Haven of Swans

by Colleen Coble

  “Me? I’m not very good at geocaching.”

  “Absolutely not,” Nick said. “She’s got a killer after her. The last thing she needs to do is be in the middle of his territory, where he can pick her off whenever he wants to.”

  “I’m tired of looking over my shoulder,” Eve shot back. “And like I said, it’s not your call.”

  Kade held up his hand. “Truce, you guys. Look, Nick, she wouldn’t be alone. There will be a whole team, with hundreds of people combing the woods. If Gideon makes a move, we’ll grab him.”

  Nick lifted his eyebrows. “How would you feel if he were after Bree?” Kade looked down. “See, you’d feel the same way.”

  “It’s hard not to worry when you love someone,” Kade agreed. “You can come along too, Nick. Keep an eye on her.”

  “I don’t want her anywhere near the forest.”

  “Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Eve snapped. “I don’t know what a normal, fun day is. I won’t live my life afraid of my own shadow.” She leaned back in her chair, her shoulders sagging. “This has to end, Nick. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

  “I’m working on it, Eve.”

  She looked up at Montgomery. “You can go back and tell the police I’ll cooperate. Tell me what to do.”

  “She’ll have all of us to protect her,” Oliver said. “I’ll offer my eyes and ears too.”

  Montgomery nodded. “I’ll be back once we have it figured out, eh?” He grabbed another biscuit. “Good cookie,” he said before he walked off.

  “I’m sorry if I’m out of line,” Kade said. “But Bree and I have had some experience. Can we help?”

  “I don’t see how,” Nick said.

  “He’s left these bodies at geocaches, right?” Bree asked. “Kade and I know a lot about the sport. We might see something you’ve missed in the evidence.”

  Nick stared at them. “Why not? I’ve got nothing new to go on by myself. What do you think, Dad?”

  Cyril cleared his throat. “I’ve got copies of the file in the trunk. Let me go get them.”

  “While he’s getting the files, you want to see our Jane Doe?” Oliver asked. “She’s coming along.”

  Nick’s chair scraped on the floor as he stood. “You bet.”

  Eve didn’t want to see the woman, but she followed the rest down the narrow steps to the basement. In the brightly lit room, the halogen beams spotlighted the victim’s head.

  Eve heard Nick gasp before she really focused on the face. The walls of the basement wavered as she stared into her own face. “It’s me,” she whispered.

  “Nicky, you should know better,” Rhea scolded. “Bringing your wife down here. Let’s go have some tea, Eve.” She grasped Eve’s arm.

  Eve pulled gently out of her grip. Fascination pulled her closer to the worktable.

  Oliver had finished the sculpting, and the bust stared sightlessly toward a dark corner of the basement. It had to be painted yet, but there was no mistaking the woman’s resemblance to Eve.

  “It’s not you, not really,” Oliver said. “Her nose isn’t as finely sculpted as yours. And she’s older. I’d say by ten years or so. Her hair is darker too.”

  “How do you know?” Rhea asked. She put a comforting arm around Eve.

  “I found a strand inside the skull. Of course, there’s no telling where it came from on her head. If it was on the underside, it could be darker than the hair that got sunlight. But I used my best judgment.”

  Eve walked around the stainless steel table, looking at her own face, feeling disembodied. If they didn’t find Gideon, she might someday be on a table just like this one. The morbid thought made her stomach heave.

  She bolted for the stairs.

  21

  Eve rooted through several folders, scattering their contents across the table. The photographs of the murders made her wince and avert her eyes, but she scanned the reports. If she was going to put her life on the line, she was going to see it all and know what she was dealing with.

  “This was his first listing on the geocaching site.” Cyril pulled a photo and report from the stack.

  “How long has he been killing?” Kade asked.

  Cyril handed Eve the report. “We thought it was about four months. But we know he was only telling us about his kills for that long. Now we know he’s killed before. The body you found, Bree, is at least five years old.”

  Bree read through the report over Eve’s shoulder. “The first woman was found floating in a pond in Bay City.”

