Venator Page 8

  "Okay, yeah, sure, thank you, Eric. I... I just didn’t know what to do."

  "It’s alright, I’m glad you're safe. But I want to keep you that way. Now I’m giving you over to Provo and I want you to tell here what’s going on okay?"

  "Okay."

  Provo shot Eric a confused look.

  "Give me your cell phone," Eric said, handing his to Provo. "Don’t let her off the line."

  "Emily?" Provo tried.

  "Hi, I’m sorry to get you mixed up in this..."

  "No, it's alright, tell me what going on?"

  "I just got home. Agent Wheatley and I have been working on that BZ gas that we think the killer is using, oh shit! I wasn’t supposed to mention it to anyone."

  "Its okay, Emily. I know about the gas, tell me what’s happening at the house."

  "Right, well I got home and found a blue rose by my front door."

  "Okay?"

  "A blue rose. Only Kevin gives me blue roses. He dyes them himself."

  "Who's Kevin?"

  "My ex. He’s crazy. After he was taken away he threatened to kill me."

  "Taken away? What happened to him?"

  "He assaulted me and I called the cops. I pressed charges and he was sentenced to six months in the county jail. When he was paroled, I took out a restraining order against him and thankfully at the time, I was seeing someone else..."

  "Detective DeJesus?"

  "Yes, I think Kevin was scared of Eric. He’s left me alone until tonight..."

  "When you found the flower?"

  "Right, you see, Eric and I, we aren’t... Well, Kevin must of found out because now he’s back and... "

  "Not to worry, Emily. We’ll be there very soon. Are you keeping an eye on your surroundings? Is the parking lot well lit?"

  "Yes, I, I haven’t seen anything since I got home and I parked right under the street lamp."

  "Good, just sit tight, okay?"

  "Tell her, Jay Will’s on the way with a black and white. Two minutes tops!" Eric called out.

  "Did you hear that, Emily?"

  "Yes, thank you so much, I..."

  "Shit," Provo cursed.

  "What?" Eric asked.

  "The line just went dead!"

  "Call her back!"

  Provo scrolls through the menu list of contacts and found: EMILY CELL. She pressed CALL.

  "THE WIRELESS CUSTOMER YOU ARE TRYING TO REACH IS OUT OF THE SERVICE AREA," a computerized voice answered.

  "Dammit, out of the area."

  "He’s got her," Eric moaned.

  36

  Eric saw a police car parked near Emily’s townhouse. The lights and siren were off and Eric could make out a flickering flashlight near the building. Eric killed his headlights and coasted into the parking lot.

  Emily’s car was empty, her purse was in the passenger seat and the keys were still in the ignition. Provo pulled out her glock and Eric led her toward Emily’s house. They found Jay Will and a uniformed officer coming around the side of the townhouse.

  "Anything?" Eric whispered.

  "Everything’s quiet. No sign of forced entry," Jay Will answered.

  "Her things are still in the car. Purse, keys..."

  "You think she was abducted?"

  "Don’t know but I want to check the house."

  "You got a key?"

  "No, but I don’t think it's going to be locked."

  "You think she’s in there and...?"

  "And he’s got her," Eric finished. "There is a spare key in the planter around back. Go in through the sliding glass door. We’ll enter from the front and meet you at the stairs."

  Jay Will and the officer stalked around back while Provo and Eric went to the front door. Provo gave Eric an affirmative nod. He pushed open the door and stepped into a hallway. There was a doorway to the left and Eric kept his gun trained on it. He leaned against the wall to one side. Provo darted past him and found the wall on the other side. Eric nodded and they flashed into Emily’s kitchen. Nothing.

  A few more paces down the hall was a closed door. Provo opened the door and Eric rushed in. The bathroom was empty. Eric looks nervously at the shower curtain. He yanked it back with a metallic screech. Provo leveled her weapon on the cute yellow duck on the lip of the tub.

  Eric and Provo came out of the hallway and into a large living room. There they found Jay Will and the other officer. Jay Will motioned toward the darkened stairwell that led up to the second floor. Provo tapped Eric on the shoulder. Jay Will and the officer came over and Provo held up a blue rose petal.

