by Kathi Daley
It took a minute, but a sound eventually came through. I immediately knew that the music she heard was different than the music coming from the bar. I wondered if there was another bar in Barron. Probably. The entire town was only a few blocks in all directions, so I instructed Houston to drive around. Eventually, we found a bar playing the same music Emily could hear.
“I found you,” I said in my thoughts. “Or at least I found the music. I want you to snuggle up with the others and keep quiet. I’m going to look for you. If I need you to do something, I’ll come back and tell you.”
“Okay, but hurry. I’m so, so scared.”
I bet she was. I couldn’t imagine having to endure something like the ordeal she’d been through, especially for a twelve-year-old.
“Should we go in and look around?” Houston said.
“No. The music is muted, and the bar is small. I don’t think the girls are in the bar.” I looked around at the building near the bar. “There,” I pointed at a warehouse-type building. “Let’s look there.”
We got out of the truck, taking Mucker with us. We hurried through the night to the warehouse, which looked to be abandoned. When we found a broken window in the back, Houston climbed through and opened a side door for Mucker and me. Mucker immediately took off into the darkness. By the time Houston and I caught up with him, we could hear the girls banging on the door. Houston called for them to stand back, and then he kicked it in. All three girls looked terrified, but when Emily saw me, she left the others to throw herself into my arms.
Chapter 14
After we’d rescued the girls, we repeatedly tried to call Dru, but he wasn’t picking up. We realized the kidnapper would be back for the girls and that our best bet at capturing him was to simply wait for him to arrive, so Houston stayed at the warehouse while I took the girls with me to Sarah’s home. When I arrived at Sarah’s home, I hoped Dru would still be there, but Sarah’s parents informed me that he’d never shown up for the interview. I’d had a bad feeling about things for a while, and my inability to locate the guy was only making that feeling worse.
Houston called to let me know that he’d called and spoken to Preston in Huntsville while he’d waited at the warehouse. He wanted to let him know that we had Irene. Preston was thrilled we’d found the girl and arranged for a pilot he knew to bring her parents to Barron to escort her home. Emily was taken closer to Rescue, so Houston and I figured we’d just take her home with us. He’d called her parents to let them know she was safe and would be returned shortly.
Of course, before we did that, we really needed to find both Dru and the kidnapper.
“Hey, Houston, any updates?” I asked after I dropped the girls off, and Mucker and I returned to the truck Dru had lent us.
“No. I’m still sitting here waiting. How did things go on your end?”
“Fantastic, as you can imagine. Sarah’s parents were so relieved and happy to see her. It really did my heart good.” I supposed it was these happy reunions that I found to be the most gratifying thing about search-and-rescue.
“And the other girls?”
“Sarah’s parents were happy to allow Emily and Irene to stay with them until someone came for them, so I think we’re all set there.”
“Do Sarah’s parents seem capable of protecting the girls in the unlikely event that the kidnapper tries to get his property back?” Houston asked.
“They do. Sarah’s father is an ex-marine and volunteer firefighter. He knows his way around a gun and seems capable of keeping the girls safe. Given everything that’s going on, leaving all the girls with him seemed the best option.”
“Yeah, it sounds like you made a wise decision. Are you heading back here?”
“Not yet. I’m going to stop by the police station and take a look around, and if Dru isn’t there, then I’m going to take a look at his home. If I can’t figure out where he went, I’ll come to you. I’ll call you either way.”
“I don’t like you snooping around on your own. The man who took these girls is still out there, and you know he’s going to be mad once he figures out that all his hard work the past few weeks has been for naught.”
“I’m totally capable of looking out for myself.” I looked down at the large dog. “Besides, I have Mucker to keep me safe. You’re the one who needs to be careful. As you just pointed out, when the kidnapper gets back and finds the storage room empty, he’s going to be mad.”
