Before She Dies

by Mary Burton

  She stared at him, struggling to mesh realities.

  “Levi?”

  He held her as she relaxed involuntarily into his arms. “I’ve been waiting for you for eighteen years, Grace.”

  “What?”

  Instead of answering, he scooped her up in his arms and laid her in the trunk of her own car. She stared up at his smiling face as he slammed the lid closed.

  Rokov got the call fifteen minutes after he’d hung up with Charlotte. Annoyed, tired, and frustrated as he sped toward the carnival, he’d snapped into the phone, “Rokov.”

  “This is Garrison.”

  He shoved out a breath. “Yeah.”

  “A patrol returned to the carnival. They found a body.”

  His thoughts jumped to Charlotte. “Who?” “Lonnie White. His throat was cut.”

  “Was there any sign of Charlotte?”

  “No. Why would there be?”

  “She called me just minutes ago and told me she was looking for Grady. She thought he could help us find Sooner.”

  Garrison hesitated, clearly detecting the concern and familiarity. “According to patrol, they spotted a black BMW driving away from the scene.”

  “Charlotte drives a BMW.”

  “A man was behind the wheel.”

  He took the carnival exit. “I’m almost at the carnival.”

  “Good, because patrol opened Grady’s trailer searching for the killer. And they found some disturbing images. News articles on several murdered women. And Levi Kane.”

  “Levi Kane?”

  Garrison shoved out a breath. “Yeah. The prosecutor, who is not answering his cell, home, or office phones. In fact, I am standing in his office and have spoken to the night security guards. He’s not logged in the building for two days.”

  “What about his home address?”

  “Kier and I can be there in fifteen minutes.”

  “I’ll search Grady’s trailer.”

  “I’ll call you as soon as I know something.”

  Rokov hung up his phone and pulled into the carnival parking lot, now filled with a half-dozen cop cars with flashing lights. He showed his identification and rushed toward the yellow crime scene tape. A white, bloodied sheet covered Lonnie’s body.

  He moved past the scene to Grady’s trailer, where a uniformed officer stood guard. He showed his badge and identified himself before gaining admittance.

  The trailer wasn’t large. There was a front section with a bed covered with rumpled blankets, a small galley kitchen along the wall, a bathroom with dozens of prescription bottles on the sink, and in the back a larger space with a table and several bench chairs around it. Spread on the table were dozens of articles featuring murders over the last eighteen years. He recognized the two murders that had been picked up by ViCap, but there were others that hadn’t been gathered by the system. Not surprising considering they were all in small towns.

  Why had Grady saved the articles? Was he the killer or working with the killer? Shit. Mariah was the first to die. And now he was back and two other women had died.

  Garrison and Kier arrived at Kane’s home just after four in the morning. The Kane home was a neat suburban white clapboard house on a small green lawn. Leaves peppered the neat front yard. There were pumpkins on the front steps, mock spiderwebs strewn across the bushes, and a ghost made out of an old sheet dangling from an oak.

  Garrison checked his watch and then moved to the front door and rang the bell. Several seconds passed and there was no sign of movement. He rang the bell again. Finally, a light flickered on and he heard footsteps. The footsteps paused at the front door and he stood in front of the peephole with his badge held high.

  “Alexandria Police,” he said.

  The door opened to a small, fragile woman. A thick well-worn robe swallowed her slim body, and dark hair framed a pale face. She held a metal baseball bat in her hands. “Can I help you?”

  “I’m Detective Garrison with the Alexandria Police. This is my partner, Detective Kier. Is Mr. Kane at home?”

  She frowned and lowered the bat. “Levi moved out over three months ago. I can give you the address of his apartment.”

  Kier glanced at Garrison, his shock mirrored his own face. “I saw him at a fund-raiser last night. He said you weren’t there because one of the kids was sick. He gave us the impression that you were happily married.”

