“It was just a thought,” I defended.
“Like I was saying,” Aiden continued, “it’s fucking crazy, which means you’re probably right. This guy makes Vanessa seem sane.”
I rubbed at my shoulder at the mention of her name. “I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s still worth checking out.”
“By the cops,” Kate insisted.
I kissed her forehead. I never had even a passing thought about searching for him myself. It might be momentarily satisfying to snap the cuffs on his wrists, but it wouldn’t be worth the anxiety of leaving Kate behind to find him.
“I won’t leave your side. I’ll probably drive you nuts. You may want to rethink majoring in psychology to avoid having classes with me,” I advised.
She dramatically batted her eyelashes at me, and pouted her full lips. “I guess I’d need to find a new study partner then.”
“I love how you do that,” I blurted out.
“What this?” she asked and playfully batted her eyelashes again.
“That is adorable, but not what I was talking about. I love how you always find something to hold onto, even in the middle of all of this,” I explained.
“It’s a survival mechanism,” she said dismissively.
“Don’t do that. Don't diminish your resilience. You’re amazing. The way you can continue moving forward, and actually find something beautiful. You continue to stun me,” I admired.
Chapter 46
Reed
“Put your phone down. You know they won’t be able to finish searching the new location for Pratt now that the sun has set,” Kate reasoned.
“Let’s let Belly in and find a movie,” I suggested.
Downstairs I found Aiden searching the kitchen drawers for a flashlight. “What’s going on?” I asked him.
“I went to bring in the dogs, but they didn’t come when I called them,” he said.
“I need to find Belly. We can look together,” I offered.
Becca came in the room carrying a large flashlight. “Looking for this?”
“Thanks Red,” he said and kissed her on the cheek.
“What would you do without me?” she teased.
“Let’s never find out,” he grumbled and rubbed her tiny baby bump.
“Is she still having a difficult time?” I asked once Becca left the room.
Aiden nodded. “I thought it would be easier this time. I really wanted a big family, but I can’t watch her go through this over and over.”
I suppressed a laugh, because Aiden was really upset about only having two children. “I think two kids will keep you plenty busy.”
Aiden pushed open the back door. “Let’s find these dogs so I can come back and obsessively hover over Becca, or at least that’s what she calls it. I prefer to think of it as being super attentive.”
“She must really love you to put up with your overprotectiveness.” Kate would never let me get away with guarding her like Aiden does to Becca.
Once we were off the porch we both fell silent and listened for the dogs. The yard around the house was illuminated by a combination of the moon and floodlights. It was quieter than I’d expected. It was still too cold in early spring for insects and birds to be active at night. Ordinarily, I would not have even noticed, but I didn’t hear dogs bashing into each other, gnashing teeth, or any of the sounds common when the Doberman Pinschers were playing together outside.
Usually they stayed near the house, and Belly could be found sleeping on the porch. We moved further out on his property, toward the massive brick and iron fence that surrounded his home.
Aiden swept the light of the flashlight back and forth. “Something feels off,” he observed.
“It’s too quiet and still,” I agreed.
He directed the beam up to the top of the fence. The light fell on one of the security cameras that covered the perimeter. Aiden cocked his head to the side. “That should be moving,” he said pointing.
A chill raced up my spine. “We should get back to Kate and Becca. I don’t like leaving them in the house alone.”
“Let’s check in with the security guard and see what is wrong with the cameras. I want to make sure no one can get in. They’ll be safer if the security is working,” Aiden reassured.
Aiden’s house was situated in the center of his property. Thanks to a large inheritance, and even better investments, he was able to afford an onsite security officer to monitor the many cameras and alarm sensors.
We knew there was a problem the moment the gate came into view. It was slightly ajar, and a loud warning tone blared from inside the guard shack. The lights were out inside the small building, and that door was also left open.
Aiden called out to the guard, but no one answered. I really wanted to run straight back to the house, but I couldn’t leave my friend alone either. “We need to hurry,” I urged.
The moon cast a soft glow on the yard, but there was usually a floodlight that illuminated this section nearly as bright as daytime. Even with the weaker light I noticed a lump behind the shack.
I pulled out my cell phone and turned on my flashlight app. “Aiden! I found the dogs.” I ran over to them. “They aren’t moving.” Was it possible to search for a pulse in a dog? I watched them carefully for a minute, and noticed their chests rise and fall.
“What’s wrong with them?” I wondered aloud.
Next to the Dobermans were a few hunks of meat. It looked like there were little bits of white crumbled pills stuck to the steak. Aiden picked up a piece and threw it back down on the ground. “It’s drugged. They are going to need a vet, but we’ve got to check on the guard first.”
Our next stop was the guard shack, which was eerily still. A flashing red light glared on and off, reflecting off the glass. We approached carefully, and my fingers tingled to withdraw my gun, but I’d left it behind with my badge. Aiden directed the light in through the door. When we determined that the security guard was alone, we entered the tiny building.
The guard shack was a small square building that consisted of one main control room and a bathroom. There was a sliding window nearest the drive where the security officer was able to verify identity before granting access to the property. It was an unassuming looking building with calming blue paint and grey trim.
