[Kate Reid 01.0 - 03.0] Unbound

by Robin Mahle

  “Agent Scarborough, can I have a word with you outside?”

  Dr. Ross and Scarborough left the room and Katie was once again alone with her parents. But she wondered if Dr. Ross was telling her everything.

  “Is there anything we can do for you right now, sweetheart?” Deborah asked.

  “I wouldn’t mind some water. My throat is so dry. And maybe a toothbrush?”

  “Of course. Your father can get some water for you and stop by the nurses’ station. I’m sure they’ll have toothbrushes there.” Deborah looked at John, who did not hesitate to take heed of his wife’s wishes.

  A few minutes later, Scarborough returned. “Dr. Ross said he’d keep us updated as much as possible on Marshall’s condition, but did warn that it is touch and go right now. They had a hard time stopping the bleeding.”

  “I understand. I’m just grateful he’s alive,” Katie replied. “Mom, could you give me and Agent Scarborough a couple of minutes?”

  “Certainly. I’ll go see what’s keeping your dad. He probably stopped at the gift shop.”

  “Thanks.” Katie waited for Deborah to leave, then looked at Scarborough. “I know where he buried them.”

  He leaned in to Katie. Her voice was still hoarse and difficult to hear.

  “He burned down his parents’ cabin.”

  “Yeah, we know about that already,” Scarborough replied.

  “They’re on that property, most of them, anyway. He said it was the best way to keep them from being discovered. No one knew about the cabin.”

  “What about the Portland girl found on that trail?”

  “He got her after he moved to Oregon City. Nick, he killed a lot more than we thought. When he held me at the warehouse, he had a wooden box. Inside the box was a bunch of jewelry. They belonged to his victims.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Scarborough replied.

  “There must have been at least ten pieces of jewelry in that box. Including the pendant I remembered.”

  “Marshall found the necklace. You put it under that chair, didn’t you?”

  Katie nodded.

  “That’s what kept us going. He knew you were still alive. Of course, turning the phone on was the real kicker, but when he found that necklace, well, let’s just say I never saw that much hope in any man’s eyes before.”

  “We need to find those children, Nick; give their parents some closure. I don’t know if we’ll find them all, but it’s a start. And maybe we’ll find more evidence linking him to other disappearances.”

  “We’ll get on it now, Katie. I promise.”

  “I want to help. I want to be there to tell the parents that their children will finally be able to rest and so will they.”

  “Let’s just take one step at a time. You need to get better first. But in the meantime, we’ll search the property, that much I can do. And Katie, Marshall’s gonna be fine.”

  “Thank you. One more thing, Nick. Did anyone else get hurt back there?”

  “No. Marshall put Hendrickson down pretty quickly, even after he got his shot off.”

  “What’s going to happen now? I mean, with Wilson’s wife and the department?”

  “They questioned her, but she didn’t know anything. The last she’d seen Hendrickson was when her daughter was just a toddler. Wilson went to great lengths to keep his brother’s activities a secret. So far as I know, she has a sister in Washington and I guess she’ll be taking care of her and Wilson’s daughter for a while. As for the Rio Dell Police Department, the FBI will finalize its investigation, finish talking to the rest of Wilson’s staff, and close the case. Everyone’s in shock over all this. No one thought he was capable of helping a serial killer, not even me.”

  “Well, we don’t know what we’re capable of until faced with a situation, do we? I think he believed he could control him forever.”

  “None of this is your fault, Katie. You were the one responsible for his capture. Those families will be grateful to you. You did a hell of a job playing detective. Ever thought of being one?”

  Katie snickered with what little energy she had. “Marshall said the exact same thing to me not too long ago.”

  “You should give it some thought. Of course, we’re always looking for good recruits, too.” Scarborough squeezed her hand one last time. “I’ll check in on you later.”

  29

  The nurse checked in on Katie several times in the night; taking her vital signs and changing the bandage from the gunshot wound that still oozed blood. She never really allowed Katie to rest as the other nurse had been so adamant about earlier.

