Aubrey nodded, tears spilling from her eyes. “He hurt Hattie and Tory.”
Kim kidnapped. No! If someone wanted revenge against me, then they should come after me.
Overwhelming rage possessed Rebecca to the point where she was afraid to say anything to her niece. Her body quaked, her hands opened and closed.
“I—I didn’t—know what to do, Aunt Becky.”
Aubrey’s pain-filled voice penetrated the haze of anger surrounding Rebecca. She blinked, making an effort to focus on the child who needed her. “Baby, I know. You did fine.” She scooped her niece into her embrace and clung to her as though she would vanish if she let go of her.
“Rebecca, may I have a word with you?” Brody’s husky voice seeped through the wall she was trying to erect between Aubrey and her and the world.
Rebecca leaned back. “Honey, I’ll just be a few feet away. I won’t take my eyes off of you.” As she rose, her niece hung onto her arm for a few extra seconds. Finally, though, she released her grip but watched Rebecca’s every move while sucking on her thumb.
Her gaze trained on her niece, Rebecca turned Brody away from her and whispered, “Kim has been kidnapped. Aubrey said it was one man.”
“I figured as much. Hattie told me Kim was with them. Hattie didn’t come around until the deputy arrived. She thought the child could have wandered off, but the officer said Aubrey pointed to the road when he asked her where her sister was.”
“What happened to Tory and Hattie?” Rebecca saw Aubrey push herself off the seat and stand by the patrol car, glancing around, then begin sucking her thumb again.
“It looks like Tory was drugged and is still out. The deputy found a syringe on the ground by the driver’s side. I talked with Hattie. She should be okay, but the paramedics are taking her to Mercy Memorial to have a doctor make sure. The assailant who ran them off the road punched Hattie in the face, and when she fell back, she hit her head on the console. She might have a concussion. She tried to tell me what happened but was agitated and vague.”
Rebecca covered the distance to her niece. “Aubrey, honey, can I help you?”
“Bad man has Kim,” her niece said with her thumb still in her mouth.
“I know,” was all Rebecca managed to say. Her throat closed around those two words and although she was desperately trying to hold it together for Aubrey, her composure fragmented.
Because of me, Kim has been taken.
The hand she settled on her niece’s shoulder quivered so badly that Aubrey peered up at Rebecca, pulled her thumb out of her mouth and said, “I’m scared. He had a black mask on. Bad, bad man.”
Brody approached and knelt in front of Aubrey. “Can you remember anything else about the bad man?”
Chewing on her bottom lip, Aubrey shook her head. The tears began streaming down her cheeks. “Black mask. Mean eyes.”
“What color?” Rebecca asked, realizing how little they had to go on. This stretch of back road into San Antonio, liberally littered with potholes, wasn’t used as much as the main highway, but it was a shorter route to the hospital and reduced the time it took to get there if the driver managed to dodge the potholes.
“Dark.”
“Dark brown?”
“Dark.” Aubrey clamped her mouth around her thumb and sucked.
“I’m following the ambulance to Mercy Memorial. The deputy will take you and Aubrey back to the ranch. Sheriff Overstreet will meet you there while the scene is processed. I’ve called in another Texas Ranger.” He pulled Rebecca a few feet away and whispered close to her ear. “He’ll set up a command post at the ranch in case there is a ransom demand, and Ranger Parker will check out this crime scene. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Rebecca gripped his arm as he turned to leave. “Don’t say anything to Thomas. I need to tell him.”
“I won’t. I’ll check to make sure his security is in place and won’t go in to see him.”
As Brody walked away, an EMT helped Hattie into the ambulance and then shut the doors. Another patrol car came from the direction of Dry Gulch. This deputy would drive them to the ranch. The officer first on the scene escorted her and Aubrey to the vehicle.
She sat in back, with Aubrey glued to her side. They drove through Dry Gulch and toward the ranch. The landscape blurred as she stared out the window, not really seeing anything but a man in a black ski mask dragging Kim toward a . . . What kind of car was the man driving? How big was he? Did he say anything? Suddenly the onslaught of questions an investigator/prosecutor would ask came to a halt. She wasn’t that person anymore, and her career as a judge was probably the reason her niece had been taken.
