Committed (8 page)

“Yup. Forty with four slides.”

“Baby, isn’t that kind of what we’ve been looking for?” Molly asked.

Nick nodded his head and took another drink from his beer. “Yup. Same make and model as the one I want. Damn things are hard to find. We kind of had it narrowed down between a couple makes and models but couldn’t actually find one of these locally to look at.”

“Well, hell, you guys want a quick tour?” Joey asked.

“Wow, yeah, for sure,” Nick said. “I mean, if you don’t mind a couple of strangers roaming around your place for a minute.” He chuckled.

“Nah, no sweat.” Joey stood from his chair and waved Nick and Molly toward the RV.

The couple stood and followed him.

“Coming?” Joey asked. He looked at his wife.

“Um, sure,” Heather said. She stood from her chair and followed them to the door of the RV.

Joey opened the door and stepped up inside.

Nick followed him. “The white tile is nice,” he said.

“Yeah, that was an upgrade over the laminate that it comes with, but we liked it in one of the ones they had at the dealer,” Joey said. “The granite counters in the galley were an upgrade as well.”

Nick stepped in farther, allowing Molly and Heather to get inside. Directly to Nick’s right were the driver and passenger seats with a center console dividing them and filled with an LCD screen and buttons.

“Wow,” Molly said. “This is so much nicer inside than our last one. I like the color of the cabinets all around.”

“Thanks,” Heather said. “That was my doing. Joey wanted to go with a lighter color.”

Nick turned to face the back of the vehicle. Immediately to his left was a small love seat near the door and then the kitchen—or, as Joey said, the
galley
—beyond it. The kitchen area ended with a full-size stainless refrigerator set into a half wall. Beyond the refrigerator was a hallway leading back toward the bedroom and restroom area. Nick looked to the right. Going down that side of the RV was a booth, shaped like one from a restaurant, followed by a full-size couch. The half wall directly across from the refrigerator held a flat-screen television at the top and a fireplace at the bottom.

“This thing has a fireplace?” Molly asked.

Nick quickly interrupted. “Yeah, babe, remember when I showed you that you could get that?”

“I think I would have remembered that,” she said.

“Turns on with a remote control,” Joey said.

“Oh, that’s so cool,” Molly said.

“Come on, I’ll show you the back,” Joey said.

Nick and Molly followed Joey into the hallway located between the refrigerator and the fireplace.

“This is the bath, here,” Joey said. He opened the door on the right.

Nick and Molly poked their heads in to look, and Nick nodded in approval.

“And we have a small spare sleeping area with bunks here.” Joey opened the door directly across from the restroom. Nick and Molly repeated the process of looking into the room, not much deeper than a closet with a pair of bunk beds inside.

“And back here is the main bedroom.”

Nick and Molly entered. Nick quickly glanced over his shoulder to see Heather standing in the kitchen area, staring back at them. Then he looked back into the room, where a king-size bed took up most of the floor space. A pair of nightstands sat to the bed’s sides. The back of the RV was cabinets to the sides of two mirrored closet doors. To the left were more cabinets surrounding another television.

“What has your mileage been like?” Nick asked. He figured it to be a suitable question.

Joey waved Molly and Nick from the bedroom and had a seat on the couch near the television and fireplace. Heather stood in the kitchen, pouring herself another glass of wine. Molly walked toward her with her empty glass and then put her back to the granite counter near the oven.

“We’ve only taken one trip this year where I actually tried to pay attention to the mileage,” Joey said. “We went and visited Heather’s parents in Phoenix right after we got it. I think it was around eight miles a gallon, staying around the speed limit. Not too bad, but then again, it’s no economy car. That mileage was with a dinghy, so I’m guessing it could have been a little better.”

“Dinghy?” Molly asked.

“Towing a vehicle,” Joey said. “You guys will have to get up to speed with your RV lingo.”

“For sure,” Nick said.

“Well, aside from the upgrades in here, we also ended up getting the entertainment package for outside. Have you seen that?”

“No,” Nick said. “What’s that consist of?” Nick reached into his back pocket and took the handle of his garrote in his hand.

“Let me show you.” Joey stood from the couch and headed for the door of the vehicle.

