Colde & Rainey (A Rainey Bell Thriller)

by R. E. Bradshaw

  Cracker crumbs sprayed from Graham’s lips, as he said, “M-M-Myth.”

  Rainey smiled. Graham was thinking and that was good.

  “Myth, huh? Which part?”

  “H-Heat l-loss p-p-per-c-c-centage e-e-quals ex-p-posed sk-skin ar-rea.” he struggled to get it out, but he did.

  “Well, okay. Learn something new every day. My mother perpetuated that myth and required I wear a hat. I should have called bullshit. Do you know how bad that bush on my head looked with hat hair?”

  He was taking a sip of juice and almost choked when he chuckled.

  “Easy there,” Rainey said, and patted his knee. “Wouldn’t want you to choke to death after all you have survived. You’re a hard man to kill, Graham Colde.”

  “E-E-Ellie tr-tried tw-twice.”

  Rainey pulled out more trash bags and a juice for herself. Her body needed the calories too.

  “Yes, she did, and she will pay for that, Graham. Just eat now. I’m going to work on closing us in a little more and try to start a fire.”

  “B-Battery,” Graham said, pointing at the flashlight.

  Rainey smiled at him again. “I should have known a fellow geek would know how to start a fire with a battery.”

  Graham smiled back this time, thinly, but it was a smile. He began to chew a bit faster, as his condition improved. Rainey relaxed her worry over him and concentrated on preparing for the rest of the night. She hoped it wouldn’t be all night.

  While she drank the juice, she prayed Katie called Danny in Quantico. When Rainey needed him, he always came through, the bond between them unbreakable. He could be in Hominy Junction already, if Katie called soon enough. If Danny got a chance to talk to Ellie, he would see thorough her lies, the unnecessary embellishments, and the deceptive body language. This was a new crime, a crime of opportunity, one for which Ellie had a good story, but not the time to practice her portrayal of victim.

  Ellie was good, Rainey had to give her that. She’d answered Rainey’s questions with ease and an appearance of truthfulness. Ellie told those lies often over the years. To her, the lies were second nature to recall with a complete air of sincerity. Ellie fit the profile of a personality that would practice in the mirror, learning the faces of empathy because she had none. The well-rehearsed portrayal of grieving daughter fooled everyone when she killed her parents, even deceiving the brother she tried to kill and finally did. Ellie’s latest crime was spontaneous. She knew nothing of Rainey until yesterday. Her crimes were meticulously planned until today. Ellie acting as quickly as she did worked in Rainey’s favor, because the serial killer that “did not make mistakes” had gone off script. That was a big mistake.

  Finished with the juice, Rainey set about working on the roof or their abode. The hood hinges were frozen into place by years of rot and decay. To cover their heads better, she built a lean-to out of garbage bags, tape torn from the remaining diapers, and the survival cord. Graham ate a second and third cracker, while she worked and only commented when she completed the task.

  “We’ll b-be dry, if the wind d-doesn’t blow hard-der.”

  Rainey, who had been cleaning away debris in the proposed little fire pit, looked up. A slight smile tugged at one corner of her lips. “Welcome back, Mr. Colde. I take it you are feeling better.”

  “S-still shaking,” he said, but he was visibly better.

  “It’s okay if you continue to shiver. You’re not as cold as you were, so we’re making headway. Keep eating if you can. There isn’t any need to save it. We won’t be here that long.”

  Rainey dug down to the dirt, removing anything flammable away from the fire area, while trying to keep the kindling dry. The body of the truck acted as a windbreak, but she wasn’t comfortable with sitting on a damp stack of dead sticks, dried leaves, and pine needles next to an open fire.

  “I need something to contain the fire,” she said.

  “Wet d-diapers,” Graham said.

  “What?” Rainey asked.

  “I’ll show you,” he answered, this time with no stuttering. “We need water.”

  “Water?”

  “Fire retardant gel made from the inside of diapers to put down a b-barrier.”

  A shiver shook Graham, but he was recovering rapidly. The food gave him the much-needed calories to make body heat. Rainey was glad to see his mind working. An active mind also indicated Graham’s body temperature was normalizing.

