Two Reasons to Run

by Colleen Coble

  “The stegosaurus is next, and that seems to be where they were heading.” She took him along a well-worn path.

  He nodded and followed her and Parker. The statue glistened from the rain, but nothing moved. No Tyler, no Megan.

  Parker nosed around, then turned back toward the car with his tail high. He barked and raced the way they’d come.

  Reid’s legs were wet from the vegetation, and bugs buzzed in his ears now that the rain had ended. They followed the dog a ways down the road. “I don’t see anything.”

  “It’s hidden in the woods,” Jane said.

  Charles hadn’t said much, and Reid suspected he blamed himself for taking Will out. He wanted to comfort the older man, but he didn’t have it in him. Once he found his boy, he’d talk to Charles.

  “There it is.”

  Reid peered through the dark at the head rising into the treetops. “That thing is big.”

  “It’s my favorite.” She picked up her pace. “I think Parker’s found Tyler. There’s someone under it.”

  Hope kicked his chest, and he broke into a long lope past her. He found Tyler curled up under the dinosaur’s belly, Parker licking his face.

  “It’s Tyler!” He reached under and pulled the boy out.

  Tyler’s eyes opened, and he blinked up at Reid. “Megan?”

  “Where is she? What have you done with her?” He wanted to shake the kid, but Tyler was as much of a victim as the other two.

  “She ran off. I wouldn’t hurt her.” Tyler’s face puckered as if he was going to cry, but his gaze went past Reid to Steve. “Dad!”

  Steve helped him up. “Are you hurt, Tyler? What happened?”

  “I wanted to talk to Megan without anyone around. This used to be her favorite place. We’d come here all the time. But she yelled at me. She wouldn’t listen at all. She finally shoved me and ran off. I tried to find her, but it started raining so I got under the brontosaurus. I couldn’t remember where I parked the car.”

  Reid grabbed Tyler’s arm and spun him around. “Do you know where Will is?”

  Jane broke his grip on the boy and got between them. “Tyler, someone took Will. Do you have any idea who it was? Did you see anyone when you forced Olivia’s car off the road?”

  His forehead wrinkled. “I didn’t do anything to Olivia’s car.” He looked at his dad. “Did I?”

  “Don’t say anything, son. We’ll get you an attorney.”

  Reid wanted to wring the guy’s neck. “My son is still out there. Megan is still missing too. He has to tell us what he knows.”

  Steve’s hands curled into fists. “No, he doesn’t. He has rights.”

  Reid forced himself to take a deep breath and turn. “Megan! Where are you?” He walked across the street toward where she’d likely run, and Jane followed him with Parker.

  “Dad, put them in my vehicle until we get back.”

  “I want to get to town,” Steve protested.

  “Walk,” she told him.

  Reid followed her through the mud. “What else is here?”

  “We can check Bamahenge.”

  He had a sinking feeling this search wouldn’t lead to his boy. Someone else had him.

  * * *

  The kid’s dead weight was a boat anchor.

  The remote house he’d rented along Oyster Bay had served him well, and he lugged the kid inside and tied him to a chair. After checking to make sure the windows were locked and the boy couldn’t escape, he left Will sleeping off the tranquilizer.

  He retrieved a beer from the fridge and walked out onto the porch gazing out on the bay. The storm had stolen the moonlight, and the water was a dark pool just beyond his sight. Something splashed to his left—probably a dolphin or flounder—and the lights of a shrimp trawler glimmered.

  He called his boss. “It’s me. I managed to grab the kid. I’m going to ask for all copies of the files as ransom.”

  The long pause should have warned him, but he shouldn’t have been smiling.

  “You idiot! You can’t do that. Dixon will know our interest is in the video footage. And you could never be sure he gave you all the files.”

  His boss was the idiot. The man took a long swig of his beer. “He’s a dad. He’ll do anything to get the boy back. And then I kill him.”

  “And I presume the boy has seen your face?”

  “No, he hasn’t. I drugged him in the dark.”

