by Jeramy Gates
“Let me have a look at that,” he said after a moment. He stepped between Diekmann and the locker. He turned his back to them so that they couldn’t see what he was doing, and began to jiggle the lock.
“Aha!” he said, stepping away. “Looks like he forgot to lock it.” He displayed the open padlock in his hand and, with very little subtlety, shoved a key ring into his pocket.
“Perfect,” Diekmann said with a toothy grin. He pulled the locker open, and a pile of porn magazines came tumbling out. Along with them, he found a three pairs of panties, a bra, and two tubes of lipstick. The principal’s eyes widened.
“This is… this is not good,” he mumbled.
“I presume these things belong to your students,” Diekmann said. “Are you sure you didn’t receive any complaints about him?”
“Not one. But come to think of it, I bet he stole these from the girls’ lockers during gym class. We always remind students to use locks of course, and to keep their valuables at home, but somebody always forgets.”
“Barnes had access to their lockers?” Diekmann said.
“He was a janitor,” said Nicholas. “He had access to pretty much everything, except for my file cabinet. I’m the only one with those keys.”
“This guy’s a time bomb,” Val said. “Somebody should have stopped him a long time ago.”
“They didn’t,” said the sheriff. “Now it’s our mess to clean up.”
Val was standing next to the desk. She lifted a newspaper clipping and handed it to the sheriff. The title read, “Mass Murder in Middletown.”
“I bet if you go through his apartment with a fine-toothed comb, you’ll find more articles like this,” she said.
“I’ll call Nate, warn him not to throw anything away.” Diekmann glanced around the room. “Strange thing is, it looks to me like Michael was doing his best to keep a low profile. He took a menial job, kept mostly to himself.”
“Why is that strange?” said Nicholas.
Diekmann looked at Val. “I can’t imagine how in the world they found each other.”
“I don’t understand,” said Nicholas. “Who found each other?”
Diekmann turned to the principal. “It’s not important. Thank you for your help, Mr. Galen. I would appreciate it if you’d keep this trailer locked until I can send someone over to collect the evidence, and search for prints.”
“Consider it done, sheriff.”
Valkyrie and Diekmann discussed the case on the way back to their cars. They walked slowly, Val’s cane making quiet clicking noises as it touched down on the concrete sidewalk. “I have a feeling it was Keegan who found Barnes,” she said. “Michael Barnes was small time until the murder three months ago. When Keegan saw the story in the headlines, he came looking for Barnes, hoping to recruit him.”
“Could be,” Diekmann said. “The thing I don’t understand is why. What’s the point?”
“To take the heat off of himself. Keegan has been on the run for four years. In that time, he’s killed more than a dozen people. Those are just the ones we know about. Unfortunately, we don’t have any evidence tying all those victims to Keegan. Not yet, anyway. But I guarantee that he’s feeling the pressure.”
“If you don’t have any evidence, then your entire case is based on speculation? Is that why the Bureau has you working on this case alone?”
Valkyrie stopped, turned to face Diekmann, both hands resting on the knob of her cane in front of her. “It’s not speculation, sheriff. I know for a fact that Odin killed all those people. I know his M.O., and there is no confusing it.”
“The ciphers? Hanging the victims in trees?”
“The only thing different about this case is the way the victims were killed, but that was Loki… Barnes.”
Diekmann cocked an eyebrow. “You’re still holding back something about this case.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement.
“I warned you about this case, sheriff. If I’m holding anything back, it’s because I have already told you more than I can prove. I won’t waste your time with speculation.”
“Fair enough.”
“I may not be able to prove everything yet, but put me alone in a room with that animal, and I’ll find the truth. I can promise you that.”
Diekmann grinned. “That, I believe.” He pulled off his cap, ran a hand through his hair, and then glanced at the time on his cell phone. “Well, it’s after five. I suppose we might as well call it a day. You hungry?”
Val stared at his face, wondering if he was asking her out. As usual, he was unreadable. But she did know that Diekmann didn’t have a wedding ring. She decided to play along.
