Dark Visions (24 page)

Gert gunned the BMW to pass a rig doing the
speed limit.

"You don't have Sarah anymore. She gave you
power, a position of bargaining. Now they've got her and she knows
about us. Sarah still has to be removed and it looks like you will
too, but without my help. Every cop in a hundred miles wants to put
a bullet in you."

Gert pressed the phone into his ear. His
suspicion was right. He could hear a slight engine sound of a car.
The boss was driving. "Where're you? Is anyone in the car with
you?"

"I'm alone and I'm in your vicinity."

"What are you doing out here?"

"You've got a tail. A helicopter should be
on your ass within a couple minutes. I came to help but I don't
know how just yet. Tell me where you are so I can come and get you.
The police are looking for the BMW you're in. They are not looking
for my car. Your only way out of this is to get into my car."

Gert pulled the phone away from his ear. He
smacked it on the dash three times. "You hear that? That's what
it'll sound like when I'm smacking your head. You have no idea how
frustrated I am right now."

"Okay, listen to me and listen carefully. I
will be with Sarah shortly. The famed psychic has her and he called
in his location for pick up. Tell me where you are and I'll bring
them to you. We can do this right."

Gert relayed the highway number he was on
and the name of an exit ramp. He took the ramp and told his boss to
look for a building of some kind with a BMW SUV parked out front.
He would try to find something within a couple of miles from the
ramp on the right side to hold up in.

"Take care of yourself and don't get caught.
I'll handle the girl and the psychic. See you soon."

Gert clicked off the cell.

With the phone at his ear he hadn't noticed
the distant sound of a helicopter approaching from behind him.

Chapter 58

Dolan looked up at the sound of a vehicle.
Alex's silver Honda slowed and stopped a few feet from them. A
dismal cloud cover had made its way above them over the last ten
minutes. A soft drizzle started to fall leaving a film of wetness
on their skin. It felt like a cleansing, a cool break from the
sun.

Dolan opened the back door for Sarah and
helped her in. Then he jumped in the front and slammed the
door.

"Thanks for coming to get us."

"No problem. I brought some food and a drink
for Sarah."

He lifted a lunch bag over the seat and
handed it to her, followed by two bottles of water. "That should be
good until we can get you to a hospital. How're you feeling? It
must've been hard."

"I'm okay," Sarah said. "Don't take me to a
hospital just yet. Not until we catch up with the asshole that
snatched me," Sarah tore open the lunch bag. "And what's that
smell? Cologne of some kind?"

Dolan and Alex looked at each other. A big
truck passed them causing the little Honda to shake.

"We're not taking her to safety?" Alex
asked.

Dolan had worked with Alex for years, but he
hadn't seen this edge to him. Looking closer, Alex was actually
shaking.

"No, not just yet. We need to be near the
apprehension of the kidnapper. Sarah has information about the
kidnapper's boss."

Alex almost jumped. To cover it, he looked
in the rearview mirror. "You okay Alex? Is this too much for
you?"

"No, no, I'm fine. I've just never been this
close to the action. You're the one who works with the police out
in the field while I'm at the fair. So, understandably I'm a little
out of my element."

Dolan nodded his assent, but didn't believe
him. Something else was on his assistant's mind.

Alex put the vehicle in gear and merged back
onto the two lane highway. Dolan gave him directions to the Texaco
station where the police were converging.

Dolan needed to think about what Sarah told
him when they were waiting on the side of the highway. She had
spoken about her powers and how the information came to her. She'd
told him details regarding the people she'd saved so far. He
remembered reading about her a couple of times in the newspaper
because the police had linked her with two different incidences.
The cop who responded to the car that flipped over the bridge and
into the river was the same officer who showed up on the scene of a
beating at a baseball diamond. He'd claimed to recognize the girl
because of her appearance and the bandanna on her head.

Dolan had asked Sarah how she knew what and
when to do in the beating incident. She said it was all written in
the note. All she had to do was be on Meadowvale Street before
9:00pm and stand by the baseball diamond with an aluminum bat. Step
from the dug-out area on the home team side at 9:02pm and swing the
bat with all her strength in the midsection area. It was already
dark, but when her watch clicked over to 9:02pm she did just
that.

