Monster (11 page)

I saw his eyes flick back to the officers behind us.

"There was a lot of initial reluctance," he said, voice calm as ever. There was a damn good reason Dan lead our local training club and did most of the dealing with local law enforcement.

He was honest, but he also had the tact that someone like Carol - or me - just lacked.

"Untrained dogs cause more problems than they fix," Sandlin said from behind us.

I kept my eyes on Urso, who was searching an area carefully. I tried not to be afraid that he'd lost the scent. My dog was methodical and damn good at following a trail.

No one had responded to Sandlin, but he kept talking.

"People think they can do miracles, so when a half-trained volunteer shows up and gets peoples hopes up, it's cruel."

"All I've promised to do is try," I said, but I couldn't help adding "Urso is certified to law enforcement standards."

"Enough," Allen said, when Sandlin started to say something else.

We were quiet again, following the trail.

My heart sank as Urso turned off the trail, heading away from the town and deeper into the woods.

That wasn't a good sign for finding Kelly alive. I'd been hoping that she was in the edge of the woods, embarrassed and hiding. No one would have minded, we'd have all been so glad to have found her.

Despite his lack of confidence in us, the pale officer kept his flashlight on Urso, did a good job of helping us keep track of him in the underbrush as we tromped after him.

When my dog started to backtrack, Dan spoke before Shane could. “She probably headed back. Not uncommon for people in the woods to go in circles.”

“Absolutely,” Allen agreed. “I'm just glad he still seems to have the scent. I was afraid the girl had crossed to the street at the other end of the path and gotten in a car. If she's on foot, she'll be much easier to find.”

That hadn't occurred to me.

Maybe things could be worse.

Urso checked the scent article regularly as he worked tirelessly into the night.

Around dawn, he started scenting the air and whining.

The trail had taken us miles into the woods, in touch with others by radio. Shane and Allen looked ready to drop. Dan looked as unruffled as ever.

“We need to take a break,” I said. “We're exhausted and Urso needs a drink. Let's take ten and let him check the article again.”

They nodded.

As the officers stepped aside in the clearing I'd chosen, checking their radios and pulling out their smartphones to see if they got a signal, Dan stepped over to me.

“What's wrong?” he asked.

I glanced at the cops and gestured Dan to follow me a few yards further away as Urso drank the water I'd put down for him from my pack.

“He's just been certified, so I'm not going to mention it to them,” I said, “but we've done some cadaver training.”

Dan said nothing.

“Whining has been his alert for that,” I said. “I hope he's made a mistake and is whining about a deer carcass, but I am trying to prepare myself for a bad ending to this one.”

“You have a good dog,” the older man said. He put his hand on my shoulder. “You've done well with him. It's good that you trust him.”

“Do you think I'm borrowing trouble?” I asked. “It's a pretty weak link. Urso's not trained primarily for that.”

I found the weight of his hand comforting. It managed to be paternal without being condescending.

Again, I blessed whatever fates had led me to work with Dan instead of someone like Shane Sandlin. The officer was mostly professional, but surly about volunteer teams. I wished Allen could have come out with us without the other officer.

“I haven't had a lot of hope of finding this girl alive,” Dan said.

“Oh,” I said.

It was hard to hear him mirror my own thoughts.

“Urso's doing a great job,” he said. “That's something to be proud of.”

I nodded.

When we started back on the trail, it was harder to take every step. When we'd started out, I had been able to hope she'd be just around the corner, no matter how far we went.

The nature of the trail was frustrating as hell.

We'd spent five hours and gone only two miles or so from the path. A determined, fit person in daylight could have done it in maybe twenty-five minutes.

It was no one's fault that we took so much longer, but the darkness made it dangerous to take any step without checking the safety first. It was a part of the mountains filled with narrow ravines and pits. During the day it was pretty safe, but a few hikers a year died trying to explore the area at night.

Urso seemed pretty impatient with us sometimes, but I never regretted taking him off lead. He stayed within twenty feet of me at all times, even when he was intent on the scent.

