|
|
|
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
for her life. The expression of terror and desperation on her face burned into
Hank's brain.
He was glad he couldn't feel her there.
Charlie was looking at him. "You okay?"
"No," Hank said. "This is& hell. This is the worst of these things we've ever
done together. The girls' deaths are terrible. But the killer is& I don't
know, Charlie. He feels like he's digging into my brain. He isn't crazy. Isn't
confused.
Isn't out of control. He's doing exactly what he wants to be doing, and he's
enjoying it. And enjoying us not being able to catch him."
Charlie said, "We've had a lot like that."
Hank shook his head. "No, this is a whole new level of evil. I keep catching
images of the killer deciding to do a set of public murders, to give himself a
little excitement before he moves on. Some amusement." Hank searched through
the sensations and images he'd been getting, trying to find the way to shape
them into words. "He isn't afraid of getting caught, because the police have
never even looked at him. Aren't looking at him now. He sees himself as so
smart, so well insulated so bulletproof that no one will ever get close to
him. He wasn't even afraid when he dumped the last girl, when Hemly was
already in jail without bond."
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%...y%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20G
irl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html (352 of 435)8-12-2006 22:49:20
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Danci...20Dancing/
Page 153
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html
"He's someone important. Powerful? Connections, maybe?" Charlie sighed. "But
that doesn't make sense. You said he used the last girl as a diversion to draw
us away from Goldcastle. That had to have been because he thought we were
getting close to him."
Hank stood up and paced. "She was a diversion. But not the way we've been
thinking. I think the last girl was actually bait to drag Wayne Alton into
this mess."
"Doesn't work. We have hair and fiber evidence that matches Alton on every one
of our bodies. He's our nonsecretor, incidentally. It'll take a while, but
we're going to have DNA evidence. He left a fingerprint on Bethany Hertz's
shoe. He has trophies in his house. He has no alibi for his whereabouts during
the murder.
We don't have to drag him into anything when he's running into it at full
speed."
Charlie stared at the line of photographs in their numbered evidence bags.
"We're as solid on him as we are on Jason Hemly."
Hank sat back dawn, fists clenching and unclenching in frustration. "I don't
know
. I know what you have. But I know what I'm reading, too. It's like the fucker
knows he's invisible, like no matter how hard we look he knows we aren't going
to be able to see him."
Charlie's voice was mild. "We have means, motive, and opportunity for both of
our suspects. We have previous behavior that suggests both of our probable
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%...y%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20G
irl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html (353 of 435)8-12-2006 22:49:20
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Danci...20Dancing/
Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html killers are capable of
committing these crimes. We have a likely suspect for the third leg in our
killer triad, if we could talk to him or get a damned warrant to search his
house. Or get one of his buddies to turn state's evidence on him, and let me
tell you, Alton's and Hemly's lawyers are each pushing their clients to be the
guy who gets the deal right now." Charlie was studying Hank with that
basset-hound expression of his. "Plus Jess is hot to see Lenny hang. She
thinks he killed her sister thirteen years ago, and I've gone over the
transcript of that conversation she had with him, and I'm betting she's
right." And he cleared his throat. "These photos you're touching come from our
suspect's houses, and you're telling me that the killer touched them."
"I know," Hank said. "But all I can do is give you what I get and let you see
if you can make sense of it. Give me another photo."
He closed his eyes, and Charlie put a second Polaroid in his hand.
"New picture. Killer present; I can still feel the girl's death on his hands.
This picture was taken after he killed her, before he buried her. He's
thinking she should have lasted a little longer."
"I don't see how she could have," Charlie said, his voice tight.
Hank opened his eyes, turned over the picture. A girl, her jugular veins
intact, stared out of the photo from eyes gone dull and heading toward milky.
Bruised, torn, sprawled, her expression panicked, she didn't look anything
like the posed
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%...y%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20G
irl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html (354 of 435)8-12-2006 22:49:20
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Danci...20Dancing/
Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html and composed, prettily
dressed corpses the killer dumped in public. Her body had been through
hell Hank could see blistered burns, tiny knife cuts, fresh brands. Though
nothing that would constitute a fatal wound.
Page 154
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"How did she die?" he asked.
Charlie said, "We don't know. We have to find the buried bodies before we'll
be able to find out. The biggest surprise we got when we found the
photographs, though, was how completely the killer's MO has changed. No
dress-up, no bleeding out, no bath and makeup and fancy hair. The ones he
buried go into the ground naked except for their shoes. He doesn't do anything
with their faces;
usually their eyes are still open."
Hank shoved the photo back at Charlie and dropped his head onto his arms.
"What?"
"I have a sharp image of Jess in the hands of this monster. Eyes open, going
into the ground. Dirt falling on her face. It isn't Jess I'm seeing, though.
It's her twin sister. And the killer wants to finish with Jess, because it
makes everything round and tidy and complete." He felt sick. He was fighting
nausea, the shakes, cold gut-check fear.
He heard Charlie say, "You're taking this pretty hard, man. You and Jess have
something going on?"
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%...y%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20G
irl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html (355 of 435)8-12-2006 22:49:20
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Danci...20Dancing/
Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plkwiatpolny.htw.pl
|
|
| Cytat |
Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
|
|