Aiden started to hurry toward the guard until I forced him to stop. The security guard was slumped over the control panel with blood trailing down his forehead.
“It looks like he’s either been shot or hit in the head.” I felt for a pulse. It was weak, but he was still alive. I wasn’t familiar with the complicated security system, but even I could see that a silent alarm had been triggered.
Aiden was examining the control panels. “We need to get back inside the house now!” he shouted.
He didn’t wait for a response, but turned and ran for the house. Not that I planned on arguing with him. I caught up to him and followed a second after him into the house. My heart pounded, and deep inside my bones I felt the danger surround me. If Pratt hurt Kate nothing and no one would stop me from killing him, slowly.
We entered the backdoor of the house, and found Becca and Scott huddled in the kitchen.
“Take them and go,” I ordered Aiden and gave him a shove.
“Red take Scott and head for the gate. The police should be here soon,” Aiden said.
“No,” I interrupted. “Take your family and get out. You won’t put your wife and children in danger to protect me. We don’t know that it’s safe outside. You take them yourself, and stay with them. They need you more. I won’t let you take any more risks for us. Kate will hurt me if she finds out I did.”
“Reed, he has a gun. I think he took Kate into the living room. Please save her. Just do what needs to be done. Both of you come out of here safe,” she insisted.
I took a deep breath and tried to prepare myself for what I’d find in the other room. Nothing can prepare you to find the one you love on the wrong end of the barrel of a gun. Ever
y breath I took sounded like a freight train alerting him to my approach.
Pratt’s shadow loomed on the wall across from the sofa. I took one last deep breath, fully prepared for it to be my last if that's what it took to save Kate. I’d said when I joined the Army that I’d give my life for my country, and I would have, but the idea was an abstract possibility. I knew I was walking into a hornet's nest this time, but my only concern was that Kate walked out safely.
I approached him slowly with my hands open and in front of me. “You don’t have to point that at her.” The words fell from my mouth, but I knew he wasn’t going to let her go. The look in her brown eyes told me she knew one of us might not leave here, and I think she knew I was planning on it being me.
“You need to know how it feels. It should have been you! Jimmy should have come home. He trusted you and you let him die!” Pratt shrieked.
“I didn’t let him die, Freddie. I was shot trying to save him. James was a good guy, but I didn’t shoot him,” I tried to reason.
“No, no, no. I won’t let you trick me.” He turned away from Kate slightly and pressed the fist holding the gun against his head, like he had in the video. “You were in charge. You led him there. It was your fault,” he ranted.
He pointed the gun at me, and it shook slightly as his mental state deteriorated. “Maybe I should just shoot you. I don’t see why Kate has to suffer because of her poor taste in men. Maybe she’ll be appreciative of me since I took care of her stalker ex-husband.”
With his free hand he caressed the side of her face. She tried to turn away from his touch, but he grabbed her face firmly to stop her. He forced her to look at him. Her chin went up, and defiance flashed through her features.
“I hated him. I can’t be sad that he died, but I won’t thank you for killing him,” Kate said defiantly.
“Even if I told you he paid someone to kill Reed. I killed the hit man too,” Pratt bragged.
“But only so you could hurt him yourself,” she retorted.
“I know about the child you lost. You wouldn’t have miscarried if he hadn’t beaten you. He lived all those years, free to do as he pleased, all those years that the baby you carried was dead. Didn’t you want him to suffer?” he asked.
“John’s suffering wouldn’t have brought back the baby. It wouldn’t have changed the amount of time I spent sitting by my twin brother’s hospital bed praying for him to open his eyes. Focusing on how much I hated John wasn’t going to fix any of that, but it would keep him in my life. No, I didn’t spend those years I ran wishing him harm. I only wished him gone,” Kate explained.
“I didn’t want James gone! He was supposed to be with me, like when we were kids. Reed does not get to live, be successful, and have love when James gets nothing. He’ll never be a day older than twenty!” Pratt shouted.
“You were in love with him,” Kate murmured.
“No. Don’t say that! You’re making it ugly. He was my best friend. We weren’t…we didn’t,” he ranted. The gun shook in his hand. He was losing control of the last bit of sanity he still held.
Her eyes searched her surroundings, and settled on the end table near the couch. Aiden had signed documents sitting at the couch earlier in the evening, and left his pen lying on the table. He wasn’t usually so careless about leaving things lying around, especially something Scott could choke on or use to write all over the walls, but the last few days hadn't been particularly ordinary.
Kate inched closer to the table while Pratt paced around muttering to himself. I motioned for her to stop, but she shook her head at me. She quickly reached out and snatched the pen off the table.
I heard a noise behind me and cringed when Pratt looked toward it. I wasn’t sure if the cops had arrived, or if Aiden was really that pig headed, but either way I prayed that help was behind me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw black, brown and white fur crawl into the room. That solved the mystery of where Belly was, but I wished she were somewhere else.
Pratt stopped pacing and turned the gun back on Kate. “Why did you say I was in love with James? I wasn’t. He was my best friend. My only friend. You make what we had sound dirty.”
“My brother is gay. Why would I think your feelings were dirty?” she asked him.
