by Brenda Novak
There was no other option—he had to destroy the shack and get out of there.
After hurrying up the hill to his wife’s minivan, he grabbed the gas can he kept in the back and returned to his hideaway to pour it all over the mattress. Then he tossed a match on that mattress and, before he left, torched the Camry too.
Chapter 16
Evelyn couldn’t believe Jasper hadn’t seen that the door to the fridge was ajar. When he’d gone outside, she’d had to open it to gulp for air—or she’d pass out—and he’d surprised her by returning. Then she hadn’t been able to get it shut all the way. But he’d been so intent on what he was doing, she didn’t think he’d noticed.
She would’ve been glad about that, relieved—if she hadn’t smelled gasoline.
The shack was a tinderbox to begin with, and he’d just added an accelerant. If she didn’t get out fast, she’d burn to death. But the loud crackle made it difficult to know where he was, since she could no longer hear him. Was he outside watching the place burn? Could he be hoping to flush her out?
Paranoia tempted her to think that way, to believe that he knew more than he probably did. The frightened child inside her tried to convince her to remain hidden, because that fridge, especially now that it was encircled by fire, seemed like the only place he couldn’t reach her. She was afraid if she scrambled out and headed for safety, she’d only run into him, and she had no illusion that it would be any better fate than dying where she was.
But then she thought of Amarok, and her parents and sister, and her work. She’d told herself for years that she wouldn’t allow Jasper to get the best of her. She’d fought that first experience with everything she had. Why would she let him win in the end?
She wouldn’t, she decided. She was going to survive. Again. And then she’d do everything in her power to see that he was finally punished so he could no longer hurt her or anyone else.
The heat was already unbearable, and smoke hung so thick in the air, she couldn’t breathe. Coughing and gasping, she pushed herself out of the fridge and onto the dirt floor. She could see flames licking their way up to the roof, knew the whole shack could crumble on top of her any second. Yet she could hardly move, still didn’t have complete control of her body. Curling up inside that fridge had done nothing to get the blood flowing back into her limbs, so she was as numb and tingly as she’d been before—not to mention weak, hungry and exhausted.
Move! Now! she ordered herself. The fire was consuming the shack like a piece of paper. If she waited any longer, she’d burn right along with it.
Remaining low to the ground, she dragged herself to the entrance. The flames had caught hold of the door, but she grabbed that old, bloody blanket she’d spotted earlier and used it to protect her from the flames as she crawled across the threshold.
Part of her believed Jasper would grab her immediately. But once she reached the cool embankment of a creek and rolled over onto her back to stare at the sky overhead, she realized she was alone.
She stayed there, gulping for breath until she also realized something else—if she didn’t get up, he’d escape. She had to get a good look at him, note the license plate number on his car, something. Otherwise, she could spend the rest of her life as she’d spent the past twenty years, wondering if he was around the very next corner.
Driven by sheer determination, Evelyn staggered to her feet. But she’d been unconscious when he brought her here, had no idea where she was, or, now that she was no longer in the shack, from which direction she’d heard his car approach. Fear, panic and desperation had a tendency to distort perceptions, which was also a problem.
By the time she saw the smoke of a second fire, and could walk well enough to climb the embankment to reach it, she was fairly certain he was gone—and so were the license plates on the burning vehicle he’d used to abduct her.
***
The man and woman who picked Evelyn up on the side of the road wanted to take her to the hospital, but she’d demanded they drive straight to the closest police station. She had some superficial wounds—bloody chafing on her wrists and ankles, cuts on her arms and the sides of her mouth and some burns on her legs (even though she hadn’t been aware of ever coming into direct contact with the fire). But it was probably her headache that bothered her most. She needed to be treated at some point, if only to have the stitches from Hugo’s attack removed and to make sure that whatever Jasper had put on that rag hadn’t caused permanent damage.
But she didn’t dare waste any time. She wanted to tell the police everything she knew, get them out searching the area where she’d been found before the evidence Jasper was trying to destroy could be destroyed—if it wasn’t too late already. That was also why she’d used the man’s cell phone to call 9-1-1 the instant she got the couple who’d helped her to pull over.
“You really shouldn’t be sitting here. We can talk in the hospital.” This came from a young, clean-cut detective by the name of Mike Hampton. Evelyn was sitting in his office with a blanket draped around her shoulders and a cup of coffee waiting on the ledge of his desk.
“Admittance takes forever,” she said. “We need to act now.”
“We are acting now,” he assured her. “I’ve got a team out there, but they can’t do anything with that building he burned, or the car, until it all cools off.”
She pressed her fingers to her temples. “How long will that be?”
“A few hours, maybe more.”
“And then it’ll be dark,” she muttered, irritated by the limitations that hampered police progress while Jasper seemed able to get away with whatever he pleased.
Detective Hampton ignored her sarcasm. “Meanwhile, why don’t I take your statement, write down everything you recall while its fresh in your mind?”
