get complete and total control of her again and this time he would decide on how it would end.
Starting the tractor, he filled in the grave. He backed the tractor up and headed back to where he had taken it. In the tractor's headlight, he saw another stone. He racked the teeth on the backhoe's shovel across the stone, putting three large gouges through the name Shermon. He left the backhoe there. Its shovel buried deep into the grave, the ground soaked with oil from a busted hydraulic line.
The next day, the local police released a report that drunken vandals, probably kids, had hot-wired a tractor and damaged some headstones at the cemetery. The police refused to believe what they found. It had to have been kids, anything else was too sick.
Billy polished his talisman until it gleamed white. In a supply closet at the back of the school building, he would drink beer and rub his talisman against his body. He was there when he overheard Kawalski talking to Pike.
'You know, Pike, we have a lot of old-time teachers in this school. First-year teachers are easier to control. They also miss more of what is happening around them. Don't you think it would be much easier if one of those teachers who always seems to be around checking on things was replaced by someone new?'
'Sure would. Who do you want me to get this time?'
'We can't do the fall down the stairs again this year and we can't set someone up with drugs, cause they just might check up on the whole school.
Now, Makinen has been divorced for a few years. He's not dating anyone. Everyone would believe he fooled around with a high school girl. Do you think you could handle it?'
'Easy. You'll get what you want but it's going to cost you...'
Billy never caught the rest of the conversation that day but the next day, he saw Pike talking to Jenny. He saw Pike and Jenny watch Makinen while they talked. Their smiles and laughter told him what they were planning. The following day, he watched Makinen lust after Jenny from the balcony. Makinen's name was added to his list.
Billy had to kill Makinen. He had to kill Lori. How dare Makinen change his mind, ignoring the beautiful Jenny to go after that skinny bitch, Lori?
How could that small-breasted little bitch be more alluring to Makinen than Jenny? They both had to die in pain. If he could get them together, he could ... The talisman wasn't enough anymore. He reached into his pants. He masturbated in time to his rocking, until his white semen stained the white bone.
* * * *
The day started for Henry with a sticky stillness. Nature as well as man seemed to sense something was going to happen. At the station, everyone was jumpy. Vernon and the other BCA agents had been told to wrap up the investigation. They were needed in Minneapolis. No one wanted to leave. Everyone did their job as slowly as possible.
In a fog caused by lack of sleep and worry, Henry sat at his desk. He tried to fill out overtime forms and other backlogged paperwork. Instead of reading and filling in blanks, he found himself staring at the walls. _Where will Billy show up next?_
James, Lori, and Jeffrey spent the day trying to decide what to do next. The VFW boys had gone to their homes for some rest now that Billy had disappeared. Lori wanted to go back to her apartment. James argued against it not want her to be alone. His fear communicated itself to her father. Finally by the end of the day, they convinced Lori to stay through the week. Lori couldn't stand the troubled look on her father's face.
* * * *
*Click.* _In the silent darkened room, the hands reach for the card._
A horse charges across the card. His armored rider's sword is raised in challenge.
_The hands hold no hesitation when they turn off the light. The footsteps leaving the room are swift and sure. For one brief second, a silhouette is seen in the doorway leaving the room._
CHAPTER 20: The Knight of Swords
James woke refreshed. It had been another quiet night. There was a feeling of safety with the VFW boys still keeping watch at night and the killer, Billy, being on the run. James's mind was actually clear. He saw Lori walk into the living room. He was still using the couch for his naps between his perimeter prowls. For possibly the first time, he saw her in complete clarity. She was not beautiful, but in the morning light she was so pretty it hurt. The precise delicate features, the curls of hair framing the face, the slight squint of the eyes from behind her glasses to the following shadow of a smile on her lips seared his mind with their intensity. In his mind, she didn't walk across the room but flowed in an undulating rhythm. His clarity of vision was lost as his eyes filled with moisture.
'Good morning. Did you sleep well?' Her hands brushed his cheek. She
smiled.
Paralyzed with the intensity of emotions, James sat there unmoving.
Her hand tousled the hair on his head. Smiling she said, 'Breakfast.'
James watched her turn to leave. As he marveled at how she moved, his mind locked in to the last time he sat watching the sway of her body as it walked away. The cold anger of the preacher's sermon and the pride in Lori's dignity and strength washed through his paralysis. He got up to eat.
During the meal, he watched her eat. He never knew what he consumed but knew about each and every bite of toast, eggs and drink of milk that went past her lips. He never realized how intensely he was watching her until the laughter from her father across the table and the resulting red flush that traveled from Lori's cheek to the curve of her jaw.
Jeffrey wistfully said, 'I remembered looking at your mother the same way ... Lori you have a big decision you need to make. This man loves you.
'Jim, you better not ever hurt her... '
Jeffrey left the table with tears in his eyes.
Lori opened her mouth to say something and then closed it. She opened it again and closed. She sputtered. 'I can't talk here. I need fresh clothes from my apartment if I'm going to stay here another week. Come along and we'll talk.'
Lori yelled as they left the house, 'Dad, I'm going to my apartment for clothes. Be back in an hour or so.'
On the drive down, neither spoke. Although both had left the house to talk, neither could start. At the apartment, James followed behind Lori. He was still enthralled with her movement.
* * * *
Henry woke to the day confused. What would the killer, Billy, do next? That was the trouble with serial killers. They were not quite sane.
When Henry was little, he remembered hunting with his father. His father always said, 'Think like what you're hunting. If you're hunting a deer, be a deer. What would you like to eat? Where is a good place to sleep? How would you travel between... '
Henry had used that technique many times before. A young child lost in the woods, a drunk trying to hide after a car wreck, a series of burglaries at some lake cabins, it had always worked. But how do you understand insanity without becoming insane yourself? Insane. Insane! Tom Peterson! Tom Peterson was insane. Lori Waithe and James Makinen were the rocks that Tom dashed his soul upon in his single-minded attempt to destroy them. They had not been phased by his assault. Their indifference had hurt him even more then his failure to harm them. He still wanted to see them destroyed.
The killer had wanted to destroy them as well. He had failed. It would burn in him. He would try again.
Henry called. 'Hi, Mr. Waithe. I would like to talk to your daughter or James ... Not there now ... Uhh huh. When will they be back? No, no, nothing wrong ... Just need to talk to them ... Her apartment ... Thank you ... talk to you later.'
For the first time in days, Henry felt he had a handle on the situation. He hummed while he drove.
* * * *
Billy had been rocking in the same chair for three days. The back corner of the room where he sat had the stale musty smell of a confined animal. Every time he returned to the corner after eating or going to the bathroom,
