Innocent Target

by Elisabeth Rees

  “No, I haven’t changed my mind.”

  “This is stupid, Kitty. You know it is. We can’t let the sheriff rule our lives like this.”

  “You’ve already done so much for me,” she said. “You have no idea what it means to hear you say that you love me. You’re the first and only person who’s ever given me total support and I’ll never forget it. I owe you my unconditional support in return. That’s why I’ve got to do this. I care about you too much to watch you throw away this opportunity.” She reached up and touched his cheek, then she smiled and headed for the truck, seemingly carefree and untroubled, but he knew it was all an act for his benefit. If she was attempting to stop him from worrying about her, she was doing a terrible job. Wherever he went, Kitty was always at the forefront of his mind, and nothing she could say or do would rid him of his care for her.

  * * *

  “Okay,” Kitty said, following Ryan around the house as he checked all points of entry. “I think we can assume everything is locked up as tight as possible.” She checked her watch. “You should leave. Nancy will be expecting you, and I’ve got a news article to research for the Tulsa Gazette. It looks like at least one newspaper is still happy to employ me.”

  Ryan didn’t let her distract him with her talk about work—if she had to guess, she’d say he was still focused on how to keep her safe without him there. He clicked his fingers as an idea clearly came to him. “I’ll ask Shane to stay with you for a while, until we’ve got this guy caught.”

  “No, Ryan,” she said. “It’s not fair to ask Shane to risk his career. How do you think the sheriff would react? Shane would get into trouble and that’s not right.”

  Ryan appeared to concentrate hard. “Is there anybody else who can stay here for a while? Any family members?”

  Kitty had two uncles and a handful of cousins, and all had turned their backs on Harry—and her, by extension.

  “My family doesn’t want much to do with me anymore,” she said. “So there’s nobody I can call.”

  “What about a friend?”

  She gave a hollow laugh. “You know I don’t have any real friends, Ryan.”

  “Well, if you expect me to leave you here with no protection then you’ve got another think coming.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do it. I won’t go.”

  She had expected him to put up a last-ditch fight. “Yes, you will.”

  “You can’t make me.”

  Kitty was reminded of the arguments she used to have with her parents when she was younger.

  “Seriously?” she said. “You’re really gonna start behaving like a petulant teenager?”

  “You have no idea how hard this is for me.”

  Her chest heaved a little. “I think I do.”

  He pointed to the door. “As soon as I walk out of here, I won’t be able to stop thinking about you. When I try to sleep tonight, I’ll close my eyes and see you here alone, facing down a man with a gun. It’s so stupid that I can’t stay with you because of an election that I don’t even care about winning.”

  She pushed him gently toward the door. “I’ll send you a text message first thing in the morning to let you know that everything is fine.”

  “Why don’t I have another cup of coffee before I leave?”

  “You had three already. Stop stalling.”

  She continued pushing Ryan to the door. He could easily overpower her and stand his ground, but he was allowing her to take the control she demanded. Kitty felt her heart wrench a little more at the way he refused to use his strength against her.

  She opened the door and Ryan stepped out onto the porch. The light was fading and the lake shimmered like a painting under the early evening sun.

  He stood on the porch, unmoving, so she closed the door, bolted it and called out, “You can leave now.”

  “I’ll just sit out here for a while,” he called back. “It’s a nice evening to watch the lake.”

  His insistent care and kindness were wearing her down, chipping away at her resolve. She waited until she could be sure her voice was steady before saying, “I’m not letting you back inside.”

  “I know. You get on with your work for the Tulsa Gazette. I’m fine out here.”

  “But it’s cold.”

  “It’s beautiful,” he said. “I could stay here for hours.”

  “You’ll have to go eventually,” she said. “You can’t sit on the porch forever.”

  “I’ll just watch the sunset and get on my way.”

