The Coldest Fear

He glanced back at the damaged statues. Bobbie watched as a trace sheet was spread on the grass and bones—small bones—were placed one by one onto the sheet by a forensic tech or a coroner. Near the statue with the missing head was another trace sheet with a lone human skull placed on it. A child’s skull.

A lump formed in Bobbie’s throat. What the hell happened here?

“Why don’t we go inside where we can speak in private?”

Bobbie drew her attention back to the lieutenant and followed him across the yard. The dogs in the kennels yapped even louder as they passed along the backside of the clinic. Durham led the way straight to the back porch of the house that was apparently part of the crime scene. More of that yellow tape adorned the perimeter. Durham tossed his keys to a passing officer and asked him to bring his briefcase inside. As Durham opened the door another forensic tech exited. Inside, the kitchen was clear of bodies and official personnel. No sign of foul play. No coppery smell of blood. The room was clean save for the scattering of dust used for collecting prints. Apparently, all the trouble was outside.

Durham settled his attention on her once more. “I guess I’m a little confused.”

“Because I’m a woman or because I’m younger than you expected?” Maybe there was another detective somewhere with the name Bobbie Gentry. But it was her cell phone number Durham had called.

“Have you ever consulted on a case in this jurisdiction?”

Bobbie shook her head. “Never.”

Maybe the call from Durham had been sheer coincidence. She thought of the name and address LeDoux had given her. No way. Whoever had given her name and number to Durham wanted her in Savannah as this case broke. But why? Wouldn’t be Nick. Weller? He was the most likely possibility. Could be LeDoux, but that option was doubtful. He’d already given her a reason to come to Savannah.

The officer returned with Durham’s briefcase and keys. Durham thanked him and placed his briefcase on the floor. He dug out a brown file folder. The edges were dog-eared as if the contents had been rifled through a thousand times. He spread the folder on the counter and flipped through a collection of photos—photos of children. The children ranged in age from three to five or six. Three boys, two girls. There was no particular consistency to their appearance. Dark hair, light hair, brown, blue, green eyes. With each photo Bobbie’s heart rate increased and the lump in her throat expanded.

The photos of the children were stamped with the word MISSING. She thought of the broken statues and the bones outside. Not anymore. These children were dead. Their remains were right out that door.

Damn.

A sheen of sweat rose on her skin.

“See here.” Durham pointed to a handwritten note in the file. “Detective Mike Rhodes, the detective in charge of this case back when the kids went missing, mentioned you in his notes.”

Sure enough, there was Bobbie’s name and cell phone number at the bottom of one of the detective’s reports. Her mouth dropped open when she read the date. Thirty-two years ago. Bobbie laughed. “I’m certain you don’t need me to point out that this report is dated three months before I was born. How many people had cell phones back then?”

Durham shrugged, his expression warning he was as stumped as she was. “Honestly, whether this was a cell number or a landline didn’t occur to me.”

“May I?” She indicated the note.

“Be my guest.”

Bobbie gingerly picked up the report and studied the handwriting in the upper portions and then her name and phone number. Whoever had added her contact info had taken great care to match the handwriting.

“This is a copy.” She placed the report back on the folder. “If we had the original we could prove my information was added more recently.” Like yesterday. She examined the pile of documents in the folder. Most appeared to be originals. Why was this one a copy?

“Yeah, I noticed that, too.” Durham considered her for a moment. “Why would anyone want me to call you about this case?”

Where to begin? “Well, Lieutenant, I’m afraid the only explanation I can give you will take some time and it’s complicated. Worse, I can’t guarantee you it’s the right one.”

Durham closed the file and tucked it back into his briefcase. “You had a long drive. Did you have a chance to stop for lunch?”

Food was the last thing on her mind. “I didn’t, but I’m good.”

“Well, I’m not. There’s a hole-in-the-wall café a few blocks from here. Why don’t you fill me in over lunch and my unit will take care of things here for half an hour or so.”

Bobbie would prefer to be out there determining how many sets of remains had been discovered and what they could possibly have to do with Weller, but this was Durham’s case and his town. “Just one question. Is the person who lives here or runs the clinic somehow involved in what’s happening in the pet cemetery?”

