Finding Shelter

by Kathi Daley

  The man waved his gun, indicating that I should walk toward the room where we’d found the girls. There was another similar room next to the one with the broken door. The man instructed me to open it, which I did. He then instructed me to grab onto Houston’s arms and pull him inside. I wasn’t thrilled about the fact that the man seemed to plan to leave us here in the warehouse, but it was better than being shot, so I did as he asked. After Houston was inside the room, he told me to take his cell phone out of his pocket and toss it toward him. I did as he asked. He asked me to toss my cell phone toward him and then to go into the room as well. I complied. He then closed the door. I could hear him taking the chain off the door we’d broken down and chaining it to the door of the room where he’d left us. I listened for a minute to see what he’d do. It sounded like he’d left.

  My first thought was to make sure that Houston really was alive, so I knelt down and felt for a pulse.

  “Houston,” I said, gently caressing his cheek. I could feel blood under my hands, but I ignored it. I needed to get him to wake up. “Come on, Houston, I’m not up for being locked in this room without anyone to talk to.”

  He groaned.

  I let out a sigh of relief.

  “It’s dark, so I can’t see your face. Are you in there? Can you hear me?”

  “I’m here.” He took a long, painful sounding breath. “What happened?”

  I gave him the shortened version of the past twenty minutes.

  “We need to get out of here,” Houston said. “He’s going to get away.”

  “He locked us in a room very similar to the room we found the girls in. I heard him use the chain to secure the door. He took our guns and cell phones.”

  “Ed knows where we are,” Houston said.

  “He does, and he’ll eventually come for us, but I’m worried about your head injury. We really should get you to the clinic.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You aren’t fine. The man hit you hard enough to knock you out for several minutes.”

  Houston didn’t answer.

  “How do you feel? Are you dizzy?”

  “A little.”

  I felt my heart racing as I tried to figure out how to get us out of here sooner rather than later. If Dru had been injured or killed, it could be hours before Ed thought to come looking for us.

  “I’m going to try to connect with Emily,” I said aloud. “I’ve done it before, and she knows what to expect. If I can connect with her, she can let Sarah’s parents know to send help.” I looked around but couldn’t see a thing. “I’m going to crawl over to the wall and then lean back against it for support. I want you to come with me. You can put your head in my lap if you still feel dizzy.”

  “I’m okay,” Houston said in a tone of voice that sounded more like a groan than anything.

  I crawled along the floor until I found the wall. Houston crawled along after me. I sat on the floor and leaned my back against the wall. Houston sat down next to me. I closed my eyes and focused on Emily. It took a few minutes to connect, but I eventually felt her presence.

  “Emily, it’s Harmony. I need your help.”

  “Harmony? What’s wrong?”

  “The kidnapper locked Houston and me in a room right next to the room where you and the other girls were held. Houston is hurt. We need to get out right away. I need you to tell Sarah’s dad that he needs to come for us.”

  “But he’ll want to know how I know where you are. What do I tell him?”

  “Tell him whatever you need to tell him. Tell him the truth or tell him a lie. Just get him here.”

  “Okay. I’ll do whatever I need to do.”

  With that, the link was broken. All we could do at this point was to wait.

  Chapter 15

  Once Sarah’s father freed us, Houston was taken, quite against his will, to the local clinic. I was asked to wait in the small seating area, so I decided to check in with Ed, but then I realized I had no cell phone. I guess Carl must have taken ours with him since they were no longer on the floor where I’d tossed them.

  “Excuse me,” I said to the one and only nurse I’d seen since I’d been here. “I need to make a call. It’s sort of important, but my cell phone was misplaced. Do you think I could use your phone for a really quick call?”

  She nodded. “Just press nine in order to get a line out.”

  Wow. Talk about old school. I pressed nine and prayed that Ed would pick up.

  “Yeah,” he said after only one ring.

  “Ed, it’s Harmony. I have news, but my cell phone was taken, so I’m borrowing the phone at the clinic. Do you think you can meet me here so I can fill you in?”

  “Yeah, I can do that. I’m close by. I’ll be there in two minutes.”

  I thanked the woman, letting her know that if the man I’d come in with asked for me, I’d be right out front. She nodded, barely even looking up from the romance novel she was reading. I supposed on most nights, a clinic such as this one was pretty slow.

  As he said he would, Ed pulled into the parking lot in just about two minutes.

  “What are you doing here? Were you injured?” he asked, looking me up and down.

  “No, but Houston was.” I took a few minutes to bring him up to speed.

  “So this guy is in the wind?”

  “It looks like he is. Any luck finding Dru?”

  He blew out a breath. “No. And I’ve looked everywhere I can think to look.”

  “When he took us to his home so we could pick up his truck and the dog, he said he was going straight over to Sarah’s home to talk to her parents and would meet us after. Something must have happened between him leaving his home and arriving at their home. I suppose he might have been pulled away by another more important call. If he did receive a call, who would he receive it from?”

  “I’m not sure. Most folks know to call his cell phone directly.”

  “Okay,” I paused to consider this. “Maybe we can pull Dru’s cell phone records. We’ll need a computer.”

