Crime Scene Cover-Up, page 16
“The local police are conducting a town-wide search,” Eric said. “An Amber Alert has gone out.”
“Can you take us to where you found the purse and point us toward the park? We’ll start questioning people to see if they saw anything.”
Eric patted Neil’s shoulder. “Sure, my friend. It will be faster to walk. The park is just two blocks up and around a corner.”
Arielle remained silent as they walked side by side. If this was tearing Neil apart, he couldn’t imagine what it was doing to her. He wished he could hold her some more.
Eric pointed to the place on the sidewalk where he’d found Denise’s purse. There were no houses close by. If anyone had seen anything, they would have been driving or walking by.
“She tossed that purse as a sign to us. My mom was married to a cop for years. Dad taught her all kinds of stuff.”
“Mitchell must have taken them at gunpoint,” Neil said. “How else could he have gotten away so cleanly and quickly?” From where they stood, Mitchell would have had a partial view of Eric’s house. He could have been watching and waiting for them to leave.
Arielle massaged her forehead.
Neil reached out for her, rubbing her upper arm. “You okay?”
“What is he planning on doing to them?”
“The guy knows he’s caught and he’s getting desperate. That Amber Alert will make it even harder for him to leave the county.”
“That doesn’t mean Mom and Zoe will be unharmed. It could mean the exact opposite.”
Neil wrapped an arm around her back and squeezed her shoulder. It did concern him that Mitchell hadn’t contacted them yet with some kind of demand, but he didn’t want to say that to Arielle.
“What if this is just about revenge, not making some sort of deal? He just wants to hurt me in the worst way possible. There’s no telling what he will do.” Arielle sounded like she might start to cry again.
Eric stood close to both of them. “I know this is close to unbearable.” He gave Arielle a hug. “I think the best way I can help is to head back to the house. I’ll call everyone I know, and we’ll search this little town top to bottom.”
“Let us know if you learn anything more,” Neil said. “Maybe the city cops can pick up the trail.”
“You do what you have to. Peggy and I will be back at the house. We’ll be praying and making calls to get as much help as we can in place. And we’ll let you know if we hear anything at all.” Eric walked back up the street.
Before Eric had gotten half a block away, Arielle’s phone rang. She shook her head. “I don’t know this number.” She pressed the talk button.
“Hello.” Arielle’s forehead wrinkled. “Is someone there? Who is this?”
EIGHTEEN
“Arielle?”
The voice on the other end of the line was faint. “Mom, is that you?” Arielle asked.
He mom spoke in a frantic whisper. “He’s right next door.”
“What do you mean? Where are you? Is Zoe...” She couldn’t bring herself to ask the question.
“He’s coming back. Small room, rose wallpaper, dust, doorknobs missing.”
The line went dead. Her stomach had tied up into a tight ball.
Neil leaned close to her. “Arielle?” He cupped his hand on her upper arm.
She brought her trembling hand to her mouth. She could not fully process what she had just heard. “He has my mother in an old, dusty room. She said the doorknobs were missing.”
Neil shook his head. “That’s all she could tell you?”
“Can they trace the call?”
“Sure, but that will take some time,” Neil said. “I think we need to figure out where she is faster than that. Did you hear any noises, or did she say anything else?”
“The wallpaper had roses on it.” Arielle shook her head. “It sounds like someplace old, abandoned.”
That could be a hundred places in the county. They did not have the time or manpower to check every one. They had to find a way to narrow it down. “Missing doorknobs, meaning they were removed?”
“Who would want old doorknobs? Why remove them?”
He had a vague memory of the estate auction place having things that looked like they had been taken out of old houses. “I wonder if that estate auction place did salvages of abandoned places. Doorknobs would be one of the things they would take.”
“I’ll call them and ask.” She stared at her phone, trying to quell the rising terror that made it hard to focus.
Neil’s voice filled with compassion. “Let me make the call.” He lifted the phone out of her hand and scrolled through until he found the number.
For Zoe, she needed to remain calm. Her mother had had the presence of mind to grab Mitchell’s phone when she got the chance. That didn’t mean Denise was okay. This kind of anxiety wasn’t good for a woman with a heart condition.
God, help us get to them before it’s too late.
Arielle listened to Neil’s one-sided conversation as she struggled not panic. It sounded like they were on the right trail.
“Yes, I know where that is...Yes, thank you. You’ve been very helpful.” He clicked off the phone and walked toward the car. “Come with me. We need to hurry.” He burst into a trot, and she kept up with him.
The two city cops were no longer outside Eric’s house.
Once they were in the car, he handed her back her phone. “She gave me three possible locations where they had recently salvaged old buildings. My guess is he went to the one closest to here. From the time we saw him to the time we got the call from Eric was not very long.”
“Where is that?”
