Fugitive Chase

by Jenna Night

  “Okay, thanks.”

  She gave him directions to the house where she lived with her parents, but was otherwise quiet. When they arrived, he got out of the truck and walked her to the door despite her protests that he didn’t need to.

  “You should stay home after we get your car tomorrow morning,” Harry said as Ramona dug her house key out of her purse. “Lie low and give us a chance to find Linder.”

  “I’ve actually considered doing that. But my parents own and run a diner. We can’t all stay home and I don’t want to stay here by myself. I think going into work and being around other people might be the safest plan for me.”

  Harry wasn’t crazy about the idea, but her reasoning made sense and he couldn’t think of a better alternative. “Make certain you stay aware of your surroundings,” he said.

  “I will.”

  She unlocked the front door and stepped inside.

  “Keep an eye out for Linder’s two thugs,” Harry added. “They could come after you, too.”

  Ramona sighed wearily. “I will. And thank you. For everything. Good night.” She stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

  Harry listened for the locks to engage and then walked back to his truck, determined to get this case wrapped up as quickly as possible. Linder and his cronies could not be left free to roam the streets of Stone River. They were too dangerous.

  * * *

  Police visited Jasmine at work this morning and questioned her about Darrin. Nobody’s seen him. They think he probably left town right after the shooting. Might have left the state. Do you have any new leads?

  Ramona tapped the screen on her new phone and sent the message to Harry.

  Her phone chimed almost immediately with his reply.

  Talking to one of the tenants in the apartment that Darrin claimed was his when he filled out his bond application. Visited his most recent place of employment earlier this morning.

  Her phone chimed again before she could reply.

  Watch your back. Police could be wrong. Linder or the other two guys could still be in town.

  A familiar ripple of anxiety passed through her. She’d felt the same thing last night as she lay awake. After she’d told her parents about what had happened and reassured them that she was fine, she’d tossed and turned as fear and anger each took their turn sending dark, unsettling thoughts into her mind. She’d prayed all night, and it helped, but it was still a struggle that continued up until morning.

  And it looked like it was going to continue throughout the day today, too. “Dear Lord, please protect my family and everyone searching for Darrin,” she whispered softly. “Please help them find him and bring him to justice. And please give us Your peace that passes all understanding.”

  Another message came through on her phone.

  I have some questions for you and Jasmine. What time will you be home from work?

  She was supposed to work until two this afternoon, so she tapped in Two-thirty and hit Send. That would give her time to get home and change into clothes that didn’t smell like pancake syrup and french fries. She didn’t mind the smell, but some people did. That was the only reason for changing. It had nothing to do with wanting Harry to see her looking nicer. He’d already seen her in her work clothes, anyway, when he’d taken her to get her car this morning.

  Ramona’s parents could have helped her retrieve her car, but Harry had insisted on doing it because he’d promised her he would. He politely shook hands with her dad and let her mom hug him when they wanted to thank him for saving Ramona’s life.

  He’d also brought her the pay-as-you-go phone that she was using now so they could stay in touch while she was waiting to get her usual phone replaced. As the morning wore on, he’d texted her a couple of times with questions and updates. He seemed to be going out of his way for her, and she didn’t know how to read the situation.

  Yes, she did. The correct reading of the situation was that Harry was a decent man simply doing his job and Ramona was a slightly lonely woman who overthought things and desperately needed to put more effort into getting herself a romantic life.

  Maybe she would actually do that once she was certain she and her family weren’t going to be murdered by an enraged drug dealer who held them responsible for the dissolution of his love life.

  “Would you start a fresh pot of decaf, honey? The stuff in the pot right now has been there for nearly an hour.” Ramona’s mom, Toni, smiled at her and gave her shoulder a playful nudge as she walked by. Her mom was trying to act like everything was fine, especially in front of the customers, but the dark circles under her eyes made it clear Toni hadn’t slept much last night, either.

  They were both behind the counter at her parents’ diner, Kitchen Table, in downtown Stone River. They specialized in comfort food and right now they were just finishing up the lunch rush, which meant they’d been serving a lot of pot roast with mashed potatoes and meatloaf sandwiches on grilled sourdough.

  “Sure, I’ll take care of the coffee.” Ramona smiled at her mom, going along with the pretense that everything was okay. It actually helped Ramona hold herself together. And she needed that. Because when her thoughts drifted back to what happened last night, fear squeezed her heart and for a moment it was like she was back in the woods outside the cabin, fighting for another breath as she ran for her life.

  Normally, Ramona’s parents came into the diner well before the sun was up and Ramona came in around midday and stayed until closing. Today had not been a normal day. Thanks to their loyal employees pitching in, her parents had been able to go in to work a little later this morning. And since Ramona hadn’t wanted to stay home alone, and she definitely didn’t want to be going home after dark, she’d come in earlier than usual with the intention of leaving in the afternoon.

  Fortunately, the employees and regular customers who’d heard about the shooting and chase last night had managed to convey their concern for Ramona without being overly dramatic or asking for details. And that made it a little easier to get through her shift.

