There was nothing on the page of the notepad. Did he use this space for preparing his homilies? It didn’t feel right. Where was his Bible? There were no religious articles of any kind. It didn’t strike Kevin as a place of contemplation or prayer. It was dark, depressing and cold, which shouldn’t be surprising considering Colt’s take on the preacher.
Regardless of how odd the place struck Kevin, there was nothing useful here. The barn was a bust. He took a few steps toward the ladder and stopped, then retraced his steps. Slipping his hand between the bales of hay that supported the right side of the wooden plank, he felt around. Nothing. Abandoning that search he slid his long fingers between the two bales on the left side and—bingo.
Kevin inspected the cell phone. It wasn’t one of the newer versions. It’s simplicity and style told him it was a burner. He flipped it open and quickly scanned the call log. Two numbers appeared on the call list. Just two. An anomaly for any cell phone. He took out his phone and snapped a picture of the screen, recording the numbers.
His phone vibrated as he exited the barn. It was a group text from Troy. Two words. Car. Now.
37
“What are you doing here?” River asked her aunt as she stepped through the doorway and gave her a hug. “You said you had work to do.”
“I do, but I was worried. The service had to be rough on you.” Her aunt scanned the cabin. “Where’s your friend?”
“Kevin had some things to do.”
“I’m not sure I like you being alone here,” her aunt said.
“Why do I have to keep reminding people I can take care of myself? Besides, they caught the guy who was leaving the dead animals.”
“They did? Why didn’t you call me? Who is it? Do you know him?”
“I’m sorry. I should have called you,” River apologized. “My mind has been going in a million different directions.” She reached in the refrigerator, pulling out a bottle of wine one of the guys had stocked for her. “Have a seat and I’ll tell you what I can.”
Instead of sitting, her aunt reached into the cupboard and pulled out a couple of wine glasses. Aunt Amy was much taller than River, who took after her mother. River had the same dark hair, small build and her distinctive blue eyes. It was hard to look in the mirror and not see her mom looking back at her.
“I still don’t like you being here alone. When is your sexy soldier coming back?”
River stopped in the process of uncorking the wine. “He is sexy, but I keep telling you he’s not mine.” She recognized the sadness in her tone. “He’ll be going back to his base then be deployed to God knows where. We live two separate lives.” She poured wine into the glasses. “Besides, my life is crazy enough without adding a long-distance relationship to it.”
“Did you two have a fight?”
“Pardon?” River asked taking the chair opposite her aunt.
“He’s not here. You sound down. It made me wonder if you had an argument.”
“No.” River was growing a bit annoyed at the pointed questions regarding her relationship with Kevin. “Like I said, he had some things to do. I just got back from Dan’s memorial, of course, I’m down.”
She took a sip of her wine. Her aunt took a gulp. River’s brow crinkled. “Is something bothering you?”
“Yes. No. Maybe. I shouldn’t worry about you. I know that. You have your head on straight,” she said taking another slug of wine. “Subject dropped, okay? Let’s get back to tonight.”
River nodded, grateful for the change in subject.
“What happened? I’m surprised the place isn’t still crawling with cops.”
“It was never ‘crawling’ with cops,” River corrected her. “The sheriff already had our trespasser in custody when Kevin and I got back from the memorial.”
“How’d the sheriff know he was here? Have they been watching your place?”
“Unfortunately, not. A couple of Kevin’s friends came up to help. They caught Reverend Roxbury as he approached the place and called the sheriff.”
“Roxbury?”
“Yeah. He’s a preacher the next county over.”
“Roxbury.” Her aunt’s nose scrunched up. “Hold sermons in his barn. Right? He’s some kind of a nutcase, from what I hear. Why would he want to harass you?”
The questions flew at her. “I have no idea. I understand he denied everything. He’s being questioned at the sheriff’s office now. Kevin and his friends are pretty certain he’s the guilty party, though. They’re out at Roxbury’s place now checking it out while he’s tied up.”
Her aunt’s eyes rounded in alarm. Shit. She shouldn’t have mentioned the night maneuvers which bordered on illegal, if not outright illegal. “Don’t tell anyone. One of them is a private investigator. If they find anything, they’ll notify the authorities.”
“Kevin must care a great deal about you if he’s willing to break the law,” her aunt said, pouring herself another drink.
“They’re all honorable men. The last thing I want to do is get them in trouble, so please, don’t mention this to anyone.”
“Of course not.”
River needed to get her aunt out of here before the guys returned. She’d already let one thing slip. She didn’t want to put them in an awkward position of having to explain where they’d been. How did she chase her away without hurting her feelings? She never stopped by for a visit. Actually, this was the first time River had seen her aunt in the cabin since the deaths of her family. Guilt crept in as she sought a way to push her out.
“Do they think he had anything to do with Dan’s murder?” her aunt asked, reaching for the bottle of wine. It was empty. River didn’t offer to retrieve another.
“You mean the sheriff? I don’t know what they think,” she answered. “They’d be stupid not to question him about it and they’ve never appeared to me as stupid.”
“I hope they have the bastard.”
