♥ Chapter 12 ♥
The next morning, Kristin and Amber sent the men off to the office after breakfast. Then both ladies showered and dressed for the convention. Kristin was excited about the lecture although she wasn't exactly sure why.
When they arrived at the hotel, they check in and found a seat in the lecture hall. They talked in a low voice until the announcer stepped to the microphone to introduce the guest speaker.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce to you, one of the leading physicians in the state of Georgia, Doctor Jeffery Langcastor."
The physician stepped to the podium amid applause. The ladies listened for an hour as the physician discussed the latest developments in the research of Juvenile Diabetes. Soon they broke for lunch before the second half of the lecture.
Standing in line some of the other doctors and nurses in the lecture introduced themselves to each other. Kristin had just filled her plate and was turning from the table when she turned and locked eyes with a blond headed man reaching around her for a fork.
"Sorry," she stammered. She thought she noticed a spark of fear in his eyes just before he put his hand out to shake hers.
"No, I'm sorry," he said politely. "I forgot to get something to eat with. Doctor Timothy Johnson," he said shaking her hand.
"Doctor Kristin Young," Kristin answered. Her head began pounding and a blinding light flashed behind her eyes. Smiling brilliantly, she turned to Amber and introduced her as well. Amber noticed the fear Kristin was so desperately trying to hide.
Amber also shook hands with the doctor. "Nice to meet you Doctor Johnson. What do you do," she asked.
"I'm a surgeon. Heart specialist," he said turning back to Kristin. "It seems like I should know you, Doctor Young. Did we go to school together?"
"I don't remember," Kristin said.
"Actually, Kristin was in an accident and has amnesia," Amber interjected.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," he replied. "Well, I had better be getting back to my seat."
Kristin and Amber turned and walked back to their own seats. "What was that, Kristin," Amber asked.
"I'm not sure. When I made eye contact, I got this blinding pain in my head. I think I should know him, but not like he said."
"Do you think he is the man who kidnapped you," Amber asked.
"I'm not sure. All I know is I want to leave now. I feel like I need to get out of here as soon as possible. Can we go, please," Kristin asked in a panicked voice.
"Absolutely. But let's not make it obvious," Amber said.
Kristin nodded agreement and they both took a couple of bites of their lunch. Amber pulled her cell phone out of her purse to call Derek. The phone rang but Derek didn't pick up.
Kristin and Amber didn't notice they were being watched. They picked up their plates and threw them in the trash as they left the lecture hall. Amber tried calling her husband again as they walked to the car. Still no answer.
"Going somewhere, Ladies," they heard from behind them.
When Kristin and Amber turned around, the first thing both ladies saw was the gun pointed at them. Doctor Johnson had followed them to the parking lot.
"What are you doing, Doctor Johnson," Kristin asked.
"Amnesia, Doctor Young," he asked. "You really expected me to believe that?"
"It's the truth," Amber said. "She can't remember anything since she was found."
"Ahhh, but you remembered me, didn't you," he asked
"Nothing specific," Kristin answered honestly. "Seeing you made my head hurt and I was afraid. It was enough for me to want to leave. But I guess you just confirmed my fears," she said looking pointedly at the gun.
"Enough of the chit-chat. Get in the van," Tim replied. "Both of you."
"No," Kristin shouted. "She's pregnant. You can take me, but not her."
"I don't want to shoot her," Tim said waving the gun. "But I will if you both don't get in the van."
Amber and Kristin decided to cooperate. They climbed into the van Tim indicated and sat down on the floor. It was a white cargo van and there were no seats in the back. The girls huddled together as their captor climbed into the van after them. There were handcuffs hanging off the sides of the van and he used these to fasten the girl's hands together so they could not try to escape. Next he grabbed both of their purses and tossed them out of the van. He climbed into the front seat and started the vehicle.
~
"I just got in some information on the Quattlebaum family," Dale said walking into Matt's office. "There's a male relative of the family that has become a surgeon. And you won't guess what his specialty is."
"Not really interested in guessing, Dale. Spill it," Matt responded.
"He's a heart specialist," Dale replied.
"Seriously," Derek questioned. "That would be a sick twist of fate, wouldn't it?"
"Do we know where the good doctor is now," Matt asked.
"There's a team on the way to his residence now but there's a convention in town and many of the doctors and nurses in the area are sitting in on lectures to get their continuing education classes. He may be there also. It's being held at the Sheridan Hotel in the downtown area," Dale informed them.
"Are you telling me our serial killer could be sitting in the same room as the victim that escaped from him," Matt questioned.
"Kristin is at that convention," Dale asked.
The men all reacted at the same time. Running out of the office, they jumped into Matt's SUV. Lights flashing, Matt raced through traffic trying to get to the hotel as fast as possible. The feeling in the pit of his stomach told him he was already too late, but he continued driving. Derek and Dale held on slightly. Derek was just as concerned about his pregnant wife as Matt was about Kristin.
