“Yes. I’m here to offer you a new contract.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Gee, really? I’m completely shocked.”
He tightened his jaw. “If you come back, we’re willing to offer you a substantial raise.”
“Why? I’ll still be the same crappy teacher as before.”
“You know why.”
“The almighty dollar wins over the future of America again.” I chuckled. “I’ll have to think about it. Leave the contract, and I’ll look it over. No promises, though.”
All the tension in Roger’s body disappeared as relief crossed his face. He was probably expecting a big fight and a lot of groveling. I just didn’t have it in me anymore. Besides, I needed the job. I doubted the FBI would be calling for my assistance anytime soon.
Roger reached under his raincoat and handed me the contract. “Get back to me as soon as you can. We have to start planning your classes.”
“No problem.” Roger smiled and stepped toward the door, happy to be leaving my presence. “Say hi to Carol for me,” I said as an afterthought.
“She left a few hours ago.”
“Why? Is there something wrong with Patrick?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. She got a phone call and said there was a family emergency. Didn’t even ask if she could go, just left.”
“Did she say anything else?”
“No. She just ran out of the office.”
“Oh, shit,” I muttered.
I spun around and ran into the house, leaving a perplexed Roger on the porch. I was dialing Carol’s home number in a matter of seconds. With each unanswered ring, my blood pressure rose. “Come on. Shit!” I gave up on the seventh ring. She didn’t pick up her cellphone either. The only other place she could be was the nanny’s house. Someone there picked up on the third ring.
“Hello?” Mrs. Nelson asked.
“Mrs. Nelson, it’s Iris Ballard,” I said in as calm a tone as I could muster. “By any chance has Carol come by your house?”
“No. I haven’t seen her since she dropped Patrick off this morning.”
“Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. I’m looking at him right now. Is everything all right?”
No, it fucking was not. “Yes. I was just looking for her, that’s all. Could you do me a favor? If she calls or stops by could you tell her to call me?”
“Of course. Are you sure everything’s all right?”
“I’m sure everything’s fine. Goodbye.” I slammed down the receiver. This couldn’t be happening. He was in New York—I saw him on TV there this morning. I looked at the digital clock on the oven. It was three past five. Shit, he’s had plenty of time to fly here.
I tore out of the kitchen and down the hall into the living room. My purse and gun sat on the couch right where I’d left them. I tossed the gun into my purse along with my cellphone, wallet, keys, and Mace. I remembered to grab a clear plastic raincoat with a hood from the closet before I rushed out the door and into my car.
The rain was so heavy the wipers couldn’t keep up. Only idiots and crazy people were out driving in this, so luckily I didn’t have to dodge cars I’d be able to see only at the last second. Soon, Apple Street became Dutch and then Country Road. The Sheriff’s Department was only seven minutes from my house. I knew because I timed it when I first moved here. I missed the days I was paranoid for no reason.
I made it there in five, parking in the handicapped spot right out front. The Sheriff’s Department was a one-story gray brick building with three jail cells in the back, a desk for each of the ten deputies, and an office for the sheriff. Perfect for a small town with little drama. That was until I moved there.
Deputy John French, the youngest of the bunch, sat behind his desk methodically typing one key at a time. He glanced up as I entered and walked past the desk, water dripping around me, and into the office pool.
French stood from his desk like a good Southern gentleman and nodded at me. “Dr. Ballard,” he said, “what can I do for you?”
“I need to see the sheriff. Now.”
“He’s busy at the moment. If you could just wait—”
I strode past him toward the back of the station. French kept protesting but I just ignored him. I swung open the door that read Sheriff Barry Wade without knocking. Sheriff Wade, a man almost fifty pounds overweight with a thick handlebar mustache and beady brown eyes, sat behind his desk with his feet kicked up, talking to his wife on the phone. A largemouth bass the size of a cat hung on a plaque above his head. This was my backup. I was fucked.
When Wade saw me, his feet dropped to the floor. “Jesus!” he wailed with a thick Southern drawl. “I told you not to interrupt me.”
“She wouldn’t wait,” French said.
