“Why don’t I take the case and you can drop me at the store on the way to the clinic to get the ambulance. This barn doesn’t have a good track record for storing valuables and the wind here is scary.”
The store was brick and originally built to be a bank. It was a better place on a stormy night than this barn. “Agreed.” He closed the box clasp. “I’m afraid you’re about to get somewhat wet.”
She snapped her fingers for Blackie. “I won’t melt, and I can run. Let’s go.”
Stephen stepped on the truck brakes as his headlights picked out a huge limb of a fallen tree. It stretched across the road. Meghan tightened her arms draped around her dog sitting on the seat between them, and Stephen reached over to steady him too.
“What is it?”
“The road’s blocked.” There was not enough clearance around either end to drive around the fallen tree. “This is going to be a longer trip than I planned.” He backed up and found a place he could turn the truck around. “I’ll have to get to the accident scene the long way around. I’m sorry, Meghan. You’ll have to come with me.”
“Do it. Blackie and I will survive.”
Stephen called the dispatcher to find out if Joseph could get through to Silverton to bring the ambulance and to ask if there was any chance of fire and rescue being available. He didn’t want to think about having to transport victims in the back of a police car. Wind pummeled the truck. Lightning snapped overhead and the thunder sounded like it was right over them. Meghan flinched. “The worst has to pass over us soon,” Stephen reassured. If not for the jewels in the case at her feet, he would have left her at his house.
“I’d say there is a bit of hail in that rain.”
“I think you could be right.”
Stephen finally saw the flashing lights ahead in the rain. “At least one cop car has made it here. Stay in the truck, Meg. If I can use your help, I’ll send someone to get you.” He parked off the side of the road as far as he could get and wished there were at least a few drivers out tonight who might stop and render assistance. He wanted Meghan to stay with someone rather than sit here on her own.
“I’ll be fine. Go do your job.”
Stephen squeezed her hand, grabbed his powerful torchlight, his EMS jacket, and slipped out of the truck.
The rain beat at him, the wind tried to blow him over, and Meghan had been right about the hail. He was getting a few strikes harder than just rain.
Two cars had clipped each other in an off-center head-on collision. “Over here!” The cop shouted from the car off the west side of the road.
The officer came around the back of the car to meet him. “This driver is trapped with a broken left leg; the driver of the other car looks more like straight shock and a broken wrist when the air bag went off. I moved him over here to keep him dry and watch him since I couldn’t be two places at the same time.”
“Good thinking. Trees are down; the ambulance may not be able to get here, and fire and rescue is currently committed to other accidents. For now it’s just us. Let’s get this driver freed, then we can transport one in my truck and one in your car. My date has some medical training, so she can ride with you.”
“Fine. Anything is better than drowning out here.”
Stephen circled the wreck. With a broken leg, they needed options that didn’t involve twisting the driver around. “While I check their conditions, head back to your squad car and get on the radio. See if you can raise another driver, a semi truck, anybody out on the roads to give us a hand. Once we get the injured moved, we need to push these cars off the highway. And I need a tire iron, a jack, and whatever you might have in your squad car that won’t bend when we use it as a wedge to force that metal.”
“I’ll get on it.”
Stephen opened the driver-side door and slid in to check the conditions of one of the two drivers. Both drivers were now his responsibility.
Meghan hunched in the front seat of the truck, using the length of the seat to stretch out her legs and give Blackie room to lie down. He still whined when thunder rumbled and about exhausted himself shaking.
God, I know You made the lightning, thunder, rain, and hail, but this is awful. Please tone it down.
Stephen had been gone half an hour—in this weather it seemed like an eternity. The wreck and the injuries must be bad or he would have been back by now. She wished she could go offer to help without being in his way.
She jerked as a brisk rap on the window behind her seized her breathing and scared a decade off her life.
“Meghan! I’m parked nearby and the ambulance is arriving behind me. Let’s get you out of here!”
Relieved to hear a familiar voice, she turned and opened the door.
Stephen headed back down the road to get Meghan, fighting the wind and rubbing a bruised wrist, relieved to have Joseph here with the ambulance. His two patients were loaded and ready to head to the hospital. She could ride in the passenger seat of the ambulance with Blackie while he rode in back.
The truck passenger door was open, the overhead light on, and the dashboard chime was dinging a warning for an open door with the truck running.
The vehicle was empty. “Meghan!” He turned in a full circle, only to see nothing but night. “Meghan!” The wind blew his shout back to him. Where had she gone? Why? How long had she been gone? He leaned into the door of the truck and found the seat wet but that told him little. Blackie was gone and she’d taken the jewelry case with her.
He looked around for any other cars that had stopped, anyone else she might have gone to help. The wreck had blocked both lanes of traffic. A car was completing a three-point turn on the road in order to turn around and go back the way they had come; another car pulled to the side, the driver waiting his turn to make the same maneuver. Stephen hurried toward it.
The girl on the passenger side lowered the window. “Is the wreck bad?”
“The ambulance crew has it covered. Have you seen a lady walking this direction with a collie?”
“We haven’t seen anything but the cop lights ahead and the cars turning around. The ambulance came around us, but everyone else has been turning around.”