  Ramona started the decaf brewing and then plated the two slices of Mile High Coconut Cream Pie she’d gone behind the counter to fetch from a cooler. She delivered the luscious dessert to the guests in a booth by the front window and smiled to herself at the look of wide-eyed delight on their faces.

  And then her gaze shifted and she was looking out the window, her smile fading as anxiety kicked in again. She’d spent more time than usual today looking outside. She kept trying to remember what the two cars parked outside the cabin last night had looked like. She wished she’d paid more attention to them.

  Did she really think she might see Darrin or his two accomplices driving by? The chances of that were pretty slim. Especially since the diner was only a couple of blocks from the police station.

  “Excuse me. Are you okay?” The woman at the booth looked at Ramona with a deep frown crease between her silver eyebrows. She and her husband were traveling through north Idaho in their motor home. This was their first visit to the diner and they’d assured her it wouldn’t be their last. Apparently, the poor woman had been trying to get Ramona’s attention while Ramona stood right by her table, lost in thought.

  She and her husband wanted carryout containers for their pie, explaining that they realized they couldn’t finish it right now even though they wanted to. Ramona apologized profusely and hurried to the kitchen get the containers. How embarrassing. One minute she was so nervous and vigilant she was nearly jumping out of her skin. The next, she was lost in her thoughts and oblivious to someone speaking directly to her.

  She hadn’t had this problem before she’d been shot at. Hopefully the condition wouldn’t last forever.

  But it might. What if the police and bounty hunters never found Darrin? What if she had to go the rest of her life looking over her shoulder, wondering if he was closing in on her?
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br />   “Hey, Peanut,” her dad called out to her as she passed by him in the kitchen. She’d come to terms with the fact that he was going to continue to use her childhood nickname no matter how old she got. “How ya holding up?” he asked.

  “I’m okay, Dad.”

  Eric Miller was a tall, slender man who loved to feed people. He’d learned his trade in the US Navy where he’d observed the power that comfort food had to bring people together and help them smile or de-stress a little.

  Toni walked into the kitchen, gave Eric a peck on the cheek, and then started talking to him in a soft voice. Ramona couldn’t hear what she was saying. When she walked back by with the carryout containers for her last table, both of her parents were still talking to each other, but they were looking at her. Her mom had her eyebrows slightly raised and she wore a concerned look.

  Great. Her mom must have heard that poor customer calling out to Ramona several times to get her attention.

  “Let’s go home and put our feet up,” Toni said to Ramona as they headed back out to the dining area.

  “It’s okay, Mom. I can make it through the next forty-five minutes until my shift ends.”

  “Let’s just go now,” Toni said. “The rest of the staff can handle your tables until the evening shift shows up.”

  Ramona paused for a minute, trying to decide what would make her parents happier. Should she stay or go?

  It seemed like her mom and dad were always making sacrifices for her and she wanted to repay them. Especially after she had to move back into their house with them after she caught pneumonia.

  They were worried about her. She could see it on their faces. So, she swallowed the pride that made her want to prove she could stick it out and said, “Let me finish taking care of these customers and then we’ll go.”

  Fifteen minutes later, the two of them were walking out to Toni’s sedan parked at the back of the diner’s lot.

  Ramona nervously scanned the parking lot and the nearby street. Things looked normal. Unless Darrin was perched atop one of the surrounding red brick buildings like some kind of sniper, she was probably safe. But despite the attempt to calm herself, she still felt exposed and vulnerable walking out in the open like this.

  Toni started the engine and pulled the car out onto the street.

  Exhausted, and really feeling it now that she was no longer working and pretending to be fine, Ramona tried to relax and sink back into the seat as her mom drove through town, but she couldn’t. He body was tight with tension and she realized that some part of her was afraid to relax. In the back of her mind she felt like she had to stay on high alert and be ready to run for her life at any moment. Because the world was no longer the mostly sane, stable place that she’d believed it to be before last night’s attack.

  She rubbed her hands over her face and felt the small scratches on her cheeks and chin and forehead, etched there by the tree branches and pine needles as she’d fled through the forest. Her calf and thigh muscles were sore, too. She’d never been the kind of person who jogged for fun, so she was feeling the aftereffects this morning. At least her lungs weren’t bothering her after all the running she’d done last night. That was a blessing.

  She removed her hands from her face, gazing around at her familiar small town, grateful that the ride to her parents’ house would be short.

  Up ahead, the road dipped under a wide concrete railroad trestle. She and Jasmine used to ride their bikes down here when they were kids, enjoying the stomach-dropping thrill, even though their parents told them not to. Reaching this point meant that she was almost home. Maybe once she was inside the house, she’d be able to relax.

  They were midway through the shadowy passage under the trestle when something hit their car from behind at high speed, striking with such force that the car jolted forward and started to spin out of their lane. When they emerged from the other side of the passage, they were facing the opposite direction and had moved into the opposing lane of traffic. Their car hit the grassy embankment and came to a sudden stop. The airbags deployed.

  In the aftermath, Ramona sat there, stunned.

