“Where are you heading with this, might I ask?” Kent asked impatiently.
“Hold on, it’s just about to get good. The girl’s parents called the police, who found a witness that saw her leaving right when they pulled up. She was with some guy.”
“What does this have to do with us?” Kent asked.
Pete Stamsford smiled. “Well, earlier today I sent out a picture of Dominick Maxwell to all of the law enforcement agencies in the western half of the United States. I guess the New River Police got a wild hair and asked this witness if the man seen with this missing female was the man in the picture sent to them.”
“Maxwell?” Kent asked excitedly.
“Bingo! They were in a blue Jeep. The missing girl’s parents say that they don’t know any Dominick Maxwell and their daughter hasn’t ever done anything like this before. The witness said that the girl appears to have left of her own free will.”
“Did they get a license number?”
“No. They had no idea that anything was wrong until they went to get gas and the store was locked. There was a note on the door stating that someone would be back shortly. Soon thereafter, the owner pulled up and handled everything. From what the owner tells us, the girl called him at home, said that she was leaving and locking the store up and that she would drop her keys through the mail slot. Nothing was missing from the store besides a hundred dollars that she told him to take out of her last check. She would not give an explanation and she didn’t even call her parents; only texted them the one time. Right now, they are not treating this as a missing persons case since it appears that she left on her own.”
Kent was lost in deep thought for a minute. “Does this girl have a name?”
“Yeah, it’s Jennifer Capstan. She’s twenty-three years old and lives with her parents,” Pete answered.
Kent looked thoughtful again. “Dig up anything you can on this girl. Any idea which direction they were heading?”
Pete smiled. “Well, seeing as Maxwell was coming from Phoenix and he showed up in New River, I would guess that he was, and probably still is, heading north. Hard to say where though.”
“Thanks Pete,” Kent said, smiling. “I think we’re finally getting somewhere. Get in contact with everyone north of New River and have them keep an eye out for a blue Jeep with the two suspects in it. I say two suspects, because if she’s with Dominick Maxwell, then she is aiding and abetting a possible criminal. We need to find these people.”
“I’m on it, Kent. Oh, by the way, there were no long distance calls made at all from Maxwell’s cell phone in the past two months and his local calls were minimal. Nothing stands out. There have also been no credit card transactions since we last talked. I took it upon myself to see if there were any reports of a stolen Jeep, but so far, there are none. Except for the New River incident, he has left a pretty vague trail.”
“Thanks for all the hard work, Pete. We’re going to nail this guy. I need to check my voicemail and see if the doctor called and left a message, because he sure didn’t call my cell phone. If not, I’ll call his ass. I need a finger pointed towards Maxwell to make this stick when we take him down.”
Picking up his phone, Kent dialed his voicemail. There were no messages. “Damn it,” he yelled out in frustration. “I hate waiting for shit like this.” As he picked up the phone to call the doctor, his cell phone rang. Kent answered and was delighted to find that it was Dr. Bornley letting him know that he could come over and question the victim the next morning. He mentioned that Nina was improving greatly and she would be much more coherent by morning.
Kent hung up the phone. “Well Pete, I’m going to call it a day. The doctor says the victim won’t be coherent enough until morning, so I’ll stop by there first thing. There is nothing I can do here in the meantime.”
“Sounds good. See you in the morning sometime.”
As Kent was walking out the door, Pete stopped him. “Just so you know, I put a guard at Ms. Dyer’s door, just in case he tries again. Safety precaution!” he explained.
“You’re good people, Pete,” Kent said. “I don’t care what your wife says about you!”
Before Pete could reply, Kent Perry was out the door.
“Asshole,” Pete muttered, laughing under his breath.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Dom slowly opened his eyes and became aware of the sounds around him. Jenny was still asleep, snuggled up against his chest. He could hear birds chirping outside the tent and he could feel the cool morning air.
As the sun had set the night before, Dom and Jenny had made dinner and watched the stars for a while. When they both grew tired, they crawled into the tent and drifted off to sleep. He was dying to make love to her, but he was staying strong, so as to not cheapen the moment. He shook Jenny gently and she slowly opened her eyes.
“Good morning, Handsome,” she said groggily, a smile forming on her lips. “I see that I am still having a wonderful dream!”
“No dream here, Honey. It’s really me and you!”
Jenny smiled again, her eyes shining.
“I hate to hit a negative note here,” Dom said, “but we need to find out about Nina.”
“You’re right. Let’s get moving.”
They made a quick breakfast and broke down their camp, stowing the gear in the Jeep. As he was packing things away, Jenny saw him pull out a box that was tucked underneath some things in the back of the Jeep.
As he started to open it, she asked, “What’s that?”
“Well, I took the liberty of picking up a scanner while you weren’t paying attention. I thought you might have seen me pick it up.”
“What are you going to do with the scanner?”
“I want to listen to all the police radio activity that’s going on in case somewhere along the line we slipped up and they are looking for us in this area. You can never be too careful.”
“That’s true,” Jenny said. “I like it.”
