by Kathi Daley
I could hear Houston in the distance, on the phone. I tried to ignore him, but I was having a hard time focusing as I needed to. I was about to ask him to take his call outside when I heard him sign off. I listened as he came into the living room and sat down on the chair across from me. He didn’t say anything, for which I was grateful.
“The jacket we found during our search for Diane,” I began. “Were you ever able to determine where it had come from or who it belonged to?”
Houston looked confused. “Is that relevant to this situation?”
I showed him the necklace. “I found this in the pocket. I think it belongs to the woman I’ve been connecting with.”
“I haven’t been able to confirm whose it is, but I heard there was a group of visitors from Fairbanks who were brought here by a charter company to do some white-water rafting. They were making their way down the river upstream from the falls when they capsized. I suspect the jacket may belong to one of them.”
“We need to find out for sure. If this necklace does belong to the woman I’ve been dreaming of, whoever owned the jacket may have information that can help us find her.”
“I’ll have one of my men track down the owner of the tour company. Maybe he’ll know who lost the jacket.”
Houston got up to make his call and I began to rub the necklace between my fingers. I cleared my mind and concentrated with everything I had. Up until this point, I hadn’t been sure if my dream had been a vision, but after seeing the photo of Jennifer Walton, I was certain she was the person who’d been spending time in my head.
After I’d been meditating for a good ten minutes, an image began to take shape. Trees, bright light, the sound of birds overhead. She was no longer in the dark place where she’d been held all week but outside somewhere, amid the forest, the birds, and the healing sunshine. My first instinct was that she’d carried through with the last thought she’d had before our connection had been broken the previous night. The thought to take a stand and fight for her life instead of giving in to the darkness. But then I felt a pain. A sharp, searing pain. I gasped.
“Are you okay?” Houston asked as he came back into the room.
“I’m fine,” I answered without opening my eyes. “It’s not my pain I feel but hers.”
“So she’s still alive?”
I nodded “For now.” I took a deep breath in and slowly let it out. “I sense she’s outdoors. In the forest, not in the dark place where I’d been sensing her all week. Her feet are bare, her hands bound with a rough, sturdy rope that has scraped the skin from her wrists. She has a gash on her forehead, but otherwise she seems unharmed except for deep cuts on her feet. She has tape over her mouth, but she feels strong and determined. She hasn’t given in. I wouldn’t either.”
I opened my eyes.
“Do you know where she is?”
I shook my head. “I just see forest. She’s walking. I sense her captor is with her, but I don’t see him. He may be walking behind her. Did you get any information on the jacket?”
“It belonged to one of the men on the rafting trip. I asked him about the necklace and he said he found it on the sidewalk outside a Starbucks in Fairbanks. He picked it up and meant to turn it in at the police station because he thought it might be valuable, but he got caught up in getting to the group for the rafting trip and forgot all about it.”
“Jennifer Walton lives in Fairbanks, so that could fit. Still, the odds that he’d pick it up in the city and I’d find it in Rescue must be pretty huge. Add to that the fact that I’ve been dreaming about her for days and they’re astronomical.”
“Or the whole thing was meant to be.”
“Yeah. I guess there’s that.”
The dogs all jumped up as Jake walked in through the cabin door. He greeted them, then sat down beside me. “What do we have?” he asked.
“The woman I dreamed about is no longer in the dark place she’d been kept all week,” I said, then told him everything I knew.
“Do you have any idea where she is?” Jake asked.
I furrowed my brow. “No. At least not yet. All I can see are trees and a little bit of sky. It could be anywhere. Houston can tell you anything you don’t already know. I need to try to reconnect.”
I closed my eyes again and willed myself to relax. I envisioned Jennifer Walton’s face, biting my lip. I needed to resist the urge to start chasing every thought that stomped its way through my mind. I took a moment to consider the larger picture, then choose the best place to begin our search. Jennifer’s life most likely depended on it.
I opened my eyes and looked at Jake. “The locations Ragland has chosen to hide and kill his victims feel specific to me. It appears he kidnaps his victim the day before he plans to kill them, leaves them bound and gagged, then makes them walk to their death. It feels like the pattern has a very intentional purpose.”
“Perhaps by making them wait for death he’s giving them time to suffer,” Jake suggested.
“Or perhaps he’s giving them time to repent.”
“Repent?” Houston said. “Why do they need to repent? He’s the one killing people.”
“Maybe Ragland believes the people responsible for the hell he endured after being taken from his father are guilty of some sort of sin. Maybe something as simple as honor thy father, but it could be something else. These people have done wrong in his eyes, and the cost of doing wrong is death.”
“So he’s both the judge handing down the sentence he feels is justified and the executioner?” Jake said.
“Yeah, it could be something like that. I’m only imagining what he might be feeling, though I’m sure I picked up some of his thoughts during Vinnie’s rescue.” I turned back to Houston. “Where did Jennifer meet Ragland and his father when she counseled them after it was determined the father had been abusive?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Was it their home? Her home? Did she have an office? Did they meet at the school? The church?”
