Kaely and Noah actually made it to the school before anyone else. They could hear sirens behind them, so the police weren’t far away. Kaely wanted to ask Noah why he’d met with Alex, but she was so afraid for Alex, she couldn’t concentrate on anything except getting to the school.
Noah drove around the building, looking for the playground. The place was in bad shape. Broken windows, trash piled up outside, graffiti everywhere. They found the playground behind the school. As soon as they pulled up, they could see someone on one of the swings. It looked as if he was just sitting there, enjoying the day, but the man’s posture was wrong. Limp and at an odd angle.
Noah and Kaely jumped out of the car and began to run toward the swings. Suddenly, Noah grabbed Kaely’s arm and pulled her back.
“What are you doing?” she asked. When she saw the look on Noah’s face, her chest tightened and her heart felt as if it were in her throat.
“Stay here,” Noah ordered. “I mean it, Kaely. Don’t move.”
She looked over toward the swings and felt her knees go weak. She could taste the sour bile that forced its way into her throat as she recognized that dark green coat. Before she knew what was happening, she sank down to the ground. “No. No, please, no.”
Noah squeezed her shoulder. Two police cars pulled up and parked next to them. The officers got out and ran toward them. Noah yelled at them to hurry.
“Call an ambulance,” he said. “And stay with her. Don’t let her near the crime scene for any reason, do you understand?”
The cop closest to them nodded while the other one called for an ambulance.
Kaely watched as Noah jogged over to the swings. He leaned over the body on the swing and put his fingers on Alex’s throat. Two more police cars pulled up, with additional officers running toward them. Noah straightened up and gestured wildly at them.
“I need some help!” he yelled. “He’s still alive!”
The officers who’d just arrived ran over to Noah, who was removing the chain wrapped around Alex’s neck. Then the three of them gently lowered him to the ground. Kaely felt as if the whole world had just stopped in its tracks. She struggled to get to her feet. The young officer who’d stayed with her helped her up, but when she tried to walk away, he pulled her back.
“You need to stay here,” he said gently. “Let everyone do their jobs. Interfering won’t help.”
Rage filled her with a strange kind of strength. She glared at the officer. “Take your hands off me. Now. Or you’ll be sorry, I swear it.”
She couldn’t tell if it was fear or just surprise that made him step back, but when he did, Kaely began to run toward Alex and Noah. She was surprised she was still upright since her legs felt numb. Noah saw her coming and waved her away. She ignored him.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” she said as she reached them. She dropped down on her knees next to Alex. His face was pale, and there was blood running down his cheek. He looked dead.
“He’s got a pulse,” Noah said. “I think we made it in time.” He gestured toward the swing. “It was set up to strangle him slowly. The more he resisted, the tighter it got.” He pointed to the blood. “Someone hit him on the head. That’s how he got him into the swing.” He looked into Kaely’s eyes. “You may have saved him, Kaely. If we’d been even a few minutes later . . .”
Kaely leaned down and put her hand on Alex’s cheek, tears running down her face. “It going to be okay,” she said. “Hang in there, Alex.”
She heard another siren and looked toward the street. She whispered a prayer of thanks when she saw it was the ambulance. The EMTs jumped out, grabbed their equipment, and began running toward them. When they reached Alex, Noah grabbed her and pulled her out of the way. She didn’t resist. She wasn’t sure she could have moved on her own.
The EMTs began checking Alex over. They gave him oxygen and inserted an IV.
“We need to transport him,” one of them said.
“Can I come with you?” Kaely asked.
“Kaely, I really need you,” Noah said. “Let them do their job. I need your eyes and your insight. You can go to the hospital as soon as we’re done here, I promise.”
Kaely felt torn. She wanted to go with Alex, but she also wanted to catch the person who did this to him.
“Please, Kaely. We might be able to stop him if we can understand what happened here.”
“You need to decide, miss,” the EMT said. “We’ve got to get him to the hospital. Now.”
“I . . . I’ll stay.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she wondered if she’d made the wrong decision. She watched as the EMTs carried Alex away on a stretcher.
Noah reached over and took her arm, pulling her toward the swings. “He’ll be all right,” he said gently. “Now, let’s bring him some justice.”