“A hundred years ago, there was a little town that was abandoned once the railroad didn’t go through there anymore. There are still some buildings standing.” Neil turned the car around and rolled toward the street. “We can’t do this alone. Call Agent Ferris, Greg and anyone who can make it there quickly.” He handed her his phone. “The part-time deputies, Charlie and Lee, are in my phone as well. Tell them we think he is hiding out at the Telluride ghost town. They will know where it is.”
This was a hostage situation. If they were doing it by the book, a tactical team and negotiator would have been brought in. On a gut level, she knew they didn’t have that kind of time. “How long does it take to get there?”
“For us, less than twenty minutes. Depending on where the others are in their search, it should take them about the same amount of time.”
After Arielle made the calls, the drive on back country roads went by in a blur. Greg, Agent Ferris and Charlie all said they would get there as fast as they could and agreed to remain out of sight and just watch the place for activity if they arrived before Arielle and Neil did.
The trees that lined the road went out focus as she fought to not give in to the rising terror she felt. She pulled her phone out and stared at the screen. The second her mother saw the opportunity, she’d grabbed Mitchell’s phone. The number was still on there. No doubt it was a phone the Mitchell would toss if he managed to escape.
She lifted her head. It was hard to think in the logical, free-of-emotion way she’d been taught as a profiler when the safety of her daughter and mother was concerned. “Everything Mitchell Sandburg does is calculated.”
Neil glanced over at her and then turned his attention back to the road. “Yes, so what are you thinking?”
“Using arson to burn up forensic evidence, taking the job at the pawnshop so he had a view of the sheriff’s offices. All of that reveals someone who is meticulous in planning his crimes.”
“You also said he gets a sick thrill out of watching the fallout from the crimes he commits. So there’s an emotional component.”
She nodded. “It may be that his pride has been wounded because we’re so close to catching him. His thinking may be distorted. Maybe he thought by killing me, the investigation would go away.” It helped to talk things though with Neil. If the killer was at this ghost town, they couldn’t just show up. They had to have some sort of strategy.
“Or maybe his ego is just so twisted and inflated that he saw you as an obstacle that kept him from killing.”
Her throat got tight. “That’s just it. People are objects to him. When they are no longer useful, he gets rid of them.”
“Arielle, we will get your mother and Zoe out of this alive.”
Fear gripped her heart so tight, she couldn’t form the words to respond right away. “I just wonder if he left that phone where my mom could grab it on purpose to lure us there.”
Neil slowed down as the road became bumpier and then turned to gravel. “We’re getting close. Has anyone texted that they are in place?”
She looked at Neil’s phone. “Agent Ferris is there. And the other two are within five minutes.”
“Ask Agent Ferris where he parked.”
She texted him. “He says he’s back in the trees. He can see the abandoned railroad car from where he’s at. The ghost town is beyond that.”
Neil nodded. “I know how to find him. Text the others and tell them to park there as well. We will have to approach the area with caution and do it in some sort of two-by-two formation to see if we can figure out where they are before we make a move. What do you think?”
She nodded. “We need to use extreme caution.” If Mitchell thought he was caught, there was no telling what he would do to the two people she loved most in the world.
“Like you said, maybe his intent was to lure us there.” Neil turned the wheel so he veered off the road. The SUV rolled over some bushes. Agent Ferris’s car came into view, tucked back in the trees and barely visible if she hadn’t been looking for it.
Agent Ferris walked over to them before they had even gotten out of the car. “I did a little looking around the curve in the railroad tracks. There’s a bunch of buildings. What is this place, anyway?”
“It was a railroad stop. The last resident moved out about 1960,” Neil said.
Arielle gazed up the railroad tracks. “Did you see any sign that our suspect is here?”
Agent Ferris shook his head. “No sign of life anywhere.”
“Let’s split up and move in. Arielle will stay with me.” He looked at Agent Ferris. “Text if you see anything. I can communicate with Charlie and Greg via radio.” He pulled his phone out. “I’ll let the other guys know that is the plan.”
“I’ll circle around the back if you two want to work your way along the railroad track.” Agent Ferris pulled his gun and took off, dropping behind the first cluster of bushes that provided some cover.
“Stay close to me,” Neil said to Arielle. “I can’t begin to sort through this guy’s motives. I only know that he has gone after you with intent to kill.”
They hurried along the railroad tracks, using the overgrown brush as cover as much as they could. They ran past the train car that Ferris had mentioned. The tracks curved around and what used to be Telluride came into view. There were crumbling buildings on both sides of the tracks, along with a dilapidated train platform.
Neil leaned close to her and whispered, “One thing the estate auction owner told me was that they only had permission to go into the buildings that weren’t deemed unsafe to enter.”
“Which ones?” Arielle saw a lopsided building that might have held stores at one time and a three-story one that might have been a hotel.
“The theater and a couple of private residences,” Neil said. His phone indicated he had a text. “The other two guys are here.” He explained the plan and where they needed to be to provide backup. They were far enough away that his voice would not carry to the ghost town. Greg would go the same way Agent Ferris had gone, and Charlie would come up along the railroad tracks.
