“What was his MO? How’d he select his vics?”
Vail sat back in her seat and absentmindedly scratched her knee with a fingernail, encircling the surgical site. “He wasn’t a planner. He had his hunting places and waited for the right woman to enter his sphere. He’s a very patient guy. He’d park in a shopping center lot and sit in his van and watch in the side-view mirror. When a young woman that interested him would cut down the aisle alongside his vehicle, he’d slide the door open. Grab her as she passed, slam her in the head with a mallet to knock her out, then slide the door closed. We figure it took no more than five seconds from the time he opened it to the moment it clicked closed.”
“The women never had a chance.”
“Then he’d bind their wrists and ankles with duct tape and tie a rag around their necks so they couldn’t close their jaws. When they woke up, they couldn’t talk, couldn’t even scream. But by then they’d be on their way to his killing place, an old barn in the boonies of the Virginia countryside. When they got there, he’d tell them he wasn’t going to hurt them, he just needed their help with something. That he’d take them back home when they were done.”
“Buying their cooperation. How long would he keep them alive?”
“He never told us, but we estimated at most twenty-four hours.”
“So how do we know so much about his MO? He admitted to the murders?”
Vail chuckled. “He admitted to one. But he wouldn’t even tell us how he did that one. And he only admitted to that one because we had his DNA on the body. We didn’t need his account, though. One of his vics escaped. Tenicia Jones. She told us everything.”
“How’d she escape?”
“One part luck. One part ‘never say die’ personality. One part intelligence. And one part sheer determination to get back to her young son and husband. When Vaughn got her to his killing barn, he left her alone while he went to pee. She feigned unconsciousness, hoping she’d have a better opportunity to escape if he thought she was asleep.”
“Smart.”
“That was the one part intelligence.”
“Yeah,” Robby said with a chuckle. “I got that.”
“So he figured she wasn’t going anywhere.”
“But she was still tied up.”
“There were rusty tools and tractor parts against a wall. She squirmed over and cut through the duct tape on her ankles. And ran.”
“He didn’t go after her?”
“Sure did. Tenicia had no idea where she was, so she just kept running. About an hour later, it was pitch black out. She didn’t stop. And neither did Vaughn.”
“That’s the ‘never say die’ part.”
“Yep. That, and the fact he kept after her for two days. She didn’t even stop to pee, just wet her pants. But no way was she going to relinquish any ground.”
“And?”
Vail stared out the windshield at the headlight-illuminated countryside for a moment. “Fighting exhaustion and thirst, she finally found a road the next night. She knew Vaughn wasn’t far off because she’d occasionally hear a twig break.”
“Could’ve been a deer or some kind of large animal.”
“She saw him. Once. She slowed to catch her breath and looked over her shoulder. Caught a glimpse of his jeans and blue sweatshirt.”
“Can’t believe she was able to keep at it for two days.”
“When she found that road, she ran along it until a car showed up. Then she waited as long as she could before jumping out in front of it.”
“Suicide? After all that?”
“No. She didn’t want to give the driver a chance to drive past her. Some people are afraid and won’t stop for anything — or anyone. She forced him to slam on his brakes. She could barely speak, her throat was so dry. All she said was, ‘Help. Need police. Hurry. He’s after me.’”
Robby glanced at Vail. “He let her in?”
“Yep. She jumped into the backseat and the guy peeled away, took her to the nearest PD. New Kent County Sheriff’s Office.”
“So Vaughn went hunting in suburbia and he killed them in rural Virginia?”
“Probably wanted to keep the dirty work far away from his house in case we caught on to who he was, keep us from amassing evidence that would lead law enforcement to his doorstep.”
“I thought you had DNA.”
Vail looked at Robby and let a smile thin her lips. “But he didn’t know that. No one did. We kept it out of the press.”
“Did you ever find his barn?”
“We did. But we couldn’t connect him to it. He didn’t own the property. And his murders were bloodless. Strangulation. So his DNA wasn’t anywhere in the shack. Then he dumped the bodies in one of four nearby counties. And we never found his van.”
“So where’d you get the DNA?”
“Under three of Tenicia’s fingernails. She didn’t go down right away after he got her in the van and smashed her in the head. Clawed him a bit on the forearm. Just enough to get some skin cells. And that DNA is what connected him to the other victim, the one he went to death row for. She also took a piece of him with her.” Vail yawned loudly.
Robby held up his watch and caught the headlights of a car behind them. “You need to wake yourself up. Take a swig of coffee.”
He didn’t need to tell her twice.
Bledsoe dialed Vail’s number. It connected on the second ring.
“Miss me already?” Vail asked. “It’s only been ten minutes.”
“I’m on the helipad. The chopper will be here in five.”
“Awesome. Also, I was talking with Robby, telling him about the Vaughn case. Thought of something to look into. We never found his white panel van that Argus theorized was used in a lot of the murders. An old Chevy. It was seen in the vicinity in around half the cases. When I asked him about it during interrogation, I could tell he was holding back. There was something about it. Like he had some secret he wasn’t telling me.”
“We got the security footage from the parking lot, but I didn’t see anything unusual other than Debra Mead starting to walk toward her car. Then we lose her. No van.”
“Check again. For an old white panel van.”
“You think it’s related in some way to this kidnapping? I mean, what’s Vaughn got to do with this knucklehead?”
“Don’t know. But unless you have an abundance of leads to track down, I’ve just given you something that could bear fruit. Check the footage of area cams, not just the ones in the parking lot, for an old Chevy van approaching, entering or exiting.”
“How long till you get to the prison?”
She checked the GPS. “Half hour, maybe less. You?”
“Probably around the same. X-ray — the pilot — told me twenty minutes, depending on how fast he flies.”
“X-ray?”
“Got the name flying Black Hawks in Iraq. Sees real good at night.”
“You gonna be able to check the footage while en route?” Robby asked.
“I’m not flying the bird,” Bledsoe said. “Hell yes.”
Debra awoke in stages. She was aware of a darkness around her, of a musty odor that irritated her nose. Then the hard ground. Moist dirt. Pain in her wrists, shoulders, ankles. Her knees burned. And—
The van.
Oh my God.
She tried to sit up and realized her arms and legs were bound and something was shoved in her mouth, preventing her jaw from closing — or opening.
I’m in trouble.
She wanted to scream. But then she felt her tongue, drawn back against the cloth, which was pulled tight across her dry palate. No, not dry. Parched. She moaned.