“He’s not my boy.”
“He was at one time, Danni. You were head over heels for him. Don’t deny it.”
“What’s your point, Sam?”
“My point is that he’s a piece of shit and I’d like to spare the world his presence as well if I could get away with it.”
“Is that what you came here to tell me?”
“No. I’ve been thinking about this constantly, even when I was so drunk I could hardly move. Felton’s a smart boy. He had ten years in a small cell to figure out there was only a small group of people that had the ability to fuck him over. He likes to kill women so he went after my daughter first. I assume you figured this part out already.”
“I have.”
“And Hannah is safe?”
“She is.”
“That leaves you, Danni. He’s coming for you as sure as I’m sitting here. He’s not going to back off. Killing the women of the people who fucked him, or, in your case, the woman who might have directly fucked him over, is probably the ultimate jolly for this sick bastard.”
“Are you trying to scare the shit out of me, Sam?”
“Absolutely not. You were a homicide cop for fifteen of your twenty years. You know all this shit already. I’m here to ask you if I can stay here at night and wait for him. You can stay here, too, if you like. I won’t be sleeping. Or you could go to my house. I want to catch this bastard, Danni. I need to catch him.”
Danni understood the sentiment all too well. Her feelings mirrored those of Sam Jeffries although Sam’s hunger was so much greater than her own. She would have let Sam do what he wanted but she just didn’t agree with his reasoning.
“I want you to catch him, Sam, I really do, but you can’t do it this way.”
“Why not?”
“Felton is smart—you said so yourself. You won’t be able to get in and out of this house every day without him seeing you. He wants me alone.”
“Then I’ll stay here all the time.”
“It won’t work, Sam. He’ll know you’re here.”
Sam started rubbing his hair with his hands and then working them around to his neck. He was like a big agitated grizzly. If Danni hadn’t known him so well, she would have been frightened. He was ready to snap. She needed to give him something.
“Where do you think he’ll come at me from?” she asked.
“The woods would be my guess.”
The street in front of Danni’s house was well lit and her home was bordered on both sides by other single-family homes. She had a small backyard with nothing but thick woods behind it. There was a road on the other side of the woods. A person could enter from the road and walk for a half mile or so and exit in Danni’s backyard. It was the logical place for Felton to come from.
“I think you’re right, Sam. So if you weren’t here waiting for Felton, where would be your next best spot?”
“The road on the other side of the woods.”
“Exactly.”
“But there’s no place to set up a surveillance back there. The other side of the road is all meadow.”
“I know. The best you could do is drive by—maybe do a circle of the front of the house and back by the road. You’d have to use unmarked cars and you’d have to change cars frequently. We don’t want to scare him away. We want him to come.”
“That’s hit or miss.”
“I know, but I’m going to be waiting for him every night, too, Sam. I’m going to sleep during the day. If a shot goes off or if you hear anything, it’s nice to know you’ll come running.”
It was obvious Sam didn’t like that option. He was rubbing his upper arms with his hands and then rubbing his hands together.
“I don’t like it. You’re too exposed.”
Danni knew it wasn’t about her being exposed. He’d already acknowledged that she could manage the risk. Sam wanted the kill, plain and simple.
“I could hide in the woods,” he said.
“Sam, you are a big man and I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not in great shape. You wouldn’t be hiding in the woods, you’d be telling him you’re coming—telegraphing your every move. It might be a good idea to put somebody from the SWAT team in there, though.”
He didn’t like that option.
“I don’t want the department involved. Too many people know about this, it’ll get all fucked up.”
That wasn’t true either. Sam was the chief of police, for Christ’s sake. He could easily take a SWAT team member, give him the assignment, and swear him to silence. He didn’t look or act like the chief of police though, sitting there at her little kitchen table.
He looked like a troubled, unstable man.
Chapter Forty-Three
Jack didn’t know where he was when he woke up the next morning. The bedroom walls were the same dull off-white color as Ron’s condo and they were bare of pictures like Ron’s place, but the room was smaller, the sheets and the comforter were a different color, and the bed felt strange. Then he heard movement in another room.
Oh my God, he thought. What the hell did I do last night?
He didn’t move, though. He stayed in bed and thought it through as he did with everything. It all came back slowly—the police; the decision to move to a new place; the drive over with Ron. But who the hell was in the other room?
He saw the knob on the door turn. He started to tense up. Then Ron walked into the room carrying a cup.
“I made you some coffee,” he said. “Cream, no sugar, right?”
“That’s it.”
“How are you feeling?”
“How do I look?”
“Like shit.”
“Well, I feel ten times worse.”
“Maybe you ought to think about laying off of the hard stuff.”
“Give me a chance to wake up and have my coffee before you start with the lecture, okay?”
“Sure. Anything you want, Jack. I’ll be in the other room. I don’t have much time, so if you want me to take you to your car, you need to get ready now.”
Fifteen minutes later they were making the short drive to the old condo in Ron’s white Lexus SUV in silence.
