Life Flight

by Lynette Eason

  She wasn’t going to cry over that. “Rabor said the house belonged to Joel’s mother.”

  “We would have found it eventually, but maybe not in time to save you. We owe Frankie big-time.”

  She groaned. “Like an exclusive?”

  “Yeah.”

  She nodded, shivers of shock still running through her. She was safe. Holt had come. Rabor was dead. “I’m actually happy to do it. He’s earned it.” Penny sucked in a deep breath, the stench of the decomposition still lingering. “But for now, all I want is a shower. A hot, steaming, skin-scorching shower. As soon as possible.” She told them about the bodies in the barn and Holt dispatched officers to secure the scene. “It’s horrible, Holt. I can’t even describe how awful it is. How absolutely abhorrent—”

  He stopped her with a finger on her lips. “I don’t even want to think about how scared you were, but, Penny, you’re so amazingly courageous to have done what you did. I can’t even—” He shuddered. “I’m so sorry it took us this long to find you.”

  “I’m just glad you did,” she whispered.

  He hugged her again, then stepped back. “Let’s get you out of here. You can give your statement a little later.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I have a question for you.”

  “Sure.”

  “I know what I want.”

  She stilled and met his gaze. “That’s not a question.”

  “I’m getting there. I want you, Penny. I want there to be an us. Will you go out on a date with me?”

  “As long as it doesn’t involve tea.”

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY-ONE

  The fact that she could joke after this latest trauma . . .

  Holt smiled. “I think that can be arranged.”

  “And don’t use the word ‘date’ around me for a while, if you don’t mind. Let’s just call it hanging out.”

  “That works for me.”

  “That being said, yes, I’d be more than happy to go to dinner and hang out with you. And drink coffee. Or hot chocolate.”

  “I get it. Anything but tea.” He kissed her forehead. “That sounds awesome. Now let’s get you into the car. I need to walk through the crime scene.” He directed her toward the SUV that had replaced the bullet-riddled one, but Penny held back, her gaze on the house. “What is it?”

  “There’s someone else out there,” she said. “Someone who’s either a victim or involved with Rabor.”

  “Who?”

  “I don’t know, but she called him while we were in the room he called the training kitchen.” She shuddered. “I’ll go with you.”

  “No, Pen—” Her patient gaze cut him off. “Why?”

  “So I can explain everything to you. Exactly what happened. You can record it and have someone type it up and I’ll sign it. That way I only have to go through it once.”

  “Okay, yeah, we can do that. But first . . . come here.” She followed him to the car and he opened the glove compartment to grab a container of Vicks VapoRub. He opened it and held it out to her. “Slather it above your upper lip and in your nose if you want. You’re not supposed to use it in your nose, but it does help get the smell out faster.”

  “I need to coat it on my brain.” Once she was done, she took a deep breath and nodded. “That’s a lot better. Thanks.”

  “Good.”

  She followed him back up the steps and into the house. He handed her a pair of gloves, and she pulled them on, then slipped on the little blue booties he’d grabbed when he’d gotten the Vicks. He placed a hand on her lower back and waited while her eyes roamed the room.

  “Okay, where do I start?” she asked.

  Holt hit the record app on his phone. “From the moment Rabor hijacked your helicopter.”

  “I landed. Raina and Holly got off and headed for the victims.” She continued to the point where she said, “I was in that outbuilding, then Frankie showed up. He got me out and we hid behind the building until we had no choice but to run for it. Frankie had his cell phone on him but had no signal. Rabor had been on the satellite phone. When he hung up, he was on his way to get me when Frankie and I took off.” She raked a gloved hand over her hair and shook herself.

  “Rabor heard us, fired, and hit Frankie. I tackled Rabor and he got the better of me. I think Frankie played dead and it saved his life.”

  “And yours.”

  “Yes.”

  “The phone fell out of Rabor’s pocket,” she said. “Frankie took a chance on covering it with his hand.” She breathed in, held it, then let the air out through her lips. She did it again and Holt recognized the calming exercise.

