by Mary Stone
Heading to the bathroom, she tried to reason with herself.
Okay, so what if he had taken it? He would probably get more intel from his father than she, a virtual stranger, ever could.
But…ohhh!
Grabbing her sweater, she hooked the leash to Vader’s collar, still cursing herself.
“Move in with me,” she muttered in a deep-voiced Linc imitation.
Now she knew why! So he could insert himself into her business. And her panties.
Speaking of panties, if she’d just pulled her big girl ones on and questioned Jonathan from the get-go, maybe Linc wouldn’t have felt the need to do it himself. That’s what she got for acting like a scared little girl. Next time, she told herself as she ran down the stairs to her car, she wouldn’t let fear control her.
Inside the car, Vader at her side, she couldn’t help mumbling to herself. She knew Linc had his SAR meeting, so he probably hadn’t spoken to his dad yet. She didn’t care if he was in the middle of training a thousand SAR dogs up there. She would commandeer her little ass right in the middle of his meeting, tackle him to get the fax back, then remind him that this was her case and to back the hell off.
She would be the one to question his father, thank you very much.
As she was working herself into a lather, Kylie didn’t realize until the light was shining into her rearview mirror that a car had come up pretty fast on her backside and was now riding her rear end. As she squinted into the mirror, the lights swerved, like the car was trying to go around her.
Great. Just what she needed. Some drunk college kid on the way home from the Asheville bars, taking chances with her life. It was a narrow, two-lane road up the mountain with hardly any shoulder and deep ravines off each side. Even though it wasn’t a passing zone, Kylie didn’t want him on her tail for the next fifteen minutes. She slowed a little and moved toward the shoulder, rolled down her window, and motioned for him to go around.
The idiot didn’t get the picture. He pulled back slightly, then sped up, coming so close she expected to feel the jolt of his car hitting her bumper.
“Holy lord,” she breathed when the contact didn’t come. Every muscle in her body was on high alert, causing her shoulder to twinge as she gripped the steering wheel for dear life.
Beside her, Vader seemed equally concerned, his front paws splayed in a bracing position.
She had to keep him safe.
Speeding up, Kylie thought through her options. There wasn’t a turnoff in which she could safely pull into, but they were reaching a short straightaway a half mile or so ahead. Maybe the asshole would get brave enough to pass when they reached that. As she came out of the curve, she slowed a little, hoping he’d just go ahead.
He didn’t. He stayed right on her rear.
Kylie grabbed for her cell phone, grateful that it now had nearly a full battery. She fumbled with the screen, pulling up the phone app.
She managed to tap 9, then her blood pressure spiked higher. The other driver was playing cat and mouse, swerving like he was going to pass, then falling back. Again and again. Once, he did it while another car was coming, almost causing a head-on collision. The car’s horn screamed as it passed, mingling with Kylie’s yelp of fear.
This wasn’t just some road-raged moron, she realized. This was a real threat.
Stop Meddling or You’re Next.
Every hair on her body stood on end as the person’s bumper kissed hers.
She fumbled with her phone again while holding tight onto the steering wheel, which had jerked a little at the impact. A fresh surge of adrenaline made her heart pound.
“Be calm,” she said to Vader, trying to use a voice that wouldn’t scare him. Scare her.
The screen of her phone had gone dark, and it was too dark for the device to recognize her face. She blindly pressed her finger on the reader, hoping she was touching the right place.
He tapped her bumper again. Harder this time.
The steering wheel jerked again, and she dropped the phone, needing to put all her attention on the task of staying on the road.
A quick glance at the speedometer told her she was going nearly sixty on this twisty road, and the speed limit was only forty in the straighter places. She’d never gone so fast up this steep incline.
Bright lights grew brighter in her mirrors, and she braced for another hit.
It never came.
Instead, she heard a loud bang just as the steering wheel pulled sharply to the right.
She fought to control the steering wheel, and for a moment, she thought she’d been successful, but the flop flop flop of the burst tire transformed into the skid of the other tires sliding on the gravel shoulder. Then the scream of metal on metal as she careened over the guardrail that might as well have been made from paper.
Then there was nothing.
No yellow lines on the road. No bright lights behind her.
She stared out into the inky darkness just before gravity took the upper hand and her little Mazda fell back to earth.
Poor Vader hit the ceiling before she did, the strap of her seatbelt digging cruelly into her shoulder.
She had to save her dog.
Fighting the momentum of the falling car, Kylie reached for Vader, pulling him to her side.
Kylie screamed as the little car picked up speed, whizzing down the steep mountain, trees blurring in the illumination of her headlights. She held on to Vader, bracing them both the best she could as tree limbs scratched and clawed the windshield. Her vision blurred as her head banged the ceiling a second time as it was lifted, airborne, into the unknown.
34
As Linc pulled out of his parents’ development, he put in a call to Jacob. As the phone rang, he knew how pissed Kylie would be at him, but he couldn’t worry about that right then.
He needed to help her and keep her safe. Her anger would be worth it.
