Matt nodded. “Fine, but if they aren’t, I’m going in.”
“Not happening,” Grace said as her phone vibrated against her side. “Like I said, you’ll want to find Tina, or even confront Tommy, but he may be here with his girlfriend. Maybe others, too. You do as I say. The police from Torrance, South Bend, and Amherst for that matter, won’t be far behind.”
“I got it, alright?” Matt took his foot off the gas as they approached the final right turn. “I’m sorry, my adrenaline’s pumping. I’m tired of waiting around to see if Tina will be okay or not. She’s…the love of my life. I’ll do anything for her.”
Meaning he’ll ignore me if he gets the chance.
Grace checked her phone as Greer’s name appeared with a text.
You went, didn’t you?
She texted back, I had to.
Matt nodded toward the driveway ahead.
“The next one,” Madigan said.
The phone vibrated in Grace’s hand again.
Just heard a unit at Matthew Morelli’s house report that you left with him. Is Matt with you?
Matt parked in front of the long driveway to a small log cabin, just like the pictures she found in the Leman’s basement.
This is it.
A large forest of freshly budded trees, dark green ones, and bush set the backdrop below a dark sky with rolling clouds. An empty patrol car sat parked behind a pick-up truck by the cabin several yards away.
Grace pulled her gun out and called Shelling as smoke billowed from the chimney. His voice messaging service greeted her. “This is Sheppard. I’m at the cabin. A pick-up truck is here. One patrol car, no occupants. I’m notifying you I’m here with Tina’s ex-husband, Matt Morelli, and my sister, Madigan Knox. There is smoke coming from the chimney, but I have no visuals of anyone.”
She ended the call, and another message from Greer lit up the screen.
“I’m not waiting,” Matt said, opening his door.
Grace grabbed his coat and yanked him back inside. “We wait. If you walk out there, the officers don’t know us. You can’t just sneak up on them.”
“What are they doing?” he grunted. “Where’s the bastard?”
“They could still be searching for him,” Grace said.
“Keep your eyes open,” Madigan muttered. “He could be anywhere.”
“I can’t wait like this.” Matt turned to Grace. “I need to find her.”
“You need to be patient. Don’t lose your head, Matt,” Madigan said. “You want the best chance of rescuing Tina? Do what Grace tells you.”
“They’ll be here soon,” Grace said in a hushed tone as the smoke swirled higher, blending against the dark gray sky. “Quiet.”
She rolled her window down as the sound of the radio from the patrol car ahead crackled in the background. “Come in. Do you read me?”
“What is it?” Matt asked.
Madigan shushed him.
Something’s not right.
Grace shoved her cell phone in her pocket. “Stay here.” She closed her door with caution, following the driveway toward the patrol car and ducking behind it.
No movement out here.
She scurried from the car to the cabin and peered in the window. Two mugs sat on the small table by the woodstove, but no movement came from inside. Edging her way to the corner, she peered around it, and an officer in uniform stared at her from the grass, a blank expression in his eyes and a large, bloody hole in his chest.
He’s dead.
I need to get Madigan out of here.
She took the phone from her pocket to notify Shelling by text. “One officer down. Maybe more. Send the paramedics.”
After sending the message, the beginning of Greer’s appeared on her screen.
You can’t trust Matt. He’s
She opened the message.
He’s been lying to Shelling. Tina’s text messages show he was obsessed with her. He told police they were seeing each other but Tina wanted the divorce. He’s trying to frame Rhett.
She slipped the phone back into her pocket and squinted toward the empty patrol car.
Madigan poked her head out from behind it, but her pair of boots were the only ones behind the car. Grace glanced around before waving her over.
“Where’s Matt?” Grace hissed.
Madigan pointed toward the treeline to the left, and Grace caught Matt out of the corner of her eye disappearing into the forest.
“Officer down,” Grace whispered. “Shotgun. No sign of Amanda or Tina. Matt’s been lying. Tina didn’t want to be with him. He was trying to frame Rhett.”
A groan came from around the corner. Grace raised her gun and peeked around it, catching movement in the grass over ten yards away.
“Stay here,” Grace whispered and drew her gun, taking a step to the side around the cabin, past the fallen officer as the wind carried chimney smoke above her.
A cough came from the tall grass ahead, and rain fell against her forehead and cheeks as she crept toward it, recognizing the same uniform the fallen officer wore.
Another officer.
He squinted at her through the light rain as she stepped beside him. The wind swept across the tall grass, sending a whishing sound across the small field.
She knelt beside him, her knees wet and cold from the grass. Blood pulsed out from his leg. She grabbed his hand and pressed it with her own against his wound. “You’re going to be okay. Paramedics on the way.”
He grunted under the pressure and wheezed, “Male, in his forties…shot my partner… A woman with… My partner.”
“A woman was with him?”
He nodded.
Tina.
“My partner…”
Grace shook her head as her lip quivered. The warmth from his blood coated her hand, and she nodded down to it. “You focus on your leg. Apply pressure. Help is coming.” She stood and ran back to Madigan, scanning the area around her.
I want her to get in the car, but it’s Matt’s. He has the keys. She can’t. We can’t trust him.
