Mountain Hostage

by Hope White

  * * *

  Zoe and Jack spent the afternoon going through Shannon’s journal and making up a chart to guide their investigation. He realized he’d never been this comfortable working with a partner. He’d been a one-man team, ever since childhood.

  Yet Zoe and Jack bounced ideas off each other, which stimulated new ideas, new avenues to explore.

  She had shared the information from Shannon’s text with Detective Perry hours ago. Jack had hoped that would move the investigation forward, but it was nearly dinnertime and they hadn’t heard back from the detective.

  He noticed her constantly checking her phone, probably hoping for a text from Shannon. It seemed like the absence of such a text further wounded Zoe each time she looked at her phone.

  Jack wanted to distract her but wasn’t sure how.

  Her phone vibrated and her eyes lit with hope, then quickly dimmed.

  “It’s Curt. Walter Grosch has arrived for his shift.” Zoe looked at Jack. “We should question him.”

  “Not here. Ask Curt to suggest an alternate location on the property.”

  She responded. “Need a place to meet. Not our duplex,” she said as she texted. She sat down at the kitchen table. Her anxiety was palpable.

  “You could stay here and let me talk to him alone,” Jack suggested, although truth be told, he didn’t want to leave her.

  “No, I need to do this.” Her phone pinged with a text. “He’s sending Walter to meet us at the storage facility on the north end of the property.”

  “Okay, let’s go.” They got their coats on and Romeo thought it was time to work. “Romeo, stay.”

  The dog lay down, but didn’t look happy.

  Jack asked her to wait for him to exit first, so he could be sure to scan the surrounding area. No one should know where they were, but he didn’t want to take any chances. They shouldn’t have found Zoe at the inn either, or at the police station, although that incident seemed to be related to breaking out the suspect, not kidnapping Zoe.

  They headed north in his SUV.

  “I hope Walter is helpful,” Zoe said.

  “Aren’t you worried that he’s skeegy?”

  “Very funny.”

  “I wasn’t making a joke.”

  “Oh, sorry. No, I’m not worried because you’re with me.”

  Jack’s chest swelled with pride. As he drove to the storage facility, he wondered if he should have called Detective Perry. Too late now. Besides, Walter didn’t have a record or even a speeding ticket for that matter. He was a retired schoolteacher. Harmless.

  The facility was a tall, gray building with a metal roof and large barn-type doors. Spotlights illuminated the property. One of the barn doors was open about three feet.

  “Curt told him to wait inside for us,” Zoe said.

  When Jack parked, she reached for the door. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay in the car?” Jack said.

  “No, absolutely not.”

  He studied her face, wondering if she genuinely meant no, or if she was putting up a brave front. After all, the guy was skeegy.

  “That’s really no, Jack,” she said. “I want to go with you.”

  He nodded, and they exited the SUV. He motioned for her to stay behind him. Apparently the gunfire from this morning had left its mark on Jack’s psyche, as well.

  He slowly entered the storage facility. Floor-to-ceiling shelves ran down the center of the building and also bordered the outside walls.

  He felt Zoe take his hand. Warmth crept up his arm and he gave her hand a squeeze, letting her know everything was going to be okay, although he didn’t know that for certain. He didn’t have instincts like other people, couldn’t always tell when something was amiss, as evidenced by Jeanie’s attack with a gun.

  “Walter?” Zoe called out. “Walter Grosch?”

  Silence answered them. Then a clicking sound echoed from the other end of the building. Jack put his finger to his lips and led her down an aisle. He wasn’t letting her go now, not if his life depended on it.

  Then Jack reconsidered his direction. The sound could be designed to lure them into a position of vulnerability.

  He turned to head back to the SUV, he wasn’t sure why.

  “You’re not going to get me!” a man shouted.

  ELEVEN

  Jack shoved Zoe aside and ducked, but the two-by-four connected with Jack’s shoulder.

  “No!” Zoe shouted.

  “Get out of here!” Jack ordered.

