“Are you serious?” she asked, turning to look at him in the dancing firelight. “It would keep me out of trouble, you mean. Sure, I could help for a little while if it comes to that, but—this old farmhouse, the layout of it, now these wooden-frame stacked beehives that look like tombstones... I think I’ve finally remembered the place where I was held.”
“Walking into that house to get you tonight, I had a flashback to defusing bombs. Don’t need more of those memories.”
“But, as awful as they are, I need mine,” she said in a whisper when they’d been almost shouting to be heard over the roar of the fire.
They both jolted when the farmhouse roof caved in with a crash just as a train screeched its warning in the dark distance. All the clues Tess could remember fit this place, coming together just as it disintegrated in its fiery death.
24
“Sorry to get you out so early on a Sunday morning,” Gabe told his young deputy as they exited their separate vehicles. Dr. Nelson had taken care of him and stitched up Tess, though Gabe was still walking on a gimpy ankle. “But there’s three Simons brothers when I don’t even trust one of them anymore. I think we’ll find Jonas alone at his place, but you never know.”
“No problem about my missing church. Carolyn just said the memorial service tonight will count,” Jace said as they started walking through the trees and up the hill toward the house.
“Not a memorial service. A prayer service and candlelight vigil,” Gabe reminded him. “Memorial would mean Sandy’s gone, and I hope to God she isn’t.”
“Yeah, I knew that. Gotta admit I’m nervous, going in on a big, shifty guy who’s good with pit bulls and chain saws. You ever see that Chainsaw Massacre flick?”
“Save it. I’m hoping this will be a knock-and-talk at first, but I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, especially since I hope to arrest him. Just let me do the talking but cover me from a stand of trees where you can see us, like we planned. Even if he asks me in, I’ll have him step out into the open. I’ll give you time to get set.”
Gabe left Jace and limped toward Jonas’s large log cabin home. Ann had let slip that the new home’s interior was beautifully finished and cost a lot. Then she’d tried to backtrack on the expense comment. Gabe figured that was because Jonas’s job at the mill didn’t provide a big paycheck even if he did get a discount on wood. He might not be only running illegal dogfights but also getting drug money from tipping off the meth lab gang through Ann. Gabe couldn’t think of anyone else named Jonas around here, but there could be—though not with links to key information from the sheriff’s department.
He had to get something out of Jonas before he accused Ann of anything. She was a lot smarter than her brothers, so, as tough as they were, Gabe was betting she wouldn’t crack as easily.
The minute he stepped into the yard, about ten pit bulls behind a wire fence went wild, barking, snarling.
Jonas stuck his head out the front door, looking like death warmed over.
“Hey, Sheriff,” he said, laughing and scratching his belly through a loose flannel shirt. “You come to ask me for Ann’s hand? I’d agree to a shotgun wedding. Should I go get mine?”
Gabe moved closer but not too close. At least the man seemed to be in a good mood, but he knew it wouldn’t last too long.
“Step out so we can have a talk please,” Gabe called to him. “I’m here to ask why you didn’t come in Friday morning to retrieve your dog. The one John Hillman mounted for you before it was stolen from the taxidermy shop. Ann did give you a quick call from the office as soon as she knew about it, didn’t she?”
Gabe watched the big man closely as he stepped out of the house but saw no hint Jonas got what he was implying. Although the man really annoyed him, Gabe kept his game face on, as impassive as possible. He glanced around at the open door, the front windows, the side of the house he could see, in case Jonas wasn’t alone.
“I heard the dog doc shot and killed himself,” Jonas said, coming no closer than the edge of the porch. Gabe kept an eye on his hands. He could have a gun stuck in his waistband under that loose shirt.
“Answer my question, Jonas. I told you to be there on Friday. Dr. Thompson died yesterday. Since this is Sunday, you’re a couple of days late.”