Evelyn was eager to go over it all. She told him what she’d told the sergeant at the front desk when she first hurried into the police station, only in greater detail. But as she spoke, she realized that she didn’t have a lot to offer as far as the kind of details that might differentiate Jasper from any other man.
“So you didn’t get a look at his face,” the detective said.
She hugged the blanket closer. “No. He-he was wearing a ski mask.”
“When he came this morning, too?”
“I can’t say. I was crammed into the refrigerator by the time he entered the shack.”
Hampton checked his notes. “You said the door to the refrigerator was open when he came back, that you were shocked he didn’t notice.”
“That’s true, but...I couldn’t see him, couldn’t see anything. My head was curled into my knees. I’d used my elbow to crack the door to give me a little ventilation, which is why I couldn’t pull it closed fast enough.”
“And you’re sure the car he burned is the car he used to abduct you?”
“It had to be. It was a blue sedan that ran me off the road. I was in too much of a panic to get his license plate number when he was coming after me. I was just trying to get away, to survive. But this morning I looked for license plates, and...he’d taken them off.”
“Then I’m guessing he filed the VIN number off, too,” he said with a frown. “But...we’ll look for that, of course, when we can.”
She nodded.
“What makes you so sure the man who nearly killed you twenty years ago is behind this latest attack?” he asked. “Did he say something specific, or…?”
She craved the bolstering effects of the coffee he’d provided, but her hands weren’t steady enough to bring the cup to her lips, so she continued to let it grow cold. “No. We-we didn’t have a chance to interact. It was that picture he left taped to the chair that told me.”
“Your prom picture.”
“Yes. Who else would have access to that?”
He didn’t bother to answer that question. “What about a description?” he asked. “I understand you didn’t see his face. But can you tell me anything about his general size and body shape?”
“He was tall, strong—pulled me out of my overturned car as if I weighed nothing.”
“Can you guess at his height?”
She hesitated. “I can only give you those details for when I knew him in high school.” Damn it! Nothing else was clear enough.
“And he could’ve grown since then. Some boys do.” The detective bent his head as he read over his notes. “Well, we’ll see what we can find at the scene. Maybe we’ll get lucky and come up with a shred of evidence that will give us an indication as to where he’s living.”
“Thanks,” she said and tried to remain hopeful. But later that day, when they could actually start looking, they admitted that everything had been destroyed. The only thing they found was a shallow grave not far from where the shack had been.
It contained the body of a woman who’d been abducted three weeks earlier.
***
By the time Hillary got home, Jasper had half the house packed.
“What’s going on?” she asked, obviously shocked.
The kids were asleep, so he kept his voice down. “We’re moving.”
She dropped her purse. “Why?”
“Because you never wanted to come here to begin with.”
“But...what about my job?”
“You’re a nurse. You can get a job anywhere, especially with your references. You don’t like the hospital you’re at right now, anyway, remember? You’ve told me as much.”
“I didn’t say I couldn’t make do, get used to it.”
“You shouldn’t have to.”
She came deeper into the room. “There are other considerations, Andy. What about the lease on this house?”
“What about it? It’s month-to-month. We’ll give our landlord a check for September and be out of it.”
“That’ll cost us an extra thousand bucks!”
“Won’t it be worth a thousand bucks to be able to live in Arizona, like you wanted to begin with?”
She thought about that for a moment. “I-I guess,” she said at length. “But...what about the Camry? Will we leave without it?”
“Of course. Either the cops will find it, or the insurance will replace it. That’s no reason to stay.”
“It’s just...this is so sudden. And we haven’t been here very long.”
He taped another box closed. “I know. It was a mistake to come. I really thought I’d get that job, that I’d be able to make our lives better. Then I didn’t, and you’ve been so disappointed that I haven’t been able to find something else. Maybe we’ll have better luck in Phoenix. At least we’ll have a mild winter, right?” He grinned at her. “I want to give you what you want for a change. You deserve it. Think about it...if we bail now, it won’t affect the kids half as much as if we wait. It’ll just be like we had a...a six-week vacation in Boston one summer.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “So we can really go where I want to go? By my family?”
“Of course. Since you’ve been gone, I’ve realized how much you do every day. I don’t support you enough, Hill. I need to pitch in more, make sure you’re happy. And getting you out of here is the first step.”
She dashed a hand across her cheeks. “So you still love me.”
The disbelief in her voice prompted him to put his arms around her. He didn’t love her—sometimes he even wondered what love was—but he knew she’d expect such physical comfort. “Of course I do. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“You’ve been so remote lately. So...moody and...and angry. I didn’t know what you were thinking. I assumed...I assumed you were tired of me, or bored, or—”
“I’ve just been depressed,” he said. “Who wouldn’t be? I haven’t been able to get a job. That makes me feel worthless. But I’ll find something in Arizona. I’m going to make you proud. I promise.”
Her arms slid around his neck, and she buried her face in his shoulder.
It irritated him how gullible she was. If he really cared about her, she wouldn’t have to wonder. That seemed obvious to him. But she was reacting exactly as he’d hoped, so he played into it, as if he felt far more than he really did. “Are you okay?”
