No one appears, and his smile widens. “Looks like your backup slept in, Alisa.” He rips the gun from my hand and turns it on me. He can see the side of the five-round chamber and knows it’s loaded, but he’s not sure what kind of bullets the gun holds.
I glare at him. “They’re sharpshooters, and right now they’re taking aim at your head. If you want to live, give me back my gun.”
My gun. I sound like I’m pleading. He laughs.
“Drop it, there’s no one here except us. But I’m confused. Why did you decide to take me alone? Did you want all the glory?” He lifts the gun and points it at my head. “Answer me.”
I hesitate. “Harold Proveman.”
“Who’s he?”
“The father of Linda Proveman. One of the first women you raped.” I pause. “He posted a large reward for the capture of the man who defiled his daughter.”
Danny nods in understanding. “You thought you’d collect the reward rather than take the ‘well done’ pat on the back the FBI will give you?”
“Yes.”
“Liar. You’re not FBI at all. You’re some cheap down-on-her-luck private eye. No trained FBI agent would act as clumsy as you.” He cocks the revolver. “Does Mr. Proveman know who I am?”
“Yes.”
He puts pressure on the trigger. “Are you sure?”
“He knows you go to school here. But I never gave him your name.”
“Because you wanted to be sure to get all the reward first?”
“Yes.”
He smiles and lowers the gun. “How much am I worth, by the way?”
“A hundred thousand dollars.”
He whistles, impressed. “What did Mr. Proveman plan to do with me once you turned me over to him?”
“You don’t want to know.”
He smiles some more, before yanking the cuffs from my hands and spinning me around. “Put your hands behind your back.”
I do as he commands. “You don’t want to do this, Danny.”
“Why not?” He cuffs me and drags me down the steps toward the parking lot. The light in the east has grown, but the track is still empty. I speak in a pitiful voice.
“I have a plan that can make both of us a lot of cash. I have another suspect that fits the profile of Linda Proveman’s assailant. I can turn him over to her dad and collect the reward and split it with you.”
“Why would Mr. Proveman believe this other guy did it?”
“I can use your semen sample and tie it to him. That’s all the proof the man needs. He’s connected, Mafia, a real hothead. He’ll murder whoever I bring him. I swear, by noon today, you can have fifty grand in your pocket.”
“No.”
“At least think about it!”
He slaps my head with the gun. “I’ll be worth a hundred times that in a month. And I don’t trust you. You plan on lying to the guy who hired you, which means you’re probably lying to me right now.” He pauses. “I’m sorry, babe, but you’ve got to disappear.”
He drags me toward his Honda Accord, which is the main reason for my charade. I don’t want to kill him and dispose of his body using my own car, not with all the new techniques for uncovering evidence that modern-day cops have at their disposal. Better Danny drive me to his own dumping ground in his vehicle. Wiping away my prints will only take seconds. I’m new to the city, he has lived here for years. He knows the area better than me. He’ll know the perfect spot to make a body disappear.
I knew ahead of time he was not simply a rapist, but a killer. I could refer to a dozen signs he gives off that make it obvious. But the simplest answer is best. A killer knows another killer, and I have killed thousands.
He doesn’t shove me into the trunk but forces me to drive. There are holes in my story, and he senses them, like any dangerous man would. He wants to know everything he can before he kills me. He doesn’t want any surprises messing up his draft day.
In the car, he cuffs me to the steering wheel and digs the gun into my ribs. Yet I refuse to talk unless he lets me listen to the radio.
“What the hell?” he mumbles. “Are you nuts or something?”
“I like music. Don’t you?”
“Alisa, look, I don’t think you grasp what’s going on here.”
“Do you want me to turn right or left at the corner?”
“Left.” He shakes his head. “You are one weird bitch, you know that?”
“I like to think I’m unique.”
“How did you catch me? The truth.”
I glance at him and let my voice go cold. “You’ll see.”