“Sorry I snapped at you, Ronnie,” Jack finally said. “You’ve been a great friend to me.”
“No need to apologize,” Ron said, although it was exactly what he’d been waiting for.
“You’re right, too. I need to stop wallowing in self-pity and do something.”
“I think you should get out of Oakville, Jack. What that cop said last night is true—there are a lot of people in this town who are not thinking favorably of you right now.”
“I probably should but I’m not leaving town. You said something last night that I’ve been thinking about. I need to get a sense of purpose again—focus on something else—and I know just what that something else is.”
“What’s that, Jack?”
“Finding Thomas Felton.”
“Jesus, Jack, every cop in the state is looking for him. You’re a great lawyer, but what makes you think you can add anything to this manhunt?”
“I know Felton better than any of them. I’ve spent some quality time with him in the last few weeks. I think I know what he’s going to do.”
“Do you want to share that information with your old buddy?”
“Only if you swear you won’t tell a soul, except for Danni. I want you to tell Danni part of it.”
“And what’s ‘it’?”
“He’s going to try and kill Danni.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Look, he told me that he couldn’t wait. He meant he couldn’t wait to kill again. The guy gave up millions of dollars. Yes, he’s a serial killer, and he wants, probably needs, to kill again, but that doesn’t explain it all. He was in prison for ten years. He has a good idea of the people who could have set him up, and Danni is right behind Sam Jeffries on that list. That’s why he killed Sam’s daughter.
“Danni’s daughter, Hannah, could have been his
next target, but Hannah presents logistical problems for him. And even if he drove out to Boulder, he’d know that by now Hannah’s gone. That brings him right back to Danni.”
“That would be suicide.”
“He doesn’t care at this point. He wants to kill. He wants revenge. He needs it like a junkie needs his fix.”
“Do you think Danni’s figured this out?”
“I don’t know, but she needs to know and I want you to tell her.”
“And what about Sam Jeffries?”
“He may have figured it out, too.”
“That means the whole damn police department knows.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe? He’s the police chief, for Christ’s sake.”
“I wish you wouldn’t say that,” Jack said.
“Say what?”
“For Christ’s sake.”
“Okay. He’s the friggin’ police chief, dammit!”
Jack looked at Ron and burst out laughing. It was classic Ron.
Ron started laughing, too. “Where was I?” Ron finally said. “Oh yeah, and what about the FBI? They’re probably already in on this, too.”
“I don’t think so. I’ll bet they’re still in Miami investigating that murder to establish some kind of a link. Then they’ll be here.”
“Still, there are a lot more people with a lot more expertise than you who can handle this problem. What are you going to add to this?”
“I don’t know, Ron. I don’t know. But I’ve got to try.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Danni had her plan in place. She was certain Felton was going to come at night so she planned on catnapping during the day and staying up all night. It wasn’t much more elaborate than that. She was going to make a dummy body in the bed and stick a comfortable chair in the walk-in closet where she was going to sit and wait, a flashlight in her left hand, her gun in her right. Lights were out at ten o’clock. Before that she would parade about the house with the curtains open, letting the world know she was there. She knew Felton wouldn’t shoot her through the window. He would want to be up close with a knife so he could watch and feel the life ooze out of her. That was going to be his downfall.
She’d finally convinced Sam to patrol the area rather than hang out in the woods. He wouldn’t have made it in the woods for any period of time in his physical condition, and he most certainly would have telegraphed his whereabouts. Now, at least, he was watching somewhere from a car. Danni figured he’d be out there all day as well as during the night. It wasn’t just conjecture. A friend at the department told her he had taken a leave of absence for an indefinite duration.
She was still worried about his emotional stability. And something else, someone else, added to that concern—Jack. Ron had called her and told her that Jack believed that Felton was going to come after her. It wasn’t news to her but she appreciated the fact that Jack was concerned. Her animosity toward him had dissipated somewhat. Henry’s actions had certainly contributed to her change of heart, but she also realized that when Jack had read Felton’s criminal file, he had been presented with a set of facts that had led him to only one conclusion—that his client had been set up. He didn’t listen to her when she told him to stay out of it, but it was his job to investigate the facts and test the validity of the police and the prosecution’s case. He wasn’t supposed to listen to her. She was never going to tell him, but she finally understood things from his perspective.
Now Jack was out there somewhere, according to Ron. If Jack ever crossed paths with Sam Jeffries, she didn’t know what would happen. Sam might snap and shoot Jack on the spot. Considering Sam’s state of mind, it was not a far-fetched possibility.
Jack had his own plans that he did not share with anybody, including Ron. He knew Danni’s house and the surrounding neighborhood from the brief period of time when they had been together. After circling the neighborhood a few times to re-familiarize himself with everything, he too became convinced that Felton would attack from the woods. It was the only undetected avenue for entry and escape. So Jack decided he was going to stay in the woods.