  “How are you doing this morning, Katie?” the nurse asked.

  “Sore.” The swelling in her face must have reduced somewhat because she was able to see clearly out of both eyes again.

  “That nausea all gone now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good.” The nurse was quiet for a moment as she watched the clock, counting Katie’s pulse. “You’re looking better,” she continued. “I was just told by Dr. Ross that if you’d like to see Detective Avery in a bit, you can.”

  A rush of elation gave rise in her, the likes of which she hadn’t felt in months. He made it. He was still alive. “Yes, please; I need to see him.”

  “Okay, then. Let me go and get you a wheelchair. I’d like you to start trying to stand on your own anyway. Later, we’ll have you up and walking around.”

  The nurse returned with a wheelchair. She helped Katie swing her legs to the side of the bed and both Deborah and the nurse raised her to a seated position.

  Her side throbbed wildly at the change of position and Katie felt woozy, but it soon passed. Nothing would stop her from seeing Marshall. She carefully put her weight down on one leg, holding Deborah’s arm for balance. The nurse positioned the chair so as to ease her into it.

  Katie was steady on her feet for only a moment when she grabbed the arm of the nurse, who helped her down into the chair. They headed for the door. “Wait. Can I just take a look in a mirror first?” Her face had been badly beaten by Hendrickson and she had no idea what she looked like now. She prayed the swelling had gone down enough so that she at least was recognizable.

  The nurse pulled out a hand mirror from one of the drawers in the bathroom and handed it to Katie. “Here you go.”

  Katie held it to her face. She was taken aback by the severity of the bruising. The swelling in her left eye had reduced, but the once red and puffy contusions were now much larger and had turned purple. The stitches were dressed as were the other cuts that crisscrossed her face.

  “These are all wounds that will heal with time,” the nurse said, taking the mirror. “Come on now. Let’s go see Marshall.” She continued to push Katie through to the corridor and into the surgical recovery unit, where Katie had been just the day before.

  Her face would heal, but she would never look the same. Hendrickson had left his mark on her, inside and out.

  The automatic door opened wide, allowing the nurse to push Katie in and down the aisle between the rows of beds, some with pulled curtains, some empty. And then she saw him.

  Marshall was hooked up to all sorts of machines. He had oxygen tubes in his nose and heart monitors stuck to his chest, beneath his gown, and looked to still be sleeping.

  Katie was now beside his bed. “I don’t want to wake him,” she whispered to the nurse.

  “He’s been in and out. Just give him a few minutes. I’m sure he’ll open his eyes. I’ll leave you here and come back to check on you.”

  She couldn’t help but stare at him. From head to toe, she wanted to see the extent of what had happened to him.

  “You’re starting to creep me out a little, babe.”

  Startled by the sound of his voice, she gasped and clamped her hand over her mouth. “Oh God, Marshall. I’m so sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “For all this; for getting shot, for risking your life—everything.”

  “Shhh, stop now. Don’t you dare start b
laming yourself for what Joseph Hendrickson did. For God’s sake, I thought I lost you. I should have never left your side. Look at what he did to you.” Marshall slowly raised his hand to her face, brushing it gently. “Baby, I’m so sorry.”

  So much had happened, the extent of which was just beginning to sink in. “He’s dead now; that’s all that matters.” Katie reached for his other hand, which lay still over his stomach, and rested hers gently over top. “Have the doctors talked to you yet this morning?”

  “They’ve been in and out most of the night and say I’m going to be fine, but it’ll take some time to recover. I suppose that goes for you too.”

  “Scarborough told me what happened about me getting caught in the crossfire. He feels horrible about it.”

  “I know. I heard him yelling at the paramedic that he’d shot you. It wasn’t his fault. Things got outta hand. It was so chaotic. I thought you were dead.”

