Too Pretty For The Hills Read online

  But he didn’t dare try to take it himself. Not with Dora in the manic state she was suddenly in, her twitching finger on the trigger.

  ''She’s clearly suffered severe brain damage,'' Erica said in an ice-cold tone, staring back at Dora. ''She doesn’t know what she’s saying anymore. Apparently she doesn’t even understand the fact that women can’t rape women.''

  ''Not with the equipment God gave them maybe,'' Dora said. ''But there’s other tools in the shed, no? Say, a dildo like the one I saw stashed away in your house. That’s right, Erica. I discovered your little toy looking around the drawers in your bathroom. And wouldn’t you know it - it’s a strap-on.''

  Nicolaus glanced at Erica with a look of slight amusement.

  ''I don’t have to fucking explain myself here! My sex life is my business, and owning a strap-on doesn’t make me a fucking rapist!''

  Dora sat up straight in her bed and put her other hand around the handle of the gun.

  ''You know what’s funny, Erica? I wouldn’t have even figured it out if it weren’t for what your brother told me on the day I went on that joyride from hell. The murders started around the time your life began falling apart. You couldn’t cope with what happened to your son and your marriage, and you needed to find some way of getting revenge on the world for the fate you suffered! That’s why you started all this and that’s why you killed my best friend!''

  ''That’s absolutely absurd!'' Erica snapped. ''My boy may have died and my husband may have left me, but it takes a whole lot more than that to make a serial killer, sweetheart.''

  ''Maybe, but I have a fairly good idea of what really happened in the Dietrichs’ house on the night of the shootout! You were there, I saw you, and I’d bet just about anything I own that it was your brother who rang the doorbell. It was you two that started the shootout, catching everyone in a crossfire, and killing the children on your way upstairs! Only I wasn’t there anymore, so while your brother was climbing out the upstairs window, you sneaked back downstairs, pretending you’d been hiding in the kitchen the entire time.’’

  Dora paused for a moment. ‘’Feel free to stop me anytime you like.''

  ''So now my brother’s involved in this conspiracy as well, is he?'' Erica seethed, squeezing the phone so tightly her knuckles were white.

  ''Looks like it. And if I’m not mistaken, he’s also the one who sabotaged my breaks and chas...''

  ''You’re fucking mental! And for your information, he was on patrol on the night of the shootout. He wasn’t even assigned anywhere near the Dietrichs’ house! And the only reason I survived was because I was lucky enough to be in the kitchen when it started. And later Katzer and I both fired at the real shooter, the vicar, as he was running across the lawn!''

  ''Oh, you were shooting all right. But you didn’t hit the man, did you? Your rookie partner who’d never fired his gun before must have been shaking like a leaf on water anyway, so it’s no wonder he missed. But what about you? And anyway, Katzer said he saw a tall, well-built man out on the lawn — not at all what the vicar looks like, but it describes your brother rather nicely, wouldn’t you say?''

  Nicolaus was now looking as if he could join the withered-and-pale club that the demolished sheriff and the nurse were already in. Slowly, he turned and stared at Erica.

  ''The kidnappings increased as soon as our task force arrived,'' he said almost casually.

  ''So?’’

  ''So maybe the killer wasn’t just spooked by our presence, like Mallek said. Maybe one of us actually gave him a hand.’’ He paused for a moment. ''Did your brother find out it was you? Or did you tell him and beg him to play along? Blood is thicker than water, after all.''

  ''What are you all talking about?'' the sheriff interjected in a hoarse voice from over by the night stand. ''It was the vicar, that night I saw him with my own two eyes, just as clear as I see any of you here! He rang the doorbell and opened fire!''

  ''Maybe,'' Nicolaus muttered, still glaring at Erica. ''Maybe there were three shooters: the vicar, you and your brother. Either way, there’s a polygraph back in Graufirst with your name on it.''

  As if taking a cue from an invisible offstage, Erica reached for her gun and Nicolaus for his backup service revolver simultaneously, and now three weapons were out: the two lawmen aiming at one another, and Dora at Erica.

  ''Put it down!'' Nicolaus ordered and quickly stepped in front of Dora to shield her.