“I need to talk to you, now,” I said. “It’s important.”
Wade rolled his eyes. “Bernice, hon’,” he said into the phone, “I gotta call you back later.” He hung up the phone and sighed. “What now?”
“Carol’s missing,” I said. “Roger said she got a phone call and bolted. That was hours ago, and nobody’s seen her since.”
“And?”
“And I want you to look for her! I want you to do your fucking job.”
“Dr. Ballard, she’s a grown woman. She can play hooky from school and not tell you,” Wade said. “She’s probably out shopping or something.”
“She hasn’t checked in with me. Something is wrong, so get off your ass and start looking for her!”
“Nobody speaks to me in that tone, missy,” Wade fired back. “I am getting more than a little tired of you. We’re over to your house almost every day for some reason or another. I am about yea close to throwing your bony butt in jail just so I can get a moment’s peace. Now, if Carol doesn’t turn up by tonight, then maybe we’ll—”
“She’ll be dead by tonight! He has her right now! Who knows what he’s doing to her!”
“Tonight,” he said. “If she isn’t home by nine then we’ll start looking. Okay?”
“I don’t believe this. I’ll find her myself.”
I pushed past French and made it to the middle of the desks before Wade called to me. “Dr. Ballard, please don’t do anything crazy.”
I spun around. “What’s crazy is the fact that one of your citizens has disappeared under odd circumstances, and you won’t lift a finger to find her. There is a homicidal maniac on the streets who goes for exactly her type, one who also happens to have a vendetta against me. He’s threatened her on several occasions and now she’s missing! So if you’re too busy to find her, then I will.”
I turned back around and stalked out of the station, ignoring Wade’s pleas to wait until nine. Deaf ears. I had no plan. Terror clouded everything. I drove aimlessly around Grafton for ten minutes, so mad I hit the steering wheel whenever I pictured Wade’s red face. There was a reason the FBI was the elite; we never sat around on our asses when citizens were in trouble.
The FBI.
Luke.
I grabbed my purse and found my cellphone. I’d memorized his cell number when we were on the case, so I punched it in. It went directly to voicemail. “What is the point of having a fucking cellphone if you don’t turn the fucking thing on?” I screamed.
Next, I called the office and someone picked up after five rings. “Special Agent Hudson’s phone,” a man I recognized as Clarkson said.
“Clarkson?”
“Dr. Ballard? Is that you?”
“Yeah. Is Luke there?”
“No, he took a few personal days. Said he was going on vacation.”
“Do you have any idea how I can reach him? He isn’t answering his cell.”
“No, I’m sorry, I don’t. Is everything all right?”
“My friend Carol’s missing,” I said, choking back some unexpected tears. “The police here won’t do anything.”
“Let me transfer you to Agent Lamb.”
After a few seconds, Reggie picked up. “Ballard, what is going on?” he a
sked, more than a little aggravated. “Your friend is missing?”
“Shepherd has her.”
“You leave Jeremy Shepherd alone, Iris,” he said. “We’re damn lucky he hasn’t sued us for your little outburst!”
“Goddamn it, Reggie! Will you please—”
“What?” he cut in. “It’s a local matter; we have no jurisdiction.”
“The Woodsman is a federal case.”
“The Woodsman is dead. He doesn’t have your friend because he was buried two days ago. Move on and stop wasting my time.” The line went dead. The fucker hung up on me. Jesus Christ, has the whole world gone insane?
I punched in Luke’s cell again, this time leaving a message. “Luke, it’s Iris. Where the hell are you? The office said you were on vacation and couldn’t give me a number. I’m…I’m in real trouble here. Carol’s vanished and I’m really…I’m freaking out. Nobody believes me. Please just call me when you get this. Please help me. Please.” I hung up and tossed the phone on the passenger’s seat.
Okay, think, Iris. Where would he take her? Pisgah National Forest was less than two hours away; maybe there? Of course, there were lots of rivers and lakes around Grafton. It would take me days to search them all.
The cellphone chirped. Thank God. “Luke?”
