Should Be Dead (The Valkyrie Smith Mystery Series Book 1) (20 page)

“I’ll escape.”

“I doubt that,” said Diekmann. “Some guy just tried that in the county jail. He figured out how to get around the guards, all the way to the fence. He got shot in the back. He spent ten hours in surgery. Now he’s serving the rest of his sentence in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the neck down. Does that sound like fun to you?”

Loki leaned back in the chair, glancing back and forth between them.

“And that’s just the county jail,” Diekmann continued. “That’s nothing compared to the prison you’re going to. I’m sure you’ve heard about what goes on in those places.”

Loki licked his lips. Val could see from the rapid rise and fall of his chest that reality was setting in. “Your cousin isn’t here this time, Loki,” she said. “Nobody’s going to swoop in and rescue you. You’re going to do
real time.
How do you feel about that?” Val leaned back, smiling as she looked him up and down. “Do you know what happens to rapists in prison? Why do you suddenly look so worried? Did it just get real?”

“Stop it,” he said. “Stop talking to me.”

“Do you know what Death Row is like? Do you know what happens when they inject those chemicals into your arm and your chest gets tight, and suddenly you can’t breathe?”

“Stop it! Stopstopstop!”

“Sometimes judges are lenient, if you cooperate,” Valkyrie said. “Who knows, you might even be able to get that sentence reduced. A few years in prison definitely sounds better than the gas chamber, right?”

Loki turned his head from side to side, trying to avoid her gaze. He wrung his hands, and stared at them for a moment. “What do you want from me?”

“You can start by telling us where your partner is, and the woman who lived at that farm house.”

Loki’s eyes widened. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t screw around with us,” said Diekmann. “Tell us where your partner is, or the deal’s off.”

Loki turned his head left and right, swaying in the chair. He clasped his hands and brought them up to his forehead. “They were there,” he mumbled. “You found the house?”

“Of course we did,” Valkyrie said. “We also found Frank Thatcher, who you murdered with a shotgun!”

“No, not me,” Loki protested. “Odin. That was Odin!”

“Then where is he?”

Loki screwed his face up like he’d just eaten a bad lemon. “He was there! I left them both at the house. They were
inside
...”

Val exchanged a glance with the sheriff. “If you can’t help us out Loki, then I’m afraid we’re just going to-”

“Wait!” Loki cried. “What do you want? I’ll tell you everything. Do you want to know what he did? It was Odin. All of it was Odin! He killed the old man. He killed the family in the forest, too. He wouldn’t even let me try. He said I wouldn’t get it right.”

Valkyrie felt emotion welling up inside of her. It was terrible, what that family had gone through. What it must have been like, watching their two captors argue over who would get to kill them. She wanted to weep for them -wanted to reach out and choke him- but Val forced her emotions back.

“How did you meet Odin?” she asked, forcing her voice to calmness.

Loki fidgeted uncomfortably. “Can’t tell,” he mumbled. “Can’t tell, or he’ll kill me.”

“Odin?” said Diekmann. “He’s the least of your worries.”

Loki rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. “No, not Odin. The other one.”

“Other one?” said Val. “What are you jabbering about, Loki?” She slammed her fist on the table and he flinched. “Tell us! Do it now, or we’re charging you.”

Loki shifted uncomfortably. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “All right,” he said, exhaling slowly. “I was at work. It was late, and I was in the computer lab at the high school…”

“Go on.”

He sighed. “I had some… some
things
I had taken from the girls’ lockers.”

“Things?” said Val, arching an eyebrow. “Panties? Bras? The kind of things we found in your locker?”

Loki lowered his head shamefully, staring at the floor. “I was in the lab,” he continued. “I started hearing noises. Normally, I wasn’t afraid to be there in the dark. I’m
the hunter
,” he said, thumping his chest. “I’m not afraid of the dark.”

“Okay. But you heard strange noises?”

“It was a man. He came out of nowhere and started talking to me.”

“Was it Odin?”

“No, it was the other one. I don’t know who he is. He was in the shadows. I never saw his face.”