  She walked into the living room and stood a little way from the window. Ryan was sitting on one of her wooden deck chairs, leaning back, with his feet up on the porch rail. She smiled at his posture of apparent relaxation. He was right about the lake—it was truly beautiful tonight. She longed to join Ryan and feel his arm slip around her shoulders. She wanted to sit like a couple of old folks with nothing more to worry about than raccoons in the garbage.

  She backed away from the window, went to her desk in the corner and opened her laptop. Within minutes, she was trawling the internet for background information on the mayor of a neighboring county who was embroiled in an embezzlement scandal. Occasionally, she would look toward the window, where Ryan’s feet were visible, propped up on the rail. Each time she saw those well-shined black boots she shook her head and smiled. He sure was stubborn. And she loved him for it.

  Finally, as darkness folded around the house, she decided to take him some coffee and a blanket, so she rose from her seat and padded to the front door in her socks.

  Opening up, she said, “Hey, you...”

  She stopped. The chair in which Ryan had been sitting had been repositioned in the corner of her deck and was now empty. And his truck was gone. She felt her entire face fall as disappointment hit her in the gut. Why was she so hurt by his leaving? That’s what she wanted, wasn’t it? That’s what she had ordered him to do.

  The woodland beyond the house was dark, but she heard noises coming from there. Perhaps it was an animal. Nocturnal creatures often foraged in these parts once the sun went down. Yet these noises were humanlike: the rustling of leaves, the snapping of twigs underfoot...the shout of a man.

  Did she just hear that correctly? Quickly stepping back inside, she slammed the door and locked it, her chest hammering. Should she call Ryan? This could be danger or it could be nothing.

  She hopped on the spot, trying to rid herself of the anxiety and force herself to come to a decision. Finally, she walked purposefully into the kitchen to retrieve her cell phone. In her peripheral vision, she saw a piece of paper slide beneath the kitchen door and swish across the floor, landing close to her feet. Picking it up, she saw the word RUN written in big, bold letters, and spun around to try and catch a glimpse of the message writer through the window.

  That was when she saw two wide eyes staring back at her through the glass.

  And she screamed.

  * * *

  Ryan crept through the woods beyond Kitty’s home. Only a few moments ago, while sitting on the porch, he’d seen a shadowy figure weave through the trees and had left his post to check it out. He intended to keep guard outside Kitty’s home all night, no matter what she wanted. So after putting his truck in the barn to fool any intruders into believing she was alone, he’d telephoned Nancy to tell her that he was sorry, but he wouldn’t be requiring the room tonight, after all. Then he moved his chair into a dark corner where he couldn’t be seen. And waited.

  He followed the sounds of a man’s footsteps, kicking up the leaves and moving quickly, activating his flashlight to search the darkness.

  “Who’s there?” he called. “This is Chief Deputy Lawrence from the sheriff’s office. Show yourself.”

  As he waited for a response, a woman’s scream cut through the air like a knife, piercing him with terror.

  “Kitty!” he exclaimed, raci
ng back toward the house.

  He found the front door locked from the inside, so he sprinted around back, gun in hand. His cell began vibrating in his pocket, but he ignored it, flying around the corner, to find Kitty’s concerned face peering from the kitchen window. She was clutching her cell phone.

  When she saw him, her eyebrows wrinkled in confusion and she opened the back door. “How did you get here so quick?” she asked.

  “I never left,” he said, running right past the door and into the backyard. “What do you see?”

  She pointed to the field beyond, where a tall figure was sprinting. “He’s running for the road.”

  “Go inside and stay there. I’ve got this.”

  Ryan set about his pursuit. He was an active man, kept fit by regular exercise. There was no way this guy would outrun him.

  “I’ve got you,” he muttered under his breath, chasing the man down, closing the gap more with each second.

  When he finally got close enough, Ryan launched himself into the air and landed heavily on the guy’s shoulders, bringing him to the ground in a tangle of limbs. There was shouting and kicking and resistance, but Ryan was firm and resolute, utterly determined that he would finally apprehend Kitty’s attacker.