“Does it matter?” Jake asked.
I nodded. “I think it does. The locations in which Ragland has killed his victims seem specific. I bet if you do a little digging, you’ll find Pastor Brown took young Damian fishing at Glacier Lake while doing the male-bonding thing. We don’t know where Dr. White would have been killed if things had gone according to plan, but I bet we would have found her body near the clinic where Damian was treated. And Diane was found at the top of Juniper Falls. She took her entire class hiking up to the falls every year when the water was low. There’s that little pool you can swim in if it’s warm enough. I’m guess it was while Damian was swimming in that pool that Diane noticed his cuts and bruises.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Houston said. “And if you’re right, Ragland plans to kill Jennifer at or near wherever the counseling sessions were held.” Houston stood up. “I need to make a call. Keep working. I’ll take it outside.”
I closed my eyes and again tried to focus in on Jennifer. I needed to see what she saw, hear what she heard, feel what she felt. She’d lived in Rescue before moving to Fairbanks. At some point she’d realize where they were, and the location would cross her mind.
“Jennifer didn’t have an office,” I heard Houston say when he returned to the room. “The woman I spoke to said her clients would go to her home to meet. When she met with parents, she would go to them. I have my team tracking down where she and the Raglands lived.”
“I’ll have the team stand by. They’ll be ready to move out within a moment’s notice,” Jake said.
I opened my eyes. “They’re at a pool of water. Ragland is submerging Jennifer.”
“He’s going to drown her?” Jake asked.
“No. Not drown. He’s cleansing her, maybe baptizing her.”
“Both Pastor Brown and Diane were near water when we found them,” Jake said. “And they were both wet.”
“Do you recognize the pool?” Houston asked.
I closed my eyes and focused. I gasped
, and my eyes shot open. “They’re here. At the little pond in the forest a quarter mile or so beyond the boundary of my property. There’s a cabin there. It’s been deserted since I’ve lived here, but I know it was occupied at one time.”
Houston took his gun out of his holster, then used a radio to call his own team. He looked at Jake. “Have your people stand down. This isn’t a rescue. It might very well turn into a hostage situation. I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”
“I’ll have the team stand down, but I’m coming with you. I have a rifle in my truck.”
“I’m coming too,” I said as I grabbed my own rifle from its hanger on the wall near the door. I could see both men were about to argue. “Nonnegotiable,” I said as I told the dogs to stay, then headed out into the light of a northern Alaska summer.
Jake and Houston fell in beside me. I knew exactly where I was going and they didn’t, so neither of them argued when I took the lead. When we were a hundred yards or so from the cabin I paused and crouched down behind some shrubs.
“The pond is about an eighth of a mile through those trees. Jennifer is coming through strongly now. She’s okay, but Ragland has her on her knees. He’s talking to her. Ranting, really.” I paused and focused. “They’re walking again. I can’t tell in which direction.”
“Let’s move,” Houston said.
This time, he took the lead, while Jake and I followed behind. When we arrived at the pond, there was evidence someone had been there, but the place was deserted.
“Any idea where they went?” Houston asked.
“Give me a minute.” I closed my eyes, waiting for Jennifer’s image to appear in my head. I gasped. “They must have doubled back around somehow. They’re heading back to the cabin.”
“We need to get back before he kills her,” Houston said.
We all took off running. As we approached the cabin, we slowed our pace. Taking positions behind trees, we watched as Ragland stood with Jennifer on the deck. He made her get to her knees again and took a knife from his belt.
“He’s going to kill her now,” I whispered.
Houston took a step into the clearing. “Drop the knife!” he yelled, pointing his revolver at Ragland, who grabbed Jennifer and pulled her to her feet. He used her as a shield as he backed to the door. He pulled the door open and they disappeared inside.
“We need to get her,” I said.
“It’d be better to wait for my men.”
“But he might kill her before they get here,” I argued.
Jennifer appeared at the window at the front of the cabin. She stood perfectly still. We waited for her to make a move of some sort, but she just stood there, looking out.
“Why is she just standing there?” I asked.
Houston frowned. “I don’t know, but I don’t like it. I say we go in after all.”
“I’ll circle around through the forest to the right. Jake, you circle around to the left. We’ll approach the front door from either side to reduce the chance of us being seen. Harmony, you stay here. If things go south, you’re our only backup.”
I nodded. “Okay, but hurry. This doesn’t feel right.”
They disappeared into the trees. I held my breath, trying to reconnect with Jennifer. Her mind was perfectly calm and still. It didn’t make sense, and I certainly didn’t understand why she was just standing there. I could feel Houston and Jake moving through the forest. I didn’t know how this would go, but I was terrified it would end badly.
I held my breath, then, as Jake and Houston reappeared, approaching the door from opposite sides. On Houston’s signal, they stormed the door. I watched as Houston approached Jennifer. She was still standing perfectly still, but he was talking to her. As I stood there, unable to understand what was going on, Houston’s men arrived. They went in immediately, and Jake came out to me.
“What’s going on?” I demanded. “Why is Jennifer just standing there? Where’s Ragland?”