“Let’s just hope he does come back. If he somehow found out that we have the girls, I will have been sitting here in the dark and cold for nothing.” He took a breath. “I’ll call Emily’s parents and let them know she’s been found safe and that we’ll bring her home once we’re done here. I called Preston, but I’m not sure he has their contact information.”
“I’m sure Preston can get it, but I’m sure Emily’s parents would appreciate a call from you.” I glanced out the window at the endless night. “I should get going. I’ll call you back in a bit.”
After I hung up with Houston, I headed toward the police station. It was dark and locked up tight. I considered trying to break in but decided against it at this point. Then I headed over to Dru’s home. It was dark too. I didn’t know the area and realized that I’d need help tracking the man down. I thought about the men at Hades. Dru seemed to know everyone well. I had no way of knowing if the local police officer was dead or alive at this point, but I did know I needed to find him fast, so I headed back in the direction of the bar. I took Mucker inside with me since I figured I’d need to prove I had Dru’s best interests at heart when I spoke to the men. As soon as I opened the front door to the establishment, Mucker trotted in and headed directly over to a man with a thick black beard. It seemed Mucker had chosen. This man, I decided, was the one I’d confide in.
“Hey, Mucker.” The man smiled. He glanced at me. “Is Dru with you?”
“Actually, no. My name is Harmony Carson. Do you think we can chat for a few minutes?” I looked around the room. “In private.”
The man looked undecided, but then he glanced down at Mucker and shrugged. “Sure. I guess. My name is Ed. Ed Valdez.” He stood up and took my arm. “There’s a room in the back. It’s usually empty at this time of the day.”
I followed the man down a short hallway to an empty room. He flipped the light on and motioned for me to have a seat. Once seated, I launched into my story, keeping it brief but being sure to cover all the important details. The longer I spoke, the deeper the man’s frown line creased into his forehead.
After a minute, he took out his cell phone. He tried a number and then hung up. “You said that you followed Dru to his home, where he gave you his truck to drive and hooked you up with Mucker.”
“Yes. We were going to head to the seasonal cabins on the sea when I had an intuition to check the warehouse where we ended up finding the girls.”
“Intuition?”
“It’s a long story, and I don’t know that we have a lot of time. My friend, Police Chief Hank Houston, of Rescue, Alaska’s police department, is waiting at the warehouse, hoping the kidnapper will return for the girls. I was supposed to take Sarah home and find somewhere safe for the other two girls to wait, but when I arrived and spoke to Sarah’s parents, they said that Dru had never shown up for the interview. He specifically said that was where he was going after he saw Houston and me off. I’m worried that something has happened to him and decided it might be a good idea to bring someone local in on the situation. I just met the man tonight, and we only spoke for a few minutes. I figured I needed to bring someone in who knew Dru better than I do and would be better able to anticipate his actions to give me a place to begin the search.”
“And why did you choose me?”
“I didn’t. Mucker did. I just opened the door to the bar where Dru had introduced us around earlier, and Mucker came directly to you, so I figured if he trusted you, I trusted you.”
That had the man smiling. “Okay,” he said. “You head back to your
friend and wait for the kidnapper. I’ll round up some men and look for Dru. Give me your cell phone number, and I’ll give you mine. That way, we can stay in touch.”
I did as the man asked.
“If the kidnapper turns up, let me know,” he said. “If I find Dru, I’ll let you know.”
“Okay, great. Hopefully, by the end of this long night of endless night, all the girls will be safely returned to their homes, Dru will have been found safe, and the kidnapper will be behind bars.”
Mucker followed Ed when he left, so I headed back to the warehouse on my own. I couldn’t get Houston’s comment about wasting our time out of my mind and really hoped that wouldn’t end up being the case. I did feel good about bringing Ed in on things. I could tell this was the type of town where folks were self-sufficient and took care of their own. Ed struck me as the sort of man who would not only know what to do but whose help would be invaluable in this sort of situation.
