Should Be Dead (The Valkyrie Smith Mystery Series Book 1)

by Jeramy Gates

  Loki shifted uncomfortably. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “All right,” he said, exhaling slowly. “I was at work. It was late, and I was in the computer lab at the high school…”

  “Go on.”

  He sighed. “I had some… some things I had taken from the girls’ lockers.”

  “Things?” said Val, arching an eyebrow. “Panties? Bras? The kind of things we found in your locker?”

  Loki lowered his head shamefully, staring at the floor. “I was in the lab,” he continued. “I started hearing noises. Normally, I wasn’t afraid to be there in the dark. I’m the hunter,” he said, thumping his chest. “I’m not afraid of the dark.”

  “Okay. But you heard strange noises?”

  “It was a man. He came out of nowhere and started talking to me.”

  “Was it Odin?”

  “No, it was the other one. I don’t know who he is. He was in the shadows. I never saw his face.”

  Val shook her head. “We’re going in circles here, Loki. Who was this person? What did he tell you?”

  “He told me about Odin. Told me where to find him, how to contact him. I told the man I always work alone, but he said he’d kill me if I didn’t do what he said. He could have killed me. Could have done it while I was sitting there in the dark, but he didn’t. He said he had a purpose for me.”

  “You’re lying!” Val said. She rose to her feet, leaning over the table. “Quit making up stories. Tell me how you found Odin!”

  She raised her cane threateningly and Loki fell back in his chair, throwing his arms up to defend himself. In his haste, he lost his balance and tipped the chair. Half a second later, he was lying on his back, moaning.

  “Don’t know!” he cried out. “I don’t know who the man was. I did what he said ‘cause I had to!”

  “That’s enough,” Diekmann said. He stepped around the table to help Loki back into his chair. “Val, wait for me in my office.”

  “But sheriff!”

  “Go, now.”

  Val obeyed. There was something in the sheriff’s face. He didn’t need to threaten her. Didn’t have to say he’d take her off the case or ask her to leave his county. Diekmann didn’t have to make idle threats, because they were evident in his eyes. Even without a word, Val found the message all too easy to interpret.

  She wandered down the hall to the next room, where she could watch the rest of the interrogation through the one-way glass. She found herself alone in the dark, standing next to a video camera that was recording the interview.

  Diekmann spent the next ten minutes trying to break down Loki’s resistance. He brought the conversation back to Loki’s missing partner and their captive, Maddie Thatcher. It didn’t seem to matter how many times or how many different ways Diekmann asked, Loki swore he had left the two of them at the farm, and that he had no idea where they had gone.

  The door to the observation room opened and a sliver of light fell across the floor. Val turned to see Riley standing in the doorway, his face silhouetted by the light behind him. Quietly, he stepped into the room and closed the door. He leaned close to her and whispered, “Val, you have to get out of here!”

  She frowned. “Riley, what are you talking about?”

  “There’s someone up front asking for you and Diekmann. He says he’s with the FBI!”

  Val’s eyes widened. “Here?”

  “Of course here. Haven’t you been listening? You have to get out of here before he talks to Diekmann. If you don’t…”

  “I know,” Val said. “Three years in federal prison. I’ve heard it before.”

  Riley was right. If she didn’t get out of there, instead of Loki sitting on the wrong side of the table in that interrogation room, it would be Val. “Is there a back way out?”

  “Diekmann’s office,” Riley said. “Go through the window. I’ll meet you out front.”

  Val left the observation room and stealthily crossed the hall into Diekmann’s office. She pulled open the blind just in time to see Nate’s cruiser driving by. As the taillights disappeared down the road, Val saw a small hatchback parking next to the building under the street lamp. She stood back, watching as Jackie stepped out of the car.

  “This place is getting crowded,” Val muttered to herself.

  She pulled on the window, trying to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. The sound of voices came floating down the hall: Riley, Jackie, Laura… and a man’s voice she didn’t recognize. Probably the fed. Val gave the window another tug, and it refused to move.

