She answered the call and put the phone to her ear. “Yes?”
The weird distorted voice was loud in her ear. “I warned you not to play games.”
“I’m not playing games!” When he didn’t respond, she pulled the phone away and stared at the screen. The call had ended. Did he hang up or did it drop? She tried to call it back, but without a valid number it didn’t do any good.
Her heart squeezed, and panic nearly dropped her to her knees. Where was her baby, her little boy? She longed to hold him and breathe in the little-boy smell of mud and hard candy. She had to get to Zach. Together they could figure this out and find Alex.
She tried his number again but only connected with voice mail. Calling the sheriff yielded the same result. What would be the fastest way to reach that building and intercept him there? The chopper would get her there in about thirty minutes, but she was an hour from the airfield. Or she could go back to her dad’s. She was about half an hour from the turnoff back into the forest, and then once at her dad’s, she would be about two miles from that building. If she jogged as quickly as she could, she could get there in about half an hour.
Wait a second. She was within a mile of Jermaine’s place. Just over the hill. He had an ATV she could borrow for the two-mile trek. She’d be back there in minutes. She jumped into the truck and stomped on the accelerator. The tires spit gravel as she aimed the truck toward Jermaine’s. In two minutes she was at his driveway.
A movement caught her eye, and she saw Jermaine mowing with a garden tractor. He wore headphones and belted out some country tune way off-key.
She skidded to a stop and jumped out, waving her arms. “Jermaine!” The scent of freshly mowed grass hung in the air.
He stopped the tractor and turned off the engine. His pale-green eyes were always startlingly vivid in his dark face. “Shauna, what’s up?”
“I need to borrow your ATV, right now. I’ve got a hitch on my truck. Can I take it? I don’t have time to explain, but Alex is in trouble.”
“You got it.” He pointed to the trailer already loaded with the ATV. “Back up your truck, and I’ll hitch you up.”
She breathed a relieved sigh, then jumped into her truck and backed up to the trailer. It could only have been a minute or two before he slapped the back of the truck, but it felt like hours.
“All clear to go. I can come with you to help if you need me.”
“I just need to get to Zach.” She hesitated. “You might check in at the sheriff’s office and let them know I’m heading out to my dad’s area to meet up with him and Zach. If they don’t hear from us soon, they’d better send a deputy.”
His face held concern. “I’ll be praying. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll come too.”
“Thanks, Jermaine, you’re the best.” She hit the accelerator and pulled away as fast as she dared with the trailer.
No other traffic was on the main road as she headed for the forest turnoff back to her dad’s. She could drive straight to his cabin, then drive the ATV from there to the building. He might have returned to his cabin and could help her, though she doubted it. Still, it was worth a try.
She sped up until the trailer began to sway behind her, then she made herself slow down. Her dad’s place was nearly in sight when her truck gave a cough and began to run rough. She pounded on the steering wheel. “Don’t quit on me now!” It sputtered and wheezed, then the engine stopped. She tried to start it again, but it turned over without firing. What was wrong with it?
Her focus landed on the gas gauge. Below empty. How could she be so stupid?
Chapter 38
Perspiration stung Zach’s eyes as Penelope kept prodding them to a near jog back toward Lewis’s cabin. She’d lashed their hands behind their backs with vines, something he’d found harder to break than he expected. It was hard to keep his balance at such a fast pace. Lewis was six feet ahead of him, and the sheriff huffed alongside Zach.
Sunset was approaching, and gloom started to claim the forest. They’d probably make it to the cabin by dark, but just barely. Why had she been so elated to get the necklace? Penelope had to have called whoever had taken Alex and Marilyn, because she clearly didn’t have them. Zach mulled over the things he’d heard her say. Something about plans, but how could something that mundane be the catalyst for murder and kidnapping? She’d kept her voice pitched low on the phone call, so he hadn’t caught much beyond the blueprints reference.
He had no doubt she intended to get rid of them once she got what she was after. Only Lewis’s intervention had prevented her from putting a bullet in their heads. He had to figure out how to grab the gun from her, but with their hands tied, it was going to take some coordination.
His wrists chaffed from the vines, and he licked dry lips. Lewis might be their only hope. At least Shauna wasn’t here. Something to be thankful for. Though finding out Lewis was part of this would be painful for her. If she ever found out.
A tree root snagged his left foot, and he went sprawling. He slammed face-first into a patch of wildflowers. He writhed on the ground until he succeeded in getting to his knees, then onto his feet.
She poked him in the back with the barrel of the rifle. “Keep moving. I don’t have all night to get this done.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“No talk.” She shoved him, and he nearly went sprawling again so he shut up. For now.
The darkness came down as if God had dropped a giant blanket over the forest. One second he could see and the next, he couldn’t make out Lewis in front of him any longer. Maybe this was his opportunity to make a dash for the trees. He shook his head. He couldn’t leave the sheriff with Penelope. They would need to work together to take her down.
“Hold up. Lewis, we can’t see you.” She flipped on a flashlight and pinpointed Lewis in its beam. “Got you. Lead the way.”