Kaely struggled to look away from the EMTs. “What was he doing here?” she asked. “I saw him last night. He didn’t say anything about coming here. It doesn’t make sense.” She exhaled. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you he was in town. I was going to . . .”
“I planned to tell you that I met with Alex this morning. I was just waiting for the right time.”
“You said he was contacted by an old CI?”
Noah nodded. “He said he’d put out some feelers, told me he got a text from his confidential informant. I told him he couldn’t work this case. He insisted he wasn’t, that this CI probably didn’t know anything. But Alex still wanted to check up on him. Make sure he was okay. If I’d had any idea he was walking into something dangerous, I would have stopped him.”
“I know that, Noah.”
Kaely walked closer to the swing set and looked closely at the swing Alex had been tied to. There wasn’t anything unusual about it. Just a rusted old swing, but there was a long chain attached to it. The chain that had been wrapped around Alex’s throat. It was obvious it had been attached in a way that would have forced Alex to sit up as straight as possible to keep him from being choked to death. No one could sit that way for long. When his back began to hurt, and he slumped, even a little, it would become harder for him to breathe. As he became weaker and weaker, due to a lack of oxygen, it would eventually be impossible for him to remain rigid.
She noticed plastic ties lying on the ground, under the swing. “Were his hands tied?” she asked Noah.
“Yeah. And his feet. I cut the ties off.”
“We need to check everything for DNA and fingerprints,” Kaely mumbled. “I’m afraid we’re not going to get footprints. Too many people running around.”
“There was something else,” Noah said. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a plastic bag with the crudely drawn picture of an elephant they were used to seeing. Inside the elephant’s body was a number 3.
“He wanted Alex to suffer. To take a long time to die. We just happened to get here before it was too late.” Kaely shook her head and stared down at the ground. “We almost didn’t make it.” Her voice broke with emotion.
Noah walked over and put his arm around her. Kaely almost pushed him away, but it felt good to have someone to lean against. She gulped several times, trying to get rid of the fear that seemed to have taken over her entire body. She needed to get her act together and work the case.
“But we did make it, Kaely,” Noah said, “because you figured out the newest poem.”
She looked up into Noah’s face. The compassion in his bluish-gray eyes almost made her lose it again. She gently pulled herself out of his grasp just as ERT arrived to go over the scene. Noah went over to tell them what had been disturbed in an effort to assist Alex. She watched as he handed them the elephant picture. As they prepared for the transfer of evidence, she began to think about the UNSUB’s latest attack.
He’d tried to re-create the death of Phillip Reagan. But that wasn’t the work of a serial killer. It was a suicide. Maybe it wasn’t significant, but it was a change from his previous pattern. So what did that mean?
Although she wanted to keep the case foremost in her mind, right now all she could think about was going to the hospital and checking on Alex. Maybe he’d seen the UNSUB and could give them a description. But more than anything, she wanted to sit next to Alex’s bed, hold his hand, and tell him everything was going to be all right. Noah was leaning against the car as she approached.
“I’ll drive you to the hospital,” he said.
“Thanks, but don’t you need to get back to the CP? Just take me to my car. That way, you won’t have to wait or come back and pick me up. I’m okay. I’ll be fine.” She suddenly stopped where she was and stared at him, her mind racing.
“What is it, Kaely?” Noah asked.
“He wants to distract me,” she said quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“This has nothing to do with a serial killer. He picked a case that was linked to the FBI. But it occurred years ago. Something happened to our UNSUB fairly recently. No longer than six months. I doubt whatever made him snap had anything to do with Phillip Reagan.” She paused a moment before saying, “We all agree that he’s planned all of this out meticulously, right?”
“Right.”
“How could he know Alex would come to town?”
Noah stared at her without responding.
“He couldn’t,” Kaely said.
“You’re right. He chose Alex because he was here. Changed his plans. Changed his victim.”
“Because he knew killing Alex would distract me. Give him an advantage.” Kaely shook her head. “I’ll go to the hospital, but after that I need to get back to the CP. Our killer has strayed from his strategy. That means he might have made a mistake, and we have to find it. As quickly as possible.” She grabbed Noah’s arm. “We’re gonna get him, Noah. I’m sure of it.”