Into Dust

by B. J Daniels

  “If I’m right about where we are, there are several places along the river where there are bridges and other roads that connect with it before we reach Livingston.”

  He nodded. That was exactly what he feared. If the driver of the vehicle that had spotted them called ahead...

  They came up over a rise. Jack had only seconds to react. A van swung in front of them, blocking both sides of the road. His choice was the cliff to his left or the rock wall to his right.

  Jack slammed on the brakes. The SUV skidded toward the van as he fought to get stopped.

  * * *

  FRANK CALLED BIG TIMBER JAVA and was told that the owner, Alex Ross, would be in soon. He drove downtown, parked and walked a half block to the coffee shop. As he entered, he saw Emily Calder and her daughter Josie sitting at one of the tables. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who was looking forward to seeing Alex this morning.

  He noticed that Emily still had a variety of tattoos and piercings, but she didn’t have that rebellious chip on her shoulder like she had when she’d first come back to town. Emily had gone a little wild after her parents had died. Her older brother, Jace, was still in high school at the time so he hadn’t known how to handle her. She’d left town, fallen in with the wrong crowd and even done some jail time.

  But after a while, she’d returned to the area, gotten a job at the Sarah Hamilton charitable foundation started by Buckmaster, and was doing well. Frank suspected her relationship with Alex Ross hadn’t hurt either. Alex was as straitlaced as Emily was rebellious. He figured the two were good for each other.

  “Good morning, Sheriff,” Emily said, her daughter echoing her words.

  He stepped to their table, ruffling the little girl’s hair as he said hello. “How are the nieces coming along?” he asked. Her brother, Jace, and his wife, Bo, were expecting twin girls.

  “Poor Bo. She’s as big as a barn,” Emily said with a laugh. “She’s so uncomfortable and the doctor has her on bed rest. But it won’t be long now.” She smiled. “We can’t wait.” Josie seconded that.

  As Alex came in through the back, Frank excused himself, saying he needed a word with him. They stepped into Alex’s office.

  “Tell me this isn’t about Emily’s ex,” Alex said, looking worried.

  “Sorry, no. Harrison Ames is still locked up. No more trouble from any friends of his?” Last year one of Ames’s former prison buddies had been stalking Emily.

  Alex let out a relieved breath. “No trouble. In fact, everything’s been...” He couldn’t seem to suppress a grin. “Great.”

  Frank had to smile as well. “I’m glad. I won’t keep you from Emily and Josie. I don’t know if you heard, but Russell Murdock was attacked.”

  “I heard. Out by the fishing access site.”

  The sheriff nodded. “I found this close to where Russell had been found.” He handed Alex the token. Before he’d come by, he’d had the lab try to get a clear print off the token but it was too smudged. “This might not even belong to the attackers but I thought I’d give it a shot. I’m thinking whoever worked him over was from out of town.” Those kind of men often stood out in a small town like Big Timber.

  “I haven’t been here much, but I can ask my cousin Jeff.”

  Frank followed him out to the counter.

  Jeff nodded when asked. “Couple of rough-looking dudes have been in a few times.” He laughed. “They ask for the kind of coffees that women like. Sissy drinks.” He provided a pretty good description of the two.

  “Any idea where they might have been staying?” the sheriff asked.

  “Actually, I think I do. They were driving a big SUV.” He described it, but hadn’t noticed the license plate. “I happened to see it parked at that motel on the edge of town, the old one with the row of units. Can’t think of the name.” Frank provided the name and Jeff nodded. “That’s the one. Haven’t seen them today. Hope that helps.”

  “Definitely does.” He noticed that Alex had joined Emily. Josie was busy telling him about a butterfly she’d caught in the net he’d given her and how her mother had made her let it go.

  “Some things are just for looking at, not keeping,” Alex said. “Some things are for keeping,” he added and his gaze locked with Emily’s.

  Frank felt himself smiling as he left. Lynette would tease him for being such a softy, but he was happy for Alex and Emily, and especially for Josie.

  Armed with a description of the two men and the SUV they’d been driving, he drove by the motel only to find that they had checked out.

  “They paid in cash. Said they were brothers here visiting Yellowstone,” the clerk told him. “They paid a security deposit since they said they didn’t believe in credit cards. They didn’t cause any trouble or break anything.”

  “Have they picked up their security deposit?” Frank asked.

  “Afraid so. They said they were headed home.”

  He asked to see the form they’d registered on. One glance at it told him they’d lied about everything on it. Still, he had the owner make him a copy. Back at the office, he put in the names. Nothing came up, just as he’d figured.

  * * *

  JACK HAD BARELY gotten the car stopped within inches of colliding with the van in the road, when two men emerged from the other side of the van. Everything happened so fast that he didn’t have time to pull his gun before the men smashed the side windows.

  Glass exploded over him and Cassidy. She screamed. He was trying to get the car into Reverse and pull his weapon, when his head was slammed back and the keys were ripped from his hand.

  A moment later, he and Cassidy were dragged from the SUV at gunpoint. Their wrists were bound behind them with plastic cuffs, their ankles also bound, before being dumped unceremoniously into the back of the van. Jack’s mind raced as he tried to think of a way out of this.

