Cereal Killer (34 page)

Charlotte shook her head. “I’ll wait here for you.” She glanced around her at the wilderness on either side. “Where am I going to go? You’ve got the keys in your pocket.”

“Yes, I do. And we didn’t have anybody following us this time to give us a ride back, did we?”

Charlotte winced, then withdrew from the edge. “I’m going to sit right here,” she said. “Be careful, because I’m not going to come down there to rescue you if you fall.”

“I wouldn’t expect you would,” Savannah mumbled as she continued on down to the crashed vehicle below.

She made it down the cliff in less than two minutes, reminding herself that the trip back up would be tough without the aid of gravity.

When she reached the bottom, she still had to navigate her way across the creek to the other side. Halfway over, she decided that she would add the price of her loafers to Leah Freed’s bill. After slipping and sliding among the wet stones and wading in the foot-deep creek, they were bound to be a write-off.

Her feet were nearly numb from the cold water by the time she reached the other side and the van.

She had seen worse wrecks in her life. At least the van still looked like a van. But it was badly twisted, the front crushed so badly that she was dreading the sight she would find inside.

Metal and glass could do such horrible things to the human body. She wished that people realized that fact when they went hurtling down the freeway at breakneck speed without wearing their seat belts.

She found the side door ajar. Being careful not to cut herself on the broken glass and jagged metal edges, she climbed inside.

The smell of gasoline was so strong it nearly gagged her, and the interior was so dark that she couldn’t see anything at all until her eyes adjusted to the gloom.

One of the van’s front seats had been shoved into the rear of the vehicle. The headliner had torn loose and was hanging down, a dirty, ragged curtain. Shattered glass sparkled everywhere, like a shower of rough-cut aquamarines.

But there was no body.

No Tesla.

Savannah jumped out of the van, her heart racing. She began to run up and down the creek’s edge, stumbling over the rocks, searching, and trying desperately not to hope.

“What is it?” As though from far away, she could hear Charlotte shouting down to her. “What are you doing?”

But Savannah ignored her as she looked behind every bush, every boulder.

And it was behind one of those large rocks that she found her.

Tesla was lying, face down on the stony ground, only a few inches from the creek’s edge. She was still wearing the jeans, T-shirt, and sneakers that she had been wearing when she left the photo shoot that day... so many years ago, it seemed.

Savannah ran to her, knelt beside the motionless form, and reached to turn it over. She was expecting to find a cold, lifeless body, as empty and soulless as all the other corpses she had seen in her career.

But the flesh of Tesla’s arms when she touched her was warm. Not as warm as it should be, but living.

And once the body was turned over, Savannah could see an ever-so-slight rise and fall of the chest.

Pressing her fingers to Tesla’s jugular, Savannah could detect a faint, erratic pulse.

“Tesla!” she shouted, gently jostling her. “Tesla, wake up, honey.”

The closed eyes didn’t open. They didn’t even flutter.

Savannah looked at the wound on the side of her head that was so horribly similar to the one on Kameeka Wills. Dried blood had matted her beautiful hair to the side of her face, and her left arm was bent at an awful angle, obviously badly broken. Her jeans were torn at the knees, and her right leg had bled profusely in the shin area.

“But she’s alive,” Savannah whispered. “Thank you, God.”

She stood and looked up at Charlotte Murray, who was standing on the edge, watching, trying to see around the rocks and vegetation.

“Get your ass down here, Nurse Murray!” she yelled up to her. “Right now! And don’t give me no lip. You’ve got a patient to take care of.”

Under her breath she added, “The most important patient of your career, gal.”

Then she fished in her jacket pocket for her cell phone. She dialed and a few seconds later she heard Dirk’s gruff, “Yeah?”

The sound of his voice had never been more welcome, and she nearly burst into tears. “I’m in the mountains behind Oak Grove on old Camino Road,” she said. “Charlotte Murray is with me. She led me to Tesla.”

“Are you serious?”

“She’s still alive, but barely. Get the paramedics up here, a chopper if you can.”

“How do I find you?”

“I’m about ten miles east of Oak Grove. The pony’s parked on the side of the road. Shake a leg, buddy. I don’t think our girl’s got long here.”

Click.

Once again, Dirk hadn’t bothered to say good-bye, kiss my tushie, or toodle-ooo.

But this time, Savannah really,
really
didn’t care.

Chapter

24

“S
he’s not completely out of the woods yet,” the Odoctor at Community General Hospital told Dirk when they cornered him in the emergency room waiting area. “And she’s not going to be for a while. But we’re getting her rehydrated and she’s stable. Considering that she was out there, injured and exposed to the elements, for three days, she’s doing remarkably well.”

“Do you think she’ll make it?” Savannah asked.

The doctor pushed his glasses up onto his head and rubbed his hand across his eyes. “I’m pretty sure she will,” he said wearily. “We’re going to have some problems with that arm. It’s got a compound fracture, and even if the surgeons can save it, I don’t know if she’ll regain any substantial use of the limb.”

“Is she awake?” Dirk asked.

“She’s in and out, but that’s to be expected, considering her physical condition and the head injury.”

“How bad is that?” Dirk asked.

“The CAT scan looked pretty good. I think she’ll have a full recovery, mentally at least.” The doctor turned to Savannah. “She says she was able to pull herself out of the van and down to the creek for water. If she hadn’t been able to drink, if the weather hadn’t been mild these past few days, and if you hadn’t found her when you did, she never would have made it.”

“Nurse Murray helped,” Savannah said. “She treated her at the scene as best she could and then assisted the paramedics on the way here.”

The doctor nodded. “Murray’s good,” he said, then added, “Why was she out there in the mountains with you? I thought she was on duty today.”

