The light rain picked up velocity, and she was completely drenched by the time she reached her black BMW. After fumbling for her keys, she pressed the unlock button from a key chain remote. Sliding behind the wheel, she dumped her briefcase and charts into the passenger seat.
“I thought that you would never get off.”
When the cold steel pressed against Meredith’s temple, she gasped as her gaze flew to the rearview mirror. The stranger’s face was obscured, but his presence was immeasurably terrifying. “What are you doing here?” Her hand trembled as she placed it over her heart. “What do you want?” The intruder laughed, and Meredith’s skin became a blanket of goose bumps at its high cackle. “I tell you what,” the intruder’s silky voice said with an eerie calm. “Why don’t you just hand me your security badge?” Meredith swallowed. “I can’t do that.” “Of course you can,” the stranger said, leaning forward. “Or I can just shoot you and simply take it.” Meredith shivered, and her heart swelled with fear. “What is this all about?” “You don’t need to concern yourself with that right now. Just hand over the badge.”
Think, Meredith. Think.
“How do I know you won’t kill me once I hand it over?”
“You don’t.”
Meredith swallow again and tried to make out her captor’s features in the rearview mirror. However, the night cloaked the figure as though they were one entity.
“I’m going to count to three,” the voice informed her. “One—”
“Okay, okay.” Meredith’s hand fluttered to her breast pocket and snatched off her ID, which also double as a security badge, and held it up. Immediately, it was snatched from her fingers. “Now, that wasn’t so bad.” Meredith swallowed and pretended she didn’t hear the added coldness to the stranger’s voice. “Hand me your keys.” “What?” “Come on, come on. I don’t have all night.” Trembling, Meredith quickly found her keys, but hesitated before handing them back.
“Don’t try me. I will shoot.” Meredith handed over the keys. The dark figure emitted another cold laugh. “Good girl. Now, we’re going to get out of the car together. ¿Comprende?” Drawing a deep breath, Meredith nodded. Since she was still breathing, she held more hope of actually surviving the night. “Okay. On the count of three, we’re going to open our doors slowly. You do anything foolish, and you’re dead. Got it?” “Got it.” “All right. One...two...three.” Meredith opened her door. A few minutes later, she was standing in the rain at the trunk of her car. “Get in.” She didn’t move. Instead, her eyes darted around in search of something ot someone to save her. “My patience is wearing thin,” her mysterious captor droned in what seemed like a bored voice. “I’m extremely claustrophobic.” A silver of moonlight gleamed against the gun. “Well, how do you feel about being shot?”
Meredith gave the small trunk a quick survey before drawing a deep breath and climbing in. Carefully, she curled her five foot seven frame in order to fit before glancing up again. This time, the moonlight streamed across her captor’s face.
“Good-bye, Doctor.”
Two quick, muffled shots ended Meredith’s life.
The closer William drew to the swarm of blue-and-white lights, the sweatier his palms became and the harder his heart tried to wedge itself in the middle of his throat. As he approached the first police car, the caught sight of red-and-white lights, then orange and white.
“An accident,” he mumbled under his breath, then relaxed. Soon after, he felt guilty for having felt relieved when someone was probably hurt.
“Help me,” the woman’s soft voice said. “Please.”
“Shh, now,” he comforted, and gave a quick glance behind him. As he drove through the thicket of blinding lights, he swore his entire life passed before his eyes. Might as well. His actions that night were surely another form of suicide.
As his vehicle inched along the highway, William was finally able to make out an overturned car near the concrete median. A few feet from that, a white truck had its driver side smashed in, and the road was covered with shards of glass.
He made a quick prayer that no one was hurt; but seconds later; he saw a covered body being lifted into an ambulance. William’s gaze remained glued on the image until the paramedics closed the rear doors.
A loud bang directed his attention to the hood of SUV, and his gaze jumped to a police officer in a rain slicker.
“Keep it moving. Keep it moving,” the cop yelled, as he waved him through.
William rolled his eyes and eased off the brakes. He had just kidnapped a patient and he was rubbernecking an accident in front of the police. Great.
When he passed by a slew of officers attending the accident and directing traffic, he couldn’t escape the feeling that everyone was really watching him, wanting to see how far he was going to go with this. He glanced up through the rain at the ink black sky and sighed with relief when a helicopter and a bright spotlight didn’t appear.
After he passed the accident, traffic dissipated like magic, and twenty minutes later a large, painted sign welcomed them to Pine Mountain.
“We’re almost there,” he said over his shoulder. He didn’t expect a response, but realized his patient hadn’t made a sound since they were back at the accident. While wrestling with whether he should pull over to check on her, the faintest whisper reached his ears.
“Josephine.”
Another killer strode through the halls of Keystone Mental Institute. Hidden safely behind a doctor’s coat and a stolen ID badge, the imposter made it easily into the secured area of the hospital.
The killer’s steps slowed as laughter tumbled down the hallway. Instinctively, the intruder ducked into a nearby room.
“We’re sure going to muss you guys, too,” Alana responded.
A few seconds later, their voices grew faint, and the killer waited a little longer before stepping out of the room. With a renewed sense of urgency, he rushed down the hall in search of Michelle Andrews in room 1526. More voices drifted down the hall. Fifteen twenty. “That had to be the best red-velvet cake I’ve ever tasted,” a woman praised off in the distance. 1522 1524. His objected was to kill the girl and meet his partner downstairs in ten minutes. His hand closed around the knob of room 1526 just as someone was emerging from around the corner. The killer ducked inside the dark room with a large measure of relief and waited for the hall to fall quiet again. Something was wrong. The silence. Turning away from the door, the killer removed the gun from inside the lab coat. The silence grew deafening.
Reaching out blindly, not daring to switch on a light, the killer sucked in a gasp of disbelief when his gloved hands discovered an empty bed. For the first time that night, fear seized him.
“Goddamn it, Josephine.”
Chapter 3
Turning onto a dark graveled road, William slowly maneuvered his Navigator up a rocky incline. Unable to see through the surrounding fog, he clicked off his high beams and caught sight of a deer as it dashed unto a thicket of trees. The road was littered with deep potholes, and the patient’s muttering became clear sentences with each jostle of the backseat. “Josephine. Stop calling me...Michelle. Somebody help.” Her distress tugged at his heartstrings. “I’m doing all I can,” he promised.
Finally, they approached the end of the unpaved road where a two-story, blue-gray wooden house materialized as if by magic. In the dark, it looked like something tight out of a horror movie, but in actuality, William knew it to be filled with love and many happy memories.
He rolled to a stop in front of the closed garage door and grabbed the remote from the visor. After jabbing the open button several times, he was mystified why the door refused to budge.