The Night Killer Part 28

In the rising fog, Slick Ma.s.sey's house looked one hundred percent spooky. The windows were dark and the porch was sagging as if no one had lived there in years. Slick frowned at the place as his gaze drifted beyond the house to where his empty dog runs stood. Diane thought he looked wistful. She had heard that he was worried about his dogs and wanted to be sure his friend was still caring for them.

The last to arrive at the house was Liam Dugal. He was invited because he was looking for two lost people, and Slick, in searching for places to put his own bodies, had found two stray ones. Liam nodded to Diane and her team as he walked over their way. Diane noticed he was also dressed appropriately for the business at hand. She hoped he didn't think he was going inside the cave.

Diane was surprised that Tammy and Slick had made the deal so quickly. Gil Mathews said Tammy was the one who had collapsed-deflated after Frank told her he had found the money. It might as well have been a death blow. It broke her. Gil said Slick was still convinced they hadn't done anything wrong.

Slick's day was going to be a long one. After he showed them the two bodies he had discovered, he had to show the GBI where he had put the bodies of Tammy's "patients," as Slick still called them-that and "the old ladies."

"Is it far to the cave?" Agent Mathews asked Slick.

"Not very far. About three miles," Slick said.

"Three miles?" said Mathews. "Are you saying we have to hike three miles through the woods?"

"Well, yeah," Slick said. "Like I said, it ain't far."

"You try anything and the deal is off," said Mathews. "You know that, don't you?"

"Like I ain't been told a million times. Me and Tammy want our deal," he said.

"Tell me again why we should believe you didn't do anything to these two people," said Gil Mathews.

Diane thought Gil was simply delaying the hike as long as he could.

"Well," said Slick, "I wouldn't be telling you about 'em if I had killed 'em. I'd have to be pretty stupid. I mean, they might of been murdered or something-not like Tammy's old ladies."

"Maybe you just thought we couldn't prove prove you murdered them," said Agent Mathews. you murdered them," said Agent Mathews.

"I already seen how you can find out things I didn't know you'd ever know. Tammy's seen it too. Like I said, I just found these people. I got tired of digging holes to put Tammy's patients in and remembered this cave. I thought it'd be a good place to just take them and leave them. But somebody else had the same idea, so I just kept digging holes in my pasture," he said.

Mike, who was not familiar with the thought processes of criminals, stared at Slick, astounded. Neva tried not to smile and gave Mike's hand a squeeze.

"Well, I guess we'd better get started," said Mathews. He took out a can of insect repellent and sprayed himself down again.

Slick led the way, under the eyes of his guards. He quickly found a path that looked like it might be a deer trail, and they followed it.

Diane and her team carried rope and caving gear, two body bags, and an evidence kit.

About a mile down the deer trail, Slick veered off of it into the woods.

"Wait, Slick, where you going?" said Mathews.

"To the cave," he said.

"The trail goes this way," said Mathews.

Slick looked at him a moment. "Yeah, but the trail don't go to the cave. The trail goes to a meadow about a half mile that way."

"There's not a trail to the cave?" asked Mathews, looking at the underbrush.

"No. The deer don't go to the cave. They go to water or to meadows. They like to graze in a meadow near the woods."

"Are you saying the deer made the trail?" asked Gil.

This brought a chuckle from several.

"I can see you are a city boy," said one of the GBI agents. "Who do you think makes trails through the woods?"

"I hadn't thought about it. I guess I thought people did," said Gil. He laughed at himself. "You're saying it's animals?"

"Deer, fox, coyotes, bears," said Liam.

"Bears?" said Gil. "Now I know you're trying to get to me. We don't have bears in these woods."

"Sometimes we do," said Slick, "but they's usually more up in the hills."

"You've heard about bear sightings in Atlanta, haven't you?" said Frank. "Where did you think they came from?"

"The zoo," said Gil.

They all laughed.

"I don't suppose after all this we can go by Rolly Hennessy's and see my dogs?" said Slick. "Mary Sue just had her puppies and I'd like to see 'em."

"I don't think so, Slick," said Mathews. "Get him to send you a picture."

"What kind of dogs you got?" asked one of the guards.

"Walker hounds," said Slick. "The best in the world. They's got the sweetest voices you ever heard."

"What do they hunt?" asked a GBI agent.

"Racc.o.o.ns," said Slick. "They track 'em down at night and run 'em up a tree. You can tell when they's running and when they's treeing by the sound of their voices. You just set back and have a beer and listen to your dogs. The best kind of hunting."

"That sounds good to me," said a guard.

Liam smiled. "My uncle raises Walker hounds," he said.

"Does he?" said Slick, interested. "Do I know him?"

"He doesn't live around here," Liam said. "He's over in Louisiana."

"Hey," said Slick, "you the one I heard about? That was in the woods that night that fooled me?"

"What does that mean?" asked Gil.

Diane thought Gil probably enjoyed the talk. It took his mind off the trek. He was clearly uncomfortable.

It wasn't so scary for her in the daytime as it had been that night in the rain. She had seen woods then only as dark, shadowy forms of trees, or in brief flashes from the lightning. It was far prettier in the daylight-with people around.

"I took Diane's jacket and laid a false trail," said Liam to Gil. "Then put it up a tree."