“I could eat,” she said.
“Great. Get in that car of yours and follow me to the best barbecued ribs in the west.” He paused, glancing at her sideways. “You’re not vegetarian, are you?”
“No sir, I am not.”
“Perfect.”
Chapter 18
Maddie wept silently, cold and shaking in her nudity, bloodstained tears streaming down her face as she worked the dull-edged butter knife across the thin plastic bonds. The steel handle of the knife was slick with blood, the edges of the zip ties chewing deep into the soft flesh of her wrists with every movement. Nonetheless, she persisted. Maddie had come too far to quit now.
It had taken her nearly an hour to get the knife off the table. How she’d managed to do it without waking Odin, Maddie wasn’t even sure. Every single moment had been an exercise in terror. One little slip could have caused the chair to crash against the table, or the knife to fall from her hands. One simple mistake could easily have been her last.
Yet somehow, after forty-five minutes of grueling persistence, she had done it. Maddie had moved her chair around the edge of the kitchen table and halfway down the side, all while still bound at the wrists and ankles. The part she had expected to be hardest -the part where she had to lift the back of the chair and raise her arms high enough to get a handhold on the knife- had proven to be the least challenging aspect of the entire effort. Maddie found to her great relief that the knife perched at the edge of the table was within easy reach.
It had been two hours since Loki stealthed into the kitchen, warned her to keep silent, and then slipped out the back door. He stole the Mercedes out of the driveway and left Odin snoring away in the living room recliner. Maddie had almost given up on her plan then. With no idea of where Loki was going, or how long he would be gone, she had almost decided it wasn’t worth the risk. The last thing she wanted to do was to go through all the trouble of getting that knife, only to have Loki walk in and discover her at the last minute. But it was this way of thinking that brought Maddie to perhaps the greatest revelation of her lifetime.
It came as an insight, a glimpse into her inner self; into the very nature of her being, and it was the sort of understanding that no amount of yoga or meditation could ever have achieved. When confronted with such a situation, each person must eventually face the inevitable outcome. After the fight or flight instinct has faded; when the only two options left are to continue suffering hopelessly or to risk certain death in the pursuit of freedom, the victim must make a choice. To continue as a victim, hoping that when the suffering ends, life will remain, or to pursue freedom by any means, despite the risks. Maddie had made her decision. She chose freedom. That freedom would come either as escape, or as death. Either way, she would no longer remain a hopeless captive to the whims of the two madmen who had taken her hostage.
So Maddie persisted, grinding the dull blade of the knife across her bonds, fighting back her whimpers as the zip ties gnawed into her flesh and cold sweat poured down her naked body. One solitary thought haunted her mind: Escape!
Then, without the slightest hint or warning, the plastic snapped. Suddenly, almost miraculously, her arms were free. Maddie let out an involuntarily whimper as her bonds fell away. She broke out in tears. Deep down, Maddie had never truly believed she might succeed.
Maddie pulled h
er arms forward, wincing as she saw horrific wounds on her wrists and the discolored purple tinge of her flesh. She flexed her fingers, fighting back the cries that sought to erupt from her breast as lightning bolts of pain shot up and down her body. She shuddered with cold and fear as the adrenaline took over. She bent forward and started sawing on the zip ties at her ankles. A cold ache worked its way up her arms, and her fingers began to tingle. She stopped, for fear of dropping the knife onto the hard ceramic titles and waking Odin from his slumber. Maddie closed her eyes and took a deep yogic breath, trying to calm herself. Soon, when the tingling in her arms began to subside, she bent over to try again.
I am an idiot, she thought, staring at her ankles.
Maddie placed the knife on the table. She reached down with both hands, grabbing the seat of her chair, and rose to her feet. It was a slightly challenging movement because her legs had been stuck in that position for twenty-four hours. For a moment, Maddie feared she wouldn’t have the strength to stand. Thankfully, her yoga training paid off, giving her both the strength and flexibility that allowed her to rise straight up from a seated position.
