“Why did he promise to give her to you? Why?” Shannon knew her husband hadn’t wanted the baby, but to think he’d schemed to get rid of her...
“I can’t have children, and I can’t adopt. Belle was my one hope to be a mother.” Shannon’s voice cracked, then steadied. “And I will be her mother. He was going to give her to me. Then he took her away.” She paused. “He took her away!”
Maggie flinched. “So you killed him.” Somehow she knew it. She didn’t know why, she just knew it was true.
A perfectly arched brow lifted over one cold eye. “I did. He found the envelope your grandfather sent you. He came home early that day and found it in the mailbox. When he looked inside, he knew your baby was going to rescue him from the gambling debts he’d managed to rack up. If you were dead, the money would go to whoever got custody of Belle.”
Maggie’s breaths came in pants. She had to get out of here. Had to do something to save herself. Save Belle. But Belle wasn’t here.
She froze as something warm touched the back of her neck. Shannon’s voice hissed in her ear. “Now it’ll be my money. And Belle will be mine, too.”
“Not without my signature,” Maggie blurted out.
The woman behind her froze. “What do you mean?”
“I changed the will. I changed everything. Unless you have my signature on a new will, my death means nothing.”
“You’re lying.” But Maggie could hear a faint thread of worry in her voice.
“Then kill me and find out,” Maggie bluffed, keeping her words low and steady.
A slight pause. “Go.”
“What?”
“In the car. Go.”
Maggie stood on trembling legs, using the counter to pull herself up. The gun jabbed her lower back and she stumbled out from behind the counter. Her gaze fell to Jason, bleeding on the floor. Maggie moved toward him. “Let me help him.”
“No.” Shannon shoved her once again and Maggie tripped over Jason, landing with a thud half on top of him, half on the floor. His weapon still in his holster, her fingers closed over the butt.
“Get up!” Shannon screamed. “I’m sure you told someone you were coming here! Now move! Into the police car.”
Maggie pulled on the gun. But it wouldn’t move, still strapped into the holster. And she didn’t have time to figure out how to release it. “I’m sorry, Jason,” she whispered. But she’d had no idea that Shannon was so unstable.
“Let’s go now!”
Maggie thought fast. “I need the keys. They’re in his pocket.”
“Then hurry up and get them!” Shannon screamed at her. Maggie dug into the pocket with her right hand, hoping Shannon wasn’t paying attention to her left.
Maggie got the keys, stood, stumbled and got her balance. She shoved her hands into her pockets and made her way to the door. “Take me to Belle, Shannon.”
“Not a chance. Into the driver’s seat.”
Maggie stepped out into the cold, the wind biting at her bare face. She made her way through the swirling snow, got to the car, opened the door and slid behind the wheel.
She pulled the keys from her right pocket and jammed them into the ignition. “Where am I going?”
“To get the paper you need to sign so that I get Belle and all the money.”
Maggie swallowed hard. “It’s at my house.”
Shannon simply glared at her, the gun never wavering. “Then go home.”
* * *
Reese pulled into the parking lot of Simon’s Stop and Go and stared at the dark building. His heart sank. He didn’t have to examine the structure to know they weren’t there.
Eli sidled up beside him. Cal and Mitchell turned in, too. Reese opened the door and raced toward the store, leaving the car running, the car door open.
He pushed the unlocked door open and stepped inside. His eyes landed on Jason. “Oh, no.”
Reese launched himself to the deputy’s side and felt for a pulse. Faint and weak, but there.
As he was reaching for his radio to call for help, Eli and the other officer came through the door. When Eli saw Jason on the floor, he gave a harsh exclamation and dropped to the floor opposite Reese. “Is he alive?”
“Barely.” Speaking into the radio, he gave their location. “Officer down, send a helicopter.” He looked at Eli. “It can land in the parking lot.”
“Absolutely.”
He spotted something on the floor near the counter and got to his feet. He reached down and picked up a scarf. “It’s Maggie’s. She was here.”
