Deadly Amish Reunion
Page 19
Without preamble, Nick said, “Kaitlyn, I need your help.”
Her natural wariness flared. “Okay. With what?”
He held out his phone and stared at it. “I got the strangest call.” His gaze lifted. The deep chocolate-brown orbs were cloudy with worry. “A woman is in trouble. She acted like she knew me and was on her way to me. She sounded scared, and I think she crashed her car.”
Not what Kaitlyn had expected. “She’s on her way to you? Meaning on her way here to Bristle Township?”
His shoulders lifted in a slight shrug. “Yes. She said something about the roads in town being slick.” His troubled gaze bored into Kaitlyn. “I’m sure I heard gunfire before the car crashed. She’s in trouble. We need to help her. I need you to help me help her.”
Serving others was why she’d become a deputy. And she couldn’t deny there was a bit of relief that, for once, Nick wanted her as a deputy.
Kaitlyn took the phone from him and searched for Hannah Nelson, the department’s forensic and computer tech, among the party attendees. Hannah’s long red hair was unmistakable. She was in the cakewalk. “This way.”
With purpose lengthening her strides, Kaitlyn led the way to the edge of the cakewalk circle where Hannah was participating.
“What are we doing?” Nick asked.
Kaitlyn shot him a glance. He really was spooked. And it drove up her own anxiety. Kaitlyn called to her. “Hannah.”
Hannah’s green eyes darted to her. She waved.
Kaitlyn gestured for her to come over.
With a frown, Hannah stepped out of the circle and headed in their direction. “You just cost me a German chocolate cake.”
“I’ll make you one,” Kaitlyn told her. “We need your expertise.”
Hannah’s gaze darted back and forth between Kaitlyn and Nick. A speculative gleam entered her eyes and a smile formed on her pink-glossed lips. “Really? With what?”
Kaitlyn ground her teeth together. Everyone in town knew that Nick had been flirting with her for nearly a year. And that she had been brushing him off. She held up the device. “I need you to find the location of the person who made the last call to Nick’s phone. Someone is in trouble.”
Hannah’s expression sobered. “Of course. We should inform the sheriff.”
“Agreed.”
The trio hurried over to where the new sheriff, as well as the newly retired sheriff, stood surrounded by a group of well-wishers. Kaitlyn nudged her way forward through the crowd.
Sheriff Ryder’s bushy gray eyebrows rose to his hairline. “Is there something you wanted?”
Her gaze bounced between the two men. She wasn’t sure which one she should address. Then Sheriff Ryder’s index finger came up and pointed at Alex.
Sheriff Ryder was always so adept at reading her. Kaitlyn focused her attention on Alex. “We have a potential crash victim. Nick received a phone call from a mysterious woman. He heard what sounded like gunfire and a crash. Apparently the woman is on her way here. But we don’t know where she is exactly. I want permission to have Hannah ping her phone.”
Alex nodded. “Of course. Keep me apprised of the situation.”
“Yes, sir.” Kaitlyn retreated to where Nick and Hannah waited. “Let’s go.”
They hurried to put on coats and head out into the snowy December night. The community center was attached to the Bristle Township Community Christian Church, which sat at one end of town. They hustled along the sidewalk and Kaitlyn was thankful for the dusting of rock salt so that none of them slipped in their haste to get to the station.
Rather than entering through the front door, they went around to the back, where Hannah’s newly reconstructed lab was located.
When a group of treasure hunters had torched the building, the Delaney family had paid to have the department rebuilt and equipped with all the high-tech equipment possible for the deputies and the forensic lab.
Hannah didn’t even take off her coat. She went straight to her workstation to plug Nick’s phone into her computer and got to work. Within seconds, she said, “The call pinged off the tower at the top of Delaney Hill.” A moniker the locals had recently taken to calling the mountain where the Delaneys had built their home. “She must be somewhere on the road up to the estate.”
Nick grabbed his phone and unplugged it from her computer. “Thank you.”
He rushed toward the exit.
Kaitlyn raced after him and grabbed his arm. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m going to find her.” He shrugged off her hand. “She needs help.”
“You’re a civilian. Somebody trained to provide help needs to go.”
He flashed her one of his smiles, but it didn’t dispel the anxiety in his eyes. “Then we can go together. I’ll even let you drive.”
“You’ll let me...?” She rolled her eyes.
Digging his keys from his coat pocket, he held them out to her. “You can drive my Humvee. It’s better equipped than yours.”
Much as she wanted to argue that point, she didn’t. Because he was right. The big square vehicle he drove was state-of-the-art with armor plating and shatterproof windows and was built to navigate the terrain. It seemed everything that the Delaneys owned was state-of-the-art.
“Fine.” She plucked the keys from his hand and turned to Hannah. “Can you inform the sheriff? And if for some reason that phone moves, let me know.”
“You got it,” Hannah promised.
“Come with me,” Kaitlyn said to Nick. Instead of immediately going out the door, Kaitlyn stopped where the department’s tactical gear was stored. She grabbed a duty belt and two flak vests. She tossed one to Nick. “Put that on.”
He stared at her for a moment. “You believe that I heard gunfire?”
Why would he think she wouldn’t? “Better to be prepared than dead.”
He gave a sharp nod of his head and slipped the vest on. “Wow, I had no idea how heavy these things were.”
She didn’t mention the weight of the utility belt strapped around her hips. Velcroing her vest in place over her Christmas sweater, she grabbed her department-issued shearling jacket and put it on, covering her sweater, which thankfully had an off switch to kill the blinking lights. “Let’s roll.”
Once they were settled in the large SUV, Kaitlyn fired up the engine and drove through town. She had to admit the ride was smooth. Within moments, she turned onto the long winding road that led up the second-tallest mountain in the county. The bright headlights of the SUV cut through the darkness and bounced off the snow. They’d reached the summit near the gate of the estate when the SUV’s headlights swung across the accident scene. A dark gray sedan with chains on the tires had slid off the road into a tree.
Nearby, a black SUV was parked at an angle and two men were dragging a female from the sedan’s driver’s seat. Kaitlyn’s hands gripped the steering wheel as she brought the vehicle to an abrupt halt.
Nick popped open his door and slid out.
“Wait!” Kaitlyn yelled at him. The fine hairs at her nape quivered.
He froze, standing with the door open. “Kaitlyn?”
Were these men Good Samaritans? Or something far more sinister?
The men let go of the woman, letting her flop into the snow. Then both men swiveled to aim high-powered handguns at them.
“Take cover!” Kaitlyn reached for the duty weapon at her side. She’d wanted Nick to appreciate her for the capable deputy she was, but not at the risk of his life.
Copyright © 2020 by Terri Reed
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ISBN-13: 9781488061523
Deadly Amish Reunion
Copyright © 2020 by Dana Roae
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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