by Diane Hester
Shyler opened the car’s back door and dumped the first of her boxes on the seat. The knocking of her heart against her ribs wasn’t so much painful as frightening. How could it beat so hard and fast without causing damage? Without exploding?
She shoved the first box across the seat and stacked the second and third on top of it. Why had she taken the car this morning? The pick-up was so much faster to load. Just because it had looked like rain and she didn’t have a tarp to cover the bed . . . Who cared about a few wet groceries?
Turning for another box, her gaze shot once again to the woods. Deprived of its earlier sliver of sunlight, the thicket was now steeped in shadow, shifting and crawling with secret menace – the ghosts amassing to mock her in her fight for control.
Zack burst through the shop’s back door. He flew down the steps, ran three paces and skidded to a halt in the near-empty lot. Nolan was only seconds behind him. He’d never make it to the cover of the woods without the man spotting him. And even if he did he’d never outrun him in open forest.
A car stood nearby, a woman leaning in through its gaping rear door. When she straightened and turned to the cart beside her, he darted past and dove in the back seat. There was nowhere to hide. Half the seat was crammed with boxes and the half that wasn’t was too exposed. He looked out just as the woman turned towards him.
Their gazes locked. Her eyes grew wide as she stood unmoving. The box she was holding slipped from her hands and landed, teetering, on the rim of the cart.
Zack swore silently. The crazy lady from yesterday morning. He hadn’t recognised her in the hat, and she’d been driving a pick-up yesterday. He had no hope of escaping now. Even if she didn’t start screaming, her weird behaviour would draw attention.
From behind her came the sound of the shop’s door slamming. The crunch of gravel. Running footsteps.
Nolan felt precious seconds tick by as he stood turning circles in the parking lot. He kicked at some gravel. The kid hadn’t had that much of a lead on him. How could he have disappeared so fast?
He stepped towards a woman loading groceries in her car. ‘Did you just see a kid run out here?’ He scanned the woods, hoping to catch a flash of movement. ‘Just in the last couple of seconds. Brown hair, brown eyes, about ten years old?’
At getting no reply, he shot her a look. The bitch was acting like she hadn’t heard him.
He grabbed her arm and spun her around. ‘What are you, deaf? I said did you see him?’
She gaped at him with a frozen expression. More than startled. Afraid? Confused? Uncomprehending? Maybe the bitch sensed something was wrong. Had she seen where Zack went? Was she trying to protect him?
He was just drawing breath to ask her again when she shifted her gaze to the woods behind him. Nolan smiled. Did she realise she’d just given it away, told him exactly what he wanted to know?
He let go of her arm and raced for the trees.
Stiff with dread, Shyler turned slowly back to the car. The part of the seat she could see from this angle showed nothing unusual, just the worn grey fabric of her aging sedan. She eased a bit closer, grabbed the top of the door for support and bent down to look inside.
Nothing. Just the boxes she’d loaded.
She squeezed her eyes tight. Dear God, what was happening to her? A moment ago she was certain she’d seen . . .
She clenched her hands. No, not certain. Of course not certain. She thought she’d seen him. A trick of the light. Her raincoat lying there, dropped down off the back of the front seat where she’d draped it, creating – as it would to any sane mind – the impression of a small figure sitting in her car.
She straightened and moved one last time to the cart. The box she’d dropped lay on its side, its contents spread out over the bottom. She gathered the items, loaded the box, shut the door and climbed in the front.
Behind the wheel she sat taking deep breaths, working to free the residual tightness from her lungs. After a moment she felt a bit better. Her ordeal was over for another two months. She was going home. Where no one would find her, no one could bother her, and the ghosts would never dare intrude.
Chapter 23
The car rocked slightly as someone got in. Nolan or the woman?
The driver’s door closed, the engine started. Movement – the car pulling out of the lot.