  Valkyrie checked the frame for a secondary lock somewhere. She found nothing. Either the window had been painted shut on the outside, or it had simply frozen in place from years of neglect. She circled the desk to pull on it from the other direction. She heard the click of a door in the hall, and she froze. Diekmann had come out of the interrogation room.

  Val moved away from the window and leaned casually against her cane. She could sense Diekmann standing motionless on the other side of the wall. What was he waiting for? The voices in the lobby must have caught his attention, because she heard a rustle of movement moving in that direction. She rushed to the window and redoubled her efforts.

  “That’s ridiculous,” said Diekmann in the hall. “No, she’s right back here.”

  Val’s fear gave her renewed strength. She gave the window another tug and it broke free at last. The window flew open. Val knocked out the screen and climbed through, wincing as the muscles in her back protested at the gymnastics. Val ignored the pain. She pushed through and found herself on the outside, standing on a narrow flowerbed along the sidewalk. She could hear Diekmann and the others talking behind her, the door to the office opening.

  Leaning against her cane, Valkyrie hurried across the parking lot towards her car. Diekmann stuck his head out the window and shouted, “Valkyrie, get back here!”

  Val climbed into her car, tossed her cane in the passenger seat, and pressed the ignition switch. As the engine roared, she glanced across the parking lot to see Diekmann and the fed climbing out the window to chase after her. Behind them, Jackie stood staring with her mouth hanging open. Val slammed the Packard into gear and stomped on the accelerator. The tires lit up, wailing as she flew across the lot.

  Riley appeared in front of her, and Val had to slam on the brakes and twist the wheel to avoid hitting him. He raced around the front of the car and leapt into the passenger seat.

  “Go!” he shouted. “Step on it!”

  Valkyrie needed no encouragement. She spun the tires out again on her way out of the lot, and then headed south into the vineyards.

  Chapter 28

  When Maddie regained consciousness, she could hear Odin tromping through the woods behind her. She tried to lean around the trunk to catch a glimpse of him, but the moment she moved, a searing pain shot through her abdomen. Maddie almost cried out. She barely managed to hold in her scream by biting her lower lip. She leaned back against the tree. The fog swirled around her.

  It was impossible to know how close Odin was. The sound of his movements traveled up and down the hillside, echoing through the shadowy woods around her. Ten feet? Ten yards? He might as well be right on top of her. She couldn’t risk moving, not only because of her injury, but also for fear of the noise she would make.

  Maddie glanced down at her naked body, streaked with blood and dirt, her flesh pale against the darkness of the forest floor. Too pale, she realized. If Odin came anywhere near her, he would find her in an instant. She leaned forward, biting back the pain as she struggled to gather up the moss and dirt. Maddie couldn’t bend over far enough to reach her feet, but she managed to wiggle them from side to side until they were half buried in the soft, rich soil. Afterwards, she worked to cover her thighs and hips, and then she began to smear the dirt around her upper body and face. She did this all very slowly, very meticulously, so as not to alert the killer to her whereabouts. Rather than risk placing dirt into her open wound on her gut, Maddie pulled a four square-inc
h section of moss off the tree trunk and placed it face down over the injury.

  Although somewhat painful at first, the coolness of the moss felt good on her skin. Maddie seemed to remember something about moss having healing qualities, but she couldn’t remember for certain. At any rate, it had to be better than dirt. Either way, she was likely to get a deadly infection if she didn’t find help within a few hours.

  Having concealed herself to the best of her ability, Maddie closed her eyes and rested against the tree. She could do little else for the moment. While she waited, she made the best of the situation by trying to formulate some sort of plan. She would need a crutch, she decided. A good-sized tree branch perhaps; something that could double as a weapon. And then what?

