Cornered in Conard County

by Rachel Lee

  And he wished he could ignore the sense that Dory needed him. She was fine. She had Flash, she was at work, she’d have called if she needed help and the department would have called him.

  Everything was fine.

  So why couldn’t he believe it?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Dory figured she could give Flash a good thirty-minute run before she’d need to shower and head out to Cadell’s ranch. She was eagerly looking forward to seeing him again, and not all her good reasons for avoiding those feelings would get rid of that.

  Oh, well, she thought as she ran down the sidewalk, her jogging shoes slapping on pavement. She passed a couple in their front yard, and they exchanged waves and smiles. Maybe getting out of her shell wasn’t so bad.

  Her run took her to the edge of town, where a vacant lot with a brook running through it covered several acres. Tall trees grew there, and she loved the way they dappled the light. No houses were nearby, but that was okay. She had Flash.

  When she reached the end of the trees, she sometimes paused to watch the brook, but today she didn’t have time. “No stops today, Flash,” she told him. He didn’t appear to mind. Tongue lolling, he was galloping along happily at her side.

  A truck pulled up, and she barely spared it a glance until a voice called to her, chilling her to her bones.

  “Dory? Get in.”

  Turning, ice running through her veins, she saw a gun pointed at her. Then she saw the man behind it, leaning out of a battered red truck. George. Oh, my God, George.

  “Make that dog behave or he gets the first bullet.”

  Neck stiff, she looked down at Flash. He was at full attention, his gaze fixed on George and the gun. Cadell had said he would recognize a threat when he saw it.

  “I’m warning you, Dory. You think I won’t kill that dog?”

  She never doubted it. But there was only one way to take Flash off guard. Shoving her hand into her pocket, she pulled out a tennis ball.

  His entire demeanor changed. His tail wagged, and for an instant she thought he was going to get down and gnaw the ball. But instead he dropped it and lowered his head as he stared at George.

  “Okay, then,” George said. “Bring him a few steps closer.”

  “No.”

  “I won’t shoot him unless you don’t do what I say. Get him closer.”

  Step by agonizing step, she approached, feeling Flash start to pull at the leash. He wanted to go after George.

  But when they stood a few feet away, the barrel of that gun still leveled at her, George thrust the truck door open and stuck out a yellow pole. What the...

  Then she heard the sizzle and Flash’s yelp. He fell to the ground, jerking.

  “More than one way to deal with you and that dog. Now get your behind into this truck.”

  She dropped the leash, looking down at Flash, relieved to see he was still breathing. It was the last relief she was able to feel.

  Then, almost numb, past fear, she climbed into the passenger side of the truck. He kept the pistol aimed at her every second.

  “I’ll give you money,” she said stiffly as he shoved the truck into gear.

  “You bet your sweet butt you will. Now shut up or I’ll use that prod on you.”

  * * *

  CADELL GOT A radio call just before he was scheduled to get off duty. It was the sheriff, Gage Dalton.

  “We’ve got Dory Lake’s dog here. He’s fine, but Dory’s missing. Not at her house. I’ve put out a county-wide alert.”

  Just as Gage finished speaking, the alert popped up on Cadell’s mobile unit, along with the rendered photo of a bearded George Lake.

  Cadell jammed on the brakes, closed his eyes and gripped the steering wheel so hard his hands cramped. He didn’t need to know the odds against finding someone in all these hundreds of square miles of open space.

  “We’re doing a door to door,” Gage said. “Meantime, we’ve started the phone tree with the ranches. Get yourself home, Cadell.”

  “Home? What the hell can I do there?”

  “Get us a bunch of search dogs.”

  * * *

  THE OLD PICKUP rattled down roads that Dory recognized. A smidgen of hope awoke in her. Either she’d be able to talk her brother into taking money, or she’d find another way to deal with him. Because when they turned in to Cadell’s ranch, it was well-known territory to her. She guessed that Cadell would be there in about an hour, as he’d planned...as long as the job didn’t delay him. But she refused to consider that possibility. He’d come and he’d come on time. She just had to make it for one hour. Surely she could do that.

  “I never did anything to you,” she said trying to make herself sound small, almost childlike.

  “You should have stayed in bed.”

  “I wish I had.” She closed her eyes briefly. “I wish I’d never seen. But I never did anything to you.”

  “You took away my escape time. You ran screaming out onto the street. I thought you loved me.”

  “I did.”

  “Then why did you run, Dory. Why?”

  She shook her head a little, watching Cadell’s house grow closer. Soon she could see the ostriches. Dog pens out back. If she could manage to let the dogs out somehow...

  Why was he bringing her here, of all places?

  “I ran because I was terrified. George... I didn’t even understand what I was seeing! For more than a year I could only speak two words, red paint. That’s all I could compare it to.”

  He said nothing more. She struggled to think about how she could distract him. Thought of Flash and hoped he would be okay, because her poor dog hadn’t done anything to deserve that shock.

  And mile by mile, she had felt her fear of George transforming into hatred. Then she remembered what Cadell had said about George being her only heir.