Peering from under the edge of the raincoat, Zack glimpsed an elbow between the front seats. He let out his breath – the woman was driving. She slowed the car over a bump, then turned left. Picking up speed. Not roaring off like she’d done yesterday, but a normal acceleration.
Zack eased the raincoat away from his face. Trees swept past the opposite window. He pushed himself out of the narrow crevice behind the driver’s seat and cautiously raised his head to see out.
They were still on the short lane beside the parking lot. Scanning across it, he caught sight of Nolan running along the edge of the woods. The woman hadn’t given him away after all.
For a moment, relief engulfed him so fully he rested his forehead against the glass. But on lifting it again his spirits plunged. Coming down the store’s front steps were Vanessa and Reece.
Everything inside him seemed to clench. Reece wasn’t even putting up a fight. The boy looked totally dejected. Defeated.
Abandoned, whispered a voice in his head. First Corey , now Reece. You deserted them both.
Zack jerked at hearing the words. It wasn’t true. He would never –
Admit it, you thought they were pains in the butt. Always whining, asking questions. You wanted them gone.
No! There hadn’t been a choice in either case. He’d done everything he could to help Reece escape. If he’d stayed, he just would have been caught as well. At least this way, with one of them free, there was a chance he could –
What – rescue them? As if you’ll even try. And anyway what do you think you can do? A pathetic, useless loser like you.
Pressing his face against the seat, Zack fought to silence the awful voice. He’d done the right thing. He hadn’t deserted them. He hadn’t. He hadn’t!
Finally he lifted his head and stared out at the passing landscape. They were heading in the opposite direction from the depot and were now in an area he’d not seen before. The towering pine trees had become a backdrop to mixed hardwood forest, the flames and golds of its autumn foliage setting the surrounding hills on fire.
The only problem was there weren’t any houses. The further they went along this road, the further he got from food and shelter. He couldn’t imagine the crazy lady had much of a house.
Still, better there than back at the store. Now that they’d spotted him, Nolan and Vanessa would no doubt be keeping an eye out for him. They might even put his picture up somewhere, in which case he couldn’t let anyone see him.
He eased back down into the tiny space, careful not to nudge the seat in front of him and let the crazy lady know he was there. A few days ago he probably wouldn’t have fit in a space this small. But all that time without any food . . .
Reminded of his hunger, he noticed the boxes stacked around him. Perched on top of the last one she’d loaded was a plump soft roll, not even wrapped. Now that he’d seen it he could smell it as well. He reached up, grabbed it and crammed it in his mouth.
A half hour later, when the woman turned off the gravel track and into the woods, Zack was starting to wonder where the hell they were going. He’d had visions of her living in a tree somewhere and was surprised when he caught a glimpse of a cabin. As she followed the driveway around to its front he ducked down and covered his head with the raincoat.
They rolled to a stop. The engine shut off. The driver’s door opened, then closed again.
Zack held his breath. Please don’t reach for the raincoat first.
The back door opened. The scrape of cardboard as the woman slid the top box from the stack. Receding footsteps.
He peeked out to see her going up the steps to the cabin’s front porch. When she vanished i
nside he raised his head further.
In front of the car stood an open garage with some kind of shed built off the end. Parked to one side was a pick-up truck, the one she’d been driving the day before. Forest pressed in around the small clearing, nothing but trees in every direction.
Zack squeezed out of his tiny chink. On legs wobbly and cramped from confinement, he hobbled off into the deepening shadows.
‘What’s eating you?’ Allen said from behind his newspaper.
Chase shifted his gaze from the computer to the man having breakfast at the table beside him. Now that his father had drawn attention to it he realised he’d been muttering to himself. ‘Nothing. I’m just thinking about a case.’
‘Complicated, is it?’
‘It didn’t appear so at the start, but it could turn out that way.’ Chase returned his attention to the screen.
‘So what’s the problem?’
‘The problem is I need to follow up on a certain . . . subject . . . but I can’t find the relevant information.’