Val shook her head. “We’re going in circles here, Loki. Who was this person? What did he tell you?”

“He told me about Odin. Told me where to find him, how to contact him. I told the man I always work alone, but he said he’d kill me if I didn’t do what he said. He
could
have killed me. Could have done it while I was sitting there in the dark, but he didn’t. He said he had a
purpose
for me.”

“You’re lying!” Val said. She rose to her feet, leaning over the table. “Quit making up stories. Tell me how you found Odin!”

She raised her cane threateningly and Loki fell back in his chair, throwing his arms up to defend himself. In his haste, he lost his balance and tipped the chair. Half a second later, he was lying on his back, moaning.

“Don’t know!” he cried out. “I don’t know who the man was. I did what he said ‘cause I had to!”

“That’s enough,” Diekmann said. He stepped around the table to help Loki back into his chair. “Val, wait for me in my office.”

“But sheriff!”

“Go, now.”

Val obeyed. There was something in the sheriff’s face. He didn’t need to threaten her. Didn’t have to say he’d take her off the case or ask her to leave his county. Diekmann didn’t have to make idle threats, because they were evident in his eyes. Even without a word, Val found the message all too easy to interpret.

She wandered down the hall to the next room, where she could watch the rest of the interrogation through the one-way glass. She found herself alone in the dark, standing next to a video camera that was recording the interview.

Diekmann spent the next ten minutes trying to break down Loki’s resistance. He brought the conversation back to Loki’s missing partner and their captive, Maddie Thatcher. It didn’t seem to matter how many times or how many different ways Diekmann asked, Loki swore he had left the two of them at the farm, and that he had no idea where they had gone.

The door to the observation room opened and a sliver of light fell across the floor. Val turned to see Riley standing in the doorway, his face silhouetted by the light behind him. Quietly, he stepped into the room and closed the door. He leaned close to her and whispered, “Val, you have to get out of here!”

She frowned. “Riley, what are you talking about?”

“There’s someone up front asking for you and Diekmann. He says he’s with the FBI!”

Val’s eyes widened. “Here?”

“Of course here. Haven’t you been listening? You have to get out of here before he talks to Diekmann. If you don’t…”

“I know,” Val said. “Three years in federal prison. I’ve heard it before.”

Riley was right. If she didn’t get out of there, instead of Loki sitting on the wrong side of the table in that interrogation room, it would be Val. “Is there a back way out?”

“Diekmann’s office,” Riley said. “Go through the window. I’ll meet you out front.”

Val left the observation room and stealthily crossed the hall into Diekmann’s office. She pulled open the blind just in time to see Nate’s cruiser driving by. As the taillights disappeared down the road, Val saw a small hatchback parking next to the building under the street lamp. She stood back, watching as Jackie stepped out of the car.

“This place is getting crowded,” Val muttered to herself.

She pulled on the window, trying to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. The sound of voices came floating down the hall: Riley, Jackie, Laura… and a man’s voice she didn’t recognize. Probably the fed. Val gave the window another tug, and it refused to move.

Valkyrie checked the frame for a secondary lock somewhere. She found nothing. Either the window had been painted shut on the outside, or it had simply frozen in place from years of neglect. She circled the desk to pull on it from the other direction. She heard the click of a door in the hall, and she froze. Diekmann had come out of the interrogation room.

Val moved away from the window and leaned casually against her cane. She could sense Diekmann standing motionless on the other side of the wall. What was he waiting for? The voices in the lobby must have caught his attention, because she heard a rustle of movement moving in that direction. She rushed to the window and redoubled her efforts.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Diekmann in the hall. “No, she’s right back here.”

Val’s fear gave her renewed strength. She gave the window another tug and it broke free at last. The window flew open. Val knocked out the screen and climbed through, wincing as the muscles in her back protested at the gymnastics. Val ignored the pain. She pushed through and found herself on the outside, standing on a narrow flowerbed along the sidewalk. She could hear Diekmann and the others talking behind her, the door to the office opening.

Leaning against her cane, Valkyrie hurried across the parking lot towards her car. Diekmann stuck his head out the window and shouted, “Valkyrie, get back here!”