  “Okay then,” Rainey said, as she reached into the supply bag, “I have three more diapers.” She retrieved them and handed them off to Graham. “Are you finished with your juice box?”

  “Yes,” he said, already beginning to tear the top layer off a diaper.

  Rainey found her empty juice box, picked up Graham’s, and careful not to disturb the temporary roof she built, started climbing out of their sanctuary.

  Graham grabbed her leg. “Don’t leave.”

  She looked down at his fearful expression. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to get some water from the puddles in the road. I won’t be far. I’ll leave you the flashlight.”

  “Watch for Ellie,” he warned.

  “She’s been gone about forty-five minutes now. If she made it back home, she still has to deal with the investigators she was planning on calling. They’ll insist she get medical treatment for that arm wound she manufactured. You’re safe, Graham. I won’t let her hurt you again.”

  “Don’t let her hurt you,” he said. “Be safe.”

  “Always,” she replied.

  Graham smiled. “I knew you would say that.”

  Rainey squatted back down next to him. “Exactly how long have you been stalking me?”

  His head dipped, but he didn’t answer.

  “I’m pretty pissed at you, Theod—,” she caught her mistake and changed it to, “Graham, but I’m not going to let you die. I’m just curious how we crossed paths and why you’ve been obsessively studying my files and my life? You think about that while I go fetch the water. After we build a fire, we will have all night to talk about boundaries and privacy.”

  “I’m sorry, Rainey.”

  “I’m sure you are. Make it up to me by helping us not die out here of exposure.”

  “Okay,” Graham said, and then went straight to work on another diaper.

  Leaving him to his task and after a somewhat difficult exit through the small opening, which caused a repair she’d need to make on her return, Rainey picked her way from tree to tree in the black darkness. The nearly full moon could not penetrate the low hanging clouds overhead. Five feet into the journey, she tripped over a fallen branch and smacked her tender nose on a low hanging limb. The pain was intense enough to force Rainey to her knees, where she had to wait for her eyes to stop watering before she could see clearly again.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she exclaimed.

  Graham called out in a panic, “What? What is it?”

  Rainey spoke behind the hand holding her throbbing nose on her face. “I hit my freaking nose on a limb. Damn, that hurt.”

  “Don’t be so loud,” he reprimanded her. “She might be out there. You don’t know.”

  “By that reasoning, you shouldn’t be talking so loud either,” Rainey said, finally able to let go of her nose and wipe the tears from her cheeks. “She’s not here, Graham. Just relax.”

  He did not speak again. Once Rainey regained her feet, she moved with one hand shielding her face for the remainder of her slow and careful trek to the edge of the woods. Despite her reassurances to Graham, she hesitated before stepping out into the open. The wind blew through the trees and lifted the tails of her coat. Rainey’s body remembered the cold it had endured earlier and rattled her spine with a shiver, encouraging her to hurry back to shelter, but she waited, listening. Ellie had proven herself to be quite the marksman. A night scope would give her all the advantage she needed. Rainey might as well have started waving her arms and shouting shoot me now, as to walk out there and kneel down by the puddle. Her heart q
uickened with the adrenaline rush of danger.

  “Well,” she said to herself, “there is only one way to find out.”

  “Wait.”

  Rainey heard it clear as day. Her father’s voice rang out in her head. She ducked down where she stood behind a tree. Listening intently for further instruction, she waited, peering into the darkness. Very faintly she heard it, a vehicle coming from the main road, moving slowly, but definitely growing louder. A beam of light cut the darkness as the vehicle rounded the bend in the road, bobbing through the series of big dips. Rainey fought the urge to run long enough to get a good look at the front. The height of the vehicle, the spread and shape of the headlights, matched those of a large SUV—Ellie’s SUV as a matter of fact.

  Rainey remained crouched, but turned toward the shelter and Graham. She could see the glow of the flashlight, which fortuitously silhouetted the trees in her path back to him, but also gave away their position. She stayed low and moved as quickly as she could toward the light, this time remembering to keep her face shielded. She could hear the SUV coming nearer, and risked calling out to Graham before she reached the safety of the shelter.

