“Wasn’t McDaniel one of your passing flavors?”
“That was a long time ago, Matt. Turn left up here. We’re about thirty minutes out with the way you’re driving. You need to figure out a plan. Make it sound convincing.”
“Judging by the tracks under my bedroom window, it looks like she may have hurt herself when she landed.” Discernable prints in the driveway had revealed left etchings deeper, as if she were hopping.
Time passed in shades of useless, discarded pleas. Since a long-term relationship had never entered his mind, Matt had no idea where to begin or how to apologize to the woman who’d captured his heart and soul. No wonder his brothers worked hard to keep their partners happy. The alternative incurred mega doses of pain.
A sigh of relief filled the silence when he settled on the best approach. Groveling. Lots and lots of groveling.
“Turn right on the next road. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s passable. This is the place.”
A serpentine drive with overgrown weeds and occasional trash filled Matt with a sense of dread. “That’s not Katt’s car, and it doesn’t look like it’s been abandoned for long. There’s no dust or leafy debris on it. Call it in.” With a hand signal to his dog, he added, “Damien, stay.”
A gust of wind blew a small dervish from the shoulder to the woods, dissipating and sending leaves to scatter. While Matt got out to examine the car, Luc called in the plate for identification.
No scratches, dents, or rust spots marred the exterior. The inside was immaculate. A quick search revealed nothing other than an abandoned vehicle with a child’s car seat in the back. “The hood’s cool.”
“Plates are stolen, Matt. They belong to an SUV. Pop the trunk. Let’s see if there’s cargo.”
Matt swallowed hard, praying to find nothing more than a dark and empty trunk. Barren space trumped a dead body. In that split-second, he imagined Katt’s lifeless form curled in a tight ball. His breath hitched.
A click, a whoosh, and the lid whispered open.
Luc leaned over to examine the interior. “Nothing. Nada.”
“Shit. It’s got to be connected, can’t be a coincidence.” Matt again surveyed the periphery then hurried to his truck. “Let’s take a look around and make sure we’re not missing something.”
As they approached the truck, Matt and Luc both turned toward the roar of approaching engines.
“Fuck. What’s Ethan and Billy doing here?” Luc murmured as they waited for the men to exit their vehicles and explain.
“Why’d you come here? You’re supposed to be tracking Denny?” Irritation and dawning bloomed in Matt’s chest.
“These are the coordinates. Well, a little farther ahead.” Ethan glanced back at his tablet. “About a hundred yards or so.”
“No!” A new alarm ripped Matt’s soul in half. “This can’t be happening. Not now. Not ever.” He couldn’t get into his truck fast enough. It seemed that the harder he tried, the more mistakes he made.
“We don’t know anything for sure.” Luc dropped down in the passenger seat.
Matt gunned the accelerator. “Goddammit. How the hell did he track her?”
“Maybe she was a little bit distracted and in pain,” Luc murmured.
“What do I have to do to keep her safe?”
“I think you know the answer to that one. Circle the building first before we go inside.”
“Damn straight.” If he could turn back time, Matt knew the path he should’ve taken. One that wouldn’t lead to a missing Katt.
The scene at the building’s rear lot unfolded in slow degrees of burgeoning horror, bits and pieces of sensory information overloading Matt’s capacity to think. Fear and guilt fogged his mind, pulsing to the erratic beat of his heart.
A large human-sized lump took shape on the cracked asphalt, midway to the woods. Tire marks next to the body provoked images of a struggle leading to death. “Too big to be Katt.”
“Where is she? You know damn well she’s been here...”
“We’ll find her. She doesn’t have that much of a lead on us.”
“Oh, god.” Matt skidded to a stop a short distance away and jumped out of his vehicle. “Denny has brown hair. That’s not him. Maybe it’s a partner.”
Ethan and Billy’s vehicles stopped behind them.
Eternity slipped away in measured strides and imagined scenarios. His brothers spread out to check the perimeter while Matt and Luc surveyed the scene of scuffmarks, tire tracks, and something blue peeking out from under the downed man’s duster.
