Once Chosen (A Riley Paige Mystery—Book 17) Read online

  She and Jilly turned around, ready to run, but the same dark figure seemed to be standing in front of them again.

  How is that possible? April wondered.

  Then she turned back and saw the first figure standing where he’d been before. She began to feel dizzy with panic.

  Was this some kind of monster who could be in two places at once?

  No, there are two of them! she realized, forcing herself to calm down.

  Her mind flashed to the gun her mother had bought for her and was now sitting unused in its case in Mom’s closet. She wished she had it in her hand. But if she did, would she know what to do with it?

  It doesn’t matter now, she thought.

  April felt a rush of adrenaline. Whatever else happened, she was determined that no harm would come to her little sister. It was her own fault they were in this situation.

  She leaned toward Jilly and whispered, “You get out of here. Run like crazy. Run every which way you can. Head off into the bushes. Just get clear of these guys.”

  Jilly asked, “But what are you going to do?”

  “Whatever I have to do,” April said.

  Her gaze still locked on the first figure, April heard Jilly scurrying away behind her. During the scant seconds that followed, everything seemed to stand still as April’s mind clicked away—trying to gauge whatever was about to happen, wondering whether she or the man in front of her was going to make next move, flashing back to self-defense tips she’d gotten from her mother.

  But before she could go into action, she heard sharp cry of pain behind her.

  April spun around and saw the second black-clad man falling to his knees. Her little sister was buzzing around him like a hornet, swinging her candy-laden tote bag by its handles, smashing it at him again and again.

  April realized that Jilly must have landed her first blow in a sensitive place that had incapacitated the man—his groin, most likely. April began to move toward them to join the fray. But she felt as though she were moving in slow motion while her little sister seemed to be striking with supernatural speed. Candy was tumbling out of the tote bag, but there was still enough weight to it so that Jilly could smash the disabled man in the mask and send him sprawling backward.

  Jilly didn’t let up even then. She kept kicking and pounding as he curled up in a writhing, pathetic fetal position. It was a weird and almost comical sight—a miniature zombie beating the hell out of a big, powerful-looking, black-clad man.

  “Get off me!” the man was screaming desperately. “Get off me!”

  April quickly realized that Jilly didn’t need her help after all. She spun around to face the first black-clad man, only to be surprised that he’d taken off his mask and was looking dumbfounded. And she knew him.

  “Eno?” she yelled. “Eno Bishop?”

  He was a big, stupid bully who was always making trouble at her high school. And now April recognized the other guy’s voice. Jilly was beating up Fritz Ollinger, Eno’s best buddy.

  Furious with both of the bullies, April took a menacing step toward Eno.

  Looking past April, he backed away. The expression on his face was one of sheer terror.

  April turned and saw that Jilly had finished beating up Fritz, who was groaning and twisting on the sidewalk. Jilly was now charging toward Eno.

  “Keep that crazy kid off me!” Eno yelled. “I mean it, don’t let her near me! She’s like some kind of wild animal. She’s out of her mind!”

  April knew they weren’t in any danger now. She put out her hand and blocked her sister’s way.

  Jilly flayed her arms and yelled, “Let me go! Let me at him!”

  “That’s enough,” April told her. “Enough! We’re OK now.”

  Jilly stopped and stood beside her, still looking fierce.

  Then April turned back toward the unmasked bully.

  “What the hell did the two of you think you were doing?” she snapped.

  “Fritz and me were just playing a joke,” Eno said. “We just thought it would be fun to scare somebody.”

  “Some joke,” April said.

  Making a wide berth around the girls, Eno went to his friend and helped him to his feet. Together they lurched away as fast as they could.

  Meanwhile, Jilly had taken off her mask and was picking up pieces of the scattered candy.

  She yelled after the guys, “Come back here and help me pick this up!”

  “Leave them alone,” April said. “They’ve learned their lesson. I’ll help you.”

  As April joined Jilly in putting candy back into her bag, she asked, “Where did you learn to fight like that, anyway?”

  Jilly scoffed.

  “You’re kidding, right?” she said. “Where I grew up, I had to be a tough kid just to survive.”

  April suddenly understood. She’d heard about Jilly’s rough Arizona childhood from Mom and from Jilly herself. She remembered Mom describing how she’d first found Jilly in a truck cab trying to sell her own body in order to get away from her brutal father. Before that, Jilly had spent the whole night hiding in a drainpipe.

  It’s no wonder she can fight, April realized.

  Jilly stopped putting candy into the bag before it was even a quarter full again.

  “Even then, I almost didn’t survive,” she admitted with a sigh.

  April could see that Jilly was shaking a little now. She put an arm around her sister.

  “Well,” April told her, “I might have been in real trouble tonight if you hadn’t been here.”

  Jilly looked at her and then grinned. “That’s enough candy,” she said brightly. “I don’t want to eat that much anyway. Let’s head on home.”

  April smiled. She wasn’t in the mood for a party now, not even one with Ted Kirkland and seniors and juniors and everything. She glad to hear that Jilly was no longer interested in it either. Besides, she knew that Gabriela would be glad to see them home earlier than she’d promised.

