Brian Freeman - The Burying Place

They didn't speak for the rest of the trip. They crossed back into Duluth, and then into the north farmlands, in silence.

Stride parked on the shoulder of the highway, and they both got out of the car. Guppo was parked in a pickup truck on the other side of the road, and he squeezed out of his truck when he saw them. The highway was deserted. Snow whisked across the pavement.

'Do you have the warrant?' Stride asked.

Guppo yanked a folded white paper out of his back pocket. 'Judge Kassel isn't too happy with you. I interrupted her beauty sleep.'

'She's never very happy with me,' Stride said. He looked at the two Duluth patrol cars parked behind Guppo's pickup. 'These guys didn't use sirens on the way in, right?'

'Silent running,' Guppo said.

Stride saw Serena staring at the farmhouse. She was unusually tense, and he didn't know if it was caused by the stress between the two of them or her anxiety over the investigation. He knew without her saying a word that she had become emotionally engaged with Valerie and Callie. It was one more thing they hadn't talked about.

Serena turned to Guppo and asked, 'Have you been up to the house yet?'

'No, I was waiting for the two of you.' He shoved his hands in his pockets and added, 'So how do you guys want to play it?'

'I'm hoping we can do this the easy way,' Stride said. 'Whatever the hell is going on, I don't think anybody wants to get hurt. The biggest risk is someone bolting. Have one of the squad cars block the driveway, and keep your motors running.'

'You want me to go with you?' Guppo asked.

'We'll call you up when we're ready to do the search. But Serena and I want to go first and have a chat. I don't want anyone getting spooked, OK? The key is to do this calm and steady.'

'You got it.'

Guppo sloughed his body toward the patrol cars to give them instructions. Stride and Serena continued across the highway and stood at the base of the driveway. The farmhouse was fifty yards away, sheltered by trees. They could see lights inside.

'Did you call Valerie?' Stride asked.

Serena shook her head. 'We don't know what we're going to find up there. We could be wrong about this.'

'I said we want to do this the easy way, but do you have your gun with you?' he asked.

She looked at him. 'I have it, but do you really think that's necessary?'

'I don't know. I hope not, but they could be desperate.' He added, 'I didn't want to say anything, not until we knew, but this whole thing raises a lot of questions.'

'You mean Regan,' Serena said.

'Not just her.'

Serena thought about it and cursed under her breath. 'My God. Do you really think that's possible?'

'Right now, anything's possible,' Stride said. He heard his phone ringing, and he pulled it out of his pocket. He held it closely against his ear to hear the call over the roaring of the wind. 'This is Stride.'

'Lieutenant, it's Troy Grange calling.'

Stride was surprised. 'Troy, what's going on?'

'I'm sorry to call you so late, but this has been bothering me, and I couldn't sleep.'

'What is it?'

'Maggie stopped by my house earlier this evening. While she was here, she got a call from a security guard who keeps an eye on the Buckthorn School property. You know, it's that ruined building out on Township Road.'

'I know it,' Stride said. 'Was this about Nick Garaldo?'

'Yeah, exactly. The guard told Maggie he found something out there, and he wanted a police escort before he went inside the school. The old building's not too far from me, so Maggie told him she'd meet him there herself.' 'OK.'

'The thing is, I thought about it afterward, and I realized that the guard at the school was the same guy who did the security installation on my house. That was right after the killings began up here.'

'Is that a problem?'

Troy hesitated. 'Oh, hell, I don't know. I just don't like coincidences, you know. And to tell you the truth, I didn't really like the guy. So I called Matt Clayton, the township administrator. He and I play tennis a couple of times a year. I asked Matt what he knew about this security guy, Jim Nieman.'

'What did he say?' Stride asked.

'He said he's never had any complaints. But here's the thing. When I asked if he'd checked references on Nieman, he said he had. Nieman gave him the name of a guy who owns a strip mall in Pueblo.'

'I'm still not following you, Troy.'

'Pueblo's half an hour from Colorado Springs. Maggie told me that the van the killer was using was stolen in Colorado Springs.'

Stride gripped the phone tighter.

'I called Maggie to tell her about it,' Troy continued, 'but just as she answered, the phone cut out. I've tried her several times since then, and there's no answer.'

'I'll check it out, Troy,' Stride told him. 'You did the right thing by calling.'

'Let me know when you talk to her, OK?'

'I will.'

Stride hung up. Serena studied him with her eyebrows arched in a question, but he didn't answer right away. Instead, he dialed Maggie's cell phone and listened. The call went directly into her voicemail.

'Is something wrong?' Serena asked.

He told himself that nothing was wrong, but his gut told him otherwise. Everything was wrong. The cold air wrapped fingers around his neck. His stomach knotted in fear. He didn't hesitate.

'I have to go,' he told her. 'Maggie's in trouble.'

Kasey huddled in the darkness. She lay on her stomach, freezing and wet, hidden behind a stack of rotting wooden beams. Her hair fell in limp curls across her face, and she clenched her fists to keep her body from shivering. Cold water dripped from overhead, landing on her back and legs. She could barely feel her feet. She wasn't sure how long she had been hiding, but she knew he was looking for her, and sooner or later he would find her.

The flashlight beam searched the room like a laser. He shot it into corners and crevices, hoping to surprise her. The light lingered over the wall just above her head, and she flattened herself further against the concrete floor and held her breath. Where the beam illuminated the wall, she could see orange rust stains, graffiti spray-painted by vandals, and pockmarks where someone had used the stone for target practice. Five seconds later, the light disappeared, and she was blind again.

He spoke to her out of the darkness. He couldn't have been more than twenty feet away.

'I know you're here, Kasey.'

She waited with a growing desperation for him to search elsewhere in the school, but after a long minute of silence, he switched on the light again. It lit up the floor inches in front of her face, and she shrunk backwards. The concrete was littered with nails and bricks. A foot-long rat froze, staring at her with pink eyes. The animal was inches from her face. Caught in the light, it charged directly at her, and she had to cover her mouth not to scream as its furry body scratched across the skin of her back.

'You can't hide forever, Kasey.' He added, 'Someone's waiting for you.'

Kasey tensed and inched forward. She heard a violent clap and a wince of pain. 'Talk,' he barked.

She heard a new voice.

'Forget about me, Kasey. Save yourself.'

Maggie. It was Maggie's voice. Kasey wanted to pound her fists on the floor. She pushed part of her face past the pile of wooden beams, far enough to see as he shone the light on Maggie's body. She was tied to a chair with her hands behind her back. Her neck was ringed in blood, and Kasey had a flashback of that night in the fog and of Susan Krauss appearing out of nowhere at her car window. Looking just like that, with her throat half cut. Behind Maggie, in the dim glow of the flashlight, she saw the other bodies, posed as if they were decomposing dolls.