The Scum of All Fears: Squeaky Clean Mysteries, Book 5 (22 page)

“That was strange,” I mumbled.
“Unsettling.”

“He was right. The swamp is alive.
The man just appreciates the land, like any good farmer would,” Riley said.

That still didn’t comfort me as we drove deeper into the
quickly descending night. Our headlights were the only things illuminating the road. I hoped we didn’t hit a dead end because the road had become even narrower.

Riley pulled to the side of the
street. “We should go the rest of the way on foot. We don’t want to alert anyone that we’re here.”

“Make
s sense.” What had I just said? Walk? Through the swamp? Had I lost my mind?

As soon as I stepped out, the smell of dank earth rose up to
greet us. Humidity surrounded me. Bugs kissed any exposed skin.

The swamp had a
welcome all its own.

In the distance, s
omething snapped. A tree branch? An animal? A killer?

Riley reached for my hand
, and we started down the dark road. Before I’d gotten out of the car, I’d shoved my cell phone in my pocket and my gun in my waistband.

Honestly, the weapon
was starting to feel more like a ball and chain than a means of protection.

But a girl had to be smart. Especially a girl facing a serial killer.

The moonlight reflected on something in the distance. Something shiny. And it wasn’t one of those murky puddles of water.

“What is that?” I pointed to the
shimmer across the road.

We walked closer
and saw a car.

A hybrid.
A black hybrid.

With a suit jacket hanging in the back.

“Dale . . .” Riley muttered.

“Why’s his car here?” I asked. Had the Scum River Killer grabbed him as well? Or even worse . . . was
he
the accomplice?

I stepped back and shook my head. The car had been covered up with branches, like someone was trying to hide it.

Jones or Dale?

I remembered Riley telling me at the start of this manhunt that only people who were officially connected with the case had known about the threats Jones made to Riley.
Dale would have known. He was in town earlier than anyone thought. He’d wanted to use me as a decoy. He could be in on this whole nightmare.

“I don’t like this,” Riley mumbled.

“Me neither.” From where I stood by the car, a building in the distance came into view. “Look. The cabin.”

We crept closer to the
structure. I ignored the sounds of nature around me, from the incessant
ribbit
of frogs, to the solemn whisper of crickets, and the shrill hum of locust.

“What’s our plan?” I whispered.
I grabbed his hand.

Just then,
I heard a cry in the distance. Fire raced through my blood as I imagined what might be happening.

This was the
right place. I was convinced of it.

We stayed low
as we approached. My palms were sweaty. My heart pounded in my ears. My breathing came too quickly.

The cabin appeared to be one story, rundown with dirty white plank siding, and
had window screens that were either busted or gone. I’d guess the place to be maybe 600 square feet and several decades old. It obviously hadn’t been maintained throughout the years.

Just beyond the backside of the place, I spotted a car.

A white sedan.

That
cry we’d heard hadn’t been because of a mouse this time. That had been a scream of pure terror at the hands of a killer.

We
stayed along the edges of the forest, waiting until we reached the back of the house before running toward the exterior of the building. We pressed ourselves there. My heart nearly pounded out of my chest. Slowly, I straightened, peeking carefully into the window.

Jones. Milton Jones.

I ducked back down as he turned, and I nodded at Riley. We’d found our killer. Now, we just had to figure out what to do next.

CHAPTER
35

I peeked in the window
again. Milton Jones was pacing the floor with something that looked like a whip in his hands. Rose sat bound in the corner. I took a good look at her. Blood trickled from her forehead, her eye was black, and her clothes torn.

I quickly noted the rickety chair where she was tied.
Outdated furniture was scattered throughout the room. Fish hung like trophies on the wall.

Jones
muttered something and then snapped the whip in the air.

Come on, Adams! Parker! Where are you?

Rose was gagged. So who had screamed? Where were the rest of the women? Where was Dale?

Riley moved down toward the other side of the house. As much as I didn’t want to take my eyes off
Rose, I followed him. We had to locate the rest of the women. Maybe while Jones was distracted by Rose, we could free everyone else.

We peered in each of the windows, but I saw no one.

