by A P Morgan
“It would need to be somewhere that if she escaped, she couldn’t make it to help. That’s why the camping area where that father and son found those graves made sense. It’s not heavily populated and he couldn’t have known they were going to go hunting. He made a mistake.” He thoughtfully considered possibilities.
“What if it wasn’t a mistake? What if he wanted them to possibly be found? Where would be someplace sort of obscure, but someone might find the graves before they had been there very long?” I broached the question, “It doesn’t have to be in this county, but could be in a bordering one.”
“Nothing is coming to mind right now, but then again I’ve been at this for over a week now. I think we lost our opportunity to get our missing woman back, but I don’t want to give up hope.”
“Sheriff, I speak from personal experience with this, but we can’t save everyone. I’d like to, but right now we just have to hope that we can save someone.” I stood and stretched, “I think I’ll get some sleep. You might want to see if you can switch out with someone and get some rest yourself. I don’t think Agent Perez is going to anything before morning. It’s a long way to transport someone to L.A. and a lot of things can go wrong.”
“I heard about what happened with you and your partner. You guys were lucky. There isn’t much traffic on that old highway these days. Most people take the interstate and those who want to fly under cover take the back roads.” He slapped his forehead, “Of course that’s why you were followed, the killer is using the old highway to transport the women from where he picks them up to his hunting grounds.”
“Glad I could help, but I’m not sure what you figured out. Most of the delivery or transportation trucks would only use the freeway unless they stopped in all of the little towns. You guys were right. He’s got some type of delivery system and that’s how he hides the women until he gets back here.”
“Now, we just have to decide what profession he’s working in that would make people trust him enough to not question his presence, but that he could come and go easily.” He checked on his prisoner again. “He’s just watching the t.v.”
“You look exhausted. Go get some sleep.” He started pacing again.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, but you’re right I do need to rest. Night.” I walked out through the very quiet station and down the street to the hotel.
Leslie was asleep when I got inside and she didn’t even moved when I tripped over the edge of the bed in the dark.
I lay there trying to think about our killer. What was motivating him? I understood the idea of hunting something and the satisfaction of find your prize at the end. A reward. This was more of job something he had to do, but that brought a little bit of pleasure.
Our killer had been doing this for years and he was enjoying trying to outsmart us. He would never have left graves for us to find. That’s what we’d been missing, concentrated areas with missing women that would follow the California highway.
At some point my body had gotten still enough that I’d dosed off fitfully.
My head was pounding like a drum when I rolled over to see Leslie letting Gavin in the room. It wasn’t my head doing the pounding, at least that was a slight improvement.
“Still asleep? We’ll the missing town girl just showed up.” Gavin had a smile on his face. “Perez got called back to L.A. so the sheriff is going to take over and see where she’s been the past few days.”
Leslie was dress already, but she didn’t have any coffee yet.
“Why don’t I go with Gavin while you get a shower?” She suggested nicely.
“I stink huh?” I didn’t even have to do a sniff test to know that it was needed. “Go on without me. I thought of a couple ideas that I’m going to try to remember in the light of day. I’ll meet you over there.”
“If you’re sure.” She waited for me to protest and when I didn’t, she grabbed her badge and room key off the dresser.
When the door clicked shut, I flopped back onto the bed wishing for just one moment that I led a normal life. Where everything wasn’t so life or death. I almost envied those that held down a nine to five job.
Unable to just lay there when parts of the case were coming unraveled, I jumped up and headed for the shower. We were going to have to take advantage of the cleaning service if we wanted to have another change of clean clothes.
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Thirty minutes, I felt fresh and ready to see the better side of the job. There wasn’t a line at the diner next door so getting two coffees went quickly.
It was obvious why there’d been no people around as soon as I left the dinner, every news station was facing the entrance to the Sheriff’s office. They were waiting like vultures for the poor woman to come walking out the door so they could make a sensational story for their deadlines.
Bypassing the police lines that were holding them back, I went to the headquarters to stare at the boards.
Maps covered a large amount of space while another wall held the victims and the possible suspects. No one even bothered with me as I sat perched on the edge of the conference table looking at the facts before me.
We were twenty days into the Aries cycle and only had ten bodies. That meant at least one if not two more burial grounds waiting for us to discover them. The map had both locations marked out where we’d found bodies, but there wasn’t any specific thing that made them stand out.
I added a dot to the map where we’d found the vehicles the day before. Feeling bold, I added another dot where we’d had our wreck. I was willing to bet if we looked for land that had public access near the area where we’d been run off the road, we’d find one of the two burial grounds.
He invited them to celebrate and then just like a spider weaving his web lured them in while he spun them into a trap.
A road block would just make him go to plan B. These killers had specific instructions and didn’t deviate unless it meant not getting the job done. They couldn’t continue if they were in jail or dead.
