JP forced a smile and removed her hand. He walked down the hallway, flipped on the light, and checked the room. The deadbolt was locked tight. When he walked back out Karen reached for his arm. “Let’s dance,” she said.
He spun around, pulling his arm away. “Not today. I’m in a hurry.” He stepped backwards and out the door, tipped his hat and said, “Happy Birthday.”
JP walked to his car and waited for about five minutes. The rain had let up a little. When he thought he could sneak by unnoticed, he walked around the back to Bailey’s room. The screen was off the window. He pushed the window open as wide as he could, leaving plenty of open space. Putting both hands on the sill he started to boost himself up, but it was slick and his hands slipped. He took the end of his shirt and wiped the ledge off and repositioned himself. This time he went up and lay on the sill belly down. When he reached forward and down to determine if there were any obstacles, he felt the bed directly under him. JP rolled into the room, onto the bed, and closed the window behind him. Then he removed a small flashlight from his jacket pocket. He wasn’t concerned about the noise because the music was so loud, and as long as the hallway light stayed on, they wouldn’t see light coming from under the bedroom door.
JP turned on the flashlight and looked under the bed for the box of movies Bailey had told Sabre about. It was a big box. He rummaged through them as quietly as he could without taking too much time. He pushed aside
Napoleon Dynamite
,
Mean Girls
,
Bewitched
,
Mamma Mia
, and several Harry Potter movies before he found
Juno
.
JP shined the light around the room until it lit upon a DVD player. He removed the disc from the box, put it in the slot, and hit “Play.” The camera panned the outside of an old home. It was not the “Devil House” or anything JP recognized. The house was situated on a small rise and appeared to be somewhat isolated. The grass was in serious need of cutting and it obviously hadn’t seen paint in several decades. To the left of the house stood a huge evergreen oak tree that towered above the two-story house and billowed out on each side of the trunk shading the entire left side of the yard. The camera focused on the tree for nearly a minute before it circled the house to the right and stopped on a door. The next shot was from inside the house. It looked like a hospital examining room but not as clean. There were instruments and supplies sitting on a counter. The corner of an examining table with stirrups showed in the next few frames. Then the camera zoomed out and showed the entire bed surrounded by a red-brown pentagram. On the wall to the side of the bed was a large drawing of a tree resembling the one outside. Candles glowed throughout the room. The film stopped abruptly and started again outside.
JP heard a noise. The light was gone from the hallway. As quickly as JP could push the buttons, the DVD player and his flashlight were turned off. He waited in the dark. Since he was quite certain no one but Bailey had a key for the door, he kept his eye on the window as he moved closer to the door to listen. With his ear pushed up against the door he heard the toilet flush across the hall, then the clink of high heels on the tiled floor. He continued to wait until he was sure there was no activity outside the room, and then he turned the DVD on again.
The film showed three men and a woman leaving the room through an outside door. JP recognized Dr. Ric but not the others, although he thought one could have been Rob, Ric’s brother. The men all appeared approximately the same age, mid-fifties perhaps. The woman looked a little younger. He paused on the woman and decided it looked a lot like the woman driving the VW Beetle he had seen at Rob Cavitt’s house, but he couldn’t be certain. The rest of the film was mostly the ground flying by as the cameraman ran away.
JP removed the disc from the player, returned it to its box, and stuck it in his pocket. He pushed the rest of the DVDs back under the bed and climbed out the window. Once he was back in his car, he noticed he had another message on his phone. He realized the ringer had been off since his visit to the group home. The call was from Sabre. It said she was going to the back side of the canyon to meet Bailey. He hooked up his earpiece, drove off, and called her back.
“Sorry I missed your call, kid. I’m on my way to meet you right now. The canyon’s just around the corner. Please call me back.” He paused. “I may be repeating myself, but just so you know, Collicott’s client, Mena has disappeared from the World of Hope. She’s pregnant, about to give birth, and Dr. Ric is her obstetrician. I’m trying to find them before another baby is killed. They’re not at Dr. Ric’s house nor his brother’s. So I went to Bailey’s and picked up the disc she left behind. There are new players on it. I want you to see if you recognize anyone. Please call as soon as you get this.” He hadn’t hung up yet when he reached the parking area for the canyon entrance. “I’m here. Where are you? I’m getting worried. Call me.”
“Damn it,” JP said aloud. He sat there in the lot with his windshield wipers flapping and called Bob. “Have you talked to Sabre recently?”
“About an hour ago, at the hospital.”
“She’s in the hospital?”
“No, she’s not in the hospital. She was at the hospital with Cole.”
“That’s right. She left a message saying she found Cole? That’s great! Is he okay?”
“He’s pretty sick. I just dropped his mother off there.”
“So what happened?”
“I don’t know. Sabre said she’d explain when I got there, but when I arrived she was gone. I tried her cell and her home, but there was no answer.”
“It’s odd that she wouldn’t stay there with him until she knew he was okay. I’ve been trying to reach her, too, but she’s not picking up.”
“It had to be pretty important for her to leave Cole.”
“She said she was going to meet Bailey. I’m at their meeting place but they aren’t here. Say, are you busy?” JP asked.
“I was just driving home. Why?”
“I need your help. I want you to look at a DVD and see if you recognize anyone. Can we stop at your office?”
“Sure. I’ll see you in a few.”
JP put the disc in Bob’s computer. When it started JP pointed out the house. “You’ve lived in San Diego all your life. Do you recognize this house?”
Bob shook his head. “No. Sorry.” JP forwarded the film to show Bob the room. “It’s like the ‘Devil House’ but with more equipment,” Bob said.
“Yeah, but it’s not the same room.” JP paused the frame and pointed to an area on the screen. “See the little sitting room area. The other house didn’t have that.”