  “I’m sure there’s a computer in the clinic that we can use. Do you know how to access phone records? I’m afraid that sort of thing is not one of my talents.”

  “No, but I know someone who can. If you can get me a computer and a phone, I can get the information we need.”

  Ed came inside with me and told the woman at the desk what we needed. When I’d spoken to her, she’d barely looked up. When Ed came in, she gave him her full attention. Once I had a phone and computer, I called Landon. It was early. Really, really early, so he sounded groggy, but once I explained what was going on and what I needed, he sprang into action. Once he had Dru’s cell phone number, it didn’t take him long to let me know that no one had called him during the time when he should have been driving toward Sarah Farmington’s home.

  I looked at Ed. “No go. No one called Dru during the window we’re looking at.”

  “So maybe he was run off the road.”

  “Did you find his SUV?” I felt frustration well up in my gut as I considered the fact that Dru might very well be dead and Carl might very well get away.

  “No. And we did look for it.”

  I furrowed my brow. “The SUV he was driving was his official police vehicle. Maybe he has a vehicle locator.”

  Ed just laughed. “I sincerely doubt that sort of thing is in the budget.”

  “How about his cell phone?” Landon, who was still waiting on the line, asked.

  “Of course,” I responded. “Can you locate it?”

  “I can. Give me a minute.”

  While I was waiting for Landon to come back on the line, Houston walked into the room where Ed and I were using the phone and computer. I introduced the two men. After introductions were complete, Houston informed me that he was good to go, although he did have a slight concussion and would need to watch for symptoms. After a few minutes, Landon came back on the line and provided me with a set of coordinates.

  “Do you have a map?”
I asked Ed. “One with longitude and latitude?”

  “In my truck. Why?”

  “Landon found Dru’s cell phone, but he said it appears to be out in the middle of nowhere. I figure we can use the coordinates to find the exact location of the cell phone. Hopefully, once we find that, we’ll find Dru.”

  “Hang on, and I’ll get it.”

  I told Landon I’d call him back as Ed headed out the door toward the parking area. I put my hand on Houston’s forehead. “You look really pale. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine.” He brushed a lock of my hair from my cheek. “You look pretty pale yourself. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. A little headachy, but fine.”

  In reality, my head felt like a heavy metal band was playing inside my brain, but I didn’t need to worry Houston with something he couldn’t do a thing about.

  When Ed returned with the map, we located the coordinates Landon had have given us. “Do you know where this is?” I asked. It really did look like there was a whole lot of nothing.

  “Yeah. It’s north of here. Not much up that way. There is an old airstrip.”

  My brows shot up. “Airstrip. That has to be it.”

  Ed rolled up the map.

  “Houston and I will take Dru’s truck,” I said. “We’ll follow you and Mucker.”

  “The road is pretty rough,” Ed warned.

  “I’m sure we’ll be fine,” I assured him even though the thought of a drive along a bumpy road when my head already felt like my brain would literally spill out wasn’t something I was looking forward to.

  Houston offered to drive, but I reminded him that people with a concussion shouldn’t operate heavy machinery, so he conceded and agreed that I should drive. Both our guns had been taken, but luckily, Ed had extras, so he provided each of us with a hunting rifle before we left the clinic. The road north hadn’t been plowed, nor were there any road markers. If not for the fact that we were following Ed, I would never have been able to find the road.

  The trip to the location where Landon had found Dru’s cell phone wasn’t a long one, but with the condition of the road, we had to take it slow, which was doubly frustrating since I kept picturing Dru fighting for his life alone in the dark, unaware that people were looking for him. There was one positive sign; however, as we arrived at the road we were looking for, there were fresh tracks in the snow, which indicated to me at least that we were on the right track.

  As we neared the coordinates Landon had provided, we saw Dru’s SUV in a ditch. A quick survey of the interior of the vehicle confirmed that Dru had indeed met with foul play. He’d been shot, and there was blood everywhere, but so far, he still had a pulse. Calling for an ambulance would take longer than if one of us simply drove him back to the clinic, so it was decided that Ed would take him back in his truck, and Houston and I would continue to the airstrip, which was located a few more miles down the road.

  “You folks be careful,” Ed called out as he pulled away from the side of the road after securing Dru inside his vehicle.

  “We will,” I said. “I hope Dru is going to be okay. I’ll call you later.”

  Houston let out a little groan as we hit a bump. I’m not sure why that struck me as funny, but suddenly, I burst out laughing.

  “Something funny?” Houston asked.

  “No. Not at all. In fact, everything is really messed up. I’m not sure why I’m laughing, but it just struck me that as the go-to team out to capture the bad guy and save the day, we’re pretty pathetic.”

  He smiled. “I guess we are. My head feels like a train is running around inside it, and while you keep saying you’re fine, I can see that you aren’t.”

  Fine wasn’t even close to describing my current state of health, but we’d come this far, and one way or the other, I was seeing this through to the end.