The police were twenty paces behind the guy
she knocked the wind out of. He would've gotten away if it hadn't
been for her. Sarah told Dolan that this venture into the night
with a baseball bat had scared her more than any of the others. But
she'd made a commitment with blind faith, knowing the message giver
wasn't putting her in harm's way, as long as she did exactly what
the note said.

Dolan pondered all this while still trying
to figure out why he agreed to let her continue this dangerous
search for a boss. Someone out there was a boss of the perp and
according to Sarah, she's the only one who can stop him.

Alex said they were coming up to the gas
station soon. Dolan pulled out his cell and speed dialed Sam. They
talked briefly and then he hung up.

"Looks like he followed the guy to an
abandoned farmhouse off..."

Dolan stopped talking when he saw the
gun.

"I know where it is. I guess we're about
five minutes from there."

"What're you doing?" Dolan asked.

"It's been a long time coming. I envied you,
looked up to you. But you've always put me down. Treated me like
second class. I could've helped the police too. I could've
participated more, but no, you get all the fame and then you whine
about it. Too many people want readings, you'd say. You even have a
name for them."

"Look, Alex, I don't think this is the right
time to be going through an employment issue."

"Employment issue? Employment issue? Is that
what you think this is all about? Wow, then you really are a
fucking head case."

Alex paused to clear his throat. Dolan kept
his eyes on the gun. The Texaco passed by without incident. Dolan
didn't want to play the role of a hero and he hoped Sarah wouldn't
either.

"For the past few years I fed you
information on the whereabouts of kidnap victim's because I knew
where they were. I thought you'd think I had great psychic powers
myself, but you never did. You just told the authorities where the
girl was and took the credit."

Dolan lowered his hands to the dash instead
of holding them in the air. "Are you saying you're the boss of this
asshole that kidnapped Sarah?"

"You're getting it now. Wait until everyone
hears that your Psychic Fair has been involved with all the
kidnappings just so you'll look psychic. With Sarah dead and the
FBI about to kill Gert, I only need to remove you."

"Sarah dead? How do you intend to do
that?"

Real nervousness settled into his marrow.
Dolan realized the look he saw in Alex's eyes earlier wasn't fear.
It was insanity.

"Pull out your cell phone. Do it
slowly."

Dolan did as he was told while Alex tried to
keep his eyes on the road and watch him at the same time.

"Now toss it out the window."

Dolan complied. He wanted to snatch a look
back at Sarah, but didn't risk it.

Alex checked his mirror and then applied the
brake.

"What're you doing now?" Dolan asked.

"Letting you out."

"I'm not leaving Sarah alone with you."

Alex brought the Honda to a complete stop.
"You don't have a choice. Now get out."

Dolan folded his arms and looked straight
out the windshield, trying to portray an image of defiance.

Sarah's scream accompanied the loud report
of the gun. Dolan felt like he'd been punched in the side by a
sledgehammer. He looked down and saw a red dot on his left side.
The dot was spreading fast. He looked up at Alex. Now his eyes held
a cool resolve.

"Head or gut. I've always wanted to say
that, but I didn't. I just decided gut this time. The next bullet
will be head. Sarah, don't you move. I will shoot to kill if you
try anything."

Alex lunged across him and opened the
passenger door. A warm, numb feeling was oozing across his
midsection. Blood was on his hands now. He knew he needed to apply
pressure.

Then something hit his shoulder and he
landed on the gravel lining the side of the highway. For a second
he thought he'd been shot again but it had only been Alex pushing
him out of the car. When he looked up, he saw Sarah watching him
from the backseat window, her pale face askew with concern and
fear.

Another shot rang out. Dolan felt it in the
ribs.

His breathing became ragged.

Darkness fell early as he went under.

Chapter 59

Amelia wore large sunglasses to cover her
swollen eyes. She remembered how Sarah always called them Mickey
Mouse glasses because they were the size of his ears.

