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Trying to keep calm, Beth inhaled and blew out a long breath. “Must we stop him on a mountain pass? Can’t we wait until he hits the interstate or something?”
“It will be too easy for him to get away.” Styles gained on Cody as they reached the top of the hill.
Alongside the road were signs telling of a steep descent, slippery roads, and winding bends. Beth pulled out her weapon.“Drive up beside him. I’ll climb into the back seat and shoot him. It will be safer for everyone.”
“Do you know just how difficult it is to shoot someone in a moving vehicle?” Styles flicked her a glance. “We’ll try it my way just one more time. If it doesn’t work, we’ll follow him down the mountain and call Sheriff Bowman to block the highway.”
Shaking her head, Beth gritted her teeth as Styles moved closer to Cody’s vehicle. “He’ll drive right through a roadblock. He’s got nothing to lose.” She gripped the seat again, so hard her fingers ached. “We’ll need to call Bowman anyway if we leave Ryder’s jurisdiction. Do you know where the county line is around here?”
“Not right now, no.” Styles gripped the wheel and the engine roared as he pushed it to its limits. “I’ll need to get between those eighteen-wheelers. Hang on, it’s going to be a rough ride.”
They approached Cody’s vehicle at high speed, and through the mist Beth made out a convoy of eighteen-wheelers heading along the other side of the highway, moving fast despite the heavy sleet. Her heart was in her throat as Styles pulled the truck out and then attempted to tap the side of the van with the front of his truck. It was a familiar police maneuver that usually spun the other vehicle into the curb, but it didn’t work. Instead, Cody hit the brakes hard, sending steam and shredded tires flying off in all directions as he bounced to a halt. Without warning, he reversed toward them at high speed.
Suddenly Styles wrenched the wheel to one side. They slid across the highway, wheels spinning. Beth gaped in horror. Trapped between two eighteen-wheelers, they were doomed. The one advancing on them hit the brakes so hard the front bounced. Spinning the wheel, Styles accelerated, sliding the truck back into the opposite lane. Breathless, Beth hung on for dear life as they shot along the highway. In the side mirror, she made out Ryder coming up close behind them. Now out of thefog, he was coming in hot, sirens blaring and lights flashing. Seconds later, he ducked between two eighteen-wheelers and flashed past them in pursuit of Cody. Relentless, and traveling at high speed, Ryder rammed into the back of the van. Watching in horror as the vehicles stuck together for a few seconds, Beth sucked in a relieved breath as Ryder’s cruiser broke free and slowed alongside the guardrail. The impact sent Cody’s van veering out of control across the blacktop. In a squeal of brakes, Cody’s vehicle slammed head-on into an eighteen-wheeler in an explosion that shook the mountain.
Horrified, Beth gaped in disbelief as the front wheels of the massive vehicle swallowed up the van and ran over the top of it. In a relentless scream of metal, both vehicles careered twenty yards or more down the highway, leaving an oily slick. Cody’s van was as flat as a pancake. Beth ducked as a wheel bounced across the highway, barely missing the truck before leaping the siderail and vanishing into the mist. Bits and pieces of twisted metal littered the highway and pinged off the top of the truck. Oil and gas ran in multicolored streams across the soaking wet blacktop. In front of them, Ryder was climbing slowly from his vehicle unharmed. The driver of the eighteen-wheeler was swinging down from his cab shaking his head. Only one person hadn’t made it—Cody. Relieved everyone else had survived a horror wreck, Beth sighed and turned to Styles. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” Styles removed his hat and ran both hands through his hair. “Dammit, I wanted to talk to Cody and find out how he ticks. We had no choice. He needed to be stopped. Utilizing the PIT maneuver is normal procedure.” He turned to check Bear, but he was sitting up in his harness, eyes bright without a care in the world. “I’d better go and talk to people. We’ll need witnesses and their details.” He pushed on his hat. “This is Sheriff Bowman’s county. Call him and he’ll take over the investigation and get someone up here to clear the road.” He indicated to Bearwith his chin. “I’ll leave him with you. There’s glass and metal all over the road. I’m going to check what’s left of the van with Ryder.”
Deep inside, Beth wondered, just how many serial killers died by the hands of law enforcement without the benefit of a judge and jury. Cody’s death hadn’t been her doing but justice had been well and truly served for the many people he’d murdered and tortured. Strange how people perceived incidences like this wreck as natural justice but her way of removing monsters from society as a crime. Never, had she killed without absolute proof of guilt even if it meant becoming a victim. For her it was as simple as kill or be killed. The conception of normal people’s idea of justice, by allowing people like Cody to walk the streets again, confused her, but she’d try harder to understand them. She nodded to Styles. “Sure, Bear is fine with me and I’ll call the sheriff now.” She needed to say something complimentary to him. That’s what normal people did in situations like this to relieve the stress, didn’t they? He’d kept her safe and she appreciated his skills. Taking a breath, she looked at his weary face. “Great driving, by the way.”
“You weren’t just a little bit scared, huh?” Styles zipped up his jacket against the rain and shook his head. “I don’t believe I’ll ever figure you out, Beth.” Shoulders hunched, he headed into the mist.
