Sleep Tight

Chapter 27

He'd blindfolded her-something Gillian knew killers did to depersonalize, disorient, and control their victims.

Fear heightened her senses as the trunk lid groaned open.

She smelled his nervous sweat, heard his rapid breathing; she smelled the rubber of the spare tire beside her, and the heavy dark stench of burnt engine oil. She felt his fingers wrap around her arm.

He pulled her from the trunk. Her legs, unprotected in cotton pajama pants, dragged across the metal latch, scraping her shinbone.

He shoved her forward, a hand to her back, one on her arm. She turned her head, listening to the echoes of his steps, feeling cold cement under her bare feet.

They were inside a building.

A garage?

Without warning, she was lifted into the air. She felt the thud of her weight against his chest, heard him strain as he carried her up a short series of steps. The way she was being held compressed her lungs, making it hard to breathe.

Had they parked in a garage attached to a house?

If so, that would explain how he got his victims inside without being noticed.

He shoved her down on something hard-a wooden chair. Deftly, he taped her legs to the chair legs, the sound of ripping tape as big in her head as a tree being hit by lightning.

Even though she couldn't see anything, she had the oddest feeling that she was viewing the scene from a distance, from a safe location far away. And suddenly it struck her as funny, hysterical. She almost expected her abductor to start saying things like, "I been lookin' fer a gal like you. Pa's gonna be mighty happy."

Instead he said, "I'm going to remove the tape from your mouth, but if you scream, if you make any kind of noise at all, I'll hit you-then I'll put the tape back on your mouth. Do you hear me?"

Had she heard a hint of a drawl, or was it just her imagination?

The hysteria was building. She couldn't get the hillbilly movie out of her head. If he removed the tape, she was afraid she might laugh.

"Do you understand?"

Frantically, Gillian shook her head. Don't take off the tape. I might laugh. I don't think you'll like it if I laugh.

He repeated his earlier warning, then removed the tape in one swift jerk. The stinging pain halted the initial threat of laughter, but then bubbles started to rebuild.

She'd once heard about an innocent woman who'd been convicted of a crime because she couldn't stop laughing on the witness stand. The jurors had mistaken her hysteria for delight over what she'd done.

Gillian held it as long as she could, but finally the laughter exploded. She felt as if she were watching herself from far away, watching as she threw back her head, sucking in lungfuls of air as she laughed, unable to stop herself. She was like one of those ridiculous laughing boxes.

"What are you doing?"

She'd hoped to be more mature and professional about this. She'd hoped, when the time was right, to say intelligent, understanding, sympathetic things that would weaken his defenses so he would see her as a person, maybe see her as someone he could talk to, eventually confide in. In one scenario, she'd imagined talking him into turning himself in. Instead, she was laughing her ass off.

The blow came out of the darkness, striking her in the side of the face, knocking her and the chair to the floor. She tasted blood.

She heard the tear of tape, smelled the glue as he slapped a fresh piece over her mouth. Leaving her lying on the floor, he kicked the chair once, twice. Behind the blindfold, she squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for another blow. It didn't come. Instead, she heard his heavy footsteps as he walked away.

She'd laughed at him. Laughed at him.

The stairs were narrow, and his shoulders barely fit as he took the winding flight to the second story. Years ago, the small wooden steps had been painted mint green. They were still in good shape. The wallpaper, with its huge red flowers, had yellowed, though. Near the ceiling were drip marks where winter ice dams had caused water damage.

He loved the house. He felt safe in the house.

But at the moment it gave him no comfort. He felt sick to his stomach, sick and confused.

He'd thought she was the one until she laughed at him.

Upstairs, the hallway floor was made of thin strips of varnished oak that had also yellowed over the years. In the center of the floor was a tacked-down runner of wool carpet. The walls were covered with the same wallpaper as the narrow stairway. Flowers everywhere.

Four empty bedrooms lined the hall. There were another two downstairs. His sister told him that the house had been a stagecoach stop, and she'd even pointed to a couple of holes in the wall where she said somebody had been shot and killed. She knew the entire story, even the names of the people involved, and she used to tell it to him whenever he asked.

Historians referred to it as the Poplar Grove Massacre. He never knew how it could be a massacre when only two people got killed, but that's what they called it.

He went to the last bedroom, the floorboards creaking under his boots. The door always stuck. As he pushed, it made a shimmying sound, then creaked open.

The room looked the way it had the day his sister left. The bed was covered with a white chenille spread. Next to it was a matching walnut dresser and mirror. There was floral wallpaper here too, and bowls of dried rosebuds. At the vanity was her brush, comb, and mirror set lying neatly at an angle. What would she think when she came home and saw everything unchanged? Would she laugh and say he was foolishly sentimental?

If she laughed, it would be a tender, loving laugh, not the laugh of the girl downstairs, not a cruel laugh.

In the closet, he slid hangers along the large wooden dowel, going through the dresses she'd left behind. "All terribly outdated, I'm afraid," she'd told him once. "I don't know why I keep them."

