Speak No Evil_ A Novel - Allison Brennan [118]
“Why don’t you pull him over?” Kyle said, anxious.
She considered it, torn. What if Leah Peterson was in the trunk? If she was, she was most likely dead, but what if she wasn’t dead? What if he hadn’t had time to finish whatever sick plan he had for her? What if she were still unconscious in the back of the car, knocked out from drugs or a blow to the back of the head?
“He might have a hostage, I can’t take the chance.” Not until she heard from Nick that Leah was at the house. Dead or alive.
In addition, there was no guarantee that Brandon would pull over. If he felt threatened, he could run, speeding through residential neighborhoods causing injury to innocent people. She didn’t want to endanger civilians with a high-speed chase. Criminals with nothing to lose were the most dangerous, and Brandon Burns was already destined for a life in prison.
Better to take it slow until she had backup.
Brandon drove at just the speed limit and eventually turned onto a major thoroughfare headed toward La Jolla. She continued to keep her distance to give him a false sense of security that he was making a clean getaway. Find out where he was going and trap him.
She called in two minutes later with an updated report and to ask the status of backup.
“We have two patrols on parallel streets,” dispatch said, “per your instructions. One unmarked car is two blocks behind your location.”
“Do we have a status at the Burns house?”
“Negative.”
Damn. She had to know if Leah was in the house or in the car. The thought that she was already dead and Brandon was in the process of dumping her body made Carina both sick and angry.
I can’t be too late.
She was worried about Nick. She’d left him alone, something she should never have done, but she’d had no choice. She couldn’t let Brandon disappear.
Dispatch radioed a 10-78 code from the Burns address. Ambulance needed. Carina hoped that the medics were really needed, that Leah was alive, and that the call was not a formality. And that Nick was safe.
She prayed she hadn’t made a fatal mistake.
Her radio was open for two-way communication and she heard the chatter in the background.
Female, DOA.
Female, stable.
Nothing about Nick. That had to be good, right?
Brandon drove directly into La Jolla. Why? She asked dispatch to patch Dillon into her frequency. “Dillon, I’m following Brandon Burns. He doesn’t appear to realize it. He’s driving into La Jolla. What’s he thinking?”
“I just talked to Nick. Regina Burns is dead, apparently strangled when she returned home.”
“My mother is dead?” Kyle asked from the backseat.
Carina winced. He shouldn’t have had to hear the news that way.
“I’m sorry, Kyle,” she said.
“Good riddance,” he said, his voice ripe with emotion. “God, Brandon, why?”
“And Leah?” Carina asked Dillon over the radio.
“Leah Peterson is alive. Burns tied a bag over her head and left her. Nick performed CPR and saved her life.”
“Thank God.”
“I don’t like this development. Up until now, Brandon has been calm and rational in his approach. He had a plan and executed it. Now he’s impulsive. I don’t know if it’s because his mother showed up unexpectedly—the officer on scene said her calendar had her returning Monday morning, not today—or maybe because I had Elizabeth pull him into the chat room. I don’t know why, but Burns is now unpredictable.”
“I didn’t think he was predictable in the first place,” Carina said. “Angie and Becca couldn’t be more different in profile and appearance.”
“But I saw the logic in his actions, even if I couldn’t predict who his victim was going to be. His whole purpose was to kill. Everything going into it, the glue, the rape, the washing of the bodies—that was leading up to the finale of the kill. But it was a ritual, each step, even with the changes in M.O., had to be completed before he could kill. Until now. He didn’t rape Leah. He had her body prepared as if he were going to, but then he tied a garbage bag over her head and walked out the