by xxxxxxxxxxxx
Keir nodded, rapping a finger on the nightstand. “Maybe I’ll take a pass by there. Hang across the street like I’m checking out possibilities, or waiting for someone to pick me up. In fact, I’ll even clean up a bit more than I am.” He grinned. “Don’t want to scare away any potential clients, so to speak.”
“Look, but don’t take anyone up on it if they do approach you,” Teague told him.
“Yeah, I know. I haven’t done that since I got off the streets.”
That Keir said that was no surprise to Teague. The young man had been completely candid with Teague when he’d first applied for a job working for the agency. “No sense in not telling you the truth,” Keir had said at the time. “You’ll find out sooner or later and I think you probably don’t like liars.” Teague had agreed with him—and hired him based not only on his schooling but his willingness to be open about his past life.
“We’ll start with the club,” Teague said.
* * * *
“I haven’t seen you around here before,” the bartender at The Red Calf said, setting the beer Teague had ordered down in front of him.
“I’m heading home after a short vacation,” Teague replied with a smile. “Figured I lengthen it by a day or two since this seems like a nice part of the country. It’s the first time I’ve been in real mountains other than a layover at DIA on my way from Chicago to San Francisco one time.”
The bartender snorted. “Denver’s hardly considered in the mountains. The closest it gets to the Rockies is the foothills.”
“All right. I stand corrected, but for a flatlander it felt close since I could see them in the distance.”
“See what?”
Teague turned to find out who had asked. It was a man, maybe in his late twenties to early thirties. He said, “My usual,” to the bartender then smiled at Teague. “Yeah, I’m being nosy. It’s my middle name according to some people. I haven’t seen you around here before.”
Teague chuckled, saying to the bartender, “I think there’s an echo in here.”
“Happens a lot when there’s a new face in the place,” the bartender replied as he mixed a martini for the man.
“I’m Will, and you are?” Will asked, looking at Teague.
“Don.”
“Nice to meet you.” Will sipped his drink and pronounced it perfect. “So, are you just passing through?”
“Yep,” Teague replied. “Spending the last of my vacation here. Like I was telling him—” he nodded toward the bartender who had moved away to deal with other customers, “—I’ve never been in the mountains per se, just flown over them. So, since I’m driving this time, I figured what the hell.”
“I did that, and ended up moving here.”
They continued chatting for a while. As they did, Teague watched the other customers in the bar. The majority of them were straight couples, obviously out together for a drink after work before heading elsewhere. There were a few men that Teague pegged as probably gay, like Will, he presumed. None of them tweaked his radar. But then if the killer is in here, which is probably ninety-to-one he’s not, he’s not going to make a show of himself.
Will finished his drink and slid off the barstool. “Hate to leave,” he said, resting his hand on Teague’s shoulder, “but I should get home. I do have a job and they like it if I’m awake while I’m there, which means getting some sleep. Maybe, if you’re still in town tomorrow evening, we can hook up here?”
Teague smiled and nodded. “Sure, why not. See you then.” He doubted Will actually would show up the next night. But then I probably won’t either. He finished his beer and left five minutes after Will. When he stepped out of the club he looked across the street. Sure enough, Keir was there, leaning against a building next to a cut-through. Their gazes met momentarily. Teague gave a miniscule nod in the direction of the park and then took off walking toward it, stopping occasionally to look at something in a shop window to give Keir a chance to get there before him.
Arriving at the park, Teague realized it was still relatively early. Too early for the killer to put in an appearance, he was certain. It was also getting chilly, making him wish he was wearing more than the jeans and light sweater, over a regular shirt, that he’d put on before leaving the motel.
He didn’t see Keir, but suspected he would when he walked along the path that wound through the trees and occasionally along the river. There were still people out and about—families, couples, and a few lone men.
An hour later the families had disappeared, the couples were doing more cuddling than actually walking, and the men were still wandering. He saw two of them hook up and vanish into the trees. They’re going to freeze their dicks off. Presuming they’re not taking a shortcut to one of their homes.
