by Dale Mayer
Panic set in. Julie didn't deserve this. Kali had known her for years, yet she didn't really know her. She was a great woman who'd already survived so much. Kali wished she'd taken more time to visit with her. After Mexico, Kali had ignored the people around her, the changes going on in the world and especially at the center.
She stood in the middle of Julie's bedroom and held her throbbing temple. "Think, damn it. Think," she whispered. Where could Julie be? What was the chance she'd be doing something ordinary like visiting friends or staying over with a boyfriend? Just because she wasn't home didn't mean she should hit the panic button. And yet - Kali's nerves refused to be calmed. She spun around looking for a jewelry box. "What's the chance the matching earring is here?"
Grant frowned but checked the dresser and night table. A small one sat open in the top drawer. Kali walked over to see. No missing earring.
"It makes sense that the earring wouldn't be here. If he has her, she's likely to have started out wearing both."
If she'd been taken, she couldn't be far. There'd been no time. Or had there? When had the earring been delivered? She'd been at the center for hours, followed by at least two hours at the coffee shop. So where could he have taken her within...say an hour's drive? Although, even that was an arbitrary time-frame.
"What are you thinking?" Grant asked, the phone open in his hand.
"I'm sorting through possibilities." Kali motioned out the window. "If the letter writer has her, this isn't exactly the easiest place to kidnap or bury her. Presuming he buried her. There are always people around - someone should have seen him. She's small, but surely he's still going to be noticed carrying a body, isn't he?"
"If she didn't walk out on her own. We'll canvas the neighborhood. If we're lucky, someone saw something."
"But chances are we won't find them in time to save her." Kali couldn't keep the bitterness out of her voice.
"This is not your fault," he reminded her firmly, a gentleness in his eyes.
Kali wanted to believe him. Shaking her head, she struggled to concentrate. "My brain understands, my heart, however..."
"I know."
His voice soothed her tattered nerves. She welcomed the comfort, but the deepening connection between them confused her more. So much for locking people out. Grant had wormed his way inside.
"Let's stay focused," Grant said. "If she's been taken, and, yes, we're jumping to a conclusion without any proof, where could he have taken her?"
"Anywhere. Everywhere. Within an hour's drive, there are millions of places to bury someone where they'd never be found." Places flashed through her mind, ditches, fields, gardens, empty lots. The opportunities were endless.
"You found the last victim."
"Sure. But I was already on the scene with a search and rescue dog in hand." She threw her hands up in frustration. "That was the right location with the right tools. Yes, I have Shiloh with me now, only she won't be able to help unless we can narrow the location."
"Okay, now think. He knows you and how you work, so he must be expecting you to do something. There has to be a clue somewhere."
"Yeah, somewhere." Tears of frustration turned her voice into a croak. Damn it.
"What about your sketch? Can you identify a location from your picture?"
"Maybe," she said, relieved to have something constructive to think about. "I can take another look." Grant retrieved the sketchbook from the car while she waited at the front door. Using the bright kitchen light, they studied the details.
"No mountains or major identifiers." Grant bent over the map. "It's hard to pick out anything."
"I know," Kali whispered. "Yet..."
"What?" Grant straightened, his sharp gaze zeroed in on her face. "What do you see?"
"It feels familiar." Kali reached out and motioned toward the slope and ground cover surrounding it. She chewed on her bottom lip. "But I can't be sure."
"What about it looks right?"
"It's hard to explain. That single line captures Julie's profile." She pointed it out. "This line here captures a hill on one of the training areas we use for cadaver training."
"You have a special training area for that?"
Kali shook her head. "It's not full of dead bodies or anything. It's where we run training exercises for the dogs, especially young ones."
"Would you have trouble finding Julie there?"
She understood what he meant. "No, Shiloh can separate live from dead and, although it may take her a while, she will eventually find everything buried, dead or alive." She pressed her lips together, thinking. "It would be a good hiding spot, because the ground is easy to dig." Kali dismissed her words with a head shake. "Then again, it's an area that Shiloh knows well so, this wouldn't be much a challenge."
"Maybe the challenge is to find the location, knowing you'd have no problem finding the body."
Kali recoiled. "What time is it?"
"Just after two in the morning."
"Sunday morning. Already."
He put his hands on either side of her face. "Focus for a moment. Is there anything else in the picture that calls to you? Anything recognizable?"
Kali closed her eyes against the tumultuous thoughts crowding her head. Opening them, she stared at the picture one more time. Instead of seeing something new, the picture cemented the location in her mind.
"She's there." Kali knew it in her heart. Julie was buried somewhere in their training ground. "I need to go home and get my gear."
Grant held the front door open. "I'll pull a team together. And I’ll get a uniform over here to wait in case she comes home. Just in case this is a wild goose chase." He headed for the car, already talking on the phone while Kali waited impatiently. Before opening the door, he asked, "Directions?"
