He’d saved the best for last. A heavy silence settled over the group as they read an online communication that had been discovered by the cyber task force less than an hour ago.
“Fuck me.” Thompson said. “The new Man in the Maze is getting all these assholes together in one place for a killers’ summit?”
“Apparently.” Baskin pressed his hands to his temples.
“Sometime in the next twenty-four hours?”
“Probably a lot less than that. We think this communication was sent out sometime yesterday.”
“Fuck me.”
Caitlin sighed. Thompson was starting to get on her nerves. “Can you say anything else, Detective? Something helpful, perhaps?”
“Sure. How about we take this chance to take all these motherfuckers down at once. Operation Labyrinth. This is perfect. They’re all huddling up in one location, and all we have to do is go get them.”
Baskin shot Thompson a look. “Great suggestion. You got any idea where this summit is, Bozo? Because if you do, I’ll call out the cavalry.”
Spense got to his feet. “Thompson’s right.”
Detective Thompson tipped back too far in his chair again and said nothing, apparently stunned into silence.
“We have an opportunity, and whether it’s a long shot or not, we have to try to figure this thing out. If you were the Man in the Maze, where would you hold the summit?” Spense began working his cube, and Caitlin knew he was gathering his focus.
Herrera shook her head. “You’re grasping, Spense. We can’t send our officers off on a goose chase based on a brainstorming session. What we can do is keep eyes on Baumgartner, and if he’s the new Man in the Maze, he’ll lead us to his flock. Unfortunately, we may not locate him in time.”
Caitlin clutched the edge of the table. “What do you mean?”
“I mean we sent men out to get a swab and keep eyes on him, but they haven’t located Junior yet. Nobody’s home, and he’s not at his place of business or known hangouts. So I’m afraid we may miss this chance.”
Spense shoved his Rubik’s cube back in his pocket. “Sometimes the hardest puzzles are the easiest to solve. You just have to look at them the right way. I’ll ask again. If you were the Man in the Maze, where would you hold a summit?”
The sound of squeaking filled the air—Thompson was tipping in that chair again. Caitlin closed her eyes, and tried to imagine the room without him. She heard Spense’s question repeating in her head. If you were the Man . . . If you were the Man . . . of course! She jumped to her feet. “In a maze!” Spense was right. It was better to think simply in some situations. “And as the leader of the group, surely he’d expect his minions to come to him, not the other way around.”
Laptops flew open, and the race was on to Google the location of every maze in Arizona. Turned out there were eight. Four in Phoenix, and the rest spread throughout the state. The plan was to call in the officers in the vicinity, and the task force would divide and conquer. Spense gave her first pick since she’d been the first to see the obvious. After studying the various sites, she got a hunch. She and Spense were headed to Casa Grande.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Tuesday, September 24
Casa Grande Corn Maze and House of Horrors
Outside Casa Grande, Arizona
THE MUSCLES IN Dizzy’s legs ached, and her sweat-dampened T-shirt stuck to her back. The pathways through the maze were narrow and overgrown, and when the wind picked up, whipping the stiff, dried-up corn stalks against her bare arms, it felt like she was running a gauntlet instead of winding her way through a six-acre cornfield. The scent of an approaching storm was in the air, and the sun had set awhile ago. Her flashlight, strapped to her belt, banged against her hip as she walked. Between the scorching temperature and the thick, high stalks trapping the heat inside the maze, she was miserable.
And she was lost.
She’d arrived at the deserted maze around 5:00 P.M., and she’d been traveling down one dead end and turning around only to bump into another ever since. She told herself the center of the maze had to be nearby. And she was certain that once she found dead center, she’d find the Man in the Maze. A gust of wind filled her nostrils with debris. Her throat closed up, and she started to cough.
Suck it up, Dizzy.
That was the reason she’d come here, wasn’t it?
To find the Man in the Maze.
Only . . . maybe this wasn’t the place after all. She’d been so sure.