He bought himself a pup tent and a sleeping bag. He didn’t know what the police presence was going to be like, but he figured they would probably be checking any parked cars in that area and that they would also set up surveillance at the entry to the woods behind Danni’s backyard, so, before daybreak, he rode his bike from the new condo and entered the woods a half a mile farther down from the area directly behind Danni’s house. It was a longer walk and the woods were thick, but if he could do this, Felton could as well. He found a place to hide the bike not far from his entry point, under some fallen tree trunks that he covered with dead leaves. Then he walked to the area directly behind Danni’s house, a walk of about twenty minutes, and started searching for a spot for his tent. It took him a while but eventually he found a hollow, maybe about three feet deep, that abutted a tree. He set the tent up and covered it with leaves and put a log in front of the entrance. Even in the daytime, he was sure it was undetectable.
Like Danni, Jack figured Felton would make his move at night, so he, too, planned on catnapping during the day and staying up all night. Unfortunately, at night he would have to stand up to look out over the log to be able to see all of Danni’s backyard. Since he would be exposed then, he knew he had to be extremely careful. As an amateur, he also knew he would have to plan for any and every contingency. For example, on a moonless night it would be impossible to detect someone crossing the yard, so the next day Jack went to a gun store and purchased some night vision goggles. Every morning well before sunrise, he took his bike and bought his supplies for the day, mostly water and sandwiches, and sneaked back before the sun came up.
Contrary to his drunken statement to the police, Jack planned on catching Felton and turning him in. In the event that that plan didn’t work, he hoped he could shoot the Sig Sauer straight.
Sam Jeffries didn’t tell anybody at the police department that he thought Tom Felton was going to try and kill Danni Jansen. He didn’t get a SWAT team member to hide out in the woods either as Danni had suggested. He wanted Felton all to himself.
In Sam’s mind, he was going to park the car somewhere by the entrance to the woods behind Danni’s house during the day and just sit and watch. In the evening he was going to drive around. He’d put the arm on a few friends who had second cars and had access to four different cars to drive.
Things didn’t work out the way Sam envisioned, however. He’d always been a large man with huge arms and a powerful build, but in recent years he had been inactive and had gained too much weight. Consequently, his knees and his back ached with a minimum amount of stress. He could make the tour of Danni’s neighborhood every half hour at night, but sitting in the car all day lasted less than a day. The pain was just too much. His backup plan consisted of driving up to the woods every hour or so and taking a very slow walk through the brush and the bramble up to Danni’s backyard.
Jack heard Sam coming on his very first trip long before he saw him. Sam was huffing and puffing and making a racket trying to wade through the thicket. Felton would have been long gone at the first sound. Still, Sam was not going to give up.
With all of the activity going on around here, Jack thought, Felton’s going to have to be awfully committed. Three people were absolutely counting on that commitment.
Chapter Forty-Five
By the third day, Jack had settled into his routine somewhat. It was difficult to catnap during the day and even harder to stay awake all night, although the crickets chirping incessantly with the occasional accompaniment of a hoot owl did their part to keep him awake. The creatures of the night helped as well. He saw a slew of raccoons and possums, even a few armadillos. The animal that caused him the most concern, however, was a coyote. Jack saw him the first night, silently slinking by, his body close to the ground. Jack put his right hand on the Sig Sauer, hoping again that he would shoot it straight if the necessity should ari
se, but the coyote just kept going. He actually turned and looked right into Jack’s eyes as he passed—a kind of “welcome to the neighborhood” look. By the third night, Jack’s nerves had calmed. He was getting used to the place and, as a result, he constantly found himself waking up.
I’ve got to do better than this, he told himself each time.
There were other problems as well. The sandwiches were making him sick and constipated, and his body ached constantly. He was in excellent shape, but he wasn’t a young man anymore. Lying on the cold hard ground combined with inactivity was taking its toll. On the fourth day, he took some time before he went shopping and went for a short run and stretched for about a half hour. It made him feel so much better. Then he bought a big bunch of fruit along with his sandwiches. He just hoped the fruit didn’t give him the runs. Having the runs in the woods did not fall under the category of a good thing. In an abundance of caution, he put toilet paper on his list of things to buy the next morning.
The fourth night brought even a bigger problem. Jack was standing up just outside his pup tent looking at Danni’s backyard over the tree trunk that covered the entrance, wearing his night vision goggles. He didn’t remember falling asleep. All he knew was that at some point late in the evening he woke up to the feeling of cold hard steel pressed against his left temple.
“Bang!” a voice said.
Jack recognized it right away.
“Danni?”
“Jack, what the hell are you doing out here?” she asked, withdrawing the gun from his temple.
“I’m trying to catch my client.”
It was true but it sounded funny. Danni almost laughed.
“You could get yourself killed. If I hadn’t recognized you, I might have shot you.”
“Yeah well, I’m still learning how to be an Indian.”
Danni didn’t say anything. She seemed to be debating something in her own mind.
“Why don’t you come into the house and have some coffee,” she said, not waiting for an answer as she headed for the house.
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