“Unfortunately that’s what it looks like.” Durham hitched his head toward the other room. “See for yourself.”

She followed the lieutenant into the living room and then down a narrow hall. At the first door on the left he gestured for her to go in ahead of him. Bobbie stalled in the open doorway. An adult male victim was on his knees in front of the toilet, his body was nude and his head was deep in the bowl. Bobbie leaned nearer to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was. A grayish powder was splattered on the white vinyl floor. Urine had trickled from between the vic’s legs and joined the powdery substance. As she leaned closer still, her eyebrows went up. The toilet bowl had been filled with what appeared to be concrete and the vic’s head had been shoved into the mixture and held there until it hardened.

Bobbie glanced back at Durham. “Homeowner?”

Durham nodded. “Dr. Bill Sanders. He’s lived in Savannah his whole life. He built the veterinary clinic next door. His motto was to never turn away a sick animal whether the owner could pay or not. He was a highly respected member of his church. The first to volunteer whenever help was needed. We’re all in shock.”

“Does he live here alone?” Her mind instantly ran down the possibilities of how this man, Sanders, could be connected to Weller.

“The wife’s down the hall, in the other bathroom. They just got the body out of the tub. The coroner is having a look at her. We called in both coroners for this one.”

Bobbie was surprised they had two coroners. Montgomery was lucky to have one part-time coroner.

“Nancy Sanders was a retired elementary school teacher. No children. Everybody always said the animals were their kids,” Durham went on. “Neither of them ever had so much as a parking ticket. Their killer didn’t seem to be interested in anything of value in the house. Her jewelry is on the dresser. A couple hundred bucks in cash was left in his wallet. Credit cards. As best we can tell, nothing’s missing.”

Like the scene at Zacharias’s home...except with bodies and the remains.

Durham showed Bobbie the way past a small bedroom to the end of the hall where what had likely once been two bedrooms had been remodeled into a master suite. Two men, one carrying a portable jackhammer and the other armed with a large crowbar, filed out of the room. A trace sheet had been placed on the floor near the bed. The female vic, early-to mid-sixties, was stretched out there. Most of her nude body was covered in bits and pieces of gravel-like fragments. The grayish film and fragments coated her hair and face.

“They had to jackhammer the concrete from around her. She was submerged up to her eyes.”

Gruesome way to go. Had the victims, including the children, still been alive when they were encased in that concrete? Suppressing a shudder, Bobbie shifted her attention back to the lieutenant. “Have you spoken to the original detective in charge of the case?”

“He died five years ago. Both the primary detectives who investigated those missing kids back when the case was active are gone now. Last year we started a new Cold Case Unit but they hadn’t gotten around to this one yet.”

“Were the Sanderses persons of interest thirty-two years ago?”

Durham shook his head. “According to the file, they were instrumental in organizing community search parties and raising awareness of what folks should be doing to keep their children safe.”

“Obviously they were instrumental in a whole lot more.”

“Obviously.”

“The remains found in those statues are the children you showed me?”

“We haven’t started the official ID process but we have reason to believe they are, yes.”

“Why were the statues here—in a pet cemetery?” Bobbie assumed the statues had been some sort of tribute to the missing children but it seemed an odd place for a memorial. Besides, the cemetery appeared far older than the clinic.

“The way I always heard it Dr. Sanders insisted he was concerned the community would forget about the children so he created a memorial to them. Three of the five kids who went missing brought their pets to his clinic. That pet cemetery had been in his family for generations.” He glanced at the dead woman on the floor. “This is completely crazy.”

Murder was always heinous, but when it involved a child it was unspeakable. What did this decades-old case have to do with Weller? Or Nick? Or her, for that matter? There had to be a connection, otherwise Bobbie would not have been drawn into the investigation. “Lieutenant, I’m guessing you know who Dr. Randolph Weller is and that he recently escaped the federal prison in Atlanta.”

“I don’t know what that has to do with this.” He shrugged, glanced around as if to ensure no one was listening, then added, “But I damned well intend to find out. You ready for that lunch now?”

“Sure.”

Bobbie assumed he had his reasons for wanting to keep their discussion off the record. Durham claimed his briefcase, informed another detective that he needed to take a break and then he ushered Bobbie to his vehicle, a silver Chevy Tahoe.

