Once Taken (26 page)

“What do you want now?” he demanded.

Then came a loud screeching of tires and the blare of a car horn. He braked hard and brought the van to a stop. Because of the chains’ distracting rattle, he’d pulled out onto the road in front of an approaching car.

Now the driver was staring at him in shocked and angry surprise. Eugene swerved his van into the far lane and continued on his way.

Forcing himself to pay attention, he drove slowly past a few houses, a restaurant, and a post office. He hoped that nobody in the little village would notice him. When the road was again lined by trees, he relaxed a little.

But the chains were agitated again. They wanted something. They always wanted something.

In a few moments, he saw a woman walking toward him along the side of the road. She was wearing white. He thought it looked like a waitress uniform. She wasn’t a nurse or a guard like the others, but still …

“Her?” he asked the chains.

He heard them murmur with approval.

He pulled onto the shoulder and stopped his van, but left the motor running. He got out, went around to the back and opened the doors. He picked up a heavy handful of chains.

By that time, the woman was walking past him on the edge of the road.

“Do you have some sort of problem?” she asked, stepping toward him with a polite smile. “There’s a repair shop …”

But then her expression froze with horror. She recognized him. Just as she turned to run, Eugene smashed the chains into the side of her head. She fell to her knees with a cry, and he hit her again. He caught the unconscious woman beneath her arms. Fortunately she was small enough and light enough for him to handle. He dragged her into the van and scrambled back into the driver’s seat.

“I hope you’ll be happier now,” he said to the chains.

But as he drove, a new wave of despair began to sweep over him. How could he possibly deal with this woman in a manner that would fully quell the chains? For one thing, he had no place to keep her. He’d have to kill her much too quickly. And where could he even do it? Where could he take her now?

The road still wound among trees. After a time it bent to the right, led across railroad tracks, and ended at an old marina. There was a ramshackle pier with a couple of old fishing boats tied to it. A massive rusted steel structure loomed over the pier.

When he realized what the structure was, Eugene laughed aloud. He could hardly believe his luck. It was an old boat crane, used to lift small yachts and place them in the water. It didn’t look like it had been used for a long time, but there was still a pulley up there on its arm. A cable ran through the pulley and dangled to the ground. It would be easy to hang the woman up here, where she could be found by her family and neighbors.

It would require outrageous daring, to do all this in the daylight.

So much the better,
he thought.

Maybe the chains would be impressed.

To be sure that no watchers were nearby, he walked out onto the pier. He had to move carefully because some of the boards were missing and others were obviously weak. When he reached the end, he turned and surveyed the shore.

No one was in sight. He looked out over the water. A few boats were out there on the Hudson, but most were too far away to notice him. Someone on the craft nearest him did wave in a friendly manner. Eugene waved back and watched the boat move away. Letters on the side spelled
Suzy.

The
Suzy
,
he thought.
What would it be like to be out there on a boat called the
Suzy
?

Standing on the pier’s end, Eugene was seized by a strange craving. If he had a boat and could go out on the water, could the chains follow him? How could they?

Out there he might be free. He couldn’t remember what it felt like to be free.

Two old boats were tied up at the pier. They were both floating and seaworthy. Could he get one of the engines going and sail away from here forever?

But then he heard a loud groan from the van. The woman was starting to regain consciousness. He had to go subdue her and put her into a straitjacket and chains. Then he had to go through with the rest of his horrible task. The chains gave him no choice.

They never would give him a choice.

Riley knew in her gut that something was about to break. She didn’t know why she felt that way. They’d chosen their route on the basis of some pretty scanty information. Bill was driving, and the three of them were headed south from Albany.

After Eugene Fisk’s escape from the graveyard yesterday, the public was responding to bulletins with more calls than ever. Field agents had spread out in all directions trying to follow up on anything that seemed at least remotely plausible. There had been a cluster of sightings reported on the highways south of Albany, and Bill, Riley, and Lucy had decided to head out in that direction.