  Take that, boss man.

  “You’ll have to destroy the evidence. All of it.”

  He got the gist. “No, I don’t. The kid doesn’t know anything.”

  “This has gone too far now. We only have a few hours before the explosion. I can’t have anything go wrong now. I want to see Steve suffer like I’ve suffered. I want to hear him scream as the flames take him. I’ve come too far to see my plan crumble now. Once he steps foot on the platform tomorrow, I’ll have my revenge.”

  “I don’t want to hurt the kid.”

  “If I have to call in someone else, you’ll be on the evidence list too.”

  He shuddered at the cold, pointed words. He either took care of it or someone else would take care of him. While he could leave town, he didn’t have a plan for hiding long-term. The Boss was the sort who had the patience to make sure he was tracked down and eliminated.

  Did he have any options? He examined the situation. He released a heavy sigh. “I don’t like it, but there’s not much I can do. Make it look like an accident?”

  “I don’t know how an accident could take out three people. And what about that videographer? I heard he survived.”

  He’d messed up there. “For now. He’s critical and not expected to make it.”

  And what if he didn’t? That would be four people killed. Was he ready for that? He threw back another pull of beer and clenched his teeth. What choice did he have?

  “I’ll figure out a way to do it. Maybe a fire.”

  “I like that. Use the boy to lure them somewhere, then torch the place. It will destroy a lot of evidence too. Maybe you’re not an idiot after all.”

  The man ended the call and glanced at the TV as a storm surge warning broke into the programming. Storm surge. He had a better idea for how to deal with the problem, but it would take more beer to gather his courage. Luckily, he had two cases in his fridge.

  The boy muttered something and raised his head. He blinked and focused his eyes. “I know you, don’t I? I’ve seen you around the school. You work for the city.”

  He smiled. “That’s what I wanted you to think. It’s nighty-night time again.”

  He plunged another needle into Will’s arm, and the kid went out like a light again. Perfect.

  Thirty-Five

  The sky cried for Will too.

  The clouds parted and the moon peeked out, illuminating the path Reid, Jane, and Parker traversed with trees on both sides. The recent rain released the scent of pine and mud.

  “Bamahenge is a replica of Stonehenge made out of fiberglass,” Charles said. “It’s twenty-one feet tall and one hundred and four feet across just like the original and is aligned to the summer solstice. Schoolkids come out here all the time.”

  Reid didn’t want a history lesson right now—he wanted to feel his son’s arms around his neck and to know he was alive and well. His hands curled into fists, and he wished he could smash them into whoever had taken Will.

  He darted ahead of Charles and caught up with Jane, who trailed Parker as the dog, tail high, raced toward the looming fiberglass stones. “Any word from your team on that truck?”

  “Not yet. I know they’re looking, but it’s impossible to say where the guy took Will. I’m pinning my hopes on Megan knowing something.”

  Something moved near the base of three standing stones stacked with one on top of the other two. “There!”

  Jane’s flashlight probed the shadows, and a white face turned their way as Parker reached her. “Megan!”

  The girl’s face crumbled, and a sob came from deep in he
r chest. “Parker!” She threw her arms around the dog and hugged him, then scrambled to her feet and stumbled toward them with her fingers curled in Parker’s collar.

  Jane enveloped her in an embrace. “It’s okay, honey. You’re okay.”

  While Reid knew Megan needed comfort, he had to bite his tongue and hold himself in check to give Jane the time she needed to calm the girl. The question Where is Will? echoed over and over in his head. Jane had to be impatient as well, but he gave her credit for the way she was hugging and patting Megan.

  Megan’s sobs tapered off. “Is Mom okay? She was bleeding when Tyler dragged me out of the car.”

  “She’s going to be okay. She has a concussion and some minor cuts, but nothing life-threatening,” Jane said. “I don’t think the hospital is even keeping her.”

  “Thank the Lord.” Megan wiped at the moisture on her face.

