by Ty Patterson
‘What was the extent of trouble at school?’
‘He broke another kid’s arm once, punched another’s jaw.’ He broke away. ‘He attacked me a few times, attacked my mother twice. One time he pointed a kitchen knife at her and nearly stabbed her. This guy was eight then. My folks were never the same again.’
More addresses were on Zeb’s phone once he left Korda. Three more families Pelling had stayed with. All three had the same stories.
Badly adjusted. Increasingly violent. Didn’t like authority figures. Increasingly serious juvenile crimes. Harming pets.
‘We took him to counseling sessions. He treated them as a joke. He urinated in one of the shrinks’ offices.’ One man said sadly. ‘He had so much potential in him. He was smart. Very smart. He absorbed things, was curious. If he’d straightened out, he’d have gone on to be someone.’
‘He was fascinated with big cities. New York, Los Angeles, but New York most of all.’
‘No, he never mentioned his mother. Never. He didn’t know his dad.’
The trail went cold when Pelling turned eighteen.
Trail’s warm. I’ve seen them.
The killer patted himself mentally for his patience. He’d waited for days, sometimes coming on foot, sometimes in the van, and his vigil was finally rewarded when he saw the sisters.
He held back, scanned the street for Carter and didn’t see him.
The other one’s still in the hospital. Today it is.
Wait one more day. They’ve just come back from wherever. Let the routine start.
I’ve waited long enough. They come twice in a day. The second time, in the evening, is when I’ll get them.
You’re rushing this.
And you’re delaying.
He hunched lower and turned his head away as the sisters stepped out of the café.
‘The Jura’s nice, but stepping out of the office for this, is bliss.’ Beth thrust her paper cup at her sister in a toast and closed her eyes as the warm drink went inside her.
‘No hits on Joshua Pelling?’ Her twin asked.
‘Nope. Broker said it’s highly likely he’s changed his identity. Pizaka and Chang have put some men on tracing the guy, but it’s going to be hard work.’
‘You’ve tried permutations, combinations of the names? Ivan Rausch, Lowell Rausch, Jane Hempel, Joshua Pelling?’
‘Yeah. nothing. No driving licenses, no arrests, no court documents, nada. Zip. Zilch. Nothingo. I coined that word.’
‘Not quite nothing, though.’ Meghan smiled. ‘We’ll take his photograph and hit the sports outlets.’
Beth stopped and stared at her. ‘You know how many of those are there in the city?’
‘Yeah. We’ll go to the specialist ones and the big ones. Those who stock a wide range of wooden bats. I looked them up, those retailers are smaller in number.’
‘You’re smart, aren’t you?’ Beth said admiringly.
‘Someone has to be.’ She ducked the mock punch her sister threw at her.
They hurried back to the office, checked in with Broker who grumped at his stationary status in the hospital and drove out of the basement.
Where would an eighteen year old go, if he went to New York? He didn’t have any friends. Or did he?
Zeb dialed Beth and heard the background noise when she placed his call on speaker. ‘Where’re you heading?’
He listened silently as she briefed him, overheard the comments Meghan made. ‘You’ve told Pizaka, Chang?’
‘Yeah. They’re getting cops to take the photographs and cover all the victim sites. They’ll be covering a few blocks around each site.’
‘You checked out if Pelling had a social media presence?’
The silence he heard gave him his answer. He grinned silently as he imagined the consternation on their faces.
‘We’ll check it out as soon as we get back in a few hours.’
‘Let’s not wait that long, get Yuri on it.’
‘Gotcha. You planning to come back anytime soon? You could take a vacation you know. Leave it to us. You’re old, your bones need a rest.’ A big grin was in her voice.
‘I’m heading back to Chattanooga. Will be in the city sometime in the evening.’
The killer thought about following them for a moment, rejected the idea, hurried back to his van and headed to his apartment.
Things to do.