The barking dogs had her glancing back at the kennels.

“We fed all the animals this morning,” Durham explained as he opened the passenger-side door for her. “As soon as we’ve removed the bodies and the...remains, we’ll contact the owners to pick up their pets.”

When they’d driven a couple of minutes, Bobbie recognized they weren’t heading back toward town. Instead he drove to the Bonaventure Cemetery and parked.

“I hope you meant it when you said you weren’t interested in lunch because I couldn’t eat right now if my life depended upon it.”

Bobbie considered the man. “Is there someone in your unit you don’t trust?” She glanced around. “I’m sure you didn’t bring me here to show off one of your famous tourist spots.”

He shook his head. “The detectives in my homicide unit are the best. This case has haunted Savannah for a long time. The idea that those missing children were right under our noses all these years is hard to swallow. Jesus. Bill Sanders sculpted those statues and dedicated them to the children.” He looked away. “How sick is that?”

“People show you the face they want you to see.” She had learned that lesson the hard way. “Sometimes it’s very different from who they really are.”

Durham exhaled a heavy breath. “Right now my main objective is to keep the whole thing quiet until we understand what the hell happened.”

Bobbie had a feeling that keeping this investigation quiet would not be in any way easy. She imagined most of his department was composed of locals who had known those kids or who knew their families.

“And frankly,” Durham added, “I’m struggling with who may have tampered with this file. No offense, but what could you or this Randolph Weller possibly have to do with my case?”

Where to begin? Keep it simple and to the point. “Nearly a year ago I worked with the FBI on a joint task force to stop the Storyteller. Heard of him?”

Durham nodded. “He was—oh hell. You’re the victim who survived.”

Bobbie cleared her throat of the lump still lodged there. “That’s me.” The image of those small bones back there flashed over and over in her head. “He murdered my husband. He was the reason my little boy and my partner died.”

“I’m sorry.” Durham shook his head. “I’m even sorrier you had to see what we found in that cemetery.”

Bobbie stared out the windshield at the headstones of the famous cemetery standing tall beneath the moss-draped oaks. “I’m a cop. We see things.” She turned to him. “The Storyteller’s dead, but what happened with him drew another serial killer’s attention my way.”

And Nick’s. He was the primary reason she had survived.

“Weller?”

She nodded. “In addition to more than forty murders in the past, he orchestrated several murders in Montgomery during the past eight days. I believe Weller is attempting to lure me into some twisted game he’s determined to play out in your backyard. If I’m right, then he may have been responsible for the murders of your two newest victims. I don’t know about the children. None of this is his usual MO but I’ve learned recently that isn’t always relevant.” She took a breath. “I’m not sure I could possibly find the right words to convey to you the depth of Weller’s knowledge and insights into other killers—or the depraved acts he’s capable of carrying out.”

“I read the report on him that hit the wires Tuesday night.” He shook his head. “That’s the first I’d heard of him.”

“Do you know if he ever consulted on any cases in Savannah? Before your time, maybe? Prior to being outed as a serial killer himself, he often consulted with the police and the FBI on difficult cases.”

“I have no idea.” Durham blew out a disgusted breath. “I left Savannah right after high school. I only returned three years ago. I’m still catching up on the past sixteen years. Hell, I got the call about the Sanderses just after midnight. A noise disturbance was reported around eleven-thirty. When uniforms showed up the front door was open and the television was blaring. If one of my uniforms hadn’t needed to take a piss and literally stumbled over one of the damaged statues with bones falling out of it, we probably wouldn’t have noticed the remains until daylight. By four this morning I was digging out this damned cold case file. Sometime around my tenth cup of coffee I found the reference to you. My head has been spinning ever since.”

“Was the 911 caller male or female?”

“Male.” He rubbed at his temple. “One of the neighbors. He’s been interviewed, but he didn’t see anything. The noise woke him up and he called it in.”

Bobbie digested the information for a moment. “I wish I could give you more. What I’ve told you is my best assessment based on what you have so far.”