She sniffed. “I’m fine. Just...happy that everything’s still good between us, I guess. And that I’ll soon be living close to my mom and sister.”
“Every couple has their hard times,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something that draws us inexplicably together.” Take him and Evelyn, for example. She infuriated him, so much that he was tempted to go after her again right away. But he knew that wouldn’t be wise; she’d be ready for him this time. So he’d sit back for a year or two, until she began to feel comfortable again. Maybe she didn’t realize it, but he knew where she was going. He even knew the specific house where she would soon live. So he’d keep an eye on the news, follow developments in her career and what went on at Hanover House. Then, when the time was right, he’d pay her another visit.
And this time, she wouldn’t get away.
“Inexplicably?” Hillary echoed. The confusion on her face told him he’d used the wrong word, a word she didn’t find as reassuring as she would’ve liked.
“Undeniably,” he corrected. “I couldn’t live without you.” At least not for free. “We’re going to make it,” he promised and gestured at all the boxes. “So are you in? Should we get out of here?”
“As soon as we can,” she replied.
He smiled. “I don’t see any reason we can’t drive off by tomorrow night.”
***
Since she’d been abducted the night before, Amarok had stayed in close contact with the police. They told Evelyn he’d been so worried that he’d booked a flight to Boston so he could look for her himself. It was only that he’d heard word she’d been found that stopped him.
She was glad he’d decided to stay. She’d be returning to Alaska soon enough; it wasn’t necessary for him to leave Hilltop. That he’d even considered coming to Boston surprised her. This city would be so foreign to him. And they hadn’t been friends for long enough to warrant such an expense.
But she knew he was worried about her. So, after letting her parents know she was safe, she called Amarok.
“They’re not going to catch him,” she said into the phone, after explaining exactly what’d happened and assuring him that she was just fine.
“He’s smart,” Amarok said. “Bold, too.”
“He’s been out there killing for twenty years. As far as I’m concerned, the body they found proves it. Surely, that’s not the only one. He’s still active, and he’ll remain active until someone stops him.”
“It must be hard to know that.”
She pulled the blankets higher. “It is. It was easier to think he’d mysteriously disappeared—or killed himself, as his parents suggested.”
“The police will catch him someday, Evelyn.”
She knew he was just trying to comfort her. It was very possible they’d never catch him. He was too damn smart, too damn good at killing. “I can’t believe I got away. When I look back... It was a miracle,” she said, unable to explain how she hadn’t ended up in a shallow grave like that other woman.
“How’d he find you in the first place?” Amarok asked. “That’s what I want to know.”
“He must’ve been following me.”
“But he couldn’t have run across you randomly.”
“Oh, you mean to begin with. I have no idea. But if he’s back in Boston, why haven’t the police been able to find him?”
“There are a lot of people in Boston, and it’s been a long time. I’m guessing he looks different. That can’t sound like much of an excuse to you, but...it’s not easy to catch a lust killer, and if anyone can say why, it’d be you.”
“I know. I just can’t believe I’m going to have to continue to live with the thought that he’s out there, somewhere.” She thought of all the other victims in the world, who never achieved resolution, and felt guilty for complaining. Why should she
be any different? And what about those who’d lost their lives? At least she’d survived and escaped. She should be grateful, not allow her bitterness to overtake her gratitude. “But I’m not the only one dealing with this type of thing,” she added. “I realize that. I’ll cope with it, somehow.”
“I don’t want you going back to your condo, not even to get your stuff,” he said. “Send half a dozen brawny men to get it for you, and be done with that place.”
“Agreed. I won’t go back. Tomorrow, when I get out of the hospital, I’m going to rent a room from someone in Cambridge. My parents want me to stay with them, but I can’t. I have to find a random place, a place where I know Jasper would have no way of finding me.”
“Or you could move here right away, instead of waiting.” He said that like he wanted to see her, to watch over her.
“This couldn’t happen in Hilltop, could it, Amarok?” she asked, suddenly uncertain that she’d be safe anywhere. “That night when my phone line was cut—”
“I’m hoping that was just scare tactics,” he broke in. “Like we talked about. It’s the best explanation we’ve got, at any rate.”
She stared up at the ceiling. “So you think I’ll be safe there.”
“I want to say you will. I’ll do everything in my power to look out for you. But the truth is, that kind of shit could happen anywhere. It all depends on how determined Jasper is, right?”
“At least I’ll be 3400 miles away from Boston. So many bad things have happened to me in this city. I’m ready to leave. Now even my mother wants me to get out.”
“Whoa, Lara’s finally supportive of Alaska?”
She allowed her eyes to close. “I wouldn’t say she’s supportive. At this point, Alaska’s just the lesser of two evils. What she’d really like is for me to get a safer job, stay out of the media and disappear into another city, like Los Angeles or Seattle.”
“I thought she didn’t want you so far away?”
“She claims they’ll move with me.”