He looked around in his apartment, at the narrow living room that led to a hallway which in turn opened into a tiny kitchen. A bedroom and bathroom adjoined the kitchen. He shoved the desk with the computer to a corner, started tidying it up, then stopped.
Trying to make an impression?
He shook his head silently.
Nah. They’re going to die anyway.
His hands trembled in excitement as he arranged plastic sheets on the floor.
That’s their red carpet.
He snorted in laughter. His blood thrummed so much that he had to sit and draw deep breaths a couple of times and calm his racing pulse.
He’d worked it all out.
Plastic sheets to catch the splash. Carpet rolls to wrap the bodies in. He knew of a disposal site, but he hadn’t decided whether to use the site, or throw the bodies in the street.
Meghan Petersen blew her hair away in frustration as they trudged out of yet another sports outlet. ‘That’s the tenth one on our list, not many more of the size we’re looking for.’ They had started in Brooklyn and headed south slowly, Manhattan was next.
Beth nodded silently as she slipped behind a truck, followed it for a while and then stepped on the gas as she overtook it. Brooklyn Bridge, with its arches and cables, glowed in the sunlight and in the distance the Statue of Liberty beckoned. She eased on the gas as they looked out simultaneously, the sight never failing to inspire them.
‘It would help if the statue pointed toward the killer,’ her sister grumbled. ‘Divine intervention is very much needed. Does Zeb need to be picked up from the airport?’
‘Nope. He said he’d cab it.’
‘Alright, let’s check out a couple more and then head back and help out Yuri. Pete’s the biggest one, our first stop.’
Pete didn’t recollect serving the killer. ‘But then, I serve hundreds in a day. I couldn’t remember all.’ He said apologetically.
‘Even those who might be regular?’
‘No, ma’am. Just too many of them.’ He stroked his beard thoughtfully. ‘However I’ve cameras all over. Would their footage help? Your guys had asked me, I didn’t have the footage then, someone had misplaced our memory disks. But that’s all sorted now.’
‘Heck yeah! I mean, yes Sir! That would be most helpful.’ Meghan flashed a wide smile at him.
The old man winked at her, disappeared in the depth of the store and returned with a USB storage device. ‘Three months of data on it.’ He grinned when Meghan hugged him.
Three more stores gave them more footage and once back in the office, Meghan copied all the files in a single directory, emailed the directory to Chang and woke Werner.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she instructed the program to scan all the footage and when she’d finished, she pushed back.
‘Right, let’s hit the café. Werner might have something for us when we return.’
Zeb glanced through the Lear’s window as it took off from Chatanooga and earth and gravity fell behind.
Three p.m. Should be back by six thirty. Take the girls to the hospital, check out on Werner and Yuri. If neither come up with anything, will ask Rolando to go public with Pelling’s details.
He woke from an uneasy sleep as the jet circled the city and prepared for landing.
What?
Something, no idea.
He strode through the terminal as he fished out his phone, frowned when he glanced at the screen, at the GPS locators for the sisters.
They’re still in Brooklyn? They should’ve been back by now.
He punched Meghan’s number,
held his phone to his ear as the call went through the network, through towers, got no signal from Meghan’s phone and returned that information to Zeb.
He was no longer listening.
His eyes were focused on the headlines in a newsstand. Fire rages in school, the black letters screamed.
Zeb read past them, to the first two letters of the city. P. E.
PE
BBK
Green Eyes.
Twins! That’s what Sandoval had scrawled.
They had walked out of the café, drinks in hand and as they were crossing the deserted alley, Meghan turned to her sister to ask a question.
She dimly heard a door slide, saw Beth’s eyes widen, and felt herself flying as a hand grabbed her and propelled her into a dark van. Her head cracked against glass and her vision blurred for a moment. Wetness coated her face, blood from a cut over her eyebrow. She gathered herself to launch herself out, stopped when she saw the figures outside.