Matt crouched to check the victim’s neck. “He’s still warm. Hasn’t been dead long.”
“Look.” Luc toed the man’s coat aside. “It’s... a sneaker.”
Heedless of disturbing evidence, Matt shoved the body onto its back. “Oh, hell. This is Katt’s.”
“Luc, you’re not a cop. Check this guy’s pockets.” They’d passed the point of following procedure when Katt took off. Matt stood, fisting his hand around the tennis shoe. “Katt, where are you?” Scanning the wood’s edge, he spoke aloud even as his blood chilled. “I’m gonna see if Damien can pick up a trail. I wish to hell I had something of Denny’s.”
Before slipping his hand into the victim’s pockets, Luc had gloved up. “He’s got a cell phone.” He tugged out his own and thumbed through several screens. “Let me check—yep. It’s Denny’s phone.”
“Since this is the spot Lexi traced, the question remains. Where’s Katt? With Denny in her car?”
“Hey.” Luc pulled a piece of paper from the corpse’s shirt pocket. “Here’s something. Coordinates and written directions. Looks like he was heading toward... the middle of fucking nowhere.”
“Let’s move it. It might be Denny’s cabin. They’ve got a head start.” Never in his life had Matt prayed so hard for the chance to say he was sorry, for time to make amends, or for the words to keep the woman he’d come to love by his side. He wanted forever, the fairytale ending.
Katt scaled the fuzzy depths of consciousness with the pain in her foot matching the pulsing throb in her skull. Slow breaths staved off an advancing wave of nausea.
Rhythmic thumping jarred her head resting against the car’s window and magnified her misery. The same movement caused her bound hands to chafe. Closed eyelids didn’t prevent the sunlight from penetrating the thin layer of skin to form a blanket of red.
The car’s radio spewed some type of classical piano melody, soothing if one appreciated the talent needed to perform the complex piece. She recognized Denny’s voice humming along.
“I know you’re awake, Kathryn. You might as well open your eyes.”
“Where are you going?”
“We are going to make a quick stop at my cabin. I need to pick up my notes and make a deposit before I leave.” His frown and speculative head tilt didn’t bode well.
“You’ve been trying to kill me all along. Why? You know the jacket and your picture are already evidence against you.”
“Ah, those attempts weren’t mine. You must have tangled with Larry or Mitch. Now, however, without a corroborating witness, your evidence carries much less weight. Any fool with a computer can doctor a picture, and as for the jacket, well, the timeline won’t fit. A cut-rate lawyer can prove the man was alive long after his blood ruined the jacket, because it was in police custody while he was still alive and kicking.”
“You were at Matt’s house spying on me?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t figure him for a cop until I saw his K9 unit.”
“Why’d you kill your fiancée?” Katt surveyed the surrounding woods. The road had become more of a pair of muddy ruts due to recent rainfall. Her car wheezed with the steady climb.
Denny’s façade cracked. “I didn’t. That was Larry’s doing.” His hands on the steering wheel twisted the leather cover. “I’d told her to leave work early, but she wouldn’t go. He warned me he’d kill her.”
“You sent her sister to get the jacket?”
�
�When Carina found out her sister was dead, she wanted revenge. I didn’t even have to promise her money.”
“But she failed.”
“I didn’t kill her either. Again, Larry’s doing.”
Katt swallowed hard, thinking there was still a way out of the mess. “But you ransacked my home and found out about the wilderness course.”
“I wasn’t the only one there that night. Larry and Mitch showed up while I was searching.”
“Which means you killed Mitch and sent your lackey after me in the mountains.”
“No. I knew I was out of my league on that score and that Larry would track you. I did pay a member of your group to doctor your boots, but when I saw you return, I knew he’d failed, which left me another chance to cover my ass. I can’t believe that cop pulled you out of a burning building. That accelerant was a special blend designed for quick spread. You both should have died.”
“That’s what happens when you care about someone. You risk your neck for them.” Bitter words choked on the memory of the brothers laughing downstairs.
