We waited for fifteen minutes and nothing happened. Shannon was getting more and more anxious by the minute, and I couldn’t blame her. This was nerve racking. I had never done a ransom exchange before and wondered if I should have gotten Ron and my colleagues at the Sheriff’s Department in on it. Just to make sure we caught the bastard. But I had decided not to, and I was sticking to that decision. I didn’t want to risk ruining it. Shannon didn’t care about the money or the guy. She just wanted Angela back.
“You think he might have seen you and blown us off?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Oh, my God. We already transferred the money. Do you think he might have just taken it and run away?”
“I’m not going to lie to you, Shannon. It’s a possibility. You can’t trust a guy like that,” I said.
Her eyes lost their light. I didn’t like being the one doing that to her, but I had to be realistic. Coming here was dangerous for him. He would be seen. And he had no reason to come. Not now that he had already gotten the money. I told Shannon to tell him she wasn’t going to transfer the money until she had Angela, but she didn’t dare to. She was afraid of scaring him away and never seeing Angela again. She wanted to do everything he told her to, to make sure nothing went wrong. I couldn’t blame her, but it left her with very small odds of actually getting what she wanted.
“You don’t think he’s coming, do you?” she asked nervously. She was biting her lips constantly. I wanted to take her in my arms and just hold her tight. I hated to see her like this.
Suddenly, something happened. A car drove past on the street. We both looked at it in anticipation, our hearts thumping in our chests. But it wasn’t what we expected it to be. It wasn’t Angela. Instead, whoever was in the truck, rolled down the window and fired a shot at us.
“Get down,” I yelled and jumped on top of Shannon. More shots were fired while we hid behind the statue, before the truck’s wheels screeched and it disappeared again.
“Oh, my God. What was that?” Shannon shrieked.
I removed myself from her. “Are you all right?” I asked.
“I think so. Are you?”
“Yes. I wasn’t hit either.”
“You think that was the kidnapper?” Shannon asked.
“Yes. I believe it must have been.”
“But…” Shannon was about to cry. “What about Angela? Where is Angela?”
“She’s not here, and I have a feeling she’s not going to be either. Come, let’s get back to the car. I think I got a look at the license plate. I’m not letting this bastard get away.”
Chapter Seventy-Four
October 1998
She was so fed up with her family. Annie served dinner on the night after the incident where her teenage son accidentally caught her on the couch with the handsome officer. She had yelled at him and told him to go to his room, then gone back to the officer, who had told her it was best if he left. She was disappointed to see him go and so angry with her son for interrupting the one good thing she had in her life. Maybe, possibly, destroying it for her. What if seeing her son made the officer have second thoughts? What if he was scared away and decided never to come again?
“Here’s the lasagna,” she said, and threw the dish on the table.
Victor was smiling from ear to ear, as always when he came home from work. “Smells delicious,” he chirped.
What are you so happy about, you ugly pig?
Their son was sitting at the table, looking at her with his small evil eyes, his nostrils flaring. Annie didn’t care about him or what he thought he had seen. She was fed up with him, and with Victor as well. She had wasted so much of her life on them.
“So, how was your day, Son?” Victor asked, obviously not noticing the tension between the boy and his mother. That was Victor for you. He never understood what was going on right beneath his nose. He always believed the best in people, with the result that he was always run over by everyone, the wimp.
“Eventful,” their son answered, still with his eyes fixated on Annie.
“Wonderful,” Victor said, and scooped up the lasagna with his fork. He even ate ugly. Chewed with his mouth open, smacked his lips, and drank noisily. Their dinners were like torture to Annie.
“And you, dear?” Victor said, addressed to Annie.
She sighed. “Nothing much. The usual stuff.”
“Wonderful,” Victor said.
That was when the boy dropped his fork onto the plate with a loud sound. Annie jumped in her seat.
“That’s it!” the boy yelled. “I’ve had it. Stop pretending everything is fine. Stop acting like we’re a happy little family!”
Victor looked, appalled, at his son. “Son, what has gotten into you?”
“I’ll tell you what has gotten into me, Dad. Today, I came home early from school, since some of my classes were suspended, and guess who I found? Yes, that’s right. Mommy dear on the couch in the arms of another man.” He looked at Annie. “That’s right. Mom is cheating on you, Dad, and you don’t even have a clue.”
Victor’s face froze. He stared at Annie without making a sound. Annie felt her heart rate go up. Victor scared her a little. She felt bad that he had to find out about it this way. What would he do? How would he react? Would he throw her out? She would have nothing. He wouldn’t do that, would he?
“All we ever wanted was for you to love us, Mom,” the son continued. “Don’t you think I know? Don’t you think I’ve noticed that you’ve avoided me all my life? Do you really think I don’t know that you only tolerate me and Dad in your life?”
Annie swallowed hard. He was right. That was how she had always felt, but hearing it from his mouth made it sound so awful; it sounded like she was a terrible person.
