A very slim chance.
She sighed. She wasn’t going to send up a Hail Mary and hope for a miracle to save them. Danny wouldn’t stand by and wait for a miracle, and neither would she.
Stop wishing and start planning.
Impossible as it seemed, there had to be a way out of this mess. Keeping her foot steady on the gas pedal, she divided her mind between driving and scheming. She cast a sideways glance at Katie, and a thought occurred to her. Her brother hadn’t tied Katie’s hands. The headrests in her Honda were detachable. If Sky could somehow convince Garth to let her stop the car, if she could somehow convince him to get out with her, Katie might be able to pull the head-rest, chain and all, out of the seat, free herself and drive away.
It could work. Only…she doubted Katie would realize that she could pull out the headrest to free herself. And Sky could hardly tell her. She wouldn’t discard the plan entirely, though. Maybe she could scream instructions to Katie while she fought with Garth.
No.
That wouldn’t work. He’d likely shoot her before she got the words out, and then there’d be no one left to protect Katie.
Keep thinking.
While she kept driving, her brain kept churning, but she was coming up empty. By now, they were a good ways outside of town, and she still hadn’t the faintest idea how she was going to get Katie out of this mess. Cursing herself for dropping her cell phone back at Danny’s house, she shoved a hand in her coat pocket and pulled at a loose thread. As her hand clenched and unclenched inside her empty pocket, hope started to beat in her chest. Maybe she and Katie would have their miracle after all.
Forcing herself not to fidget with excitement, she said, “How’s school going, Katie?”
No response.
Katie seemed in shock, and she needed Katie to stay with her, needed her to see they weren’t helpless. Not unless they believed they were. Not unless they gave up. “Katie, did you finish that book report?”
This time, the girl responded morosely, “It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it does,” Garth joined the conversation. “I gave my word to my sister. You’ll be back at school tomorrow. So don’t think you’ll get by without completing your assignments.”
Garth sounded sincere, almost fatherly. He could lie better than anyone she’d ever known. Fine. She could turn her brother’s guile against him, use it to her advantage.
“Yes. You’ll be in school tomorrow.” She sent Katie a meaningful look she hoped her brother couldn’t see from the backseat. Katie was a smart girl. There was a good chance she would follow where Sky was trying to lead her. “Garth is absolutely right. You need to keep your grades up. In fact, your father and I were discussing your geometry class, and I’ve been wondering how your mid-term went.”
Katie turned her body as much to the side as the chain around her neck permitted. Sky pumped her hand in and out of her coat pocket. With widening eyes, Katie shoved her hand in her pocket too. Sky nodded a good-girl at her.
“My-my geometry midterm?” Katie wriggled like she’d swallowed a jumping bean.
“Yes. How did it go?”
“I-I got an A.” Katie blinked rapidly, and then she smiled, actually smiled at Sky.
“I bet your father was pleased.” A chunk of ice appeared on the road, and the car slid just a little as Sky maneuvered around it. Her heart was racing in her chest, but she’d kept the car under relatively good control. Katie was unharmed.
So far.
“Pay attention to the road, Sky.” Garth’s admonishment seemed to signal a growing impatience with her chatter. She didn’t dare take the conversation with Katie any further, but it didn’t matter. She and Katie were on the same page. Katie wouldn’t have smiled if she hadn’t understood what she needed to do.
Katie had gotten an A in geometry. And that meant she’d earned an iPhone. An iPhone that, judging by the way Katie pumped her hand, was at this very moment in the pocket of her fluffy pink parka. All Sky had to do was distract Garth long enough for Katie to look at her contact list, touch-dial her father’s number, and slip the phone back in her pocket. Then they could communicate with Danny without Garth knowing.
“Turn here.” Garth inclined his head right.
Following his instructions, Sky took a careful right onto an unpaved road, and a cinder cone came into view.
Sunset crater.
This road led one place and one place only. The Wupatki ruins. And Katie would recognize it too. If they could get a connection with Danny…
Sky took the time to say a silent prayer. And then she forged ahead, hoping Garth would stick to his little game of I am not a monster. He might have buttoned her coat and offered them water, but she knew what he really was.
