The Night Killer

should wear some variation of her caving clothes all the time for quick getaways. Mike was with her. So was Neva. Frank, his hands in his warm pockets, stood looking at the house, probably wondering how anyone could live there. Frank kept his house in good condition always. Agent Gil Mathews and several GBI agents stood leaning against their SUVs, parked where Diane’s had been only a few nights before.
    Mike, Neva, and Diane were present because they were certified for cave rescue—though the only rescue would be of the dead. Frank was there because Slick and Tammy were partially his and his partner’s case. Gil was there for the same reason. Diane thought Gil looked as if he’d like to skip the whole thing.
    Slick arrived in a prison van. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit with his hands cuffed in front of him and was accompanied by an entourage of guards. Slick sported a haircut, and looked better for it. He stepped off the van and looked around at his place as if making sure everything was okay.
    In the rising fog, Slick Massey’s house looked one hundred percent spooky. The windows were dark and the porch was sagging as if no one had lived there in years. Slick frowned at the place as his gaze drifted beyond the house to where his empty dog runs stood. Diane thought he looked wistful. She had heard that he was worried about his dogs and wanted to be sure his friend was still caring for them.
    The last to arrive at the house was Liam Dugal. He was invited because he was looking for two lost people, and Slick, in searching for places to put his own bodies, had found two stray ones. Liam nodded to Diane and her team as he walked over their way. Diane noticed he was also dressed appropriately for the business at hand. She hoped he didn’t think he was going inside the cave.
    Diane was surprised that Tammy and Slick had made the deal so quickly. Gil Mathews said Tammy was the one who had collapsed—deflated after Frank told her he had found the money. It might as well have been a death blow. It broke her. Gil said Slick was still convinced they hadn’t done anything wrong.
    Slick’s day was going to be a long one. After he showed them the two bodies he had discovered, he had to show the GBI where he had put the bodies of Tammy’s “patients,” as Slick still called them—that and “the old ladies.”
    “Is it far to the cave?” Agent Mathews asked Slick.
    “Not very far. About three miles,” Slick said.
    “Three miles?” said Mathews. “Are you saying we have to hike three miles through the woods?”
    “Well, yeah,” Slick said. “Like I said, it ain’t far.”
    “You try anything and the deal is off,” said Mathews. “You know that, don’t you?”
    “Like I ain’t been told a million times. Me and Tammy want our deal,” he said.
    “Tell me again why we should believe you didn’t do anything to these two people,” said Gil Mathews.
    Diane thought Gil was simply delaying the hike as long as he could.
    “Well,” said Slick, “I wouldn’t be telling you about ’em if I had killed ’em. I’d have to be pretty stupid. I mean, they might of been murdered or something—not like Tammy’s old ladies.”
    “Maybe you just thought we couldn’t prove you murdered them,” said Agent Mathews.
    “I already seen how you can find out things I didn’t know you’d ever know. Tammy’s seen it too. Like I said, I just found these people. I got tired of digging holes to put Tammy’s patients in and remembered this cave. I thought it’d be a good place to just take them and leave them. But somebody else had the same idea, so I just kept digging holes in my pasture,” he said.
    Mike, who was not familiar with the thought processes of criminals, stared at Slick, astounded. Neva tried not to smile and gave Mike’s hand a squeeze.
    “Well, I guess we’d better get started,” said Mathews. He took out a can of insect repellent and sprayed himself down again.
    Slick led the way, under the eyes of his guards. He quickly found a path that looked like it might be a deer trail, and they followed it.
    Diane and her team carried rope and caving gear, two body bags, and an evidence kit.
    About a mile down the deer trail, Slick veered off of it into the woods.
    “Wait, Slick, where you going?” said Mathews.
    “To the cave,” he said.
    “The trail goes this way,” said Mathews.
    Slick looked at him a moment. “Yeah, but the trail don’t go to the cave. The trail goes to a meadow about a