—
Raine brought thenews that Deacon Mulberry’s body had been found on an overgrown trail that hadn’t been used in years. Clearly, the killer had taken time with him after the brutal murder. It appeared as if he’d been ambushed, his skull smashed in with a rock—or rocks. A ritual of some sort had been performed. The sheriff had no idea what kind of ritual it was supposed to be. There were feathers, candles, sticks, stones, flowers and gourds filled with water, all on a flat rock altar. The area around the body had been cleared of vegetation, scraped away by small branches that had been left behind at the scene. The cleared area was extremely small, no more than a few inches surrounding the body.
Deacon was fully clothed, but his face was unrecognizable dueto the repeated smashing from the rocks. The two good-sized rocks used to bludgeon him to death were left behind. His body had been covered with insects, but they were lucky in that no predator had found him.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Shabina ventured. “If whoever murdered him performed some kind of ritual, they very well could repeat it. I don’t know all that much about this kind of thing. Stella is the one to talk to about serial killers, but I don’t like the sound of a ritual.”
Scorpion had never used any kind of ritual before he killed. His idol was Vlad the Impaler, and he wanted the same kind of fame. One kill wasn’t his style. But still…
“I put various beliefs in the computer to search for similar rituals, and nothing came up with an exact match,” Raine said. “The computer is still searching, but it isn’t a voodoo ceremony or satanic or any other that might involve a blood sacrifice. Naturally, they don’t want to release details to the public. The problem is they had so many on Search and Rescue that enough people saw the body and talked about what they saw in spite of being told not to.”
“The sheriff will call in the FBI, won’t he?”
“That would be standard. And they’ll warn park visitors to stay alert and in pairs. You have to be careful, Shabina. You go out on your own often.”
“I have the dogs with me, and I’m always armed.” She sounded confident because she was. She knew the trails, and she knew her dogs. They would alert the moment anyone came close to her. She didn’t get lost or turned around. No one could sneak up on her and bash her over the head.
Shabina did worry about the various tourists that had come into her café. They had all been eager to go backpacking and exploring in Yosemite. It wasn’t that many months earlier that aserial killer had been stalking victims in the Sierra, people she knew. Friends. It had been an extremely troubling time for her and her friends, particularly Stella and Vienna. The serial killer had turned out to be someone they knew and had targeted both women.
“I still think it would be a good idea for you to stay off the trails until the murderer is caught,” Raine suggested.
Shabina made a face. “When I’m alone in the forest with just the birds, I find peace there I can’t find anywhere else. I wish I could explain it to you. I have an affinity with them. It isn’t just that I can sing their notes or identify them by their feathers or the sounds they make.”
She hesitated again, afraid of sounding crazy. If anyone would believe her and understand, it was Raine. “Sometimes I can fly with them. I don’t know how I can connect with them, but I do. Maybe it’s all in my imagination, but they seem to be able to take me with them into the trees, where I can look through their eyes down onto the floor of the forest. Or we soar in the sky, and I can see for miles. It’s true freedom when I never feel free.”
Raine rubbed at the bridge of her nose for a moment. “I can see why you would want to continue going out when you have that. Who wouldn’t?”
“You, more than anyone else, know what I’ve been through. You at least saw the photographs, but there’s no real way for you to experience what it was like to live in the kind of terror Scorpion subjected me to on a daily basis. Seeing him torture and kill men, women and children. Not just him but his demented cabinet and the mercenaries he surrounded himself with. He took such delight in what he did and more delight in forcing me to witness his sadistic depravity.”
A shudder went through her body. She wrapped her armsaround her middle and found herself rocking back and forth in an effort to self-soothe. “I do my best to lead a normal life. Iwantto be normal. I want to have my dream café and friends I care about. I know all of you love me. I do know that. I love all of you. But the truth is, I feel alone every minute of the day. There’s no way for anyone to understand me. I can hardly understand me or my reactions to things on any given day. How would any of you be able to? When you ask me if I’ve called my therapist because I’m getting nightmares or flashbacks? Of course I have. Am I implementing the tools I’ve learned to counteract the PTSD negativity? Yes. The answer would be yes. I’ve done every single thing I’m supposed to do.”