“Actually, Joey,” Nick said. “Can you show me the cockpit?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Joey said.

He walked Nick to the front and had him take a seat behind the wheel. Joey went through the various controls of the vehicle with Nick. Nick glanced back at Molly, still in the same spot in the galley. The man’s wife was playing on her phone a few feet away.

Nick looked back at Joey. “How long were you guys planning on staying?” he asked.

“Well, we paid for a week. Heather and I are making our way out west to see some family.”

“Sure,” Nick said. “So, as far as getting these things hooked up to power, water, sewer, all that when you arrive at a place like this, and then getting everything disconnected, how does that work? We never did it with the one we’d borrowed.”

“I could go through it with you in the morning if you like. We’re on our own right now—not hooked up to anything for the night. It was dark when we rolled in—figured I’d relax, have a few beers, and take care of all the hookups in the morning, you know?”

“Cool. Yeah, that would be great.”

“Do you want to go and check out the entertainment outside?” Joey asked. “It’s pretty neat, actually. Just above the basement doors, there’s a grill that pops out, television and stereo, the works.”

“Yeah, lead the way,” Nick said. He waited for Joey to turn and then lifted himself from the captain’s chair. Nick pulled the garrote from his pocket. “Molly, baby, did you want to go ahead and kill Heather for me now?” Nick asked.

In a single motion, he crossed his arms and looped the wire around Joey’s neck from behind. Nick pulled the two handles away from each other while Joey flailed with his hands, trying to fight Nick off, which would do no good. Over the sound of Joey’s feet kicking and his arms flailing and slapping off of the walls, a woman screamed, and glass broke. Joey quit fighting within thirty seconds. Nick stared back into the galley to see Molly sitting on top of Heather. Molly had broken the wine glass on the edge of the counter and used it to stab the woman.

“I saved her for you to finish off, babe,” Molly said.

“One second, dear.” Nick held his position, gave the handles one final yank, and let the man drop to the floor. He pulled the garrote from Joey’s neck and walked to Molly and Heather.

Molly stabbed the broken wine glass into the woman’s stomach again. Heather made a sound like a gag. Molly lifted herself off the woman. Heather’s hands went to the wound, and she rolled herself onto her stomach. She weakly pulled herself across the white tile, leaving a blood-smeared trail behind.

“Where are you headed, bitch?” Molly asked.

Nick watched Heather pull herself across the white floor until she neared the door. Then he walked over, grabbed her by the back of the hair, and wrapped her neck with the garrote. Nick sat on her back as he pulled. He felt the wire pull through her throat almost immediately. Nick saw the blood pooling under her head. The woman was dead in seconds.

Nick removed himself from her back. “Okay, baby. Let’s get this cleaned up.”

“Got it.” Molly knelt next to the bloody trail from the woman and gently picked up broken pieces of glass.

Nick lifted Joey’s body by the armpits and dragged him toward the RV’s door.

“What are we going to do with them?” Molly asked.

“We’ll put them below if they fit—get rid of them tomorrow or something,” Nick said.

He popped open the door and looked out. The campground was dark, aside from their fire and a couple of additional campfires burning in the distance between the trees—he heard the faint sounds of people holding conversations and a bit of music. Nick stepped out from the front door and went to the doors at the side of the RV, or what Joey had referred to as the basement. Nick crouched and looked into the one where Joey had kept the wood. The light from their campfire lit the compartment enough for Nick to get a good view inside—the area was big enough to accommodate both bodies if the wood was removed. Nick pulled all the wood from the compartment and stacked it near the side of the RV. Then he walked back inside.

Molly was still working on cleaning up. “So what’s the plan?”

“Well, let’s get these two below.”

“And then? Are we getting our stuff from our site and leaving right away?”

Nick shrugged. “We have firewood and this guy’s beer. Clean up, have a couple of beers around the fire, and see what happens.”

Molly smiled and went back to swabbing blood from the floor.

We’d put the wheels in motion the prior night after a discussion with Scott and Bill. After a call back to Manassas, Ball and the twins were going to make contact again with the Montana resident agency and the local sheriff’s department. While we didn’t know if that was where they were heading, and the local department had already spoken with anyone they could connect with the girl, we wanted everyone on high alert.

