by T. L. Haddix
Taking a deep breath, Ethan swallowed and started talking. A deep-seated self-loathing was starting to build in the pit of his stomach. Ruby had played him like a pro, and he was very afraid Beth was going to be the one to pay for his stupidity.
Chapter Thirty
As the effects from the chloroform wore off, Beth’s mind cleared. Finally, she was able to start looking for a way out of the situation she found herself in. She was still in her running clothes; spandex pants and loose t-shirt, shoes still on her feet. If she got the chance and could make a run for it, the way she was dressed might make an important difference.
The van slowed, then turned left. As gravel flew up and hit the undercarriage, she realized they had turned on to an unpaved road. She struggled to get into a seated position, but the bonds around her arms and legs prevented very much movement. She was able to twist her arms around enough to see the face of her watch, and sent a quick prayer of thanks heavenward when she saw the time. It had been more than two hours since she’d returned to the apartment after her jog. By now, she was over an hour late for Sunday dinner, and she knew her family would be looking for her. If she could just delay whatever her captors had planned for a while, she might have a fighting chance.
After a minute, the van came to a stop. The engine was turned off, and the sudden silence was so loud, it was almost deafening. Beth heard Ormsby and Ruby get out, and twisting, she watched as Ruby walked around to the driver’s side of the vehicle. The window was cracked, and she could hear them as they talked.
“So this is where you bring them. I can see why,” Ruby said. They moved to the back of the van. When they opened the rear doors, sunlight poured in, the bright light sending a sharp pain through Beth’s eyes. Even though the day looked warm, the wind was biting. As it swirled inside the van, Beth shivered.
Ormsby leaned in and picked up a large box, which he placed outside in the gravel. They were parked atop what looked to be a small hill, with grassy fields rolling away on either side of the road they’d driven in on. A copse of trees stood at the bottom of the hill, and beyond, the flat countryside stretched for miles. Beth tried to figure out where they were, but she didn’t recognize the area.
When Ormsby turned back to her, she spoke. “What are you going to do with me?” She met his gaze head on, refusing to give in to the fear that was racing through her.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” He reached into the van and grabbed her bound ankles. With a sharp tug, he pulled her toward him, sliding her on the floor until her legs hung over the tailgate. Ignoring her gasp of pain, he dropped her feet and yanked on her bound hands until she was upright. He held on until she got her balance and was able to sit on her own.
“Cut her loose,” he told Ruby. As he climbed into the back of the van, he warned her. “Try not to draw any blood this time.”
Ruby’s face fell, but she did as he asked, using her knife to cut the ropes on Beth’s feet and hands. Beth cried out as the blood flow returned to normal in a painful rush, and she bit her lip to stifle the sound. Her hands had been bound tighter than her feet and were more uncomfortable, and she shook them, trying to alleviate the pins and needles sensation. She kept her gaze off her captors and focused instead on her own body, wincing as she saw the myriad of bruises and small cuts on her arms. Judging by the way her legs felt, they were just as banged up as the rest of her. Moving carefully, she flexed her muscles, trying to limber up as surreptitiously as possible.
Ignoring Ruby, she turned to Ormsby. “Am I allowed to stand up?”
His response was distracted as he fiddled with a pull-down table that had been built into the side of the van. “Sure, just don’t try anything stupid.”
She stood and took a couple cautious steps. Ruby jabbed her hard in the back, nearly sending her sprawling before Beth could catch herself on one of the van’s doors.
“He didn’t say you could walk around.” She drew her arm back to strike out again.
Ormsby’s voice interrupted her, but his gaze never strayed from the vials and lab equipment in front of him. “Now, now, Ruby, leave her alone. There’ll be time enough for that sort of thing later, I promise you.”
Ruby snarled at him, thwarted. She muttered under her breath as she stomped a few feet away from the back of the van.
Looking around, Beth saw that the van was parked on the rim of what appeared to be a sinkhole. As she scanned the countryside, she thought she recognized a farmhouse in the distance as Cullen Jarvis’s. Everything started falling into place, and she knew she was nearly out of time.
