Caching Out (22 page)

Martin
thanked Emma with a nod and lifted his cup as she poured the dark brew into it.
“So you’re saying this one didn’t count?”

Emma
set the glass coffee pot down, “That’s pretty much it, Sheriff. This UnSub
follows a strict ritual with all his kills. He subdues the victim, makes his
secondary cuts, arm, eye and ear then rapes them and finishes with the kill cut
to the throat. He’s followed that exact pattern with each one and since Walt
died in the middle of his process, he’s going to need another victim in order
to feel gratified.”

Martin
whistled through his teeth, “Damn. The town’s in an uproar already and when the
evening paper comes out with Walt’s obit, things are going to get real ugly
around here. Folks are scared stiff. Down at the diner, Burt says he’s not
getting any business after dark with folks afraid to be out at night, and we
haven’t had an illegal fishing call from the lake in over a week. People are
holed up at home. We’ve got to catch this guy and I mean now, before anyone
else gets hurt.”

Tate’s
cell interrupted the conversation and Tate excused himself to take the call. Returning
a few minutes later, Tate looked at Emma, “That was the county lab calling. That
piece of glass that you found at the site today was confirmed as a camera
lens.”

Martin
frowned, “You mean the bastard is taking pictures?”

Tate
shook his head, “Not pictures, Martin, videos. That lens was from a motion
activated mini-camcorder device.”  Addressing Emma, he continued. “Based on the
weathering on the lens you found, techs determined that it had been there no
more than a day before Walt was found. Seems our guy likes to record his work.”

Showing
no surprise, Emma listened as Tate continued to explain how the battery powered
camcorder worked to Martin. When both men were silent Emma suggested, “You know,
it’s possible that the geocache owner put that camera there just to see who was
finding his site, right?”

Tate
looked at her, “Could be, but my gut tells me that it’s
his.
He’s the
kind of sick bastard that would like to have a souvenir of his kills.”

Emma
slid back into her chair, “That reminds me, were you able to talk to the
Babcocks about what they might have taken from the cache that last day, Martin?”

Leaning
back Martin nodded, “I did talk to Mrs. Babcock. I just got so caught up in
things when the call came in about Walt that I forgot to tell you. Mrs. Babcock
said that the boys each took a present from the cache. The older boy took a
deck of playing cards and little Justin took a coin of some type.”

Tate
and Emma’s eyes met across the table. Tate spoke first. “Did she tell you
anything about the coin?  Could she describe it?”

“She
did. Said at first they thought it was some kind of Travel Bug, whatever that
is, but then her husband looked at it and told Justin he could take it if he
left something of his in return. She claimed it was a gold-colored coin a
little bigger than a fifty cent piece and that on one side it had…”

Martin
looked thoughtful for a minute. “Damn it!  She said it had something that
looked like the Olympic rings on one side. That’s what this guy is carving into
the arms of his victims.” Frustration in his voice, Martin continued, “How the
hell could I have missed that? How the hell? You were right Miss Emma, it is
what they take that gets them killed.”

Emma
patted Martin’s forearm, “It’s been a busy day for everyone and sometimes it
takes a quiet minute before things click. Did she say what was on the other
side of the coin?  When we talked to Reva she said it had words but she
couldn’t remember what they were.”

“No
she didn’t say, but it’s not too late and I’m going to call her back and see if
she recalls anything else. This could be the break that we’ve been looking
for.”

Reaching
for his phone Martin scanned his call history and then pushed call. After
apologizing for the lateness of the call Martin he put the phone on speaker so
that Emma and Tate could hear the conversation first hand.

Mrs.
Babcock’s soft voice filtered into the room, a television played somewhere in
the background. “Sheriff Crawley, I really don’t recall what the coin had on
the other side; I just remember the three rings on one side like I told you
about. Justin was real proud of it. He kept it with him all afternoon.”  She
paused, “You know I don’t recall seeing that coin when we went back to the
cabin to collect our things and it wasn’t with...” her voice broke, “It wasn’t
with Justin’s things when we brought him home either.” 

