“Sure, I understand. Will you give me a few minutes to change?”
“Take your time. I’ll wait here.”
Holly went upstairs, quickly dressed and met Officer Hartman on the porch. Her nerves were on edge, but the sooner she got this over with she could focus on getting her life back in order. “I’m ready. Shall I ride in the back of the cruiser?”
“If you don’t mind. No worries. It’s dark. No one will see you.”
If only that were true, she thought as she climbed into the back and he slammed the door. Laying her purse to the side, the blade reflected the streetlight. Oh no! She forgot she had it. And they were already pulling away from the curb.
Carrying a knife around after her prints were found on the one that killed Danielle was a bit suspicious, but now that James was apprehended, the case would be solved. She’d be in the clear.
* * * *
Liam hit the call button on his phone. It was the third time he’d attempted to call Holly. It was going straight to voicemail. She’d turned off her cell. This time he left a message. “Holly, call me. It’s important. James is in jail. We are questioning him now but something isn’t right. I can feel it. Don’t answer the door for anyone.” He hung up. His gut sank.
Heading into the outer office, he stopped at Officer Hartman’s desk. “Hey, Reed…,” Liam called to the only other Officer in the room. “Where’s Hartman?”
Reed shrugged a shoulder. “Said he had some important business to take care of.”
Liam thought that was odd. The man had been acting awkward since the murder.
Instinct fired up inside Liam.
Opening the top drawer to Hartman’s desk, he rummaged through paperwork. He opened the bottom compartment and found a shaving kit, and other personal items. He started to close the door when something made him look again. Bending, Liam picked up the pouch and emptied the contents onto the desk. A can of shaving cream, a used razor and a cologne bottle scattered across the top. Then he saw what had grabbed his attention. A bracelet wrapped around the lid of the bottle. He looked closer and realized it matched the one Danielle had been wearing—except this one had the key.
Everything started to make sense. The missing link had been right under his nose. Liam tore the bracelet from the bottle, causing the glass to shatter and cologne splashed everywhere.
“You okay, Chief Ryan?” Reed asked.
“No, I’m not.” Liam sprinted to the exit door. “I’ll be back.”
“What about the suspect’s interrogation?” The Officer asked.
“He’s not going anywhere.” Liam didn’t hear a comeback because he was already through the door and on his way to his vehicle.
It took Liam three minutes to pull in front of his house. The lights were on but there was no sign of Hartman or Holly. The house was empty. After investigating, he saw that even Holly’s purse was missing, yet her clothes were still in the guest bedroom. He rushed back down the stairs, checking his phone for any missed calls or messages.
At the door, he stopped to check his phone. In the corner of the foyer he noticed a pile of papers. Flipping on the light, he realized they were pictures.
He stared at the photos and anger shot through him. He gritted his teeth and practically crushed his phone in his hand. Officer Hartman had a reason to be at the bed and breakfast. He was spying on Liam and took the pictures. Punching in a familiar number, Officer Reed answered. “Track Hartman’s cruiser. Give me exact whereabouts. Now!”
The line went quiet until finally Reed came back on and gave Liam an address.
Clicking off, Liam shoved the phone into his shirt pocket. “Gotcha!”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
HOLLY STARED THROUGH the window as they headed south out of town. She pecked on the glass between the front and back seat. “Officer Hartman. Where are we going? The station is the opposite direction. I thought you said Liam is at the office.”
“Sorry, Holly. I hope you don’t mind but I need to take a detour.”
“Can you take me back home? Now! I’ll call Liam and he can pick me up.” Fear developed inside her stomach, twisting like claws through her veins. She clenched her hands into fists, nails snapped and her knuckles stung from the force.
“No.”
Holly dug into her purse and grabbed her phone. Clicking the button, nothing happened. Turning it over, she popped the back off. The battery was gone. She brought her gaze onto Hartman. Had he removed her battery while she was upstairs changing? “Pull over, Hartman.”
“No. We have plans.”
