Scene of the Crime: Deadman's Bluff

by Cassidy, Carla

  Linda’s backyard wasn’t fenced, nor were her neighbors’, giving Seth a half a dozen options for pursuit. He jogged to the edge of the property and then stopped, listening to see if he heard the sound of running feet, sensed a presence hiding nearby.

  Nothing.

  As he gazed in all directions with narrowed eyes he figured the perp was long gone, having made tracks when Tamara had screamed.

  God, that scream, coupled with his nightmare, still had the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. He stood as still as a statue for several long minutes, then believing the danger passed, he walked back to the window to check out the damage. He stayed far enough away that he wouldn’t be contaminating any evidence.

  The screen was on the ground and the window was wide open. If Tamara had slept another minute longer the person would have been in the room and on top of her. It would have been easy for her to be overwhelmed, perhaps drugged and then dragged out the window and into the night.

  Dammit. He cursed himself soundlessly. He’d been so stupid. With all the news in the media about the murders and her amnesia, with him parading her all around town, of course the killer had known exactly where to come to find her.

  And it wasn’t just Tamara he’d put at risk with his own thoughtlessness, but also Linda and Samantha as well, both brunettes and both potentially fitting the killer’s profile.

  He’d put everybody he cared about at risk by not anticipating that the killer would return for Tamara. Because nothing had happened so far he’d thought maybe the killer’s focus had moved to somebody else, but this was proof he apparently had somebody in the house in his sights.

  This had been a tragedy averted, but things had to change and they had to change immediately. The first thing he needed to do was check on Tamara and make sure she was okay. The second thing he wanted to do was call Tom and get somebody over here to dust the window for fingerprints or any evidence that might have been left behind.

  He only hoped this near-miss might actually yield some clues.

  * * *

  THE FIRST THING TAMARA thought when Seth walked into the front door was that he looked lethal and hot in a pair of boxers with every muscle tensed and his gun in his hand.

  “You both okay?” he asked, his gaze going to Linda and then to Tamara, who sat side by side on the sofa.

  “Just shaken up a little,” Tamara admitted. “Thank God I woke up when I did.” She fought a shiver as she thought of that moment when she’d suddenly awakened and seen the dark shadow of a man at the window.

  Seth walked over to the coffee table and picked up his cell phone. Tamara and Linda sat silently while he made a call to Sheriff Atkins.

  “I guess you didn’t see him outside,” Tamara said.

  “I didn’t even know which direction to give chase,” he replied. “You two stay here and don’t open the door for anyone but Tom and I’m going to get dressed and head back to the bedroom to check out the window.”

  As he disappeared down the hallway, the shiver Tamara had tried to control swept over her. Linda leaned over and patted her hand. “How about a cup of hot tea? Maybe that would take away some of the chill.”

  Tamara nodded absently. Her thoughts were scattered. She knew she should be scared to death...and she was, but she also felt as if she was still trapped in a bad dream where nothing seemed quite real. There was a faint numbness that had swept over her through the past couple of minutes, a numbness that kept her from screaming once again in terror.

  Seth returned to the living room, this time wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. He frowned with concern at her. “Are you sure you’re okay? He didn’t hurt you in any way, did he?”

  She shook her head. “He didn’t even get inside the room. I don’t know what woke me up, but I opened my eyes and he was there at the window and I just screamed.”

  At that moment a knock on the door indicated the arrival of the local law. Seth opened the door to admit both Sheriff Atkins and Raymond Michaels. As he led them back into the bedroom, Linda urged her to join her at the kitchen table for a cup of hot tea.

  “You need anything else?” Linda asked sympathetically as Tamara sat across from her at the table and cupped her hands around the warmth of the mug. “You look a little shell-shocked.”

  Tamara forced a smile and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was just a few minutes after two. “Don’t you feel a little of the same? I’m sure the last thing you expected was for some man to try to break into your house in the middle of the night. I think the best thing for me to do is head back to Amarillo first thing in the morning.”

  “Let’s wait and see what Seth and the sheriff have in mind,” Linda said, appearing unruffled by the middle-of-the-night chaos. “It’s never any good to make decisions in the heat of the moment.”

  Tamara sipped her coffee, her thoughts scattered in every direction. Somebody had tried to get to her through the window. Seth had kissed her and thoughts of her previous marriage brought with them a sense of anxiety that made no sense. The kiss and the odd feeling concerning her marriage had kept her awake for a long time after she’d gone to bed.

  It was easy to figure out why the kiss had kept her awake. Seth’s lips against hers had fired a heat inside her that, despite her amnesia, she was certain she’d never felt before.

  She knew he was right, that the two of them making love would only complicate what was already a muddled situation, but she’d so desperately wanted to be in his arms, to feel the warmth of his nakedness against her own. She’d wanted to leave this place with a single memory of making love to Seth to take with her back home.

  She frowned and took a sip of the hot tea, knowing that her mind was focusing on Seth and what might have happened between them rather than what had just happened...somebody had tried to get to her, probably the same somebody who had already once buried her in the dunes.

