“Stop it! What do you want?” This time Alex distinctly recognized Sydney’s voice. It came from ahead of her and slightly off to the left. She corrected her direction and took off at a headlong run through the trees, unconcerned with the noise she was making.
Several minutes later she heard another terrified and pain filled scream and immediately adjusted her course. It appeared they were moving back toward the lakeshore. A few minutes later she saw a lakeside cabin through the trees. She paused behind a tree trunk near the edge of the clearing, studying the scene. She noted the Ford Taurus parked nearby. Nothing she saw helped her determine if Sydney was being held here or if the assailant had taken her past this cabin and onwards into the woods.
Alex studied the dim light that could be seen through the partially covered windows. She knew she had no choice but to approach the cabin and try and get a look inside. After taking a last look around she dashed across the open space, running low to the ground through the gently falling snow flakes. She came to a stop flush with the exterior wall of the cabin, near the corner of the front porch. She inched her head slowly toward the window, scanning the dimly lit room. She saw no movement, no apparent occupants, and was about to draw her head back when she leaned far enough to see the floor in the far corner of what appeared to be a family room area.
Her heart was in her throat as she saw Sydney lying on the floor, bloody and obviously beaten, her wrists bound and extended over her head, secured to the sofa frame. Alex forced herself to carefully observe the entire room and the darkened doorways that appeared to lead into the bedrooms. There was no movement, no evidence of another occupant.
Alex scanned the clearing and surrounding tree line, still seeing no movement. She knew he had to be here somewhere. There was no way he would just leave Sydney behind. She knew there was a good chance she was being baited—set up. She also knew she had no choice. Sydney was obviously hurt. She may need immediate medical attention. She had to take the chance and make her move now.
Alex silently climbed onto the porch and approached the front door. She reached out and tested the doorknob, finding that it turned easily in her hand, not locked. Alex’s suspicions grew. Instinct told her it was a set up, but she didn’t have any other choice. She pushed the door open and entered swiftly, moving immediately across the room to the opposite wall. She confirmed there were no occupants in the attached kitchen area. The older model phone lay broken on the floor, the cord, having been removed, eliminated any chance of a call for help. Alex moved next to the two darkened doorways. They also appeared empty. She made her way to Sydney and knelt beside her.
Sydney was lying on her side in a semi-fetal position. Her wrists were bound with the phone cord with her arms extended past her head and secured to the frame of the sofa. Alex’s breath caught again as she saw Sydney’s battered face. Bruises were already rising at her cheek and temple and her lip was swollen and split. Alex brushed her hand gently across Sydney’s check.
“Syd? Hon, I need you to wake up.”
Sydney groaned in response and tried to move. Alex attempted to untie the line, but her cold and stiff fingers could not seem to manipulate the tight knots. She rose and moved back to the nearby kitchenette. She noticed a set of Ford car keys, likely to the Taurus sedan parked out front. She slipped the keys into her pants pocket then retrieved a steak knife in a butcher block on the counter and returned to Sydney’s side. She carefully cut the line allowing her to remove the binding from Sydney’s wrists.
Sydney groaned as Alex slowly rolled her onto her back, revealing the torn shirt and bloody gash extending across her sternum. Alex’s mind was immediately drawn to the memory of the pictures she had seen of Sinclair’s former victims. The thought brought tears to her eyes as she imagined the horror Sydney must have endured. At that moment Sydney’s eyes opened.
“No,” Sydney said weakly. “Alex, it’s a set up. He’s here.”
“We’re getting out of here, Syd. Just come with me.”
As gently as possible she lifted the groggy woman to a seated position then helped her to stand. Sydney leaned into her as they moved slowly to the still open doorway where Alex paused and scanned the area around the cabin. Seeing nothing she moved with Sydney onto the porch and turned toward the vehicle as Sydney’s steps grew slightly stronger. It was then Alex saw the fresh footprints in the newly fallen snow. They went from the side of the Taurus back in the direction of the corner of the house at the other end of the porch, behind Alex.
