Deadly Intent

by Kylie Brant

  “Pretending.” His voice was contemptuous, but she could tell she’d gotten his attention again. “I’m not a lame kid. I don’t get off on make-believe.”

  “No, you go through the motions.” At least that’s what her therapist had accused her of. Going through the motions of living. “But it doesn’t get you anywhere because it’s like you’re a robot. No feeling. Everything’s automatic.” There had been many times since this man had taken her that she wished she could go back to feeling that way again. “But when I started to pretend, I’d think about what I used to care about. It was hard to remember.” Really hard because she hadn’t been that kid anymore. She never would be. “I’d watch movies that had kids in them and I’d try to pretend to be like them. To act like them. And then one day, you realize that you’ve stopped pretending. Not all at once. Maybe about just one thing at first.”

  She stopped, her mind going back to that time. She’d only asked for a horse because of watching those movies with her mom. The girl in the movie acted sort of stupid. Ellie didn’t want to be like her. She didn’t care about the kind of things the actress had. But she’d become an actress just like the girl in the movie, and pretended some of the same things were important.

  Which meant she’d had to pretend to be excited when her mom and dad had bought Lucky. And to care about how quickly a stable could be built. She’d pretended to be interested when her parents had decided to fill it with a few more horses so they could ride together.

  It was easy to pretend with her parents. But Lucky had known. He’d always seemed to know about the yawning empty place inside her. And he’d known how to fill it up. A little at a time.

  “Maybe a dog would help. You could walk it. Teach it tricks.”

  That brought a smile to the man’s face, but it wasn’t the kind of smile that made her feel better. “I had a dog once. The first gun I stole, I used him for target practice.”

  Her stomach hollowed out, and she thought she’d throw up. Funny, how the thought of him treating a pet like that seemed just as bad as what he wanted to do to her. What he would do to her soon.

  Would anybody understand what she’d tried to tell them in that video? Would it make a difference? Maybe not. She didn’t know exactly where she was. Or even how far he’d taken her from home. Were they even in Colorado anymore? Maybe they’d just think that she was scared. Stupid and scared.

  Maybe no one had seen it. Because no one had come.

  And they probably wouldn’t.

  “So . . . what else you got?”

  She swallowed and forced herself to keep her mind on the man. He was asking questions. Maybe he was interested in her ideas.

  And maybe his interest would buy her a little more time.

  “We’re back in the vehicles, yeah.” Kell wasn’t about to claim he’d thawed out. It’d take quite a bit longer for that. But there was finally warm air chugging out of the vents. And as excited as he was about their find, it’d been a couple hours since he’d felt his toes.

  He pressed the cell closer to his ear. Travis was on the phone in the backseat with Whitman and the other conversation made it difficult to hear Raiker’s low brusque tones.

  “Were you able to gather any more intelligence?”

  He’d had to hike well out of the surrounding trees in order to get cell reception to call in their findings the first time. “Even if it weren’t for the weather, you probably couldn’t get a look at this place from the sky. It’s small, no more than fifteen by twenty. Eight feet tall. One window that faces the back. And it’s white, so it blends in with the terrain.”

  “Were you able to positively ID the girl?”

  His enthusiasm dimmed a bit. “I could only get partial glimpses of a female inside. I saw long blond hair. There’s a blanket around her. But she sits so still I have to believe she’s bound.”

  “And Dodge?”

  “If you can send me a pic, I got a good enough look at him to make an ID either way.” It’d taken climbing a tree in the process and trying to keep his balance long enough to find a vantage point that allowed him to peer into that lone window. The man had only crossed in front of it twice, but one of those times had been to stare outside. The blowing snow had obstructed Kell’s view, of course. But he hoped that the high-powered binoculars had allowed him enough of a close-up to at least tell whether the man matched any photo Raiker could send along.

  “From the angle I had, I could see the interior. It’s all one room with a small wood-burning stove in one corner. There’s a built-in bunk on the opposite wall with another portable cot set up closer to the door.”