He spotted Keir twice. Once along the river bank where he was chatting with an older man. Then Keir shook his head and the man took off with a disgruntled look on his face. The second time, Keir was sitting cross-legged, leaning against a tree trunk. Deciding it was time to play his role in this charade, Teague strolled over. Resting one hand against the tree, he waited until two guys came into view then said just loudly enough to be overheard, “You look cold and lonely.”
Keir snorted and said softly, “Is that the best you can do?”
“Go with it. I’m out of practice,” Teague murmured.
“I might be interested,” Keir said, raising his voice some. “Depends.”
“On what?”
“What it’s worth to you.”
By that time the men had passed them and disappeared around a curve in the path. Keir chuckled. “You aren’t a cruiser, are you?”
“Shows, huh? In bars, back in the day, I did all right. I never felt the desire to pick up someone off the street.” Teague checked the time and grumbled, “It’s only eleven. Am I the only guy who’s approached you?”
Rather than answer the question, Keir said, “Let’s head back there.” He pointed to dense strand of trees. “If anyone, especially our killer, is watching we’d better act like I’m going to give you some head.”
Teague started into the trees, taking out his wallet as he did. Keir came up beside him, held out his hand, and when Teague mimed paying him, Keir led the way to their supposed destination.
Keir said, once they were safely hidden, “I’ve had a couple of offers.” He chuckled. “In the old days I’d have jumped on them. As it is, I asked them the same thing I did you, what it was worth to them. Apparently not much and I told them both it was no deal. I might be pretending to be down and out, but I don’t sell a blowjob for ten dollars, no matter what.”
“And if one of them had offered more?”
“I’d have figured out something. Probably played the ‘how do I know you’re not a cop?’ card, then acted like I didn’t believe them.”
“Good. Okay, we’ve been here long enough. Find another place to settle and I’ll stay out of sight. If you don’t get any bites that seem hinky we’ll call it quits for tonight.”
“Got it.” Keir adjusted his backpack and wandered away. Teague followed at a safe distance, staying well within the trees, and for the next hour they waited. One more man propositioned Keir, getting very incensed when the young man told him he wasn’t in the charity business.
Eventually, Keir headed down the path to some thick undergrowth. Teague watched as Keir went around to the side away from the path and unfastened the sleeping bag he had rolled up across the top of his pack. He slid the bag under the bushes, crawled into it and, using the backpack as a pillow, seemed to settle in to sleep. Teague debated going back to the motel. After all, he knows what he’s doing. He made it through last night without me keeping an eye on him. Still, unwilling to leave Keir there without backup, which was why he was there in the first place, Teague found a place under the overhanging boughs of a tall pine tree, leaned up against the trunk, and did his best to stay awake, hoping morning would come soon.
* * * *
Chapter 7
“Time to get up.”
Teague’s eyes snapped open and his hands fisted until he realized the blurry person kneeling beside him was Keir. “Some backup I am,” Teague muttered, feeling around until he found where his glasses had ended up.
“Well, you didn’t get a nap yesterday, the way I did,” Keir said. “Get back to the motel and sleep. I’ll join you there later.”
“How will you get in?”
“At that place? A two-year-old could pick the lock with his diaper pin. Just make sure you don’t put the security latch on.”
By the time Keir had finished talking; Teague was awake enough to realize he was shivering in the cool, early morning air. With a grin, Keir dug a well-used hoodie from his pack. Teague put it on, which helped. Just not enough to make him really warm. Still, it was better than nothing. “I’m getting too old to pull all-nighters,” he muttered.
“Naw. You just have to plan ahead. Or we do. Tomorrow night you’ll dress warmer to start with, and I’ll stick one of your…You do have more sweaters I hope.”
“I have a good, thick sweatshirt.”