“I thought you and Agent Hudson weren’t on speaking terms,” Shepherd said on the other end. “He looked rather dour the last time I saw him. Lover’s quarrel?”
“Where is she?” I asked through teeth clenched so tight my jaw hurt.
“Whoever do you mean?”
“If you’ve hurt her…”
“To quote a very wise woman, ‘Your threats are meaningless.’ I gave you the chance to back them up at the hospital, but you abstained. Why should I take them seriously this time?”
“Because you’re fucking with my family now, asshole, and the last person who made that mistake ended up with a bullet in the forehead.”
“Idle threat. Thought we were beyond that.”
“Let me speak to her.”
“I’m afraid all she’s capable of now is whimpering and grunting. I forget my own strength sometimes.”
“Oh, God,” I cried, unable to stop myself. “Shepherd, please, you don’t want her, you want me. Tell me where, and you’ve got me. You can do whatever you want, I don’t care—just don’t hurt Carol.” I started choking up at the image of Carol naked and tied up. “I’m begging you, please let her go. Please.”
“Iris, begging is beneath you,” he chided. “You know it falls on deaf ears.”
“Goddamn it,” I choked out, “leave her alone. Please, just leave her alone.”
“Stop sniveling, Iris,” he commanded. “I’m not letting your friend go no matter how much you cry.” He was silent for a moment. “I am willing to give you a fighting chance, though. A clue, nothing more.”
“Okay,” I wept. I’d take whatever I could get.
“There’s no place like home.”
The line went dead.
There’s no place like home? Carol’s home? My home? His home? He had Carol tied up somewhere, doing…I didn’t want to think about that. There was nothing I could do about it at that moment. I had to concentrate on getting her back alive and deal with the rest later. Just think. Where would he go?
Home, so probably somewhere in Grafton. It would have to be near water; he always dumped the bodies in water. So, near the river. These guys never changed their rituals. They couldn’t; it was pathological. The river, they had to be near the river.
I twisted the wheel around, doing a 180 so fast the right half of the car was momentarily airborne. The South Fork New River ran the length of Grafton for almost twenty miles. I had at most three hours before he killed her. I could do it. A road to the riverbank came up on my right. I turned and drove down the rocky road, bumping up and down like a moon bounce. Four-wheel drive, worth every penny.
The road ended a half mile later at the gray riverbank. I tossed the cellphone back into my purse with the gun and Mace. My hood went up, and I climbed out of the car into the monsoon. Inside the trunk I kept a flashlight and first-aid kit. It was still light enough to see without the flashlight despite the thick gray clouds, but that would change soon. With those thick clouds, seven P.M. was going to seem like midnight. I took out the gun and clutched it close to my chest. That baby wasn’t leaving my hand for anything. The high heels I wore came off. The sand was soft enough to go without shoes, and I could run better without them. I took a deep breath and sighed. I’d never run twenty miles in my life, let alone on sand in a rainstorm, and the prospect of doing it in one hour was beyond bleak, but I had to at least try.
I shut the trunk and turned toward the brown water of the river. I made it five steps before I had to stop. What if I was wrong? What if he wasn’t even in Grafton? I could be wasting precious time on a wild goose chase while he was…I pushed the thought out of my mind. There was only one thing to do. I fell to my knees and prepared myself to do something I hadn’t done since that night I locked myself in the bathroom two years before. My legs folded beneath me, and still holding the gun, I pressed my hands together in prayer. “Dear God,” I whispered, “I know I’ve done some bad things in my life, but I’ve also done a lot of good, and my bad has been paid for in kind. I rarely ask you for anything, but I am asking you now, please keep Carol safe and help me find her. Don’t let him kill her. You’ve already taken so much from me; don’t take her too. I beg you…keep her safe. Please.”
I made the sign of the cross, something my grandma always said worked like a stamp to God. As I stood, a blinding bolt of lightning zigzagged down from the dark sky onto the river like the finger of God. It didn’t instantly disappear but lingered for a second, something I’d never seen lightning do. Then it disappeared into the air. Now, I’d never been particularly religious, but the moment that brilliant light vanished, I swear I could feel something. The air buzzed all around me. As I looked at the location where the lightning had appeared, I felt a warm calm wash over me. He heard me.
