Beachcomber (34 page)

Luke could see him, a dark shape among the trees.

Gathering himself together, he sprang, grabbing the guy in a chokehold, clapping a hand over his mouth even as the guy tensed up for a fight.

“Don’t make a sound,” Luke growled in his ear. Then he let him go, grabbed his arm, and dragged him away out of earshot.

“What the hell?” Gary didn’t sound any too pleased when finally they stopped. “You almost made me drop the global positioning device, and you know how expensive that thing was. You might want to send a damage report on it into headquarters, but I don’t.”

He brandished the dark rectangle he held in his left hand.

“Keep your voice down, will you? And douse the flashlight. Christy’s over there under a bush. She’s not stupid. If you just happen to stumble across us while we’re hiding in the woods in the middle of the night, she’s gonna want to know how and why.”

“How and why’s easy: when you didn’t come back, I started getting nervous. I figured you must have gone with Christy in her car, but I couldn’t get the homing device to come on-line. When it finally did, it was transmitting from a weird place, so I thought I better come check it out. I couldn’t figure out what her car was doing in the middle of a forest.”

“The bug’s not in her car anymore. It’s in my pocket.”

The pocket of his jeans, to be precise, which were lying at that moment across a rock, not that he meant
to bring his lack of them to Gary’s attention. Apparently tightening the screws that held the little plastic doohickey together, which he’d done in the trunk of Christy’s car before they had jumped, had done the trick. He’d been hoping it would, and that Gary was astute enough to realize that something had gone wrong and come to their aid. Which was exactly how it had gone down. For all his quirks, Gary, Luke was coming to realize, was a good man to have at his back.

“So what happened?” Gary demanded in a hushed voice.

Luke gave him a quick, thumbnail sketch, leaving out the personal details which were none of Gary’s business and ending with, “And then I saw you walking through the woods and here we are.”

“How’d you know it was me?” Gary sounded mildly puzzled.

Luke grunted. “The shoes, man. When the flashlight hit shiny cordovan dress shoes, I knew. Nobody else I’ve ever met in my life would wear dress shoes to search a forest.”

“For your information, I didn’t know I was going to be hiking through a forest when I put them on,” Gary said with dignity. “And anyway, I drove most of the way. There’s a gravel road—well, it’s mostly mud now—about a quarter mile to the west. That’s where I parked the Explorer. I have to say, tracking you down was a lot easier when I was doing it in the truck.”

“Yeah, well, you did good.” Luke clapped him on the shoulder. “Even to the shoes. Otherwise I wouldn’t
have known it was you, would I? Now here’s what I want you to do… .”

“You sure you want to handle it this way?” Gary sounded doubtful when Luke finished.

“Yeah. You stumbling across us would be one too many coincidences for Christy to swallow.”

“Don’t you think it would be easier at this point to just tell her the truth and try to get her to cooperate?”

Luke grimaced. He’d told so many tall tales now that the thought of Christy’s reaction when she did finally learn the truth was starting to worry him.

“I’ll think about it,” he said. “In the meantime, just do what I told you, okay?”

“You’re the boss,” Gary said. Luke couldn’t see him shrug, but he felt it. “You want my .38?”

Luke thought about it for a moment. A gun would be insurance, but hiding it from Christy would be next to impossible. The chances of the bad guy finding them were small; the chances of Christy finding the gun were almost one hundred percent.

“Nah,” he said.

“Oh, right,” Gary said. “Those hands are lethal weapons and all that, right?”

“Something like that, anyway,” Luke said. “This is the same guy who attacked her before. He’s driving a white pickup truck with some kind of writing on the passenger side. Probably a commercial application of some kind. Last time I saw it, it was towing Christy’s car, but he might well have dumped it somewhere by now. Keep an eye out for the truck, or her car along the road, and see what you can come up with on a white
truck through the department of motor vehicles. It very well might not be registered locally, but it sure doesn’t hurt to check.”

“Will do.”

“Great.” Luke turned away. “Gotta go.”

He’d been gone a good ten minutes. Christy was probably scared to death by now, and he didn’t like to think of Christy scared. If he’d been able to think of a better way to handle things, a way that didn’t involve frightening Christy—or, exposing himself as a world-class liar—he would have taken it.

“Luke. One more thing.”

Luke was already a couple of paces away when Gary’s voice stopped him.

“What’s that?”

“How come you’re not wearing any clothes?”

“I’ve got on shorts, okay? Everything else got wet and I took them off to let them dry. They’re hanging up drying as we speak.”

“Oh, is that what happened?”

“Yeah, that’s what happened. Any more questions?”

“Nope. None.”

“Great. Then I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

“Copy that,” Gary said, and they went their separate ways.

Despite the fact that a few stars now twinkled overhead, it was still pitch-dark. Having taken Christy’s measure by now, he was careful to whisper
It’s me
as insurance against getting clobbered over the head with something as he approached the rocks.

“Luke?” she whispered.

“Yeah.”

“Thank God, I’ve been worried out of my mind.”

She launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, trembling all over and pressing as close to him as she could get. She was fully clad, damp, and the flashlight was, as he had suspected, ready for use as a weapon in her hand. If he hadn’t identified himself, he had no doubt that he would now have one hell of a headache. He felt bad about the trembling and about her being afraid, he reflected as he took the flashlight from her, but other than that he could take this kind of greeting any time.

“I told you not to worry about me,” he said in her ear as his arms closed around her and he bore her down on the blankets, where he proceeded to kiss her breathless. Between kisses, he explained how one of the turtle watchers had just happened to wander their way.