“How far we from Callaway?” Lucy asked from the back seat.

Riley turned and saw that Lucy was looking at a text message. It was probably an update from the Albany office.

“We just passed a turnoff for Callaway,” Bill said.

“We need to go back and take it,” Lucy said.

Without asking any questions, Bill slowed the vehicle and turned it around. As he drove, Lucy explained the tip she had received.

“A man in Callaway said some crazy guy pulled out from nowhere on the road in front of his car. It was a white delivery van for a business called June’s Flowers. The man got a good look at the driver. He swears it’s our man, and that he was headed toward an old marina. Everybody in the town has been notified to stay away from there.”

Riley’s heart quickened. Yes, this was it. She was sure of it. The business name came as no surprise at all. Everyone at Albany’s HQ knew perfectly well that Eugene Fisk had probably disguised his van by now.

“Lucy, send a return message that we’re on our way,” Bill said, making the turn that he’d passed by a few moments before. “We’re liable to need backup. Riley, check the GPS to see what we’re driving into.”

Riley brought up the map on her cell phone. She was heartened by what she saw.

“We’re on the right road,” she said. “It goes through Callaway, then straight to the marina. It ends in a cull-de-sac. If Eugene Fisk went there, this road is his only way out.”

Bill put his foot on the accelerator as the siren blared.

He slowed down when they crossed the town line into Callaway. A few anxious-looking residents stood on the sidewalk watching them go by. On the far side of the village, local police had set up a roadblock. Bill held up his FBI badge and they waved him on through. He sped up again and in a matter of minutes, the marina came in sight.

Bill brought the car to a stop and turned off the siren.

Riley’s heart pumped faster. There it was, parked beside a rusted crane-like structure—a white van decorated with flowers and the business name June’s Flowers. The three agents jumped out of the car and headed for the van. Bill got there first and yanked the rear door open.

A woman was huddled on the floor, bound with a straitjacket and chains. Her eyes opened and she moaned aloud through the chain that had been wrapped around her face to gag her.

She’s alive,
Riley thought with relief. They had gotten here in time.

But there was no sign of Eugene Fisk.

“Lucy, take care of the woman,” Riley said. “Bill and I will find him.”

Riley headed around the van to search the shoreline, but she stopped at the sound of Bill’s voice.

“Riley!”

She turned and looked at him. His eyes met Riley’s with a determined and yet sympathetic expression.

“This guy is not Peterson,” Bill said.

For a second, Riley couldn’t understand what he meant.

“What?” she said.

Bill narrowed his eyes and said much more slowly, “He’s not Peterson.”

In a moment of clarity, Riley understood exactly what he meant. Her use of deadly force against Peterson had bordered on vengefulness. But the Bureau hadn’t raised questions about it—not after all she’d suffered at Peterson’s hands. This situation was different. They should be able to bring in Eugene Fisk alive.

This kind of instantaneous communication was one thing she treasured most about working with Bill. She’d missed it during their estrangement.

“I understand,” she told him.

Guns in hand, Riley and Bill moved around the van. There was a drop to the water. Along the high ground, clusters of trees could easily hide the killer. Riley was sure they were close to him now. She moved carefully toward the trees on the left. Bill moved off to the right.

Riley had realized that the killer wasn’t where she was searching when she heard Lucy’s voice call out, “I see him!”

Riley turned and saw that Lucy was headed away from the van. She had drawn her weapon and was running toward the pier. The horrible little man was a few yards out on the old structure.

“Stop right there!” Lucy called out to him, her weapon raised. “Hands where I can see them!”

Eugene stopped and turned, his hands raised above his head. In one hand he was clutching a bundle of chains.

Riley drew her own weapon and walked toward them. She felt a flood of relief. This was going to end easily and without violence. What had happened with Peterson was not going to happen here.

Lucy stepped out onto the pier, focused intently on Eugene. But after a few steps, a rotting board broke out from under her, and she fell into a tangle.

“Damn it!” Lucy cried out.