Raine’s blue eyes filled with compassion. “Honey, you do realize there is no possible way for you to lead what you think is a normal life. Not after the things that happened to you. You suffered severe trauma. And no, none of us can understand what you went through. We do love you, and we’d do anything to help you, but we don’t know what to do. We say and do things that must sound ludicrous to you because we have no way of knowing what to say that would help.”
Shabina tried to force air through her lungs. “I’m so terrified Scorpion has found a way to watch me and he’s tormenting me. He has money. So much, Raine. You know he does. He seems to travel the world at will. Even if he isn’t a pilot, and I don’t think he is, he’s most likely got a private jet. For all I know he has his own satellite and that helps him plan his kills. He’s probably known where I am for the last couple of years. As far as I know, I’m the only survivor of those he’s targeted. Do you really think he’s going to let that go? He knows I can identify him if I ever see or hear him again.”
“It’s more than probable that if he’s keeping an eye out for you,he knows where you are,” Raine admitted. “I’m not going to lie to you about that.”
“I never feel safe. Never. Not unless Rainier is with me.” Shabina sighed. “Idetestthat I put that on him. He doesn’t need me to cling to him like a little child, but honestly, that’s what I want to do. I want him with me all the time. Never out of my sight. Please don’t ever tell anyone I admitted that. It makes me feel so weak when I swear to you, I’ve worked hard to be strong.”
“I know youarestrong, Shabina. You’re in crisis right now. We’ll sort out what’s happening.”
“I know I’m already asking so much of you to look at the security and see who might have tampered with Zahra’s package by spraying oud on it. But if there is a way to find someone spying on me through my own security or any other way, without putting yourself in jeopardy, I’d really appreciate your doing that too.”
“You know that’s the kind of thing I do. It isn’t a problem.” Raine had her laptop out and was already typing away.
Shabina found it fascinating how fast Raine’s fingers could fly across a keyboard. Not wanting to disturb her, Shabina wandered over to the bank of windows to watch the dogs as they zoomed madly around the huge gardens. Daisy was in her element. Much smaller than the Dobermans, she could cut through areas they had been taught to maneuver around. She noted that her guard dogs took turns playing, with one always on patrol. She found the fact that the animals had their own hierarchy, in terms of leadership after her, captivating. The dogs were very intelligent, and it showed in every aspect of their interaction.
“Come look at this, Shabina,” Raine urged. “There is someone coming up to the gate. They were there when Zahra drove up. They watched her jump out of her car and leave the package onthe bench. You can barely make them out. See, right there.” Raine indicated a darker shade of gray in the gray shadows of a giant hydrangea bush to the right of the gate.
The figure was stooped down or he would have been taller than the bush, and that bush was tall and widespread. The hydrangea was very healthy.
“Definitely a man,” Raine murmured. “Look at his shoes.”
Shabina tried to make him out. The figure looked ghostly, his clothing blending into the shadows and the plants. His shoes, when she stared, appeared to be loafers with pointed toes. A man’s shoe. Zahra’s car came into sight. She drove up to the gate, opened the driver’s side door and leapt out, placed the package on the bench and jumped back into her car to drive away in her usual whirlwind of speed. That was Zahra, either all blazing energy or pure laziness.
The man in the shadows waited a few moments before emerging.
“He’s aware of the camera,” Raine murmured. “He’s made no attempt to stop it recording, but he’s making certain he can’t be identified. Notice the way he’s angled his body and head.” She studied the screen. “He’s put his body between the package and the camera so we can’t see what he’s doing, but there isn’t a doubt that this is the man who put the scent on the outside of the parcel, not Bale.”