As she rose, the chair legs slipped easily out of the zip ties, and Maddie was free. She wanted to cry out for joy, but she maintained her composure. Very gently, she set the chair back down on the floor. She stepped away, feeling pins and needles jabbing at her as the blood rushed back into her limbs. She leaned against the counter for fear of falling down.
Maddie’s naked breasts rose and fell in quick pants as she struggled to regain her composure. Half of her wanted to race out the back door and race towards the freeway, screaming. The voice of modesty reminded her that she was naked, and that there wouldn’t be anyone on the roads at this hour anyway. Ultimately, as the feeling slowly returned to her limbs, Maddie came to the decision that her original idea had been best. She would climb the hill and seek shelter in the forest.
Maddie stepped away from the counter, took a step towards the back door, and stumbled. The tingling ache in her legs caused her to miscalculate that first step. As she lost her balance and fell forward, Maddie latched onto the chair that had held her captive. Under the force of her sudden weight, the chair slid noisily across the tiles with a grating sound like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Maddie’s heart stopped. She froze in place, senses on high alert, eyes frantically searching the doorway. The house was dead silent. Odin, she realized, had stopped snoring.
Maddie backed up to the counter. She snatched one of the chef’s knives out of the knife block. She stood facing the living room doorway, brandishing the knife in front of her, ready to charge Odin the moment he stepped in.
Seconds passed, and Maddie became acutely aware of the persistent tick-tock of the grandfather clock down the hall. She heard a shuffling noise in the next room. Odin was moving around. She was certain of it.
Maddie’s heart hammered in her chest, the sound of her breath like the violent rush of wind before a storm. She sidestepped around the back end of the table, putting it between herself and the doorway. In the living room, she heard a click, followed by the sound of the front door slamming shut. Maddie frowned and instinctively stepped closer to the doorway.
What was he doing? Why had Odin gone outside? She leaned closer, squinting as she tried to catch sight of him in the driveway out front. It was dark and foggy. A gust of wind blew across the property, and Maddie heard the barn door slamming in the distance.
She hurried into the living room, searching the darkness beyond the windows for any sign of her captor. The barn light cast a pale glowing halo in the fog, and she saw shapes moving in the darkness here and there. She couldn’t identify whether they were the shadows of trees and bushes blowing in the wind, or something more sinister.
Maddie crept through the living room, hiding herself behind the curtains as she came to the windows. Billowing layers of fog drifted through her vision, flashes of full moon light streaking down from the heavens. She scanned the darkness for Odin’s lumbering shape and found nothing.
I’m trapped, she thought in horror. No phone, and no way to escape.
She thought of going back to the bedroom to throw on some clothes, but the thought of Odin watching from outside gave her pause. Instead, she turned to lock the front door… and came face to face with her captor.
“Gotcha!” Odin said, lunging for her throat.
Maddie screamed. She took a step back and found herself up against the living room curtains. Odin’s hand closed in on her, and Maddie instinctively slashed at him with the knife. The blade struck his palm, and she felt the soft tissue give way as the sharp edge sliced all the way to the bone. Odin fell back, cursing and screaming, howling profanities as he tried to protect the wound. A sick, terrified feeling was roused inside her, and Maddie felt horrified by what she had done.
“Loki!” Odin shouted. “Loki, where are you, you moron?”
Maddie took advantage of Odin’s distraction. She broke into a run towards the kitchen. He saw what she was doing and leapt over the couch, grasping for her with his good hand. Odin tumbled over the back of the sofa and landed on his shoulder just behind Maddie. With lightning reflexes, he reached out and caught her by the ankle. Maddie’s legs went out from under her, and she crashed to the floor. The knife slipped from her grip and clattered through the kitchen doorway.
“Got you now,” Odin said between heavy breaths. He yanked on her, drawing the much lighter woman across the floor so fast that the carpet burned her skin. He bent forward to grab her by the hair, but Maddie threw an elbow backwards into Odin’s face. She made solid contact, and his head flew back. He roared as blood trickled from his nose.
