Touching Evil (31 page)

Cam reached forward to turn the LED light on again and blew through a deserted intersection on the blacktop.  He hoped like hell that the sympathy in Sophie’s tone was for the victims.  Because despite Baxter’s sad story, it was the man’s actions as an adult that mattered.

And there would be no mercy shown with he was finally caught.

*  *  *  *

“Not good, Mommy.  Not good at all.”  Sonny peered through the windshield at the line of cars stopped in the road.   He buzzed down his window and craned his head out the window to see what was going on.  Traffic had been almost nonexistent when he first started out.  But over the course of forty minutes or so it had picked up steadily.  He’d alternated gravel with rural blacktops, favoring the ones he knew best.

He’d once worked for Schwann’s for a couple years, delivering frozen goods to residences.  He’d worked the rural routes that no one else wanted to take, because they involved more driving and fewer sales.  But Sonny had liked it.  He’d enjoyed the scenery.  The quiet.  He’d spent a lot of time exploring the area along the river.  The wooded spots had always soothed the racket in his brain.  Those times had been the happiest in his memory.  Even if they had eventually led to him losing his job for not staying on his route.

But today he hadn’t been able to take the roads he’d mapped out in his head.  He’d hit a detour where a road was under construction, and gotten off track.  Right now he figured he was south of Perry only a mile or so, which he figured would be less traveled than the northern route.  So unless there’d been an accident, there was no reason for the police presence.  

A line of three cars was ahead of him.  He could see a deputy leaning down to talk to the driver up front.  Ahead of the deputy were two patrol cars blocking the intersection.

They’re after you, Sonny.  Get away now.  Get away fast.

He ignored the voice in his head, watching the deputy wave the first car on.  He wanted to see what would happen.  The two squad cars parted to allow the vehicle through.  Gauging the distance, he realized he’d never make it without having all three uniforms shooting to stop him.

He preferred better odds.

There was a steady thumping coming from the trunk.  Lucy.  Definitely not quiet.  He could feel a headache coming, which ignited his temper.  He had to be patient with her.  It would take lessons, but she’d learn fast.  They always did.  The thumping came again.  Louder.  Continuous.  Sonny could feel the burst of static in the back of his brain.  A low constant buzz.  But it’d get worse.  Much worse.

He couldn’t drive for days with that noise in the trunk.  Lucy’s lesson would have to come long before they reached their new home.

The deputy was still busy with the front car.   A woman had gotten out of it and was yelling in the man’s face.  The argument had the drivers ahead of Sonny sticking their heads out of their windows to watch.  Glancing in his rearview mirror, Sonny saw a pickup approaching.  Now was the time to make his move, while the deputy was distracted and before he got boxed in.  

Lucy began yelling.  Yelling and thumping in a way that would go unnoticed as they drove.  But would definitely be heard if there was anyone nearby.  The static in his head increased a notch.  

He did a U turn in the middle of the road and zoomed off the way he’d come.  He checked his mirror again.  The deputy wasn’t paying attention to the woman anymore.  He had a radio to his mouth.  Sonny knew what that meant.  

He pressed on the accelerator.  He wasn’t worried.  Not really.  The deputy was at a  disadvantage.  Sonny had a head start and he knew exactly where he was going.

And the first thing he’d do when he got there was deal with Lucy Benally.

*  *  *  *

Sheriff Feinstein  had been right.  There’d been no one home at the house where Rhonda Klaussen had been staying.  The car she was using wasn’t in sight.  Cam and Sophia had tried looking in the windows but with the shades drawn there was nothing to see, even with Cam’s Maglite.  

He hadn’t mentioned the wasted trip as he drove east through Dallas county and Sophia knew she should feel grateful for that.  But what she felt instead was trepidation.  Despite what they’d found—or hadn’t found—her earlier concern for the woman refused to dissipate.  Mason Vance wasn’t one to leave witnesses.  No one knew the man better than Klaussen had reason to.  Sophia was beginning to hope that the woman
had
run.  It might be safer for her than if Baxter found her and took care of one last item for his partner.

At Cam’s direction she’d used her iPad to find online county plat maps.  She’d systematically opened one site after another, until each of the counties that had roadblocks set up had a digital map open and available.  Sophia hadn’t even realized the maps existed.  They might have come in handy navigating the gravel roads that crisscrossed the state in the era before GPS.

