Star Valley Winter

by RaeAnne Thayne

  “No,” Lucy said through her fingers in barely a whisper. Her chin wobbled, and she looked like she was going to cry any minute now. Once she started, they’d never get anything out of her, he realized.

  Instead of obeying his first impulse to ride her hard about it until she told them what was going on, he knelt to her level and pulled her into his arms.

  “Lucy, sweetheart, this is important. Her mom is really worried about her, just like I would be if you were missing. I know Dylan is your friend and you don’t want to get her in trouble, but if you know anything about where she might be, you have to tell us.”

  She looked at the floor for a moment, and a tear slipped out of the corner of her eye and dripped down her nose. “She said she wasn’t going to do it. She said it wouldn’t work,” she wailed.

  “What? What did she say wouldn’t work?” Ellie asked urgently.

  Lucy clamped her lips together, then expelled the words in a rush of air. “We were gonna run away.”

  “Run away?” Ellie again looked lost and bewildered. “Why? What was so terrible that she thought she had to run away?”

  “We weren’t really gonna run away. Just pretend.” Lucy sniffled. “Dylan thought if the two of you had to look for us together, you guys would finally see how much you liked each other and you would get married and we could be sisters for real.”

  Thunderstruck, Matt looked from his daughter to Ellie. At Lucy’s admission, color flooded Ellie’s face, and her horrified eyes flashed to his then focused on the same tablecloth Lucy had found so interesting.

  Oblivious to their reaction, his rascal of a kid plodded on. “We decided it wouldn’t work and that you’d be too mad when you found out what we did. We were trying to come up with a better plan but I guess maybe she decided to do it by herself anyway. I can’t believe she didn’t tell me what she was going to do,” she finished in a betrayed-sounding voice.

  “But where would she go?” Ellie exclaimed. “It’s January. It’s cold and dark out there.”

  “I don’t know.” Lucy started to sniffle again. “We were gonna hide out in one of the ranch buildings.”

  “She wouldn’t have been able to walk all the way out here.” Cassie frowned. “She must have gone somewhere in town.”

  Matt headed for the door. “I’ll send the ranch hands out looking around for her just in case. Cassie, call Jess and let him know what’s going on. Meanwhile, Ellie, you and I can run back to town and see if she might have turned up at your house or at the clinic. Who knows, maybe her teacher has some clue where she might have gone.”

  * * *

  Grateful to have a concrete plan instead of this mindless panic, she nodded and followed him out to his truck.

  On the six-mile ride to town, she was silent and tense, her mind racing with terrible possibilities. While Matt drove, he compensated for her reticence by keeping up a running commentary about everything and nothing, more words than she’d ever heard from him.

  He was doing it to keep her from dwelling too long on all those awful scenarios. She knew it and was touched by his effort but she still couldn’t get past her worry to carry on a real conversation with him.

  The trip from the ranch to town had never seemed so long. “Let’s stop at your house first,” Matt said when they finally passed the wooden city limit sign. “It’s on the way and that seems the logical place for her to go.”

  When she didn’t answer, he reached a hand across the seat to cover hers. “Hang in there, Doc. She’s probably sitting at home waiting for you to get there and wondering if she’ll still be grounded by the time she graduates from college.”

  She managed a shaky smile and turned her hand over to clasp his fingers. Reassured by the heat and strength there, she clung to his hand the rest of the way. When she saw her little brick bungalow was still dark and silent, her fingers tightened in his.

  Matt pulled in to the driveway and turned off the pickup’s rumbling engine. He gave her hand a comforting squeeze. “Okay, she’s not here. But maybe she left a message for you.”

  Trying to keep the panic at bay, Ellie climbed from the truck and unlocked the side door leading to the kitchen. When she saw no blinking light on the answering machine, she almost sobbed. She probably would have if Matt hadn’t followed her inside.

  Instead, she flipped on every light in the kitchen, even the one over the stove. It seemed desperately important suddenly, as if she could fight the darkness inside her.

  That done, she moved through the house urgently, only vaguely aware of Matt shadowing her while she turned on the lights in every single room until the house blazed like a Christmas tree.

  The porch light. She should turn that on, too, so her little girl could find her way home.

  She went to the front door and flipped the switch. Just as she turned away, something jarring, out of place, caught the edge of her vision through the small beveled window in the door.

  She pushed aside the lace curtain for a better look, then felt the blood leave her face and a horrified scream well up in her throat. What came out was a pathetic little whimper like a distressed kitten’s, but it was enough for Matt to grab her and shove her aside so he could look.

  He bit out a string of oaths and yanked the door open. “What the hell is that?”

  Her hands began to shake, and she was afraid she was going to be sick. “I…I think it’s a calf fetus.”

  The yellow porch light sent a harsh glare on the poor little creature, still covered with the messy fluids of birth. She forced herself to walk toward it and saw at once that it was malformed and had probably been born dead.

  Matt crouched beside the animal. “Dammit. Why can’t Jesse find whoever is doing this to you?”

  It had to be connected to the cat left in her truck. She could see that another note had been impaled to the side of the calf with an acupuncture needle.

