Insidious (FBI Thriller 20)

Cam said, “The fire was just starting. Doc couldn’t have left more than a few minutes before we got here. I’ve put a BOLO out for him already. The DMV has him driving a Volkswagen Beetle. The question is, where did he go?”

Daniel looked up at her. “And who is that guy who was in Doc’s house?”

Before Cam could answer him, everything happened at once. Supervisor Elman, Corinne Hill, and Morley Jagger, their flashers flooding the neighborhood with red light, pulled up across the street as two fire trucks stopped in front, two ambulances screaming to a halt behind them. Neighbors poured out of their houses, everyone staring at the flames leaping out of the burning house, grabbing garden hoses to soak down their own houses. Elman set Hill and Jagger to keep them back.

Cam checked the man’s pockets as the EMT quickly placed an oxygen mask over his face and examined his head wound. She found only some wadded up Kleenex and a half packet of sugarless gum. “He has no ID on him,” Cam said over her shoulder to Daniel.

Daniel squatted down beside her, looked at the EMT’s nameplate. “Josh, will he make it?”

“Don’t know,” Josh said. “Pete, get a gurney over here, notify the ER at SMH that we’re coming with a major head trauma, smoke inhalation, burns.”

Another EMT was looking at Arturo’s back. “The detective’s got second-degree burns, but he’s not critical.” She patted his arm. “You aren’t going to have much fun for a while, Detective, but you’ll be okay. You shouldn’t need any grafting, good thing, that’s a bitch.” She jerked her head toward the unconscious man being lifted onto a gurney. “Were you the one who saved that guy’s life?”

Elman walked over to them. “What in the name of heaven happened here, Arturo?”

Cam answered for him. “Arturo and Daniel went in there, pulled that man out. He’s got no ID, and his head wound’s bad enough to have knocked him out. He’s about the same size and build as Mark Richards—Doc. My guess is Doc decided to run, but he didn’t want us chasing him, so he found a man who was similar in build to him, knocked him out, and left him behind so he’d burn with the house. If not for a guy named Blinker we talked to tonight, we wouldn’t have found out about Doc’s house burning down at least until the morning, and we’d have assumed the burned corpse was Doc. It would have taken several days for the DNA to prove us wrong. By then Doc would have been long gone, probably on a beach in Mexico.”

Daniel said, “I agree with Cam. After that lie detector test today, he knew it was only a matter of time before we got everything nailed down.”

“I want to hear about this Blinker,” Elman said.

“Actually, sir, you probably don’t,” Daniel said.

Elman stared back at the house, still spurting flames. It was going to burn to its foundation. He looked back at Daniel. “Hey, Montoya, your jacket’s burned. Did it go through to your back?”

Daniel hadn’t felt a thing, but now he did, and he didn’t like it. “Yeah, I guess it did.”

Elman called out, “Hey, over here. We’ve got some more burns.”

Josh jogged over, stepped behind him. Daniel said, “Don’t tell me what the jacket looks like, I don’t want to know. Listen, I’m all right, you need to look at Cam’s hands, she was beating out the flames on Arturo’s jacket.”

“No, I’m fine, a couple of blisters, not bad at all.”

Josh helped Daniel out of his jacket, eased down his shirt. “I gotta say, Detective, it’s a good thing you were wearing this jacket. It saved you a world of hurt. Still, you should come to the hospital, let the doctors have a look—”

“Thanks, Josh, maybe later.”

Cam dusted off her jeans, clipped her Glock back onto her belt. She looked at Arturo, who was breathing hard, his eyes closed. She said a prayer, then turned to Elman and Daniel. “Doc isn’t more than a half hour ahead of us, maybe less. He could be headed anywhere—but probably the border.”

“Unless he hasn’t run yet,” Daniel said. He straightened slowly, relieved he could. “I’m thinking he wasn’t done here, that he went back to the person who put him in our sights.”

“Where the end started for him,” Cam said. “Agreed. I’ll give Markham a call, warn him. You’re sure you’re good to go?” She didn’t expect him to say no, and he didn’t.

Arturo’s eyes flew open and he coughed out a pitiful shout. “Wait! Where are you guys going?” The EMTs ignored him, lifted him into the ambulance, slammed the door.

“No answer. Let’s go, Daniel, we’ve got to hurry.”

Corinne jogged up. “Hey, wait, guys—is Doc the Serial?”

Daniel said, “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

Elman said, “We should call for backup, Cam. No way are you and Montoya going after this guy by yourself. Wait, where are you going?”

They were already running toward the Crown Vic, Daniel shrugging back into his jacket. Cam shouted over her shoulder, “Send units up the road to Theo Markham’s house in Pacific Palisades. Tell them to come in silent. If they beat us there, tell them to wait for us.”

65

* * *

PACIFIC PALISADES

FRIDAY NIGHT, NEARLY MIDNIGHT

After a nine-minute ride with his flashers on, Daniel pulled the Crown Vic to a stop on Minorca Drive a half block from the Markham house. They’d nearly gotten to the enclosed Markham estate when they saw a dark blue Volkswagen Beetle nearly hidden in bushes beside the road.

“Doc’s car,” Cam said, and checked it out. “He’s still here, Daniel. We’ve got to hurry.”

They saw the gate was locked, and climbed the six-foot wall. Before them was a sprawling two-story starkly modern glass and steel-beamed house, painted in a light stucco, a dozen skinny pillars lining the front. It was surrounded on three sides by thick oak trees, keeping it hidden from the neighbors. A huge swimming pool sprawled out beside the house. Incredible view, Cam saw, of both the famed golf course and the ocean.

“Some digs,” Daniel said. “Your hands okay?”

She waved away his concern. “Your back?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll deal with it later.”

Yeah, right, macho. “It’s dark, Daniel. I’m afraid of what we’re going to find inside.”