A dark-haired, dark-eyed man, baseball cap pulled low over his head. Even with the shadow over his face, even with Beth’s head partially obscuring him, she recognized the man.
Joshua Pelling held a scalpel at Beth’s neck, its blade gleaming against her skin.
‘Stay back.’
He pushed Beth forward to the opening, turned her around, her back to the door and made her push her hands behind.
‘Cuff her,’ he ordered Meghan.
Two pairs of cuffs, restraining ropes and blind folds lay on the rear seat.
Meghan hesitated and the blade bit into Beth’s neck, a thin line turned red.
She cuffed her sister who stumbled and fell beside her when Pelling shoved her in.
‘Her legs.’
One hand went inside his jacket and came out with a gun when she glared at him.
The gun was concealed by his loose jacket, but it couldn’t miss at that range. He waved it at Beth. ‘Now you cuff her.’
‘My hands are cuffed behind me.’ She retorted.
The dark eyes were cold, flat. ‘You can do it. You’re trying to buy time. Won’t work. I’ve already got you as hostage.’
Five minutes of fumbling, the cuffs clicked behind Meghan.
Pelling’s lips twisted as their eyes fell to Meghan’s legs.
‘Lie down, point your legs at me. I have thought of everything,’ he sneered when the realization dawned through Meghan. Lying down, she would have little or no leverage to kick or lash out.
Pelling cuffed her legs, slammed the door shut and got in behind the wheel. He rapped the thick plastic partition that separated him from them.
His voice mocked them over a speaker. ‘Like I said everything.’
Color seeped out of the city, became shades of black and white as Zeb ran, an invisible dark cloud surrounding him. A lady, ten feet away, with a trolley glanced at him and stopped in her tracks. Zeb ignored her, ignored the curses of those he cut ahead of, speed mattered.
When was that last signal?
One hour.
He thumbed the phone with his left hand, made the calls, even though he knew the answer.
‘Yeah? This’s a surprise. I didn’t think you’d be talking to me anytime—’
Zeb interrupted Broker. ‘Are the twins with you?’
The levity leaked out of Broker’s voice immediately. ‘No. What happened?’
Zeb told him, rage, bitterness, and helplessness coating his voice.
‘Where’re we with hunting him?’
Zeb told him about the social media profiles, the visits to the stores, Yuri’s tasks.
‘Call Yuri, light a fire under him. I’m coming to the office.’
Zeb heard him moving in his room. ‘Stay there.’
‘Like hell I will-–’
‘Stay there. Don’t leave the hospital. I’ll deal with this.’
He hung up, flagged a cab, and dialed another number.
‘You heard from the twins?’ He fired at Pizaka before he could say a word.
‘Nope. They said they would be visiting sports stores. Haven’t heard from them since. Aren’t they back?’
Zeb briefed him. He heard movement over the phone, Chang’s voice came on, hard, crisp. ‘Gimme the last coordinates. We’ll send a couple of patrol cars.’
Zeb thanked him, hung up, and dialed the next number. ‘Columbus Avenue.’ He told the driver who was watching him silently.
‘Yuri?’ Yuri was a night owl. It was close to two a.m. in Ukraine, but he was wide awake working on some programs.
‘Yo, Zeb, how’s it hanging? Spoke to the lovely sisters-– ’
‘They’re gone. They’ve been taken by the killer.’
Yuri’s voice turned coldly professional. ‘Tell me what to do, I’ll do it.’
‘Pelling have any online profile?’
‘Nope. If he has one, it’s under another name. Nothing on his name in any database.
‘Check out combinations of the names, Pelling, Rausch, Ivan, Lowell, Hempel, Jane. Hack any database you have to.’
He hung up, looked out of the window unseeingly.
‘Problems?’
The driver repeated his question three times before Zeb heard him and responded. ‘The kind in which someone dies.’
He raced inside the office, hoping against hope, and quelled the sinking feeling in his stomach when he found it empty. He checked their desks for any messages.
