Slim To None (Cedar Tree #1)

by Freya Barker

  "Go on." He urged.

  "DMV came back with a hit on the partials we got from witness accounts at the scene. A navy 1994 Ford F-150 belonging to a Kelly Janssen from Mancos, who turns out to be the seventy-six year old widow of a former Colorado State Trooper. Now here is where it gets interesting. When one of our deputies went to talk to Mrs. Janssen, he found no one at home, but the truck was parked in the back of the property. From neighbors we discovered the lady has been in the hospital here in Cortez for the past two months."

  Frustration is starting to slowly gnaw away at Gus' patience.

  "So basically fuck-all."

  "No. Not quite. Mrs. Janssen has cancer and hasn't been given very long to live. She obviously wasn't driving the truck, said it used to be her husband's and only her son drives it on very rare occasions, to move stuff."

  At the mention of a son, Gus' head snapped up. "Do we have a name?" He leaned in, eager to move on something - anything, but especially the bastard who fucking hurt Emma.

  "Randolph. I already checked, he hasn't visited her since last week. We weren't able to get more out of her at the time; the woman was exhausted already and the doc kicked us out. We'll have to go back to see what more we can find out, 'cause the name Randolph Janssen doesn't bring anything up. We are on it. We're bringing in the truck and I've got someone going back out to Mancos today to talk to the neighbors again."

  "So a name and possible access to what might have been the vehicle used to run Emma down. Anything else you've got? Something I could sink my teeth into?"

  "The newer black truck Emma described following her and you saw pulling out of her drive, may have been rented from a National car rental office here in town. They reported a truck by a similar description rented a week or two ago for one week. When it wasn't returned immediately, they didn't think much of it at first. A corporate card had been used to rent it. It's not unusual for cars to be kept a day or two longer, but when it hadn't shown up yesterday, and they called the number they had been left with, it was not in service. They contacted the PD to report it. So now we have a BOLO out on the truck."

  "Still nothing connecting anything to Corbin. I feel like we're treading water and it's just getting muddier and muddier."

  "It always happens before shit starts floating to the surface." Joe got up from his chair. "I'm quickly going to check with the guys in the shop to see about the truck. They should have it in there by now. Just hang tight a sec."

  Gus dropped his head in his hands, rubbing his temples to try and clear some of the pressure that was trying to build.

  His thoughts were inadvertently drifting back to this morning, when he left the bed rather abruptly after receiving Joe's call. He was an ass. One moment he had a fucking beautiful woman wrapped around him, opening up to him, telling him in so many words the effect he was having on her, and the next he walked out the door with barely a goodbye. Thing of it was, it had been on the tip of his tongue to give her everything. Every last little bit of what he had been pretending didn't affect him anymore. The friendly but firm demeanor he displayed to the outside world had become part of him. It just wasn't all of him and for some reason he wanted Emma to know every scarred and ugly bit. That's why he had asked her to look at him. He really wanted her to see him, to see all of him. He hadn't held a thing back, letting it all show in his eyes, on his face. Yet she still cared, still stroked, still held. It had been on his lips to break the seal on his fucked up past. To bring it out, have her see and acknowledge it and then to be able to leave it behind him for good. He would know he finally had the balls to face someone without any reservation, who could reflect back all that he was feeling, and trust it wouldn't change a thing. All of that had been right there. On his lips, in his eyes and in his heart. And then the fucking phone had pulled him away from the moment. Coward that he was, he had jumped on it, leaving Emma looking sated but a little hurt and confused in bed. He dressed, gave her a quick kiss and told her he'd be back as soon as possible, leaving the team to cover her while he was gone. Asshole.

  *****

  For a minute she thought she had reached him with her words, but then the phone call had interrupted their 'moment'. She could see a hint of relief flick over his face when he took the call and told her he had to meet up with Joe in Cortez. He left her lying in bed, wondering if perhaps she had shown a bit too much of herself too soon.

