“I’m not wrong. He’s sick, just like his father was. It all makes sense now. That was what Jean was afraid of. She’d seen it in him. She was going to tell the police and he killed her to shut her up. He’s desperate to be Louisa and he’ll use Mandy to achieve it, unless we stop him,” Paige frantically spat out.
“I don’t care what you say. I love him. Probably the only person who ever really has,” Marty insisted. “I won’t let you hurt him by accusing him of this crap. You’re one crazy lady.”
Paige lost her patience. “I don’t care about you right now. What you feel doesn’t matter. What you think is true doesn’t matter. There is a young woman out there who is going to die if I don’t find her fast.” She stabbed a finger at his chest. “Now shut up and let me focus.”
“Focus on what?” He stared at the jacket in her hand. “What is with you and people’s jackets?”
Paige ignored him. She calmed her breathing down. She could still hear him firing questions at her, but she tuned out his words. Her heart beat loudly in her ears, terror making it hard to concentrate. Panic edged through her awareness. She felt like she was drowning in it. How was she going to find Mandy if she couldn’t shut down the emotions choking her? With sudden clarity, she realised it wasn’t only her fear she was feeling. It was Mandy’s.
The girl was terrified. Paige slipped deeper into the sensations. Sounds, smells, and finally sights began to filter through. She could hear the wind in the trees. Feel the chill of the air. She could hear the sound of twigs and stones crunching underfoot. Paige frowned. Where were they? If they were somewhere in the woods, it would take forever to find them.
A dilapidated building came into view in her mind’s eye. She knew it! The old mill. It had been abandoned for years. Her eyes snapped open. “I know where they are. Do you have a car? We need to hurry!”
“How can you possibly know where they are just by holding a jacket?” Marty demanded.
“I have a gift,” she replied as she shoved her hand in his jacket pocket. “It tells me things other people would rather I didn’t know.”
“Hey!” He tried to fight her off, but she already grasped the key and wrapped her hand around it as she pulled away from him. “You’re insane. Give me those keys back.”
“I know this sounds crazy to you, but we don’t have time for this. Ryan will kill that girl and it will be on our heads,” she pleaded. He glared at her, clearly not believing a word she said. She sighed. She had no choice but to convince him. “You had a brother. He died when you were eleven and your parents blamed you because you were older and supposed to be watching him. You haven’t ever forgiven yourself for that. Do you want another life on your conscience? Because I sure don’t.”
He sucked in a deep breath, his eyes wide with shock. “How do you know that? I haven’t even told Ryan about that.”
“I told you, I have a gift.” She waved the keys at him. “Now please, where is your car?”
He stared at her for several moments. “Ryan can’t be a killer,” he whispered, tears glazing his eyes.
“What more do you need me to say to convince you I’m right? I can relate other details of your life, but we’re wasting time. I have to find them and stop him.” Desperation filled her.
He held up his hands, staring down at the ground he finally said, “It’s down the side street just to the left of here. It’s the small pick-up truck. You can’t miss it. I should come with you. I can help.”
“You can’t. I think your presence would only make him worse.” She headed to the door. “There’s a phone over there on the wall. Call the police for me. Tell Detective Steele what’s happened and ask him to get to the old Mill as fast as he can.”
She ran out of the building, her legs shaking and her heart beating wildly in her chest. So much time had passed. Far more than she’d have liked. She tuned into Mandy. Pain sliced through her arm. Gasping, she stumbled. She had to get to Mandy before it was too late.
Chapter Twenty One
Paige raced down the side street Marty had told her held his pick-up truck. She spotted the dirty, battered down vehicle a few feet down the street. She aimed the key at it and unlocked the doors as she ran. Her legs shook and her breath blew in and out of her lungs as she reached the truck and flung open the door.
Climbing behind the wheel, her fingers trembled as she jammed the key into the ignition and turned. Quickly snapping her seat belt into place, she threw the car into first and hit the accelerator. The wheels skidded on the road as she quickly moved through the gears, until she was driving at top speed towards the edge of town.
