by Jane Blythe
“He called me. Abe, he called me, and he said that he’s going to take the baby. I can’t let him do that.”
“We won’t, honey, we won’t let him touch your baby. Or you. It’s the dog tags, your father’s dog tags. That’s where the tracker is; that’s how he found you. I’m coming, okay? Just sit tight, make sure all the doors are locked, and wait for me. It’s going to be okay, all right, baby?”
“All right.” She sniffed.
“Okay,” he said, regaining some control over his own emotions now that Meadow was calming down a little. “I’m on my way.”
“Hurry, okay? Please. I need you,” she whispered.
“On my way, sunshine, on my way,” he promised.
“Can you stay on the line with me until you—” Meadow broke off as the sound of breaking glass came through the phone.
“Meadow?” he screamed, already running for the car. “What’s happening?”
“John, it’s John,” she shrieked. There were sounds of something clunking and glass shattering, and he could hear muffled voices in the background.
“Meadow? Meadow?” he yelled, but this time there was no answer. Abe jumped into the car, threw the lights and sirens on and roared off down the road. “Meadow? I’m coming, okay? I’m coming. Just hold on. Please, hold on.”
The idea that he would arrive too late almost paralyzed him.
Meadow was the first woman he had ever allowed to start breaking down the barriers he had erected around his heart. He had lost a lot of friends to bombs and guns while he was serving, and he had lost the woman he thought he had loved along with the baby he hadn’t known existed.
But Meadow was a fresh start.
Something they both needed.
It was Meadow’s determination not to give up, to look for the good in life, to continue searching for happiness even when it appeared that all the joy in the world had been extinguished that had made him rethink his own life choices.
Meadow really was like the sunshine.
She cleared away the darkness and the cobwebs and all the bad things and made light shine again. She had done a lot to help him change in just a couple of days, and he had already been thinking about what the future would hold. They’d go to Meadow’s OB/GYN appointments together, they’d pick out nursery furniture, discuss names. He’d go to Lamaze classes with her and be there when she went into labor. He’d learn how to change diapers and get up in the night to tend to the baby so Meadow could get some rest. They’d love that baby and raise it together, and then one day maybe they might get married and add another baby to their little family.
Now it could all be over.
Meadow could be gone, and he might never get her back.
“Don’t bother looking for her, Sheriff.” The cold voice came down the phone he still clutched to his ear because it was like a lifeline to Meadow.
“You’ll never get away with this, John,” he said, just as coldly.
“Meadow is my wife, and that baby she’s carrying is my child, and I don’t appreciate another man stepping in and trying to mark his territory. You’re lucky I don’t have a lot of time otherwise I’d gut you like a fish before I leave with my wife and baby. Actually, maybe this way is better. This way you get to spend the rest of your life knowing that she’s with me. You know what I’ll be doing to her because you’ve already seen my work. Enjoy your day, Sheriff, have fun dealing with my little going away gift.” John laughed and then the line went dead.
Darlene had been a distraction. John had known where they were, and he’d known that they wouldn’t have suspected that he knew where Meadow was staying, so all he’d had to do was plant a distraction and wait for them all to go running off, leaving Meadow alone and vulnerable.
And he’d fallen for it.
He had played right into John’s hands, and now Meadow was paying the price.
* * * * *
10:19 A.M.
Pure unadulterated terror washed over her.
It was over.
She was right back where she had started, only this time she was in a much worse position than she had been in before she left.
Now she had made John angry, and she could tell he couldn’t wait to get her alone so he could punish her.
It would be bad.
Maybe the fact that she was pregnant would make him ease up a little, but when he was like this his anger consumed him, and he couldn’t always make sensible choices.
“You try anything stupid, and I shoot anyone and everyone I see, and then once I have you locked away someplace I’ll come back, and I’ll skin that sheriff of yours alive,” John told her. “We walk out of here, straight to my car. You keep your mouth shut and no one will get hurt, understand?”
Meadow wanted to disagree, she wanted to tell him that she was different now, that she knew what it was like to be free and she would never stop fighting him because she didn’t want to give up this feeling.
But what choice did she have?
There was no way she would risk innocent people’s lives, and there was definitely no way she would risk Abe’s life.
So she would have to go with John and pray that Abe could find a way to find her.
“I understand,” she said softly.
“There’s my good girl.” John patted her head like she was his dog and not his wife and then shoved a gun into her ribs, a reminder that if she didn’t go along with him he would start shooting.
He led her out of Abe’s brother’s house, down the path, and over to a car parked a couple of houses down the street.
“You drive,” he hissed in her ear, “but get in the passenger side and move across into the driver’s seat.”
Too afraid not to, Meadow did as she was told. There was no point in fighting it. What good did that ever do? All her life she had been fighting what fate seemed to be insisting was her life. She kept looking for more, she kept looking for love and a place to belong, but no matter how hard she searched, or how close she thought she had come to finding it, fate always tore it away from her.