As they pulled into the hotel parking lot, Derek spotted his wife's vehicle. "Look, there's Amber's car," he shouted. Matt stopped quickly and backed up to where Amber had parked. There was an empty spot beside her car so he pulled in.
The men jumped out of the car and started walking toward the hotel. They had not walked far when Derek spotted his wife's purse lying on the ground with some of her stuff spilling out onto the pavement. Not far away from it was another bag he assumed was Kristin's. Gathering his wife's things, he saw her cell phone. Looking through the recent calls he noticed she had tried to call him twice.
Derek grabbed his own cell and checked it. He had not heard his cell going off. When he checked, it was on silent. He cursed. He had turned his cell off when they went into a meeting and forgot to turn it back up.
"He's got them, Matt," he stated calmly. But Matt knew he was anything but calm. Derek stood up and turned toward his brother. "He's got my pregnant wife."
"We will find them, Derek, I swear," Matt promised.
Dale was already on his phone informing the team what had happened. He told them to watch the house of the surgeon but do not approach unless they saw signs of Kristin and Amber. If he was on his way to his house, they didn't want to spook him.
"I want all of the security tapes from this area. We need to know what kind of vehicle they are traveling in," Matt said.
The men rushed into the hotel. Derek started looking for the class Amber and Kristin were supposed to be in while Matt went to the security office. Within minutes, Matt had the information he was looking for. Dale called in the all points bulletin for the white cargo van.
Derek was questioning a lady when Matt and Dale caught up with him. They also began questioning and soon pieced together what had happened. Between the interviews and the video tape, they had everything they needed to prove Doctor Tim Johnson was the serial killer they had been tracking.
~
There was a reason Tim Johnson had been able to mercilessly kill and mutilate innocent, young women for so long without being caught. He was very clever and careful. Knowing the two ladies were bound to be missed before long, he veered off the interstate and began trav
eling the back country roads to his destination.
The police may have been crawling all over his torture chamber, but he was certain they had not found his hiding place. The place he slept and ate while his victims recovered enough to be able to scream for him again. No one knew of its existence. Not even his crazed grandmother who had been unaware the old hospital still belonged to the family.
If he could just get to his destination before the girls were discovered missing, no one would find them. He was prepared. He could go into hiding for years and not be found. He laughed to himself just thinking about the possibilities.
On the grounds of the hospital, someone had built an underground bunker. It was well hidden from view. He had accidentally stumbled onto the place when he was a child.
Often ignored by the adults in his life and left to his own devices, Timothy had turned to the outdoors to find ways to alleviate boredom. He had been brought up by a very influential, wealthy family. He had everything he could ever want. Everything except love.
His was the type of family whose children were brought up by nannies and boarding schools while parents traveled oceans away. Finding he enjoyed the quiet and solitude of the outdoors, Timothy wondered the many acres of land his family owned and the adjoining Seminole State Park. He was eight when he caught the first sounds of a tortured animal.
Timothy listened until he could tell which direction the sound was coming from. He walked until he discovered a rabbit in a poacher's snare. The animal's leg was crushed and it was crying out in pain. Timothy liked the sound. He laughed, delighted by the animal's torment.
He sat by a tree and watched as the animal flailed around and tried to get loose from the trap. The more the animal struggled, the more exciting the show became. Timothy sat patiently for hours watching the dying animal. It was the most fun the child had had in years.
That day, a monster was born. Walking back to the family mansion, Timothy tripped over a small rock and fell face first into the ground. When he picked himself up, he was kneeling beside a small opening that looked like a small cave. It was well hidden by a huge oak tree and would have been missed if he had not fallen at that exact spot.
Timothy decided to see what was inside. He took a couple of steps into the opening, and found a staircase leading down further into the earth. He walked down what felt like two flights of stairs into an underground bunker. It was sparsely furnished with a dusty cot and a lot of cobwebs. Even at eight years old, he could see it had been unused for a long time.
It didn't take long for Tim to turn that bunker into his personal hideaway. No one knew anything about the place. As he got older, he had researched historical records, family records, and town records. He was sure there was no evidence of his little bunker.
That bunker had become his first torture chamber. He would catch wild animals and occasionally towns' people's pets and take them to the bunker. He would torture them just to hear their screams. It excited him. He couldn't explain why, it just did.
He was smart enough to hide his obsession. The more animals he killed the better he got at the torture. He learned how to prolong the pain so the animal would cry and scream in pain for days. When he became board with that game, he turned to humans.
He had seen the news channels. He knew the body count linked to him. If only they knew the real story. Timothy had started carving up girls while he was still in his early twenties. The first, a raven haired prostitute by the name of Trixie, had been a huge disappointment. He had just started his medical training at Duke University and was out late when he ran into the whore.
He didn't know why but her dark hair and brown eyes turned him on. She reminded him of the one animal that had made him crazy with its pitiful wails. A black shaggy dog with brown eyes. Yes, that dog had made him realize why the screams excited him. It was the first time he had jacked off to the sound that excited him so. He finally realized the reason he needed to hear the tortured cries.
