Blood Dahlia - A Thriller (Sarah King Mysteries)

by Methos, Victor

  And then, there was a flare and nothing else.

  54

  Sarah didn’t know how long she was in the hospital, but it must’ve been at least another day. She remembered waking up in the dark and seeing the moonlight coming through the only window in the room. She could hear the voices of the staff out in the hall, joking and laughing. She would sit up in the dark, and her head would start to throb as she saw two little boys in a basement with blood spattered over them.

  In the morning, after getting what she guessed was only a couple of hours of sleep, Giovanni came to see her. Instantly, she knew something was wrong. He looked like he hadn’t slept, and he was wearing the same clothes he’d had on yesterday.

  “What happened?” she said.

  He put his hands on his hips and paced the room, wiping at his nose with the back of his hand. “Arnold is…”

  “What?”

  “He’s dead, Sarah.”

  She sat quietly a long time and watched as he walked to the window and looked down at the parking lot. Somehow, she knew. Already she knew. Without a vision or a flash of insight accompanied by pain. She already knew he was dead.

  Giovanni spoke without looking to her. “The fucker had his mother’s house rigged. Bomb squad said it was remote detonation. He was somewhere nearby watching and then… His own mother was in that house.”

  She let out a long breath. The sun was back out, and light was pouring through the windows, no clouds in the sky, and she thought she could hear birds in some of the trees. “I need to go back to his house.”

  “No way. We don’t know what he has in there.”

  “Nothing. He couldn’t bring himself to do anything to that house. There were too many fond memories.”

  Giovanni turned to her, and briefly, she saw a spark of anger.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “If I hadn’t said anything…”

  “How did you see everything else but couldn’t tell us there was a fucking bomb in the house?”

  His voice had risen, and the anger had bubbled up to the surface. As quickly as it had come, it faded away. And he was calm again.

  “I’m sorry, you don’t deserve that. This wasn’t your fault.”

  “You have a right to be angry.”

  Giovanni turned back to the window. “I can’t believe he’s gone. Just like that. I thought I left all this shit in the desert.”

  Sarah rose and then swung her feet around the bed. Planting her feet on the floor, she stood up and crossed to him, placing her hand on one of his shoulders and her head gently on the other. He leaned his head toward her, and they rested against each other. Two people who lacked the energy to keep going but somehow had to, Sarah thought.

  “Take me to his house,” she whispered.

  He nodded. “Okay.”

  The home was what Sarah remembered, and the darkness was still there. Oozing out of it like pus from some wound. She sat in the car for a long while and stared at the home before getting out. Giovanni followed her but didn’t say anything.

  She could feel pain in him. A deep pain, but not because he was close to Rosen. The pain came from losing one of his own. It brought up memories he had buried deep inside himself. Later, she would help him. But right now, the house was calling to her, almost as though it could speak and was telling her to step inside.

  The front door was unlocked, but there was police tape up. She ducked underneath. The living room was untouched. In a flash, she saw spray paint up on the walls, the word “bitch killer” scrawled in red across the white walls. But for now, the house had been left alone. The news of who the intelligent though aloof Professor Davies really was hadn’t reached a wide audience yet.

  Sarah stood in the middle of the living room… and felt nothing. As she had before. The soul of the house was in the basement.

  She went there now, listening to the noises of an empty home. The creaks from the wood and the odd spurts of sound from appliances. The stairs now had dirty shoeprints from all the people who had gone in and out of the home. Soon, a padlock would be put on all the doors, and those who wanted to come in would break windows. The house would then be cleaned and sold to a couple who wouldn’t find out who had lived here—not until after they’d already made their purchase.

  At the bottom of the stairs, she turned to the door she had touched before blacking out last time. She hesitated only a moment before reaching out and touching the doorknob.

  Agony went through her again, but only a short wave. It started in her head, rolled through her body, and dissipated through her feet into the ground.

  She saw all of them, every single one. The weeping, the blood, and the suffering before their bodies finally gave out. He never killed them. They just died during the torture. Some died when he cut off their faces, others at the sheer shock of being brutally raped and mutilated, and any who survived all of that died when he finally sawed them in half and wrapped them in plastic to be dropped off at whatever site he’d chosen.

  Sarah stepped inside the basement. Though Giovanni was behind her, she shut the door and he didn’t protest. She was alone now.

  Closing her eyes tightly, she let the thoughts take control, let all the horror and misery flow through her mind’s eye like a film. When she opened her eyes, they were all here. All in the place of their death.

  He’d had seven known victims, but there were easily over thirty girls here, all in various states of decay, all with blank expressions in their eyes, uncertain where they were or what was happening. None of them had found peace. They were stuck here, stuck to a monster who had linked them to himself.

  And there was someone else here, too. Someone who hadn’t died here. Sarah felt the presence behind her. Slowly, she turned and saw Nathan Archer standing next to the wall staring at her. A hole had been blown in his throat, and he was gray, the wound in his neck rotting. He took a step toward her, and she jumped back.

  “Who are you?” he mumbled.

  Sarah swallowed before speaking. “I’m searching for your brother, Nathan.”

