Kidnapped

  “The trees are too dense. We’ll need a third person aboard if you want to try and be lowered down.”

  “I don’t want to lose it now that we’ve found it.” Luke reached for the radio. “Patch me through to Jackie.”

  The dispatcher connected them.

  “I’m here, Luke.”

  “Bring Mark’s jeep and meet me at the Hickory Point Bridge.”

  “You have something?”

  He didn’t want to raise false hopes, not with Jackie standing beside Sharon and Mark. “Joe’s spotted a vehicle farther off the road than we would expect, and it’s worth checking out. Only we’re in too rough a terrain to set down.”

  “Sharon and Mark want to come along.”

  Luke hesitated and then said, “Let them.”

  “We’re on our way,” Jackie confirmed. “See you soon.”

  Luke listened to her drop off the call. “Henry, did you get that?”

  “I’ve been listening in. What are the coordinates?”

  Luke read them off the GPS. “It’s a van, it’s white, and if it’s campers using the van as a place to sleep, we’ve been hovering over it with the spotlight going on several minutes without movement below. Send in officers to check it out; I’m going to wait and come with Sharon and Mark.”

  “The sheriff has two units out your way. You’ll be seeing lights of their cars soon, coming from the west.”

  “Tell them to trust Joe’s spotlight for the location. It looks like the van left the road, drove along a streambed and then up into the trees. It’s not going to be easy to see until they’re on top of it.”

  “Will do.”

  * * *

  Luke took a seat on the bridge railing, keeping his balance with one foot around the lower rail, while he waited for Sharon and Mark and Jackie to arrive. Watching Joe, he saw the helicopter return to a hover, once again marking the location point of the van. It would be a twenty-minute hard walk in the dark from the road to that van. The officers already heading in should reach it anytime.

  He wanted to race past the officers to the van and get there first, but he forced himself to let the others make that journey instead. He would go in just as soon as Sharon and Mark arrived. He was determined to do tonight what he knew Caroline would most want—protect and care for Sharon.

  Luke looked up and studied the stars above him. You’ve been very quiet during this storm, Lord. Letting me deal with the emotions and roll with events as they came. I would love having Your mercy and kindness give me back Caroline alive. But this storm is in Your hands, and only You decide its end. I won’t let Caroline’s courage to save her sister be forgotten. She loves people without reservation or limitation. And the sheer breadth of that action—it helps me understand more what You did on the cross, Your sacrifice.

  Luke pulled himself together enough to look at his bare left hand and wish he’d been smart enough to bind them together with a ring a year ago. I love Caroline, Lord. Please give me a chance to tell her that.

  The quiet of the night answered him.

  He knew the odds of it being the right van were slim. Frank wouldn’t make it that easy. Luke had walked out on a limb to believe this would be something less than a severe disappointment. But it was the last hope of the day.

  If this was a hunter’s vehicle or one abandoned years before rather than be scrapped . . . He stopped the thought and chose to hope. This storm in their lives had thrown enough at them. It was time for a rainbow. And until he heard otherwise from the officers checking out the van, he was going to believe that good news was possible. From his perch on the rail, he tugged free a sliver of wood and systematically broke it into small bits.

  He heard the vehicles and turned his head to see the lights coming his way. Mark’s jeep came fourth in the procession of cars. The roadside became a parking lot as they stopped.

  Henry stepped out of the first car. Jackie, farther back with Sharon and Mark, moved forward to join Henry, and they walked toward him together. “Is she in there?”

  “We don’t know yet,” Luke replied. “The first officers should just be reaching the van.”

  He stepped down from the rail and walked down the road to meet Sharon and Mark. He hugged Sharon gently and then leaned back to study her face, grateful to see her looking steady on her feet even at the end of this excruciating day.

  “I guess the diamonds didn’t work,” she whispered.

  “Not sparkling enough for him I suppose.” Luke rubbed her back. “Frank only knew how to be cruel.”

  “I know.” She pulled together her composure to smile at him. “I think it’s time we took a hike.”

  “It’s going to be a difficult walk to make in the dark. It might be better if you both wait here until there’s word one way or another. I’ll stay with you.”

  She squeezed his hand. “I understand what disappointment is. I would rather walk than wait. I’ve done too much waiting lately.”

  “Okay.” Luke offered her a flashlight. “The odds are good it’s not the vehicle we need to find.”

  “I know. But the bad news will be the same whether we’re walking or waiting here.” Sharon buttoned up her jacket and tugged gloves out of her pocket. The night would only grow colder, and it was already damp.

  Luke offered Mark a flashlight, and when he accepted it, Luke didn’t release it right away. He shared a long look with his cousin. Mark nodded. If this was bad news, it wasn’t going to be so confident a walk back.

  Luke led the way from the roadside into the woods, following the path the other officers had already selected, letting Jackie walk with Sharon and Mark. Henry joined them and moved to the front of the group beside Luke.

  “The first officer nearing the scene reports a strong smell of gasoline,” Henry whispered. “That van may have hit a rock and punctured the gas tank on the way in.”

  “Or it’s been booby-trapped,” Luke cautioned.