He approached the whore, engaged her services, and had her screaming in less than five minutes. He soon learned his mistake when another whore came running to her friend's rescue. He killed both girls and buried them in some woods after driving for an hour.
It took him a few months before he was able to find a place where the girls could scream as loud as he wanted and not be heard by anyone other than him. He was smart enough to only go after prostitutes. No one missed them when they came up missing and the police didn't care. He had killed over thirty girls while completing his medical training. Not all of them had black hair like Trixie. He had not been so picky back then. Not until he met her.
She became the love of his life. The first time he saw her, he decided he would marry her. Long, dark hair spilled like a waterfall down her back. Light brown eyes, the exact shade of that mangy dog, had him thinking erotic things when she looked him. For her, he could give up the others.
They dated for four years. Joanna Princeton was everything he wanted, everything he needed. With her, he could behave normally. He didn't need tortured death screams to make him react physically. She was the only woman who had ever turned him on. Then he found her out for who she really was.
He brought her home to meet his family just before he proposed. He had the ring, the place, everything planned. She was so excited and he was happy, truly happy for the first time in his life.
The wedding was planned, the honeymoon paid for, and the dress altered. He continued through his residency as she planned her dream wedding. He spared no expense. Nothing was off limits to her.
Then, she broke his heart. He was on the verge of becoming a world renowned heart surgeon when he discovered the girl of his dreams was a gold digger. It was all about the money, power, and prestige. When a bigger fish came along, she jumped ship. He caught her in their bed with his brother, the heir to the family fortune, on the eve of the wedding.
He was furious. He stormed out of the house and took solace in his hideaway. No one heard from him for days. Several animals gave their lives to help heal his broken heart but it would not be mended. Joanna was smart enough to leave his hometown and return to her own. Timothy was smart enough to leave her alone.
Three years later, when he happened to see her wedding announcement in the paper of the Atlanta hospital he was at, he snapped. Timothy waited for two weeks. Then he found the object of his hatred and rage, kidnapped her, and brought her back to the old hospital.
She was truly the first real victim of the man who would become TGT. She was the first to realize his skill as a surgeon could keep her alive and screaming for weeks. She was the first to carry the heart carved into her ankle. She was the first he had sex with while he mutilated her body. The others had been nothing. Practice for what was to come. She had awakened the real monster.
He supposed he should thank her for infidelity. He probably would not have stayed content for long. Yes, he should thank the bitch that had opened his true passion. Too bad she was already dead. Timothy laughed at that thought.
~
Matt was going out of his mind. He had thought nothing about letting Amber and Kristin go to a medical convention surrounded by hundreds of medical professionals. He realized now, he should have. They had already deduced the killer was probably a surgeon. Why on earth would he not have thought of that before allowing her to go?
They had been at the convention within minutes of the abduction but with no way of knowing where the bastard was headed, there were chasing their tails. He now felt he knew what Derek must have felt when he learned Amber was locked in a room with the man who had been stalking her for years.
Now that Matt had a name, information was pouring in on the man they now knew was the serial killer terrorizing Georgia. On the surface, nothing pointed to maniacal killer. Not until you really dug down deep. The unusual number of family pets missing around Seminole County when he was a boy, the odd amount of prostitute
s who had vanished around the area of Duke University while he was a student, and the ex-fiancé that had disappeared without a trace three years after he called off the wedding.
When you dug deep, a sick picture began to form. And his love was caught in the clutches of the man who had already terrorized her once. And so far, Matt had no way of knowing where he was headed. Giving the order to raid Timothy Parker's house, Matt waited for some small clue that would tell him where to look for Kristin.
The wait was hell. Matt sat at his desk trying to concentrate on the information in front of him. Instead he saw Kristin. He realized then just how much she had come to mean to him. He had known her for two short weeks, but she had become his everything. She was the one he would settle down for. She was the one he could leave the job for if she asked.
He wanted to marry her. He wanted her to be the mother of his children. If that bastard touched her, he would kill him. Matt slammed his fist into his desk. He needed answers fast.
♥ Chapter 13 ♥
Kristin's head jerked when she heard the laughter coming from the front seat. There had been silence for more than thirty minutes then suddenly laughter. She looked at Amber to gage her reaction. Amber looked like she was in pain.
They had been traveling back roads and suddenly both girls were bounced into the air as Tim went flying over some train tracks. Kristin cracked her head against the side of the van. Another blinding flash of light hit her eyes. Suddenly, her memories started flooding back. Her childhood memories of her parents and siblings, her school days, her uphill battle through medical school, all came back with a vengeance fighting for attention. It was giving her a major headache. And with the good memories came the bad. The last ones to creep in were the ones of Timothy standing over her, screaming because she would not cooperate.
Kristin's head was hurting so badly, she moaned low in her throat. She did not see the struggle Amber was having. The van had also thrown Amber into the air and she landed with the gushing feeling of water bursting followed by a sharp pain.