“Okay, Mexico gets my vote, too. But he’d need a passport.”
“He has other ID. Why not assume he has a passport?”
“True.” Amarok motioned her over to his desk, where he got on his computer and called up a list of airports in Alaska. “Everyone knows about Juneau, Fairbanks and Ketchikan, of course. Those are international, so we’ll start there. But look. There are smaller airports everywhere. There’s nothing to say he won’t use one of them.”
Evelyn’s heart sank. She’d seen Alaska as so sparsely populated that this would be an easy job, but she couldn’t have been more mistaken. There were far too many options to cover them all in the short time available. “He’s going to get away again.…” Tears sprang up. She was so distraught that she wasn’t paying much attention when the phone rang—until she heard the confusion in Amarok’s voice. That was when she tuned in.
“Did she say who she was?… Okay, just a minute.” He scribbled down a phone number before hanging up.
“What is it?”
“A woman’s been calling the prison. She won’t give her name, but she’s adamant about talking to you, refuses to speak to anyone else. And she says it can’t wait until morning. Claims it’s urgent.”
“That’s her number?” She gestured toward what he’d written on the pad.
“Yeah.”
“What could this mean?” she muttered as she came around the desk to dial.
Someone, a woman, picked up immediately.
“This is Dr. Evelyn Talbot from Hanover House. Someone from this number has been asking to speak to me.”
“Yes, um, that’s me.”
“What’s your name?”
There was muffled talking, which indicted the woman wasn’t alone. Then she said, “I’d rather not tell you that.”
“What is it you want?”
“To warn you.”
“Against…”
“There’s this guy named Andy Smith. He has all kinds of knives and torture devices in his basement.”
Evelyn’s heart began to beat faster. “You’ve seen it.”
“Yes. And there are pictures of you and newspaper articles all over the wall. He’s been collecting articles about the murders of those two women whose bodies were recently found, too.”
“He took you there?”
“No, but I saw it.”
“When?”
“Today.”
Andy was in Hilltop all day. They knew that much. So how was this woman at his place? “Are you the one who broke into his house?” she asked as the answer to that question occurred to her.
When the woman hung up, Evelyn groaned in despair and called her again.
The phone rang several times with no answer, so she kept trying.
Finally, the same woman picked up. “I just wanted to warn you,” she said. “I don’t want any trouble. Please, don’t go to the police.”
“There won’t be any trouble, but I have to know one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Do you have his computer?”
There was a second long pause. “What if I do?” she asked at length.
“He’s killed another woman. We don’t even know who she is yet. And he’ll come after me again if we don’t do something. I’ve run from him for most of my life. I want that to be over. I’m sure you can understand.”
“That’s why I called.”
“I appreciate it.” Evelyn’s mind quickly sifted through the possibilities. She’d much rather the Anchorage police handled this, but there was no time for that. Jasper would likely be gone before they could find this woman, take possession of the computer and search for the information Evelyn thought it might contain. “I’ll take your help, no questions asked. But I need more than you’ve told me so far. Are you able to access his e-mail account, or is it password protected?”
“It’s not password protected. It was open when we … when I took it.”
“Then search through his inbox. Look for anything that gives travel information. An airline reservation. A bus ticket. Anything. Check his browser to see what pages he might’ve visited on the Web. If we don’t get this information immediately, he’ll escape.”
“One minute.” Evelyn could hear more muffled talking while she waited. She was going crazy, wondering if this woman would ever get back on the phone. Finally she heard the same voice.
“There’s a flight booked out of Ted Stevens International going to Chicago. It leaves first thing in the morning.”
“I don’t believe he’s really taking that flight. Is there anything else? Anything at all?”
This time the wait was even more excruciating. Evelyn had just about given up hope that they’d get what they needed in time when the woman returned. “It looks like he’s chartered a flight going to Vancouver.”
Evelyn grabbed the pen and paper Amarok had used. “Does it say where he’s leaving from? I need the name of the airport.”
“Butte Municipal.”
“Is there a company name associated with that flight?”
“Looks like he booked it through a site where you can pay people who have their own small planes—kind of like Turo does with expensive cars.”
Evelyn wrote down everything she’d learned; then she asked to have the documents forwarded to Amarok’s e-mail address, so they’d have the originals. “Will you answer the phone if I call again?”
“Are you going to tell the police how you got this information?”
“No,” Evelyn replied. “And I’ll give you a computer in trade for the one you have, so don’t destroy any of the information. As far as I’m concerned, you can keep everything else you took—I just want to catch him.”
*
Jasper had little to say to the pilot who’d be flying him out of Alaska. He’d paid the guy online. Now it was just a matter of taking the flight.
“No luggage?” the pilot asked when they walked out to the tarmac.
“No luggage.” Because he’d been an idiot. He’d been so concerned about dumping the body of the prostitute he’d killed last night at that shack behind the cabin before he went to work, he’d made the wrong decision about his luggage and computer.
The dude—Jasper didn’t remember his name and didn’t care—shrugged as if it made no difference to him whether he had luggage or not and waved him toward a four-seater Cessna.
“Nice plane,” Jasper said. “How much does something like this cost?”
“New? Half a million or more.”
Jasper whistled. “That’s steep.”
“Yeah, but I’m a mechanic as well as a pilot, so I was able to get something a little older and put her back together.”
If he’d had a choice, Jasper might’ve hesitated to board. “She’s airworthy, though, right?”
“Of course. I fly her all the time.”
“And the weather’s okay today? To go to Canada, I mean?”
“It might be a bit bumpy here and there, but we’ll manage.”
“You checked?”
“Of course I checked. Are you a nervous flyer?”
“Not on commercial flights, but this is a bit different.”
“You’re right about that.” The guy gave him a maniacal grin. “It’s a lot more fun.”
“So we’re taking off soon? You’ve done whatever checks and other stuff you have to do?”
“Yes, sir.”
Wonderful. They were exactly on time. In another ten minutes, he’d be on his way to Vancouver. And there were so many cities where he could be going, there wouldn’t be much chance of having law enforcement waiting for him on the other end. He’d spend four hours on a layover, which would seem like an eternity, but then he’d be back on a plane, this time on a flight to Mexico. Once he reached Mexico City, he’d be safe as long as he kept moving and didn’t cause a stir.
After helping him get strapped in, the pilot patted his own pockets, mumbled that he’d forgotten something and walked back toward the airport.
While he waited, Jasper leaned back and stared up at the sky. It wouldn’t get light until ten. It’d be nice to go someplace that saw more of the sun. He’d thought he liked Alaska, but the damn darkness got old.
It wasn’t until the pilot had been gone for more than ten minutes that Jasper began to fidget. Where the hell was he? The guy had been paid; he needed to do his job.