‘Wouldn’t give you her phone number, would she?’
His head snapped around. ‘What?’
‘Your mother was the same in the beginning. Had me jumping through all sorts of hoops with her hard-to-get games.’ Allen noticed his startled expression. ‘Well, that’s what we’re talking about, isn’t it? This woman you met?’
‘Am I made of glass or something?’
‘Oh, come on, it’s pretty obvious. You’ve been mooning over that carving she gave you like it was the Venus de Milo.’
‘I haven’t been mooning.’
‘A high school football team on a year-long bus tour wouldn’t do as much mooning as you have these last two days.’ Allen lifted the paper again. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great. As long as it’s love and not obsession.’
‘Obsession? When have I –’
‘You know what I mean. That thing you do where you have to take care of everyone.’
‘You mean being a doctor?’
‘It would be the best thing for you to finally have a serious relationship. I was starting to wonder about you, to be honest.’
‘I don’t know why I open my mouth.’
‘So she wouldn’t give you her phone number. Big deal. Just look it up.’
Chase quickly closed down the site he’d been perusing, then decided his father had probably seen in. ‘I’ve tried every search engine on the net and just about every directory in the state.’
‘And this is you not obsessing about it.’
‘Dad, this is serious. She could be in trouble.’
‘I would’ve thought you’d be more concerned about that boy you found in your waiting room yesterday.’
‘I am concerned. But I’ve done everything I could for him and he’s now getting the care he needs. I’m not sure the same can be said for this woman.’
Allen set the paper down in his lap. ‘So what kind of trouble do you think she’s in?’
‘Never mind.’
‘No, no, come on. You haven’t gotten her pregnant, have you?’
‘I’ve only just met her!’
‘Well, then what kind of trouble could she be in?’
‘I don’t know. If I knew I wouldn’t need to find her so badly.’
For once his father had no smart reply.
‘It’s nothing I can put my finger on at this stage. I just have a feeling something’s wrong.’
‘A feeling.’
‘Yes.’
Allen lifted the paper again. ‘Looks like I was right to be worried.’
Chapter 24
‘What the hell am I going to tell him?’
Nolan paced the cabin’s living area, running a hand through his wind-ravaged hair. He’d spent the entire afternoon scouring the woods behind the general store and found not a trace of the other two boys. ‘He’s left me six messages. I’ve got to call him back. But what do I say?’
From her seat on the couch Vanessa said, ‘Tell him the good news. Tell him we caught one of the little bastards.’
‘One out of three. That’s your idea of good news, is it?’ Nolan huffed. ‘I doubt Tragg’ll see it that way.’
‘So don’t tell him anything. Don’t call him back till we catch the others.’
Nolan stopped and turned to glare at her. ‘Were you even listening last night when I told you what he said he’d do if –’ His swallow made a clicking sound in his throat. ‘The man’s a psychopath. Pain is his profession and he enjoys his work.’
Vanessa shrugged. ‘Can’t argue that.’
‘Ballinger’s the critical one. He’s the one we should’ve gotten back.’ Nolan resumed pacing. ‘That bitch must have helped him. She sent me into those woods deliberately because Ballinger was hiding in her car. He had to have been. He couldn’t have disappeared so fast otherwise.’
‘So tomorrow we just start looking for her. When we find her, we follow her and she takes us to him.’
‘And what if Ballinger’s talked by then? What if he’s told her –’
‘The kid’s a punk; she’d never believe him. And if she has doubts . . .’ Vanessa smiled. ‘That’s where your acting skills come in. We flash our IDs, give her the same song and dance we gave the Learys and the problem’s solved.’
Nolan stood with a hand to his brow. Yes, it all sounded perfectly logical. But the thought of telling Tragg of their failure, of confessing that the boy with knowledge of Lazaro’s affairs had not only escaped but was now being helped –
On the coffee table his mobile trilled. He picked it up, read caller ID and fumbled it open. ‘Tragg! My man, I was just going to call you. Yeah, great news – we caught the bastards.’