I’d just finished a morning phone call with Karen and was about to head downstairs in search of breakfast when my phone buzzed against my leg. I yanked it out, glanced at the screen and clicked Talk.

“Yeah, Scott,” I said.

“How close are you to being ready?” he asked.

“I’m pretty much ready right now. What’s up?”

“It looks like we found Lindsay Dunbar.” Scott paused. “Or at least the man’s body. We’re heading out in ten.”

I shook my head at his words. For a split second, I’d thought he’d been found alive. “Where was he found?”

“Back up I-80 toward the rest area about fifteen minutes. Locals are on the scene now.”

“Okay. Are you at your room?” I asked.

“Yeah. Bill just called Beth, so she knows. We’re meeting downstairs.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you down there in a minute.”

“Yup.” He hung up.

I pulled on my gray suit jacket and left the room. After taking the elevator downstairs, I grabbed a coffee from the station near the check-in desk and waited for the rest of the team.

Bill walked up first. His short brown hair was parted on the side, recently combed, and still a bit wet. His cheeks were pink from what I guessed was a shave about five minutes prior. “Morning, Hank.” He let out a bit of a long breath that could have been called a sigh.

“Bill,” I said.

“More shit left in these two’s wake.” Bill glanced at his big black watch.

“Get any more details other than he was found?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Nah. Scott’s call was pretty short. He just said he was contacted by the local office. I guess the sheriff’s department said they found our guy and that he was deceased. They called it in to the local office. Local office called Scott.”

I nodded.

I caught the ding of the elevators and glanced over. The brass doors spread, and Beth and Scott stepped out. The two saw us and headed over.

“Morning, guys,” Scott said.

“Morning. What do we have over there?” I asked.

“A motorist called it in. The guy found Mr. Dunbar dead in a cornfield. What came through to me was that the man had been shot in the back.”

“How does a motorist find a DB in a cornfield?” Beth asked.

“Good question, which we will find out as soon as we get over there. The body is still on the scene. Locals are keeping his remains there until we arrive. Are we ready?” Scott asked.

“I’m good to go,” I said.

Beth and Bill nodded.

“All right, well, let’s get over there. We have the same forensics guys from yesterday meeting us in about a half hour or so, as well as Agents Gents and Makara.”

“Sure,” Beth said.

We left the hotel, got our vehicles from the parking structure, and headed out. Beth and I followed Scott back to the interstate and roughly ten miles back toward the rest area where we’d found the RV. Scott exited and made a left. We traveled down a two-lane country road lined with cornfields for about two miles until we came on the scene. Four sheriff’s cruisers were parked along the right-hand shoulder of the road, and two unmarked sedans sat on the left.

“I’m guessing this is our spot,” Beth said.

Scott pulled to the shoulder behind the sheriff’s cruiser, and Beth and I pulled up behind them. We stepped from the car and followed Bill and Scott toward the group of deputies huddled near the first car. I glanced at the last cruiser in the line and saw a man sitting in the back with a small brown-and-white dog, which I thought was odd. The dog had a leash attached around its neck to its collar. We stopped with the group of six deputies—I recognized a pair of them from the RV at the rest area the previous day.

“What are we looking at here?” Bill asked.

One of the deputies from the day prior spoke up, a short, round man with the name Mullins embroidered in yellow on his brown long-sleeved sheriff’s shirt. “Guy in the cruiser there stopped for a dog on the side of the street.”

“I’m assuming it’s the dog in the car with him?” I interrupted.

“Correct.” Deputy Mullins continued, “So he stops at the side of the road, and the dog runs into the cornfield at the disturbed area there.” Mullins pointed toward a line of bent-over and damaged cornstalks leading into the field. “Well, the guy follows the dog for a bit and sees the body. The guy is still back there. We didn’t touch him—nothing. What you see back there is exactly as found.”

“How exactly do we know this is our guy? ID on him?” Scott asked.

“Well, I guess we don’t know a hundred percent, but the DL photo we have in our system for the guy looks like him. We didn’t check him for ID. Like I said, we didn’t touch the body,” Deputy Mullins said. “The name came from the tags on the dog’s collar. Deputy Schumer was first on the scene here. I guess I’ll let him explain.” Mullins nodded to the other deputy.