Last to Die: A gripping psychological thriller not for the faint hearted (20 page)

‘
I
’m going
to die here,’ Jessie whispered into the darkness. ‘I’m going to die in this place.’

As soon as she had spoken the words she wished she could take them back, but like so many other things in her life, once it was out there it was out forever.

She got off the bed and paced the tiny cell. Time was a mystery to her. Was it morning? Noon? How long had she been down there? Would he come back? The heat was overwhelming so she moved to the doorway and tried to lean her head against the crack. Was that any better? She couldn’t tell.

What if this was it? What if this was her life now; endless days pacing like a caged animal in the dark? If that was it she would end it, she would find a way and end it.

She turned and leaned her shoulder against the door. She hummed a little, but the sound was forced and eerie. She tried to remember old ditties her maternal grandmother, Gamma G, used to sing to comfort her when she was a child. Memories of her grandmother made her feel less afraid, so she focused her efforts on that, bringing to mind her grandmother’s voice, her clothing, her endless cheerful stories about the old days. Even in her later years, when ulcers ate through the flesh in her legs, Gamma’s indomitable spirit and stoic acceptance of her place in the world made her a pleasure to be near.

Jessie rested her head on her knees and sang softly. Somehow this allowed her a moment of clarity. If this man wanted her dead she would be dead already. Leading from that, it was clear he had another purpose in mind, one that required her to have some measure of rest and energy.

But what could he want?

‘No point running you like this,’ he had said. What had he meant by ‘running’ her?

She sang another song, and then another. She felt herself settle.

He was strong, so fighting with him was pointless and would only get her injured. She needed to keep her strength and her wits about her. He had an intention, if he hadn’t she’d be dead already.

Running her.

Why had he said that? Did he mean that in a literal sense? He wanted to make her run?

She closed her eyes and sang a little more. She thought of him outside her house, the casual way he had tricked her into approaching him.

Oh, poor Rudy.

No, she snapped, not 
those
 thoughts.

She thought about what little she had glimpsed when she had been pulled from the trunk. It seemed they were in the countryside … lots of trees … possibly a farm of some kind perhaps.

She might only get one chance, assuming she got one at all. If she did, Jessie thought, humming a song Gamma used to hum as she peeled vegetables by the sink in Jessie’s parents’ home, she would make that chance count.

Some time later she heard noises overhead and footsteps on the stairs. Jessie moved away from the door and stood by the bed. He opened the cell door and slid another tray of food towards her. He stood in the doorway, looking at her in a dispassionate way. Jessie looked back at him. Despite her fear, this time she did not plead with him to let her go; she had accepted that that was a fruitless waste of time.

‘What’s your average?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘You got dirt in your ears? You’re a track runner; I saw it in the papers. What was your average?’

Jessie blinked, confused by the question. ‘I— I don’t know what you mean.’

He looked irritated. ‘What was the longest you ever ran?’

‘Oh, um, a half marathon.’

‘How far’s that?’

‘Thirteen miles.’

He leaned against the doorframe, thinking.

‘What speed?’

‘What?’

‘How fast’d you run it?’

‘One hour twenty-five.’

‘That’s pretty fast. Them kids you shot, at the school. How far away was you?’

‘Why are you asking me these 
stupid
 questions? I don’t know, okay, I don’t know.’

‘You know. How far?’

Jessie closed her eyes and took a number of deep breaths. She saw Hector, his wispy moustache, the widening of his eyes.

‘I don’t know. Not far, only a few feet.’

‘And you was under fire?’

‘Yes.’

When she opened her eyes again he had closed the door and locked it. She waited until she was sure he was gone before she located the tray and brought it up to the bed. She ate, thinking dark thoughts of a kind she had long forgotten, or rather thoughts she had convinced herself no longer inhabited any quarter of her mind.

M
ike called
the Sheriff’s department and told Earl what had been found. Earl said he would send a tow truck and that he himself would be by as soon as he could.

‘Don’t bother. I’m coming back into town.’

‘Say what?’

‘I need to organise some people to start a search.’

‘I don’t want a whole mess of people up there tramping around.’

‘There’s nothing to see here, Earl.’

‘That’s for me to decide, I’ll call you when I make my preliminary investigation.’