  “Douse the flashlight. Someone is coming.”

  Graham did not hesitate and plunged the woods into darkness. Rainey stopped moving, just feet from the relative safety of their shelter. She turned toward the road, felt for the nearest tree, stepped behind it, and stood perfectly still. The SUV’s headlights lit up the woods in front of her, but did not penetrate where she stood, as it crawled by slowly. It continued down to the water, giving Rainey a chance to feel her way to the old truck. With one swipe, she took out the plastic roof and jumped in beside Graham.

  “Stay down,” she said, reaching for his shoulder and pushing him down in the corner.

  Rainey pulled the plastic away from the front grill just enough to peek through. The SUV stayed down at the water for several excruciating minutes. She risked rising up to peer over the front of the truck and saw a flashlight beam working its way back up the road toward them.

  Graham, she realized, was looking too, when he whispered, “She’s coming.”

  “Quiet,” Rainey whispered back.

  “Our footprints—”

  Rainey grabbed his shoulder. She whispered again, this time with more authority, “Shut up, or die, your choice.”

  The beam grew closer, but then the SUV lights appeared to be moving as well, coming behind the flashlight. Two people were in that vehicle, not one. It couldn’t be Ellie, or could it? Rainey’s mind wrestled with what to do. If Ellie had a partner in crime, she concealed them very well. Could Rainey take the chance that it was someone looking for her? As the lights grew closer, she caught a silhouetted glimpse of the person walking in front of the vehicle, but not clear enough to get a good look. The shape appeared too tall and broad to be a woman.

  The flashlight studied the ground, following the footprints Rainey and Graham left on the road right up to where they turned into the woods. She could see the dark figure stop and turn toward them. Rainey ducked down, pulling Graham with her, just as the powerful beam hit the front of the truck.

  “Rainey, are you in there?”

  “Danny?”

  “Who is it?” Graham said, still terrified.

  He grabbed at her as she began to rise from her crouch.

  She looked down at him. “It’s okay. It’s the good guys.” The flashlight beam hit her as she stood up. “What took you so long?” Rainey shouted to Danny.

  “It’s her,” he yelled at the person in the SUV.

  “Come on, Graham,” Rainey said, helping him to his feet. “Looks like we won’t have to build that fire after all.”

  “I could, you know,” he said, relief apparent in his voice.

  “I’m sure you could,” she said, hugging him close to her. “Stay right here. They might still think you are a killer.”

  Someone was following Danny, as two flashlights came crashing through the woods towards them.

  “Is that Colde, with you?” Danny asked.

  “Yes, but he didn’t abduct me.” Graham tensed in her grasp. “You’re all right, Graham. No one is going to hurt you. I got you.”

  “I swear, you are the only person I know that could go to a funeral and end up kidnapped,” Danny said, arriving at the truck.

  “How did you know to look here?” Rainey asked.

  The figure behind him said, “I had a hunch.”

  It was Bill Wise.

  “I guess our families are even now,” Rainey said, smiling, ignoring the pain it cause in her nose.

  Bill stepped forward and offered his hand to help her out of the truck. “Thank my dad. I read that file all day. So many things happened here that when I told Danny, he said we should just come take a look.”

  Once Rainey’s feet were on the ground outside the truck, she hugged Bill. “I thank you all.” She turned to Danny to hug him as well. While she still had him in her grasp, she whispered, “I knew you would come.”

  Danny pulled back from her and looked at her face. “I had no choice. Those women at your house insisted and Molly sent a chartered jet to speed my arrival. Jesus, what happened to your nose? Damn, I bet that hurts like hell and you sound like a kid with a cold.”

  “I’ve had worse,” Rainey said, with a little grin.

  Danny had witnessed her worst and simply nodded with understanding, but added, “Yeah, but never with a lavender hippopotamus on your head.”

  Rainey remembered the pink shirt and yanked it off, offering her defense. “My fashion choices were limited.”

  She threw the shirt at Danny, playfully. Her relief at being rescued improved her humor dramatically and, for the moment, she forgot her face was throbbing.