“Is this true?” Victor asked, his voice trembling. “Did you sleep with someone…here in our home?”
Annie didn’t look at him at first. When she did, she saw tears streaming across his cheeks.
“I…Victor…I…”
Victor shook his head. “I can’t believe it. I gave you everything. I gave up everything for you. I married you when…when no one else wanted to. I made an honest woman out of you. I bought you that house. I gave up all I had when my mother told me to leave you, when she found out about…that he wasn’t my son.”
The boy stared at his father, then back at his mother. “Victor is not my real dad?”
It was like the entire ground beneath Annie had opened up and started to swallow her up. She had no idea how to resist falling, how to stay up anymore. There was room for no more lies, no more deceit. She simply couldn’t anymore.
“I…I…”
“I can’t believe this, Victor said. “You never loved me, did you? You never loved either of us.”
Annie had no idea how to answer that, and hesitated just long enough for him to know how she really felt. Victor broke down and cried, then got up and stormed out on the balcony, where he kept all of his chemicals for his pool business. He grabbed a bucket of acid, brought it with him inside, then took one last glance at Annie, and with the words, goodbye, cruel world, he poured the acid over himself.
After that, there was nothing but screaming.
Chapter Seventy-Five
February 2015
He felt good about himself. The Snakecharmer felt so good about what he had done. He didn’t mean to actually kill them, but he had scared them just enough to let them know he was the one in control. They weren’t.
And now, he had the money. He never intended to give the girl back to her awful mother. Not after what she did. Not after she slept with Jack Ryder while still married to someone else. It was simply not tolerated.
Just like he hadn’t tolerated it when his own mother had done it. It had destroyed everything for him. His dad had tried to commit suicide, but survived, bound to a wheelchair, blind and disfigured for the rest of his life. And she had done all this to him. She was the one who had destroyed the man.
That was why she had to pay for what she had done. Just like every other woman the Snakecharmer encountered who thought it was okay to mess around while married. But, it wasn’t okay; it wasn’t something that went by easily. It always destroyed the family, and worst of all, it destroyed the children.
After his dad had come back from the hospital, the Snakecharmer’s mother was no longer there. The Snakecharmer told his father she had run away, but it was a lie. The fact was, the Snakecharmer had killed her. She was his first. He had strangled her with his bare hands, then dismembered her and thrown her in a dumpster. No one ever found her. Today, the Snakecharmer knew it had been risky back then, since today he knew better how to dispose of a body. But he had been lucky. Later in life, when his girlfriend had cheated on him, he had killed her too, and made it look like a breaking and entering gone wrong.
He now knew why God had put him on this forsaken planet…he knew what his mission was. He had heard God tell him in church one day. He was to rid the earth of these mothers who ruined everything. He was to save those children who were hurt. That was his mission, and he would live up to it.
For years, he hadn’t killed anyone. He married well for himself and didn’t find any need to do it, not until the bitch cheated on him. And on top of it, she did it while their daughter had been sleeping in the next room. The Snakecharmer had been away; he had been on one of his casino trips to Atlanta with a friend of his when it happened. His wife had been with her lover when the baby in the next room stopped breathing. She hadn’t even noticed until the next morning, when lover boy was gone, and she had finally paid attention to her baby.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, they had called it. There wasn’t anything she could have done, the doctors told them afterwards. But the Snakecharmer didn’t believe that. He believed Laura had killed their baby because she was too busy sleeping with someone else to check on her. Laura believed it too. Till the day he killed her. She knew. She was tormented by guilt. She told him it would never happen again. Yet, she continued to see other men, and a year after the death of their child, the Snakecharmer realized she had started seeing a new one. That’s when he knew he had to kill her. Her and anyone else cheating. Before he killed her, he started spying on people at the local motels around town, checking in as Mrs. Hampton, wearing a fat suit, a dress, a wig, and sunglasses. He spotted the lying cheating bitches and planned it all out. Often the affairs began at the motels, but later they became more reckless and often started seeing each other in their homes, having sex on the sheets of their marital bed. It was always the same pattern.
The Snakecharmer was good at covering his tracks. And he would have been able to get rid of Laura’s body as well, if he hadn’t been interrupted by the dog. It was his own fault, though. He knew that much. He had spent too much time on his little ritual, on washing her and sitting with his head in her lap. He liked to do that to his victims, like he had done to his mother after he killed her. He had kept her in his room for days, while his father was in the hospital. He had slept with her in his bed and sat with his head in her lap, pretending she was caressing him like he had always dreamt she would. He had finally been close to his mother like he had longed for all of his childhood. Finally, she was there for him. All of his childhood, he had feared his mother would leave him. Every day he was afraid she would be gone when he came back from school. He knew that was what she wanted. He knew she didn’t want to stay with him. He wasn’t enough reason for her to stay. But now, he didn’t have to be scared anymore.
Finally, she couldn’t leave.