  The board came down a second time across Jack’s back. At least it wasn’t his head. Jack scrambled to get away from the attacker.

  “I’m not taking the fall for you!” the guy shouted. He sounded crazed, out of his mind.

  As Jack braced himself for another blow, he saw Zoe pull something out of her bag.

  “Get away from him!” she ordered.

  “Aaahhh!” the man cried out.

  She’d nailed him with the pepper spray.

  Jack got to his feet and stood beside Zoe, who pointed the spray at the guy’s face. The man, midsixties with graying hair, stumbled backward. But he still clung to the piece of wood.

  “My eyes!” he shouted. “You blinded me!”

  “It’s pepper spray. It’s temporary,” Zoe said. “Why did you attack us?”

  “He warned me you were coming. I’m not going to jail for you. You can’t prove I’m involved.” He waved the board in front of him, unable to see his targets, but determined to keep Zoe and Jack away.

  “Calm down,” Jack said.

  “I don’t have the drugs!” He turned to run.

  “No, wait!” Zoe said, following him.

  “Zoe,” Jack grabbed her arm to put distance between them and the crazed man. He disappeared around the corner.

  A shriek and a grunt echoed through the facility. Jack and Zoe rushed to the end of the aisle.

  Kelly stood over the man’s still body on the floor. Blood seeped from a head wound. Kelly dropped her weapon, a metal pipe. “Walter,” she said. “What have I done?”

  So, this was Walter.

  “Kelly, call 911,” Zoe ordered.

  Zoe went to Walter’s side, whipped off her scarf and held it against the wound on his head. It seemed like he tried opening his eyes, but they were swollen from the pepper spray.

  “Walter, it’s okay,” Zoe said. “We’re calling the paramedics.”

  “No police. They’ll arrest me.”

  “Why would they arrest you?” she said.

  “My back,” he said.

  “You hurt your back just now?”

  “No, that’s why I needed the drugs. Got them from her...so I could work.”

  Zoe wasn’t sure if she wanted to ask the next question. “Shannon sold you drugs?”

  Walter nodded and closed his eyes.

  “Walter?” Zoe placed her ear to his chest. A strong heartbeat.

  “He’s still alive.” She looked at Jack, who was making the 911 call.

  Kelly crumbled to her knees beside Zoe, hugging herself. “I didn’t know what else to do. I thought he was going to hurt you and I couldn’t let him hurt Shannon’s best friend.”

  “Jack, can you take over here?” Zoe said.

  As Jack knelt, she noticed him wince slightly.

  “How’s your back?” she said.

  “Take care of Kelly.”

  He pressed the scarf against Walter’s head wound and Zoe turned to Kelly. “It’s okay, Walter’s going to be okay.”

  “I didn’t...kill him, did I?”

  “No, you didn’t kill him.”

  Kelly glanced at Zoe with fear in her eyes. “Are they going to arrest me?”

  “No, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Zoe spent the next few minutes consoling Kelly as t
hey waited for police to arrive. The young woman was coming apart, traumatized by the violent action she’d taken to defend Zoe and Jack.

  I couldn’t let him hurt Shannon’s best friend.

  Speaking of best friends, Zoe wondered if she really knew Shan at all.

  A drug dealer? Walter was the second person to claim as much. Even if they were able to prove it wasn’t Shan who put the drugs in Jeanie’s backpack at the community center, what explanation could there be about Walter’s story?

  Zoe’s phone rang with a call from Curt, the resort manager. “I need to take this. Are you okay?” she asked Kelly.

  “Yes,” Kelly said, still staring at Walter.

  Zoe stood and answered. “Hi, Curt.”

  “I saw an ambulance speeding by the main building. Is everyone okay?”

  “Walter attacked us.” She glanced at his still body.

  Kelly leaned close to him. “I’m sorry, Walter. I’m so sorry.”

  “Attacked you? Why would he—”

  “I think he’s on drugs.” She’d sensed as much from his crazed behavior and dilated pupils. “I’ll call you back after police take our statements.”

