Her pulse leaped. “I knew I shouldn’t have left! I need to be there.”
“The men are right outside, busy as bees. We have all the bases covered. They could have already left the house, so you stay where you are. I’d like you to go to your house as soon as possible. It’s safe now since we have the place staked out. The kidnapper may even try calling your home phone. We’ve got a tap on it.”
“Okay, I’ll go there right now.”
“Text me when you arrive. Then look around and see if anything is out of place.”
Mallory ended the call and told Kate what was happening. “I don’t understand why Kevin didn’t let me know he might find her at that house. Haylie is my daughter, no one else’s.”
“I’m sure he didn’t want to get your hopes up in case the place was empty or it’s the wrong house.” Kate gave her a small push toward the door. “Go on over, and I’ll bring the muffins when they’re done.”
Mallory pulled on a jacket and grabbed her purse. Carrying her coffee, she walked across the yard to her house next door. From the outside, the cottage looked just the way she’d left it. The swing still swayed gently in the breeze, and Haylie’s bicycle leaned against the wall on the other side of the porch. The outside light was on though. Had she left it on? So many things had happened in the past week that she couldn’t remember.
She mounted the steps and tried the door. The knob turned easily in her hand, and she pushed open the door. Had the police been here and unlocked it? Maybe she hadn’t locked up when she and Kevin checked the house after the break-in. The house had a musty, unlived-in smell even after just a couple of weeks.
She checked her phone. What was happening with Haylie?
THIRTY-EIGHT
Brambles crowded in along the narrow road back to the lane to Claire’s house but not as badly as Kevin had expected. He’d had to drive slowly to keep from getting stuck in the mud, which was as sticky as quicksand. “And there’s Claire and Luke, just where they said they’d be.”
Their call had convinced him they’d find Haylie any minute. He’d been tempted to call Mallory, but he didn’t want to get her hopes up in case they were wrong.
“Fresh tire tracks. Three sets.” His father grunted from the passenger seat. “Good thing it’s mud season.”
No one could track better than his dad. Mom used to quote The Princess Bride and say Dad could track a falcon on a cloudy day. That might be a stretch, but Kevin had seen his father look at a blade of grass and tell the weight of the animal that had just passed that way. Kevin gripped the steering wheel and prayed they’d find Haylie alive and unharmed.
“Park there behind Rocco’s SUV.” His dad pointed out a break in the brambles where he could pull his truck off the road a bit. “Let’s go in on foot so we take them by surprise. It’s only around the next curve, just past the big clump of birch trees.”
Kevin slowed the truck and pulled it into the bit of clearing. “Can you get out on your side?”
His dad didn’t answer and just shoved open his door and stepped out into the brush. Kevin shrugged and got out too. His boots sank into the mud and made a sucking sound as he walked. Claire and Luke hurried to meet them.
Luke drew his gun. “No one has come back out.”
“Is there a path or do we follow the drive?”
“There’s a path that goes in the back way. This way.” His father went to the right of the truck and stepped over a fallen log covered with moss.
Kevin followed him with Claire and Luke on his heels. The trail was a little easier going since fallen leaves and vines covered some of the mud. The air held a hint of wood smoke, and he hoped it came from the house.
His dad pointed out a patch of morel mushrooms to him. “Gonna come back and get them later.”
Marking his territory. Typical.
They climbed toward the stand of birch trees and paused to take stock of the house below in the clearing. A tiny curl of smoke came from the chimney. A car was parked to the side of the house. “I don’t see the truck you mentioned. I thought there was only one way in and out.”
His dad shook his head. “There’s a fire trail he could have taken.” He unsnapped his holster. “I’m going to circle around back. You go to the front. Make a big noise, call out your name, and say you’re checking on the place. Don’t say anything about Haylie. Luke, you circle around to the right. Claire, you stay out of harm’s way.”
She scowled but nodded and stepped behind a big oak tree.