Climbing up into the truck, she shimmied sideways and into the driver’s seat, and as soon as he was sitting beside her, John shoved the gun back into her ribs.
“You follow my directions and no one else has to get hurt,” he reminded her. “Now, drive straight down to the end of this street and turn left.”
Meadow turned the engine on and began to drive. She was halfway down the block when she saw a cruiser come flying down the street, lights flashing and sirens screaming.
It was Abe.
He had been so close.
Just minutes away from saving her.
But minutes might as well be years when it meant that he was too late.
They drove past him, and as they did, Meadow felt her stomach drop. It really was over, any hope that Abe might arrive in time to save her was gone, and now she was on her own.
On her own with a monster.
They drove in silence, John barking out commands about when and where she should make a turn, but other than that the only thing that filled the car was stifling fear.
Her fear.
John was his usual ball of tightly wound up anger, and she knew that he was just waiting until they got wherever they were going before he unleashed it on her.
As they drove, she wondered where they were going.
She knew they couldn’t go back to their house—which was really John’s house that he had moved her into after their marriage—because the cops were on to him. Had he bought another house? Were they going to keep driving for days getting further and further away from Abe?
No.
She didn’t think that he could last that long.
She had betrayed him by leaving and taking his unborn baby along with her, and she knew that he was itching to punish her for that.
He would be planning to stop somewhere fairly close by, probably spend a couple of days there while he let out his pent up anger, and then he would take her on to wher
ever he had decided was a safe place to stay.
That meant that Abe had a couple of days, tops to find her.
Could he do that?
She prayed that he could, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up too high. Meadow knew that she had to prepare herself for the possibility that she would never again escape from John’s clutches. This could be her life now so she had to find a way to be strong because in just a few months her baby would be born, and there was no way she was letting her husband turn their child into a monster.
No way.
Wasn’t going to happen.
Not so long as she was alive to stop it anyway.
And just how long she would remain alive was still up for grabs.
“Next right, and at the end of the street is the house I’ve procured for us to spend the next little while in.”
She didn’t even want to know what he meant by procured, she had a sinking feeling that she already knew. If she had to guess, he probably killed whoever lived in the house.
Now it all seemed so obvious. How hadn’t she known that John was a serial killer?
As they neared their destination, Meadow slowed down, she knew it was only delaying the inevitable, but she needed these last few minutes to gather herself. She knew that Abe was going to be looking for her, all she had to do was hold on, endure whatever John threw at her, and stay alive long enough for him to come for her.
He would come.
He would.
Abe would never rest until he found her.
A sad smile curved her lips up. She had finally found a good guy, one who wanted to be with her so much that he was willing to help raise her baby, and her husband had to ruin it.
Still, at least she’d had these last couple of days. She’d been held in strong arms, cradled against a hard chest, kissed and touched, comforted as she cried, made to feel safe, and most importantly made to feel loved.
They hadn’t said the words, they both knew it was too soon, but that didn’t change the fact that she knew that it was coming.
Those feelings were already there, they just needed time to be nurtured and grow.
Those feelings, what Abe had given her, she was going to have to cherish those moments, hold on to them, let them keep her going when she felt like giving up. Because no matter where John took her, or how much time passed, Abe would never give up on her, so she couldn’t give up on him either.
“I have a gift for you,” John told her when she finally parked the car outside a pretty white farmhouse in the middle of the forest. There was no one around to hear her screams, no one around to help her, no one except her and John.
“Wh-what is it?” she asked, sure she didn’t want to know.
“I’ll give it to you once we get inside,” he told her, keeping the gun on her as he climbed out of the truck.
Knowing that she didn’t have a choice, if she tried to run John wouldn’t hesitate to shoot her, she walked ahead of him into the house.
“Upstairs to the bedroom, I don’t trust you anymore, little wifey.” He grinned at her.
Meadow traipsed up the stairs, and he directed her into a bedroom with a large four-poster bed. She knew what was going to happen next even before he said the words.
“Strip,” John ordered.
She could fight it, but what would be the point?
With a deep, resigned sigh, Meadow removed her socks and shoes, her pink sweater and jeans, then her bra and panties. She felt so exposed, standing naked before him. He was her husband so obviously he had seen her naked before, but this was different. Since she and Abe had been together she now felt like her body belonged to him and not to John.
With her naked, she had expected him to order her to the bed, but instead he slammed the butt of the gun into her chest.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Four times.
And then once more.
Pain splintered through her. She was sure he had cracked some ribs, she’d crumpled to the carpeted floor after the third blow, and he stood above her. His heavy boot stomped on one of her wrists, and then he put his other boot on her other wrist, pinning her to the floor.