  ''No, fuck that!'' Erica bellowed. ''So you’re just gonna believe this little bitch’s cock-and-bull theory?''

  ''Don’t you dare call her that again, you hear me? And if you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear. I’ll just place you under routine arrest like anybody else and take you in for questioning — simple as that.''

  ''Have you gone off your rocker too, for fuck’s sake?'' Erica seethed. ''Did the taste of her sugar walls ma...''

  And with that, the standoff came to a very sudden and unexpected end as a shot rang out and a bullet ripped though Nicolaus’ lower back, exiting out his stomach, lodging in Erica’s sternum and causing each of them to reflexively fire at each other. In the blink of an eye, both lay motionless on the floor, accompanied by the nurse, who swiftly and unceremoniously passed out cold.

  Dora looked down to see smoke coming from the barrel of the gun in her hand — and the sheriff’s hand over hers.

  32

  Sheriff Felix pried the gun out of her hand, stumbled over to Nicolaus and shot him in the back of the head. Then he shot the already-dead Erica in the head too for good measure and took a fresh magazine and handcuffs from her belt.

  He cuffed Dora’s right hand to her bed, and rather violently unhooked her tubes, all the while wincing from the pain in his own body. Then he slowly pushed her wheeled bed out of the room, bumping the passed-out nurse on the way, and out into the hallway, where people were running down the corridor shouting in a disorderly stampede.

  ''I know I wasn’t exactly tactful back there,’’ he said, pushing Dora along the corridor as fast as he could, ‘‘but I couldn’t let such a rare opportunity pass. Imagine the odds of you landing here, more than a hundred and fifty kilometres out of Graufirst, in the same hospital as I did. Gotta love our good Lord’s sense of humor!''

  ''Stop! P-please, stop!'' Dora wailed, finally regaining her gift of speech.

  ''Afraid I can’t do that just now. You and I are going for a little ride.''

  They arrived at a service elevator. The door opened and Felix pulled the gun out from behind his white robe and aimed at a woman in the lift who Dora couldn’t see.

  ''Bang!'' he said, sending the woman screaming past them and down the hallway. He pushed the bed into the elevator. They were going down.

  ''No. This ... It can’t be!''

  ''Erica fucking Ziegler and a strap-on? Now that was just brilliant. You have some imagination, I’ll tell you. Matter of fact, I always knew you were special. Ever since you showed up in our little town wiggling your pretty little ass left and right, and that smile, those eyes. But that wasn’t all. You had a fighting spirit in you that made this a challenge. A little more than I expected, really.''

  They stopped at a floor where no one was waiting, and as soon as the door closed again the fire alarm went off.

  ''When Katzer had you dead to rights up there in the forest and then let you get away, I was really cross with him. Thought he’d gone soft on me. But you really are a tough little button, aren’t you?''

  ''Deputy Katzer?''

  ''Well, who do you think chased you around Graufirst dressed as a clown? Who do you think lied to you to mess with your head? Who do you think cut the brakes on the car while you were sleeping?''

  ''No! No, I don’t believe it!''

  The sheriff smirked. ''Erica Ziegler and her brother are - or were, in her case - clean as a whistle, obviously, but then so is the vicar. He was set up by the sheriff and his trusty deputy. We decided we needed a patsy when things started heating up. Then late
in the afternoon on the day of the massacre, Katzer and I were just sitting down at the station to plan our next move, when your little friend suddenly shows up all distressed and saying she drove straight from Immstadt because a friend of hers was kidnapped, or so she thinks. How people do trust the police, don’t they? We told her to have a seat and calm down. Then, while I was talking to her, Katzer bashed her head in from behind. Only trouble was he went too far and I couldn’t fuck her. I don’t fuck dead girls.''

  Felix pressed a button on the control panel several times as if hoping to accelerate their descent.

  ‘‘Anyway, we stuffed her body in the trunk of Katzer’s car and I drove it to the church and put it in the vicar’s closet while Katzer drove her car up into the woods and left it there.''

  The elevator door opened and the sheriff shoved the bed out, the air suddenly cooler. They were in an underground garage.

