Fatal Fall

by Diane Capri

  Jess shook her head. “I don’t think that’s where your daughter is buried.”

  Charlene’s lips trembled. She rocked back and forth. Her breathing was hard. Short breaths, panted into the night.

  Jess put her hand on Charlene’s arm. “I’m sorry. But we need to find out.”

  Tears glistened on Charlene’s cheeks. She wiped her nose on the back of her hand. She jerked her head in Jess’s direction. “Where is she?”

  Jess squeezed Charlene’s shoulder. “I might be wrong.”

  Charlene gripped Jess’s arm. She nodded. “She could have left from DC. Gone somewhere.” She stared into Jess’s eyes. “Couldn’t she?”

  Jess nodded. “She really could.” She squeezed Charlene’s arm. “But I found other names.”

  Charlene’s mouth hung open.

  “Three more women. From different states. Their signatures with Meisner’s. In the same book. Always on weekends.” Jess swallowed. Her stomach churned. She breathed in, holding the air in her lungs to calm her emotions, before she said, “They’re all missing.”

  Charlene squared her shoulders. Her nostrils flared, and her eyes widened. “You’re telling me that Alistaire Meisner murdered all four of those girls?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Are they buried here?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Is Crystal?”

  Jess squeezed Charlene’s arm. “We need to find out.”

  “Damn right we do. If you’re right, I’ll kill that bastard myself.” Charlene’s chin jutted forward. “Let’s get to it. What’s your plan?”

  Jess pulled out her phone and brought up the image from the video, the dew and the fence and the blur of a moving figure. She pointed to the far end of the trail through the dew.

  Max gave a single nod and put his hand over the phone’s screen. “They can see the light.”

  Charlene said, “Why did you look at the fence?”

  “I think Crystal may have been buried under that post at one time.”

  Charlene stared at the fence post. “Why buried there?”

  “Because fourteen years ago, that post was being installed, along with all the other posts for this fence. There was a big hole in the ground.”

  Her eyes widened again. “And Meisner threw her in it.”

  “Or Blackstake. And after the court order, they had to move her because this fence is going to be relocated. I saw someone working by that post on Peter’s video.”

  “So where is she buried now?”

  “The video shows a track in the dew. It looks like an animal track, but I think it was the path he followed after exhuming the body.”

  Charlene stood up. “Then let’s go.”

  “It’s on the other side of the woods. Max said we have to go back to the road to avoid the cameras.”

  “The hell with that. Let the bastard come out here and face me. If he dares.” Charlene pushed Jess back a step and marched off, traveling parallel to the fence.

  Jess hurried to catch up. Max matched his step to Jess.

  Walking alongside the fence was easier going than trudging through the woods. Max pointed up to a camera on a pole. The camera tracked them as they passed. Jess sped up, grabbed Charlene by the arm, and veered her into the woods. Charlene fought back.

  Jess tightened her grip. “They may have seen us on the cameras already. They’ll send men. We need time to search before they get here.”

  Jess took her flashlight from her pocket, turned it on and waved it around. “We want them to think we’re right here. Maybe they’ll waste their time searching the wrong part of the woods and buy us a little time.”

  Max nodded. He set off deeper into the trees, beckoning. Charlene followed.

  Jess switched off the light and trotted ahead to join the others. Max picked up his pace, walking fast under tree limbs and jumping ditches. In minutes they were panting, but they were making good time. Meisner’s mansion was hidden by the slope of the ground, but its lights glowed on the clouds above.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

  “Don’t answer that phone, Alistaire. We’re right in the middle of dinner,” Margot Meisner said, a crystal wine glass in her hand.

  “I’ll only be a moment, dear,” he replied. He pushed his chair from the table and took the call in the next room where he could see the monitor.

  The activity in the guard house was short lived. The automatic cameras had spotted movement. Infrared showed three bodies. There had been a flash of light, but apart from that, they were walking in the darkness. The unusual activity would have normally triggered a call to Karl Blackstake, but that was no longer an option.

