Eyes of the Predator (29 page)

“Listen,” he said, “Sorry I can’t
give you a ride to Canada, or north, I’m headed out west through Atlanta. Got
to get where there’s some wide-open spaces. I’m from Texas, you know, and I
miss the plains after a while.”

There was just the slightest bit
of disappointment on Lyn’s face. Perfect.

He continued, “Hey,” he said as
if the thought was a surprise to him. “I’ve got some travel brochures of where
I visited in Canada if you want them. Might help you decide where you want to
go. Canada’s a big place you know. Anyway, the pictures are pretty.”

“I’d like that. I’ve only seen
some stuff on television and in a couple of school books,” Lyn said.

“Okay, then,” Lylee nodded his
head smiling. He looked at the check the waitress had left on the counter,
pulled some money out, and dropped it on top. Without looking at Lyn, he stood
up and started walking away. “C’mon, I’ll get them for you,” he said almost
indifferently over his shoulder.

Lylee didn’t have to see to know
that Lyn had hesitated only for the briefest of moments before standing up and
following. He kept his head and eyes forward. His indifferent, matter-of-fact
way enhanced his harmlessness. Lylee knew it instinctively; he didn’t have to
think about it.

And he didn’t have to look back
as he pushed the door open, walked outside, and turned right towards the corner
of the building. He heard the door open right after him and knew that the girl
was following.

Lyn’s split second of hesitation
had faded almost instantly. She walked after the man, Bruce. Yes, she had met
some bad men. Her daddy had hurt her and then Henry, but most of them had been
good to her. The brothers Clay and Cy, big Leon and Bob the truck drivers, and
now Bruce. He had even saved her from Henry. It seemed like there were more
good ones than bad ones, and she began to get a little of her confidence back.

She watched
Bruce
walk
ahead of her, his hands pushed harmlessly down in his pockets. He was softly
whistling. He seemed happy and at ease.

Lylee
was
happy. He was
very happy. He looked down at his feet shuffling slightly as he walked to
appear even more harmless.

Coming up to the car, he walked
around to the passenger side, which was nearest the rear of the building. He
had positioned the car so that it would provide cover from anyone who might be
outside and look their way.

“They’re just in the glove box
here. I’ll get them.”

Lyn stopped at the rear of the
car. Lylee continued walking and then stopping by the passenger door, he exclaimed
in disbelief, “Damn! Look at that.”

“What,” Lyn asked surprised.

Lylee looked up at the sky in
mock frustration and anger. “I can’t believe it. I go inside to grab a bite to
eat, not gone more than thirty minutes, and look at this. Someone took a key or
something and scratched up the side of my car.”

He knelt down by the door shaking
his head and said, “I’ll bet it was that guy that tried to get you into his
truck.” Shaking his head he said, “Yeah, gotta be him, trying to get even, that
jerk.”

And then Lyn made the final
mistake, the big one. She stepped too close to the un-caged animal that was
Leyland Torkman.

Moving forward she looked at the
side of the car, as Lylee stood up to show her. “Where?” she said. “I don’t
see…”

Lylee’s movements were swift and
fluid. His right hand pulled open the passenger door. His left hand emerged
from his pocket with the knife.

Lyn gasped as she was pushed hard
against the car. Something sharp pressed against her chest.

Lylee pushed the knife hard
against her ribs. Leaning against her with his body, anyone who saw would think
he was just trying to knock off a piece there in the parking lot, something
that had probably happened more than a few times back on this deserted side of
the building. His face was next to hers. His lips almost touched hers.

Lyn looked into the fierce,
sparkling eyes. A small, terrified sound tried futilely to escape her throat.

“Not a sound,” Lylee hissed at
her through lips that barely moved. “Not one sound, or I will cut you deep and
hard. I promise it will hurt. You understand?”

Lyn could only look at him with
wide, panic-stricken eyes. The memory of his attack on Henry flooded into her
consciousness, and she knew what he was capable of.

“Do you understand?” Lylee said
each word slowly and deliberately. “Nod, if you do.”

Lyn nodded her head once slowly.
The sparkling eyes narrowed as they stared deep into hers.