  Just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, they were both jabbed with hypodermic needles again.

  One of the men slid behind the wheel and the motor revved. The van began to bounce along the highway. Jack sat up enough to look back through the dirty rear window to see the other man behind the wheel of the SUV they’d stolen from his father.

  As the drug began to take effect, Jack lay back down next to Cassidy, his gaze going to her beautiful face. He feared that this time they wouldn’t just be locked up. This might be the last time he saw her, the last time he got to look into those blue eyes. His throat closed at the thought. “I’m so sorry.”

  Tears welled in her eyes. “No matter what happens, these days with you have been the best of my life. Jack? I love you.”

  He smiled, choked up at her declaration. “I love you, Beany,” he said, moving closer to her so he could kiss her one last time.

  * * *

  SARAH WATCHED MARTIN pace in the large cold warehouse. They’d been told to come here, but given no other information. Through the dirty barred windows, she could see nothing beyond the darkness. She’d lost track of time.

  “Do they have Cassidy?” she’d demanded when Martin had gotten the call. She’d watched his expression as he listened to whoever was on the other end of the line.

  He’d nodded. “We’ll meet you there. You know what I have to have.”

  “Is this about the money they took from you?” Sarah had cried as Martin disconnected. “What about our children?”

  “Settle down. They’re fine. And yes, I need the money. We need the money.”

  “To finish this...plan,” she said irritably. “After everything Joe has done, you’re still going along with it?”

  “What choice do we have? You’ve seen what happens if you fight them.”

  She knew he was right, but that didn’t make it any easier. “How did we get involved in this?”

  He shook his head. “I just know the
re is only one way out.”

  Sarah hugged herself and looked toward the closed door at the end of the large warehouse. “You know what Doc’s doing to them.”

  “This way is better than what Joe had wanted to do,” Martin said. “Just hope to hell it works. Otherwise...”

  She felt numb from the cold, numb from where her life had taken her, and maybe even more numb to where it was headed. All her thoughts were with Cassidy, the child she hadn’t gotten to see grow up because of her poor choices.

  Now she waited, watching Martin pace and listening to the low murmur of Dr. Venable’s voice in the room beyond them where he had Jack and Cassidy. “Tell me about your life.”

  Martin stopped to look at her as though he was deciding if she was serious. “What’s the point?”

  “Humor me. I’m going crazy here. Unless you want me to start pounding on that door down there...”

  “I have an import/export business in Houston and a few other businesses on the side. I’ve done well.”

  That wasn’t what she was asking. “You were married?”

  He nodded and looked away. “Marriage is required so we can blend in like Russian spies who were imported years ago. But it is risky in this business making a family. It is hard to keep our two lives separate. But I guess I don’t have to tell you that.”

  “What happened to your wife?” she asked, a bad feeling in her belly.

  He avoided her gaze. “She found out.”

  Sarah felt sick to her stomach. “You let them—”

  “You don’t let them do anything. They just do it. Good God, woman, look what they’ve done to you.”

  She said nothing for a long moment. “Didn’t you ever want out of The Prophecy?” she asked hopefully. And yet she knew even by broaching this subject she was taking a horrible chance. If Martin told Joe—

  “This has been my sole purpose for years.” He frowned at her. “What else is there? What is the point of making money if not to change the world?”

  That sounded like tired rhetoric to her, something he’d said to himself too many times over the years. “I just question how much we’re going to change anything,” she said, looking toward the closed door again. She couldn’t hear Doc’s voice.

  “That attitude will get you killed, you know.”

  Sarah turned to look at him. “Blowing up buildings, killing people, I’m sorry but doesn’t that just make us terrorists? Isn’t there a better use for your money than putting it into anarchism? You could have run for office. You could be changing things from the inside.”

  Martin laughed. “You really have bought into the bourgeois bullshit.” He shook his head. “That kind of talk makes me think that you’ve become a liability to our cause.”

  She met his gaze. “I will do whatever I have to do to keep my family safe. Never doubt that. But I’m not one of you anymore.”

  “I can see that. Which tells me that you can’t be depended on to make the right decision when compromises have to be made.”

  “Compromises? Like when they killed your wife? Did you love her at all?”

  He made a pained sound. “How can you ask that? That’s why I have to see this through. Otherwise, it was all for nothing.”

  Sarah felt a shudder move through her. “What if what Doc is doing in that room doesn’t work and your son remembers everything he’s learned about you and The Prophecy?” she asked, knowing that she was digging her own grave asking such things.

  “Don’t forget, your daughter also knows.”

  Sarah turned as the door opened at the other end of the warehouse. As she started in that direction, Martin grabbed her arm, shaking his head as he said, “If Dr. Venable can’t fix this, then I am going to have to take care of both of them. If you try to stop me, Sarah—”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  TIFFANY HAD ALWAYS used the way she looked to get what she wanted. She’d learned that from her mother. Pam could look as innocent as a summer day. No one had seen the dangerous storm lurking behind that face.

