Evil Never Dies

“I’ll tell you exactly what’s going on,” Lizzy said as she marched back to the door.

“Lizzy,” Jessica said, “let me handle this.” She turned back to Polly. “Claire Kerley is missing, and we have reason to believe she’s in the area. We’re going house to house. Nothing personal.”

The lie seemed to appease the man somewhat.

“Now that we’re here, though,” Lizzy said in the most cheerful voice she could conjure up, “I would love to know how long you’ve lived by the river.”

“A few years,” he answered unhappily.

“You must love it.” Lizzy was obviously buying time. She took in a whiff. “The air is so pristine. I love the smell of the river. Have you heard of any neighbors pla

Clearly, he was not a fan of Lizzy’s, but he managed to force a smile. “No, I’m sorry.” When Lizzy opened her mouth to ask him another question, he turned to Jessica. “Nice as it is to chat with you two, I’m really quite busy.”

“It looks like you have a dock leading to the water,” Lizzy said. “Do you mind if we have a look around?”

“In fact, I do.”

A loud crash sounded from inside the house.

Lizzy looked at Jessica. “What was that?”

“Is someone else inside the house?” Jessica asked the man.

“No. I have a cat, and the animal is always knocking things over.”

“I hate to bother you too much longer, Mr. Polly, but I don’t think my friend will be able to leave until she’s had a look around.”

“Not without a warrant. I have been generous enough with answering your questions. I’m afraid we’re done here.”

Jessica tried to stall, but it was no use. He was about to close the door.

“I know who you are,” Lizzy said.

He raised one eyebrow.

“Zachary Tucker.”

His forehead creased, and then he sneered at Lizzy.

And that’s when Jessica realized Lizzy had been right all along.

Before he could shut the door, Lizzy shoved her foot past Jessica into the doorway, causing the door to bounce off the edge of her sole.

Another loud crash inside. One of the windows to their right had been cracked.

“It’s the girl,” Jessica said. Both she and Lizzy drove their shoulders with all their might into the door, knocking the man back and sending them crashing inside after him.

He took off across the living room, disappeared through the sliding doors to the balcony overlooking the river. Jessica followed after him, leaving Lizzy to run out through the front door and around the house to cut him off if he tried to escape.

An ear-piercing scream cut through the air. By the time Lizzy got to the backyard, Zachary Tucker was dragging his body toward a kayak along the riverbank. One leg was bent sharply at an odd angle, clearly shattered in more than one place. She looked up at the balcony and realized the idiot had jumped. She stepped over to him and put the barrel of her gun to the back of his head. “Please do keep crawling, Zachary. I’d love to squeeze this trigger.”

He slumped to the grass and closed his eyes.

Jessica walked up from behind and cuffed the man’s arms behind his back. “I’ll take it from here. You find the girl.”

Lizzy rushed around the house again, this time in search of Claire Kerley. She made her way back inside and down the hallway to the door of the front room where the window had been broken. It was locked. “Are you in there, Claire?”

There was a faint knock on the wall.

“I’m going to shoot the lock off this door. Knock again if you’re out of the way of the door.”

Another knock sounded.

Lizzy fired at the lock. The door swung open.

Inside the bedroom, lying on the floor between the bed and window, was the missing girl.

She had thrown every item in the room at the window. Glass crunched beneath Lizzy’s feet as she crossed the room.

The girl’s face was swollen and bruised. Her lips were cracked. She looked as if she were on the brink of death. She’d been stripped of clothes and every bit of her flesh was covered with cuts and bruises. Parts of her body had been painted. The monster had used her as a human canvas. Her wrists and ankles were raw and infected, but Lizzy did her best not to visibly react to Claire’s condition.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed 911. Next she called Jimmy Martin and told him they had found Claire Kerley and gave him the address. After hanging up, she pulled a pillow from the bed and placed it beneath the girl’s head, then yanked off the sheet, too, and used it to cover her. “You did good,” she told Claire. “I need you to hang in there for a while longer. I’m going to take a quick look around, make sure no one else needs help. I’ll be right back—I promise. An ambulance is on its way.”

Lizzy walked briskly through the house. She stepped outside onto the balcony and peered over the railing at Jessica and Zachary Tucker, still flat on his belly in the grass with his leg canted at its freakish angle. “I found the girl. She’s pretty beat-up, but she’s going to be all right. I also called it in. An ambulance is on its way.”

“This one says his leg hurts,” Jessica said.

“Really? That’s too bad.”

“Yeah,” Jessica agreed. “I was thinking the same thing.”

“I’m going to go back and sit with Claire.”

“I should have listened to you from the start,” Jessica said.

“We’re here, aren’t we?”

Lizzy walked back into the house, then stopped to look at a painting propped on an easel in the corner of the living room. The picture was grotesque. Claire had been chained and cuffed to a wall. Her hair fell over parts of her face, but her eyes were wild and deranged, her teeth snapping.

Lizzy wanted to rip the canvas to shreds, but she couldn’t destroy evidence so she walked away. Drawn by a strong smell and afraid someone else could need her help, Lizzy made her way downstairs. It was damp and dark, and she had to use her shirtsleeve to cover her mouth and nose as she continued down the stairs. Inside a wine cellar, atop a dirty mattress and rolled partially within a bloody tarp, was a dead body. A woman. Her eyes had been carved out of her head.

Lizzy gagged as she ran from the room.

She needed to get Claire out of here.

By the time she got back to the room upstairs, Claire had crawled to the door. “Come on,” Lizzy said. “Let’s get you outside and get some fresh air.” The girl weighed next to nothing. Lizzy propped her on the edge of the bed and fastened the sheet around her again before carrying her down the hallway and out of this nightmare.

Sirens sounded in the distance, growing louder with each step.

“I’m going to live,” the girl whispered as Lizzy set her on her feet and they made their way down the walkway.

Lizzy held her close to her side. “That’s right. You’re a survivor, Claire.”

“I need to talk to Mom.”

“Let’s get into the car, and then we’ll give her a call, OK?”

As soon as Lizzy and Claire were sitting safely in the backseat of her car, they called Claire’s mother. Lizzy told her that her daughter was alive, and then she held the phone close to the side of Claire’s face so she could talk.

“I love you, Mom.”

They both wept.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Hours later, Lizzy talked to both Brittany and Cathy on the phone. She told them what had happened and that it was safe to come out of the house. They were shocked to learn that Jake Polly might be the Sacramento Strangler. For the hundredth time, her sister talked about moving to another state. Lizzy would talk to her later, convince her to stay. They needed each other.