  As he turned the struggling figure over on the ground, Ryan felt his belly sink in disappointment. He’d wanted his suspicions to be proven wrong. He’d hoped that the fresh-faced young man with the bullish grandfather would turn out to be decent, after all. But that wasn’t going to happen.

  Because the attacker was Buzz.

  TWELVE

  Ryan hauled Buzz to his feet and held him by the collar of his jacket.

  “It’s not what you think,” Buzz said, panic flashing in his eyes. “I swear I wasn’t doing anything bad.”

  “So why don’t you tell me exactly what you were doing, Buzz?”

  “I was trying to help Kitty.”

  “Help her? How?”

  “I thought I could warn her,” he said. “Someone’s here and she’s in a lot of danger.”

  Ryan’s thoughts instantly returned to the man he’d been tracking in the woods. Where had he gone? Was he still there, staking out the house, watching Kitty?

  “Who’s here?”

  “My father.”

  “Tommy?”

  “Yeah. He’s been back in town awhile.”

  “How long is a while?”

  “I don’t know, exactly, but he turned up at the apartment the day after I delivered Kitty’s new door to you.”

  Ryan let go of Buzz’s collar and grabbed his gun. “Where is he now?”

  “I don’t know. I followed him here and came around back to push a note under the door, but Kitty saw me and screamed. Dad might’ve run, but he might be hiding. We should go check on Kitty.”

  Ryan couldn’t afford to take any chances on anyone, especially a member of the secretive Price family.

  “You’re not checking on anyone, Buzz,” Ryan said, pulling handcuffs from his pocket. “You’re under arrest.”

  But before he could secure the cuffs, a gunshot cracked the sky, and Ryan was forced to abandon his arrest and sprint back to the house.

  * * *

  Kitty fired a bullet into the ceiling. Crouched in the corner of her living room, she was trying to ward off the masked man who had just forced his way into her home. She had mistaken him for Ryan and opened the door, only to be faced with the barrel of his gun. She’d managed to slam the door in his face, causing him to yelp, but it had given her only a temporary reprieve. He forced his way back in easily and proceeded to chase her around the house.

  After failing to reach the panic room, Kitty had backed into a corner of the living room, raised her gun in the air and shot, hoping to scare her attacker into fleeing. But he stood in the center of the room, his own gun aimed directly at her.

  “I don’t want to kill you,” Kitty said, pointing her gun at his chest with violently shaking hands. “But I will.”

  She didn’t know if she had the ability to shoot. She had never so much as wounded anybody with her gun, let alone killed them. But her attacker seemed to have a similar sense of unease, a lack of desire to pull the trigger, and so they remained in a standoff. Kitty’s heart hammered so hard that it physically pained her.

  Then the man spoke. “I’m sorry, Kitty, but I have to do this.”

  At that moment the back door burst open and Ryan barreled inside, tackling the masked man to the floor. The two began wrestling for the upper hand.

  Buzz appeared in the room, agitated and on the verge of tears.

  “Stop it, Dad,” he shouted. “Just give up.”

  Kitty thought she had been imagining things when she’d seen Buzz’s eyes staring at her through the kitchen window, but here he was, calling her attacker Dad. Could this really be Tommy Price? When Ryan yanked off the ski mask, her question was answered. He was a little older and grayer, but the face of her attacker undeniably belonged to Buzz’s father.

  “Get Buzz outta here,” Ryan yelled, as he grappled with Tommy on the floor. “And call Shane.”

  Kitty ushered Buzz away from the fighting men. Taking him into the kitchen, she heard frantic footsteps in the hallway. Tommy had broken free and Ryan was pursuing him out the front door. Buzz made an attempt to follow, but Kitty put a hand on his chest, pushing him back.

  “You have to stay here, Buzz,” she said. “Let Ryan deal with it.”

  “But Dad might get hurt.”