The radio crackled.  Her muscles tensed, even though he’d been in constant contact with his team, the troopers and sheriff offices since they’d left Des Moines.

“Cam, it’s Jenna.  I’m at the roadblock south of Perry on P58.  We think we spotted a vehicle resembling Gavin’s turning around rather than waiting its turn at the block.”

Hope streaked up Sophia’s spine.  Bondurant was almost directly east of Ankeny, which was east of Perry.  She leaned forward to speak into the radio Cam held.  “Any sign of Lucy in it?”

“Negative.”  Cam took a right at the next corner and barreled toward Jenna’s location. “We weren’t even close enough for a license plate.  But we’re in pursuit.”

Sophia took a moment to bring up the correct county plat map and held the screen up for Cam to consult.

“P58.  If he’s in that area, there are only a few other places he can cross the river.  North of Perry on 144 or west of Minburn on F31.  Do you have him in sight?”

“Not exactly.  We’re following the plume of dust.  He went south on the first gravel.  Holy shit.”  The radio went dead.  

“Turner!  Jenna!”  

Sophia traced the route Jenna had indicated with her fingertip on the screen.  “Gets pretty curvy and zig-zaggy on that road,” she murmured.

Jenna’s voice came back on the radio.  “Sorry about that.  Almost missed a curve.  Had two wheels off the road.  Thought I was going to have to pull Deputy Koblaski out of the ditch.”

“Stay in pursuit.  Report back.”  Cam passed the radio to Sophia and she did a silent exchange, handing him his cell.  A moment later he had the Dallas County Sheriff on the phone.  

“I’m standing in front of the county plat wall map and directory,” Sheriff Mort Feinstein said without preamble when he answered.  It was obvious he’d been in close contact with his deputies.  “We’ve got his only way over the river blocked, so he either has to head back east—”

“In which case he’ll hit the Polk or Story County roadblocks,” Cam inserted.

“—or he’ll try for the next road over the river, which would be F31.”

“The way I figure it we’ve got him boxed in on about a five section area between US highway 169 where he turned around, F25, US169 and F31.”

“Wouldn’t make sense for him to try to go north at this point,” the other man agreed.

“I’ll keep the roadblocks in place.  I’m pulling my agents in to comb those sections.  Do you have a digital plat directory you can email to me?”

The sheriff’s voice sounded surprised.  “Sure.  You think he’s going to hide out somewhere in the area?”

Cam slowed and pulled into a short farm drive that ran from the road over the ditch to the bordering field fence line.  “He’s trapped, even if he doesn’t know it yet.  He can try to blow through a roadblock, in which case I don’t like his chances, or he can go to ground.  Wait us out.  That’d be a whole lot easier if he knows the area.”

There was a pause for a minute.  Then the sheriff came back on the line.  “I just emailed the map to you.  It has all the residences in the county with owners, occupants and addresses.  Although it sounds like you just need to focus on the one township if you’re planning a door-to-door search.  Call for back up if you need it.”

Finishing that call Cam immediately made another, ordering a State Patrol Air Wing pilot to divert to the five-section area.  That would give them eyes in the air and on the ground, Sophia realized.  The noose was tightening around Sonny Baxter, even if he didn’t yet realize it.

She waited for Cam to complete the call before saying, “He could try for a wooded area along the river, much like the one he chose for his dump site.  Someplace he’s been before, somewhere he’s comfortable.  I don’t think it would occur to him to go to one of the rural homes if he didn’t know it already.  This isn’t a social offender.  Although capable of organization when given time to plan, we saw at his house how close he is to coming completely unwrapped.  He’s going to want safe, he’s going to want familiar.  He’ll know he needs a different vehicle to escape detection.”

“You don’t think he’ll just steal a car?”

“Maybe.”  She smiled a little when she saw Cam’s frustrated expression.  “But it will be from the place he’s goes where he feels some measure of security.”  She sobered at the next thought.  “As the stress he’s under increases, he’ll become more erratic. Difficult to predict.  But one thing for certain.  The more pressure that’s brought to bear on him, the greater the danger Lucy is in.”