A
child’s voice sounded in the background and Mrs. Babcock asked, “Can you hold
on just a minute Sheriff?” 

At
the table, Martin, Tate and Emma waited, listening without hearing as she held
a muffled conversation with her remaining son. Coming back on the line Mrs.
Babcock said, “Sheriff, my son says that he remembers what was on the coin. He
says that there were words carved into the coin and they said ‘Let The Chase
Begin.’  Does that mean something?”

Tate
answered. “Mrs. Babcock, this is Chief Tate Echo, and while we don’t know the
actual significance of the coin at this time, it is something that we’re
following up on. Thank you very much for speaking with us and please thank your
son for helping us as well.”

After
Martin disconnected the call, Emma said, “That’s how we’re going to find this
guy.”

CHAPTER 32

Gavin
stepped from the tiny shower in his motel room, and walked to the lone window. He
parted the curtains and stared out at the parking lot. “Damn you, old man,” he
muttered. Reaching for the phone resting on a worn table next to the bed, he dialed
the number for a local pizza place who’d printed their ad on the back of his
room key. He pushed the curtains closed and pulled on a pair of faded jeans,
not bothering with a shirt. Sliding his computer out of a brown leather bag,
Gavin waited for the welcome screen to appear then logged into the geocaching
site.
Lots to choose from, Gav
.
Pick an easy one, make it fast.

Thirty
minutes later, a knock on the door pulled him away from his research.

Right
on time.

Without
a word, Gavin shoved a twenty into the hand of a pimple-faced teen holding his
pizza.

“Thanks,
mister.”

Dropping
the pizza box on the bed, Gavin returned to his search. Scrolling through the
list of caches hidden in Shannon County, he narrowed his search to four caches
and wrote them down on a scrap of paper. “These are good ones, Gav. Lots of
finds in the last week.”  Clicking on the links with each site he marked two
off the list. “Too close to houses or a road.”  His mind taunted him
, Pick
one, pick one
. With his pen, Gavin drew a line through one of the two
remaining sets of coordinates and pushed back from his computer.

The
decision was made.

Grabbing
a shirt, he slipped it on, snagged a slice of pizza from the open box and left
the motel room. His shoes clanked on the metal stairs as Gavin jogged to the
parking lot and climbed into his car.

“Here
we go. It won’t take long Mama, I promise you.” He shoved the last bite of
pizza into his mouth.

CHAPTER 33

Flipping
her computer open, Emma slid her chair closer to Tate so they could both see
the screen. Martin stood behind Tate and watched over his shoulder as Emma
pulled up the geocaching website. Tapping her cursor into the search box, Emma
typed ‘Let the Chase Begin.’ Martin and Tate watched as cache sites from across
the country loaded on the page.

 “Man-oh-man,”
Martin said. “How many is that, Miss Emma?”

 “Twelve
so far,” Emma answered. “Tate, I’m going to send this list to your email so
that you can print a copy. From what I’ve seen so far, none of these are in
Shannon County but I do want to follow up on them. If I’m right that means
there are twelve victims out there that managed to make it to a computer and log
their find before this guy got to them, but I’m betting that there are at least
this many more who never made it back to log their finds.”

Tate
glanced at Emma, then Martin. “We know that none of our vics logged the find
before he showed up to claim his coin. We’ve got to find his next cache before
anyone else does.”

“I’m
with you on that. So what’s the plan?” Martin asked.

Clearing
her throat, Emma smiled when both men turned to face her. “Based on everything
we know about this guy and with our working profile, it’s safe to assume that
right now he’s frustrated and in a hurry to make another kill. Walt caused a
break in his ritual and emotionally he can’t accept that. He’s going to strike
soon. In fact, he’s probably already found his next site.” Her fingers clicked
on the keyboard and the group watched as a list of geocaches in Shannon County
populated the screen.