I was lucky to have such a patient dog.

Even with all my worry for the poor girl we were hunting, Kelly, and the image of her mother's drawn face in my mind, I felt a surge of pride.

It was so satisfying to be trying to help.

After we got back on the trail, Urso's behavior changed.

He started air-scenting, head-bobbing in one direction, only checking the ground occasionally. I could feel Sandlin's disapproval, but I ignored his muttered comments and followed Urso as he moved faster and faster in the pre-dawn light.

Suddenly, he stopped.

I'd been following him so quickly that I almost tripped over him.

My focus was so wrapped up in keeping up with him that I hadn't seen what he was leading me to, obvious now.

I sagged for a brief moment.

Turning to call over my shoulder, I caught Dan's eye. He was closest behind me at about twenty feet. “We've found a body,” I said. My voice was very professional, and I was impressed at how calm it was.

Inside, I wanted to scream.

Was Dan always that way?

I took a few steps closer and took a hard look at the huddled form  under the tree in the weak dawn light. I trained my flashlight on the girl, but there was no movement. Her chest was still. Her limbs frozen. Her cornflower blue eyes staring straight ahead.

She was arranged in the fetal position, small and naked, her blonde hair shining and beautiful.

A pile of dirty clothing, streaked with blood, was a few feet away.

Her body was covered in a loose pile of leaves, except for her head. I could see small patches of skin through the insufficient cover.

I kept Urso fifteen feet away, falling to my knees beside him and pulling him against my chest for a hug.

“You did a good job,” I crooned. “You're such a good boy. You did just right. You did just right.”

Repeating my platitudes, I kept my back turned to the body.

It was so fucking unfair.

Kelly had been fourteen. She just went for a walk to write some angsty teenage poetry. She'd thought she'd been safe.

Someone had killed her.

I thought of Jennifer, of Heather's fear for her young barista. I thought of Kelly's mother, a solitary figure in the middle of chaos, looking fragile and determined.

It was Allen who sat by me as I cried.

“I hate this son of a bitch,” she said.

I pulled my face away from my good dog's fur.

“Someone's killing our girls,” she said. “You didn't hear it from me, because there's no proof, but this little girl was blue-eyed and pretty. Had to be the same guy that killed Ruby and the others, right? I hate the motherfucker.”

I nodded.

“If he were standing in front of me, I'd kill him,” she said. “I'd go to jail for the rest of my life if I could just stop him killing more kids like Kelly.”

Her voice was like iron.

In that moment, I loved her. She didn't tell me that I was weak for crying, she didn't pat my head and hug me and cry with me like we were sorority sisters.

She just sat with me and focused on what was important. No bullshit. Just a man needing to die.

When I wiped my eyes and looked at the men, I was shocked to see naked hatred written on the pale face of the other officer, turning his dark eyes into black pits.

He realized I saw him and turned away.

I suddenly liked him a hell of a lot more. Maybe he'd just been such an ass about Urso because he hated the killer like Allen did.

Dan came over and sat next to me.

“I called 'em in. Shouldn't take too long to follow our trail,” he said.

It had been his job to tie the garish pink ribbon to the trees as we passed them.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Do you want to go home?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“We came this far, we'll stay until someone comes to get her.”

The four of us sat on a few fallen logs, Urso curled up at my feet, keeping a silent vigil over the body of Kelly Morris.

I found myself thinking of Quinn's smile, his broad shoulders.

I could use a happy thought.

-Quinn-

On my way out to work, I noticed that Annie's car wasn't in the driveway. That was… weird. I thought she'd let me know if she were going to go stay out of town.

If she was in town, why did she stay the night?

I wondered if she was out with another man.

I had no claim on her.

We had not agreed to be exclusive.

I wouldn't be able to say anything if she were.

The thought made me want to knock heads together, though. I didn't want Annie Watson to fuck anyone but me. Maybe not for the rest of her life.

Never felt that way about a woman before, but I found that I enjoyed it.