As her eyes glistened with tears, the terrain faded totally from view. She felt the tears roll down her face. She kept her head averted. Aubrey was already upset enough.
I’m always the one in control. Somehow I have to hold it together.
But I don’t want to. I want to scream, sob, lose control.
Brody paced the hall in the ER as he waited for the doctors to release Hattie. Tory, still a bit groggy, was upstairs visiting Thomas; who had expected to see her. She had agreed not to say anything to Thomas until they had a better idea about what was going on, but she understood that he would have to be told soon. Once Hattie was ready to leave, Brody would take her back to the ranch and bring Rebecca here to support Tory while she told her husband about Kim being missing.
Hattie appeared in the doorway of an ER examining room, pale, her eyes lackluster, her face beginning to show bruising. Brody hurried over to her and took her elbow to guide her to his SUV. “I’m taking you back to the ranch. Dad is there to help make sure you follow the doctor’s orders to take it easy. In fact, Dr. Henderson may still be there. Rebecca asked him to check on Aubrey.”
“This isn’t the time for me to rest. What’s being done to get our baby back?”
“Everything we can do. There hasn’t been a ransom demand yet, but hopefully there will be.”
“What if there isn’t?”
“We’ll continue doing what we’re doing. Searching and following every lead we have.”
“What leads?”
“That’s what I want to talk to you about. The crime scene techs are processing the PT Cruiser for fingerprints, and the syringe used on Tory, but if you can—”
“That won’t help probably. The guy had on black gloves.”
Brody helped her into his SUV, closed the door, came around to the driver’s side, and slid behind the steering wheel. “Okay. That’s good to know. I want you to think back to what happened from the beginning, until you passed out. Take your time. Anything you can think of might help us.”
With a deep sigh, Hattie rested her head on the seat cushion. “It’s fuzzy, but I’ll do what I can. It would be better if it didn’t feel like a herd of cattle were stampeding through my mind.”
“I know. Been there recently.”
She massaged her temples. “Did Tory tell you much?”
“A description of the pickup. No license number.”
“I didn’t get as good a view as she did. I know it was black and what I would call a clunker. A big one. That made it easy to run us off the road. Sorry I wasn’t paying much attention until it hit us. Then I was trying to calm the girls while Tory tried to avoid the ditch. Kinda hard when it was the truck or the ditch.” Pausing, she closed her eyes and continued to press her fingertips into her temples. “I do remember when we passed it on the highway. There wasn’t a license plate in front. I don’t know about the back.”
“There may not have been any plates since this was no accident. Tory’s description fits yours. She thought it was a Dodge Ram.”
“Could have been. I wasn’t paying attention.”
“How about when he got out of his truck and approached the car? What can you tell me about him—height, weight?”
“I didn’t even see him coming toward the car. The airbag went off. That knocked the breath out of me. The next thing I know,
he pulls the driver’s door open. It looked like he was doing something to Tory. I thought at first he was checking her vital signs. Now I know he was injecting her with something. I tried to get out of the car to stop him, but he came around to my side so fast that the next thing I know he’s punching me in the face. Kim is carrying on in the back seat. Her crying is the last thing I remember.”
A surge of protectiveness overpowered him, and for a few seconds rage filled him to the point that he lost focus on the road ahead of him.
“Brody!”
The tires crunched along the shoulder of the road. He quickly righted the SUV. “Sorry. I was thinking of what I would do when I find this man.” He’d allowed his professionalism to slip and his emotions to take over. He couldn’t do that and still do his job the way it needed to be done. “Tell me what you remember about the man.” He dug deep inside himself for the calm and composure he needed to be effective.
“Not quite as tall as you are. It was hard to tell about his muscles. He was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt and jeans. He wasn’t skinny, but I don’t think he had much fat on him. I have no idea about his weight. Like I said not fat, not skinny. So what would that be for a man about six feet tall—180 pounds?”
