Relentless (Elisabeth Reinhardt Book 1) (10 page)

In the bathroom, Slim was throwing up blood. His nose, mouth and cheek were bleeding. Three of his teeth had been knocked out, his arm was broken and he knew his ribs were cracked.  Custer kept handing him wet washcloths and trying to clean his wounds. He wanted to go for ice but was afraid to leave
Slim alone in the room with Jake.  Slim sobbed quietly. His high was gone. He had crashed, overloaded with drugs, fear and pain. He clung to Custer saying, “Don’t leave me, Man. You’ve got to help me. Jake’s crazy!”

“Shut up,” Custer hissed, “he’ll hear you. Don’t talk no more. We’re in real trouble here.”

They could hear Jake pacing in the other the room
, banging into things, swearing and muttering to himself. Every time he passed the bathroom door he’d kick it and scream profanities at the door.  In the bathroom, Custer and Slim jumped every time Jake passed, staring anxiously at the door, waiting for him to calm down or go steal them a getaway car. 

In the background they heard a smooth TV announcer’s voice say, “We have a
Late Breaking News Bulletin,”
as
dramatic music swelled a woman’s melodious voice described a police chase through downtown Asheville, screaming sirens could be heard in the background. She reported that earlier today the police were in hot pursuit of a 1999 Maroon Plymouth driven by a single white male wearing hunting clothes. She described Slim as his blurry profile, shot through the driver’s side window appeared on the screen along with the high speed chase that had involved multi-car collisions. The announcer was sad to report that one of the cars involved in the stream of accidents belonged to Reverend Bertrand Allen Wilkerson. Known to his congregants as
Reverend Bert
, the Reverend is a well-respected minister at the ‘Church of the Redeeming Savior’ in downtown Asheville. The Reverend had been scheduled to officiate at the mayor’s daughter’s wedding scheduled for 5PM that afternoon at the family home. Riding with Reverend Wilkerson were his wife and two young daughters. Angie age 6 was injured in the accident and medevac’d to the Asheville Memorial Hospital, where she was being treated for injuries sustained in the accident. No information was available about her condition. The announcer continued solemnly to report that the mayor’s daughter’s wedding had been delayed until another clergyman could be located to officiate. It is thought that the suspect was involved in a drug buy when the high speed chase was triggered and were questioning a number of individuals in connection with that exchange, the announcer said. The suspect’s vehicle was found abandoned in the Food Lion parking lot. It has been impounded and police report that it appears to have been involved in a number of nationwide crimes for which unknown suspects are now being sought…

TV sounds continued. In the bathroom, there was deadly silence.
Hearts pounding Slim and Custer listened to every word as they huddled in the bathtub expecting bullets to blast through the door. Nothing happened. The bedroom was silent save for the TV. Minutes passed. Custer opened the door and peeked out. The room was empty. Jake had gone to steal another car. He had missed the broadcast by minutes. Slim and Custer exchanged looks of disbelief. That kind of luck happened once in a lifetime; this had been that time. Their luck with Jake Gennett was running out.

“We got our first big break,” Lou announced to the Task Force at their early morning briefing. The caffeine charged group erupted with cheers. The chase for the killers was picking up speed.

Lou updated them on the Asheville car chase
and read a detailed report from the Asheville PD and the North Carolina Bureau of the FBI:

• E
  vidence collected from the car, motel and a local restaurant appear to support the ‘three men theory’ we put out on VICAP (
  Violent Criminal Apprehension Program). Team 1 will follow up.
  
• The car found in th
  e Food Lion parking lot, a 1999 maroon Plymouth, matches our latest report, of a car stolen just a few days ago, off Mud River Rd near Hamlin. The car’s plates didn’t match the registration information.
  
• The car is on its way to Quantico. We should get prints, DNA and other evidence that will lead directly to the identit
  y of these killers. If they’re in our data base we’ll have rock solid ID’s for these guys.
  
• The
  se three guys were practically living in that car; we found camping stuff, pillows, lots of food wrappers, beer and soda cans, plus some clothes. Guns, ammunition and other weapons along with blood and hair samples were found in the trunk. If there are matches to any of our latest victims, we have direct leads to these guys and they know it.
  