  Raiker was silent for a moment. “Tactical options?”

  “Wait until they’re in bed for the night. Flash bangs through the window to surprise him with a simultaneous breach at the doorway.” And it still burned that he hadn’t been able to chance a stealthy approach to check the security of that door. It had been much too risky in the daylight, with the chance the man inside could come out at any moment. “The problem is their proximity. He’s got a good chance of getting to the girl as quickly as the entry team does, depending on how fast he recovers. I couldn’t find a vantage point that would allow a sniper a good angle for the bunk.”

  “Dodge is an expert. I’d imagine he’d recover fairly quickly.” Raiker stopped, and Kell could hear a muffled conversation taking place on the other end of the line. After a minute, Adam resumed speaking. “Our best bet might be to get a sniper in there. Get him positioned to take Dodge out—if it is Dodge—the next time he crosses in front of the window.”

  “Now that’s an idea I can get behind.” Macy moved closer, leaning across the console in an attempt to hear the other side of the conversation. “Question is, how fast can you get one in here? Because I have a bad feeling about this. The bank meeting is set for three A.M., right? What are the chances he’ll keep her alive any longer than that?”

  There was silence at the other end of the phone. “A team is being compiled as we speak. It’d help lend some urgency if you could give us a positive ID.”

  Kell tamped down the quick flare of impatience. “Well, there’s sure no Internet reception up here, but send me a picture over your camera phone, and I can be sure. And we need night vision equipment so we can continue to monitor the girl’s safety.” Because there wasn’t a doubt in his mind, not after what Macy had reported, that Ellie Mulder was inside that shelter. “With a team, we can split up and spell each other on the surveillance.”

  “Chances are he has orders to hold off until the money is safely on its way tomorrow.”

  A feeling of urgency was building inside Kell that wouldn’t be denied. He looked at the in-dash clock. Seven P.M. They had eight hours. Maybe. How much doubt was there that Mulder was going to comply with payment? The family’s desperation was honed by Ellie’s first kidnapping. Whoever had masterminded the kidnapping had done his homework. He’d be counting on their cooperation.

  “Take a look at the photos I’m about to send and get back to me immediately.”

  Familiar with his boss’s abrupt sign-offs, Kell disconnected the call and waited impatiently for the incoming message.

  “Are they sending a team up here?”

  “I think so, yeah.” Feeling a flicker of sympathy for the way Macy had to sit there in the dark about what was being discussed, he filled her in. “But I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Safest bet is a sniper, yeah. But by the time they get one up here, get him in position, chances are Dodge and the girl will be asleep. I was in those trees, remember? There is no clear shot to the bunk.” Dread was pooling in the pit of his stomach. “And if the wind picks up any more, the sniper will have a hell of time getting a shot.”

  His cell signaled them, and he pressed the command to display the incoming picture. “How do you make this thing bigger?” he muttered, reaching up to turn on the overhead light.

  “Give it to me.” Macy snatched it out of his hands. Although not familiar with his phone—at
least not that he knew of—she pressed a few buttons and had the first photo zoomed to fill the screen in a matter of moments. Then she handed it back to him, but not before taking a good look first.

  He stared, tilting the screen up to the overhead light. Obviously a mug shot, as the person in the picture was holding a numbered placard before him. This face was younger than the one he’d seen, with a light scruffy smattering of whiskers to obscure the jaw.

  But it was undeniably the man he’d seen through the window.

  “Is it him?” Macy demanded impatiently from beside him. “Is Raiker sending more than one photo for you to check?”

  “Yeah.” Kell couldn’t look away from the screen bearing that image. The man looked ordinary. Like someone you’d pass on the street. Except for those empty, empty eyes. “But I’m already certain.” He looked up then to catch her gaze on him. “Vincent Dodge is the man inside that cabin.”

  “Excuse me, Agent Whitman?”