  She didn’t want to look at it. She would rather shove the needle through her own tongue, would rather have a hundred needles jammed into every inch of her body than have to face the idea that there could be some link between this gory offering and her baby.

  But there had to be. She knew it as sure as death.

  “He’s got her,” she said raggedly.

  Matt stared. “Who?”

  “Whoever left this has Dylan. I know it.”

  She couldn’t breathe suddenly, couldn’t think. Could only watch numbly while he ripped the note away to read it, then uttered a long string of oaths.

  “What does it say?”

  Wordlessly, he handed her the note. Her stomach heaved after she read it, and she had to press a hand to her mouth as bile choked her throat.

  “If you don’t want your kid to end up like this,” the note said in that same ominous black type that had been used for the note left in her truck, “you’re going to have to prove it.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Prove it? Prove it how?

  Ellie stared at the note in her hand, afraid that if she looked away from those sinister words she would find the whole world had collapsed around her. This couldn’t be happening. Salt River, Wyoming, was a slice of America. Soccer games, PTA meetings, decent, hardworking people. She would never suspect someone here could be capable of such hideous evil.

  Her baby.

  Someone had her little girl.

  She thought of Dylan, helpless and scared and wondering where her mother was, and she felt herself sway as every drop of blood rushed from her head.

  Instantly, Matt was there, folding her into his arms. “Hang on, sweetheart. Stay with me.”

  “I have to find her. He has her.”

  “Shh. I know. I’ll call Jess. He’ll know what to do.”

  The phone in the kitchen jangled suddenly, sounding obscenely loud in the quiet house. She stared at it, then her heart began to pound. It was him.
She knew it without a shadow of doubt.

  She raced into the other room and grabbed the phone before it could ring again. “Where is she, you sick son of a bitch?” she snarled.

  An electronically disguised voice laughed roughly in her ear. “You’ll find out. If you do what you’re told.”

  “What do you want?”

  “You’re still here. I thought I told you to leave. You obviously didn’t learn your lesson.”

  “I’ll go. I’ll leave now, tonight. Please, just bring back my little girl.” She hated the pleading in her voice but she would have groveled to the devil himself if it would have kept her baby safe.

  A bitter laugh rang in her ear. “I won’t make it that easy on you anymore. You had your chance. Now you have to cough up a hundred grand before you kiss Star Valley goodbye.”

  “I don’t have that kind of money!” Sheer astonishment raised her voice at least an octave.

  “You’d better find it by tomorrow noon. I’ll let you know the drop-off site.”

  Before she could answer, could beg to at least talk to her daughter and make sure she was safe, the line went dead.

  For several seconds, she stood in the harsh lights of her kitchen holding the phone while the dial tone buzzed in her ear. Then she carefully replaced it onto the base, collapsed into the nearest chair and buried her face in her hands.

  * * *

  Matt found her there when he returned to the kitchen after hanging up the extension in the bedroom. Everything in him screamed out to comfort her, but he knew he had to deal with necessities first. He called Jesse’s emergency number, then quickly and succinctly laid out for his brother what had happened.

  That done, he finally could turn his attention to Ellie. He knelt by her side and pulled her trembling form into his arms. “We’ll get her back, Doc. Jesse’s a good man to have on your side. He’ll find her.”

  Her breathing was fast and uneven, and she seemed as fragile as a snowflake in his arms. “Where am I going to come up with a hundred thousand dollars in cash by noon tomorrow?”

  “Me.”

  She stared at him, eyes dazed like a shell-shocked accident victim. “You?”

  “I’ll call the bank right now and get started on the paperwork.” The ranch had a line of credit more than twice what the kidnapper was asking—plenty of credit and enough influence that he shouldn’t have any problem rushing things through.

  “It’s almost seven-thirty,” she said numbly. “The bank closed hours ago.”

  “The bank manager played football with me in high school. I’ll call him at home. When Rick hears the story, I know he’ll want to help, even if he has to work all night putting the ransom together.”

  He could almost see the objections gather like storm clouds in her eyes. Damn stubborn woman was going to put up a fuss even now. Sure enough, she shook her head. “No. I can’t take your money. I’ll…I’ll figure something else out.”

  “Like what? Sell a kidney?”

  That little chin of hers tilted toward the ceiling. “I don’t know. But this is my problem, and I’ll find a way.”

  It took everything in him not to reach out and shake her until her teeth rattled. This was for real. Didn’t she realize that? He didn’t have either the time or the patience to work at wearing down that brick wall of independence she insisted on building around herself.

  “Look,” he snapped, “I’m going to help you, whether you want me to or not, so just deal with it.”

  “This is serious money, Matt.”

  “Chances are the bastard won’t get far enough away to spend even a few dollars of it before Jess finds him. I mean it, you don’t have a choice, Ellie. For once, just accept my help gracefully.”

  She studied him, her green eyes murky with fear and frustration, then she crossed to the phone and ripped off a piece of paper from a pad next to it, scribbled on it for a moment, then handed it to him.

  “These are my terms.”

  He read it quickly, then scowled. “What the hell is this?”