  “It’s a little late to worry about that. He’s made his own bed and now he has to lie in it.”

  “He’s sick,” Buzz said. “He needs help.”

  Kitty scrolled through the contacts on her cell to find Shane’s number. “First of all, he needs to stop,” she said to Buzz, waiting for Shane to pick up. “He’s been terrorizing me for too long.”

  When Shane answered the call, Kitty quickly relayed all the relevant information, keeping her eyes on Buzz. The teenager was crying openly.

  “Shane will be here in a few minutes,” she said to him, clicking off the phone. “And he and Ryan will want to ask you some tough questions, Buzz. Why did you push the note under my door?”

  “I wanted to help you.” He gulped, steadying himself. “I’m really sorry I couldn’t protect you. I tried.”

  She pulled a chair from the table and invited him to sit. Buzz needed love and sympathy right now, not a judgmental attitude.

  “You’re a good kid, Buzz, and I appreciate whatever you’ve been trying to do for me. But you have to tell me what you know.”

  He took a deep breath, his hands clasped together on the table in front of him. “My dad came to stay with us a few days ago, right after your last newspaper article came out.”

  “Did you have any contact with your father before then? Your grandma told us that she hasn’t spoken to him in ten years.”

  “She lied,” Buzz said. “We go see him at least once a year. He lives in Texas now.”

  “Why all the secrecy?”

  “I don’t know. Granddad told me that it’s no one else’s business, so we’re not supposed to tell anyone where Dad is. He’s never visited us in Bethesda before. He says that this town is full of bad memories.”

  “So why did he come back?”

  “For something bad, I guess. Since he’s been back, Dad’s been having secret conversations with Granddad about stuff.”

  “What stuff?”

  Buzz appeared reluctant to say more.

  “You should confide in someone, Buzz,” Kitty coaxed. “You said yourself that your dad needs help. I can try and get him the help he needs.”

  “Dad and Granddad have been whispering about the night that Molly was killed, saying that no one will find out the truth if they get rid of Harvey and you. I heard Dad say that he’d get the job done, so I’ve been
following him around, trying to warn you. I couldn’t save Harvey, so I’ve been trying extra hard to save you.”

  “So it was you who painted the warning on my barn?”

  “I thought you’d be safe if you left town,” Buzz said. “Dad can’t hurt you if he doesn’t know where you are.”

  “Did he kill Molly?”

  “I think so.” He hung his head. “And I’m pretty sure there are others.”

  Kitty thought of the smiling faces of the missing young women in the photographs. “Others?”

  “Dad and Granddad had a fight one night. Granddad said that murdering lots of women would mean a whole lifetime in prison. Dad got upset and said he wanted to go to the police and put things right, but then Granddad calmed him down and Dad agreed to get the job done.”

  Kitty couldn’t quite believe it. “Your grandfather encouraged your dad to kill me?”

  “Granddad hates you,” Buzz said. “He says you poke your nose into our business.”

  “My father is in prison for the crime that your father committed,” Kitty said. “That gives me every right to poke my nose into your business.”

  “I know it does, but Granddad just wants to protect the good name of our family.”

  Kitty couldn’t help giving a snort of derision. “The good name of your family? You have the most dysfunctional family I’ve ever known, Buzz.” She was immediately remorseful. “I’m sorry. That was mean.”

  “But it’s true,” he said quietly. “Dad and Granddad go around whispering and arguing about terrible secret things. Grandma pretends that everything is fine, but she knows more than she lets on. She just doesn’t want to face up to it. When my mother’s body was discovered, I could tell that Grandma wasn’t shocked. She knew my mom was dead.”

  “How did your mom die, Buzz? Do you know?”

  Tears filled his eyes again. “I was always told that she left town when I was a baby. I had no idea that she was murdered.” He clenched his jaw, anger beginning to show. “I hate my dad for killing my mom. I wish he’d never come back.”