Page 50 of Silent Ritual

“That’s right,” Sheila said, sighing. “I don’t know—it’s got to be some kind of ritual or something. Problem is, we don’t know how he’s choosing his victims. As far as we can tell, it’s completely random.”

A car horn honked in the background, followed by the squeal of tires. “There’s got to be some kind of method to the madness,” Gabe said. “All of this makes sense to him. From his perspective, it’s completely logical.”

“Not from ours,” Sheila said with another sigh.

“Listen, I can hear how tired you are. You need a break, a chance to get away from all this.”

“I can’t just drop an active investigation, Dad.”

“I understand. But once you’ve closed this case, take a few days off, get away. Remember that place we went to in Colorado when you and Natalie were little? We stayed at that ranch?”

“Right near the hot springs,” Sheila said, smiling at the memory.

“We couldn’t get you out of there—that was all you wanted to do was swim.”

“The place stank to high heaven,” Sheila said, laughing.

“It sure did. Meanwhile, all your mother wanted to do was teach you two to ride, but since she couldn’t convince you, she tried to get me to—”

“Wait a minute,” Sheila said suddenly, thinking back over what she’d just said. “Why did the hot springs stink like that?”

“The sulfur, I think. Why?”

Sulfur. Stark had described the creature that came up behind him as smelling like sulfur. Could it have picked up that smell from a hot spring? Were there any hot springs near the Mirage Salt Flats?

“I’ve got to go, Dad,” she said, shoving open the restroom door.

“Okay,” he said, sounding worried. “Is everything alright?”

“It is now.”

***

Sheila watched the mile markers tick by one by one, her impatience growing.

“You sure we haven’t passed it?” she asked Finn, who sat in the passenger seat, staring at the GPS on his phone.

“It should be around here somewhere,” he murmured. “The signal is spotty, though—it keeps jumping around.”

After Sheila had her revelation, she’d done some digging and discovered that there was only one hot spring within a hundred miles of the salt flats: a little-known gem called the Oasis Springs. It was a long shot, but long shots were all they had at this point.

The road curved sharply, and Sheila slowed down, gripping the steering wheel tightly. Around them, the desert landscape sprawled in every direction, flat and seemingly endless, until it met with the blue sky on the distant horizon.

“There!” Finn pointed to a dirt path off the main road. “Turn here.”

Sheila swerved onto the narrow path, bumping along until they reached a small parking lot nestled amidst scrubby desert vegetation. A wooden sign creaked gently in the wind: Oasis Springs.

“I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer here,” Finn said, “but even if the ‘creature’ Stark saw was real, and even if it was the killer and he did indeed come from this hot spring…it’s not likely it’ll do us much good now. It’s not as though these places come equipped with security cameras.”

“No,” Sheila said, unwilling to surrender hope, “but it could tell us something significant about his identity or his habits. Who knows? There could even be a cigarette with saliva on it or a beer bottle with a fingerprint.

Finn chuckled, shaking his head. "You just don't give up, do you?"

Sheila gave him a thin smile. "Not in my nature."

A sudden breeze rustled the leaves of the sparse desert bushes around them. The afternoon air smelled pungent, filled with the unmistakable aroma of sulfur. The hot springs were close.

Navigating their way through the scrubby vegetation, they followed the narrow dirt path leading to the source of the smell. The sound of bubbling water grew louder as they approached, and soon they found themselves standing on the bank of a small, steamy pool.

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