“Officer Runyon.”
“Copper, it’s Sky. I’m with Marcella, and we’re following Ginny. She’s gone rogue. Got a call from the guy who took her kid. She’s headed south on Route 30. We’ve just passed the Lake Pleasant Lodge.”
The signal started to drop, and static buzzed in the air for a minute.
Copper shouted through the noise. “Sky? Can you hear me?”
“Yes. Just barely.”
“Callie filled me in already. But listen, this is important. Did you get the location coordinates?” She had to repeat the question twice before we understood her.
Sky frowned. “Sorry, no. She was too quick for us. She slipped out the door so fast. We couldn’t stop her.”
“I get it, no worries. Listen. The storm is coming in fast. Wicked fast, Sky. Be careful.”
This wasn’t a surprise, since the snow on the road had already thickened to at least four inches. At this rate, even in an SUV, we’d be stranded on the roadside in an hour.
“Okay, thanks. She’s just ahead of us. We’re gonna try to catch her,” he said, passing a slow moving truck.
Copper’s response was lost in static.
Chapter 19
“Copper? Copper?” I thumbed her name again on the iPhone. “Crap. We lost her.” I shut off the phone and tried to still my heart, peering through the snowy windshield. “Wait a minute. Where’d Ginny go?”
Sky swiped the moisture from the inside of the windshield. “I can’t see her.”
He took his foot off the gas and slowed when a red sedan coming at us from the opposite lane started to fishtail out of control.
“Watch it,” I said, bracing myself on the dashboard.
The driver overcorrected and the car headed straight for us, sliding sideways. I saw the horrified face of the girl behind the windshield.
“Hold on,” he shouted, twisting the wheel and stomping on the brake.
A panel van followed behind the car, sliding in the same direction.
Ice under the snow? Or just a slick coating? It didn’t really matter, we were headed for certain death.
Sky yanked the SUV onto the side of the road, bumping along the snow-covered shoulder. The sedan rotated toward the panel van, and at the last minute, plunged directly into its path.
A sick screech split the air. The sedan spun three times, and came to a sudden stop ten feet from our fender, steam billowing from its hood.
“Oh my gosh,” I said, “that was so close.”
We watched in horror as the van flipped and landed on its side, gliding toward an icy swamp.
Sky pulled over near a rocky outcropping and shut off the engine. He jumped out and sprinted toward the crash. I unbuckled and followed close behind. Several other cars appeared in both directions, fortunately going slow enough to stop before hitting the wrecks. What we didn’t need now was a fifty-car pileup and miles of blocked roads.
A young woman emerged from the sedan, and promptly threw up beside her car. Sky reached her first. She straightened, wiping her mouth. “Oh my gosh, my father’s gonna kill me.”
Sky approached her. “You okay, miss?”
She nodded and her face twisted. “I…I guess so. At least the airbag worked.”
“Marcie, stay with her.” He started to slip-slide down the hill toward the van that lay on its side, joined by two burly men from an electrician’s truck who had also stopped.
I put my arm around the girl’s shoulders. “It’ll be okay. We’ll get you some help, hon.”
I wondered about the wisdom of my words, but I especially worried about Ginny.
Would she make it to the rendezvous point? Would the killer hurt her? Would he kill Aria? And what the hell did he really want? As far as I knew, he hadn’t talked to any of the parents of the other girls gone missing. So, why now?
We watched through swirling snowflakes as Sky helped the man from the panel van struggle out the back door to safety. Several other good Samaritans stopped, and another came forward to offer the girl from the red car a place to sit in his Jeep. She accepted, thanked me, and hurried into the other car.
When we were sure the accident victims were going to be okay and had plenty of help, Sky and I piled back into the Highlander. We’d already lost precious minutes.
“Hurry, Sky.”
He quickly swiped the fresh snow off the windows and got in.