While Neil talked, she watched for any sign of movement. Her phone rang. Thinking it was from Agent Ferris, she looked down at her phone. Her throat went dry. It was from the number her mother had used—Mitchell Sandburg’s burner phone. She pressed the connect button and put it on speaker so Neil could hear it as well.
“Time for you to die, Agent Olson. But first a little fun.”
She shuddered as though hit by a blast of cold wind.
Neil leaned closer to her, shaking his head.
Mitchell hung up.
A second later her phone made a noise. She pressed the button that opened the text.
A picture of her mother tied up. Duct tape on her mouth.
She tilted the phone so Neil could see the photo. Where was Zoe?
She shook her head. “What does he even mean by that? Do you think he knows we found his hiding place? I’m going to call him.”
“No.” Neil grabbed her hand that held the phone. “Look at the photo. Those are old theater seats she’s sitting in.”
She looked again. The seat had been pulled from its row in the theater and was pushed against a wall with rose-patterned wallpaper.
“Let’s surround the place and find your mom and Zoe. Get this guy once and for all.”
Arielle nodded in agreement, but she could not let go of the concern that something bad had happened to her daughter. Was Mitchell saving that picture as the final torment?
* * *
Fending off rising panic, Neil radioed Greg and Charlie as to the plan.
Greg’s voice came through the radio static. “Ferris and I are close together. I will let him know the plan. He can take the east side. I’ll move to the north side of the theater. There’s probably more than one entrance.”
When Neil looked over his shoulder, Charlie was about twenty feet behind them. Each of them would take a side of the building and look for a way to gain entry. He radioed Charlie to take the west side of the building. “Arielle and I will go in the front.”
Seeking out as much cover as they could, they moved toward the theater.
Did Mitchell know they were here, or had he just sent his first threat thinking his hiding place had not been found out? Hopefully, they would be able to surprise him.
They drew closer to the two-story theater. The windows on the first floor were all broken. The marquee had fallen off and was leaning against the wall. Broken glass littered the area in front of the entrance.
Arielle gave him the hand signal that she was ready to move toward the south side of the theater. She unclicked the strap on her holster that held her gun in place and headed toward the overgrown brush on the side of the theater.
He moved in, drawing closer to the big double doors that now hung on their hinges. He gave a final glance to the second-story windows but didn’t see any indication that anyone was up there.
Neil pulled his gun as he slipped into what once was the theater’s lobby. The place was covered in dust. He checked the ticket booth and then moved through the wide doors to the main theater.
Arielle stayed close behind him as they stepped into the auditorium. More than three-quarters of the seats were missing or stacked against the wall. Stuffing from the chairs was strewn across the floor. The silence was disconcerting. Had he been wrong about where that photo was taken? Though it was hard to tell, it looked like Denise was in a small space—a powder room, perhaps, or a wide hallway.
Using hand signals, they split off, each of them moving down a separate aisle toward the orchestra pit. Ferris emerged from backstage with his weapon drawn. That meant Greg and Charlie had not gained entry.
Neil pointed up, indicating that they needed to search the balcony and projection area. Two staircases led to the second floor. Neil and Arielle took one while Ferris went up the other. Agent Ferris searched the balcony while Neil and Arielle headed toward the projection room at the back.
Neil noticed that the doorknobs to the projection room were missing. He waited until Arielle took up a position on the other side of the door with her gun pointed toward the ceiling. He kicked the door, and it swung open, creaking as it did so. If the suspect was in there, he only had one way out.
He stepped inside, gun drawn. Broken pieces of furniture and some metal film canisters littered the floor. The old clothes, bedding and empty soda cans and food containers strewn around indicated that someone may have squatted there in the past. There were no windows, but the room had a viewing window where the projector would have been looked out on the theater below.
“This isn’t where they were kept. Mom would have been able to look through that opening and see the theater down below. That would have been the first thing she told me.”
Neil tried to fathom what was going on.
Ferris stood in the doorway. “Nothing. I checked the restrooms as well.”
Static came across Neil’s radio. He pulled it from his belt and pressed the talk button.
“I think I found the car he used to get here. This one has been driven recently. All the others around here are busted up and rusty.” Greg’s voice came across the line. He paused between each statement as though he was walking around the car looking at it. “A dark sedan. Looks like the guy had a flat.”
Through the radio, Neil could hear shots fired.
“Greg? Greg, are you okay?”
More shots.
NINETEEN
Arielle winced at the second volley of shots coming through the radio.
“Greg, are you there?” Neil’s voice filled with anguish as they hurried down the stairs.
Agent Ferris was right behind them. They stepped out the front entrance to the theater, only to be greeted by more gunshots, this time aimed at them. The sound indicated that the bullets had come from a rifle, not a handgun. They all pressed against the outside wall of the theater.
