While the Savage Sleeps (34 page)

Kyle sat at Cameron’s kitchen table. He handed her a cup of hot green tea, which she took eagerly, wrapping her fingers around it, staring at the contents.

“
Any idea who’d want to follow you?” he asked, taking a seat across from her.

“
I was going to ask you the same question.” She finally took a sip, looked inside her cup again, and swirled the liquid.

“
Can’t imagine. Nobody here even knows you.”

“
All the more reason,” she said. “Maybe they don’t want me here. Maybe they don’t like strangers.”

“
This town may take notice of strangers, but we don’t chase them away.”

She looked up at him. “Whoever it was—he was
inside
my room, waiting. That scares the hell out of me.”

“
You’re staying here from now on,” he said firmly.

Kyle said nothing. She couldn’t shake the image from her mind; that reflection in the mirror, the way he stood there, gaping at her. So calm. So creepy.

“
Did you get a chance to see his face?”

“
Not really.” She shifted nervously, sipped the tea, and then put the cup back on the table. Her hands were still shaking. “It was dark in that corner of the room. I couldn’t see much.”

“
Was there anything you
could
make out about him? Anything at all?”

Kyle tried to think, then shook her head with a frown. “He slipped away so fast. By the time I got to the door, he was already taking off out of the parking lot.”

“
Wait a minute … you saw the vehicle?”

“
Not much of it.”

“
How much?”

She shrugged. “Just the back end.”

“
He wasn’t driving a white van by any chance, was he?”

Kyle looked up at him suddenly. Her face went blank.

Chapter
Seventy-Five

6623 Hunter’s Run

Faith, New Mexico

“
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about them,” Cameron told Kyle.

“
Them?
” she asked. “There are others?”

“
Yeah. At least two.”

“
Who are they?”

Cameron frowned, shook his head. “I don’t know much, really, other than a few people have seen them in town, too. Sounds like they’re looking for something.”

“
Where have they been seen?”

“
Judith Hedrick’s shop, for one. And they were over at the Foley place, as well.” He thought for a moment. “That seems to be ground zero. It’s like that place is holding the secret to what’s been happening here, like I keep being led back there.”

“
Bethany,” Kyle said, suddenly.

“
What?”

“
She’s orchestrating all this, has been from the start. She’s the catalyst.”

“
So what’s the connection?”

“
She piloted me here—literally—from hundreds of miles away. She’s trying to tell me what’s been happening.” Kyle’s voice softened. “So frightened.”

“
Who?”

“
Her … The way she would come and go. The information came in tiny spurts at first. I thought she was playing games—you know, the way children do, but it wasn’t that at all.”

“
What was it?”

“
She was scared.”

“
Of what?”

“
I don’t know. It’s like she’s been running—running from what happened.” Her voice trailed off and she looked at Cameron for a moment, then her eyes opened wide. “That’s it! That’s what it is! She wants to clear her brother!”

Cameron shook his head. “Can’t be.”

Kyle looked up at him, puzzled. “Why not?”

“
Because there’s no question: he definitely did it.”

“
Yeah, but we don’t know
why
. Don’t you see? She’s been trying to tell me all along—the dreams, the images,
everything
. They tell the story. It’s all starting to make sense!”

“
So what’s the story?”

“
Sorry. Can’t help you there. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Bethany, it’s that you can’t rush her. She controls the flow of information. She decides when and how … and only when she
feels safe.”

Chapter
Seventy-Six

Faith, New Mexico

“
Unit one.”

“
This is unit one.”

“
Receiving a report of a domestic disturbance at 2244 Hathaway Street. Stanley Gilchrest residence. Neighbors report subject holding wife and kids hostage inside the house, threatening to…”

(Static)

“
You’re breaking up. I copied, subject inside house. 10-9?”

“
Subject is holding a rifle—I repeat—holding a rife and threatening to kill his family. You copy?”

(Pause)

“
Y
ou copy, sheriff?”

“
Holy sh….”

(Static
)

“
Yes, yes…copy. Send backups to the scene, but tell them do not attempt entry into the residence—I repeat—do not attempt to enter that house until I get there. Under no circumstances … is that clear? Do you copy?”

“
Copy, sheriff, do not enter the house. Affirmative. What’s your twenty?”

“
Gentry and First, about three minutes away.”

“
Copy. Gentry and first. Three minutes away
.”

(Static)

“
Unit one, come in.”

(Audible sigh)
“This is unit one. What is it?”

“
Got another one.”

“
Another what?”

“
Call … this one’s on Fairhaven.”

“
WHAT? What’s happening on Fairhaven now?”

“
Assault”

“
An Assault?”

“
Female victim. Beaten and raped in the back alley. Behind the drug store.”

(Pause)

“
Sheriff? You still there?”

“
The drug st…. (Brief pause) …What in God’s name’s going on?”

“
Don’t know, but victim’s no longer at the scene. Been transported to Faith Community.”

“
Continuing on to….”

(Unintelligible)

“
You’re breaking up, Sheriff, can you 10-9?”

