The Burying Place

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.'

Chapter Fifty-one

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.

She was angry. Angry that God had dropped her in the middle of this, when she wasn't prepared. Angry that God had abandoned her. But maybe this was His revenge. Over the past year, she had stopped believing in God and found herself believing only in despair and betrayal. She had grown bitter at the world. She had simply never imagined that the awful road would lead her here.

'You can't run, Kasey,' he taunted her. 'What do you do now?'

She bit her lip, listening to his slow footsteps as he walked away. The beam of the flashlight shifted, streaming through a gaping hole in the far wall. His back was to her. This was her chance, and she didn't dare wait any longer.

I kill you, she vowed to herself. That's what I do now.

She scrambled to her feet and picked up the heavy metal joist. She held it like a club as she edged around the stack of wooden pilings. She put a foot ahead of her, tested the ground, and laid her heel down without a sound. She kept an eye on the flashlight beam in the corridor as she inched across the floor, but as she watched, it went dark. She froze where she was, feeling exposed. She thought about retreating to her hiding place, but she knew she was close to Maggie. In a voice that was barely audible, she murmured, 'I'm here.'

She heard noises of struggle. The chair to which Maggie was tied rocked loudly on the floor, and she heard Maggie grunting with effort as she strained against her bonds. Trying to free herself.

She took another step and spoke again in a soft hiss. 'Maggie.'

This time, Maggie whispered back immediately. 'Get out of here, Kasey.'

It was too late to run. Light flooded the room and pinned Kasey like a convict in a searchlight. She still had the metal joist poised over her head, but he was in the doorway, twenty feet away, too far for her to charge him. Behind the light, he was in silhouette, but she could see that he held Maggie's gun, pointed at her chest. He walked closer, stepping over dirty glass, and stopped six feet away from her. The gun was outstretched in his left hand.

Kasey's back stiffened in defiance. 'You better shoot. That's the only way you're getting close to me again.'

'That's not how this goes down, Kasey,' he said. 'You know what I want you to do.'

'Fuck you, you sick bastard.'

'I want to see you kill her,' he said.

'You're crazy.'

'Take the joist, and crush her skull.'

'I won't do it.'

'Yes, you will. You'll do whatever it takes to save yourself.'

'You don't know me.'

'I know you better than anyone,' he said. 'You're just like me.'

'I'm not like you,' Kasey snapped, breathing harder, watching him.

'We both know you are. Kill her.'

'I'll kill you instead,' Kasey swore, raising the joist higher over her head and clutching it tightly with her hand.

'Don't be stupid.'

'I don't care what happens to me any more.'

'Yes, you do. You know the stakes, Kasey. You know what happens if you fail the test.'