She decided not to mention Nick or the woman LeDoux told her about. Durham seemed like a nice guy, but right now it was best not to be too trusting even with kind strangers who were cops. She’d trusted Steven Devine. After a decade in Birmingham PD, he’d transferred to Montgomery PD a month ago to replace her partner. Fury tightened her gut.

“If someone in my department added your name to the case file,” Durham said, drawing her attention back to him, “I need to figure out who the hell he or she is. I’ll get the Records Section working on that ASAP.” He stared out over the cemetery. “If this Weller character is the one who wants you involved in this case, there must be a reason. You think your department will have a problem with your sticking around in an advisory capacity for a few days?”

Bobbie laughed. “That’s another complicated story, but the abbreviated answer is no. I’ll bring my chief and my lieutenant up to speed as soon as I have a better handle on what’s going on.”

Durham shifted back into Drive. “Well, let’s get started then. The sooner we figure out this mess, the sooner we can stop it.”

Five dead children.

Bobbie closed her eyes as they headed back to the crime scene.

What the hell are you trying to show me, Weller?

He’d warned her that every ounce of courage and tenacity she possessed would be required to survive what was coming.

Bobbie glanced at the man behind the wheel. If Weller had started this, Durham had no idea just how bad things were going to get.

Nine

East River Street

2:30 p.m.

“How’re you today, Ms. Balfour?” Amelia Potter smiled as her oldest client settled at the table. The elderly woman refused to allow anyone to assist her into or out of a chair. She contended that she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

“I’m just peachy.” Ninety-four-year-old Camille Balfour propped her umbrella against her chair and then loosened her scarf to let it drop from her head to her shoulders. “Every morning I wake up is a blessing.”

“A blessing, indeed.” Amelia had already washed her hands so she picked up her deck. The worn cards felt like an extension of her. She’d found this deck twenty-five years ago and she’d used it since. A good deck of tarot cards was like an old, dependable friend. Part of the magic was in the relationship. “I hear those great-grandchildren came to see you this past weekend.”

Camille’s smile chased away the ravages of age, lifted her sagging jowls and brightened her eyes. “You better believe it. Lauren graduated from medical school back in May and Gwyneth will graduate next spring. She’s going to be an attorney. Two smart girls.”

“Just like their great-grandma.”

Camille reached across the table with one hand gnarled by the progression of rheumatoid arthritis and clasped Amelia’s. “I’m having visions again.” She exhaled a shaky breath. “I’ve been worrying about you all week.”

Camille had never been a reader of the tarot. She’d never traded her knowing for money the way Amelia did, but not all were blessed with family money. The truth was until Camille had confided in Amelia that she felt things, she’d never before confessed aloud her abilities for fear of reprisal from her late husband, from his family and the community. She had held firm to her station in life and never permitted the slightest impropriety. It was the way of things with her generation.

Amelia set her cards aside and patted the dear woman’s hand. “Why in the world would you be worrying about me?”

Camille chuckled. “You know I’ve always had a soft spot for you, Mia.”

No one called her Mia except Camille. Amelia’s parents had kicked her out of their home outside Atlanta when she was sixteen. She didn’t hold it against them. She’d allowed herself to get involved with drugs and the wrong people. Three years of dealing with her issues had worn down her parents. It was a miracle she had survived her own recklessness. A sad smile tugged at her lips. If she hadn’t come to Savannah and ended up pregnant, she might have lost her life to those damned drugs.

Her little boy had saved her. Her heart squeezed painfully. If only...

Cold fingers tightened on her hand. “Mia, someone is coming and whoever it is she won’t let me sleep. I keep seeing her running through the woods with you. The trouble is right behind the two of you and I...” She shook her head, her rheumy eyes shining with emotion. “I’m terrified for you, Mia.”

Amelia smiled at her old friend. “For thirty-seven years you’ve helped me. Whether it was a safe bed to sleep in or a hot meal in my belly, you watched out for me until I could watch out for myself.” She didn’t mention how Camille had ensured Amelia was accepted at one of the best private rehab facilities in Georgia all those years ago or how she’d cosigned with her at the bank when she purchased this shop. Her friend was well aware of all she’d done. “It’s time for me to watch out for you. You don’t need to worry about me anymore. I’m doing just fine.”

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