  Eric grimaced and leaned against the wall of the stairwell in order to get the best vantage point of the landing above him. The officer walked backwards up the stairs beside Eric with his gun trained on the darkness above them.

  A gunshot explodes inside the small house. Blood flew into Jay Will’s face and Emily screamed, "Eric!"

  "Get the fuck out of here!" Kevin yelled. "I’ll kill every single one of you pigs!"

  Provo couldn’t believe what she’d seen. She’d been with the FBI for years and had seen some heavy shit go down. But nothing ever really topped watching someone’s brains splatter all over you.

  Provo tried to keep it together as Jay Will screamed into his radio, "Shots fired! Officer down!"

  She slipped back outside. Not because she needed air or because she was afraid, it was because she had an idea. The locals would frown on this approach, as would her superiors but to hell with them. There was a very scared woman up there who needed her help.

  Provo holstered her weapon and found the kitchen window sill. She grabbed a hold and started to climb the exterior of the house using the window ledges as hand holds. She was standing on top of the kitchen window ledge and was looking into a darkened second story bedroom window. Provo pulled away the screen and tried the window, it didn’t budge. Again she heaved upwards with what little leverage she had and the paint cracked. The window had been painted shut. She felt the ledge under her feet giving way. Provo tried one last time and the window creaked open.

  Provo slipped into the bedroom and waited for her eyes to adjust. Kevin was still screaming from down the hallway. Provo crept through the room and peered out the doorway. Kevin was on the other end of the hall and at the top of the stairs, he had an arm around Emily’s neck and a gun to her temple. His attention was completely focused on the stairs.

  Provo stepped into the hallway and trained her weapon on Kevin, trying to find an opening. Emily’s startled eyes fell on her in silent protest. Provo’s steely gaze assured her that there was no going back. As if sensing this exchange, Kevin wheeled around. His sweaty face was dumbfounded. Before his gun left Emily’s temple to point in Provo’s direction, a hole appeared in his leg, then another. He sank toward the stairs. His gun went off, sending a stray shot into the ceiling. Flailing for balance with his other hand, Kevin latched onto Emily’s hair and began to drag her with him. He crumpled down the stairs with Emily tumbling after him. Provo leapt out and grabbed Emily by the biceps and hauled her to safety. Kevin flopped down the stairs.

  Jay Will jumped on the man and drove his face into the carpet. Sirens were blaring in the distance. Emily screamed for Eric while Provo held her tightly.

  37

  The hunter tasted the sweet nectar and nearly lost its composure. The thick blood was more than delicious, it was awe inspiring. The hunter quivered in ecstasy. It was a small condolence given the fact that its other self was still running the show. It was nearly four in the morning, it was time for the hunter to play, to awaken and stretch its legs.

  But the other one was still rifling around, doing this and that. The hunter knew that its host was slowly becoming more and more aware of its presence and soon it would have to assume control completely. That is why the hunter could only take over for brief spells during the day in order to send its little love notes to the authorities.

  There had been another killing tonight, the hunter knew and very soon it would happen upon its
ultimate prey. The one it had been searching for all this time. The hunter salivated at the thought. Its prey was so strong, so perfect a killer that the hunter thought it couldn’t wait any longer. It would leap and be done with it! But it wasn’t that easy. It never was, the hunter had to always be cautious.

  And so it let itself, however unhappily, sink back into the black with one of its first memories replaying in its mind. It was the hunter being born in the dark, hanging precariously from a bed sheet tied round its neck. There had only been the sensation of suffocation, bleary vision and the taste of blood in its mouth.

  38

  Emily awoke from her shallow sleep and screamed for Eric. In her dream, she watched Kevin shoot him in the face. Eric tumbled down the stairs and bled out on her living room rug. Then she saw Provo coming from down the hall, felt Kevin lock his arm around her throat and she began to slip into unconsciousness. Then Provo fired. The gunshot was earsplitting. Kevin fell, dragging her down with him, down the stairs toward Eric’s faceless body, toward all that blood.