Alex mentally kicked herself as she realized her failure. In her haste to get to Sydney’s side she hadn’t cleared the vehicle. The voice that spoke from behind her a fraction of a second later did not surprise her.
“So, the indomitable, Sergeant Chambers. We finally meet face-toface.”
Alex turned slowly and saw the Sinclair twin smiling sadistically from across the porch. “You made better time than I thought you would,” he said. “You almost caught me unprepared. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Lucas Brooks. You managed to best my brother, Matthew Brooks, though you know him as Matthew Sinclair. You won’t find me quite as easy to vanquish as he was, I’m afraid.”
Alex watched the gun carefully for a moment, then her eyes moved up to study his face. Even having been prepared for a Sinclair twin, the match was shocking. Sydney also raised her head from Alex’s shoulder and her eyes settled on the man. Her hand came up to grasp at Alex’s jacket as if fearing he would pull her away. Alex instinctively pulled Sydney closer to her in an obviously protective motion, taking a step back as the man holding the gun came toward them across the porch. Alex looked at the still open doorway between them, then immediately discounted the idea of escaping into the cabin before he could intercede. Her inspection did not go unnoticed.
“Like the place, Sergeant?” Brooks asked, indicating the cabin. “The owner was kind enough to tell me about this private, secluded, romantic cabin when I sat next to him at a breakfast counter in town yesterday. Apparently he rents the place when he’s not using it and was willing to show it to me on the off chance I might be interested in the future. He didn’t realize my needs were more immediate. But he certainly won’t need it anymore. It’s terrible how many misfortunes can befall you when you’re alone in the middle of nowhere in the dead of winter.”
The sinister smile left no doubt in Alex’s mind what had befallen the owner of the cabin.
“And his SUV came in handy as well. It allowed me to keep my own car here and use his to assist with that little accident you had.
“The bottom line is this,” he continued. “No one is going to miss him. No one is going to miss either of you for a while. And even when they do, they won’t find your car or either of you out here for some time. We have this place, and everything around it, all to ourselves for a while. Just the three of us.”
Alex slowly stepped in front of Sydney, standing between her and Brooks. She watched carefully as he moved closer, the gun held level and pointed directly at her midsection. Brooks seemed to notice this protective movement and Alex noted he seemed to be working himself almost into a psychotic frenzy as his anger clearly grew.
“Look at you, cavorting together as if you were a man and a woman. You two are disgusting deviants! Both of you! You’ll pay for violating nature, for defying the natural order of things! I’ll personally make you pay, the way the others have. They also thought they could fit into a man’s role. Thought they could do a man’s job better than men. You’ll be punished just as they were. You first.” Brooks looked at Alex. “I’ll kill you before I teach Ms. Rutledge a more lengthy lesson.”
As he ranted the wind kicked up and was gusting against them, blowing flurries of fresh snow up onto the porch. It soon became difficult to hear and the visibility lessened. The car parked nearby was no longer visible.
“Inside,” Brooks said, almost having to yell. “Both of you.” He emphasized this by waving the gun, indicating the still open cabin door a few feet away.
; Alex used the gusting wind as an excuse to try and draw him closer. “What?” She shrugged her shoulders and held her hands up in simulated surrender. “I can’t hear you,” she hollered. It had the desired effect. He moved closer and raised his voice.
“Get inside!” He gestured again toward the open door. He now stood only about six feet away.
Alex nodded in understanding, then pulled Sydney to her right side and began moving toward the door that stood between them and Brooks. She continued to keep her body between Brooks and Sydney. As she held Sydney around the waist she slipped the car keys into her pocket, her actions concealed by their bodies. She leaned closer to Sydney’s ear, unsure if she could hear what was said but trying anyway. “As soon as you can,” she whispered below the level of the wind. “Run for the sedan and get out of here.” She looked into Sydney’s eyes and saw the understanding.