Dom removed the scanner from the box. Turning it on, he put it on scan. The unit was designed to scan through all the channels that were used as police frequencies. When the scanner picked up a conversation, it would lock on that channel and stay there. If it detected no conversation, it would keep scanning the channels until it did. Dom listened for a minute, but the scanner didn’t pick up anything.
“We’re probably too far away from everything,” he guessed.
Leaving the unit on, he placed it in a secure place by the driver’s seat and together, they finished cleaning up the camp.
“What do you want to do if there is no change, Jenny?” Dom asked. “Come back here, or pick another spot?”
She thought for a minute. “There are plenty of camping spots in Northern Arizona. We’ll move on and get another spot. I don’t think we should stay in one place too long.”
“I think you’re right,” he agreed.
After making sure that there were no hot coals in the fire pit, Dom and Jenny climbed into the Jeep and started back towards Chino Valley. It took them about an hour and a half to get back to the edge of town and when they did, he pulled into a gas station. Even though they had filled their tank before heading down to the river, he filled it again to be prepared for whatever lay ahead.
The scanner had provided them with boring conversations, but nothing to do with them.
As soon as Dom paid for the gas, he moved the Jeep away from the pump and parked it by the side of the store. He was surprised to see a phone booth sitting there, considering people did not use them anymore. Dom googled the hospital’s number on his throwaway cell phone and was about to call the hospital from the cell phone when he thought better of it. He dug some change out of his pocket, got out and called the hospital from the pay phone. He didn’t want to have to get another cell phone when he had just purchased this one. When he got the switchboard, he asked for the nurses’ station on Nina’s floor. After a minute, a nurse answered the phone.
“Hi, I would like to inquire about the co
ndition of Nina Dyer,” Dom told the faceless voice on the other end of the line.
“Who’s calling, please?” the nurse asked.
He paused for a moment before answering. “Just a friend.”
The nurse on the other end of the line also paused for a couple of seconds and then said, “One moment, please, while I check for you.”
Before he could answer, he was put on hold. He waited two or three minutes and then got impatient. Just when he was thinking about hanging up, a voice came back on the line.
“Ms. Dyer is stable and off of the critical list. It looks like she is going to make it.”
He felt relieved. “Thank you very much. I’m glad to hear that.” As he hung up, he let out a sigh of relief. Nina was going to make it. That also meant that she could clear his name and he didn’t have to run anymore. He and Jenny could have a somewhat normal life now.
Dom’s thoughts were interrupted by Jenny yelling and waving him to the Jeep. She looked like she was in a panic. He ran to the Jeep and asked her what was wrong. Jenny’s face was white.
“Get in, Dom. Just get in and drive!”
Dom asked no questions. Jumping behind the wheel, he started the engine and pulled out in the direction that Jenny pointed. As he drove, she directed him in different directions and they finally ended up on a back road.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on and what the hurry is?” he asked, glancing over at her.
“While you were on the phone, I was listening to the scanner. Right before you hung up, I heard a call for officers to respond to the gas station we were at,” Jenny answered.
“Aren’t you being overly cautious, Jenny?” Dom asked. “I just got off the phone with the hospital and Nina is in stable condition. She’s going to make it which means she can clear me of any wrongdoing. I think we’re going to be okay.”
“Something tells me that the police don’t know that or don’t care,” Jenny said. “The person on the radio said to be on the lookout for a blue Jeep with two suspects in it, one male and one female, by the names of Dominick Maxwell and Jennifer Capstan. They said we are to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. They know where you are, who you’re with and what you’re driving. They know everything! How could they possibly know?”
Dom’s eyes opened wide at the realization of how they had been found.
“The hospital put me on hold for a little bit before they answered my questions. That asshole, Perry, must have set up someone at the hospital to trace any calls that came in about Nina. But how in the hell did they know I was driving a Jeep and who was with me? For that matter, why are they so hot and heavy on my ass when Nina is able to tell them that I didn’t do this to her? I don’t understand this at all.”
Jenny shook her head. “I don’t know, but if I were you, I’d shag ass now and ask questions later. Obviously they want you bad for some reason. Let’s get the heck out of here and go with a different game plan.”
Dom looked tired. “I guess we have no choice. Where are we going?” he asked.
“This road is the back way to an area called Williamson Valley, around the Prescott area,” Jenny answered. “From there, we can work our way down into Wickenburg and then into Phoenix, meanwhile staying off of the main roads. If we take a major highway into Prescott or Phoenix, we’ll be stopped right away.”
“It sounds good, but why would we want to go where the heat is? Phoenix is where we’re running from and I don’t want to go back,” he said.
“Think about it, Dom,” Jenny argued. “You can run somewhere else and hide, but what will that change? You can hide the rest of your life and what will it solve? You need to prove your innocence and the only way I see to do that is to get in and see Nina.”
His jaw dropped in shock. “Are you crazy, Jen? They’re going to have the hospital watched like a prison. We’re not going to get in or out of her room without getting busted and that’s a fact! Bad idea.”
Jenny shook her head. “Wrong. You underestimate the power of a woman with a fight to fight. I’ll figure out a way, okay?”