Like a racecar driver, he careened around the stopped cars on the side of the road, taking advantage of his four-wheel drive. The tires didn’t spin, but caught purchase and we bumped along on the side until it was clear. With a slight turn of the wheel, Sky brought us back onto the road and we headed south.
I held my breath.
He kept our speed down to about forty-five, but even that was dicey in the snow. The tracks on the road had started to fill in, and it was getting harder to see the lanes.
“Where is she?” he said, pounding the wheel.
I pictured finding my van on the side of the road, rolled over, or even in a lake. My pulse pounded in my neck, and I shivered involuntarily.
How far from Speculator was this killer holing up? And was he drawing Ginny into his lair, or a trap?
The questions burned a hole in my brain and I couldn’t help but blurt out, “Why the hell did he call Ginny?”
Sky’s brow furrowed and he briefly turned to catch my eyes with his. “I was wondering exactly the same thing.”
“From what I saw on the news, he snatched the girls, and killed most of them within hours. Right?”
“Right.”
“Is Ginny rich?”
“Hell, no,” he said. “She’s broke, like most of us who work at Project Hope. It’s practically a volunteer position, we get paid so little.”
“Then it couldn’t be blackmail.”
“Not likely.” Sky slowed down as we approached the turnoff for Austin Falls. “Look!”
I peered through the snow. A set of wide tracks led off to the parking area for the falls.
“Maybe it’s her,” he said.
“It really could be. There aren’t many other cars out here now. Come on, let’s check it out.”
Sky skidded into the dirt drive and followed the deep tracks into the entrance of the parking area. A single lane curved toward the wooded trails, and there—in the distance—sat my van, skewed beside the trailhead marker.
We parked beside the van, and for a few seconds, sat frozen in our seats.
“Sky?” I touched his arm.
He seemed to rouse himself. Maybe he’d been planning how to find her, I wasn’t sure. “Yeah?”
“Um. Are you armed?”
He loosed a growling chuckle. “Are you kidding?”
We got out and he opened the back of the SUV, revealing a locked black box in the well behind the bench seat. “Once a soldier, always a soldier.” He unlocked and lifted the cover, revealing an arsenal.
My mouth dropped open. “Are all these legal?”
“Mostly.” He tossed me a snowmobiler’s suit. “Put this on. It’ll be huge on you, but it’ll keep you dry.”
I did as he said, staring at the assortment of weapons, blankets, winter apparel, food, and water. “You were a scout, too. Weren’t you?”
He made the scout’s symbol. “Always prepared. That’s me.”
I watched him don a wool cap and a heavier parka than the one he’d had on earlier. He started loading his pockets with an assortment of items.
“What can I carry?” I asked.
“I’d rather you wait in the SUV. It could be really dangerous, Marcella.”
“What?”
He saw the look of panic on my face and held up a hand. “But…I can’t take the chance you might get stuck for hours or days out here with the snow coming in like this. My gas tank’s almost on empty, so it wouldn’t keep you warm for long. And look,” he opened the van door and leaned toward the ignition. “Just as I thought. Ginny took your keys.”
“I have a second set at Tal
l Pines.”
“That doesn’t do us any good now.” He shook his head. “No. I can’t leave you alone. It could be days before the roads are cleared, and you could freeze to death out here. Much as I’m worried about the danger at the other end of this trail…you’re coming with me.”
“Good.” I sighed with an uneasy mixture relief and fear. “Now, what can I carry?”
He stuffed my pockets full of matches, a flashlight, fruit bars and juice boxes.
“Just in case,” he said. “We probably won’t need them.”
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s follow her footprints before the snow covers them over.”
“Ready.” He flipped a coil of rope over his shoulder, turning to me with a grim smile. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 20
A foot of snow blanketed the ground, and it continued to fall with wet, heavy flakes, accumulating with frightening speed. We followed Ginny’s trail through the woods, and although I trudged only a few paces behind Sky, I panicked each time he disappeared. I’d hurry in his fast-filling footsteps, then catch sight of his jacket with a sigh of relief.
