Back on Solid Ground

by Debra Trueman

  “Call her,” Niki said.

  Jason called the mobile number Holly had written down for him and she answered immediately. She got to the hotel within twenty minutes and Jason introduced her to Niki, Eli and Carlos.

  “We met briefly the other night. Thanks for coming down,” Niki said.

  You are precious. No wonder Stacy’s in love with you, Holly thought. “What’s the plan?” she asked.

  “Tell us about the ranches,” Niki said.

  “Like I told Jason, the Trents have three ranches. The closest one is in Boerne, which is a 30-minute drive. There’s another one up by Dripping Springs, which is about an hour away. And the third is close to Victoria. That one’s at least a three-hour drive.”

  “What kind of structures are on the land?” Carlos asked. “Do any of the ranches have cabin type houses?”

  Holly looked at Carlos surprised. “Yeah, the one in Boerne and the one in Victoria. Why?”

  “Carlos is gifted,” Jason interjected.

  “That’s right! Stacy told me you’re psychic,” Holly said excited. “And you can see a cabin?”

  “With bunk beds.”

  “Wow, that’s incredible!” Holly exclaimed. “Then she’s at one of the ranches,” she said to Niki. She turned back to Carlos, “Describe something else. There are cabins with bunk beds at both the Boerne and Victoria ranches.”

  “A creek,” Carlos said.

  Holly shook her head. “Could be either.”

  “A big house.”

  “Either.”

  “A target range by a pond,” Carlos said.

  Holly jumped up and pointed at Carlos. “That’s in Victoria! She’s at the ranch in Victoria!”

  “How well do you know that ranch?” Niki asked her.

  Holly smiled. “I can tell you anything you want to know.”

  Niki handed her a pad and pen. “Draw it.”

  Holly looked up at him expectantly.

  “You have to say please,” Jason told Niki.

  Niki threw his hand in the air and rolled his eyes. “Please.”

  Holly pointed the pen at him. “Only because you said please.” She drew a map of the Victoria ranch, complete with the big house, three cabins, two creeks, a smoke house, the target range by the pond, cattle guards and gates, and barriers and fences that divided different areas of the ranch. The men watched over her shoulder as she drew and when she finished, she handed the page to Niki and smiled.

  “I knew all those summers at the ranch would pay off some day,” she said.

  Niki looked at his watch. It was almost 11:00. “I think that’s going to do it for tonight,” he told Holly.

  “What are you going to do?” Holly asked. “Are you going to drive there tonight?”

  “I don’t know yet. Let us call you in the morning,” Niki said, trying to get rid of her.

  “I know you’re trying to get rid of me, and it’s not going to work,” Holly said. “Stacy’s my best friend, and I’m going to help get her back.”

  Niki breathed out heavily. “The last thing we need right now is you trying to be Wonder Woman,” Niki said. “Stacy doesn’t need it, and we don’t need it. We have enough problems to deal with as it is. Now go home, and let us do what we do.”

  “You’re going to rob a bank at this hour?” Holly said, looking at her watch.

  Niki looked at Holly and she knew she had gone too far. “Somebody deal with her,” Niki told no one in particular. He walked over to the bar and poured himself a drink and went and stood by the window. Just days ago, he and Stacy had shared one of the best nights of his life in this very room. It seemed like an eternity ago. Niki walked out on the balcony and watched the tourists walking on the Riverwalk and he picked up a chair and hurled it down into the river. There was a huge splash and people looked around to see what had happened. Jason was outside in a flash and he stopped Niki before he could toss another chair.

  “You’re gonna get us kicked out of here,” Jason told Niki.

  “I’ll pay for the damn chair,” Niki said, kicking the one Jason had taken away from him. Niki ran his hand through his hair. “He’s going to kill her.”

  “We’ll get to her first,” Jason said. “Do we assume she’s at that ranch and get out there now, or do we wait until we hear from Trent in the morning?”

  “I can’t think about this one objectively,” Niki admitted. “Tell me what you think.”