“That’ll do it. I’ll put one in my backpack for you. Okay, get out of here. I’ll see you in an hour or two.”
“What are you going to do in the mean time?”
“Hang around here. Maybe go into town and do a bit of spanging. Make my presence known and hope the killer homes in on me as his next victim, if he’s still around.”
“All right. See you when you get there.” Teague climbed to his feet after crawling out from under the tree’s branches, and headed back to where he’d parked the car.
* * * *
Keir made it back to the motel as he said he would. When Teague opened the door before Keir could pick the lock, the young man waggled a finger at him. “You’re supposed to be sleeping.”
“I will. Now that I know you’re safe.”
“Damn. What could happen to me during the day, in town?”
Teague shrugged. “Worst case scenario. You could get picked up for loitering.”
“And Hoyt would get me out of jail before they brought me breakfast.”
“True, I guess.” Teague yawned widely.
“Stop that. Now I’m yawning.” Which he did, prodigiously.
“No wonder. You should be beyond beat.”
“Naw. I think I fell asleep before you did.” Keir started toward his bed, saying, “I don’t suppose you picked up breakfast.”
“Yep. Sorry. It’s in the bag on the desk. This place in sorely lacking in amenities, like a fridge and a coffee maker.”
“I doubt it could have gone bad in a couple of hours,” Keir commented as he grabbed the bag to check the contents. “Cold. Yeah. But still edible.”
Keir was halfway through his breakfast sandwich when there was a knock on the door. Teague went to answer then let Hoyt in. The detective did not look happy and for a second Teague thought it was because Keir was there. He found out differently when Hoyt asked perfunctorily why Teague and Keir weren’t answering their phones.
“Because I turned mine off while we were at the park last night,” Teague replied, immediately taking it from his pocket to turn on again.
“Same here,” Keir said although he did nothing about it at the moment.
“There’s been another killing,” Hoyt told them angrily. “Before you ask, not at the park. The body was found by a man walking his dog, three miles north of the park, in a forested, unpopulated area close to the river.”
“Same MO?” Teague asked.
“Naked, hogtied, sodomized, hung. And this time, according to the county coroner, it looks like the boy was partially hung three times, undoubtedly as part of the killer’s…games,” Hoyt replied angrily.
“Just like the killings in Grande County. What about torture?”
“Broken fingers, like Grimes. Two on the right hand, one on left.”
Keir commented with a weak grin, “Maybe the killer’s given up smoking.”
Before Hoyt could lay into Keir for his bad joke—and he looked as if he was going to—Teague asked, “When was the victim found?”
“Just before daylight,” Hoyt replied. “According to the guy, it was actually the dog that discovered the vic. As soon as the guy saw the body he called us.”
Keir started taking off his hoodie and shirt as he asked, “Is the body still there?”
“No. It’s at the morgue,” Hoyt said. “And what are you doing?”
“I can’t go look at the victim dressed like this.”
“Who says you’re going to, no matter how you’re dressed?”
“Me,” Keir told him. “I want to know if it’s…If he’s the same kid I saw two nights ago in the park.”
“Young? Dirty dark blond hair? Maybe five-nine?”
Keir nodded. “Close enough but I still want to take a look at him.”
Looking resigned, Hoyt told him to wear a watchcap if he had one, to cover his head as much as possible. “We don’t want anyone seeing you with me and recognizing you from the park.”
“Uh-uh,” Teague said. “Keir, put on what you were just took off. Hoyt, if he looks like you picked him up because he’s been hanging in the park and you want to question him, it could put him right in the killer’s sights, which is exactly what we want.”
After a moment’s thought, Hoyt nodded in agreement. “That means I’ll have to make a show taking him in. So get out of here, Keir. You don’t have to go back to the park. Just shuffle your way into town.”
“Shuffle? I don’t do ‘shuffle’. I’ll walk. Hell, I’ll make it look like I’m trying to hitch a ride. That’ll give you a legit reason to stop me.”
