He pressed against her left side and she hugged him close.
His revolver in hand, Cole shielded both her and Robo. “We might be able to retreat down the trail. This boulder could block us.”
“John Carter would be coming down from the mountain,” Mattie said. “That has to be Violet that Robo tracked from the car.”
“I’ll see if she’ll talk,” Brody said before shouting uphill. “Violet Carter! We know it’s you out there.”
Another bullet splintered granite shards from the top of the boulder, sending them flying.
Mattie picked up a six-inch rock and tossed it to the right where it landed behind a pine. A gunshot rang out and the bullet smacked into the trunk of the same tree. The gun sounded like it was about fifty to seventy feet away, and the shooter seemed pretty damn accurate.
Brody tried again. “Violet Carter! Is that you? All we want to do is talk!”
A woman began to shout, but someone muffled her cries.
Brody frowned at Mattie. “That would be John Carter.”
“See if he’ll talk.”
“John Carter!” Brody made a megaphone with his hands. “We’ve got you covered. Throw out your weapon.”
A man’s voice replied, taunting. “Hey, buckwheat! Looks like I’m the one that’s got you pinned down.”
Mattie recognized the voice from the ice cream shop, but she couldn’t match it to the one distorted by her captor’s mask.
“Keep him talking. Give him something to focus on,” she said, edging out from behind Cole. “Robo and I are going downhill to circle around. See if I can get him in sight.”
She heard Cole’s protest as she told Robo to heel. She bent and edged down the trail, keeping the boulder at her back. Robo came with her, close to her left leg. She realized Cole was following, covering her back. Holding her Glock low, she sprinted down the trail until she was sure the terrain blocked them from view.
“Go bring Stella and Johnson for backup,” she told Cole. “We don’t know if we’ve got one shooter up there or two.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“I need you to go for help.” She reached out and squeezed his hand. “Be careful.”
A perplexed expression crossed his face and his breath released in an exasperated huff. He touched her cheek before leaving. “Don’t you dare get hurt.”
Mattie cut off to the left, using the dense pine and spruce to shield her while she circled, running back uphill. She could hear Brody cajoling Carter but didn’t pay attention to his words, not until the higher pitched tones of a woman’s voice chimed in.
“Help! He’s got me tied up.”
A resounding slap stifled her call for help.
“You’d better back off or I’ll shoot this noisy bitch!”
Brody called back, and his voice was now off to Mattie’s right. She slowed, Robo hugging her heel. She slipped through the trees uphill, plotting a course to come abreast of the Carters before trying to get closer.
John Carter’s voice came from on her right. Ten feet more uphill and then she would cut back in. The steep incline shortened her breath, and she fought to silence her puffing.
This time Violet cried in a shrill bleat. “He’s going to kill me!”
Mattie angled right, Robo silent and sticking close as she crept toward the two. She wanted to make sure that Brody would be away from her line of fire.
Robo stiffened and movement through the screen of pine boughs caught Mattie’s eye. After maneuvering for a better view, she could make out John Carter huddled behind a boulder about thirty feet away. She grasped Robo’s collar and whispered, “Quiet. Easy.”
Sunlight glinted from the silver barrel of his handgun, held braced against the top of the boulder. His attention stayed riveted downhill.
Mattie inched forward, scanning the area for Violet, but trees blocked her view. Since she couldn’t locate the woman, she couldn’t fire her weapon. A stray bullet could create disaster.
She decided she couldn’t wait. At any moment, John might spot her and the element of surprise would be lost. And if there was one thing she’d learned she could count on, it was the element of surprise.
She squatted beside Robo and hugged him close, every muscle in his body felt bunched and ready to spring. With more intensity than a shout, she whispered close to his ear. “Robo, take him!”
Silent and lethal, Robo’s black form shot through the trees like a deadly shadow, picking up speed as he went. John turned. Robo hit the man at full speed, clamping his teeth on his arm. The gun went flying through the air.
Mattie raced toward them, shouting for Brody. Robo gripped John’s right arm and tugged him along the ground, stretching him out in the pine needles. Mattie thudded down hard on his back, twisting his left arm until she heard him groan.
Brody came full tilt around the boulder.
“I’ve got him. Where’s Violet?” Mattie shouted at him.
Brody beat around the foliage, looking for her.
“Over here,” Stella shouted from a short distance. “We’ve got Violet.”
John Carter bucked and tried to pull away from Robo. His efforts further angered her dog, and his fierce growls thundered through the clearing.
Despite a desperate need for revenge, Mattie fought to remain professional. “Be still and I’ll tell the dog to let you go.”
Carter continued to fight, which seemed to enrage Robo. With his jaws still clamped around Carter’s arm, he gave it a mighty shake. Mattie clung to the man’s back as he struggled to break free.
Brody strode near, leaned over, and placed his handgun where Carter could see it. “Give it up, Carter. Don’t move,” he shouted.
Carter stared up at him, his eyes full of venom, but he quit struggling.
Mattie decided it was safe to call off her dog. “Out! Robo, out!”