Horror cannot be contained. Although it has no home, it does not wander the earth but rather exists in our heart of hearts.
That’s what the message had said. And this particular maze had an attached house of horrors to attract the crowds at Halloween. Surely, that was what the message meant when it said horror has no home. This maze had been closed to the public the past six months, so no one would bother them here. It was the perfect place for a summit. Yes. This had to be it.
The Casa Grande Corn Maze and House of Horrors was a good fifty miles south of Phoenix and another ten miles from the highway and the nearest town of Eloy. She’d taken the bus to Eloy and paid a kid at the Circle-K ten bucks to drop her off, so no one knew she was here. And that was a good thing . . . wasn’t it? She touched the cell in her pocket.
No.
She wasn’t going to call Mom. She’d come all this way, and she wasn’t going to chicken out now. Her wet T-shirt acted like an adhesive for the dust blowing everywhere, and she decided she must look like a creature from the black lagoon by now. Her skin itched, and her feet grew wearier with each step she took. She stumbled over a rock in the path and fell onto her outstretched hands. Now her palms were raw and bleeding and burned like the devil. A little voice started up in her head:
You don’t have to do this, Dizzy.
That same stupid voice that had stopped her from taking all her pills instead of only a handful of them. If not for that nagging refrain in her head, you don’t have to do this, she might’ve succeeded the first time. She shouldn’t have listened to the voice then, and she wasn’t going to listen to it now. She hadn’t come all this way for nothing. Instead, she’d listen to that other voice. The one that whispered:
Why don’t you die, Dizzy?
She’d be better off, and eventually Mom would be, too. Without a depressed, unlikable teenager weighing her down, she’d probably find a good guy and remarry. Mom was lonely—like Dizzy. At least one of them should get to be happy, and she was sure she never could be. It wasn’t fair to drag Mom down, too. Who wanted a woman with a troubled teen?
She batted away the corn stalks, and, just as quickly, the wind blew them back in her face. Her throat was starting to itch, and her lips and tongue felt thick. Her allergies were pretty bad this time of year, and there was something in the air that was making her nose run and her lungs burn like fire. Her nose was clogged, and her sense of smell was way off. For a while now, she was sure she’d been smelling and tasting gasoline. But that was impossible. She rubbed her arms, sore now from being attacked by the corn. She should’ve worn long sleeves. But then she realized it wasn’t important. Maybe this was real and not just a role-play club. Maybe she’d be dead soon. She shivered in the heat. What if it wasn’t a game? In her heart, she hadn’t really believed it, but, suddenly, she wasn’t so sure. Suddenly, she wanted to go home.
Don’t do it Dizzy.
“Why don’t you die?” she said aloud. And that’s when the wind answered back.
Her hand went to her heart where it was banging against her ribs. That wasn’t the wind, and it wasn’t a hallucination or even the tiny voice in her head talking now.
People!
She’d found them. She should run fast toward the voices, but instead her feet soldered themselves to the ground. The wind battered her, and she tipped and swayed, but her legs didn’
t budge. Her sneakers had turned to lead. She didn’t dare breathe in case they could hear her like she could hear them. But why not make noise? This was why she’d come!
Wasn’t it?
To find the men. To let them enjoy her, then end the misery that was her life. It was just a game anyway, so why be scared? Either way, she’d be welcome here. They were looking for a whore, and here she was. She belonged here. So why didn’t she move? Call out and tell them she’d come to play?
You don’t have to do this Dizzy.
Mom loves you, you know.
Her limbs wouldn’t move. Some deep, deep part of her brain refused to go along with the plan. Her ears strained to hear the conversation nearby, and to her surprise she heard not only a man’s voice, but a woman’s, too. She couldn’t quite make out the words at first, but then the voices got louder. The man sounded angry. She didn’t like the way he was yelling, and now she could make out a word here and there. The shouting man was making her insides shake.
You don’t have to do this, Dizzy. Just turn around and go home.