“What are you doing, Chad?” She leaned against the door as though she needed its support to stand. The doctor glanced at her briefly, but his attention quickly returned to the task in front of him. He pulled a folding chair up to the table, and as he sat, he grabbed latex gloves and snapped them on. She pointed toward the makeshift lab in front of him. “What is all that?”
“This?” He turned toward her and held up a vial of bright yellow liquid. Using a syringe, he carefully measured out a dose and withdrew the needle. He capped it and laid it on the table with precise movements, then chose another vial. He repeated the process as he explained what he was doing.
“What you see here, Ms. Hudson, is the culmination of a little experiment I’ve been running in my spare time. See, there’s a huge market out there just waiting to be tapped into. So many people have busy lives these days, and they try to boost their energy with ineffective remedies like caffeine and sugar, that sort of thing. The effect is short lived and it has horrendous side effects. However, what I’ve been working on is much more effective - an adrenaline-based drug that works with the body’s natural fight/flight response. I’ve almost got it where I want it, but thanks to you and your nosiness, I’ll have to scrap the final trials and start over somewhere else.”
As he put the last vial down, he met her eyes. Beth drew in a sharp breath at the deadly flatness she saw there. It was like looking into the eyes of a shark. When he stood up, she took a few steps back. As he saw the evidence of her wariness, it was obvious he was pleased with her reaction.
“Walk over to Ruby. Stand beside her, and remember, don’t try anything. You aren’t the first test subject I’ve dealt with. I promise you, you won’t like what happens if you try to get away.”
Beth slowly walked toward Ruby. When she turned back to watch Ormsby, he was removing two long cases from the inside of the van. Every hair on her body stood up as she recognized what they were - rifle cases. He turned back to the van and pulled a small folding table out. Once that was set up, he placed the cases on its top. As he popped the latches open on the first case and lifted a rifle out, Beth decided that she would take her chances at running before she would stand around and be shot.
Easing around Ruby to stand on the side nearer the road where they had apparently driven in from, she stopped as Ormsby tensed. He studied her warily, as if trying to decide whether she was up to something or not. She met his gaze and asked the question she was afraid she already knew the answer to.
“All the disappearances - that was you? The visitors Cullen Jarvis has been seeing? The devil worshippers - every bit of it?”
He returned to his task, pulling out a box of ammunition, which he sat down next to the first rifle. “You are sharp.” His tone was almost proud as he continued. “Yes, all of that was me. My friend here, well, she helped a little. Gave me the names of potential test subjects and helped out with some staging…altars and the like, you understand?”
Beth nodded as he turned and crawled halfway inside the van to look for something. Sensing that it was now or never, she went from a standstill to a sprint in a split second, running as fast as she could back down the road a short distance before veering off into the tall grass beside it. If she could make the trees, the road that led to Cullen’s house was on the other side, and she’d have a better chance at surviving.
A startled Ruby screeched and started after her, but she stopped when O
rmsby called her back. Beth could hear him cursing, but she didn’t turn to look back. She was halfway between the van and the trees now. “Just a little further, God, please,” she begged.
She couldn’t prevent herself from glancing back to see where Ormsby was, and as she did, as stinging burn ripped across her right shoulder. She stumbled, realizing she’d been shot, but she kept running. Time slowed down, and every stride she took seemed to be through water. It felt like hours, but in reality had only been a few seconds, when the second bullet hit. This time, the injury was more serious, and she fell. Her hands skidded against the hard dirt under the grass as her body came to a jarring halt against the ground.
Struggling to roll over, to get back up and run, she looked down at her left side where, low on her pelvis, blood was rapidly spreading. As she watched, stunned, her shirt turned red and she felt a searing pain spread from the wound. The exit wound seemed small, and the inane thought that Ormsby must have been using ammunition designed to not fracture on impact, drifted through her head. Otherwise, the exit wound would have been much larger.
