“We have to get to my dad,” she told Kyle in a broken voice.
Kyle didn’t argue, but took her by the arm and hurried her around the side of the garage, out of view of Johnna and Finn. Once they were clear, Kyle scooped her up into his arms, settled her against his chest, and took off at a dead run. Instantly, the wind was roaring by and her body was being compressed by the force it, but Lanie didn’t care. She turned her face into Kyle’s neck and steeled herself against the icy onslaught. She could bear it. She had to get to her dad and this was the fastest way, so she could bear it.
She didn’t have to bear it for long, though, because it seemed in only a matter of moments they were slamming to a halt, which again caused Lanie’s organs to hit her ribcage. She opened her eyes just as Kyle set her on her feet, finding that they were standing on the sidewalk outside the police station. She glanced around, finding her dad’s patrol car parked in his space just up the street and relief rolled over her.
“Are you sure about this Lanie?” Kyle asked her in a serious tone. “This’ll change everything. And you run the risk of losing your dad, too.”
“I know,” she croaked out, tears already spilling down her cheeks.
This would change everything for everyone, but Gretchen’s life was at stake, if she still had her life. There was absolutely no choice.
“You don’t have to come in with me,” she told Kyle, turning and making for the door of the building.
“He won’t believe you if I’m not there,” Kyle said and she knew he was right.
Without having the proof that what she was saying was true, Sheriff Bancroft would probably have her committed.
Inside the familiar space, which smelled of disinfectant and old paper, Lanie made her way straight past the front desk and into her dad’s office. Her father was sitting at his metal desk, a massive stack of paperwork in front of him. He glanced up as Lanie and Kyle entered, his handsome features set.
“Lanie? How…how’d you get here so fast? Johnna just called me,” he asked, confused.
Lanie, swiping at the tears rolling down her face, ignored the question. “Dad, it’s Gretchen...”
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
“Dad, I’m telling you the truth! It’s not Kyle!” Lanie shouted as her father shoved Kyle up against the wall of his office and had the handcuffs on him in less than a second flat. “He didn’t do this! And you can’t find Gretchen without him!”
“Lanie, what have you been taking!” Sam demanded angrily, grabbing Kyle by the scruff of his neck, whipping him around, and slamming him backward into the wall. “Tell me what he gave you!”
“Dad, I’m not taking drugs! I’m not imagining this! Frederik took Gretchen! If we don’t find her he’ll kill her!” she argued, desperation crushing her.
“Sheriff Bancroft, those girls were all drained of their blood, weren’t they! Why do you think that is!” Kyle growled at the man.
“You shouldn’t say anything until I’ve read you your rights and you’ve called an attorney, asshole!” Sam snapped at him, giving him another slam into the wall, shaking the picture frames hanging there.
“Dad, listen to him! Gretchen really is in trouble!” Lanie snapped, putting herself in between her father and the door of his office, just in case he decided to haul Kyle away. He wasn’t getting out of the office unless he tazed her!
“The bodies are drained of their blood because Frederik feeds on them!” Kyle snarled at Sam. “He drains them and then tosses them out like so much garbage! He has Gretchen and if he doesn’t kill her then he plans on using her to draw Lanie to him!”
“Don’t say another word, boy!” Sam ordered, slamming Kyle against the wall for a third time. “You’re only implicating yourself!”
“Dad, stop it! This isn’t a joke!” Lanie cried, feeling fresh tears spill down her cheeks. “Gretchen has been taken!”
“By who, Lanie! By a vampire! Surely, you didn’t think I’d believe that! This boy has you brain washed!” Sam barked.
“Dad, listen to me—“
“Lanie, you’re running around town with a man who’s carrying a crossbow and a bundle of…stakes!” Sam shouted, casting a glance at Kyle’s weapon and leather pouch lying on the desk. “There is nothing you have to say that I want to hear!”
“Dad! I swear—“
“Kyle Vincent, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If—“
“Daddy, please, stop it!” Lanie beseeched in a shrill, little girl voice.