  Emily bolted upright in her bed. Provo was there and comforted her.

  "Eric?" Emily whispered.

  "He’s still at the precinct with Jay Will. Then they’re going to Officer Connally’s house to tell his wife. They won’t be back until morning."

  "I thought he was dead. I dreamed that Kevin shot him."

  "No, hon. It's alright. Eric is safe."

  "I love him. You know that? I do."

  "I know you do, Emily. He loves you too."

  "I’ve been so hard on him lately. He just wants things to work out between us."

  "And what do you want?"

  "I... I’m scared. I’m scared that things will work out. I’m scared that he is the man of my dreams."

  "Why are you scared of that, Emily? It should make you happy."

  "It doesn’t, it frightens the Hell out of me."

  "Why?"

  "Because I’m not meant to be happy. I don’t deserve it," Emily began to sob.

  "Shhh, don’t ever think that. You have as much right as anyone else to be happy. If Eric makes you happy, then let him. Don’t push him away because you’re afraid. Don’t push him away because you think you might be hurt, or that you might hurt him."

  "I am. I know that I would hurt him. I’d never allow myself to be happy. I’d only end up resenting him."

  "Oh, Emily."

  "I know, it sounds stupid. But its just the way I am. I can’t control it or change it. God, I wish I could."

  "Why don’t you lay back down and get some sleep."

  "Provo?"

  "Call me, Mary."

  "Mary?"

  "Yes?"

  "Thank you for staying with me."

  "Of course, now get some rest. Wheatley will be here first thing in the morning."

  "What? Why?" Emily asked, drifting off.

  "We’re going to catch a killer," Provo replied with a wink.

  39

  Wheatley escorted Emily and Provo into SAC Tatum’s makeshift office at 8 o' clock. The FBI regional headquarters in Richmond was buzzing with faxes, phone called and hurried conversation.

  "Good morning folks, please sit down," Tatum said from behind his folding table desk. "Any problems making your way through the media this morning, Ms. Sanderson?"

  "No sir, it was just, a little overwhelming is all. Thank you for having Agent Wheatley pick me up. It certainly made things a bit easier."

  "If there is anything we here at the Bureau can do to help you during this difficult time..."

  "Thank you, sir," Emily said. "I’m just thankful Agent Provo and Detective DeJesus arrived when they did last night."

  "We all are," Tatum replied. "Now then, I’m sure your ready to get back to work, so where are we on this sting op?"

  "Agent DeMarco from Philadelphia and Franks out of Albuquerque are on there way down. They should be arriving sometime this afternoon," Wheatley said.

  "Excellent" Tatum replied. "I hand picked these two gentlemen for you Provo. They are both excellent deep cover agents and given the danger of this assignment, I felt they would be our best bets."

  "Do they fit our profile?" Provo asked.

  "Yes, blonde, fit and no taller than 5'10. Do you have our three locations ready to be scouted out?"

  "Yes, sir. I got the ball rolling on the way in this morning. I’m going to use Tyson’s Corner, Virginia. 16th St. Marketplace in downtown Richmond and Freedom Mall just outside of Charlotte. All three locations are busy malls that are right off of 95."

  "Fitting our killer’s MO to a T," Tatum smiled. He exhaled and wiped his face. "Provo, you may be wondering why Wheatley and Ms. Sanderson are sitting in on this. They may have some pertinent information regarding how our boy abducts his victims. I want your team to be fully aware of what they might encounter. Agent Wheatley?"

  "Toxicology reports came back on Jeff Reynolds, the boy came out of the coma but expired soon after. Well, other than the severe trauma he received from the attack with the baseball bat, the lab found trace amounts of a hallucinogenic compound, BZ gas. It’s a chemical warfare agent. We’re pretty sure our perp is using it as knockout gas."

  Provo grimaced.