“That works.”
Keir asked Teague, “Are you coming, too?”
“I can’t. There’s no reason for me to be viewing the body.”
“Okay.” Having finished redressing, Keir headed to the door. “Give me five minutes and then come get me, Hoyt.”
“Go.” Hoyt watched Keir slip out of the room and shook his head. “Bossy, and a smartass, but he knows what he’s doing it seems.”
Teague smiled. “That’s why he’s working for me.”
“You look beat,” Hoyt commented.
“I spent the night in the park. First acting like a john, then keeping an eye on Keir. It was probably three, four in the morning when I fell asleep, and I—” Teague yawned, “—wasn’t planning on doing that but…”
“Stakeouts can be the most boring things in the world,” Hoyt agreed. “I have a feeling though, if anything had happened you’d have been awake in a second.”
“Let’s hope. But tonight I’m going to be sure I have a thermos of coffee. It’s not like I can’t find a place to piss when I need to. Hell, that’ll keep me awake, too.”
“Yep. Okay, I’d better go pick me up a hitchhiker.”
“Keep me updated.”
“Of course. Probably here. I can get in and out with no one’s being the wiser as long as I park the car down the street at the—” Hoyt actually smiled for the first time since he’d come into the room, “—doughnut shop.”
Teague chuckled tiredly. “That works.”
* * * *
Hoyt pulled up beside Keir, where the young man stood at the side of the road with his thumb out. They went through the show of Hoyt telling him hitchhiking was illegal and then putting Keir in the backseat of the car.
“You forgot to read me my rights,” Keir said with a smirk.
“Since I’m only bringing you in, not arresting you, I don’t have to, as I’m sure you well know.”
“I do.” Keir leaned his head against the back of the seat. “If I had to guess, our killer is staying somewhere in the area.”
“Presumption, but logical,” Hoyt agreed. “How large an area is another question. He could be hiding out in any of several small towns within a thirty mile radius of Faircrest. Or, he could be holed up in the same motel Teague’s at. Or be renting an apartment or house. Teague and I discussed that possibility
when he first got here.”
“Were the kid’s clothes at the murder site?”
“Nope. Just like with the others, the killer took them with him. This time he didn’t leave the wallet behind. Of course the kid might not have had one.”
“Is it possible Grimes and this new victim were tortured and sodomized somewhere else and then brought to where their bodies were found for the hanging?”
“The crime scene people think it all happened on site.” Hoyt grimaced. “There were bits of leaves in Grimes’s anus. That wouldn’t have happened if he was in a house or a building or what have you.”
“And with the new victim?”
“He hasn’t been autopsied yet.”
Keir blew out a sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted was to be viewing the boy’s cut-up body.
Hoyt pulled up and parked behind the police department, telling Keir that the morgue was in the basement of the building.
“Have you ever seen a dead body before?” Hoyt asked.
“Unfortunately, I have, although not in a situation like this. I’ve been to my fair share of funerals where they insisted on open caskets.”
Hoyt opened the door to the basement and the morgue area, stepping aside to let Keir enter. Keir had visions, as inane as he knew they were, of something out of a horror movie with an ill-lit room and half-open drawers holding mutilated bodies. Instead, they walked down a short, well lit hall, into what at first glance could have been a doctor’s examination room with white tile walls, modern cabinets, a sink, and a stainless steel table. The only thing different was that the table held a body which at the moment was covered by a white sheet.
A distinguished looking man dressed in lab coat over scrub pants turned to greet Hoyt, who introduced him to Keir as Doctor Marshall. With a nod from Hoyt, Doctor Marshall pulled back the sheet covering the murdered boy far enough to reveal his face and shoulders.
The boy’s neck was badly abraded, to the point that some of the flesh was hanging loose. Keir repressed a gulp, focusing his attention on the boy’s face.
“He’s the kid I saw at the park,” Keir said after studying the features. “Do you know who he is?”