I liked the rush of warmth that went through me at the thought of her blue eyes smiling at me, her blonde hair spread out over her pillows.

Blue eyes.

Blonde hair.

An icy feeling in the pit of my stomach told me I was suddenly, sickeningly afraid.

She was a beautiful blonde, and I hadn't seen her. She hadn't mentioned planning on being away.

Had the Blue Ridge Killer gotten her?

Surely she wasn't taking ridiculous risks.

One of the reasons I liked her was her brain.

There was a violent killer stalking women who fit her description in the area. She wouldn't go off into the woods with just her dog.

Would she?

I sent her a text message,  asking her where she was. If she was pissed, she could get over it. I needed to keep her safe.

The assholes at the site who were grimly hanging on, hoping that the easy paychecks for standing around with their thumb up their ass, bore the brunt of my feelings that morning.

As the hours went on without hearing from Annie, my temper got shorter and shorter.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I demanded, finding two men hiding behind a half-built wall, smoking cigarettes.

“We hadn't had a break yet,” one man whined.

“First of all, you've only been here two fucking hours,” I said.

The other man was a little smarter. He was apologizing and backing away.

“Needed a smoke,” the first man grumbled, wiping his greasy hair out of his eyes.

I grabbed him by the shoulder and hauled him around the wall, showing him what he had been only a few feet away.

“You needed a smoke badly enough to try to blow up the whole fucking site?” I demanded.

“Shit,” he said, staring at the huge gas tanks.

“How the fuck did you miss those? Where the fuck did you think the cranes got their fuel? How fucking stupid can you be?”

With every sentence, I shook him like a rat.

“Get the fuck off my site,” I said. “Both of you. Collect your pay and go. I see you back here, I'm gonna press charges.”

“Didn't do anything,” the stupid fucker said.

The other son of a bitch had already disappeared.

“Reckless endangerment, criminal stupidity,” I said. “I think my old buddies can make something stick.”

“What old buddies?” Owen asked. He'd come up behind me and was staring at the guy who'd been smoking as though he wanted to punch him himself.

“I was on the force,” I said. “I stopped being a cop because I was sick of human pieces of shit like this.”

Not a hundred percent true, but Asshole didn't need to know that.

“Shame,” Owen said.

He met the eyes of the other man.

I'd made a scene, there was a circle of guys in hard hats watching us. No sympathy for Asshole showed on their faces.

“You heard Markham. Get the fuck out of here. You so much as breathe on our shit and I'll call the cops on you for trespassing.”

The guy walked out.

Good fucking riddance.

“Get back to work,” I said to the other men on the site. “Show's over.”

I got a lot of respectful nods as they turned and headed back to what they had been doing.

Respect. Obedience. A hell of a big difference from being a cop.

I was starting to wonder if I'd go back even if I could.

Maybe I didn't need to keep sending out my resume.

Fuck it, maybe I'd just work construction. Pay was better, too. I was starting to laugh at myself for renting such a cheap-ass apartment, I had more money left over at the end of the month than ever.

If I had Annie in my bed every night, life would be pretty goddamn perfect.

The thought drew me up short.

I'd never wanted the same woman in my bed every night before, but I found myself craving her touch. A night without her was a night wasted.

Finally, after another hour of storming around the site like a bear with a thorn in its paw, I got a message from Annie.

She'd had her first SAR call-out. She was home, but going to go straight to bed.

I wondered who she'd been called out for.

Hoped her hunt had been successful. She'd worked damn hard to get Urso up to snuff. If anyone could convince the brass that volunteers might serve in a pinch, it would be her.

Hal came onto the site, looking like he hadn't slept.

“Have you heard?” he asked me, interrupting Owen in mid-sentence.

“Apparently not,” I said. “What's up?”

I figured there was another permit problem to deal with, or something had been stolen from another site.

“Another kid was killed,” he said. “Girl named Kelly, fourteen fucking years old. Son of a bitch.”

“Son of a fucking bitch,” I swore.