I need another way to get her out.
“Who’s that?” Madigan whispered, her eyes open wide, staring at Grace’s bloody hands.
“The other officer, shot in the leg. Listen to me. We can’t trust Matt. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I think Tommy’s here, and I need to keep you safe. Take the keys from that officer.” She nodded to the deceased. “Get in the car and go. Don’t stop until you see the police.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Now’s not the time to be brave. Please.”
“You’ll need me if Tina’s here. You don’t have back up, and I can help.”
She grabbed Madigan’s shoulders. “We don’t have time, please go.”
Madigan shook her head no and rain poured down all at once.
We don’t have time.
Grace checked around them, surveying the area. “Follow me. Stay close.”
Madigan nodded and followed close behind Grace as she led them toward the tree line, thirty yards away from the officer groaning in the grass. After passing a few trees and brush, dark piles of earth surrounded a large hole ahead, and deep male voices shouted in the distance.
“Stay here,” Grace whispered, staying low and creeping ahead toward the hole.
More than ten women lay dead at the bottom of it, some overlapping, each at various stages of decomposition. Mud and rain flowed around them toward their feet.
Grace took a step back, and Madigan stepped up beside her.
“That’s Amanda.” Madigan pointed to the tanned flesh of a woman’s arm, blood pouring from somewhere beneath her.
Grace knelt, lowering herself into the hole, her hands sinking into the muddy sides, and scrambled to Amanda, reaching out toward her neck. She pressed her finger against it.
Nothing. I have to make sure.
She turned pushed Amanda’s shoulder until her face came into view. Her wide bloodshot eyes stared at the dirt she’d b
een left in. Deep red and purple marks encircled her neck. She turned to Madigan and shook her head as another loud voice echoed through the trees further in the forest.
She was shot and strangled. Tommy strangled Brianna to death in the alley behind Salty Rocks.
But the bodies. The various stages of decomposition.
Tommy only got out a week ago.
Some are too old. They’d have been killed while he was in prison.
A deep male voice echoed through the forest. “No!”
“Matt?” Madigan whispered. “Was that Matt?”
Grace stayed low and guided Madigan around the hole, toward the sound with her gun aimed in the direction of the voice.
“Look!” Madigan hissed.
“Where?”
Madigan pointed to a shovel on the ground and footprint puddles leading away from it deeper into the forest.
Two sets of large prints.
“Why?” the male voice shouted louder than before.
We’re close.
“Is Tommy following Matt?” Madigan whispered. “Or the other way around?”
“Now’s the time to listen to me,” Grace said. “I’m going in. You go to the treeline and wait for back up. Let them know where we are.”
“Grace—”
“Please,” she whispered, staring into her sister’s eyes.
If anything happened to you, I could never forgive myself.
Madigan wiped the rain from her face and nodded.
Grace nodded back and turned around, following the footprint puddles deeper into the forest toward the angry voices ahead.
Chapter Seventeen
Grace pushed her way through the thick brush, and Madigan turned back toward the treeline.
I can’t. I can’t just wait for the police. If anything happened to her, I’d regret it. I can’t leave her.
She turned back, but Grace had disappeared through the brush, so Madigan rushed after her, pushing the thick branches away and following the prints until she caught sight of Grace’s back, crouched down by a thick tree trunk.
Careful. Don’t sneak up on her.
“Why’d you kill her?” one of the voices asked. “You didn’t have to kill her! It was a mistake!”
Amanda?
Tina?
Grace crawled behind a large cedar bush and peered out from behind it.
“It wasn’t about the cheating!” the other deep voice sounded just a bit closer. “She took the credit… you idiot! She…on a damn coffee!”
Amanda.
“It wasn’t a big deal!” the other man shouted. “You killed her over a coffee?”
Amanda stole the credit card and bought a coffee. She was never supposed to take it…
I have to see who’s talking.
She crept over into Grace’s old spot, and a man came into view. Tommy.
“The police got a location off the credit card, you idiot!”
I can’t see that one.
She peered around the tree further.
“She didn’t have to die. We had a plan.” Tommy said.
“She was trash, Tommy. You take out the trash. You don’t keep it around, letting it rot and ruin everything.” Jared came into view, standing in a small clearing with his back angled toward them, shouting at Tommy. “She was a liar! Seeing both of us at the same time; she made us out to be fools, but she was the airhead who stole the credit card. Why’d you even let her go in there?”
“She had to make sure the cop was alone—but that didn’t matter to you in the end, did it? You just couldn’t wait.”
“She was on to us, Tommy. You know that—you’re the one who realized she was following us while Amanda was supposed to be following her. Why’d you choose her, anyway?”
“She looks just like that bitch cop. I knew we could make it look like she’d run away if you just let me—”
“Shut up,” Jared spat. “It’s over now. We take care of the cop, and we get outta here.”
Tina’s still alive.
Tommy shook his head. “It wasn’t just a coffee. You’re pissed she fell for me. How’d you find out?”
“You left that skanky picture she sent you in prison on the computer desk. You really are a big, stupid idiot.”