  “I’ll let you help with the ransom only if I can deed over the clinic and this house to you. It’s probably not binding just handwritten like that, but I’ll have official papers drawn up as soon as I can. You have my word on it.”

  “No way. Then what will you do without a clinic?”

  “I’ll be leaving anyway,” she said tonelessly. “I won’t be needing it.”

  He refused to think about how the idea of her leaving sliced into him like a jagged blade. “What am I supposed to do with an animal hospital? I’m a rancher, not a vet.”

  “Sell it and take the profits. It won’t begin to cover what you’re loaning me, but it will be a start. I’ll have to figure out a way to pay back the rest as soon as I can.”

  He wanted to crumple it up and throw it in her face, but now wasn’t the time for his temper to flare. If this was the only way she would take his help, he would let her think he was agreeing to her terms. Then he would shred the blasted thing into tiny little pieces and mail them to her.

  As he pocketed the paper, a bleak resignation settled in his gut.

  She was leaving, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

  * * *

  Her mom was gonna be so mad.

  Dylan tried to keep from shivering, but it was really hard, not only because it was cool and damp on the straw-covered cement floor but also from the fear that was like a big mean dog chewing away inside her.

  She didn’t have a clue where she was or who had put her here. But she did know she was in serious trouble.

  This was all her fault for disobeying. Her mom told her she was always supposed to walk right to the clinic after school, and she usually did. Today, though, she’d decided to take the long way.

  Cheyenne Ostermiller said her dad was going to sell her pony since she got a new horse for her birthday and that if Dylan wanted to buy it, she could probably get a good deal.

  She wanted that pony so bad.

  It was all she had been able to think about since lunch, when Cheyenne told her about it. All afternoon, during math and music and writer’s workshop, she hadn’t been able to do anything but daydream about having her own horse. Taking care of it, feeding it, riding anytime she wanted.

  Since it didn’t look like her mom was going to marry Mr. Harte any time soon, she at least ought to be able to get a horse of her very own. It was only fair.

  All she planned to do was walk by Cheyenne’s house and take a look at the paint in the pasture. Maybe make friends with him, if he’d let her. It was pretty far out of the way on the edge of town, but she figured if she hurried she’d only be a little late to the clinic and SueAnn wouldn’t even notice.

  The pony had been perfect. Sweet and well-mannered and beautiful. She’d been standing there petting him and trying to figure out how she could convince her mom to buy him when she heard a truck pull up.

  She hadn’t paid much attention, thinking it was probably Cheyenne’s mom or dad. Next thing she knew, somebody had grabbed her from behind and stuffed a rag that tasted like medicine into her mouth. It must have been something to put her to sleep because the next thing she knew, she woke up lying on the straw in this windowless cement room that reminded her of the quarantine room at the clinic.

  She shivered again and pulled her parka closer around her. If only it were the clinic. Then she could bang on the door and bring SueAnn or her mom running.

  This was newer than her mom’s clinic, though. And instead of being clean and nice, this room had an icky smell, and the straw on the cement floor didn’t seem very fresh.

  Where could she be? And who would want to kidnap her?

  If she weren’t so scared, she might have been able to look on this whole thing as a big adventure, something to tell Lucy and the other kids at school about. But she couldn’t h
elp thinking about her mom and how worried she probably was and how mad she was gonna be when she found out Dylan hadn’t gone straight home after school.

  Tears started burning in her throat, and she sniffled a few times, but then she made herself stop. She couldn’t be a crybaby. Not now. Crying didn’t help anything, that’s what her mom always said.

  Her mom never cried. But she figured even her mom would have been a little scared a few moments later when there was a funny noise by the door then the knob started to turn.

  She huddled as far into the corner as she could, her heart pounding a mile a minute, as a man walked through the door wearing a stupid-looking clown mask with scraggly yellow hair.

  “You’re awake.” The voice from inside the mask sounded hollow and distorted, like when you talked into a paper cup, only a whole lot spookier.

  She was afraid she was gonna pee in her pants and she was breathing as hard as she did when Mrs. Anderson made them run a mile in gym class, but she tried to stay calm, just like her mom would have done.

  “Keep your hands off me. I know karate,” she lied. “I’ll kick you so hard in the you-know-where, you’ll wish you were dead.”

  Through the round holes for eyes in the plastic clown mask, she could see pale blue eyes widen, and the alarm in them gave her confidence to sit up a little straighter.

  “No. You’ve got this all wrong. That’s disgusting! I’m not going to touch you. Look, I just brought you a couple of blankets and a pillow. It’s cold in here. I’m sorry, but I didn’t have any place else to put you.”

  She stuck her jaw in the air defiantly. “How about my house?”

  The kidnapper made a sound that might have been a laugh. “Nice try. But I’m afraid that’s not possible right now. You’re stuck with me for a while, kid.”

  He handed the blankets and a small pillow to her but she refused to reach for them, just continued watching him warily.

  “Nobody’s going to hurt you,” he said impatiently. “Just don’t make any trouble and you’ll be back with your mom by lunchtime tomorrow, I promise.”