“That makes two of us.” River was startled when her phone pinged in the back pocket of her jeans. She’d forgotten she’d slipped it in there when she’d exited the car.
“What was that?” her aunt asked. The woman had always possessed the hearing of an owl. River couldn’t get away with anything when she was a kid.
“My phone,” she said, pulling it out and unlocking the screen. Her heart sank as she read the text. “Shit.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a text from Kevin. They let Roxbury go.”
“You said they’d keep him.”
“Apparently, they didn’t think the same way we did. They must have had a reason.” She let the air escape her lungs. “Kevin’s on his way back.”
“I’ll stay until he gets here.” Her aunt stood next to her massaging her shoulder.
“No!” River stepped away. If Roxbury was innocent, he should be on his way home, relieved his trouble was over. If he was involved in the shitshow surrounding her, he could be headed back to the cabin. For all Roxbury knew, she had three very big men to protect her. She couldn’t imagine anyone being that stupid, but to be safe, it would be better if Aunt Amy was somewhere far away.
“I’ll be fine. If there was reason to worry, Kevin would have said something.” And if she didn’t text him back, he’d be frantic. She responded with a quick Okay then laid the phone on the table.
“I don’t mind staying. I’d feel better if you weren’t alone.”
“It’ll be fine. Go home. Work on your menus. I’ll call you tomorrow.” River steered her aunt toward the door. The sooner she was gone, the better River would feel for her aunt’s safety.
“Okay. Okay.” Aunt Amy raised her hands in defeat. “I almost forgot. I brought some homemade breads and a pie for you and your friend.”
“Thank you,” River said, giving her aunt a squeeze.
The rear hatch popped open as they approached the SUV. “It’s all in that box,” her aunt pointed to a cardboard carton on the rubber mat. “Sorry I forgot to bring it in with me earlier.”
“No problem,” River said, reaching for the baked goods. “These will be consumed in no…”
She tensed as she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. She never completed the turn to identify the distraction. Her head snapped to the side as she was forcefully whacked on the temple. The sudden pain was followed by the same damn twinkling of lights she’d seen after the hit on the head at the condo. She collapsed over the carton she’d been about to pick up.
38
“What did she say?” Troy asked, as they barreled down the narrow road. Colt was silent as he maneuvered the vehicle through the dark countryside. The tight turns took all his concentration at the speed they were going.
“She texted ‘okay’,” Kevin answered.
“Just ‘okay’? What did you text her? Hell, why didn’t you call her?”
“I didn’t want her to panic.”
“Historically, that sort of response hasn’t gone well.”
Troy was right. Kevin grabbed his phone to place the call at the same moment Colt made a quick maneuver into a hairpin turn. His phone went flying across the floor of the backseat. Minutes ticked by until he found it under the driver’s seat.
“Something’s wrong,” Kevin said. “She’s not answering.”
“Maybe she fell asleep,” Troy suggested.
“Nice try, but that’s BS and you know it. She hasn’t been out of arms reach of her phone since the first attack at her condo. Can’t this thing go any faster?” Kevin asked Colt.
“Not without going over one of these embankments. Try her again.”
“Why the hell didn’t they keep him longer?” Kevin’s earlier instinct came back to haunt him. His gut had told him not to leave River alone. Shit. His next attempt to reach her got the same results. He left a voice mail urging her to call. Then he texted her—again. His heart crawled up his throat. Why the hell didn’t she answer?
“We didn’t make the sheriff aware of our plans for a little B&E,” Colt said, flooring the gas as they hit a straight-away. “They didn’t know we needed time.”
“Do we want the cops in on this now?” Troy asked, pulling out his phone.
“They’re the ones who let Roxbury walk,” Kevin barked.
“All they have on him right now are misdemeanors. We expected them to hold him. I got the impression the cops believed the same thing. Regardless, someone made the call to let him go. They weren’t getting anything out of him, anyway. They said he made one call then clammed up.”
“He lawyered up? For a misdemeanor?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t make any sense,” Troy agreed.
“He called somebody else,” Kevin swore. “Nobody, not even a dumb fuck, calls a lawyer for a misdemeanor. We have a second party we’ve overlooked.”
Kevin tried River’s number again. Why the hell wouldn’t she pick up? He could think of all sorts of logical reasons she didn’t answer but, once again, his gut was telling him something had gone wrong. He was terrified for her. Damn. He’d worked under fire, for God’s sake—but this was different. This was River.
His hands were so slick with sweat, he almost dropped the phone again but caught it before it hit the floorboard. His fumbling fingers caused the display to switch from contacts to his photos. The last picture he took was front and center. Roxbury’s call log.
“Do these numbers mean anything to you?” he asked, shoving his phone at Troy.
“This is Roxbury’s call log? That’s it? Only two numbers?”
“I scrolled through the list. There were just those two.”
“I recognize the second number. I’ve called it enough recently. It belongs to Central Prison.” Troy picked up his phone off the console, double checking his call list. “I don’t have any idea who the other number belongs to. I’d say that’s your second party.”
“When was the last call to the prison?” Colt asked.
Kevin enlarged the screen. “Yesterday afternoon.”
“Troy, get a hold of Rick. See if he can get a transcript of yesterday’s call.”