“Didn’t come in ’cause I had to work at the mill. And ’cause I didn’t want to get questions from you like this. I don’t have nothing to do with nothing. And I don’t like the way you been treating Ann lately,” he said, propping his fists on his hips, which at least suggested there was no hidden gun.
“You didn’t want questions because you have something to hide?”
Jonas came down off the porch. Gabe stood his ground.
“You trying to say I’m fighting dogs again? You just go see if any of them look torn up.”
“I would imagine you get rid of the ones who are injured. Bury them in the woods? No, I came to tell you that I have information you’re tied to the gang of meth cookers.”
“What? Says who?” he said, edging toward the dog cages instead of coming closer.
“Stay there. Stay put,” Gabe commanded.
“You mean like ‘heel’? I ain’t someone you can order around, like Ann, just ’cause she works for you, is soft on you.”
“You give me your contact’s name in that gang—Hank’s last name—and where I can find him, and things will go a lot easier for you in court.”
Gabe saw the man’s eyes widen when he heard the name Hank.
“You’re nuts, man! You come out here, accusing me of...of what? You been tapping my phone? You can’t prove nothing! How would I know anything about any meth lab gang? I can prove where I was last night!”
“Last night? You mean someone tipped off the meth lab gang last night, so that’s when you need an alibi? I didn’t mention last night, and you wouldn’t have to be with them to tip them off. No, I haven’t tapped your phone, but since you’re innocent, how about you just let me check calls on your cell? I will tell you Hank and his friends are going to be charged with attempted murder when we arrest them, so you might want to come into the station and make a statement to help me locate them faster than I’m going to anyway. That would make it go easier on you and anyone else who is tipping you off so you can tip them off. And quit shuffling toward that dog compound. You loose those dogs on me, I’ll have to shoot them. I’d rather not, nor would Deputy Miller, who has my back right now.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Really?” Gabe said. “Deputy Miller,” he called, without taking his eyes off Jonas. “You there?”
“Fully armed, Sheriff!” Jace called out. He shot a single bullet into the air, which made Gabe jump as much as Jonas did.
Gabe put his hand on the holster of his gun. At first he thought Jonas would lunge to free the dogs, but instead he looked as if he was going to cry.
“Don’t mind for me,” he said, as if talking to the dogs, “but for Ann.”
Finally, Gabe thought, he’d found Jonas’s soft spot. “Like I said, your cooperation—and Ann’s,” Gabe said, “will go a long way in all this. How about you let me take you in, make a statement? She can too.”
“I’m not friends with those lowlifes, Hank McGuffey and his crew, just could use the extra money. Mill don’t pay enough, selling extra firewood neither. Don’t need no bank foreclosing on my dream home here.”
Again, the big man looked as if he was close to tears.
Gabe had expected a fight, was even, if those dogs got loose, prepared to have to climb a tree. With all this hitting him at once: losing Ann in the office, suspecting Marva as a possible suspect for the kidnappings, wanting to protect Tess but afraid he couldn’t—in more ways than one, he felt he was up a tree whatever happened next.
“Jonas,” he said. “I’m going to read you your Miranda rights and e
xplain them.”
“I’ll cooperate. That should go a long ways with you and in court. Ann had no idea I was passing things on. Told her I was just interested in police work, and asked her stuff.”
Gabe didn’t believe any of that, and realized this might not be smooth sailing after all.
* * *
Sunday morning Tess fixed breakfast for herself and Vic, since Gabe was long gone. “The pancakes are great,” Vic said, tucking into his second stack of them. “So much better than those toaster waffles and quick-fix stuff. I’m a disaster in the kitchen.”
“I thought you were married.”
“Was,” he said, pouring on syrup. “Can’t be married to a wife and the career I’ve had. I don’t blame her for taking a hike. I was married though, when I was here for your case, and she suffered right along with me until you turned up. See,” he said, his hands resting with his fork and knife beside his plate, “we lost our daughter to cancer when she was young. My wife was real happy when your mother got you back. Our Tiffany had neuroblastoma—rare but with only about a five percent survival rate.”