“Fate blessed me with a plan to get two birds with one stone. With Larry out of the picture, all I have to do after depositing you at the cabin with his gun is destroy your laptop and disappear. The cops will be too confused to figure it out. All my problems are solved.”
“And you think whoever hired Larry will stop looking for you?”
“Doesn’t matter. The trail will end with you. I’ve acquired a foreign buyer who’s ready and willing. My greedy ex-boss can go to hell.”
“Why?”
“I discovered a way to take liquid solar fuel and magnify its explosive properties.”
“Sick sonofabitch. You may be free of the law, but you’ll never be free of the McAllisters.”
“I seriously doubt they’ll travel abroad to avenge a little PI.”
"You don’t know Mathew McAllister.” If nothing else, pride would force Matt to see the case through.
They’d traveled miles along deep furrowed tracks that no map would designate worthy of notation. When he pulled to a stop in front of a large pine and cut the engine, her time for planning ended. There was almost enough room to make a hundred-point turn to retrace his route down the mountain.
“Let’s go. I’ll carry your laptop. I probably don’t have much time before my boss shows up.”
“My ankle is busted. I can’t walk.”
“Sure you can. Don’t worry about the pain. It won’t bother you much longer.”
Her other shoe wasn’t on the floor, not that it mattered. Her foot had swelled too much to put it on.
Searing fire shot up her leg when she placed her stockinged foot on the wet carpet of leaves. Numbness in the arch extended into the heel. Bound hands swatting the hair from her face tipped her off balance when she tried to stand on her injured leg.
A painful if ungraceful landing on slippery forest debris entailed the least of her problems. “Shit.” A plan to get free wasn’t an issue. The prong attached to the bar of her belt buckle was sharp enough to cut the plastic tie binding her hands. Still, she couldn’t outrun him on a gimpy foot.
“Such language from a young lady. I had a broken leg when I was a kid. Fell out of a tree. My parents had kept pushing me to be more outdoorsy. It took my broken bones to make them realize I was more cerebral than jock.”
If the small talk equaled an attempt to soothe his conscious for the intended murder, she wouldn’t let him off that easy. “All these deaths... are they worth it?”
“Had I known the path ahead when I started, I would have chosen differently. Once in, I couldn’t turn back.” He didn’t lend a hand in her struggle to gain her feet. With the gun pointed at her head, he followed her trudging, hopping progress uphill.
“It wouldn’t kill you to grab me a walking stick.”
“It’s not that far. You can manage.”
Every step brought a fresh rush of moisture to her eyes, hidden by her fall of dark curls. When she stumbled again, he lent a hand, careful of their positions and the gun trained on her back.
It wasn’t until she demanded a short breather that she noted the blood caking her sock. Somewhere, she’d cut the sole but hadn’t felt the pain. In scrutinizing the trail they’d traveled, one footprint would include drops of blood and mark her progress. Too bad Damien wouldn’t have a starting point. Nodding to the injury, she said, “No wonder I feel dizzy.”
“It’s just ahead. There’s a beautiful plateau with a wonderful view. It’s a good place to be buried.”
“I’m surprised you’d bother digging a grave.”
“Hey. I’m not a monster, but you’re the one who’s going to dig. Let’s go.”
“You’re a pig.” The tangles of thorns and briars thickened with their increased altitude. Rain would wash her trail away long before Matt and Damien could find it.
“Believe it or not, I was raised better than this. I’m sorry you got caught up in it all. If I’d gotten the jacket back, I wouldn’t have pursued you. However, when it comes down to one of us biting the dust or losing freedom, well, I prefer fresh air on the northern side of the grass.”
Before she could devise a scheme to survive, the ground leveled off to a small clearing big enough for a ramshackle cabin. Two small sheds, one double the size of the other, stood off to one side in the back. A half-moon cutout on one door designated its purpose.
“Wait a sec.” Denny stopped and studied the cabin. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s been here, though I wouldn’t expect them yet. They can’t know Larry’s dead already.”
