by Jane Blythe
“Thank you.” She leaned over and kissed him, her hands running through his hair.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” he groaned.
Meadow laughed. “Sorry. You’re right, you should go. We’ll be waiting for you when you get back.”
Knowing that had never made him look forward to the end of the day more than he did right now.
Giving Meadow one last kiss, he slid her off his lap and hurried into the bathroom. By the time he had showered and dressed, he found Meadow downstairs in the kitchen, putting the lid on a plastic container.
“I made you some muesli, I hope your brother doesn’t mind me going through his kitchen cupboards.”
“Theo wouldn’t mind at all, and thank you, you’re the best. Stay inside today, call if anything seems off, I’ll call to check in when I can. Be safe.”
“I’ll be the perfect target of a dangerous serial killer,” she promised. “I won’t do anything stupid, and there would be no reason John would have to check your brother’s house looking for me.”
“You’re right, but I can’t help worrying about you.”
“It’s mutual.” She stood on tiptoes to kiss him. “Now go.”
“Make yourself at home,” he reminded her as he grabbed his keys and headed out the door.
Since he didn’t have his car, he had to jog back to the station to use one of the patrol cars there. It didn’t take long to drive the couple of miles out to the motel where Darlene Frindlebrook’s body had been found. John Smith had followed through on his threat to go after residents of the town, and now that Darlene was dead Abe had to wonder who he was going to go after next.
Once they were finished at the crime scene, they were going to have to work out a plan. They couldn’t just wait around while John killed more people before making a play for Meadow. Abe knew that was coming, there was no way the man could stay away from her for long. Knowing that terrified him, but right now, he didn’t have a plan to stop it from happening.
The scene in the motel room was exactly what he was expecting, and yet it still took his breath away.
It was the smell of flowers.
It reminded him too much of Meadow and just how much danger she was in.
Poor Darlene’s body was on the bed, battered and bruised, and slit open, her insides spilling out around her. Her breasts were missing, just like the other victims, and Abe wondered what John would do with them now that he couldn’t go home.
“What’s his next move?” he asked aloud. The question wasn’t really directed at the crime scene techs or his deputies who were milling about, it was more thinking aloud.
“He’s not planning on coming back here. This has to be where he had Carla Briscoe because there is dried blood here that’s days old, so it’s not Darlene’s,” Fletcher informed him.
“How long has he had the room rented?” Abe asked.
“The day after Meadow showed up in town,” Will replied.
“So how did he know she was here?” he asked, frustrated. It was gnawing away at him, knowing that John had been able to follow Meadow here but not knowing how. If he couldn’t figure out how John kept finding her, then how was he going to keep her safe?
“I don’t think we’re going to figure that out here,” Fletcher said. “CSU will go through this place with a fine-tooth comb, and maybe they’ll find something.”
“Find what?” He was getting more frustrated the longer he spent here because he knew that what John had done to Darlene Frindlebrook was exactly what he would eventually do to Meadow. Maybe not right away because she was carrying his baby, but sooner or later he would get angry enough with her that he’d kill her even if she was the mother of his child. “We know John committed the murder, we know he tortured and raped her before killing her. What we need to do is find out what he’s going to do next. Until we find him, he’s going to keep on killing.”
Until they found him, Meadow and her baby would never be safe.
His Meadow.
Their baby.
They were his now, and he protected what was his and would do so with his dying breath if that was what it took.
John Smith was never going to touch Meadow again.
* * * * *
9:41 A.M.
Meadow hummed as she bustled about the kitchen.
Since she was stuck in the house all day until Abe came home and took her out to dinner, she was going to spend the day cooking and baking. She wanted to do something nice for Abe and his family and friends. His mother had brought her all these clothes to wear, his cousin Julian and Poppy Deveraux, who worked at the precinct as the receptionist and office manager, had stayed with her all day yesterday while Abe was working, talking to her and trying to keep her mind off her problems, and his brother Theo was letting them stay in his house.
The house smelled amazing, and her mouth was watering, she wanted to taste everything she was making, but she was making an awful lot of stuff, and she wanted to save room for wherever Abe was going to take her for dinner tonight.
She couldn’t wait.
She’d never really been on real dates before.
When she was dating John, he’d taken her out for fancy dinners at the most expensive restaurants around, but now that she knew it was all just a ploy to reel her in those dates had lost their glossiness. What she had with Abe was real, it was something that she couldn’t wait to see grow, and she was already daydreaming about what their future would be like.
Only this time, those daydreams were based on real feelings and not the fear that she couldn’t survive on her own.
Last night had been amazing, Abe had made her feel things that she had never experienced before, and she didn’t just mean sexually. He really had made her heart come alive. She’d been so overwhelmed with feelings that it had felt like her heart was going to burst.