  “Are you all right?” Toni asked as the airbags started to deflate.

  Before Ramona could answer, a metal bar bashed through the window beside her repeatedly, breaking the glass and then clearing it away until a gloved hand reached through the void, unlocking the door and opening it.

  Frantic, Ramona looked for her phone to call for help, but she couldn’t find it before the gloved hand unfastened her seat belt, grabbed her arm and started pulling her out of the car.

  Toni screamed and clutched Ramona’s other arm, but the abductor was stronger—strong enough to pull Ramona out of her mother’s grip.

  A second assailant appeared, and like the first attacker, he wore a black ski mask that hid his face. He took hold of Ramona’s free arm and together the men dragged her, kicking and screaming, toward a silver SUV that was parked at the top of the hill.

  The car that had rear-ended them and caused the accident was still in the street, abandoned, with the driver’s side door hanging open. One of the two men holding onto Ramona must have been driving it.

  There wasn’t usually much traffic in this part of town in the early afternoon and today was no exception. Nobody drove by who could help her. But even if there had been other people around, it probably wouldn’t have mattered. Everything happened so quickly.

  “Ramona!” She heard her mom yell her name, but she couldn’t turn around to look at her. She fought with everything she had, but it didn’t do any good. Even as her body heated up with the exertion of her struggles, her blood ran cold. Her abductors had to be Darrin Linder and one of his cronies.

  Darrin was making good on his threat to silence her forever.

  FOUR

  Harry realized what was happening as soon as he spotted the car at an odd angle on the wrong side of the road. The sedan looked familiar. He’d seen it parked in the driveway of Ramona’s house when he was there earlier that morning. It belonged to someone in her family.

  And then his gaze fell on Ramona, twisting and thrashing as she was being dragged up the embankment beside the road, struggling to break free from the grip of a man with a knitted ski mask pulled down over his face. A second man, also masked, jumped into the driver’s seat of an SUV at the top of the hill.

  Oily anxiety swirled in the pit of Harry’s stomach and his heart started pounding at a furious rate. Those men, one of whom had his hands on Ramona, were attempting to kidnap her. Harry could not let that happen.

  Ramona’s mom stood outside of the car, frantically waving at Harry with one hand while she held her phone up to her ear with the other. Police sirens wailed in the distance, but Harry knew they wouldn’t arrive in time.

  The jerk who was clutching Ramona moved fast, and he quickly wrestled her to the side of the SUV despite her struggles. He reached for the passenger side door handle as the SUV started rolling forward. Once he shoved Ramona inside, they would be gone. And Harry might not be able to catch up with them.

  Determination and anger flared through his body as Harry floored the gas pedal in his truck, crossed the road and ploughed up the hill. His tires ripped up the grass and dirt as he headed straight for the SUV.

  The trick would be to disable the SUV without harming Ramona. And he only had a few seconds to figure it out.

  His first thought was to aim for the front fender, driving into it with enough force to crumple the body of the vehicle and prevent it from moving any farther. But that would mean ramming the SUV close to the spot where Ramona was sitting. She could get hurt. So that was not a good option.

  If he came to a stop in front of the SUV to block its escape, the driver could simply back up and drive around him. There was plenty of room.

  Too soon, Harry was out of time. He had to commit to a plan now. Following his gut instin
cts, he eased off the accelerator and steered toward the back of the SUV.

  As he drew closer, the creep clutching Ramona’s arms turned to look in his direction and Ramona seized her opportunity. She jerked hard to her right, breaking free of the man’s grip just before Harry slammed into the SUV. Harry hit it harder than he intended and the impact caused the vehicle to spin clockwise, but that didn’t matter. Ramona had gotten out of the way.

  Harry could see Ramona running hard, skimming the top of the grassy hill and heading toward a nearby row of red brick town houses. The thug who’d had hold of her before was now hot on her heels—and gaining on her.

  Harry threw his truck into Reverse and hit the gas, backing up a few feet and disentangling himself from the SUV. Then he shifted gears and spun the steering wheel, aiming for Ramona in the hope of getting to her before the bad guy did. But before he could hit the gas, the SUV revved up its engine and shot forward, hitting his truck’s left front fender and blocking his pursuit before it even started.

  Hot with frustration, Harry again reversed his truck to get away from the SUV.

  The wailing police sirens were getting louder so the cops must be closer. The driver of the SUV appeared to notice that, too. He gunned his engine, turned and sped off, driving across the grassy embankment until he hit blacktop. He shot down the road until he turned a corner, tires squealing, and disappeared into the surrounding neighborhood.

  Harry turned his attention back to the direction where he’d last seen Ramona with the assailant chasing after her. He was too late. Both had already vanished from sight.

  He steered across the grass toward the street, moving more cautiously as he tried to determine which path Ramona and her pursuer had taken.

  Flashes of blue and red emergency lights reflected off his truck’s mirrors and splashed through the cab’s rear window. The wailing sirens suddenly stopped. The police must be on scene. A quick glance confirmed that two patrol cars had arrived and that officers were already talking to Ramona’s mother.