My breath caught, and I jumped into my car and shut the door before he noticed me watching. I swallowed, and my fingers shook as I locked the doors. Taking a couple of deep breaths, I tried to think though the panic and calm down. I knew his plans. That was good. Now I just had to decide what to do about them.
What were my options? Since I didn’t know where this ‘place’ was, it might be a good idea to find out. From how he thought about the smell, I could only surmise that the other bodies were there. So finding the place with the bodies would certainly be enough to get him arrested. But to find the place, I’d probably need to follow him.
There was no way I was going alone and, since he knew my car, I needed to call someone else and get them to drive. Once we found the place we could watch until he left, and then go take a look to see if the bodies were really there. Then I could call the police to get a search warrant and arrest him.
Out of Ramos, Chris, and Dimples, the person I really wanted to call was Ramos, but I was afraid he’d just shoot Sean. Then Sean wouldn’t get arrested and we’d have to cover up the shooting, which probably meant not involving the police, and the cases would remain unsolved. I couldn’t let that happen.
Chris would probably freak out and tell me not to go. I also didn’t want to think about him bringing his gun and shooting Sean either. Dimples had a gun and was the police, so he was the logical choice, but I wasn’t sure he’d go for the breaking and entering part. Still, I felt that I should at least call him first, knowing that whomever I called, they had to act fast. I pushed speed dial for Dimples’ number and pulled out of the parking lot. Sean had just left, and if I was going to get to his house in time to follow him, I couldn’t wait around.
I debated following him right then, but decided to go home and dump the groceries first, counting on the kids to put them away for me. Now if only Dimples would pick up. The call went to voice mail and I hit the steering wheel with my palm. Damn! I left a message to call me and put a call through to Ramos, figuring that somehow, I’d just have to make him do what I wanted. His call went to voice mail too and I swore again. Leaving a message to call me, I hung up just in time to pull into my garage, and ran into the house.
“Hey guys. I need your help…right now! Hurry! This is important.” They both came running, which kind of amazed me, and I popped the trunk open. “Get the groceries inside and put them away for me. I’ve got an emergency!” While we ran back and forth, I put in another call to Dimples. It went straight to voice mail, so I didn’t bother to leave another message. Then inspiration hit, and I called Geoff Parker. He was a retired cop…he’d be home, and he probably still carried a gun. Even better, his house was in the same direction as Sean’s.
“Hello?” Geoff answered.
“Geoff! It’s Shelby Nichols. I know who did it and I need your help. Can I come over right now and pick you up?”
“Uh…um…sure.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll explain everything when I get there. We’ll need to take your car…oh…and don’t forget to bring your gun.”
I disconnected and set the last of the groceries on the table, then turned to my kids. “Thanks for putting these away. I’ll explain everything later.” I ran back to jump in the car and noticed Savannah’s eyes wide in alarm and Josh’s mouth hanging open. They’d heard the gun part and didn’t like it one bit. “I’ll be back soon…don’t worry.”
I made it to Geoff’s house in record time and pulled to a stop. To my relief, he was ready and waiting in his car. This might just work. I pulled the door open and jumped inside. “Thanks so much! Here’s the address. Do you know where it is?”
“Yeah, it’s not too far from here.” He backed the car onto the street and we took off. “So what’s going on?”
I explained everything I knew, even telling him that I was Sean’s next victim. “I tried to call Dimples, but he didn’t answer his phone, so I’m really grateful you’re coming with me.”
He nodded, thinking I was a little nuts to follow the guy in the first place, but if what I said was true, it was probably the only chance we’d get to find where he took the women. “Okay,” he said. “We’re almost to his house. You’d better duck while I drive by. If his car is still there, I’ll pull over down the road a bit and we can wait.”
As I nodded, my stomach clenched with anxiety. I hoped we hadn’t missed him, but at the same time, I kind of hoped that we had.
“Okay, there it is.”
I squeezed down into the foot area and held my breath. Geoff casually glanced down the drive and kept going. “We’re in luck. He’s just putting some things in his car, so he hasn’t left yet.”
Closing my eyes, I swallowed my fear and stayed out of sight. Geoff pulled into a driveway about three houses down, and turned off the engine. “We’ll just wait right here for him. As long as no one needs this driveway, I doubt Sean will notice us sitting here. You can probably get up now. Just lean over when he passes.”
“Okay.” I unfolded my legs and sat back on the seat. Geoff kept watch, hardly taking his gaze off the house. He was thinking he didn’t want to miss this opportunity and was grateful I’d called him. He’d forgotten how exciting it was to be on the hunt and hoped this wasn’t all a big mistake.
“So how did you know it was him?” he asked.
“Well…a lot of it was through my premonitions, and the rest was hard work.” I sure hoped he’d buy it, since that was the most I could say. “I have to admit…I was pretty upset that he was teaching at my daughter’s school. I still can’t figure out how he managed that.”
Geoff narrowed his eyes. “You know…that might be the link. I think one of the missing women was a school teacher. The others could have had children at the schools where he substituted, or had some other connection to them. That could be how he picked his victims and gained their trust.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. “There’s probably someone he knows in the district that’s more than willing to let him substitute in any class or school available.”