When I arrived back at the warehouse, I found Houston sitting behind an old generator. I doubted it was operable since it looked to be rusted and worn, but it was a large unit, which had me wondering what sort of operation this large metal building had been built to house in the first place.
“Any activity?” I asked as I sat down next to Houston.
“Not a thing.” I could hear the tone of frustration in his voice.
“The only people who know we found the girls beside you and me are Sarah’s parents, Preston from the Huntsville PD, Irene’s parents, Emily’s parents, and Ed Valdez. It’s unlikely that any of the previously mentioned individuals gave our kidnapper a heads up that the girls had been rescued.”
“Jeremy knows.”
“Jeremy doesn’t speak,” I reminded him. “Besides, my gut tells me that he isn’t one of the bad guys in this scenario.”
“Yeah.” Houston sighed. “I have the same gut feeling.”
“The likelihood that Carl Decker is still operating under the assumption that things are going as planned is high in my mind. If he believes the girls are still here in this warehouse, he’ll come back for them.”
Houston took my hand in his and gave it a squeeze. “I know you’re right. It’s just that this waiting is making me nuts.”
“I know. Waiting is hard.”
He glanced around the room. “Where did you leave the truck?”
“I parked it in the parking area that serves the bar and walked over. When Decker returns, he shouldn’t have any reason to believe that anyone is waiting for him. When he comes in, we’ll get him, and then this whole long drawn out nightmare can finally come to an end.”
“It will be nice to get home. I feel like I could sleep for a week.”
“Tell me about it. I think this whole thing has been hard on everyone.” I glanced at my cell phone.
“Waiting to hear about Dru?” Houston asked. I imagined he’d noticed my preoccupation with willing my cell phone to ring.
I nodded. “Ed told me he’d stay in touch, but I haven’t heard from him since he left with Mucker to look for Dru. I think I’ll text him.”
“I am concerned that Dru never showed up to talk to Sarah’s parents,” Houston agreed. “He said that he was heading straight to their place when he left us. He must have had a call or something that sent him off in another direction.”
“Yeah. I hope Dru’s okay.” I continued to stare at my cell phone, willing it to show me a return text from Ed. “It seems like he would have contacted us by now if he simply was called out on another call and had to put off the interview he’d been heading toward.”
The face of my cell phone lit up. It was a return text from Ed, letting me know he’d rounded up a team of men he trusted to look for Dru, but that so far, they hadn’t found him. He asked how Houston and I were doing, and I texted back to let him know we were still waiting.
“I guess it’s a good thing they haven’t found him injured or worse,” I said, trying for a tone of optimism.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Houston said in a tone that made it clear that what he really thought was that Dru was far from fine.
I laid my head on Houston’s shoulder. I couldn’t believe how tired I was. It was freezing in the warehouse, but I had on enough clothes to make me warm enough that I found myself drifting off to sleep. I really wanted to give in to the urge to take a short nap, but I knew Houston was tired as well, and I also knew we’d never forgive ourselves if we both fell asleep and missed the man we were waiting for.
“I wonder how Wyatt and the dogs are doing,” I commented for no other reason than to have something to talk about.
“I’m sure they’re doing fine.” Houston looked at his watch. “In fact, I’m sure they’re still sleeping in one of the large beds we left behind at the inn.”
Boy, did I ever wish I was curled up in one of those beds.
“Do you think the kidnapper will even come back tonight?” I asked. “If you really think about it, he might not come back until tomorrow if his contact isn’t supposed to arrive until then.”
Houston adjusted his position slightly before he answered. “I did consider the fact that we might be sitting here on this cold floor behind this smelly old generator for a day or even longer, depending on Carl Decker’s plans. If Dru wasn’t missing, I’d probably talk to him about getting some men to cover shifts, so we didn’t have to sit here all night, but with the way things are currently, I guess staying for however long we need to makes sense.”
