Chapter Four
Donovan watched the monitors carefully looking for any signs of a killer on the prowl. He studied the serial killer's profile while Bre was curled up against him, sleeping peacefully. She had stirred several times and when he heard her whimper, he would hold her tighter or stroke her hair and she calmed within her dream.
After staring at them for hours, the pictures of the mutilated bodies were burned into his memory. If Bre was truly a psychic, or had Extra Sensory Perception, he couldn't fathom what she went through during her dark and disturbing visions. She had spoken of the pain...did she actually feel what those women went through as they were tortured to death? It was mind-boggling.
Another whimper. It had been almost an hour since the last one. He put the folder to the side and encircled her with his arms. The dream was persistent, and if they've been continual since the first murder, she hadn't slept well for over three weeks. Three murders in less than a month; and if the killer kept to the schedule that had been set by the three other killings, he would strike again within the next couple days.
A movement outside the Sunset Village buildings made him tense. The figure was dark, probably dressed in black. He reached for his comm.-link and attached it over his ear. "Monica?!" he called urgently.
"Hmmm," she responded sleepily.
"There's someone outside building one. Be on alert," he ordered.
"Donovan?"
"Yeah, Jake?"
"I'm going to have a look around."
"Don't go alone," Donovan warned.
"Don't worry, Frank," Jake assured. "Alex is going with me."
He shook Bre gently, "Sabrena, wake up. Something's going on outside the Village."
Bre was awake and alert before he finished his sentence. She tossed the covers off and dug a pair of sweatpants from her bag. She pulled them on and slipped her sneakers onto her feet. "I'm ready," she said, pulling her hair into a ponytail.
"You're not going," he said, checking his gun as he headed for the door.
"The hell I'm not," she countered, removing the safety from her Glock.
He turned in the doorway, his dark eyes authoritative. "Don't go against me on this Bre. Trust me and stay put." He turned and closed the door behind him.
Bre paced the room angrily, keeping an eye on the monitor as she watched Frank climb into the black SUV and drive off. "Stay put, my ass," she challenged, heading out the door and to the campus on foot at top speed.
************
"Jake, what's happening?"
"We lost him in the building. Bre's not answering...we don't know where he went!"
"Goddammit!"
"We're checking the rooms," Alex yelled.
"Monica," Donovan called.
"I'm here, Frank."
"I just pulled up to your building. I'm on my way up." He took the stairs two at a time until he reached Monica's door. He pounded loudly until it opened.
He grabbed her by the shoulder. "Heard anything?"
She shook her head and glanced down the hall to see a figure rounding the corner. "There he is," she whispered, pointing.
The man whirled before either got a good look at him; the knife's blade shimmered against the dim lights in the hall. Donovan and Monica ran after him, chasing him down the stairs on the opposite side of the building Donovan had entered.
"Alex. Jake. He's headed out of the second building from the south end."
"Got it. We're on the way."
Bre listened intently to their communications. She had to be sure...had to be sure he was caught. She opened the door to the stairwell just as the suspect crashed through, sending them both sprawling. She heard her gun land in a thud a few feet away.
Shadowed face...knife...it was the nightmare all over again. Except he was being pursued and he was desperate to survive. Sabrena grunted as she was pulled to her feet by her hair and held as a human shield to protect him from the very people she was supposed to be working with.
"Try anything, bitch," he put the tip of the knife under her chin. "And this will enter your brain the hard way." He started to back into the woods when Donovan and Monica exited the building. Jake and Alex rounded the building at the same time. They all stopped dead in their tracks.
"Let her go!" Donovan demanded and raised his gun to fire at the suspect. His eyes locked with Bre's and could read her fear and desperation.
"I'm so...sorry, Frank," she whispered, struggling against her captor.
"If you follow, she dies." He pulled her back with him, into the shadowy woods behind the building. "Tell them," he demanded, pushing the tip of the knife through her thin shirt and into the muscle above her right breast eliciting a scream. "Tell them to stop or I'll slit your throat now."
"No," she sobbed.
"Tell them." He punctuated his demand by drawing the blade across her chest, slicing through the layers of skin.
