Eugene spent the next day traveling to Tacoma.
He had one stop to make once he was there and he had to spend some time lying in wait, predator watching his prey.
He'd had a lot of empty time to fill while he was in jail awaiting his trial, and he hadn't wasted it. He was planning the ultimate revenge. He was planning how to go in spectacular fashion -- the kind of tale cops would tell each other, and criminologists would tell their students for years to come.
Most of all, he wanted to see several people suffer.
Kirsten -- but not the boys. He didn't want them to suffer, so Kirsten had to remain alive and well, but she could suffer emotionally. She changed their names to her maiden name, not allowing them to bear the Hammond name. They were Carters now. Eugene's lineage would die out and no one would know except criminologists and police. Eugene understood that the boys would be bullied because of him, but that was the cost of having a father who made the history books.
Phil -- that bastard. He would suffer as well. He'd been so prim and proper, always being the perfect father to his sons -- Eugene's sons. Well, they'd know that their stepfather was impotent. He couldn't do anything to protect himself or his friends and family.
Michael Carter. There was a part of Eugene, a very small part, that actually commiserated with Michael. He'd worked child abductions for the FBI and had seen some pretty bad shit.
Shit that Eugene himself had suffered at the hands of John Hammond and Dear Old Dad Daryl.
Maybe Michael Carter should have shown some sympathy for Eugene, based on what he'd been put through, but no. They'd painted Eugene like some evil monster instead of the same kind of victim Michael tried to rescue.
Michael's breakdown showed the cracks in his manly façade. He couldn't take the stress of being an FBI Special Agent and was now going to be an egghead. He was going to get his PhD. Piled Higher and Deeper, was how Dear Old Dad Daryl referred to anyone with a PhD. Michael thought he was so tough but his experience with child killers had broken him -- that along with a hunting arrow to the shoulder. Eugene still kicked himself for missing.
He should have taken Carter out cleanly. Then, he would have had Tess and Elena all to himself.
No one would have been the wiser.
It was that damn Tess McClintock who suspected Eugene. Not even Michael Carter thought he was guilty until Tess did.
Eugene sighed and took the exit off the interstate, entering Tacoma's city limits. He had an address and he had some work to do. He had planned on spending some quality time with Kira to enjoy himself. Now, that was not going to happen. He had to keep his real goal in mind at all times. The real prize. His prey for the day?
Lisa.
He'd spent a lot of time and money and effort locating her.
She was just the bait he needed.
Eugene parked on a side road off the Pacific Highway, near a park. He sent Lisa a text from the burner phone, asking to meet “Tess” at a restaurant near the outskirts of town.
LISA: Sure, I’d love to meet you.
TESS: I’m on the highway and will be there in fifteen.
LISA: See you then!
Then, he waited… When he thought enough time had passed, he sent another text.
TESS: Change of plans. Can you come to where I am? I’m driving the camper van because my Honda is being repaired and had a flat tire. I need help to change it. Are you handy with a jack and spare tire?
LISA: Sure. What’s your location?
TESS: I’m parked off the Pacific Highway near South 348th Street. Near the park.
LISA: OK. See you in fifteen.
TESS: Sorry about this! I’m incompetent when it comes to changing tires.
LISA: No problem. I took a course in adult high school and so I’m an expert!
Eugene smiled to himself. Lisa would drive up and park beside the van, and then he’d lie in wait, ready to knock her out and take her back to the cabin.
It was so easy, he almost felt like he was cheating…
In about twelve minutes, Lisa drove up in her small Mazda and, like he expected, she parked behind the van on the side road next to the woods. She got out of the car and went to the side of the van, glancing at the tires, probably perplexed that none of the ones in the back looked flat.
She walked around the side of the van to the open sliding door.
“Tess?” she said, her voice hesitant as she peered inside the darkened interior.
He struck, knocking her in the back of the head with his lug wrench. She went down without a sound.
He zip-tied her hands and feet, gagged her with cotton and duct tape, and threw her in the back of the van. He went to her car, took her handbag and registration, and drove on the secondary roads to get back to Rimrock Lake and the cabin. He had wanted little Kira all to himself for the night, but she’d escaped and that made him angry.
He arrived back at the cabin and carried Lisa into the cabin, throwing her onto the bed where Kira should have been. He fastened her hands and feet to the bed posts and then, he left, heading out to his other stash to get his drone and infrared camera.
He’d need them if he was going to find Kira…
He sat in the car and took Lisa's cell from her handbag. He scanned through her contacts and sent a message to Lisa's employer, claiming that she was sick with some kind of bug and would be laid up for a few days. He asked how much vacation she had left and had said she would take a week off to recover, and Lisa's boss seemed fine with that. Lisa worked from home, so it wasn't a big issue. That would give him some time to lay his trap for Tess.
The next thing he did, after eating an MRE and brushing his teeth using some leftover water from the kettle, was check the news.
There was nothing about Kira and Tom except a report that she was a Girl Scout and had experience in the wild. People wondered if she had escaped and was hiding in the forest. No one wanted to think that she had been taken and might even be dead. Most children who were abducted were murdered within a few hours. Kira would be different. He had her for his own pleasure, but mostly, it was to terrify Kirsten and Phil and all their smug friends in Yakima who thought they were all safe in their little suburban cocoons.
Satisfied that he wasn't yet a suspect in the abduction -- at least not publicly -- Eugene gathered his things and drove down to Yakima. He wanted to watch what happened and how things would unfold over the next few hours.
Before he did, he laid down the bait for his trap.
LISA: Hi, Tess. I know that this text will be out of the blue, and I don't know if you want to, but I'd like to meet with you. I've been trying to forget my past, but now that I'm on my feet again, I eventually want to go back to Paradise Hill and see my old place, connect with my old friends and family, but baby steps, right? I live in Spanaway, south of Tacoma and have a favorite restaurant I go to that's part of my recovery. We could meet there. What do you think?
He enjoyed this part of the hunt -- laying the trap, hoping that his bait would lure his prey exactly where he wanted. He wouldn't underestimate Tess again. What he had to do was plant a huge piece of bait and get Tess interested. She wouldn't be able to resist meeting with Lisa, her long-lost friend and the one thing she always felt guilty about -- not going after Lisa when she left that night two decades earlier. That had haunted Tess and Michael, and he would use that guilt and remorse to get back at both of them.
They'd almost derailed Eugene's plans to break all records in the FBI's roster of serial killers in Washington State. He'd slipped up with Tess and Michael, underestimating their interest in him.
He'd made that mistake when he'd been caught before.
He wouldn't make it again.