"I heard my dogs on the trail and then their voices told me they had her treed-or that's what I thought. But I also thought it was kind of funny; I mean, women don't usually climb trees. Leastwise not up high like this one. When I caught up to 'em I could see the jacket way up yonder and I thought it was her. For a while, anyways. I tried to coax her down." Slick laughed. "Bonnie Blue-Tammy named her for that little girl in Gone With the Wind Gone With the Wind-Bonnie Blue thought I'd gone crazy. She never seen me try to talk a racc.o.o.n out of a tree before."

Even Diane had to laugh.

Slick led them through several turns during the trek and Diane was hoping, like Gil, that he was not trying to pull something. She tried to keep track of where they were going, watching for rock formations, characteristic trees, or creeks. Not that she would have to find her way out alone, but she wanted to develop a habit of knowing where she was. Mike, Neva, and Frank were far better than she at finding their way around-though Frank was better in a city environment. Still, he seemed to have a natural sense of direction.

"We're 'bout there," said Slick, as he led them over a log across a creek and through a thicket.

This was the densest underbrush they had been through so far. Diane heard Gil moan as he pulled his pant leg loose from briars that had entangled him. The thicket didn't open up, but seemed to get even more dense.

"I swear, Slick Ma.s.sey," said Gil, "if you're pulling something-"

"No, it's right here," said Slick.

They were in the midst of a thick copse of trees at the foot of a hill.

"You know, fella," said one of the guards, "getting here with a body couldn't possibly be any easier than digging a hole in your meadow."

"I don't see anything," said Gil.

But Diane did. Then again, she knew what to look for. The cave was in the side of the hill-a small slit through crumbling rocks.

Chapter 46

"There it is," said Slick, pointing to the irregular hole in the side of the hill.

"That?" said Agent Gil Mathews. "That's it? I told you, Ma.s.sey, you screw with me and I'll bury you."

"That's the cave," said Slick. "I'm not s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with you."

The entrance to the cave was small, but big enough for even a large man to squeeze through, Diane observed. Perhaps Mathews was expecting walkways and a handrail and that everyone would be able to just stroll in. This entrance was what you might expect for an undeveloped cave in the wild. It occurred to Diane that Mathews would have really been undone by a vertical entrance that dropped straight into the ground.

"Where are the bodies?" Diane asked Slick.

"Okay," said Slick, "once you get in the cave, you're in this room, see. It's about as big as a room in a house. It's kind of nice. I used to play in it when I was a kid. There's a tunnel on the right that kind of goes down. You got to stoop to walk through it, but it ain't long, just a few feet. Okay, then to the left you come to another tunnel. You can stand up in it. It goes on about ten feet, then opens to kind of a little room on the left. You got to watch out there, 'cause just a little ways in there's a drop-off of . . . like, maybe fifteen feet. That's where the bodies is."

"Is he on the level?" asked Mathews.

"We won't know until we get there," said Diane, "but I have no reason to doubt him right now."

"This doesn't look like any kind of cave I'm familiar with," said Mathews.

Ah, thought Diane. She was right. "What kind of caves are you familiar with?" she asked.

"None, really, but I visited Mammoth Cave when I was a kid," he said.

"Caves have all kinds of openings," she said. "This isn't unusual."

Mathews nodded. "Frank says you do this for fun," he said. "Doesn't look like much fun to me."

"There's hardly anyplace I'd rather be," said Diane, smiling.

Mathews shook his head to indicate his utter lack of understanding of the appeal.

Diane, Neva, and Mike tested their flashlights and hard-hat lamps. They organized their rope and double-checked their gear. Frank walked over to Diane as she and the others were preparing themselves.

"You think he's telling the truth?" He nodded toward Slick, who had found a boulder to sit on and wait.

"We'll see," said Diane. "You sure you don't want to take up caving with me?"

"I'm sure," said Frank. "Somehow, slipping through that little hole has no appeal to me at all."

"That's a fairly large hole," said Diane. "We've been through much smaller entrances than that." She looked at him for a moment, smiling. "This isn't a big deal. Were it not for the fact that we're here to retrieve bodies, I would be having a great time. It sounds like an interesting cave."

Frank smiled back. "Have you ever met a cave that you didn't find interesting?"

"Some more than others," she said.

Liam was speaking with Slick. From what Diane could hear, it was about the bodies. It sounded as if Liam was trying to find some clue as to whether they were the couple he was looking for. She imagined he hated the idea of telling his client his daughter was dead, her body dumped in a cave.

"How long do you think it's going to take?" asked Mathews. He was scratching his arms.

She couldn't believe that any insects had gotten through the multiple layers of insecticide he had sprayed on himself.

"Not long to find them. Longer to process the scene and take them up," she said.

"Shouldn't we be using walkie-talkies or something?" said Mathews.

"They don't work well in caves," said Diane. "Cave radio is a science in itself. From what Ma.s.sey described, the bodies are not that far in. I don't think it will be a problem. If it looks like we are going to take too long, for any reason, Mike will come out and tell you."

Mathews nodded.

"This is pretty easy caving, from the look of it," said Diane.

"You have so much stuff to carry-and all that rope," said Mathews.

"We try to be prepared for contingencies," said Diane. "But this is not a big operation. It's not like a deep-cave rescue."

"Okay," he said, "let's get this over with so I can get back to civilization."