Evil Like Me Read online

  “Why ya lookin’ for this man ya call Keller?”

  “It’s classified,” he snapped, spittle stopping at the screen.

  “Seems it would be somethin’ important for me to know if ya want inside my house.”

  Cankor had expeditious ways to get what he wanted, but there were benefits to be had from a smooth extraction on Dewar Avenue. Managing the news events was preferable.

  “Mr. Keller is a homeland security risk, a danger to the public. If he is innocent, he will be back in two days. This is only an investigation.”

  “Doesn’t feel like one to me. Feels like you’re pretty darn certain this man’s guilty of somethin’ ya won’t talk about.”

  “Elda Middleton,” he bellowed. “It is my responsibility to locate and transport Mr. Keller to a government facility for questioning. If you interfere with this process, you are viewed as an accomplice, a new person of interest aiding and abetting an enemy of the state.”

  She tightened her belt as her thinning, white eyebrows dipped in the shadows of her entry. “Enemy of the state, ya say? How’d ya know my name, Mr. Cankor?”

  “Your mailbox,” he shot back without thinking.

  Elda didn’t hesitate for a reason. “Never said I had this Keller feller in my house. Still don’t know how ya can just come here at three in the mornin’ and get me out of my bed with nothin’ but demands.”

  “This man is dangerous. He’s killed and is on the run. You, your tenants, and your neighbors could get hurt. Hunter Keller is a sick, deranged man. He appears to be normal, but he has severe mental problems. I have seen what he can do. I have seen his victims. You must cooperate. It is for your own good. Allow me to secure the area and neutralize the threat before it’s too late.”

  “Shoot, that doesn’t scare me, Mr. Cankor. I’m an old lady. I lived in Henryetta eighty-four years. This house, fifty. Lots of people stay here. They come and go. I mind my own business. I never had one problem with my tenants.”

  Cankor contained his wrath. “He is a psychopath! He is a serial killer! You have no idea what this man’s capable of doing. My presence on your porch is enough to set him off. Hunter Keller could be moving into position to hurt you and many others right now.”

  “It doesn’t make sense, my government chasin’ serial killers. That’s what police do, or FBI. Never heard about DIA lookin’ for serial killers …

  “You and the man by my tree need to leave. Go get papers to let you come in my house in the morning. Judge Hughes is up the road a mile. Knock on his door in the middle of the night and see what he’s got to say about all this psycho stuff. Good night Mr. Government man.”

  She reached back for the heavy wood door with the deadbolts, the one she seldom closed in the summertime. Elda liked the breeze from the garden snaking through the house—the trampled garden next to the mailbox with no name. When Elda widowed, she painted over the name and left the numbers. Ruby Tantabaum—her best friend—said it was the safe thing to do. But Elda Middleton had other reasons she hid her name, reasons only she and Ruby knew.

  Cankor straightened his hat and sucked in the night air as Elda reached back for the door. He glared through the screen he could rip to shreds with a single swipe. But Cankor saw movement in the dark recesses of the entry by the stairs behind the old lady. When the door muffled closed, his thin smile returned.

  *

  Ruby Tantabaum could not sleep. Halfway into her mystery novel she heard Beatrice creak down the back stairs.

  “You see Elda’s got company?” Bea said, as she eased into Ruby’s light, flashed a smile, and scurried to the window blinds.

  Ruby squinted at her watch. “It’s awful late for company. What makes you think Elda’s got any? Probably just a tenant getting in—most are young, still running ’round at all hours.”

  “Never saw that old sedan before. Wasn’t there when I walked Pepper.” She pressed her nose to the glass. “I don’t think it belongs to anyone stayin’ with her.”

  Old sedan doesn’t mean a thing, Ruby mused as she closed her book. “You’re just snooping around sister. You’re making stuff up in your head. Shouldn’t be spying on Elda and her tenants in the first place.”

  “I saw someone under the oak tree by the car,” Bea said. “Looked like he was hiding.”

  “Bunch a shadows movin’ in the moonlight,” Ruby sighed.

