Gary pulled into the wooded clearing and found a place to hide his car. He looked with his binoculars to peruse the group of teenagers drinking and carrying on below. It was almost eight o’clock. He saw no sign of Lindsay yet. He knew she would be here. He felt bad for what had to happen.
He knew Cameron would take the bait. The kid knew it was his last chance to get his hands on Lindsay and he would try something. He prayed the girl had the sense to use the gun her first opportunity.
Confessions like his would make the trigger pull easier. When she heard how he tortured and killed her boyfriend from his own lips; she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him. The confession just got her off the hook with Dooley.
He knew it was wrong to send her in blind like this; but he knew human nature well. Her not knowing would insure a better result. If anything went wrong, he would have much to answer for. Nobody knew what he was doing for that reason. The wire was taken out of the station under Dooley’s nose and the gun was unregistered and untraceable.
He felt guilt again to know he used her as bait. It was a means to an end to put Cameron where he belonged; in Hell. Thoughts of him killing again kept him up at night since this whole thing began. He wouldn’t be able to enjoy his retirement until Jace Turner’s murderer was six feet under.
He saw the truck coming down the road and tensed. He could see Cameron and his friends were all there. Lindsay would be alone, except for him watching in the woods. He had to admit she had guts. She must have loved the Turner kid to do this.
He expected her to bail on him weeks ago when the boys blew up her car. He was surprised when she insisted on continuing to help him. He knew he was taking this case too personally. What other way could anybody take it?
The murderer was on his way to becoming a full blown serial killer. Jace was probably his first kill. It was just a warm up to his future victims and Gary saw it all before. Thirty years as a cop trained him to see the monster lurking within Cameron Chase’s eyes right off the bat.
He watched Lindsay pull into The Point, tensing to see the expression on Cameron’s face as he saw her. The murderous rage was hidden behind a seemingly angelic face. He would take many unaware in such a way. No one would see Cameron coming at them until it was too late.
He went back to his car and adjusted the monitor.
“Are you there, Sheriff?” she said loud and clear. “I know why you didn’t find a DNA match. It wasn’t Cam’s because he has a friend helping him. Matt Lauder is the other killer.”
Gary’s eyes widened. He didn’t see that coming. Two killers; now it made sense why they continued to stray from Cameron to the drifter theory, even with the evidence pointing to Cameron Chase. DNA evidence was used to deflect away from the real killer.
He was the only one who insisted Cameron was guilty; just by his gut. Everybody from the Feds on down bought what they were seeing. They were looking for one killer with unmistakable DNA; not two.
He had no way of communicating with Lindsay but he realized she was in deep. The Lauder kid was there. She had to deal with two of them. He’d like to know how she found out about Matt Lauder.
Gary started recording and got out of his car. He couldn’t let her do this alone. Taking down Cameron was one thing but she had two of these animals after her. He opened his trunk and took out his gun, tucking it in his waistband before he walked into the woods, looking for a good spot to watch everything.
He kept his eyes on Cameron. He was wearing his school jersey and a baseball hat, circulating among the growing crowd of kids. There had to be nearly a hundred kids gathered down there now, coming in waves of ten to twenty every fifteen minutes.
Once the party was in full swing things were going to get dicey. He needed to keep his eyes on Lindsay and Cameron. He suddenly wished he’d brought Bob in on this. The deputy could have been some help out here tonight. He was getting too old for this.
He fumed as the mosquitoes started in on him, cursing under his breath. He readjusted his position and looked for Cameron, frowning to see he moved away from the bonfire, waiting at the edge of the group.