• There were about 7 receipts in the glove compartment and
  on the floor that should give us enough to map out a travel and time line. Team 2 will follow up.
  
• We
  ’ve got a sketch artist working with the clerk at the Days Inn and two waitresses at the Golden Corral. We think they saw two of our killers and we should be able to get current descriptions on what they look like now. Team 3 will follow up.
  
• Asheville PD located the drug
  dealer who sold to the fellow who started the police chase; they think they can broker a deal and get the guy to work with their sketch artist.
  
• One item of particular interest is a gold chain with a tiny
  hamsa
  or ‘hand of Fatima’ on it. We think it belongs to our latest victim Arushi (Rushi) Kowndamani. Team 4 is taking the lead, run it by her parents to see if we can get an ID. That will confirm the connection between one of our victims and these guys.
  
• T
  eam 1 will conduct a follow up interview with the owners of that Plymouth to see if we can determine when and where someone from that household encountered our killers. That Plymouth was stolen from a remote residential area so the killers probably followed it there. We need to find out why they were so interested in that car that they followed it so far. They were probably tracking a potential victim. We need to know where and how they attracted these killers’ attention and why they didn’t follow through with a kidnapping.
  
• From the verbal reports and the wreckage found in that motel room it seems there was a quite a fight between gang members and at least one of them is probab
  ly seriously injured. Team 3 will follow up with the Asheville police and manage that evidence.
  
• This gang is
  probably spooked now. They lost their car and all their possessions. They know we have evidence that will identify them and there’s infighting. Their next move will be to run as fast and far as they can and lie low for a while. They’ll have to steal another set of wheels, so we’ll need to jump on every reported car theft. Team 2 this is yours.
  
• We
  ’re looking for intersecting lines here folks. We need to know how and where our victims crossed paths with these killers.
  

Lou looked at the Task Force Members and reviewed assignments. As
task force members volunteered to track down specific angles that had not been addressed Lou added, “Asheville PD is sending some of their people up here to work with us. They are upset about all this. It turns out that one of the cars our junkie side-swiped belonged to the minister of a popular Methodist church. He, his wife and kids were in the car, on their way to the Mayor’s daughter’s wedding, where he was to officiate. Their little girl got knocked around pretty badly and was admitted to the E.R.; they think she’ll be alright, but it’s a ‘vehicular homicide if she dies.’ The wedding was delayed for three hours so the Mayor is hopping mad. That little chase cut a swath of destruction through their city and they want this guy caught. Plus, they’re more than a little freaked out that our gang of serial killers was hiding out in their city. They’ll give us their reports when they get here and that will be in about 90 minutes. We’ll reconvene then.”

“
Thanks everyone,” Chester finished.

Everyone
moved to their assigned spaces and got busy. The narrow window of opportunity increased tension. Everyone was focused. Two sketches were faxed from Asheville, more were being completed; Will Schmidt was running them through the facial recognition program and was waiting for a match. Unfortunately a lot of information had never been entered into the system and it would have to be done by hand. The Putnam County Police began data searches for kids in trouble for petty theft, vandalism and general misconduct during the estimated time period. Yearbooks had been collected from the schools and police searched for pictures matching the sketches. It was tedious, but they were ‘psyched’!

Two officers from the
Asheville PD arrived supercharged and loaded with information about the suspects. Following the car chase through the city and the search of the area around the Food Lion parking lot, a 911 call was received by the manager of a local motel. Based on numerous complaints of noise coming from room 133 he went to the room, found the door ajar and the room demolished. Furniture was broken; blood was everywhere and some loose teeth were scattered across the floor. Police were convinced that the incident which took place at a Days Inn was connected with the downtown high speed police chase and that was connected to the nationwide hunt for the serial killers.

T
wo additional vehicles stolen from the general vicinity had also come under suspicion. One car had been stolen from near the Food Lion where the first man had disappeared. That car was found abandoned 6 blocks from the motel. Later that morning a report came in that a construction company fleet truck was stolen from a parking lot near the Days Inn where the killers had been staying. The theft wasn’t noticed until around 9:30AM. It was a light blue 2009 Chevy Silverado; its license plate was found in a nearby gutter. Subsequently another citizen reported that his license plates had been stolen. The plate, white with red letters read “First in Flight” MBK 2784. A national BOLO (be on the lookout) for both the Chevy truck and the missing license plate had been issued. 