Eli still had his finger on Jason’s pulse. He looked up and nodded. “I’ll get Mitchell to stay with Jason. The rest of us need to figure out where Maggie and Shannon went. His keys are missing and his cruiser’s gone.”
Reese nodded. “They’re in his car. You got a GPS tracker on that thing?”
“Yeah.” While Eli called that in, Reese gave the store another once-over, but didn’t see anything else that might give him a clue as to where Maggie might be going.
“His radio’s gone.”
“What?”
Eli looked up. “Jason’s radio. It’s missing.”
Reese frowned and wondered what that meant.
He turned his up and listened.
Nothing but police chatter about the nightmare he was living. “I’ll keep listening. Someone took that radio for a purpose. If he—or she—wants to get in touch with one of us, we need to be paying attention.”
“Good idea. I’m just going to—”
Reese cut him off with a wave as he lifted the radio to his hear. Maggie was saying, “...knows I’m with you, Shannon, he’ll know you’re involved in this.”
“You’re lying. Now shut up and drive.”
Reese looked at Eli. “Maggie has it.”
* * *
With her left hand in her pocket, holding down the button to transmit, she drove with her right hand. She’d managed to turn the volume all the way down on the radio so Shannon wouldn’t be able to hear any transmissions coming through, but if there was someone listening, they’d hear her and Shannon talking.
Please God, let there be someone listening.
“Tell me why you killed Kent. He was your brother.”
“He was a liar,” Shannon snarled, spittle flying from her tense lips.
“But to kill him...” Maggie bit her lip. “Did you plan it all along?”
“No, of course not. It was something we planned together. I wanted a baby. He didn’t want ‘the brat.’” Maggie glanced out the corner of her eye and saw Shannon frown in disgust. “To call that beautiful baby a brat was awful. Kent was awful. I begged him to let me have her, and he agreed.”
“But why? There had to be something in it for him.”
“He got to keep you,” she said with a shrug.
Maggie flinched. She never would have survived living with Kent if he’d given Belle away. And she never would have seen her baby again if Shannon had had her way.
And now she was in the same situation. Unless she got Shannon to give up, she’d never hold Belle again. The thought was enough to freeze her muscles. Maggie swallowed hard and focused on driving.
“He found that letter from your grandfather. He was planning to kill you—did you know that?” Shannon said it conversationally, as though her words didn’t hold the power of a boxer’s punch.
“What?” Maggie gaped long enough to run off the road onto the edge. Tires crunched and the wheel jerked from her grasp.
Shannon screamed and waved her weapon. “Pay attention!”
Maggie got control of the car. “How do you know that? I thought you just said he planned to give you Belle and keep me. Why would he want to kill me?”
“For the money. That’s why he had to die.”
“Money?” Maggie blinked. “I’m confused.”
Shannon gave a long-suffering sigh. “You haven’t put it together yet? He found the envelope in the mail after he promised me Belle.”
The
envelope. Realization dawned. “And once he saw that Belle came with the money only upon my death, he knew he had to keep her and get rid of me,” Maggie whispered.
“Exactly.”
“So he backed out of your agreement.”
“And I threatened to tell you.” Shannon shook her head. “Two weeks before I killed him, he tried to kill me, can you believe it? He grabbed me around the throat and...” She gulped and shuddered. “I got away from him, but knew it wouldn’t be the last time he tried. I knew I had to get rid of him.”
“So you hit him with a car?”
“I did.” A hard, determined expression crossed Shannon’s face. A look so scary that Maggie winced. “The opportunity just was suddenly there and without even really thinking, I just...did it. I pressed the gas pedal and...” A slight smile curved her lips. “I did it and it was so easy.” The smile disappeared and she gave Maggie a bitter look. “I knew I was in your will to be guardian of Belle if something happened to you and Kent. Well, something happened to Kent. Now it’s your turn.”
The woman was sick, mentally ill. Maggie whispered, “You really think you’ll get away with killing me, too?”
“After you sign that paper, I will.”
