Chapter 19

Màu nền
Font chữ
Font size
Chiều cao dòng

Vincent pulled up to the apartment complex that Artie Wilkerson resided in. He looked in his rearview mirror and smiled. As expected, Special Agent Sally Roux was still following him.

"So how long has it been since you've seen Artie? Will he be shocked to see you?" Vincent asked Wanda who was adjusting her lipstick.

"I see him around but we don't talk. A friend of mine, Trixie, told me where he lived a while back."

They both stepped out of Vincent's vehicle. Vincent turned around to where Sally Roux was parked and waved.

"What are you doing?" Wanda asked.

"I'm just being friendly to the FBI agent that's dumb enough to follow me."

"What? How long has he been following you?"

"She and don't worry...she wasn't following us when you picked up the Marijuana."

"You asshole! Did you set me up again? I'm your damned sister...how could you?"

The look he gave her was lethal. "Didn't I say not to worry?"

He began walking in the direction of Sally's car. "What are you doing?" Wanda whispered to him.

"I'm just making friends."

He knocked on Sally's window. He could hear her cursing inside her black SUV. "Hey Sally. I see you're sticking to me like glue these days. I'm not ashamed to say I find you attractive but I'm not really into forward women."

"McDaniels," Sally acknowledged him with a frustrated sigh.

"This here is Wanda," he gestured to Wanda who had her arms akimbo and head tilted to the right in confusion. "She's my sister."

"Nice to meet you," Wanda called out.

Sally gave a fake smile.

"We're going to see Wanda's son but I noticed you here. It's hot outside...did you want to join us?"

"Vincent!" Wanda took a step forward.

"What Wanda? I'm being polite. This law abiding FBI agent wants to know what I'm up to and she won't know unless she sees me at all times. Isn't that right...Sally?"

Sally hated him calling her by her first name. She looked at Wanda who appeared to be at a loss for words. She knew that she shouldn't but if he was going to try and push her around, she would push back. "You know what? I would love to join you two." She stepped out of her SUV and placed her sunglasses on her head. "What's your son's name Wanda?"

"Artie. Artie Wilkerson. You don't have to come you know. I'm not sure if he'll even let us in. I haven't really spoken to him in a while." Wanda kept rubbing her hands together in nervousness.

"Don't worry Wanda. I'll make the kid talk to you. Now let's go," Vincent started walking ahead of Sally and Wanda. When they got to his apartment door, Vincent knocked loudly. They could hear someone scrambling inside.

"Artie, it's me your uncle Vincent. I can hear you inside so open the damned door."

After a minute the door opened a crack and Artie looked outside to see his uncle, his mother, and a woman he didn't recognize.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Selling electricity. What does it look like you moron? Open the door," Vincent thought he was taking too long so he just pushed the door forward and walked in Artie's apartment. As they walked inside, Wanda looked around in wonder. She had never visited Artie before.

"You still have the bird!" Wanda smiled when she noticed Artie's green parakeet.

"Yeah," Artie had his head down.

"I gave you that bird as a birthday present. I'm surprised it's still alive."

Artie shrugged his shoulders.

"Artie this is my friend Sally. She's tagging along today so be nice to her." Vincent sat down and the two women copied him.

"Artie I just wanted to stop by and see you. I'm sorry for intruding," Wanda said cautiously.

Artie shrugged his shoulders once again. "It's okay. We should talk more anyway."

Wanda looked as if she wanted to start crying, "Yes. Yes we should."

Sally's phone began to ring. She looked down to see that it was her partner,Donald Ferguson. "I'm sorry but may I use your bathroom Artie?"

Artie's eyes widened and he looked at his uncle. It was clear he didn't want her to use his bathroom.

"It's down the hall," Vincent spoke for him as if he owned the place and knew where everything was. Artie looked like he wanted to say something but was too afraid to speak in front of his uncle.

"Hold on," Sally said into her phone. "I'll be right back," she said to the people in the living room. Sally thought this was a bad idea. What was she thinking? Obviously the bathroom would be down the hall but she wasn't sure which room was the bathroom. She opened the first door and walked in. To her surprise, the wall was covered in photographs.

"Sally!"

Sally put the phone up to her ear while taking in her surroundings, "What is it?"

"You'll never guess what we just found."

"It can't be as shocking as what I just found," she whispered.

"I don't know. I just got a lead on the Deadly Disciple case. The cousin of Eva Lewis had a body part in her apartment! Guess what it was." Sally could hear the excitement in his voice.

"If I had to take a guess...I'd say it was a toe."

"What the hell? How did you know? Did one of the guys already call you? Those assholes, I told them I wanted to tell you."