Nothing.
He called their phones again.
Nothing.
He turned away, then spun around swiftly.
Joshua Pelling’s image was on Werner.
He read the script beneath the image. ‘Ninety-percent match against file.’
He worked the computer and extracted the USB. Pete’s Sporting Emporium was printed on it.
Getting closer. But will we find him in time?
Time was his enemy just as much as Pelling was. The killer hadn’t lifted them for any demand.
He’s going to kill them.
Chapter 19
The killer crossed the bridge to Brooklyn, drove a few blocks randomly and crawled into the deserted parking lot of an abandoned building. He eased beside a second black van that stood in a far corner, hopped out and waved his gun at the women.
‘We’ll switch vehicles.’
He stepped far back and smiled grimly as Beth stumbled and recovered. ‘None of those tricks will work on me. Yeah, those are for you. Change into them.’ He addressed Meghan as she glanced at the pile of clothes in the second van and looked questioningly at the killer.
His voice was ice when the women hesitated.
‘I’m not going to rape you. I’m only going to batter you.’
He watched dispassionately as they struggled into the new clothes, scooped the old ones and tossed them into the first van.
‘Remove those too.’ The gun pointed at the slender chains around their neck. ‘Your watches as well. Everything. You’d better be bare-assed naked under those new clothes, or else I’ll finish you right here.’
Ten minutes later, he was driving them through Brooklyn, executing random turns and doubling up on the same streets; when he was satisfied they were clean, he floored it. He looked back at the women as they peered through the dark windows.
‘Brownsville.’ His voice echoed through the speaker.
‘One of the poorest neighborhoods in this great city. Which suits me just fine. No one cares what goes behind the four walls of your home, here. Soon, you’ll stop caring too.’ He laughed his high pitch laugh when he saw the women glance at each other.
‘The van was found in a parking lot in Brooklyn with their clothing inside. No witnesses, no cameras, nothing. There’s a second set of tracks, he must’ve switched vehicles. Cleary is there. He said he’ll try to get a make for the tires. The van’s clean but for their clothes.’
Chang updated Zeb as he swiftly led Zeb through hallways in the police headquarters to a meeting room where Pizaka greeted him with a nod. Pizaka held Pelling’s
photo. ‘I’ve just gotten off the phone with Pete. He’s happy to cooperate and will share anything we want.’
The cops will have to match the time stamp of the camera footage against credit card receipts at Pete’s, get an address and then go in hard.
Chang looked at Zeb, read his coiled body. ‘We’ve got an ESU team ready to go as soon as the address comes in.’
The NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit, ESU, performed various specialist tasks. It functioned as a SWAT unit, got involved in hostage negotiation and recovery, and even had its own canine team that supported operations. The ESU was the NYPD’s elite.
Zeb barely heard him. Words came at him as if he was underwater, the world moved around him as if in slow motion. His phone pinged, a message from Broker, just a question mark.
Stay there. Zeb thumbed back. He knew Broker would read its meaning. Nothing to report.
Another message, this time from Yuri.
Nothing on Pelling, Rausch, Hempel, Jane, Lowell. Checking on combinations.
‘Our guys are doing the same,’ Pizaka replied when Zeb told them about the messages. Zeb’s eyes moved to a map of the city on a wall. A red pin marked the location of the van.
Two hours from last signal. Two hours to be anywhere in the city.
The beast raged in him. It wanted to go hunting. The despair in him wanted to drown him.
He quelled both. Now was the time for patience.
They might already be dead.
Then someone else will.
The killer rumbled along a low rise, red-bricked block of apartments, each with its own fenced driveway that led to the entrance door.
He turned into the last apartment on the row, reversed and backed up so that the rear of the van nudged the steps. He sat for a while observing the street and his neighbors. This time of the night there wasn’t much traffic and the sidewalk and driveways were empty of people. He opened the door to the apartment, went back to the van, slid the door open and gestured at the women.