Mike and Ace waited for the tow truck to arrive and followed it into town. They drank a cup of coffee while they waited for the Sheriff to return their call and tell them to come by the station, by which time it was past noon and Mike was close to boiling point.

‘So it was parked up with the keys in the ignition?’ Earl said, writing in his notebook.

‘Parked, yeah, but I already told you I don’t think Jessie did the parking?’

‘How’s that?’

‘It was left in neutral, we don’t do that, and the seat was pushed too far back for Jessie too.’

‘The seat?’

‘Yeah, 
the seat
,’ Mike said, exasperated. ‘It was pushed back further than normal. I told you all this when I called you!’

‘That all?’

Mike hesitated.

‘If you’re keeping something from me, Mike, I can’t help you.’

Mike took Rudy’s collar from his pocket and laid it on the desk. Earl lifted it and turned it over in his hand, reading the name printed on the silver bone.

‘Ain’t this the name of the dead dog?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where’d you find it?’

‘Out on the rocks by the waterfall.’

Earl’s expression did not change, but his eyes gave his thoughts away.

‘She wouldn’t do that, Earl.’

‘What made you think to go up that way, Mike?’

‘He didn’t. I found the car,’ Ace spoke for the first time since they had entered in the office.

‘Did you now?’ Earl looked at him. ‘How come you happened to be up that way?’

‘I need a reason to be places, Earl?’

‘I’m just a little curious I guess.’

‘What difference does it make who found the car?’ Mike said, irritated by the line Earl was taking. ‘Fact is it was 
there
. And we’re wasting time standing around here yammering about it.’

‘I thought the dog was found over in the woods by your house.’

‘He was.’

Earl looked down at the collar for a long moment. Mike shifted his weight from one foot to another. ‘Earl, it’s gone noon, we’re wasting time.’

‘I’ve sent Martins up to take a look around.’

‘And?’

‘And what?’

‘How about a search party?’

‘I don’t have the manpower to organise a search party based on nothing more than a parked car. You said yourself there was no sign of a struggle and the car had a key in the ignition. Now I’m not dismissing your concerns, Mike, but I need you to understand me here when I say I can’t do a whole lot more than give a man or two to this at the moment. I don’t know if you heard about the shooting over in Sioqua Valley – there’s two dead with another two wounded. I’ve got cases coming out of my ears.’

‘Goddamn it Earl, I need your help here,’ Mike snapped, his expression murderous.

‘You need to dial it down a notch.’

‘Dial my ass. She could be up there hurt; she could be lying injured out in those damned woods someplace. I can’t just sit around and wait, Earl. I need to be doing something.’

‘Mike, listen to me. I’ve put an APB on her and I’ve called the hospitals and anyone I can think of, but there’s not much more I can do at this point.’

‘Jessie was not driving that car and Jessie did not kill our dog.’

‘Up until a few days ago you didn’t even know your wife was married before.’

Mike darted forward but Ace grabbed him and hauled him back to his heels.

Mike shook his brother off and held out a shaking finger. ‘I won’t forget this, Earl, you better remember that.’

‘And you better remember who you’re taking to.’

Mike grabbed his cap from where it had fallen and left, slamming the door.

Ace stood for a moment, eyeballing Earl.

‘What are you looking at?’ Earl said, smoothing his hair.

‘Not a whole lot,’ Ace said. ‘And that’s the truth of it.’

‘You need to prepare him, Ace; you need to do that for your brother. Only two reasons folk go up there these days. I doubt Jessie was courting.’

‘You don’t worry about what I need to do.’

Ace exited, ignoring the slack-jawed Vonda Kelp at reception. He found Mike standing by the truck. His brother’s face was the colour and texture of tallow.

‘You okay?’

‘That’s one useless son of a bitch back there.’

Ace lit a cigarette and blew a stream of smoke out of the corner of his mouth. ‘I’ll make a few calls, call in a few favours.’

‘She could be anywhere.’

‘You really think she’s up there?’

‘She wouldn’t do what he thinks she did, Ace. She wouldn’t do that.’

‘You sure?’

Mike looked across the street to the Sheriff’s office. His eyes were bright with tears and muscles jumped in his jaw.

‘Quitting’s not her style, Ace.’

Ace rested a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

‘Then we won’t quit on her neither.’

