The Guardian

something.
    “Oh yes, definitely, I could never forget that face. He wasn’t a young aged man. I hate to say it, nice looking, and probably mid thirties with thick, red wavy hair.”
    “What was he driving? Do you remember that? Was it a white van?”
    “No, no it wasn’t. That’s what took me so long to put it together. I don’t know what kind of car, it seemed some sort of sports car, probably foreign, not a new one. I think it was probably an older one. I’d have remembered that van. It’s been on the news a lot.”
    “Would you recognize the car again if you saw it?” Laura asked.
    “I think so, maybe, yes, definitely.”
    John felt that they were finally getting some where. “We would like you to talk to one of our police artists. You can give him any information that you can remember. He’ll sketch a face out for you and maybe we can come up with something pretty close to what your man looks like.”
    “Can they do that?”
    “Absolutely” Laura added, these guys are very good. “They may even be able to rough out a description of the car you saw.”
    “Okay, yes, that would be fine.”
    Halloway and Griffin sat with Ms. Sanford for another thirty minutes collecting all the information that they could from what she could remember. They had talked to the two young friends of the little blonde girl. Even though the information not pointed, they discounted nothing. They talked with Claire for a few minutes getting what additional info they could from her. For the first time John and Laura felt that they had some very substantial leads.
    The scent was getting stronger as they got more and more information. It seemed as though our serial predator’s little game was about to come to a very abrupt end John thought.
    He was also thinking about how great it was to wake up with Laura in his bed. He just smiled and kept that thought.
    Chapter 86
    The Guardian had forced the man to unlock the door to the large room inside the mound. Dragging Jack inside with him, he threw him against the far wall, and told him not to move. “Give me the keys, now” was all he said. Jack was fumbling in his pocket, shaking so badly his fingers wouldn’t work.
    “GIVE …ME…THE…KEYS!” His voice was calm but it cut through the air like a bullet seeking bone.
    Jack finally freed the keys from his pocket and tossed them to him.
    “Don’t move!”
    His mind was racing. He had to get out. He would loose everything. This couldn’t be happening. The one thing that he hated more than anything, feared more than death, this “Guardian” fucker had bested him. How could he have let this happen? He was so careful. He was in control, and he did everything just right.
    The Guardian went to the first door, it wasn’t locked, he swung it open. It was empty. He went to the next, the same thing. The first three rooms were all empty. As he swung the doors open he couldn’t believe his eyes. This piece of shit had gone to a great deal of trouble to set up house in here. He saw the small beds, the tables, the small dressers, like a little studio apartment. The only difference was they were dank and depressing.
    Just as he came out of the third room, Jack was coming at him with a large wooden beam, raised high over his head. It was in the down stroke of the swing. The Guardian had just caught a glimpse of him out the corner of his eye. He immediately did a right, spinning back kick, squaring the ball of his feet dead Center of his chest. He felt the sharp points of the spikes on the bottom of his shoe pierce the flesh.
    “Aghhh” Jack cried, dropping the beam. The force of the blow doubled him over and sent him flying back against the far wall where he landed in a heap. Blood seeped from the small puncture wounds, covering his shirt with the scarlet droplets of his blood.
    “You fucker” he screamed, obviously having no clue what so ever that he was about to initiate his own undoing. He scrambled to his feet, hesitated just for a moment. Looking down he put his fingers to his chest, then holding them up seeing the blood. He picked up another beam, holding it like a lance and charged at the Guardian.
    The Guardian only watched in disgust. Jack ran at him. Once he was within reach, the Guardian side stepped, grabbing the beam and Jack’s arm, using Jack’s own momentum against him, the Guardian wheeled him around, up and over landing him squarely and painfully on his back.
    “Ughhh”, he moaned, rolling over onto his