Rausch & Donlon - Can Be Murder 02 - Love Can Be Murder (30 page)

“No, she’s still convinced it’s her. Said she is going to comb every square inch within ten miles of Sioux City. If she can find the body, she thinks she can link it to Brown. All she needs is a shred of evidence.” The chief stood.

“Pretty quiet in Turners Bend today, so Jim and I thought we’d come out here and fill you in. Masterson said if we have any ‘light bulb moments’ to pass them along to her.”

Chip saw them off and watched the cruiser barreling down his road, lights flashing and sirens blaring. He tried to return to his crime story, but his mind kept straying to the serial killer. Who else could it be? Maybe someone else on the team or maybe the dead women were also connected in some other way. Did they all date the same guy at some time? He wished he could talk through this enigma with Jane, but he couldn’t. He was privy to more than he probably should be, as it was. He had to keep his mouth shut.

Jane was never far from his mind. Since the premiere she had been chummier with him, but chummy was not what he wanted. He decided to move things along a little. He called her.

“Hi, what’s new in the world of Turners Bend’s best looking vet?”

She laughed. “Not hard to be the best looking vet, when you’re the only one in town, but to answer your questions, I’m fine. How about you? How’s Turners Bend’s best looking crime writer?”

Now it was his turn to laugh. “To tell you the truth, he’s bored and needs a break from writing. The Bijou is showing
Turner and Hooch
tonight. It’s an oldie but goodie. Would you care to join me?”

“I think I’d like that very much. I’ll meet you at the Bijou for the 7:00 p.m. show. How’s that?”

“Just what the doctor ordered.”

His movie choice would be perfect. Turner is a police detective who falls for a vet. Hooch is the dog that changes his life. The only thing that could make it better would be if Turner were a crime writer.

His heart stayed with Jane, but his head returned to the final couple chapters of
Mind Game
.

Chapter Forty

Mind Games

Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, & Northeast Counties of Minnesota

Early August

Agent Jo Schwann cut off the phone call to Agent Daniels and sat back. The only sound she could hear in her cubicle at the FBI headquarters was the whirring of the air conditioner kicking on. She swung her office chair around to face the window, and stared out into the night sky for a few minutes. With the heavy cloud cover, she could just barely make out the lights in nearby office buildings.
I brought all this violence into my quiet neighborhood, just by living there.
Logically, she knew it wasn’t her fault, but she couldn’t help seeing the face of the sweet elderly woman who had once lived two doors down from her.

She shook her head and turned the chair back around to dig into the NeuroDynamics file once again. This time she carefully sifted through the information about the Bureau’s attempts to find Dennis Farley. The last time he had been in contact with any family member was the week before she had been called into the NeuroDynamics case.

Jo was reading through the notes for the third time when her cell phone buzzed atop her desk. She had to dig through some of the papers scattered across the surface before she located it. “Agent Schwann.”

A deep voice said, “Special Agent Jo Schwann. Did you think I forgot about you? Not a chance. Just getting things ready for our next adventure together. Lots to do, lots to do.”

Jo sat up straight in her chair and studied the face of Dennis Farley that stared up at her from the dated photo on her desk. He was heavier in the picture, and his hair had been grayer, but now that she knew who she was dealing with, she wondered how she could have ever missed the connection to her new “neighbor” before.

Holding the photo in her hand, she said, “Mr. Farley. Welcome back from the dead.”

She heard a raspy chuckle on the other end of the line. “Gorgeous and a sense of humor. How did I ever get this lucky to fall in love with the perfect woman?”

Jo gritted her teeth and said, “Fall in love? My God, you really are a piece of work. This is how you show your love? By killing my elderly neighbor and her son, just to move closer to me … by kidnapping my boyfriend?”

All humor disappeared from Dennis Farley’s voice when he responded. “You think that this damned Boy Scout, this false hero, is your boyfriend? Well, that’s why I took him. To show you the error in your thinking.”

“What do you want from me? You obviously want something more than to kill us. You’ve had ample opportunity.”