Eugene moved with the same dexterity and speed that he’d shown at the graveyard. In an instant, he grabbed and held Lucy from behind. He wrapped the chain around her neck with one hand. With the other had he took a straight-edged razor out of his pocket. He flipped open the blade and held it at Lucy’s throat. Her face was contorted with pain.

Eugene was trying desperately to talk.

“Drop—drop—”

Riley knew that he was trying to tell her to drop her weapon. She wasn’t ready to do that.

Lucy let out a scream of pain as Eugene pulled her loose from the broken board. He forced her forward along the pier back toward the shore. It looked like her ankle was broken.

“Let—let me—”

Riley understood. The chain killer wanted to take Lucy back to his van as a hostage and drive out of here undisturbed.

She heard Bill’s voice from nearby.

“Easy, easy,” he was saying to Eugene. “You can’t get out of here. You know that.”

But Riley saw that neither she nor Bill had a feasible shot. Lucy’s body formed too effective a shield.

“Let—let me—” Eugene said again. He was on the shore now and backing toward the van with his hostage.

Bill was standing beside Riley, his Glock raised.

Riley’s thoughts clicked away as she tried to assess the situation. She knew one thing for certain. Eugene Fisk wasn’t bluffing with the razor. He’d slit women’s throats before, and he’d do it again in an instant if either Riley or Bill made the wrong move.

Shane Hatcher had been exactly right.

He’s liable to kill one of you before he’s done.

Riley glanced over at Bill.

“Stand down, Bill,” she said.

Bill looked at her with surprise. But then he lowered his weapon.

Riley stooped and placed her weapon on the ground.

“I’m putting down my gun, Eugene,” she said. “You can let her go. We can end this peacefully.”

But Eugene was shaking his head.

“N—no,” he stammered. He was still determined to make his escape with Lucy as a hostage. He continued dragging Lucy toward the van.

Riley looked directly into his eyes. He stared back, unable to break their gaze, as if hypnotized. His eyes were small and beady, but Riley saw terrible worlds in them—worlds of childhood suffering and adult humiliation, of pain both physical and emotional, and of almost unfathomable self-loathing.

“He’s not Peterson,”
Bill had said just a few minutes ago.

Riley now knew that Bill had been more right than he’d realized.

Eugene Fisk was the most pitiable monster she’d ever encountered. And she could turn that insight to her advantage.

As Eugene waddled backwards dragging Lucy along, Riley moved slowly in the same direction.

“I know about the chains, Eugene,” Riley said in a sympathetic voice. “I hear them too. You’re not alone. You’re not the only person who hears them. I do too.”

Eugene stopped in his tracks. He looked positively stricken now. Riley was getting to him. She knew it.

She remembered something else that Shane Hatcher had said.

“He’s wounded where it hurts most—in his soul.”

And I’m probing that wound,
Riley realized.

“Don’t you hear what they’re saying now, Eugene—the chains?” Riley went on. “They’re saying it’s over. You’ve uprooted them, you’ve failed them for the last time, and they’re through with you. It’s really over. The chains are saying so. I hear them. You do too.”

Those small eyes were getting larger now. They glistened with tears.

“The chains don’t want you to take this woman,” Riley said. “She isn’t what they need.”

Eugene nodded with understanding.

“You know what the chains want you to do instead,” Riley said.

Eugene nodded again.

Then he drew the blade across his own throat and sliced it deeply, all the way across.

Riley heard herself scream.

Eugene fell to the ground, clutching his throat, gurgling and coughing. Lucy was drenched in his spurting blood, but she was free of him now. She fell too, but rolled away from the wounded killer.

Riley threw herself upon Eugene as he twitched and writhed. Her hands fumbled around his throat, trying to staunch the bleeding, to plug up the rapidly escaping breath. It was no good. There was nothing she could do. His eyes were wide open, fearful and fading. In a matter of seconds, he lay motionless. She knew that he was dead.

Bill was standing at her side. He reached down and tried to help her to her feet.