  “I went through the den area.” She walked over to it, her eyes scanning, then she turned and headed for the kitchen. “We came in this way. His keys were on the counter, and that was the only thing different than what was in the training kitchen.”

  Holt nodded. “Show me.”

  She walked toward the stairs and he noted her slight hesitation before walking down them. When he joined her, he paused at the sight that greeted him. “Whoa.”

  “Creepy, isn’t it?”

  “It shouldn’t be. I mean it’s just two rooms exactly like the ones we just came from, but . . . yeah. I guess knowing what they were used for makes it creepy.” He frowned. “Why build two entirely separate rooms? Why not just use the ones you have?”

  “I think he had to keep his . . . whatever you want to call it . . . serial killer deeds separate from his ‘normal’ life. If you know what I mean.”

  “Maybe. It’s as good an explanation as any, I guess.” He studied her, noting her pale features and tight brows. “You doing okay?”

  “It’s not fun, but he really didn’t hurt me.”

  “You didn’t give him time.”

  “Exactly.” Another deep breath. “Look around. Do you see anything different from the other kitchen?”

  He studied the area. “No.” But he hadn’t looked super close. “Do you?”

  “No, that’s my point. Not one detail is out of place.” She walked to the table and touched the back of a chair. “I sat here. He stood over there. The phone on the wall rang . . .” She continued her recounting, and Holt let his gaze scan the area once more, looking for differences in the kitchen, and he couldn’t find one.

  “I saw the keys on the counter and realized there weren’t any in here and figured those were his actual car keys. I thought if I could get them and get to his car, I’d be able to get away.” She swallowed. “I threw the hot tea in his face and it stopped him for a minute, but only long enough for me to get out of the house.”

  “And you had to find a place to hide.”

  “Yeah. And he found me.” Her gaze met his and the agony there seared him. “All those women,” she whispered. “He knew exactly how many there were.”

  He gripped her fingers. “Penny, you did what you had to do. And because of that, no one else is going to die by his hand.”

  “I know.” She shot him a trembling smile, then glanced at the training den. “I didn’t go in there. I don’t need to see it.”

  “Then let’s get you out of here.”

  His sat phone buzzed with a call from Matt Nixon. “Let me catch this,” he said. They stepped outside. “Hey, what have you got?”

  “Your sister didn’t kill her husband and neither did her daughter.”

  He stopped next to the car. “I’m sorry. What?”

  “The video was edited, doctored—however you want to say it. In other words, it’s fake. It’s a very, very good fake, like professional-grade stuff, but our guy Pat, who’s an audio and video forensics expert, was able to take it apart and figure out Ellie didn’t pull the trigger. Ellie wasn’t even there. She was dropped in, so to speak. I’ll spare you the technical mumbo jumbo, but someone else was in the house and that person pulled the trigger.”

  “I think I need to sit down.”

  Penny looked at him, a frown on her face.

  “Who?” h
e asked.

  “Pat managed to pull a reflection from a picture on the opposite wall that goes into the kitchen. I’m sending you the image now.”

  His phone vibrated. He tapped the screen, and a blurry shot of his sister’s housekeeper’s face stared back at him.

  He turned to Penny. “Matt has the evidence needed to get Zoe out of prison. He’s going to the DA himself to ask that they reopen the case. I . . . I need to be there for her. I haven’t been and I can never make that up to her, but I need to go after I finish getting everything done here.” He needed to get Penny’s prints and Rabor’s—to make sure they had the right guy this time—and so much more. “You also need medical attention.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  Paramedics approached and he motioned for them to take her. He still had to contact the Identification Division to expedite getting the victims’ prints and dental records for comparison with missing females in the NCIC database. So much to do when all he wanted to do was take care of his family. And Penny.

  He called Gerald. “I’m calling to give you a status update.”

  “Hello to you, too, agent-who-is-supposed-to-be-on-medical-leave.”