  She glanced behind her as if fearing the noise would have awoken the children. “I’ve told him to stop doing that. I’ve told him our marriage can’t be fixed. But he won’t leave me alone.”

  “What has he done?”

  “Someone broke into my house the other night. They stole jewelry, set the box on the floor, and urinated on it. I knew he could be foul, but he has no limits.”

  Garrison flexed his fingers. “Did you call the police?” “No. Levi has too many connections. Why are you asking about Levi?”

  Levi is a person of interest in a missing persons case.”

  “What? Who?”

  “Charlotte Wellington. She’s a defense attorney.”

  “I know who she is.”

  “How?” Garrison said.

  She set the bat down. “Levi used to speak about her often.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He didn’t like her. He thought she manipulated the law.” She twisted the ties of her robe in her hands. “He called her a witch.”

  “Witch,” Garrison said. “Are you sure about that?”

  “Yes. I’m sure.” Thin lips flattened. “Levi never dealt well with strong women. I’m hardly what anyone would consider aggressive, and we even had our issues.”

  “Can you tell us what they were?” Kier said. “I wouldn’t ask but this is important.”

  “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I convinced him to leave.”

  “How?” Kier demanded.

  “I found some things in the basement. Terrible things. I found an attorney and gave what I discovered to him. I told Levi if he didn’t leave, I’d go to the media.”

  “What did you find?”

  “Photos of women.”

  “Who?”

  “I don’t know who they were. They appeared to be asleep.”

  “Asleep or dead?” Kier said.

  Her shoulders stiffened. “I don’t know for sure. But it was enough to make Levi leave.”

  “You said he came back?”

  Her lips flattened. “Yes.”

  “Who has the pictures now?”

  “Like I said, my attorney.” Her gaze narrowed. “Where is Levi?”

  “Why didn’t you come to the police?” Garrison said.

  “Because they were just pictures, and there is no proof that Levi took them. And like I said, he has connections.”

  “Do you have any idea where he might be if not at his apartment?” Garrison said.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I think you do,” Kier said.

  She pursed her lips. “I should get my attorney.”

  Garrison leaned forward, using the full measure of his height to intimidate her. “You should get an attorney because I am going to prove that you knew those women weren’t sleeping but dead.”

  “I didn’t know.”

  “You’ve lived with the guy for how long? A decade? You are clearly afraid of him so you know what he can do.”

  She shoved a trembling hand through her hair. “Our marriage is in trouble. That doesn’t mean anything.”

  “And yet you had to blackmail him into leaving.” Garrison shook his head. “I’m going to arrest you if you don’t tell me what you know about Levi.”

  “I’m trying to protect my children.”

  “You won’t be able to protect them from jail,” Garrison said.

  Tears welled in her eyes. But he had no pity for her. She held evidence that could have prevented the murders of two women. “Where are the photos?”

  “Max Green. He’s in Fairfax.” She rattled off the address.
r />   Garrison wrote it down. “Does Levi have a place where he goes?”

  “His father had a house. Levi inherited it a couple of years ago when his father died.”

  “Where?”

  “In Manassas. It’s a small house in an old neighborhood. I asked him several times to sell it but he refused.”

  “What else can you tell me about your husband?” When she hesitated, he said, “We think he has Charlotte as well as a young woman named Sooner.”

  She wrung her hands together then gathered the folds of her robe tighter. “He’s disturbed. I always thought he was quirky early in our marriage, and it didn’t bother me. Since his dad died, it’s gotten worse.”

  “What about his mother?”

  “I never knew her. She died when he was young, but there was no love lost between his father and his mother. Mr. Kane hated his late wife.”

  “What else can you tell me about Kane?”

  “He reads a great deal about the occult. Witches. In fact, if he saw the Halloween decorations here, he’d have a fit. This is the first year the kids have celebrated Halloween.”

  Garrison’s pulse pounded in his head. As he and Kier raced to the car, he dialed dispatch and asked for squad cars to come to the Kane house. He then spoke to Rokov and told him what was happening. “Kier and I are headed to Manassas. I’ll call Fairfax Police and alert them.”