  Jason could always count on Niki to ask for help when he needed it. It was one of the many things Jason had always admired about him.

  “Let’s think it through,” Jason said. “Stacy’s father is going to want us to meet him somewhere tomorrow when he calls, and it may be at the ranch in Victoria or it may not be. And she may very well be there right now, but he can move her any time. There’s no guarantee she would be there when we got there. And I think her father expects you to take the call from here in San Antonio. What do you think?” Jason asked.

  “Yes, I agree that he expects me to be here when he calls,” Niki said.

  “Okay. Let’s pretend Stacy’s not involved in this. It’s a kidnapping and we’re waiting for the ransom call to find out where to deliver the money. What would we do?” Jason asked.

  “We’d wait for the call,” Niki said.

  “I think that’s what we need to do,” Jason said.

  Niki nodded his head in agreement. “Did you get rid of Holly?”

  “I’m afraid to.”

  “Why?”

  “Think about it,” Jason said. “What would Stacy do if the roles were reversed and Holly was in Stacy’s place.”

  “She’d leave here and drive straight to the fucking ranch on her own. Goddammit!” Niki kicked the chair again. “This is a fucking nightmare!” He looked at Jason. “So what are we supposed to do?”

  “Got any rope?” Jason said, and they both laughed. “Maybe we should tell her about Trent’s call,” Jason suggested. “She’s not stupid. I would think she’d be sensible.”

  “Okay. It’s worth a try,” Niki said. They walked back inside and Holly came up to Niki and apologized.

  “I’m sorry about the bank comment,” Holly said. “But you need to realize that Stacy and I have been best friends since we were three years old. That’s 26 years, Niki. And you’ve known her for less than a month,” Holly said. “I’ve already been to her funeral once and I’m not about to go to another one. So if there’s something I can do to help Stacy get away from her father, not you and all your buddies combined are going to stop me,” Holly said, crossing her arms.

  Niki listened as Holly lectured him and when she finished he knocked on her head. “Stacy, are you in there?” he said, and Holly laughed out loud.

  Niki looked at Jason, “I told you,” Jason said.

  “Sit down,” Niki told Holly, motioning to the couch and Holly took a seat. “Stacy’s father left a message, saying that Stacy needs my help. He said he would call back first thing in the morning with instructions.”

  “Did he say he has her?” Holly asked.

  “He has her.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that before?” she asked, then she waved off the question, “Never mind. So you’re going to wait here until he calls?”

  “That’s the plan. Although Carlos and Eli could head to Victoria tonight, and I’d still be here for the call in the morning,” Niki said, looking over at Jason.

  “They could,” Jason said. “But what if morning comes and Trent sends us in the opposite direction and Carlos and Eli are three hours away?”

  “We’ll wait for the call,” Niki said.

  “I could drive to Victoria,” Holly started to say, but Niki and Jason cut her off.

  “No!” they said in unison.

  “Well then I’m going with you in the morning,” Holly said, and nobody argued.

  They mapped out a strategy for Eli, Carlos and Holly to scope out the cabins, hoping that Trent would leave Stacy alone while he dealt with Niki and Jason. It
was almost 2:00 a.m. when everyone went to their own rooms, and Holly slept in a bedroom in Niki’s suite.

  Chapter 41

  Trent sat up at the ranch house until dusk, then he drove back over to the cabin to check on Stacy. He tossed a Hostess Twinkie at her. “Here’s your dinner.”

  “I need to use the bathroom again.”

  Trent fumbled in his pocket and came out with a key and he removed the handcuffs. He followed Stacy out of the cabin with the pistol pointed at her back and she went behind a tree and used the bathroom, then she made a run for it.

  The trees were thick and provided good coverage, but she was wearing heels and she couldn’t run fast.

  “Get back here you bitch!” Trent yelled, chasing after her. He fired the gun in the air but she kept running, and Trent was gaining on her easily. Stacy turned around to see where her father was and when she turned back the ground disappeared and she fell into a deep pit, landing hard and hitting her head. Stacy groaned and rolled onto her back and looked up at the sky. Her father stood at the top of the massive hole with a sinister smile on his face.

