The last thing Candy and Steve heard about that coffin was that it contained bones. Nothing but bones. Well, Steve thought, that wouldn’t reveal much but a medical examiner could find more.
With Halloween two days away, it was sad to see the streets so empty. Local radio had been advising people to take their children to the party at the high school. Posters plastered every light post and flat surface around town.
And not one person had placed a candle in a pumpkin.
The night was growing cold, clouding over with the possibility of snow or rain. An unwelcoming night.
He’d reviewed all the evidence he had from the Castelle house and couldn’t even answer their questions about what had happened in the barn. The sheriff’s presence had raised plenty of questions for them, but at least they didn’t seem to think it could be related in any way to the voices Vivian heard.
Good enough for now.
At nine that night, his cell phone rang. Candy. Her voice sounded as tight as a coiled spring.
“Steve, two more teens have gone missing. We’re starting a search on the mountain immediately.”
“How long have they been gone?”
“Since shortly after school let out.”
Still time, he thought. Still time. “I’m coming, too.”
“I’ll pick you up.”
SHE ROLLED UP in front of the motel, and he was waiting, ready. A heavier jacket this time, gloves, knit cap.
“We’ve got to find them,” she said tensely.
“Alive,” he agreed. “At least we’ve got a general idea of where to look.”
Small comfort, she thought. At least these kids hadn’t been missing for that long. The others had taken way too long to find. Maybe not this pair.
“Boy and girl?” he asked.
“Yeah. From what I’ve heard, they decided to walk home from school. Out of town. They both live on ranches, but the houses aren’t more than a couple miles from the high school.”
“I used to do things like that. It was always fun to be with my girlfriend where no one would bother us.”
Candy spoke after a minute or two. “I had a duenna.”
He turned on the seat. “Seriously?”
“My family is old-fashioned in some ways. Now that I’m older, I see it differently. Everywhere I went I had protection. My aunt seemed to love it. She visited places she might never have gone otherwise. Heck, at the arcade she got into one of the games. Sometimes I thought I wouldn’t be able to pry her away.”
“Sounds like a wonderful aunt.” Dating must have been difficult, though.
“She was. She always seemed to enjoy watching over me, as if it were a great adventure.”
“Maybe for her it was like being a teen again.”
“Maybe. I know I chafed at it.”
The road had started to climb steeply, then they saw the lights ahead. Flood lamps, flashlights moving through the trees.
Gage stood at a command center, directing the search parties. Radios crackled constantly. Two ambulances stood ready. It looked like half the county had turned out for this one. Just from where Candy stood, she reckoned there were maybe a hundred searchers moving about three feet apart. A good sweep.
She just hoped the teens hadn’t been tied up a long distance away.
There was no longer any doubt in anyone’s mind what they were looking for. A third case. The first two had set a precedent, but this one would confirm it beyond any doubt.
They had a serial killer.
TWO HOURS LATER, Candy and Steve heard a faint cry. She took off like a bat out of hell in that direction. Steve dashed after her. Candy’s flashlight swept back and forth as she looked out for obstacles or unexpected ravines. He followed suit.
Candy paused, calling out the names of the two students. “Mark? Mabs?”
Again a faint cry, louder this time. A crashing behind them announced that other searchers were on their way. Ten minutes later they reached the two teens, tied to trees facing each other. Cold. Drugged. Only Mabs was awake enough to cry out.
Very soon the medics arrived and survival blankets wrapped the extremely cold pair. A short time later they were carted out of the woods on stretchers.
It was nearly midnight.
On the walk back to the car, Steve said, “I need to get out to the Castelles.”
“Why? They must be sleeping by now.”
He shook his head. “Candy, someone was in that tunnel. Now six teens have been kidnapped. There’s a very strong part of me that can’t believe none of this is related. Too much weirdness.”
She had to acknowledge that he might be correct. What’s more, all the department’s activity at the tunnel had ceased when word of the kids’ disappearance had reached them. An old coffin containing bones hardly seemed like an emergency.
“I’ll go with,” she said. Because the feeling had begun to grow in her, as well. A mind that was capable of treating those teens that way was capable of harming Vivian. Urgency rode her as she drove as quickly as she dared toward the Castelles’ house.
“Thank God those kids were okay,” she remarked. As if they’d ever be okay again. Not after something like that.
Steve’s response was short. “They’re alive at least.”
Consolation, for what it was worth. “You think it could have something to do with Todd’s past?”
“I don’t know what he might have been withholding. I could hardly threaten him.”
Questions plagued her. Drug dealers? She supposed it was possible. Easier to think about than some sicko who’d been walking the streets of this town all his life.
Steve spoke. “Is Candy Serrano your full name?”
What had brought that on? she wondered. “Actually, it’s Candela de Serrano.”
“That’s pretty.”
“I’ve been shortening it since middle school. Candle of the Mountains may have appealed to my parents, but it always seemed like a whole mouthful to me.”
“I hope you didn’t shorten it because of your heritage. It’s beautiful. I just wondered.”
Anything to keep from thinking about the danger they might have left behind them at the Castelles’. Never had this drive felt so long.
As soon as they pulled into the driveway, Steve leaped out, running for the front door. Candy, feeling his urgency, pulled her gun belt and service pistol out of her locked trunk and tightened them around her waist. Then she took off after Steve.
She arrived at the door in time to see a harried Todd open it. The instant he spied Steve, he said, “The voice again. And this time I heard it, too.”