  When we arrived at the airstrip, a plane was sitting in what looked to be no more than an empty field. I pulled the truck off the road, Houston and I grabbed the hunting rifles Ed had loaned to us, and we went to investigate. The plane was empty, and to be honest, we weren’t even a hundred percent certain that this plane was the means by which Carl planned to flee.

  “Maybe we should wait for Carl to show up and grab him,” I said.

  Houston twisted his lips to the side. “Cause that worked so well the last time.”

  I smiled. “This time, we’ll stay put and keep our eyes on the prize.”

  Houston hesitated.

  “Do you have a better idea?” I asked.

  “Actually, I don’t. Let’s hide the truck behind that grove of trees off to the side of the road. Hopefully, Carl will show up sooner rather than later. I’m not sure about you, but I’m ready for this to be over.”

  “Right there with you.”

  As it turned out, we had less than thirty minutes to wait. Carl pulled up in a truck just as another plane landed on the airstrip. Houston and I hadn’t been planning to have two bad guys to capture, but it was what it was, so we slipped out of the truck and slowly made our way toward the plane closest to us. It was dark, and no one seemed to be looking for intruders, so we safely made it across the open field, where we hunkered down behind the wheel-well of the plane that we’d initially found empty. I really wasn’t sure what to do at this point, and it seemed as if Houston wasn’t either. I also wasn’t sure how many people had arrived in the plane that had just landed. It did seem as if the plane we’d found when we arrived was the plane Carl had used to bring the girls from Huntsville to Barron. Jeremy had let me know that Carl could fly, so it made sense that he piloted the plane himself to the airstrip and then stashed the girls in town while he waited for his contact.

  I felt an urge to do something but decided to follow Houston’s lead and just wait. We each had a hunting rifle, but we knew Carl had more than one gun, and the addition of the second plane made things tricky. We watched as Carl approached the plane that had just landed. We watched as a man got out and approached Carl. I assumed the man in the second plane was the man who planned to buy the girls. I couldn’t hear what was being said, but it was apparent that the conversation had grown heated. Carl pulled his gun, but before he could get off a round, the man who’d arrived in the second plane shot him. I got up, prepared to confront the man, but Houston grabbed my arm. I hated to do nothing other than watch as the man who shot Carl flew away, but Houston had seen two more men come to the door of the plane just as the man who shot Carl turned to re-board.

  Once the plane was gone, we jogged over to check on Carl, who, we confirmed, was good and dead.

  “Wow,” I said as I stood standing in the dark snowy night, unsure of what to do at this point. “That did not go how I thought it would.”

  “No, it didn’t,” Houston said.

  “I hate that they got away.”

  Houston put his arm around my shoulder. “I know. I do too, but there were three of them, all with guns. They had the advantage, and I think our poor bodies have already been through enough to risk getting shot.”

  “At least we saved the girls,” I said, laying my head on his shoulder.

  “Yes, we did. And in the end, that’s what really matters.”

  I looked down at our kidnapper. “What do we do with him?”

  Houston picked him up and tossed him over his shoulder. “We’ll take him back to town, turn him over to Ed, and let local law enforcement figure it out from there.”

  “Do you think there’s an empty hotel room anywhere in that little town?” I asked as I walked beside Houston back to Dru’s truck.

  “Lord, I hope so. I really don’t think I can stay awake much longer.”

  “A shower would be nice.”

  “A shower would be wonderful,” Houston agreed.

  Chapter 16

  It had been a week since Houston and I had returned to Rescue. All the girls had been returned to their homes, and Jeremy was still staying with Jake and Jordan. Houston had done some digging and had been ab
le to find out that Jeremy’s father had actually sold Jeremy to Carl, which is why he never initiated a missing persons report. If not for the neighbor, we might never have had the information we did that allowed us to identify the boy. Jake hadn’t been in the market for a roommate or a part-time employee, but he confided in me that there was no way he was going to let the boy go back to his father. The apartment over the bar where I’d lived before I bought my cabin was empty, so Jake cleaned it up, and Jeremy settled in there.

  Despite the fact that Jeremy had only been with Jake for a little over a week, the two had already worked out a series of hand signals that allowed them to communicate just fine. If there was one good thing that had come from this whole fiasco, it was that Jeremy had finally been rescued after four years of servitude to a monster.

  “So it sounds like it all worked out,” Harley said after I told him my story. I’d been trying to get in touch with him for a week, but his film crew had temporarily moved to an island off the coast of California, and apparently, no one had cell service. There were satellite radios that could be used in an emergency, but Harley hadn’t felt the need to check-in, so he hadn’t asked to use one.

  “Everything did work out okay,” I said. “Dru is going to be fine. In fact, I spoke to him this morning, and he’s already out of the hospital. The men in the second plane did get away, which I hate, and we don’t even know who they were, so we have no way to try to track them down, which I doubly hate, but we did save the girls and Jeremy, so I suppose this case can be recorded in the win column.”

  “I would say this case was definitely a win. How have you been feeling since you’ve been back?”

  “Better. The headaches are mostly gone. I still get a twinge every now and then, but I feel like the pain is less with each day that goes by. Houston is fine as well, so I guess at this point, I can report that all is well.”