  “I see you found your lover’s grave.”

  Stacy’s head was killing her and she reached up and felt it and her hand came away with blood. She looked around the pit she had fallen into. The hole was at least five feet deep, four feet wide and more than six feet long.

  “Well haven’t you been the Digging-Est Dog,” Stacy said.

  Trent burst into a recitation of the book he had read to her hundreds of times when she was a little girl. Afterwards, he was quiet for a moment, then his face clouded over and he got an angry look on his face.

  “Get out,” Trent said.

  Stacy found her shoes and tossed them up on the ground by her father, then she scaled the wall and climbed out of the pit.

  “If I didn’t have such a good show planned for you, I’d kill you right now,” Trent told her. He followed her back to the cabin and cuffed her to the bed again then left without saying another word. He returned at first light with his telephone in hand and dialed Niki’s number.

  “Yeah,” Niki said.

  “I’ve got your little bitch here with me,” Trent hissed.

  “Let me talk to Stacy.”

  Trent held the phone up to Stacy’s mouth. “Say something.”

  “Niki, don’t come! He’s going to kill . . .” Stacy’s father smacked her in the head with the phone before she could finish. Trent was trying to talk to Niki, but Stacy was yelling at the top of her lungs in the background, “Niki don’t come. He’s going to kill you! Call the FBI. I’m at the ranch in Victoria!”

  Trent finally left the cabin to continue his call. He closed the door but could still hear Stacy’s muffled yelling.

  “The little tramp has always been overly dramatic,” Trent said “What you see in her I’ll never know.”

  “What do you want?” Niki asked. He couldn’t wait to kill the man.

  “Your girlfriend needs her car and she would like you and your friend to bring it to her.” He looked at his watch. “You have exactly four hours to make it to Victoria. If you’re not here by then, don’t worry about coming. Stacy won’t need you any more.” Trent gave Niki instructions on how to get to the ranch and hung up.

  The five were out the door while Niki was still on the phone with Trent. They went to Stacy’s apartment and found the spare set of keys to the Viper. Niki and Jason headed for Victoria in the Viper, with Eli, Carlos and Holly following in Holly’s car.

  Trent was so excited he could hardly stand it. He rubbed his hands together and got in the car and drove back to the ranch house and waited for three hours, then he got back in the car and drove to another hunting cabin that would be the first structure Niki and Jason would come upon. Trent got out of the car and went inside. There was a headless deer lying on the floor of the cabin and a large bucket of blood that he had drained from the deer.

  “There you are,” he laughed, when he saw the carcass. “I hope you had a pleasant evening.”

  Trent picked up the bucket of blood and whistled “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” as he carried the bucket outside and spilled a trail of blood starting at the cabin door and heading out to the road where he had parked the car. Pleased with his handiwork, he took the bucket back to the cabin and continued the trail into the back room of the cabin. Then he returned to the front room and dragged the dead deer to the back room. He laid it in a bottom bunk and covered it up with a sleeping bag.

  He pulled out a scarf that he had taken from Stacy’s purse, dunked it in the blood, went back outside and set it on the ground where the trail of blood started.

  “You look beautiful,” he told the scarf. He rubbed his hands together again and danced around in a little circle, then went back to the car and opened the trunk. He removed a gas can and walked the perimeter of the cabin dousing the lower boards of the cabin with the gasoline, then he went back to the car and got a second can and climbed a tree beside the cabin and doused the roof. He poured the leftover gas into two beer bottles and set them strategically in place, one on the ground against the back wall of the cabin and the other up on the corner of the roof.

  Finally, he connected the spring-loaded door closer that he had installed the day before on the cabin door. He took one last look around the cabin, grabbed the bucket of blood, then got back in the car and drove to get Stacy.

  “It’s show time!” Trent said, slamming the door open into the wall. He turned around, “Oh, excuse me,” he told the door. He had smeared the deer’s blood on his face like war paint and had streaks of blood under his eyes, across his forehead, down his nose and on his chin.