He leaned down and gave her a box wrapped with brightly colored ribbon. “Here’s your gift.” He beamed.
Since she couldn’t open it with his shoes trapping her wrists, he opened it for her and then lifted the lid so she could see inside.
Inside the box laid four lumps of flesh.
Four lumps of flesh with nipples on them.
These were the breasts of his last two victims.
She was gasping for each puff of air she inhaled, the bones in her wrists felt like they were going to be crushed at any second, pain engulfed her entire body, and seeing what he had done to those poor innocent women was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.
Meadow turned her head to the side and threw up.
* * * * *
10:22 A.M.
Abe had never been this scared in his life.
He had fought in a war, he had been under heavy fire, he had been in explosions, he had seen friends—who were more like brothers to him—dead and dying, but there was nothing like knowing someone you cared deeply about was in trouble, and you couldn’t help her.
Tires screeching, he pulled to a stop outside Theo’s house and jumped out. The first thing he noticed was that the front door was wide open.
He knew what that meant.
He was too late.
They were already gone.
Still, that tiny glimmer of hope was there as he ran inside, there was shattered glass on the floor, and a chair had been knocked over. The kitchen counters were covered in various dishes and plates of cookies, and a pie was lying on the kitchen floor, pieces of crust and apple strewn around it, and the phone he had bought for Meadow lay on the ground.
It had been smashed.
Abe took in the scene. It was a pretty typical kidnapping scene, but what gave him hope was the fact that the chair was knocked over, that the pie looked like it had been thrown, those were signs of a scuffle, and as much as they terrified him because it meant Meadow had been kidnapped it also reassured him because she had fought back.
She had fought back.
That made all the difference.
If Meadow was going to stand a chance at surviving this then she had to stay strong, and if she had fought for her life against a man he knew terrified her then it meant that she hadn’t given up.
“Please, Meadow, don’t give up,” he muttered under his breath. “I’m coming for you, I won’t ever give up on you. Ever. So don’t you dare give up on me.”
He would do whatever it took to find Meadow, he would spend the rest of his life looking for her, he would go to the end of the earth, he would search every corner of the world, he would never give up. Meadow needed him and he had promised her that he would be there for her and the baby—their baby—and he intended to keep that promise.
“We’ll get her back.”
The words and the sudden presence beside him startled him out of his thoughts, and he turned to see Will standing there. He knew that by now everyone in the town knew that he and Meadow were involved so there was no point in pretending that they weren’t. This case was personal to him, way more personal than he’d have thought given that he had only known Meadow for a few days, but it was what it was, and he did have feelings for her, so he had to eat, sleep, and breathe this case until he had Meadow back in his arms.
“CSU is coming, they’ll go over this place, and if he left anything behind we’ll find it,” Will promised.
“He won’t have left anything behind,” he contradicted. John Smith was too smart to make rookie mistakes, he’d been doing this for a long time, and if Meadow hadn’t found the courage to run for her life they would never have known that John was a serial killer.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Will said. “He’s already slipping, he’s starting to make mistakes
, his perfectly constructed world is falling apart. His secret is out, everyone knows now that he’s a serial killer and that he’s been abusing his wife. His wife ran, meaning he doesn’t have the control over her that he thought he did, and that would hurt. And not only did she leave but she took his baby along with her. In his mind they’re both his, and that would have made him angry. He’s distracted and that’s making him sloppy, he left behind semen at the last crime scene, and he used up his spare fake ID at the motel so now he’s stuck having to find someplace to hide out. I wouldn’t be surprised if he made more mistakes.”
That was true.
And it was reassuring.
He had to keep holding onto that. John was slipping, and it was leading him to make mistakes that he hadn’t in the past, but that also meant that as he devolved and got more careless, he was more likely to take bigger risks, and that might not work in Meadow’s favor.
That John was going to hurt Meadow was a given, there was no use pretending it wasn’t going to happen, the best he could hope for was that Meadow’s pregnancy might mean he showed a measure of restraint when he punished her for leaving him.
“All right,” he nodded his agreement, “it’s a possibility that he messed up and left something behind, but I don’t want us to put all our eggs in that basket.”
“You want us to keep contacting all remote properties around River’s End in case he’s holed up at one of them?” Will asked.
“Yes.” Abe didn’t like the idea that he was actually praying that John Smith had ambushed one of the families that were his responsibility to care for, no doubt killing them just so that he could hide out in their house, but if John hadn’t chosen to stay nearby then the chances of him finding Meadow were slim.
He also didn’t like the idea of having to sit back and play a game of chance.
He wanted something concrete to do.
Careful to avoid touching anything, Abe began to walk through the open plan living room, looking for anything that could be a clue.
Something flashed and drew his attention, and stooping down he saw that it was the dog tags. Meadow must have dropped them when John took her. Slipping on a latex glove, he picked them up.