They neared the open doorway and Alex noted she had cut the distance between herself and Brooks, who stood on the porch just a few feet to the other side of the door. Alex inched closer as she allowed Sydney to precede her through the doorway. She looked to her left and saw her opportunity as Brooks looked away momentarily, glancing at the blowing snow and the Ford Taurus parked beyond. Alex didn’t hesitate, shoving Sydney through the doorway out of the line of fire and rushing the few feet between them before Brooks turned back to face her.
The weapon fired just as she got her hand on his wrist and shoved the gun outward and away from her body. Her other hand came up and clenched his throat as she drove him backwards, moving with him and maintaining her hold on his gun wrist as the back of his thighs hit the porch banister. Alex continued pushing, driving him over the top of the banister and carrying her with him. She concentrated on maintaining control of the gun hand as they went over the side, dropping six feet to the ground below and landing with a bone jarring crash.
Brooks, who landed on his back and shoulders with Alex partially on top of him, seemed momentarily stunned. Alex took advantage of this moment to devote her efforts to relieving him of the gun, throwing her upper body across his right arm and shoulder, pinning it to the ground then grasping the weapon hand with both of hers. Unfortunately he recovered with amazing speed and used his free hand in a fist to pummel at her head and the side of her face from his position behind her. Still she concentrated on the weapon, finally working her way to the magazine release and seeing it partially dislodge from the base of the weapon’s grips. She frantically pulled at the magazine, removing it and throwing it as far as she could, hoping it disappeared in the snow.
Alex knew she was now left with the one round in the chamber, then the weapon would be empty. Brooks continued to batter her from behind. He was now concentrating rabbit punches to her kidney area, the blows landing on the still healing gunshot wounds and cracked ribs. Alex fought through the rising pain, cleared her hands away from the slide of the semi-automatic handgun, then forced the trigger of the weapon backwards. It fired, discharging what Alex knew would be the final round. The slide on the semi-automatic handgun locked back, proving it was indeed empty. She released his gun hand and rolled away from Brooks, trying to create distance.
Alex realized too late the beating she had taken during the struggle for the weapon had taken its toll. She was slow in rolling to her feet. Brooks, however, was much faster. As Alex turned to face him and tried to raise her hands in defense he plowed into her, driving the two of them to the top of the stairway leading to the boat deck. Alex crashed to the ground with Brooks on top of her and looked up to see him raising his right hand back with a glint of metal clenched in his fist. She realized he still had the empty handgun as it began coming down toward her head.
Alex shifted her weight and drove her hips up, forcing Brooks off balance from his position straddling her. As his body tipped she rolled, reaching for the front of his clothes with her hands and throwing him sideways over the top of the stairs. In her exhaustion, the throw was not made cleanly and Brooks grasped at her arm and clothing as he fell, pulling her over the edge with him. They rolled together down the dozen hard steps, losing grasp of one another as they reached the bottom.
Alex rose to her knees and looked up just in time to see the glint of metal again coming at her head. She tried to dodge, leaning away from the incoming object and falling off balance again to her side. She rolled to her hands and knees and tried to rise to her feet but was suddenly taken with a booted kick to the ribs. She tried to roll out of the way but a second kick caught her in the side of the head and her vision began to tunnel.
SYDNEY, THOUGH STILL woozy from the earlier abuse, knew Alex had placed a set of keys into her pocket. She heard the directions Alex gave her before pushing her through the doorway. She heard them crash over the banister to the ground below then the shot go off shortly afterwards. They had moved out of sight down the side of the cabin by the time Sydney exited, but she heard the grunts and cursing of the altercation as they battled toward the lakeshore.
Sydney removed the keys from her pocket and looked through the driving snow to where the now barely visible sedan was parked. She made up her mind in seconds. She had left Alex alone once before in the woods behind her house, she would not do it again, no matter what the cost. She tucked the keys back into her pocket and moved rapidly off the deck.
