Taking, p.13
Taking, page 13
Crivaro looked at Riley and said, “What kind of vehicle do you think made these tracks?”
Riley knew he was quizzing her again.
She thought for a moment, then said, “It might have been an RV.”
“What kind of RV?” Crivaro asked.
Riley remembered their visit to the RV rental place.
She said, “With tires like these, it was as big as a bus. That means it would have been a Class A RV.”
Crivaro nodded silently, waiting for her to say something else.
But what? Riley wondered.
Then it occurred to her.
“A bathroom in a big RV would be just the size of the kind of small room I’m talking about.”
Crivaro nodded again and said, “That’s what I’m thinking too. The blood might have gone down a shower drain and collected with his wastewater. He could have disposed of the blood along with everything else.”
Riley felt a tingle of excitement.
She said, “So now we know—the killer’s in a Class A RV, one of the biggest motor homes.”
“It’s a pretty good guess, anyway,” Crivaro said.
Riley said, “That means we’ve got to go to the campground she’d been staying at while she was here in Sedona, see what we can find out there.”
Crivaro groaned and said, “Does that mean going undercover again?”
Riley smiled. “I don’t see any way around it. Anyway, we’re already dressed for it, and we’ve got the right sort of vehicle.”
Crivaro shook his head. “I don’t know, Riley. Last night didn’t go so well.”
Riley felt a renewed pang of guilt about dunking that man in the pool.
She said, “I won’t screw up again, I promise. We can do this. I can do this.”
“If you say so,” Crivaro said. “I found it easier pretending to be a hit man. Anyway, we’ve got a couple more things to do before we get going.”
Riley and Crivaro went over to the victim’s RV and took a look inside. The camper was actually elegant inside, probably quite expensive for its size. Everything was perfectly neat and immaculate, with no sign of a struggle. That seemed consistent with Riley’s intuition that the killer abducted his victims by getting them to trust him, not by force. He probably just lured them into his own motor home.
Nodding toward the couple in the police car, Crivaro asked Chief Wilson …
“What about those two?”
Wilson shrugged a little and said …
“They’ve already told us pretty much everything they could, I guess. Still, we’ll take them to the station and get a formal statement. Their names are Simon and Paula Haas. They’re tourists from LA.”
Crivaro said to Riley, “Go over there and touch base with them. Find out what they’ve got to say. I’ve got a few more things to go over with the chief before you and I head on to the campground.”
Riley hesitated. Again, she got the feeling that Crivaro was just trying to get her out of the way, if only briefly. Surely the couple wouldn’t be able to tell her anything they hadn’t already told the police.
Riley quickly told herself …
Don’t be so hypersensitive.
Crivaro was just making certain they didn’t overlook any possible details.
Riley walked over to the police car and looked at the couple sitting in the back seat. They appeared to be almost catatonic with shock, and they were holding hands as if for dear life.
Riley crouched by the open door and produced her badge. She gently introduced herself, and said, “I’m terribly sorry that you’re going through all this. Could I ask you just a couple of questions?”
Paula Haas stared off into space as if she hadn’t heard what Riley had said. Simon looked up and nodded.
Riley asked, “Could you tell me just how you found the victim?”
Simon Haas wrinkled his brow, as if he were trying to remember something that had happened a long time ago.
Finally, he said, “Paula and I came here just before dawn. We wanted to get on the trail before a lot of people got here. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful morning.”
He nodded toward a nearby car and said, “We parked right over there, put on our backpacks, and started out onto the trail. We only got as far as the spot that people call the Transept …”
He gulped down a sob of horror and said …
“And there she was. Just lying there.”
Riley shuddered at those words, as if she herself were seeing the corpse again—only this time with no warning, with no expectation that there could possibly be anything evil afoot. It was all too easy to imagine how the couple had felt. On top of the sheer horror of seeing the body, they must surely have been terrified for their own lives, at least for a few moments.
Riley took a slow breath and asked …
“Did you notice anybody else in the area? Any vehicles nearby? A large RV, for example?”
Simon Haas shook his head and said, “No. Like I said, we got here really early. I don’t think there was anybody at all near here.”
Finally Paula Haas looked at Riley. “Could you tell us … why?”
Riley felt an eerie sense of déjà vu as she remembered Brett Parma’s mother saying the same thing to her yesterday …
“Why?”
Riley opened her mouth, but no words came out. She had no idea what to say—or even exactly what Paula was trying to ask her.
Simon put his arm around his wife and said …
“I guess what Paula wants to know is … how could something so awful happen in a beautiful place like this? We came here … hoping to experience something wonderful. We’d heard that Transept Trail was a really special place that few other people knew about. So how could …?”
His voice trailed away, but he kept gazing at Riley imploringly.
Riley managed to gasp out the words …
“I’m so sorry that you’ve had to go through this. Thank you for your help.”
As she got unsteadily to her feet and started to walk away, she saw Crivaro coming toward her.
“We’re through here,” he said to Riley. “Let’s hit the road again.”