When Jacob answered, Linc said, “I think I have the answer to Kylie’s embezzlement case and Nate Jennings’s murder.”
“Whoa. Wait one second. How the hell did you get involved in this?”
“Kylie told me.”
Jacob laughed. “Did she? Willingly?”
“She had to. She thought my father was involved in some way. So, we started looking into it together, and it turns out that my father, who happens to be Emma’s attorney, has a fairly new assistant to his assistant who’s been handling a lot of the administrative work. Dustin Weiss. He was also Nate Jennings’s college roommate.”
Jacob was quick on the uptake. “Kylie told me that Nate’s college roommate was recently back in the picture. Some story about a stool and bisexual affair. I don’t remember the details.”
Linc scratched his chin. “I’m not sure about the stool, but she told me that Nate cheated on the female cougar assistant with the male college roommate. Or something like that.”
“And you think this Dustin Weiss has been skimming off Emma’s accounts?”
“Could be.”
“And killed Nate Jennings?”
“Possibly.”
Jacob cleared his throat. “What does Kylie say? This being her case and all?”
“What does it matter?”
Jacob groaned. “You’re playing with fire, man. She finds out you did this on your own, and she’ll have your balls for lunch.”
Linc had no doubt. “She’ll get over it. Anyway, you need to bring Dustin Weiss in for questioning.”
“Can you give me a little more to go on than what you have so far? The kid being new to your father’s practice doesn’t give me much of a leg to stand on.”
His friend was right. What hard evidence did they really have?
“He used to be roommates with Nate Jennings in college.”
“Sooo…”
Link gritted his teeth. “So, they knew each other. And what if Nate figured out what his old college roomie was doing and was going to blow the whistle?”
“So, you seriously think that this D
ustin Weiss killed Nate Jennings because he found out he was embezzling from his grandma?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s pretty thin, Linc,” Jacob said after blowing out a long breath. “Let me call the city detectives, and we’ll put our heads together to see what we can legally do based on what we have so far. That’s the best I can do.”
Linc felt the disappointment like a punch, but he also knew his friend was right. “Thanks, man. Let me know what you all decide.”
As the call disconnected, Linc stared at the screen. He needed to call Kylie and let her know all that he’d just done. She’d be pissed, but she’d also probably appreciate him coming clean…and actually making the effort to call her this time.
Deciding to get it over with, he tapped her number. It went straight to voicemail.
Which was odd.
He’d known Kylie long enough to know that, nine times out of ten, she answered her phone. Even when she was angry as hell at him, she answered the phone and bestowed upon him the most agonizing silent treatment ever. He’d only had it go to voicemail once before.
When she’d been taken by the Spotlight Killer.
Shit. His heart sped up. He warned himself to calm down before that gripping panic took hold again. There was probably a good explanation. Maybe she’d been so tired that she turned her phone off and went to sleep.
That didn’t sound like Kylie.
Maybe she was in the shower.
Or maybe she’d been killed by Dustin Weiss. Maybe she’d gotten kidnapped again. Maybe…
For every perfectly innocuous explanation he could come up with for her not answering, Linc’s mind came up with twenty bad scenarios.
To calm himself, Linc took the exit for her apartment and parked in front of the old Victorian building. His pulse drummed in his throat as he looked around and didn’t see her little car. He went inside the building, climbed the stairs, and knocked on the door. “Kylie,” he said through the door. “Open up. It’s Linc.”
No answer. Not even Vader’s excited bark.
This was not good.
Linc tried the knob. Locked, of course.
As he was coming down the stairs, the door to the apartment below opened and a familiar college kid stepped out. Linc’d been introduced to him, but he’d forgotten his name. All he knew was that he had a permanently stoned look on his face and that, every time he opened his door, a cloud of pot smoke wafted out into the air that was so heavy, Linc got high just standing in it.
“Hey, you looking for my girl?”
Linc eyed him warily. “Your girl?”
“Ah, you know what I mean,” he said, punching Linc on the shoulder. He seemed surprised Linc didn’t topple over. “Wow. You are one built dude. Want to come in for a beer?”
He was perilously close to grabbing this dude by the throat. “Do you know where Kylie is?”
“No, but I saw her leave.”
“When?”
The dude shrugged. “Not much of a watch man, if you know what I mean, but I’d guess about ten or fifteen minutes ago. I was going to be neighborly and invite her for a beer, but she was in a hurry. Went to her place and presto chango, came out not long after wearing different clothes. Practically ran from the building.”
This definitely wasn’t good. “You see which way her car went?”
Stoner shook his head. “Not much of a compass man either, man, if you know what I mean.”
Linc gritted his teeth. “Thanks. If you see her, will you ask her to call me?”
“Sure. What’s your name?”
“Lincoln.”
Stoner dude saluted him. “Yes, sir, Mr. President.”
Linc swiped a hand down his face. “Go smoke another one.”
“Sir, yes, sir.”
If Linc hadn’t been so worried, he might have actually found some humor in the whole exchange. But as he jogged down the remainder of the stairs, the foreboding that had been haunting him grew even heavier.