“What color were his eyes, his hair?”
“Couldn’t tell on the hair because of the black ski mask but his eyes were dark blue.” Hattie gave him a small smile. “I’m not a very good witness. Sorry.”
“You’ve done fine. Every little bit helps. Anything else that might distinguish him?”
“No. If I think of anything, you’ll be the first to know. Maybe if I rest, something else will come to me.”
“It’s about twenty more minutes to the ranch. Rest.”
Quiet ruled for the next fifteen minutes until his cell rang. To free his hands for driving, he pressed his Bluetooth-connected cellphone. “Calhoun.”
“I’ve interviewed the couple who were first on the scene and called in the wreck,” Ranger Parker said. “Carl and Betty Hanson. They are retired and usually use that back road when they go into San Antonio, to avoid the traffic on the highway. They live in Dry Gulch. In fact, they know Hattie and the Sinclairs.”
“Could they give us anything about the man, the vehicle he was driving?”
“Betty was useless as a witness, but Carl described the truck as black, a Dodge Ram maybe six or seven years old and with no license plate in the back.”
“That fits what Hattie told me about the front license plate. It might be a stolen truck. Check the reports of stolen trucks for the past few months. This has been planned, maybe for a while.” Brody glanced toward Hattie whose eyes were still closed. A bruise was starting to show around her right eye.
“The description of the man was vague. They were several hundred yards away. Medium height. The woman thought he was skinny. The man didn’t. That’s about all they could say other than that he was wearing jeans and a white shirt. Oh, and the black ski mask.”
All information that supported Hattie’s, Tory’s, and Aubrey’s statements. “I think the best thing at this time is to find the truck. It’s been stolen, most likely, which means it will be dumped once its usefulness is finished. Start with the turnoffs along the road on the right-hand side, going west. He pulled out of one not far from the wreck. He was waiting for them. If we find the truck, maybe we’ll get a viable fingerprint or a witness who can describe the person who left the truck. I’ll reinterview the couple tomorrow, after they have had time to think about the wreck.” When Brody hung up, he saw that Hattie was beginning to awaken.
“Any news?” Hattie asked with a hopeful ring to her words.
“Nope. Ranger Parker was filling me in on the crime scene.”
Her expression fell. “If anything happens to Kim, I’ll never be able to forgive myself. I should have been able to overpower him. Protect the girls.”
“This isn’t your fault. Whoever is behind this is pretty sick to involve children.”
“What is going on?”
“I think someone is after Rebecca.”
“Why?”
“Not sure, but if we can figure that out, we’ll know who to look for.”
“This isn’t tied to Alexandrov and Petrov?”
“No. This is much more personal.” Brody told Hattie about Laura.
“I can’t believe this.”
“I’m not even sure Alexandrov was behind much of what happened to Rebecca. Maybe he hired the man to try to run her down and had the witness killed, but nothing else really fits his style.” Brody turned into the Circle S Ranch.
“Have you disposed of the girl’s body?”
Grinding his teeth, J. R. gripped the cell. “Not yet.”
“What’s taking you so long?”
“This has to be done carefully. She has to be found, but nothing should lead back to us. That takes planning.”
“We planned it. Do it. Our revenge won’t be final until you do. You promised. Remember?”
“I’ve got to go. She’s waking up.”
“Kill her and it won’t be a problem. You messed up with Laura. She was supposed to be killed like the guy behind the pawnshop. Strangling her wasn’t enough. Rebecca needs to suffer like we have. Kill the girl.”
J. R. cut the conversation off. He didn’t need to be reminded of what his part in the plan was. Nor his promise to his mama. Nor his failure to carry out the plan exactly. His mistake was getting to know Laura.
He stuffed the cell into his jean pocket and stared at the child lying on the couch, her features so innocent right now.
So peaceful.
That would change soon.
He didn’t want to be a disappointment again. He had promised, but now he wished he hadn’t.
