen minutes.”

Daniel lifted her in his arms and set her down on an art deco chaise longue covered with lacy pillows. He crouched down on his knees beside her. “Mrs. Markham, you said he took Mr. Markham and that means we don’t have much time. Did he hurt your husband? Was he still alive?”

“Yes, yes, I think so. But he hurt him, knocked Theo unconscious, dragged him out. I don’t know where he took him, I don’t know.”

Cam said, “We’ll figure it out, Mrs. Markham. Tell us what happened.”