He shifts uncomfortably at my sudden change in tone. He keeps the gun in my side, but there’s a tremor in his grip. My cold tone can be like ice to mortals. He no longer feels in complete control.
But he still intends to kill me, and rape me, I’m not sure in what order. We drive far into the countryside before we turn down a dirt road that leads through a patch of thick trees. I smell the swampy water before I see the green pond. He’s buried bodies beneath its surface. I smell them as well.
But my nose is more sensitive than a bloodhound’s. The spot is perfect for murder. Totally isolated, with a lake deep enough to hide a hundred corpses and wash away an endless number of fingerprints. Danny disconnects me from the steering wheel but keeps me cuffed. He orders me out of his car.
Now that he has me alone, his confidence returns. He forces me to the edge of the pond. The grass is tall and thick; it clings to our legs. The air is humid, filled with the faint buzz of insects. I can tell he’s excited, but I don’t need my vampiric skills to know that. His pants bulge.
He points the gun at me. “Strip,” he orders.
I hold up my cuffed wrists. “With these on?”
He cocks the gun. “Do it!”
“No. I’m . . . shy.”
He shakes his head in disbelief. “You’re shy? Do you see what I’m holding? Do you know what it will feel like if I put a cap in your belly? Trust me, you don’t want to find out.”
“I couldn’t afford real bullets,” I mutter.
“Huh?”
“The gun, it’s loaded with blanks.”
“You’re bullshitting me again.”
“Go ahead, shoot, I don’t care.”
“All right then.” He raises the gun, takes aim at my stomach and fires. I feel the wad of the blank’s paper spread over me like dry rain as the noise from the shot echoes through the woods. Yet I know, with my extraordinary hearing, that there’s nobody within ten miles of us to hear the shot. Danny probably knows the same. He’s not worried we’ll have company soon. But he stares at my gun in disgust.
“You were going to drag me to a Mafia hood with a gun loaded with blanks?” he asks.
I slip out of the cuffs as if I were Houdini. But I don’t snap them in two. I need them. Taking a step toward him, I let him see more of the real me. My eyes, I feel their heat and I know they must burn. He suddenly has trouble looking at me.
“What the hell,” he whispers.
“You see, I’ve just been acting the fool to fool you. All along I wanted you to bring me to this spot, to where you dump the girls you don’t let go. Only I didn’t know where it was. That’s why I let you give me directions.”
I have allowed my voice to change further, to take on the timbre of my true years. People, when they hear how ancient I really am, usually do one of two things. They freeze in awe or shake with fear. Danny isn’t in awe of me, not yet, but he begins to pale.
“Who are you?” he mumbles.
I reach into my black boot and remove my blade.
“Death,” I say as I come closer.
He holds out a trembling hand. “Wait a second. This has all been a misunderstanding. I’m not going to really hurt you. I was just playing with you. Honestly, I’ll drive you back to school right now.”
“No. Your school days are over with. You won’t be running any more races, and the NFL isn’t going to draft you next week.” I gesture to the la
ke. “You’re going to die here, and you’re going to stay in this pond with all the other people you left to rot here. The fish and worms and insects will find their way into the interior of your car, to your body, and over the next few months they’ll munch on your skin and muscles and organs until all that’s left of you is a slimy skeleton. Eventually even that will dissolve, and it will be like you never existed, Danny Boy.”
He trembles with fear. He has tears in his eyes. My voice, my words—the power in them shakes him to the core. His own voice cracks as he tries to convince himself he’s not going to die.
“But you’re just a chick. You can’t hurt me.”
“Then why are you so scared?”
“Because of that knife. Put that knife away and we can talk.”
“Where exactly would you like me to put it?”
“I don’t know, just put it—”
He suddenly stops talking, because I’ve shifted into high speed and thrown the knife so hard and fast it’s sunk up to its hilt in the center of his right thigh. He gazes down at it in horror as a thin line of blood trickles over his sweats. In the blink of an eye I’m standing beside him. I pat him on the back in a poor imitation of comforting him.