“I agree…wait…here he comes,” Geoff said.
I ducked down and froze in my seat. Once Sean passed, I sat up and Geoff started the car. As he pulled out of the driveway, he was thinking how quick his training had kicked in, even though it had been a few years, and how much he enjoyed being back on the job. He didn’t think he’d missed it until now. In some ways he hadn’t, but catching this bastard was different. It was still hard to believe that I’d figured it out so fast, and he wished I would have been around before he’d left the department. But at least I’d cracked the case wide open now.
Geoff kept two to three cars between us, keeping Sean in sight. We followed his car to the freeway and I was grateful Geoff was at the wheel, expertly maneuvering between cars without following too closely for Sean to notice.
Sean exited the freeway in a poorer part of town with smaller houses and vacant lots. We exited more slowly, but the light at the end of the exit turned red and with no other cars exiting, I knew we’d end up right behind him. I quickly ducked back down, hearing Geoff swear in his mind. He hunched his shoulders and with his elbow resting on the door, held his hand to his face, covering some of his mouth and nose.
Geoff studied Sean by looking through Sean’s rearview mirror, thinking something about him looked familiar. He wondered if he’d ever questioned him about Darcy’s disappearance. Hopefully with his face half-covered, Sean wouldn’t recognize him if he had. As Sean glanced into his rearview mirror Geoff stiffened, but couldn’t tell if Sean recognized him or not.
The light changed, and Sean made the left turn through the intersection, then took a quick right at the next street. Geoff followed, but continued down the road, turning right one street further down, hoping to pick Sean up at the bottom of the street. “You can get back up now,” he said. “I don’t think he made us, but we’ll have to be extra careful from here on out.”
He slowed at the stop sign and sighed with relief to see Sean’s car
traveling North under the freeway before making a left on the other side. We followed under the freeway, turning left as well, but we lost sight of him. There were a few houses here, but most were in bad shape with boarded up windows and overgrown bushes and weeds.
Not seeing his car, Geoff turned right at the next street and found a lane on the left that curved toward a dilapidated house. Since the house was at the end of the curve, we couldn’t see it very well, but from the way it was situated, Geoff was thinking it was the perfect place for Sean to commit murder.
Geoff pulled over to the side of the street and turned off the car. “You stay here. I’m going to take a look down that lane and see if his car is there.” Before I could say a word, he was out the door and walking toward the lane.
Chapter 12
I sat tight, since it was never my intention to get out of the car until Sean was long gone. While waiting, I chewed on my fingernail for a moment, then realized what I was doing and stopped. I glanced at the other houses on the street and swallowed. I couldn’t tell if anyone lived there, but if they did, I worried that they were the kind that had guns aimed at my head and could pull the trigger at any moment.
The car door opened, startling me, and Geoff jumped back in. “He’s there. What do you want to do?”
I let out my breath, holding a hand to my chest. “Sheesh, you scared me to death.”
“Sorry.”
“That’s okay,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m just a little nervous. So, what’s the exact address?”
Geoff glanced at the street sign. “Looks like it’s four-seventy-one Ashwood Lane.”
“Good. Let me write that down.” I grabbed a pen from my purse and wrote it on my arm since I didn’t have any paper. “This is what we’ll do. From what I could pick up, he won’t be there long. He was mainly just coming to open some windows and set out some air freshener. Once he leaves, we could go look in the windows for evidence or something. If we find anything that looks suspicious, we could call the cops and give them this address.”
“Hmm…just look in the windows, huh?”
“Well…maybe if the windows are open, I could squeeze in and take a look around, while you stand guard. Is that okay?”
“Yeah,” he said with a smile. “That should work since I’m not a cop anymore.” He thought if we found any evidence it would speed things up, and the police could get a search warrant right away and arrest that no-good-son-of-a-bitch.
I smiled back, glad to know we understood each other. He really was the best choice for this job, and I was glad I’d called him.
A few minutes later, Sean pulled out of the lane and headed back to the freeway entrance. My heart rate doubled, knowing it was time to move. As soon as his car was out of sight, Geoff and I both jumped out of his car and ran down the lane.
The small house at the end looked like it was falling apart, and there were gaping spaces where the wood siding had fallen off. Half the shingles on the tall roof were missing, and the railing around the porch was broken in several places. Curtains covered the windows from the inside and a screen door hung half open and broken in front of the main door.
We hurried around back and found a few windows wide open. From Geoff’s vantage point, he thought the nearest one probably opened into the kitchen, so that’s the one I went for. Geoff helped hoist me up and I half-tumbled onto the floor.
“I’ll keep watch,” he said. “But don’t take too long.”
“I won’t,” I agreed.
My heart was pounding to beat the devil, but I swallowed my fear and took in my surroundings. Although way outdated and dusty, the kitchen was surprisingly well-kept. I noted a staircase directly in front of the backdoor that led to a basement. It was dark down there, but I figured that was the most likely place to hide a body, so with trepidation, I started down the stairs.
