by L. T. Ryan
The distance between exits grew. Trees lined either side of the highway and stretched out ahead as far as I could see. Were they going to treat me like an unwanted dog and drop me off on the side of the road? I lowered my chin to my chest and settled my gaze on my knees. It was all I could do to keep my anger at bay. Not like it would serve me any purpose from the back seat.
Pennington swerved to the right at the last second and exited the highway. The tires yipped against the move. Which exit were we getting off at? He hadn’t given any indication he was about to leave the highway, so I hadn’t taken notice of where we were. Our gazes met in the mirror for a moment, then his diverted back to the road.
I sat up and looked for a street sign at the end of the off-ramp. The metal pole stood six feet in the air. The sign was missing. Maybe some drunks with a shotgun or a bat had taken care of it. Or it could’ve been a popular name, the kind that’d tempt someone to steal it. Stoner Avenue, or some such nonsense.
He turned right, headed north for a couple of miles, then made a left. Best I could tell we were running parallel with the interstate now, but that’d be hard to track long-term. As long as I had some kind of idea where it was, I could make it back to the highway after they stranded me.
That plan went out the door as the road started winding and twisting through the woods. It was close to noon, and the sun sat high above. I couldn’t tell whether we were on the right or left of it. I’d have to sit for a while to get my bearings straight.
Nothing like wasting hours when every second counts.
We emerged from the woods and stopped at an intersection. Finally one with a name I could attach to it. Pennington turned left, pinning the accelerator down. The car lurched so hard it slammed me back in my seat.
It wasn’t long after that I saw the strobe lights on the horizon.
Pennington and Cervantes shared a look. My stomach turned, then sank, nearly sending its contents back up my throat. This did not bode well.
“What happened to her?” I choked on my words.
Cervantes turned in his seat. His stared at me through narrowed eyes for several seconds, not saying a word. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. And I was suspect number one. The last to see her alive. I’d been in her home and knew where she was going.
“You wanna go over what you were doing this morning again?” Cervantes said.
“For Christ’s sake.” I knew what he was doing, trying to get me to slip up, and I understood why. But I was getting tired of the act the detectives were putting on for me. “I don’t have a damn clue where we even are. Look, if you truly believe I’m a suspect, then take my ass to jail. Otherwise, quit with this damn territorial nonsense and tell me, what the hell happened to her?”
“You don’t know nothing about a van?” he asked. “Didn’t encounter one, or have anyone at either house mention seeing one?”
“I didn’t see one, and nobody mentioned seeing one.”
Cervantes kept staring and said nothing else.
Pennington rolled down his window as he approached the parked patrol car. A uniformed state trooper stood off to the side, waiting for us to reach him.
“Picked up a trail,” the trooper said.
“How far back?” Pennington asked.
“Quarter-mile.”
Pennington turned to Cervantes. “Better if we walk it.”
Cervantes didn’t take his eyes off me. “Don’t think about running, Tanner.”
“Why not? Your thick ass can’t keep up with me.”
Pennington maneuvered past the trooper’s car and cut the engine. I scanned the area, spotted a light blue early-2000s Tercel parked on the other side of the road a few hundred yards away. Its trunk was popped open. The detectives exited the car and spoke with the trooper, leaving me stuck in the back. With the AC off it didn’t take long for it to heat up. A thin sheen of sweat dampened my forehead. When they finally opened the back door, the young officer had stepped away.
“Thanks.” I stepped out and spit on the ground between them. “Gonna finally fill me in?”
Pennington took a deep breath as he looked past me into the woods. He hiked his thumb over his shoulder. “Stranded motorist called it in.”
I looked at the Tercel again. This time I spotted a woman sitting on a five-gallon bucket off to the side. She had her phone pressed to the side of her head.
“Saw a vehicle pull off right about here and head into the woods over there.” He aimed his finger in the direction of two faded tire tracks. Long grass covered the dirt ruts in the ground. “She didn’t think much of it. Figured someone lived back there, I guess. But then she heard it.”
My stomach did another somersault. There were only so many sounds that would give a bystander reason to call the cops. “Heard what?”
Pennington slammed his hands together. The clap echoed throughout our surroundings. The woman across the road looked up at us, shook her head. “She thought maybe it was a gunshot.”
I peered into the woods as though I could see the details through the maze of trees and leaves. “Was it?”
Pennington shook his head. “Come on, let’s go see for ourselves.”
“Let’s leave him here,” Cervantes said. “We don’t need someone else trouncing all over our crime scene.”
Before I could say anything, Pennington silenced his partner. “Cerv, we don’t have a lot of time here. We’re gonna bring him along. He might spot something we don’t.”
If I knew anything at that moment, it was that Cassie’s body wasn’t waiting for us in the woods. And with the way Pennington stood up for me there, I almost began to feel accepted by my southern counterpart. But the look both gave me wiped that feeling away. Neither man wanted me there, but I’d become so entrenched in everything that had happened they had no choice. I also had a better relationship with Cassie than either of them. If she left some kind of message behind, it would be for me, something I’d pick up on before them.