  Reid couldn’t take it any longer. “Someone took Will, Megan. He arrived at the scene, and when he didn’t find you, he and Charles went into the woods in case you wandered off. We believe someone in a truck snatched him. Did you see anything or anyone on the road as Tyler took you away?”

  Megan’s eyes grew huge, and the tears welled again. “Oh no!”

  “Think, Megan,” Jane urged. “If you saw the truck, maybe we’d have some kind of description. We only found tire tracks.”

  Megan’s shoulders shook, and she pulled away, hugging herself. “I didn’t see anything. I was screaming at Tyler and trying to jump out of the car. I kept unlocking the door, and he kept locking it until he was going so fast I couldn’t get out. I was hysterical about Mom.”

  Reid’s throat closed. She hadn’t seen anything. His boy was still out there, in danger, with no way to locate him. His constant prayers were hitting the ceiling, and he didn’t know what to do. Where was God right now when he needed him like he’d never needed him before?

  His boy, his boy. The agony expanded in his chest until his knees weakened. He leaned against one of the stones to steady himself.

  In the next instant Jane was there, wrapping her arms around him, murmuring broken sobs herself. He buried his face in her neck. The scent and feel of her was a balm on the pain enveloping him.

  His phone vibrated and rang, and he pulled back to reach for it. The number wasn’t familiar, but with Will missing, it could be important. “Dixon.”

  “Dad?”

  “Will!” He turned toward Jane, whose eyes had gone huge. “Are you all right?”

  “I-I’m okay. This guy, h-he says he’s going to kill me if you don’t bring your computer and all your backups of the video you took aboard the oil platform.”

  “Done. Where should I come?”

  “You and Mom have to come alone. You can’t bring Parker either.”

  “Your mom too?”

  “That’s what he says.” Will sounded younger, vulnerable. “If he sees anyone else, any other cars, any people skulking around, he’ll k-kill me and disappear.”

  “We’ll take no chances, Will. We’ll be there. Tell me where to come. My laptop was stolen, remember? Tell him I’ll bring your mom’s computer so he can see me delete the files on the Cloud.”

  “You need to drive out west on Oyster Road. There’s a turnoff onto a dirt road.” Will parroted what a muted voice was saying about landmarks. “He says to come now. You have an hour or I’m dead.”

  “Okay, we’re on our way.”

  “Dad, did you find Megan? Is she all r—” His voice cut off.

  Reid stared at his phone. No connection. The kidnapper must have cut him off.

  Jane was hanging on to his arm. “He’s all right?”

  “At the moment.” He told her the demands.

  “I don’t like it. No backup, no guarantee. Parker could help us, and I don’t like leaving him behind. And his plan doesn’t make sense, Reid. The guy could have no possible way of making sure we don’t have backup. The files are already being analyzed on several computers at the office. That cat is out of the bag. We could be walking into a trap.”

  “We have to do what he says, or he’ll kill Will.”

  “I’m not saying we aren’t going—just that I think there’s more to this than we know. We need to have a plan in place. Maybe Dad could circle around through the trees with my officers.”

  “This guy seems to have been watching everything at the compound. He might have cameras around the house. If we blow this, our son won’t survive.”

  It hurt to say the words, but he couldn’t take any chances with Will’s life because she wanted to play it like the cop handbook. This was their son.

  He wheeled and headed for the SUV. “We’ve only got an hour.”

  * * *

  They had to save their son.

  Once a squad car had arrived to take everyone else back to town, Jane and Reid drove toward Oyster Road. She didn’t like it, and she especially disliked leaving Parker behind. It felt wrong to keep her plans from her team, but Reid was right—they couldn’t risk their son’s life.

  The wet roads glistened in the wash of headlamps as she drove out Oyster Road. The forecast warned of a tropical storm with some surge, especially into Oyster Bay, which was where they were headed. This time of night, her SUV was the only vehicle traveling out here.

  They were on their own.

  She touched the butt of her gun. It wouldn’t be much help if they were ambushed by more than one person.