As Riley followed him to the RV, she was overcome by a deep sense of pity—even deeper, in a way, than she’d felt for Mrs. Parma.
Simon’s words echoed through her head.
“We came here … hoping to experience something wonderful.”
Riley realized that these two people had arrived in Sedona full of New Age ideas, full of naïve faith that the universe itself was a loving, benevolent place.
But suddenly they knew what Riley had faced during her whole lifetime …
The universe isn’t such a friendly place at all.
And she knew that the evil she was tracking now wasn’t going to just disappear.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
As Crivaro drove the RV away from the crime scene, Riley tried to shake off a lingering discomfort over her conversation with Simon and Paula Haas. She simply hadn’t known how to respond to the couple’s shock at encountering such evil in what they had considered a holy place.
Her mood wasn’t helped by the vehicle she saw coming from the opposite direction.
A TV news truck hurtled past them, headed toward the murder scene.
Crivaro grumbled, “Damn reporters. They found out pretty fast about this one. I guess they must monitor the police radio. Pretty soon the crime scene will be crawling with them.”
Riley replied, “I’m glad they didn’t get there before we did.”
As new as she was to investigative work, she’d had her own troubles dealing with the media. She knew what a nuisance they could be.
Then Crivaro asked her, “Did you find out anything new from the couple?”
Riley hesitated. She wished she could tell him how shaken she felt after that brief interview. But …
He wouldn’t understand.
“No,” she said. “Nothing they didn’t already tell the cops, I’m sure.”
Crivaro grunted and said, “I figured that. Still, we can’t leave any stone unturned.”
He drove on for a few moments, then added, “Chief Wilson and his team seem to know what they’re doing. Better than the guys back in Tunsboro, anyway. They’ve handled that crime scene really well. And Webster’s calling in the Arizona Highway Patrol to set up a circle of roadblocks around the whole area. They’ll check out RVs, especially the bigger ones. Maybe that will keep the killer from getting out of the area.”
Riley looked at Crivaro with surprise.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” she asked.
Crivaro shrugged and said, “Well, it’s one of the basics. What I’d do if I were Webster, I guess.”
Then with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, he added, “Have you got a better idea?”
Riley thought it over for a moment, then answered slowly …
“I’m just worried that he’s long gone from the area. What if he is, and he hears that there have been roadblocks all around Sedona checking on big RVs? Won’t that put him on the alert, wherever he winds up? He’ll know what kind of RV we’re looking for, and that will make it easier for him to stay hidden. Maybe even get rid of the motor home.”
Crivaro scoffed. “Yeah, that possibility occurred to me. But kid, it’s time you learned that every strategy has its risks. What if he’s still in the area, and we miss our chance to nab him before he gets very far? He’s committed two murders just a couple of days apart. He didn’t travel very far between the two. We know he’s got a taste for blood, and he’s likely to kill again soon, if he hasn’t already. Roadblocks aren’t a bad idea, believe me.”
Riley still had her doubts, but now was no time to get into an argument. They were just then pulling into the entrance to the Spring View Campground, where Shelby Eden had been staying before she’d been killed.
Crivaro parked their vehicle in front of the main office.
“I’ll go on in,” he said, “and tell the management what we’re doing here, see if they can tell me anything useful.”
As he climbed out of the cab he added with a growl …
“Then we can set up the camper and do our undercover bit. I’ll sure be glad when we stop having to do this.”
As he headed on into the office, Riley’s eyes drifted over to the campground itself. It was surprisingly lush with trees and vegetation. It looked as though somebody had created a sort of oasis in the middle of the rocky desert.
Riley climbed down out of the vehicle and wandered onto the grounds. To her surprise, the whole place looked like some kind of fantasy Hollywood movie set.
She saw Asian varieties of pine, willow, and cherry trees so carefully trimmed they hardly looked real. Flowering plants were everywhere—magnolias, azaleas, camellias, and the like. White boulders were precisely placed amid patches of gravel or moss.
She passed a statue of a woman wearing an acorn-shaped crown and flowing clothes—some sort of Buddhist figure, Riley guessed. Even the camping lots were so meticulously arranged that the expensive RVs seemed to blend naturally into their surroundings.
Or maybe “naturally” isn’t the right word.
The whole place struck Riley as positively weird, plunked into the Arizona desert like this. She couldn’t imagine how expensive it must have been to maintain in this dry climate.
Riley crossed a rainbow-shaped wooden bridge over a crystal clear stream filled with large, shiny fish. The stream was fed by a small artificial waterfall. At the far end of the bridge was a little shopping area, with storefronts advertising astrology and tarot readings and Tai Chi classes and such. New Age music droned quietly over speakers.
She spotted three women sitting at a table outside a little outdoor tea shop, sipping from delicate cups, talking and laughing. Riley thought this might be good place to start gathering information.
As she strolled across the white gravel patio toward the women, they looked up at her with curious expressions. She realized that all three of them were dressed in flowing, loose-fitting outfits, some probably made from silk.
Oh, no, she thought.