“No more. I don’t want to hear anymore. You’re trying to confuse me. I know what I have to do. Reed has to know. He has to feel what I feel,” he blustered.
“Why? What will it bring you?” Kate tried to reason.
Pratt rubbed his chest and laughed humorlessly to himself. “Only one way to find out,” he said and moved his finger onto the trigger. I couldn’t get to her fast enough. It was my nightmare come true. No matter how hard I had tried, I was still going to fail to save her. Pratt looked at me and I knew he was done toying with me. He smiled and watched me as he pulled his finger back on the trigger.
I hadn’t seen Belly sneaking along behind me. When Pratt raised the gun, Belly leapt from her hiding spot and got between him and Kate. He pulled the trigger and paused to watch Belly bleed when he realized he hadn't hit Kate.
While he was distracted, Kate raised her arm holding the expensive steel, fountain style pen that she’d snuck off the table. Swiftly she plunged the pen down hard into the inside of his left thigh. She pulled her hand back, taking the pen with it, and blood gushed from the wound.
Pratt dropped the gun and tried to stop the blood flow with his hands. After less than a minute most of his pant leg was soaked in his blood. He sunk down to the floor, growing increasingly pale.
“What did you do to me?” he whined.
“I hit your femoral artery. You’ll bleed to death in a few minutes,” Kate replied in a monotone voice.
“We’ll get you help, an ambulance, something,” I told him.
“Why would you do that?” he asked. His breathing had become more labored, and it was obvious we didn’t have much time to get him medical attention.
“I can’t say what I would be like if I lost Kate. Thanks to you I’ve come close, and I know I don’t want to be you. Once you leave this room I won’t obsess over you. This will be over for Kate and me,” I told him.
I pulled out my phone and started to dial 911. “Stop!” he interrupted before I hit send.
I hesitated. “Why?”
“I want this to be over. Please. Maybe you were always supposed to kill me. That was how I was going to find peace. I just want to see him again. She was right. I loved him, but he would never have felt the same way. I thought I would be fine just being near him.”
Pratt coughed, and I hit send on my phone. They probably wouldn’t make it in time, but it wasn’t in me to throw in the towel.
“Save your strength. An ambulance should be here soon,” I told him.
“I hated myself for the way I felt about James. It was wrong, disgusting, perverted, at least that’s what I thought then," he continued without acknowledging what I said.
"It didn’t matter once he died. I would never see him again and that was worse than my self-hatred. All I wanted was one more minute with him. Hating you felt better than hating myself. But now I’m too tired to keep it up. Please just let me go,” he begged.
I nodded and set down my phone. The ambulance was still coming, but they weren’t going to make it in time. I didn’t interfere when Pratt let his hands fall off his leg, or when his labored breathing became shallow pants. His hands fell limp, and his head fell to the side staring at nothing with unfocused eyes.
Kate stood shaking violently. Blood spattered across her face, and clothes.
“She jumped in front of me and bit him. I saw him pull the trigger, but she wouldn’t get out of the way. She saved me. I had to do it,” Kate cried. She opened her hand and the pen fell free.
I stared at Belly lying in a pool of blood. I called out to her and she picked her head up a tiny bit. “Hang on girl,” I begged.
The captain rushed in with his weapon drawn. When he saw Pratt on the ground he signaled for the
EMTs to enter. One of the medics checked him for a pulse and shook his head at the captain.
"He's dead. I'll radio for the coroner to come," the medic confirmed.
“I’m so sorry, Reed,” he began. “I didn’t want to believe it, but Daniels showed me the videos you brought back from Illinois. I had IT investigate our digital records and discovered someone was using the lieutenant’s account to get updates on the investigation. The only problem is the lieutenant is fly-fishing in Idaho this week. No computers, cell phones, nothing for the entire time he’s gone.”
“I thought he was hiding in the mountains,” I replied. At this point I really didn’t care. Pratt was dead. Where he was up until this point didn’t matter much anymore.
“He hacked into a neighbor’s satellite Internet. He was able to find out where we were searching. That’s why he moved locations. My guess is when we closed in on him with the location you gave us he decided to come here,” he responded.
“Captain, where the schematics of Aiden’s security included in the digital file?” I asked curiously.
He nodded. “I obtained them when you used his security system as your alibi. I had the entire system broken down and any weak points catalogued so I could prove you were lying. Except I could never find a way you could have gotten out undetected, only how…”
“How someone might get in undetected,” I finished.
“I made a comment in the file that if the guard were somehow incapacitated, access could be achieved. What Pratt didn't realize, was that without periodic input by the guard, the alarm still goes off. I’ve made a lot of mistakes through this entire ordeal, that was just one of them. I’d really like you to come back to your job. You shouldn’t give up everything because I was wrong,” he offered.
Gently I scooped up Belly and motioned with my head for Kate to come with me. “I already have everything sir. I’m not coming back.”
An EPD officer I didn’t recognize stepped in front of me trying to prevent me from leaving. “You have to stay and make a statement.”
“Step aside. That dog is a hero and needs medical attention. Show some respect,” the captain snapped.
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