Sidetracked: Chapter 6

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

—Confucius

“All is quiet since that last kill two days ago,” Craig says, stating the obvious.

I nod, my mind buzzing a thousand miles a minute.

I’ve kept my promise, going back to see Lana, even though I spend all the time sleeping. She stays cuddled against my side, strumming her fingers through my hair, as though she has nothing better to do.

“He’s smart. Police presence has increased,” I say numbly.

I’ve never felt so personal about a case.

“What does ‘you can’t’ supposed to mean?” he asks, pensive as he studies the close-up of the writing on the body.

“I don’t know. You can’t stop me? I think he got interrupted.”

“Then there could be a witness. I have that press conference coming up in three hours. I’ll see if I can get anyone to come forward.”

I nod absently, running my finger over my lips. The director has put all our other cases on hold. This is currently our only priority, and we’re to treat it as though it’s our only case.

“Forensics came back on those fibers we found on the last victim’s body,” Hadley says, dropping a file to my desk. “I looked into it, and you can only find that type of thing in an old factory that was closed down four years ago. Homeless people shack up in it fairly regularly. He could be there and blending in. It’s about two hours from here. I’ll send the address to your phone.”

I’m out of my chair and grabbing my gun in the next breath, and Donny races to catch up with me as I head out the door. Hadley stays behind, but Lisa and Elise join us as we burst through the doors, practically jogging.

Donny makes the calls for backup, and I pull up my phone to see the address Hadley has already sent. He’d need a vehicle to get from there to here, so I call Hadley.

“What’s up?”

“You and Alan start sifting through any car thefts between here and there. He’s got wheels. I doubt he’s taking the bus after soaking in a blood bath.”

“On it.”

She ends the call, and I pocket my phone, rushing my steps. We better catch the son of a bitch.

Lisa and Elise take the lead in their SUVs, and I follow behind them with Donny at my side, both of us turning on our lights. “Fuck,” I hiss, whipping into a gas station when my low fuel light pops on.

I call Elise as Donny hops out to hurriedly push some gas into the tank.

“You’ll get there before us, but don’t go in until we’re on the scene. Got it?” I say the second Elise answers.

“Got it. We’ll have to wait for local PD to back us up anyway.”

I hang up, tapping my fingers impatiently on the steering wheel as I wait for Donny. Deciding I need to do something, I text Lana.

ME: You okay?

LANA: Bored to death, but fine. Playing cards with Duke and taking all his money. You okay?

Have I mentioned I really hate Duke being there alone inside the house with her? If she didn’t need a protective detail, I’d be kicking his ass for seeing her more than I get to.

ME: I’ll be fine once this guy is in cuffs.

I don’t mention the shoot-to-kill order.

LANA: Stop worrying about me. I promise I’ll be fine. You don’t know this about me, but I’m a survivor. <3

I don’t know a lot of things about her. But a past doesn’t make a person, and that’s all she’s holding back. I trust that she’ll share that when she’s ready.

Donny hops into the car, and I pocket my phone before cranking it back up and squealing out of the parking lot.

Donny handles organizing the swat team, telling them to pull back until we arrive on scene.

A loud truck passes us, blowing its horn, and Donny flips off the driver as I keep my tunnel vision, never slowing down.

We’re about twenty miles from our destination, when I slam on my brakes, my stomach roiling as I stare at the SUV off the side of the otherwise deserted road. The backend is crushed, the glass busted out.

It’s turned on its side, and Donny curses before leaping out of the passenger side, racing to Elise and Lisa who may or may not still be in there.

I dive out as well, juggling my phone free, and calling for an ambulance. Cursing my low battery, I quickly give them our location and tell them to hurry. Putting away my almost dead phone, I slide to the front, trying to see through the window.

From this angle, I can tell they were T-boned from the road connecting to this one. Elise and Lisa are both unconscious, and Elise is bleeding from her forehead. Her side took the brunt of the impact, but I can’t tell how much damage she’s sustained from here.

“Logan!” Donny yells.

I rush around, seeing Lisa’s door jammed into the ground as Donny breaks the front glass, trying to peel it back now that he has something to pry open. Using the crowbar, he pries the top down, and I toss off my jacket, wrapping it around my hands to help him peel the windshield all the way back.

Lisa is breathing heavily, and her eyes are dazed as she blinks them open. She cries out, and lifts her right arm—the one closest to her door.

My eyes widen in disbelief when I see the blood flowing from the shallow cuts.

“It was him,” she says, sucking in a pained breath. “It was him. It was him.”

Her panicked breaths quicken, and Donny tries to calm her down as I look at Elise.

“Elise!” She doesn’t answer, but she finally groans.

Relief washes through me that she’s still alive.

“He did this,” Lisa is saying, still panicking as she points to her bloody arm. “He took our guns. He thought he got all of them. He…He had a gun. He hit us…then he pointed the gun at us. We…we were still upright when he came to my side, telling us to keep our hands where he could see them.”

She cries out, trying to undo the seatbelt.

“Then…then he broke my window, and he used the glass… He used the glass to write this,” she says, sobbing as she holds her arm up again.

“He was going to kill us, but I grabbed my spare gun when he dropped my arm to retrieve his gun. I shot at him. I shot twice. I grazed him. But…That bastard. He had someone with him. A girl. He had a girl. He knew we were coming. But he carved this.”

Her sentences are all over the place, barely making any sense.

All I can see on her arm are blood smears, but she wipes it off on her shirt and holds it up again. Donny’s breath leaves as he pales. Carved in her skin is the word “KEEP.”

“He knows us,” Donny whispers as Lisa breaks down into sobs again. “He chose Lisa instead of Elise. There’s a reason he targeted your ex.”

His tone is hushed, so as not to agitate Lisa, and my body tenses at the insight. Why “KEEP?” Why that word?

“He’s bleeding,” Lisa chokes out. “I shot him enough to make him bleed. He’ll need stitches at least.”

I look around, finding a light blood trail. It’s not enough for him to die from though. Fuck!

“The truck that fucking passed us,” I say through clenched teeth. “It was him. He even blew his motherfucking horn!”

I slam my fist down on the car, and Donny goes as stiff as I do.

“I hope that shoot-to-kill order remains,” Donny growls.

“Someone tipped him off. He knew we were coming.”

“Is the girl his accomplice?”

I shake my head, hating what’s going on inside it right now. “Nothing in the profile indicates a partner. Nothing in his profile indicates a relationship with police either. No. He’s smart. Calculated, even. He had a fail-safe plan. If he was hiding in this town, there was a reason he felt safe. Look into their local PD. Find out if any of the officers who were aware of this raid has a daughter or a wife. Then go door to door. Find out if someone is missing. It wouldn’t be reported.”

His eyes widen. “You think he took a hostage?”

“Yeah. And now that his location has been burned, he no longer needs her alive.”

And we let him drive right by us. That sick, narcissistic son of a bitch honked at us, taunted us, knowing we were on our way to him. And I never even looked up.

I’m supposed to be observant of my surroundings at all time. My personal involvement in this case is fucking with my head, making me have tunnel-vision, and knocking me off my game.

He’s winning.