Still the pilot hesitated until Brice, who was sitting in the front seat, motioned firmly for him to do it.
M.J. swallowed hard as the chopper began to lower toward the ground. She knew that if a car approached and didn’t see the helicopter in time, there could be terrible consequences, but as she looked through both windows, she didn’t see any cars coming. And then with a hard bump they were down.
Dutch was out of the chopper in an instant, and Candice was right behind him.
M.J. got out quickly too, looking everywhere for Abby. She wasn’t sure why she’d been brought along in the chopper, but she felt certain that Candice had been right to insist on her coming. Still, one look toward the other side of the road told her how desperate their situation was. Abby was perhaps fifty yards away from them, and she was gripping the side of the railing desperately. The poor thing was draped in the torn remnants of a wedding gown, covered in dirt, grass stains, and blood. Around her chest was a terrible sight—a metal cage encased her torso secured by half a dozen padlocks, and in the center of the cage was a digital clock and several black tubes that looked like dynamite.
Abby herself was covered in cuts, scrapes, and bruises, her hair a tangled mess and her face stained with tears and dirt. She was shouting at Dutch and holding up her hands as if to stop him from coming closer. M.J. was too far away and the chopper was too loud for her to hear what Abby was saying, but her body language was clearly begging Dutch and Candice not to approach her.
Still, Dutch moved steadily forward, but just as he was within reach of her, Abby did something most desperate. She swung a leg over the side of the railing, and for a moment, M.J. thought she was going to jump into the ravine below.
Dutch took three running steps and lunged—reaching her hand, he grabbed it tightly and refused to let go. Instinctively, M.J. moved closer, in spite of the danger of the bomb strapped to Abby’s chest.
Candice was much closer to Abby and Dutch, and when she was about ten yards away, Dutch put up his own hand and told her to stop. Abby cried out to Candice then, and M.J. faintly heard her say, “He’s at the wedding! Candice, he’s at the estate waiting for me!”
M.J. felt a hand on her back and beside her Brice shouted to Candice, who immediately turned around and raced back toward them, waving to the chopper pilot, who looked as if he was ready to sweep into the air again. Before she knew it, Brice and Candice were back in the chopper and it was lifting off and whisking them away.
For a brief few seconds, it was once again quiet except for the sounds of Abby sobbing, begging Dutch to get away from her before the bomb went off. And then the air was filled with the approaching sounds of sirens.
Chapter Fifteen
As I sat on the edge of the bed in the lovely cottage above the estate, staring at my abductor, I thought about begging. In fact, I was fully prepared to slide down to my knees and plead to him for mercy. But one look at the triumph in his eyes told me he wasn’t the merciful type.
And that caused me to burst into tears. Great big sobs rose in my throat and I was helpless to stop them. “Why?” I blubbered. “Why, Russ? You know me. I had nothing to do with Mimi’s suicide. I never even met her.”
Russ Buslawski—my oh-so-friendly and oh-so-helpful exterminator, who’d solved my scorpion problem and the cricket infestation at our new home—got up from the chair and came over to stand in front of me. “Don’t you see, Abby?” he said in a gentle voice that sickened me. “It’s destiny.”
I shook my head and more tears slid down my cheeks. “How is killing me destiny?”
Russ sighed, as if he were truly sorry that I didn’t understand. “In the beginning I wasn’t going to involve you at all. I was going to let Haley be the last one, but then I found out that you were working the case, and you were also getting married, and you took Haley out of my reach. Remember?”
And I did remember. I remembered looking at her in the Jamba Juice store and feeling that her life was in danger and that we had to protect her. I’d been the one to talk Brice into putting her into protective custody. I realized that Russ had meant to kill both women who worked there. He’d gone after Debbie first, but he’d planned on murdering Haley too.
“I was so mad at you,” Russ said to me. “You kept ruining all my plans, and I almost killed you and your friend Candice when you two were staking out Salisbury’s place, but then I had this thought. This amazing thought that maybe you kept getting in my way because you were supposed to. You were supposed to become a part of this. It was a like a big sign, you know?”