All her life she had dreamed about being important to someone. Never knowing her father and being dumped by her mother had left her with such feelings of abandonment and inadequacy that she hadn’t thought she could ever overcome them. But things with Abe were just so easy. He was letting his guard down around her, and that warmed her heart even more. His ex-fiancée had really done a number on him, cheating on him and blaming him for the miscarriage, and he’d been trying to protect his heart for so long that he’d locked it away and buried it twenty feet deep. He was digging through those layers though, and she knew that once they got to know each other better, it wouldn’t be long before they were falling in love.
Pouring the last of the milk into the mixing bowl, she automatically started toward the front door, intending to take the empty carton out to the trash cans she’d seen out the front when they’d arrived there last night.
Meadow paused at the door.
She’d promised Abe that she would stay indoors all day, but surely it would be fine just to pop quickly out to the bins. It wasn’t like she was leaving the property or anything, and she’d be really quick.
Yeah, it would be fine.
Still, her hand trembled as she opened the door and slipped out. It was still snowing, and a good foot or so had built up overnight. A smile lit her face as she thought about Abe’s promise that they could make snowmen and snow angels tonight. She knew it was silly, but she just wanted to let her hair down and have fun. Her life had been so dark and so structured for the last five years that she just wanted to be crazy and let go.
It wasn’t like she had a lot of time left to have fun.
Her baby was only four months away from making its entry into the world, and once it arrived, her world would be structured again. She would still be able to have fun, but she would then be carrying the responsibility of raising a child, caring for another human being’s needs. Her baby would have to come first in everything that she did.
No, not her baby.
Their baby.
Hers and Abe’s.
He had already promised to be there for her and the baby, and knowing that he had lost
a child that was no small commitment. It was definitely a relief to know that she wasn’t in this alone, and it definitely helped her to not feel so overwhelmed. It was a terrifying thing to know that she was pregnant with her abuser’s baby and that both of them were in danger, but having Abe helped.
A lot.
She was a really lucky woman.
Meadow smiled and laid a hand on her stomach. She and this little guy—or girl—were truly blessed, and as nervous as she was, she also couldn’t wait to meet this tiny little baby. Feeling it kick this morning had really made the pregnancy seem so much more real. It wasn’t like she hadn’t realized that a person was growing inside her, but she’d had bigger issues to deal with, like trying to stay alive.
But now the worst was behind her, and she and her baby could look forward to a happy future.
A normal future.
And that was all she had ever wanted. Just to be normal, to have a normal life, a family of her own, a house, a job, to worry about bills, and busy schedules, who was going to do daycare and school drop-offs, to argue about chores, and other silly things, and just to be like everyone else.
Dropping the milk carton into the trash can, she laid her hand on her stomach as she hurried back inside out of the cold.
She had only been inside for around thirty seconds when the cell phone that Abe had given her began to ring. Assuming it was Abe, a smile was already on her face when she pressed answer. “I missed you.”
“Aww, well isn’t that nice, I missed you too, Mrs. Smith.”
Meadow almost dropped the phone.
It wasn’t Abe, it was John.
How had he gotten this number?
Did he know where she was?
Quickly, she ran to the windows and closed the drapes. If he was out there she didn’t want him looking in at her.
“Got nothing to say to your husband, Meadow?” John snarled.
“Wh-what? H-how? Wh-why?” she stammered.
“Cat got your tongue?” John growled. “You didn’t have a problem last night letting the sheriff’s tongue touch you.”
She could feel the color draining from her face.
John must have been watching them.
Watching as she screamed Abe’s name while he made her come with his mouth.
That meant that he knew where she was.
She wasn’t safe here.
She wasn’t going to be safe anywhere.
There was nothing Abe could do, there was nothing anyone could do. Until John was dead, she was never going to be safe.
“I’m surprised at you, Meadow. Cheating on your husband, is that any way to convince a judge to give you custody of our child?”
Her heart lurched.
The cat was out of the bag now, everyone knew that John was a serial killer, he was never going to be able to go back to his job, he couldn’t return to his house, he was going to prison, there was no way he could get a judge to give him custody of their baby.
She knew that and yet … this was John.
And she wouldn’t put anything past him.
“He’s m-my baby,” she told her husband.
“You think I’m going to let you keep him? You think I’m going to let your new sex buddy raise my child?” John’s voice screamed down the phone line.
The answer to those questions was no.
She knew John would never give up his baby.
As far as he was concerned the baby was his property, just like she was, there was no way he was giving either of them up.
Not that she bothered to say that to John. He never really wanted an answer to questions he asked, he was the king of rhetorical questions, even those that didn’t sound like they were rhetorical were when John was the one asking them.
