He finally hit the exit that fed off the highway and onto the narrow, twisty, darker road hemmed in with huge, dripping, moss-covered trees. It was the only route along the coast to Skookum Gorge, an inlet famous for its roaring rapids and whirlpools caused each day as tides forced massive amounts of seawater through the narrows, raising the water level more than ten feet within minutes and creating currents that could exceed sixteen knots. The Skookum tidal rapids were famous.
For drownings.
Angie made the calls. Rapid-response action was being mobilized in coordination with various jurisdictions. She’d taken eight minutes to set things in motion, and she was now on the line with Fitz, updating him on the Addams house crime scene—the dismembered body of a woman who appeared to be Beulah Addams in the freezer. Pathologist Barb O’Hagan and coroner Charlie Alphonse were en route. “We found more photos in the basement,” she said, her mind cleft between this house of horrors and Maddocks racing toward his daughter and into a trap. She glanced at her watch. Nine minutes now since Maddocks had called.
“Several of those photographs show the frozen female corpse propped in the wingback chair in the basement,” she told Fitz. “He used ropes from a support beam to string her into place, to make it appear as though she’s sitting there of her own volition, her frozen legs balanced against the base of the chair.” Angie nodded to a tech and pointed him toward the basement door. She was upstairs in Addams’s living room now.
“It appears he took her out of the freezer and propped her there for company as he seated himself on the metal chair opposite her, from where he could watch footage he’d shot from his peepholes into the Bacchanalian Club cabins.”
From the living room window, Angie saw the coroner’s van pulling up under the streetlight. The entire block had been cordoned off. News choppersthuckedoverhead in the dark hours of this early morning.
Nine and a half minutes since Maddocks had called ...
“Pallorino,” Fitz said quietly, his reedy tone shifting in a way that made her tense. “I want you to stay away from the Skookum narrows, understood? Remain on scene.”
She held the phone tighter. He’d read something between her and Maddocks. Probably everyone had. He was anticipating what she might do now—rush out there, guns blazing—anything in order tonotlose another partner for whom she was beginning to care.
“What is the ERT ETA?” she said. “What time did they get up into the air?”
“Pallorino—”
“They haven’t taken off yet, have they?”
“Back off. Do your job.”
“Sir.” She killed the call and folded her arms tightly over her chest, clutching her cell as she watched O’Hagan and Alphonse coming up the path toward the house in their black jackets with the wordCORONERemblazoned in yellow across their backs.
They seemed to be moving in slow motion under the glare of the portable lighting that had been brought in. Everything around her felt slowed. Even sound was reaching her brain in low, long, distorted tones.
Sometimes, Angie thought once again, the difference between heaven and hell was people. Sometimes, no matter how hard you tried, you made no difference at all. Her mind turned to Gracie Drummond and the anguish on her mother’s face.
You think you have all the time in the world, and then ... then you wish ...
Then you wish you’d done something.
Outside, branches wagged in mounting wind, and a fog was blowing in, making halos around the lighting—another huge weather front roiling in from the sea. A chopper was going to have trouble in this.
She knew Skookum Provincial Park, too. She’d hiked and camped there throughout her college years. There was nowhere to land a helicopter near that trestle bridge. Not unless the pilot tried to balance his skids on the ancient wood and stone structure itself, while still managing to keep rotors free of old-growth trees and cliffs hemming in on either side. It would require incredible skill in good weather, let alone bad. Trying to get there in fog would mean potentially risking the lives of all members on board—a call the team captain would have to make. Alternatively, members could be lowered in by long line. Again, that would be delicate and require exceptional skill from all parties, especially in dense fog.
And it would take time.
Time Maddocks and his daughter might not have.
Outside more vehicles were pulling up. Holgersen and Leo climbed out of one. Both looked toward the house. Fitz got out of another vehicle with two veteran homicide detectives from the Operation Limpet force. A uniformed officer pointed them to the Addams residence. Angie sucked in a deep breath.
He was her partner. He was alone out there. No one was coming. Not with this weather.
She checked her watch. Eleven minutes since Maddocks had called.
She heard O’Hagan and Alphonse entering the hallway.
In a split-second decision, Angie spun and hurried toward the back entrance of the house.
She ran down the stairs into the yard, crossed the lawn, and ducked out via the back alley.
I want you to stay away from the Skookum narrows, understood? Remain on scene ...
“Fuck it,” she muttered to herself. Maddocks had laid everything on the line for her. What would that be worth if he lost his life now? Or if he lost his daughter? She broke into a sprint when she hit the sidewalk, aiming for her vehicle parked farther along the side of the road.