Where was Jones keeping the other women? Where had that cry come from?

I turned and surveyed the area around me.
Was there another cabin? A boathouse? Anywhere else these women could be?

I saw nothing.

“What now?” I whispered to Riley.

“We can’t be hasty. The police should be here any minute.”

“That’s if they can find it. This road isn’t on any map.”

“Let’s keep our eyes on Jones. If he starts to hurt someone, we act. Otherwise,
we lay low and keep watch.”

I nodded. I knew that was a better plan than mine. My plan was to burst through the front door, save
Rose, and possibly get myself killed. We’d be no good to these women if we were dead.

The front door opened
with a loud squeal. Shivers crept over my skin as heavy footsteps plodded across the splintered floorboards of the porch. Someone muttered. A
man
muttered.

Jones must have stepped out for a minute. Riley put a finger over his lips, motioning for me to be quiet. We remained pressed into the side of the house, daring not to move.

We listened as he stomped down the steps. Everything was silent for a moment. Was he coming our way?

My skin felt alive with tension and
adrenaline and fear.

My back muscles pinched with anxiety.

Riley motioned for me to stay put, and then he slipped around the far corner, the opposite direction of the front door.

I had a bad feeling about this. About all of this.

Riley returned and leaned toward me. “He’s standing near the woods smoking a cigarette.”

Could we
rescue the women before Jones returned? Even if we did, we had no way to get them out of here. We’d all be sitting ducks as soon as Jones spotted us.

Psycho Scum
stomped back up on the porch. The door opened and then slammed.

I remembered my gun in my waistband. I could use it, if I had to. I could take down Jones and keep him tied up until the police got here.

That sounded like a plan. A back up plan, at least.

Slowly, carefully, I peered inside again. I saw Jones walk through the living room, past
Rose, and disappear somewhere.

Another scream pierced the nighttime air. Yelling followed. Something crashed.

Riley stepped closer. “We need to distract Jones.”

“How?”

“We split up. Go in the woods. I’ll make noises. Do something to slow him up. Make him look for me. Meanwhile, you’ll be somewhere else. Somewhere safe.”

“
A place where I can runaway and get help if you need me.” I knew that’s what he was thinking, but I didn’t like this idea. “The plan could backfire. Jones could hear the noise and decide to accelerate the process.”

Riley
shook his head. “Jones takes too much joy in killing. He won’t do that.”

“But—”

His eyes pleaded with me. “Please. This whole thing with Jones started because of me. He wants me. Let
me
be the one to help now.”

I squeezed his arm. “Don’t go.” Is this how Riley felt whenever I had a hare-brained scheme?

“I’ll be safe. I love you, Gabby.”

My chest felt like it had a
boulder on it. “I love you, Riley.”

With that,
we split and went different directions toward the woods.

I pulled out my cell
phone. It was only then I realized how badly my hands were shaking. I could barely dial Adams’ number. Finally, he answered. The connection wasn’t strong, though.

“
This is Gabby. We found Jones. You’ve got to get here.” I whispered. I kept my head up, on guard for any sudden sounds or movements.

“We’re on our way. We’re having trouble locating the street.”

I gave him quick directions. So much for police equipment being more sophisticated than ours. “We should be there any time, Gabby.”

Across the woods, Riley
yelled. A purposeful yell. One meant to draw out Jones.

S
omeone moved in front of the window and peered out.

Riley had distracted Jones. But what would happen next?

Jones disappeared. A moment later, he stepped outside, dragging someone with him. Clarice? Was that Clarice? “Is someone there?”

He looked around. Walked off the porch.
Pulled Clarice behind him. Walked toward Riley.

I watched as he drug Clarice
across the patchy grass. She was crying. Whimpering really. She looked like she’d lost weight, and she didn’t have much to lose to begin with.

I missed the Clarice who wore designer clothes, had her nails done, and her hair perfect.

This Clarice looked like a rag doll.

My heart froze. I had to stay where I was. I couldn’t rush in to help. One wrong move and everything could go
blow up.

Still, I looked back at the house. I remembered
Rose there, tied up. I wondered if I should help her?