“You don’t want to pull it out,” I warn. “There’s a large artery that runs through each leg, and I’m afraid I just severed one with my knife. Pull out my knife and your blood will gush all over the place. You’ll be dead in two minutes, maybe less.”
He’s suddenly sad. “Can you help me?”
“I’m not a doctor.”
His whole body trembles as he points to his car. “Alisa, please, drive me to a hospital. My family has money. They’ll pay you. They’ll pay you whatever you want.”
“I already have money. Besides, that’s not what I want.”
He is heartbroken. “No?”
“No. But I’ll help you back to the car and I’ll tell you what I do want.”
He limps weakly as I assist him to his car. He doesn’t protest as I shove him into the passenger side. A part of him still thinks I’m lying, and that in the end I’m going to save him.
I climb in the driver’s side, close the door, and cuff his left wrist to the steering wheel. I do it so fast the deed is done before he realizes it, and his face is suddenly filled with the awe I have been waiting for. Yet his fear is greater.
“You’re not human,” he whispers.
“True. I’m not.”
“Are you an alien?”
I smile. “You know, over the years people have called me all kinds of things, but that’s a first. You should be proud of yourself, Danny Boy.”
He stares down at the knife impaled in his leg. Moving him to the car has caused the blood to flow faster, and his sweats are soaked red. He puts his hand on the hilt of the blade.
“You don’t want to do that,” I say.
“It hurts.”
I stop smiling. “Rape hurts. Did you stop and think of that when you hurt all those women?”
He shakes his head as tears roll over his cheeks. “Please, you’re making a big mistake. You have the wrong guy.”
“Two minutes ago you pointed a gun at me and ordered me to strip. Why would you do that if you weren’t going to rape me?”
He sobs. “All right, I did it, I’m guilty. I’ll tell the police I did it. I swear. Just please take me to the hospital.”
I reach over and stroke his hair. “I’m sorry, you have to stay here with all the women you wanted so badly.”
“No! God, no! I can’t die!”
“Shh. Calm down, you won’t suffer long. And to make sure you don’t, there’s something I’m going to do for you before I say good-bye.”
He gazes at me with sudden hope. “What?”
“Oh, just have a little drink is all.” Before he can react, I reach over and remove the knife and press my mouth to the gushing blood. He must eat a healthy diet—his blood tastes particularly good. Or maybe it’s because I have gone a long time without feasting. Ever since my maker, Yaksha, and my daughter Kalika gave me their powerful blood, I have discovered that I don’t need to feed on humans to survive.
Yet old pleasures die hard. Danny Boy is white as a ghost before I’m through with him, and I can hear how his heart struggles with so little liquid to keep it beating. As an act of kindness, I slip the knife back in his leg and close off the leaking artery.
“There,” I say. “How do you feel now?”
He gasps for breath. “Scared.”
“I bet your girlfriends felt scared too.”
He stares at me. “Please stop.”
“Stop? But we’re just getting to the fun part. It’s going to be like in the movies. I’m going to start the car and steer it toward the pond and jump out before it hits the water. But I’ll close my door if you want so you don’t get wet.” I pause. “Of course, this car isn’t a hundred percent waterproof. I’m afraid the water—and all those nasty creatures I told you about—will eventually get inside. You might be dead by then, you never know. If you’re not, you’ll get to feel what it’s like to drown.”
“No . . . Please.”
“Come on, show some spirit! I bet you drowned plenty of your girls. It’s only right you should experience everything they did.”
He weeps quietly. “I don’t want to die.”
I lean over and kiss his cheek.
I spare him my favorite farewell remark.
But I keep my promise. Starting the car, I accelerate rapidly and turn in the direction of the pond. At the last moment, I leap out my side and slam the door shut. The car has plenty of momentum and belly flops far from the shore, before it slowly begins to sink.