  “I thought the same thing about you. I’ve been so scared, Marshall. They weren’t even sure you would make it through the night.”

  “Are you kidding? I wasn’t about to give up this collar.” A short, small burst of laughter escaped him until he winced in pain. “We’re gonna be okay.”

  Nearly ten days had passed and the hospital was finally about to let Katie go home. She was walking on her own and all of the bandages had been removed from her face, except for the one covering the stitches. She was starting to look like herself again.

  “They’re letting me go home in a little bit.”

  “That’s great news, Kate. I should be getting out of here in three or four more days, so I won’t be far behind you.”

  “Scarborough and his team are at the Hendrickson place, or what’s left of it, anyway, excavating. They found two of the victims so far,” Katie said.

  “Which ones?”

  “The boy from McKinleyville and a girl they haven’t yet identified.”

  “How many more?” Marshall asked.

  “They don’t know yet. But he’s picking me up and we’re going to head out there this afternoon.”

  “You think that’s a good idea? You’re just being released from the hospital after major surgery. I’m not sure you should go, Kate, and I’m a little surprised Scarborough is letting you.”

  “Letting me?” She didn’t mean to snap, but that was how she’d just come off.

  “Sorry, but it’s true. I don’t want you to push yourself. It won’t be easy and you know it.”

  “It won’t, I know. But I asked him if I could be there. He had the box run through evidence, checking whatever was in there for other prints or hair or anything else that might help us find more victims. I’m going to return every piece of jewelry and the child it belonged to back to those parents. I have to do this.”

  “Kate, I know you do, but you need to take care of yourself first.”

  She leaned over his bed, her arms bracing either side of him. “This is me taking care of myself.” Katie kissed him softly on the cheek. “I’ll be fine.” Rearing back up, she continued, “I’m going to come back down here every night to see you. Now that you’re in a regular room, they’ll let me stay the night.”

  “Okay, but I’m going to tell Scarborough he’d better keep an eye on you, make sure you’re not pushing yourself too hard.”

  “What’s that you’re gonna tell me?” Scarborough strolled in with his hands in his pockets and a haughty grin on his face.

  “I was just telling Kate how you need to look after her. I’m not thrilled that you’re taking her out to the cabin.”

  “Don’t worry, Avery. She’ll be fine. She’s just going to be observing, nothing more.” He turned toward Katie. “Ready to go?”

  She nodded.

  “Come on, then. Let’s get you checked out of this place.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she reassured Marshall again, but his eyes conveyed concern beyond what he was expressing.

  The burned down remains of the home where Hendrickson took his victims appeared in the distance. The hour-long journey hadn’t given her enough time to prepare for actually seeing the place again. A shell of what had once been the basement she recalled so clearly now was all that remained. Standing at the edge, looking into the blackened hole in the ground, Katie was immersed in visions of a daring escape from the man who was about to kill her, not once, but twice.

  Scarborough approached quietly from behind, his shoes squelching in the mud where the water used to fight the fire had saturated the ground. He reached out toward her, resting a comforting hand atop her delicate, rounded shoulder. “This was where he kept you?”

  A subtle nod was all she could manage in this moment.

  “If this is too much, just…”

  “No,” she interrupted. “I need to be here. I need to help you find the other children.”

  “Katie, they’re hand digging all around here. We’re covering a half-mile radius of this place, looking for anywhere else he might’ve buried them. Unless you have some kind of map, I’m not sure how much more help you can be. I agreed to let you be involved in this because, as far as I’m concerned, you’re the one who solved this case, but if it gets to be too much, you need to let me know.”

  “We need to find Ashley. It’s because of her that we’re here today and Hendrickson is gone.”

  A charred metal cot with stuffing from a blackened mattress, presumably the same one Katie was forced to lie on for three days, was tossed on its side in a corner of the room. The place itself didn’t look much different from what she had been able to recall, except for the furnishings being mostly reduced to ashes.