But she kept everything. That's how she was. He'd once read an article about a woman who never threw anything out. Her house was so full of junk that you couldn't get through it without crawling. He'd shown the article to his sister, telling her that's what was going to happen to her if she didn't watch out. But he really hadn't minded. He loved her idiosyncrasies.

Some of the dresses were really costumes, left over from the days when she'd been part of a vaudevillian-type act that spent summers traveling from one small town to another.

He was searching for something sedate, because after all, clothes made the woman. He found a pink dress. The top looked almost like a man's shirt, but the bottom half was full and long. He pulled it out, then found an apron to go over it.

He wasn't anxious to see the girl again-she'd been mean to him. But he didn't have time to waste hiding upstairs. He had to make things happen. Before leaving the room, he debated about undergarments, finally deciding on a slip and pair of hose. Downstairs, he found the girl where he'd left her-lying on her side, unable to move.

He lifted her upright, settling the chair legs firmly on the floor.

She was going to be the one, he told himself. She had to be the one, even if he had to shove her into the mold. But still he hesitated when it came time to take off her blindfold so he could dress her. At the last minute, he pulled his ski mask over his head.

He didn't want her to see his face yet. That way their relationship would remain impersonal.

He removed her blindfold.

For a moment, she kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut, as if expecting him to hit her again.

"I'll hit you only when you do something wrong," he explained. "If you disobey, you get punished."

She opened her eyes.

It was the first time he'd gotten a really close look at her.

She was perfect.

Small-boned and delicate, with eyes as blue as delphiniums. Of course, right now those eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed, but that was understandable. He was sure she would look much better when she was cleaned up and rested.

"Let's try the tape again. What do you think?"

She nodded.

He jerked off the tape.

She flinched and gasped, then pressed her lips together.

It seemed she could be trained.

He was sorry to see that the tape left red marks on her skin. He was sorrier to see that her mouth was swollen, her cheek discolored from his blow, chin bruised. He brushed away the guilt, turned and filled a glass with water. With his back to her, he opened a brown prescription bottle and added a few drops of liquid to the Water. It was a cocktail of his own invention, pentobarbital mixed with morphine. To that he added three green drops of mint flavoring. He returned to the girl and lifted the water to her lips.

Gillian took two small swallows before noticing the bitterness. She pulled back, remembered the drugs that had been found in the blood of two of the victims. "I have to go to the bathroom," she told him. Maybe she could make herself throw up.

He led her down a hall into a small, windowless room. "I really shouldn't undo your hands," he said, "because you haven't earned my trust. But let's say this will be another test."

He pulled a pocketknife from his brown canvas pants, flicked open a blade, and sliced the tape, freeing her hands. Then he shoved her into the bathroom and locked the door from the outside.

She used the toilet, then looked at her reflection in the mirror above the sink. Her face was bruised, her lip swollen. She kept staring. She was trying to recall something important she'd planned to do when the room began to move and the floor began to slant. She grabbed the edge of the white porcelain sink. It dissolved under her hands, and she collapsed.

The key turned in the lock. The door opened. She felt his hands under her armpits. With her feet and legs trailing behind like dead weight, he dragged her across the floor.

Six hours after receiving Mary's call, Anthony arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Luckily a couple of rookie NCAVC agents had been eager to do the fieldwork on his newly assigned Utah infant abduction case. They would stay in contact, faxing him information as they received it.

Immediately upon landing, he called Mary to let her know he was in town. "Where are you now?" he asked, heading down the escalator to pick up his checked luggage.

"At Gillian's house." She gave him the address and directions.

"I'll be there as soon as I can." He folded his phone and slipped it into the pocket of his black trench coat, retrieved his luggage from the carousel, and cut over to the car rental counter.

The heavy afternoon traffic hadn't yet hit. He was able to get on 35W without any trouble. He headed north, toward downtown Minneapolis, the U of M, and Dinkytown.

He had a problem with the one-way streets and ended up finding the address after two wrong turns.

Cars were parked in front of the house. The yard was surrounded by yellow crime-scene tape. Beyond the tape were clusters of people, reporters, video camera technicians, some just hanging around, taking in the sights.

The day was brilliantly sunny, about fifty degrees. When he stepped into the street, the crisp air was welcome after the stuffiness of the car. His stomach growled, but he ignored it as he edged through the mob of people, flashing his ID when necessary.

"Ooh, FBI," a black girl said, pausing between each letter and batting her eyes in mock admiration. She had a hundred-dollar braided hairdo and fifty-dollar, mile-long, curved red fingernails. "Lookie. FBI."

Her lack of respect didn't make him mad. Quite the contrary. He admired her don't-take-shit attitude. She would never be a victim.

"Excuse me, ladies." He squeezed past while they continued to check him out.