Katt listened to the normal sounds of the wilderness. Her mind catalogued the whistle of a warbler and the deeper pitch of a tufted titmouse. That knowledge coming from Matt had surprised her. What she wouldn’t give to hear the specific whistle indicating his presence.
She’d been a fool for running instead of confronting him. After all the years she’d contemplated what she’d say to her mother, knowing communication held one of the keys to sanity, she’d abandoned all sense and fled.
Denny used his gun to nudge her toward the larger shed. “C’mon. I don’t have all day.”
On level ground and without having to disentangle herself from thorns and grabbing briars, her semi-hopping progress incurred less impediments. The cabin flaunted its disrepair in weathered wood and filth lining the front porch. She longed for some cool water from the old-fashioned well whose tarnished pump handle marked its age.
Her captor guided her toward the larger shed, its padlock dangling from a chain rusted long ago. Denny shoved the door open to reach inside, retrieving a long-handled shovel. “Pick your spot, kid. I’ll give you a half hour. If you don’t want the critters having at you, I suggest you put your back into it.” With a deft motion belying his nerd status, he retrieved a penknife from his pocket and cut her bonds.
The area was a perfect setting for the cabin, one she would love to own. Now, its sinister aura would provide a peace she hadn’t hoped to see for many years. She looked around after picking up the tool. He’d backed out of swinging range as soon as he’d cut her bonds.
A waist-high, wire fence overgrown with weeds and missing one side defined a one-time garden. She wondered if his parents had entertained dreams of the place as a special retreat, adding on through the years to accommodate life’s additions.
“A garden? Looks like it’d be easier to get deeper.” Each step to the corroded wire fencing mocked her pain. The crumpled wire opening that once served as a gate now allowed all manner of creature inside. She didn’t intend to die there.
It didn’t matter if Gila was the only being who cared. She cared.
If she could lull Denny into a conversation and distract him for a heartbeat, she had a weapon and the will to fight. In her mind, she pictured the moves, angles of attack, and strength needed to secure her freedom.
Once she held his gun in hand, she’d still have to figure out how to get down the mountain before others came searching. Her
injured foot wouldn’t stand a return trip without something sturdy to help support her weight.
Swelling in her ankle had doubled its size, her sole bloody from stepping on briars, broken branches, and small rocks. In addition, nausea and dizziness compounded the exhaustion from hiking the steep trail and the drug’s aftereffects.
“Where are you planning to go?”
She’d never considered trying to dig a hole with one good leg. Bending over and using the momentum from a short swing took off the top layer of weeds. Softer soil lay underneath. Each small victory put her either a step closer to death or freedom, depending on the success of her strategy.
“Someplace warm, where I don’t have to shovel snow, wear a tie to work, or cook my own food.”
Previous residents had removed the large stones, but stubborn roots were difficult to extract since she couldn’t use her foot to force the shovel deep. “Why’d you want to construct a weapon, anyway?”
“It’s not what I set out to do, but when I saw the potential, I knew I could make it bigger, better.” A long dissertation on formulas and derivatives of chemical by-products ensued. It appeared he loved his work.
Once she’d removed the bigger clumps of weeds, the three feet roundish hole measured a foot deep. Sweat covered her face and dampened her clothes.
“Time’s about up. I let you dawdle on the trail because of your injury. Hand me the shovel.” An outstretched hand put him a little off balance.
In a calculated move, she turned her face to the woods, frowning and cocking her head to the side and frowning as if straining to understand something. If her subconscious filled her waking thoughts with sounds of Matt’s whistle, it’d prove a worthy accompaniment to her last-ditch effort to survive.
Denny took the bait, his gaze following the direction of her stare.
A split-second to swing the shovel and strike his hand resulted in a brief advantage. Desperation guided her aim while fatigue and low blood sugar lessened the force of the blow.
A short yelp emerged from his throat as the gun went off, the bullet thudding somewhere off to the side. The weapon spun out of his hand and landed in the dirt. For a brief moment, his jaw went slack, as if he couldn’t understand why she’d dare to strike a man holding a pistol.
McAllister Justice Series Box Set Page 24