  “They’ve been warned not to walk up to it and open a door without searching for trouble first. If it is this van, and Caroline is inside . . .” Henry nodded back to the others. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

  “If she’s there, we’ll know it long before we reach the site,” Luke replied. “It’s been a brutal few days. As bad as this could be, closure matters more. I understand Sharon’s need to be here.”

  Luke watched the overhead spotlight marking their destination. “Joe spotted the van. Without him, I would have given up the search when word came about Frank. Did we lose any of our own, when Frank acted as he did?”

  “Minor injuries from the shattered glass. But losing the last link to Caroline—the team took what happened very hard and very personally.”

  “Frank would have likely strung us along and never told us the truth.” Luke said, thinking of the wild goose chases Frank could have dreamed up to send them all over the county looking for Caroline’s body. It would have been so stressful it would create visions of killing Frank for the mental anguish he was causing. They walked on in silence.

  A flashlight appeared ahead of them on the path, an officer coming back toward them at too fast a pace for the condition of the path. Luke and Henry moved ahead to meet him.

  “Sir.”

  The patrolman was young, breathing hard, and stressed, his acknowledgment to Henry quick.

  “Tell us,” Henry said.

  “There are suspicious wires inside on the front doors, and no windows in the back to let us see in. The side door panel locks have been damaged. Even if we could risk trying to open them, the threat of more wires would caution against it. We can’t cut our way in with the hand torch because of the lingering gas fumes. I’m going back for another crowbar. They’re trying to peel back enough of the side panel around a spot of rust to get a look inside.”

  “Any sound at all from inside?” Henry asked.

  “It’s quiet, sir. We’ve been calling trying to get a response, but there’s nothing.”

  “Go get that crowbar.”
>
  The patrol officer nodded and hurried down the trail.

  Luke watched him pass by Sharon, Mark, and Jackie. No one tried to ask him for information; they just stepped aside to let him pass.

  “Frank wouldn’t wire the vehicle if there wasn’t something inside he didn’t want us to see,” Henry said.

  “Quiet isn’t good,” Luke replied. “Take the lead? I’m going to walk with Sharon and Mark for a bit.”

  “Sure.”

  Henry took the lead, lighting the best path.

  Luke walked back to join Sharon and Mark. “How are you doing?” He could see they were both breathing hard, and Mark was sweating now. Neither was in the physical shape after what had happened to be taking a mile walk, let alone through rough terrain.

  “Getting a workout,” Sharon replied with a brief smile.

  “We’re almost there.”

  His partner sent him an inquiring look.

  “It’s a white panel van. They don’t know if it’s the right one or if Caroline is inside. The patrol officer is going back for more equipment to help them with the locks. Jackie, Henry needs you for a minute.”

  She nodded and moved up the trail.

  “This is the van?” Mark asked.

  “Maybe. Someone went to a lot of trouble to make it hard to open.” Luke didn’t ask if they wanted to stop and rest for a moment, but he shortened his stride and slowed them down a bit. He wanted to know more about what they would find before they arrived at the scene.

  They walked in silence, pausing only when the patrol officer returned and passed them, risking jogging on the path to make the trip quickly.

  As they approached the area, the helicopter spotlight above made it seem nearly day. Joe held at a hover high above, but the noise still made it difficult to be heard. “We’re almost there,” Luke observed, stating the obvious. Henry and Jackie had disappeared ahead a few minutes earlier.

  “Is that gas I smell?” Sharon asked.

  “Yes. It’s dissipating with this downdraft.”

  The sounds were reaching them now, men’s clipped words and shouts of direction. They followed another turn in the creek bed and the van appeared.

  It faced up into the woods at an angle, driven up an embankment and into a cluster of young birch trees, branches rubbing against the top of the van and the tires mired in torn-up foliage and fallen logs. The van leaned heavily to the right, suggesting flat tires or a broken axle.

  Four officers were working at the side of the van. Heavy gloves protecting their hands, they were pulling at an opening they’d created, peeling back the metal by force. “That’s good enough. Let me look.”

  The group stepped back a step as one officer tried to angle his light inside and still see through the opening.

  “She’s in there!”

  Sharon stiffened and Luke tightened his grip.

  “Is she alive?” Henry asked quietly.

  “I can’t tell. I need more light, a better angle.” The officer stepped back. “Try to force it down with that crowbar, two more inches, and I can see past the backseat.”

  They resumed work on the metal, forcing it to give. The officer pressed in tight to the van’s side trying to stabilize the light. “She’s breathing. She’s definitely breathing. We need cutters in here.”

  Sharon hugged Luke and he felt her shoulders begin to shake. He hugged her briefly and hard and then gently passed her to Mark.

  “Jackie, arrange for an ambulance at the road, and a medevac flight in as close as they can get to that bridge,” Henry ordered. He turned to officers around him. “Blankets, a stretcher, and lights for the trail. Call in help. I want a mile cordon around this area to keep reporters out of this crime scene.” Officers took the orders with brisk nods and quickly moved to comply.

  Luke joined the officers at the van. “Let’s get her out of there.”

  “There’s a lot of dried blood,” the officer whispered.

  “We’ll deal with it. Just get this wide enough so we can get inside.”

