“On duty or off?”
“I don’t know. Maybe both. Back then he was working vice, chasing drug dealers and prostitutes. But he wasn’t fooling anyone. He was a playboy, an asshole. I think he might have been balling some of the groupies. Everyone knew him, and I think most people knew what he was up to.”
“So what makes you think he knew the dead guy?”
“He used to talk to him in a way that seemed more than just casual. It was like they were buddies or something. Or maybe they had some sort of deal going.”
“Did you bring this up in court?”
“Sure but the judge threw it out.”
“Threw it out? Why?”
“Cavanaugh denied knowing the guy and I had no proof. They believed the cop. Big surprise, huh?”
“They call it the blue wall of silence,” Laura said.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a cop thing,” Laura explained. “Contrary to popular belief, their number one job is to cover their own asses, not protect your rights, even if it means sending an innocent person to prison.”
“You got that right,” Wolf said.
Chapter 78
On the way to the lake Laura told him the story of Cavanaugh being her father’s partner, how they’d been chasing a suspect and how her father had been trapped in an alley and had been brutally killed by the suspect, his neck broken. The story went that the suspect was an extremely large individual and that he had somehow escaped and was never found. “Cavanaugh was there,” she said. “He knew what happened but it was covered up. He was originally sited for negligence in my father’s death but for some reason he was exonerated. I believe someone high up in the force didn’t want what really happened to come out.”
“Do you think Cavanaugh had something to do with your father’s death?”
“I don’t know. I think he at least knew something about it, and he was warned off. That seems the most logical explanation. I found something out last night while surfing the web. A local reporter named Persephone Wilder knew something about the case but she was slapped with a gag order and threatened with jail time if she printed anything. I’m thinking about giving her a call, seeing if I can get some info from her.”
“I know who she is,” Wolf said. “She’s been writing about the murders. She’s the one who named them.”
“Cross my heart. Yeah, I know,” Laura said. “Have you met her?”
“No. But I know what she looks like. The paper always prints her photo beside her byline. She’s very pretty. Maybe they figure her looks will get her more readers.”
Laura nodded as something in her brain tried to surface.
“Listen, Laura. Do you think the guy that attacked you was the same guy that killed your father?”
Laura glanced over at Wolf. “What? No! I mean, Christ, what are the chances? Shit, I wasn’t thinking that at all, but now that you mention it...”
“Maybe a little too coincidental, huh?”
Laura gave wolf a sidelong glance. “Wow, what if?”
“What if...?”
“I need to think about this,” Laura said. “In any event I think Cavanaugh has got some explaining to do.”
Wolf made a sound that might have been a laugh. “When do you think that’ll happen? Remember the blue wall of silence you just mentioned. He’s a cop. He’ll never answer for his crimes.”
“He’ll answer for my father’s death. I promise you that.”
Wolf was silent in thought for a long moment. Finally he said, “Tell me what you saw after you left my apartment.”
“That’s the problem; I didn’t see anything until I got back to my car. There were people on the streets, but I didn’t pay any attention to them. By the time I reached the vacant lot I was alone. But then I did see something, this wavy white disturbance like there was something there besides me but I couldn’t tell what it was. I know it sounds stupid but—”
“No, it doesn’t sound stupid at all,” Wolf said.
“No?”
“Not after everything that’s happened.”
“I just can’t explain it,” Laura said. “It felt evil. Then that monster was all over me.”
“You think he was the evil you felt?”
“I don’t think so. He was huge and powerful and he scared the shit out of me, but the evil I felt was something else entirely. Listen, Danny, Rick Jennings is the least superstitious guy I know, yet he told me he saw and felt something similar at both the crime scenes. He was major spooked, and he said some of the other officers were spooked too. It was like there was something there watching over the dead girls. And that’s not all. When I left the club last night I felt like I was being followed. I thought I saw something and I know I felt something. It was one of the creepiest feelings I’ve ever had. I can’t explain what it was. I felt like my life was in jeopardy and I didn’t have any control over it.”
Just talking about it caused gooseflesh to break out on Laura’s arms and an icy shiver to pass through her. She gave Wolf a sidelong glance. “Do you know anything about this?”
Wolf frowned.
“Danny, you need to lay all your cards on the table.”
“I’m not sure what it is but I think it’s real. It’s something that’s always been a part of me in some crazy way, but now it seems to be getting stronger, more real.” Wolf then told Laura about his recurring dream where he’s running from men and dogs and he rounds a bend in the trail and sees a dead woman with a cross carved on her.
“Jennings told me a story about a murdered woman five years ago,” Laura said. “The way she died was covered up. The official story was a heart attack while out jogging. The real story was much different.” She told Wolf about the feds and the manhunt for a supposed escapee from a federal facility in New York State, knowing she shouldn’t be confiding any of this in him but unable to stop herself. “They found a dead woman with a cross carved on her and the tracks of a barefoot giant all around the body.”
“It sounds like what I’m seeing in my dream,” Wolf said. “Why would I be dreaming that?”