Within thirty minutes, a stiff wind blew the stuff into two-foot high dunes that often blocked my way. Before long, I began to sweat under my layers, and I wondered if Sky could still see her footsteps. I could only see his.
Every now and then he stopped to check his compass and a map. He’d nod, then continue again.
I’d been on this trail to Austin Falls before, but it seemed we were headed in a different direction than I remembered. When I’d come here with Quinn over the summer, the hike had been a short one, maybe twenty minutes. The falls were beautiful, and we’d enjoyed the solace of the peaceful setting. But now we’d been tromping in the deep woods for at least twice that and I didn’t hear the roar of the falls or sense any familiar landmarks. Did the snow really camouflage the trees and rocks? And wait a minute. Hadn’t we seen a few caves on our last trip here during the summer? I was certain of it, but there were no caves in sight.
All of this didn’t mean much, though, because I really couldn’t see much past ten feet in any direction.
Would the falls even make a sound in winter? Did they partially freeze over, or stay open due to the movement of the water, like our river?
We came to a spot where Sky suddenly paused, holding out his hand to stop me. He put a finger to his lips.
The snow was disturbed here under a thick stand of pines. Flattened and scattered with marks that looked like there had been some kind of struggle. Sky pointed to the right, where a single trail of tracks approached behind a granite boulder, then across the way, where several sets of tracks went in another direction.
He drew me close, whispering. “There are two of them.” Concern flashed in his eyes, and he drew out a gun. “Cripes. I should have left you in the van.”
I wasn’t much of a woodland tracker, but I thought I got what happened. “They ambushed Ginny.”
He nodded. “Looks that way.”
A few spatters of red coated the snow beside a wooden club that lay discarded beside a tree. He noticed it at the same time I did, and picked it up. “They used this to take her by surprise.”
I noticed it was really just a tree limb, a short, thick branch that would fit well in a man’s hand.
I shuddered.
Was she walking on her own? Or were they dragging her?
I couldn’t help but ask again. “Why do they want her, Sky?”
He shook his head and pointed to the tracks that led away from the trail we had been following. “We won’t know ‘til we find them. But we’ve got to go quickly, and quietly. Come on.”
Sky veered off the trail we’d been following, tracing the route now stamped with two sets of footprints and a long, dragging mark that I didn’t want to think about.
Had they killed Ginny? Would they take the body if they did, or leave it to be found later in the spring in these deep woods?
In the distance, I heard the sound of falling water. I touched his sleeve. “Sky? Is that Austin Falls?”
He pointed ahead and to the right. “I think so. The falls should be over there. Maybe three hundred yards. And the bridge is this way.”
We meandered more or less in the direction of the bridge. I’d never seen it except from the other side of the falls when Quinn and I had gone exploring. It had taken three tries for us to find the trail, and we’d been thrilled when we finally made it.
Quinn again.
There he was. I couldn’t get him out of my mind. Much as I worried about Ginny and her poor daughter, and all the other girls who’d been killed or captured…my own minor life traumas consistently bubbled up into my consciousness.
Why did I have such a hard time forgiving him? Why did I behave like a spoiled teenager whenever he called? The whole thing baffled me.
Sure, I knew it was all because of the Kimi situation. But there was something deeper here, something more disturbing.
Quinn hadn’t stood up for me.
Isn’t your lifelong lover supposed to do that?
I shook the thoughts out of my head and tromped forward, keeping up with Sky, but suddenly feeling exhausted.
After twenty more minutes of slogging through even deeper snow, we reached a trail. In another twenty, we’d found the bridge.
Sky paused and listened. The water roared beneath us, partially frozen on the edges of the stream but free and open in the middle. That answered my question about whether the falls iced over.
“I don’t like this,” he said. “We’re coming up to the parking area.”
We locked eyes, worried about what that meant.
He motioned me forward. “Come on. It’s not far.”
Ten minutes later, we reached the end of the trail. A snowplow trundled past us, heading south on Route 8. And there, in the parking area, were fresh tracks where a vehicle had parked not long ago. The three sets of footprints disappeared.