  “He’s not here.”

  “I know. Do you know where he is?”

  Nathan took another step toward her, and Sarah took a step back. She glanced behind her to judge how far away the wall was, then she looked at the door and wondered how quickly she could get to it if she needed to.

  “I know you,” he said, “I know you.”

  “Nathan, where is Daniel?”

  “Daniel,” he said, his eyes drifting over the basement. “Daniel…”

  “Yes, your brother, Daniel. Where is he?”

  “It’s not his fault.”

  “What isn’t?”

  He scanned the girls. “All of this. He made us do it.”

  “Your father?”

  Nathan didn’t say anything, just kept his eyes on a young woman in the corner. “He would make us watch, and we would wear their faces. He told us that was how they should be treated. That’s how they wanted to be treated. If we were really his sons, we would do what he did. It’s not Daniel’s fault.”

  Hesitantly, Sarah took a step toward him. “Help me find him.”

  “He’s leaving.”

  “Leaving where?”

  “Far away. But not alone.”

  “Who’s he leaving with?”

  Slowly, he shook his head, revealing the sinew and bloody flesh of his neck.

  “Is he leaving in a plane? Is he flying?”

  “Yes. A plane. And he will kill whoever he is with… A woman. A woman and her child.”

  Sarah glanced around at the women in the basement. The faceless heads and severed torsos were too much. She had to look away, at the floor, at the walls, even at Nathan.

  “I have to leave,” she said, inching toward the door.

  “I know you.”

  “I… helped find you. I spoke to one of your victims.”

  “What did she say?”

  Sarah got to the door and opened it. “She said that she wanted me to k
ill you.”

  Opening the door, she saw Giovanni. When she looked back, the basement was empty.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “We have to get to the airport. He’s leaving today.”

  55

  Sarah sat in the passenger seat as Giovanni took a curb too fast and nearly clipped a mailbox. Several police units, as well as some other agents, were already speeding to the airport, but Sarah needed to be there herself. She wanted to be there when Daniel Wolfgram was put into handcuffs.

  The Philadelphia International Airport was the only major airport nearby. It was true Wolfgram could’ve tried to leave from another airport, but Sarah didn’t think so. He had to have known his face was plastered everywhere and a drive to Boston or New York might’ve seemed too risky. But the fact was she didn’t know. And, if she were in his shoes, she’d drive all the way to some rural airport like in Kansas or Wyoming and leave from there. But, if he were traveling with other people, it might seem suspicious to them if he wanted to leave from another state.

  “I don’t know if he’s gonna be here,” she said. “I just want to make sure you know that.”

  “This is all just a guess anyway. But it’s a good place to start.”

  As they entered toward the first terminal, Sarah looked inside the airport from the car. Rubbing her head from a dull ache in the back of her skull, she said, “This isn’t it.”

  “You sure? It’s the closest airport.”

  “No, he’s not here. I saw him. He was walking past a dinosaur fossil. Like a T-rex, but not quite.”

  “In the airport?”

  “I think so. People had bags when they were walking past him.”

  “I don’t know any airports that have dinosaur fossils. Lemme call the Bureau and get a clerk to run a search.”

  She shook her head and pulled out a phone. “You G-men need to think more practically.” She ran a search for dinosaur fossils in airports on Google and came back with one name: Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. “This is it,” she said. “This is where he’s going.”

  “That would make sense. It’s the busiest airport in the country. Easy to slip through unnoticed.”

  Giovanni raced up a ramp and found parking near the terminal. He got out, and she followed as he placed a quick call. Sarah paced around the car, trying to drum up… something. Anything. A number on a flight ticket, a type of plane, anything. But nothing was coming to her.

  “Okay, we’re on the next flight to Atlanta. Leaves in forty-five minutes. You don’t have to come for this, you know.”

  Sarah shook her head. “I need to be there.”

  Giovanni put his hands on his hips and looked at her. “Let’s not keep Mr. Wolfgram waiting, then.”

  56

  The flight was short, and no one else seemed bothered with it. But Sarah was gripping the armrests so hard her fingers were turning white. Giovanni noticed and said, “Have you never been on a plane before?”

  She shook her head. He reached down and interlaced her fingers with his. It comforted her… a little. But she still had to close the blind on the window and pretend she was on a bus. Luckily, the flight was only a little over an hour.

  When they landed, Giovanni rushed off the plane, holding on to her hand, weaving between the other passengers who were trying to recover their bags. The stewardess was about to say something when he flashed his badge. She wasn’t quite sure what to say after that, so she just said, “Have a nice day.”

  The airport was massive. Trains zipped around, taking passengers between the different terminals. Crowds of people hovered around the entrances and exits, the baggage claims, and the ticket counters. Sarah had never been to a concert or sporting event, so this was the most people she had ever seen in one place. It gave her butterflies in her stomach and general uneasiness.

  “That’s the dinosaur,” Giovanni said, pointing to a fossilized dinosaur that stood on its hind legs. “Do you know when he’s supposed to be here?”

  “No. I didn’t see anything like that. He could’ve already left or not even thought to leave from here yet.”