  Her heart slammed, and she realized for absolute certain, all the way to her very core, that she was not going to survive this. Far from weakening her, the knowledge pumped strength into her. If she was going to die, she wasn’t going to make it easy.

  “You know,” she said, watching the house grow closer, “I didn’t take the inheritance away from you. The court did. You can have it all if you want. I’ll turn it over to you.” A lie, but he wouldn’t know that.

  “A little late, don’t you think? Twenty-five years in prison. I need to even the score more than that. Anyway, my lawyer told me that it’s in a trust you can’t break. You couldn’t pay me enough to leave you alone now.”

  Her hands clenched. “I didn’t put you in prison, George. I didn’t testify. Hell, I couldn’t even tell anyone what had happened. Conversion disorder, they called it. For more than a year I only spoke two words, and for over three months I was blind.”

  That caught his attention as the house rolled closer. “Blind, huh?”

  “Blind,” she said. “I didn’t even understand what had happened. I couldn’t. I had nightmares, though. Plenty of nightmares.”

  “You should have stayed in bed,” he said again. But this time his voice was stony cold. Whatever charm he exerted on the rest of the world, he wasn’t going to waste any on her. Not anymore.

  They pulled up to one side of the house. The familiarity of the scene jarred Dory, contrasting as it did with George’s abduction of her. This was a place where she’d always found peace and welcome. Just having George here seemed to shatter all that.

  “Dory.”

  Reluctantly she looked at her brother. The gun was pointing at her again.

  “Get out.”

  “Just shoot me here.” Yeah, the anger was growing huge, and a mental voice warned her to rein it in. Now was not the time to stop thinking. But oh, the things she wanted to do to George right now would get her thrown in prison herself.
Flash popped into her mind’s eye, and a little crack broke through the anger. Her beloved Flash. This man had taken everything from her. Her parents. Her childhood. Her trust. Now even her dog.

  Oh, yeah, she wanted him to pay. He hadn’t paid nearly enough.

  But she had to be smart, await her chance. Right now all she’d get for her efforts was a gunshot wound. So she climbed out of the truck, scanning the area, looking for anything she could use.

  Curious, the ostriches watched them with those inscrutable dark eyes, but they had backed up in their pen, getting as far away as they could, unlike when Cadell showed up.

  “Ostriches seem like a weird thing to have out here,” George remarked.

  Dory didn’t answer, still trying to figure out what she could do. If she ran toward the kennels to let the dogs out, he’d probably put a bullet in her back before she got halfway around the house.

  “I like those birds,” her brother continued conversationally. “Big, beautiful and scaredy-cats.”

  She glanced at him, wondering how he could know that. But clearly he’d been out here before. When? Last night?

  He motioned with the gun. “Let’s go get a closer look at those birds. I hear their feathers are worth a fortune.”

  Was he going to kill the birds and steal their feathers? But then she realized he was still carrying that long yellow stick, the one that had zapped Flash. What the hell was he up to?

  As they drew closer to the cage, the birds pulled back to the farthest side, then hunkered down, making themselves as small as possible. They didn’t seem to like the strangers. Or at least George.

  “That’s how they protect themselves,” George remarked. “They either try to become invisible or they run. Did you know they can run nearly forty miles an hour? Only a cheetah can catch one.”

  She wondered why the hell he was talking about this and taking her ever closer to the pen. Maybe he had gone crazy. This was making no sense.

  “Now here’s the deal,” George said when they reached the pen, watched by suspicious birds. “You can either go into that pen with them, or I’ll zap you with this prod and put you in there myself.”

  Dory’s heart nearly stopped. For a few seconds, her anger drained completely, leaving her filled with terror. Her knees weakened, and the urge to run nearly overwhelmed her. A sane voice in her head shouted it would do no good to run. She needed to buy time. She stiffened inwardly, feeling a crazy rush of strength. One thing became clear to her: if she was going to be in the pen with those birds, she didn’t want to be paralyzed for even a few minutes. No way.

  She couldn’t scale the wire fence because it was electrified at the top, but maybe she could soothe the birds, keep them from getting too agitated. Just become small and inoffensive, she told herself. Maybe they’d leave her alone.

  Her mouth turned dry, but she ignored it. Her hands moistened, making it difficult to work the latch. The birds remained hunkered down, watching.

  And all the while, she wondered at the point of this. Was he going to shoot her inside the pen with the birds? What good would that do? Why not just leave her corpse somewhere along the roadside?

  Eventually, with fumbling fingers, she opened the latch. The gate dragged on the ground as she pulled it open then slid inside, moving very slowly. Behind her, she heard George latch it once again. Then she heard an unmistakable snick. He’d added a padlock. From inside this pen, she didn’t think it was possible to open the other gate into the corral. Whenever Cadell did it, he opened it with a mechanism on the outside.

  She was breathing too heavily, in danger of becoming light-headed. She couldn’t afford to faint again. Not now. So far the birds had offered no protest at her presence but stayed hunkered down.

  Maybe she should imitate them. Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground, wrapping her arms around her knees.