  Maddie had little hope of fighting Odin. Even without Frank’s shotgun, he still had a great advantage of size and strength over her. With her wound, not to mention the other injuries… and of course, her complete nudity, Maddie was a sickly gazelle trying to outrun a wolf. Escape was her only chance. Maddie decided to wait him out. Eventually, Odin would move farther down the mountainside. Either that, or he’d head back towards the house. Whichever he chose, Maddie would go in the opposite direction as fast as her legs could carry her.

  Having settled this in her mind, Maddie began a healing meditation to calm her nerves. She forced herself to take slow, deep breaths. She inhaled through her nose, filling her lungs until the pressure on her internal organs made her stop. Then, she held her breath for a few seconds, allowing the chi energy to radiate out through her limbs, filling her body with warmth and healing energy. She slowly exhaled, and the process began again.

  Maddie wasn’t entirely sure whether she believed in the power of chi energy and such things, but she was absolutely certain that learning yoga and meditation had changed her life for the better. Her body had grown stronger and more resilient. She had more energy now than she had at forty. Best of all, it all came without doing a single pushup or jogging a single mile. And the benefits of her training made her more likely to do those other things, just because she felt better. There was a time Maddie would have dreaded hiking the mountain behind her home. Now, it was something she did for the simple pleasure of fresh air and a beautiful view…

  Maddie drifted off again, her mind filled with thoughts of yoga stretches and the healing flow of chi; the occasional sound of crashing waves in the distance, carried to her on the wind.

  Chapter 29

  Valkyrie and the reporter were already half a mile down the road by the time Diekmann’s lights appeared in the rear view mirror.

  “He’s chasing us,” she said.

  “I told you Diekmann would figure it out.”

  “It was the fed who tipped him off,” Val said. “I don’t understand what he was doing there. And why was Jackie there? Did you bring her?”

  “Jackie?” Riley. “Oh, no. I think this is my fault.”

  Valkyrie glanced at him. “What?”

  “Jackie knew everything. She’s the one that found your background story. I told her to keep quiet about it, or I’d fire her. I didn’t think she’d do something like this.”

  Val raised an eyebrow. “You threatened her?”

  “I know, it surprised me, too.”

  “I’m not going to prison, Riley. We’ve got to lose them.”

  “Take a right up here. Cut through this vineyard.”

  Val turned onto a pothole-ridden single-lane road. It led between two vineyards and past an old white farmhouse before dead-ending at another road. “Left,” Riley said. “Then swing to the right up ahead.”

  Val followed his directions. This new street was in slightly better condition, and Val punched it. The tires screamed as they tore down the road, drifting around the corners, bouncing over the potholes and flying over the hills. The road dropped away into a steep ravine, and the car nearly took flight. Riley moaned as the pit of his stomach dropped. At the bottom, the road leveled out and then a hundred yards later, made a steep climb. At the top of the hill, the Packard took flight.

  Riley braced himself against the dash and Val winced, anticipating a painful landing. When the car came down, the springs squealed and the front end shook so hard that Val could hardly keep it on the road. Surprisingly, the vehicle absorbed the impact and recovered instantly. The rear tires caught traction again, and like a rocket, they were off.

  The flashing lights of the patrol car had grown increasingly distant as they carved a path through the rugged terrain. As the fog closed in, they disappeared altogether. A mile down the road, they took a sharp curve to the right and then circled down a hillside into a broad valley. The spotty fog drifted across their path, and an orchard rose up alongside the road. The trees looked gnarled and frightening by the light of the moon.

  “Take a right,” Riley said. “Follow the road over the hill, then pull off and turn off your lights.”

  Valkyrie did as instructed. They were over the hill and parked in just a few seconds. She twisted in her seat, trying to catch a glimpse of their pursuer’s headlights in the darkness. Thirty seconds later, she saw a flash of light over the hill, and heard the roar of the engine moving in the other direction.