  Meisner watched the camera’s feed. After a few moments, he made his decision. “The security team can stand down. No action required.”

  He ended the call and returned to the dining room prepared to cajole his wife from her pouting.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

  Max kept up his fast pace. Despite his disheveled appearance and poor diet, he had plenty of stamina. Jess had to keep moving her head from side to side to make the most of the pale glimmers of moonlight in her peripheral vision.

  They emerged onto a rutted track. Jess stretched her back. Charlene paused ahead of her.

  “Lot of trails around here,” Max said. He came to a stop, his arm out, pointing. “There.”

  “The trail I showed you led there?” Jess asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah. The dew trail. There. What I said.”

  Jess squeezed past Charlene and crept in the direction Max had pointed, to the edge of the woods.

  Max strolled over and stood by her side. “No cameras over here.”

  She nodded and stepped out of the trees. The forest was a wall of blackness stretching far in either direction. The fields behind her rose to a horizon defined by the glow beyond, the stray light from Meisner’s mansion.

  She frowned at Max. “You sure?”

  He stepped out of the woods and pointed to a tree leaning at a forty-five-degree angle. “Lightning strike. A couple of years ago. Can’t miss that.” He nodded at the woods. “Definitely. It’s here.”

  Jess fished out her flashlight.

  Max waved his hand. “Not here. They’ll see.”

  Jess nodded.

  “I have to go.” Max shook his head. “Security catch me, they never let me back. I live here.”

  Jess nodded. “I understand. Thanks for the help.”

  He gave a toothless smile, and walked off, across the fields.

  Jess moved into the cover of the trees, placed her hand over the lens on her flashlight, and switched it on. The light made a small irregular shape on the ground. Satisfied it would be harder to detect, she walked back along the trail, staring at the ground. Charlene followed.

  “Is this still Meisner’s property?” Jess said.

  “Yes,” Charlene said.

  Swinging the dimmed flashlight beam across the width of the track, Jess worked her way along the trail. Undergrowth curled over the ground, working its way toward cutting off the path. A spindly branch scraped across the top of her head. She brushed it away. It shuffled from the tree above and fell to the ground.

  Charlene turned on the phone’s light. It was more of a glow than a beam. She held the phone close to the ground. “You think someone came this way?”

  “Maybe.”

  A second trail curved off the first. Jess shined her light along the path. Ten yards down, the undergrowth had reclaimed the space. She stayed on the same trail.

  “Over there,” Charlene said, pointing to the left.

  Jess scanned the area with the flashlight. “What did you see?”

  Charlene stared. “Nothing.”

  Jess moved on. She placed her feet with care, checking the ground before putting her weight down. She had to rock her foot to free it from the path’s muddy surface. Finally, she stopped.

  “What?” Charlene said.

  “The ground is soft, but no footprints. Branches
and undergrowth are everywhere, but I haven’t seen as much as a suspicious broken twig.”

  “This end of the woods covers a large area. We aren’t likely to find what we’re looking for in the dark.”

  “I know.” Jess sighed. “They saw us on cameras back there. It’s not long until Meisner’s security goons figure out where we are.”

  “Maybe we organize a full-out search as soon as the sun comes up. In the daylight, we should be able to find…” Charlene swallowed. “A new grave. If one exists.”

  “It makes sense, but it won’t happen. You know it won’t. Meisner will have a court order on us in a hot second. And we don’t have any evidence.”

  “You have some. The names.”

  Jess shook her head. “Deniable.”

  “Then what the hell isn’t deniable?”

  Jess weighed her options. None of them were good, but Charlene deserved the truth more than she needed sympathy. “A body.”

  Charlene took the flashlight from Jess’s hand, restoring its full beam. “Well, we’re here now. Let’s do the best with what we have.”

  Charlene started down the trail, waving the light from side to side, stopping to kneel by occasional branches or clumps of vegetation. Jess kept close behind to make the most of the light.