  “And I saw a big man standing on Elda’s front porch. He had on one of those long coats like those scary people in the movies.” Bea leaned to see around the azalea bush covering half the window. “I couldn’t see his head from upstairs. I think he was wearin’ a hat. Don’t see people wearing hats much anymore, not unless they’re sneaking around if ya know what I mean.” She moved to a lower slat and lifted. “I don’t see either now. And the car’s still there, Ruby.”

  “Then they’re inside the house with Elda.” Ruby slid into her slippers and got up.

  “Wonder who they are?” She dropped the slat and spun around. “Elda didn’t say anything about expectin’ late visitors. I spoke with her when I was walkin’ Pepper.”

  “Guess I’ll never hear the end of this. Let’s go out on the porch where we can see better.”

  At the crape myrtle hanging over the railing they peeked through the gaps in the foliage. “Whoever they are, they parked away from the sidewalk. Looks like they got under the oak tree to avoid the moonlight,” Bea said.

  Ruby lifted a limb. “Moonlight stops at both bumpers. And someone walked straight through Elda’s garden.”

  “Bet she’s havin’ a hissy-fit. She loves her garden.”

  “I guess it is late for visitors,” Ruby muttered.

  “Maybe they’re delivering some bad news. Maybe someone died in Elda’s family.”

  “Elda doesn’t have family, sister. Everyone’s dead but her. What other kind of news could someone be delivering to an old lady in the middle of the night?”

  “I don’t know the answer to that.”

  Ruby got out her cell and scrolled contacts as Bea moved branches. “You got Oglebee’s phone number?”

  “Didn’t bring my phone. Why you calling the sheriff?”

  “Like you said, we’ve never seen that old sedan around here, and we don’t know who’d be coming in the middle of the night. If something bad happened, there would be a Henryetta police car parked out front, sister.”

  “You’re right, Ruby. Call the sheriff. No. Call 911. No. Wait. Call Elda first. People are gonna think we’re a couple of meddling old ladies.” Bea bent down. “I just saw a shadow move in an upstairs window.”

  The cell phone lit the side of Ruby’s face. “Elda’s not answering. If she’s up, she would pick up, always does. Something’s wrong, sister.”

  “Turn it off. The light, it’s all over your face, Ruby. They’re gonna see you.”

  A dark figure moved from second floor window. “Oh dear,” Bea whispered. “I think someone just caught us snoopin’ honey. You better call 911 right now.”

  .

  Thirteen

  “Suspicion is a heavy armor and with its weight it impedes more than it protects.”

  Robert Burns

  *

  Broken Bow Lake, Oklahoma

  *

  Two hours and twenty minutes from Henryetta the knob on the cabin door rattled. Baily raised his Smith & Wesson head high. Bone rested his Browning 30-06 rifle on his knee and took it off safety.

  They ran all night. The beer and beef jerky were gone and Baily’s brain hurt. Bone’s Stargate story and bizarre linkage to homicides in Memphis bordered on insane. Now someone rattled the knob to their cabin in the middle of nowhere. Baily lived on the razor’s edge since Stringtown and the revelations in Arnold and Alma Keller’s attic. Each minute there were more questions and fewer answers. Now, people were going to die.

  They both stopped breathing when the door whined open. Only Baily’s thumb moved. He pulled back the hammer on his 38 releasing the metallic click into the cold, d
ark cabin.

  The door stopped moving. Nobody blinked.

  The childlike whisper entered the room, “Please don’t shoot me.”

  Confused but cautious, Baily barked, “Then don’t move. Identify yourself.”

  Bone wiped sweat from his eye and kept the silhouette in the doorway on top of his bead. He would not go down like his friends.

  “I am Hunter Keller.”

  More confused and unsure, Baily ordered, “Say more,” as he glanced over at Bone’s shadow and shoulder shrug. Both guns stayed on the target.

  “What do you want me to say?” The door opened wider. The moonlight surrounded him. The tall, skinny figure wearing a hoodie came into the room. He stopped. His hands hung at his side. Unsure, Bone focused ready to shoot, his nerves frazzled. It could be a trick. He knew Hunter had to be more than a hundred miles away.