Still, as long as he didn’t know she knew, there was hope.
“Garth. I’m really sorry about this. But I have to go to the bathroom. I’m trying, but I just can’t hold it anymore. Is it okay if I pull over?”
“We’re too close to the highway.”
As they approached the park entrance, Garth ordered, “Shut off your headlights, just in case there’s a ranger on site. You can leave on the parking lights.”
Sky complied, and they rolled quietly down the road, leaving the visitor center behind them. The moon was full—a wolf moon. And Sky didn’t dare ask to turn on her headlights again. Garth could see the road was illuminated enough for her to get by without them. After several miles, lava fields came into view on their left side. Eerie and black and soaked in snow, the porous volcanic flows gave her the feeling she’d departed planet earth; and the wind in the pines mimicked the chant of ancient voices warning the intruders not to defile their home.
By her recollection, the largest pueblo in the ruins, the most likely place to stop and regroup, was a good thirty minutes past the first lava bed. She cleared her throat and steeled her jaw, tried to steer her tone away from the suspicious range of obsequiousness, while remaining polite and cooperative. “Are we going to the Big House? Because I’m dying to use the restroom. I’m sorry to ask again, but I really don’t think I can hold it that long.”
From behind her Garth grunted. Then he said, “Okay. Pull over, but don’t get out of the car or make a move until I give you the okay.”
Sky eased the car off the road.
Leaning forward, Garth pressed the Glock to Katie’s temple. “Get out of the car, Sky. And don’t try to run. If you do, I can’t be responsible for what happens to the girl.”
“Come with me.”
“I think you can manage.”
“But, what if…” What if what? The words she was about to utter seemed ridiculous and likely to give away her trickery. But then again, Garth probably didn’t think her capable of deceiving him, and for the past hour she’d been controlling her breath to keep her voice from shaking. Now she let the vibration come through. She drew her bottom lip between her teeth and didn’t bother to disguise the tremor in her hands. In this situation, she didn’t need to feign her fear. Only its object. “What if there are snakes?”
“Too cold.” He wasn’t buying it.
And then came a howling dramatic enough to have been straight off a b-movie soundtrack. “W-wolves!” With true tears in her eyes, she shot a pleading look at her brother.
Garth bobbed his chin. “All right. It’s not as if Katie can go anywhere. You get out first. I’m right behind you.”
Telegraphing a signal to Katie with her eyes, Sky drove her hand in and out of her coat pocket. In return, Katie smiled. Sky climbed out of the car, leaving the keys in the ignition, just in case Katie understood that she might be able to get loose and drive away.
Garth’s gaze landed on the keys in the ignition. Scowling, he reached back in the car and yanked the keys. His eyes jerked from Katie to Sky and back to Katie. He tilted his head and extended his hand, stroked the faux fur on the cuffs of Katie’s parka. “This is a very nice coat. Did your daddy give it to you?”
Eyes welling with
tears, Katie made no answer. Garth smoothed his glove down the slick waterproof fabric of her coat, then slipped his hand in her pocket and pulled out her phone. “Your daddy give you this too?” he asked.
Katie started to sob.
Hiding her shaking hands behind her back, Sky met Katie’s eyes. This was a setback but not to the extent Katie must think. “We’re okay, Katie. But I need you to hang in.”
Slamming the car door before Katie could respond, Garth pitched the iPhone into the darkness. He grabbed Sky by the elbow. “Get on with it then, I haven’t got all night.”
Clapping his hands together to shed the snow from his gloves, Danny circled the car and surveyed his handiwork. He’d secured the chains on his tires in record time, but he shook his fist at the night anyway. When the storm picked up, he’d been forced to pull over and chain up, wasting precious minutes.
He climbed in his Mustang and squinted at the clock on the dash. It’d been a good half hour since he’d last spoken to the captain. His nerves raw, his feet numb, he fired up the ignition and stomped on the accelerator. The car lurched back onto the highway.