“Already on it.”
Troy’s request to Rick was brief. The team didn’t have to make long explanations to one another. Mentally, they worked in sync. They always had, which is what had made them such a great team. The new members of the team were good. Damn good. You didn’t get a green beret if you weren’t, but the mental telepathy the original James Gang shared, had yet to develop.
Kevin tried River again, and again had no results. They were nearing her cabin. He had the urge to get out of the car and run, as if that would get him there faster.
“Did you find out anything?” Troy answered his phone a few minutes later. “Interesting. What? Okay, thanks. One of us will keep you up to date.”
“What happening?” Kevin asked, leaning through the opening between the front seats.
“Brandley is a man of his word. He took the call transcripts and copies of correspondence home with him.”
“And?” Kevin prodded.
“The initial suggestion for the Engleharts to agree to meet with Roxbury came from a third party in a letter just about a year ago. It suggested Roxbury could help them and, I’m quoting here, ‘find solace and resolution for unfinished deeds’.”
River. She was an unfinished deed as far as the Engleharts were concerned. The one that got away. The one who survived their killing spree. “They didn’t think that was strange?” He wasn’t near as calm on the inside as he sounded.
“At the time?”
“No. It’s not unusual for prisoners to get weird mail. I doubt the warden would have given it any thought if we hadn’t been poking around.”
“Who sent the letter?” Colt asked, turning down the long gravel road leading to River’s cabin.
“Somebody calling herself Grace. And before you ask, the return address was a post office box. Similar to the one River uses—one that can’t be easily traced back to anybody. It didn’t stand out because they had no reason to be suspicious.” He paused. “There were several letters from the mysterious Grace. All of them a bit cryptic, but not enough to raise flags of the average low-wage prison worker who reviews them. The warden requested and received scanned copies. He picked up on the odd wording and a strange addition to the letters.”
“What sort of addition?” Kevin was ready to strangle the life out of Troy for drawing this out.
“Below Grace’s name on each letter were four stick figures. Three of the figures, two adults and a child he’d guessed, appear to be on the ground. The third figure was in the distance.
“God damn, son-of-a-bitch,” Kevin swore, pounding his fist into the back of Troy’s seat.
“Do you know who it is?” Colt floored the SUV, kicking up gravel behind it.
“I have an idea, but it doesn’t make any sense.”
Something was pounding inside River’s skull, trying like hell to escape. The jostling her body was taking wasn’t helping the pain. Shaking her head to clear the fog, the darkness almost swallowed her again. She fought it.
Her battle was aided by the pain shooting up her arm. Something sharp was digging into her forearm which was pressed against the floor. Instinctively, she rolled away from it, but not before tearing her shirt and the skin beneath it. Her ankles had been bound together. Her hands taped behind her back. She swallowed a moment of panic. She needed to think.
Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly, assessing the area around her. The texture of the surface she rocked against finally registered. She was laying on the rubber mat of a cargo hold—an SUV cargo hold. It was dark. Too dark to make out much of anything. She was moving, that much she was sure of. They had to be in the country. It was the only place they could traverse without any ambient light streaming in through the windows. The only thing she could distinguish was the outline of the seat in front of her.
While her vision was limited, her sense of smell was something different. The aroma of baked goods and the waning fragrance of cooked meat and spices hung
in the air. This had to be her aunt’s car. Oh, God. If her aunt was dead because of her…
River’s body wilted into the rubber mat. She was so tired of losing people she loved. Was there anyone left to miss her? Kevin. She’d tried to keep her emotional distance because she couldn’t bear losing anyone else. Now, it was possible—even probable—he would be the one losing her.
The vehicle continued to bounce over rough terrain. Who was behind the wheel? Roxbury? Most likely. And where was Aunt Amy? She’d been right behind her when someone had bashed River over the head. Could she be out cold in the rear seat or had he left her back at the cabin? That would make the most sense. One kidnap victim would be easier to deal with than two. She prayed Kevin would find her aunt alive and well.
What did Roxbury want with River? To carry out some sick ritual for the Engleharts? She could still see her family laying in pools of their own blood. Their bodies slashed and stabbed. Had Roxbury been taxed with finishing the job the Engleharts had started?
As the pounding in her head lessened, the road noise grew louder. They weren’t on a paved road. Gravel crunched beneath the wheels. If they’d been traveling on side roads since she was abducted then chances were, they weren’t all that far from her cabin. Speed wasn’t your friend on the mountain’s backroads. The countryside had a way of letting you know who was in charge. It wasn’t unusual to slide off an embankment or into a tree it you didn’t take your time.
The continued silence, excluding the movement of the vehicle, convinced River she was alone with her kidnapper. Would it be possible to reason with him? She caught her laugh before it escaped. If the Engleharts were able to influence him, he wasn’t capable of listening to reason. He was probably just as crazy as his mentors—maybe more so.
Eventually, he’d have to stop. The question was, what would she do when he did? Fight. She silently heard the collective voices of her family shout at her. But how and with what? She’d have to be ready the minute the hatch opened—which would be impossible if she couldn’t free herself.
Run, River, Run Page 26