M
ike went back
to his house, gathered some gear and returned to the logging road. As promised – and despite the short notice – Ace had managed to rustle up a large group of men and women and had assembled them by where Jessie’s car had been located.

Mike was gratified and a little humbled by the turnout. As well as Ace’s friends, there was Lou-Ann Granger and her brother Todd, and Ray from the diner. Mingled among the people, hunting dogs of every stripe and breed strained at their leashes, keening and barking up a storm.

‘How are you holding up?’

Mike turned and found himself face to face with Walter Hynes. Walter wore a snow-white t-shirt, khaki shorts and trainers with coloured gel heels.

‘Walt, what are you doing here?’

‘Karen called and told me what had happened. I’m here to lend a pair of feet.’

‘I appreciate that, Walt.’

While they shook hands, Ace wandered up with his dog Captain on a retractable line. He looked at Walter for a moment, his mouth twitching softly.

‘Hello, Ace.’

‘Walt. Nice duds.’

Walter stiffened a touch. ‘These are trail shoes, designed for this kind of terrain.’

‘They designed for snake bite?’

‘What?’

‘Plenty of ’em up this way. Mosquitos too, I reckon you’re gonna end up a buffet in that get up. I got a spray in the truck, if you need it.’

‘I’ll be fine.’

‘Suit yourself.’ Ace turned his attention to Mike. ‘Just got a call. Dale’s on his way with a number of guys to help with the search.’

‘Decent of him.’

‘Yeah,’ Ace said, cutting his eyes at Walter. ‘Might not be a bad thing if you leave him to search the western slope of the range.’

Mike knew there was more to the request than Ace was saying but he didn’t really give a damn at that point. ‘If that’s where he wants to search he can do so, long as he searches.’

‘All right then.’ Ace crushed his cigarette butt under his heel. ‘I’ll take Captain and head up—’

‘Mike!’

‘What’s she doing here,’ Mike said.

Ace shrugged. ‘Search me. I didn’t call her.’

Fay walked up the dirt road towards them carrying a long walking stick in her right hand. She wore beige three-quarter-length linen pants, a cream shirt and sturdy boots. A large floppy hat adorned her head. She stopped before the men, she nodded a greeting to Walter and pulled herself up to her full height. She had a determined set to her jaw that Mike recognised. ‘Where do you need me?’

‘I don’t. It’s hotter than hell out here. Go on back to the house and I’ll call you the minute I know anything.’

‘I am not going to sit around that house a minute longer. You should have told me you had organised a search. I could have called people.’

‘Who did tell you?’

‘Karen.’

‘Karen sent you?’ Ace said with a twisted smile, ‘Where’s 
she
 at?’

Fay ignored her oldest son. ‘I assume you have a course of action in mind.’

‘I do, and it don’t involve you.’

That hurt her feelings, Mike could see that, but all that served to do was make her tilt her jaw a little more skyward. ‘That’s too bad because I’m here.’

‘It’s going to be a lot of walking. I’m not going to have time to wait for stragglers.’

‘I am aware of that.’ She glanced at Walter, then back to Mike, her features softening. ‘I want to help. Please, Mike.’

Mike sighed. ‘Fine, Lou-Ann’s here, maybe you can go with her.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘How many are we?’

Ace did a rapid head count. ‘Thirty – no wait, here comes Dale.’

Dale Corrigan drove his jeep along the path as far as he could and parked up. He got out, followed by three other large men Mike knew from around town but did not socialise with. One of them, Danny Winston, had recently been released from a long spell inside. Despite his other concerns Mike wondered about Danny’s sudden civic-minded spirit.

Dale opened the back of the jeep and a large red-nosed pit-bull jumped down. It was held firm by one of the other men until Dale attached a long lead to his leather breastplate. The other dogs huffed and cried at the newcomer as it approached. Dale stopped a few feet away. The pit stood up on his hind legs, leaning his full weight on the harness, his cropped ears tilted forward. His muscles rippled in the sunlight.

‘Better make that thirty-four,’ Ace said, ‘and dog.’

‘I hope he keeps that thing on the leash,’ Walter said to no one in particular.

Mike acknowledged Dale with a nod before turning to the assembled crowd. ‘Folks,’ he said, lifting his voice so that everyone could hear him. ‘First off I want to thank you all for coming…’