In the yard, a team of workers had established a string grid and were going over every square inch, raking and vacuuming the grass for anything that may have dropped from the kidnapper. Another officer was crouched on the ground, making a cast of a footprint.

Anthony found Mary inside. She was wearing jeans, a white shirt with untucked tails, and a gray sweater. Her hair hadn't been brushed, and she wasn't wearing any makeup. As soon as she saw him, she hurried over.

He grasped both her cold hands and rubbed them between his.

"Anthony-thank you so much for coming."

It was unsettling, seeing her in the role of the victim's family member. A battle was going on inside her between professional FBI agent and hurt, bewildered sister. The bewildered sister was winning. He wanted to put his arms around her. Instead, he released her hands and asked, "Have they found anything?"

"Fibers that they've taken to the lab. They were navy blue, like the others. Officers are going door to door, conducting interviews. A couple of witnesses identified a photo of Tate, saying they saw him hanging around on more than one occasion. They found some minute bits of mud on the carpet that they're sending to the University of Minnesota's agricultural campus to see if anyone there can determine where the mud came from."

"Fingerprints?"

"All over the place. They lifted one set that didn't match anybody we know of who's been here. Those are being fed to databases right now."

"What about the footprint outside?"

"Left by a work boot. They think it might belong to a man. Any man. Maybe our man. You know how that is. This house is next to a college campus. A lot of traffic goes through the yard."

"Where's your mom?"

"Home. Agents and police are there tapping the phone and setting up recording equipment in case he tries to call."

"He won't."

"I told them that, but we have to do something. They're also going to tap Gillian's phone."

Exhaustion was written on her pale, drawn face, and he asked, "When did you last eat?"

"I don't know. Yesterday, I guess. I haven't even thought about it."

"Let's go down the street and get something. You can fill me in at the same time."

"I don't think I even brushed my hair."

He smoothed out a couple of strands. "You look fine."

They were leaving when Ben came bursting in. "Is it true? Did he take Gillian?"

"Yes," Mary told him.

"Oh, man!" Ben put both hands to his head. "I can't believe it! I fucking can't believe it! This can't be happening! Shit! Oh, shit!"

"Calm down," Anthony told him.

"Calm down! How can you say that? How can you both stand there looking so… so not busy? When you know as well as I do what is happening right now! She's being tortured! Her fucking eyes are being cut out! Do something! You have to do something!"

Mary's face turned ashen, and Anthony thought she might pass out. Before Ben could do any more damage, Anthony grabbed him roughly by the arm and steered him out the door, practically throwing him down the steps. "In your present mental state, you have no business being here," he said coldly. "You aren't helping anybody."

"Neither are you! How could this happen? You said the guy was in jail! You said everybody was safe. That Gillian was safe. Well, you were wrong! Wrong!"

"Hitchcock confessed," Anthony said. "He fit the profile. Evidence pointed to him."

"You people are supposed to know more than the rest of us!"

"You're overreacting."

"Overreacting? You're underreacting." He began to cry. "She's dead! You know it and I know it! She's already dead!" Sobbing, he turned and ran.

The door slammed, and Mary came to stand beside Anthony on the porch. "Should somebody go after him?" Her voice sounded tight, as if she might fall apart any second. He'd never seen Mary cry. He didn't want to.

In the distance, two blocks away, Ben was still running. "Let him go," Anthony said angrily. "Let him run himself into exhaustion."

"He was just saying what everybody else is thinking."

"Well, he's wrong." Anthony turned so he could see her face. Don't cry. Please don't cry. "About Gillian. You know that, don't you?"

Mary pressed trembling fingers to her mouth. Tears filled her eyes.

Anthony put his arms around her and pulled her close. He wanted to say they would find her, and when they did she would be okay. But that would be a foolish promise to make. Mary, more than anybody, knew things could get bad. Really bad.

He pressed his lips against her hair, against her head. She was almost his height, but she was so frail, so vulnerable. "Come on." With his arm around her, they walked down the sidewalk.

The cafe wasn't crowded, and Anthony ordered sandwiches for both of them. As they waited for their food to arrive, Mary composed herself enough to fill him in on what she knew.

"Gillian was able to talk him out of killing Holly," Anthony said. "Which means she has some influence and control over him."

"I know. I keep telling myself that."

When her food arrived, she grimaced. She wasn't sure if she could get any of it down, and even less sure she could keep it down.

"What we have working for us is Gillian," Anthony said. "She read the profile. She studied him. She knows him. She also knows who he wants her to be. She can be his ideal woman. She can be perfect for him. She's going into this armed with knowledge the other giris didn't have, and I think her chances of coming away are good."

"That's what I've been thinking, but I needed to hear you say it."

Anthony waited until she looked up and met his gaze. "You probably still see her as your little sister, but I saw a young, capable, smart woman who can stand up to this guy."

Mary nodded, her expression strained. Then she pulled out her phone and entered a speed-dial number. "Mom? Anthony's here with me. He has something to tell you." She handed the phone to him. "Tell her what you just told me."