Stepping
closer and leaning over Emma’s shoulder Martin said, “Miss Emma, there’s over
fifty geocaches listed there. How are we going to figure out which one he’ll
pick?”

 “It
won’t be easy,” Tate replied, “but we can narrow the list to those sites that
fit his previous locations. We know that he’s in a hurry this time, so he’s not
going to hit any sites that aren’t active. Emma, can you narrow the search to
sites that have had finds in the last week or two?”

Emma’s
fingers flew over the keys and they waited as the new list loaded. “Eleven sites
with finds in the last two weeks.”

Martin
smiled. “This might work. That’s a doable number if we pull in some help. We
could have someone staked at each one until the bastard shows up.”

Reaching
over and pulling the puppy from his makeshift bed, Emma settled him on her lap
before turning to Martin. “While it’s true that we could have someone pull
watch on each site chances are he’d see them and back off, don’t forget his
penchant for video. We can’t put any uniforms out there or he’ll run.”

Rubbing
a tired hand across his chin, Martin looked from Tate to Emma. “So how do we
set this guy up?”

A
low rumbling from her lap drew Emma’s attention. Looking down she noticed that
the puppy had stood, his ears perked forward. Running a hand across the animal’s
soft head, Emma whispered, her voice soothing the small dog. “Now, what is that
all about little one?”  Smiling up at Tate she continued, “He hears something,
Tate.” 

Just
then a knocking sounded from the other room. Laughing Emma ruffled the dog’s
ears and pulled him close to her in a hug, “You did hear something, didn’t you
baby?  You’re going to be a fine guard dog once you grow up a little.” 

Tate
wondered if Emma knew just how beautiful she was sitting there with that stray.
Excusing himself, Tate went to answer the door. “I’m coming!” Pulling the door
open he was surprised to see Chad Green standing on the porch. “You got a
minute, Chief?”

Tate
stepped back and motioned the younger man inside. “Come in Chad. You looking
for Martin?”

Shaking
his head Chad said, “No, Tate. I came to see you, if you’ve got a minute that
is.”

Glancing
toward the kitchen, Tate said, “Sure. Come on in my office, we can speak
privately there.”

Leading
the way down the hall, Tate stepped into his office and flipped on the lights. He
waited for Chad to enter the room before closing the door. Tate took a seat behind
his desk. “Okay, Chad, what’s so important that you’d come to my house to
discuss it?”

Pulling
his hat off, Chad fingered it nervously before speaking. “Tate, I want you to
know that I didn’t have anything to do with your picture ending up in the paper
or any of the gossip that’s been going on around town.” Releasing a deep breath,
he continued, “It’s true that I wanted your job, but not that way.” 

Leaning
back in his chair, Tate stared at Chad in what he hoped was his most
intimidating look. “So, do you have any idea who did start the rumors that I’m
not doing my job or that I got kicked out of the FBI?”

Chad
raised his chin a notch and looked Tate in the eye, “My dad. But I wasn’t sure
about that until today, or I would have come to you sooner. He’s my dad, and I
didn’t want to believe he would do something like that, but when I confronted
him he didn’t deny it.”

Carefully
measuring his words, Tate looked approvingly at the other man. “It took a lot
of guts to tell me that, Chad, and I appreciate it. Any idea what it’s going to
take to make it stop?”

Smiling,
Chad said, “I think it’s all taken care of, Chief. I told my dad that if he
doesn’t knock it off, that me and my wife Amy Ann will pack up and move to
Nebraska. He thought that was real funny until I told him that he was going to
be a grandpa in a few months and that it would be a damn shame if his only
grandson lived a whole state away.”

 “Chad,
I won’t lie to you about this. I’m far from happy that Pete would think that
it’s okay to ruin my reputation, but I’m not one to hold a grudge. Seems like
you’re holding all the cards to keep Pete in line. Of course, there will
probably still be some fallout from the Sheriff once he gets a hold of Pete.”