“Vic, I’m sorry,” she said, sinking into the chair across the table from him. Tears burned her eyes, but she blinked them back.
He sighed. “Well, yeah. Thanks. I think it’s why I was really shook when Jill Stillwell went missing, and I was assigned somewhere else so I couldn’t work that case. And now the Kenton girl. I might come off hard as nails, but I know how it feels to lose a young girl.”
“Speaking of marriage under the strain of the man’s career, it was obviously hard for Gabe’s mother.”
He started to eat again. “Speaking of obvious, I had no idea you didn’t know about your father and Gabe’s mom.”
“It’s best I know. I don’t hold it against you. My family should have told me. But what you said about your wife too—no wonder Gabe has never married in his position.”
He narrowed his eyes and stared straight at her. “He and Ann were done before he found out she betrayed him, you know.”
“That’s what he said.”
“You thinking of the two of you—him and you?”
“Of course not. With all that’s going on, and I’ve only known him—as adults—for six days, no way! I’m heading back to Michigan as soon as this is all over.”
“‘Methinks the lady doth protest too much.’ That’s Shakespeare—impressive, huh? Look, I can see you two care for each other. That’s why he asked me to keep a good eye on you today at the church service for Sandy, the candle walk, all that.”
“I’ll be fine in the crowd.”
“Because the person or persons out to scare you off or keep you quiet only come out of cornfields and we’ll be uptown? Nope, I’m sticking by you today. You know,” he said, with a shake of his head and slight smile as he poured more maple syrup on his last few bites, “I saw a tabloid newspaper when Jill Stillwell went missing that claimed ‘the Hillbilly Kidnappings’ were done by the same aliens that make crop circles in the fields.”
“No kidding? What a joke! That’s terrible—saying Hillbilly too! I’ll bet Mayor Owens had a fit over that. But I guess, unless Marva confesses, aliens make as much sense as anything.” She hesitated for a moment. “Vic, one other thing.”
He looked hard at her as if he knew something bad was coming.
“I’m going to phone my father.”
She thought that would surprise him, or he’d speak against it, but he surprised her. “Take notes. Hey, I’ll clean up here. You go call him. And keep your spirits up in case he doesn’t want to talk. I tell you though, I’d give years of my life—my entire life—to talk to my girl again.”
* * *
Gabe saw Ann jump up from behind her desk when he and Jace came in with Jonas in handcuffs.
“Gabe!” she shouted. “What? What?”
“He’s agreed to answer some questions. Just call Peggy for me, get her out of bed again and tell her I need her in here on the desk.”
“But what’s the charge?”
“Ann!” Jonas said. “Get outta here and call us some fancy lawyer from Lake Azure, ’cause there’s a bunch of them there.”
“Us? Gabe...”
He took Jonas into the smaller conference room, uncuffed him and left Jace with him. He went back to Ann, took her arm and steered her toward her desk. “You said you were disappointed in me the other day for cooling off on you. But I—”
“Since Tess—”
“It’s not her fault. I’m more than disappointed in you. Now, I’d like you to sit down at your desk and write out a statement. How long and how often you’ve been tipping off Jonas or anyone else about my comings and goings. Specifically reference the warning call to Jonas to tell Hank McGuffey and the other meth cookers last night, right after I told you that’s where I was going. No wonder you didn’t tell me who owned that stuffed dog, then tried to talk me out of linking it to Jonas. Now I know why I never could break up his dogfights, let alone the drug dealers he was tipping off.”
She yanked her arm away and snatched her purse from behind her desk. “You’re a loser, you know that!” she shouted. She rushed over to the coat pegs on the far wall of the waiting area and grabbed her jacket. “You—like father, like son—couldn’t solve the biggest case this county’s ever seen, and I’ll bet the kidnapper’s right under your nose! Meanwhile, you waste your time with petty things. I am going to get a lawyer.”
