“There’s one email from Isabella. Also in the deleted bin,” I said as I read it. “She’s asking for payment. It’s late, and she sounds mad.”
“Payment for what?” asked Katy.
“For a job she did last week. She doesn't say what it is. Maybe that was their argument near the woods just now—”
“Wait!” said Katy, startling me.
I snatched my phone and slipped it into my pocket. I hurriedly closed the email app and was about to step away from the desk when Katy walked up.
“I think I know what he means by the cabins,” she said, leaning across the desk. “Remember Sam talked about a cluster of cabins in the perimeter of the school?”
“The farmstead at the edge of the woods,” I said, recalling our first and only conversation with the gardener.
We heard a door open with a bang somewhere outside.
Katy rushed to the door.
“Someone’s coming!”
Chapter Fifty-two
I pushed Nick’s chair in and dashed out.
I’d just stepped out into the corridor after Katy when Martha May came rushing around the corner.
Her hair was standing on end, like she had been pulling it out madly on her way back up the driveway.
“Stupid police,” she growled as she saw us. “Absolutely clueless. Bunch of village idiots.”
“Three deaths in seventy-two hours means you need to call the FBI,” I said. “Not the county police.”
“The FBI?”
“How much do you know about Nick Davies?” I asked.
“My assistant?” said Martha, raising her eyebrows. “He does his job.”
“Do you know what he’s like outside of work? Any relationships with the locals?”
“I don’t care what my staff do in their spare time as long as it doesn’t affect my school’s reputation.”
She paused and scrunched her forehead.
“He came with good references. He’s the most loyal, hard-working secretary I’ve ever had. Why are you asking about Nick?”
“Do he and the mayor get along well?”
“Mayor Briggs?” Her frown deepened. “Other than scheduling calls with me and him about donations, Nick doesn’t have anything to do with—”
She stopped and gave me a hard look.
“You two are just as useless as the cops,” she snarled. “Why don’t you dig out the background of Ruby and whoever else is in this and leave my good employees alone.”
“What if I tell you Nick Davies has a criminal record?”
Martha took a startled step back.
“What is this nonsense? I had a background check done on him.”
“Who did it for you?”
“Why the chief, of course.”
The same man she called an idiot only moments ago. The same man she’d bribed to keep silent about a runaway girl.
But Martha was frothing in the mouth now.
“Nick’s the only one I can rely on here. If you’re going to make accusations like that, I’d like to see some darn evidence.”
“We’ll get you the evidence,” I said, trying not to grit my teeth.
“I don’t have time for gossip,” she snapped. “I need to call a security company to help me with that damned gate.”
She pushed us aside roughly, stomped into her office and slammed the door shut.
Katy looked at me. “What a…”
“This way,” I said, propelling her by the arm toward the end of the corridor.
The clinic had been cleaned up after Jayden’s death and was empty now. The only sign of someone occupying the room was a white lab coat with Sally Robertson’s name tag.
A quick search showed us nothing untoward. But the call from Sally told me she knew something she couldn’t share with us openly. She had sounded frightened, but her voice also held a warning.
A warning about what? Or whom?
“Where did she go?” I said.
“Probably to her apartment, taking a mental break from all this,” said Katy. “That’s what I’d do if I came across a dead body.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
I pulled it out. It had been buzzing like mad ever since we talked with Win.
Katy took hers out too.
“Peace called me six times,” she said with a sigh. “I’d better call back or he’ll get a heart attack.”
“Me too,” I said, punching David’s number.
David had already contacted an old ex-military friend who lived in Boston to drive up and check on us. He was still two hours away and might not be able to get inside the school grounds once he arrives anyway, but it was good to know we had backup close by. If we needed.
But Katy and I were armed and trained, and we had a job to do. The fewer distractions and babysitters who came our way, the easier and faster our work was going to be.
We hung up at the same time.
Katy gave me a strange look.
“What if we’re barking up the wrong tree?” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“Peace said it could be a random killer,” she said, lowering her voice. “I told him not to be silly, but what if he’s right?”
“A random serial killer?”
“Someone depraved. They work at the school or they’re a student here. They’re hunting people down, one by one, and they locked the gate so they can trap their next victim.”
A shiver went down my back at the thought.
“Maybe these sudden deaths, the funny jewelry business and Brianna’s kidnapping are totally unrelated,” said Katy.
“Too many coincidences,” I said, shaking my head.
“Think about it,” said Katy. “Whoever this is could be mentally unhinged. Meanwhile, we’re looking for a motive. We’re trying to figure out past relationships and grudges. Maybe this has nothing to do with the people here.”
“Other than they make easy, captive targets within the locked grounds?” I asked, an eyebrow raised.
“Exactly.”
“No. All three deaths were carefully planned. Whoever did this was strategic.”
“What do you mean strategic?”
