Un-betaed

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The True Measure

(Don’t blink! You might miss something.)

Chapter 2

The killer drives away from the Love Center with his prey chloroformed in the back seat.  He recalls the transport of his victim from the floor of the gymnasium back to his car.  Although a tall lady her lithe dancer’s body makes it easy to toss her over his shoulders as the Lieutenant works to revive the other damsel in distress.  Although the plan calls to take the woman that the Lt. rescues first back with him to continue to torture the good Lieutenant, it doesn’t matter as long as he has one of the ladies and he does.  The car takes a circuitous route through the Llanview streets evading the police who are out in force looking for the lovely attorney.  The killer smiles thinking about the arrogance of the Lt. thinking that he can single handedly rescue two trapped women and subdue a killer on his own without backup. He must think that he is Superman, ‘faster than a speeding bullet and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound’.  But the Lt. is proven wrong.  He’s just a flat-footed cop like all of the other idiots at the LPD who have not captured him and his accomplice in all this time.  The Lieutenant’s FBI glory days are behind him.  He’s now in the category of a ‘has been’ and clueless like his colleagues at the police station.

Using Marcie Walsh’s book, The Killing Club, as a guide he and his accomplice carry out multiple murders with precision and then they ‘flip the script’.  The murders then develop into a pattern centering on one John McBain.  The police consult Marcie on the meanings of the murders but she has no clue.  The killers consider her a ‘flake’ anyway and the police are only turning their wheels trying to make sense of all of this. Now the killer is laughing out loud to himself about all of the chaos he is causing in the quaint town of Llanview.  Maybe someone will write about him and his accomplice.  After all their murders caused a rise in the sales of Marcie’s book so why won’t a book about them land on a best seller’s list.  Finally making it out of the city the killer heads to ‘the mountain’ and his ‘little cabin in the woods’.

The long drive through the city to evade the police took longer than anticipated but the delay allowed time for Evangeline to revive from the chloroform.  Looking around the car she sees a map in the pouch behind the driver’s seat.  The driver is laughing to himself and not paying any attention to her.  Quietly and carefully she removes the laces from the sneakers that she’s wearing and fashions a garrote.  Rolling off the seat she braces herself behind the driver’s seat and pulls the garrote over the killer’s head to choke him.  Surprised by her action the killer’s response is to slam on the brakes and that only causes his body to jerk forward and makes the garrote dig deeper into his throat.  With the killer’s attention diverted Evangeline bolts out of the car and runs into the woods.  She runs a distance from the road and hides behind a tree.  Looking around for a weapon she sees a tree branch that will work just well.  Now she hears the killer calling out to her shouting profanities and vowing to make her pay for hurting him.

At that moment Evangeline decides not to allow the killer to succeed in recapturing her.  She crouches and listens as he approaches where she is.  Although night is falling there is just enough light for her to see in front of her and she hears twigs snapping as the killer gets closer to where she is hiding.  Praying for strength and with a determination born out of desperation she watches as the killer passes her.  Using the tree branch like a nine iron golf club, and thanking her father for all of those golf lessons, she puts all of her anger and weight into the blow that lands in the middle of his back and the killer falls forward face down on the ground.  Now welling up inside of her is the anguish, hurt, fear and devastation over all that she has suffered at the hands of this man on the ground before her. Remembering that he tried to burn her alive, Evangeline wastes no time in hitting him again on his back and then hits him on his knees and ankles.  She wants to eliminate even the slightest chance of him recovering to chase her.  She doesn’t want to kill him but she does want to severely hurt him and she does.

With the branch still in her hand she runs back to the car to find that it’s still running.  She jumps in and shifts into drive and then remembers the map.  She stops and reaches behind her seat and grabs it. Not knowing if the killer has recovered to come after her she prepares to drive off but notices another car approaching.  Realizing that this is a fairly deserted road she fears that this is the killer’s accomplice. She remembers that when she and Natalie tried to escape from the house that they heard footsteps in the room above and when Natalie made it to the basement window to climb out that there was another man outside of the house.

Speeding toward the approaching car and pretending that she will crash into it, at the last moment she turns on the high beams to momentarily blind the other driver and the driver veers out of the way and runs off the road.  Quickly Evangeline backs up and turns around and hurries in the opposite direction.  Speeding away she does take time to check the map and the scenery to know that she is on Llantano Mountain.  Noticing the markers on the side of the road she recognizes some and assures herself that she is driving towards Llanview. Keeping on her high beams she speeds up and from time to time checks her rearview mirror hoping that the other driver is not following her.  Once she makes it on to paved road she heads for the only place where she will feel safe.