“We need to try to get out of here as soon as it’s light,” Christy whispered when he finished. She wasn’t shaking anymore, but despite the supposedly soporific effect of his kisses and the reassurance imparted by his explanation she was still clearly afraid.

Okay, he felt bad about it, but what could he do? Telling her the truth about who and what he was was the only thing he could think of that would make her feel safer, and he wasn’t quite ready for that. He had a feeling that, if and when he finally did confess, the results weren’t going to be pretty.

“We don’t need to be in any hurry. With the turtle
people nearby we’re safe enough, and even if he’s still out there, which I don’t think he is, he’ll be long gone by morning.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Oh, yeah. He was sure. Anyway, he already had a hand up under her shirt and he could think of a far better way to pass the time until Gary got things in place than tramping around through a swampy forest.

Like getting her naked again.

By the time the sky had lightened from black to gray and the first orange rays of the sun were just starting to creep over the horizon, they were both naked and Luke, personally, could have done with a nap. Doing the deed with Christy three times in one night on a starry beach was probably as close to sexual nirvana as he was ever going to get, but it was also exhausting, especially on no sleep.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she murmured, lifting her head to look up at him some few minutes after they’d scaled the heights one last time, then collapsed in a limp tangle of blissed-out limbs.

“Can’t believe you’re doing what?”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. Lying flat on his back with her sprawled naked and sated on top of him, he discovered that he had a bird’s-eye view of the round globes of her breasts pressing against his chest and gave himself up to enjoying it.

“Getting you involved in this. Making it with you like this.”

So much for hearts and flowers. What had he expected,
that she’d be declaring herself wildly in love with him after a single—though admittedly memorable—night?

“Shit happens,” he said mildly. He slid a hand over her ass—she had a really great ass; it was round and firm and warm beneath his palm—then gave her a playful little spank. “We need to get going. Get up and get dressed.”

“Mmm.”

She rolled off him. For a man who had just had a whole lot of really great sex, he felt surprisingly unhappy, he realized. Pulling his clothes on, he moodily watched her dress. Naked and rosy with sex, with her breasts all round and flushed from his recent attentions and her ass round too and so hot it was all he could do to look and not touch, she made as erotic a picture as anything he had ever seen in his life.

By the time he zipped his clammy jeans, the task was difficult because he was once again well on his way to being at full mast.

Unfortunately, this fairly remarkable resurgence of his libido did nothing to cheer him up.

And at the thought that he was starting to find getting turned on a downer, he got even more depressed.

“I’m just going to take a little walk,” he said, sounding grumpy even to his own ears, and headed off to the forest to answer nature’s call.

24

T
HE BEAST WAS BEING
no help at all. He had searched the forest for as long as he dared, but with only his own senses to rely on, he’d come up empty. Unbelievably, she’d gotten away from him. It was almost like it was a judgment on him for being cocky. The next time he got the chance, he was going to kill her on the spot, and then make her disappear. Or not. The important thing was, corpses couldn’t talk.

The thought that she could remember at any time, that he might even have already scared her into remembering, was starting to prey on his mind. This was the closest he’d ever come to panicking, but panicking was the worst thing he could do. If he stayed calm, if he took just the little extra time needed to take Christy out before he vanished, he could be comfortable again.

Then it would be
California, here I come.

The cops might figure out what he’d done, but they wouldn’t know who he was. Or where he was.

Getting rid of her car was the first order of business. He had the spot all picked out. The only difference
was that he’d planned to have Christy’s body in it when the car bit the big one. Just abandoning it somewhere was not an option. There was too much evidence on it. Paint from his truck, for one. Maybe some of his hair or something they could use to get his DNA.

Not worth the risk. He disposed of the car, then bumped back up on the road. It was getting light out, and he needed to get home.

Terri would be waiting. She wouldn’t be going to California with him, but she didn’t know that yet. Maybe he would tell her later.

He smiled a little in anticipation. It was a bright spot in a dreary day.

His route took him past the ferry dock, and he chanced to get there just as the first ferry of the day was unloading. It was surprisingly full for the early hour, lots of cars, lots of people, and he shook his head at how popular Ocracoke was becoming.

Didn’t people ever just stay home?

One thing about the dock: at this hour of the morning, they did a brisk business in coffee. And Krispy Kremes. He was a sucker for coffee and Krispy Kremes.

With all the confusion—workers waving cars off the ferry, people milling around getting gas, getting directions, getting breakfast—there was no reason in the world for him to stand out. Nipping in to grab a cup of Joe and a doughnut wouldn’t be taking a risk. No one would notice him.

He parked the truck at the side of the lot and walked into the mini convenience store there. It was busy, and
he had to stand in line behind people buying everything from coffee and doughnuts to allergy medicine to maps.

“Mornin’,” he said when it was his turn, and placed his order.

“Sorry y’all had to wait,” the clerk said as he handed over the bag and Styrofoam cup. A pimply adolescent, he clearly had no interest in his present customer. He kept taking covert glances at a little blond teenybopper with multiple body piercings and a tube top. Giving her a fast once-over himself, he took a pass: she wasn’t his type.

“Busy for so early, aren’t you?” he asked as he paid and waited for his change.

“Seems like. You wouldn’t think so, would you? Not after what’s in the paper.”

“What’s in the paper?” He accepted the bills and change the kid gave him and tucked them away in his shirt pocket.

“About the serial killer. It’s on the front page of this morning’s
USA Today.
” The kid nodded toward a coin-operated newspaper stand just inside the door. “Ocracoke made the national news.”