The Alibi Man

When the trunk opened, the first thing I saw was the barrel of Kulak’s gun. I held my breath and waited for Kulak to pull the trigger.

“Get out,” he said. “Get out!”

I got out, a little dizzy, legs wobbly.

Hands bound behind his back, Be

“Stand up!” Kulak ordered.

Be

Alexi Kulak very calmly got his balance back, aimed, and fired.

I watched, horrified, as Be

In the distance I could hear police sirens, but I knew with a terrible sinking feeling in my gut they wouldn’t be coming here. We were locked inside the gates of Alexi Kulak’s auto salvage yard, and we were at the mercy of a madman.

Chapter 60

“So who is this guy?” Landry asked, shining his maglite into the trunk of the car.

“Jeffrey C. Cherry,” the deputy said, reading from the victim’s driver’s license. “West Palm Beach; 06-20-88. He’s got an employee parking sticker from Players.”

“Jeez,” Weiss said, poking at the trash around the body. “If he didn’t have that crowbar in his head, I’d say he died from eating his shit.”

“There’s a couple of dime bags of coke,” the deputy said. Could have been a drug deal gone bad.“

Landry looked over at Be

“And what drug dealer wouldn’t steal that car?” Weiss asked, the keys are in it.“

Landry took a pen out of his pocket and pushed open the small duffel bag that sat on the victim’s chest. A couple stacks of 1’s-singles topped with a twenty-and what looked like some drug residue.

“This sucks,” he said. “This is some kind of setup. This kid works at Players-”

“Valet,” Weiss said, peering in the open driver’s door. “He’s got a name tag in here.”

Landry walked away from the car and called Elena. Straight to voice mail. He didn’t like that. She would have been waiting to hear news on what the search warrant had gained them.

She had told him to talk to the valets. He guessed this was the kid who had split before he’d gotten there. Elena had known him, then. And Walker had been here.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he said.

Weiss flashed his light at the crowbar planted in Jeffrey C. Cherry’s skull. “Imagine how he feels.”

Chapter 61

Kulak left Be

He took me into a large, open garage space with hydraulic lifts and drains in the concrete floor. Lights hung from a ceiling of open steel trusses. On one side of the space was a row of old beat-up red metal lockers with iron-mesh fronts. He dragged me to them, pulled one open, shoved me inside with my back to the wall, shut the door, and locked it.

I was in a cage. Literally a captive audience for whatever horror Kulak might want to play out in front of me.

The cage was not much taller than I was and not much wider or deeper. I could get my hands in front of me, but I couldn’t get any leverage or power to try to push against the door.

It seemed a very long time before Kulak returned. I began to think perhaps he had taken Be

Be

“Take off your clothes,” he said.

Be

“Take off your clothes, Mr. Walker.”

“Why?”

Kulak gave him a savage kick in the ribs, an action weirdly at odds with his demeanor.

“Take off your clothes, Mr. Walker. You are going to know how it feels to be vulnerable.”

When Be

It seemed to take forever for him to complete his task. All the while Alexi Kulak just stood there, waiting, gun in hand. He smoked a cigarette, watching dispassionately as his victim struggled.

When he was naked, Be

Kulak dropped his cigarette butt on the floor and put it out with the toe of his wingtip shoe. He produced a pair of handcuffs, closed one around Be

He walked over to a workbench, set his gun aside, and chose a tool from a rack hanging on the wall. He chose it carefully, like a musician choosing an instrument or a sculptor choosing a chisel.

It was a bolt cutter.

Be

“Why did you kill my Irina?” Kulak asked him with eerie calm.

“I didn’t,” Be

Kulak took a step closer and stomped on Be

“Why did you kill my Irina?” he asked again.

“I-I didn’t,” Be

Just like he was snipping a weed from his lawn, Kulak leaned over with the long-handled bolt cutter and cut Be

A wet hot sweat washed over me from head to toe. The screams were horrible. I closed my eyes for a moment but opened them again to abate the dizziness.

Be

With the toe of his shoe, Kulak knocked the detached digit into the drain. He stepped away, lit another cigarette, smoked it down halfway. After a moment, he went to Be

Be

“Why did you kill my Irina?” Kulak asked softly.

“I don’t know,” Be

“You don’t know?”

“I can’t remember.”

“You murdered this exquisite girl,” Kulak said, “and she meant little to you that you don’t even remember why?”

“I don’t know.”

Kulak looked at the butt of his cigarette, then casually leaned over and pressed the red-hot ember to the thin skin on the inside of Be

Be

I tried to look away, but I could still see him in my peripheral vision. If I closed my eyes, the dizziness and nausea would wash over me and I would be sick. It was important I not appear weak. I knew that.

The stench of hot feces filled the air, and I tried not to gag.

Kulak waited for the screams to die, for his victim to lie still in his own waste.