“What am I going to say to Thomas?” Rebecca advanced toward her brother’s hospital room. A few feet from the door, she swung around and walked away. “I can’t do this, Brody . . . I . . .”
He stopped her progress toward the elevator. “He has to be told, and you and Tory are the best ones to do it. Your sister-in-law is in there waiting for you. By now, she should be pretty clearheaded. Thankfully, whatever was given to her wasn’t long lasting. She needs your help. You know Thomas better than anyone.”
“That’s just it. I know what this will do to him. He’s making progress in his recovery. What if—”
Brody touched her lips with two fingers to stop her words. “I know what it’s going to do to him. His girls are everything to him. I’ll be there for you. C’mon. We need to get back to the ranch in case there is a ransom demand.”
“There isn’t going to be one. Isn’t that what the dead flowers all over Laura and my bed meant? This isn’t about money. It’s about hate. About revenge.”
“I agree. At least the ME didn’t think she suffered.”
“A small consolation, but I’ll take it,” she choked, tears closing her throat. She pushed the guilt that swamped her into the background. She couldn’t afford to deal with her emotions when everyone needed her to be strong.
“I haven’t had a chance to tell you that a bouquet of dead roses was found at the side of the road where the truck was parked at the wreck.”
“What!” What have I done to cause all of this? The guilt she tried to keep at bay surged forward.
“In my defense, I just found out not long ago.”
She thrust her fingers through her hair, clenching a handful for a few seconds before releasing it. Calm, in control. Don’t let him get to me. He can’t win. “I didn’t see it at the accident scene,” she finally said in what resembled a composed voice.
“That’s because the ambulance blocked your view of it. The deputy told me about it as I was leaving for the ranch to bring you here.”
“So there are four instances where dead flowers were left. All roses. Remember, Laura had that arrangement of roses on her dining room table where she was going to eat with Jim. He has to be the man doing this. Everything is connected. He wants us to know
what this is all about.”
Brody took her hand and strode toward her brother’s room, where an officer stood guard outside. “And that will be his downfall.”
She wished she could believe it. Kim had been missing for five hours. An Amber Alert had gone out, every law enforcement officer had her niece’s picture, and it had been blasted over the airwaves to the public. There was little she could do but wait—something she had never been good at.
Pulling in a deep breath, she pushed the door open and they entered her brother’s room.
Tory sat by his bed, relief flooding her face when she saw Rebecca. She relaxed her stiff posture and slumped back in the chair. “Thomas, you’ve got visitors.”
Rebecca wanted to tell her not to wake him up on her account, but her brother’s eyes opened immediately.
He gave her a weak smile. “Hey Brody. Hey, Rebecca. I was just resting my eyes. Tory said you were coming to see me. It’s about time. I was wondering if you had forgotten your brother.”
“Never. Today has been a busy one.”
“Yeah, my big, important little sister, the judge.”
“I see you’re getting better. You’re becoming your usual obnoxious self.”
“Who? Me? I’m wounded.” Her brother put his hand over his heart.
“That’s why you’re in the hospital.”
Thomas chuckled. “Love you, too.”
Tell him. Quit putting it off. In that moment, she wanted to whirl around and flee the room. She looked at Tory, who dropped her gaze. She didn’t want to say anything, either. Rebecca didn’t blame her sister-in-law. That was how she felt. If she knew for certain they could get Kim back soon, she wouldn’t tell Thomas to save him heartache.
Brody drew a chair to the opposite side of the bed from Tory and indicated that Rebecca should take a seat. She sat before her legs gave out on her. The next few minutes would be the worst in her life. Brody stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders. From his touch, she sensed his support and it shored her up for what she had to do.
Rebecca glanced at Tory. “We have something to tell you.” She pointed to Tory and to herself, then waited to see if her sister-in-law wanted to continue. The look in Tory’s eyes told Rebecca otherwise. Her sister-in-law had cried over the phone when they had talked earlier about how to tell Thomas.
Scorned Justice: The Men of Texas Rangers Series #3 (Men of the Texas Rangers) Page 23