  ''Let’s see, where was I?’’ Felix asked rhetorically. ‘‘Oh yes, so I drove over to the vicar’s home, told him he was in grave danger, convinced him to get in my car and drove him up to my little shed in the woods. He followed me in like a lost little puppy, he kept mumbling ‘Jesus help us, Jesus help us’. Then I just told him to stand still, picked up the shotgun, blasted him in the chest and buried him behind the cabin. He never knew what hit him. And in a way, you made all this possible, Dora. Everyone was so preoccupied with you that day that Katzer and I had time and space to get things ready.''

  Dora shook her head. ''But the vicar knew my name without me telling him!''

  ''Quiet the fuck down!’’ Felix snapped. ‘‘And? What does that prove? Word in Graufirst gets around fast.''

  ''But Erica’s son died and she was depressed and left her job with the force right at the time the killings started!''

  ''In police work, we call that a coincidence.''

  ''It can’t be! Her brother was even following me around!''

  ''They all were, Sherlock. That was their job.''

  ''But someone still rang the bell when ... Help! Hel...''

  Felix hit her on the nose with the hold of his gun and she collapsed back down onto the bed.

  ''You just wouldn’t go down easy like the ones before you, would you? No, so Katzer and I had to up the stakes. On the night of your little escapade, we drove to the Dietrichs’ house and joined the watch or whatever that shit was. Once there, we waited for the right moment and opened fire. Talk about not seeing it coming! You must have ducked out right before that, I imagine.’’

  ''That can’t be,'' Dora moaned, her left hand covering her nose. For some reason, she felt compelled to carry on arguing, as if proving Felix wrong would result in her release. ''Erica and Katzer were firing at someone who escaped through the upper windows! And it wasn’t you - you were lying on the floor downstairs!''

  ''Yeah, well, Erica was digging around the kitchen when the firing started and she didn’t see who actually did it. Katzer was lucky. He only got a scrape from diving to the ground, whereas I myself pulled the short straw. After going upstairs to find you gone, Katzer came back downstairs and Erica left her cover and found him while checking for survivors. Then they went upstairs again, ostensibly to corner the killer, but of course there was no-one up there and Katzer made up that bit about seing someone running in the yard. Under such stressful circumstances the mind is highly suggestible, so when Katzer started firing out into the dark, Erica followed suit and later obviously came to believe she’d actually seen someone out there ...’’

  Suddenly a voice came seemingly from out of nowhere. ''Sherif Felix? What the hell’s going on?''

  Felix fired twice and the agent dropped to the ground. Dora screamed and he hit her in the face again, this time knocking her out cold. When she came to, she found herself lying in the back of a moving car.

  ''Shit,'' Felix said, looking at the blood stain on his gown as the hospital disappeared in the rear-view mirror. ‘‘Look what you made me do! Fucking great job they did with the stitching!''

  She realized her nose was broken, but there was no time to worry about that. She tried to signal for help through the window, but Felix quickly pointed the gun back at her.

  ''Don’t you fucking dare. I swear to God I’ll splatter your brain all over the back seat if you so much as think about it.''

  She froze. Trying to avoid the sickly stare of his steel-grey eyes, she looked down and saw that the bloody stain on his side had grown.

  ''No, please don’t,'' she said with a tame voice as she lay back down. ''I’ll be good.''

  ''That’s more like it,’’ he said, turning his attention back to the road.

  ''Why are you doing all this?’’ Dora asked, trying to keep him talking. ''Why kill all those women? I don’t understand.''

  ''There isn’t all that much to understand,'' Felix muttered. ''You hear experts say that there’s something dark — a murderous gene — deep inside anyone who does something like this, like a Bundy or a Jeffrey Dahmer. But in reality we all have killing imprinted on our DNA. It’s just a matter of the right trigger coming along and setting it off. Then deciding to keep doing it is easy because you like it.''

  ''And what was your trigger?'' Dora asked, still surreptitiously eyeing the spot of blood.

