The Ghost of a Chance (Krewe of Hunters #38.7)

Chapter 8

“I—I don’t know how long I was there,” Cassie told Angela. “The monsters came at first. They brought me food and water—not often, but enough. But when they were bringing me through…”

She broke off, wincing.

“What is it, Cassie?” Angela asked gently. “We need to catch those monsters, stop them, and we really need to understand who it might have been and if there were several of them, just two, or—”

“Two took me the first night,” Cassie said. “And then…one was smaller than the other. The one who forced me through the wall was the one who brought food and water most of the time. If there were more than two of them…I’m so sorry. I don’t know. I was mostly in the dark, the pitch-black . I think I…passed out a lot. I even thought I had died a few times. But then I heard you. Still…”

Her voice trailed off again.

“Cassie, I know how hard this must be for you. And I’m so, so sorry. I will leave you alone, and you can be with your parents in just a few minutes, I promise,” Angela told her. “And…I honestly believe if you talk about it all, it may get a little better. It will get better every day now that you’re out of there and can heal. So, if there is something else, please tell me.”

“They showed me corpses first,” Cassie said. “Before they tied me up, they showed me people…rotting. They warned me that if I didn’t obey them, I would become one of the dead. And, toward the end…they just didn’t come anymore. I knew then that they’d always wanted me to become one of the corpses.”

Tears dripped off Cassie’s chin.

Angela got her a tissue and said, “Cassie, we found you, and you’re not going to become one of those corpses. You’re a survivor, young lady. You’ve done beautifully and beat them.”

Cassie looked at her hopefully and smiled through her tears. “I did survive,” she said. “I survived monsters!”

Angela nodded her encouragement and stood. “I’m going to get your mom and dad. I think they’re going to release you from the hospital today. You’ll get to go home.”

Cassie nodded, looked at Angela, and whispered, “Thank you.”

“Thank you for being so strong,” Angela told her.

“I don’t know. I may be afraid to go out for a long, long time. Then again, well, maybe I’ll take a self-defense class and make sure I don’t wind up in any dark alleys by myself again.”

“Good thinking,” Angela advised her. But that, of course, led her to another line of possible questioning.

“You went to see Billy Mendelson that day?” Angela said.

“Yes. Poor Billy. He was in such bad shape, so devastated. Not to mention depressed and desperate. He said they’d never get the people who had done it because he wasn’t able to help them. I mean, Billy wasn’t attacked by monsters, but he was confused by what he saw because he didn’t know anything about the people who broke into his home. He couldn’t see their hair or skin. He couldn’t tell if they were young or old, if they had tattoos—or anything at all that might identify them. They were long gone, even though he'd dialed 911 hysterically the minute they were gone. He wished they had killed him, too, rather than leaving him with his parents shot and nothing—nothing at all—he could do for them. I tried to help him. I tried to tell him he had to move forward in their memory. Said they would want him to live life to the fullest and be happy. They had been happy. He had given them happiness, being such a great kid and student.”

“Cassie, you mean everything to him,” Angela said.

Cassie winced. “I heard them talking, saying Billy was part of a bank holdup—the holdup that, thank God, sent you into the tunnels and made it possible for you to find me. But Billy…he didn’t turn bad. He couldn’t have been one of the monsters because there was no way he could have gotten ahead of me.”

“That’s good to know,” Angela told her.

She smiled.

Billy may not have been one of the monsters , but he might still have been part of the plan. Had he known that Cassie would be taken?

She didn’t want to believe that. And Kenneth Martin had a criminal record. Of course, any lead or suggestion needed to be checked out.

But having listened to Billy and now Cassie…

Angela thought the two cared for each other. They were good friends, even though it didn’t seem that they had been a couple. Friends could care very deeply, and it was possible for a high school boy and girl to be just really good friends. Angela had had several male friends herself in high school with no romantic attachments.

But…

How had Kenneth convinced Billy that he had Cassie? He hadn’t called Mr. or Mrs. Payton—she’d asked them that when she first met the couple.