I shook my head. I wanted him to see that this was insane, that he was talking like a madman, but madmen don’t know they’re talking crazy. They believe in the logic of random circumstances as if they were a personal road map to carry out their twisted agendas.
“Mimi was sending me a sign through you, Abby. She wanted my last statement to involve you because she wanted me to pick an actual bride. It was supposed to be you all along. It’s fate.”
I bit back the bile forming in the back of my throat. “Mimi wouldn’t have wanted this,” I said to him.
Russ shook his head like he felt bad that I didn’t get it. “She would’ve understood,” he told me. “She wouldn’t have wanted them to get away with it in the end. She said so in her e-mail. They all drove her to it, you know. Mimi found out I couldn’t get my money back from that beauty shop, or the photographer, and she was sick over it. She’d never showed up to get her hair done, and she’d tried to take her dress back, but the owner wouldn’t give her a refund. She sent it to me, you know, because she said she couldn’t bear to keep it in her closet anymore. I’d paid for the whole wedding, and Mimi felt so bad. Hell, even the photographer wouldn’t return any of my money even though he’d only taken a few shots at the church.
“Mimi said she felt responsible for hurting me both emotionally and financially, and she didn’t know how she could live with herself. She said she wanted to die. And it was ’cause of them. ’Cause of her sister, who told her she was a loser, and her friends, who told her she shouldn’t marry me. They wanted her to break up with me and work all their extra late-night shifts at the Jamba Juice, the selfish bitches. No one would listen to her. But I listened to her. I listened and I knew she was in trouble, and I tried to take her away from all that, but they poisoned her against me and told her to cut me out of her life. Even that student therapist told Mimi not to talk to me. And she just felt worse and worse and worse until she couldn’t take it anymore.”
“Russ,” I whispered, desperate to get through to him. “Mimi killed herself because she was a troubled young girl who felt overwhelmed and couldn’t see herself ever feeling better. She was obviously clinically depressed and that was no one’s fault. That was just a function of brain chemistry coupled with a tragic set of circumstances. Mimi wouldn’t have wanted you to do any of this.”
Russ’s eyes narrowed. “Well, it’s too late, ’cause it’s already done, Abby.”
I bit my lip. “Russ,” I tried again. “I know you don’t want to do this. I know that you reached out to Jed Banes hoping that he’d figure it out and stop you—”
“I didn’t want anybody to stop me,” Russ snapped. “I just wanted you guys to figure out why. I was doing this out of revenge for all the mean girls out there. All the people who hurt people like Mimi, who don’t deserve to die like she did.”
My lip quivered. “And I deserve it, Russ? I deserve to die like Mimi?”
Russ’s mouth became a thin line, and I started to hope that he might be having second thoughts. But then his eyes darkened again and he said, “Maybe your bomb will send the right message. Maybe then they’ll finally get it.”
I knew then that my fate was sealed. Swallowing hard, I whispered, “What happens now?”
Russ moved toward the door where a tuxedo was hanging on the doorframe. Pausing to take it down, he then reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope I recognized. “Now I’m going to your wedding.
I’ll be sitting in the front row, waiting for you.”
I shook my head. If he thought for one second I’d go there and put everyone I loved in danger, he was even crazier than I thought.
“Oh, you’ll come,” he assured me. “If you don’t, I’ll kill your fiancé.” My breath caught. I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to kill Dutch. Then Russ reached back into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a small TV remote control. “But to make even more sure that you’ll come, I’ll make you a deal. If you get to the aisle before the clock runs out, I’ll tell you the code to stop the clock. But if you reach out to anybody for help, I’ll detonate the bomb.” Russ wiggled the remote wickedly and I now knew exactly how he’d gotten the other girls to comply with his directive. He’d promised them to deactivate the bomb if they did as he said. Their only hopes had been in reaching the destination he picked for them in time. Little did Taylor, Michelle, or Debbie know that Russ never intended to let them live beyond the two hours he’d put on the clock.