Sliding close to the door, she tried the handle. The door wouldn’t open and she knew he had her trapped.
Holly wasn’t sure how far they’d driven into the country until he finally turned off onto a gravel road and parked. She scanned the area but didn’t recognize anything through the fog. Fear consumed her as she realized Liam didn’t send Hartman to get her.
Hartman got out of the car and came around to open the door. “Come out,” he said.
Holly didn’t move. She skipped through scenarios inside her mind, until she concluded her chances of getting away were better outside of the vehicle. Sliding out of the backseat, taking her purse with her, she took several steps but stayed at the back of the car. “Why are you doing this?” she asked.
“You have no clue, do you?” The roughness to his tone made goose bumps pop on her skin.
“Clue? What clue?”
“Who I am.” He laughed bitterly.
She shook her head. “Is there something about you I should know?”
“My father was the Mayor,” he said.
“Yes, I realize he was your father.” She clutched her purse close to her body and slid her hand in to wrap her fingers around the handle of the knife.
“You fled Raven. Easy for you.” His voice was stone cold. “You and your secrets.”
“You know about what happened? What your father did?” The puzzle pieces were starting to come together.
He didn’t seem to hear her. “He was married and having an affair. He got his mistress pregnant. When he told my mother, who could never carry a child, they’d decided to ask the mistress to give them the baby to adopt.” He laughed again and it echoed through the darkened woods. “The mistress saw her opportunity to appease her greedy needs and ways. She asked for a large sum of money and my father granted her wishes with cash to buy his son. Me.”
“I’m…I’m really not sure what this has to do with me, or with what happened to me.”
“We all lived peacefully in this small town. Until, years later, my gluttonous biological mother demanded more money. She visited my father and told him a story of a man of influence who had touched her daughter in a very naughty way. She threatened to tell everyone.”
The air vanished from Holly’s lungs. This story was no coincidence. This man was her brother. “My mother, she was his mistress.” The words sounded alien falling from her quivering lips.
“Hello there, sis. I don’t see much of a resemblance, do you?” He snarled.
“I…I didn’t know,” she sputtered.
“He had his evil craving for the Young women. He was far from perfect, but he was the only father I knew. He couldn’t afford your mother’s bank account demands. One evening when the stress became too heavy, he decided to take his own life.”
Holly shook her head. “No, he had a heart attack.”
“To save his reputation, we lied and said he’d died from natural causes.”
“I never told my mother what had happened. I never told anyone. Not back then. I swear, I had no clue.” Her mind raced. The wind picked up, whistling through the trees.
“Maybe she’d guessed. Maybe she was curious what you were doing at my father’s office on those late evenings and she’d watched.” He shrugged and she heard a seam burst in his uniform. “Who the fuck knows.”
“I’m sorry things turned out the way they have. But your mother…I remember her sweet and nurturing charac
ter. I admired her.”
“She was worthy of so much more than he gave her, yet she tolerated him. I realize she loved me, but after he killed himself, she carried the pain of the secret alone. To make a long story short, your mother came after her, demanding she pay more money. Mother got sick and passed away the following year. At least then your mother had no more souls to bribe.”
“How do you know all of this? Is it possible that it’s not all fact?”
“My mother left a journal with all of the details. Interesting details and cold facts.”
Holly needed to know everything. “Did you kill Danielle?”
“I loved her—Danielle. Very much. Unfortunately, she found out the truth and wanted to tell you. She didn’t like secrets, harmful secrets.” He seemed to drift away in thought. “I would never have hurt her. I just meant to keep her quiet.”
“You slit her throat. That’s not an accident,” Holly said with a shake of her head. Her hand grasped the knife handle in her purse a little tighter. She felt compassion for what he had kept secret until now, but she knew what he was capable of.
He didn’t look at her. “I…I don’t know why I did that…” His voice faded and in the distance a coyote howled. He turned to look off where the wail came from. “Just like a coyote who means no harm to anybody unless they are threatened,” he said. “I had to keep her quiet or else she would have ruined everything.”
