Read Online Night Mask by William W. Johnstone - Free Book Online

floor, both hands clutching her stomach.
    â€œYou all right, kid?” Leo panted, kneeling down beside her.
    â€œYeah,” Lani gasped. “That bitch can kick like a mule.”
    Both of them heard a car crank up and drive off, back tires spinning in the pea-gravel parking lot.
    Lani sat up, her back to the wall. “Did you see the face on that woman?”
    â€œI sure did. Scared the crap out of me. No artist could ever paint that much evil.”
    â€œI agree.”
    Leo spotted something lying just outside the shattered front doors. He left Lani and picked it up.
    â€œSo much for the half brother and sister being in California,” Lani said, getting to her feet. Her stomach hurt like hell.
    â€œWe’ll soon know,” Leo replied. “The man lost his wallet.”
    * * *
    â€œGeorge Prott?” Leo said aloud, looking at the driver’s license. “Prott?”
    They had returned to the motel, making certain they were not followed.
    â€œThe prott thickens,” Lani said with a smile.
    â€œOh, Lani,” Leo groaned, shaking his head. “That’s bad, kid. Pull up your shirt. Let me look at your belly.”
    She was going to have one whale of a bruise, but there was no swelling to indicate anything ruptured.
    â€œWhat’s the address on the license?”
    â€œP.O. Box in Binghamton. A hundred dollars. No credit cards, no business cards, nothing.” He looked carefully at the license. Fingered it. “It’s a phony.” He handed it to her.
    Whoever had done it, had done a good job. But the license was still a phony. She tossed it on the bed. “The boys know we’re after them, Leo. They’re cleaning up any paper trail that might be behind them.”
    â€œYeah. But who’s helping them do it? The half brother and sister?”
    She shook her head. “I don’t think so. The man and woman we tangled with tonight were older. I’d guess in their mid to late forties.”
    â€œBut we heard the man call the woman sis. ”
    â€œOh, I think it’s still all in the family. I think this family is all nuts. Cousins, maybe. Hell, Leo. I don’t know. Can we call the Bureau in on this?”
    â€œIf we could prove it was the boys, yeah. Crossing state lines would do it. Let’s see them in the morning.”
    * * *
    The agent in charge listened to the California cops. When they finished, he said, “You have no concrete proof linking the twins to the murders?”
    â€œNo,” Lani said. “But isn’t the cutting off of the faces enough to prove the killer, or killers, is crossing state lines?”
    â€œIt is in my opinion. I don’t have the last word, though. I’ll kick it upstairs and see what happens.”
    They did not, of course, tell the FBI man of their breaking into the school, or of being attacked by the man and woman.
    * * *
    Lani and Leo moved on to Akron. In addition to the original woman who had been killed and mutilated back in ’77, authorities in and around the city had since discovered eight more bodies, most of them without faces. On a hunch, the California cops went to Columbus. There, in addition to the man who had been killed in ’78, the police had since uncovered twelve more bodies, all of them, they believed, linked to the first murder.
    It was in Akron that Leo suggested they rent a car and just drive the route the Ripper had—according to their theory—taken on his cross-country murdering spree. They would stop at each county seat along the way, and talk to the sheriff and chief of police, for both Leo and Lani had a hunch that the Ripper had not confined his murders to cities. They okayed their plan with Sheriff Brownwood and with Dennis Potter, and rented a car.
    They cut down to Springfield and had a chat with a local detective. One more faceless body to add to the list. Two in Columbus, one outside of Lima. They stopped in Fort Wayne, Logansport,