“But I’m not a killer,” Tommy spat. “Why’d you kill all those women, huh? What? Were you practicing for the cop?”
Jared let out a low laugh.
“What?” Tommy asked. “You’re sick.”
“Nothing we do is going to fix this,” Jared said. “We have to get rid of the last loose end, and then we’re outta here.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Tommy said. “Do it yourself.” He turned in the direction of the cabin and walked toward it.
“Hey, stop!” Jared shouted, reaching for the handgun in his back pocket, hidden from Tommy.
“I’m done with you!” Tommy shouted, continuing toward the brush.
“Just like that? You’d abandon me after all I’ve done for you?” He gripped the gun.
Tommy shook his head and kept walking.
“We’re in this together!” Jared shouted. “You’re the one who wanted revenge on those cops for framing you. Putting you behind bars for a life sentence. I was just trying to help you—you know that.”
Framing him? Tina wouldn’t do that.
Tommy turned around. “Just the dirty cops. No one else had to get hurt. We couldn’t even get to the other one because of all this mess.”
“I thought she’d be easier, too,” Jared huffed, walking toward him. “It was Amanda. She was greedy. She sent the cops our way. She ruined everything.”
“There’s no getting out of this. I’m not going back to prison. I never did anything.”
“I know. I believe you.” Jared stopped in front of him and let go of the gun. “We kill the cop, and we get out. For good. You with me?”
Tommy rubbed his forehead and shook his head. “Yeah.”
“Yeah?” Jared asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.
Tommy nodded, and Jared reached out his hand to shake with him. Tommy took it, and Jared pulled him in for a hug.
Grace stood and turned, and Madigan made eye contact with her as a hissing noise came from Tommy like a balloon as his eyes opened wide. He grunted, and Grace peered out at them from behind the tree as Tommy stumbled forward before turning back to Madigan, nodding to her as Jared turned around and stared straight at Grace, pulling the gun from his pocket.
“Grace, watch out!” Madigan screamed as Jared aimed his gun at her.
A bang followed, and the bullet blew past Madigan as Grace pushed her behind the tree the other way, and she rolled back to her feet as Grace leaned out from behind the tree and fired her gun twice.
Madigan covered her ears, desperate to drown out the ringing. Grace pushed her back up against her behind the tree and bent back out around it again, fired, and popped back behind it as he returned fire. Grace stepped out from behind the tree and fired twice, stepping back behind the cover again.
“Come on out!” Jared’s dull voice called over the ringing in Madigan’s ears. “Wasn’t expecting this kind of company! Didn’t think we’d see you again!”
He’s talking to me.
“Drop your gun and come out with your—” Grace started.
A bullet skimmed the tree in front of Grace, busting through the wood, sending chips flying. Madigan grabbed Grace’s arm, pulling her back toward her.
“This isn’t gonna work!” Jared shouted.
“Where is Tina Morelli?” Grace called.
There’s something off about her voice.
Another bullet hit the tree somewhere in front of them, and Grace left her side, stepping out from behind the tree, aiming her gun in his direction. She fired twice, remaining in her spot as Madigan felt something cool against her arm. She wiped at it, and blood coated her fingers.
I don’t feel any pain.
Madigan peered around the tree as Jared bolted through the
brush, no gun in hand.
“Stay here,” Grace called, running after him, a dark circle growing on the side of her arm.
He shot her. He hit her.
Madigan stepped out from behind the tree, and Tommy lay on his stomach just ahead, a knife stuck in his back. Grace ran toward the brush as the red bloodstain on her sleeve grew.
He shot Grace.
He shot her, and he’s out of ammo.
Madigan pushed past the brush, following right behind her.
Chapter Eighteen
Grace caught sight of Jared and fired her gun, pain whizzing through her left arm and shoulder from the recoil of the right as he slowed down, and she closed the gap. Footsteps pounded the ground behind her, and she checked over her shoulder as Madigan appeared through the brush.
No. She has to go. She needs to get help.
As she turned back, Jared raised his hands over his head and stopped. “You kill me, you’ll never find her!”
Grace panted, stopping several yards away, and kept her gun aimed at his back. Madigan stopped somewhere behind her.
“Where is Tina Morelli?” Grace demanded.
Jared glanced over his shoulder and fixated on her arm.
“Kneel down,” she huffed.
He lowered his hands and turned in her direction.
“Don’t turn. Keep your hands up and kneel.” The shooting pain through her arm made it shake, and she clenched her jaw.
Hold still. Hang tight. Stay composed.
Warm blood spilled down her arm, dripping from her elbow, and her heartbeat pulsed in her ears.
“I figure you’ve got, what? Maybe one shot left?” he called to her.
“One’s all I need.” The edge to her voice scared her.
Stay calm. I need to subdue him. Madigan can cuff him.
No, I need to. I can’t let her anywhere near him.
Grace called to him. “Kneel down.”
“I can’t do that.”
I can keep him talking until back up comes.
“Who took Tina? You or Tommy?”
He shook his head. “You don’t know by now? I thought you must have had everything figured out, what with your spy there following us.” He nodded to Madigan.
The Lies You Told Page 18