  Nick nodded. “Gideon identified himself pretty quickly on the geocaching site. His user name was Gideon right from the start.”

  “Did you try tracking him by computer tracing?” Oliver asked. He sat opposite Kade, nursing his fatigue with a cup of hot tea.

  “Yep.” Cyril frowned and leaned back in his chair. “He’s got some fancy scrambler on his system. It looks like it’s coming from overseas, but we know he’s right here in Michigan.”

  Bree frowned. “Do you have someone watch the geocaching site daily for any new posts related to these murders?”

  “Not daily but occasionally,” Nick said. “I check them myself weekly. I haven’t looked in a few days though.”

  “Does he mutilate every victim?” Kade asked.

  “He takes the face and some other body part.” Cyril wrinkled his nose. “The coroner believes he does the amputations while the victims are still alive.”

  “Ick.” Bree put her hand on her midsection. “This guy is so sick. It’s always women too.”

  “Blonde women,” Eve said. “Ones who look like me.”

  “What do we know about this first woman?” Kade took the report from Eve and looked it over.

  “Sophie Tallmadge,” Nick said. “The clue was from the Koran. It read, ‘Then Musa cast down his staff and lo! it swallowed up the lies they told.’”

  “Lying?” Oliver asked. “Do we know what she lied about?”

  Cyril shrugged. “We heard she testified in a trial about the defendant spending the night in question with her. Seems she perjured herself.”

  “All the women have some connection to dancing.” Nick slid a picture of Sophie to Eve. You recognize her, Eve?”

  Eve studied the woman’s face, then shook her head. “Sorry.” Some help she was going to be. This might be a mistake. She moved to the next report. “How about victim number two?”

  “We found her a couple of months later, but animals had gotten to the body and all we had were bones.”

  “Has she been identified?” Eve asked.

  Cyril nodded. “We thought it was you for a while. I put Oliver’s bust out on the news as soon as I knew it wasn’t you, and her mother identified her as Melissa Howard.”

  “What was the clue for that one?” Kade asked.

  Nick read from the file. “The clue reads, ‘For pride is the beginning of sin, and he that hath it shall pour out abomination: and therefore the Lord brought upon them strange calamities, and overthrew them utterly.’” He looked up. “The same as the one he left for you.”

  “What was missing?” Bree asked.

  “All we had were bones, so we aren’t sure. We suspect the eyes were taken maybe. And of course the face,” Cyril said.

  “How do you know for sure it was Gideon who attacked Eve?” Kade asked.

  Nick’s mouth tightened. “He left his calling card.”

  “Which is?”

  Cyril frowned. “I’d rather not say. It’s something we’re holding back for identification.”

  “It’s a peanut butter sandwich,” Eve blurted out. She closed her eyes, and she could smell peanut butter.

  They all stared at her. “How do you know that?” Nick asked.

  Eve rubbed her forehead. “I don’t know, but that’s right, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Nick said, shooting a swift glance toward his father. “But that goes no further than this room. It’s the one clue we’re holding back.”

  “Are you rem
embering anything else?” Cyril asked.

  Eve wanted to bolt, but she stayed in her chair and shook her head. She could get through this. “Who’s next?”

  “Yvette Crandall. Her hands were cut off. And the face, of course.” The women covered their mouths. “Sorry,” Cyril added.

  “Holy cow,” Kade said softly.

  Eve wasn’t sure she’d be able to sleep tonight. “What’s her story?”

  “I found her when I went out geocaching with my friend Zack.” Nick glanced at Eve. “He used to be our neighbor—German Baptist, wears black. Does that ring a bell at all?”

  She shook her head. “I can’t even remember what our neighborhood looks like.”

  “Clue?” Bree asked.

  Cyril grimaced. “‘Oh, ye! Think ye that Incal will accept the blood of innocent animals for your crimes? Whose sayeth this doth lie! Incal, God, will never take blood of anything, nor symbol of any sort which placeth an innocent in a guilty one’s stead!’”

  “What the heck?” Kade asked. “Where’s that from?”