  “Police?”

  “This might be tied to their investigation into Shannon’s disappearance. I’ve gotta go.”

  Jack opened the barn doors wide and waved emergency crews into the storage facility.

  Detective Perry stormed up to Jack. “You were supposed to keep her safe.”

  “He did,” Zoe said. “I’m fine. Walter isn’t.”

  “Who assaulted him?”

  “I got him with pepper spray, then Kelly hit him with a pipe,” Zoe said. “She was defending me and Jack. Walter was acting crazed and violent. Kept saying he didn’t want to go to jail.”

  Two paramedics took Walter’s vitals. “Anyone know if he’s on anything?” the younger of the two asked.

  “I suspect so, but don’t know what,” Zoe offered.

  After a few minutes they shifted Walter onto a stretcher. Kelly didn’t move from her position on her knees. It was as if she still thought Walter was on the ground in front of her.

  “Come on,” Zoe said, encouraging her to stand.

  Kelly stood, wearing a dazed look on her face.

  “Why were you two out here anyway?” Perry said.

  Sergeant Peterson entered the storage facility and joined them.

  “Shannon mentioned Walter in her journal,” Zoe explained. “We wanted to meet him and ask some questions.”

  “Why, because you think you can do my job better than I can?” Detective Perry directed his question at Jack.

  “It was my idea,” Zoe said. “And I think you’re doing a fine job, but we were already here, and I thought it wouldn’t hurt to get a little more information for you, for the case.”

  Detective Perry slowly turned his gaze to Zoe. “And what did you find out?”

  Her heartbeat pounded into her eardrums as she mustered the courage to admit everything they’d learned. She wouldn’t look at Jack because she didn’t want the detective to think he had undue influence over her.

  “Walter claimed that Shannon was selling him drugs.”

  “We’re losing him!” a paramedic shouted as they hesitated in the doorway.

  Zoe put her arm around a whimpering Kelly.

  “I didn’t hit him that hard,” Kelly said, turning into Zoe’s shoulder to look away from the scene. Zoe felt Jack’s arm slide around her. The three of them waited, listening to the sounds of paramedics trying to keep Walter alive.

  “Clear!” a man shouted.

  Zoe jerked at the sound of paddles shocking a heart back to life.

  Long, grueling minutes stretched by as Zoe tried to block out the sound of the paramedics, trying to revive Walter.

  “I didn’t hit him that hard,” Kelly repeated.

  “Shhh,” Zoe said, patting her back.

  “Come on,” Jack said, leading Zoe and Kelly to the other side of the storage facility.

  Detective Perry and Sergeant Peterson didn’t follow, which was good since their presence upset Kelly. She probably thought they’d arrest her for murder if Walter didn’t make it.

  But why? Why wouldn’t he make it? It was true, Kelly didn’t hit him that hard, and the pepper spray wouldn’t cause cardiac arrest.

  “Got a heartbeat. Let’s go!”

  Zoe sighed and closed her eyes. Thank you, God.

  She felt Jack squeeze her shoulder and she looked at him. He offered what she interpreted as a subtle and comforting smile as if to say it’s okay.

  But it wasn’t okay. It was looking more and more like Shannon was involved in the drug business.

  And she was still missing.

  Nothing was okay.

  * * *

  Jack led the women back to the opposite side of the storage facility to finish their interview with Detective Perry.

  “Jack, you okay?” Sergeant Peterson said.

  It was only then that Jack felt the warm trickle of blood seeping down the side of his head. “I’m fine,” he said.

  Curt entered the facility, but Detective Perry put out his hand. “This is a crime scene. Please stay out.”

  Jack agreed. The fewer people in here, the better. More people would confuse the situation, maybe even upset the women further.

  He sensed how distraught Zoe was by the tension in her shoulders. The more they dug into her friend’s life, the more evidence they uncovered that Shannon was a drug dealer. Jack wished he could give Zoe comfort, but he knew he’d fall short in that department. Wasn’t that what Mari had said when she broke off their relationship? That Jack was missing the skills necessary to fulfill a woman in the emotions department?