"Don't get your panties in a bind. They didn't tell me."

"Then how did you know?"

"Let's just say...I could see it."

Sally reached over to the wall and pulled down a picture. It was of Eva Lewis and she was passed out on the floor. In the picture the area of where her big toe should have been was bandaged.

Hours later at the Police Station

"This is your fault Vincent! You asked her to come inside Artie's house. You set him up!" Wanda was pacing in front of Vincent who was sitting on a bench in a relaxed manner.

"My fault? I didn't put creepy photos of a kidnapped woman and her cousin all over my wall. That's your crazy son's doing."

"Shut up! My son isn't crazy. You and your kids are," Wanda sat next to Vincent and wanted to weep. She didn't know how to help Artie.

"I'm sure your son didn't kidnap Eva Lewis."

"How would he ever kidnap anyone? He's a sweet child." Wanda slammed her fist against the bench.

"Wanda do you even know your son? He is not a sweet child. He had pictures. Tons of pictures of Eva and Joelynn Lewis. That's not normal. That's being a stalker."

"I still think you framed him."

Vincent laughed, "Like I have the time. I want to remind you that I know you're upset but blaming me isn't going to help. Your son obviously has some issues. Why else would he keep those photos?"

"You had something to do with this Vincent. I know you. This is all your doing."

Vincent just chuckled, "Thank you for having so much faith in me but you're giving me more credit than I deserve."

Wanda shook her head. Vincent could say what he wanted but she knew how evil he could be. She wouldn't put it past him if he did set Artie up. If she found out this was true, she would get even with her brother...even if he was the devil himself.

In the Interrogation Room

"You seem really sweet Artie. So tell me the truth. How did you get these pictures? Did you take them yourself?" Artie was sitting across from Agent Sally Roux. He hadn't spoken a word.

She placed the picture of Eva with the bandaged toe and another picture of Joelynn Lewis at the bottom of a stairwell in front of him.

"Where did you get these pictures Artie?"

Artie shrugged.

Agent Donald Ferguson slammed his hand against the table causing Artie to jump. "Sally he's not talking. I'm sick of waiting on him. Let's just throw him in a cell with the creepy ass perverts that'll make mincemeat out of him."

"No. We have to give him a chance to tell us his side of the story." Sally slid the photos closer to Artie, "Please Artie, tell me how you got these photos."

Artie looked like he wanted to speak.

"Dammit we don't have time for this. Just tell us where Eva Lewis is before I have to charge you with murder." Ferguson stood up abruptly, knocking his chair down.

"Murder?" Artie gasped.

"Murder! You know what they do to murderers? They stick them with the perverts that haven't seen a woman in a long time. You're a small guy Artie. How long do you think you'll last? I say two hours...no make that two minutes...tops."

"Artie," Sally said gently, "Tell me the truth. Did you take these photos?"

"No!" Artie screamed. He started sobbing and Sally nodded to Donald who then left the room.

"If you didn't, then who did Artie?"

"I don't know. I got them online."

"Online? Where online?"

Artie wiped his face with the back of his hands, "I search the Demon King forums and they were posted so I printed them. Almost all of the pictures were taken from online. I only took a few of Joelynn when we left group. I'm not a stalker! I'm not!"

"Artie, I'm going to need you to tell me the exact web address that you found these pictures at."

Artie nodded, "I'm not a murderer or a stalker. I'm just...I'm just alone." He put his head down and began crying. Sally sighed. She believed him. Artie wasn't their guy. He was too weak to be the kidnapper. If she didn't know Eva Lewis, she might have thought he was but Eva was tough and could probably obliterate this kid in ten seconds.

"Okay Artie, stop crying. We'll figure things out."

Meanwhile

She was at her breaking point.

"You wanna play games asshole? Then let's see who ends up winning." Eva was picking through her plate of chicken that he had given her. She was searching for the bones. She could only take a few at a time so he wouldn't become suspicious and notice what she was doing. She had hidden the other bones she collected under the mattress he had recently given her.

A couple of years ago she had interviewed a prison inmate about violence between cellmates. The man she interviewed loved talking about all the different weapons you could create with the most random objects. He even taught Eva how to make a shank out of chicken bones and dried up paper. She looked down at her bandaged foot. It hurt like hell but she wasn't going to scream or cry anymore. He seemed to enjoy it. He took some perverse pleasure in knowing he was causing her pain. "Bastard," she whispered as she continued working on her makeshift weapon. She may not survive it, and she didn't know how or when, but there would come a time when she would get revenge on the man that abducted her.

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen2U.Pro