In the Still of the Night

by Callie Hutton

  In the Still of the Night

  A Friday the 13th Story

  Callie Hutton

  Contents

  Friday the 13th Stories

  About the Book

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Friday the 13th Stories

  Check out all of the stories in the Friday the 13th series:

  Links to Evil by Rolynn Anderson

  Till Death by Maureen Bonatch

  Blood and Breakfast by Alicia Dean

  Retribution by D.J. FitzSimons

  Shattered Reflections by Tamrie Foxtail

  A Deadly Game by Jannine Gallant

  Dead to Rights by Margo Hoornstra

  In the Still of the Night by Callie Hutton

  Glimpse, the Dinner Guest by Stephen B. King

  Scorned by Anna Kittrell

  Vanity Kills by Dianne McCartney

  Fatal Legacy by Krysta Scott

  Azrael’s Chosen by Leah St. James

  About the Book

  It was supposed to be just another overnight shift at the zoo where Holly McCabe worked…until she discovered something more dangerous than lions and tigers lurked in the darkness.

  * * *

  Holly McCabe works the overnight shift at the local zoo. She likes the peace and quiet but never forgets that the only thing separating her from the dangerous animals surrounding her is a fence, a moat, or a sheet of unbreakable glass.

  * * *

  What Holly doesn’t know is that on this night, a greater threat lurks in the darkness at the zoo. Someone who has revenge in mind. Someone who wants to kill her. But first, like the great cats on display at the zoo, he will play with her.

  Chapter 1

  Thursday, June 12th

  Holly McCabe checked her uniform in the mirror one more time before picking up her keys to leave the bedroom. The sound of a key in the front door lock put a smile on her face. She was about to have her daily ten-minute visit with her husband.

  Brad was returning home from duty as a police officer where he worked the two in the afternoon to the ten at night shift. Holly worked at the local zoo on the overnight shift, from eleven at night to seven in the morning.

  Life was stressful for them, but it would all end in another two months. They had worked these crazy shifts for three years to accommodate their school schedules. Brad was close to graduating from law school, and Holly was almost finished with her master’s degree in education.

  A future with a normal life and normal hours was close enough that she was now growing anxious for it all to end. Sort of like falling apart once you could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Something Brad accused her of all the time.

  “Hey, babe, how was your shift?” She walked up to her husband and threw her arms around his neck. She loved the feel of his muscles under his shirt and the protective way he held her in his arms. The fading familiar scent of his shower gel and his own unique smell had her wishing they had time to do more than merely kiss and cuddle.

  “An easy one tonight.” He pulled her closer, cupping her head, and kissed her like they had all the time in the world to enjoy each other. Alas, they did not.

  Holly pulled back and studied him. He might have had an easy shift, but the strain was showing on his face. He looked tired. She fiddled with his collar. “Tell me again how this will all end soon.”

  “It will, honey. Just be patient.” He pulled her back to his warm chest and rubbed circles on her back. “We’re nearing the end. I know it’s been a rough three years, but it will be worth it.”

  She straightened and sighed. “I know.”

  Holly’s usual routine was grabbing a large latte with an extra shot of expresso after she finished her shift, then school most days, getting homework done there until her classes started. Then it was home, a few hours of sleep and then up again to start all over.

  Brad would grab a few hours of sleep after arriving home, then study until his classes, then from there directly to work.

  One thing they were able to do to help their marriage was juggle their schedules so they had the same two days off each week. Once Holly’s shift this night was over, they’d have two days—and nights—to do what most young married couples like to do. Stay in bed most of the time.

  Sadly, in their case—to catch up on sleep.

  Holly glanced at her watch. “I gotta go.” She pulled his head in for another kiss and then picked up her keys again and headed to the door. “See you in the morning.”

  “Be careful driving.”

  Holly smiled as she closed the door. Brad said that every night when she left for work. Heck, he said it every time she left the house. Being a police officer made him a bit on the precautious side.

  It was a lengthy drive to the zoo, but Holly passed the time singing at the top of her lungs to the music coming from the flash drive with all her favorite songs on it. A quick stop at the local non-Starbucks coffee shop for a frozen coffee was her final task before she reached the front gate of the zoo. She and Brad and a bunch of their friends boycotted Starbucks because of their lack of support for law enforcement.

  The Security Department had left the door to the employees’ entrance unlocked again. Although Holly carried a set of keys to all the entrances, the team was lax in locking the employees’ door.

  “Hey, guys. How did the day go?” Holly greeted the four security guards for the evening shift, which ran from three in the afternoon until eleven thirty at night. The half hour that both teams were present gave them the opportunity to report on the general state of the zoo, anything the night shift needed to know, and any expected repairmen or trash collectors that would need to be allowed entrance and escort.