“Cassie, it’s truly a pleasure to know you. You are an incredibly strong young woman, and I know you are going to do well in life. Take care. I’ll see you again.”

Angela headed out.

“Thank you,” Cassie called after her.

Cassie’s parents were waiting in the hallway, looking at Angela anxiously. She still wasn’t sure how the girl had been gone so long without being reported as missing, but maybe she was being judgmental. Cassie was a good student, and from all she had learned, she was a good person who was now legally a loved and trusted adult. Her camp had been all about learning, and it might have been a show of faith that her parents trusted her to enjoy herself without calling home every other minute.

And the camp?

Well, sometimes, and for various reasons, people just didn’t follow through with plans they made.

The director had told her that all campers had been required to check in by a certain date and that it had been in the large print that those who failed to show voluntarily gave up their positions unless they provided a doctor’s note.

Never. Never, never, never would she let it happen to her children.

For a moment, she wondered if she and Jackson might not wind up being overprotective because of what they did for a living.

Of course, they were different to begin with.

Angela assured Mr. and Mrs. Payton that Cassie was doing fine and that they were doing everything possible with all manner of local and federal employees to get to the bottom of what had happened.

Jackson was due at the hospital anytime now. Then they were to meet with Bruce and the others at headquarters to find out what might have been discovered forensically.

To find out what, if anything, might be discovered about the four bodies they had unearthed in the tunnels.

She should just head in, but…

She pulled out her phone and called Jackson.

“Anything?” she asked him.

“Kenneth accused Billy, Billy accused Kenneth. Same old, same old.”

“Well, one new bit. At the very least, Billy was not one of the so-called monsters that kidnapped Callie. She’s certain he wouldn’t have had the time to get into that kind of a costume and get down to the alley to grab her as the monsters did.”

“Good to know. I’ll take a turn at the hospital. Then we’ll meet back up at headquarters. Are you—?”

“There are still sewer and forensics crews working the tunnels. I’m not sure what it is, Jackson, but something is calling me back there.”

“Gut,” Jackson said.

“It could be crazy, but…”

“Yeah. Gotcha. Okay, I’ll see you at the office in a few hours.”

“See you there.”

“Angela?”

“Yeah?”

“Be careful.”

“You know me. I’m always careful.”

They ended the call, and Angela headed for her car. It was a short trip to the entrance, which was now permanently open.

She spoke to the sewer workers, thanking the man who gave her coveralls.

She would still need one hell of a shower when she left, but the coveralls were great.

Once underground, Angela headed through the strange labyrinth—now widened—to find the tunnel where she’d slipped through to find Cassie huddled in the far rear corner.

Now, of course, the wall had been smashed.

But she could still imagine it as it had been the day before. Narrow. She closed her eyes and thought about the place in absolute darkness.

It was, in fact, amazing that the white light of a phone’s flash could provide such illumination in such a stygian place.

But…

Okay. Obviously, someone had known about the tunnels. It did seem most likely that it was the escaped convict, Kenneth Martin.

Then again, Billy had been a stellar student.

Maybe one of history and geography. Somewhere, there had to be a written record mentioning the tunnels being here as part of the Underground Railroad that had even preceded the Civil War.

She had brought her tablet, but it was unlikely she’d get Wi-Fi where she was. Maybe her phone was working.

She put a call through to the office. In a few minutes, she was speaking with Whitney Tremont, an agent who went way back with her—to their first case as the Krewe of Hunters in New Orleans. Not that they didn’t trust all their agents and find them to be the best—and most talented or cursed —in the field, but Angela had known Whitney and worked with her forever. So, it was easy for Angela to explain to Whitney what she wanted and why.

“I really believe it’s ridiculous that a kid might have manipulated a master criminal, but…see what you can find in records, books, podcasts—anything—that mentions these tunnels. If we can’t find anything, then Billy Mendelson couldn’t have found anything either.”

“We do have both Billy and Kenneth in custody. And you found the poor girl who was kidnapped,” Whitney reminded her.

“But someone else is involved, and we can’t solve this thing until we find out who,” Angela told her.

“All right, I understand that,” Whitney said. “I’m on it. I’m not as good as you—”

Angela broke in with a laugh. “You might be better.”