Farley spoke deliberately, as if explaining something to a slow, stubborn child. “I told you, you need to see that you are wrong about Dr. Goodman. And you are wrong about me.”

“I seriously doubt that. Why don’t we cut through the crap and you tell me where I can meet you, so we can end this.”

“Fair enough. I have left a map for you in your house. It’s been there since I put in the cameras.”

That stopped Jo short. She bit her lower lip as she thought.
The answer to John’s location had been in her house all this time? How the hell did we miss it?
The techies had been all through her house, from top to bottom. But then, the answer came to her.
We weren’t looking for a map. We were looking for signs of John.

Jo spoke, “All right, I’ll bite. Where did you cleverly hide this map?”

He let out another laugh. “Oh, my love. I didn’t have to hide the map at all. It’s been on your wall in your home office all this time. It’s the map of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The minute I saw the map on your wall, I knew we shared an affinity for the wilderness. And I knew that’s where we had to meet.”

Jo’s mind wandered to the map at home. She had had it framed after she returned from a survivalist training program in the BWCA while on summer break from the University of Minnesota. It had been a life-altering experience, a turning point. It’s where she finally made peace with her father’s suicide and moved forward with her life. And now this bastard had turned it into something twisted.

She thought about the vast size of the area which bordered Canada. It would be the perfect place to dump a body … or two. And they would never, ever be found.

Jo swallowed and said, “The Boundary Waters covers over a million acres. How will I find you?”

“I marked the map on your wall. You will note it’s slightly different from the trip you recorded on the chart from a previous trip. I would hate to make things too easy for you.”

Jo stood up and began packing up the files into her briefcase. She wedged the phone between her shoulder and chin and said, “I am heading home now to get the map.” She looked at the clock on her desktop. “It’ll be several hours before I can get to where you are.”

“Not a problem. I am a patient man. In the meantime, the good doctor and I will set up camp. The map I left you will put you in the general area only. Once you reach the spot indicated, you will receive the next set of instructions. Oh, and leave your cell phone at the office. I don’t want it to be used to trace your whereabouts.”

Jo shoved the file into her bag. “Put John on the phone. I am not going anywhere until you prove he is still alive.”

“I had a feeling you would say that. Here he is.”

Jo could hear some rustling in the background and then John’s voice came on the other end of the line. His voice sounded brittle when he said, “Jo. Don’t come … there’s nowhere for you to get away from him here. Don’t play his game.”

Jo clutched the phone tight to her ear and closed her eyes. “You have to trust me …”

Jo was interrupted by Dennis Farley’s voice. “That’s enough. You have your proof. But I want you to listen very carefully. The cell phone number I am calling from is untraceable. You are familiar enough with this area to know that I can disappear with Dr. Goodman in a blink if I have any suspicions that you have brought assistance or anyone is tracking us. This is a private affair. Do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly. I will be alone.”

“We anxiously await your visit. I will be in touch.”

Jo was about to ask how he would reach her, when she realized she was listening to a dial tone.

* * *

Jo approached Tofte, Minnesota, a small resort town on Lake Superior and pulled off to the side of the road. She clicked on the interior light and double-checked the map she had retrieved from her house. Before re-entering traffic, she waited for the pre-arranged signal from Agent Daniels. He had followed several car lengths behind in a non-descript sedan and had pulled into the restaurant parking lot just past where she sat idling.

When he flashed his lights at her, she turned left onto the road leading to Sawbill Lake, the destination point on her map. At this point, Jo knew Daniels would hang back several miles, since he would be easy to spot on such a narrow, gravel road.

Daniels had followed her every move via the tracker on her Bureau-issued vehicle. Before she had left her office, she called Agent Daniels and filled him in on the phone call from Farley. He wasn’t happy when she insisted that if they came too close, they would put John in greater jeopardy. However, he was somewhat mollified by the use of her tracker.

Jo pulled up next to a rusted-out blue Chevy Tahoe in the gravel parking lot near the outfitters at the edge of the lake. She retrieved the cell phone Farley had left for her. She had found it earlier, taped to the back of the framed map. Quickly murmuring thanks to the recent addition of cell phone towers in the BWCA, she flipped to the number that had been programmed into the phone.