  They reached a side path. Jess put her hand over Charlene’s to steer the light. The overgrowth was thick. Charlene pushed into the pathway.

  Jess tugged at her arm. “Slowly. We want to see evidence of someone passing this way.”

  “Meisner or his goons.” She scowled and patted her gun. “I hope they’re still here.”

  Charlene reached the end of the path. She waved the light up and down the diminishing end of the narrow trail.

  Jess held her phone’s weak light close to the leaves and thorn-covered creepers. Among the green was a trace of white. Perhaps not pure white, but glaring bright in the dark. Charlene pointed the flashlight. The white was a tear, a rip in the green outer covering of a thick bramble stem.

  Jess leaned in.

  Charlene eased the light down toward the ground.

  Jess grabbed another broken stem. And another.

  Charlene jerked the light over the vegetation in a wild dance. Searching and stopping. Telltale patches of brightness shone in the night.

  Charlene flipped up the hood to her thick jacket. She faced away from the thorny undergrowth and plunged backward.

  Jess stepped away.

  Charlene pushed into the bushes, branches cracking and creepers snapping. She rolled from side to side, shaking off the thorns that ripped into her clothes. She grunted.

  Jess cringed. The vegetation wasn’t giving in easily. Charlene had her hands on her face, and Jess could see blood.

  With a cry, Charlene fell backward and disappeared through the wall of undergrowth. There was a thump followed by a crunch when Charlene landed.

  “You okay?” Jess said.

  “Yeah. Not great, but fine.” She flashed the light. “The path goes on from here.”

  Jess could see the flashlight beam flickering through the leaves. “Wait for me.”

  “Hurry,” Charlene said, her voice already heading away.

  Jess had no covering for her head. Pushing through the thorns would be seriously painful. She raced back along the path. The overgrowth thinned. She peered left and right, wishing Max hadn’t left.

  She took a promising gap between the trees and pushed through hip-deep weeds. Creepers dangled from trees. She ducked and twisted, throwing them off before they snared her.

  The light from her phone barely illuminated the ground at her feet. She kept looking around, trying to keep her sense of direction and heading toward where she guessed Charlene would be.

  The bushes rustled and shook. Jess swung her phone in the direction of the noise. The line of bushes trembled. A deer heading away from her. She breathed her relief.

  The undergrowth thinned. Charlene’s flashlight flickered. They were no more than fifty feet apart.

  Jess stopped. In the dim light of her phone, a line cut through the undergrowth. A path. The line was clear. The undergrowth had been crushed. It was recovering, but not fully. One end of the thick weeds headed toward the path Charlene was on. The other end extended beyond the light of her phone.

  Jess moved parallel to the line of undergrowth. It curved around into a wall of weeds and vines and brambles. Jess knelt down to a gap below the green canopy of wild vegetation.

  Close by, she sensed something moving. Branches and leaves were being pushed aside. Not Charlene. She was still a good distance away.

  Jess turned off her phone. Blackness closed in. Rustling and creaking and the sound of a million bugs filled her ears, but one thing sounded clear above all else.

  Footsteps.

  Jess crouched down. The steps were slow. Deliberate. Irregular. She couldn’t tell if she heard two feet or four.

  She twisted her head around, searching behind her as much as in front. The footsteps definitely sounded in the direction of Charlene and the flashlight.

  She frowned. Perhaps it was a trick of the cold. Perhaps the sound of Charlene’s footsteps carried on the damp air. Jess listened a few more moments. The footsteps had stopped.

  She pushed her way into the gap in the wall of undergrowth. She emerged into an open space large enough to park a car. The wall of vegetation ringed the space. She caught glimpses of Charlene’s flickering flashlight through the leaves.

  Jess crouched inside the space. A layer of weeds covered the ground. They crunched as she walked. She kicked at them with her boot. They moved but didn’t spring back into place.