“I see. But it has the same satanic symbols, and the same tree.”
“True.” JP paused the film again. “Here they are. Look at these people. I know who the fat guy is. That’s Dr. Ric. See if you recognize any of the others.”
“Oh my God!”
“What is it?”
“That woman is the social worker on Bailey’s case. That can’t be. Maybe she was investigating something?”
“Does she look like she’s investigating? I don’t think so. And I saw that woman going to Rob Cavitt’s house earlier today. What’s her name? I’ll call my friend and get an address.”
“It’s Gillian Lloyd. But that’s not all. I know the tall, skinny guy, too. He’s an attorney. He represents Bailey’s mom in her criminal case and now he’s Apollo’s attorney.”
JP was already calling his friend in the police department. “What’s the attorney’s name?”
“I can’t remember. I always call him Ichabod Crane.”
“Think. Is it Barney, by any chance?”
“No, it’s Barry. That’s it, Barry … Barry something.” Bob jumped up. “Wait, my client gave me his card.” He opened his desk drawer and shuffled through some business cards. “Barry Betts,” Bob said, as he held up the card.
JP repeated the name to his friend on the phone. “I need a pen and paper,” JP said.
Bob handed them to him. JP wrote Gillian Lloyd and Barry Betts on the paper, leaving space for the address as he waited. Another minute or two passed before JP wrote anything else. Then he scribbled the addresses on the paper. “Thanks, Ernie. I owe you one.” He handed the paper to Bob. “Can you run Betts’ directions for me?”
“Sure,” Bob said as he typed in the address on MapQuest. “But how do you know it’s not Gillian’s we need?”
“Because that’s Rob Cavitt’s house. I was just there.”
“She lives with him?”
“Looks that way.”
“What the hell is going on here?” Bob stood up and grabbed the directions out of the printer. “Let’s go.”
“You with me?”
“You bet.”
50
The man with the gun directed Sabre onto the 805 south. The storm grew worse.
“Who are you?” Sabre asked.
“Just drive.”
“You must be Rob Cavitt, the good doctor’s brother.” Sabre took a calculated guess. He didn’t deny or affirm it. “So, Scott was blackmailing you, too?”
“Just how much do you think you know?”
“I know all about the Route 66 gang and your fiasco with the dummy. I don’t know for certain which one of you killed Scott, but I’d guess it was you. You’re the muscle of the group, right? You were always the muscle, the protector, and now you’re still trying to protect your little brother.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
Sabre continued in an attempt to engage him. “I know that you’re the one who’s going to be charged with murder when this all collapses. They sent you to kill Scott, didn’t they?”
“That was an accident.”
“You accidentally beat him to death?” She spoke louder to be heard above the rain that beat down on the car.
“Scott couldn’t keep his mouth shut. It was a warning that got a little out of hand.”
“A little? You like to minimize things, don’t you? Is that how you justify killing innocent little children?”
Rob leaned forward. Sabre could feel his breath on the side of her face. “I don’t kill babies.”
“They make you do that, too, don’t they? They’re smarter than you and way more educated. They make you do the dirty work. And when it’s time to pay the piper it’ll all come back to you.” Sabre watched him through the rearview mirror.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. We each have our part.” He waved his gun toward the overhead sign. “Take the 94 east.”
Sabre followed the off ramp around and onto the 94 as she continued to goad him. The water splashed as she drove through a little dip in the road. “But Dr. Ric and ‘Barney’,” Sabre emphasized the name for Rob’s sake, “they’re covering their bases, aren’t they. They’re setting you up to take the fall. How can you kill little innocent children?”
Rob raised his voice. “I don’t kill babies.”
“And what’s with the cult thing? Do you justify your sadistic behavior by blaming it on the devil? You’re sick.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Sabre looked at her gas gauge. It was almost empty. She wondered if she should let it run out of gas in hopes someone would come along. Or should she suggest they stop at a gas station and see if she could get help. She opted for the latter.
“I know that we need to get some gas or we’re going to be stranded.”
Rob leaned forward and looked at the gauge. The needle was below the empty line and the gas light was on. “Damn it,” he said.
Sabre kept driving east on the 94 her windshield wipers slapping back and forth. “There’s a Shell station coming up. Do you want me to stop?”
“Okay. Stop. But no tricks.”
Sabre took the next off ramp and turned right into the station. She pulled up next to the pump. A young woman was filling her tank on the other side of the pump while she waited inside the car. The other pumps were unoccupied.
“Here’s what you’re going to do. You get out, run your credit card, start pumping the gas, and then get back in the car until it finishes. Do not talk to anyone.”
“I don’t have a credit card with me. I only have cash.”
“Don’t lie to me. You’re not going inside.”
“I’m not lying. I left the house in a hurry. I don’t even have my driver’s license. Look, she pulled some cash out of her back pocket.”
“Where’s your purse?”
“I don’t carry a purse.”
“Every woman carries a purse.”
“Not me.”
“Me neither,” Bailey said. It surprised Sabre when she spoke up. She had hardly said a word since they left.
“I’ll gladly use your credit card,” Sabre said. “We can get gas and leave a paper trail.”
Rob took a minute to respond. “I have a better idea. Give me the keys.” Sabre took them out of the ignition and handed them to him. “Now get out of the car slowly. One wrong move and Bailey is dead.” Sabre stepped out of the car. He opened his door. “You too.” Rob pulled Bailey’s arm as he backed out of the car, keeping the gun in her back as he walked around to Sabre. They stood there for a few minutes in the cold air facing the woman in the car next to them. Although they were under the cover, the wind was whipping cold air through them. Sabre shivered.