*  *  *  *

The darkness in the trunk reflected Lucy’s thoughts.  She’d known that when the car had stopped it meant her best chance to attract attention.  But then the driver had turned around.  Sped away.

She could spend all day spinning rosy scenarios about the reasons for the offender’s abrupt change of direction.  But she didn’t hear any sirens in the distance so she didn’t kid herself that help was anywhere in the vicinity.  And they were on gravel again.  She could tell by the steady ping of rocks hitting the undercarriage of the car.  By the dust that filtered in the cracks of the trunk and caused her to wheeze.  Gravel roads in the state were like a rabbit warren.  Obviously plotted according to some grand design evident only to county engineers and the farmers that traversed them regularly.  And he was driving fast.  The roads weren’t maintained with the regularity of blacktop.  She was bounced and jostled as he hit potholes and ruts, one time banging her head on the top of the trunk with enough force to see stars.

Lucy gritted her teeth.  Squeezed her eyes shut to keep out the dust.  Yet another thing the freak would pay for.  His debt was mounting.

She wondered about Gavin then, and a vise clutched her heart.  The image of him lying on her kitchen floor with the lifeblood leaking from him was too vivid.  Branded on her mind.  So instead she deliberately sought another mental picture of him.  One that evoked better memories.  Of Connerly, lazily leaning against her desk, or the stainless steel counter in the autopsy suite.  Of her running her fingers through his straight blonde hair that he kept only inches shorter than hers, once he released it from the thong he usually pulled it back with.  Of the way his pale green eyes could light with amusement.  Narrow with annoyance.

And he’d been annoyed the last time she’d seen him.  He must have wakened shortly after she’d dressed and slipped out of his room.  And then, true to form, chased her through the night, unwilling to let her circumvent their conversation so easily.  A more stubborn man she may never have met.

And that stubbornness just might have gotten him killed.

The vehicle slowed, turned sharply.  Lucy was thrown to the side.  Righted herself with effort.  Her back was sore from its constant contact with the imperfections in the roads.  But she forgot the aches when another realization occurred.

They were coming to a stop again.  

Immediately she tried to yell, but her voice was dry and raspy with the dust she’d swallowed.  Instead she began to kick her feet as hard as she could against the sides of the trunk.  She’d managed to get the zip ties off them prior to the first stop so her feet were free.

She only hoped she’d have a chance to use them.  

There was the sound of gravel crunching.  Then the lid of the trunk popped open with a suddenness that had her ducking away from the bright sunlight.  “You’ve been very bad.”  The man reached in and hooked his hand in the bonds securing her hands and yanked her out of the trunk.  

Before she could get her legs under her he dealt her a ringing slap that had her ears ringing.  She ducked his next blow so it caught her in the shoulder instead.  “I’m sorry.  I’m sorry.  I was just trying to get your attention.”  She kept her head down in what she hoped looked like a cowed position.  All the while surreptitiously studying the area where they’d stopped with her peripheral vision.  “I have to go to the bathroom.  I’m sorry.  I can’t help it.”

She started to struggle to her feet, thought better of it.  If he hadn’t yet noticed that her ankles were no longer bound, there was no reason to bring it to his attention.  “I understand.”  The hand in her hair, on her throat seemed almost caressing.  Recalling that each victim they’d found had suffered a broken neck, she shuddered in revulsion.  

“Lessons can be hard.  But the sooner you learn to be quiet, the happier both of us will be.”  Because her head was still bowed, she didn’t see his fist coming until it was too late.  The blow caught her in the side of the jaw and sent her sprawling.  

She was still disoriented when he dragged her to her feet again.  “See what you made me do?  I don’t like violence.  I really don’t.  But believe me, these lessons are a lot easier than the ones my mommy used to teach me.”

His mommy?  What brand of crazy was this twisted pervert?   “I understand now.  I really do.”

“Do you?”  His hand came down to brush the hair away from her face.  “Do you really?”

“Better than you think.” She surged to her feet, driving both bound fists upward as she rose.  Caught him in the crotch hidden behind the baggy skirt.  His fingers tightened in her hair as he doubled over.  She aimed a vicious kick at his thigh.  When he gave a high-pitched keening scream she followed up by driving her fists upward toward his nose.