  She knelt. The weeds covered the ground, but they had been torn from their roots. She kicked them away and cleared a rough five-foot circle.

  She sat on her haunches. The ground had been freshly dug. It had the same lumpy appearance as the area by the fence post. Someone had buried something using a shovel. Something five or six feet in size.

  She fished her knife from her pocket and dug into the ground as best she could with the thin blade. The earth was soft. She scraped with her blade. The mud rolled back into the hole as she dug. She scooped it back with her hands. The soil was separated into clumps. Cut lines and air gaps were everywhere. It had been dug, and recently.

  Jess stared at the ragged hole she’d dug. It would take a shovel and some effort to confirm what seemed obvious, but it was obvious enough. She was in the middle of nowhere with a man-made ring of vegetation to hide the location. She couldn’t put off the inevitable. She closed her switchblade.

  Jess found Charlene’s number on her phone.

  A man’s voice came from behind her. “Drop it.”

  Jess held her phone out and turned slowly.

  A shadowy figure stood in the gap she had used to enter the circle. He held a gun out. His arm was low, his elbow bent. Not a good posture for using a handgun.

  He shook the gun at her. “I said drop it.”

  The voice was filled with the tremble of adrenaline, but she knew its owner.

  “Gardner?”

  He stepped forward, straightening his arm until the gun was just a foot from her face. “Drop. It.”

  “It’s me. Jess.”

  “And it’s me. The man who locked you up.” His tone was smug. “Surprise.”

  Her mouth went dry. “You’re working for Meisner.”

  “How clever you are. Pity you’re not going to be able to tell anyone.”

  Jess held up her phone. “Okay, okay. I’m putting it down.” She sank down on her haunches, lowering the phone to the ground with her right hand. His eyes followed the phone. She tossed it the last few inches and threw herself in the opposite direction.

  He twisted, retracting his arm to wield his gun in the confined space.

  She mashed her left thumb on her switchblade’s latch, and threw her arm around his leg, whipping the blade back across his Achilles’ tendon.

  He screamed. His gun boomed. A wave
of heat from the exhaust gases washed over Jess’s head. He’d missed. She lunged with her right hand for his gun, using her legs to ram her shoulder into his ribs. He stumbled back. She clung to his gun. He wrenched his hand back, flicking the gun from his grip.

  He wrapped his arm around Jess’s head. Squeezing.

  She stabbed at his chest. The knife bounced back. He was wearing a bulletproof vest.

  He grabbed her knife hand, crushing her knuckles and shaking her arm. Her knife flicked from her fingers.

  She shoved herself backward. His rigid grip on her head pulled him with her. He screamed as he limped along.

  She had to make the most of his damaged leg. She kicked, wrapping her foot around to hit his wound.

  He growled and pushed her away from him. She spun around from the force of his movement, swinging her right foot. A toe punt. Plenty of follow through. Her shoe against the bloodied flesh of his severed Achilles. He screamed, collapsing on one knee. She brought her foot up, and back down, centered on the back of his skull. He sagged forward, face down in the undergrowth.

  With his Achilles destroyed, he wasn’t going anywhere.

  Jess stood and breathed, calming her nerves. Meisner must have seen them on one of their cameras and sent Gardner in place of Blackstake. He must have had him on his payroll all along.

  She cussed. Her adrenaline still pumped her blood hard. Meisner had used people to do his dirty work, but he was going to suffer in court. She was going to make damn sure.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

  Jess dialed Charlene’s phone. In the distance, she heard the ringer.

  Charlene answered. “What was that?”

  “Gardner just attacked me.”

  Charlene’s voice went up an octave. “What?”

  “Really. Held a gun on me. I stabbed him, and he’s down.”

  Charlene remained silent for a good ten seconds. “I’ve always hated that man.”

  “With good reason, it seems.”

  “Where are you?”

  “There’s something else.” Jess kept her voice low, but there was no easy way to break the news. “I think I’ve found a grave.”