The Tangerine Killer (23 page)

I was so God damn tired. I could have laid my head on the captain’s desk and slept for twelve hours. From the pissed look on his face I was sure he’d have a few choice words to say about that. We were already in the dog house. I guessed word of our snooping around must have found its way back to him. That or he just really hated us by now. I watched as a muscle twitched in his eyebrow and waited for him to rip us both a new one. Olin sat rigid beside me. I knew he was waiting for it too. By now I knew I pretty much had nothing to lose. I could throw myself to the wolves to save Olin. I owed it to him.

“It was me,” I blurted out.

“What was you?” Captain Bright asked.

He eyed me suspiciously but the malice that had been there before faded away. I got the feeling he felt a little sorry for us, though that probably had more to do with the fact that we both looked like shit than anything else.

Since I didn’t know what he’d hauled us in there for, I was going to have to bluff until he took the bait. I tried to apply my most bashful face. The one that rarely got me anywhere except into deeper trouble.

“It was my idea. I talked Olin into it. He didn’t want to but I made him. I’m sorry. I was just trying to help.”

Olin looked at me like I was crazy. Then he smiled. I hoped that meant he thought I was the good kind of crazy.

“She’s lying,” he said.

Captain Bright crossed his arms and leant back in his chair.

“What am I going to do with you two?” he asked.

We didn’t answer. I thought it more prudent to wait until he told me exactly what it was I was admitting to, then I could go to town.

“Look, I’m going to lay it on the line. We all know what’s at stake,” Captain Bright said.

He leant forward on his desk and gave Olin a sympathetic smile. My gut twisted as I thought of Parker.

“I didn’t really expect you two to just drop this. I mean it’s your kid we’re talking about here.”

Olin nodded and I just looked at the floor. There was a black mark on the tile in the shape of a crow. I rubbed it with my shoe and tried to smudge it into something else, anything but a harbinger of death. It didn’t work.

“So where do we stand?” Olin finally asked.

“I’ve got guys following up on leads all over the place. The white van is proving particularly hard to trace but we’re doing our best and I just got a call that the results are in on the maggots.”

“Great. Let’s go.”

Olin stood up to leave but the captain held up his hand.

“Wait. There’s more.”

I had a bad feeling about what was coming next. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear what he had to say. I toyed with the idea of running from the room but I couldn’t seem to move. I was glued to the chair and I was going to hear the bad news I knew was coming.

Captain Bright opened a folder and pulled out a flat evidence bag. Inside was a piece of orange paper. I couldn’t see what it said but I already knew it was from him.

“This was left on my car this morning.” He pushed it across the desk and Olin grabbed it.

“A ransom note?”

“Not exactly.”

Olin read the note in silence. I couldn’t look at him or the captain. I should have known the reason he was being so nice was because there was more bad news. My palms grew sweaty as I waited for Olin to finish reading.

“Ridiculous,” he said. “It’s never going to happen.”

“If you want to see your son again, we have to consider all our options.”

“No.”

Silence bloomed until I finally found my voice again.

“What does it say?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Olin said. “Forget about it.”

“No. I want to see it.”

I reached for the note but Olin pulled it away. He wouldn’t look me in the eye.

“I have a right to see it don’t I?” I gave the captain my best glare. “I know it’s about me.”

“Show it to her,” he told Olin.

“I can’t.”

Olin got up, the note clutched to his chest, and walked to the window.

“Just forget about it okay?” There was pleading in his voice, desperation.

“You know I can’t do that,” I whispered. “What does he want?”

“A trade. You for Parker.”

I heard the words but they didn’t really register. Instead the room grew smaller and white light shone all around me. I started to slip out of the chair.

“She’s going to pass out,” I heard the captain say. His words were muffled and distorted. My heart pounded inside my head. Someone pushed my head between my legs.

It was Olin, his voice in my ear whispering. “Just breathe.”