“They murdered Sam for a specific reason. Same with Jayden, and Cathy. They needed them out of the way. It’s a gut feeling, but I don’t think this was a random killer lurking around, looking for anyone they could get their hands on. These were planned, cold-blooded murders.”
“There’s only one person here who is very strategic,” said Katy, making a face.
“Martha May,” we said at the same time.
“This could be the distraction she needs from her massive financial losses.” I nodded.
“Do you think Martha killed Sally too?” said Katy, pointing with her chin at the white coat hanging neatly on the rack in the corner of the room.
I shuddered at the thought of discovering yet another dead body on these school grounds.
That idea would make sense, except it was Martha May who had hired us. Why would she bring us in, if she had been planning a massive murder week?
I wondered how many rabbit holes we’d have to tunnel through to get to the end of this case—a case I’d originally thought had only been about a runaway girl. A girl we hadn’t found yet.
“What do we know about Sally?” I asked.
“We found her rooting through the student files at night,” said Katy. “Then, we found out she was an orphaned scholarship student who’d lost her best friend. Then, there’s the earring she dropped by mistake and her friendship with Nick, who happens to be a jewelry thief.”
“How much would you bet Sally and/or Nick steal high-end jewelry from the girls and sell them at the diamond district?” I said.
“That would explain her having the earring in her purse the day she came to see us,” said Katy. “But what does that have to do with Brianna? Or Isabella? Isabella walked into the woods and never came back. What’s she doing in there, anyway?”
A jolt of electr
icity went through me as I remembered.
“Katy, remember what Sally said when she called us in the woods?” I said, staring at my friend.
“She was a blubbering mess,” said Katy. “Sufficiently upset at discovering Cathy had died.”
“That’s not it. She said you have to go back,” I said. “Those were her exact words. You have to go back.”
Katy frowned.
“How did Sally know we weren’t in our rooms or at the school?” I said. “Why say go back? Not come down to the kitchen. No, it was go back.”
Katy shot me an alarmed look.
“She knew we were in the woods.”
Chapter Fifty-three
We kept to the shadows by the side of the lake.
I looked down at the GPS app on my phone.
The entire hundred-acre forest behind the school area was signified by a dark brown blob on the map, showing no routes cutting through it.
“There’s something in the forest surrounding this school,” I said. “Something that made Isabella come here, something that made Sally call us to get us out. Something that may explain all that is happening at this school.”
“How are we ever going to cover all this ground?” said Katy, peering over my shoulder.
I pointed at the well-worn trail that curved around the lake.
“Isabella was near this path, just where it curves and goes west. She was standing by that tree, playing on her phone, before she disappeared into the woods.”
I stepped toward the tree the girl had been leaning against.
“The main trail turns around the lake and curves back toward the school here,” I said, indicating the ground where the leaves covered the dirt. “But I think we missed something. Right here.”
I shoved a handful of leaves aside using the tip of my boots.
“Another trail,” said Katy with a gasp.
I followed the new path, inch by inch, pushing the dead leaves aside to expose the narrow patch of brown earth underneath.
“If this was summer, we would have spotted it easily,” I said, as I moved more of the leaves aside. My eyes traveled from where we were toward the dense wall of trees.
“I’d bet you this route cuts through the woods.”
Katy bent down to examine the pathway.
“This is old, and it doesn’t look like it’s used often,” she said, crouching low. “I’d be surprised if anyone knew this route.”
“Except for Isabella,” I said. “She walked confidently, like she knew exactly where she was going.”
I opened the messenger app on my phone and started typing.
“We’re going into the woods?” said Katy, a slight trepidation in her voice.
I nodded. “This time, we’ll be prepared.”
“Who are you messaging?” asked Katy, leaning in.
“David and Tetyana,” I said. “So they’ll know where we’re going and can call for backup if we need.”
“Oh, good,” said Katy, with an exaggerated sigh of relief. “They’ll know exactly where to find our leftover carcasses once a bear has us for dinner.”
“I don’t think it’s bears we need to worry about,” I said, copying the co-ordinates from the GPS and pasting them on the message window.
After I hit send, I pulled out my Glock.
I felt ready, with my sidearm on my right hand and my phone on my left. We wouldn’t lose our bearings again.
Katy had taken her gun out as well and was watching me carefully, a nervous expression on her face.
“You good to go?” I asked.
“I’m a suburban mom with a kid, not Beatrix Kiddo,” replied Katy. “I didn’t expect to traipse through the woods with a killer running around when we got this mission.”
“You don’t have to come, hun,” I said. “Stay here and keep an eye out—”
“You think I’m going to let you wander around the woods by yourself? Then, I’ll be the one who’ll have to identify the bear’s half-eaten leftovers.”
I smiled. “Bears are our friends. If we see one, we’ll know we took a wrong turn.”
“Great,” said Katy. “That makes me feel even better. Lead the way, Sherlock.”
I shuffled the dead leaves back onto the trail.