And he seemed to think that I didn’t know either. He looked to be counting on my having even a small ray of hope that he’d be true to his word and let me and Dutch and the rest of the wedding party live. It was so awful I wanted to fly at him and beat him bloody, but that remote in his hand kept me frozen in place. There was a red button on it that I knew represented instantaneous death, and while I had two hours, I knew I might still create my own ray of hope.
“I won’t make it easy for you,” Russ added, slinging the tuxedo over his shoulder. “Debbie almost got out of her harness, so I made that cage special for you. You’ll never get out of it, so I wouldn’t waste any time trying. There’s no phone here, so don’t waste any of your time left looking for one. You’ll need every minute just to make it down the hill, because I’m going to go down in the gondola, and then I’m going to dismantle it. You’ll have to make it to the estate on your own, but I’ve left you your cane and I’m pretty sure that if you’re motivated enough, you can get down the bluff in time. Just don’t fall. That timer’s a little sensitive.”
With that, Russ turned and left me without a backward glance.
The second he was out of the cottage, I got to my feet and grabbed Fast Freddy. There was no way in hell I was going to play his game, and I had to believe that I could make it down that hillside in time to warn Dutch.
I knew that Russ was going to be true to his word about one thing: If he didn’t see me or hear the bomb go off within that two-hour period, he’d kill my fiancé. Shuffling to the door, I stood on the front porch, watching the gondola slide squeakily down the wire and disappear into the trees.
There was a small patch of land around the cottage that was fairly level, but beyond that, the terrain was steep, and filled with foliage. Getting down the side of that bluff with two bum hips, an oversized wedding dress, and a bomb strapped to my chest suddenly seemed utterly impossible.
I gripped the doorframe and had to take several deep breaths because I could feel myself starting to panic. I knew I had to make it down that hillside, but there was no way I was going anywhere near the estate. I’d never put Dutch, my friends, and family in danger like that, and I knew that Russ fully intended to detonate the bomb the moment he saw me.
Instead, I had to make it down to the road leading to the estate. There was a gas station not far from there, and they had to have a phone. All I needed was a few extra minutes. If I could get to that phone, then I could warn Dutch before I died. I could also tell him how sorry I was that I’d spent the last few days of my life hiding myself away from him. I’d explain that I hadn’t understood my own intuitive feelings. I knew I’d presented a danger to him, but I hadn’t imagined this. It all made sense now, but if I died before telling Dutch, he’d forever think that I’d pulled away from him because I’d had cold feet.
When I could breathe again, I closed my eyes and whispered, “Please, crew of mine, help me!” For a moment I felt nothing but my own panic, and then, almost like a tiny miracle I felt my spirit guides surround me and fill my chest with courage. I opened my eyes and in my mind’s eye I literally heard them say, Look to your left. It was then that I noticed a very faint trail leading off to the side of the cabin. With trembling limbs I stepped carefully off the porch and onto the path, gripping my cane tightly.
The path was true, but I was not. I slipped and slid so many times that I lost count, and each time I felt my heart would burst with fear, afraid the jolt from hitting the ground would set off the bomb, but mercifully, it never went off.
I was careful each time I fell to always take the blow on my rear or my hip. The wedding dress severely hampered my pace; it was so big that I kept tripping on it, and I cursed it over and over, but there was no way to get it off with the metal cage wrapped around my torso. That also greatly hampered me, and it chafed against my skin until it was raw and bloody.
Yet my crew kept urging me on, pushing me to breathe and carry on. As long as they were with me, I knew deep down that I could do it. I kept my focus on putting one step in front of the other, and tried very hard not to look at the digital readout of the clock, but at intervals I caught myself peeking, and that mounting fear built and built as the minutes ticked down. At last, with about fifteen minutes to spare, I spotted the road, and began to sob again as I hurried along it toward the gas station.
Cars passed me and honked, and one car pulled over down the street and a woman got out. She took one look at me and I shouted at her to get back in her car and drive away. I didn’t want to take the risk that the bomb might take out an innocent bystander.