“Did you see anyone get out of a car, walk around, go to see the wreck?”
She shook her head. “Sorry. Nothing.”
Stephen stepped back from the car and went to ask the next driver. He couldn’t believe Meghan would leave the scene to go back to town with another driver without coming to let him know.
No one had seen Meghan or Blackie. Stephen walked back toward his truck and the accident scene, his torch sweeping both sides of the road. She’d left the door open. Had Blackie darted out ahead of her when she intended to slip on his harness? “Meghan!” The dog was having a rough time in the storm, maybe that was it.
Maybe she’d heard something? Thought someone else needed help?
He reached his truck and searched it again, looking to see what was missing—her jacket, and a cursory look under the seats and in the glove box didn’t turn up the jewelry case. He headed toward the accident scene. She got worried and must have left the truck to come and help him. He shone his light back and forth to both sides of the road searching as he headed toward the wreck. The noise would have been enough to help her go the right direction. “Meghan!”
She couldn’t have just disappeared.
Blackie appeared through the rain running toward him, barking ferociously.
“What’s going on?”
“An accident of some sort.” Dave slowed the car. Traffic wasn’t getting past. “That looks like a county cop car and ambulance lights.” He pulled to the shoulder and activated the hazard lights. “I’ll go see if they need help.”
“I’d help but…”
Dave squeezed her hand. “Eight-month pregnant ladies can leave helping at accidents to their husbands. I love you. Stay put.”
“Go.”
Dave grabbed his jacket and climbed out into the wind and rain.
&nbs
p; Twenty-seven
What do you mean Meghan’s missing?” Kate demanded as Dave leaned in the passenger window of their car.
“Exactly that. She was in Stephen’s truck; now she’s missing. Blackie bolted, she went after the dog and got lost off the side of the road or in the field. Something.” Dave reached in past her and opened the glove box and pulled out the extra package of batteries and the flashlight inside.
Kate reached around to the backseat for her jacket. The ambulance doing a point-by-point turn shone lights into her eyes. “Help me out of the car.”
“Just a minute,” Dave said. “As soon as the ambulance clears I’ll drive us up next to Stephen’s truck. The cop is going to drive the ambulance while Joseph rides in back with the two patients, so Stephen and I can set up a search to find Meghan.”
“We need more help.”
“It’s coming, but we’re in the middle of nowhere and trees are down. Getting here isn’t easy. Sit tight, Kate. I’ll be right back.”
Dave disappeared back into the rain.
Meghan was missing. Kate fought the nausea that now came in overwhelming speed when she was under stress. Jesus, I don’t know what’s going on, but Meghan… Please help us find her quickly.
The radio broke in with another weather alert: a severe storm warning with heavy rain, hail, and tornado watch continuing until 11 P.M.
We need lightning, Lord, as much of it as You can send. We need to be able to see.
The driver’s door pulled open and Dave slid into the seat. He drove the car forward to beside Stephen’s truck.
The rear driver’s side door opened and Stephen tossed a blanket on the seat and lifted in Meghan’s wet and shivering dog. Kate leaned over to help hold Blackie.
“Stephen, get in too, please.” Kate caught his wet sleeve and tugged him in. “You’re as wet as Blackie is.” She spent her life negotiating her way through emotionally charged situations, and one glance told her Stephen needed her skills. “So many people are coming there will be an army here soon to help,” she promised, knowing Dave would call in favors to make it happen. If he didn’t calm down soon, he wouldn’t be thinking clearly and might leave out details that would make the difference between their finding Meghan or not.
“She’s been gone at least an hour now.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“I left her in the truck with Blackie and went to help the cop at the wreck. I told her I would send someone back if I needed her. The ambulance arrived about a half hour later. I went back to get Meghan.” Stephen took a deep breath. “The passenger side door was open, the truck was still running, the seat was wet. Meghan and Blackie were gone. Blackie came running from the direction of the wreck, barking furiously. There’s no sign of Meghan, Kate.”
“The likely reality is she opened the truck door, Blackie bolted, she went after him and got farther than she realized, and is sitting waiting for someone to find her. She may have even sent Blackie back to get us. She’ll be okay, Stephen.” Kate held his gaze until she saw him accept that and relax just a bit. “We’ll start a systematic search outward from your truck as soon as enough help arrives.”
They needed ideas for how to direct the search. “Or a second possibility: She went with someone back to town and she left a note for you. Someone else coming onto the scene found the truck abandoned, opened the door, and the note was blown away by the wind. For that matter, maybe they decided to steal the truck and got interrupted.”
“Meghan wouldn’t leave here without Blackie. Even if he bolted in the thunder, she would not leave without him.”
“Okay. Third option: If she did go with someone else and it wasn’t voluntary, why?”
“The jewels.” Stephen leaned his head down against the front seat. “We found a case hidden in the lining of the piano bench Neil gave her. It’s the reason Meghan was traveling with me to begin with. The page came in and she didn’t want to stay out at my place with them. I was going to drop her off at the jewelry store on the way to the clinic to get the ambulance so she could put them in the vault. That case is not in the truck.”