Sky studied the area with the intensity of Sherlock Holmes, bending to examine the tracks and studying the surrounding markings. Finally, he stood. It wasn’t exactly defeat that I saw in his eyes, but it was close. Despair?
He turned and pounded a tree. “God damn it.”
I waited for him to calm down, then approached him. “Do you think we could hitch a ride back to our cars?”
He glanced toward the road. “It might be several hours before the plow comes back. But let’s see if anyone’s out there.”
I leaned against him, holding his arm for comfort. While the snow fell, we listened to the distant sounds of the falls and watched a few chickadees flurrying in the bushes near us. No cars passed. It felt like we were the only two people left on the planet.
After waiting for a good fifteen minutes, we gave up.
He hefted the coil of rope he’d carried the whole way, shrugged, and tossed me a half-smile. “Ready to head back?”
In spite of my tired legs and cold nose, I nodded. “Ready.”
Under swirling clouds of snow that fell faster and even heavier than before, we headed back to the bridge.
Chapter 21
I didn’t think it could get much worse. How could the snow fall so fast? How could it be so deep? In just a half hour, the path was so obscured I had to hold onto Sky’s rope to follow him in the blinding white cloud. I lifted one leg after the other in the now two-foot deep snow. One step. Another. And another. Stop. Catch my breath. Next step.
It was impossible.
“Sky.” I practically whimpered. I could barely move one foot in front of the other. It embarrassed me. Me, a woman who ran up Cratsley Hill every morning. Sometimes seven miles. How could I be such a wimp?
He stopped, and I bumped into him. “Sorry.”
“Are you okay?”
I gripped his mittened hand with mine. “No.”
He raised my face to his and stared into my eyes. “You’re exhausted.”
Tears formed in the corners of my eyes. I couldn’t mouth the wo
rds. My nose was cold. I could barely feel my toes. And we were probably only a quarter of the way back. Finally I mumbled, “I can’t feel my feet.”
I slumped onto the snow. My head fell to my chest. Now I knew what it was like to freeze to death. A nice, peaceful, slumbering death. Somehow, I didn’t think it would be so bad to die today.
Sky took my arm and tried to lift me to my feet, but I couldn’t get up.
“I’m so sorry. I should never have brought you with me,” he said with words the blizzard winds snatched away.
I looked up to his ocean green eyes, fantasizing again. Was it the cold? Or did my exhaustion let my inner thoughts—those evil inner thoughts—slip out? I pictured Sky holding me in a warm cocoon, his musky-scented skin against mine. I pictured his mouth, soft and warm, pressed against my neck. Working downward.
“Marcella! Come on. You have to walk just a little more.” He shook me gently. “Honey. Come on.”
I gave in to his urging, forgetting about my X-rated thoughts. Slowly, very slowly, I lumbered to my feet. This time he walked beside me, holding me upright with my arm.
“Come on. Just a bit further. We’ll stop in the cave by the falls.”
“Cave?” I looked at him with a dull expression. My frozen brain could barely translate his words. It sounded like nonsense to me.
“It’s not far. I’ve camped there before.”
In the winter?
We walked. Oh, how we walked. It seemed to take forever, and I felt as if I were in a frozen dream. I still couldn’t feel my feet. My hands were numb. And I honestly didn’t care.
***
As if suddenly waking from a nightmare, I jerked awake, taking in my surroundings. I lay in Sky’s arms on a hard rock floor, my face pressed to his chest and his coat shrouding me in blessed warmth. Beside us, a tiny fire flickered, filling the cave with a woodsy scent. It wasn’t choking thick or eye stinging, and somehow the smoke spiraled away in the currents of the cavern.
His arms tightened around me, and I felt him kissing the top of my head. He’d tucked my arms into his shirt; they lay flat against his bare belly.
Tall Pines Mysteries: A Mystery/Suspense Boxed Set Page 77
