Robert Walker - Extreme Instinct

"Will you allow me to help, Dr. Coran?" asked Repasi.

"You'll see to it that copies of your protocols follow me?"

"I will indeed."

"Then it's a deal."

"Jess!" complained J. T.

"Karl's right, John. We need the freedom to move quickly. I can't be tied up in another autopsy, which is going to tell me nothing I don't already know, so… so let's get out of here."

"But Jess…"

Ignoring J. T.'s whining, Jessica stepped out of the crime scene and rushed to the nearby restaurant, where she plopped into a booth. J. T. chased after her and found her nursing black coffee. "You going to drink that whole pot alone?"

"Help yourself."

"You okay, Jess?" he asked, sliding into the booth.

"Stop asking that."

"Sure, sure… whatever you say." He poured himself a cup of black coffee, lifted the cup, chinked it against hers, and said, "Cheers."

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "This case is driving me mad."

J. T. looked up at the pretty waitress whose shadow fell across the table. "Well, hello," he said.

"May I get your breakfast order?" she asked.

"Nothing else for me," Jessica replied.

J. T. ordered two eggs over easy, hash browns, and bacon.

"You ever going to get that cholesterol down, J. T.?" Jessica said as the waitress hurried off.

Pouring himself more coffee, he asked, "What's our next move, Jess? We can't simply just wait for him to dump another body at our footsteps,"

"That's exactly what he's doing, isn't it?" she asked, her eyes displaying a revelation. "He's wanting us to trail him, so he leaves a trail of bodies, but where do they ultimately lead? If we knew that, then maybe we could get a step ahead of him. Do you still have that area map you've been carrying around?"

"Got it right here," he replied, snatching the map from his coat pocket.

"We've got to predict his next stopover. Where he will next kill, and try like hell to stop him before he does it again."

"But how?" J. T. pleaded. "How're we going to do that?"

"What if he's on one of these tour buses coming and going out of these parks, J. T.? What if he was on one the other morning, pulling out of Page at Wahweap Lodge? He may well have seen me, or you, or both of us. That's how he knew I wasn't the one on the phone back in Vegas where he called. He knew it going in; and that's how he knew to find me at Wahweap Lodge last night, to log his last call."

"If that's the case-"

"Then he's been yanking our chains right along. It's time to turn this chase around. Let me study that map."

Over coffee and J. T.'s breakfast plate, they discussed tourist points on the map, of which there were too many to count. They discussed what they so far knew about the killer, each comparing the notes of the other. They discussed the new message on the mirror and how it fit with the others, J. T. displaying it on his notepad. To date, the list now read:

#1 is #9-Traitors

#2 is #8-Malicious Frauds

#3 is #7-Violents

#4 is #6-Heretics

"Now, logically speaking, his next victim will be number five, right, Jess?"

"We can't let that happen."

''Bear with me, here, Jess. If his next victim is number five, and it follows as it has been going, then we can predict part of his next message will be"-he interrupted himself to add to the list-"this. Right?"

Jessica looked down at his added line, which read:

#5 is #5

"Interesting juxtaposition, wouldn't you say, how five crosses five?" he asked.

''Yeah, but what does it mean? How does it help us to stop the bastard?"

J. T. bit his lower lip, frowning. "I don't know… yet.. "

With maps and tour bus guides laid out across the table, they continued the brainstorming session they'd begun. "J. T., you think it's just a coincidence that two of the victims were traveling on touring buses?"

"Yeah, I have to agree. It is a bit strange, but each victim, Melvin Martin and Eloise Whitaker, were using different tour bus companies."

"Still, the two buses interweaved from sight-seeing point to sight-seeing point."

J. T. considered this, sipping at his coffee. "Yeah. You saw how many buses were pulling out of the lot here this morning?"

"I saw, all right. One almost ran me down."

"Maybe the killer's that bus driver."

Jessica replied with a slight shake of the head, ' 'More likely to be a less than remarkable passenger. Besides, come to think of it, being run over by a monster bus like that, it'd be too easy a way for me to go, so far as this guy's concerned. He wants me to suffer along with what- nine other victims?"

"You think he'll stop at nine?"

"Unless he plans to spin on nine and take it back down to one."

"I'm going to do some checking about these bus tour lines. See what I can find out about them," J. T. suggested.

''Do that. As I recall, that Pierson woman whom Chris Lorentian stayed with said Chris was in the process of- or had gotten-tickets for both of them to escape Vegas. I had assumed she meant plane tickets, but bus tickets would have done just as well."

"Hey, that's right."

"And there've been buses loading and unloading around us since… well, since Vegas."

"My God. If this is true, the killer took Chris Lorentian's ticket and is traveling on her reservation."

"Contact all the bus lines and run down Lorentian's itinerary, and we may know the killer's next destination. Short of that, check also for anyone with the name Charon or Nessus traveling by bus."

"That might take some time."

Jessica gritted her teeth, but looking across the room, she saw her old friend the tour guide Ronny Ropers. She scooted from the booth seat and rushed for the tour guide, asking, "Where do the buses go from here?"

Ropers, looking confused, his hands in the air, asked, "Which buses? They all go in different directions."

"What's tonight's destination for those heading north?"

"Salt Lake City for some; Pocatello, Idaho, for others; and Rock Springs, Wyoming, for others. Depends on site destinations."

"And those heading south?"

"Where we came from, Zion National Park, Wahweap Lodge, Glen Canyon country, or a straight run to Vegas. Ultimately Vegas for most, Flagstaff for others."

"Salt Lake City," she repeated while Ropers stared at her. It stood out as the largest northerly destination at the moment.

She returned to J. T. "He's headed for Salt Lake. It's a large enough city. We could lose him forever, if he suddenly decides to cut his losses and wishes to disappear, but I doubt that's his plan."

"What do we do?"

She started away, saying over her shoulder, "Follow through on your plan. Check with the bus lines. Run down that ticket."

"And what are you going to do?" he asked, chasing after.

"I'm going ahead to Salt Lake."

"Alone?"

"I'll wire Bishop to meet me there."

"I don't know, Jess. I think we ought to stick together."

"J. T., that information on what bus line he's on will be vital. It will tell us not only his next destination but also the one after that. There's no way you can get that info while traveling to Salt Lake. We need to know Lorentian's proposed itinerary and what hotels she would've been staying at, the same ones we hypothesize that he will be using in her stead."

"But Jess!"

She was making her way across the highway to the helicopter again. "Don't you see? That information is vital now, John. Get it! Meanwhile, I'll organize a strike force in Salt Lake, utilizing FBI headquarters there."

"Are you sure?"

Over her shoulder, she called back, saying, "I'll call you here when I'm set up there."

"But Jess… Jess…"

She had stopped listening and continued her march to the helicopter pad, determined now to be at the killer's next destination before him, glad that she had brought along an overnight bag along with her medical bag.