  “Tell them not to go in hot,” Rokov said. “I don’t know what this guy is going to do if he hears sirens.”

  “Got it.” He checked his watch as he started the engine and pulled into traffic. “I can be there in twenty minutes.”

  “All right.”

  Shit. Twenty minutes. Almost no time and also a lifetime.

  Chapter 24

  Sunday, October 31, 7 a.m.

  “Charlotte, wake up!”

  Charlotte groaned as the annoying voice got louder and louder. She wanted to swat the voice like a pesky fly, but no matter how much she tried to get away from the noises, they just kept getting louder. All she wanted to do was sleep. But the voice pleaded, cajoled, and demanded that she open her eyes.

  Slowly, she pried open her lids. The room was dimly lit and at first glance appeared to be quite barren. “Who’s there?”

  “Oh, thank God! You’ve got to open your eyes.”

  Charlotte blinked, and her mind cleared a few more degrees. “Sooner?”

  “Yes. It’s Sooner.”

  “Where are you?”

  “We’re in some creepazoid’s basement and he’s going to kill us.”

  Her eyes opened wide and full now. Her brain still lingered under a haze but it was improving. “Levi.”

  “I don’t know what his name is. I’ve never seen him before.”

  “Tall. Blond.”

  “He wears a hood, like one of those wizards on television.”

  “Where is he?”

  “He’s preparing.”

  “For what.”

  “Shit if I know.” Sooner’s voice cracked with fear. “But I can promise it isn’t good.”

  Charlotte tried to sit up and realized her hands and feet were secured to bolts on the floor.

  “He keeps calling me Mariah.”

  “How would he know about Mariah?”

  She sniffed, trying to hold off tears. “He said it is hard to kill witches.”

  “He killed Mariah.” Her brain scrambled to get back to the past as her hands twisted to get free of the bindings. “I never saw him before.”

  “Eighteen years changes people.”

  “Yeah. Sooner, where are you? I’m in a chair. I’m tied.” Charlotte paused. “I hear running water.”

  “There’s a big ass tub in the corner. I don’t know what he uses it for.”

  “It’s where he drowns his witches.”

  When Levi descended the stairs to the underground chamber, he wore only his robe and nothing underneath it. His body hummed with excitement. He’d never before been in the presence of such overwhelming power. Two witches. One was reborn from the dead and the other destined to have been his first kill.

  He opened the door and flipped on the lights. Both women tensed and both stared at him.

  He met the young one’s gaze head on. “You should have stayed dead.”

  The girl stared at him but it was the other one that spoke. “You killed Mariah?”

  He faced her. “I did, but as you can see, she came back. I never realized that she was so powerful.”

  “Mariah was a young girl, barely seventeen. This girl is Sooner, not Mariah.”

  “Don’t be fooled, Charlotte,” Levi said. “She is the reincarnation.” He studied Charlotte. “It makes sense now. You used your power to bring her back. I always knew you were strong, but I didn’t know just how much.”

  “She was my mother, you sick son of a bitch!” Sooner yelled.

  Levi turned and looked at Sooner. “She wasn’t your mother. You are one and the same.”

  Tears welled in Charlotte’s eyes. This was not the way for Sooner to find out the truth. But if they were to die, Sooner deserved the truth now. “Levi, she was born before Mariah died.”

  Levi moved toward Sooner and from his pocket pulled a knife. He grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head back, exposing her neck. He pressed the tip of the knife to her neck. “I should just kill her now and be done with her.”

  Charlotte jerked at her bindings. “Don’t hurt her. She’s a child.”

  “She’s no child.”

  “She’s my child!” Charlotte screamed.

  Sooner’s frantic gaze darted from Levi to Charlotte. “What?”

  “Grady lied to you,” Charlotte said to Sooner. The weight of eighteen years pressed hard on her chest. “I’m your mother. Not Mariah.”