“Who knew she had them?” Dave asked.
“No one. We found them literally minutes before the page for the wreck came in.”
“What were the stones?”
“Emerald earrings, a diamond-and-emerald bracelet and necklace.”
Kate looked over at Dave, her own alarm hard to check. Those pieces went with the ring Meghan had given her to check out. They’d been stolen from the wife of a mob boss. Had he heard about the ring being discovered? That inscription I have, I hold—he would have known immediately it was the real piece. Kate could just hear the simple direct order: Find that blind lady and get my ring. And as they had discovered tonight, the only road into Silverton was this one.
Headlights shone across them as several cars arrived. “Let’s get this search underway.” She didn’t want to explain the implications of option number three to Stephen.
Jonathan parked the car in the alley behind the jewelry store, waiting until lightning showed they were alone before shutting off the car. “Come on.”
Meghan didn’t move.
He circled the car, opened the door, and pulled her out. “The passive aggression isn’t going to help so I suggest you start cooperating. Give me your keys.”
He tugged around her jacket to get to the pocket and she pulled out her hand to give them to him. “Why are you doing this?”
He ignored the question. He opened the door to the store and pushed her inside. He shook rain off his jacket.
Without the dog, controlling her was simple. She couldn’t see him, so she couldn’t fight him, and she couldn’t run. And so far they had been on territory she didn’t know. This store she knew and he saw the change as she reached out one hand behind her to touch the wall, feel the door frame, and get her bearings.
“The faster I get what I want, the faster this is over.” He caught her elbow and led her into the back room. “Since the security guard is gone and you have pretty much cleared this room of furniture, I gather the vault is also empty?”
“It’s empty.”
“Then you won’t mind showing me. Open it.”
She tugged against his hand.
“Don’t push me, Meghan. You don’t know what’s going on here tonight. If the vault is empty, just show me. It makes no sense to resist on principle when there is nothing to protect.”
She moved to the vault and began turning the tumblers.
He set the case she had with her in the truck on the work-table next to a computer she must have brought in, for Neil had never owned one. He opened the clasp on the case.
The luck of the evening was with him—he had three of the four pieces. Marie’s earrings, necklace, and bracelet. Five years had dulled his memory of their beauty. He picked up the necklace. Now that he had the pieces, what was he going to do with them? Dump them in the river, bury them, somehow make them disappear.
He needed the ring.
He sat down and turned on her computer. While it booted, he looked through the papers on the table. Anything incriminating he was going to burn. And given the rain, he couldn’t just torch the store and be confident that everything would burn before the rain extinguished the fire. The computer came on and he set it to not just delete files but also to wipe the data.
He pulled over the two registries Neil kept. He was startled to see in one the stolen pieces over the years. He scanned for his name and didn’t see it, but someone matching his itinerary to this list would see too many similarities for comfort. Burn it.
Meghan opened the vault door.
Jonathan joined her. “Ladies first.” He didn’t want her closing him inside the vault; she’d do it if given a chance. He kept a hand on her arm as he pulled trays out and confirmed they were empty.
“Not even a loose clasp left in here…you did a thorough job.” He steered her out of the vault and walked her over to a chair. “Who has the ring
you found? You know the one; the inscription says: I Have, I Hold.”
She set her jaw and didn’t answer.
He left her sitting in the chair. The electrical box in the corner of the room gave him water and fire alarm circuits. He cut both. He tugged the metal garbage can into the center of the room. Jonathan tossed a match onto the pages in the trash can, and while it burned, he ripped pages from the ledger and tossed them into the flames.
She shoved the chair back as she smelled smoke.
“Where’s the ring, Meghan? Or should I just leave you in this building?”
“I don’t have the ring. Stephen’s sister Kate has it.”
“But you can get it.” He picked up the phone, walked over, and handed it to her. “Call Kate and tell her to bring the ring.”
“What?”
“It’s a simple deal; the ring for your location.”
“You wouldn’t—”
“I’m dead if that ring is left out there. Get me the ring, Meghan. Or you’re not going to see tomorrow.”
Kate shoved maps to the side and arched her back as best she could in the car seat to ease the ache that had become nearly a cramp. The problem with being this pregnant was everything in her body protested being in the same position for more than ten minutes at a time.
The radio crackled as another searcher called back his grid number. She marked off another square on her hand-drawn map of the road, the wreck, and the area they needed to search. Dave and Stephen were out with Blackie, and nine others had now arrived to help with the search. They would find Meghan. They wouldn’t stop looking until they did, but it was taking longer than expected. She wished the sheriff would call and say Meghan was in Silverton and this was a mix up.
Radio tones sounded and the updated weather warnings were read. Kate grabbed the knob and turned up the volume as the town list was read again. She found the map and struggled to read the fine print of town names. She closed her eyes and wanted to swear, but instead put her hand on the car horn and gave a fifteen-second-long blast, paused for five seconds, and gave another long blast. She forced her arms into her coat and wrestled open the door. The wind slammed the door back at her. The nearest officer coming her way had a radio. “There’s hail coming, quarter of an inch. Get everyone back in!”
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