Cal walked across the attic and picked up two of the sleds. “Let me set these up for launching. Abby, you go down first with Isobel and the baby, and I’ll follow behind.”
“No. You’re heavier, so your sled will go faster. Isobel is losing blood, and she’s the one most at risk. Getting her to the hospital has to be priority one. You go first with Isobel and the baby, and I’ll follow your path.”
Isobel’s eyes blazed with fear. “What if Ricky gets to the road ahead of us and tries to grab my little boy?”
Cal pulled in a long breath. “You can trust me, Isobel. He won’t get his hands on your baby without a fight.”
Isobel bent over and brushed a kiss against the baby’s forehead. After a second, she raised her head, her eyes sad with resignation. Abby choked back her own tears. Isobel’s terror was rooted in the knowledge of the man who had tracked her down with the goal of kidnapping his son. She knew better than any of them the lengths to which Ricky would go to ensure that his will prevailed.
Fists banged against the break room door.
Their five minutes were up. It was go time.
Abby clutched the baby to her chest to warm herself against the chill. The air escaping through the open skylight was as frigid as a hole in a frozen lake where someone might drop a line in the hope of catching a fish.
Ice fishing. Judging from Cal’s attire that was what he’d been planning to do, right now, instead of helping Isobel settle into position on a plastic orange sled.
Bam! Bam! Bam! The pounding intensified, rattling the floorboards under her feet.
“Okay, Isobel,” Cal said. “Let’s load up you two and take a ride.”
Cal seemed oddly upbeat, considering what lay ahead. He was embarking on a terrifying journey down an icy roof, through a maze of pine trees, toward the shoulder of the major road. It would only make sense for him to be worried about their chances.
He draped a blanket around Isobel’s shoulders and folded a second to form a cushion at the bottom of the sled. “Don’t worry. I’m an expert at steering these things. My sisters could tell you stories about how I once rode down a practice course for the luge.”
Was he serious? Maybe not, but his relaxed banter had the desired effect. Isobel smiled as she scooted forward to make room for Cal on the sled. But her eyes remained uneasy and dark with distress. She had to be exhausted. Minutes after giving birth, she had climbed up a rickety staircase to the attic. But like Cal, she was pretending that setting off on a moonlight ride down a snowy embankment was fun.
Cal turned to Abby. “As soon as we clear the roof, grab the other sled and follow us down. Though you can still change your mind and go first.”
“No,” she said. “I really think this is the best plan for all of us.”
“Okay, then,” Cal said. He reached over and touched her hand. The sensation of Cal’s fingers brushing against her skin sent a rush of warmth flaring in her cheeks. Her breath caught in her throat, tangling her words into a murmur.
Cal turned to Isobel. “Abby’s going to hand you the baby now, and we’ll be on our way.”
“No! Wait!” Isobel’s eyes had a look of terror as she shook her head. “I can’t do this. I don’t feel strong enough to hold him. What if I pass out and drop him, and he falls into the snow? He could tumble down the hill out of our reach. And what if we aren’t able to find him out there, lost and alone in the darkness?”
Time seemed to stop as the sled teetered on the precipice of the open skylight. Abby’s eyes found Cal’s as he shook his head. Isobel was hysterical, but there wasn’t time to argue or to consider a change in the plan.
Bam! Bam! Bam! The kidnappers hammered even harder against the break room door.
Boom.
The crack of splintering wood sent vibrating waves across the attic floor.
A muscle clenched in Cal’s jaw. The time for hesitation was gone. “Okay, Abby. You take the baby on the sled. We’ll meet at the bottom by the road.” His voice was calm, but the set of his mouth betrayed the desperation of the moment.
Abby nodded, and then Cal leaned forward and pushed off the roof.
As soon as the sled disappeared from her sight, Abby switched into high gear. She needed to find a way to protect the tiny infant while freeing her hands to steer the sled. If only she could fashion some sort of a sling which would keep Isobel’s little boy close to her chest. But there was no time for that. Clutching the baby in her arms, she rushed toward the skylight and positioned the second sled on the edge. In an empty crate she found under the rafters, she made a cocoon of blankets to cushion her tiny passenger.
The tone and desperate pitch of the shouting in the room below hastened her movements. It was impossible not to think about what Isobel had said about Ricky—that he was a man who would stop at nothing to get his own way. How strange it was to think that in the six months she had known the pregnant teller, sat next to her at Bible study, chatted with her at the bank, in all that time, there hadn’t been the slightest inkling of the troubles she carried in her heart.
As Abby set the crate in front of her and settled down on the back end of the sled, she pictured a time when Isobel would be able to put the darkness behind her, when she would be free to raise her little boy away from Ricky’s lurking shadow and the fear of his vengeful wrath. It filled her with joy to think about that. And determination to do all she could to make that happen.
The scrape of a chair across the floor was followed by the ominous creak of unfolding stairs.
It didn’t matter. She was ready to go. With her legs clamped tightly around the box with the baby, she pushed off to follow Cal’s path into the snowy night.
* * *
Where were Abby and the baby? Cal cupped his hand above his eyes and looked toward the hill.