He was very worried.
Maybe it was his screwed up brain sprouting new ways to be even more screwed up, but he didn’t think it was just paranoia or panic this time.
He tried to track Kylie’s movements in his mind.
She’d come home, and after changing into more comfortable clothes, she probably sat down with the papers. And the fax would have been missing.
It might have taken her a few minutes, but she’d have figured out pretty quickly that he’d taken it.
She would have then gone looking for him. Straight to the farm? That seemed reasonable enough, since he’d told her he had a class to teach. But she also knew him pretty well. She would have known that if he’d taken the fax, he wouldn’t have been satisfied with waiting to confront his father.
Was that where she was now?
And what if Linc was wrong and his father really was an evil man? Would she be walking into a trap?
His heart began to pound even harder.
He called his mother, who answered on the very first ring. She was worried about him, he knew, but he didn’t have time to satisfy her with a long conversation. After learning that Kylie hadn’t dropped by or even phoned, he promised his mother that he’d call again soon. He’d damn well do it too.
That left the farm.
Jumping in his truck, he headed toward the mountain, intent on getting there as quickly as he could. As he started up the first steep incline, it began to rain.
Of course.
Cursing under his breath, he drove the winding road, careful of the tricky spots. A lot of people had been known to take the curves too fast and ended up flying into the guardrails, especially during rainy weather like this. The rails were battered in a lot of places, there were sections missing entirely in others.
Having driven this route a thousand times since he turned sixteen, Linc knew the lay of the land, the curves to watch out for, and the places to slow down. He increased the speed on his wipers and turned up the defrost as the rain picked up, squinting in the light of oncoming cars to see the faded center line.
As he drove around a curve, he was forced to slam on his brakes. The truck skidded for a second before pulling up to a dark sedan parked on the side of the road. No hazard lights.
That was taking a chance.
There was only a sliver of a dirt shoulder between the road and the guardrail, so the person had parked with his or her driver’s side sticking out into the main road. Anyone going too fast, which people had a tendency to do these days, could’ve slammed straight into it.
Suspecting trouble, Linc slowed and flipped on his hazard lights, trying to see if the driver was in distress as he passed. But from what he could tell, the vehicle was abandoned. Linc slowed even more when he saw what might have been the issue. There was debris on the road from a blown-out tire. Looking closer, he saw skid marks on the asphalt as well as an area where a car might have gone over the side of the road, taking a section of guardrail with it.
One thing popped into his head: Kylie.
Linc knew there was a turnaround about a hundred yards up ahead where he could safely park his truck. Calling Kylie’s number again, he pressed on the gas and got himself there, cursing when her phone went right to voicemail. He pocketed his phone and hopped outside, grabbed his pack from the back of the truck, then jogged back the way he had come.
As he ran, cold rain pelted his face. He grabbed his flashlight from his backpack and shone it in front of him, noting what he’d seen from the truck: the remains of a broken tire and dark skid marks.
The dusty road.
The woman in the military vest.
The children screaming.
Pressing the heels of his hands against his temples, Linc closed his eyes against the images flashing before them, willing himself to breathe. To think. To focus.
He wasn’t sure how many seconds-minutes-hours passed before he found some semblance of control. With hands that still shook more than he liked, he forced himself forward, shining the li
ght into the cabin of the car, an old Toyota Corolla. It was empty, so he ran to the top of the embankment and pointed his flashlight into the abyss, blinking away the rain to see if he could make anything out.
Nothing. His heart squeezed, and he started to gasp for air. What if he couldn’t get to her in time? What if…?
Stop it!
Linc brought a hand to his chest and told himself to calm down, that he needed to be in control, for Kylie’s sake. If she was down there, she needed him.
What makes you think you can be a hero after what you did?
Ignoring the voice in his head, he shouted Kylie’s name, then listened closely for any response. But the only answer was the rain, which started to pour, and the wind blowing off the mountain.
Even if it wasn’t Kylie, he had a responsibility to go down there. He called 911 on his phone. When the dispatcher answered, he gave his location. “I’m at the scene of what I think might be an accident. Looks like a car went down into the ravine at the S-curve. I can’t see what’s going on down below, but I’m headed down. There’s also an abandoned silver Toyota Corolla here, no status on the driver. Please send the police and an ambulance.”
Linc hung up and scanned the area for a way to get down. It was too steep to walk, so he’d have to find a way to climb.
He flashed his light in an arc in front of him, when he noticed something on the damaged end of the guardrail.
Someone had tied a thick length of rope to the end of the railing. It trailed down into the nothingness of the ravine.
Had someone followed her down?
To help or…
He refused to finish the thought.
Linc had no choice. He threw his backpack in place, snapping it together in the front and adjusting the straps. Pulling on the thick work gloves he always kept in his truck, he tucked his other flashlight in his pocket before stepping over the guardrail and grasping the rope.
What makes you think you can be a hero after what you did?
He began his descent, his heart pounding in his ears.