By the time I got to the bottom of the steps, my legs were shaking so bad I could hardly walk. I stood in front of a closed door with a bolt from this side, effectively locking up anyone inside. I swallowed, then pulled the bolt and turned the knob. A rush of cool air washed over me, but at least no smell of decay came with it. Still, I could hardly make my legs move into the room. Since it was too dark to see inside, I flipped the switch at the bottom of the stairs.
A bare light bulb illuminated two big pieces of green shag carpet that covered the cement floor. At the far end, chains with manacles dangled from the ceiling. Closer to the stairs, a longer chain was bolted into the cement just above the carpet with a similar manacle.
A roll-away bed on wheels was pushed against a wall beside an open door that led to a bathroom. Imagining the horrors of what went on in that room tightened my chest, and I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. Was this enough evidence to put Sean away for good? I needed to find the bodies. They had to be here somewhere, but where?
A cold chill settled around me, and a faint breeze filled with the scent of gardenias brushed my cheek. Upstairs. Gah! I jumped about half a foot. Was that a woman’s voice? Leaving the light on and the door opened, I ran upstairs as fast as I could, skidding through the kitchen and into the hallway. How had I heard her voice in my head? Was it Darcy? Was I going crazy?
With my chest heaving, I stopped to listen, and the scent of gardenias wrapped around me again. Two doors opening into bedrooms off the hall stood open, so I quickly glanced into each room, finding one with a bed and the other filled with boxes. Could the bodies be in the boxes?
Higher. I cringed to hear the same voice in my head, but this time it didn’t scare me quite so much. “Higher where?” I whispered. There wasn’t another floor…unless she meant the attic. From the high-pitched roof, I knew there had to be one, but I didn’t know where to look for the stairs. I searched the hall, but besides the bathroom there wasn’t another doorway, and the ceiling didn’t have an opening that would lead to an attic.
Closet. “Okay, I’ll check the closets.” I looked through both bedroom closets, but they were empty and I couldn’t find any trace of a doorway or staircase in either one of them. I groaned in frustration and a breeze whipped around me, sending my hair flying into my face. It seemed to be pushing me in the direction of the living room. I took the hint and rushed down the hall and into the room.
I scanned the room and found a closet door near the front door. “Yes!” I let out my breath with relief and opened the door. Inside, a dark staircase led upward to a closed door at the top. This was it. I hesitated, fearful of what I’d find, but time was passing and I needed to get out of that house. Plus, I didn’t want another breeze to start pushing me up. That was just too freaky.
Swallowing my fear, I found enough strength in my legs to get them moving and started up the steep stairs. With each step, the wood creaked and I cringed, hardly daring to breathe, but kept going until reaching the top. I hesitated at the door, chewing on my bottom lip, then took a deep breath and grabbed the knob. It turned easily and I pushed it open.
The musty smell of decay hit me first, but I took a quick step inside and pursed my lips against a tiny scream. Shrouded in gray light, the shrunken bodies of five women sat in a semi-circle. With skin tight on skeletal remains, and blond hair still flowing from their skulls, they sat as if waiting for a play to begin. I gasped and covered my mouth in shocked horror.
My eyes watered with sudden tears at what had been done to them. I blinked them away, then swallowed and backed to the stairs. I’d seen enough. It was time to call the police. I closed the door behind me and started down the stairs. Just then, my phone rang. In the silence it startled me, and I quickly answered with a frightened whisper. “Hello?”
“Babe, I got your message. What’s going on?” Ramos asked.
Relief poured over me just to hear his voice. “Ramos…thank God. I’m with a retired detective and we followed the serial killer I was telling you about. We’re at his…the killer’s…other house. I called you first to see if you could come, but when you didn’t answer, I called the detective
instead. I couldn’t wait since the killer was leaving and if I didn’t follow him, I wouldn’t know where this place was, but we found it and we’re here now. The detective’s guarding the outside and I came in to find evidence to put him away. Oh, Ramos, I just found the bodies of five women…it’s bad.”
“You’re inside? Give me the address. Now!”
“Okay…” His alarm tightened my throat and I raised my arm to recite the address, hardly managing to whisper the numbers.
“I’m on my way. Get out of there.”
“I’m calling Dimples…” He hung up before I could finish, so I quickly left the closet and hurried back to the kitchen. I glanced out the windows to the back and side of the house for Geoff, but couldn’t see him anywhere. A shiver of dread ran down my spine and my stomach clenched. Oh no! Where the hell was he? Why wasn’t he out there?
I swallowed and glanced at my phone to push number six on my speed dial for Dimples. As it started to ring, I reached the window and began to climb out. I got both my legs out and slid to the ground, but my phone slid from my fingers. I heard Dimples answer, but before I could pick it up, I heard the same ethereal voice as before only more urgent. Run!
My breath caught, and I didn’t know what to do. With Dimples shouting my name on the phone, I couldn’t leave without picking it up. I grabbed it with shaking hands, just as the back door flew open. My eyes widened with fear to find Sean rushing toward me, his face contorted with rage.
“Four-seventy-one Ashw…”