Above the clunking of snow chains, at last, Danny heard his phone. Grabbing it, he checked the display. It was the captain. His breathing grew ragged, and the hairs on the back of his neck lifted. Fear can do funny things to a man. It can paralyze his diaphragm and vocal cords so he can hardly breathe, so he can’t even manage to scream for help; or it can pump his muscles so full of adrenaline he can fend off an army of aliens. Fear can be a man’s worst enemy, or his best friend. Danny knew he had a choice.
He chose friend.
With deliberate calm he spoke into the receiver. “Katie and Sky safe? You get that motherfucker?”
“Danny, are you still on the road?”
It was the captain who sounded undone. Danny gritted his teeth and defiantly yanked his collar, shut down the anguish that was lassoing a noose around his heart. He refused to allow his emotions to cripple him and render him useless to Katie and Sky. “Answer the question.”
“If you’re driving, I need you to pull over so we can talk.”
And lose more time? “Fuck that. Just tell me.”
“Pull over.”
“Done,” he lied.
The captain cleared his throat, coughed, then said, “We think Katie and Sky are still alive.”
Cop. Be a cop. “Y-you think…?”
“Yes. We do believe they’re alive. But I can’t say for sure, Danny. We got to your place too late. We found Scotty—he’s dead.” There was a long pause before the captain started to speak again. “We assume Garth shot him. No one else was at the house when we got there. So if it was Garth, and if Katie and Sky were there, like you said…Garth must’ve kidnapped them. I’ve got an APB out and an Amber alert. We’re mobilizing every resource we can call in—”
The noose squeezed tighter around his heart, but he didn’t flinch. He welcomed the fear, used it to steel his nerves. Katie was alive. Sky was alive. He knew it, and he had to get to them fast.
“Danny, do you know what Katie is wearing?”
“No. But call Faith when we’re through. She’ll know. Where are you?”
“At my desk, but I assure you—”
“Your computer on?”
“Yes, but, Danny, I need you to stay on track. You’ve got to pull it together. I’ve got some questions for you.”
“I’ve got it together. Just trust me and open your internet browser.”
“Look, if you got an idea, I’m open. You have my word I’ll move heaven and earth to get Katie home. Even if I have to play nice with the feebs… Why am I going online?”
“Just do it.”
“Hang on. This computer’s a goddamn dinosaur.”
“Have you got it yet?”
“No. Yes! Now what?”
“Go to me dot com.”
“I’m there. What the fuck is this?”
“My mobile account.”
“I need an account name and password.”
“DetectiveDanielBenson—no spaces. Password is Grace.”
“Christ, that’s not a secure password.”
“I don’t keep missile codes in my iPhone account.”
On the other end of the line, the captain laughed softly. And then. “Okay, Danny. If you can keep your cool, I can damn well keep mine. I got a new page up, what do I do now?”
“Navigate until you get to find my iPhone and then type in find Katie.”
“This is fucking genius. Gonna put the FBI out of business. Holy Christ, that was fast.” A staticy whistle. “I found her.” The captain sounded like he was gonna come right through the airwaves. “And Danny, I think you’re the closest man. Katie…or at least her phone, is at the Wupatki National Monument.”
Despite the fact that he was fighting to stay in hard-cop mode, tears of gratitude streamed downed his cheeks. Thank God for every-man technology. And thank God for this storm. If he hadn’t needed to stop and chain up, he wouldn’t be approaching the turn-off to the Wupatki ruins now.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Up the path and to the right, the crumbling walls of The Big House were framed by a beautiful starry night. Sky did not feel alone. She could sense the presence of the men and women, of the children who’d walked before her on this sacred ground. She inhaled deeply and filled her lungs with cold, untainted air. Turning her face heavenward to catch the gentle flakes falling from above, she sucked in the purity of the night and of this place.
And then she looked at Katie.