I was willing to bet that he had someplace to stash the women close to where he’d buried them. Changing locations would make the hunt more fun because he’d be at a disadvantage as well. That wouldn’t mean that he’d be dumb and use it without scoping it out. He’d have done his homework.
The area on the map near our wreck was mostly beaches with very little vegetation except for one spot near a lake.
“Um excuse me,” I waved my hands at those in the room in case being polite didn’t get their attention. “Who can look up land titles for me? I think I have a possible burial ground.”
All the others had looked up, but the one guy still working was who they all pointed to. “Bart is the one who’s been doing that for us on this case.”
When I started toward Bart who was huddled over a lap top attached to the lone outlet near the corner, I smiled. Maybe I hadn’t lost my mojo after all.
“Bart, can you help me out for a minute?” I tapped him on the shoulder when he didn’t respond causing him to jump three feet.
He landed back in his chair and pulled the earplugs out. “Dude, all you had to do was ask without scaring me.”
“I did.” I pointed to the ear plugs.
“Oh yeah, right. What can I do for you?” He pushed his glasses back up onto his nose.
“Here follow me.” I walked over to the map and pointed to the one tree filled area. “Can you tell me who owns that and where exactly it is?”
“Sure, take me about five minutes.”
I slapped him on the back, “Great. I’ll owe you one.”
“Owe me one what?” He looked puzzled.
“Nothing. Great job. Thanks for doing it.” I was pretty sure that I was speaking English, but maybe nerd was a different language.
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Agents started filing in so while I waited for Leslie to come in, I continued to look for other spots where he could hunt unrestricted.
She and Gavin walked over to the wall I was staring a
t.
“Well was it the local girl?”
“Yeah, she and her boyfriend had decided not to wait for fall and went to Vegas to get married. They had phones, but because they left in a hurry forgot the chargers. Then they were married and didn’t really need the phones if you know what I mean.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively at me.
“I don’t need the details. Why did we think she was one of the murdered women?”
“We didn’t. When she went missing it wasn’t a big jump from that to she must be dead because of her birthday. That’s why they went ahead to get married. She was old enough to gamble now.”
I just shook my head, “Oh young love. At least she’s alive and back home. We can use those man hours that we were spending to find her on the other women who don’t have much time left.”
“Why is that guy watching us?” Gavin whispered without turning around.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the nerd waving. “He’s got a potential burial ground for us to go check out.”
“What are we waiting for?” Leslie started for the corner before I could stop her. “Did you find it?”
He looked to me for permission before answering, “Yeah, it belongs to one of the founders of the town. It’s a place where everyone is allowed to go camping and hang out as long as they clean up whatever they bring in.”
“Where is this wonderful wooded land?” Gavin asked looking at the map on his screen. “It’s about twenty minutes from where they ran you off the road.”
“Maybe he wasn’t trying to kill us, but he wanted us in the area since he was done using it.” Leslie suggested with excitement.
“I think we should check it out.”
“Nothing to stop us, Agent Perez is going to be busy for the day so I’m in charge. I can’t leave everyone here, but I can send a few people with a team to help you look.” Gavin grinned, “It’s good to be in charge for a change.”
“Is she coming back?” I wondered casually.
“Unfortunately,” He whispered behind his hand to us. “She had to go home on a personal matter.”
“I’ll find someone to pack one of the trucks and send the cadaver dogs with you. They aren’t doing any good sitting here. You both missed breakfast so get something to eat and I’ll have them get you before they pull out. I’ve got to keep the press from following you.”
I smiled now that he was in charge his confidence was growing. I only hoped that we weren’t going to get him in trouble by going on a wild goose chase.
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Sand filled the horizon for miles. It was a much different to drive through it at night, but during the day it made me want to run into the ocean to cool off. The smell of sweaty dogs was getting stronger by the mile and I knew we should have volunteered to drive behind the van.
Gavin had sent the nerd with us and he was directing the driver to turn left in the small town. Three miles outside of town, a gate stood open welcoming into the public woods.
A sign warned that hunting and fishing were prohibited activities. This was a bird park and they welcome those who wanted to watch the birds from any time after sunrise to sunset.
“This looks like the perfect place to bury bodies in plain sight.” I inhaled the fresh air as they opened the back doors to let the dogs out.
“Kevin,” I’d found out the nerd’s name on the two hour drive, “is there a cabin or building somewhere in the wooded area?”
“From these surveys, there should be one close to the lake. It would be a maintenance shack so they didn’t have to bring tools in to keep the paths from being overgrown.” Kevin pointed to the barely visible lake through the trees.
“That’s where he’s buried them.” I could feel it that’s where he’d think they were safe from instant discovery, but in just a few days spring would be over and they’d come out to do maintenance only to find the dead women.
Untrusting the agents spread out, but they were making their way over to the lake.
Ignoring all the other paths, Leslie followed me on the most travelled one to the lake. I started running as we got closer, not that it would do any good, but because I wanted to be the first to find the graves.
