Staring at him in horror, Charley watched Fester swipe at the blood running into his left eye. She backed away, hoping, praying she was retreating in the direction from which they’dcome. If so, maybe she could make it back to the shack ahead of him and escape up the ladder and through that hole in the closet. Dear God, how had it come to this? Without another thought, she turned and ran as fast as she could. The glow from the flashlight jumped here and there along the narrow tunnel walls. Rats ahead of her scattered as the one behind her clutched the back of her coat. Hauled up short, Charley screamed.
“Stop!” Fester shrieked manically.
Grabbing her left arm, he gave her a hard half-turn and retrieved the flashlight. Charley swiveled and with her bare right hand, raked her fingernails down his face. She instantly recalled the raw scratches she’d seen on his face in the past and instinctively knew one of his victims had also clawed him. He’d asked her to visit him when he supposedly had a virus. Why? So he could strangle and stab her? Well, she would not become his next dead body. Charley fought furiously, punching him repeatedly with both fists as he forced her back to the section of the cave open to the other tunnels. There, Fester hit her hard across the side of her head. The blow jolted her, and this time when she fell, it was for real.
“I thought you were my friend,” Charley spat as he loomed over her.
“I wanted to be more than your friend, but yourejectedme.” He leaned down and jerked her to her feet. Madness lit up his eyes. She’d seen this hint of his insanity the day he’d shouted at little Carly Cooper. With Fester’s face close to hers, he sneered, “Your repeated rejections are the reason I had to kill those six women! Strangling them was the only way to achieve numbness from the pain you caused me.” Pulling a knife out of his jacket with his right hand, he dropped the flashlight and gripped her throat with his left hand. “Their blood is on your hands, and now it’s your heart, instead of mine, that will bleed!”
“Let her go,” ordered a calm voice.
Light shone at the mouth of the tunnel from which they’d emerged. Fester pressed the knife to Charley’s throat. Twisting around, he imprisoned her against his chest as a shield.
“Sully,” Charley breathed, feeling the sharp blade against her throat.
“I said let her go,” Sully growled, aiming his flashlight and a gun at Fester.
“She’s mine!” Fester shrilled. “You tried to steal her from me. Get out of here, Custis.”
“I’ll be glad to get out of here,” Sully said, walking a few steps closer. “But I’m not leaving without Charley.”
“Stop! Or I’ll slice her up.”
Sully stopped. “Throw the knife down. The cops are on their way, and you’ve got nowhere to run.”
“That’s what you think. I know these tunnels like the back of my hand,” Fester replied. “You throw your gun down or I swear I’ll cut her head off.”
“I’ll throw my gun down if you promise to let her go.”
Charley felt the knife move slightly away from her neck as Fester seemed to consider the offer. Sully waited.
“Okay,” Fester said. “I promise. Now throw your gun down.”
“Don’t do it, Sully,” Charley pleaded. She was stunned when Sully dropped his gun into the glow of the flashlight on the tunnel floor.
“Yes!” Fester, like the madman he was, whooped feverishly in her ear. He hollered, “You’re an idiot, Custis!”
Instantly taking the knife away from Charley’s neck, Fester shoved her aside with a victorious grunt. Swinging his arm up in the air, he lunged at Sully. The two gunshot blasts that followed were deafening. On wobbly legs, Charley watched Dorian Fester fall.
“Sully!” Charley cried and ran. Sully’s arms closed around her, holding her protectively against his rigid body. She clung to him and whispered, “Thank God. Thank you, Sully.”
Sully gently eased Charley out of his arms and shoved her SIG Sauer P365 9mm, which he’d shot Fester with, into the back of his jeans. Then he picked his .44 Magnum off the ground.
“I own a gun store,” Sully growled and kicked the knife out of Fester’s hand. “You were the idiot.”
“A dead one,” Detective Groves said as he emerged from a tunnel to the left of Sully. “I heard him scream his confession to murdering those six women.”
“So did I,” Sully said.
“Both our bullets were headshots,” Detective Groves noted as he joined them, aiming his flashlight on Fester. “Your bullet drilled the middle of his forehead. Looks like my shot entered his skull just above his right ear.”
“Yeah,” Sully said. “Charley, did he hurt you?”
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
“I’m fine,” Charley said, her blue eyes glistening as she looked up at him. “Are you okay?”
As he and Groves stood with Charley in the dank cave, illuminated only by their flashlights and with a dead body at their feet, Sully took a moment to study Charley to convince himself she was alive and safe. He’d noted the bloody claw mark on the corpse’s face.