Kevin let his dad take the lead. There was no room for egos today when all he wanted was to get Haylie back safe and sound. Hand on his still-holstered gun, he advanced down the hill. Quaker-ladies, wood sorrel, and trilliums carpeted the overgrown yard around the house.
Once his dad disappeared behind the house, Kevin walked toward the front. “Game Warden O’Connor. I’m here to check on a report of a disturbance. Is anyone inside?”
In spite of the smoke curling above the roof, the house felt deserted. He walked up the stairs and across the porch boards. The door hung partially open, and he knocked on it with firm authority. “Hello? Anyone here?”
Only silence answered him, so he pushed open the door with one hand and kept the other on his gun. The door squeaked a bit as it swung open, and he looked into the interior. It was mostly dark with a few sunbeams streaming in through the dirt-covered windows. He advanced inside, stopped in the middle of the room, and looked around. An old cot was in one corner, and the blanket and sheets on it seemed new.
He stepped over and picked up the blanket. Moving it brought the smell of new fabric to his nose. A sweater he recognized was under the blanket. His dad had been right. Haylie had been here.
He went to the back door and opened it. “Dad! There’s no one here.”
Luke’s head popped up from behind a bush. “Have they been here?”
“Yeah. Come see.” He retreated back to the house to look for more clues.
Kevin had been sure they’d find Haylie, that he’d be able to return her to her mother by the end of the day. But what if the kidnapper reneged on his promise to let her go? What if he’d taken her out to the woods to kill her?
His gut clenched at the thought of finding her body out here somewhere, and he pushed away the mental image to examine everything in the house. He couldn’t afford to miss anything. He looked through the trash.
His father’s heavy tread came across the wooden floor behind him. Kevin pointed out the bedding. “And there are candy wrappers in the trash as well as a partial sandwich. The bread isn’t that hard either.”
His father went to the old stove. “Still has some wood in it. I’d guess the kidnapper added these logs about two hours ago.” He turned and went toward the front door. “I want to see the tracks.”
Kevin followed him outside and down the steps where they both knelt and examined the tire tracks. “These tracks look like a car, not a truck or SUV. I’m surprised it got back here with the mud.”
“Two vehicles though.” His father pointed at the set by his feet. “These look like truck tires.”
“We saw a big black truck here half an hour ago.” Luke motioned to Claire, who ran to join them.
“What do you think of these tracks?” He estimated them at about an hour old, but his dad was the real expert.
His father touched the impression in the mud. “About fifteen minutes ago.”
“That was my guess too.” Kevin rose and looked at the trail. “The tires went out a different way. Where does this trail lead?”
“It’s a pretty bad one, but it eventually leads out to a fire trail and over to the highway. A car would have a rough time of it. We might be able to intercept them.”
“Luke, you go guard the main exit just in case they’ve found a way to circle back. I’ll get the truck.” Kevin rushed down the trail toward his vehicle. He didn’t want to call Mallory until he’d found Haylie.
Julia stopped her car and stared at the pond. It looked murky
and deep, the perfect place to hide a body. Her hands tied behind her back, the kid lay curled on the backseat with her eyes closed and breathing heavy. She’d cried and screamed the entire way here, and thankfully, had finally fallen asleep.
She fingered the syringe in the pocket of her jacket. One stick and the kid would never wake up. Clean and efficient. The girl wouldn’t suffer. All Julia wanted to do was finish this and leave. Go somewhere far away where she could forget what she was about to do. Swaying palm trees, tropical drinks, and cabana boys would push the guilt away.
She opened her car door and got out. First, she needed to figure out the best place to dump the body. She had rope and an anvil in the trunk. The last thing she wanted was for the corpse to surface.
Flies and gnats swarmed the perimeter of the pond, and she waved her way through a cloud of the pesky insects to the wider edge of the water. She picked up a pebble and launched it into the water. It looked deep enough here. All she had to do was inject the girl while she was sleeping, then carry her here and dump the body.