Vanessa blinked at him, her mouth dropped open.
‘Yup, all three of ’em. They’re right here in the cabin with us, safe and sound. And the best part is they never talked to anyone. So everything’s cool.’
Nolan listened, feeling Vanessa’s gaze bore into him. ‘Well, there’s just one problem. You see it . . . it’s been raining up here, really bucketing down, and the only road into town is washed out. It could be a day or so before we can leave.’
Hearing the words he’d been praying for, Nolan let out his breath in relief. ‘Oh sure, we’ll take good care of them. Yeah. Great, see you then.’ He disconnected.
Vanessa shook her head in disgust. ‘You’re pathetic.’
‘You’re the one who said we’d as good as caught them.’
‘Have you any idea –’
‘If I hadn’t lied he’d have driven up here!’ Nolan struggled to lower his voice. ‘Besides, if you’re right, he’ll never find out. He wanted us to meet him at the warehouse tomorrow but that story about the road bought us some time. We now have an extra twenty-four hours to find the others.’
Vanessa rose slowly, stepped in front of him and pressed the point of one stiletto fingernail up under his chin. ‘You screw this up for me, lover, and I’ll have your nuts in a blender.’
Nolan stared into her cold green eyes. ‘If we screw this up I’m pretty sure Tragg will beat you to it.’
She turned away from him. ‘Okay, get that Reece kid out of the closet and let’s find out what he knows.’
Tragg pushed out through the hospital doors, oblivious to the cold. Even the rain, slashing across the driveway in sheets, couldn’t dampen his present mood. His head was clear, his body pain-free and the matter that had threatened to become a major problem had been taken care of. He was getting the fuck out of this dump.
He turned up his collar and dashed for the rental car Nolan had left for him, parked just across from the main entrance. He unlocked its door, climbed in and sat adjusting the seat and mirrors.
He was heading home, back to Boston. No point slumming it in some New Hampshire motel when Nolan wouldn’t get there for another day or two. He had people keeping an eye on the warehouse; the money wasn’t going anywhere. He’d only need to get there when Nolan and Vanessa arrived with the
kids.
Till then he’d have nothing to do but wait. Something that never improved his mood. Still, the important thing was they’d caught Ballinger before he’d talked. Before they’d been forced to silence the lot of them.
Starting the car, Tragg felt a smile pull at his mouth. In a way he was looking forward to greeting them – the three runaways and the bungling fuckwit who’d let them escape. Looking forward to that very much.
He reversed the car from its parking spot and started towards the exit at the rear of the grounds. As he rounded the building a staunch female figure in a nurse’s uniform emerged through a side door. Standing beneath its overhang she swung a coat up over her head and prepared to launch herself out into the weather.
Tragg smiled. Yes, it was her – the sagging matron so fond of giving orders. The ward’s head bitch, so puffed up by her dollop of authority she wielded it like a battle-axe over patients and subordinates alike.
Perhaps I’d better hold onto that mobile for you, Mr Tragg, until you’re discharged. We don’t allow them on the wards.
Tragg looked around. The lot was empty and shrouded from view of the windows above by the swirling rain.
When the doctor says complete bed rest, that’s exactly what he means, Mr Tragg.
A laugh escaped him. Clutching the wheel he bent towards the windshield.
I hope you’re not leaving, Mr Tragg. The doctor hasn’t authorised your discharge yet.
The woman stepped out from under the portico and commenced her jostling run towards her car. Tragg touched the gas, timing his approach, the acceleration. For a moment she was nothing but a blur in the darkness. Then she broke out into the flood of his headlights.
The woman whirled, ghostly white. Her features, wrenched by shock and fear, captured in a camera’s flash. She threw herself back.
Tragg heard the satisfying thud of her body bouncing off the nearest parked car.
Chapter 25