  “I grew up in Stringtown. You are Cameron Baily, a Memphis homicide detective sent here by Detective Tony Wilcox. You’re investigating me. Bone Jackson’s my friend. He’s over there with a rifle aimed at me—the safety’s off, but he forgot to cock it. Bone won’t shoot me. And you won’t shoot me, Mr. Baily.” He closed the door and turned the deadbolt. “We don’t have time for this. They’re coming. They want me. And they want both of you dead.”

  Bone set down his rifle and struggled off the floor. Baily watched him cross the room like a water buffalo. He wrapped his sweaty arms around the skinny man. “What’re you doin’ here, Hunter? I thought you were hiding somewhere in Henryetta.”

  Baily kept his gun on both. Maybe Keller’s wrong. Maybe Baily would shoot the guy before he did something bad. From his vantage point the skinny guy is still the prime suspect in the multiple homicides back in Memphis.

  “Slow down,” Baily said. “Bone, back away. Do exactly as I say. Back away now and go back to the damn window. Pick up your gun. Cock the damn thing and put your eyes out that damn window. This is not over. This could be a trap. We don’t know anything right now.”

  Bone backed away from Keller and went to the window. “It is Hunter. He is not an imposter.” He looked out the window. “And nothing’s moving out there.”

  Baily ignored Bone. “Sit on the floor, mister. The middle of the room. What I know about you makes me very nervous. You think you know what I’m gonna do. Hell, that’s impossible because I don’t even know what I’m gonna do. I promise you, if you freak me out I will shoot you and ask questions later.”

  “They killed Brad,” Bone said with his nose pressed to a window pane. “They killed Jeff and Jeremy, too. They’re all dead, Hunter.”

  Baily watched Keller sit on the floor with his head down. His long, scrawny body folded like a dead spider. How can this anemic wimp kill four big guys, Baily wondered? “Stop talking, Bone. Focus on the woods. There are people out there trying to get in here.”

  Bone ignored Baily. “Is he out there, Hunter? Is he coming tonight?”

  “Who the hell is he?” Baily asked as he opened the burlap curtain on the front door and his gun clicked on a glass window pane.

  Keller said, “He had to leave. He won’t be back. He won’t risk it.”

  “Both of you stop talkin’ until I figure things out,” Baily ordered. “Who won’t risk what?”

  “I don’t like hearing that, Hunter. He’s determined,” Bone said.

  “All right goddamn it. That’s enough.” Baily barked.

  Keller whispered, “He won’t risk me, Detective Baily.”

  Trying to make sense of it all, Baily turned and stared at Keller. “I have no idea what any of that means. No offense, but my little sister could whip your ass.”

  Baily could not see Keller’s smile under his hoodie. “Did you tell him about me, Bone?”

  “Told him about Stargate, your parents, and some of your abilities.”

  “What abilities do people fear, Mr. Keller?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Simplify. The more I know the better it is for you.”

  “He is a bad man. I can get inside his head. He does not like it. He must always be in control. The only way he can keep me from getting inside him is to maintain distance.”

  “Mental telepathy? Okay. So how far away does this guy need to be?”

  “A minimum of fifty miles,” Keller said.

  “Then why are we hiding?”

  “Because his people are coming. I am here.”

  “Why does he want you, Keller?” Baily asked.

  “I am an obstacle. People around me are disposable inconveniences.”

  Baily shook his head and went back under the burlap to scan the woods. “This is way above my pay grade. Makes absolutely no sense.” He pulled back out. “Just tell me; did you kill Thomas Derby, Mr. Keller? Did you kill William Hudson, Mark Pemberton, and Donald Deckle? And before you think about lying, we have you at each crime scene.”

  “I am responsible for their deaths.”

  “That’s what I thought. You’re going to get the chair in Tennessee,” Baily said.

  “Wait a minute.” Bone left the window and stood in front of Keller like a father. “This is what gets you in trouble. Think about your words, not your feelings. You feel responsible for these deaths because you see the future. You did not prevent the deaths. We’ve talked about this. It does not make you responsible, Hunter. You did not kill these people.”

  “Is that true, Mr. Keller?” Baily asked. “You did not kill them?”