“I’ll never let you go, Meadow. You belong to me, and when I get you back you’re going to pay for what you did. Leaving me, sleeping with that man, keeping my baby from me, and telling the cops about me so now I can’t go back to my house and my job. You think that you get to play God with my life? You’re wrong, I’m the God in our little universe, and when I get my hands on you I’m going to make you wish that you got off as lucky as my other victims. There’s no death for you, my sweet Meadow, you’re mine for the rest of your life. You’re going to watch me while I play with my victims, you’re going to watch while I kill them, and you’re going to watch while I mold my child in my image.”
The line went dead and Meadow stood there, shaking and staring at the phone in shock.
She couldn’t let John get his hands on her precious little baby.
He knew where she was which meant she only had one option.
She had to run.
She had to get out of here and as far away as she could before John carried through on his threat and came to get her.
* * * * *
10:03 A.M.
“CSU got samples from the victim,” Fletcher told him.
“Semen?” Abe asked hopefully. Although they knew that John Smith had committed the murders, he wanted something concrete that would make sure the man would spend the rest of his life behind bars. Semen inside the victim would link him to this murder, and the specific MO with the flowers and the way he murdered his victims would link him to all the other crimes—seventeen murdered young women plus Aaron Turner. Even without the abuse of Meadow, the man would be facing several life sentences. And if they couldn’t link him with forensics to the murders, the scars on Meadow’s body should be enough to get him on domestic violence.
Abe wanted him to go down for all the crimes.
Meadow deserved justice for everything she had endured for five long years, and those women deserved justice too.
“Yep.” Fletcher nodded, his blue eyes sparkling. “They compared it immediately to the samples we have for John Smith because they know this case is time-sensitive, and that Meadow is in danger until we get him off the streets.”
“They got a match?”
“They did.” Fletcher grinned.
“So we have him.” Abe let out a relieved breath. He couldn’t wait to tell Meadow the good news. He knew it wasn’t as good as being able to tell her that her husband was off the streets and the threat hanging over her was neutralized, but at least it would give her some measure of comfort to know that they had proof of what John had done, so when they did catch him he wouldn’t be getting off on any technicalities.
“We have him. Now we just need to find him.”
Abe couldn’t agree with his deputy more. Finding John Smith was paramount. “He didn’t check in here using his real name which means he had at least one alias already prepared before Meadow left.”
“He was a criminal defense lawyer, right?” Fletcher asked. When Abe nodded, he continued, “So he knew a lot of criminals, makes sense that he would have connections who could get him realistic fake IDs.”
That was true, which meant that it was going to be hard to track him down. “So he has a fake ID, but he’s mostly been stealing vehicles, not renting them, so I don’t think he has many and he needs to save one to build a new identity with. Since he used one for this motel, but not for anything else, I don’t think he has any others, which means he can’t rent another room in the area. He killed Mr. Turner to get his car so I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t kill someone else to get access to their house. We should start contacting everyone who lives on a remote property not more than an hour’s drive from the middle of town because I don’t think he’s going to go too far away so long as he knows that Meadow is here.”
“That’s a good idea,” Fletcher agreed. “I’m sorry, Abe, I know you’ve gone over this already, but I still don’t know how he found her here. If he rented this room the morning after she arrived in River’s End, that means he was already following her while she was on the bus because she was on the bus for two days.”
“He’s tracking her, it’s how he knew she was here and that she was staying in my house, but we checked the clothes she was wearing when she
ran, and there was nothing there. And Levi checked her out, but there were no tracking chips implanted in her.”
“Jewelry?”
“No, all she had was a pair of earrings and they were clear.” The more he thought about this the more frustrated he became. There had to be a tracker, it was the only way that John could have followed Meadow, but they had checked everything that he could think of and there wasn’t any.
So where was it?
There was no other scenario that made sense.
There had to be a tracker.
It hit him all of a sudden.
The dog tags.
Her father’s dog tags.
Meadow had told him that she carried them with her everywhere, and he’d seen the small box that was always in her pocket. She curled her fingers around it and held it whenever she was scared or nervous.
John had to know about it, and he had to know that it was the one thing that she would never leave behind. He couldn’t put trackers in every item of clothing she owned, and if he’d put one in her she would have known about it and tried to remove it before she ran, but her father’s dog tags were guaranteed to go with her no matter what.
She still had them, she’d taken them with her when they’d left his house early yesterday morning, and he’d seen them in her pocket when he’d taken her clothes off her last night when they were making out.
That meant John knew where she was right now.
“Fletch—” Abe started, but his phone rang, and he grabbed it, noticing Meadow’s name on the screen. Had she seen something? Heard something? Was she calling to tell him that she had figured out John knew where she was? Not wanting to worry her if this was just a call to say hi, he forced his voice to be calm. “Hey, sunshine, what’s up?”
“It’s John,” Meadow said, clearly panicked. “He knows where I am, he was watching us last night. He saw you with your mouth on me.”
She was crying, he could hear it in her voice, he was surprised that she hadn’t run the second she realized that she was in danger. “How do you know John knows where you are? How do you know he was watching us last night?”
