by Blake Pierce
She approached the chair and looked at the ropes. They were tied tightly around the back of the chair, pulling Kate tightly against it. But the knots were fairly obvious. She worked quickly, a little surprised at how simple the knots were. Apparently, he had been far too interested in what he could do to his new prisoner than applying tighter, more effective knots.
The first loops came away and then the second. But the third was harder. It was then that Kate made a mewling noise through the tape around her mouth. She then held up her arms, showing Mercy the tape. She nodded to the tape and Mercy instantly forgot the ropes and started tearing at the tape. Her hands were sweaty, making it hard to attack it, but she was still fueled on adrenaline and nerves, so tearing it was rather easy. She almost had it, focusing on the tape rather than the terrified look in Kate’s eyes.
A gunshot sounded out from below them. The a second. Behind the echo of the second shot, Mercy heard a clattering noise. She looked over toward the trapdoor and saw the two holes in the floor—one of which had torn the hinge and lock directly away from the trapdoor.
The door then swung open. One hand came up and then the other. And then he was there, his face leering out over the edge of the frame and looking at her.
Mercy froze, her heart feeling as if it had stopped beating. She tried to will her hands to move but there was nothing. She was absolutely frozen as he pulled himself up out of the cellar with Kate’s gun in his right hand.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
Kate had no idea what had gone on between Mercy and Jack when he had gone to the trapdoor, but it was clear that Mercy had gotten the upper hand. She had rarely heard screams of pain like the ones that came barreling up out of the cellar as Mercy had worked at the ropes around the chair.
She wanted to tell the girl to run, to save herself, but the tape was blocking her mouth. She wished the girl would have taken that off first but did not fault her for doing her best. Given the situation, Mercy was operating miraculously.
But then the gunshots tore through the barn and Mercy had frozen. She’d nearly removed the tape from Kate’s wrists as the trapdoor came flying open and Jack Kramer’s hands appeared at the edges.
Recognizing the shock that had seized Mercy, Kate knew she had to run things now. The tape around her wrists was ripped a little more than halfway down. It looked as if Jack had wrapped it three layers deep, making it quite hard for Kate to pull it apart on her own. She summoned all of her strength and started to pull as hard as she could. There was much more give than before but it would still not tear free.
She looked back to Mercy and saw that the girl was literally frozen in place. She was in shock and, if things went that way, she’d likely stand in that same position until Jack came up out of the cellar and started firing on them.
Across the room, she could now see Jack’s face as he pulled himself out of the hole. She saw the gruesome wound where Mercy had apparently stabbed him with something just below the left eye. And she also saw her Glock in his right hand as he pulled himself shakily back up to the floor.
Kate continued to pull at the tape, trying to get it to stretch and rip even further. She channeled all of the strength from her shoulders and her core, crying out behind the tape. She pulled until she felt the muscles in her forearms cramping, until she thought her wrist might snap.
But then the tape ripped. And then it ripped some more. The sound it made was heavenly and seemed to send one last surge of strength through Kate’s forearms. With one final pull, the tape tore in half in the front. One final pull tore the back of it away from her right wrist, leaving it in a clump that dangled from her left wrist.
She fell forward right away, her knees striking the floor as the chair was still attached to her back by that last loop of rope. Still, she slammed into Mercy, shoving her into action. The girl snapped out of it just as Jack pulled himself through the doorway. He was up to his chest now, struggling to get his lower half up through the door.
With her hands free, Kate easily slipped out of the last loop of rope around the chair. When her back was free of it, she did the only thing that she could think of…the first thing that came to mind. It seemed silly at the time but proved to be effective.
She grabbed the chair and threw it as hard as she could in the direction of the trapdoor. It bounced, breaking the right armrest, right before it hit the opening. Although it did not strike Jack, it caused him to instinctively release the sides of the trapdoor frame to protect himself. When he did, he fell back against it and started to fall back into the darkness.