  Raiker looked up in annoyance at the interruption. Ordinarily they’d get the feds involved, but neither the weather nor their timeline would allow it. Getting the op together took a mind-numbing amount of cooperation with all the various agencies in the area. The forestry service. A search and rescue team, given the fact the promised storm had settled on the area with a vengeance. Summit County Sheriff’s Office, since it was their SWAT team that would be utilized. And all of the arrangements seemed to come together with the pace of an impaired tortoise.

  Whitman was similarly impatient. “Dobson. What is it?”

  The man entered the room with a sheaf of papers in his hand. Once the final decision had been made to launch a tactical operation, all other agents had been banished to another office to work in. “We did a little investigation on the owner of the IP address where that newest ransom note was sent from. Household members Hugh and Sara Jane Guenther, and teenage children Becky and Sam.” The man consulted the top page of the notes he carried. “Hugh is a garage mechanic, no record other than traffic violations. Sara works as a clerk at the Denver County Courthouse.”

  “Where is the address in relation to the Elliott home again?”

  “Both in Denver. About twenty miles, give or take.”

  Whitman had opted for a more low-key approach this time around, given the near certainty that whoever had sent the note had merely cruised around until he’d found another unsecured network to send it from. “The warrant arrived a couple hours ago. Take Pelton and head over there to interview the family. The scope of the warrant allows for the seizure of all electronics with Internet access.” Order given, his gaze was already drifting away.

  “There’s something else, sir.” Dobson crossed to hand a copy of the pages to the assistant director. “My team finished with the Elliott computer. We accessed the boy’s Facebook and e-mail accounts and found plenty of saved messages to and from his father. There were also some messages of a slightly different nature.”

  Whitman and Raiker exchanged a glance. “Such as?”

  “In his history we found evidence of visits to various chat rooms.” He shrugged. “Checked them out and they appear to be teen hangouts at first glance.”

  Adam sat back in his chair. “And where teens hang out . . .” he murmured.

  The junior agent nodded. “At least from the tone of the Facebook messages, it sounds like he caught someone’s attention who isn’t a teen. There’s something else going on there. Just wanted to know what you wanted us to do about it.”

  “Check the Guenther’s computers for something similar when you bring them in.”

  The man nodded, turned, and left the room.

  “Too many prongs going at once,” Whitman muttered.

  Adam was inclined to agree. He had Paulie ensconced in Mulder’s bank with its two chief financial officers. He’d drive there with the Mulders in another few hours and wait with Stephen for the next message to arrive.

  “You have your team in place to follow up on a physical transfer?” he asked.

  The agent’s pale brown eyes glinted. “Everything’s ready on our end. The team will meet at the bank. I don’t mind telling you, the CBI director had to go have the governor himself intercede to get this after-hours bank entrance OK’d.”

  Reaching for his wallet, Raiker extracted a hundred, placed it on the table. “I’m betting the transfer will be electronic. There are dozens of places in the world seven to twelve hours ahead of us who don’t embrace the international banking laws.”

  The agent eyed the bill. “Middle of the night transfer smacks of wanting to use the cover of night to make the pickup. You’re on.” He withdrew a money clip from his pocket and thumbed through the bills until he found a hundred to join Raiker’s. “You must not be that certain. You’ve only got one man inside the bank.”

  Raiker gave a slight smile. “I only need one man inside the bank.” If Paulie can’t follow or disrupt the transfer, it can’t be done.

  His smile faded as he considered his next duty. “I need to go update the Mulders.” Waiting for news was the cruelest sort of torture. He tried to spare them that.

  He just hoped they weren’t in for an even crueler sort of torture at the end of this thing.

  “We’ ve got a positive ID on the man in the cabin.”

  Althea gasped audibly, her hand going in search of her husband’s. Stephen grasped it, but his attention was focused solely on Adam. “It’s Dodge? You’re sure?”

  He nodded. “Kell got a good enough look at him to match him to a photo I sent.”

  “And Ellie?” The woman’s voice was desperate. “Did he see Ellie?”