Just beyond the shack, hidden a little ways in the trees were five mounds. “Over here,” I yelled. Catching myself before I did a victory dance. These women didn’t deserve that even if I had figured this without any clues.
“You found them?” Kevin huffed as he caught up carrying the laptop.
“We’ll have to let the dogs do their thing, but yes. I think so.” I couldn’t help wonder what on earth he was going to do with that computer out here in the woods.
The other agents came over and the two dogs nosed around before giving a bark at each mound of unsettled earth. If that hadn’t been enough to confirm it, the Aries symbols carved on the trees behind them should have been enough.
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The new location helped to shed some light on what the killer was looking for in regards to a place to hide the bodies in plain sight. We would be here for several hours while the team dug up the bodies and persevered any evidence that might lead us to the killer.
I had to walk back out to the main road to call Gavin.
“We’ve got bodies. Right where I thought they would be. Can you look for other areas that are closer to Salinas for the same idea?”
“Ryan, I would love to, but the problem is that the further up the coast you travel the more wooded it gets. Heck, up above San Francisco are the famous Redwoods and its dense forest up there. We can add some search parameters, but there are lots of places that fit the profile.” Gavin apologized.
“Okay, it’s worth a thought. I’ll see if your whiz kid Kevin can work some magic. If not then we should be back later this evening.”
“That will work. I’m sending the techs down there and I’ll have them take an extra vehicle so you can come back. I want you looking over these maps. If we can narrow down his current hunting grounds that could be the edge we need.”
“I agree. We’ll keep working until you get back.”
Chapter 9
Leslie
While we’d made progress that morning, it was hours later before we got back to the conference room. All of the dead bodies were starting to take a toll on me.
Two of the women were from cars that we’d found up in Salinas. He was mixing them up depending on their birthdays. While he was putting them in a public place to taunt us, he was still very cunning.
Gavin had run the lists that I’d asked for days ago with all of the missing women in the state for the past twenty years. I had a feeling that our killer had been doing this since his teens. If the profiler was correct, he couldn’t be over fifty, but twenty years could give us an idea of the scope of what we were working with.
Happy that something was moving the right direction, I just couldn’t make myself start combing through three stacks of reports where I knew most of the girls or women hadn’t made it home.
I walked out for some fresh air.
My phone beeped, “Hey, gorgeous. What are you doing? Making progress?”
A smile crossed my face as I dialed his number, “Hey.”
“I didn’t expect a call, but I’ll take it.” His deep voice was a welcome relief.
“You just had perfect timing. I’d just walked out for some fresh air and to clear my head.”
“Wonderful. I guess that means things aren’t going the way you want it to?”
“There’s always some good mixed in with the bad. Criminals aren’t normally accommodating.” I chuckled.
“You know I’ve gotten that feeling from you. I don’t understand why they don’t just say, ‘I’m here come get me.’ I mean they take all the fun of locking them up away when you have to find them first.”
“Oh, if only that would happen in a perfect world. We might actually save someone’s life.” I walked toward the hotel.
“In other news today, we’ve decided to send the groun
d to check his readings because there were flurries of snow this morning.”
“Snow? You’ve got to be kidding me. It’s April.” I asked incredulous.
“I said flurries not that they didn’t melt when they touched the ground. It got cold though and warmed back up this afternoon.”
“We spent the afternoon in the woods looking for bodies and it was hot here. I’m not complaining we made progress, but still I could use a shower to wash off all of the extras that are coating me.”
“Wish I was there with you. I could help you get all good and soapy.”
“Ugh! That would be wonderful, but everything was booked up so I have a roommate. I don’t it would be too nice if they couldn’t get in the room because I was getting it on.” I sped up suddenly wanting a little alone time in the shower.
“Wow! They don’t have enough rooms for you to be on your own. You’d think the FBI could afford not to make you sleep with strangers.”
“It’s a small town and most of the hotels and motels were taken up with press when we got here. I’m just grateful that I have a bed with a door that locks. It’s better than some places would be.”
I felt bad that I wasn’t telling him who my roommate was, but we were in such a good place and that small piece of information wouldn’t help. There wasn’t anything I could do and honestly, Ryan and I were both safer together considering that someone wanted to kill us.
“Everything okay, babe?” Jerome’s made my decision for me.
“Yeah, sorry it’s just been a long few days. I’m good, a little tired, but good.”
“Okay, well go get that shower and turn in early. It might help clear your head the rest of the way and give you the direction that you need to move to close the case.” He commanded all the way from Texas
“Thanks. I’ll check in tomorrow night unless we get caught up. I’ll at least text you.”
“You got it. I’ll look forward to it. Bye.”
I leaned against the door as it closed behind me. The mirror on the closet door was looking at me from a much tireder body. A bruise had formed around my stitches and other parts of my face were a yellowish tent. It was a good thing that I had told Jerome no pictures because one look at me and he’d lose all desire.