They all started walking again, more slowly now that it was dark. The wind cooled and brought some relief to Zach’s face and neck. They’d arrive at the cabin in ten minutes. All he had to do was figure out how to get free, then seize a gun from Lewis’s massive armory.
It sounded easy, but he needed a knife or something sharp. These vines were tougher than they looked. He’d have to stay alert. The glimmer of light through the trees guided them the last few feet to the cabin. Zach caught the glint of moonlight shining on an ax stuck in a log near the front door. If he could get away, he might be able to use it.
Lewis stepped through the front door. Zach followed him and stopped to let his eyes adjust to the light inside the cabin.
The sheriff bumped into Zach as he came through the door. “Distraction,” he whispered.
Zach gave a quick nod, then turned to face Penelope as she entered the cabin and closed the door behind her. “What are you going to do with us? You can’t just murder the sheriff and expect to get away with it.”
He’d thought she was attractive when he first met her, but there was nothing beautiful about her flat eyes and hard mouth now. “I can do anything I want. No one knows about me or my partner. They’ll find your—” She clamped her mouth shut, and her gaze went even more distant.
She was smart and wasn’t about to get drawn into revealing anything. A coiled rope lay by a pile of fishing nets and poles, and she grabbed it, then lashed their hands to the doorknob. “Lewis, show me the safe. Now.”
Lewis wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I need something to drink.”
“You need to take me to the safe.” He ignored her and headed for the refrigerator. Raising her voice, she followed him and jerked the beer bottle he grabbed from his hand. “I don’t need you drunk!”
He gave her a hard look. “If I’m going to betray my daughter, I need something to help me do it.”
“You’ll do what I say!” She hauled off and slapped his face hard enough that his head rocked back.
He passed his palm over his cheek, then snatched the beer out of her hand. He uncapped it and took a long swig. ??
?I shouldn’t have let you blackmail me. I should have been stronger.”
Blackmail?
Zach tried to think of anything Lewis cared about enough to let someone force him into criminal activity. Shauna maybe? He shook his head and looked around for something to use as a knife. A beer bottle sat on the coffee table, but she’d hear it break.
Lewis took another swig. “Just take the plans and go. The deed should have been enough for you, but you’re just like your mother. It was all or nothing with her too.”
“Leave my mother out of it!” She raised her hand again and punched him in the chest. He reeled back, and she advanced. “You ruined my life. After you left, she was never the same. I’d come home from school and find her sitting on the sofa. No food waiting, no smiles, nothing.” She kicked him in the knee, and he let out a yell as he fell. “She never came to anything at school. I felt invisible.” She grabbed him by the arm and yanked him up. “Let’s get this over with.”
Zach stayed quiet by the sheriff. Maybe she really would leave them here alone and they could get loose.
She should have let Jermaine come with her. Shauna struggled with the ramps for the ATV until she was panting. It was nearly dark by the time she managed to get them out and roll the machine onto the ground. It had been years since she’d driven one of these things, but it couldn’t be that hard, right? Wasn’t it like riding a bicycle?
She climbed onto the seat, and it all came back to her. The machine controls were exactly like the last one she’d driven. Encouraged, she turned it on and headed for her dad’s, about ten minutes down the road. She tried to keep her mind on the task at hand, but fear clawed at her insides. Alex was out there somewhere without her. He was probably crying for her. She could only hope and pray Marilyn was keeping him calm. She wouldn’t allow herself to think about what that man might do.
As she neared the cabin, she saw lights on in the living room. She cut the engine, then dismounted. Could they be here? If she wanted to find out what role her father might be playing in all this, it was safer to approach by foot.
The wind carried the murmur of voices to her ears, and she ducked down to approach the cabin as stealthily as possible. It sounded like her father was arguing with a woman, and the voices came from his bedroom. She crept toward the window, then stood to peer inside.
A woman with long dark hair stood with her back to Shauna. A rifle was slung over her shoulder, and a pistol protruded from the waistband of her jeans. Something about her was familiar, but Shauna couldn’t place her until the woman half turned toward the window. She bit back a gasp. Dorothy’s daughter.
She ducked down and held her breath as Penelope stepped closer to the window. What was she doing here, and why was Pop so mad?
“Where is it?” Penelope demanded. “I don’t see a safe.”
“It’s not exactly in a safe.”
Shauna peeked up again to see her dad turn toward the closet. He opened the door and pushed aside hangers of old flannel shirts and jeans.
Penelope pushed past him. “Where is it?”
“In the back of the closet. There’s a metal box in the wall this fits into.” He held out his hand. “Give me the necklace.”
After a brief hesitation, Penelope handed it over. Shauna clenched her hands into fists. If Penelope had the necklace, she’d taken it from Zach. Terror tightened like a garrote around her throat. She needed Zach to help her find Alex and Marilyn. She wanted her baby so badly it was all she could do to stay put and listen. Every fiber of her being wanted to leap into the room and demand to know where they had her son. She didn’t doubt that her father knew.
She couldn’t examine how she felt about that—not right now. Somehow she had to hold herself together and be strong enough to rescue her son.
She swallowed hard, watching her father fiddle with the necklace until some weird prongs popped out. He crawled into the closet until all she could see of him were the soles of his shoes.