  “Am I late again?” Rebecca Spence hurried into the room as they were finishing up their report. Rebecca was one of the two people with whom Holly worked the overnight shift. With the way the schedules worked out, some nights there were two of them and some nights three. Tonight, it was just Holly and Rebecca.

  While Holly wouldn’t say she actually disliked Rebecca, the two women had never really hit a rapport. Holly found Rebecca to be on the lazy side, always looking for ways to get out of doing her job. She always seemed to have a medical issue. Headaches, stomach problems, and the occasional bug bite that required hysteria over whether she was allergic to that sort of bug and should they call EMSA.

  Once the evening shift departed, leaving just Holly and Rebecca, Holly checked her emails, looked over the day summary, and flipped over the calendar page, noting that in a matter of an hour it would be Friday the 13th. Thankfully, she wasn’t superstitious.

  Rebecca chatted on and on about her boyfriend and how she thought he was cheating on her. After a minute or two, Holly tuned her out and continued with her work.

  When it came time to start their rounds, Rebecca said as she sailed out the door, “I’ll take the back of the zoo tonight.”

  “Fine.” Holly grabbed her radio, flashlight, and keys. She picked up her cell phone and noticed it had only 4% power. “Damn.” She’d again forgotten to charge it while she slept. She plugged it into the charger on her desk then left behind Rebecca.

  Chapter 2

  Holly preferred the front sweep of the zoo for her rounds since her favorite animals were there. She got to visit with George the pouting ape, and Toho and Tonka, the mountain lion brothers who arrive
d at the zoo a little over a year before. As crazy as it sounded to anyone not familiar with animals, she talked to them, and they answered her in their own way.

  She climbed into one of the golf carts to make her rounds. On cold nights, she used the pickup truck. The last time she’d driven it, she sort of ran into a barrier and caused a bit of damage, so she stayed as far away from that vehicle as she could.

  It was a nice night, with a slight breeze in the warm air, but no humidity. Along with the lack of cloud cover which displayed the star-filled sky, it made for the sort of evening she enjoyed the most. She wanted to take her time. When she left her job after graduation and secured a teaching position, she would miss these nights, alone at the zoo, doing her rounds, seeing all the animals.

  She loved all the creatures, including the snakes and lizards, and had planned at one time to be a veterinarian but chose instead to teach. She and Brad hoped to have a family one day, and teaching would leave her with the perfect schedule for raising children.

  She checked all the buildings in her area, making sure they were locked and nothing dangerous left in the restaurants. More than once she’d found ovens not turned off, or oil spilled on the floor causing a slippery mess.

  She climbed out of the cart and walked up to the mountain lion den. She tapped on the glass. “Hi, Toho, where’s your brother?”

  The lively animal placed his paws on the glass and made a welcoming noise that sounded like a loud yawn. Within seconds, Tonka joined them, his paws also pressed against the glass.

  They were truly beautiful animals. So sleek and energetic. She visited with them for a while, having a conversation, and then made her way over to the ape house to see George, who frequently sat in the corner of his area with what only could be described as a pouting expression.

  She tried relentlessly to get him to do more than just sit there, but he seemed content. She managed to make a fool of herself by doing jumping jacks, pulling faces, and even sticking out her tongue. She hoped the darkness would keep her antics secret from the security cameras.

  She had asked about the poor animal’s demeanor, and the caretakers of the ape house told her there was nothing wrong with the gorilla. He just liked to sit and sulk.

  Her last stop was the stingray touch pool where she checked the water temperature then headed back to the office.

  It was nice and quiet without Rebecca offering her worries about her health and her boyfriend, usually in that order. Holly pulled out the lunch she’d stored in the refrigerator the night before. She often made extra food when she and Brad actually had dinners together and boxed the leftovers up in meal-sized containers for lunch.

  She’d finished her report, eaten her meal, and played four hands of solitaire on her computer and, still, Rebecca had not returned from her rounds.

  Holly picked up her radio. “Rebecca, what’s your twenty?”

  No response to her request for the woman’s location. Holly tried again. Nothing. She shrugged and returned to a new solitaire game. Rebecca had probably forgotten to turn her radio on. It would not be the first time.

  Another twenty minutes went by and still no Rebecca. Holly glanced at the clock on the wall. One-fifteen. Holly had paged her on the radio several times. Unless her radio was not working, or her cart’s battery was dead, she should have called her or been back by now. There was also a possibility that she’d run into trouble.

  With a combination of annoyance and unease, Holly left the office and grabbed the cart she’d parked over an hour before. She rode to the back area of the zoo, following the path Rebecca would have taken.

  Halfway through the rounds, at the very back of the zoo, she spotted something lying on the ground, in the middle of the roadway. From her approach, it was difficult to see what it was. It could have been an animal, but any escape from the confines of the zoo would have set off an alarm. There were wild animals, of course, who regularly found their way into the zoo.