  If they had, they would have run away in horror, Tiffany thought now. She remembered her own fear of her mother when she was a child. The first time she glimpsed the real Pam Chandler. She shuddered now as she drove. She’d been no more than five at the time. She’d wanted to tell someone, to warn someone, but there had been no one she could turn to.

  From the time she could remember, it had just been the two of them. “I’m all you’ve got,” her mother used to say. “You ever turn on me and you’ll have no one. No one. And I will be coming after you. You never want that.”

  Fortunately, most of the time, all Tiffany saw was her mother’s sweet face and the disguise that went with it. Pam had loved that they looked alike, both blonde, both blue-eyed.

  “See this face?” her mother used to say, cupping Tiffany’s face in her hands. “It is your greatest asset. Just blink those big blue eyes of yours and look slightly confused,” Pam would say. “You’ll be amazed what you can get away with.”

  Her mother had been right about that anyway. Tiffany smiled to herself now as she drove toward Beartooth and the small ranch where Sheriff Frank Curry and his wife, Nettie, lived. She’d stopped at a cafe, ducking into the bathroom to clean up. Fortunately, she’d found a coat in the back of Dr. Iverson’s car and was able to cover the bloodstains he’d gotten on her Elle outfit.

  Once she was presentable, she ordered a large dinner, ate every bite, and then when faced with the check, suddenly broke down in tears claiming she’d lost her purse.

  Seeing her inconsolable, several of the other patrons had chipped in to buy her meal. The waitress even gave her ten dollars to make sure she had enough gas to get home. The kindness of strangers always amazed her. Or as her mother said, “A sucker is born every second for women like us.”

  Tiffany had waited patiently for night. Driving through that darkness now, she felt anxious to reach the ranch. And yet she wanted to savor every moment because these would probably be her last. Full and content, she drove with her window down. The cold night air made her feel more alive than she’d felt in a very long time.

  Every once in a while she would look over at the passenger seat. Somehow she’d thought her mother would have come along. She hadn’t thought Pam would have wanted to miss this. Maybe she would show up later when the fun started. It was late enough that Frank and Nettie would be asleep in their bedroom.

  Word wouldn’t have gotten out yet that she’d escaped. Even if the staff found Jerry in her room the way she’d left him, there would have to be a search of the hospital, then the grounds, before the alert was called.

  Dr. Iverson’s body might be found during the search of the grounds. She’d rolled his body off into a nearby ditch. If only it would rain tonight and wash away the blood from the pavement. But she couldn’t depend on that.

  At some point, Sheriff Frank Curry would be called, since everyone at the hospital still thought that he was her father.

  Which meant that she had until daybreak to accomplish everything she’d come to Beartooth, Montana, for in the first place.

  * * *

  “OH, MY GOD, what have you done to my daughter?” Sarah cried as she pushed past Dr. Venable and into the room. Cassidy lay on the floor. Her face was white as if in pain. Her eyes were closed and for a moment, Sarah wasn’t sure she was still breathing.

  She turned, advancing on the doctor, her fingers aching to close on his scrawny throat. Martin restrained her, pulling her back as Doc snapped, “She’s fine.” He sounded exhausted and irritable. He immediately turned to Martin. “You said you could get them on a plane back to Houston?”

  “The plane is standing by,” Martin said. “You want me to take both of them?”

  “If we get them out of here now and on a plane, everything should be fine since Houston wi
ll be their last memory,” Doc said with a sigh and handed Martin a slip of paper. “This is where you’ll find your...property Jack hid.”

  “You’re sure they won’t remember anything?” Martin asked as he looked at the slip of paper.

  “Trust me, they won’t remember any of this. The clinic in Houston is standing by for both of them with cover stories. If I did my job, they won’t remember any of this.” Doc shifted his gaze to her. “Go home. The hospital will be calling with news about your daughter. I implanted a suggestion that she come back to Montana. If anything, your relationship with her should be better.”

  “What about my son?” Martin said to Doc’s retreating backside.

  “The last thing he will remember is visiting his mother’s grave days ago. You’re both in the clear. Don’t screw it up.” With that he was gone.

  Sarah looked at Martin as two large men pushed past with gurneys and loaded Jack and Cassidy for the waiting van. Martin looked relieved and yet worried.

  “It was bad enough when Doc messed with my mind,” she said between gritted teeth. “Now my daughter’s? And all because of you and Joe.”

  He spun on her. “No, Sarah, this is on you. You knew what you had to do and you fought it. If you haven’t realized it by now, nothing is going to stand in the way of The Prophecy’s plan. Get with the program or the consequences will be much higher next time. If Doc did his magic and it works, we both got lucky this time.”

  * * *

  IT WAS ALMOST two in the morning by the time Tiffany neared the Curry ranch. The moon peaked in and out of the low clouds. The breeze coming out of the Crazies was cold. It reminded her of the short period of time when she had been living over the Beartooth General Store. That was before the mental hospital, before she’d failed to kill the sheriff.

  She felt a sudden pang recalling the artwork she used to do. She’d loved to draw. There had been days when she’d dreamed of being an artist, even though she’d known that wasn’t her destiny.