Holding the point of the knife
firmly against her, Lylee reached down with his right hand and pulled a plastic
tie wrap from the car seat. It was exactly like the one found by Deputy George
Mackey at the StarLite.

He quickly wrapped the tie around
Lyn’s right wrist, tightened it, and then used the knife point to push her into
the seat. Pulling another tie out, he ran it through the one on Lyn’s wrist and
then around the frame at the bottom of the seat. Lyn’s right arm was now
secured to the car. The tie bit into her skin if she moved.

Leaning over her, Lylee hissed
again, “No noise or I will hurt you and then I will kill you.” He pushed the
knife harder into her ribs, hard enough to break the skin. He knew there would
be a little blood but not much. Just enough to make her believe and remember.
Then he kissed her hard on the lips biting her lower lip on the inside as he
did so. It drew blood. He savored the salty taste. Anyone who might have seen
the kiss would think that they were off to find a private place for some truck
stop sex.

Lylee closed the door and walked
quickly to the driver’s side. With the door handle removed from the passenger
door, Lyn could not have escaped even with both hands free. She didn’t try.
Traumatized by this final betrayal, beaten, and alone, she sat trembling. A
numbing emptiness crawled over her. Although the man had caused no serious
injury to her yet, she felt as if life was leaving her. Her body was an empty
shell. She was already going somewhere else.

Lylee sat down and started the
car quickly. The engine purred powerfully. Pulling away from the building, he
drove around to the front. The girl in the seat beside him was silent, dazed.

The fat clerk from the cash
register, Todd, was outside puffing a cigarette as they drove by. Seeing Lylee,
he quickly looked away.

Watching the car drive out of the
lot headed towards the entrance ramp of the interstate, the kid took a deep
breath, glad that the creepy guy was gone. He was sorry to see the thin, pretty
girl go. Probably wouldn’t be much to look at the rest of the day.

The car was quiet inside. Lylee
lit a cigarette. Looking over at the girl, she appeared to be catatonic. He put
his hand out and rested it on her thigh. The muscles in her leg quivered and
trembled, and the tingling thrill inside him increased. This would be special.
He would take his time with this one. This hunt and the capture had required
all of his skill and cunning. He had been exceptional, and the kill would have
to be special. He would savor it. Drink it in. Drench himself in it. It would
be delicious.

The ride to the county jail in
Everett was uneventful. After a couple of miles, Vernon Taft peeked his head
above the door and looked around. Satisfied that none of the Roydon locals were
following, he sat up. In the rearview mirror, George could see that Vernon’s
face twitched nervously, his head bobbing and swiveling on his neck constantly,
checking passing cars and trucks for any threat. George knew that this was not
an overreaction and that the things he had told Vernon to coax him to cooperate
were not an exaggeration. He would be a marked man in Roydon, likely already was.
It would not have mattered what Vernon had told them. Fuck off. Bite me. Eat my
shorts. The result would have been the same. Suspicion would follow him, and
suspicion in Roydon was as good as a conviction. Eventually, old Vernon would
turn up missing. It wouldn’t be a big deal. Time would have passed so that
there could be no immediate connection to today’s encounter with the law, but
he would be gone and no one would see him again, including his sister in
Valdosta. The end of Vernon Taft, pure and simple.

After a few miles, he began to
relax. The nervous twitches remained, but his constant turning and bobbing,
surveilling the passing cars, and road slowed.

“So, was it the girl?”

“What?” George’s eyes jerked
abruptly to the mirror, peering intently at Vernon.

“The murder. Was it the girl?”

Pulling onto the shoulder of the
highway, George jerked the car to a stop. “What are you saying, Vernon? You
said you didn’t see anyone with the guy in the Chevy.”

“Did I? Well I was pretty
nervous.” Dammit. His own big mouth had just turned everything upside down. “I
mighta seen more.” Stopped on the shoulder of the road, Vernon’s head started
turning and bobbing again, and his scared shitless quotient rose by a factor of
ten. “Do we have to stop? Can’t you just keep driving?”