  The closer she got, the larger the object on the ground appeared. With her heart in her throat, Holly stopped the cart, climbed out and, with sweaty hands, held her flashlight up.

  Chapter 3

  Rebecca lay curled up on the ground. A pool of blood congealed at her neck. Breaking into a sweat, Holly hurried closer and dropped to her knees. A broken, smashed mirror that Holly had seen Rebecca use dozens of times rested next to her co-worker’s hand.

  The girl’s throat had been slit.

  Holly fought a wave of nausea and lightheadedness as she checked for a pulse, knowing she wouldn’t find one. Her fears confirmed, she bent over and emptied her stomach on the ground.

  This had not been done by an animal, but a knife of some sort. Terrified, she grabbed for her cell phone and remembered it still sat on her desk in the office, plugged in. “Aw, shit.”

  She climbed to her feet, fighting overwhelming dizziness. She could not pass out. Whoever did this could still be in the zoo. She had to get back to the office and call the police.

  With shaky legs, she returned to the cart. The key that she’d left sitting in the ignition had been removed. She whirled around, her heart pounding. Whoever killed Rebecca was close enough that he’d taken the key from the ignition while she was kneeling next to Rebecca, watching her life’s blood seep from her throat.

  She had no weapon, nothing to protect herself. They weren’t allowed to carry firearms, even though her husband made sure she was fully trained on two different weapons. Ordinarily, she carried pepper spray, but that was in her purse in the office, too.

  Her body shook uncontrollably. She was alone, in the dark, over a mile from the office with no phone, no weapon, and a killer loose.

  God help me.

  Looking through his binoculars, a grin on his face, he watched Holly with delighted satisfaction. He muffled his giggle so she wouldn’t hear him. Not yet.

  The bitch thought she could screw with his life and not suffer for it? She had a hard lesson to learn and, tonight, he’d teach it to her. Rebecca was just collateral damage. He had no feelings toward her one way or another, except she was a complaining, lazy bitch.

  He’d play with Holly for a while, torment her and escalate her fear before he moved in for the kill. She was so fond of animals it would be fitting that she met her end among them. He lowered the binoculars and started the cart. His hands were streaked with blood, and he wiped them on his pant leg then retrieved the radio from the seat beside him. Chills of gleeful anticipation coursed through him.

  Let the game begin.

  Chapter 4

  Holly forced herself to take a deep breath. It didn’t stop her heart from pounding, but it cleared the dizziness. She looked around, trying to get an idea of where she was. She’d been so taken with finding Rebecca’s body that she hadn’t really noticed her surroundings.

  She groaned when she realized she was at the end of the elephant habitat. The farthest place from the office. She would have to make her way back about a mile and a half. Watching the area carefully, she grabbed her bottle of water from the cart and moved to the trees lining the habitat.

  Rebecca’s cart was missing so she assumed the killer took it, then removed the key from the ignition in the cart Holly was driving. Obviously, it had been the killer’s intention to force her to walk back to the office.

  So far, she’d seen nothing, but since the key had disappeared so quickly, the killer was close by. Panic rose in her again, and she had to fight it down. Then she calmed herself by thinking perhaps it had been the killer’s intention to murder Rebecca and then leave the property.

  Yes. It was possible the reason he left her with no way back to the office was he wanted enough time to escape before she called the police. Feeling much better, she moved through the shadow of the leaves and shrubs, then jumped when her radio crackled and shrieked, the noise echoing off the dense trees.

  “Hollyyyyyyy. Tell me your twenty, please.”

  Her heart almost stopped. A man’s voice, and a familiar one. She trie
d to tell herself it was not Albert Anderson. The man she’d accused of sexual harassment and had been fired two weeks before.

  “Hollyyyyy. Your twenty, please.”

  Her skin crawled with the way he pitched his voice. She had no intention of answering him. She was tempted to turn the radio off but decided that was not the smartest thing to do. If it was who she thought it was, Albert was more interested in killing her than Rebecca. Her unfortunate co-worker had been a means to an end.

  Torture for Holly.

  She had to move as quickly as possible back to the office. The flashlight would help her find her way faster, but it would also be a beacon in the night and give her position away. Maybe she should just climb one of the trees and stay there until morning when the next shift came in.

  That would not work. Even though he slit Rebecca’s throat, he might very well be carrying a gun and take pot shots at her up in the tree.

  The quickest way back to the office was not the safest way. She had to stay as hidden as possible, which meant going around the Elephant Habitat to the Asia display which had a lot of bamboo that might hide her. After that, the outside track of the zoo took her to wooded areas and other places to hide.

  “I don’t need your twenty, Hollyyyyyy. I know where you are.”

  She sucked in a deep breath and looked around.

  Nothing.

  All right, Holly, keep it together. Just get yourself to the office and call the police. Call Brad. Call EMSA. Call anyone.