I focused on the air in my lungs. Pushing it in and out seemed like a monumental task. I wasn’t sure how I’d ever accomplished it before. But with each ragged gulp the room swung back into focus. I sat up again, shaking from the exertion of fighting what my body really wanted to do. Pass out into blissful unconsciousness and forget about what had just happened.

“You okay?” Olin asked, his hand still holding my arm.

I nodded. “Fine.”

“You should eat something,” Captain Bright said.

He picked up the note and put it back inside his folder. Then he waited. I tried to make my mouth form words but my lips were thick and rubbery. Finally I managed to squeak something out.

“I want to do this.”

“And I told you that’s not going to happen,” Olin’s voice was raised.

“He’s your son,” I whispered. “I’m nothing.”

“You’re not nothing and I’m not going to let you do this. No way.”

“Can’t you see?” I said. “It’s the only way. He wants me, it’s what he’s wanted all along. He’s going to keep killing until he gets what he wants.” I stood up, grateful that my legs had stopped shaking. “I won’t be able to live with myself if he kills Parker and neither will you.”

“I can’t,” Olin shook his head.

“Well I can.” I looked straight at Captain Bright. “Make the arrangements.”

He nodded but Olin was having none of it. He tried to grab me as I left the room but I slipped from his grasp and ran down the hallway. Tears stung in my eyes as I fled to the exit and bolted outside. I ran as fast as my aching body would allow, listening for the sound of Olin behind me. I thought I heard footsteps but I didn’t dare slow down to look.

Fat drops of rain fell from the sky. They splashed against my face and mingled with my tears. Thunder rumbled in the distance and the ground vibrated beneath my feet but I didn’t stop. I ran past store fronts and shoppers with bags of stuff that they probably didn’t even need, hurrying to get out of the rain. I ran until the air burned like fire in my lungs and I reached the lake. Only then did I slow to a walk, hands clasped against my sides as the pain crashed through me. I stumbled to a wooden bench and sat down. Olin hadn’t followed me and I felt nothing but relief. I needed to be alone.

The rain grew heavier. It rolled in like a gray wave on the horizon, the sound of the downpour reaching me before the rain did. In seconds the world blacked out around me. I was lost in nothingness and I let out a scream as sobs wracked my body. Everything I’d been holding in since the beginning came pouring out of me. The pain. The fear. The God awful truth that I was going to die. It ripped out from inside me and I let it. I couldn’t lie to myself any longer. The truth had been pushed in my face over and over and I finally saw how it was all going to end.

I don’t know how long I sat there in the rain, soaked to the bone and sobbing. But by the time the rain began to ease I knew I had no more tears left. From the minute I stepped foot in Tangerine, my fate had been sealed. I’d known something had been wrong from the beginning. I just had no idea how bad things were going to get. Now I knew and I wanted nothing more than to forget. But that wasn’t going to happen. Not now.

The rain subsided but a cold wind took its place. Soaked to the bone I wrapped my arms around my shivering body and left the bench. I walked along the path that wound around the lake, a trail I knew like the back of my hand. My mind was blank. I just walked on and on and when I finally stopped, I was in front of my mother’s house.

It’s a weird feeling to want comfort from someone who’s never really been there for you. Standing out by the gate, hiding in plain sight behind a dripping tree, I couldn’t help the way I felt. I wanted to run to her and cry. For her to hold me and tell me everything was going to be all right the way she never had when I was little. I knew she’d never be the person I wanted her to be but that didn’t stop me from wanting that.

The lights were on and a shadow was sitting by the window reading. It was her. I clutched the tree and fought back the tears. I’d cried enough. Tears wouldn’t bring my mother’s love back to me or Parker back to Olin. Only I could do that now.

The shadow stood up and came closer to the window. Shit. I ducked back behind the tree but I was pretty sure she’d seen me. Run away or stay and face her? The choice sounded simple enough but it wasn’t. As the front door opened I started to walk away.

“Sam.”

She called after me but I didn’t look back. Then I heard footsteps. She was running after me. Something I didn’t think she’d ever do. She didn’t grab my arm or tell me to stop walking away from her. She just fell in step beside me.