Farley answered after the first ring. “Agent Schwann. I assume you are now at Sawbill?”

“Yes. Where do I enter the lake?”

“Ah, not so fast. You still have more driving to do. Do you see the blue truck parked in the lot?”

With a sinking feeling, Jo looked out her passenger-side door and said, “Yeah …”

“That will be your mode of transportation for the remainder of the trip.”

Jo’s stomach lurched.
If I switch vehicles, there will be no way for Daniels to track me.
Her mind spun out a dozen alternatives, and she came up empty. “Why are you doing this?”

“You and I both know that FBI vehicles can be tracked. That piece-of-crap truck has no such device. It does, however, have a special feature that wasn’t standard when it rolled off the assembly line. I installed a wireless camera, so I will know if you attempt to contact your co-workers in any way.”

Jo muttered an oath under her breath. “So what’s my next step?’

“I left the keys in the truck, under the floor mat. There is a portable GPS system on the dash, with the coordinates of the next stop programmed in. But just in case you get creative in keeping friends in the loop, I’ve set up a back-up plan. The minute you activate the navigation system, you also activate the camera, so I will be able to see everything you do from that point on. If you attempt to leave a note with the coordinates, I will know it and Dr. Goodman is dead.”

Jo’s mouth went dry. She was entirely on her own from now on. The best she could do is to leave a message in her SUV with the license plates of the replacement vehicle so that Daniels could put out an APB on her. But in the time it would take them to track down the truck, she would be deep into the north woods.

* * *

The sky was showing the first streaks of daylight by the time she reached the picturesque town of Grand Marais near the northern tip of Minnesota. She turned west as the navigation system directed her a few minutes later. Jo traveled another sixty miles, bumping along the rustic, narrow road until she reached the entrance to Pine Lake.

When she ran out of road, even though the GPS urged her forward, she pulled the truck over and called Farley. Jo could hear the exhaustion in her voice when she said, “I can’t find a parking lot. Where am I going?”

“We’re by-passing the permits that are required to access the Boundary Waters. We don’t want any nosey park ranger to know we’re here, so you will have to hike the rest of the way in. Remove the GPS system from the truck and start walking.”

Jo hung up and retrieved her backpack of gear from the passenger seat. The pack felt heavier than when she had placed it there hours before. She was clearly running out of steam.

Sighing, she hoisted the pack onto her back and climbed out of the truck. Stiff and sore from the long night of driving, she stretched and then retrieved some note paper and a pencil from her bag. Jo scribbled a note with the next set of coordinates from the Garmin navigation system and wedged it under the front tire of the truck.

Jo stowed the phone away and began walking. Checking the GPS system frequently, she was rewarded a half-hour later when she came upon a yellow canoe that was half-hidden in the brush. It was made of Kevlar, making it lightweight enough to portage over land. Jo saw there was a large green canvas bag in the bottom of the boat. Looking closer, she saw it was a Duluth Pack, the ubiquitous bag used by the majority of outdoorsman in the Boundary Waters. She bent over to retrieve the pack and unbuckled the canvas straps. Inside, she found a canteen, a water purifier and a few energy bars. She muttered, “How fucking thoughtful of him.” She dug in a little farther and pulled out another handheld GPS device.

Stowing her own bag next to the Duluth Pack, she copied down the final coordinates on a piece of note paper and tacked it down with a rock, making sure that it could be seen from a distance. She climbed into the canoe and used an oar to push off from the shoreline. She paddled, following the directions on the new system.

She had been out for a few minutes when she heard a loon’s lonely cry in the distance. The sky had lightened up quite a bit since she had first hiked into the brush and she could now see the pristine beauty of the wilderness around her. Her paddle strokes into the calm water were smooth and sure. It felt as if she had last been here two months ago instead of ten years.

Jo turned her head at a crashing sound on the shore to her right. She saw a large moose gamboling about, long legs awkward in the brush. It wasn’t long before Jo realized she had relaxed a bit and was feeling refreshed.
I’m ready to take this bastard down
, she thought.