  “I need a thicker piece of wood to use as a fulcrum for the crowbar. It’s got to handle more pressure than the metal. We’re running out of rust-weakened metal to work with and coming up against rivets.”

  “Whoa, guys, stop!”

  Luke turned to the officer close to the front of the van.

  “Those wires are wrapped around a block of something that I don’t want to guess what it is. We can’t rock the van like this. Those wires are swinging like strands of Christmas lights in the wind.”

  “We can’t wait for a bomb squad to get here.”

  “Find more wood. We can wedge it under the van to stabilize it. If we brace it right, the van isn’t going to move even when we get inside.”

  Luke listened to the debate among the officers and nodded. “It will work.”

  They hurried to get enough wood under the van to steady it. “Good, that will do it. Let’s get inside and get this done.”

  Luke put his muscle into pulling back the metal panel. It began to give as a seam was reached. “More, that’s it!”

  The opening widened so that Luke could see through to the officer at the front. Caroline lay in the front where the first bench seat had been removed, her head resting against the side of the captain’s seat. Her left arm was broken. He could see the bad angle where the bone penetrated her skin and the blood saturating her sleeve. The gag tight around her mouth looked like it had drawn blood too. As hard as he watched, he saw no movement that indicated she was gaining consciousness.

  “Any wires to contend with back here?” Luke asked.

  The officer was able to get his head inside the van to better follow the light. “We’re clear.” He pulled back and they resumed work. It reached the point where they could use rocks to hammer the metal back.

  “I can get in there,” Luke finally said, stopping the work. “Get me above it so I can lower myself in through the opening.” He stepped up on the wood braces and grabbed the cargo rack railing on the top of the van to lift himself up, relieved the wood bracing did its job and held the van steady. He heard his coat tear as the metal grabbed it.

  Where to put his feet was a problem. He held himself suspended until he was certain he was coming down on the seat and it wouldn’t give and send him crashing onto Caroline. “I need more light!”

  He braced himself inside, one foot on a seat and the other on the floor.

  They passed him three flashlights and he positioned them around himself.

  She was breathing; he could see the faint movement of her chest. Luke didn’t let himself linger on how much pain showed on her face. “I need a knife.”

  The pocketknife the officers had to offer was no larger than the one in his pocket. Luke carefully cut away the gag and removed the fabric from her mouth. He ran a finger gently across the cut edge of her mouth. He turned his attention to the tape binding her hands. His hand shook as he eased her once-bound hands to her sides. He was almost glad she was unconscious; that broken arm looked bad. He gently turned her head to see if he was also dealing with a head wound causing the unconsciousness. “I need Sharon.”

  “I’m right here, Luke.”

  He turned. Sharon looked away from Caroline to meet his gaze only briefly before her attention returned to her sister.

  “Her hands are icy; she’s not responsive. Can she be moved, Sharon?”

  “Your priorities have to be breathing, blood, then bones. That injury is going to rip open and bleed again when she’s moved. We don’t have medics here yet with the supplies I would need to deal with it, so for now, let’s wait.”

  Luke nodded. Unzipping his coat, he tugged it off and spread it over Caroline, hoping the warmth would hold long enough to help her. He picked up one of the flashlights and turned his attention to the seats.

  “See if one of the officers has tools—a screwdriver, a wrench. Getting the seats out will help.”

  Luke could hear work going on outside and knew Henry would be look
ing at options to widen that opening even further. Lifting Caroline up and out without causing undue pressure or movement on her shoulder or arm—they needed options.

  Henry appeared with the tools Luke needed to free the seat. “The gas tank is being drained, and we’re working on a way to use a hand torch to widen this opening if we can figure out how to control the sparks.”

  “I’d rather figure out that option, then deal with those wires up front and whatever else Frank left as his surprise. The downdraft should help us with the fumes. Still, I’d rather move Caroline as soon as we can, even if we have to lift her through this hole. How long on the medical help?”

  “Firemen and paramedics are bringing supplies and a stretcher down the trail now.”

  “We move her one way or another as soon as they arrive.” Luke forced the seat up from the floor. “Let’s get this out of here.”

  The seat was awkward and almost larger than a person. Two-thirds of the way through it jammed. Luke put his shoulder into it but couldn’t get the leverage to turn it.

  “Hold on, Luke.”

  The seat rocked as officers outside tugged at it. Luke felt the metal suddenly give. “Okay. That should do it.”

  They yanked the seat out.

  Breathing hard, Luke stepped back. Without the seat as an obstacle, he had more options. If he turned Caroline and lifted her so her face looked to the sky—her shoulders would clear without a problem. Once her torso cleared, her legs would be no problem. He shone the flashlights around and reached for the floor mats. He used the heavy fabric to cover the worst of the sharp metal.

  “The medics are here.”

  “I need something to keep her arms immobile.”

  “This will do the job.” They passed him a mesh sock that stretched to become a cocoon around her torso, holding still her shoulder and arm. Luke tried not to look at Caroline’s face as he worked, knowing that would slow him down and cloud his vision with more tears. “Hang on, honey. We’re almost out of here.”

  He set the flashlights out of his way. “Are you ready?”