  “Come on, Theodore,” Bill said, as he assisted Rainey’s fellow survivor out of the truck.

  “It’s Graham, Bill. My name is Graham Colde and I did not kill those people.”

  Bill took off his coat and put it over the shoulders of the small, shivering, young man. “Nice to meet you, Graham.”

  Rainey spoke to Danny. “Supervisory Special Agent Danny McNally, I’d like to introduce you to Graham Dean Colde. He was accused of a double murder fourteen years ago, which I can testify, and, better yet, prove he did not commit.”

  “Are you going to tell me how you ended up driving off into that sandpit?” Danny asked, ignoring her comment, and eyeing Colde warily.

  “Wait, you already know he’s innocent, don’t you? How? Is Ellie Paxton in custody?”

  “No. Should she be?”

  Graham and Rainey answered simultaneously with an enthusiastic, “Yes.”

  Rainey added, “She drove us into sandpit.”

  Bill asked, “Did she kill my dad?”

  Rainey nodded. “He got too close to the truth, I’m afraid.”

  “I knew she was off,” Danny said, as he reached in his pocket, pulled out a phone, and made a call without further prodding.

  When someone answered, he said, “Put me through to Undersheriff Dawson.” As he waited, Danny said to Rainey. “He’s sitting on a murderer and doesn’t know it.”

  Rainey commented, “Serial murderer.”

  Danny’s eyebrows went up, but he waved at her to be quiet. “Dawson, it’s McNally. I have Rainey and Colde. They’ll be okay when they warm up, but do you still have eyes on Ellie Paxton?” He waited for the answer. “Get some cuffs on her.” He must have been asked what charges, because he said, “To start with, two counts of attempted murder.”

  Rainey held up three fingers. “She’s tried to kill Graham twice.”

  Danny amended his statement, “Make that three attempted murder and,” he looked at Rainey to fill in the blanks.

  “Nine counts of murder,” she said.

  “Did you get that?” Danny said into the phone. After a second, he said, “Just cuff her and we’ll work out the details after I get these two to a hospital.” He paused, and then added, “No, I think we can get to Wa
itesville faster than waiting for an ambulance.”

  Rainey watched as Danny nodded while he listened to Brad Dawson, the very acquaintance she was going to call in the Dobbs County Sheriff’s office.

  He finally responded, “Hold her. We’ll be there in a thirty minutes. And you need to send crime scene investigators to—”

  “Read’s Sandpit,” Bill said.

  “Read’s Sandpit,” Danny repeated. “Tell them to block the road at the big bend and don’t disturb anything. I’ll fill you in on where to direct them, but there are prints and tire tracks that should not be disturbed until you get some light in here.” He listened again and then said, “I’ll tell her.”

  Danny hung up the phone and handed it to Rainey. “Brad said he’s glad you’re safe and for God’s sake, call your wife.”

  Rainey grinned at Danny. “She raised a little hell, did she?”

  “I’d say so,” Bill commented, as the four of them started out of the woods. “I bet you could see blue flashing lights from the space shuttle.”

  “You didn’t answer Rainey’s question,” Graham said, holding the little flashlight he still possessed on Danny. “How did you know I wasn’t in the woods waiting to shoot you? You just walked right to us and called Rainey’s name.”

  “The footprints,” Danny answered. “Even if you had a weapon on her, if you got that close to Rainey standing upright, she would have kicked your ass. She was helping you. Your weight forced her right foot down further into the dirt as you came down the road.”

  Graham was impressed. “Wow. Did they teach you that a BAU school—how to track people like that? You BAU guys are just total bad-asses.”

  Danny turned the flashlight on Graham. “I saw that game you are working on. That’s a warped sense of what we do and of Rainey’s character and mine. We don’t track people in the field like bloodhounds, Mr. Colde. We don’t hunt them down and exact revenge. We study criminal behavior and that’s how we found you. Nothing fancy about it. And to answer your question, I learned how to read track sign from my grandfather.”

  Graham sounded like a scolded little boy, when he tried to improve his position, saying, “I already told Rainey I was sorry.”