To my surprise, Danny thrashes vigorously inside, even though I have drained him of all but a couple of pints of blood. As I wipe off my hands and listen to the noise he’s making, and to the hissing and bubbles the car gives off as it sinks below the surface, I think of his last words and consider how often I’ve heard them over the years.
Turning, I race toward the main road. It does not matter how fast I run. Behind me, I still hear him screaming.
TWO
A long-distance truck driver gives me a ride back to Truman. He is taking a shortcut through the back country, on the downside of a sixty-hour stretch of road that reaches from LA to Miami. When I climb into his tobacco-rich cabin, he looks plum exhausted but perks up with my vivacious company. He wants to know how a pretty little thing like me got stranded in the middle of nowhere.
“Just ditched a no-good boyfriend,” I say.
The guy slaps his knee. “You don’t sound bitter about it.”
“I’m not.”
“That’s good, real good. Where’d you ditch the bastard?”
I smile. “Where the fishes swim.”
He thinks that’s pretty funny, and we laugh together. I don’t worry he will hear or read about Danny Boy. The man is just passing through and is so tired he hardly knows what state he’s in.
Back at Truman College I have a change of clothes in my car that I keep for such emergencies. My ride didn’t notice, but there’s blood on my shirt and pants, and I know Teri’s much more perceptive than your average truck driver. I’m actually signed up for a few classes and have campus privileges. After a quick shower in the locker room, I slip into fresh black slacks and a white blouse before returning to the stadium.
The track is a beehive of activity, with most of the team present. The coach is smart; he likes to get in the hardest workouts before the heat of the day hits. Teri is running quarter-mile intervals, the coach calling out the time for each lap she completes. Teri would not be able to match Danny Boy’s times, but she is the fastest woman on the team, and once again I’m surprised at the pleasure it gives me to see her doing so well. That Proud Mom feeling, it’s been ages since I experienced it.
I sit in the same place in the stands where I sat when approached by Daniel and wait for Teri to finish her workout. My ears hear everything. The head coach and
his two assistants wonder where Daniel is but are not overly concerned. They figure he finished his workout early and is probably at home taking a nap. No one on the field gives me a second look, and that is important. It was always possible someone saw me get into the car with Daniel. But no, he’s gone, gone for good, and his body will never be found.
The women of Truman need fear no longer.
An hour passes, and Teri is finally done with her laps and is alone and heading for the showers when I approach. To my surprise I feel my heart pound—it’s almost as if I am nervous. I need to talk to her soon, before she disappears back home for the summer. But if everything goes according to plan, she’ll stay in Truman.
Naturally, I worry my appearance might startle her, we look so much alike. But I’ve fixed my makeup to alter the lines on my face. And I have on dark sunglasses, so she can’t see the deep blue of my eyes. I don’t want her feeling like she’s looking in a mirror. Plus I wear a baseball cap, which hides my long blond locks. Later, if I sense my looks still bother her, I can dye my hair.
“Teri Raine?” I say.
She glances over and jumps slightly. My face has startled her, but she recovers quickly. “Yes?” she says.
I offer my hand. “Alisa Perne. I got your name from the job-placement office. They told me you’re looking for a summer job.”
Her grip is firm. “That’s right.”
“Well, I think I have something you might enjoy.”
“What company do you work for?”
“I work for myself. If you took the job, you’d be working for me.”
“What kind of job are we talking about?”
“They told me you’re a premed major.”
“Yeah. But I’ve only been here a year.”
“I know. You’re only nineteen, but with all the advanced courses you’ve taken, you’re technically a junior. They let me peek at your transcript. You’ve already finished a year of organic and inorganic chemistry. You’re done with most of your biology, physics, and calculus. It looks to me like you’ll be in medical school by your twenty-first birthday.”
Teri is guarded, not a bad thing. “I’m surprised they told you so much about me.”
I had put a vampiric spell on the woman in the employment office, but I’m not going to tell Teri that. “I need someone right away, and I’m willing to pay three times what you could get anywhere else in town.”