Page 83 of Whispers at Dusk
“He—he wants you to join him. Or be his ultimate victim,” Fremont said.
“And that may be our way to get him. His over-confidence soars,” Della explained. “The wordnarcissistdoesn’t begin to describe him. He thinks he can slip away and never be caught—”
“He’s succeeded so far,” Fremont said. He was worried, his statement simply matter-of-fact.
“So far. Not this time. We can’t let him disappear this time,” Mason said.
“All right, there is a connection there—a frightening one,” he told Della. “But if you believe he’s in the bayou, I’m willing to go with your beliefs. But how do we start hunting for these girls? The state is filled with bayous, tons of surrounding country, all loaded with alligators, snakes, and more. If you don’t know the area, it can be like being tossed in a pit.”
“We’re aware,” Della said quietly. She looked at Mason. “We know the area. We were on the team that took down the Midnight Slasher.”
“Ah,” Fremont murmured. “All right, so. We believe this man has kidnapped his victims and taken them out to the bayou. But a girl was just reported missing in Baton Rouge—”
“An hour and twenty minutes away in normal traffic,” Mason said. “Detective, we believe this man has headed out to an area he learned to traverse while he was training a recruit—the Midnight Slasher. He won’t be in the same place because he isn’t stupid.”
“But he will be out there, somewhere near,” Della said. “He’ll have carefully chosen his ground, aware we’ll be looking for him.”
“Okay. We can all pray you’re right. How do you want to play this?” Fremont asked, leaning forward.
Mason thought he knew how the fellow had risen in rank at such a young age. He was intelligent, thoughtful—and ready to listen to logic and voices of the experienced.
“Well, we have to get out there,” Mason said. “But—”
“We? The three of us? Not enough to begin that kind of a search. If I get a squad—”
“We need a team—not a squad—because we need to be careful. We know this man has two young women, possibly more. We can hope he’s holding his victims prisoner. He does that or his accomplices do it sometimes. If he—or they—are threatened, the victims’ lives may be forfeit. We don’t go in guns blazing. We keep it as quiet as humanly possible.”
“So...we need to slip through the bayou like the gators?” Fremont asked dryly.
“Something like that,” Mason said.
“All right, then. I’ll arrange for an airboat down at the docks. And don’t worry, I’ll handpick the team. I’ll get wires so that we can communicate. As I said, you’re talking some hard ground to cover.” He hesitated and then said, “If this man is drugging the girls, he could be in any one of dozens of hotel rooms around the city, in surrounding areas... He could be taking them anywhere.”
“That’s true,” Mason said. “It’s also true we can’t go into every hotel room in the city.”
“But he seems to like the great outdoors. He likes to leave his victims in out-of-the-way places where they’ll be found—but not found by dozens of people. He’s chosen locations where people walk, hike, or enjoy the woods or the wilderness, but he knows the paths that others take. I don’t think he’ll leave a victim to be found in a hotel room by a housekeeper,” Della said. “He likes the beauty of his displays, and then the horror when the truth is discovered.”
“I’m on it,” Fremont said. “I’m getting us an airboat, and I’ll order a team of our best bayou men out there and warn them to be discreet.”
“No uniforms,” Mason said.
“No uniforms,” Fremont agreed. He hesitated again. “There are so many bayous—”
“But Dante will be going for just one,” Della said.
“Detective, there are no guarantees. But for the good and the bad, Della has a strange connection with this man, and we have been on his trail. We might be wrong. But our field director and research manager have seen to it that every officer and agent throughout the area have images of this man as himself—though much younger—and as the various different characters he has played.”
“We’ll get the right people out on the streets, too,” Fremont said.
“Thank you, because following the criminal mind is not a guarantee,” Della said. She stood. “We’ll head to the port and meet you there whenever you’re ready. We know where to go. We have to get into the depths by whatever different methods we can. I know it’s going to be tough.”
“Give me about thirty minutes. Stop and get yourselves some coffee. There’s a great place on Broad Street called Coffee Science. Hey, get me one, too. I think I’m going to need the jolt!”
“Will do,” Mason said, adding, “Coffee. Yes. Couldn’t hurt!”
He and Della headed out. As they did so, Mason’s phone rang. “Airport security footage went to everyone, including your headquarters,” Bisset said when Mason answered the call. “I haven’t studied it all, but—”
“Don’t worry. Angela will be right on it with some of her best,” Mason told him, and explained what their plans were. Detective Fremont was arranging for radio controls to keep them all informed of where they were and if they found anything.