“
I said, continuing on to Gilchrest residence. Send a unit to secure the Fairhaven scene…another to the hospital—if you can find someone—I’ll get there whenever I can. Do you copy?”

“
Yeah, copy. Heading on to Gilchrest residence. Sending a unit to Fairhaven to secure the scene, another to the hospital.”

“
Affirmative. Affirmative. Anything else going on I need to know about?

“
Negative. Not yet.”

“
It’s the ‘not yet’ that worries me. Over.”

“
Copy that, sheriff.”

Chapter
Seventy-Seven

Faith, New Mexico

Stanley Gilchrest had fled the scene by the time Cameron arrived, leaving behind a much-shaken—but nevertheless alive—wife and kids.

Cameron sat in his squad car taking notes with the door open, one foot inside, the other out, and feeling as if he had a foothold on hell.

A short time later, Frank arrived, apparently roused from the comforts of home wearing torn gray sweatpants, an Arizona State ball cap, and a yellow T-shirt with the words:
In my world, you don’t exist
written across the chest
.
Classic Frank. He walked up to the passenger window, poked his head inside, and scowled. “Armageddon. Fucking Armageddon.”

Cameron gazed up from his notes to make eye contact for a moment, then looked back down and continued writing. “Gilchrest’s gone. Took off just before I got here.”

“
Anybody out looking for him?”

Cameron looked up again, this time shooting him a what-do-
you-
think
sort of expression.

“
Can’t take anything for granted anymore,” Frank said, crossing his arms and looking around at the crime scene. Then he looked in on Cameron. “What about at the hospital, the other victim?”

“
Christina Hawkins,” Cameron said, “Raped, beaten, stabbed … and dead. We lost her en route to the hospital.”

“
Never made it.”

“
Never stood a chance.” Cameron replied. “She was in bad shape
.
”

Frank opened the door and got in. He stared out at the scene for a moment, then at Cameron. “So tell me. How come Gilchrest didn’t kill his family?”

“
Oh, he tried, ‘cept the neighbor, Sam Johnson, put a stop to it. Cowboy style. Ran inside firing off shots with his rifle. Stanley tried to shoot back but couldn’t match the firepower.” Cameron nodded toward the house. “Took off out the back door.”

“
Idiot
. Who the hell told him to go play Rambo?”

“
He cast himself in the role,” Cameron said. “A little sooner and I probably could have gotten things under control,
and
got Stanley into custody. Now he’s running around town, gun and all
.
”

“
Or someplace else,” Frank said. He opened the glove box and started rifling through. “Put a call out to everywhere within a fifty-mile radius of here. Make sure they’re on the lookout for him. We need to cover our bets in case he’s headed out of town.”

“
Already took care of it.”

“
Good,” said Frank, continuing his search of the glove compartment.

Cameron watched with bothered interest. “Something I can help you with there?”

Frank pulled out a wad of papers, tossed it onto the floor. “Antacid. I need an antacid.”

A thought crossed Cameron’s mind, then, a shadow of apprehension seemed to follow. Frank looked up and noticed. “Don’t worry … it’s
not
ulcers—it’s heartburn.”

“
Wasn’t thinking about that. Was thinking about something else.”

“
What’s that?”

“
Christina Hawkins.”

“
What about her?”

“
Not just her … how she was raped. How she was killed.”

“
Beat the hell out of her … right?”

“
Yeah. Did that. But didn’t stop there.”

Frank shook his head.

Cameron looked at Frank for a good ten seconds before he spoke. “After he smashed in her face, and
after
he snapped her neck in two,
then
he went on to rape her. But just raping her—at least in a conventional manner— apparently wasn’t enough…”

“
I don’t—”

He used a knife … to penetrate her.”

Frank shook his head, seemed to draw a blank.
“What the hell kind of sick fuck…?
”

“
Don’t have to tell you what that did to her insides … sure you can imagine.”

Frank said nothing after that. He didn’t have to.

Chapter
Seventy-Eight

6623 Hunter’s Run

Faith, New Mexico

Kyle went to bed, her mind feeling like a windmill set on high speed and spinning out of control. Faith was coming apart, seams and all.

She needed Bethany’s help, and she needed it fast.

Kyle turned off the lamp beside the bed and laid her head on the pillow. In her mind, she tried to create vibrations, hoping to attract the little girl—hoping to get the information she so desperately needed.

Within minutes, sleep came.

And for the first time since this all had started, so did her dreams, at the perfect moment.

A familiar, bright, and over-lit hallway, almost blinding, and a nurse moving a patient. Roughly. She pushed the gurney, racing around the corner so quickly that the patient nearly slid right off, his legs flopping to one side as they made the sharp turn. A quick shift in direction corrected the problem, sliding him the other way. He let out a sorrowful moan, but his face revealed no emotion, remaining expressionless, vacant.

The nurse gripped onto the metal handles with small, bony hands, barely able to reach around them. Her leathery skin drew tight over protruding knuckles and gnarled blue veins that resembled shiny fish scales.