After retracing her steps, she opened the back door and pulled out the syringe. The fetal position the girl was in took her aback. It was so childlike. Julia could inject her here, then drive around to the other side of the lake where it was even more deserted.
The kid blinked and opened her eyes, then sat up. Her throat worked, and her wide, terrified eyes stared past Julia’s shoulder at the water. “W-why are we here? I want my mom.”
Julia’s golden window of opportunity had vanished. She should have moved faster. “Never mind.” Julia slammed the door shut and got back under the wheel. She started the car and drove forward.
Haylie’s shoulders shook with the weight of her cries. “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you? Listen, my mom has money now. She can pay a ransom. My mom was adopted, and she just found out her real dad is rich, super rich. I’m sure you’ve heard of him. Thad Hugon. H-he lives in Boston. Please, call my mom. She’ll get whatever money you need.”
Julia heard little of what Haylie said. Just a few more minutes, and it would all be over.
Mallory paced from her living room window to the front door and back. The kidnapper had said Haylie would be released at noon, and it was nearly that now. She’d seen no sign of her daughter though, and staying inside the house as ordered was driving her crazy.
Where was Haylie? And why hadn’t Kevin called? He should have gotten to the house over two hours ago.
When she heard a sound from the kitchen, she thought her friend had finally come over. “That you, Kate?”
Starting to turn, she caught a glimpse of a figure dressed in camouflage rushing at her, too fast to form more than just an impression of broad shoulders and a tanned face. He hit her and she went down before she could even scream.
The breath left her lungs as his weight slammed her onto the wooden floor. Her head bounced on the floor, and she heard his gruff voice but couldn’t make out any words as her consciousness wavered.
Stay awake.
Her inner command did little to hold back the darkness pressing in on her, but she strove to hang on to the last bit of light she could see. She was barely awake as he slapped a piece of duct tape over her mouth, then wound another length around her wrists.
He yanked her to her feet, and she struggled to focus on his face, to imprint his appearance into her fuzzy brain. She had to remember every bit of this, from his gray hair to his scary eyes. It might be important.
Wincing at the grip on her arm, she marched with him to the kitchen and out the back door. The sunlight struck her in the face and helped her manage to come out of her stupor. She struggled as he rushed her to the trees at the back of her yard.
He shook her and hissed in her ear, “If your friend comes over here, I’ll shoot her, so shut up unless you want to see her blood spattered all over the grass.”
She immediately quieted and let him shove her into the shadows of the trees. Why weren’t the police here? Surely they’d been watching the back of the house too. Or maybe that was the one who had gone in to use the restroom at Carol’s.
Mallory cast her gaze back and forth, trying to see if any help was likely to come her way or if she’d have to get out of this on her own. Nothing but grass moved in the shadows.
Was he taking her to Haylie? The thought made her stop struggling. She could endure anything if she could get Haylie free.
A gate at the back of the privacy fence opened into a heavily wooded park, and he pushed her through it, then shut the gate behind him. On the other side of the park, a black truck idled at the curb with the passenger door open. She strained to see if Haylie was inside, but the interior was too dim to make out any details.
Hope began to throb in her chest. Maybe the kidnapper had chosen this way to give her daughter back to her. Mallory picked up her speed, eager to get to the truck and see if Haylie was waiting for her.
The air was cooler here in the copse of trees, and gooseflesh rose on her arms. They reached the truck and he pushed her inside. She fell to the hard floor, and he slammed the door shut. She couldn’t call her daughter’s name with the tape on her mouth, so she looked around frantically. The rear seat of the truck was empty except for some tools and an old tarp.
Her abductor climbed into the driver’s seat. His dark eyes met hers in the rearview mirror, and she saw no mercy, no compassion in his hard gaze. He gunned the truck away from the curb.