“But you wanted to hurt me that night at the school house?” Holly asked.
He shook his head. “No. That was not my purpose. You just arrived there at the wrong time.” His voice was growing more agitated.
“It was you who snuck into my house. You painted the word tramp. You killed Vicki.”
The full moon gave enough lighting for her to see his cold facial expression. His head cocked and his eyes slanted. “I didn’t vandalize your house. I did sneak in, but not to hurt you. Call it…curiosity.” A chill ran through her body and she felt more threatened than ever, but she couldn’t stop herself.
“And you decided to take a kitchen knife as a souvenir?” He was insane and she remembered all of the warnings Liam had given her.
“The knife was only a precaution in case you saw me. If I’d wanted you dead, I would have seen to it when you first came to town. You were an upheaval to everything. It was your mother and her husband who wanted to drive you from town, Holly. Danielle overheard Vicki and James speaking in the alley outside of the diner. They were hoping you’d desert your grandma’s house and leave everything to them. Money is certainly thicker than blood.” He took a step closer to Holly and she moved backward. “Vicki must have grown a conscious and argued with James to stop before you got hurt. Things took a terrible turn when he didn’t get his way. Apparently, he’d expected to inherit a lot of cash when he came out here to the boonies. When he saw it wasn’t happening, and that Vicki wasn’t siding with him, he took off…until the chief caught up to him. Man, you should have seen that bastard James’s face when he found out Vicki had been murdered.”
“Why did you kill Vicki?” Her vision blurred with tears. So her mother had cared enough about Holly to keep James from hurting her.
“Your mother deserved far worse for what she did to my family. She didn’t appreciate her own so how could she value anyone else’s. I went to see her and I had no plans to kill her. I just wanted to speak to her. She became angry and told me I was a bastard child she’d never wanted.”
Holly felt a sliver of compassion entwined with panic. On the end of Vicki’s verbal lashes herself, Holly knew how harmful the abuse could get. “You took the pictures of Liam with mother, right?”
“No one can be trusted, dear sister. Not even your chief of police boyfriend,” he said with an angry tone. His eyes glazed over and his demeanor began to change. “You and I need to band together and rid our lives of enemy and evil. I’m only helping you,” he yelled as he lunged forward to grab her left arm. His grasp of her wrist knocked the purse from her shoulder and it crashed to the ground, spilling its contents. All except the knife Holly was now holding behind her back.
“I understand you’re hurt. I’ve been hurt by Vicki’s insensitivity many times. I want to help you too,” she said as his grip tightened.
“I fear it’s too late for that now, sister,” he said with a sinister voice.
It was obvious Hartman wasn’t well. Possibly even schizophrenic. Although she felt sorry for him, her biggest concern was to get away. And fast. She debated her next action as she began to draw the knife forward, and stopped. A blinding light in front of them along with the screeching sound of tires on the gravel startled her. Everything seemed to happen in a blur. Liam opened the door of his cruiser and leapt out. He held his gun, raised and pointed at Hartman.
“Freeze, Hartman.” Liam commanded. “There’s no way out now.”
The blade in Holly’s hand reflected the headlights of the cruiser as she finally regained control over herself. But it was too late. Hartman grabbed her hand and shook the knife from her shaking fingers. It fell to the ground as Hartman drew his own gun. He pulled Holly in front of him and held his weapon to her head. The cold metal pressed into her temple as she whimpered.
“Get back in the car,” he yelled at Liam. “I’ll shoot your little slut girlfriend!”
“Put the gun down, Hartman,” Liam responded.
“I’m telling you, dammit! Get back into your car and pull away or I will shoot her in the head,” Hartman screamed back at Liam. Then he whispered in Holly’s ear, “Look what you’ve done now, Vicki. You’ve fucked both our lives up.” It was enough proof to Holly that Hartman had lost all sense of reality. She knew she had to do something before another person was hurt. She couldn’t risk anything happening to Liam.