Quickly relaying them, Kali hopped into the car, wishing he'd hurry up. Her heart pounded and her palms started to sweat. Julie was dying. Kali knew it, even though she couldn't prove it. Urgency morphed into panic - they weren't going to be in time.
Tears blinded her.
Grant drove back to her house. He glanced at her several times, and Kali appreciated his concern...and his silence. She needed time to collect herself.
Back at her house, lights blazed because Grant's people had never left. Kali shook her head at how far her life had slid out of control. Shiloh barked. Kali bent and hugged her tight.
"Okay girl. Let's go to work." Kali quickly gathered up a vest, Shiloh's lead and some dog treats. As an afterthought, Kali filled a couple of water bottles and stuffed several granola bars in her pockets. It took a moment longer to find Shiloh's teddy bear. She tucked it inside her jacket.
A fine-edged focus settled her by the time she'd finished. Time to go to work.
"Ready?" she asked Grant on her way to her Jeep.
"We're right behind you."
Kali held the door open as Shiloh jumped into the back. Kali slammed the door, hopped into the driver's side and took off, spitting gravel in her wake. The training ground was a good twenty minutes out of town. Wooded areas and meadows dotted the hilly terrain there. Shiloh's playground.
As she drove, she had to wonder who knew the industry and the center well enough to know their training ground's schedule, setting their plans in motion when they wouldn't be disturbed accidentally. Detailed records were always kept of who had been where, and used what for each training session. Who knew enough to access the schedule?
Kali's cell phone rang as she pulled onto the highway. Shiloh whined, an odd note in her tone.
She pushed the button, leaving the phone in the holder on her dash. "Hello."
Eerie laughter filled her Jeep.
"Hello? Who is this?" Kali snapped.
"You're too late." The strangled whisper ended with a click as the line went dead.
Kali's heart stalled. "Oh, God. Shiloh, please tell me that doesn't mean what I'm afraid it means." Her hands started shaking. Shiloh whined and nudged her nose against Kali's neck.
Lea
ning forward, Kali rummaged through the front cubbyholes for Grant's card. Damn it. Where was it?
There. "
Keeping one eye on the empty highway, she punched in his number. Grant," she said, "the killer just called me." She quickly relayed the conversation. "It had that same mechanical sound as the voice from the other night."
"Chances are he's disguising it. It's easy to do with today's technology. My team will have traced it. I'm betting it's a dead end again."
Tears collected in the corner of her eyes. "Shit." She pounded the steering wheel. Frustration and anger warred with grief and sorrow, all of them threatening to collapse her very foundation.
"Keep steady, Kali." Grant's voice sharpened. "Let's stay focused. There's always hope."
"But what if I'm wrong and she's not even here?"
"Then we're wrong and we have to accept that. None of it means you're to blame."
Kali sniffled. She checked her rear-view mirror, noted the steady headlights of the FBI following her and changed lanes. "The turn-off is ahead."
"We're right behind. Let's see this through to the end."
Kali hung up and made the turn. "Right. To the end then." Shiloh woofed behind her.
She parked beside the small shack that served as a basic shelter against the elements and hopped out. Shiloh scrambled behind her. Kali snapped Shiloh's working leash on, then turned to the huge area ahead of her.
The other vehicles pulled in beside them in a flurry of dust. Kali ignored them, grabbed her flashlight, and stepped out. Shiloh urged her left. Kali had considered snatching up a piece of Julie's clothing, but that wasn't Shiloh's forte, and if the victim wasn't Julie, Shiloh's focus would stay on that scent, potentially missing a different victim.
Shiloh barked once, lowered her head and got to work. The flashlight was dim and the heavy cloud cover made the terrain treacherous. She hadn't taken the time to put on her work boots and her runners slipped on the leaves littering the ground. Kali scrambled up the short incline, her hands digging in the thick natural loam. Behind her, the sounds of the team trying to follow chased her. Shiloh tugged hard on her leash. She wanted to go. Kali didn't dare let her run free. She'd never be able to track the dog in this dense blackness. Instead, she picked up the pace giving Shiloh more lead.
Left, then a little more to the right, around the trees and into a clearing on the right. An eerie glow shone. Kali blinked. The light was gone. She blinked again, opening her psychic senses. There it was. She turned toward a soft tumbled hill. Kali unsnapped Shiloh's lead. She bolted forward. Circled the hill once, twice, and whined.
"What is it girl?" Kali reached the hillock and didn't need her flashlight to see the dark purple glow. "This is it, isn't it?"
Shiloh barked once, then lay down, her head on top of her paws. Kali jogged the last bit toward her. She could hear the sounds of the men catching up behind her. She ignored them, trying to understand Shiloh's reaction. It was unusual. And it gave her hope.