  “Dweller on Two Planets by Phylos the Tibetan.”

  “What religion?” Bree asked.

  “New Age,” Cyril said. “Our guy gets around.”

  “What was her sin?” Eve asked. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

  “She had her cat put down when she moved to take a new job. At least that’s what we make of the reference to innocent animals. Again, she took ballet as a kid and continued with it as a hobby.”

  Bree crossed her arms. “That’s just wrong. She should have taken the cat to a shelter.”

  “Evidently Gideon thought so too.”

  Eve rested her hand on her chin as she thought about it. “So he’s punishing women for what he calls a sin and using different religious texts for justification.”

  “Yeah, that seems to be the tie-in,” Nick said.

  “How about the next victim?” Kade asked.

  “The bones Bree and Eve found. No identity yet, though now we know this one might actually be the first victim.”

  “Clues?” Bree asked. “I can’t remember.”

  “‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.’” Cyril leaned back in the chair.

  “So he probably took her heart,” Bree said.

  Cyril agreed. “Knife nicks around the rib cage would suggest that.”

  Kade rubbed his forehead. “And the one he just killed. Hannah Pelton?”

  “‘Her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of hell.’ Proverbs 5:5,” Cyril said. “Pretty obvious with her. Her friends said she had sex with some guy she just met in the parking lot before she disappeared.’”

  “Could Gideon be someone who teaches world religions?” Oliver asked. “He knows a lot of different religious books.”

  “Maybe,” Cyril said. “He’s what we call a missionary killer. He’s on a mission to rid the world of sinners, ones that he picks out for some reason.”

  “He could catch every one of us in something if he looked long enough,” Bree said. “Since the women he chooses are all blondes, is he picking the victims, then watching to see what he can convict them of?”

  Nick was flipping to the next page, but he stopped. “There’s an idea. I assumed he identified the sin first, but you might be right, Bree.”

  Eve swallowed the bile in her throat. “What about our Jane Doe? Why is Gideon only now showing her to us?”

  “Maybe she doesn’t fit the mold in some way?” Bree suggested.

  “She looks the same as the others,” Cyril pointed out. “And she suffered like the others.”

  Eve couldn’t think about it anymore. She rose. “I’m going to bed.”

  BUILT IN THE LATE 1800s, THE GRAND OLD courthouse was constructed of dressed fieldstone. Eve’s pumps echoed on the polished marble floor of the hallway. Anu had kept the children so Bree could come along. Her sneakers squeaked in time with Eve’s heels. Nick walked on Eve’s other side, and his parents followed him. Eve tried not to notice the way his hand brushed hers as though he wanted to hold it.

  At least they hadn’t been forced to bring Keri. Eve had been afraid the judge would want to talk with the little girl. Fortunately, Keri was too young.

  Ronja met them at the door to the courtroom. “Smile,” she whispered. “Act confident and in control.”

  Eve felt anything but confident, but she managed to put on a weak smile. Her lawyer held the door open for her. The smell of old wood and leather felt comforting somehow. Eve stopped at the last row of seats and looked around. The imposing judge’s bench loomed over the room, but at least it was empty. Patti wasn’t here yet either.

  Ronja led Nick and Eve to a table and chairs while Bree and Nick’s parents took seats behind the bar. Eve rubbed her cold hands together, even though the action might betray how scared she was. She pulled out her chair and sat down, then sprang to her feet as Patti entered with her attorney. The sharp, put-together African-American woman had penetrating eyes capable of skewering a person. The attorney’s competence made Eve clench her hands together. She guessed Patti had brought her in from Detroit or Milwaukee.

  Nick leaned over and whispered, “Where’d she get the money for a big gun like that? She has to be costing a fortune.”

  “Maybe her man is loaded,” Eve whispered back. She smiled at her sister, but Patti looked away with her chin hiked in the air.

  Patti and her attorney were barely seated before the bailiff entered. “All rise,” he said. “The Honorable Judge Haskins presiding.”