“Liam,” she screamed. Hartman grabbed her even tighter.
“Shut up, bitch,” he said to her as he pushed the gun harder into her skin.
“Just like at Barker’s bond fire,” Liam yelled back to Holly.
It took her only a second to understand what he meant. Hartman never saw it coming. In one motion, she drew her arm forward, and then backward, striking her elbow with full force into Hartman’s stomach. He expelled a rush of air and loosened his grip. Holly dropped to the ground. Hartman tried to aim his pistol at Liam, but before he could the sound of two shots echoed in the wooded forest. As Holly lay still in the gravel, she saw Hartman fall face down. Liam came running and kicked Hartman’s gun away. He pulled Holly up and away from her brother.
“Are you ok,” he asked her.
“Yes,” she responded.
“Go to my cruiser while I check on him,” he told her.
“He’s my brother, Liam,” she said as she started walking toward his car. “It’s a long story.” She continued toward the headlights.
* * * *
Liam turned his attention to Hartman who was now lying on his back, groans coming from deep within his chest.
“Chief Ryan to HQ,” Liam said in his portable radio on his shoulder strap as he approached Hartman.
“Go ahead, Chief Ryan.”
“Where’s that emergency squad I called for?”
“They should be at your location in the next five minutes, sir.”
He knelt down to the check on Hartman. “Stay still. EMT should be here soon.” As he removed Hartman’s police belt, he examined him for injury.
“Chief…,” Hartman said in a weak voice. “Just let me die.”
“You’re going to be ok,” Liam whispered as he saw the gaping wound in Hartman’s stomach. He could hear the sound of sirens approaching in the distance. He stayed there until the EMT’s arrived.
Hartman was loaded onto a gurney and loaded into the back of the squad. Liam watched it leave as he heard Holly walking up behind him.
He held his arms out and she moved inside them. “I’m so sorry,” he said to her softly.
“Sorry? For what,” she said looking up into his eyes.
“For eve
rything. All of the things that have happened since you’ve been back. And everything that happened before. You’ve been through so much. I want you to be happy and I want to make you happy. I never want to be away from you ever again.”
“Oh Liam,” she said as she snuggled closer. “I’ve realized how much my pride has cost me over the years. I want nothing more than to have you in my life.”
“Holly, my love. I know this may not be the place to do this, but…,” he said. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes, of course I will marry you.” He pulled her in for a kiss.
He let her go and swept his fingers through her hair. “Come on, I’ll take you home and we can discuss our future and you can fill me in on all of the missing details you’ve learned from Hartman,” Liam said
“Let me get my purse,” Holly pointed to the ground and he saw that all of her things were scattered in the gravel.
“Do you mind if I leave your side long enough to radio Officer Reed to take care of Hartman’s cruiser?”
“It’s okay, Lem. I understand,” she said with a smile.
* * * *
Holly watched Liam walk back to his cruiser while she collected her things off the ground. She barely heard Liam talking on the radio. Standing to her feet, she stepped into the puddle of blood where Hartman had laid. A sadness consumed her. Life had dealt him a bad hand from the start and, obviously, he’d been consumed in anger. Maybe she could help him. Where ever he ended up.
“Damn!” She head Liam say into the radio when she arrived at his open door.
“What’s wrong, Liam,” she asked.
“Holly, the squad hasn’t made it to the hospital. Should have been there ten minutes ago,” Liam explained as he got out of the cruiser. “And nobody has been able to reach the squad by radio.”
A chill ran through her body. A thought came to her. She rushed back to where the knife had dropped. It was gone. “Liam, did you take the knife?”
“What? What knife?” he asked.
“Oh no!” Holly looked at Liam and shook her head. “We’ve got to go find that ambulance.”
They climbed into Liam’s SUV and sped out of the gravel. About a mile up the road, they saw flashing lights and came upon the ambulance pulled over next to the ditch.
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