  Giovanni scanned the crowds around them. “I’m going to have a look and see if I can find the other units here. Will you stay here and text me if you see him?”

  “Sure.”

  “I’m serious, Sarah. You cannot do anything but text me. There are TSA people twenty feet away, so I don’t think he’s gonna do anything, but I don’t want you acting like a hero.”

  “I won’t. I promise.”

  He turned and walked off, leaving her staring at his back. She rubbed her bicep and then folded her arms, casually walking around the fossilized dinosaur as though she were just here on a stroll. Now that she was actually here, she realized this may not have been the best use of their time. When she saw this place, time wasn’t something she detected. For all she knew, it could’ve been months or even years in the future.

  As she came around the dinosaur, she glanced up into one of the shops and saw something that caught her attention. A white male in a fedora. It wasn’t something that normally caught her attention, but the man was surrounded by what she thought were other people.

  But they weren’t.

  The dead enclosed the man as though he drew them in like a black hole and they couldn’t escape. At least forty people were packed into the shop. But when a person walked in and went to the candy bar section, he just slipped through the others like they weren’t even there. Sarah recognized several of the apparitions around him… including Star, who was staring absently at the floor.

  The dead were following Daniel Wolfgram around.

  Sarah looked for Giovanni but didn’t see him anywhere. She took out her phone and texted him, HE’S HERE!

  Then she slipped the phone into her pocket. What Wolfgram appeared to her and what he appeared to others must’ve been vastly different. To her, he was a wound of dark energy. A tear in the normality of existence that blackened everything it touched. He didn’t look human. But to others, he must’ve appeared perfectly normal, as though nothing were wrong with him at all.

  Sarah began walking toward him. She wanted to look him in the face and make sure. She had to make sure that the person who killed her mother and her sister was really right there in front of her, that this wasn’t in her head.

  As she crossed to the shop, a crowd drifted by in front of her. She tried to keep her sights on Wolfgram, but she lost him for a moment. Instead of barreling through the crowd, she hurried around them. When she looked into the shop, Wolfgram was gone.

  She looked in every direction. He wasn’t here. She ran into the shop and searched the aisles. A few people were there, but Wolfgram, and her sister, were gone.

  When she turned around to see if she could find Giovanni, she bumped into Wolfgram and felt the needle plunge into her belly. The pain took her breath away, and she couldn’t even scream. Wolfgram leaned in close, close enough that she could smell his breath. But all she could do was let out little puffs of air. And she realized he punctured her lung.

  “This syringe is filled with industrial bleach. Shot into your bloodstream, it will kill you in a matter of minutes. And there’s nothing anyone can do to save you. All I have to do is depress the plunger. Do you understand? Just nod if you do.”

  Sarah, pain shooting through her, making her want to scream and vomit, blinked her eyes, lowering her head slightly.

  “Good,” he hissed. He leaned closer, smelling her, letting her hair run over his face. “You’ve cost me quite a bit of trouble. I should’ve killed you immediately. But I was curious to see if the phenomenon you claim is actually true. Even though you’ve found me, it’s still hard to believe. So how about a little demonstration? Hm?” His tongue, warm and sticky, ran over her ear. “Show me something,” he whispered.

  Sarah closed her eyes and then opened them, calm washing over her, even though she could hardly breathe. She gazed into his eyes. “I know about your father. I know wha
t he did to you and Nathan. No one deserves that, Daniel.”

  “Don’t sympathize with me, you fucking cunt, because I will gut you.”

  “Okay, okay… there’s something else, too.”

  Wolfgram seemed genuinely interested. He backed away half a foot, never breaking eye contact with her.

  “I see,” she gasped, “blood.”

  “Hmm, now that is intriguing. Is it your blood? Because, not to frighten you, but you will be vomiting blood after I push this down. Or, perhaps it’s the blood of the woman and child whose throats I’m going to slit when we land on foreign soil?”

  “No,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper, “it’s your blood.”

  Both of them were silent a moment, staring into each other’s eyes. And Wolfgram knew what she had said was true because his eyes grew wider and they were filled with something they hadn’t been a moment ago: fear.

  Sarah jerked away, the needle pulling out of her just as Giovanni shouted, “Get down!”

  She hit the floor as the shots rang out. Wolfgram raised the syringe to pummel into her as the first round tore into him. The impact knocked him off his feet, onto his back. Giovanni sprinted over as several officers ran to him to pin him down. One stepped on his wrist and pulled the syringe away as he gasped for breath, a gaping hole in his chest.

  Sarah rose, holding her hand over the puncture wound. She watched as Daniel Wolfgram took his last breath, rage in his eyes as he stared at her. When he was gone, she was scared she would see him, have to talk to him. But he wasn’t there. And the darkness she had felt was gone, too, as though it had sucked in on itself.

  “Lemme see,” Giovanni said, running over to her. He moved her hand away and was examining the puncture wound when she looked up and saw her sister.

  Star smiled at her. She appeared youthful again, without the blood and wounds she had been covered in when Sarah saw her. Every wrinkle in her face had completely relaxed. All the tension and stress was gone, and she was, finally, at peace. And she waved goodbye.