Cereal Killer

metal edges, she climbed inside.
    The smell of gasoline was so strong it nearly gagged her, and the interior was so dark that she couldn’t see anything at all until her eyes adjusted to the gloom.
    One of the van’s front seats had been shoved into the rear of the vehicle. The headliner had torn loose and was hanging down, a dirty, ragged curtain. Shattered glass sparkled everywhere, like a shower of rough-cut aquamarines.
    But there was no body.
    No Tesla.
    Savannah jumped out of the van, her heart racing. She began to run up and down the creek’s edge, stumbling over the rocks, searching, and trying desperately not to hope.
    “What is it?” As though from far away, she could hear Charlotte shouting down to her. “What are you doing?”
    But Savannah ignored her as she looked behind every bush, every boulder.
    And it was behind one of those large rocks that she found her.
    Tesla was lying, face down on the stony ground, only a few inches from the creek’s edge. She was still wearing the jeans, T-shirt, and sneakers that she had been wearing when she left the photo shoot that day... so many years ago, it seemed.
    Savannah ran to her, knelt beside the motionless form, and reached to turn it over. She was expecting to find a cold, lifeless body, as empty and soulless as all the other corpses she had seen in her career.
    But the flesh of Tesla’s arms when she touched her was warm. Not as warm as it should be, but living.
    And once the body was turned over, Savannah could see an ever-so-slight rise and fall of the chest.
    Pressing her fingers to Tesla’s jugular, Savannah could detect a faint, erratic pulse.
    “Tesla!” she shouted, gently jostling her. “Tesla, wake up, honey.”
    The closed eyes didn’t open. They didn’t even flutter.
    Savannah looked at the wound on the side of her head that was so horribly similar to the one on Kameeka Wills. Dried blood had matted her beautiful hair to the side of her face, and her left arm was bent at an awful angle, obviously badly broken. Her jeans were torn at the knees, and her right leg had bled profusely in the shin area.
    “But she’s alive,” Savannah whispered. “Thank you, God.”
    She stood and looked up at Charlotte Murray, who was standing on the edge, watching, trying to see around the rocks and vegetation.
    “Get your ass down here, Nurse Murray!” she yelled up to her. “Right now! And don’t give me no lip. You’ve got a patient to take care of.”
    Under her breath she added, “The most important patient of your career, gal.”
    Then she fished in her jacket pocket for her cell phone. She dialed and a few seconds later she heard Dirk’s gruff, “Yeah?”
    The sound of his voice had never been more welcome, and she nearly burst into tears. “I’m in the mountains behind Oak Grove on old Camino Road,” she said. “Charlotte Murray is with me. She led me to Tesla.”
    “Are you serious?”
    “She’s still alive, but barely. Get the paramedics up here, a chopper if you can.”
    “How do I find you?”
    “I’m about ten miles east of Oak Grove. The pony’s parked on the side of the road. Shake a leg, buddy. I don’t think our girl’s got long here.”
    Click.
    Once again, Dirk hadn’t bothered to say good-bye, kiss my tushie, or toodle-ooo.
    But this time, Savannah really, really didn’t care.
     

Chapter
    24
     
    “S he’s not completely out of the woods yet,” the Odoctor at Community General Hospital told Dirk when they cornered him in the emergency room waiting area. “And she’s not going to be for a while. But we’re getting her rehydrated and she’s stable. Considering that she was out there, injured and exposed to the elements, for three days, she’s doing remarkably well.”
    “Do you think she’ll make it?” Savannah asked.
    The doctor pushed his glasses up onto his head and rubbed his hand across his eyes. “I’m pretty sure she will,” he said wearily. “We’re going to have some problems with that arm. It’s got a compound fracture, and even if the surgeons can save it, I don’t know if she’ll regain any substantial use of the limb.”
    “Is she awake?” Dirk asked.
    “She’s in and out, but that’s to be expected, considering her physical condition and the head injury.”
    “How bad is that?” Dirk asked.
    “The CAT scan looked pretty good. I think she’ll have a full recovery, mentally at least.” The doctor turned to Savannah. “She says she was able to pull herself out of the