  Emma felt a little tender in areas that hadn't seen the kind of action they had just been subjected to in many moons, but otherwise surprisingly good, considering. Carefully rolling out of bed, Emma made her way into the shower. She would make it a quick one, because as soon as she heard low voices coming from her kitchen, she was pretty sure her baby-sitting crew had arrived.

  Still slightly damp from her shower, she was grateful for the AC the little bungalow boasted, otherwise she'd never dry completely. Emma pushed her walker into the kitchen, needing its stability this morning. She found it in the corner of the bedroom where Gus must've left it.

  "Morning - again." Katie said, once again hanging out by the coffee pot wearing a little smile. "You have two less muffins, I'm afraid. I pounced when I smelled them."

  Emma grinned. "Good. That's what they're there for."

  "I wasn't alone, though. Gus was stuffing his face with the other one on his way out the door. Guess he needed some quick energy." She said with a snicker.

  Flicking a glance at Katie, Emma was relieved to find no malice in the other woman's eyes. She still wasn't going to touch that. "He said something about Caleb coming too?"

  "Yup. Called him in. He's having a quick shower and will be over after. I told Gus to go ahead and go. We can manage for those fifteen minutes."

  A knock at the door had them both turning their heads.

  "That'll be him. I'll get it." Katie said, making her way to the door while Emma headed for the coffee pot, eager to grab a cup. She would get a new pot started before the next team member came in. She could hear Katie talking to whomever was at the door, which didn't sound like it was Caleb after all. Curious to see who it was, Emma looked down the hall to the front to see Ralph standing on the doorstep.

  "Oh hey Ralph! What brings you out? Any news?" She turned to grab another cup down from the cupboard, and added, "Come on in, I'm just making fresh."

  She barely registered the shuffling behind her at first, but the slam of the front door and the loud crash quickly snapped her to attention. When she whipped around she found Ralph standing only two feet behind her. Looking beyond him, on the hallway floor she could see Katie lying on her back, unmoving. Frozen in shock and disbelief, her body seemed rooted to the spot, while her eyes slowly drifted back to a man she though she knew. When she saw the cold and calculated mask on his face, the hot tendrils of terror broke through her apathy and she opened her mouth to scream. But before she was able to scream, the last thing she saw was the arm arcing down towards her - and then nothing.

  Chapter 14

  "It might be our truck." Joe said as he walked back into his office. "The guys just got it in, but they didn't have a lot of time with it yet. A preliminary look showed the left front end had some damage and a trace of possible red paint on the underside of the driver's side door was found. We're trying to confirm if that sample is consistent with Emma's walker. They're running some tests now, but they'll be limited. We don't have a full lab here."

  "I don't care, I'm not worried about building a court case, I'm just interested in nabbing this guy before he tries something again."

  Joe nodded his head in agreement.

  "Oh, and another thing. The deputy at the hospital called; Mrs. Janssen was awake and had something interesting. When he prompted her on the whereabouts of her son, she said he shouldn't be too hard to find, since he was one of us. When he told her there is no deputy Janssen with the Sheriff's Office, she threw him for a loop. She said he wouldn't be called Janssen, but Murphy. His father's last name. State Trooper Janssen had been his stepfather, and her second
husband. Her son's name is deputy Murphy. Deputy Randolph Murphy."

  Gus had already been halfway out the door before Joe had a chance to finish his sentence.

  "Where the fuck you off to?" He yelled after Gus.

  "Randolph is Ralph, Frank's deputy in Cedar Tree." Gus barked back, taking the stairs two at a time on his way down to the parking lot and his truck. He was already pulling out his phone to try and reach his team.

  "Gus! Get in my truck! I drive, you call." Joe's instructed.

  Without objection, Gus changed direction immediately towards Joe's vehicle. He knew he'd get a lot further in the speeding truck of a well-known Cortez chief deputy than he would in his own. Besides, it would leave his hands free to make calls.

  Joe intercepted a young deputy in the parking lot, and yelled at Gus to toss his keys at him. The young man was instructed to hold onto them until further instructions. Gus was trying to get through to Katie's number once again as he was getting into the passenger side of Joe's truck. Impatiently pushing end, he was about to call Caleb, when the phone rang and Caleb's name showed up.