Robo dropped Carter’s arm but stayed close, his neck bristled, his bared fangs gleaming. Saliva dripped from his mouth as he continued to growl. Mattie had never seen him so maddened during a takedown. Usually his tail was waving. Carter gave him one look and then buried his face on the ground.
“Stay still or he’ll attack you again.” Mattie shifted her weight backward off Carter’s chest and cuffed him while Brody stood guard. Together they pulled Carter to his feet, and he stared at her, his gaze dark with malice.
Cole and Stella materialized through the pine trees, leading Violet Carter. Stella was breathing hard from the climb.
“We found this one making her way toward the parking lot.” Stella held aloft a Ladysmith .38 Special with a robin’s egg blue handle. “She was carrying this fancy gun, but she didn’t put up a fight.”
Violet cowered between Stella and Cole. “I’m a victim. He made me help him.”
“We’ll give you a chance to tell us all about it very soon,” Stella said.
Mattie wondered if the woman’s screams during the previous gunplay had been nothing but theatrics, or if she’d actually escaped.
Brody nudged John Carter forward. “Cobb, do you want to arrest this one and read him his rights?”
At that moment, Mattie could think of nothing that would please her more.
THIRTY-FIVE
While Johnson and Brody transported the prisoners, Stella drove Mattie and Cole to the station. During the drive, Mattie told Stella everything that John Carter had said to her in the cave. Even though she’d been under duress, she felt confident that she could remember it word for word. Cole remained silent, and while his left arm stayed firm and still behind her shoulders, his hand clasped her upper arm gently.
“I want to be there when you question them,” Mattie said.
Stella gave her a sideways glance. “I think that would work out well. I’ll take the lead.”
As they pulled into the station parking lot, Stella turned to Cole. “You can take my car if you want to go home.”
“I’m staying with Mattie in case she needs me.” Then to Mattie: “And I’ll call Dr. Mc
Ginnis to make sure he can see you when you’re done.”
She knew she couldn’t argue with him this time, so she simply nodded. Robo jumped out of the SUV and trotted to the station door.
Her eyes reddened and teary, Rainbow came from behind her desk in the lobby. Uncharacteristically speechless, she gave Mattie a long hug before releasing her to step back. With one hand, she held onto Mattie’s while with the other, she gently traced a finger near the marks on Mattie’s neck. She shook her head sadly.
Mattie tried to smile but felt it tremble on her lips. “We’ll talk later,” she told her friend. “I want to tell you how the yoga breathing helped me.”
Gesturing for Cole to follow, she took Robo back to his bed in the staff office. “You can stay in here,” she told Cole. “Use the phone if you want.”
He stopped her as she turned to leave. “Wait a second.”
Jittery about what lay ahead in the interrogation room but trying to put a lid on her feelings, she faced him.
“You’ve been through more than anyone should ever have to go through, and still you’re the most kind and courageous person I know. Words can’t say how much I admire you. I’ll always have your back, Mattie, no matter what. Just let me in so I can help you.”
His words made her throat swell and challenged the tight control she’d placed on her emotions. “I’m doing the best I can.”
“I know it. We’ll have time to talk about things soon. I just want you to know before you go in to face him—I might be waiting here in this room, but in spirit, I’m right there beside you.”
Her breath released as she squeezed his hand. Unable to trust her voice, she nodded and turned to leave the room. She met Stella and Sheriff McCoy at the door.
McCoy took her hand in his large palm, pumping her arm while he studied her face. “Are you sure this is what you want to do, Deputy? Are you well enough for this?”
“Absolutely, on both counts.”
“Let’s go to it,” Stella said. “We’ve got them cuffed in two separate rooms. We’ll talk to Violet first.”
Mattie followed her into the cold interrogation room. Violet looked every bit the worse for wear, her blond curls disheveled, her eyes reddened and lined with blotchy mascara as if she’d been crying. She avoided looking at Mattie and eyed Stella with suspicion. They took seats on the side of the table opposite the woman.
Although Stella had already read the Miranda rights, she started off with them again, this time presented from memory and ending with a question. “Do you want to talk this over with us right now so we can get the preliminaries out of the way?”
Violet stared at her for a moment and then nodded.
“For the recording, please say yes instead of nodding,” Stella said.
Violet hesitated before speaking. “Yes, I’ll talk to you, at least for a while. I want to talk about a deal.”
Stella leaned forward. “It’s not up to me to offer deals. The Timber Creek County Prosecutor does that. I’m the one you provide with information to see if you’ve got anything worthy of a deal.”
“I’m a victim. I was coerced.”
“How so?”
“John Carter had complete control over me.”
Stella settled back in her chair and rested her forearms on the table as if she had all the time in the world. “Maybe you’d better tell me what you mean.”
“He’s been orchestrating everything we’ve done.”
“Start at the beginning. How did you find yourself under John Carter’s control?”
Mattie watched Violet’s gaze chase around the room. The wheels were turning, and she had to wonder if the woman was fabricating lies as she spoke or if she was simply putting together her true story.
“I met him when he was in prison out in California. First I was his pen pal, and then I started visiting him. I fell in love with him and he told me he loved me, too. I found out later that he just said that so he would have someone to live with when he got out on parole.”