She watched him pick his way around the debris strewn across the highway toward Ryder and smiled at Bear. “Just as well, huh?”
FORTY-FOUR
After turning the cleanup over to Sheriff Bowman’s team, Beth and Styles followed Ryder back to Rattlesnake Creek. Their statements could be completed later but right now they needed to assist Wolfe with processing the Cody home. They wanted answers and searching his house was the only way to discover more about the Convenience Store Killer. By the time they’d arrived, Wolfe had removed the body and was doing a forensic sweep of the crime scene. She pulled on protective gear and followed Styles and Ryder inside the house. The smell of death had increased and seemed to crawl along the passageway. She went to Wolfe’s side. “Find anything interesting?”
“If Cody killed her, he covered his tracks well.” Wolfe waved a hand around the room. “He lives here, so didn’t need to remove his prints. We found the murder weapon and it was wiped clean prior to use, and whoever wielded it wore gloves. They took a shower and washed everything in bleach. There are towels in the washer, which makes me lean toward Cody. Most killers wouldn’t have bothered to launder the towels. Again, they’ve been saturated in bleach, so no joy there for trace evidence. The killer understood the need to destroy DNA.” He moved to the kitchen sink and opened a cabinet. “This is a significant findbecause it ties in with the murders.” He held up a bottle of PCR Clean. “It’s not usual to have this product in a home in these parts.”
“We’ve found evidence as well in the wreck.” Styles held up a plastic evidence bag containing a gun with a suppressor attached. “If this matches the bullets taken from the victims, it will prove he was the Convenience Store Killer.”
“And I found a bunch of scratch cards in a bedroom upstairs”—Ryder held up evidence bags—“a pile of panties, and a small selection of women’s jewelry. If we can prove these belong to any of his abduction victims, it will be a home run on some of the cases at least.” He handed the evidence bags to Emily Wolfe with a smile and looked at Wolfe. “Can you get DNA from panties?”
“Yeah, unless he sprayed them as well.” Wolfe frowned. “I’ll give it my best shot.”
“Another thing, he called his aunt to ask her to drop by and bring his mom some cookies. I figure he wanted her to discover his mom’s body before he finished work.” Ryder pushed back his hat. “He’d set up an alibi. He went by TJ’s for takeout and made a point of saying he was going to the park. It was probably then he murdered his mom. I’m guessing he went back to the park and made sure he was seen. I don’t figure we need to look any further for another killer.”
“Maybe not.” Wolfe looked from one to the other. “I’ll give a cause and time of death, but it will be homicide by person or persons unknown. Unless you can prove otherwise. From what we know of Cody, it is likely he murdered his mom, but he was very smart. I’m guessing we’ll never really know the truth about him.” He sighed. “Jo Wells would have loved to delve into his mind.”
Trying to look sympathetic, Beth nodded. “Yeah, it’s a shame, but at least he can’t hurt anyone else now.”
When Styles’ phone buzzed, he indicated to her to follow him outside. “Who is it?”
“The director.” Styles handed her one of his earbuds. “Yes, sir.”
“The Tarot Killer has struck again. This time it’s law enforcement: Deputy Branch Dryer out of Mischief. I believe you had contact with him recently when you figured the murders there might be connected to your current case.”
“Yeah, he was one of the people at the sheriff’s office we came into contact with. As far as I recall, he was just a regular guy. We went to Mischief on a hunch as the murders occurred close by and we couldn’t ignore them. We examined the bodies to make a comparison.” Styles flicked a glance at Beth. “The MOs were completely different to our homicides and we had expert advice from Dr. Shane Wolfe to validate our decision to return to base. Do you have some reason to believe they were the work of the Tarot Killer?”
“No, not the girls’ murders. Dryer was found dead this morning, alone in his vehicle with a tarot card in his pocket. It could be poison. We’ve shipped his body out to Helena to undergo testing. Something was going down the night before his death. His cruiser is damaged, and at first we believed he’d suffered an injury or medical episode at the time, resulting in his death. When the doctor discovered the tarot card, the sheriff contacted me. No injury was found on Dryer, so I instigated further investigations into COD.”
So they’ve found Dryer. Another vicious killer bites the dust.Thrilled her plan had worked,Beth moved closer to Styles, needing to get involved. “This is Agent Katz, sir. The Tarot Killer is more of a vigilante. It would be a complete turnaround for him to murder an innocent. Do you figure it’s a copycat? He has been all over the media lately.”
“I had the same thoughts, Agent Katz, but it’s clear the Tarot Killer murdered him. The card on the body has been verified as the same card he uses, and none have been found anywhere else, and trust me, we’ve tried to locate the manufacturer. So unless he’s started murdering innocent cops, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, something went down between them. There must be a reason the Tarot Killer targeted law enforcement. He has an uncanny ability to track down killers, so I’ll need you in Mischief first thing in the morning to discover what the heck is going on there.”
“We have a local murder here, sir.” Styles stared up as sleet peppered his shoulders. “It’s tied in with the Convenience Store Killer. It’s his mom.”