Spotlit by a wolf moon, Katie stood, as did Sky, in the center of an ancient ball court. The chain attached to the leather collar around Katie’s neck dangled on the snow-etched ground. Garth loomed in front of Katie, pointing his Glock at the center of her pink parka.
Sky’s pulses bounded in her wrists, her thighs shook, but she rolled her shoulders back and raised her chin. Whether or not she survived tonight, she understood that how she lived right here and now, in this moment, was what counted most. These next minutes might very well constitute the entirety of her remaining lifetime. Now was the time to grab the moment. Now was the time to act.
No matter the cost, she was going to get Katie out of this alive, and then she was going to damn well make certain that Garth Novak never had the opportunity to harm another living soul.
“Garth,” she intoned. “You promised to release Katie as soon as it was prudent. Well, now’s the time to keep that promise. Let her go, and then you and I will figure out the rest.”
Confident in his control of the situation, her brother relaxed his stance and let his arm and the hand holding his pistol fall to his side. “Not just yet. It’s still too risky.”
“We’re at least twenty miles from the park entrance. It will take Katie a full day—more than that—to get back on foot. She presents no threat to you. You’ve no reason to hold her anymore. Unless of course…” She looked at him with undisguised revulsion. “…you really are a monster.”
“You’re trying my patience, Sky. I said, not just yet.”
She squared her eyes with his. “No. You are trying my patience. You gave your word you would release Katie. You swore on our mother’s grave you wouldn’t hurt her. So tell me, exactly what criteria must be met before you keep your promise?”
The wind whispered through the low desiccated walls of the ball court. Garth turned, looked up the path toward the big pueblo and then back again, his eyes flitting across the landscape from one shadow to the next. Finally his menacing glare landed on her, and he replied, “Whatever criteria I choose. I’ll release the girl when I’m good and ready, not before. So please, stop nagging. I don’t wish to continue the discussion.”
Her hand went to her throat. He didn’t wish to continue the discussion because he had no intention of keeping his word. Not that she’d expected he would. She was going to have to force him to release Katie, and the only weapon she had to use against him was herself.
She would
force Garth to make a choice: keep her or keep Katie.
She had no doubt he would choose her.
Gathering her courage, she crossed her arms over her chest and said, “You can either hold me hostage, or you can hold Katie, but you can’t hold us both.”
Garth’s body canted forward. A soft click sounded as he cocked the pistol at his side. He raised it eye-level with Katie. “Don’t be foolish. I don’t wish to harm either one of you, but you are driving me dangerously close to the edge.”
With her heart in her throat, she stepped in front of Katie, shielding the child from Garth and his gun with her body. Her hands were shaking, and she worried about whether Katie would know what to do. She was terrified the child would freeze, and then things would be even worse than they were now.
No. Worse than now wasn’t really possible. And Katie was a smart, brave girl. Sky was just going to have to trust that if she gave Katie a chance to run, Katie would take it.
Still, she thought she should give the calm but firm approach one more try. “We’re all tired, and Katie is miserable with that collar and chain around her neck. I insist you remove them and let her go.”
As she’d expected, Garth shook his head in refusal. Then he laughed, low and cruel. Without hesitation she lunged for his gun. “Run, Katie! Run!”
He raised the gun over his head. Her arms weren’t long enough to reach it, so she jammed her elbows in his chest and jerked her knee into his groin. The gun discharged with an earsplitting crack.
“You crazy bitch!” He kicked her feet out from under her, and she hit the ground face forward. Her lip split apart, and blood spewed over the earth. Garth lost his footing on the blood and snow-slicked rock. He went down hard and flat on his back.
“Run!” Sky screamed again.
Katie was already running, but the chain clanking behind her made an easy tail for Garth to grab, and he lunged for it. Sky rolled in front of him and blocked him with her body. His arm swung over, and his elbow jammed into her throat. A crushing pain, and then the breath wheezed out of her narrowed windpipe. Suffocating, she reared back and kicked him in the shin. His hold loosened, and she slipped out and leapt to her feet.
First Do No Evil: Blood Secrets, Book 1 Page 26