Damn, Candy thought, her insides tightening. Someone had to be down in that tunnel.
“It sounds like he might be screaming,” Todd added. He stepped back, opening the door wide.
“Stay here,” Steve said. “Lock the doors.”
Todd’s eyes widened, his mouth opened, then closed. “What?”
Candy spoke. “Todd, please. Get together and lock up. This might be no ghost at all.”
Todd nodded jerkily as if trying to absorb all of it. “That’s why the sheriff was out back earlier?”
“It’s possible,” Steve said. “Just let us check it out.”
As they strode toward the barn, Candy said, “I’m calling for backup.”
He didn’t argue. They were both fairly certain now that there could be a man in that tunnel. Possibly upset about the missing coffin.
Possibly armed. Likely a serious threat if he was involved with those teens.
Candy felt that uneasy prickle again, the sense of impending danger. Like a night patrol, when the enemy could be hard to see even with night vision goggles. Plenty of impenetrable things to hide behind.
This guy had a tunnel. Concealment. No, he couldn’t get past them on his way out, or at least she thought he couldn’t, unless there was a door they’d missed. But they’d be every bit as trapped as he was.
Glancing at Steve, she decided he was going into his own type of combat mode. Maybe from his street days. There was little light to see by, except what reached them from the house. The clouds had begun to dump sleet.
Thank God they had found those teens before the icy weather had done its work.
They both crept into the barn, aware that any noise they made might be heard below. Impossible to know how much sound the tunnel would deaden.
They found the trapdoor open. They shared a look in the darkness and listened. They heard a voice rambling from deep inside. Not very loud.
“They took you away, my love. I’m so sorry I couldn’t stop them.”
“Damn,” Steve whispered. “I could swear that’s Ben Wittes.”
“Yeah. I’ll go down first.”
“But...”
“I’m armed. Quit being a guy.” She had the feeling that he might have laughed under other circumstances. Regardless, unlike him she had faced situations like this.
She slipped down into the hole, wincing as the nylon of her jacket rubbed against the boards. Loud to her ears, but the voice from down the tunnel didn’t stop.
Kneeling, she began to make her way through the tunnel. It dipped down a little just past the entrance, but not enough to cause a problem. There was, however, more detritus on the floor. Rocks, dirt, all the things dislodged by the people who’d recovered the coffin and spent hours logging any evidence they could find.
As her knee hit a sharp rock, she wanted to cuss. Then she heard Steve moving behind her. No light, no light at all so as not to warn their quarry of their approach. Feeling her way along slowed her down, but it didn’t matter. She’d crept slower through worse. At least she’d been in this tunnel before.
Then she saw a glimmer of light ahead. It appeared their quarry had placed the panel over the door, but not fitted it tightly. So maybe the tunnel had amplified his voice?
No, not at all. He was talking and singing loudly now, switching from a lullaby to talk. When he talked he sounded furious, then soothing.
“You’re still here,” he said. “Sam knows it. Damn those people who took you out of here. Sam wants me to kill them all. And maybe I will.” A pause. “I got a gun, Ivy. To make it happen faster.”
Hell, Candy thought. She wished she could look over her shoulder and find out if Steve had heard, but it was still so dark in here, despite the little bits of light that worked their way around the panel.
Moving as silently as she could, she unsnapped her holster and drew out her pistol. The faintest click as she released the safety.
A steely, familiar calm settled over her. When she pulled that panel down, she’d have to move fast. Wittes might have that gun he’d mentioned near at hand. She wished she’d taken time to don the body armor that was in the trunk of her car.
Idiotic. But too late.
Candy drew a deep breath, worked her fingers around the edge of the panel and threw it to one side.
“You thought I didn’t hear you? Sam knew you were coming.”
She stared straight into the barrel of a shotgun.
STEVE SAW THE shotgun over Candy’s shoulder. He had enough experience to know what the dispersal of that shot would do to her. He eased forward, trying to figure out how to help. Her pistol was out of his reach. God. He had to find a way.
But experience helped Candy react. She flattened and rolled to one side, out of range.
Startled, Ben tried to follow her with his gun, which gave Steve the opportunity he needed. He launched forward, difficult to do from a prone position, but he managed it, again startling Ben, who didn’t seem to know how to handle this.
Ben swung his gun around toward Steve. Candy aimed her pistol and fired, missing Ben.
“You’ll never get out of here,” Steve growled. “Sheriff’s waiting at the head of the tunnel. Don’t be stupid and shoot an officer.”
Candy, who’d rolled over again with her pistol aimed, ready to shoot, stopped herself.
Steve watched the most amazing thing happen. He saw Ben start to deflate, almost as if he were a balloon. Sagging, shrinking in on himself, looking confused.
The shotgun dropped. Ben stared at it as if he couldn’t understand. Then the man looked at them as if seeing them for the first time.
It took only a moment for the two of them to wrestle Ben to the ground. Candy had zip ties on her utility belt, and used them swiftly on Ben’s wrists, while Steve crawled into the shelter and moved the shotgun safely away, opening it to remove the load.
“Done,” he said. “Now we just have to figure out how to get him out of here.”
Candy turned her head to Steve. “What just happened?”
“Darned if I know.”
HALF AN HOUR later they managed to drag Ben to the tunnel opening. He neither helped nor resisted. Waiting above were Gage and three deputies, Micah Parish, Sarah Ironheart and Guy Redwing.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Gage said.
Which pretty much said it all.