“If you cannot afford an attorney, one will appointed for you. Do you understand these rights as I’ve read them to you?” Sam quoted the Miranda Rights in an official tone, but slammed Kyle against the wall once he was finished.
“Kyle!” she cried, not knowing what else to do. If he didn’t do something, he’d wind up in the holding cell and Gretchen would wind up dead!
Without warning, Kyle broke free of Sam. There was a dull, metallic screech and suddenly Kyle brought his hands around in front of him, the handcuffs hanging off each wrist, but the chain in the middle broken. He grabbed Sam by the shirt front and lifted him up off the floor before Lanie could blink.
“If I let you arrest me then I can’t protect Lanie! He’s after her!” Kyle roared, giving Sam a stout shake.
Sam went stiff, his face going blank as his large eyes focused on the broken cuffs.
“Listen to him, Dad!” Lanie shot at her father, angry now. “He’s not making this up!”
There was a moment of silence and then Sam seemed to give himself a mental kick that jolted him out of his shock. “I don’t know how you did that, but—“
“Kyle!” Lanie growled, suddenly angry beyond belief.
She was truly questioning her thinking in telling her father!
Kyle, clearly frustrated, took a step forward and then Lanie blinked and saw her father up against the opposite wall of his office with one of Kyle’s hands closed over his throat. Lanie’s first instinct was to scream out, but she stopped herself. Her dad should listen to her when she was telling him the town was under attack by a crazed vampire!
“Listen to what your daughter is telling you!” Kyle snarled in a voice that was far deeper and more coarse than it should have been. “I’m not the one who’s responsible for killing those girls!”
Sam was stunned into immobility, his eyes wide with something that Lanie did not associate with her father, so it took a moment for her to recognize it for what it was. Fear. Sam Bancroft was…afraid.
“Kyle, let him go,” Lanie heard herself saying in a trembling voice. To see that her father was afraid of another person was too much for her.
With an irritated growl, Kyle was abruptly standing next to Lanie, his arm wrapped tight around her shoulders. “Come on, Lanie. Let’s go.”
Lanie and Kyle turned to leave, but Sam stopped them. “Wait! Lanie, wait! Please, just wait…wait a second.”
Lanie turned back to face her dad, watching as he pulled himself together and then walked unsteadily back to his desk, dropping heavily into the seat. His skin was several shades paler than before.
Sam pulled in a long breath and then let it out. “Alright. I’m listening. Tell me again what the hell is going on around here.”
Lanie and Kyle had been taken to the small, stark interrogation room, given something to drink, and ordered to wait there. And they’d been waiting for nearly an hour. Kyle was pacing up and down the room, casting glances at the dark two way mirror, his face scrunched up into a frown. Lanie had given up pacing long ago and was seated at the metal table, nursing her warm soda and hoping her father wasn’t planning some sort of sneak attack to restrain and then arrest Kyle. They’d gone over their story three times and he’d seemed to come to grips with what they were telling him, but she couldn’t read her dad when had his work face on, so who knew what was really thinking.
“I should be out there trying to find Gre
tchen!” Kyle finally said, breaking the deafening silence. “I can’t help her if I’m locked up in here pacing!”
Lanie felt his rage and frustration. She thought the entire police department should be out there looking for Gretchen. And hopefully not getting themselves killed doing it. “Let my dad do whatever it is he’s doing. He’s trying to help.”
Dear lord, she really hoped he was trying to help.
“I hope we didn’t make a mistake,” Kyle said, running his hand over his hair. “Things like this don’t normally get told to an entire police force.”
True, but the police force in Fells Pointe consisted of three people. “You can trust my dad, Kyle. He’s the good guy. Just like you.”
Dear lord, she really hoped Kyle could trust her dad.
Kyle suddenly spun around to face the door and a minute later Sam stepped inside with Deputy Sterling and Deputy Smitty behind him. Lanie was instantly on her feet, her heart leaping into her throat.
“Daddy, what is it? What’s happening?” she asked, her fear evident in her voice.