It was hardly any wonder she’d attracted their attention—and not in a good way. She wasn’t going to fit in at all, wearing the inexpensive shorts, T-shirt, and sandals she’d bought yesterday. And of course, Agent Crivaro was really going to look sorely out of place here.
For a second, Riley wondered if she should hurry back out to the campground office and warn Crivaro away, tell him that going undercover here wasn’t going to work out at all.
But one of the women patted an empty chair and asked her with a stiff smile …
“Would you like to sit down?”
It didn’t sound like a very sincere invitation, just something the woman was likely saying to be polite. But Riley figured it would be impolite on her part to refuse, and this was, after all, the kind of opportunity she was looking for.
She pulled up another bamboo chair and sat down at the table with the group.
When one of the women asked who she was, Riley wished she’d prepared a different story. Instead, she said exactly what she had at the campground yesterday—that she was traveling with her dad, a recently retired insurance man and a widower.
Then she added …
“Dad insisted on camping in this part of Arizona. I was worried. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea.”
The women’s eyes widened.
“Why on earth not?” one of them asked.
Riley wondered for a moment whether she should mention both murders or just one. Had these women heard about last night’s victim?
Probably not, she thought.
After all, the media had just been arriving at the scene when she and Crivaro left. These women seemed rather sequestered from the outside world and probably hadn’t heard the news yet.
Riley shrugged a little and said …
“Well, we’d heard that there was a murder not far from here just the other day.”
A knowing murmur passed among the women.
“Oh, yes,” one of them said. “It happened down near Tunsboro, I believe.”
Another patted Riley on the knee and said …
“Don’t worry, dear. You’ll be as safe as safe can be here at Spring View. Nothing like that could possibly happen here.”
The other women voiced their agreement.
They sound so positive, Riley thought. It was as if they thought this place was under some kind of protective spell.
If so, Riley didn’t feel inclined to share their belief. That was the way the Haas couple had felt about the most recent murder scene.
The women introduced themselves as Amanda, Donna, and Janine. For a few moments, Riley felt oddly unsure about their ages. On the one hand, they seemed to be fairly young. But on the other hand, Riley noticed something strained and stiff about their faces.
Then she realized …
Facelifts.
They were all middle-aged, and their youthful looks were no more natural than anything else about this peculiar place.
They chattered away for a few moments, and Riley began to feel rather invisible to them. They talked about their recent meditations and classes until the one named Amanda said …
“Has anybody seen Bliss today?”
Riley was startled by the question. Was “bliss” something they expected to physically encounter here from time to time?
But then the one named Donna said, “No, I haven’t seen her since yesterday. And her RV wasn’t in its spot.”
Then Riley understood that “Bliss” was a woman’s name.
Janine said, “I saw her when she was pulling out last evening. She said she was hoping to find a wonderful vortex.”
Donna shrugged and said, “Well, maybe she found one and decided not to come back.”
Riley felt a chill at that word …
Vortex.
Chief Wilson had said something about vortexes back at the crime scene.
Riley now realized the woman they called “Bliss” was probably Shelby Eden. Maybe she had adopted a more New Age–sounding name since she’d started traveling. If Riley was right, these women clearly had no idea what had happened to the woman they knew as Bliss.
And I’d better not tell them.
Riley said to the women, “Tell me about vortexes.”
The women looked a little surprised that Riley didn’t know about all this already.
Janine said, “They’re power spots, places with tremendous spiritual energy.”
Donna added, “There are three different kinds of vortexes—electrical, magnetic, and balanced. Electrical vortexes are ‘yang’—masculine and very energizing. Magnetic vortexes are ‘yin’—feminine, soft, and nurturing. Balanced vortexes are a mixture of electrical and magnetic, great for achieving clarity and perspective.”
Riley was struck by the women’s matter-of-fact tone, as if they were talking about perfectly ordinary proven scientific facts. Even so, she doubted there was a lot of real science behind their ideas.
Riley asked, “Where are these vortexes?”
Amanda said, “There are four really well-known vortexes around Sedona—Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock, Boynton Canyon, and Airport Mesa.”
“I’ve tried them all,” Donna said with a shrug. “They’re plenty powerful. Even so, I find all the transformational energy I need right here in Spring View—and especially at the Delphi RV Resort, up in Utah.”
Amanda nodded in agreement and said, “Oh, yes. I love Delphi as well. A very blessed place, like this one. Exclusive, though. I’m so glad Harold and I were able to get a membership.”
Donna said in a haughty tone, “Sometimes exclusive is a good thing. That’s why I like Delphi. The very best people show up there—successful people, evolved people, people with the highest self-esteem, people who know their true self-worth.”
Amanda nodded and said, “That’s right. You meet all the most worthwhile people there. Nobody who is anybody would ever miss out on going to Delphi.”
Then Janine said, “Yesterday Bliss told me she was heading out to find another vortex that most people don’t even know about. If she did find something wonderful, I wish she’d come back and tell us about it. I’d like to check it out.”
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