“These guys are
used to evading detection,” Lou told the group. “It took some thought to take a fleet truck that looked like 10 others, less chance it would be missed right away. And it took time to switch plates, not a dummy,” he commented wryly, “Higher risk sneaking around in the middle of the night, dogs barking and people waking up for early shifts. It was assumed that all these inter-related events were connected to the serial killers.” Marie predicted in-fighting would make the gang more unpredictable. “Let’s get some cautions out on the wire. We don’t want some rookie getting his head blown off thinking he’s pulling over some joy riders.” Lou said, “We need a press conference, Marie, make sure we get all the media on board with this. Let the public be on the lookout for these guys, it’s irresponsible to keep people in the dark any longer. Chester, Marie, Bill and I will start prepping for the news conference. We’ll need the media’s help on this and the sooner they are informed the better.”

“Hang on a sec,” the Asheville team leader interrupted, “
we’ve got more. We found guns in the trunk of that old Plymouth, two Smith and Wesson .357’s, a Walther P99 and a Remington Air Master .177.” The group was still and silent. “There was a shit load of ammunition, plus some grenades and a bunch of knives.”

“These guys were
declaring war,” someone commented.

“Yep,” Lou retorted, “and we don’t know if that’s all they had or if they took
weapons into the motel with them. We think that the junkie took off in the car shortly after they checked in and went riding around looking for a fix. Given what was in the car, it’s likely they didn’t carry too many weapons into the room, given that maids might be coming into the room. But we can’t be sure what all they had and where they might have stashed stuff. Chances are they have some weapons with them and they’ll be trying to replace what they lost.”

“We’ll c
heck for weapon thefts or purchases,” said Team 3.

“Okay,” Chester added, “We can expect them to stop somewhere to get
other supplies too.”

“They’ll probably need cash
so we’re looking at 7/11’s or liquor store robberies. Check the wires for robbery reports fitting this profile and time frame within an 80 mile radius. They can’t have gotten far and they need money and supplies.”

“
They have a wounded guy with them, they didn’t leave him behind and we haven’t found a body anywhere so they’ll need a doctor or at least first aid supplies.”

“Where can
you get all that stuff in one place?”

“Wal
-Mart?” someone called out, “You can get clothes, food, and camping stuff there. Some of those places sell guns too.”

Another asked, “
What about a big camping store like Bass Pro?”

A quick
web search told them most of the things they needed could be found in either store.
“
But Federal Firearm Regulations require background checks….”

“Well that will put a crimp in their shopping spree,” someone said.

“It will force them to resort to crime,” Marie responded.

“These are desperate men and they will want to replace what they lost as soon as possible. Let’s assume they have a few weapons with them and remember they are one
man down. That guy may not even be conscious and for sure he’s not shopping anywhere.” Lou summed up, “Okay, we’ve got killers on the run; they lost their car and supplies; they have one man badly injured; they know we’re close and they have to get rid of the recent stolen truck with its stolen plate and get another ride soon. They’ll probably have to rob again before they can go shopping. And they’ll have to shop before they hideout. We have a narrow window of high exposure, let’s move fast.”

The task force members we
re all silent for a while. Then Chester said, “They’re going to grab what they can and then dive into the nearest rabbit hole, let their wounded guy heal, or maybe die, and regroup. They’ll stick to their comfort zone till the heat dies down.”

“Yep,
look for the nearest mountain range that’s their comfort zone,” someone called out. “Okay,” Lou said moving to the map, “where’s the nearest parkland or camping ground?”  He started tracing routes with his finger.

“They might head up Rte. 26 toward Unicoi Tennessee and hide out in the Cherokee National Forest,” someone suggested.
“No, they’re gonna get farther away than that, they’ll head toward Kentucky and go west,” another suggested.

Will
said, looking up from his keyboard, “Our best bet is the Cumberland Gap in Middleborough. They’ll camp out there ‘til they think it’s safe to move. That’s the biggest park they can get to the fastest. It’s got dense forests, high mountains and lots of cabins. Not many people there this time of the year. Better contact the Tennessee and Kentucky State Police and let them know. We’ll have our plane ready. Everyone who’s going get your flak jackets and hiking gear.”