Kali shifted her vision, allowing the psychic threads to light up further. In the darkness, they held an unmistakable luminescence. Only they were dark, deep colors in snaky thin threads, acting unlike anything she'd seen before. They snuggled low to the ground, weak and reedy instead of reaching upward. She frowned, trying to understand. Noises rustled ten feet in front of her and off to the left. Kali sucked in her breath. What was that?
"Grant?" she yelled into the blackness. An odd sound burst through the brush in front of her. Kali spun around. "Grant, are you there?"
Heavier thuds clumped into the eerie darkness before fading away. Kali's heart thudded in panic. Oh, God. She hadn't been alone. Kali snapped off her light and hunkered down in the darkness, motionless beside Shiloh.
"Kali!" Shouts sounded behind her.
"Here!"
The men's high beam flashlights broke through the blackness, picking up Shiloh and her. Kali stood up, pointing in the direction of the receding footsteps. "Grant, someone was here. He took off that way."
Men scattered.
Grant grabbed Kali's arm as she moved. "The men will look. Now," Grant took a deep breath. "What did you and Shiloh find?"
"Shiloh," Kali stressed, "stopped here."
Grant used his flashlight to survey the ground. "It's been disturbed recently." He shifted position, scooping the dirt away with his hands.
Kali joined him. "It looks different from my sketch."
He glanced over at her. "Does it?"
"There's no air pipe."
Grant stopped for a moment, then shone his flashlight over the area in a quick perusal as Kali continued to dig frantically at the end where she knew the head would be. "No, there isn't." He resumed working beside her. Two other men with shovels joined them. Grant pulled Kali back. Exercising caution, the men went to work. There was no time for proper procedures. Julie's life hung in the balance.
"Look," Kali cried out.
Flashlights beamed in her direction and locked onto where she pointed. A piece of plaid fabric shone in the light. A shirt. Shovels were tossed aside as careful hands scooped and lifted, clearing the dirt from around the head area. Grant followed the shirt to the body underneath, sliding his hands underneath, he tugged a body upward. With effort, he pulled the body free. First a pinkish arm flopped out and then another as the dirt grudgingly slid to the side, unwilling to give up its secret.
Kali stood fixated on the chaos, Shiloh cuddled up at her side. The lights created weird shadows in the sky as men went to work on the victim. An oxygen tank landed off to one side.
Kali's heart stopped. She closed her eyes briefly. "Is it Julie? Is she still alive?"
Just then, the sea of men parted.
"Grant?"
Grant stepped back a pace as the light flashed on the victim's face. Kali stared. It wasn't Julie.
It was a man.
***
That had been too close. Hidden in a hollow less than two miles away from the craziness, Texan struggled to control his breathing. Crap, he shouldn't be this winded already. He went for much longer on disaster sites. He hadn't expected panic to steal his strength. Groaning, he rolled over and flopped on his back. Dampness soaked into his shirt, cooling the raging sweat he'd worked up. Kali's black magic was strong. Scary strong. If he hadn't seen her painting, he'd never have believed how strong.
His heart had pounded so badly when he'd heard Shiloh coming up behind him he'd been afraid of having a heart attack. When Shiloh worked, nothing threw her off. He'd bolted, as far and as fast as possible.
No easy feat in the dark.
Tugging his jacket loosely over his chest, he coughed once, then twice. He'd take just a minute more. His car was quite a distance away yet. The last thing he needed was to run into a roadblock. The dark would hide him for hours until the searchers brought in high-powered lights and really got to work. He had to be long gone by then.
He'd survived this far by being careful and faithful to God's plan. He wasn't about to screw up now.
Damn Kali, anyway. She'd gotten lucky this time. He'd underestimated the strength of her evil. Forewarned was forearmed. Next time, he'd plan better and make damn sure she came out the loser.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Kali stood, a silent island amidst the sea of men surging in the eerie moonlight. Where was Julie? And who was this poor man?
Someone bumped her, jarring her to awareness. She looked around. Grant's men blended with paramedics, at least she thought that's who they were. Having led the way the whole time, she'd had no idea how many people Grant had called in, until she was drowned in the sea of people. Heavy duty lights had been set up, throwing weird shadows across the area as men moved about their tasks. Energy wafted high in the night sky. Colors flung and retracted with the movements of the men. So many men, so much energy. She blinked several times and tried to shift her awareness away from her own personal borealis. Nudging the agent closest to her, she asked, "Is he alive?"
Looking up at the sky be
ginning to lighten ever so slightly, he gave a small shake of his head. "No." His voice dropped to a low whisper. "But he's still warm."
"Oh God," she whispered, pulling her light jacket tighter. That explained the low to the ground and barely black visible threads amongst the brighter waves. It also explained Shiloh's reaction. Crouching down, she hugged Shiloh, who lay with her teddy bear under her chin. Shiloh understood. Kali buried her head in the thick pelt as hot tears pooled. They ran and mingled as sorrow overwhelmed her. They'd been so close, so fast, almost saved him...almost.