  “What do you want, George?” she asked, keeping her voice steady, beginning to hope that the birds would remain calm. God, she knew how huge they were, and she didn’t like being in here with them, with those enormous feet. They didn’t have talons like ordinary birds, but they each had one toe that grew a nail so large it looked like a weapon.

  Anger toward George was surging again, erasing her fear, making her scan the enclosure for just one item she could use to get out of here, or to attack George once he’d finished enjoying torturing her.

  The birds, though. She just couldn’t figure out why he wanted her in here with the birds.

  Then he told her. “I left out one interesting fact about these birds, dear sister. They have a powerful kick. If they can’t run and feel threatened, they kick with enough power to break bones.”

  She caught her breath. If anyone could think of something like this...her brother had. But how could he make that happen?

  And then she saw. Walking around the pen, he poked his rod through the wire, and she heard the snap and sizzle. One of the birds screamed and rose to its full height.

  For the first time, anger began to give way to despair. Those birds had nowhere to run. If he kept torturing them...

  She closed her eyes. Cadell should be here soon, she thought. The only question was whether he’d arrive before she was kicked to death by frantic, tortured ostriches. She desperately hoped nothing would delay him.

  * * *

  CADELL RACED SO fast over the back roads that when he hit a rut, he literally went airborne, killing the suspension. He didn’t care. As long as he didn’t break an axle.

  Dory was missing. Her worst nightmare had come true. Only now did he realize it was his own worst nightmare, as well.

  He keyed his radio. “Nobody saw a thing?”

  “Not a thing,” answered Gage. “One of Jake’s city cops saw the dog trailing its leash back toward her house. He recognized Flash immediately. That’s all we know.”

  There was hope in that, Cadell tried to tell himself. At least George hadn’t killed the dog. Maybe all he wanted from Dory was money, after all.

  He wished he believed it.

  Dasher whimpered from the backseat, voicing a protest at the rough ride. Cadell couldn’t bring himself to slow down. The dog would be fine. His crate was belted in and not so big that that he was being thrown all over the back.

  He pounded his fist against the steering wheel. How in hell were they going to find one woman who could be anywhere in these vast, open spaces? Hope a ranch hand came upon her before it was too late? Even with the phone tree operating, there was no way the folks on these huge ranches could check every acre. They’d have to catch sight of something by sheer chance.

  No, all the phone tree would do was serve notice to be watching for anything unusual. Better than nothing, but not by much.

  Then he heard the whop of helicopter blades pass over. So they’d taken to the air, as well. That might help. Maybe. But you couldn’t tell who was driving a car from above.

  Then, when he was ten minutes away from his place, the radio crackled. “Cadell? You read?”

  “I read.”

  “There’s a truck parked beside your house. An old red pickup. Anyone you know?”

  “Damn it, no!” He floored the vehicle even more, hardly hearing the call for units to head toward his ranch.

  * * *

  LYING ON THE ground curled up with her arms over her head, Dory awaited the blow that might kill her. Except that things weren’t going according to George’s plan. The ostriches were growing increasingly frantic, but they didn’t seem to regard the small ball of human at their feet as a threat. Or anything they even wanted to step on. When she dared to open her eyes, she saw those ostrich feet racing around, coming close, but never striking her.

  She heard George cussing, heard the awful sound and smelled the terrible smell of singed feathers every time he prodded one of those poor ostriches. She just wish
ed she had a gun so she could put an end to this. So she could save those birds from more terror and pain.

  But she didn’t have a weapon and didn’t dare move.

  Then, wonder of wonders, she heard helicopter rotors overhead. She desperately wanted to look but didn’t chance it. She heard George start cussing even more viciously, though. Soon the rotors passed on into the distance.

  The cops? Had the cops already discovered she was missing?

  Oh, God, please let help come soon. Those birds couldn’t take much more, and she hated feeling so helpless to put a stop to George’s hatefulness.

  George spoke, his voice tight with fury. “I’ll get you later, sis.”

  Then the truck engine started. Risking a kick, she lifted her head a little and saw George taking off. It must have been the cops.

  She waited, hoping the birds would settle soon. As they began to quiet, she eased herself into a sitting position and looked at them. Each was pecking at its own feathers, as if to remove the singed ones. And neither of them showed the least interest in her.

  * * *

  CADELL WHEELED INTO his driveway, nearly losing his traction on the gravel and headed straight up it. One lane, a ditch to either side, invisible beneath the cut grasses. No place for anyone to go.

  Then he saw the red truck bearing down on him. It, too, appeared to be moving at top speed. Cadell gripped the wheel tighter, his mind made up. He was not going into the ditch. Either that so-and-so would swerve or they were going to meet head-on. He had not the least difficulty imagining who would get the worst of a head-on, and it wasn’t going to be his official vehicle with the heavy-duty front bumper, strengthened frame and roll bar.

  He had one moment when hesitation pierced him. One moment when terror rose as he realized that Dory could be in that truck. But as it came closer, he could see only one head.

  His heart and chest tightened. She might already be dead. Well, if so, she was about to get some company, because for the first time in his life Cadell wanted to commit murder. It was an ugly feeling; he hated it even as it rose in him. But he didn’t let go of it.