  The Sandman. It didn’t take a brilliant scientist to make an educated guess that the person who had tried to get into the house was the serial killer, and that his goal was to finish the job he’d started.

  Even the warmth of the tea couldn’t stanch the shiver of horror that shuddered through her, a horror that eased somewhat as Seth came back into the room, followed by Tom and Raymond.

  “Whoever it was must have worn gloves,” Tom said. “Raymond here dusted the sill and screen and couldn’t find any prints. You were lucky you woke up when you did. Another minute or two and he would have been on the bed with you.”

  Tamara nodded, tuning out of the conversation as she felt the back of her throat close up and a tight pressure against her chest.

  As the three lawmen moved into the living room, their voices became white noise as the scrape of a shovel against the sand filled her head. If she hadn’t awakened...the words thundered in her brain. If she hadn’t awakened when she did it was possible that by now she’d be buried in the dunes, without anyone knowing she’d been carried out of the house in the darkness of the night.

  Hollowly she gazed at Linda. She’d brought danger to Linda’s home. She’d brought danger far too close to a woman and her daughter, both of whom had been kind to her.

  She needed to go. It didn’t matter that she didn’t have her memories back. She needed to return to the life she didn’t remember and try to pick up the pieces. She had to do that in order to protect the people she had come to care about so very much.

  * * *

  SETH RETURNED TO THE KITCHEN alone and sat in the chair between his sister and Tamara. He reached for each of their hands and Tamara held on tight, feeling as if he was once again pulling her from the suffocating weight of a sand dune.

  “So, we need to make some changes,” he said, his voice calm in contrast to the utter chaos in Tamara’s head. He turned and looked at his sister, his eyes gunmetal-gray. “We can’t remain here and put you and Samantha in danger.” He frowned, as if assessing the options.

  “Actually, I have an idea of my own,” Linda said. “Next we
ek Samantha had planned on staying with her dad for a couple of weeks. She does that every summer. I can talk to Mark tomorrow and I’m sure she can move right in over there. As far as I’m concerned I’ve got a friend in Oklahoma City who has been nagging me for the past six months since her husband passed away to come and stay with her for a while. I’ve got plenty of vacation time coming and I can be on the road first thing in the morning. Then the two of you can stay here and get things figured out.”

  Tamara pulled her hand out of Seth’s grip. “Absolutely not. I can’t let you be chased out of your house because of me,” she protested. She wanted to weep, she felt so helpless and out of control.

  “I’m not being chased out by you or anyone else,” Linda protested. “I’m making a choice.” She looked from Tamara to her brother. “It’s the logical thing to do. Besides, if you move someplace else he’ll just end up finding you again. At least you know the layout here. Seth knows how best to protect you in this house rather than someplace else in town.”

  Seth rubbed a hand across his forehead as if fighting back a headache. His frown was so deep it tugged his dark eyebrows close together as he gazed first at his sister and then back at Tamara. For the first time since she’d known him, he seemed to be at a loss for words.

  “I should go home,” Tamara whispered faintly, although she had the feeling that somebody or something bad awaited her there, as well.

  “That’s not the answer. Amarillo is the last place you need to be,” Seth replied gruffly. “At least here you have me and the sheriff working on things. In Amarillo you’d be all alone until you get your memories back.”

  He looked back at Linda. “You can make all this happen tomorrow?”

  She nodded with a certain resolve. “Without any problems at all.”

  “I just want you and Samantha someplace safe and Tamara and I will stay at the house. He knows she’s here and I have a feeling he’ll come back for her. I’d rather that happened where we can have some control and we can do that here.”

  Linda nodded and got up from the table. “I’ll make the arrangements and Samantha and I will be out of here by noon tomorrow. And now that the excitement is all over, I’m going back to bed.” With a tired wave of her hand, she headed out of the kitchen.

  Tamara watched her go. Things were spinning out of control and she didn’t know what to do about it. She hated the fact that she was forcing two people out of their home because she’d somehow had a run-in with a crazy killer.

  “Maybe it was just a normal attempt at a home burglary,” she said hopefully. “I mean, under normal circumstances that guest bedroom would be empty. Maybe some robber assumed it was empty and just decided to break in tonight.”

  Seth shook his head. “No, it was definitely him.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  Seth hesitated a long moment, long enough for a knot of anxiety to twist tighter and tighter in her chest. “I can be sure because next to the window on the ground he left a miniature sand dune.” He raked a hand through his hair. “If he’d been successful and I’d awakened tomorrow morning and found you gone, he wanted everyone to know for sure what had happened to you, who had taken you.”

  “The Sandman,” she whispered. A new shiver of horror fluttered through her as she considered the fact that the next time he tried to get to her, he might succeed.

  * * *

  HE WANTED TO WEEP. He’d been close...so achingly close to her. Just a few more steps, a quick stab of a needle that would almost instantly render her helpless and then all he’d had to do was carry her out the window and get away.

  He’d been so proud of the whole plan, so certain that they would never assume he’d be bold enough to attack there, right beneath an FBI agent’s nose.

  And he’d almost succeeded. If the bitch had just stayed asleep another two minutes he would have had her incapacitated and carried her away to the dunes...where she belonged.