Dom nodded. “Okay Jen, I trust you. I’m way worried about this, but I guess I have no other options. Let’s do it.”
Turning up the scanner, he listened for the first time to all of the radio talk about him and Jenny. It sounded like they were cold, as far as the trail went. That was good news.
As Jenny directed Dom down the various roads which slowly led them back to Phoenix, he wondered if they were getting closer to the truth, or to the end of everything he had ever known. An uneasy feeling began to creep into his body. It wasn’t just the police that scared him. It was the feeling of eminent danger. The feeling of death. Even if Nina cleared his name, he still had to worry about the feeling of danger that lurked. Something was out there, but where? What was the force that he and Jenny were slowly driving towards? Was he driving towards salvation, or destruction? Dom didn’t know, but he was sure that he was about to find out.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
It was early the next morning and Kent Perry had stopped by the office on the way to the hospital to take care of a couple of things. When he checked his voicemail, he found another message from Dr. Bornley saying that he could indeed visit Nina Dyer that morning.
After he took care of his business at the office, he went down to the parking lot and climbed into his car and started it. Since he was a plainclothes detective, he drove his own vehicle and the department paid for gasoline and maintenance. Wimpy cars were not agreeable with him, so he drove a 2015 Dodge Charger. The car could handle any task he put to it and it never let him down. Kent sped out of the parking lot and had to swerve to miss a black and white coming in. The officer flipped him off. It’s a damn good thing he won’t give me a ticket, he thought.
The station was only four or five miles from the hospital, so Kent figured it would only take about ten or fifteen minutes to get there. The traffic lights were so long sometimes that he had to wait three or four minutes. As he drove, the heat forced beads of sweat from his forehead and they dripped on his lap. Kent reached down and turned on the air conditioning. The cool air hit him in the face and cooled him down. He did not listen to the radio as he drove. Kent Perry was the type of man that liked silence so that he could think. Music to him was just a distraction, a worthless part of society.
As he pulled up to the hospital, Kent turned off the air conditioning, parked his car and headed into the building, hitting the clicker to lock his car behind him as he went. He really hated going into the hospital. To him, it was associated with sickness and death. Just another part of my wonderful job, he thought as he made his way up to Nina Dyer’s room.
As he approached the door, an armed policeman stood up at his post. Kent showed him his identification and badge.
“Good morning, Detective,” the guard said.
Kent greeted him back and when the guard stepped aside, he tapped on the door to let Nina know someone was coming in. Hearing no response, he entered.
Nina Dyer was in the farthest bed from the door. She was the only occupant in the room. She looked like she had the last time he had seen her, with the exception of being conscious.
Today, she was partially in a sitting position and her eyes were open. Kent shut the door behind him and made his way over to the side of the bed. Pulling up a chair, he asked if she minded if he sat down. She shook her head no. Kent looked into her eyes and saw fear. A deep, disconcerting type of fear. Whatever story she had to tell, Kent could see that it was going to be hell on her. The look in her eyes was comparable to that of a trapped animal as it is about to be brought down.
Kent introduced himself and informed Nina what he was doing there and what he wanted to know.
“I know this is very hard on you, Ms. Dyer, but we have to get the person that did this to you.”
Tears started to well up in Nina’s eyes and her bottom lip began to tremble. Kent knew she was about to lose it.
“I’m so sorry, Ms
. Dyer. I know this is so difficult on you and I think I know why. We think we know who the person was, but we have no proof. Not unless you tell us that the person we suspect is the person that tried to kill you. For the sake of protecting you against future attacks, we need to know.”
That was when Nina lost it. Tears burst from her eyes and sobs gushed out as if she had been holding her breath for the last two minutes. She sounded like she couldn’t catch her breath. Nina tried to say something between her sobs, but Kent couldn’t make out what she was saying.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Dyer, I couldn’t understand what you said. Try to calm down a little bit and tell me again what you said.”
Nina nodded her head and took a Kleenex from the dispenser by her bed. After a couple of minutes of wiping at the tears and blowing her nose, she started to calm down a little bit. Between whimpers, she repeated herself.
“I just can’t understand why he would do this to me.”
“Who? Who did this to you?” Kent asked.
“I thought he loved me. How could he do this to me?” she gasped, tears starting to roll down her face again as sobs racked her body.
“Who was it? I need to know!” he demanded.
“DOMINICK!” she screamed, as her whole body started spasming uncontrollably.
Kent jumped in horror as her screams filled the room, thinking she might be dying. Before he could react, a nurse rushed in, flashing her ID badge to the guard at the door. She inserted herself between him and Nina for a minute until Nina calmed down. Kent saw the nurse was withdrawing a syringe from Nina’s IV port.
“She won’t be able to talk to you anymore today, sir. I just gave her a tranquilizer. She won’t be any good to you. Why don’t you come back tomorrow?”
Kent nodded his head and walked to the door and the guard let him out. “It doesn’t matter,” he mumbled to himself. “She told me all I need to know for right now. Maxwell did it. I knew that son of a bitch did it!”
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