Savannah glanced at Dirk. “A long story,” she said. “I’ll call later to check on Montoya,” Dirk told the doctor. “Take good care of her and let me know when she’s well enough to talk to me. I have some important stuff to ask her.”

“I’ll bet you do.” He nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, I’ll just bet you do.”

Savannah and Dirk were leaving the hospital when she got a call on her cell phone. Looking at the Caller ID, she said, “Oh, dad-gum, it’s Tammy. I forgot all about her. She doesn’t even know we found Tesla.”

She punched the TALK button. “Hello, sugar. Guess what.”

“What?” Tammy said.

“We found Tesla Montoya. She’s in bad shape but alive. We got her to the hospital in time, and she’s stable.”

“That’s great! Good work! I’ve been working here myself.”

Savannah had to think hard to even remember what the kid was doing. “Yes,” she said, stalling while she thought, “and how’s it going?”

“Ve-e-ery interesting,” she replied with her not-so-good Bugs Bunny impression.

“So, what’s up, doc?”

“I was sitting in front of Tesla Montoya’s house...”
Oh, yeah,
Savannah thought.
That’s where we sent her.
“Okay, and...”

“... and Kevin Connor came by.”

Savannah stopped in the middle of the hallway and grabbed Dirk’s arm. “Connor dropped by Tesla’s place while you were watching it just now?”

“About half an hour ago.”

Dirk was instantly alert. “What was he doing there?”

“What did he do?” Savannah asked her. “Did he go inside the house?”

“Nope. He got out of his car, looked around, then hurried up to the front porch. He took the mail out of the mailbox next to the door, shuffled through it, and shoved it back in.”

“He went through the mail,” Savannah relayed to Dirk.

“And,” Tammy continued, “he stuck one piece of it, a small manila envelope, inside his shirt.”

“I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that it’s the tape,” Savannah told Dirk. “The one I told you about, the one Cait sent to Tesla. Connor’s got it.”

“Do you want to know the rest?” Tammy said. Savannah could practically hear the self-satisfied chuckle in her voice.

“Do bullfrogs croak when you goose ’em?”

“What?”

“Yes! I want to know the rest. Give it to me.”

“I followed him when he left Tesla’s and guess where he is now.”

“Where?”

“Leah Freed’s house.”

Savannah stared at Dirk for a moment, then said, “Oh, Lord. He’s at Leah’s house. Do you figure he’s gone there to kill her, too?”

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Dirk replied. “What’s one more victim when you’re on a roll?”

“We’d better get over there right away.” To Tammy, she said, “What’s the address?”

“Heron Lane, number 138.”

“Stay right where you are, darlin’, and we’ll be there in ten minutes. Call me if he leaves.”

“Ten-four.”

Savannah laughed when she hung up. “The squirt’s getting the lingo down,” she told Dirk. “And she’s getting pretty good at tailin’ the bad guys, too.”

Savannah and Dirk spotted Tammy’s hot-pink Volkswagen Beetle parked a few houses down from the address she had given them.

“If she’s gonna do a lot of this surveillance work for us,” Savannah said, “we’ll need to get her a blue Ford sedan... or something that doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.”

“Yeah, really,” he replied. “Cars shouldn’t be painted girlie colors.”

“Girlie colors?”

“You know—nail polish colors. Except for red. Red’s good, for cars or fingernails. Toenails, too, with those little strappy sandals you gals wear.”

The slightly lecherous gleam in his eyes warned her not to pursue the topic any further.

She looked into the Beetle as they drove by. It was empty.

“Hey, where’s the kid?” she asked, suddenly alarmed. “I told her to stay put.”

“Oh, man,” he said. “That’s just want we need now, for Miss Nancy Drew to get herself in trouble.”

“No, wait a minute....” Savannah caught a glimpse of shining golden hair sticking above a star jasmine bush next to Leah Freed’s modest beach cottage. “There she is. What’s she doing?”

“I believe she’s peeping in the window.”

Savannah laughed. “One of these days I’ll have to mention to her that it’s a crime.”

“Like you don’t do it.”

“Not for fun... not like your buddy Tumblety.”

“Eh, don’t bring up a sour subject. I’m still pissed that I can’t bust that creep for these murders.”

“Well, now you can arrest Connor.” She pointed to the silver Maserati parked across the street. “That should make it up to you.”

“Barely.”

He parked the Buick a little farther down the block, and they got out.

Avoiding the front of the house, they sneaked around to the side of the building, where Tammy was hiding in the bushes.

“Ps-s-st. Hey, Sherlock,” Savannah said.

Tammy whirled around, her eyes wide with excitement. She looked enormously relieved to see them. She beckoned vigorously.

“Take a look,” she whispered, when they ducked behind the jasmine with her. “They’re... you know... doing it.”

“Doing it?” Savannah thought she must have heard wrong. “Leah and Kevin are doing
it?”

“Big time. Look!”

Dirk sniffed. “I don’t wanna look. I’ll barf.”

“Well,
I
wanna look! Move over,” Savannah said.

She peeped through the window, and even though the pardy drawn curtain concealed much of the scene, she could see enough outflung, bare limbs and piston action to know that Leah wasn’t getting murdered. Quite the contrary, in fact.

“I don’t believe it!” she said. “I could’ve sworn those two hated each other! ”

“And you know what else?” Tammy said, practically dancing in her shorts.

“What else?” Savannah asked her.

“Before they started, you know... that... they opened the envelope, the one he took out of Tesla’s mailbox. Inside was a cassette tape. They listened to it, and they were laughing.”

Savannah’s eyes narrowed and her face hardened. “Oh, they did, did they?” She turned to Dirk. “Let’s bust these bastards.”