  As they headed out of the park, Jilly chuckled a little and danced a few steps.

  She said, “You know, trick-or-treating turned out to be a lot more fun than I expected.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

  The man watched through the leaves and branches of a tall hedge as the young woman kept walking around Pater High School and students continued to pour out of the building. He could barely contain his elation.

  Pan is so wise, he thought.

  And Pan is so audacious.

  When the man had come to this school at Pan’s command, he’d had no idea of what the goat-god had in mind. After all, he’d taken a woman from this area before and later buried her beneath the maple sapling. That had been after a Halloween party at the school, and he’d thought that tonight would present someone similar. Or perhaps this time Pan’s choice would be one of the partying teenagers he could see through the gym windows. But which of them had Pan chosen for his next victim? And how was the man supposed to carry out the murder?

  He hadn’t known then.

  But now he did know.

  None of the teenagers were his target. Neither were any of the adults at the school party.

  It was the young blonde woman he’d encountered just now.

  He felt a renewed thrill at how he’d felt when she raised her badge and spoke to him.

  “FBI,” she’d said. “You’re not supposed to be out here.”

  How wrong she’d been! He was exactly where fate intended him to be. For right then and there, he’d heard Pan’s flute-like voice loud and clear.

  “There she is!” Pan had said.

  The wide-eyed blonde woman was Pan’s chosen sacrifice for this All Hallows’ Eve.

  He’d almost lunged for her right then and there, but Pan had held him back.

  “Wait,” Pan had said. “The moment hasn’t come.”

  Again the man realized that Pan was right. He shouldn’t take the new sacrifice while partygoers were still leaving the school across the street. They might try to interfere.
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  So the man was waiting, just as Pan commanded.

  He was in an ecstasy of suspense now, wondering exactly when that moment was going to come, and what kind of opportunity Pan had in store for him.

  He knew he must be patient.

  But that was hard to do.

  After all, Pan had chosen no ordinary prey.

  An FBI agent! he thought.

  She was nothing like the unwitting, defenseless, and unsuspecting victims he’d grown used to. In fact, he was sure that she regarded the man himself as her prey. She was searching for him, although she had no idea who or where he was.

  She might even be armed. In any case, she was hardly helpless and defenseless. This was to be a formidable challenge, and the man felt honored and proud about that.

  Pan believes in me.

  At last he fully believes in me.

  He felt humbled, too—and daunted, in spite of himself.

  He reached into the satchel and fingered the tools he’d brought with him—the wooden hooves, the mallet for hammering hoofmarks into the victim’s body, and the cord he’d always used for strangulation.

  There was so much he didn’t yet know.

  For example, what was he supposed to do with the body tonight? He hadn’t packed a shovel in his van for a burial because he was going to take her to his freezer as he’d done before. He had no idea how long it would be before he buried her or before he revealed the whereabouts of the body. But so far, he had no specific orders.

  Seeming to hear his unspoken question, Pan spoke to him in his soft, whistling voice.

  “No. No freezer. No burial. No messages to the foolish police. Not tonight. Tonight will be different. Tonight my true reign shall begin.”

  The man felt his nerves and sinews surging with power and excitement. That’s why Pan had chosen this special victim, an FBI agent, a woman whose death would be known beyond this mere community. This death would strike fear into the wider world.

  “Then tonight is the night?” he murmured aloud to Pan. “The night when it comes to pass—your apocalyptic panic?”

  “Yes. My name will circle the globe. I shall be ‘all’ indeed.”

  The man almost wept tears of joy. But he knew that, somehow, he mustn’t let his passion get the best of him. That wouldn’t be easy, for he’d yearned for this special night ever since he’d been a child—ever since the only time he’d ever met Pan face to face.

  He’d been lost for two days in the woods when his friends had abandoned him there one Halloween after filling his mind with “Goatman” stories. His canteen soon ran dry, and for two whole days and nights he’d had no food, the nights had gotten cold, and he’d gotten no sleep. He’d given up hope and settled against a tree to wait for his death until …

  Pan had appeared!

  The lost boy had seen the goat-god standing right in front of him, with his impish face and curving horns and hairy legs that ended in cloven feet. Pan had played him a happy melody on his pipe—a melody that filled him with the courage to live.

  “Fear not,” Pan had told him. “You are to be the servant of my will.”

  Soon after that the search and rescue team had arrived. It had taken him weeks to get back his health and strength. He had never told a single soul about his meeting with the god. He would never have thought of it.

  After all, it was a sacred secret. He’d known ever since then that a special destiny was in store for him. His was to be a lonely but noble fate.

  And tonight that fate would be fully realized!

  Tonight he would see Pan again and stand at his right hand!

  The man kept watching the young woman, who was herself watching the departing students.

  She doesn’t know, he thought wistfully.

  She doesn’t know the role she will play in the Panic of All.

  It seemed sad that she would never live to know it.