  Now why was he going there, he wondered. Head injury, no doubt.

  “Am I going to jail?” Kelly asked the detective.

  “I’m not arresting you for trying to protect Jack and Zoe,” Detective Perry said. “Jack, you’re next.” He motioned Jack to follow him, away from the women.

  Jack didn’t like the idea of being even a few feet away from Zoe, but at least he could still see her. He gave Perry an official statement, pretty much repeating what Zoe had said.

  “Is there anything else? Anything Zoe didn’t mention?”

  “I’m not sure I understand your meaning.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “You’re a smart guy, smarter than most. Maybe you picked up on something she didn’t because she was blinded by loyalty to her friend.”

  Jack thought about that for a moment. “Well, the assault seemed personal.”

  “Personal how?”

  “Walter seemed like he had targeted me specifically, but I never met the man until today. I can’t explain it.” And he couldn’t because he wasn’t a people or behavior expert.

  “What gave you that idea, that it was personal?”

  “Something he said, that he was warned about us, that I was coming to get him.”

  “He knew you were coming? Maybe you need to relocate.”

  “No, he meant here, at the storage facility. He said, ‘I’m not going to jail for you. You can’t prove I’m involved.’”

  “Involved?”

  “Drugs? As Zoe told you, Walter admitted he bought drugs from Shannon.”

  Detective Perry glanced at Zoe, who was still consoling Kelly. “How’s Zoe taking it? The confirmation that her friend is a drug dealer?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Detective Perry frowned at Jack. “You need to be up front with me, that was the agreement from the beginning—share information about Zoe to help the investigation.”

  “I’m not keeping anything from you.”

  “I wish I could believe that.”

  “I do not lie to the authorities.”

 
; “No, but you could be holding back.”

  “Could be, but I’m not. I haven’t had a chance to speak with Zoe alone to find out how she’s processing all this. How much longer will we be detained?”

  “Almost done.”

  “What about the text from Shannon to Kelly?” Jack asked.

  “I spoke with Kelly earlier. That was the only one she received. We don’t have the tools to track the phone to an exact location, but they’re trying to triangulate a general area.”

  “I could do it.”

  Perry eyed him.

  “If I can’t pinpoint the exact location, then it can’t be done.”

  “Yeah, okay, hotshot.”

  Jack noted the sarcasm. “It’s my business. It’s what I’m good at.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Were you able to trace the car that left the scene of the police department shooting?”

  Jack must have said the wrong thing because the detective’s countenance seemed to harden even more. “The minivan had been reported stolen by Curt Underwood.”

  “From the resort?”

  “No, he’d parked it at the Village Supermarket, and when he came out, it was gone. We found it three miles outside of town. Working on prints now. In the meantime, why don’t you head back to your lodging and keep a low profile? I’ll post a deputy in an unmarked car on the property. Don’t leave the premises for any reason, you got me?”

  “I understand the wisdom of your concern, but I cannot dictate what Zoe does or does not do.”

  “Well, you’d better learn to dictate, Jack. I don’t want to lose her, too, because you failed.”

  The detective, whom Jack would obviously no longer call by his first name, turned abruptly and walked away. Jack stood there, feeling like...like what? He felt like he’d been kicked in the stomach with a steel-tipped boot. Twice.

  These past few days his focus had been to keep Zoe safe, yet the detective was calling Jack a failure for not being able to control her decisions, her actions.

  No, the detective was doing much worse: he was blaming Jack, to his face, for Angie Adams’s death.

  Jack knew some people questioned his actions up on the mountain; he even questioned himself from time to time, when his mind drifted, when he wasn’t absorbed in one project or another. But his team said he’d made the right call, done his best to administer emergency aid. They’d said it wasn’t his fault that the chopper didn’t make it in time because it was on another assignment.