“He’s gone. Apparently, there’s a trapdoor that leads to an underground passage. It looks old. It probably was there when he was a child. This was their home.”
“And Jennifer?”
“Ragland attached something to her. He told her it was a bomb, and it would go off if she moved, but Houston doesn’t think it would have. It’s amateur stuff he thinks he can defuse, but he has the bomb squad on the phone.”
“Shouldn’t we be doing something?” I asked.
“Houston said to wait outside, so I say we wait. It’s not like either of us can help with this.”
Jake had a point, but I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to stand around doing nothing while I waited to find out if the person I’d been carrying around in my head all week went home to her husband or died in a fiery explosion.
Chapter 9
Friday, June 22
“So Ragland used Jennifer and the bomb as a diversion while he got away?” Chloe said the next morning as we drank coffee at her café.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“Do they have any leads on him? Do they think he’s still in this area? Will he be looking for more victims?”
“There are no leads at this point as far as I know, and they don’t know if he’s left here or is still lurking about. I’d think if he’s still in this area, he’ll lay low rather than looking for additional victims now that he knows the police are on to him, but I really have no idea.”
“You should be careful,” Chloe said. “I mean extremely, compulsively careful. I wouldn’t be surprised if he isn’t going to come after you next. You’re the reason his plans for Silvia and Jennifer were foiled. If he’s as smart as it sounds, he must have figured that out by now.”
I frowned. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to sleep with my rifle for a few days.”
“A rifle won’t do you a lot of good if he has a bomb,” Chloe pointed out. “Why did he have a bomb anyway? Did he just have one laying around in case he needed to create a diversion, or did he plan to do something with it?”
“That’s a really good question. Why did he have a bomb? Once Jake, Houston, and I showed up, everything went really quickly. Ragland pulled Jennifer into the cabin and tied the bomb to her, saying it would go off if she moved. He used the time Houston spent dealing with the fact that Ragland was holding her hostage and trying to figure out how to disarm the bomb to get away. He slit the throats of his other victims. At least the ones I know about. A bomb, even a small, homemade one like that, is a whole new element.”
After I left Chloe’s I headed to the shelter. Houston was supposed to meet me there for our delayed shopping trip and training session. I wasn’t sure he’d show, considering everything else he had on his plate, but when I pulled into the parking lot his truck was already there.
“Are you ready to be a daddy?” I greeted Houston, who’d been chatting with Serena.
“A daddy?”
I had to laugh. “Getting a dog is a bit like having a baby. A dog will bring a lot of love into your life, but it also impacts your usual routine. Of course, Kojak is doing well with his training and is fairly self-sufficient, so the learning curve shouldn’t be too bad. Let’s grab a leash and take your new baby shopping.”
“The dog is coming with us?”
“Absolutely. It’s a good idea to expose Kojak to as many different experiences as you can. You want first and foremost to be sure he’s well socialized. The pet store where we’re going to get the supplies you need allows dogs, so we may as well bring him along.”
I grabbed a leash and the dog, and we went out to Houston’s truck. I gave him directions to the only pet supply store in town.
“Any news about Ragland?” I asked as we pulled onto the highway.
“Not so far. We have an APB out on him; he won’t get far.”
“You think he’s left town?”
“Makes sense he would. He knows we’re on to him and that we know who he is and what he looks like. He’d be pretty stupid to stay nearby.”
“What if he i
sn’t done? What if Jennifer wasn’t the last victim?”
Houston turned and looked at me. “Do you have another victim in mind? Are you sensing something?”
“No,” I said. “I’m just making conversation. Have you spoken to Jennifer?”
Houston nodded. “She’s home now. She was checked out at the hospital in Fairbanks, but they didn’t keep her because her injuries weren’t life-threatening. She confirmed a lot of what we already knew. She said she received a call from Ragland wanting to meet her for coffee. He told her that he was back in the States after a career in the military and wanted to take the opportunity to ask her a few questions about his childhood. Normally, she wouldn’t agree to meet a client, or even an ex-client, outside of office hours, but he said he was only in Alaska for the weekend, so she agreed to meet him at Starbucks. When she arrived, he came up from behind her and pricked her with something. It immediately made her dizzy and she passed out shortly after, but she remembers being helped into a car. The next thing she knew, she was laying on a cold floor in a room so dark she couldn’t make out a single thing.”
“She must have been terrified.”
“I’m sure she was,” Houston agreed. “She didn’t know how long she’d been out when she finally came to and had no way of knowing how long she was in the room before Ragland came for her.”
“In my dream, at some point he gave her water, a loaf of bread, and a flashlight.”
“She confirmed that did occur. She rationed the food and the flashlight batteries. At one point he tossed an old mattress into the room for her to lay on.”
“That demonstrates compassion,” I said. “It didn’t seem he was the sort to possess an ounce of compassion. I suppose the mattress was some kind of indicator that she was different to him than the others. I wonder if he planned to keep her longer when he first took her or if he changed his mind about killing her right away after he got her here.”