Penelope peered in to watch. “What are you doing?”
“You’re blocking my light.” His voice was muffled. “How’d you get this anyway? I thought it was buried with my wife.”
“My partner sneaked it out of the casket when no one was looking. He was a pallbearer. Then it went missing right around the time Darla got suspicious. We realized after she died that she had to have taken it. When Clarence came by my partner’s office with some questions about Darla, he knew Clarence had found the necklace.
Shauna tried to think of who’d been pallbearers, but she’d been too young when her mom died to remember.
Penelope stepped out of the way and glanced toward the window. For a heart-stopping second, Shauna thought she’d been spotted. She ducked down and held her breath, but when no footsteps headed her way, she relaxed and peeked up again in time to see her father emerge from the closet with a roll of white papers.
He held them away from Penelope when she snatched at them. “I want my grandson or you can’t have this.”
Penelope yanked out her gun and pointed it at him. “You’re of no use to me now.”
Before he could respond, a shot rang out. Shauna stuffed her fist in her mouth as her dad fell to the old green carpet. A red stain formed under his head, and a bullet carved a hole in his forehead. Bile choked her throat, and she breathed through her nose to keep from vomiting.
Penelope grabbed the papers, then went to the bed and spread them out. Her father used to be a geologic engineer, and from the little she could see from the window, the plans appeared to be some kind of geological design.
Shauna’s gaze returned to her father. She sank to her knees and stifled the sobs. She had to find Zach and the sheriff. Right now she had no weapons and no way to force the woman to give up Alex.
Keeping her head down, she ran around to the back of the house and peeked in the kitchen door. Their backs to one another, Zach and the sheriff were working to break the ropes tied to their wrists. Zach tore furiously at the knots on the sheriff’s wrist, but they didn’t look to be budging. Praying Penelope was still busy looking at the plans, Shauna eased open the door and stepped inside.
This was all riding on her. If she failed, Alex would die.
Chapter 39
Here, I brought you dinner.” He tossed some deli sandwiches he’d brought in a cooler to Marilyn, and she caught them.
Her gaze shot to Alex, who still stood by him. “Come here, Alex. I’m sure you’re hungry.”
Alex nodded, then glanced up at him as if to ask if it was okay.
“Listen to your grandmother.” He pulled out bottles of water and tossed them one at a time to her too. “Your girl didn’t come through, but I still got what I wanted. Before I go, tell me the truth. The kid says you know who I am.”
Fear flashed across Marilyn’s face, and she shook her head. “I just said that to help him have courage. I have no idea who you are or why you are doing this. You can let us go. We can’t identify you.”
She’s lying.
He saw it in her face, and regret shivered down his spine. “Eat your dinner. I have to make a call.”
He went out the front door and padlocked it behind him. He slid into his car and yanked off his mask before he reached for his sat phone to call Penelope. Everything in him rebelled at the thought of what he had to do. He could dispose of Marilyn, no problem. The boy was another matter. He liked the kid and always had.
Maybe he could make it painless, though he was out of ideas on how to do that. Drugs maybe, but he had very little time to procure anything.
Penelope answered on the second ring. “I have the plans! I was just looking them over to make sure they’re all here. Lewis always said he stumbled on the earthquake-induction potential by accident, and looking at these drawings, I think that’s true. Lucky break for us, huh?”
“That’s great!” He tried to force enthusiasm into his voice but failed.
“And now it’s all ours.”
“Yeah.” He glanced at Marilyn’s
cabin. “We can get out of here tomorrow and never look back.”
“What’s your problem? You don’t sound excited.”
“It’s the kid. I don’t want to have to hurt him. I can handle Marilyn, but I want to take the kid with us. I can give him to someone when we get out of here.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! I don’t want a kid along on our trip. Besides, he can identify you.”
“I don’t think so. I wore the Spider-Man mask every time he saw me. I think maybe Marilyn recognized my voice, but I’m not positive. I have to do something about her for sure.”
“You’re such a softie. Maybe that’s why I love you so much. Do whatever you think is best. Did you get ahold of the buyers?”
“Yes. They’re insistent that I show up in the morning too. I had no choice but to agree. They wouldn’t put the other half of the money in my account if I didn’t.”
“It’s only seven so you should be able to dispose of your liabilities and get to Lewis’s cabin with no problem. Did you buy our plane tickets yet?”
“I bought open-ended ones as soon as the first half came through. First class too.”
“Whoo-hoo!” she squealed. “I’ve never flown first class.”
He grinned. It was going to be fun to spoil her. He still couldn’t believe he was about to spend the rest of his life with her. “What about your mother? Won’t she wonder where you’ve gone?”
“Probably. I’ll get in touch with her sooner or later, once all the hoopla here dies down. I think she might have suspected something was up when Shauna came sniffing around about the necklace, but I managed to placate her.”
“We can make sure we get a big enough place that she can come visit.”
“What about your wife? Any regrets?”
A pang struck him, but he pushed it away. His wife would survive, and his kids and grandkids would get over it eventually. “Our marriage was over a long time ago. She’ll move on.”