He could see no sign of the second sled. He raised his eyes to the triangular A-frame of the bank building and to the skylight opening in the roof. They weren’t there, either, so he scanned the row of pines in the section where the ground leveled out. Nothing.
So, where could they be?
He could think of several possibilities, none of them good. He flexed his fingers in frustration, wishing he could set off in search of her. But his first concern was getting Isobel to the hospital, and to that end, he needed to turn his attention back to the road. It was only a matter of time before someone stopped to offer assistance.
“Cal? Is everything okay?” Isobel’s hushed voice tensed through the cold night air. It had been a long, jarring ride down the hill, and she was visibly shaken by the ordeal. He had covered her with all of the blankets from the sled and found a place for her in a protected spot under a scrubby pine, well out of sight from the road.
He had kept only a thin yellow cloth which he draped around his neck.
“Shouldn’t they be here by now?” Isobel asked, her voice breaking.
“I’m sure they’ll arrive any moment.” He looked from right to left every few seconds, shifting his eyes to monitor both sides of the road. Finally, in the distance, he could see the yellow glow of headlights heading east in his direction.
As the vehicle got closer, he recognized that it was a semi. And it was moving fast.
He pulled the blanket from around his neck and stepped forward onto the shoulder. He knew a rig of that size couldn’t stop on a dime. But he leaned forward and waved the yellow cloth back and forth above his head.
With a spray of pebbles, the truck cruised past him in a blur.
Seconds later, the high-pitched squeal of air brakes split the air, and the semi rolled to a stop.
The driver’s door shot open, and a man in a Minnesota Twins ball cap stepped out of the cab. He was bearded and burly, and the first thing he did when his boots hit the ground was spit out a mouthful of seeds.
“What’s going on?” The older man’s voice was thick as gravel
, but his eyes were kind. “I reckon you were trying to get my attention by waving that blanket in the wind.”
Cal bent over against the cab, struggling to catch his breath after racing to meet him along the side of the road. “My name is Cal Stanek. I’m the Sheriff of Dagger Lake County. My badge is in my car at the top of that hill, so you’ll have to take my word for it. I won’t go into all of the details, but I need to use your cell phone.”
The driver hesitated a second before reaching into his pocket and handing him his phone.
Cal punched in three numbers. Linette Mae Brady answered on the first ring.
“Nine-one-one dispatch. How may I direct your call?”
“Linette, this is Cal,” he said, trying hard to keep his words from getting clumped together in his mouth.
“Hey, Sheriff. I thought you were going fishing—”
He cut her off before she could say more. “I need immediate backup to assist with an incident at the Keystone Bank. Three, possibly four, armed robbers may be on the run somewhere outside the building, and a line of explosives inside that could go off at any time. First responders should approach with extreme caution.”
He took another deep breath and shifted his eyes toward the truck driver who was standing a few feet away from him. Could he trust this stranger? He needed to make a split-second decision, relying only on limited observation and gut instinct. But, as a point of fact, he didn’t have much choice. It would take at least fifteen minutes before an ambulance arrived, and that would be fifteen minutes too long. Isobel required immediate medical care. Her lips were blue, and her legs were trembling. The adrenaline rush that had kept her going this far had clearly run its course.
He made his decision.
“One more thing, Linette. I need for you to call North Memorial Medical Center and tell them to be expecting a gentleman named...” He waited for the driver to provide his name.
“Carl Nisswandt,” the man said.
“Carl Nisswandt,” Cal repeated. “He’s driving an eighteen-wheeler, and they need to be ready when he pulls it into the emergency drop-off. With him will be Isobel Carrolls. Patient gave birth less than an hour ago and may be in shock.”
“Copy that,” the dispatcher answered. “I’ve sent out a call for assistance at the bank, and I will notify the hospital immediately.”
“Thanks.” He ended the connection and handed the phone back to its owner.
“Mr. Nisswandt,” he said with a brief nod. “Up ahead, under a pine tree, where you passed me on the road, there is the young woman who needs to be transported to the hospital. I know that these big rigs are difficult to back up, so it would be best if we both went to talk to her.”
“Can do,” the driver said. “It’s a privilege and an honor to help law enforcement in any way.”
Isobel staggered out to meet them as they approached the tall pine. “Cal. Where’s Abby? Is my little boy okay?”
“Isobel. This is Mr. Nisswandt. I’ve asked him to take you to the hospital while I wait for Abby and the baby. When they do, I’ll make sure they join you, first thing.”
“But Abby said that she would be right behind us when we left. And she has my baby.”
“I know. And I promise that I’ll find them as soon as I can. But right now, we need to make certain that you’re okay.”
Isobel’s body pitched forward as he helped her onto the sled. And as for Carl Nisswandt, he felt increasingly comfortable with his decision to leave Isobel in his care. The burly truck driver made easy work of pulling Isobel down the shoulder toward the cab.
Cal stood by the side of the road and watched as the taillights of the big rig disappeared around the bend. Then he turned and began to walk toward the hill.
Within ten minutes, Isobel would be admitted to North Memorial Medical Center where she would receive the medical treatment she needed. The thought brought him some small comfort.