Sheriff Bancroft let out a hard breath. “Mayor Wylie has a news conference set up outside. I’m going to announce that Gretchen has been…abducted and that we need to hear from anyone in town who might have seen her today. I’m also asking for people to come forward if they’ve noticed anything out of place over the past week, like a neighbor they haven’t spoken to in a few days.”
“Are you going to tell them what’s really going on?” Lanie asked.
“No. I don’t think anyone needs to know that but us. The last thing I need is mass hysteria,” Sam answered. “If it’s like you say, then no one can help, anyway.”
“But, you might not be able to help, either,” Kyle said seriously. “Frederik isn’t someone you can handcuff and haul away.”
“Which is why you’re going to tell us how to kill him,” Sam said, taking a seat at the metal table. Both Deputies stood by the doorway like armed guards, eyeing Kyle as if he was a ghost.
“He has to be staked with the stakes that I carry, beheaded, burned, and buried. But, you have to catch him before you can stake him and he’s even faster than I am,” Kyle pointed out, again making Lanie question why she’d brought her father into it.
“But we have something he doesn’t know about,” Sam said as if they were discussing just any old serial killer and not a crazed vampire. “We have the element of surprise. He doesn’t know that you’ve told anyone, right? He won’t be expecting anyone else to be coming for him.”
Kyle thought about that for a minute, seemingly unconvinced. “He always seems to know what’s going on. He’s always one step ahead of me somehow.”
“What if he’s near a TV when you have the news conference? Or what if he’s somewhere around the station?” Lanie said worriedly.
“We aren’t going to mention that it’s a vampire. I’m going to keep my statement as vague as possible while trying to get the point across that I need help finding Gretchen,” was Sam’s reply to Lanie’s concern.
“I don’t know how you can hunt him, Sheriff Bancroft. I can’t even find him and I can follow his scent,” Kyle rejoined.
“There are four of us. We’ll find him somehow or we’ll make it so hard for him to find his next meal that he has to move on,” Sam stated and Lanie found herself stunned that they were discussing this sort of situation in such a businesslike manner.
“He wants Lanie and I don’t think he’ll leave without her,” Kyle stated somberly.
Sam didn’t speak on that point. “So, weapons. What do we need?”
“I use a pistol crossbow loaded with stakes and sometimes tactical mace cans filled with blessed water,” Kyle responded, sounding efficient.
“We can get crossbows, but not the mace cans with blessed water," Sam said, sounding just as efficient.
“I have a few cans and I have dozens of the proper stakes, but you can’t waste them. They’re hard to come by,” Kyle said. “And you have to hit him in the heart. If you miss, even by a fraction of an inch, you’re dead.”
“Alright. We’ll work out the weapons situation as soon as the news conference is done. I’m certain we’ll start getting phone calls as soon as it’s over and then we can start running down the leads. We’ll use the radios and code so this Frederik won’t understand what we’re calling, even if he is close by.”
Kyle seemed very uncomfortable with letting someone else help him in his hunt, but he was keeping himself together. “My stakes and mace cans are all in my car.”
“We’ll get them,” Sam assured. “But, first, are you certain he’s after Lanie?”
“He’s after Lanie,” Kyle answered firmly.
“And he follows her around town?” Sam wondered stiffly.
“Yes,” Kyle said.
“So, he hunts by scent instead of just watching her?” Sam asked, sounding as if they were tracking an animal.
Maybe that was how Sam Bancroft was looking at this. He wasn’t tracking a vampire. He was tracking a predator.
“Scent is probably the biggest part of it,” Kyle said.
“Lanie, give Kyle your sweater,” Sam ordered and Lanie obeyed, taking off her cardigan and handing it to Kyle.
“Kyle, take this and get as far away from here as you can. Double back to Gretchen’s place and wait there. I’ll call the house and tell you where to meet me so we can get our stuff together.”
Kyle gave Lanie a long look and then turned and hurried out the door of the interrogation room, past the two deputies who both parted as though touching Kyle might cause them to burst into flames.