“I guess,” I groaned. My backside was already sore from sitting on the cement floor, and I’d only been sitting here for about half an hour. I had a feeling it was going to be a very long night indeed. “I’m going to head back to the truck and see if there’s an emergency kit stashed under the seat or behind the backrest. Everyone who lives in Alaska knows to have a kit in their vehicle. Chances are there’s a blanket and probably a thermal throw we can snuggle up under.”
“I’ll go,” Houston stood up. “I need to stretch my legs anyway. I doubt this guy will show up while I’m gone, but if he does, keep quiet and just watch what he does. I don’t want you confronting him without me.”
“Okay. I’ll just wait and watch, but hurry. If you’re gone too long, I know I’ll fall asleep.”
Houston got up and headed toward the door while I stayed where I was and waited. Less than three minutes later, I heard someone open the big roll-up door in the front of the building. “That was fast,” I said as I noticed Houston walk back into the warehouse empty-handed.
I stood up. “Didn’t you find anything?” I asked a second before I noticed the man with a gun walking behind him.
“Whoever that is hiding back there, come on out,” the man called.
I hesitated.
“I’m going to count to three. If I don’t see you heading in my direction, I’m going to shoot your friend.”
I put my hands up and came out of my hiding place. My instinct was to do something proactive, but Carl had a gun, and I noticed that Houston didn’t. Carl must have been outside when Houston left to get the emergency kit.
“Drop your weapon,” the man said, nodding toward the gun in my hand and pointing his gun directly at Houston’s head.
I did as the man instructed.
He told me to walk over to where he was standing with Houston. I did so. He told both Houston and me to walk toward the little storage closet where he’d left the girls. I knew when he reached it and saw that they were gone, he would be furious. He’d probably shoot us just for the heck of it. I knew I should make some sort of move, but the man had his finger on the trigger and the barrel of the gun resting on Houston’s back.
“Damn,” the man shouted, slamming his gun into Houston’s head and then turning to me. I watched Houston slide to the floor. “What’d you do with my girls?”
“I didn’t do anything with anyone,” I said. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” I looked at Houston and then back up toward the man with the gun. “My friend and
I gambled away all of our money, so we decided to spend the night in this warehouse. We’re meeting up with a friend tomorrow. My friend here went over to the bar to see if there was something in one of the cars he could steal for us to sleep on. The next thing I know, he’s walking back in with a gun pointed at his head. What the heck is going on? Why did you hit my friend?” I demanded. “If you want to rob us, rob us, but we don’t have any money. This level of violence is totally unnecessary.”
Carl looked uncertain. He’d never met either Houston or me, and Houston wasn’t wearing his uniform. The story I was telling him could be true.
“If all of that is true, why did you have a gun?”
I raised a brow. “You do realize this is Alaska, don’t you? Everyone in these parts has a gun.”
He looked toward the broken door to the storage closet. “How long have you been here?”
“Maybe twenty minutes. We were at the bar next door, but they kicked us out, so we decided to just spend the night in here.”
“And that door was already broken when you arrived?”
I shrugged. “I guess. Honestly, I didn’t notice. Is this your warehouse? Are you mad because we’re trespassing?” I looked down at Houston. I was pretty sure he was knocked out and not dead, but there was quite a bit of blood running over his forehead.
“This isn’t my warehouse, but I was keeping something here. You didn’t see anyone else when you arrived?”
“No.” I huffed out a breath. “The place was deserted.” I looked down at Houston. “You didn’t kill him, did you?”
“I didn’t kill him,” the man responded. “Yet.” He looked around, almost as if he was trying to work out what to do.
“I really should take a look at his head,” I said.
The man pointed the gun directly at my head.
“Are you just going to shoot me for no good reason?” I demanded with a lot more bravo than I actually felt.
The man didn’t answer.
“Look, I get the fact that someone took your stuff, and you’re angry about that, but I really don’t know anything about your missing stuff or the girls you’re looking for. My friend and I were just looking for a place to sleep, but if this is your warehouse, we can move on.”