Trees whipped by the Suburban's tinted
windows. Caleb sat beside her, his head back, eyes closed. The FBI
department psychologist sat across from them in a seat that
swiveled 180 degrees. She had it turned around to face them.

Amelia wanted to avoid Tracy's stare so she
looked out the window at the landscape. She was curious how all
this would change Sarah.
Everyone would be changed in some
way
, she thought.

After the phone incident in the motel room
Tracy had been handling her differently, like she was talking to a
china doll.

She felt Caleb's hand creep into hers. She
tightened her grip to reassure him she was still with it.

"Before we get there, can we talk," Tracy
said, her voice so soft it came out whisper.

Amelia didn't respond right away. She wasn't
in the mood for conversation. She didn't want to talk about the
mysterious phone incident. Nor did she want to hear what Tracy was
thinking. They were on their way to pick up Sarah, what was there
to talk about?

Tracey had gotten the call that Sarah was
safe. She was with Dolan and they were on their way to meet the
FBI. Amelia and Caleb were immediately whisked into the Chevy
Suburban they were in now which was taking them to rendezvous with
their daughter. Caleb had helped her to the vehicle. They were mere
minutes from meeting with their daughter which meant no more
department psychologist. No more questions.

Amelia turned her head and looked at
Tracey.

"Go ahead. What else would there be to talk
about?"

Tracy looked from Caleb's face to Amelia's
and back to Caleb. "Vivian."

Hearing her daughter's name from someone
else caused her to recoil with a flood of memories. Back to the day
she was shopping with Vivian. Then, not being able to find her.
Police involvement. Cameras in the mall were scanned. FBI coming in
on the case when there were sightings of Vivian crossing state
lines. A month of sorrow, guilt and worry. Holding baby Sarah in
her arms and swearing it would never happen to her.

Thirty four days after she was kidnapped,
Vivian was found on a dirt road twenty-two miles from the mall
where she was taken. She'd been raped and murdered. The killer was
never caught. There's never been a DNA match. No idle talk in a
prison somewhere. No confession from a guilty heart. Nothing. Just
her Vivian dead and no killer.

Tracy leaned back in her seat. "Does Sarah
know about Vivian?"

"What's this got to do with anything?" Caleb
asked. "We're about to pick Sarah up. This is a great day. We get
our daughter back."

"Okay, you're right. I'm sorry. I just
wanted to see if what Sarah writes was somehow connected."

"It isn't," Caleb said.

Amelia looked back out the window. She
wanted Vivian to call again.

She would have to ask Sarah if she knew
anything about Vivian.

Vivian said on the phone she was with
Sarah.

But Sarah wasn't dead and Vivian was.

It didn't make sense to her.

Chapter 60

Gert drove up a cracked and broken driveway
that was surrounded by dry baked earth that hadn't seen farm
equipment in years. Dust surrounded the BMW as he slammed on the
brakes. He stopped on an angle in front of the steps that led to
the broken front door. The abuse of an unrelenting summer sun had
peeled the dirty white paint on the door. It sat askew, held to the
frame by the bottom hinge.

Gert forced it back enough for him to enter
the darkened interior but not enough to break it. He wanted to make
it more difficult for pursuers to enter.

The interior of the farm house was dark at
first. As his eyes adjusted he could make out old pieces of
furniture. It looked like an antique shop that hadn't been dusted
since the items were set out.

He heard the helicopter buzz by outside. The
rotors were so loud it was all he could hear for a moment.

He entered a room that looked like a kitchen
at one time. Now it just had a pile of wood in the center of it
with outlines of where the cupboards and counter used to cover the
walls. Paint was chipped and peeled all over the room. He could see
well because the only window was in the south wall allowing the sun
access.

Soon the cops would storm the place. There
was no way he'd be able to make it on the run; too many cops to
hide from. Languishing in prison would kill him. He couldn't do the
time. He thought of himself as a control freak and being an inmate
was a surrender of control. The only one who ever controlled him
had been his brother.