* * *
“They’re going to Maggie’s house,” Reese said over the radio to Eli. “Shannon killed her brother and it looks like she plans to kill Maggie.” He shuddered at the information he’d just overheard.
His phone buzzed, and he glanced at it. A text message from Trevor, his buddy in Spartanburg.
Eli took the next turn. “Is Belle with them?”
“No. Doesn’t sound like it. Keep listening.”
As they drove, Reese prayed. He snatched his phone and read the text.
And felt dread center itself in his gut. With a whispered prayer, he tossed the phone onto the passenger seat and grabbed his radio once again.
He knew Eli had called for backup from Bryson City, even Asheville, but that didn’t mean they’d get there in time. “Eli, I don’t know how volatile Shannon is. I found an aspirin bottle in Maggie’s cabinet, only it wasn’t aspirin in the bottle. I sent a pill to Asheville to be tested and it’s medication used for people with schizophrenia.”
A low whistle came through the radio as Eli processed what that might mean.
“But there are other reasons someone takes that kind of drug. Schizophrenia’s just one of them.” Reese said the words, but his gut didn’t believe Shannon was taking the medication for anything else. If Shannon was truly mentally ill, Maggie had a whole different set of problems on her hands. And even if Shannon wasn’t having a schizophrenic episode, she still had a gun and planned to get rid of Maggie. The only plus would be Shannon might be in a frame of mind to be reasoned with.
Maybe. Hopefully. His heart shuddered at the thought of Maggie being in a hostage situation. A SWAT team from Asheville was already en route.
Then again, if he and Eli got to Maggie’s house in time, they could just stop Shannon in her tracks and be done with it. He liked that plan.
EIGHTEEN
Maggie pulled into her driveway and shut off the car, wishing she had a switch for the terror racing through her.
Shannon nudged her with the gun. “Now get out. And remember, I’ve got Belle.”
“I don’t need a reminder.” Maggie released the radio in her left hand and opened the car door. Her mind spun as she tried to figure out what she was going to do. How she was going to get away and alert Reese. She prayed he was listening in and was on his way to her house, but she couldn’t count on that.
What was she going to do? What about the will? A cold shudder ripped through her. She’d never mailed the envelope. The envelope containing the new will. If Maggie died now and Shannon got away with it, she would get custody of Belle.
“Inside.” Shannon gave her a shove toward the door. Maggie walked, but her mind spun.
“This was all supposed to be taken care of before now,” Shannon said. “I wasn’t even supposed to be here. You were never supposed to see me.” The pout in her voice scared Maggie. The woman sounded put out that she was being so inconvenienced. Maggie opened the door and stepped inside. She disabled the alarm and sent prayers heavenward. Shannon still muttered, waving the gun. Maggie slipped her hand in her pocket and pressed the button while Shannon continued her rant. “Those idiots I hired couldn’t even follow a simple plan. Rob the bank, grab you and Belle and get out.”
“And then what, Shannon? Kill me?”
“Yes. Exactly.”
The flat statement in the annoyed tone made Maggie gulp. How could the woman talk about killing her as though she were just squashing a bug in her house?
Fear made her nauseous.
She had to hold it together. Think. Think. Where could Belle be? The only thing that kept Maggie from screaming the house down was the fact that she felt certain Shannon wouldn’t hurt Belle.
“Where is it?”
The barrel of the gun kissed her lower back.
Her knees threatened to buckle.
She locked them and forced herself to walk toward her office.
* * *
Reese got on the radio to Eli. “Don’t pull in the driveway. Stop before you get to her house. I want to case the place and see if I can possibly go in unarmed, pretend like I don’t know anything is wrong.”
The radio crackled then Eli asked, “You think that’s a good idea? From what you’ve said, that woman is unstable.”
“Right now, it’s the best thing to do.”
He rolled his car to a stop where the gravel began its crawl to Maggie’s house. Eli pulled up behind him. He looked at Eli. “Keep your radio on.”
“I’m right behind you.”