Maddie moved away, pushing herself up from the carpet. She made it to her knees before Odin came crashing down on top of her. His weight pressed her to the floor, his unwashed scent filling her nostrils with the smell of dead meat and rotten teeth. Maddie twisted side to side, trying desperately to claw away from him, but Odin held her fast. She threw her elbow back at him again, but this time her captor was ready. He caught her by the back of the arm and pulled, twisting her body painfully around.
Out of the corner of her eye, Maddie caught a glimpse of light glinting off the knife blade. Two yards away, but miles out of reach. Odin forced her onto her back. He held his fist over her, blood streaming from the open wound to splash across her naked chest.
“How you like that?” he said, one eye squinting, partially shut in a grimace that was more monster than human. He opened his hand, revealing a gash that ran from the inside of his thumb to the outer edge of his palm. The flesh peeled open, revealing the pink meat and a glimpse of bone inside.
“That’s what I’m gonna do to you,” he snarled. “From the inside out.”
Maddie lashed out. She reached for his palm and caught it in her right hand. With a wild howl, she dug her nails into his open wound. Odin screamed as her claws ripped into him, pulling the flesh wide, scraping across tendons and bone. His hand reflexively closed around hers, forcing her nails even deeper, and his eyes rolled back in his head.
For a moment, Maddie thought Odin might pass out. Instead, he pushed away from her, falling over backwards onto the living room floor. Maddie flipped back over onto her belly. She leapt to her feet, snatched up the knife, and ran for the back door.
Chapter 19
Jackie had been pacing back and forth across her apartment for nearly an hour. The sun had long since set and the kitchen was dark, save for the light of a single lamp flooding in from the living room. There was an empty beer bottle on the table, and a second that was half-gone. She had more in the fridge, almost a whole case, but Jackie was too perturbed to worry about getting drunk. She had sent Riley five text messages in the last two hours, and called him twice. So far, he had been ignoring her. Either that, or he wasn’t getting a cell signal, and if that was the case, it meant he was with her.
The very thought of Valkyrie Smith made Jackie want to hit something. Her reaction
was so visceral, so violent that it took her by surprise. Jackie had never been the fighting type. She’d been a cheerleader once upon a time, and before that a girl scout, but she’d never been seriously athletic and she was not the type to react physically. What had happened to her? What had made her hate this woman so much?
She’s ruining Riley, Jackie thought. She’s corrupting him, turning him into something he wasn’t meant to be…
And yet, thinking of Riley that afternoon, with his untucked shirt and disheveled hair -thinking of the way he’d put her in her place, even threatened to fire her!- brought a fluttering feeling to her stomach; a feeling that just didn’t make any sense. It was Riley she was thinking about. Riley! How could he possibly have this effect on her?
When Riley had threatened to fire Jackie, she been so flustered that she had stomped out of the office and walked halfway across Healdsburg without even realizing where she was going. By the time she came to her senses, he was gone. Not that it mattered. What could she possibly have said to him? She couldn’t apologize. Not to Riley. She couldn’t lower herself beneath him like that.
Yet here she was, pacing her apartment like a lovesick teen. What could be lower than that? And why? Sure, Jackie cared about Riley. He was a good guy. A nice guy. But he just wasn’t interesting. Not in that way. Or was he?
Pathetic! she thought. I am pathetic.
How had it come to this?
It’s that Valkyrie! she thought.
Jackie slammed her fist down on the kitchen table. The table jumped, and both beer bottles fell over. Sudsy brown ale came bubbling out across the tabletop. The empty bottle bounced over the edge and crashed to the floor, shattering, sending shards of broken glass skittering across the linoleum. Jackie cursed under her breath. She turned away from the mess and reached for her cell phone. She dialed information.
“I’d like the number for the nearest FBI office,” she said. “Yes, please go ahead and connect me.”