THIRTY-NINE
The car had been through here not long ago. Kevin’s dad pointed out crushed vegetation just springing to life and the fresh tire tracks in the mud. Then Kevin and his dad got back in the truck and made the same turn as the kidnappers. They had to proceed slowly since the track was so narrow, but even so, brambles scraped at the sides of the vehicle.
He glanced across the seat at his father who was puffing on a cigar with his window down about two inches. Kevin didn’t mind the odor because it somehow reminded him of better times when his dad would take him and his brother out fishing. He’d have the cigar clenched in his teeth, and the smoke would curl around them as if tying them together.
“Thanks for coming with me, Dad. I don’t think I could have gotten here ahead of them without your shortcut.”
“No problem.” His dad took another puff of his cigar, then pointed ahead. “I just got a glimpse of blue. I think they’re just ahead of us. Turn at the next fire road, and we can cut them off.”
Kevin whipped the truck into the narrow dirt track. After the freezing and thawing of the hard winter, the potholes were big enough to swallow a moose. The truck bottomed out a couple of times, but he made it through to the main road again.
“Park sideways in the road here. They won’t be able to get past us.”
Kevin nodded and stopped in the middle of the narrow road, ripe with the scent of mud and decaying vegetation. He opened his door and stepped down into the muck. A swarm of gnats enveloped his head, and he swatted at them. At least they weren’t black flies.
His father exited the truck with his gun in hand. Kevin drew his as well. His father motioned for him to take a spot by a large oak tree while his father stepped to the other side of the road and took up position behind a boulder.
They didn’t have long to wait. The whine of a car engine mingled with the buzz of the gnats, and a blue Ford Focus eased around the curve in the road. Kevin peered through the gloom of the forest and saw a figure in the front seat. The passenger side was closest to him, and he closed his eyes for a brief moment, then opened them again. Where was Haylie? What had the kidnapper done with her?
The car slowed as it neared the truck. The driver’s head swung from side to side as if looking for a way around the truck. The driver had no choice but to stop.
As soon as the car quit rolling forward, Kevin leaped from his hiding place and stepped in front of the car. “Out of the car!” His gaze met that of the driver. A woman? She looked vaguely familiar too.
“Kevin!” The passenger doo
r flew open, and Haylie nearly fell out in her haste to get to him. “You found me.” Barefooted, she sprinted through the mud toward him.
Relief as sweet as ripe blueberries rushed into his chest. He hugged her tight against his chest with his left arm, keeping his Sig trained on the driver. “Are you all right? I didn’t see you in the car.”
She nodded. “I was scared and lying down. Where’s Mom?”
“Trying to get you back by doing what she was told. I’ll call her.” He waved the gun toward the car. “You there. Out of the car.”
His father stepped to the driver’s side and yanked on the door. “It’s locked.” He rapped on the door and waved his gun. “Out. Now.”
The woman’s face was a stiff mask. She opened the door and stepped out into the mud. Slim and dressed in stylish jeans and a blue sweater, she was in her fifties. Then Kevin placed her. She was staying at Hotel Tourmaline. Why would she have taken Haylie?
He motioned her toward him. “You’re Julia Carver.”
“Yes.” Her lip trembled as his father seized her arm and marched her over to Kevin. “I was supposed to kill the kid, but I couldn’t do it.” Her voice sounded incredulous, as though her reluctance to take a life surprised her. “See for yourself. I untied her. I was taking her back.”
“Why’d you kidnap her? What’s going on?” He kept his arm around Haylie who still trembled.
Julia met his gaze boldly. “It’s complicated.”
He read Julia her rights in a monotone. “Tell me,” he said through clenched teeth.
“What will I get if I tell you how to save the Davis woman?”
Her cool voice ramped up his rage. “Where is she?” Mallory had to be all right.
His father tossed the butt of his cigar into the mud. “Let’s get her to the sheriff. Maybe he can make her talk.”
Fear flashed across her face. “Look, I’ll tell you what I know if you’ll let me go. You might be fast enough to save her if you hurry.”