Laura sighed. “I don’t know, but there’s got to be a logical explanation. Maybe you were there.”
“I wasn’t. I swear I wasn’t.”
“Then I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Why’d the feds cover it up?”
“Evidently the big guy was classified. At least that’s what the feds told the locals and they didn’t have a choice but to go along.”
Wolf watched Laura drive for a long moment. “You should have seen that guy,” he said speaking of Laura’s attacker. “He was huge, and he was all covered in hair like some sort of cave man. When I tried to talk to him he grunted like he was trying to say something back but I couldn’t understand him. Then he started signing.”
“Signing?” Laura said.
“Yeah, you know, like a deaf person, only I don’t think he was deaf. When I spoke to him he understood me. I’m sure of it. He can hear but he can’t speak and someone taught him sign language so that he could communicate. He pointed at you like he was trying to explain why he did what he did, but I didn’t understand. And he didn’t touch me. He could have broken me in half, but he didn’t. He just turned and ran away. It was like he knew me or something. And it’s so weird because I felt the same way.”
“He’s the guy that’s carrying dead women around in your dreams, isn’t he?”
Wolf was silent in thought for a long moment. Finally he said, “I think he might be.”
“But where did he come from?” Laura said. “And where did he go? And if the feds were hunting him five years ago why didn’t they catch him. How could someone like that wander around the streets of Portland without being noticed? Where does he live?”
“All good questions,” Wolf said. “Someone must be taking care of him, maybe using him. Suppose he’s not acting alone. He put a chemical-soaked rag over your mouth. I get the feeling that’s not something he’d do on his own.
What if he was acting under someone else’s instructions?”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. But if he was trying to kill you you’d be dead. He was planning on taking you somewhere. If I hadn’t come along you might have been the next Cross my heart victim.”
“Yeah,” Laura said with a shudder. “I’ve been thinking about that. By the way, in all the commotion I forgot to thank you for saving my life. Thanks.”
“No problem.”
“But something’s bothering me.”
“What’s that?”
“How did you know where I was?”
“On my way home from the shrink’s office I began seeing things.”
“Things?” Laura said.
“Strange images.”
“You mean the crosses you told me about at breakfast?”
Wolf gave a weary sigh. “Yeah,” he said. “And they were everywhere. On street signs and storefronts and shop windows. And it filled me with so much despair I felt like I wanted to die. And I saw that place I told you I’d dreamed about, and I felt something terrible, like I was trapped there and couldn’t get out. And I felt it when it exploded.”
“Did you see the dead girl?”
“I saw the cross and the stab wounds, but I didn’t see her face. I wanted so much to help her but I knew that it was too late. I don’t know why this keeps happening to me.”
“Think about it, Danny. It happens right about the time someone dies. That girl was probably killed last night and you saw her. And today a cop died in that explosion and you saw that too. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Wolf knew she was right. He knew that he was connected to it all in some terrible way. “So, do you think I know the killer?”
“Only you can answer that.”
“Damn,” Wolf said, groaning in misery. “What if I do?”
“Maybe you’re psychic and somehow you’re tapped into the killer.”
“That’s a pleasant thought.”
“Well, it is something to consider.” Laura looked over at Wolf and smiled. “You are an awfully sensitive little prick. I don’t know why I even like you. Normally I go for big dumb guys.”
“Like the guy that attacked you?”
“Yeah but without all the fur.”
“Dumb guys are easier to boss around, huh?”
“Precisely. By the way, you still haven’t told me how you knew I was in trouble.”
“When I got home I knew you’d been in my apartment.”
“How?”
“I could smell your blood.”
Chapter 79
“Jesus, Wolf, you’re creeping me out. What do you mean you could smell my blood? I wasn’t bleeding.”
“Ah but I think you were. You still are actually.”
Laura glanced over at Wolf in confusion. Then it struck her. “I got my period this morning. Christ, you can smell it?”
“Yup.”
“Good God, Danny, that is just weird.”
“Not really,” he said. “It’s normal for me. Always has been.”
“You sensitive little prick. You’re like an animal.”
“You know it, baby. Why do you think they named me Wolf? And by the way, you sneaky little bitch. I think you deserve a good solid spanking for breaking into my apartment.”
Laura gave Wolf a sidelong glance. “We’ll deal with that later.”
“You’re right. We will.”
Getting serious again Laura said, “Tell me about these heightened perceptions of yours. What do they feel like? Where do you think you got them?”
Wolf frowned. “I don’t know where they come from but I’ve had them for as long as I can remember. Whenever it happens I see a strange blue light.”
Laura frowned. “A what?”
“A blue light. I can’t explain it but it’s always been there. It engulfs me every time I have one of those spells. I don’t know what it is or what it means, if anything.”
“So let me get this straight,” Laura said. “You somehow have the ability to see through the eyes of others, tap into them and feel their emotions. And you can sense things at a distance and smell blood like a hound dog. And whenever this happens you become engulfed in a strange blue light.”
