Evil Never Dies

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

It was the next afternoon, and Kitally had just had another door slammed in her face. Not exactly the friendliest neighborhood she’d ever visited. After heading back to the car, she climbed in behind the wheel and drove farther down the road looking for Hayley until she caught sight of her talking to a teenager playing basketball with a friend.

Hayley was still pissed off at Lizzy for doing a half-assed job with Be

Right now, though, here they were, back in West Sac, looking for the Ghost. They had driven back to the neighborhood Salma said the Ghost used to haunt. They were going door-to-door, hoping someone would know something about her whereabouts.

Kitally was losing hope. But not Hayley. After being so close to nabbing the Ghost and then losing her in the mall, Hayley was more determined than ever to find her.

After Hayley finished talking to the teenager, she climbed into the car and said, “Let’s go.”

“Did you get a name?”

“Nope, but I have an idea.”

Kitally didn’t like the look in her eye. “What is it?”

“Me and you,” she said, “are going to be homeless for a while.”

“Seriously?”

“It’ll be fun,” Hayley said. “Like camping out.”

“It could take weeks to catch her. Maybe months.”

“I don’t think so. The Ghost seems to make an appearance at least twice a week. I don’t think she does what she does because she wants whatever these people have. I think she has a problem with homeless people. If we put ourselves in her path, she’ll find us.”

“How will you know where she’ll hit next?”

“I got another call from the shopkeeper who keeps me updated on what’s happening on the streets. Oftentimes, he mentions a homeless woman named Naomi Griffiths. I’ve talked to the woman before. She says the Ghost has it in for her. Our best bet will be to stick close to Naomi.”

Kitally scratched her head where a bullet had grazed her scalp during the shooting the day of Lizzy’s wedding. The wound had healed, but it still itched. “There’s got to be an easier way to catch this person.”

“Well, I’m moving out there tonight. You don’t have to come.”

“No, I’ll come. I’m not going to let you go out there by yourself.”

Hayley was searching through the garage at Kitally’s house for a sleeping bag and anything else she might find useful on the streets when Lizzy approached her.

“I know you’re pissed off at me,” she said, “but I need your help with something.”

“Why don’t you ask Kitally or Jessica?”

“This is something only you can do. I’ve seen how well you can draw. It has to be you.”

“How long will it take?”

“The woman lives in Newcastle. So I’ll need you for a couple of hours at least.”

“When do you plan to do this?”

“Right now.”

Forty-five minutes later, they were sitting at the kitchen table inside Kathryn Church’s house. Hayley had a sketch pad and pencil ready to go. The woman made everyone hot tea and then took a seat at the head of the table. Her hair was pi

“Where should I start?” Kathryn asked.

“First of all,” Hayley said, “how old was Zachary the last time you saw him?”

“He was eighteen, a senior in high school. I was seventeen.”

“Great. It would be helpful for me to start off with the shape of his face.”

“Normal,” she offered.

“How about this,” Hayley said. “I’ll give you a few choices, and then you pick the closest thing to how you picture him in your mind’s eye.”

“OK.”

Lizzy was sitting at the table, too, but she appeared to be far, far away. Hayley found herself feeling bad for giving her shit, and yet she wasn’t sure why she should feel bad about it. Lizzy had needed to make a decision and stick to it for once in her life. She liked to ramble on about how they needed to be safe and not get caught, and yet they had all put themselves in danger of being exposed last night. And for what?

The clink of a teacup pulled Hayley back to the matter at hand. “OK,” Hayley said, “would you describe his face as round, square, thin, or heart shaped?”

“Heart shaped, I guess. Or maybe more like an egg. Yes, he had an egg-shaped face.”

“That’s great.” Hayley began to sketch. When she was done with that, she looked up at Kathryn again. “Do you remember anything about his eyes?”

“Oh, yes. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, and his certainly were. His eyes were gray-blue. Intense-looking eyes. When he looked at you, it was as if he were sucking you in. Pure seduction. When he looked at me, I couldn’t look away. Magnetic. That’s the word I would use to describe his eyes.”

Wow, Hayley thought. She wondered if Lizzy realized Kathryn had feelings for Zachary Tucker. “That’s really great,” Hayley told her, “but now I need some details. For instance, were his eyes set far apart or close together? Were they deeply set?”

She shook her head. “None of those things. All in all, he had a very symmetrical face. Nose where it should be. Eyes, too—not round or narrow, either, but normal,” she said with a sigh. “I’m sorry. I’m no help at all.”

“No, this is good. I won’t make his eyes too large or too small. Let’s talk about his nose. Was it crooked or straight—”

“Straight,” she blurted out before Hayley could finish. “And he had generous lips. And firm. A handsome face, overall; no doubt about it.”

“What about his ears?”

She tilted her head as she thought about it. “He had a good amount of thick dark-brown hair that covered his ears, but his hair wasn’t too long when I knew him. It touched low on his neck and had a slight curl to it. I never saw his ears peeking out, so I would guess normal-sized ears that were flat to his head.”

Hayley sketched as the woman talked. More details shook loose as she went—a wide jaw, a sharp chin. Bright, even teeth. The image that was appearing on paper would certainly be considered by most to be a good-looking man, but the guy in the picture could be just about anybody. At last she handed the drawing to Kathryn and said, “What do you think?”

The woman put a hand to her chest right over her heart. “My goodness. It looks like Zachary.”

Lizzy examined the picture. It clearly bummed her out that she didn’t recognize him. “He looks nothing like Jovan Massing,” she told Hayley.

“Who is Jovan Massing?” Kathryn asked.

“He’s the FBI’s number one suspect at the moment.” Lizzy handed the picture back to Kathryn and asked her to make sure there was nothing else that needed to be tweaked, and then she looked at Hayley and said, “Great work. This was no simple crush you had on Zachary,” Lizzy said to Kathryn. “You’re still in love with him, aren’t you?”

That took Hayley completely by surprise. She hadn’t thought Lizzy was paying any attention at all.

Kathryn’s eyes brimmed with tears. Unable to find her voice, she nodded instead.

“Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“Because if he did kill his sister,” she managed, “what would that make me? Over the years, I tried to convince myself that my imagination had gotten the best of me. As I came to know Zachary, I chose to believe he could never harm anyone. He was good to his family pets, and he doted on his parents. He was good to me, too.”