  "We have a problem." Gus started, not giving Caleb a chance.

  "I know, boss. I'm at the house, Emma is gone, Katie is down and hurt. Call an ambulance, she's lost a lot of blood." Caleb sounded grim.

  "Fuck!" Slamming his fist on the dashboard, he turned to Joe to fill him in. He had been on his phone getting teams mobilized, while working his way through traffic trying to get out of Cortez as fast as humanly possible.

  "Boss!" Caleb called again for his attention. "Katie was in the hall, but there was more blood in the kitchen... Emma was nowhere in the house. I have to go, I've gotta take care of Katie."

  The line went dead and all feeling seemed to flood into Gus' stomach... swirling around and threatening to pull him under.

  "Ambulance for Katie. Emma's gone." He bit out, barely holding it together.

  "Got it." Joe said and immediately relayed the information to the station on the other line.

  A rage was slowly fighting through the shock and numbness, at the thought of his Emma hurt, in danger - or worse. "Gonna kill that fucker with my bare hands." He ground out, his hands clenching his own thighs so hard, he'd likely leave bruises.

  "We'll get her." Joe placated him, before turning his attention back to Frank, who was on the phone now.

  "Put Frank on speaker"

  Joe took one look at his clenched jaw and fierce eyes and did as he asked.

  "Frank, you're on speaker." Joe warned him.

  "Frank." Gus was trying to reign it in. "He driving a department car or his own?"

  "Uhh, I'd have to go check. Sometimes he'd take a patrol car home, if he had an early shift next day."

  "Why don't you fucking go check, Frank. Jesus. Fuck me!"

  "Hey, listen now, I'd hate for anything to happen to Emma as much as you do; You ass. So get off your high horse; and my back while you're at it!"

  "You know fuck-all about me or my woman; You dick. Your fuckin' deputy harms one hair on her head, and I'm not fuckin' responsible for what I'm gonna do!"

  "Pissed because once again she got hurt on your watch, big guy? Huh? Mighty fine job you're doing protecting that 'woman' of yours."

  With the sheriff now taunting him and an already volatile situation rapidly getting completely out of hand, Joe jumped in sending everyone to their corners. "Shut the fuck up. Both of you." Joe bellowed, "We've got one woman with unknown injuries and another missing and possibly injured. We have a suspect who also happens to be a law enforcement officer. We have limited resources, little time and a fucking humungous amount of area to disappear into around us. So both of you, save your energy, 'cause we are going to bloody well need it."

  Red in the face from his tirade, Joe took a few deep breaths before continuing, "Getting back on track; we need details on the patrol car and his personal ride. Frank, can you get that? Inform the Durango State Patrol office. Have them ask their boys to keep an eye out and maybe notify New Mexico and Utah as well. Just in case. We don't want them to be able to get too far. If they get over state lines, we lose all control of the situation. It's going to be enough of a challenge working together, without adding more agencies to the mix. Unless it becomes absolutely necessary, let's avoid it."

  Listening to Joe take charge of logistics helped settle Gus' mind. It left him to solely focus on Emma.

  *****

  When they pulled up beside Caleb's truck, the wheels hadn't stopped turning yet before Gus had the door open. He was running full speed in the open front door, only to stop dead in his tracks at the scene in front of him. Sitting on the floor in a large puddle of blood was Caleb, with kitchen towels clamped around Katie's head, looking like he was trying to hold her together. He looked up at him with a defeated look in his eyes that sent chills down Gus' back.

  "Ambulance?" Caleb croaked out.

  "Right behind us. Flight For Life from Durango is also on the way." Gus assured him, sinking down beside him on his knees, afraid to take a closer look, but needing to do something. His hand felt for a pulse against her neck and he could faintly make out a flutter under the pads of his fingers.

  "Been afraid to remove my hands. Just trying to keep blood in her body. She's... she..." Choked up, Caleb simply closed his eyes and laid his head back against the wall. Gave up trying to talk.

