The Acadia Killer

Chapter 16

Blake shook his head in disgust, anger evident in his eyes as he studied the blood-stained ground in front of him.

I knew I would regret asking, but a part of me wanted to know. "Do we know if this woman had family? Kids? A husband?"

Carson flicked some of her hair out of her face and retrieved a hair tie to pull it back. I thought she wasn't going to answer me at first, but I realized she was on the verge of tears. This was one of those cases that could certainly tug at your personal emotions.

She turned her attention to me as she finished wrapping the tie around. "She had a three-year-old daughter and a boyfriend out in Iowa. She was here on a solo hiking trip, according to the journal the police found in her rental cabin. They already cleared the boyfriend. He was back home at the time of the murder and has a solid alibi. That poor little girl though. She won't understand why her mom never came home."

I groaned with simmering rage and wiped at my forehead with the back of my hand. "Why the fuck can't they find this guy? It shouldn't be this hard."

Just as I uttered the words, a rustling in the forest caught my attention and I nearly jumped out of my skin until I realized it was a deer scampering through the woods.

"Are you okay?" Blake asked me, concern taking over his expression. "I can take you back to the house if you want. You really don't have to stay."

I shook my head. "No. I'm okay. Don't worry about me. You've got an important job to do, and I don't want to interfere just cause it's awkward."

Blake started to protest when Carson suddenly slapped his upper arm with the back of her hand to get his attention. "There's someone out here with us."

Immediately, Blake reached for the weapon holstered on his side. He maintained a grip on the handle but didn't draw.

Our conversation fell silent as the three of us carefully studied the surrounding terrain, searching for any indication of movement or unusual noises. No one should've been out there with us. The trail had been closed by park authorities early that morning and we hadn't seen any hikers' vehicles at the trail pullout.

"Did you see something?" Blake whispered.

Carson did her best to scan the area without looking obvious, responding in a voice I almost couldn't hear. "I thought I saw a figure in the trees behind Mackenzie. It looked like a person wearing all black."

The crack of a limb in the distance turned my veins ice cold. I tried my damnedest to act like I wasn't completely freaked out, but I could feel my palms beginning to shake as soon as Carson mentioned all black clothing.

"I think we need to head back to the truck," Blake announced, still keeping a hand on his pistol. "Something isn't right."

I loved that idea! With my nerves about to sail into overdrive, I knew I wouldn't be able to maintain my cool much longer. If the killer was watching us nearby, I may have just made the biggest mistake I could have made by joining Blake and Carson. I was sure he was already after me anyway. I shouldn't have gift wrapped him a reason to be more gung-ho about it.

Blake came over to stand beside me and placed his hand on my lower back, providing a small amount of comfort, despite the situation. We turned in the direction of the trailhead with Carson following a few steps behind us. Blake's palm remained centered on my back the entire hike.

About two thirds of the way back to the truck, another noise like a snapping branch caught my focus. I stopped suddenly, nearly causing Carson to walk into me.

"Did you hear that?" I asked quietly, my eyes scanning our surroundings.

Carson looked confused. I figured she hadn't heard anything. For a second, I almost chalked it up to my imagination running wild with fear. After all, it was difficult to hear what was going on in the distance when the sound of foliage beneath our feet created noise with every step we took. But then... I heard it again. This time so did Blake and Carson. It sounded like someone accidentally stepped on a branch and snapped it in two.

The three of us shifted our gaze to the right. That's when we saw him. The figure in all black. He looked exactly like the image of the man I'd captured by accident. None of us could pinpoint any identifying features, given how well he had his face covered. He wore gloves, a ski mask, black boots, black pants, and a black hoodie. His appearance was the stuff of nightmares. And there he was. Just standing in the distance, observing us.

I felt like one of the characters in Jurassic Park being stared down by a velociraptor. I half expected the guy to come running at us with a Samurai sword. He was way too confident in himself to be standing there watching two park rangers who were armed as if he wasn't intimidated at all. But I sure was. He was intimidating as hell to me.

"Park police!" Blake shouted at the man, who didn't seem fazed by his words.

Ranger Carson followed up. "Identify yourself!"

Both Blake and Carson were carefully drawing their service weapons at that point, doing their best not to spook the suspect in case he did something brash.

The man made no effort to communicate. He simply stood in the distance staring at us like the psychopath he was.

I could feel my limbs starting to shake with fear, but I did my best to stay composed. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it drumming in my ears, nearly blocking out the sound of everything else around me.

"Who are you?" Blake yelled, raising his pistol just slightly.

I doubt the man would've answered, but before we had a chance to find out, the tone on Ranger Carson's radio seemed to startle him out of his creepy trance. Just as Carson pressed the button to radio back to the main park office, the man turned around and made a mad dash for the deepest part of the woods. To my horror, Blake sprinted off right behind him.

"Incident command, we have a homicide suspect on the run with Ranger Henry in tow. I need all available units to the Wonderland Trail immediately!" Carson shouted into her radio. "Suspect is likely armed and dangerous. Last known location heading north further into the forest, approximately two hundred yards in."

In a matter of seconds, Blake and the suspect had disappeared into the dark green hue of the woods. I could faintly hear Blake call out to the man to stop running, but the sound didn't last long before I couldn't hear anything anymore.

"What do we do?" I felt myself starting to cry, unable to hold back my emotions any longer. "Tell me what to do!"

Carson grabbed ahold of my arm and did her best to steady me. "I know this is a lot, Mackenzie, but I need you to stay calm for me. Okay? Can you do that? Help will be here soon. They're already on the way. I just need you to hold it together for me for just a few minutes."

"What about Blake? Aren't you going to go after him? Help him?" I gasped through what was now a flood of uncontrollable tears. "He's chasing that guy by himself! What if he gets hurt?"

Carson shook her head. "If it were just me here, I would. But because I have a civilian to keep out of harm's way, and I know you're too stubborn to obey orders, I can't just leave you here. Blake is a big boy. He can handle himself. He was a regular police officer before he was a ranger, so he's more capable than I am already. Trust that he knows what he's doing."

I knew what she was saying made sense, but it did nothing to calm my shaking nerves. I was terrified that Blake was going to get hurt. Or worse...

Sirens blazing toward us signaled the arrival of more park rangers and the local police. I could hear a few tires screeching as a couple of the vehicles stopped abruptly at the trailhead, not far from where we were waiting. Within minutes, three more rangers and one of the cops I'd seen on the news giving interviews were running up the trail to us.

As Ranger Carson began to fill them in on the situation, everything around me began to appear fuzzy. There was a man in a green uniform trying to talk to me, but the ringing in my ears was so loud, I couldn't hear a word he was saying. That's when everything went black.