Once Kyle was gone, Sam turned to Lanie and gave her a soft smile. “Now for you, squirt,” he said, getting to his feet.
“Where should I go? Home?” she asked her dad.
Without answering, Sam motioned to Deputies Sterling and Smitty, both of whom came forward, each taking hold of one of Lanie’s arms. There wasn’t even time for Lanie to say anything else to her father before she was whisked from the room. The deputies both hung a sharp right and began rushing her down the little hallway that ended at a grey steel door. Seeing that door filled Lanie with confusion and disbelief, but it was too late. Deputy Sterling had already swiped his I.D. badge over the electronic lock and she was being swept through the doorway and down the dim stairwell. With another swipe of the I.D. badge, Lanie found herself in the cell-block of the police station, being hauled into the first of the two cells.
“Sorry, Lanie,” Deputy Sterling apologized as he and Deputy Smitty sat her onto the cot against the wall and then hurried out, slamming the cell door shut with a resounding clang. “It’s Sheriff’s orders.”
“What! What-what did he order!” she gasped, half horrified, half outraged.
“That you have to be kept in here until we get this sorted out. He thinks you’ll be safer,” Deputy Sterling told her and then both men turned and exited through the first steel door. A moment later, Lanie heard the clang of the door at the top of the stairwell and then…she was alone.
Stunned, Lanie sat on the cot, her mind trying to work out exactly what had just happened to her. It took several moments for her to understand that her father had just locked her up. Sheriff Bancroft had just locked her in the cell-block…which meant that she could not help find Gretchen.
Rage surged up inside Lanie and she was off the cot and at the iron bars surrounding her, her breath coming hard and fast. Should she scream and yell and demand to be let out? Who would hear her? Should she call someone? Wait. She had no phone and wouldn’t know who to call anyway. Who could a girl call when her own father had locked her up in the jailhouse!
Dumbfounded and outraged, Lanie glanced around the cell-block, looking for…for what? A way out? She was locked in a concrete and iron cell with nothing but a cot, a pillow, and a grey wool blanket. There was no way out!
She was…she was locked away, safe and sound, while her father, Kyle, and Gretchen were out there…fighting for their lives.
Swiping at the tears sliding down her cheeks, Lanie went back to the cot, sat down and waited…
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Lanie watched the daylight slowly fade through the little window high up on the cell wall, eventually turning into darkness. Lying on the lumpy cot, she dozed off and on, but the silence was so severe it was hard to sleep for more than a few minutes. The stillness was pressing on her ears, making her every heartbeat sound like a shotgun blast.
Besides, how could she sleep when Gretchen was out there somewhere? How could she sleep when she knew her aunt might be in pain, or afraid, or…worse?
As the night stretched endlessly onward, Lanie found it impossible to keep her thoughts away from what might be happening outside the cell she was in and the more she thought about it, the more terrified she became. She was terrified for her father and his deputies. Terrified for her Kyle. She was beyond terrified for her aunt, but she tried not to focus on Gretchen because her mind dredged up all sorts of heinous scenarios and it was enough to make her sick.
Eventually feeling as if she might be going mad, she got to her feet and paced around the cell and when she got tired of pacing, there was nothing for her to do but go back and lie down on the cot again. And so her night went. She wallowed in terror, paced around like a caged animal, and then went back to her cot to wallow some more.
Lanie was relieved when daylight returned outside her window. Though, the daylight didn’t change anything. She was still sitting in a tiny jail cell while everyone she cared about was out there someplace, facing a monster, putting their lives in danger. She should be out there with them. In fact, she should be the one Frederik was doing unspeakably horrible things to, not Gretchen.
Maybe the smart thing to do would be to hand her over. Maybe once Frederik had her, he would move on to some other town and Fells Pointe would be safe again.
After another full hour of wallowing in misery and worry, Lanie heard the muffled sound of the first steel door being opened and a few seconds later, the door to the cell-block swung noisily open and Deputy Sterling appeared.
Hunted Page 27