  Sirens announced the arrival of the ambulance and the first of the back up teams Joe had called on.

  Barely clinging to life, Katie was loaded onto the helicopter and taken to Durango. Gus had called Dana and she and Neil were on their way to stay by her side. As shocked and scared as he was for Katie, Gus was taken aback by the depth of Caleb's reaction. He offered for Caleb to stay with her, but he wouldn't hear of it. Said she'd be pissed if she found out he ditched his job to hold her hand.

  Now with the first responders out of the way, he had his first opportunity to have look around. When he walked into the kitchen, and saw the blood on the counter and the floor, it hit him; That was likely Emma's blood. But when he spotted the purple walker with her cane in the clip standing abandoned off to the side, his knees about buckled. That was her independence.

  The nausea he had been struggling to keep down at the thought of Emma hurt surged back up, and he all but ran to the bathroom where he lost the contents of his stomach until there was nothing but bile left.

  "You okay in there?" Joe asked from the other side of the door.

  "Fine - Be right out."

  He rinsed his mouth, splashed some water on his face, looked himself in the eye in the mirror and pulled himself together. No time to lose it. She needs you.

  He would find her, and tell her what he didn't have the balls to tell her only a couple of miserable hours ago. If it was the last thing he did.

  Chapter 15

  Voices.

  She could hear voices, but they seemed far away. And movement. She was moving... or at least being moved. Carefully lifting her eyelids, only to squeeze them shut again at the instant pounding pressure it released inside her head.

  What?

  Bits and pieces drifted back through the red haze of pain running from her skull all the way to the base of her spine. A sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. Not even beginning to understand the why and how, Emma could figure out the possible implications of her situation; and none of it was good.

  Oh my God...Katie. The memory of the still body in a pool of her own blood almost froze Emma in fear.

  Those voices. She could still hear them. Carefully trying again to open her eyes to scan her surroundings, Emma fought down the bile that came up at the sudden surge of nausea when light hit her retinas. She was on a dirt floor - packed sand or something by the feel of it - in an old stone shed that looked like it had been loosely stacked. It reminded her of one of those Pueblo Indian dwellings Arlene had shown her at Mesa Verde on a trip. Through the opening in a wall, she could see two men facing off just outside the shed. Ralph was one, a
nd she didn't know the other, but his back was turned toward her.

  Her brain was trying hard to cling on to every detail, but the pain and exhaustion were overwhelming. About to close her eyes, she heard Ralph shout, "No!" - before a loud bang rang her ears. Then she saw him crumpling down to the ground. Numbed with fear, Emma wasn't quite able to process what she just witnessed. When the second man turned around to face her, she recognized his face from a picture she was shown just a few short days ago. She wished she had kept her eyes closed; tried closing them now. Ernst Corbin.

  She could sense him walking up to her, nudging her in the ribs with his foot.

  "Good, you're awake, so don't even try to fake it. There are ways to make sure you stay alert, but you won't like them."

  Cold chills broke out over her skin and trembling started in her fingers. It slowly spread in spasms over her body, and made her breathing come out gaspy and thin. She tried hard to control her bodies' response, not to give this man any satisfaction. Focusing her eyes away from him, she prayed for Gus. For him to be able to find her, because she knew he'd move heaven and earth to.

  "You shot him." She breathed out.

  "I killed him." Corbin corrected. "He won't be getting up. Fucked up what should've been an easy job and almost got himself caught. Bringing you here was his last chance, he delivered - but he won't be needed anymore."

  "I don't... un... understand any of this." Emma had a hard time getting her words out, she was shaking so hard by now. Positive he wouldn't hesitate to shoot her. But why hadn't he yet? Why not just point and pull the trigger and be done with it? There must be more. Keeping him engaged was her only chance at dragging this out long enough to give Gus a chance to find her. If he even had one.

  "You don't need to. Do you know who I am?"

  Deciding to go with honesty for now, she responded, "Yes, I've been shown a picture."

  "Good, saves me an explanation. Any copies ever made or printouts made of the ledger I had you do up?"