The street lights gave way to darkness. She turned her headlights on full and drove along the road until she came to a small dirt track that led off the main road. Taking a sharp left, she drove down the muddy track until she reached the rundown trail that lead to the old mill. Another car sat at the base of the trail. The boot was open wide like a gapping mouth grinning evilly at her. She had no doubt who the car belonged to. Bringing the truck to a stop, she turned off the ignition and slipped out of the vehicle.
Breathing deeply, she raced along the track until the building came into sight. She had no idea how she was going to stop Louisa. Her heart raced in her chest. She had to think of something. Her legs trembled as she approached the darkened building. God, she hoped she wasn’t too late. She was too afraid to link with Mandy to find out.
The ground was overgrown with weeds. She stumbled along the path, the moon barely lighting her way. She wished she had a torch. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. She reached the crumbling wall and ran her fingers along until she came to where a door once would have hung. The opening was now a yawning mouth in the darkness. She carefully climbed through.
A light to her right caught her attention. A yellow glow in the darkness. It would have been welcoming if she didn’t know what was taking place in its embrace. Slowly she made her way towards the light. Rushing in might startle Louisa and make things worse for Mandy.
She reached a door, almost completely rotted through. She peered through the gaps in the wooden slats. Inside was a large dust filled storage room. She could see Mandy tied up on the floor. Louisa sat on her, her head bent over. Mandy was crying, a gag muffling the sound of her sobs. Pain filled eyes gazed around in terror, as if searching for someone to help her.
Louisa sat up, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. She slowly drew a knife down Mandy’s blouse, the sound ripping through the darkness. She reached for something behind her. An implement that sat next to her knee in readiness.
Terror filled Paige’s heart. She knew exactly what that was. She’d seen it being used in the vision’s she’d had of the previous murders. Surgeons normally used it in open heart surgery to crack open a chest. She’d ran out of time. She couldn’t afford to wait and hope the police would reach her first. Mandy would be dead.
Without any plan or thought to her own safety, Paige flung open the door. It fell open with a bang as she charged into the room. “Louisa, please stop,” she cried out.
Louisa jerked, her head snapping towards Paige. She jerked to a stop and gasped. This wasn’t Louisa. No matter what she’d found out, it was only in this moment that Paige fully realised that there truly was another person in Louisa. She faced him now. Ryan stared at her with cold, angry eyes. All trace of the girl she’d known was gone. His gaze was crazed and desperate, blood dripping from his mouth.
“How’d you find us?” Paige couldn’t believe the complete change in the person before her. Even Ryan’s voice was different. Deeper, colder.
“That doesn’t matter. You can’t use Mandy to bring back Louisa.” She held out her hands. “Please. She’s your friend.”
Ryan snorted, “I have no friends.” He gripped Mandy by the throat, drawing the knife slowly down her chest. A thin streak of blood followed. His cold eyes never left Paige. “You shouldn’t have come here. I can’t use you as I can her,” he flicked his head in Mandy’s directio
n, “but I can’t let you live now either. You should have stayed out of it.”
Paige swallowed hard. “I can’t. She’s my friend. And so is Louisa.” Ryan jerked as she said the words. She winced as the knife pressed deeper into Mandy. “Do you really think you can keep the wall up between you and Louisa if you kill her friends?”
He froze, eyeing her with a cold hard gaze. “What do you know? Nothing, that’s what!”
“I knew where to find you,” Paige pointed out slowly. “I know other things too. Like how innocent and sweet Louisa is. She is totally unaware of your presence, isn’t she?”
Ryan said nothing, but he regarded her with contemplation in his eyes. She pressed ahead. “How long do you think you can keep that wall up? If you kill her friends, the people she’s shared so much with and likes, do you think your actions won’t bleed through?”
“It never has before,” Ryan snapped.
“But you’ve never killed someone close to Louisa before,” Paige couldn’t be sure, she simply had to go with her gut on this.
“Louisa isn’t that close to either of you. You’ve only known each other a few days,” Ryan insisted. “She’ll grieve a bit, then move on.”