  “Right. I promise to do that soon. But for now, this is the latest.” He gave the man the condensed version of the latest incident, including Zoe’s story, and had just finished when Penny stepped out of the ambulance.

  “Holt?”

  “Yes, Ger?”

  “You have two weeks off starting tomorrow. I don’t want to hear from you. Got it?”

  “Got it.” For the first time in his career, he was looking forward to his time off. He had important matters to attend to.

  Penny reached him and he drank in her appearance, debating whether or not to tell her he loved her.

  She held up a hand. “Don’t you dare. The first time you say it will not have dead-body smell associated with it.”

  He laughed. He couldn’t help it. That was so Penny. “Wait for me here?”

  She nodded, and he went to finish wrapping up the details of his case. When he returned two hours later, he found her asleep in the passenger seat. For a moment, he stood there, watching her breathe, then sent up a silent prayer of thanks that she was safe. And whole. And breathing.

  And hopefully, one day soon, his.

  Penny grabbed the robe from the hook on the wall and slipped into it. She ran the towel over her hair and decided the dead-body odor had to be gone after two days, even though she could still smell it.

  She was supposed to meet Holt for lunch, now that he’d finished dealing with his sister’s release from prison. He planned to fill her in on everything and she was looking forward to hearing about the happy ending. But, for some reason, she couldn’t get Sally Allen out of her mind. While it was true the woman hadn’t seemed terribly upset at becoming a widow, Penny needed to do something for her.

  And the children.

  She’d been a part of taking their father from them, and the desire to check on them and see that they were dealing with his death was something she just couldn’t shake.

  She dressed and texted Holt about her plan.

  Once she was in the car, she headed for the nearest bookstore that also carried toys. Thirty minutes later, she still hadn’t heard from Holt, but she was armed with several books for Mary and a couple of toys for JoJo. It had put a small dent in her checking account, but she was fine with that as long as it made the kids smile.

  When she arrived at Sally Allen’s home, she noted the van in the drive and breathed a sigh of relief that the woman was home. And alone with the children, by all appearances. Which was kind of weird now that she thought about it. The woman had just lost her husband. Where was the family’s and friends’ support? Her drive should be full of cars and her refrigerator overflowing with casseroles. She glanced at the bag on the seat. Maybe she should have brought food?

  Her phone rang and she answered it so it came through the car’s Bluetooth speakers. “Hey, Holt.”

  “Penny, you okay?”

  “Yeah, fine. I’m just going to take this stuff to Sally’s kids and check on her. I figured I’d do it on the way to meet you since she only lives about five minutes from the restaurant.”

  “Sounds good. I’ve just gotten into the office in spite of Gerald’s objections, so I’m here going over the evidence collected at the crime scene, but I’ll head to the restaurant in a few. I’m still trying to track down who called Rabor’s landline. You don’t have any idea who it could have been?”

  “Gerald would be doing the same thing in your shoes. And no idea, but shouldn’t that be fairly easy to find out?”

  “Should be. But whoever called it blocked their number. We’ll figure it out—it might just take the tech a little longer than usual.”

  “Okay. How’s Zoe?”

  “She’s in shock, but overjoyed to be home. Ellie is a sleepwalker. Not every night, but some. All this time Zoe thought Ellie had walked out of the sleepover without anyone noticing. That she came home and heard them arguing, picked up Owen’s gun from the coffee table—”

  “Wait a minute, he left his gun on the coffee table with two small kids?”

  “He’d walked in from work, knew the kids were next door, and left it on the coffee table with his badge. He would have put it away before the girls came home.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “Anyway, Zoe thought Ellie had come in, heard them arguing, and when he put his hands on her, it scared Ellie, and she shot him. Zoe didn’t want to believe it, of course, but with the video, she felt she had no choice but to sacrifice herself for her child. The crazy thing is, she said she didn’t remember seeing Ellie there and just thought it was her brain reacting to the trauma. That after the gunshot and Owen dropped, Zoe was so busy trying to save him and call 911 that she never saw Ellie.”

