Hunter/Prey

Epilogue

She woke up in bed.

It was quiet and peaceful, and the mattress under her was soft and comfortable, far from the hard and pricking cot of a prison cell. Both of her hands were heavily bandaged and there was surprisingly very little pain. If anything, she felt numbed all over, although from time to time there was a slight itching sensation from one of her ears. An IV drip-drip-dripped next to her bed. The clear liquid inside the bag was probably morphine or a damn fine substitute. A lone machine to her right occasionally beeped.

Every now and then she could hear a calm voice over a loudspeaker, and something clanking as it rolled past the door to her left. It was almost entirely dark inside the room except for a computer monitor next to a sink and a yellow night-light near the floor in front of her.

“Allie Krycek,” a familiar male voice said. “CPA, secretary, waitress, and I believe at one point you even worked as a nanny?”

Allie looked to her right at the man in the state trooper’s uniform, sitting on a long uncomfortable sofa next to the windows.

“I guess now we can add ‘vigilante’ to that list,” Harper said.

She could barely make him out in the semidarkness, but there was no mistaking that voice. Harper would have made a great hero in a Hollywood Western.

“How long?” she asked.

“A couple of days. You lost a lot of blood out there.”

“How did I get here?”

“We were looking for Beckard in the area when we heard the gunshots. He killed one of my troopers a few miles from where we eventually found you.”

“I heard dogs…”

“Apollo found you.”

“Apollo?”

“The dog.”

She gave him a confused look.

“The one that took a chunk out of Beckard in the cabin. He was helping with the search and picked up your scent. You’re lucky we had him out there, otherwise you might have bled to death before we found you in time.” He leaned slightly forward. “I’m curious. How long did it take?”

“What?”

“To lure him out.”

“Four months, one week, and five days.”

Harper chuckled. “Four months. Out there, driving back and forth. You’re a pretty impressive woman, Allie.”

“I had a lot of time on my hands.”

“I bet. If I was looking to hire someone who could do a little of everything, I’d give you a call. I guess when your sole goal in life is to find and kill someone, it doesn’t pay to get stuck in a long-term career.”

She wasn’t sure where he was going, and Allie was too tired to care. “Am I under arrest?”

“Now what would you be under arrest for?”

“Beckard.”

“You’re a hero. The state police don’t arrest heroes.”

Hero?

She wanted to laugh but didn’t have the strength to do even that. She said instead, “I was right. Beckard is the Roadside Killer.”

“Was, yeah. We’ve been turning his life inside out. Everything he was, everything he did…we know everything there is to know. There’s no doubt that he is — was — the Roadside Killer, and that he kept on killing long after we stopped looking for him. The national media is burning us alive at the stakes for that.” He sighed. “I guess we had it coming.”

“Do they know…?”

“About you? Yes and no.”

“Meaning?”

“They know you’re involved and that you were the one who killed him. But they don’t know everything. We made the decision not to tell them everything.”

“I was just another victim…”

“Yes. A vigilante would make great news copy, but it’s not going to be good for any of us, you included.”

“You said ‘we’ made the decision. Who is ‘we’?”

“Me. My commanding officer. His commanding officer. The governor. We. There’s going to be rumors, and some people won’t be able to keep their mouths shut. The media will ask and ask, but we’ll just keep denying it. Obviously, all of it depends on you.”

“Me…”

“Do you agree that it’s better for everyone if no one knew what you did out here? I mean, the truth. The whole truth?”

She smiled. “You won’t get any arguments from me.”

“Good. I’ll let my superiors know you’re on board. They’re going to be very relieved.”

“So it’s over…”

“It’s over.”

He smiled at her, and Allie just barely had the energy to return it.

“What now?” Harper asked.

“What do you mean?”

“What are you going to do now that it’s over? That Beckard’s in the ground?”

“I don’t understand…”

Harper looked amused. “How long have you been hunting Beckard, Allie?”

“A decade…”

“And in all that time, didn’t you ever wonder what you’d do after it was over?”

She opened her mouth to answer…but nothing came out.

Instead, Allie lay still and looked up at the ceiling, turning the question over in her head.

Finally, she said, “I don’t know. I didn’t think I’d be alive to even worry about what I’d do after this was all over.”

Harper stood up from the sofa. “Well, you got through it alive, Allie Krycek. After we introduce you to the media and everyone plays their part, you’ll have plenty of time to figure out what to do with the rest of your life.”

She watched him walk across the room and to the door. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.” The state trooper looked back at her, his pleasant smile visible against the glowing computer monitor nearby. “Get some rest. We have a long week ahead of us. I’ll be back with a couple of other people to get our stories straight in the coming days.”

“What about the kids? Rachel and Wade?”

“I’ve already talked to them and we came to an understanding, too. We’re going to keep their names out of the reports and from the media for as long as we can. They’re college kids. The last thing they want is to be associated with this for the rest of their lives.” The sergeant opened the door. “Get some rest, Allie. You deserve it.”

“What about the dog?”

“The dog?”

“What’s going to happen to Apollo?”

He shrugged. “He needs a new owner. When you’re up and walking again, swing by the pound and reintroduce yourself to him.”

He stepped outside and closed the door after him.

Allie looked after him for a moment before turning away and closing her eyes. She wasn’t really tired, but there was something about being in a hospital bed with a needle sticking out of her arm that made her sleepy. Sleep didn’t come right away, though. Instead, she asked herself the same question Harper had asked her.

What’s next?

For the first time in a long time, she didn’t dream about death and murder and blood.

She dreamt about Carmen instead.

They were young again. Carmen was happy and dancing, because there was nothing in this world she loved more than to dance. Which worked out for the both of them, because there was nothing in this world Allie loved more than to see Carmen happy…