  She glanced over at the staircase, where only a couple steps remained attached to the floor balustrade. She saw her younger self who’d managed to gather enormous strength against tremendous odds, to escape from a monster who had already done unspeakable things to her. And he would have buried her along with the other children for which they were now searching.

  “We need to find her so her parents will know that her death meant something. If I hadn’t remembered that little girl’s necklace, we wouldn’t be here right now. We might never have found him.”

  “We’ll find her, Katie.” Agent Scarborough wrapped his arm around Katie’s shoulder and gently piloted her from the edge of the basement.

  The two walked out into the woods and everything came back to her in a mad rush of memories. She leaned on one of the giant Redwoods to steady herself, reliving the horrifying escape.

  “Katie, are you okay?” Scarborough asked.

  “Yeah. Just give me a minute, if you would.” She took a few deep breaths, reaching for her side as a brief outburst of pain passed through her and then shifted her weight back onto her feet. “Okay, let’s keep going.”

  Shouts could be heard in the distance. Then, Scarborough’s phone rang.

  “We’re heading down!” he replied to the person on the other end.

  “What is it?” Katie asked, trying to keep up with his too-quick pace.

  “They found another one.”

  Scarborough ran for several hundred more feet before spotting the fifteen or so men standing around a single spot where the soil had been upturned. Katie couldn’t keep up, but made it down with the assistance of an agent who had just arrived.

  “Agent Scarborough, over here!” Another agent waved them over.

  “Wait here, Katie.”

  She gave Scarborough the same look she would give Marshall whenever he tried to tell her not to do something he knew damn well she was going to do anyway.

  “Fine,” he said.

  They approached the circle of men, who parted immediately at their approach to reveal what had been discovered.

  Only a few fragments of human remains were exposed, but it was enough to know that extreme caution would need to be the protocol for excavating this unknown victim.

  “This is Number Four,” a member of the team spoke up.

  “Okay, let’s find out who this is,” Scarborough
said.

  Katie and Agent Scarborough moved away to allow the forensics team to do their job.

  “How long before we have an identity?” she asked.

  “Hard to say; it depends on what they find. I’m not an expert in that field, but I can tell you that the men over there are the best at what they do, so I have no doubt they’ll figure out who it is.”

  “How do you get used to this, Nick?”

  “You never get used to it; you just accept it.”

  It was clear he was trying to make the situation less tense than it was, but Katie was staring at the remains of a child. She doubted that she could ever accept it.

  “You just learn to, Katie. Otherwise, this stuff will destroy you. It’s not easy coming face to face with the dark side of humanity, but you eventually get to the point that you realize you’re not doing it for any other reason than for justice.” He paused for a moment and glanced around at the scene: the mounds of dirt, the yellow tape, the people walking around. “I’ll tell you one thing, Katie. I’ve never met anyone like you, driven, verging on obsessed. What do you think you’re going to do after all this is over?”

  “I don’t know, Nick. Go back to San Diego and live my life, I guess. Whatever that means.”

  “What about Detective Avery? You two seem to have gotten pretty close.”

  She smiled just hearing his name. “Yeah, you could say that. I don’t know. It’s a little strange. Our entire relationship has evolved as a result of this—situation. I’m not sure how you go back to normal.”

  “I don’t imagine ‘normal’ is in the cards for you two.”

  “Probably not,” Katie replied.

  There was only one reason for her to be here right now, watching these people do a job she could scarcely imagine. Katie needed to let it go, finally, really, let it go. The nightmare was over and it was time to stop. She turned to Agent Scarborough. “Thank you for bringing me here today.”

  30

  Katie sat down in the chair next to Marshall’s bed. She exhaled as if she’d been holding her breath for years. It was finally over and she didn’t know what to do. She looked at Marshall, and raised her hand to her face, lightly running a finger over the stitches on the left side. “Do you think Scarborough will still let me come along when he talks to the parents of those children? I need to be there for them, Marshall.”