“I don’t think so,” Paige said softly. “I think the shock will open up a door to you. She’ll start to remember. Bit by bit, what you’ve done will bleed through. Maybe in dreams or flashbacks, but it will happen. Then what? You’ll do these rituals, but she won’t be unware of them. You’ll have tainted the one part of you that you wanted to keep pure.”
Ryan waved his knife at her. “You’re talking rubbish. You know nothing.”
“Yet here I am.” She held her hands wide to indicate the space. “How did I know where to find you? Because I know things. That’s a special part of me that I keep hidden from others. A gift I never wanted anyone else to know about. That gift told me things about you. How you need to consume these women. I didn’t know why at first, but now I do. You need their essence in order to become Louisa. A female like your adopted mother wanted you to be.”
Ryan snarled, his lip curling back. He was shaking his head, his eyes wild. “You know nothing. You know nothing.” He kept the chant up, but she could see in his eyes that he was afraid of her and what she was saying. She only hoped it wouldn’t tip him over the edge and cause him to plunge that knife into Mandy.
Paige nodded towards Mandy, whose eyes were so large in her pale face, it was a wonder they hadn’t fallen out. “Louisa loves Mandy. They have formed a strong friendship in a short space of time. I think you know that. You’re more aware of Louisa than she was of you.”
“That’s true. It’s why I chose her.” Ryan flicked his gaze toward his prisoner, shoving his face close to the terrified girl. “She’ll give me the strongest essence. Louisa will be here for good if I eat her flesh. If I drink of her blood and breathe in her last breath. The bond will mean Louisa will live instead of me. She’ll live for us both.”
Mandy’s screamed behind her gag. She twisted her hands against the bonds holding her, tears of fright streaming down her face. Paige caught her pleading eyes and gave a slight shake of her head, trying to calm the girl without words.
“You are wrong,” Paige stated. “I know Louisa. I’ve touched her and felt her. She is a sweet, innocent girl that loves to bake. She loves dresses and skirts and being female. She loves the feel of her long hair around her shoulders. She is a good, sweet girl who wouldn’t be able to cope knowing her friend had died because of her.” She stepped slowly towards them, her voice imploring. “You know I’m right. She couldn’t live with knowing either of us was killed for her.”
Ryan leapt off Mandy, lunging towards Paige. She stumbled back hastily, her body hitting the hard stone wall behind her. “No, this will work,” Ryan slashed his knife in her direction. “I’ll get rid of you first. I can’t do this with you trying to throw doubts into my mind.”
“What if it doesn’t work and I’m right?” Paige pressed, her mouth dry with fear. She licked her lips, trying to moisten her tongue so she could get her words out. “What if the wall you’ve kept up comes down? You can’t put it back once it’s gone. Are you willing to risk that?”
Ryan seemed to consider her words. “I can’t let either of you live. You’ll bring the police down on me.”
“You can’t kill us and keep Louisa,” Paige stated simply. “She will remember.” She held out a hand. “You wanted an operation at one time. Why don’t you try that? Become Louisa without harming anyone else.”
He shook his head. “It won’t work. Taking hormones doesn’t make me feel any different. I’m still in here.” He tapped his head with one finger. He glared at her, anger like a fire in his eyes. “No, I’ll have to leave. Go somewhere nobody knows me and start again. You’re right, I can’t lose Louisa. I can’t risk it.”
He moved to the side and waved the knife at her. “I’ll have to leave you both here. Maybe someone will find you, eventually. If not, the better for me. Now, get over there.”
Paige walked slowly towards Mandy and sat down. She reached out, trying to find a spot on the girl’s arm that wasn’t covered in cuts. She gingerly laid the tips of her fingers on the girl’s hand. The sheer terror that hit her almost made her double over. She tried to project calm to the girl. Ryan backed away towards the door. He didn’t get far.
“Drop the knife and on your knees!” Steele’s deep voice boomed out from the darkness beyond the storage room. Ryan jerked around, frantic. Police surged forwards and surrounded him. Steele marched towards him and with one swift move, tackled the knife out of Ryan’s hand. He handcuffed Ryan and pushed him towards Tucker.
