Chapters (68)
- Dedication
- Title Page
- Contents
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Copyright
Suppose the police did eventually catch him? Charged him with various offences? They’d need witnesses to convict.
Craig Pierce hadn’t seen him. Pierce had been masked.
Brian Gaffney hadn’t seen him. Gaffney had been drugged and blindfolded.
Dolly Guntner certainly wasn’t in a position to say anything bad about him.
Which left Carol Beakman. Carol had seen him. And while she didn’t actually see him kill Dolly, if the police ever spoke with her, she’d be able to tell them it couldn’t have been anyone else but him.
As far as Cory could figure, the only living witness to his crimes was Carol Beakman.
He was nearly back to the cabin.
It seemed clear what he had to do.
And he’d have to do it fast.
Fifty-Six
FIFTY-SIX
CAL
“WHERE’S the other one?” I asked the man I’d shot. “Where’s Calder?”
“Jesus!” the man said, putting his hand to his right cheek, where my foot had connected. There was blood seeping through the shoulder of his jacket.
“Where is he?” I yelled, again, wanting to be sure I was heard over the roar of the fire. The heat was getting intense—it felt like a hot pan pressed up against my right cheek—and if I was going to continue asking this son of a bitch questions, I was going to have to drag him away from the blaze.
“Who?” he said.
“Calder,” I said. Although Barry hadn’t said so in his message, it seemed reasonable to assume Calder might have a partner, which would mean we weren’t out of the woods yet. He might be watching us right now.
“I don’t know any Calder!” he said.
I shook my head wearily. “Wherever he is, you need to call him off.”
“I told you, I don’t know any—”
I brought my foot down on his knee. Hard. I wasn’t sure, what with all the crackling sounds of burning wood, but I thought I heard something snap. My new friend yelped loud enough to suggest I was right.
“Goddamn!” he cried, his eyes squeezed shut in pain.
“ID,” I said.
“Fuckin’ hell! You broke my fuckin’ leg!”
“ID,” I repeated. “And your phone. Or I break the other one.”
“Motherfucker!” he shouted, and opened his eyes to see the gun still trained on his face.
“Now,” I said. “Slowly.”
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a phone, which he tossed about five feet from me.
“I don’t fetch,” I said. “If you make me fetch, I’ll get annoyed, and if I get annoyed, I might just shoot you in the head. Wallet.”
The man swallowed, took three breaths and said, “Back pocket. Have to move.”
“Carefully.”
He struggled to raise his butt off the gravel far enough to slide his hand under himself and dig the wallet out of the back of his jeans.