  "The chemical warfare agent 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate," Emily said. "Also known as QNB or BZ is an anticholinergic agent that affects both the peripheral and central nervous systems. It is one of the most potent anticholinergic psychomimetics known, with only small doses necessary to produce incapacitation. It is classified as a hallucinogenic chemical warfare agent. QNB usually is disseminated as an aerosol, and the primary route of absorption is through the respiratory system. Absorption also can occur through the skin or gastrointestinal tract. It is odorless. The gas causes temporary slowing of physical and mental activity, disorientation and hallucinations. The effects last for up to 6 hours."

  "Plenty of time to get his victim out of the vicinity," Provo said. "Have you had an opportunity to view the security tape from last night, sir?"

  "Yes, the black vehicle with the partial plate number."

  "We have confirmation on a black van?" Wheatley asked.

  "It appears so," Tatum replied. "I want you to coordinate the analysts and try to run down this van. Ms. Sanderson, I’d like you to keep working on the gas. There can’t be but so many places to get it. I want to know where our boy shops. And Provo, have your three teams ready to begin first thing tomorrow morning, understood?"

  "Yes sir," Provo, Emily and Wheatley chimed in.

  "Is he hunting already, have we missed our chance to bait him?" Tatum asked Provo.

  "I don’t think so, sir. Today is Sunday. I think he’s still coming down off his high, but he’ll be back at it tomorrow morning. I’m sure of it."

  "Alright then, be careful out there."

  "Yes, sir."

  "Wheatley?"

  "Sir."

  "Find me the van and that goddamned gas."

  40

  Furman Frye went into the kitchen and sat down at his make shift work bench. He liked working there during the morning. The sun came in through the kitchen window and made the detail work much easier to do.

  He pulled out a small wooden block and wrapped a new piece of sand paper around it. Furman leaned in close and began to sand. It was delicate work. If you rubbed too hard the whole thing might break and Furman did not intend for that to happen. The mask he was working on would be a special gift.

  Furman grinned. The bone was becoming the color of pure ivory. It took a little work to rub away the leftover tissue, muscle and mucus but the end result was always magnificent.

  Furman had begun by dissecting dead animals as a child. The green mound had been his workshop where he sanded down the bones and as his collection grew, Furman began to decorate the path from his house to the mound with hanging bones. That was how Phoebe had found him one autumn afternoon. Furman had been busy at work sanding down the tibia from a fox when his sister came stumbling out of the cypress trees with tears
running down her face.

  "Daddy killed Mommy."

  Furman remembered how his body had turned into a block of ice.

  "He stabbed her with a pair of scissors. He told me not to tell but, I’m scared Furman. I’m scared he’s gonna stab me too."

  Furman couldn’t move and his voice had only been over a whisper.

  "What did Mommy do?" He'd asked.

  What a inane question he’d thought at the time. He was sure she hadn’t done anything to deserve what had happened but that wasn’t what he meant. He meant what did Daddy say she did?

  "Mommy was walking too loudly."

  Walking too loudly Furman thought.

  No, not like Daddy who crept through the darkened hallway at night and who always seemed to step on that one loose board.

  "I don’t want to go back there," Phoebe had pleaded.

  But where else could they go? No where. There was no escape... or was there? From that day forward, Furman began pondering how he would kill his father.

  He burned his finger with the hot glue gun. Furman had broken the skull into large pieces and was affixing them to a plastic mask that he’d painted black. The plastic lining would give the mask a realistic look when the wearer put it on, the bones would actually move with the face.

  Then the generator cut out. Furman cursed. He’d wanted to watch the Tony tape again this afternoon. Perhaps it was time for a new generator? He decided to go into town, by this he meant nearby Elizabeth City, he could price a new generator and there was an internet café. He could check his website again, faceofdeath.com. Perhaps that nice police officer had written him concerning his son’s Halloween mask.

  Furman placed his newest skull mask on a Styrofoam head to dry, the boy would love it. He gathered his things and went out the front door. Furman carefully locked up and checked under his door mat. The scissors still laid there in the form of a cross. Had they been the same scissors from so many years ago? Furman replaced the mat and walked down the front steps toward the hearse. He surveyed the surrounding forest for movement and thought he should do everything he could to return home before dark.