Chapter Seventy-Six
February 2015
I called Joel at the station and asked him to run the license plate. Meanwhile, Shannon and I drove up A1A, looking for the truck.
We drove across the bridge to the mainland and tried all the motels we could find to see if the truck was there. Shannon was anxious and constantly biting her nails, but another side to her had also shown itself. A determined side that wanted to find Angela and get her home. We had been so close, and Shannon was certain her daughter had to be close by.
I thought she was right.
We had pulled in at a Motel 6 when my phone rang. It was Yamilla.
“I have something I want to run by you,” she said. “Something that has been bothering me since the beginning of the case of Laura Bennett’s murder.”
“Yes. Fire away,” I said and shut off the engine. Shannon looked frantically at her phone and found the picture of Angela for the fifteenth time today.
“I was just wondering about the husband. The case file says he was drugged with Rohypnol.”
“Yes, they found it in his blood. That’s why he didn’t see anything or hear anything.”
“But, it also says he was out cold for twenty-four hours afterwards. After he was taken to the hospital,” Yamilla said.
“Yes. He was still sedated,” I said. I had no idea where she was going with this.
“I was just wondering about it because usually you get knocked out like half an hour after you are slipped the drug, and with the amount he had, he would be knocked out cold for twenty-four hours. It just seems a little strange, don’t you think? That he was awake and able to talk when the police came, but then out for twenty-four hours afterwards.”
And that was when the last piece finally came into place. “You’re saying he drugged himself. He knew the police were coming, then slipped himself some Rohypnol, and half an hour later he was out. The drug in his blood would show in the tests afterwards. That was his way of getting away with murder.”
“It’s a theory,” she said.
“And a very good one,” I said.
I hung up and looked at Shannon. This new information was important, but not as important as getting Angela back.
“Shall we take a look?” I asked.
Shannon sniffled and nodded. We got out of the car and walked across the parking lot, looking at all the plates. This new information was flickering through my head. So, Brandon Bennett had killed his own wife? But why? And had he also killed Janelle? And what about Judge Martin and Melanie and her son? I thought about old Mrs. Hampton, who had stayed in room one-fifteen, when suddenly I spotted the truck in front of a room. I grabbed the handle of my gun and approached it to be sure. I double checked the numbers. It was the same.
“He’s here,” I said to Shannon.
She lit up. “You found it? Does that mean Angela is here as well?”
“That’s what we’re about to find out.”
Chapter Seventy-Seven
February 2015
Shannon could hardly contain her anxiety. Could it really be? Was Angela at the motel? Was she somewhere behind one of those many blue doors with numbers on them? Jack was speaking with the woman behind the counter. She was slightly reluctant in giving him the information, even after seeing Jack’s badge and hearing how it was all part of an ongoing investigation.
Kidnapping, he called it.
“I’m not happy about this,” she said, as she gave him the number of the room belonging to the owner of the truck outside. “This is a place where our guests can have their privacy.”
Jack got the number, then grumbled something Shannon didn’t hear before he returned to her. “Got it,” he said. “Room 202.”
Shannon was biting her nails. She was so scared. Jack was armed, and she watched him as his hand rested on the shaft of the gun in his belt. She’d never liked guns. Shannon had grown up on a farm, where guns were a part of life. Until her brother accidentally shot and killed himself one day. Since then, Shannon had believed guns were the worst thing man ever had created. Next to religion. Shannon loved God, but she hated religion. She never believed God meant for us to have religion. Just like he never meant for us to have guns to kill each other.
But, right now, she was glad Jack had one. There was no telling what this kidnapper was up to. Not after he tried to shoot them down in that parking lot.
Jack stopped and looked at her. “
You better stay back,” he said. “If this guy starts shooting again…”
“I wanna be there. I want to see my daughter,” she said, pressing the tears back. She missed Angela so terribly now it was unbearable. To know that she might be this close now…she didn’t want Jack to know how scared she really was. How terrified she was of losing her daughter in this motel.
“Okay. But stay behind me, all right?” Jack said with worried eyes. He too was concerned about how this was going to go down. He had wanted to involve more police and call for back up, but Shannon had begged him not to. It would only make the situation worse, if the kidnapper felt he was up against a wall. He would only harm Angela, she said.
“All I want is to get my daughter back—alive,” she had told him.
She could tell by his eyes that he agreed with her. Calling for more police might escalate the situation to an extent where it got out of control. He didn’t want that either. If the kidnapper felt like he still had a chance to get away, then he might be more open to negotiations. Shannon would be willing to give him more money, if he wanted. She didn’t care about money. He could have everything she owned, for all she cared. She had been poor before. And she had been a whole of a lot happier then than she was now.
“The lady at the desk told me there were three kids in the room, two boys and a girl,” Jack said with a low voice. “I don’t know who those boys are, but I’m guessing they’re not his. But this means we need to be very careful to not hurt any of the children. I will not shoot unless it is entirely necessary, do you understand? So, don’t do anything unless I tell you to. All right?”