CHAPTER 61
Al, Lonnie, and the marked units following them converged on Holiday’s home at the same time, but Al saw Don had beat them there. He’d pulled his rental parallel to the house with the passenger side toward the house and was getting out of the car in a crouch, gun drawn. The rest of them spread out behind Don and bailed out of their cars.
“I got the rear,” Al said, not waiting for Lonnie to issue orders.
Lonnie just nodded and motioned to two of the uniformed officers to go with Al. The three of them took off for the left side of the white, two-story frame house. A light was on in an upstairs window, but otherwise the house was dark. As they reached the corner, Al saw two more uniformed officers disappear around the right side.
The house was small with only two windows on the left side and none in the rear except for the one in the top half of the back door. Inside it was dark. Al moved quickly to the other side of the door, expecting the sound of a shot at any time, but none came. The screen door opened on well-oiled hinges when he gave it a tug, but the back door was locked.
Something was off. If Holiday had taken Jen and Will, Al suddenly knew he hadn’t brought them here. Although Al knew his gut wasn’t proof, the house felt unoccupied. Had he been wrong to think the fact that the background check had been unable to come up with any evidence of Carter Holiday’s existence more than fourteen years back? Maybe the Feds just hadn’t been thorough enough, or maybe Holiday had been out of the country or—
The crackle of his radio coming to life interrupted his doubts.
“We’re going in,” Lonnie said.
He’d no sooner finished speaking than Al heard the sound of a door being kicked open. He stepped back on the landing and delivered his own kick to the back door. The door flew open, striking the wall, and he moved fast into what appeared to be a laundry room. The uniformed officers followed him in, but Al stopped one.
“Stay here,” he said. “Make sure no unfriendly comes in behind us.”
The officer nodded and took up a position in front of the dryer where he could see both the back door and the half-open door leading into the rest of the house.
Al pushed the door leading out of the laundry room open another foot and quickly slipped through. He stepped to one side and the other officer followed him through. They were in a small kitchen. A light on the refrigerator’s ice dispenser showed the usual appliances, a sink, and a small wooden table with two chairs. An opening in the left wall of the kitchen provided access to the rest of the house, and Al could hear the others moving toward them from the front. Above him, he heard the creaking of stairs.
He and the uniformed officer moved into the room next to the kitchen just as Don and another uniform moved into it from the front. It had probably been a formal dining room at one time, but as the uniform with Don shined his flashlight around the room, Al saw what it had become thanks to its madman resident. The furniture was sparse—a cluttered desk and a chair against the opposite wall, a bookcase to one side of the desk, and a six-foot-long folding table in the center of the room. Six photo albums and pictures were spread across the top of the table, and Al cursed as he saw pictures of Trish and the other victims, some of them taken at the crime scenes. One of the albums lay open, and he saw pictures of Trish behind the plastic overlays—Trish coming out of her house, Trish in uniform walking out to her patrol car, Trish in tights entering BodyFit. Arthur Kelty had learned to be a predator at his father’s knee, and he’d apparently learned well. Al spotted a photo of Trish’s crime scene sticking out from under the album and turned away as he felt his stomach turn.
Six albums. Counting Trish, there had been four victims so far. Were the other two albums designated for Jen and Will? Stupid question, he thought, feeling tears stinging his eyes. Of course they are.
“The upstairs is empty,” Lonnie strode into the room and stopped short when he saw the table spotlighted by Don’s flashlight. “My God!”
God didn’t have anything to do with this, Al thought and turned, moving through the kitchen and the laundry room in a stumbling run. Outside he bent over and dry-heaved, thankful he hadn’t been able to eat since noon. As he straightened up, the moon came from behind the clouds. The grass stretched to the fence that bordered the yard on two sides and the back, but on the other side of the fence on the left, Al saw gravel. He moved to the fence and looked up the lane away from the road. The gravel continued into the trees that covered the hill behind Holiday’s house.
Al turned and ran for his car. He heard the uniformed officer he’d left watching the back door call out, but he didn’t stop. He jumped in the driver’s seat, turned the key in the ignition, and tore out of the front yard, around the end of the fence to the pavement, and up the gravel lane. As he passed the rear yard on his right, he noted Lonnie, Don, and the other officers staring open-mouthed at him.
They’ll figure it out, he thought and floored it.
CHAPTER 62
“You know who no one pays attention to?” Carter Holiday strutted back and forth in front of Will. “The mailman. He comes every day, but I bet most people couldn’t pick him