“Let’s move.”
Pennington took the lead. Cervantes gestured for me to go ahead of him. I fell in line between the two detectives as we trekked into the woods, following the trail left by the vehicle. We studied our surroundings as we walked. Nothing looked out of place, not that it would be easy to tell.
I saw what had happened before we reached the clearing that opened up like a football field in the middle of the forest. Across the span of overgrown grass and weeds was Cassie’s car, wrecked into a pine tree. I started to wonder if I had been wrong about there being no body here.
“Anyone left behind?” I asked.
Pennington shook his head as he pulled out a pair of latex gloves and tossed them to me. “Scene integrity. Got that, Tanner?”
I blew off his remark and stepped into the clearing. At this point I didn’t want to disturb any evidence, so I walked about ten feet to the right of the tracks left by Cassie’s car. I was the first to reach the wreck. The car appeared to have hit the tree at a speed faster than you’d expect a small sedan to be traveling through high grasses. It didn’t make sense. There were two other trails they could have followed instead of trouncing through unseen obstacles. Something had happened between Cassie and Novak in the moments before the crash. I eased the passenger door open and stuck my head inside to see if I could figure out what that was. Blood spattered the dash and passenger seat.
“Wait for us, Tanner,” Cervantes called out. The grass whooshed as they hurried toward the car.
Pennington appeared on the other side of the vehicle. The dented driver’s side door wasn’t shut all the way. He eased it open and leaned in. He nodded as his gaze met mine. “See anything?”
I ignored him as I searched for something, anything, that Cassie had left behind to let us know she had been there. That she was still all right. My gut told me the accident was anything but that. She had fought back. They hit this tree because of her. There was no way she’d let Novak take her twice.
“Detective?” Pennington said.
And I found what I had been looking for. I looked up at Pennington. “She’s been here.”
“What, you got her gift now?” Cervantes said.
“Don’t be an asshole,” I said.
“How do you know?” Pennington said.
I leaned back and scanned the ground for a stick, locating one with a forked end. I used it to retrieve the bracelet from under the seat. It glinted in a ray of sunlight.
“You sure that’s hers?” Pennington asked. “And even if it is, it could’ve been under that seat for months.”
“It was on her wrist last night,” I said.
“Sure about that?” Cervantes said.
“She told me the story of how she got it. So, yeah, I’m pretty damn sure, man.”
“Kinda strange how you found the watch at the girls’ house, and now this bracelet? You sure you’re not planting evidence?”
“Shut up, Cerv.” Pennington looked back at his partner as he headed into the woods. “Give him an evidence bag.”
I didn’t want to hand the bracelet over, but it might have DNA on it. Novak was my prime suspect, but I couldn’t allow tunnel vision to set in. That’s when the biggest mistakes were made. The discovery gave me what I needed. Proof that Cassie was alive after the accident.
“Tanner,” Pennington yelled from within the woods. “Come check this out.”
Chapter Forty-Four
I knelt over the deep impression in the leaf-covered ground. Sunlight trickled through the overhead canopy. The still air did little to keep the effects of the humid day at bay. Sweat trickled down my neck and settled into my collar.
The vehicle had sat long enough to work the tires into the ground. But as I scanned ahead, I noticed that the trails leading away from the scene only left the grass bent. Novak had left the vehicle, presumably a van, knowing he would need it to transport Cassie’s body. Hopefully her live body.
I rose and took a long sweeping look around the area for any evidence of foul play. There had been blood in Cassie’s car, but that was easily explained by the accident. The trail stopped in the car though. Whoever had been injured must have managed to cover or wrap the wound. There was none to be found around the perimeter where the vehicle had been parked or near these tire marks.
Cervantes entered the area with a scowl on his face.
I stopped him from plodding through. “Let’s be careful where we walk. Try to land in my footsteps. Your crime scene guys still need to process this. There could be plenty we’re not seeing.”
Cervantes shrugged, pushed his sunglasses over his brow, and headed straight toward me, ignoring everything I had said. Why was he risking compromising the crime scene just to be a hardass toward me?
I intercepted him before he trampled over the tire tracks. “You got a problem with me, that’s one thing. You can settle that anytime you want to step in the ring. Hell, I don’t even need a ring for you. Any street corner will do.”
He looked away, clenching his jaw.
I continued. “But goddamn, man, this is someone we all know. Cassie’s helped out all our asses at one time or another. Maybe you pricks aren’t capable of it, but she’s become my friend. The hell is wrong with you potentially ruining evidence that might help us find her?”
Cervantes struck me in the chest with both hands open-palmed so fast that I didn’t have time to get a hand up in defense. Guess he decided to take me up on my anytime-anywhere challenge. The blow knocked me back a step. I set my feet and readied a haymaker meant to land on his head. But before I could launch my attack, another set of hands grabbed me from behind.
This was it. It was going down.
Cervantes disappeared from view as I was spun around by Pennington. The man kept me at arm’s length. Good idea, too. I was hellbent on throwing that damn punch.