  “I knew they were going to die.” Keller’s head dropped. “I did not stop it.”

  Baily lowered his gun. “Detective Wilcox told me what happened on highway 55 a few days ago, the trucker that drove into a herd of deer and was killed.”

  “What’s that got to do with anything?” Bone asked.

  Baily stayed on Keller. “You were in that truck, weren’t you? You got out right before the accident, didn’t you? Tony Wilcox talked to the trucker before he died. He told Wilcox you got out of the truck. He knew your name. That trucker told Wilcox you told him he was gonna die that very night. I guess you didn’t help him either, did you Mr. Keller?”

  “Is all that true, Hunter,” Bone asked. “Did you tell the man he was going to die?”

  “Yes, to both questions.”

  Bone returned to the window shaking his head. “You didn’t help the poor guy. You knew about the deer. Why didn’t you say something? Why did you just get out?”

  “I tried to warn him. He would not listen. He was not going to change.”

  “Not going to change what?” Baily asked.

  “You saw something you’re not talking about,” Bone said. “You located this trucker for a reason, didn’t you? After you talked to him you made a decision.”

  Keller got to his feet and walked over to Bone standing at the window. “We must talk about this later. Now, you must shoot the man kneeling by the tree thirty yards out. He is sliding onto his gun a night vision scope. If you do not act now, you will be killed, Bone.”

  With his head under the burlap curtain at the front door, Baily listened to the bizarre instructions given to Bone. Are you kidding me? What in the hell is Keller trying to do?

  “Detective Baily,” Keller yelled. “You’re in a gun sight. Do not question me. You have two seconds. Lean back now!”

  Confused, Baily backed away inches and the glass shattered lifting the curtain. A bullet ricocheted off the stone fireplace across the room. Immediately Bone’s Browning exploded. Burnt gunpowder filled the room and a cracking echo rolled down the river valley.

  “I think I got him,” Bone muttered.

  “You did,” Keller said. “Detective, your shooter is running. He believes he hit you. They will be back for me, and to finish Bone. We all need to leave now.”

  “Wait!” Baily peered out the edge of the splintered wood through the shattered glass in time to see a dark figure scramble over the wooded hill and out of sight.

  “We must leave now to have any chance,” Keller said.

>   “There may be more out there. We could run right into them,” Baily said.

  “We are alone for a short time. We must go now.”

  Baily joined them at the window. “Go where?”

  “Broken Bow Lake. There’s a boat by the dam. We go south on Mountain Fork River. We have a narrow window—less than an hour—before many more get here.”

  “Not a good idea,” Bone said. “The river, we’ll be exposed. We’ll be sitting ducks.”

  “When they find we are gone they will first check the roads, then the lake, and then the river. It is the only way now.”

  The moon slid behind a bank of clouds as they left the cabin. The darker woods and craggy hills made their trek slow. When they pushed through the last line of foliage and saw the dam, most of their hour was gone.

  Exactly as Keller described, they found the boat by the dam. The nose was grounded under a pile of debris. Bone pulled it out like a bear going after a honey pot. “Not bad. And there’s a trolling motor on this bad boy,” he said.

  “You use logic to do this stuff, Keller,” Baily said under his breath. “This is common sense, a fishin’ boat on a river by a damn dam. I’ll bet there are ten or more around here. And this big dam, it was on the poster at the cabin, the one I saw you studying.”

  Keller watched Bone clean debris from inside the boat.

  “What? No comments?” Baily chided, when Bone slid the boat into the water.

  Keller turned to Baily. “It’s not important you believe. We need to go.”

  “I told you he sees things, detective. There is much you do not understand. I suggest we leave it at that.”

  But Baily pushed. “Keller, did you see this boat sitting by the dam under branches?”

  “No. I saw us getting in a boat here, by this dam.”

  “Are you telling me logic is not a big part of what you do?”

  “I do not know the answer to your question.”

  “He took us in a straight line from the cabin to this boat,” Bone bellowed. “You see any other boats around here? No. And this boat was hidden. Did you see it before Hunter pointed at the pile of debris and after I started digging? No you did not, sir.”