  Reid turned away from his perusal of the dark abyss outside his window. “I have my gun too. Do you have a plan on how to approach this?”

  “There’s been no time to even think.” She glanced at the green display on the dash. “We’ve only got fifteen minutes now.”

  She’d chewed the inside of her bottom lip raw, but she was no closer to figuring out how to keep them all safe than the first moment she’d heard the kidnapper’s demands.

  She recognized the sign of the turn ahead. “Here’s the road.”

  Pulling to a stop along the side of the road, she pulled up the map now that she knew the exact location. She switched to satellite view so she could study the terrain around the property. “I’ve never been back there. Trees all around and maybe swamp too. The surge might hit hard back here. I’ve got boots in the back. We’ll go in prepared for the worst.”

  “What are you thinking? We walk in off the road?”

  Thirteen minutes. “We’d have to drive back at least partway, or we won’t get there by the deadline.” She traced the narrow lane back to the house. “It makes a turn here. We could park and walk from there, but I’m not sure what that will gain us, other than maybe a more secretive arrival.”

  “It’s worth a shot. I know I pushed you to do what the kidnapper said, but we don’t have to walk in like sitting ducks either. That won’t save Will.”

  “No, it won’t.” She pulled back onto the road and turned left onto the muddy drive, which was getting more treacherous as the downpour started again. The vegetation scraped the side of her vehicle like nails on a chalkboard. She handed her phone to Reid to navigate as she peered through the blurry windshield.

  “The curve is right here,” Reid said.

  A break in the vegetation showed flattened grass, and she nosed in, then executed a turnaround that took several tries. “I want us in a position to make a quick getaway if we have to.”

  She parked and reached into the back for her laptop, then hopped out in the pounding rain and opened the hatch to grab rubber boots. The spare pair were men’s twelves, and she tossed them to Reid when he joined her. The large droplets plastered her hair to her head and ran down in rivulets over her face. It was a warm night, and the moisture rose like fog around them. Frogs croaked from the woods.

  She stamped her feet into the boots, then handed him a yellow slicker before she pulled one over her head. “I’ll circle around from the north. You go in from the south. Let’s try to get near enough to peek in the windows before we go barging in there.”

  He
pulled on the slicker. “I’ll take out my gun when I get close. I want to protect it from the moisture as much as possible.”

  She turned to start for the house, but he caught her by the arm. “Jane, you might not want to hear it, especially now, but I love you. I’ve always loved you. I-If I don’t come back from this . . .”

  She turned and burrowed against him. The smell of the rubber filled her nose, and she fought the tears threatening to weaken her resolve. The words I love you too wouldn’t come out no matter how hard she tried.

  She swallowed the lump in her throat and tried again. “I-I—”

  He took her by the shoulders and held her away to look into her eyes. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. I know you’ll take good care of Will if this goes badly.”

  His dear face, so earnest and loving, blurred through the tears and the rain. He bent his head and kissed her, a quick, hard press of his lips.

  She gasped as he released her, tucked the computer under the slicker, and strode into the trees. The hand she raised toward his disappearing back trembled, and she gritted her teeth. Pull yourself together. She needed every ounce of courage and cunning she could muster.

  She couldn’t lose Reid or Will. This was on her shoulders, and she couldn’t fail them. Taking a deep breath, she went the other way and fought through the thick brambles and heavy vegetation. The slippery red mud and decreased visibility made the trek miserable.

  A structure finally emerged in a clearing. A dim light glimmered through a first-floor window of the old farmhouse, and she struggled to see if Will moved past the gleam of glass.

  Nothing.

  He had to be there, and she had to save him. She crouched down and went forward.

  Thirty-Six

  The flood surged to Reid’s knees.

  He was soaking wet through and through, and even his feet squished inside his boots. Would Jane even be able to get through this fast-running water?

  She and Will had to come out of this alive.

  A wet tree branch slithered across his arm and face, and he thrust it away to step into a clearing. The house, a two-story with a steep roof, loomed ahead, and he crouched to approach the closest back window.