How much longer would the police be?

I turned back to Jones, but he was gone. Where had he gone? I’d looked away for a moment and now he’d disappeared.

I stepped back, water spreading up from the edge of my jeans. A branch snapped behind me. Before I could turn, I heard someone say, “What took you so long?”

Chills raced up my spine. That voice didn’t belong to Riley.

I knew without turning around that i
t belonged to Jones.

Slowly, I
pivoted. Sure enough, Jones stood behind me, a knife in hand and a gleam in his eyes. “I knew you’d come.”

My breathing was sh
allow. It was hard to get air to my lungs. I turned my focus from Jones—I knew he wanted my attention, and I didn’t want to give it to him—and looked at Clarice. She let out a cry. “Gabby, you’re here. I just knew you’d find me.”

“Clarice, where are the rest of the girls?”

“He’s got them in the attic.” Her voice quaked and broke as she spoke.

The attic? In this place? It must be 100 degrees up there.
Something about her statement didn’t hit me right. I couldn’t pinpoint what.

“Where’s
Dale?”

“
Dale?” Clarice asked.

“The cop.”

“He’s—” She started to answer when Jones pressed the knife into her side.

“Enough
of this little reunion!” A horrid grin stretched across his face. “It’s time for the real fun to begin.”

“Let her go,” I ordered. I’d wanted my voice to sound strong, tough. Instead, it quivered.

Clarice’s eyes widened with fear, with hope, with pain.

Jones nodded toward her. “Her? Let her go? Why would I do that?”

“Because I’m going to shoot you if you don’t.” I raised my gun.

His
grin widened. “Are you? You’re a feisty little thing. A lot like my sister.”

“I’m nothing like
your sister. I treat people around me with love. I would never do what she did to you.”

“I saw the way you were with your brother. Making him eat trash. That’s not love.”
His voice rumbled now, any mischief gone, replaced with resentment, anger . . . vengeance.

The gun
trembled as I held it in front of me. “I don’t make him eat trash.” Finally, it made sense. That’s why Jones had turned so much rage onto me. Not only was I engaged to Riley, but he thought I was just like his sister. Explaining Tim’s freegan ways would only be an exercise in futility right now.

“Do yo
u think I’m stupid?”

“I’m telling the truth.
” It was even hard for me to believe that. “You need to let Clarice go. The rest of the women, too. The police are on their way.”

H
e pressed the knife into Clarice, and she yelped. “You going to shoot me?”

“Let her go!”
My voice rose in pitch as the tension stretched tight.

“You’re going to have to kill me first. Which will it be? You take a life? Or I take a life?”

“I’ll do it.”

“Don’t kill him, Gabby,” Riley
stepped out of the woods.

“Riley!”
My heart leapt with joy.

“He wants to make sure you’re just like him. He wants you to know what it’s like to take someone’s life.”

“He deserves to die,” I mumbled, staring at Jones.

“Let the justice system decide that. Keep your own hands clean.”

“But . . .” In my heart, I knew Riley was right. But everything else inside me screamed to shoot. To take the life of this scum-of-the-earth killer.

For the first time ever, I wanted to shoot to kill.

I also knew that Jones was taunting me. He wanted me to take his life, to live in guilt for the rest of my days.

My finger remained poised on the trigger. I wanted to pull it. More than anything, I wanted to
squeeze.

Sweat sprinkled across my forehead. Bugs swarmed around me, buzzing, biting. Swamp water continued to invade my clothes, creeping higher and higher.

I had to do something.

I had to pull the trigger.

Before I could, I saw something move at the side of my vision. Before I could turn, someone stepped out. Rose.

Rose
?

That’s what hadn’t
sat right with me about Clarice’s statement. She’d said all the girls were upstairs. But Rose had been downstairs. As a decoy.

All along, she’d been the accomplice. Her abduction had just been a part of Jone
s’ grand scheme to throw us off track.

Rose
sneered before zapping Riley with a Taser. “No one talks like that to a man I’m going to marry,” she muttered.

I screamed and lunged for
him, praying they wouldn’t harm him anymore.