  It wasn’t over, not by a long shot. So far he’d had two false starts, but he knew the old saying...third time was a charm.

  Chapter Seven

  The remainder of the night passed with Seth on high alert. He insisted Tamara move into Samantha’s bedroom for the rest of the night and then he had half dozed in a chair in the living room, unable to completely relinquish himself to sleep as he thought about the days to come.

  The mound of sand he’d found outside the window told him two things...that the killer had embraced the name the newspaper had given him, and that he was getting bolder. That could either work for them or against them in capturing him.

  By the time morning came Seth made a pot of coffee to go along with his exhaustion. He definitely needed a major caffeine boost in order to do his interviews that day. And whatever he did, wherever he went, Tamara would go with him. There was no other option.

  The coffee had just finished dripping into the carafe when Linda came into the kitchen and sat at the table. With her hair bed-messed, without makeup and clad in a pair of hot pink pajamas she looked ten years younger.

  “You know, you don’t have to do this,” he said as he placed a cup of coffee in front of her. “I can pack up Tamara and take her to the local motel until the investigation is finished.”

  Linda shook her head. “She’s been through enough. I don’t think it would be good for her to be moved someplace else at this time in her recovery. Besides, I’ve just wanted somebody to give me a reason to take some time off and visit Helen, and Samantha bunking in at her dad’s place is no big deal. I think they have a camping trip planned in the next week or so. She and Scooter will be fine and so will I.”

  A wealth of affection rose up inside Seth for his sister. “You’re the best, sis.” He grabbed his coffee and joined her at the table.

  She took a sip and eyed him over the rim of the cup. “I see the way she looks at you, Seth,” she said as she set the cup back down on the table. “And I see the way you look at her.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He looked into his cup, unable to meet her gaze.

  “Yeah, right,” she replied drily. “You know how much I’d love for you to find a woman and fall in love and build a family, but you need to take care in this case. She doesn’t know where she belongs, and for all we know there is a special somebody waiting for her return. I don’t want to see her get hurt, but more important I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I just want to catch this freak, get him under arrest and then return to my life in Kansas City,” Seth said.

  Linda raised an eyebrow. “What life?”

  Seth laughed humorlessly, knowing his sister believed he had no life except his work, which, of course, was true.

  “I’m just telling you to tread softly. The attraction between the two of you is palpable, but you need to remember the circumstances of why she’s here now and she’ll be gone soon.”

  “Duly noted,” he replied. Despite the kiss from the night before, a kiss that had rocked his world, he had no intention of taking things any further with Tamara.

  By nine o’clock, Linda had taken off to drive to Oklahoma City to visit with her friend, Samantha had come by and packed two enormous suitcases for her time with her father and Seth had boarded up the window in the guest room with plywood he’d found in Linda’s garage. Then he and Tamara were on their way to the sheriff’s office.

  “There’s a break room in the back and you can hang out in there while I conduct my interviews,” Seth explained. “We’ll get somebody to run out and get you some magazines to read and there’s a television in there, so you shouldn’t be too bored.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she replied. “Although I probably would have been fine staying at home. If this creep lives up to his name, then the nighttime will be his playtime. The Sandman doesn’t visit people during the daylight hours.”

  “I thought the Sandman was only supposed to sprinkle good dreams into the heads of sleeping children.” Seth pulled up in fron
t of the office, shut off the engine and turned to look at her.

  “Apparently not this Sandman,” she replied. Despite the short night she looked lovely with her long hair pulled back and clasped at the nape of her neck. She wore a pair of jeans and a white blouse with blue trim that complemented the color of her eyes.

  “Apparently not,” he agreed. “And whether we like it or not, he is focused on you, so there’s no way I want you alone anywhere for now.”

  They both got out of his truck. The late-June heat was already hot on his shoulders and Seth had a feeling things were going to get even hotter for the people he intended to interview.

  He needed to get this job done and the sooner the better because Linda was right, Tamara was getting to him, and the end result of anything that might happen between them was that somebody was going to wind up being hurt.

  After seeing Tamara settled in the small lounge in the back of the building, Seth sat in the interrogation room with Tom. The short night showed on the sheriff’s features. Tired lines raced down the sides of his face and Seth had a feeling he had the same kind of stress lines on his own.

  “Henry Todd will be here in just a few minutes to talk to you and this afternoon I’ve got Casey Minter coming in. She was friendly with Vicki and although she wouldn’t tell me much, I’m hoping she’ll be more open with you.”

  “Why didn’t she open up to you?” Seth asked curiously.

  “Probably because I’ve arrested her father a dozen times for public intoxication. I’m not exactly a favorite around the Minter household.”

  “I met Henry Todd last night. Tamara and I ate at the Golden Daffodil and he came out and introduced himself to us,” Seth said.

  “Quite the Dapper Dan, isn’t he?”

  Seth smiled. “I believe Tamara mentioned the word smarmy after meeting him.”

  Tom’s grin lasted only a moment. “After last night have you made alternate plans for where Tamara is going to stay?”