Cereal Killer

said.
    As she led the weeping nurse to the door, Savannah felt a sadly familiar rush of bittersweet victory. It was too late to save the beautiful lady with the dark, soft eyes.
    But at least she could bring Tesla home. And that would have to be enough.
     
    The road to the little town of Oak Grove was picturesque with its woods of gnarled oaks, the creek that meandered alongside, and the occasional scenic mountain view. But it was one of the deadliest stretches of pavement in the country.
    White crosses, bouquets of artificial flowers, and ribbons decorated the spots where drunken teenagers had missed sharp curves and struck the ancient, unyielding oaks, ending their young lives far too soon. More than one driver had nodded off for only a second or lost their concentration while changing a CD, and plunged over one of the road’s many cliffs—not to be found for weeks or months.
    And, according to Charlotte Murray, Tesla had met her end at the bottom of one of those cliffs.
    Savannah navigated her Mustang around the winding road as they climbed higher and higher into the mountains. Sitting beside her in the passenger’s seat, Charlotte had gone from crying to a stoic silence that troubled Savannah.
    She was afraid that at any moment, the woman might realize how candid she had been and regret it.
    More than anything, Savannah wanted to give Dirk a call and tell him what was happening. But she didn’t
    dare do anything that might break the connection between herself and Charlotte—a bond that seemed to be growing tenuous at best.
    “Are we getting close?” she asked as the road became even steeper, and she shifted into a lower gear.
    “We’re almost there,” Charlotte replied, her voice so low it was barely audible.
    Savannah looked around at the wild hillsides. One looked like the other, adorned only with rocks, scrub brush, and the occasional patch of prickly pear cactus.
    “How are you going to know when we get there?” she asked. “Is there some sort of landmark?”
    Charlotte nodded woodenly. “A bridge.”
    “Okay.”
    “She’s in the van.”
    Surprised by this new, volunteered tidbit, Savannah decided to press for more. “Your brother’s white van?” ‘Yes. It broke down just as we got to the bridge.”
    ‘You and Kevin were driving in the van with Tesla?”
    “Kevin was driving. I was following in my car.” Savannah tried to swallow the knot in her throat, but couldn’t. “And Tesla was already dead?”
    “Just about. Kevin had hit her in the head, like he did Kameeka.”
    “At her house?”
    She nodded. “He was trying to get her to tell him where the tape was. She wouldn’t; she kept saying she didn’t have it. And we couldn’t find it.”
    Savannah made a mental note of the “we,” but decided to let it pass for the moment, because Charlotte Was still talking: “Tesla gave him her e-mail password, though, and he was able to erase Gait’s letter.”
    “She had read it then?”
    ‘Yes.”
    “So why hadn’t she gone to the police?”
    ‘Kevin said he thought it was because she was here in the U.S. illegally. If she went to the authorities, she might get investigated herself. Caitlin had told him that she was an illegal, and at first he felt safe, that she wouldn’t turn him in because of that. But then he got to thinking about it, and he didn’t want to take the chance. So he asked me to help him pick her up that day at the coffee shop.”
    ‘You were driving the van when he grabbed her in the parking lot?”
    She nodded. “Yes, and I’ll never forgive myself. He said he was just going to take her back to her house and make her give him the tape. Then he was going to threaten her, scare her into staying quiet. I had no idea what he was really going to do.”
    Savannah found it hard to believe that, since he had already killed two women, it would never occur to Charlotte that he might kill a third one. But this wasn’t the time to speak her mind.
    “At Tesla’s house,” Savannah said, “after he struck her and erased the e-mail, he put her in the van and you guys drove up here?”
    ‘Yes. He wanted to take her way up into the hills, where nobody ever goes. Then he was going to take the plates off the van, remove anything inside that might lead back to Jim, and then drive it over a cliff with her inside.”
    So he thought he'd remove the plates, huh? Savannah mused. Obviously he didn’t know about vehicle identification numbers, permanently placed inside all