Didn't seem like enough.

“Any arrests?” I asked.

“Nope,” he said. “They have no fucking clue. Only reason I know anything about it is Kelly's mom stops in the library a lot.”

“Fuck,” I said. “Death's too good for someone who'd do that to a kid.”

“Poor kid only went missing last night,” Hal said. “They searched for hours. Finally called in the bloodhounds, found her body around dawn.”

“Shit,” I said. “I think my neighbor found her. She said she was out on her first search-and-rescue op last night.”

“Shit,” Hal agreed. “Hell of a first one.”

“If I had a daughter,” Owen said, “I'd be moving out of here so fast it would make your head spin. I wouldn't care if she was five years old and black like me, no way I'd be counting on the bastard sticking to his type.”

“I think people are starting to,” Hal said. “My Sarah says half the kids that used to come into the library don't anymore. Lot of them've been sent to stay with relatives.”

“They need to catch him before no one's left,” Owen said. “He could ruin this town for good. Tourism goes, we've all gotta go.”

“You're not wrong,” Hal said.

“I'm more upset about the girls,” Owen said, quickly. “Fuck, of course I am.”

I shook my head.

“No shame in being practical,” I said. “Everyone in this town's gotta eat.”

Owen looked relieved.

Everyone was so suspicious, poor bastard probably thought we'd think he was the killer.

“Who the hell do you think it is?” Hal asked. “Quinn, you were a cop. What kind of son of a bitch could do this to our girls?”

I shrugged.

“Probably hides right in plain sight,” I said. “Seems normal, right up until he doesn't. I'd bet anything he's not like one of those stupid lowlifes we just kicked off the site. If someone like them were killing girls, they'd've been caught by now.”

The other men nodded. Owen kicked a piece of stone lying on the ground.

“Looks like we need to wait for him to fuck up,” I said.

“And in the meantime, more girls will die,” Hal said.

There was nothing else to say, really.

Owen drifted away to yell at one of the idiots. Hal sagged and headed back to his car. Looked like all that had been holding him up was having a mission to share the news.

I didn't blame the man.

I'd seen a lot of bodies, a lot of pointless cruelty, and the Blue Ridge Killer's victims gave me fucking nightmares.

It wasn't that he'd made a big display of them, like in the movies.

It was the way they were just… discarded. Thrown out like fucking trash. Like someone else would toss out a can after drinking a beer.

No fear, no compassion.

That was a man who only thought about humans as things.

There would be no redeeming a man like that, no re-ha-bi-li-fuckin'-tation. A man like that needed to be put down like a mad dog.

I wouldn't mind doing it myself.

My thoughts strayed back to Annie. If she was the one who had found the body, she'd be pretty broken up.

I spoke to Owen, told him I'd be leaving early.

When I texted Annie, I hoped she'd be asleep, if she'd been up until well after dawn, but she texted back almost immediately.

She said I could come over any time.

I got right in my truck and headed home, barely stopping at red lights.

I needed to be with Annie.

Needed to hold her in my arms, make sure she was okay.

The slam of my truck's door earned me a glare from the elderly woman two houses down, but I didn't care. She could go fuck herself.

It only took three knocks for Annie to open the door. She was probably standing nearby, waiting for me.

She looked small and delicate in an old sweatshirt, her eyes too big, face too pale. The strain on her face was too familiar. I'd seen it dozens of times in the face of young officers coming back from domestic disputes, body retrievals.

Sometimes I'd wanted to hug the female officers, hold them and distract them from their grief, but that would have been a firing offense.

Nothing was stopping me from taking her into my arms, so I did.

It felt so right.

The cracks in my heart were being healed, every moment that we held each other.

"Did you hear?" she asked.

"Hal said. Another girl."

"Kelly Morris." Annie repeated the name like she'd said it a thousand times. Like a mantra. Like the only thing keeping her from breaking.

"Yeah," I said.

I lifted Annie in my arms and carried her over to the couch, enjoying the weight of her body, the smell of her hair.