Reese took off his heavy coat, but left his gloves on for now. He needed to be able to move easily, unencumbered by the heavy material of the Sherpa coat. But he needed his hand warm in case he had to use his weapon. Cold fingers were slow fingers. Once he got a look at the house, he’d decide whether or not to pull his glove off his right hand.
The gravel crunched under his feet. His eyes scanned the driveway, the house, the woods beyond. He could hear the water lapping against the dock in a silent soothing rhythm.
Jason’s cruiser sat in the driveway. They were here. His heart thumped in a mix of anticipation of getting Maggie away from the woman and terror that he wouldn’t be able to do so.
Eli’s footfalls echoed behind him. Reese called Maggie’s cell phone once again. And again, it went to voice mail.
He looked at Eli. “What’s Shannon’s number?”
Eli shook his head. “I have no idea, I’ll get Alice to get it ASAP.” He pressed the earpiece further into his ear and Reese knew he was listening to the sounds coming from Jason’s radio. “Sounds like they’re at the back of the house. Maybe in her office?”
Reese crept to the front of the house, then rounded the corner to the office window. She had the curtains pulled but if he peered in at the corner... There.
He had a perfect glimpse of the gun in Shannon’s left hand.
* * *
Maggie’s hands shook as she pretended to go through the files. “I had it in here.”
“Why did you change it?”
Maggie paused and looked up, past the barrel of the gun into Shannon’s mad, snapping eyes. “Because I just wasn’t sure about you. And then you were here, living in my house, taking care of Belle and I thought...”
“What?” The gun lowered a fraction.
“I thought that you really loved Belle. That maybe I was wrong to change the will.”
Confusion flickered through the madness. “Of course I love Belle. She’s my only chance... Mom said that...”
“Your chance at what, Shannon?”
“Motherhood.” Her jaw tightened and the confusion fled. So did the madness. Sanity now stared at Maggie as Shannon went on. “I had an abortion when I was twenty-four. A back-alley type thing that led to a hysterectomy when I didn’t
stop bleeding. I’ve been diagnosed with a mental illness, too, so adoption is out of the question.” She snorted. “It’s so unfair. As long as I take my medication, I’m fine.”
Medication. The strange pills in the aspirin bottle that Reese had almost taken?
“So you decided to make Belle yours.”
“From the minute I found out you were pregnant.” She waved the gun. “Now get the paper.”
But Maggie didn’t move. “That’s why you were so nice to me,” she whispered. “You wanted my trust. You wanted me to think you were on my side and that you would help me...”
“And it was working just fine until Kent showed up and scared you off.”
“I thought he would hurt you if I stayed.” She remembered how Shannon had begged her not to leave, said she wasn’t scared of Kent and didn’t care what he thought about Maggie staying there. But Maggie had cared. Maggie had wanted to protect the woman from the violence that followed Kent wherever he went. Especially if he was displeased with someone. And he’d been very displeased with Maggie.
Shannon’s grip tightened on the weapon. “I know. I was furious with him. All he had to do was stay away and...” She broke off and screamed, “Now get the paper! I don’t have time for this. They’re probably looking for you right now.”
Maggie could only pray that was so. She’d had to release the radio button to search the file box. It would have been too obvious if she’d left her hand in her pocket. However, she managed to snag the envelope addressed to the lawyer with the new will in it. With subtle ease, she maneuvered it into her pocket with the radio. “Tell me where Belle is, Shannon. I need to know where my baby is.”
“She’s safe. And she’ll be with us. That’s all you need to know.”
“Us?” Before Shannon could answer, Maggie bent back over the file drawer and in one smooth move, snagged the horse-head paperweight in her right hand and brought it around to catch Shannon in left shoulder.
The woman screamed and dropped the gun. Maggie kicked it under the bed and bolted for the door.
* * *
Reese watched Shannon fall back against the wall as he threw himself through the window. Glass shattered around him, his back stung and his neck felt like someone had drawn a razor blade across it, but none of that mattered as Shannon’s back disappeared through the doorway. “Now!” he yelled into the microphone.
Danger on the Mountain Page 17