“You’re soaked,” she said.

“I got caught in the rain.”

“I see that.”

I stole a glance at her out of the corner of my eye. Her face was pale, hands wrapped around her thin body in the cool air. If I didn’t know any better I’d say she looked worried. Or scared.

“So what are you doing here?”

I’d wanted to see her. To say goodbye. But now I couldn’t find the words to tell her. We walked on in silence.

“I’m sorry,” she finally said.

“For what?”

I stopped walking and looked at her.

“For everything.”

At a loss for words I just stood there with my mouth open. She was sorry? That was rich.

“You’re sorry? Do you even know what you’re sorry for?” I said.

“Does it matter?”

“Yes. It matters to me.”

But did it? The horrible childhood I’d endured at the hands of my stepfather and the son he brought into our family. The lies. The hatred. The torture. All the reasons I’d run away. It seemed insignificant now that I was facing my death and I just felt sorry for the woman who stood in front of me.

“I just want my daughter back,” she whispered.

“Too late.”

“I know.”

Her eyes filled with tears and she tried to blink them back but they spilled out and ran down her cheeks. My own mother was crying. I couldn’t believe it. That was something I didn’t think I’d see before I died.

“It’s my fault,” she said. “I let you down then and I’m letting you down now.”

She briskly wiped the tears away and stepped closer to me. I took a step back, not sure what she was about to do, my legs now pressed against the fence. The horrible urge to run away from her was building up in my chest.

“You have to leave town,” she whispered. “I told you before and you didn’t listen. Now you have to. If you don’t leave, you’re going to die.”

I put my hands on her arms and pushed her gently away from me.

“No one can change that now. It’s too late. If you really want to help me, tell me what you know.”

“I can’t.” She looked back at the house. “He could be watching me.”

“Who? Derek? Is that who’s behind all this?”

She shook her head, then turned to leave.

“Please Mom,” I called out to her. “Help me.”

It shocked the hell out of me when she actually stopped. Then she came back and stood next to me, leaning against the fence, our bodies so close they were almost touching. She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and slipped it into mine.

“Go to this address and I think you’ll find what you’re looking for.”

She paused for a moment and I realized I was holding my breath.

“I don’t have proof, I don’t know for sure but I think the answers might be there. Get that detective who’s always following you around to go. You need to get somewhere safe. Someplace far away and stay there.”

“You know I can’t do that,” I said. “And Detective Olin? His four year old son has been kidnapped. It doesn’t matter about me anymore. All I care about is seeing that little boy reunited with his father.”

“Then your fate is already sealed,” she said.

“I know.”

She slipped her hand into mine and this time I didn’t pull away. I felt the nervous energy she had bottled up flowing through her fingertips. I had none of that now. A strange sense of calm and purpose had washed over me back in the rain storm. I had a job to do and I would see it through. Sacrificing your life for that of a child wasn’t a bad way to go and besides, I was going to put up one hell of a fight. I’d go down kicking and screaming and take that sick bastard with me.

“I have to go,” I said.

“I don’t want to lose you.”

“Who knows, maybe you won’t.”

I let her hand fall and walked away. I only looked back once and wished I hadn’t. Her face was covered with her hands, giant sobs wracking her body. It wasn’t something I wanted to see.

I pulled the crumpled paper out of my pocket. Two words were scrawled across in black ink.
Digiteck
Labs. I’d never heard of them but maybe Olin had. I dialed his number as I walked.

He answered breathlessly. “You okay?”

“Fine. Look, I’m sorry.”

“So am I.”

“Good. Listen, I have no idea what this has to do with anything but I have a lead. Ever heard of
Digiteck
Labs?”

I heard Olin suck in his breath before he answered.

“Not until a few minutes ago. Remember they got the results back on the maggots?”

Of course not. I’d forgotten all about them but I lied and said yes anyway.

“Well, they came from
Digiteck
Labs. I was just about to head over there.”

“Wait for me. I’ll meet you back at the station.”