“Enough of this shit!” Pennington looked past me at his partner. “Cerv, dammit, I’ve had enough. If you can’t get on board with what we’re doing, then I’ve got no choice but to recommend you be removed from this case.”
I felt like it might be time for me to referee. Another challenge had been issued to Cervantes. I turned sideways, breaking free from Pennington’s grasp, both arms up, palms facing either man.
“I don’t know why you’re sticking up for this asshole,” Cervantes said. “He shows up, Cassie goes missing. You don’t think there’s some link there, man? Come on, give me a break.”
Pennington pushed me aside and stepped up to his partner. “I see a guy standing there who is more willing to do what it takes to get her back safely than the guy who is supposed to be my partner.”
Cervantes said nothing. A wrinkle between his eyes deepened as his cheeks got redder.
“Go check the car again,” Pennington said. “Cool off while Tanner and I talk.”
Cervantes didn’t move. Pennington took a few steps back, turned, and motioned for me to follow him. I kept my eyes on Cervantes. He matched my steps one for one until he reached the edge of the clearing where he turned around.
“What was all that about?” I said after catching up to Pennington.
The detective looked back to where his partner had been standing. “I wish I could tell you. Something about you, I guess. Really sets him off. He’s normally not like this. I mean, he can play it up with a suspect like an award-winning actor. You should see him when he gets going. I swear the guy could get a confession out of his own mother.”
“But you don’t see that happening here.”
Pennington shook his head. “It’s a battle of instincts right now. Apparently his are telling him there’s something about you that should cause him to worry.”
“He’s probably right. But it ain’t over what happened to Cassie.”
Pennington smiled for a moment like he knew more about me than he let on. “You’re no angel. And neither are either of us. But I can tell you’re in this with us, Mitch. Not against us. Just keep doing what you’re doing, and I’ll work on Cerv. He’ll come around eventually.”
I pointed past him. “Where do you think those tire tracks lead?”
“First officer on scene said they followed them out to the road. It’s not far, not even a quarter-mile.”
“Let’s go then.” I looked back and saw Cervantes poking his head in the car again. It was fine with me if he stayed put.
Pennington started off into the woods, keeping the tire tracks to his left. Nature had overtaken the old fire road, and that worked in our favor. Made it easy to follow Novak’s path out in the few places where the trail split off. I stopped at each fork for a moment, stood there, scanning the surroundings. I was looking for something, anything that might shed some light on where they’d gone. I knew there’d be nothing there. Novak wasn’t the smartest criminal, but even he knew not to leave an address lying around where the cops could find it.
We reached the road after a five-minute trek. It was a narrow blacktop that looked new. Heat rose off it. So did the smell of tar after a morning of baking in the sun.
“This is where the clues end.” Pennington stood with his hands on his hips, facing away from me. The road stretched out a couple hundred yards before curving left and disappearing behind the trees on the other side.
“What’s down that way?”
He shook his head. “Not super familiar with this area. The computer in the car will give us a better idea.” With that, he pulled out his cell phone and called his partner.
We waited another seven minutes or so for Cervantes to arrive. Every second that passed led to more uncertainty. The distance between us and Cassie grew, whether they were screaming down 95, or he’d planted her somewhere. I closed my eyes, felt the light breeze against my dampened face, and tried to feel for her presence. I had no idea how she did what she did, all that talking to the dead and whatnot. I’d asked.
She’d explained. It made no sense to me. But I felt if I just let her know I was here, had seen what had happened to her car, maybe she could tell me she was ok.
But all I got in return was silence.
Chapter Forty-Five
The greenhouse was the only place on the property where Novak felt like himself. One might think that place would be inside, with the women. But those same women left him feeling out of control. Especially Cassie. She was unlike all the others, and perhaps that’s why she survived. Take Alice, for instance. Weak. Weaker than most who came back with Novak. How had he missed it the night of the storm? She could never survive the attack that Cassie did. Novak wondered if Alice would simply give up and succumb to her fear.
He snipped a dying vine from a tomato plant and cut it into short pieces, then tossed the remains onto a bare patch of dirt while recounting that first night with Alice. The realization sunk in that it would have been best if he had killed her, as he had her three friends. His interest in the case would have diminished until the urge returned, which after four homicides would have stretched long enough that Cassie’s involvement would have been in the past. He’d never have even known she existed in the same geographic space as him. But allowing Alice to live—despite his future intentions toward the woman—had created the storm he now lived in.
He let her live and that meant someone would be actively searching for her. Novak didn’t fear them finding him. The police had always had trouble with that. And on the rare occasion they did find him, catching and then keeping him confined was never an easy task. In time, Novak always got his way.
“Alice, Alice, Alice,” he muttered, walking down the aisle with a green hose. He pulled the trigger on the spray nozzle and sent a wide cone of water over a section of vegetables. The dampened soil exacerbated the smell of compost. Novak pulled his shirt collar over his nose and fanned the air away from his face. It was the only part he couldn’t stand. Maybe it was time to fix the ventilation in this place?