Val climbed into her car, tossed her cane in the passenger seat, and pressed the ignition switch. As the engine roared, she glanced across the parking lot to see Diekmann and the fed climbing out the window to chase after her. Behind them, Jackie stood staring with her mouth hanging open. Val slammed the Packard into gear and stomped on the accelerator. The tires lit up, wailing as she flew across the lot.

Riley appeared in front of her, and Val had to slam on the brakes and twist the wheel to avoid hitting him. He raced around the front of the car and leapt into the passenger seat.

“Go!” he shouted. “Step on it!”

Valkyrie needed no encouragement. She spun the tires out again on her way out of the lot, and then headed south into the vineyards.

Chapter 28

When Maddie regained consciousness, she could hear Odin tromping through the woods behind her. She tried to lean around the trunk to catch a glimpse of him, but the moment she moved, a searing pain shot through her abdomen. Maddie almost cried out. She barely managed to hold in her scream by biting her lower lip. She leaned back against the tree. The fog swirled around her.

It was impossible to know how close Odin was. The sound of his movements traveled up and down the hillside, echoing through the shadowy woods around her. Ten feet? Ten yards? He might as well be right on top of her. She couldn’t risk moving, not only because of her injury, but also for fear of the noise she would make.

Maddie glanced down at her naked body, streaked with blood and dirt, her flesh pale against the darkness of the forest floor. Too pale, she realized. If Odin came anywhere near her, he would find her in an instant. She leaned forward, biting back the pain as she struggled to gather up the moss and dirt. Maddie couldn’t bend over far enough to reach her feet, but she managed to wiggle them from side to side until they were half buried in the soft, rich soil. Afterwards, she worked to cover her thighs and hips, and then she began to smear the dirt around her upper body and face. She did this all very slowly, very meticulously, so as not to alert the killer to her whereabouts. Rather than risk placing dirt into her open wound on her gut, Maddie pulled a four square-inch section of moss off the tree trunk and placed it face down over the injury.

Although somewhat painful at first, the coolness of the moss felt good on her skin. Maddie seemed to remember something about moss having healing qualities, but she couldn’t remember for certain. At any rate, it had to be better than dirt. Either way, she was likely to get a deadly infection if she didn’t find help within a few hours.

Having concealed herself to the best of her ability, Maddie closed her eyes and rested against the tree. She could do little else for the moment. While she waited, she made the best of the situation by trying to formulate some sort of plan. She would need a crutch, she decided. A good-sized tree branch perhaps; something that could double as a weapon. And then what?

Maddie had little hope of fighting Odin. Even without Frank’s shotgun, he still had a great advantage of size and strength over her. With her wound, not to mention the other injuries… and of course, her complete nudity, Maddie was a sickly gazelle trying to outrun a wolf. Escape was her only chance. Maddie decided to wait him out. Eventually, Odin would move farther down the mountainside. Either that, or he’d head back towards the house. Whichever he chose, Maddie would go in the opposite direction as fast as her legs could carry her.

Having settled this in her mind, Maddie began a healing meditation to calm her nerves. She forced herself to take slow, deep breaths. She inhaled through her nose, filling her lungs until the pressure on her internal organs made her stop. Then, she held her breath for a few seconds, allowing the chi energy to radiate out through her limbs, filling her body with warmth and healing energy. She slowly exhaled, and the process began again.

Maddie wasn’t entirely sure whether she believed in the power of chi energy and such things, but she was absolutely certain that learning yoga and meditation had changed her life for the better. Her body had grown stronger and more resilient. She had more energy now than she had at forty. Best of all, it all came without doing a single pushup or jogging a single mile. And the benefits of her training made her more likely to do those other things, just because she felt better. There was a time Maddie would have dreaded hiking the mountain behind her home. Now, it was something she did for the simple pleasure of fresh air and a beautiful view…

Maddie drifted off again, her mind filled with thoughts of yoga stretches and the healing flow of chi; the occasional sound of crashing waves in the distance, carried to her on the wind.