  The partygoers were almost gone. The moment was almost here.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

  The gymnasium lights finally went out. Ann Marie stood watching from the sidewalk as Principal Cody followed the last of the students out of the building. She waited until the remaining cars in the school parking lot drove away. The big building was soon silently silhouetted against the moonlit autumn sky.

  Ann Marie sighed deeply. Everybody had left, and there had been no sign of the man she was watching for. Even the streets around the school were quiet now. The stray trick-or-treaters must have given up and gone home. She knew she ought to feel relieved that all the kids seemed to be safely on their way home, but she was struggling with a sense of futility.

  It’s over, she thought. I waited out here for nothing.

  Even so, she decided to take one more foot patrol around the building just to be sure that all the activity had ended.

  As she left the sidewalk and headed across the parking lot, Ann Marie wondered if she should have stationed herself somewhere else tonight. She’d come to Pater High School on her own, and when Sheriff Wainwright had asked her to stay, that’s what she’d done. Now it seemed extremely unlikely that she would play any kind of a part in the killer’s capture—if he even was going to be captured tonight

  She doubted that he would be. So far, there had been no news of any arrest or even dangerous activity, nothing more than the ordinary Halloween pranks.

  Ironically, it was as though the curfew was finally in effect.

  Agent Paige’s plan struck her as less and less sound the more she thought about it. Was Ann Marie’s senior right in thinking that the news of the killer’s capture would provoke the real killer into action—and maybe sloppiness?

  Ann Marie knew all about Agent Paige’s celebrated instincts. But she had taken her share of psychology courses at the academy, and based on what she’d learned, she questioned her senior partner’s theory. She thought it more likely that the killer would breathe a sigh of relief at the law’s mistake and lie low for a while, maybe even until next year.

  But what do I know?

  For all she knew, the killer had been caught already but no announcement had been made. If so, how would she even find out about it? Agent Paige probably didn’t even know she was back in Winneway—unless Sheriff Wightman had told her. And if Agent Paige did find out about her return, of course she’d be furious.

  Maybe even with good reason, Ann Marie thought.

  What did she think she was doing, anyway? When she’d called Sheriff Wightman, she’d probably distracted him from whatever he’d been doing at the time, and Agent Paige would certainly be distracted if she found out she was here.

  Distractions were the last things the team needed right now.

  They really needed to focus.

  Face facts, kid, she told herself. It’s time to get out of everyone’s way.

  Should she maybe check back into the motel where she and Agent Paige had been staying and get a good night’s sleep before driving back to Quantico? No, that might mean running into Agent Paige in the morning. And that was about the last thing Ann Marie wanted.

  The best thing to do was drive back tonight.

  But as she came around the side of the building, something caught her peripheral vision.

  She turned quickly to look.

  All she saw was the building still standing there in stern, stony silence, looking darker by the moment.

  I’m sure I saw something, she told herself.

  She stared some more until she glimpsed a fleck of light through the gym windows. From where she stood, it looked like a firefly wafting about inside, popping into view and then out again.

  It looked too small and weak to be a regular flashlight.

  Was it maybe the little flashlight from someone’s cell phone?

  If so, who was in there, and why?

  She stood there staring until her eyes felt strained, but she didn’t see the moving light again. She began to doubt her own eyes.

  Probably just a trick of the light, she thought.

 
Maybe it was just a reflection from a nearby streetlamp.

  Still, it made Ann Marie distinctly uneasy.

  As she continued on her way around the building, she took out her own pocket flashlight and shined it ahead of her. Everything was quiet, but when she came near a side entrance something looked odd about one of those doors. When she checked, she saw that one of the doors was propped slightly open. A book had been placed there, preventing the door from completely closing.

  Her heart beat faster.

  Someone seemed to have deliberately kept the door from shutting and locking.

  Did that mean someone was in the building—someone who wasn’t supposed to be in there?

  Ann Marie thought about maybe calling Agent Paige or Sheriff Wightman.

  But what if they sent backup over what turned out to be nothing at all, wasting precious time and manpower? Did she really want to face Agent Paige’s wrath over such a distraction? Worse, did she want to cause another distraction when so much was at stake?

  She pushed the door open and stepped inside. Everything seemed quiet. Not wanting to make any noise, she let the door close softly against the book and stood there for a moment, listening. She could hear no one moving about inside. She didn’t want to call out and ask whether anyone was there.

  She realized that the hallway in front of her was dimly lit by a pale overhead light, so she turned off her little flashlight and pocketed it. Even in the weak light, she could see that this hallway connected with another and there were probably plenty of places to hide. Announcing her presence would give whoever might be here a chance to do that, and Ann Marie would surely never find him.

  Glad to be wearing soft-soled shoes, Ann Marie managed to walk so quietly that she could barely hear her own footsteps. As she approached a spot where the hallway branched into a T, she thought she heard something odd. She stopped in her tracks and watched and listened. There seemed to be a faint glow, as if from a stronger flashlight, from around the left corner.

  Then she definitely heard a peculiar, unsettling sound. It was some kind of hissing.