Now it was the woman’s voice, she heard, pleading and desperate: “Please, son, don’t do this. I’ve taken care of everything. I can make it all go away.”
Dizzy couldn’t understand the man’s words, but the sound of his voice was horrible and frightening. He must be a hateful, awful man.
“I’m sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Please try to forgive me. Please try to understand.” It was the woman again.
Then she heard a loud moan, and the sound of something thudding against the ground.
You don’t have to do this, Dizzy. Turn around before it’s too late.
But she didn’t turn around. Her feet were still soldered to the ground. She was confused. There wasn’t supposed to be a woman here. She was supposed to be the only girl. The voices got louder, like they were moving toward her.
“Why did you do it, Mother?”
“Because I loathed him.”
The woman’s voice was as loud now as her son’s. Yes. It was a mother and son.
“He was your husband, and you gave the order to have him killed. Now you expect me to look the other way and pretend we’re a happy family. You want me to stay with you—the woman who killed my father? I loved Dad.”
The man yowled, and the sound carried on the wind and raised goose bumps on her arms despite the god-awful heat. It was so hot, even at night, this place was like what Mom called a living hell. The voices got closer still.
“I’m your mother. What about that? Why doesn’t that count for something? Why does everything always have to be about your father? He never paid attention to either one of us, and all you want to do is build him a goddamn shrine. He wasn’t a good father to you, and he wasn’t a good husband to me.”
“And I suppose you were a good wife, you little bitch.”
The woman started to sob. “Please believe me, Junior. I tried to be a good wife. Oh how I tried, especially in the beginning, and I always looked the other way about his women. But then, when he brought Deejay home, everything changed. Your father showered that girl with attention like he never gave me. So I gave him an ultimatum. Get rid of the girls he kept at home and stick with the ones he hunted, or I was going to divorce him, and do you know what he said? He said he loved Deejay. He said he loved her, and if I wanted a divorce, he was a lawyer and could make sure I never saw a dime. After all these years, after everything I did for him, everything I endured for the sake of our family, he was going to leave me with nothing and keep his little slut.”
“You were the one who threatened to leave. Deejay was just his whore. You were his wife. He gave you everything.”
“Like he gave you everything? He forgot all about both of us. You as much as me. I used to be of some value to him, his silent partner. But then, all of a sudden, he didn’t need me anymore. And now, the police are coming after you, and that’s because of him, too. He’s the one who taught you to kill. He’s the one who didn’t take care of business after you hunted Sally Cartwright. He promised to put it all on Judd Kramer, and yet now the police are looking for you because your father failed you. Why don’t you hate your father instead of me? I’m the one who fixed it all. I’m the one who’ll make sure they don’t find what they need to convict you.”
Dizzy could hear their footsteps, coming closer and closer. She pushed the corn stalks apart and peered into the semidarkness. The man, the one called Junior, looked like Satan himself, his face black and contorted with hate, his hands waving wildly in the air. “You’ve destroyed everything that’s important to me. Dad is dead because of you, and now you want to destroy his legacy, too. You want to end Labyrinth? Well, I won’t stand for it.”
“I’m trying to get rid of the evidence that could lead back to you. Just like you tried to get rid of Caitlin. And besides, you have no choice. The deed’s already done.” The woman’s blond hair was so bright, it looked white as the moon in the dim light. She threw her head back and cackled like a real witch. Maybe this was all part of the game. Just a show they were putting on. But for whom? No one else seemed to be around. Where were the others? Where were the lieutenants?
“What the hell are you talking about, Mother?” Junior stalked toward the woman.
“They’re here—and they’re both dead. Your father’s precious lieutenants. The only ones strong enough to turn their fantasies into reality. The remaining lieutenants are the only ones who could keep the group going, and I’ve eliminated them. I Tased them, then I poisoned them. Take a walk back with me, and you’ll find their bodies pointing to the center of the maze.”
“You bitch! Those were my lieutenants. With Dad gone, the club’s mine by rights.”
“Your father’s dead, and so is Labyrinth. I hate this goddamn club.”
