The Impaler

Pollyanna and shit, but Hank Biehn didn’t give his good fortune a second thought as he skirted around to the rear of the van.

“It’s unlocked,” the kid called, and Hank opened the door. “Just leave your stuff back there and come on up front. Need a hand?”

“No, no, I got it,” Hank said, hoisting his duffel bag inside. He climbed up after it, and was surprised to find the back of the van completely empty—just the grooved metal bed and the shell of the outer walls.

But what Hank Biehn didn’t notice was the strong smell of Pine-Sol and the subtle yet palpable scent of rotten meat underneath.

Oh no, his old factory nerves were simply too shot to pick up on that.

What a good kid, Hank said to himself. And here I am just thinking how the world’s gone to shit. Weasel, your luck is changing!

“You gotta make sure you slam that door tight,” the kid said. “Latch doesn’t work like it used to. Dang old- school Chevys.”

“I heard that,” Hank said. He was on all fours now, his back toward the driver as he pulled the door shut. It seemed to latch fine. But when he turned around again, he gasped when he discovered the driver was almost on top of him.

“What the—?”

“Your body is the doorway,” the kid said.

Then he raised his gun and fired.

Chapter 12

Sam Markham stepped into his office on Monday morning feeling tired and helpless—like a dog that had been chasing its tail for days. He’d grown to despise this place—cramped, bare, with no windows and a single fluorescent light that fluttered sporadically above his head. He thought about the plaque in his bedroom back in Virginia, and was sorry he didn’t bring it with him to hang over this, the gates of his own private hell.

Markham sat at his desk and turned on his computer—took a swig of coffee and replayed the last four days in his mind. It was all a blur to him, a soupy mishmash of dead ends and frustration. None of his leads had paid off— the interviews with the families, the Internet and library investigations, the connections between the victims, the ties to Islam and the lunar visuals. The forensic analysis turned out to be a wash, too—no leads on the materials, nothing new via Donovan. But worst of all, the FBI labs had come back with nothing on Jose Rodriguez. That’s right, no writing at all had been found on him anywhere. Markham hadn’t expected that.

Rodriguez was supposed to be reburied sometime today, and Donovan’s funeral had been officially scheduled for Saturday. The same day as Elmer Stokes’s execution.

His computer ready, Markham sighed and logged into Sentinel, the FBI’s latest version of its case- management database. The Sentinel system had been active for less than a year, and Markham had to admit that it was better than the old Trilogy System—or “Tragedy System,” as the SAs used to call it—but still he thought of it as an untrustworthy logistical pain in the ass.

Markham signed into the Sentinel file for Vlad. An agent from the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) had finally entered the information about the killer’s shoes: Merrell Stormfront Gore-Tex XCRs. Even weight distribution. Slight wear. 2004 model.

“You like to hike, Vlad?” Markham said out loud. “Or did you buy the Merrells because they’re quiet on pavement?”

I have returned.

Markham signed out of Sentinel and clicked on a desktop icon he’d labeled as STARS. A Web site called Your Sky opened immediately. A physics professor at NC State had turned him on to the site, which enabled visitors to plug in coordinates, dates, and times to see what the stars looked like on any given night going back to the year 0. It had taken Markham hours of scrolling and clicking to get the hang of it; but over the last couple of days he’d become nothing short of obsessed.

“You messing with those star charts again, Captain Kirk?” Schaap said, leaning against the doorjamb. Markham nodded. “Anything new?”

“Spinning my wheels,” Markham said. “Hundreds of individual stars that could’ve traveled across the Hispanics’ field of vision during the time frame in which they were displayed. Bunch of constellations, too; never heard of most of them.”

“What about the signs of the zodiac?”

“Looks like there are only four that would’ve passed over the eastern horizon: Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, and Leo. And that’s if the Hispanics were looking directly east.”

“Any connection to the historical Vlad?”

“None that I can see just yet. Most scholars agree that Vlad Tepes was born sometime in November or December of 1431, which would have made his astrological sign a Scorpio, Sagittarius, or a Capricorn.”

“What about individual stars?”

“No specific stars have historically been associated with the symbol of Islam, but our astronomy consultant at NC State is working on tying one to Vlad.”

Schaap was quiet, looking at the floor.

“I feel the same way,” Markham said after a moment.

“What’s that?”

“That I’m wasting my time. That I’m off on trying to find the star to go with the Islamic crescent; that maybe I’m off on the whole Vlad the Impaler angle, too.”

“But if not Vlad, then who has returned?”

“I don’t know,” Markham said, turning back to his computer. “But whoever he is, I guarantee you he’s laughing at us.”

The day had been a waste, and later that evening, Markham found himself sitting atop the low fieldstone wall that surrounded the Willow Brook Cemetery. It was his sixth night in North Carolina, but only his third at the cemetery. He’d gotten lucky with the weather—nothing but clear skies since his arrival, which allowed him to divvy up his evenings between the two crime scenes. But as he looked toward the east, in his mind he told the stars he would not be coming back.

They answered him as they usually did—in apathetic cricket-speak; all seeing, all knowing, and with a twinkle in their eyes that said, “Who cares?”

But Markham was not bothered tonight by their indifference. His mind had already shifted to Vlad the Impaler.

His return was just beginning. Rodriguez and Guerrera, Randall Donovan. There would be more to come. Markham was sure of it, was sure that Vlad would go looking for his next victim very soon if he already hadn’t. So far the pattern looked as if he was into men; so far the pattern looked to be a murder every other month.

But somehow the latter didn’t feel right in Markham’s gut.

2006 is your comeback season, he said to himself. So where’s your calendar boy for March, Vlad? Or for January, for that matter?

Why does it have to be a boy? a voice said in his head. After all, you’ll remember Vlad was an equal-opportunity impaler.

There were only a handful of missing person reports around the Raleigh area for the last few months. Could one or maybe two of them be Vlad’s? Schaap’s team at the Resident Agency would begin looking into all that, but without bodies to go on, and without actual murder sites, they wouldn’t be able to make a thorough investigation. And what was the point? Maybe none of them had to do with Vlad. Maybe Vlad only had time to get to three. Maybe there was something about the crescent moon for February and April that he was missing.

Christ, he felt desperate.

“Tell me what you know,” Markham whispered.

But the stars only twinkled back with the eyes of Vlad himself.