Chapter 37
Aaron sped down the last of the tar road causing the trees and high grass to blur past, reflections of the night streaking over high gloss red paint. The car drifted into a side road as he shifted it into a sharp turn, the tail sending up a puff of dirt and pebbles.
He’d stopped at a supermarket and purchased a bank of hot phones, which he could use and then ditch. He unwrapped the first of the boxes and inserted the pay as you go card, dialing the number of the phone his brother was carrying. He hoped they’d made contact with the doctor by now - but nothing about this case was proving straight forward. The phone rang a few times before Raine picked it up.
“Hi Raine, Aaron here. Have you tracked the doctor yet?”
“Not yet. But we’re on it. You okay?”
“Yes, I need two things. First, put me on bluetooth speaker please.”
“Done.” Liam answered.
Aaron continued, “Listen to this? It’s the recording of Makayla’s audio from her tracker. Tell me what you hear.”
All three of them strained to listen to the recording.
Willow asked. “What is that, is she counting?”
“Yes.”
“And something about flowers and soil, and desert.” Liam noted.
“I have my team working on that, but it’s the…”
Raine spoke up now. “Counting.” Her tone stern, her eyes filled with purpose.
Liam glanced over at her, his brown eyes meeting her amber gaze with intent. “What are you thinking?”
Willow answered nonchalantly from the backseat. “Raine is a counter.”
There was silence, as if the brothers were waiting on an explanation.
“She’s self-soothing,” Raine said so matter-of-factly. “Aaron, she suffers from anxiety and she’s counting. I do it sometimes when I’m stressed.”
“Makayla? Anxiety? I don’t think so,” Aaron answered.
Raine snickered at the thoughts as she said them out loud. “Some people are really good at hiding it. You might not be aware of it, if she’s mastered managing it.”
Silence filled both cars.
“Play it again.” Raine insisted.
Raine lay her head back on the seat closing her eyes and listened to the counting, there were clear starts and stops, like reps.
“When do you count?” Liam interrupted her.
She thought back to the other morning. “The morning I found out Willow had been missing for two hours from her hospital bed.” She cleared her throat, feeling somewhat embarrassed. “I paced the waiting room, counted the steps from the wall to the door and so on.”
Then it hit her. “Your agent is giving us a virtual map,” Raine said, with rising hope. “She might be counting the ‘steps”, “she made air quotes. “, the layout of the place she is being held in.”
They all sat in contemplation.
“I don’t think that is helpful at this point.”
Liam was the one who spoke up. “So what if it is useful, I’ve seen McKenzie work brother, she’s highly…”
“Get to the point Liam.”
“She’s timing her transportation. Maybe the seconds from the time they left that tunnel. Tie that up with the clues she’s giving you of her surrounds.” He suggested.
“It’s certainly something to think about,” Aaron replied, not sounding entirely convinced.
“The second thing?” Liam asked, knowing his brother well.
“I need Raine to take a look at the files on that laptop, Liam. There’s something about the tattoos that’s been bugging me. I’m sure I would recognize it, if I saw it. Check the gangs tab.”
Raine was a quick study. “I found it.” The winged serpent was the third tattoo on file. Liam looked over and recognized the image from his days on the force.
“The gang used to traffic in weapons, but we caught most of the circle members. Not sure what happened to those left behind.”
“Think they’ve been recruited by The Devil’s Breath Killer?” Aaron asked as he put the pieces together.
Liam stroked his chin, beginning to see some of the same links as his brother. “What I do know is, this gang recruited out of foster care homes, encouraging kids to run away and join them. They were particular about the type of recruit. All victims of abuse. They sold them the promise of some kind of family structure and home.”
Raine had been scrolling through the files as the two brothers connected their ideas, and whilst doing so, something struck her. “Lorel Palmer was a victim of abuse,” she said, still half-forming her ideas. She went to counseling as a teenager for abuse by her stepfather. What if …”
Aaron caught on her trail of thought. “Valmer worked as a volunteer at various hospitals, perhaps…”
Raine concluded, “They might have met at one of these groups. Don’t hospitals in The States offer free counseling?”
“Sort of,” Aaron replied, the sound of his voice being swamped out by the recognizable sound of a helicopter rotary blade.
“You alright, bro?” Liam asked.
“I’m fine. It’s Bryce and Jarvis, as we planned. I gotta go. One last thing. Raine, you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Thank you. I understand why you did what you did for your sister, and I admire your loyalty. Envy it perhaps. If not for your mistakes we would not be on the trail of a dangerous killer.”
Raine was completely shocked by Aaron’s unexpected comments, and she wasn’t the only one given Liam’s face.
“Erm, thank you, I guess.”
Aaron clicked off the phone and opened the door, bracing himself for Bryce’s sour mood. His captain and Jarvis with the pilot ready for his departure. He’d pulled over at a given location behind a crescent of tall trees in a clearing of high grass. Wind whipped at his clothes and hair when he exited the car, the noise of the helicopter drowned out the sounds of their secluded surrounds. Bryce stood with his shoulders squared, a folded map tucked into the opening of his windbreaker. Jarvis nodded in greeting and placed a black FBI jacket over Aaron’s shoulders. He was handed an earbud. And tested its quality.
“Get me the map of those church tunnels,” he said to Jarvis.
Jarvis offered him a tablet.
His captain’s voice came over the earbud. “You cracked it?”
His eyes scanned the map as he said, “McKenzie’s audio might just have given us the way to get a location,” he said, thinking back to Raine’s theory.