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

lock-down about three years later.”
    The woman was the last person waiting to be interviewed, and Leo quietly got up and removed the sign from the door.
    â€œWell,” Lani said, winging it, “to be perfectly honest, I think Jack is the one who is behind all of this. We don’t know much about it. We were just hired to do the interviewing.”
    The woman stared at the cops for a moment, then shook her head. “You must be mistaken. Those two despised us all. Someone else must be behind the lawsuit.”
    â€œIt’s possible,” Leo said, sitting down with a fresh pot of coffee and three cups. “Like Lani said, we don’t know much about the particulars. The twins must have made quite an impression on you, ma’am.”
    â€œImpression? I would certainly say so. They were psychotic, delusionary, schizophrenic, and God only knows what else. Jack fooled the doctors into believing he was cured. Jim never denied what he was.”
    â€œWhy were you discharged from the institution?” Lani asked.
    â€œI knocked the piss out of Jim Silverman,” she said bluntly. “He somehow got out of his room one night, and tried to rape me. When their father—he’s some rich man from back East—heard about it, he put on the pressure and got me fired.”
    â€œWell, that’s not fair!” Lani said, real indignation in her voice.
    â€œSure as hell wasn’t. But,” she sighed, “that was a long time ago, and I’m sure those twins are either dead or confined in some mental institution by now. I would sure hope so. They’re both very, very dangerous men.”
    The cops gently led the woman deeper and deeper into conversation about Jim and Jack Longwood. Then they bought her a nice dinner at the motel restaurant and continued getting information from her. They learned that Jim and Jack were from New York State. The only visitors they had had was a half brother and sister. Their parents, to the best of her knowledge, never came to see the twins. The twins would be in their early to mid-thirties by now. But she was sure they were either dead, in prison, or confined in some mental institution.
    The next morning, early, Lani and Leo had checked out and were on the road, heading west.

Chapter 8
    â€œWe leave the Bureau out of this,” Leo said, as they drove. “We’ve broken and bent too many laws. If we went to court with what we’ve gathered thus far, the judge would take one look at it, throw it all out, and put us in jail.”
    The California cops stopped in Davenport and Cedar Rapids, before touching base with the PD in Des Moines. Eight more bodies along the bloody route from New York State. In Des Moines, in addition to the three bodies discovered back in ’82, they could now add ten more to the list, all with their faces cut away.
    â€œThat’s either sixty-nine or seventy,” Lani said. “I’m losing count.”
    â€œWhere the hell are they picking up their money?” Leo said that night, sitting in Lani’s room after dinner. “Or are they? Are they working along the way? If so, what are they doing? What are they qualified to do?”
    â€œWe haven’t found where they even graduated the eighth grade,” Lani said.
    â€œBut we have found, thanks to those records you swiped back at that private school, that their I.Q.’s are astronomically high. Far and away above genius level. So let’s assume they’re self-taught.”
    â€œWe know they both like old movies and old music. Along with several million other people. Or more,” Lani said glumly. “Including me.”
    â€œAnd me. My radio stays tuned to KSIN.”
    The cops looked at each other for a moment, then both of them shook their heads. Leo said, “I know all the people out at KSIN FM. Remember all those public service announcements I did last year? I got to know them all pretty well. But I guess we