She couldn’t see the van from where she lay, but she could hear Ormsby yelling at Ruby. Beth tried to get her legs to respond, but they wouldn’t support her, and she was left to face the horrible knowledge that unless God provided a miracle, she was going to die. The last few days raced through her head, a jumble of images of her family, her friends, of Ethan. She wondered if they would ever find out what had happened to her, and she thought of Chase, who had lost his girlfriend in a similar manner. Beth knew that her death would destroy him, and a wrenching wave of grief nearly doubled her over. Anger quickly followed, and she looked around for any weapon she might use – a rock, a tree branch – but there was nothing.
She could hear someone coming toward her now, and Ormsby appeared over the grass. Time was up.
Chapter Thirty One
“Well, well, well. Not quite the end scenario I’d envisioned for us.”
Beth opened her eyes at the words, startled to realize she’d drifted off. She looked up at Ormsby, who stood over her, a rifle cradled in his arms.
“You look like you’re in some pain, Ms. Hudson. Tragic, that.” He laughed, and Beth had to swallow against the bile that rose into the back of her throat.
He slung the gun strap over his shoulder and knelt down. Brushing her hands aside from where she had placed them over the wound, he palpated the area roughly. His face a study in clinical detachment, he then turned her over to look at the entrance wound. When he let her fall back, Beth gave a weak scream, the impact causing the pain to intensify to nearly unbearable levels.
“You’ll live - or you would, if I got you to a hospital. Unfortunately, that isn’t in the plans for today.” He stood back up and looked around, turning his face up toward the sun.
Teeth chattering, Beth spoke. “You know you can’t get away with this. My family will never stop until you’re found.”
Ormsby shook his head. “Oh, I don’t think so.” His tone was confident. “No, by the time I’m finished here, I’ll be the last person they look at to solve your disappearance.” He drew the rifle back over his shoulder and settled it in his arms like it was a child. “See, I wouldn’t leave something so monumentally important as my alibi to chance. I have a plan. If you had only gone along with me, realized how serious my courtship was, we could have avoided all this…unpleasantness. I would have offered you the keys to the kingdom, had you just followed along. I thought you knew the rules, but then you went and dirtied yourself with that half-breed deputy. You sealed your fate right then, you know.”
His face twisted, revealing the ugliness beneath, and all the handsomeness disappeared. “Even if I had decided to let you go at that point, Ruby would’ve pursued the matter, so we decided to have a little fun with you.”
“So the stalking - that was you and Ruby?”
Ormsby shrugged at her question. “Maybe, maybe not. Why should I ease your conscience, give you solace? The theory now is that you’re the one responsible for all those actions. Maybe that’s the truth, and you just don’t know it.”
He raised the rifle and double-checked its load, then paused for a moment. “The only thing I do regret was causing the death of that little boy. He was truly an innocent victim in all of this.” Seeing Beth’s surprise, he chuckled.
“You mean Taylor Bolen? How were you responsible for that? It was an accident.”
“Not really. I was out there setting up another altar the night of the wreck. I was disguised in my robes, and I didn’t see the vehicles. I got too close to the road, and I think it startled one of the drivers, though I’m not certain which one. It was all over before I could have done anything to stop it.” He shrugged. “I suppose this is the end. I hate to do this, I really do, but you’ve left me no other choice, you know.”
As he raised the rifle to his shoulder and settled the gun in, she shook her head, unable to move her gaze from the open end of the barrel.
“Chad, you don’t have to do this. There has to be some other way.”
He tsked her and shook his head. “Somehow I expected you to be different, Beth. I’m disappointed - in the end, you’re begging for your life just like all the others. That actually makes what I’m about to do a little easier.” Sighting down the barrel, he aimed at her chest. “One shot to the heart should do it, I think. There’s just too much chance little bits of you will be left behind with a shot to the head, you know. With much luck, you won’t feel a thing.”
