Tracker (8 page)

FIFTEEN

Jason

The drive out to the park where Erin had been dumped was both too long and too short. I knew I had to see for myself, but I dreaded every second of it. I knew Alice would never tell me one of my kids was… hurt without it being true, but I still couldn’t believe it without seeing it. Our conversation seemed surreal, and when we reached her I fell apart. I couldn’t control my sadness and it allowed the power to escape once again. I couldn’t bring myself to care about the possibility of exposure until Alice grabbed my hands and told me to stop.

Alice was pale and her eyes had filled with tears, but I couldn’t feel sympathy for anyone else. Erin was my world at the moment and I stared at her unseeing eyes. What was the last thing she’d seen? Had Mason killed her, or had he made one of his goons do it? I sank to my knees again; dimly aware of Alice’s aborted attempt to stop me in case I lost control for a second time. I sank my hands into the dirt and sent streams of power in every direction as far as I could reach to search for echoes of whoever had dumped Erin here like garbage.

The Bulldog—Mason’s goon; he’d been the one to dump her. There were other echoes there from the same time period so I knew he hadn’t been alone, but he was the only familiar one. I rose and walked back to the car, hoping they would assume I needed some time to myself to gather my thoughts. In fact, I would be leaving shortly. I watched Alice and Dan in my peripheral vision as they moved over to the body and began to talk. When I was sure they were completely occupied, I exited the car. I closed the door as quietly as possible to avoid drawing attention and began to follow the echoes.

If I was lucky, the footsteps would lead me to Sam, or at least to someone who knew where Sam was being kept. My thoughts drifted to the other kids for a moment, but I shook my head. I needed to focus. Sam was my priority. Erin was already gone and the others were safe. They would understand what I needed to do. Trevor Mason was too much of a threat. I needed to get rid of him, so he could no longer hurt the people I cared about.

My head was aching, but I ignored it. I had to follow the echoes before they faded away to nothing or were overtaken by fresher footsteps. I vaguely considered how strange it was that they had walked in order to dump a body instead of using a vehicle, but that concern also dimmed as my anger grew.

Mason had struck at me where I was weakest. The children were under my protection and I had failed to see the danger they would be in. I should have insisted that Alice bring them to her house right away instead of believing that he would bide his time and allow me a chance to recover. He had killed Erin. I knelt in a patch of dirt outside someone’s house and felt once more for the footsteps. They were nearly gone, but I felt where they stopped.

I looked around for a minute, finally taking time to figure out where I was. It was a residential district, and there were people out working in their yards and playing with their kids. Some had stopped to stare at me, and I realized I must look awful. I kept walking, trying not to frighten people enough to have them call the police. Some of the parents took their children into their houses as I passed them.

“Hey, are you okay?” a kindly, older man asked me as I walked past his yard. “You look like you could use some help.” I saw his eyes dart up to the bandage and down to the dirt staining my clothes.

“Thanks,” I said hoarsely. “I’m fine.” I tried to keep walking but the man stayed with me. I looked him in the eye and began to walk faster.

“You’re not fine,” he insisted, grabbing my arm as I tried to move away. “Your head is bleeding and your eyes are all out of focus. I think you have a concussion.” The Good Samaritan’s blue eyes showed his concern, and his brow was furrowed as he frowned at me.

I couldn’t help it; I started laughing. It seemed so ridiculous to me. I had been shot in the head, what… about two days ago? and now this guy was saying he thought I
might
have a concussion. The man stared at me, his frown deepening as he showed more concern than before at my outburst. I realized I must seem a bit crazy.

“Sorry,” I said as I finally stopped laughing. “If you only knew…” I trailed off, fighting dark emotions, my laughing fit forgotten.

It wasn’t funny. Not in the least. I felt my eyes well with tears before I shook my head once to clear my mind. He was still watching me carefully, but I couldn’t continue to waste time. I needed to find Sam. That was my priority. Nothing else mattered. My own health had to be of secondary concern until he was safe.