The gas station would present a horrific choice. How could I warn the people inside to get out so that I could go in and use the phone? The answer came to me as the station came within sight. There was a man pumping gas right there. I shouted at him to go inside and tell everyone to get out. He looked at me like I was crazy, but then I pointed to my chest and he pulled out the pump from his car, rushed to the driver’s side, got in, and took off.
I was so out of breath and so upset that I’d blown it that I almost didn’t notice when the clerk came out to shout at the back of the car. “You!” I yelled at him. “Get out of here!”
He turned to me, and his expression mirrored that of the driver who’d just sped away, but I pointed to the bomb and begged him to leave and he took off too as fast as he could run.
Keeping clear of the pumps, I ran inside the station and behind the counter. I called Dutch’s phone, but there was no answer and it went to voice mail. I closed my eyes and cried bitter tears as his husky rich baritone came to my ear. “This is Special Agent Rivers. Leave me a detailed message at the beep.”
“Dutch!” I cried. “Oh, God! Listen to me. I’m not sure if Cat took your phone too, but if you get this message, you have to leave the ceremony immediately! He got to me, baby. Russ Buslawski, our exterminator. He’s the unsub, and he’s going to kill you. He’s already killed me. I’m going to call the police now, but before I go, I just want you to know how much I loved you. With my whole, whole heart I loved you. You were the best thing that ever happened to me, and I always knew that. More than anything in the whole world I wanted to be your wife and take care of you like you always took care of me. Please watch over Eggy and Tuttle for me. Tell Candice, Cat, and Brice that I loved them too. I’ll never be far away from you, cowboy. I promise.”
I hung up sobbing so hard I could barely breathe. And then I heard the sound of a helicopter approaching. Intuitively, I knew it was for me, and I also had another intuitive thought—Dutch was on that chopper.
Rushing out of the gas station, I hurried down the road away from the pumps. The wind from the blades of the chopper was kicking up so much dust and debris that it was hard to see, but somehow I managed to spy the railing at the side of the road. I had to keep Dutch away from me. I didn’t know how much time was left on the timer, or whether Russ was close enough to me to detonate it, as I knew he would if he suspected I wasn’t still working my way down th
e hillside.
And then I had hold of the railing and I turned to see Dutch getting out of the chopper. I felt such a well of sadness and hope all at the same time. He wasn’t at the ceremony. He might still live. But then he came toward me and I knew this was exactly the moment I’d been dreading for the past two weeks. This was why every time he got close to me, I’d felt a horrible sense of foreboding. “Stop!” I screamed. But he kept coming. In desperation I pulled one leg up over the railing. Looking down, I saw that it was about a fifty-foot drop to the rocky terrain below.
“Abby, don’t!” Dutch shouted.
I took a deep breath. Could I let go? Could I be brave enough to fall to my death?
I tried to steel myself, tried to convince myself that it would be so quick that it wasn’t likely to hurt much, but I wasn’t fast enough. Before I knew it, Dutch had hold of my arm. “Let go!” I screamed. “Get away from me, Dutch! Get away!”
But he wouldn’t let go. Instead he hauled me back over the side and gripped both of my wrists tightly.
As I was struggling with him, I saw Candice. She was also approaching. “Candice, stop!” I screamed.
She listened, and the look on her face broke my heart. “Tell me how to help!” she cried.
For a moment her question threw me. Didn’t she know I was quite beyond help? But then, a thought came to my mind. It was clear and sound and I knew it was from my crew. Tell her to bring him here, they said. “It’s Russ Buslawski!” I shouted. “He’s at the ceremony waiting for me to show up! But be careful, Candice! He’s got the detonator!”
In an instant Candice was in motion, dashing back toward the chopper, and my focus was then back on Dutch. “Please!” I begged him, struggling to pull out of his grip. I’d throw myself over the side of the cliff if only to protect him. “Dutch, please get back!”
To my shock and horror Dutch responded by pulling out a set of handcuffs from his pocket. Gripping my forearm tightly, he slapped one cuff onto my wrist, and the other onto his own. “Nooooooooooo!” I screamed, pounding on his chest, so angry and afraid at the same time. “Why?” I demanded through my tears. “Dutch, why?”