  “Because she was never there.”

  “Yeah. Zoe just figured Ellie was so traumatized, she ran back to the sleepover and simply didn’t remember anything.”

  “I can’t even imagine.”

  “There’s more, but I’ll fill you in when I see you.”

  “Okay, I’ll text when I leave here.”

  “See you soon.”

  Penny climbed out and grabbed her bag of goodies, then hurried up the steps to knock on the door.

  Small feet pattered from the inside, the curtain to the right moved, and bright blue eyes looked up at Penny. “Mama! It’s the lady from before!”

  “Don’t open the door, Mary.”

  “I’m not!”

  Three seconds later, Sally swung the door open with JoJo on her hip. She’d been crying and her red, swollen eyes widened. “Hi.”

  “Hi, I’m sorry to come by unannounced. I can see you’ve been crying, so maybe this isn’t the best time. I can come back later.” The poor woman had been through the wringer. Even if she and Joel had been ready to go their separate ways, finding out the man was a serial killer had to be incredibly hard.

  “No, it’s okay. I think crying is going to be a part of my daily life at this point.” She stepped back. “Do you want to come in?”

  “Sure, thanks. Just for a few minutes, though. I don’t want to keep you.”

  “What’s in there?” Mary asked, her eyes on the bag.

  Penny smiled. “Something for you and your brother.”

  Mary clapped and did a little dance. “Come in the den.” She whirled and darted to hop up on the couch.

  Penny followed and set the bag beside her. “Why don’t you see what you can pull out of there. There’s something for JoJo in there too.”

  Sally put JoJo down, and he walked to the couch and climbed up beside his sister. “Present?” He grabbed the bag and dumped it upside down. Everything hit the floor and JoJo laughed.

  When Mary saw the books tumble out, she gasped. “Oh wow! Thank you!” She scrambled down to look at them and JoJo went after the toys.

  Penny noted the boxes lined up against the far wall and g
lanced at Sally. “Are you moving?”

  “Yes.” She wrung her hands and pressed them to her eyes for a moment. “I can’t stay here after . . . everything.”

  “I’m sure it’s been hard.”

  “You have no idea.” She swiped a hand over her cheeks.

  Mary pulled on the hem of Penny’s flight jacket. “I just finished Charlotte’s Web, so I need a new book. Have you read these?”

  Penny went still. What was it about Charlotte’s Web that tickled something in her brain? “Yes,” she said, “I have. You could start with Stuart Little or The Trumpet of the Swan. The author who wrote Charlotte’s Web wrote them too.”

  “Oh, that’s so cool, thank you!”

  “I left my book at my friend Dee’s house, and Mama said there was no way she was buying me another copy.”

  There’d been a book in the den of Rabor’s home, but not in the training den. She could picture both rooms as well as if she were standing there looking at them. That book was the only difference.

  Could Sally Allen’s daughter have left her copy of Charlotte’s Web at her friend Dee’s—Darius’s—house?

  But how did that even make sense? She clenched her shaking hands.

  She didn’t know exactly how it all fit, but there was no doubt in her mind that Sally was the woman on the other end of the line when Penny had been captive in Rabor’s training kitchen.

  JoJo grabbed the toy car and took off for the hallway.

  “I think I’ll start with Stuart Little,” Mary said. “I’ve heard it’s a great story.” She picked up the books and put them on the table.

  Penny forced a smile. “I think that’s the perfect choice.” She flashed to the outbuilding Sally’s husband had used because he needed a place to sleep. What if Rabor had stayed there and Sally knew it? Had hidden him all this time?

  “Can I go to my room and read, Mama?”

  “Sure, go on.”

  Mary skipped over to Penny and hugged her. “Thank you.”

  “You’re very welcome, Mary.”

  The little girl headed to her room. JoJo zoomed his car down the hall one more time and Penny picked up the book on the end table. Charlotte’s Web. She turned it over to look at the back cover and found it familiar.