  Raiker hesitated. “There’s someone else inside the cabin, but he wasn’t able to see a face. He’s fairly certain the second person is bound to a backless stool.”

  “If we know where she’s being kept, what’s stopping us?” Mulder was emanating fury and something even edgier. Fear. “Let’s storm the place and get her out. I can have my security force here and ready to move out in less than an hour.”

  “We’re compiling a team to join our operatives up there.”

  And the last thing he wanted was to add men to the team who couldn’t all be completely cleared. There was still the unanswered question of how the security specs had gotten to Dodge. “They’re being hit with quite a storm. High winds and lots of snow. The rescue will be dicey.”

  “But not impossible?” The steel in Althea Mulder’s voice for a moment reflected her husband’s.

  Adam gave her a small smile. “No. Not impossible. However, I’m here to present you with another difficult decision. With that storm up there, I can’t give you a timeline on the rescue attempt. There are too many variables. And if you aren’t at the bank ready to move the money at three A.M., the consequences could be dire.” His gaze was on Mulder. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “You’re saying we need to go ahead with paying the ransom,” he said bluntly. “And not to count on the fact that Ellie can be gotten out beforehand.”

  “That’s right.”

  Althea squeezed her husband’s hand where it lay on her shoulder. “We don’t care about the money. We’re ready to let it go. All of it. We just want Ellie home.”

  “Why don’t you call the driver, dear.” Stephen patted her shoulder. “Make sure he’s ready to leave at . . .” With brows raised quizzically, he looked at Adam.

  “One A.M. should be plenty of time.”

  “. . . One A.M. Given the weather, he needs to select one of the four-wheel-drive vehicles.”

  Althea rose, but she seemed to realize she was being dismissed. She looked from one man to the other. “I don’t want you two hatching something once I leave.”

  “Honey . . .”

  She made a dismissive gesture at her husband. “Don’t honey me. I know how your mind works. I don’t want any secret plans or bait and switch strategies to outwit the man who’s behind this.” Her tone was fierce. “Our plan is simple. Find my baby, and bring her home. Pay
the money. That’s all there is. Agreed?”

  “That’s all there is,” Stephen told her gently. “I promise.”

  She looked at him and Adam closely, but when neither of them spoke again, she seemed to be convinced. And the air with which she exited could only be described as regal.

  The moment she was gone, Stephen turned to him, all trace of husbandly indulgence replaced by a deadly expression.

  “What’s the latest weather report for the area up there in the forest?”

  “Snow and blowing snow through tonight, possibly continuing into the morning.”

  “Decreasing a sniper’s effectiveness.”

  Adam cocked a brow. Clearly the man had a rudimentary knowledge of tactical operations. “It will be a challenge,” he conceded.

  “Cramer has experience in that area. My security chief? Maybe you can use him.”

  “I’d assume any shooter the Summit County Sheriff ’s SWAT team has on the unit has more up-to-date practice, training, and experience.” He wasn’t surprised that the man would try in some way to insert himself into the plans. A man like Mulder hadn’t amassed his fortune by allowing others to make decisions for him.

  “I understand how difficult it is to sit back and let the author of those notes pull your strings.” Stephen’s look was sharp, but Adam didn’t flinch under it. “That’s what I would feel in your place. Helpless. Compliant. It wouldn’t set well with me either.”

  After a long moment the man nodded. “Burns like a bitch, I have to say. But then I imagine you feel much the same way having your team up there where the action is while you accompany me to the bank.” He gestured to Adam’s leg.

  The man had unerringly placed his finger on a wound that still throbbed. Most of the time he liked to think he’d made his peace with the physical limitations he’d live with for the rest of his life.

  Some days he knew that was a lie. So he gave a slow nod in return. “Burns like a bitch,” he admitted.

  Chapter 17

  “It’s one thirty.” Kell crowded around the propane heater in the center of the circle of vehicles on the road and tried to convince himself he could feel his fingers again. “One and a half hours until the money transfer. We don’t have much more time to wait on a decision, Sheriff.”