“You mean you hate Dad.” Junior fell to his knees, wailing.
Slowly, the mother approached, “Don’t you see this is better? Your little slut of a wife left you, and I no longer have to cater to your father. You and I are both free to do as we choose. And we’re rich, son. There’s life insurance, too. It’s yours, baby boy. I’ll give it all to you.”
His sobbing subsided, and he looked up. For a moment, Dizzy thought he’d seen her through the corn stalks, but he turned his face to his mother. “What have you done!”
“I’ve destroyed the club, that’s all,” the woman said. “And with it, all the evidence against you. Your father should never have let you kill that Cartwright girl on your own. It was far too risky. You weren’t ready, and he didn’t do a good enough job setting up Kramer. What if Kramer had gone behind your father’s back and made a deal with the DA? What if Kramer told Caitlin the truth about the club? When I asked him to take care of them, your father just said, don’t worry, he could control Kramer, and he was having fun toying with that Cassidy woman again.” She spit on the ground. “Your father was an arrogant fool. He’s the one who got you into this mess.”
“There was no need to kill Dad. So don’t pretend you did this for me. You did it for you. I nearly got caught going after Caitlin on campus that day, and all because you tried and failed to get rid of her and left me no choice. Dad would never have let that happen. And they’ve got my DNA—they’re calling everyone looking for me, but thanks to you, Dad’s not around to save my ass.”
“Don’t you listen? I just saved your ass. They’ll never be able to convict you on a tiny little bit of DNA. Just the fact they brought a case against Kramer first is enough to get you reasonable doubt for Cartwright. As long as we destroy any and all trace of this club, but you have to promise to stop hunting. I don’t care about the women, God knows. They’re dirty little whores who deserve what they get. But it’s too dangerous. I don’t want to lose my son to these stupid games.”
“I’ll never give up the hunt, Mother. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. Believe it or not I tried, for my wife’s sa
ke, but it’s in my blood. I’m just like Dad, and there’s nothing you can do to change that.”
“You can change. We can travel. Your father left us so much money. And you can have it all—only please, don’t ruin our lives. You have to stop. I know you can stop.”
“But I don’t want to stop. I live for this pleasure, for the power I feel watching the life drain from a woman’s eyes. Do not expect me to go traipsing the globe with you like your little pet dog.” He climbed to his feet and loomed over the woman. “I could kill you now, Mother, and never think twice about it.”
“Please, Junior, don’t say these things. You know you love me. Please, I can’t go on without you.”
“Oh, you won’t have to go on without me. You won’t have to go on at all.”
Dizzy covered a scream with her hands and tried to move her frozen feet. Junior had his mother by the throat. Then the woman twisted and something flashed in her hand. Dizzy heard a buzzing noise.
Click click click click click.
Junior stumbled back, and Dizzy heard more of that sickening noise. Her breathing was coming in hard pants now, and she worried they would hear her. The woman stuck the Taser on him again and his body writhed on the ground.
“Please, don’t. Just don’t.” He tried to grab the Taser, and she kicked him in the gut. He rolled onto his back and let out a harsh moan. “I’ll stop. I’ll go anywhere you want.”
“Liar!” She kicked him again. “You said you could kill me now. After all I’ve done for you? No. No. No. You’re the one who’s dead.” She pressed the Taser into his neck, and he screamed an awful, terrible scream. Like nothing Dizzy had ever heard before. “It will only hurt for a minute. You’ll be with your father soon.” She pulled something from her pocket. It looked like one of those plastic syringes mothers use to give their babies medicine. She stuck the syringe in his mouth, only Dizzy was sure this wasn’t medicine.
Junior grabbed his throat, and Dizzy saw foam coming from his mouth. Then he threw his head back, and his eyes rolled up in his head. Dizzy covered her mouth, but it wasn’t in time to stop her scream. The woman looked up and turned her head. Then, through the high stalks of corn, she met Dizzy’s eyes.
Judgment Page 25