“You haven’t by chance seen a big guy with a face like a bulldog around here anywhere, have you?” I asked, knowing a man like that would stand out in this neighborhood.

“Yeah, I have,” he answered, looking at me with some trepidation
now. “He seems like bad news, kid. I wouldn’t recommend you get involved with him.” I couldn’t figure out why this stranger—who was obviously well off with his expensive clothes, gold watch and wedding band—would even care. His salt-and-pepper hair was kept long enough to brush it into a neat part in the middle. All in all, he was not the type to get involved with a messed-up guy like me.

“You have no idea,” I said with a humorless laugh. “Did he have a kid with him at all? The kid would have curly brown hair and he’s eleven years old.”

“Sorry, no.” The man ran his hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. “Are you sure you don’t need the police? Did this guy take a kid?”

I hesitated, looking at the ground. I had already talked to this guy more than I’d talked to anyone but Alice or the kids, and I wasn’t sure how much more to tell him. “The Bulldog, he’s in the house there?” I asked pointing down the block at a two-story home with tall hedges around it. The yard was kept cut and the hedges trimmed, but they were still tall enough to block most of the first floor windows.

He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he simply answered, “Yes.”

“I’m going there now,” I said calmly. I made my next request only because this man seemed to want to do something to help. If he could in some way, I would be foolish to turn him away. “If I don’t come out, or if I come out with other men, please call Officer Alice Farrow. She’ll want to know what happened.”

My new ally agreed, and I gave him Alice’s number knowing from his look that as soon as I left him he would call it. “Thank you,” I said. He nodded and I left, finally able to continue walking steadily toward the well-kept house. I heard a door open and close behind me and figured the guy had gone in to call Alice.

I snuck around the back of the house after checking to see that no one was watching me and hid in some bushes near a window. I stuck my hand on the ground, hoping I’d be able to feel if there were people moving around inside the house.

To my surprise I was able to feel several people moving around from the basement and both floors. My eyes narrowed in confusion. Had I just managed to find one of Mason’s businesses? It seemed like too nice of a neighborhood for something like that to happen without being caught. My hunch was confirmed when I sent more power into the ground and managed to feel several footsteps that came from much smaller feet than the others.

My anger grew, but I was able to leash my power before it got away from me again. I would save it for a little demolition job once I got the kids safely out of the house. Although, perhaps a small shake would get the adults to leave the house? Surely they wouldn’t care enough to grab the kids before getting out of a collapsing building. Or to risk getting caught if they took the time to try to take anyone away before the authorities showed up.

I unleashed my power and sent it coursing into the ground beneath the house, causing it to shake and rumble. I could only hope I’d be able to control it enough to allow myself time to get in once the adults ran out. I could hear the people yelling from inside as they realized the house was losing its stability. They did as I’d hoped and ran out, leaving the kids to fend for themselves.

While I waited for them to get into their cars or walk away—I knew they wouldn’t want to be around when the cops showed up once people realized a house was collapsing— I noticed a broken window I could use to access the house as soon as it was clear. It took only a couple minutes for the adults to depart, so I cleared the broken glass out of the basement window and carefully slid into the house.

“Any kids in here?” I called out as I entered the first room in the basement. There was a pull-out couch set up in one corner of the room. Some dirt was starting to come in where a crack had formed in the foundation. “I’m here to help. No one is going to hurt you anymore.” Two girls came out from behind a couch that was in a corner of the room; both were too thin and skittish. One had a bruise forming on her shoulder that peeked out past the too-revealing tank top she wore. The other had a clearly visible hand shaped bruise on her throat. “Do you know how many others are in here?” I asked gently, knowing the girls were frightened.

“I think there are five more,” the younger of the two girls answered. Her hazel eyes shone with tears as she shoved a chunk of long blonde hair behind her ear. “Are you really here to help?” she asked hopefully.

I knelt and looked her in the eyes. “Yes. I know some people who can help you get home, but I need to get all of the kids out of here, okay?” The other girl, the one with the bruise on her neck, remained silent. She was a pretty little Asian girl, with shiny black hair and almond-shaped dark eyes. She wouldn’t look me in the eye, but I couldn’t blame her.