“That about covers it,” Wolf said. “I’m probably cursed.”
“There’s a logical explanation for why you’re the way you are and I promise you we’ll find out what it is.”
“I wish I had your confidence,” Wolf said.
Laura reached over and took Wolf’s hand, squeezing it gently. “I promise,” she said. “Now tell me what else happened.”
“Well, when I got home I almost couldn’t walk. Whatever these episodes are, they affect me physically. All I wanted to do was fall down and sleep. And that’s what I did. I couldn’t even make it to my chair. I fell into the room and passed out. I couldn’t have been out for long because the minute I woke up I could smell you. When I went into the bedroom I could even sense these trails where you’d been. When I looked out through the window I actually saw the trail you’d made as you walked out of the alley. I don’t know how that’s possible but I swear it’s true.”
“Funny thing is, I believe you.”
“And there was something else,” Wolf said.
“What?”
“Something was following you.”
Behind the wheel Laura frowned. “What? The guy that attacked me?”
“No, not him. It was something different. Something... I don’t know...something that felt bad. I think maybe it was the same thing you were just telling me about that followed you home last night. Somehow you felt it too. So I followed you, and I could tell that it had passed that way, because I could feel it. Like it had left some sort of bad residue or something.”
Chapter 80
“You’re really creeping me out now, Wolf.” Laura could not stop thinking about what she herself had seen and felt the night before while walking home from the club, and wondering just how close she’d come to death.
“Sorry but I’m just telling you what I felt.”
“I know. It’s just so creepy, that’s all.”
“So when I got to the vacant lot there you were in the grip of that monster. But when I confronted him I knew that he wasn’t the evil that I’d felt, because by then it was gone. Maybe he knows what it is. Maybe he’s even connected to it in some way. I don’t know. But I do know that it wasn’t him. I certainly can’t explain in rational terms what I mean or even what I felt.”
“I understand,” Laura said. “I was there. I felt it too. Even so, I know there’s got to be a rational explanation for it.”
Actually Laura was amazed that she was sitting across from the main suspect in a series of brutal murders discussing, even entertaining, the possibility that all of this hocus pocus was real, even as she knew that it probably was.
She took a sudden left turn into the parking lot of a family super market, scanning the lot for any sign of police activity. She didn’t see anything.
“What are you doing?” Wolf said.
“We need to stay warm and fed if we’re going to figure this thing out. My mom hasn’t been at the cottage since last summer and there’s probably no food. There might be wood there for a fire but I don’t think there’s anything to eat.” Laura chose a parking space as close to the store entrance as possible and pulled in. “I think it would be better if you stayed here,” she told Wolf. “They’ll have a harder time spotting us if we’re not together.”
Wolf grabbed her arm before she could get out. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because I fucking hate injustice. Because I want to find out what happened to my father. Because I’m in this now all the way up to my armpits and I have to find out how it ends. But I think mostly it’s because I...” Laura paused, blew her breath out with a sigh. “It’s because I feel something for you, goddamn it. I don’t know why or how, but I think it’s real and it makes me both happy and a little bit sick to my stomach. Bu
t most of all I’m doing it because I want to help you. Because I believe you got scammed five years ago and I think you’re still being scammed.” She gazed sadly at Wolf for a long moment before sliding off the seat and exiting the vehicle.
Even if Laura had still been sitting there Wolf wouldn’t have known how to reply to her strange comment. I feel something for you? What the hell did that mean? It was without a doubt the weirdest profession of love—if that’s what it had been—that anyone had ever made to him. But he couldn’t think about that now. He absolutely could not afford the luxury of contemplating anything even close to love. He had to think. He had to force himself to concentrate. He needed to figure a way out of this nightmare. He put his head back against the seat and closed his eyes in thought. Nothing made sense to him. His life was in turmoil; he was being accused of murder, he was being haunted by some supernatural or psychic force, and he was just one step away from going back to prison.
He opened his eyes and started. Three rows down from where he sat, a police cruiser moved slowly and deliberately along the rows of parked vehicles. They were using a spotlight to check license plate numbers. The cruiser reached the end of the row it was on, turned and made its way down the next one. If they were looking for Laura’s Camry it would only be a matter of minutes before they found it.
Chapter 81
Wolf realized that their only advantage was that it was Friday night and the lot was full of shoppers. He ducked down in the seat and jumped when the door opened. Laura threw several plastic bags of groceries on the seat, got in and started the engine.
“I see it,” she said. Looking behind her she quickly backed out of the space and drove deliberately toward the store’s exit lane. At the end there were two vehicles in line ahead of her waiting to get out onto the street. Wolf turned around in his seat and saw the cruiser passing by the space they had just occupied.
“Come on, move!” Laura said. She kept glancing in her rear view mirror tapping her fingers nervously on the steering wheel. Finally there was a break in traffic and the other two vehicles pulled out of the lot. Laura followed them and headed north. Within ten minutes she turned off Route 202 onto a secondary road that twisted like a snake as it followed the lake shore.
Apocalypse Island Page 26