  Eve bolted to her feet and forced her hands to relax at her sides. A tall, thin man entered the courtroom. His black robe flapped around him like wings on a giant bat. His scowl made her shiver. Talking to a judge when he had a wild hair about something might not be a good idea.

  “Be seated,” the bailiff called.

  The judge riffled through the papers in front of him. The echo of a cough and a foot shuffling made Eve even more tense. How long would it take for him to decide to listen to them? Ronja’s smile reassured her, but Eve caught herself tapping her foot.

  The judge finally put down his glasses and pressed his fingers together in a steeple. “You’re Patti Ostergard?”

  Patti nodded jerkily. “Yes, Your Honor.”

  “Can you explain to this court why you have not had any contact with your daughter for the past two years?”

  Patti tucked a lank lock of hair behind her ear. “I have no good excuse, Your Honor. I was young and immature. While I was away, I grew up and realized my daughter needed me. I want to make it up to her.”

  The judge nodded, and his gaze went to Eve. “You’re the adoptive parents?”

  “We are, Your Honor.” Eve stood. Nick bolted up beside her. “We’d like to follow through with the adoption we started.”

  “You’re divorced now, according to my file. Is that true?”

  Nick answered. “Unfortunately, yes, Your Honor. But we’re working on ironing out our difficulties.”

  The judge harrumphed. He shuffled his papers again. “You didn’t finish the adoption proceedings, and you had good reason to do so. Why not?”

  “We’d intended to, Your Honor,” Eve said, choosing her words with care. “We started the procedure six months ago. Then our marriage began to struggle, and we never followed through. That was a mistake. Keri is our baby. We love her very much.”

  She took hope in the way the judge smiled and nodded. He had to see they’d been the responsible party. They’d taken care of Keri when no one else would.

  “Eve can’t even remember my daughter, Your Honor!” Patti bolted out of her chair and pointed her finger at Eve. “She has amnesia. She’s wording things so you can’t tell, but ask her. Ask if she even remembers the day Keri was born.”

  Ronja bolted to her feet. “Objection, Your Honor. Hearsay, and besides, it has no bearing on this case.”

  “I think I’d like to hear this,” the judge said. “I’ve heard rumors to that
effect. Could one of you illuminate this court?”

  Eve closed her eyes and prayed for strength. She’d known Patti would likely bring this up, but it seemed so cruel that she’d held on to a tiny glimmer of hope that her sister wouldn’t put her through this.

  “Judge, if I may answer?” Nick said. When the judge nodded, he rushed on. “A serial killer targeted my wife. She barely escaped with her life and somehow managed to protect our daughter during the attack. Her injuries caused a temporary amnesia, but if you would see her with Keri, you would know her mother’s love is still intact. She is a wonderful mother, even in the face of danger and trauma.”

  “You talking about this Gideon I’ve heard so much about?” the judge asked.

  “Yes, Your Honor.”

  “You close to finding him?”

  “Closer than ever, sir,” Cyril called out.

  The judge banged his gavel. “There will be no outbursts, or I’ll order the courtroom cleared.”

  Rhea tugged on her husband’s arm, and he sat back down.

  “What about danger to the child?” The judge closed his folder.

  “We have police protection.”

  Judge Haskins directed his gaze to Patti. “I’m not convinced you’re a better choice. The file says you abandoned your daughter at a day care when she was two weeks old. Just never went back to get her.”

  Patti hung her head. “That’s right, Your Honor. It’s a poor choice that haunts me.”

  “How do I know you won’t do it again?”

  Patti lifted her head, and her eyes held a shimmer of tears. “You don’t. But I know. I’d do anything for my daughter.”

  Good performance. Eve’s cynicism grew. Patti was no more ready to put Keri first than she’d ever been. She hoped the judge would see through her claims.

  “I’m not going to make a decision today. I’m going to order an in-home study of both of you and wait for that report.” He banged the gavel on the desk. “Adjourned.”

  Eve glanced up into Nick’s eyes. “Thanks for sticking up for me today,” she whispered. Tenderness stirred in her heart, catching her by surprise. Was it possible to learn to love this man? She’d like to believe that.