The blonde nodded; her ability to trust me after what she’d been through… it was almost more than I could handle. Both girls followed me as I checked every room in the house for children. I was rushing through the house, not paying close attention to the décor, but some things stood out. There was a room in the basement near where I’d found the first girls that was set up like a medieval dungeon. A room on the first floor was set up like a little child’s room, but with handcuffs attached to the bedposts. My anger grew with every piece of information gathered. I was grateful that the children were not currently chained or restrained by anything as I went around the house getting them out, but I was nearing the point of losing control.

Thankfully none of the adults had stayed behind, so I was able to gather two more girls and three boys from the house without anything negative happening. All of them had bruises, a few around the wrists, some on the face. I was certain none of the physical bruises and injuries hurt nearly so much as the mental torture these kids had gone through. Mine hadn’t.

We were about to head down the steps when the house creaked ominously. “Hurry up; this isn’t a safe place to be.”
In more ways than one
, I mused.

We rushed down the steps and out the front door. Once everyone was outside, I yelled, “Get back away from the house!”

When they were a safe distance away I knelt once more and, not caring if anyone saw me, I sent all of my pent-up anger into the earth toward the house of evil. With a yell of triumph, I watched as it crashed down into a pile of rubble. It was the last thing I saw as I collapsed to the ground, my head pounding in agony.

SIXTEEN

Alice

I didn’t look for Jason. He would contact me when he felt ready to talk. Instead, Dan and I drove to the morgue to find out from the medical examiner what exactly had been done to the defenseless little girl.

“Dan, I forgot to ask. What was the message you had for Jason earlier?” I had nearly forgotten that the reason I had gone to get Jason in the first place was because a message had been left for him. I had a feeling it had something to do with Erin and Sam, and what Mason wanted.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Sorry. It was a message from a distorted voice telling Jason that he was serious and would not be ignored. He said that one way or another he’d get Jason out in the open where the game could continue.”

I frowned. “A voice changer? Really? Like that would hide the fact that it’s Mason leaving him the message,” I said incredulously. I thought about the rest of the message and realized, with some anxiety, that Jason had done exactly what Mason had wanted him to do. He had left the protection of staying with me and gone out in the open.

“He’s out there now,” Dan said softly; worry shining clearly in his eyes. “Mason is playing with him, and Jason is injured. He shouldn’t even be out of the hospital, let alone be out on the streets searching for this psycho!”

I had to agree, but there was little I could do unless he contacted me. “We should find out what we can here. Jason will have to wait. He left of his own free will, and he’ll call me before he gets into any serious trouble.”

“I hope you’re right, partner,” Dan said doubtfully. Both of us knew Jason would do what he felt needed to be done, regardless of the danger to himself. Thankfully he left the conversation at that and walked into the autopsy room. My partner knew I understood Jason well enough to know he wouldn’t call until the trouble he’d gotten into was already past, if then. He was always hesitant to ask for help, only really accepting it if we forced him to. And with one of his kids murdered, he would be even less likely to ask us for help and more likely to try to find the killer by himself.

I followed Dan warily. I didn’t want to hear about the kind girl suffering, but it seemed like she had. I was proven correct when the coroner said the lacerations on her torso were all done before she had been killed. “What is the cause of death?” Dan asked, possibly noticing my discomfort and trying to speed things up.

“She bled out from all the cuts,” the medical examiner said.

“The killer used her to send a message… literally,” he continued, indicating the injuries on Erin’s torso with his gloved hand. “The cuts form words, and there are more words there than it took for her to die. Then, for some reason, whoever did it slit her throat. It’s as if they didn’t really believe she was already dead.”

The man didn’t seem happy with his hypothesis and seemed annoyed at his inability to guess at a better motive; but he didn’t know what we knew about Trevor Mason.

“Or it was the killer signing his name,” I said darkly, thinking of the scar across Mason’s neck and offering my opinion.