Paige breathed a sigh of relief. She’d never been so happy to see anyone in her whole life. She gently leaned over Mandy, removing the gag from her mouth. The girl was in bits. She sobbed hard, her whole body shaking as Paige worked on the ropes around her wrists.
“Oh, Miss Saunders. I thought for sure I was a goner. However did you find me?” Tears dripped from her red face, her eyes were swollen. She gasped in pain as her arms fell to her sides.
Gentle hands grabbed Paige and pulled her to her feet. “We’ll take it from here,” a woman’s soft voice spoke in her ear.
Paige turned to see two paramedics. One was already kneeling down and opening a bag. She nodded her head and moved away. Tears blurred her vision and her body refused to stop shaking. A blanket fell over her shoulders. She glanced up to see Steele, his face grim.
“What you did was extremely dangerous,” he said, his voice filled with anger and concern. “You could have been killed!”
She nodded, the trembling in her body threatening to shake her apart. “I know. But I couldn’t let anyone else die because of me. I didn’t know someone working right beside me was a killer. How could I have not felt something? All the clues didn’t help me at all. It almost cost Mandy her life.”
He gently grasped her shoulders and gazed into her eyes. His warmth and strength flooded through her, chasing away the cold. “That young woman is only alive because of you. I have no idea how many lives you just saved today,” he shook his head, “but I know it would have been many. You should be very proud of what you’ve done. We couldn’t have found him without you.”
Paige wiped a hand over her wet face and smiled at him. “Thank you, detective. Coming from you, that means a lot. I know you didn’t believe in what I could do.”
He laughed as he dropped his hand from her arms. She felt suddenly bereft. “You certainly have forced me to reconsider my position on the subject. Next time, I won’t hesitate to call on your help.”
Paige shook her head vehemently. “Oh, no. One case is quite enough, thank you. I am not getting involved again.”
He stared at her, his expression hard to read. She tried to tune in to him, but whatever it was, he held it out of her understanding. “That’s a pity,” he said softly.
“Sir, we’ve loaded him into the car. Did you want to head back to the stati
on now to process him or did you have more to do here?” Tucker asked as he approached them, a grin on his face. He glanced between them, the smirk getting bigger.
Steele swatted at him. “No, we’d better get him safely behind bars.” He grinned at Paige. “Now comes all the fun stuff, like paperwork.”
“Which he’ll no doubt shove most of at me,” muttered Tucker out of the corner of his mouth.
“Do you need a ride back?” Steele asked Paige, ignoring Tucker’s remark. “I can get someone to drive you back to town.”
She shook her head. “Actually, I would like to go to the hospital with Mandy. Make sure she’s okay. Maybe someone could take Marty’s truck back to him though?”
Nodding, Steele turned away. Paige turned, watching as the paramedics finished up dressing Mandy’s wounds before they would move her to the ambulance. She closed her eyes, the terror of the last week flowing through her. It would take some time before this case would stop haunting her, if ever. But at least this time, she’d saved someone. She could be grateful for that.
“You may have convinced everyone you’re some kind of hero, but you don’t fool me,” a voice hissed by her ear.
Startled, Paige spun around. DI Hammond stood behind her, glaring at her with cold eyes. “Surely, after everything that’s happened, you can see I wasn’t the one who killed Jean,” Paige bit out.
He shrugged. “Whatever. You’re trouble. I’ll be keeping my eye on you. You’ll trip up somewhere. Then I’ll make sure you spend the rest of your worthless life in jail.”
Paige gaped at him. “What is it you have against me, Detective? I have never done anything to warrant such hatred.”
He sneered at her. “Hasn’t your ‘gift’,” he wiggled his fingers in the air, “told you all you need to know about me? You’re slipping up. A fake, just like I knew you were.”
“I am not a fake. I simply haven’t touched you or tried to read you.” She reached out a hand, but he leapt back. “What’s the matter, detective? Afraid of what I’ll see?”
The Hindleford Killer (The Psychic Eye Mysteries Book 1) Page 13