As she watched his finger start to curl around the trigger, she drew in what she knew would be her last breath and tears of regret flooded her eyes.
She waited for the shot, but it never came. Instead, she watched as the doctor’s hands relaxed and the rifle fell from them. His body twisted behind the rifle, and then he collapsed on the grass in front of her, not moving. Beth realized that something had happened to stop him from shooting her, and she wept with relief.
The pain in her abdomen was getting worse and, closing her eyes, she realized how tired she felt. She would rest, just for a minute, and then maybe she would be able to get up, to run. Just for a minute, she thought.... and then there was nothing.
Chapter Thirty Two
Wyatt was wrapping up a call with the state police, bringing them up to speed on what was going on when the call came in from Cullen Jarvis. After the warrant had come in for Ruby Sloane’s, Stacy had headed over to the woman’s apartment with another deputy, and Wyatt had sent Jason out on patrol. The young deputy was climbing the walls, not being able to do anything to find his sister. Ethan had taken the chair in front of Wyatt’s desk, waiting impatiently while Wyatt spoke with the senior officer on duty at the state police post. When the intercom beeped as he replaced the receiver, both men tensed.
“Yeah? Son of a… We’re on our way down.” Wyatt threw the receiver back in its cradle. Hurrying around the side of the desk, he sprinted through the office door on his way to the dispatch center. Ethan followed closely on his heels, and they thundered downstairs.
“What’s happened?”
Wyatt didn’t answer. They quickly reached dispatch, and Wyatt held up a hand for silence as Carrie slid a phone across the desk.
“I have the sheriff here, Mr. Jarvis. Hold on one moment,” she said, and transferred the call to the handset. Wyatt picked it up and spoke.
“Cullen? How bad is it?” He listened for a moment and closed his eyes. “Damn it. What’s the ambulance’s ETA, Carrie?”
“Fifteen minutes.”
He returned to the line. “Listen, Cullen, the ambulance is on its way, should be there in about fifteen minutes. Jason Hudson is also nearby, and he should be able to get to you sooner, maybe five minutes?” Wyatt glanced at Carrie, who nodded. “What’s your cell number, Cullen? Just to make sure we have it.”
He recited the number Cullen gave him, and Carrie wrote it down. “I’m going to turn you back over to dispatch. I need to fill Jason in on what he’s comi
ng in on, okay?” Handing the receiver back to the dispatcher, he drew in a deep breath and turned to the second dispatcher. “Get me Jason on his phone. I don’t want this going out on the radio.”
Hands on his hips, he turned to Ethan, whose face was colorless with fear. “There’s no easy way to say this. Beth’s been shot.”
Ethan crumpled. Cursing, Wyatt caught him and eased the detective down into a chair, then continued. “Cullen’s with her. He says she’s stable, but she’s been hit twice, once in the shoulder and once in the abdomen.”
“But she’s alive?” Ethan managed to whisper.
His own face felt like stone, and Wyatt nodded. “For now.”
“Sheriff, I have Jason.” The dispatcher handed him the phone. With one last look at Ethan, who had ducked his head and was clearly struggling for composure, Wyatt nodded at her to connect the call.
“Jason? Listen, you need to head over to Cullen Jarvis’s. We’re sending you the exact location now. Beth is there, but she’s injured.”
There was a moment of silence, and Jason responded. “What do you mean, injured? Is she okay?”
Wyatt cleared his throat. “She’s stable, but she’s been shot. Cullen apparently disabled the man who shot her, but she’s in trouble. The ambulance is on its way, should be there about ten minutes after you get to her. You’ll be the first one on the scene, and you’ll need your first aid kit, okay?”
When Jason responded, it was obvious he was in shock. “I ... Oh, God. Okay. Sheriff, my parents...”
“I’m on my way out there.” He glanced at Ethan to see how he was faring. The younger man had his head bowed, his hands clasped around his neck as though to hold himself in one piece. “Stacy’s headed in your direction, and the state police are on their way, as well. Can you handle this, Jason?”