"Oh, God!" She cried out. "Stop...stop." She wasn't sure if she was begging him or the agents.
She was dragged further into the wooded area while her captor searched for something. She could still hear the agents pursuing them.
"I'm telling you for the last time," he screamed to his pursuers. "If you don't stop, I'm going to kill her." Again, he pulled the knife across her chest.
Bre screamed as the knife drug across her. "Oh, God! Please, please...don't follow him!"
She heard the footfalls come to a stop at the same time her captor seemed to find what he was looking for. Bre was thrust against the hard metal of a vehicle. She barely had time to recognize the make and model...a black Ford F150 and they were on the driver's side. That gave him a small amount of cover from the agents that were lurking in the woods. He flung her around and pushed her back into the truck. With his hand at her throat, he slammed her head back into the window. She wasn't sure if the crack she heard was from her skull or the window, but either way she saw stars.
"Here's a little something to remember me by, bitch!" Starting at the hollow between her breasts, he sliced through her T-shirt once more, carving lightly into her...moving downward until he met her navel. He lifted the knife, and then drew it across her stomach, below the navel.
Bre was beyond screaming...the pain was intense, but the
blow she took to the head had left her only semi-conscious.
"Don't forget me...I'll be back for you; I always finish what I
start." He threw her to the ground
and climbed into the truck and drove away.
*********
Donovan had held his team back as he crept as quietly as possible toward the maniac. The man had moved quickly, pulling Bre along with him. And with each scream he heard, he felt a little of him die inside.
He reached the edge of the wooded area just as the truck sped away, leaving Bre lying in a heap on the asphalt. He ran to her, rolling her onto her back. She was covered in blood, her shirt ripped to shreds, exposing her small breasts.
"Bre," he called to her as he checked her wounds. There was too much blood to see how bad her wounds were. "Bre," he shouted again, pulling the remains of her shirt together as the rest of the team arrived.
"Is she..." Alex began.
"No, she's alive," Donovan said just as Bre moan and lifted a bloody hand to her head. "Bre, can you hear me?"
Her eyes fluttered open and stared at him for a moment before whispering something incoherent.
Donovan heard Alex calling 911 and stopped her. "Just call the hospital and tell them we're on the way." He lifted Bre into his arms. "Jake, run back and get the SUV. I'll meet you at the gate. Hurry!"
Jake did as Donovan ordered and he walked quickly toward the gate with Monica and Alex trailing behind. He heard Bre's whisper and bent his head to try to hear her words.
"Sorry...blew the case."
"Its not important now, Bre. You're what's important," he said with a gentle smile to ease her fears.
"Just...saying that...make...feel better," she labored.
Donovan reached the gate as Jake sped through coming to a screeching halt. Alex ran to the SUV and opened the back door. She helped Frank into the vehicle with Sabrena still in his arms. Monica was already seated in the front passenger's side when Alex rounded the vehicle, so she climbed in the back with Frank.
"Go!" he ordered as he sat back and shifted Bre to a more comfortable position. He looked down in time to see her eyes roll up into her head. "No, Redhead!" he yelled out the nickname he only used in his dreams. "You have to stay awake." He breathed a sigh of relief when her eyes opened again.
"Tired," she whispered.
"I know, but you can't go to sleep. You might not wake up," he explained.
Through her haze she could hear his fear. "Concussion," she stated.
"Concussion?" he repeated.
"Think he cracked...skull," she tried to explain, drifting off into the darkness.
"Hurry, Jake!" Monica implored.
"Come on, Redhead," Frank encouraged. "If you're tough enough to deal with those visions, you're tough enough to fight the urge to sleep."
"There's the hospital," Alex cried.
Jake slammed the SUV to a halt outside the emergency room door. Alex ran inside to get help and was met inside the door by the orderlies with a waiting hospital gurney. They hurried out to the SUV and took Bre from Frank's arms. After strapping her to the gurney they wheeled her inside to the waiting doctor who ordered her into surgery.
Donovan and his team could do nothing now but wait.
To be continued...