But it wasn’t enough. Not by a long shot. There were two people still out there. Abby and the baby. And there were three armed kidnappers on the loose.
Cal’s eyes skimmed from left to right across the frozen terrain. Where were they?
Granted Abby’s sled was lighter, but that couldn’t have delayed her more than a minute, especially if she pushed off as soon as the first sled had cleared the roof. But over a quarter of an hour had passed since he and Isobel had launched from the attic. What could have happened to cause the delay?
He was confident in the strength of the barricade he had constructed in front of the break room door. With all the shims and furniture stacked in place, it ought to have taken at least five minutes for Ricky and his minions to break through. Unless...
A troubling thought crept into his consciousness. What if the kidnappers figured out what was going on? Ricky was smart, he’d give him that. He had to be in order to plan such an elaborate scheme. If Ricky realized that there was a skylight in the attic, he might have rushed outside and stopped the second sled before it even hit the ground.
He shook his head. This line of thinking wasn’t helping. He needed to find Abby and the baby before Ricky and his henchmen exacted their revenge. For the moment, he was going to assume that Abby had made it out of the attic. Where she had gone after that was the question.
It was hard to know since he himself hadn’t followed a straight line to the bottom of the hill. He had veered his sled toward the trees for maximum cover, expecting Abby to follow. But if she had traveled in a different direction, she could be almost anywhere.
The sky had clouded over, and snow was coming down now in huge flakes, leaving wet blotches on his canvas jacket and chilling him to the bone. He needed to get above the trees so he could see more of the terrain.
Fists clenched with determination, he began to run.
SIX
Abby rocked back and forth as she tried to jiggle forward, but the plastic sled only sank deeper into the drift. It felt like she was sitting on a frozen boulder, covered with a chilly quilt. Already, icy dampness was seeping into her too-tight shoes and cutting off her circulation. She was cold and wet and only halfway down the hill. And now her sled was stuck.
On the bright side, the baby was warm in the crate, under a cocoon of blankets and blissfully asleep. She looped the sled’s towrope around her wrist and set off toward the road. But the drifts were deeper than she expected. With every stride, it felt like she was taking one step forward and one step back.
Good thing Cal wasn’t around to witness the debacle. It would probably cause him to come up with yet another story, one intended to inspire her to keep calm and carry on. She allowed herself a small smile as she stumbled forward, heading toward what she hoped was the road. It was amusing—and slightly adorable—to think about Cal’s little history lesson about John Glenn. But really, it seemed to have been effective in clearing the air—the two of them had managed to work together to engineer a successful escape.
Abby took a long step forward, pleased that she was finally gaining traction in the slippery snow. It was slow going, but after hours spent confined to a small space, it felt liberating to stretch her legs. And it was a relief to put this day behind her. She paused for a moment to absorb the reality of the last several hours. Despite unlikely odds, she was alive.
Well, she wouldn’t be safe until she reached the highway. But which way to go? The usual markers in the landscape were masked with a heavy mantle of snow, and it was likely that she was headed in the wrong direction.
Should she call out Cal’s name in the hope that he might answer? It was a tempting thought. But a moment later, she heard the drone of an engine and caught sight of a vehicle moving down the driveway, two pools of yellow lights marking the way. Had Ricky—and his underlings—figured out what was happening and set off on the chase? Her thoughts flashed to Cal and Isobel. With the storm continuing to rage, they might still be waiting by the road
. She suppressed a shiver, panic surging through her. She needed to stay as quiet as possible and keep her body low. At least the sled she was pulling behind her was light enough to skim over the drifts. And the blankets she had tucked around her tiny passenger were thick enough to keep him warm and dry. With her shoulders hunched, she trudged forward. Each breath she took was stinging and hard, but she willed her legs to keep moving.
Suddenly, the air was pierced by the squeal of brakes and the slamming of doors, followed by the rabble of voices lashing through the wind.
The kidnappers must have spotted her and realized that she had the baby. Fresh terror reared up within her. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to go. She looked down at the tiny newborn in the crate on the sled. A feeling of overwhelming love coursed through her veins. She would protect him. Or die trying.
“There she is,” Ricky’s angry voice cried out as heavy footsteps crunched through the snow. And from the sound of it, he was closing in fast.
Run! Run! She tried to lengthen her stride, but it was hard to make any headway through the knee-high drifts.
But wait! Were her eyes deceiving her? She blinked. There, in the distance, a familiar figure, covered head to toe in a mantle of snow, raced toward her. Cal! She had never been so glad to see someone in her life.
He ran toward her and lifted the baby from the crate. Bending his foot, he kicked aside the wooden box and then turned the front of the sled to face the hill below.
“Hop on,” he said.
She dropped to her knees and settled down against the plastic as Cal placed the infant on her lap, then bent his arms against the back of the sled and pushed, propelling them forward toward the slope.
Pop! Pop!
Bullets snarled through the air as Cal jumped on the sled behind them. With the added weight, the momentum shifted, and the sled picked up speed, skidding across the ice toward a wall of whiteness.
Rescue on the Run Page 6