There were some holes in the story already—Stella had told Mattie that they’d been unable to find a criminal record on a John Carter either in California or Colorado. But evidently the detective decided to let her talk rather than confront her.
“And then?” Stella prompted.
“We were fine at first. But then he left for a few days, and when he came back, he was a completely different person. Full of rage. That’s when the abuse started.” She slid a glance at Mattie and flinched when it connected. “He … he likes to choke people, women especially. Some of the stories he told me about how he tortured people—I didn’t know if they were real or things he made up to scare me. But he threatened to kill me if I didn’t do what he said. He choked me until I passed out. He burned my back with cigarettes. I knew he’d follow through on his threat to kill me if I didn’t cooperate.”
“We haven’t found a record on a John Carter of his age and description in the system,” Stella said.
“That’s not his real name. Violet Carter isn’t mine either. My real name is Virginia Carson, and I don’t have a criminal record. You can look me up in your system.”
“What’s his name?” Mattie asked.
Her eyes slipped sideways to connect with Mattie’s. “When I met him, he was doing time as John Cobb. He said he had a brother who was killed in prison here in Colorado.”
John Cobb. Mattie’s breath caught, and she had a terrible feeling about the answer to her next question. “The brother’s name?”
“Harold Cobb.”
My father. Heat flared in Mattie’s cheeks, making her cuts and scratches sting. “What was John doing time for?”
“Drugs.”
Not gunrunning, but a crime that could be related. Mattie’s head was spinning from the news that the man who’d tried to kill her was her uncle. She fell silent, letting Stella pick up the questioning.
“How did you end up here in Colorado?”
“John hooked up with someone that he said he used to do business with. He trailered a couple horses out here to Colorado, and I drove the Tahoe. He brought this other man with him.” She gazed at Stella with regret that might be genuine—hard to say. “I knew the man was unconscious, but I didn’t know what John was going to do to him. You’ve got to believe me. John told me to move the truck and trailer, but I didn’t know he was going to kill the guy. I found that out later.”
“So you know that John Cobb killed the man that he brought here from California?”
“That’s what John said.”
“And the name of this person he killed was?”
“I don’t know his name.” She pointed at Mattie. “Her brother.”
As horrible as her words were to listen to, they brought a sense of relief to Mattie. This witness could identify John Cobb as Willie’s killer, and she’d be much more credible on the stand than the victim’s sister. That should be enough to put him away.
“What was your plan for today?” Stella asked.
“John planned to meet me in the parking lot and we’d leave from there. Leave the horses and go.” Violet looked down at the table. “He wasn’t there when I got to the parking lot, and I was afraid someone would spot me. He would’ve killed me if I let that happen. I went up into the trees to hide.”
A frown furrowed Stella’s brow. “And what about Deputy Cobb? Was he planning to take her with you, too?”
Mattie figured Stella knew the answer to that question—John Cobb had planned to kill her.
Violet shifted in her chair. “I don’t know what he planned to do with her.”
“Hmm …” Stella paused, tapping a finger on the table. “Tell me. Why the attack on Deputy Cobb and her dog?”
“I’m not sure.”
“He must have told you something.”
Violet squirmed in her chair, her eyes cast away from Mattie. “He said she had information he wanted.”
“About?”
Violet seemed to have trouble meeting Stella’s gaze, and sh
e looked down at the table instead. “I don’t know.”
Stella raised her hand to rub her cheekbone as if deep in thought, before turning to Mattie. “Deputy Cobb, had you ever met John Cobb before?”
“Not before I met him at the ice cream shop here in Timber Creek.”
“Then why would John think Deputy Cobb had information that he wanted?” Stella asked Violet.
Her eyes narrowed. “He wanted to find her mother. He thought she would know where she was.”
Mattie had regained her equilibrium, and she felt certain that Violet knew more about John Cobb’s agenda than she was saying. Robo had followed Violet’s scent into the forest, not John’s. She wanted to know if the woman had been in her backyard during the attack. “A dog with scent training can find people by following their scent trail. My dog can remember the scent of different people and can lead me right to the person I want to find. It’s amazing really.”
Now she had Violet’s full attention.
“In other words,” Mattie continued, “he can tell me if a person has been in a specific area, like my yard.”
“Tell us where you were last night around ten o’clock,” Stella said.
Violet slumped lower in her chair. “Okay, I was there. Outside the yard. But I didn’t shoot you or your dog with the dart gun. That was all John.”
“Where were you exactly?” Stella asked.
“At the side of the house by the gate. John told me to blow a dog whistle when you let your dog out into the yard. One of those high-pitched things that people can’t hear. The dog ran at me and John shot him. He planned to shoot you when you came outside to search for the dog. He didn’t know you’d be right there at the same time. He almost missed you.”
So the woman had helped execute the plan to attack a police officer and her K-9. Strange things could still happen, but Mattie was willing to bet that no one would be offering this prisoner much of a deal.
Placing her elbows on the table, Stella leaned forward and pinned Violet with her stare. “Would you be willing to testify against John Cobb?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if you can protect me.” Violet cast her gaze around the room as if for a way out. “I want to talk to a lawyer.”
Burning Ridge Page 26