  Stacy was horrified and recoiled when she saw him. “Dad please, don’t do this. It’s not too late to get help. I’ll drive you back to town. We can go see Dr. Lancaster.”

  For a second Trent almost looked normal, but then his eyes glazed over and once again he was the lunatic. “Shut up Elizabeth!” he shouted angrily. “What are you doing here anyway? I already killed you once,” he ranted, then he got right in Stacy’s face and roared, “How many times do I have to kill you!” His eyes were bulging and Stacy was completely freaked out and she started to cry.

  “I’m not Elizabeth, Dad. I’m Stacy,” she cried, and Trent seemed to snap out of whatever fantasy was playing out in his head, because there was a look of recognition on his face again.

  Trent laughed at her. “You think I don’t know who you are? I know exactly who you are, my dear. You’re that bitch of a daughter I never wanted.”

  Trent grabbed a piece of rope and tied it around Stacy’s ankles so that she could still walk but couldn’t run, then he tied her hands and removed the handcuffs. His mood switched again and he was deliriously happy.

  “I think you’re going to enjoy this. I’ve been very creative.”

  He drove to the ranch house and they got out of the car and set off on foot through the brush. They ended up at a deer blind close to the cabin he had worked on and they went inside to wait for Niki and Jason.

  Chapter 42

  Niki and Jason had gotten all the way to Cuero when they pulled over at a gas station and the FBI intercepted them. Niki was pumping gas, and Holly had pulled up behind the Viper. She looked in her rearview mirror and saw that Alex had boxed her in.

  “Shit,” Holly said, and Carlos and Eli turned around. “He’s with the FBI.”

  Alex had gotten out of his car and Holly got out as he walked past her car and headed towards the Viper.

  “I assume Stacy’s at the ranch?” Alex asked Niki.

  “I heard from her father this morning,” Niki said, looking at his watch. “And I don’t have time to fuck around. He gave us just enough time to get there and if we don’t make it, he’ll kill her.”

  “What are you planning to do?” Alex asked.

  “Whatever it takes to get her back,” Niki said, and he gave Alex a look that dared him to try to stop him.

  “My men and I will go in
after you, but they’re not going,” he said, pointing to Holly, Eli and Carlos.

  “My men are better equipped to deal with a hostage situation than yours are,” Niki told him. “They’re coming.” The gas pump clicked off and Niki put the gas cap back on. “And Holly knows the ranch. You should take her with you and let her brief you on it before you go in.” Niki got in the Viper and started the engine and drove off.

  Alex turned to Holly. “You come in my car.” Alex tossed the keys to another agent, “You drive,” he told him.

  Alex sat in the back seat with Holly and she mapped out a layout of the ranch like she had done for Niki.

  “Do you know whose land borders the ranch on this side?” Alex asked, after reviewing the diagram.

  “I don’t remember their name, but I’ve been there before,” Holly told him.

  “Where’s their entrance?”

  Holly thought for a minute. “If I remember right, you have to enter from a road that runs behind the Trent’s ranch. It’s kind of just the opposite of the Trent’s – the front side of the Trent ranch would be the backside of the neighbor’s ranch. The road cuts off right here,” she said, pointing to a spot on the map, “and I think the neighbor’s entry is about here,” she pointed to another spot.

  “That’s how we’ll go in,” Alex said. He was quiet for a minute then he asked, “What do you think of Stacy’s boyfriend?” The question made Holly’s heart skip a beat.

  She thought about it before she answered, “I think he’s very capable. If he can’t get Stacy back, no one can.”

  “He owns Lautrec Investigations,” Alex said, “but I guess you knew that.”

  “What’d you do, run a check on him?” Holly laughed, trying to cover her nervousness.

  “Yeah,” Alex admitted. “I didn’t like him from the start. I couldn’t believe it when I found out who he was.”

  “You weren’t jealous were you?” Holly teased.

  “Protective,” Alex clarified. “I felt protective of Stacy. She’d been through so much shit and the guy wasn’t even around during those first couple of weeks. I disliked him before I even met him.”