“What did he write?” I asked, trying to stay professional. Dr. Connely handed me a photograph of the body after it had been cleaned up.

“
I won’t be ignored Freak. Come out
,” I read. I felt the blood leave my face. He’d carved all that into a helpless girl, while she was alive to feel it. My throat worked, swallowing convulsively to hold back the emotion I was feeling.

“Is there anything else, Doctor?” I asked once I’d gotten my emotions under control. I was hoping he was done. He looked at me with compassion. “She wasn’t violated. They left her that small dignity.”

Dan grunted. “Or they just didn’t have time,” he muttered darkly, his eyes slitted and angry. I wanted to yell and scream at him for even entertaining the thought, but he was right. Mason and some of his people were under suspicion of child pornography and worse. So it wasn’t out of the question for them to have planned more torture for the young girl.

My phone rang before I could respond, which was a relief since I had no idea what I would have said. I didn’t recognize the number, but I figured it might be Jason calling from a pay-phone somewhere.

“Hello?” I answered.

An unfamiliar male voice asked, “Is this Officer Alice Farrow?”

“This is. Who is this?” He didn’t sound like one of Mason’s men, but it was an unknown person calling my personal number, which he could have gotten from Jason—either willingly or not. I had to know if he was someone I could trust.

“My name is Ken Matthes. I met a young kid a couple minutes ago, and he seemed like he was headed for some trouble. He had a concussion and was bleeding from a head wound but wouldn’t let me call for help. I’m on Kentucky Avenue and I think you should get down here as soon as possible.”

“I will,” I said, already headed for my car. Dan followed me out, thanking the M.E. before he left. “I’ll be there shortly, what’s the address?”

“1421 Kentucky. He was going down to 1427. That house is nothing but trouble, but everyone’s always been scared to call anyone. People coming and going at all hours. I think there’s some kind of drug being sold there or something. I figured the kid wasn’t up to handling the trouble he’d get going there so I called as soon as he left me.”

By that time Dan and I were in the car and I had turned on the lights and siren as we sped out of the driveway. “I guess I’ll see you shortly,” Ken said, obviously hearing the siren over the line. “I’m going to get back outside and watch for any trouble.”

“Thanks,” I said as I hung up the phone and concentrated on driving.

“Jason is about to crash a drug house,” I told Dan, my tone disbelieving. How had he come across it, and why would he want to crash it without asking for backup?

Dan looked confused and unconsciously mirrored my thoughts. “Why would he do that? How would he even know about a drug house? I figured he’d be out talking to people to try and find out where Mason is or going somewhere to grieve.”

“I… I don’t know. He must have stumbled across something as he was wandering. The guy who called said Jason didn’t look too good. His wound was bleeding through the bandage.” I pushed harder on the gas, speeding through traffic as quickly as I could. Thankfully most of the drivers moved over for me the way they were supposed to.

We made it to Kentucky Avenue seven minutes after Ken called. We had just gotten out of the car when we heard a huge crash from down the street.

I stared in horror as I saw Jason, surrounded by children, collapsed on the ground. “JASON!” I yelled, running to him.

“What happened?” I asked the kids who had huddled together at my arrival. “Please,” I said, striving to sound calm as I noticed their fear. “I’m his friend. What happened here?”

“He saved us,” a little blonde haired girl whispered. “All the bad men ran out and he came to get us. Then the house fell down.”

I saw Dan’s face go white and felt the blood rush out of my face as I understood the implications. Jason had not gone into a drug house. He had just shut down a house used for child prostitution. “Oh, sweetie,” I said, gently brushing a strand of hair back from her face. Surprisingly, she let me. “We’re going to find your parents and get you home, okay?”

“Okay,” she whispered; a small smile on her face. “He said the same thing,” she said gesturing at Jason, who had started to stir. Dan had knelt by him, checking his vitals to make sure he was still okay.

“Jason, wake up,” I urged. “We need to get you out of here.” I looked at Dan and saw him eyeing the fallen house critically.

“How in the world did this house collapse?”