She made her way through the falling snow at the back of the cabin and slowly down the stairs, following the sounds of the ongoing struggle. As she neared the bottom of the steps the shoreline appeared before her through the wind driven falling flakes of white. Two figures could be seen, locked in combat on the ground near the beginning of the dock. Then one stood, towering over the other, and she immediately recognized the figure as Brooks. He swung at Alex, who Sydney saw fall off balance, then he began viciously kicking her.
Sydney looked frantically about her for a weapon, seeing only a pile of discarded wood apparently left over from the deck construction. She picked up a short piece of two by four and moved toward the two. Her approach was unnoticed by Brooks as he continued his vicious attack on Alex who was doing her best to defend herself from the repeated kicks, covering her face and head with her arms, which left her ribcage exposed.
The roar of the wind through the surrounding trees covered any sound Sydney made as she hurriedly approached. Bringing the board up over her head and swinging downward with all her might, Sydney aimed for the back of Brooks’s head. At the last moment, leaving no opportunity for Sydney to adjust her aim, he suddenly leaned down to grab Alex and pull her to her feet. Sydney’s blow took him in the upper back instead of the head. The blow staggered Brooks, who dropped Alex’s almost limp body as he fell forward to his hands and knees.
Sydney, distracted by Alex’s inert form, was not expecting his quick recovery. Brooks rose to his feet and rushed at her, angry and in obvious pain, but still moving with surprising speed. She brought the wood beam back for another baseball swing but he had already moved within arm’s reach and Sydney’s blow did not have much power or speed behind it. Brooks blocked it at her wrist with one large hand and ripped the wood from her grasp with the other. He backhanded her across the head, sending her to the ground at the edge of the deck. When Sydney looked up Brooks was once again advancing. Looking behind her she saw the large dark platform of the dock extending over the water. She had no other avenue of escape and so she backed slowly away from him, across the wooden platform extending over the cold water.
Sydney suddenly remembered the keys in her pocket. She reached for them, positioning the ring in the palm of her hand with three of the keys protruding between her fingers as she made a fist. It was a technique taught in the most basic of self-defense courses and it was pretty much all she had left. She cocked the arm slightly back, somewhat concealing her fist behind her body as Brooks came closer.
He was soon within arm’s reach of her and Sydney lashed out with all her energy, swinging her fist at his face, specifically at his eyes. Her fist connected in a slashing motion, driving th
e keys across his vulnerable face and left eye. Brooks was caught unprepared and staggered backwards, his hand covering his face as he partially turned away from Sydney. Seeing a possible opening, Sydney tried to run past Brooks’s doubled over form. But once again, his speed was alarming. He reached out, grabbing Sydney around the waist as she tried to get between him and the edge of the dock. Holding her around the body with one arm he grabbed at her wrist with the other, ripped the keys from her hand and threw them over the edge of the decking into the water below.
Sydney looked into Brooks’s now bloody face and saw the rage. The next open-handed blow caught her in the side of the head and face, sending her back down the length of the dock and leaving her lying dizzy on her stomach on the wood. Brooks’s strong hands grabbed at the back of her jacket and lifted her to her knees, pulling her back against his legs. Then something wrapped around her neck. She knew immediately what was happening as the leather belt tightened. Her hands came up and grabbed uselessly at the belt. When that didn’t work she tried to reach back and claw at the hands near the back of her neck. Nothing worked and the belt began pulling tighter, cutting off her air. She heard Brooks’s laughing above her as her breathing became more labored. Her vision soon began to tunnel and the laughter faded out as she lost consciousness.
ALEX HAD TRIED in vain to deflect the repeated kicks to her body and head. She swore she felt multiple ribs crack beneath one particularly vicious blow, and the warmth of the blood as the partially healed wounds to her side were reopened. There was a pause to the blows then strong hands grabbed at the front of her jacket and started to lift her upper body off the ground. Just as suddenly the grip was released, dropping her back to the ground on her back and allowing her a respite from the beating. She rolled to her side and opened her eyes in time to see Brooks tear a board out of Sydney’s hands and lash out at her, sending her staggering down the dock.
White Roses Calling Page 33