  “What?”

  “I gave birth to you, not Mariah. Grady lied.”

  Tears ran down Sooner’s face. “Liar.”

  The word scraped over her brain. She had lied. She could have told Sooner the truth immediately. But she hadn’t. Levi pressed the knife against Sooner’s throat.

  “You are a coward, Levi.” Charlotte injected venom into her voice. “A spineless coward.”

  He pressed the knife into Sooner’s flesh. “Watch what you say!”

  Charlotte yanked hard at the ropes around her wrists. “Why, you are a fool! A fucking coward! If you had any balls, you’d be coming after me, not her.”

  He lowered the knife from Sooner’s neck. “What?”

  “You go after a child when you could take me. Spineless. Pitiful.” She spat at him.

  His eyes narrowed. “Bitch.”

  Good. Good. Get mad at me. Leave her alone. “You go after helpless women who are alone and vulnerable because you know you can’t handle a ball buster like me.” She coated the words with all the anger that had been building since Grady had contacted her ten days ago.

  He crossed the room and grabbed her by the throat. Murder burned in his gaze. He wanted to choke the life from her lungs.

  “Take me and leave her,” she gasped.

  “Not yet, Charlotte.” He released her and she coughed.

  “Why, Levi?” Tears spilled down her cheeks. “What are you waiting for?”

  “It’s about Justice. About ridding the world of evil. Something you would not understand.”

  “Why wouldn’t I understand?”

  “Because you are dedicated to releasing Evil on the world.”

  “What evidence do you have?”

  “You’re The One that read me all those years ago. When you held my hand, I knew you were destined to be my first. You were the one that would enable me to cross from the light to the dark.”

  “But you killed Mariah.”

  “I didn’t know there were two of you. The wig and the mask ... I was confused. All these years I thought I’d killed you, and then I saw you at the carnival. And you said you’d worked there. I realized my mistake. And now I am correcting it.”

  “How do you
know I’m evil? What if you are wrong again?” She hoped his brain would connect with some shred of logic. “You’re a lawyer. You know we are all entitled to a defense.”

  “There is no defense for true evil.” He backed away fearing he’d lash out and kill her. “Did you really think Samantha was innocent?”

  She hesitated. “Yes.”

  “She is not innocent.”

  “How can you say that?”

  “I know. Just as I know you are guilty.”

  Rokov and Sinclair arrived at the little home in Manassas, Virginia. It was a one-story white brick home with a neat front yard. The mailbox by the front door was not overflowing with mail and only today’s paper sat on the front step. Levi had been here recently.

  The house’s large front window was curtained off with heavy drapes. All the shades on the other windows were drawn. There were no signs of life in the house.

  “It looks deserted,” Sinclair said.

  Frustration ate Rokov. “Yeah. Let’s have a look around back.”

  Guns drawn, they moved around the side of the house through the gate of a chain-link fence. He lifted the latch and carefully opened the gate. It squeaked and groaned. He stepped around a green hose, neatly rolled into a circle, and moved toward a set of three stairs that led to a back door. The drapes on the door’s windows were also drawn.

  “There’s no way to look inside,” Rokov said.

  “Garrison is working on the warrant. It should be here any minute.”

  Time had never carried such weight for Rokov. Minutes even hours didn’t matter in the big scheme, but today both could span the rest of Charlotte’s and Sooner’s lifetime.

  Daniel. She’d spoken his name with such urgency. For the first time he’d seen her vulnerable. God, but he did not want to lose her.

  He reached for the door handle.

  “The warrant will be here soon.”

  “I hear something inside. Someone sounds like they’re in trouble.”

  Sinclair cocked her head and listened to the silence. “I think you’re right. They sound pretty scared.”

  Rokov hesitated one more instant as if to give her the chance to change her mind. They were investigating a prosecutor’s home, and they better damn well be sure they understood the consequences. Rokov understood he would risk all for Charlotte.