  ''A drunk girl,'' Felix mused. ''About a year ago, Katzer and I picked up some local girl in our patrol car as she was staggering from one side of the road to another. It was night time, and she partied a bit too hard, so we offered to give her a ride home. But once she was in the car, she started flirting with Katzer. He’s a good-looking kid, I’ll give him that. So we parked deep in the woods, and I wanted to get some action too, but the girl was all talk and no play. As soon as she sobered up she wanted to leave. Only by that time I was already too worked up and somehow the urge just became uncontrollable. I put on a rubber so I wouldn’t leave any DNA on her, then I raped her. She managed to run off but Katzer chased her down and bashed her head in. The rush of it all - there’s no drug on earth like it, believe me.''

  They were now in a river of very slow cars.

  ''Then Katzer came up with the idea of making a case out of it. A vicious killer on the loose. Nothing ever goes on around here anyway, and for once we’d be like big-city detectives, chasing down a psychopath. I reckoned he’d seen one too many movies, but I went along with it. So we raped and killed a few more girls and turned some of them over to the police in Kleineohren after they were found. Looking back, it was a stupid thing to do. We should have ditched the bodies further up the woods ... So then, of course, some bureau somewhere got wind of what was going on and next thing we knew, whole squadrons of agents showed up and an undercover sting operation started. But Katzer wasn’t about to stop. He wanted to put it in even higher gear. I myself had only one condition — they better be good-looking. Don’t want to bang no dogs.’’

  Felix grinned, apparently pleased with his high standards.

  ‘‘The thing is, we knew the ‘hot spots’ and who their undercover baits were. And boy did some of those pricks rub me the wrong way! Like that pigfuck Vera who didn’t want us ‘country boys’ interfering with the investigation. Needless to say, I killed her first when the time came, and I’d have to say I enjoyed it more than an…''

  Suddenly flashing blue and red lights appeared from behind and Felix went silent. He turned around again, this time grimacing from sudden pain in his side that made Dora wince along with him.

  ''Pick that rug over there up and toss it over yourself! And keep your fucking mouth shut. I’m in balls-deep and you can be damn sure if I go down I’m taking you with me.''

  Felix pulled his arms out of the sleeves of his hospital gown and used the right one to cover the blood stain and hide the gun.

  Dora felt the car come to a stop and heard Felix roll down the window. She could hear the sound of other vehicles slowly driving by.

  ''Good day, sir,'' a male voice said at length.

  ''Good day, officer. What’s going on?''

  ''Is
this your car?''

  ''It is, why? Is there a problem?''

  What exactly happened next, Dora couldn’t say, but the sudden sound of gunfire made her scream. Several shots were fired in rapid succession, and the car pulled away with a loud screech.

  ''Son of a bitch!''

  A sharp right threw Dora to the floor, and as she struggled to get up, she noticed that the sheriff was now bleeding from another wound as well, this one in his right shoulder. To avoid traffic, he had popped the car over the curb and onto the sidewalk.

  ''Why are you doing this to me, you monster?‘‘ Dora screamed over the sirens in pursuit.

  ''Why?’’ Felix bellowed. ‘‘Why the fuck do you think? You’re just too big a cocktease for your own good. Too pretty for the hills, just like all the rest of them!''

  The car was careening down the sidewalk at full throttle when Felix suddenly pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex, breaking the barrier and sending it through the windshield of a car parked on the other side of the lot. Then he turned fully around in his seat, aimed his gun through the rear windshield, and opened fire.

  Each shot felt like a nail through Dora’s heart, and she felt the immense heat of the blaze, bursting out the barrel. She held her ears and prayed for it to stop.

  A few moments later, the car crashed into a wall. Felix yelped in pain, and holding his shoulder, got out, opened the back door, and yanked Dora out by her hair.

  ''No! Please, don’t!''

  He shoved the barrel into her lower back.

  ''Move!''

  They went into another garage, this one much smaller than the one at the hospital.

  The sheriff dragged her up the stairs, periodically turning and firing as he went; police officers could be heard shouting not far behind. He was limping and gasping, and the robe, now almost fully drenched in dark-red blood, fell off him.

  Dora knew she would have to do something, but she was too weak to break away, or even to survey the area for a suitable escape route. Like a lamb to the slaughter, she let herself be pulled along, as Felix staggered desperately down a long hallway, trying every doorknob as he went and cursing to find each one locked.