“Thank you.”
Chapter 26
I couldn’t breathe. Every time I tried to draw breath, my lungs clamped tighter than a virgin’s legs. I’d nearly passed out twice in the hour and a half I was in the pouring rain. I managed to jog seven miles, stopping only to spin around and point my gun at crackling branches in the surrounding woods, finding nothing but squirrels and frogs. My clothes were soaked through to my underwear within three minutes, even the ones protected by the raincoat, which I abandoned after a mile. After mile seven, my legs gave out on me and wouldn’t cooperate until I gave them a five-minute rest. I was still too fucking slow after the break. The soles of my feet were bloody and bruised, which didn’t help matters either. I forgot teenagers hung out down there drinking, leaving broken beer bottles in their wake. I was going to need a damn tetanus shot.
As I’d predicted, it was pitch black within twenty minutes of the starting line and even the lightning had passed. The flashlight I clutched in my hand allowed me to see all of two feet ahead of me. The dark woods to my right stayed that way, black and full of crackling branches and the tiny patter of my footfalls. I’d been relying on my hearing, hoping to hear Carol, but the rain was so heavy. I prayed I hadn’t passed her.
Just as I was about to hit another wall at mile seven, I saw the bench where Hayden and I sat on our third date to watch the sunset. Home was just a half mile away. I couldn’t take it anymore; my cuts stung too much. I’d worn my feet raw, my legs could barely hold me, and I was feeling faint from dehydration. Even if I did find them, I was in no shape to fight off even a spider, let alone a 180-pound man with a gun.
Another boom of thunder drummed overhead. New storm on the horizon. When the rumbles ended, I heard the faint sound of a siren, growing louder with each second. I trudged up to the bench and stopped. Through the darkness of the storm I saw red and blue lights flashing down the road, coming closer and closer until they stopped rig
ht in front of me. If I had breath left it would have ceased then. He’d found Carol.
Sheriff Wade jumped out of the squad car, staring at me with a mix of horror and relief. My clothes were plastered to my body, along with my hair. So much for looking like a sane person. “I have been looking for you everywhere,” he said as he unfolded his umbrella. “We got five reports of a wild woman running down the river, screaming at the top of her lungs. What the hell are you doing, Dr. Ballard?”
“Looking for Carol.” My jaw chattered as I talked—not from cold, it was a warm night, but from the adrenaline.
Wade stepped from behind his car door, walking over to me. “Oh, hell, girl,” he sighed. “Carol’s at home. Been there for over half an hour.”
“Wh-What?”
“Yeah. She called asking me to start looking for you. She was in Charlotte all day, something about her ex-husband. Have you been out in this weather all this time?”
“That’s impossible! He called me! He said he had her!”
“Nobody had her, Dr. Ballard. She’s fine.”
I stood silent. The whole world evaporated around me, and there was nothing and nobody. For a second everything was just black. I felt my body collapse onto something solid yet warm. The black disappeared as fast as it came, and I glanced up at Wade, whom I’d fallen against. His left arm was around my torso, holding me up. “Whoa. Okay. You’re okay,” he said softly. “It’s all okay.”
Relief washed over me, warmer than even the rain. The tears started instantly, flowing like the river behind me. I sobbed hysterically in the arms of a man I held in contempt, a man who thought I was a nutcase, for two minutes until I got control of myself. Carol was fine. She was fine. God had listened to me.
“Let’s get you home,” Wade said after I’d calmed down a little. He supported me all the way to the squad car, and even had to open the door and pick up my legs to get me in. I’d become an infant again, unable to do anything for myself. “I’ll tell you something, girl. You sure do make life interesting ’round here.”
He didn’t say anything the half mile back to my house, which was a good thing because I couldn’t move my jaw even if I tried. Speech was beyond me now. We drove through the opened gate up to the house. Crap, I had forgotten to close the gate in my haste. Again.
Beautiful Maids All in a Row Page 28
