Evil Never Dies

CHAPTER FOUR

Kitally came through the front door with a newspaper in hand and a smile on her face. “We did it.” She laid the newspaper on the coffee table in front of the couch where Hayley was sitting. “It worked. Wallace is going to jail.”

Lizzy had just entered from the main hallway. She crossed the room to see for herself. “For how long?”

“Ten years.”

“Better than nothing,” Hayley said, clearly not overwhelmed with excitement.

“Are you kidding me? Ten years is a long time. Wallace will be sixty-two by the time he gets out.”

“This is a good start,” Lizzy said. “Our number five man is off the street. Cross him off the list.”

To make it happen, they’d targeted a well-known thief in the area, filched some already stolen merchandise, and then planted the goods in the rapist’s garage. It had been Kitally’s idea. Stealing from one criminal to put away another. Not a bad deal.

“We really did it,” Kitally said again, self-satisfaction scrawled across her face. “We put away a rapist without using violence.”

“You did good,” Lizzy agreed.

“What about Be

“Be

“What did he have to say about Miriam Walters?”

“Said he didn’t know her, but the good news is that now we have it on tape.”

“What good will that do?” Hayley wanted to know.

“Be

“I suppose,” Hayley said, then shook her head. “I don’t understand how the judge could let him off. Three different women were willing to appear and swear to his guilt. It makes no sense. Now that he knows who was willing to talk, he might use intimidation to shut them up.”

Lizzy said nothing. Be

Lizzy had talked to one of the women involved. Instinct told her she was telling the truth. But now they were all scared, she’d told Lizzy. One of their friends—Miriam Walters, a very pretty eighteen-year-old—was missing. And all three women had a good idea who was responsible.

It was midnight when Hayley drove slowly through West Sacramento. Her window was rolled down. The only noise was the rattle of her engine, and Kitally, who couldn’t stay quiet for more than a few minutes at a time.

“So who are we going after tonight?” Kitally asked.

“It’s the only woman on the list. They call her the Ghost, but the problem is we don’t have a name.”

“What’s the deal with her anyhow?”

“I used to spend a lot of time on these streets. A while ago, a shop owner in the area pulled me aside and told me that his people, as he likes to call the homeless in the area, were being harassed by a crazy woman. The police, if they’re even looking, haven’t been able to catch her, so I figured she needed to be put on our list.”

Kitally watched the road ahead. “She steals from these people who have nothing?”

“It’s worse than that. She attacks the homeless . . . usually while they sleep. Both women and men, young and old, it doesn’t seem to matter—beats the shit out of them. One elderly man almost died from head trauma. Apparently, she attacks for no reason at all. I talked to two different people who got a pretty good look at her, but we’re going to need to track her down somehow, see what else we can find out. She’s been described as slender-bodied. She has a thin face with high, pointy cheekbones and light-colored eyes. Someone else called her a sinewy white girl with spiky blonde hair, bushy eyebrows, and pale skin.”

“Sounds like she would be easy to spot, even in the dark.”

“I thought so, too, but I’ve been making the rounds for a while now and I have yet to get a glimpse of her. Apparently, many people in the area have heard of her. They’ve even rounded up a posse to look for her, but she’s elusive. She’s cocky, too. Comes back to the same exact places, time after time.”

“That’s a little freaky. She must have eyes in the back of her head if everyone is watching and waiting for her and yet she manages to show up at the precise moment when nobody’s paying attention.”

Hayley made a left at the stop sign, and then pulled to the curb, parked, and turned off the engine.

“What are we doing?”

“Just taking a stroll through the park, since one of the people I talked to spotted her here once. Long shot, but we have to start somewhere.”

They climbed out. Kitally hitched her bag around her shoulder and followed close behind.

Hayley had been to this same park many times before. It always felt like home. Tonight was a quiet night. If she didn’t know better, she would guess all the criminals and rapists in Sacramento had taken the night off. The thought made her smile. Not because she thought it was remotely possible, but because it was so damned absurd.

She lit up a cigarette and took a drag. “Is it true that you once had a brother?”

“Who told you about Liam?”

Hayley had been meaning to talk to Kitally about her brother for a while now, but there never seemed to be a good time. “Maybe Tommy mentioned it,” Hayley said as they walked along. “I don’t recall. What happened to him?”

“Long story short . . . my family was visiting a foreign country and he was taken.”

Although Kitally talked a lot, she rarely spoke about herself. Hayley felt compelled for some reason to draw her out. “Your parents must have offered a hefty ransom to get him back.”

“They did. They go back to Buenaventura, the main port of Colombia, every year. Usually when children are taken, it’s for money. The authorities have no idea what happened. They suspect he was sold to the highest bidder.”

“How old was he when he was kidnapped?”

“Liam was six and I was eight. One minute he was walking next to me, and the next he was ru

“You would have both been kidnapped.”

“Maybe so, but Liam wouldn’t be alone.”

“That’s not true. I doubt those types keep siblings together.”

Kitally was quiet.

“You better not be blaming yourself for something you couldn’t do anything about.”

“My dad blames me enough for both of us.”

“I bet he’s angry at himself, not you.”

“Why?”

“Are you kidding me? Because he didn’t have the good sense to keep his six- and eight-year-old kids within sight in a foreign country.” After a long pause, Hayley added, “You’re a good person, but you’re obviously a little off, if you know what I mean.”

That got a laugh from Kitally. “Maybe someone needs to look in the mirror.”

“We all know I’m fucked up. I am beyond repair. But you,” Hayley said, “you have a chance, if you can get your shit together and get past it. I bet your dad started screwing around after your brother was taken. Your family still has a chance to turn itself around, but someone, probably you, needs to push to make it happen.”