  “I think that did it,” she said. She opened the console and activated the scanner. For the moment, they caught only static. Val turned her attention to Riley. “What was that all about?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve been chasing this killer for a year and I’ve yet to see a special agent show up out of nowhere. Are you saying Jackie had something to do with it?”

  Riley winced. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Jackie threatened to tell Diekmann about you… that you weren’t who you said you were, but I told her to wait. I told her I’d take care of it. She must not have listened.”

  Val leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. “My cover is blown, and now Odin is in the wind.”

  “At least we caught Loki.”

  “A lot of good that did. He was no help at all. He swears that he left Odin at the farm. Then he started making up stories about some mysterious shadowy figure who told him how to connect with Odin in the first place.”

  “It is a bizarre story,” Riley agreed. “Why would someone help two serial killers get together?.”

  “It does make me wonder, though…”

  Riley looked at Val. “Wonder what?”

  “What he said about Odin… If he really did leave Odin at the farm, where could he have gone? And why take Maddie with him? That’s not like Odin. He would have just killed her.”

  “Did the victims own a second car? Maybe they split up.”

  Val hit the speakerphone button. “Call Matt.”

  Matt answered after a few rings. He sounded exhausted. “Val, it’s three a.m.”

  “Sorry. I keep forgetting the time difference.”

  “It’s only an hour, Val. It’s late everywhere.”

  “I need a quick favor.”

  “I have a test tomorrow…”

  “Don’t worry, it should only take a minute. I need you to check something for me. I need you to search vehicles registered to the address of that farm you located.”

  They heard clicking sounds coming from his keyboard. A minute later, Matt said, “There was just one vehicle, an old Mercedes. The color is Impala Brown.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “If there was another car, it must have been registered to a different address.”

  Val looked at Riley. “Odin’s still there,” she said. “He has to be.”

  “Can you pull up a map of the property?” said Riley.

  “You mean like Google Earth?” Matt said in a snarky tone. “Something like that?”

  “Sure, that should work.”

  “Val, you have a PC built into your car. You can do this without me.”

  “Oh… sorry,” she said. “I didn’t realize.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m sending the coordinates to your display now. Are you looking for anything
in particular?”

  “Odin must have seen us coming and left the house. Are there any old buildings on the property, or maybe a cave? Someplace Odin could be hiding out?”

  The screens on her console flashed, and the satellite image of the area appeared. Matt moved it around a little. “The main house is a quarter mile from the beach,” he said. “But the cliffs are rugged, and there wouldn’t be anywhere to go down there. Besides, it’s public property.”

  Riley pointed to the top of the screen. “Odin may have climbed the hills behind the house, hoping to hide out in the woods.” He touched the screen, and the map slid down to center on that point.

  “What is that green triangle on the other side of the mountain?” Val said.

  “That’s a campground.”

  Val exchanged a glance with Riley. “That might be what we’re looking for.”

  “If he runs into any campers up there, he’ll kill them,” Riley said.

  Valkyrie touched the screen, sliding the image around to give her a better view of the area. “These marks… are they trails?”

  Riley nodded. “If we come around from the north, we might be able to sneak up on him.”

  “We can look out for campers at the same time,” Val said. “Matt, can you send these coordinates to my GPS?”

  “Already done.”

  Val thanked him and hung up. She turned to Riley. “How do we get there? Without getting caught, I mean.”

  “Bodega Highway is the most direct route, but Diekmann knows your hotel is on that road. He’ll have cops posted there, and Highway One as well.”

  “Is there another way?”

  “Yes, but it’s twice as far.”

  Val glanced at the clock on the dash and sighed. “We don’t have much choice. Better to get there slow than not at all.”

  “Here,” Riley said, adjusting the GPS to a new point. “We’ll take the old highway north from Sebastopol. Nobody will even think to look for us there.”

  “Perfect.”

  Valkyrie started the Packard. She pulled out of the hiding spot under the trees and drove back to the main road. The GPS system automatically updated their position. She waited until the road was clear before pulling out.