Whitney laughed softly, too. “I will do my level best.”

“There’s more, of course. I promised I’d work on finding out what happened to Billy Mendelson’s parents. The law can’t give up on him.”

“Angela, you’re the next step to the boss—the supervisory special agent is your husband. But while we promise to do our best; we don’t promise to achieve,” Whitney reminded her.

“I know. But, Whitney, I know it’s all connected. Somehow. We need to find that connection.”

“Okay. I’m headed in for my history lesson now. I’ll get back to you asap.”

“Thank you.”

Angela studied the stone, closing her eyes for a minute to remember what it had looked like and recall the horizontal slit that had been there before Jackson blew a hole in the wall.

Only one of the monsters had come in to see Cassie with food and water. That would have probably been the smaller of the two.

Despite Jackson’s size—a man who stood well over six feet tall and kept fit as their lives demanded of him—he would have gotten through if he had to. But…

It was so much easier for a smaller person.

They kept thinking men were the culprits here. A smaller person.

What if the unknown person was female? It was more than possible. While most serial killers proved to be men, it was not impossible for a woman to slide into the role.

And while this wasn’t such a situation…

It didn’t mean a woman wasn’t involved.

“Special Agent Hawkins.”

She turned to see one of the forensic team, a young woman named Belle Mabry, standing back.

“Hey, Belle.”

“I just wanted to let you know we’ve been all over in there, collecting bits of food the rats hadn’t gotten to yet, trying to see if there are any prints, hairs, or anything else anywhere.”

“Great. Thank you. Anything?”

“A few hairs, believe it or not, caught in the ragged parts of the stone in the wall. They’re being tested now. Of course, they may all belong to the young woman who was kept hostage down here, but…”

“Anything is worth a try,” Angela assured her.

“I’m off. I just wanted to let you know.”

“Thank you. Oh, hey, what color was the hair?” Angela asked.

“Reddish, maybe auburn.”

“Thank you.”

Belle waved a hand and disappeared.

Cassie’s hair—once it had been washed—was dark blond, almost light brown. Billy had dark brown hair and Kenneth was blond, as well.

Of course…

Those hairs could have been stuck on the tunnel wall forever.

Hair lasted longer than flesh and human organs. She pictured the skeletal remains they’d first recovered.

Angela’s phone vibrated, and she answered it quickly.

“Anything?” Angela asked.

“Something, maybe. I’m not so sure I like history. I’ve been reading about the Massachusetts 54th during the Civil War. My God. After the first two years, Abraham Lincoln knew he had to make use of African troops. And the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the states that were in the rebellion—I mean, I guess the North was filled with abolitionists at the time, but soldiers joined that unit from as far away as Canada and the Caribbean islands. Anyway, sorry. Your new friend, Captain David Clancy, was with the Massachusetts and is incredibly lucky he survived. Six hundred men were sent in to attack Fort Wagner, protecting Charleston, and more than half of them were killed. But those who survived went on, and thankfully, David was among them. He wound up befriending a fellow who worked for a DC paper at the time. There was even an article where he talked about coming to freedom through the tunnels and how he would have given his life, if necessary, to achieve it. It’s a great article. But the point is, if I found it, others could have, too. And that means they at least heard of the tunnels.”

“Thank you, thank you, Whitney. So…I am almost positive it was someone else, our missing third person, who knew about the tunnels, and might be a redhead,” Angela told her.

She frowned suddenly, remembering the bank.

And while it seemed impossible and preposterous…

She suddenly realized she might know who the third person was. And while it did indeed seem impossible and preposterous, in a way…

It made sense.

“Help! Help me!”

Angela spun around, the soft cry from beyond the area where she stood looking at the broken wall catching her attention. The sound came from where she had found Cassie Payton huddled on the ground the day before.

Angela hurried around the broken wall, anxious.

What now?

And then she knew. She knew because the second she came around the corner, she felt the steel against her skull.

Déjà vu.

Then came the warning, a harsh whisper.

“Don’t move, or I swear you’re dead.”