He refused to shout like she did. He was hurt and furious, but she wasn’t worth his emotion, let alone his passion. He spoke calmly. “You were right under my nose, and you’ve been caught. You and Jonas both. If you don’t write out the statement right now, you can do it in a jail cell.”
“He’s an idiot to have told you anything! Excuse me—permanently—because I’m done wasting time and effort on you. Now I need to spend some of my hard-earned money to get a lawyer to protect me from something I’m not guilty of. By the way, Marva Green’s done the same thing. I took a call from her attorney this morning.” Her face puckered in a sneer; her voice was snotty. “He’ll contact you on Monday, but you’re not to see her without him present! Consider that my last duty and contribution around here!”
He snared her arm as she made for the door. “Take your hands off me!” she insisted.
Without a word, he marched her back to the holding cell, took her purse for Peggy to itemize and locked her in. He stomped back to her desk, got a pad and pen, and shoved them through the small food-tray opening at the bottom of the thick door. Through the grate, he said, “Jace will be right in to read you your rights and let you call a lawyer—unless you want to write out what I asked and leave to see a lawyer yourself.”
Gabe went over and sat at her desk. He called Peggy to come in. Later, he’d go through Ann’s records, phone log and computer thoroughly, but right now he just wanted to tell Tess one more time not to come uptown without Vic today. But her cell rang busy. After last night, maybe she needed counseling and comforting from her social-worker sister again, but he wished she’d just come to him.
* * *
Tess could not stop shaking, but she was going through with this. A man’s voice answered the phone. The past hit her like a sledgehammer. For a moment, she couldn’t say a word.
“Hello? Jack Lockwood speaking.”
Afraid he’d hang up whether she talked or didn’t, she blurted out what she wanted to say in a rush. “Dad, it’s Tess—Teresa. I know this is a surprise but I’ve wanted to talk to you for a long time. I’m in Cold Creek to sell the house after Mom died. There’s been a third kidnapping, so I just had to call you. I mean, it brought things back, and I’m trying to help Sheriff McCord—you know, Gabe’s sheriff now—but I still can’t remember who took me.”
“Teresa. My terrific, terrible Teresa! I’d heard your mother died. I’m sorry.
Really, I am...for lots of things.”
She was crying now. “But who told you about her?”
“Reese Owens. The bastard calls sometimes. I think to make sure I’m still thousands of miles away. He once accused me of taking you, my own daughter. I wasn’t sure you knew any of that. I guess Kate and Char did.”
“Dad, was Reese Owens part of the reason you left, because he threatened to accuse you in public?”
“Yes. But I’d told Sheriff McCord—Gabe’s dad—that he should take a look at George Green. The guy needed money because he was going bankrupt. Your mother said he’d been around that day before she left you at home with Gabe. George was peddling corn on the cob and said you were the prettiest child of the three. I loved all of you, Teresa, but you were such a feisty tomboy. I guess I’d hoped for a son, but I’m glad I got you, since you were most like me.”
In a rush, Tess told him she’d changed her name, just to help let the past go—but it hadn’t helped. She explained the possible Dane and Marva connection for the kidnappings. He told her he’d read about the Kenton girl’s abduction. She explained that Reese Owens was trying to get her out of town fast too, though she didn’t mention what she knew about Reese’s once molesting a minor.
Instead she changed the subject and talked about her dreams of selling the farmhouse and buying a day care center; about how Kate and Char were doing well in their careers and travels. She asked him about his family. He told her he had two sons, Josh, age seven, and Jerod, just turned five. Silently, secretly, she was glad he had sons but not more daughters. “I’d like to meet them someday. It’s exciting to think I have two brothers.”
“Teresa—Tess—I’m sure your sisters are still angry with me, but tell them it wasn’t all my choice that I stayed away. A man more powerful than most folks in Cold Creek realize swore he’d make it bad for me if I came back.”