“Vernon, don’t fuck with me. I’ve
had just about all of your bullshit I can stand for one day. You got something
to say, say it. Otherwise, I’ll wheel this truck around and drop you at Pete’s
Place.”

Vernon’s face blanched. “You
wouldn’t do that, Deputy.”

“I would and I will. You know
something more, talk. Now.”

“Okay, okay. Well, I did see that
there was a girl. Couldn’t see her when he was parked by the office. But I
stood there in the dark in the office and watched. He pissed me off with his
attitude, he was kind of …scary. But I knew he couldn’t see me standing in the
dark. I think he could do bad things.”

“No shit, Vernon. What do you
think we been talking about all afternoon?” George waited, looking at him
expectantly in the rearview mirror.

“Well, like I said, I could see
it was a girl. When he got to the room, he opened the door and bent in the car
sort of. I thought he must have been waking her up. Maybe he was untying her or
something.” He paused momentarily, expecting some comment from George. All he
received was a cold, hard stare. “So, anyway, I could see it was a girl he
pulled out of the car.”

“Did she walk or did he carry
her?”

“She walked. She had her head
down, and it was pretty far so I couldn’t really tell what she looked like. Dark
hair, brown maybe. He moved her into the room pretty quick and stayed real
close. Kinda looked like he had his hand on her tit.”

George let all of this sink in.
Vernon Taft had been the last known person, other than her killer, to see the
girl alive. It seemed to make it all worse somehow. No memory, no farewell to
family, no last words to be remembered, just Vernon standing in the dirty, dark
motel office watching her being dragged into a dingy motel room. And then
nothing.

His eyes jerked back to Vernon
who looked more nervous than ever. “Did you hear anything? Any sounds or cries
for help?’

 “No, George. Honest, I
didn’t. Those block walls are pretty thick, and they were down at the other end
of the place.”

“And you didn’t even think to
call the sheriff’s office or try to help her?”

“For what?” his voice had the
tone of an unfairly persecuted saint. “Men take girls in that place all the
time. We don’t, uh…interfere.” Vernon seemed pleased that he had thought of
such a big word. “That’s why they come to the StarLite. You know that Deputy.”

George took a deep breath. “All
right, Vernon. What else can you tell me?”

 Vernon thought for a
moment. “Well, that old Chevy, it had a Texas tag on it.”

George was instantly attentive
again. “You sure?”

“Yep. I know my tags.”

“Did you get the plate number?”

Vernon’s response was nervous.
“Well, no. I didn’t. We don’t keep such records there at the StarLite.”
George’s look of exasperation lasted only a second before Vernon added, “But
there was a bumper sticker on the car, right rear.” George was all ears. “One
of those funny kind. It said, ‘If you can read this bumper sticker, get off my
ass’.” A small chuckle escaped from star witness, Vernon Taft, until he noticed
the look on George’s face.

“Yeah, that’s real fucking funny,
Vernon.”

George yanked the radio
microphone off its cradle and within a few seconds had given the additional
information out over the air. It would soon be broadcast around to the other
police and state agencies. Texas tag and a bumper sticker. Now at least they
had a chance, as opposed to no chance in hell, of finding the car. And the
animal driving it, George thought.

“You still gonna take me to my
sister’s place?” Vernon was clearly terrified that the deal might be off. “I
was gonna tell you all of it. That’s why I started talking to you Deputy. I
didn’t want nothing bad to happen to the girl. Hell, it could have been my own
sister. I was just scared there in front of Roy Budroe and his gang. I just
needed to get away from there.”

Realizing that there was probably
some truth in Vernon’s admission, George sat still for a moment calming
himself. Then, looking hard at Vernon in the mirror he said quietly, “Vernon, I
will take you to jail and put you into protective custody tonight. Tomorrow you
will be taken to Valdosta to your sister’s place, but you better remember this.
You are a material witness to a murder. You stay at your sister’s where we can
find you. If you leave…” George paused to make sure that Vernon was paying
close attention. “If you leave, I will hunt you down, Vernon. And when I find
you, you will wish to holy hell that Roy and his boys had found you first. You
understand me, Vernon?”

Vernon Taft nodded. He
understood.