“Who knows,” I said in an uncaring tone. “Maybe God allowed it to be destroyed so the children could be saved.”

He looked unconvinced, but I wasn’t going to make any other suggestions. I was concerned that Dan was beginning to suspect Jason had something to do with the damages to the warehouse and now this house, but now was not the time for it.

“Hey, is he all right?” a man approached from down the street, hesitantly approaching the chaotic scene.

“You must be Ken,” I said, staying crouched by Jason. “He’s waking up now. He must have passed out from the shock of seeing the house collapse.”

“Yeah, he must have,” Ken said, giving me a thoughtful look. “You know, it’s weird the way that house fell. It was like an earthquake hit it. Just the one house. Then a bunch of guys ran out, followed shortly by the kid with all those children. Then he punched the ground and yelled, right before another quake hit the same house and it collapsed.”

Ken sighed, apparently letting go of whatever suspicion he may have had in favor of self-recrimination. “I can’t believe none of us knew what was really going on in that house. Those poor kids.”

“It’s not too surprising,” Jason said weakly as he struggled to sit up, pushing Dan’s hand away when he tried to help. He rubbed a hand over his face wearily, cringing as he touched the tender flesh around his wound. “You said it yourself. People were scared. When people are scared of something they tend to avoid it, or pretend it’s not there. Besides, they would have brought the kids in late at night when no one was up to see them.” He made it to his knees and groaned, holding his head in his hands and closing his eyes.

“We need to get you out of here, Jason,” I said. “But we need to call for another car to get the kids back to the station.”

“I’ve already called. There are two squad cars on the way. Unfortunately all the people involved in running the house got away.”

“A small price to get the kids out of their hands,” Jason said adamantly as he glared up at Dan.

“I wasn’t saying otherwise,” he objected. A squad car pulled up next to the house and the young officer stared in shock at the rubble. “I was just saying it would have been nice to get those…”—he stopped and looked at the kids who were listening to everything—“bad people off the street.”

Jason held his gaze for a moment longer before once again closing his eyes. He gave a slight nod and let Dan off the hook. “Sam wasn’t there,” he said quietly, hanging his head in dismay.

“We’ll find him,” I tried to sound sure, but it came out sounding more hopeful than anything.

One of the boys spoke up then. He was reluctant to speak, but had some valuable information. “There was another boy here. The biggest guy grabbed him before they ran out of the house.”

Jason’s head shot up. “Was it the big guy with a wide face and droopy cheeks?” The boy nodded. “The Bulldog has him. Was he hurt?”

“No. He said something about needing to keep him for some kind of game. I don’t know any more.”

“Thank you. That was very helpful,” Jason said gently, the gratitude obvious in his voice.

“Hey, you,” Dan called to the younger officer who was standing near the squad car. “Start canvassing; find out if anyone saw anything before this house collapsed. There were several men who left this house, and I want as much description as possible. I’m going to drive your car back to the station. Catch a ride with the next squad that gets here. It’ll be here in about two minutes.”

“Will do!” the young man called back to him. He called in his location and the change of plans then headed to the crowd of people who were gaping at the scene.

“Let’s get out of here. The next squad has two officers in it. They should be able to handle the scene. And someone needs to be called about that mess,” Dan said waving his hand toward the fallen building.

We managed to get all seven children into the two cars. Dan and I both decided it would be better to get them out of there than to wait for another vehicle. Jason rode with me and I had the three boys in the back seat, while Dan had a girl in the front seat and the other three girls in the back. Jason leaned wearily against the cushion of the seat. “You need some sleep. Either Dan or I will take you home once we drop the kids off at the station. I’ll get your statement when you’re rested, okay?”

“Sure,” he mumbled sleepily. His anger and sorrow seemed to be hidden at the moment, and I was hoping to allow him a reprieve. I would tell the others about Erin, so he wouldn’t have to. Hopefully they would make it through the worst of their reactions before he woke. He would also have to decide what he wanted to do about Dan. My partner had to be making some connections, and Jason would have to decide whether to trust him or not.