“What are you doing?” asked Katy.
“No one needs to know where we are,” I said. “Except for our team back home.”
“David just might come over with Tetyana and a bazooka gun in tow.”
“He always overreacts. Just like Peace.” I gave my friend a wry smile. “Our men. I guess that’s how they show they love us.”
Katy didn’t smile back.
“I’d really like to have Tetyana with her multi-weapon backpack and automatic rifle with us right now,” she grumbled.
“We used to go after traffickers overseas, remember?”
“That was a long time ago.”
“We’re looking for a high school kid and maybe a school nurse. I doubt they’re going to give us a fight.” I paused. “Ready?”
“Ready as can be.”
We stepped up to the seemingly impenetrable wall of trees and crossed the threshold into the woods.
It was hard to know if anyone had spotted us from the back windows of the main building, but we had to take the chance.
It was deathly quiet in the forest.
It was like we were walking through a somber cathedral that required absolute silence.
Not one bird sang. Not one squirrel scampered on the branches above us. There was a light breeze, enough to ruffle our hair, but that too was silent.
Katy and I moved stealthily on the trail, with a newfound respect for this place. It was easy to get lost in here.
We walked in single file, careful where we put our feet. We were exposing ourselves by keeping to the path, but it was better than getting disoriented in the thicket like we did that morning.
I was sure Isabella had come this way.
The leaves on the path were in a disarray, like someone had run through it. If I wasn’t mistaken, more than one person had traveled this route recently.
“It’s getting darker,” whispered Katy from behind me, after we’d ventured through the woods for fifteen minutes.
I looked around. It was still early afternoon, but a twilight like darkness had settled around us.
With most of the leaves on the ground, the pale gray afternoon light seeped through the naked branches to give us enough illumination to see our way ahead. But it seemed like the trees were growing closer together, the deeper we penetrated the forest.
I was glad it wasn’t summer, as the dark green canopy would have blocked all light and we would have needed torches to find our way through this dense growth.
“Oh!”
I turned around to see Katy staring at her phone.
“Put that away,” I said. “We’ll need a backup in case my battery dies.”
“Asha,” she said, turning the phone screen my way. “We just lost reception.”
Chapter Fifty-four
She shook her phone in the air as if that would do the trick.
Now I knew why my phone hadn’t buzzed with David’s stream of messages to find out if everything was okay.
“Strange,” I said, as I saw the red bars on the top of my screen. “Didn’t the phone work in the woods this morning?”
“It’s the landscape here,” said Katy. “Remember it didn’t work on the road, where Jayden got rammed? We lost reception there too.”
I looked behind me.
My eyes had adjusted to the dim light, and I was becoming familiar with the trail. Behind us, the path snaked around the trees, heading back toward the Red Lake Academy.
I turned and looked in front of us. I had no idea where this trail was heading, but our path was clear in both directions.
“Let’s go another fifteen minutes,” I said, pocketing my phone. “If we see nothing or if the path runs out, we can turn back and follow the trail back to school. We can’
t get lost now.”
We continued, gripping our Glocks, glancing around every few seconds to make sure no one was following or watching us.
After several days with little sleep, the stress of dealing with three unexpected deaths, and still not having found the missing girl, we were both close to exhaustion.
I plodded along, hearing only Katy’s heavy breathing behind me.
But the forest’s silence was unsettling. It was hard to keep fearful thoughts from creeping inside my head.
If all we’d confront here were Isabella and Sally, that would be easy. They were up to something, but whatever it was, it couldn’t be as bad as what we’d encountered with the human traffickers.
Katy and I both had black belts in jujitsu, had weapons training, were carrying guns and Tanto knives, and even had our Kevlar vests on.
This was overkill. If anyone was waiting to ambush us, they’d have to try hard.
The worst that could happen was we’d bump into a black bear or moose on the path. The animals would be more scared of us than we would be of them, I told myself. But as I tried to placate the fears inside me, they only intensified, insisting we were heading toward a bigger danger than we could imagine.
We had walked another ten minutes when an unusual sound cut through the forest’s silence.
We stopped in our tracks and listened.
There.
“Car engine,” whispered Katy.
“We must be near the estate’s perimeter,” I whispered, peering through the trees.
It was hard to see anything other than the thick tree trunks around us, but we were near a road now. We had to be.
I checked my phone.
The cellular reception bars were still red. I clicked on the GPS app again, but there were no waves for it to pick up here.
The compass worked, but all that told me was we were heading north.
“It’s gone,” whispered Katy.
“I didn’t realize the road came all the way up here,” I said. “But where there is a car, there are people.”
“I have a funny feeling they’re not people I want to meet,” said Katy.
We kept walking.
Other than the car engine, we heard nothing for the next five minutes.
Merciless Crimes: A Thrilling Closed Circle Mystery Series (Merciless Murder Mystery Thriller) Page 22