He fought for balance and though he managed to keep from falling back into the cellar, it gave Kate just enough time.
She dove for the barn door, directly for the rifle Jack and propped up there—the one she had sensed right away when he had slapped her back into consciousness. Even before she grabbed it, she managed to study it for all of a second, making sure she knew how to use it when she held it. It was an old hunting rifle and the hammer at the back was disengaged. She took it up, steadied herself against the barn wall, and cocked the hammer back.
Jack saw this and raised his right arm. For a moment, Kate saw her own service weapon pointed at her. But Jack had not properly regained his balance yet and could not focus his aim.
Kate fired. The blast was impossibly loud and the jolt of the recoil was stronger than she had expected. But Kate’s aim had been true. The shot took Jack in the center of his chest. He bucked backward and slumped down, falling back into the cellar. The sound of his body hitting the first was drowned out by the ringing in her ears caused by the rifle blast.
Kate dropped the rifle and brought her hands to her mouth. She tore the tape away as she did her best to take stock of Mercy Fuller. The girl had done her best to escape the barn. But something—probably he rifle blast—had caused her to freeze up again. She was lying half in and half out of the shed, her trembling body lying on the ground just beside the partially open door.
“It’s okay,” she told Mercy. And while she knew this to be true, Kate found that she was having trouble getting to her feet. The surge of adrenaline and emotion was just too much for her muscles and nerves to comprehend.
So Kate just reached over and placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Mercy…it’s okay. He’s gone. Are you all right?”
Mercy responded by letting out a piercing wail. She curled herself into a little ball and started to sob uncontrollably. They were wails of loss and grief and terror, all coming out at once.
Not knowing what else to do, Kate pulled herself closer to Mercy and placed an arm around her, holding her closely to her. She thought of her phone, sitting in the car. She needed to call DeMarco, but she figured that could wait a few more minutes. She kept her eyes on the trapdoor, pretty certain Jack Kramer would not be making another appearance but wanting to be sure all the same. She sat there just outside of the old barn, in the tall grass, holding Mercy close.
She figured it was the least she could do. The girl had probably saved her life. And because Mercy would have no mother to receive this sort of consoling from when this was all wrapped up, Kate was more than happy to provide it in the meantime.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
Kate was sitting in the back of an ambulance, her legs dangling out over the bumper, when Sheriff Barnes came over. She had just finished enduring a check-up with one of the paramedics to ensure she had no internal injuries or concussions. Other than some bruising on her face from the barrage of slaps from Jack Kramer, she was doing just fine.
“A little outside of your jurisdiction, aren’t you?” she asked him.
“I headed out as soon as your partner called to fill me in. Sadly, this little place is far too much like Deton. I felt I had to come, though. I wanted to thank you for closing this case. I know it wasn’t quite the ending we were hoping for, but at least we have answers now.”
“It didn’t end too badly,” she said, looking over to the edge of Jack Kramer’s yard. There was a group of
people huddled around Mercy Fuller, who sat on the back of a patrol car. DeMarco was one of the people in that group. She hadn’t strayed too far from Mercy’s side since she arrived on the scene.
“Yeah, we came out of it with Mercy Fuller still alive,” Barnes conceded. “How are you doing?”
“A little shaken. I want to get back home, but I feel like I need to see what happens with Mercy.”
“That girl is one hell of a fighter,” Barnes said. “Did they tell you what she used to stab Kramer with?”
“They did. A lock-pick. My lock-pick. It must have fallen through one of the cracks between the floor boards when he was throwing my stuff on the ground.”
It looked as if Barnes wanted to say something else. But in the end, he settled for an encouraging soft clap to her back and a smile of appreciation. He then walked over to where the small group was stull huddled around Mercy.
Kate looked in that direction as she hopped down out of the ambulance. Mercy was looking over the heads of the six different people standing around her. Her eyes finally found Kate. She offered a forced smile, but never took her eyes off of the agent who had come out here to the middle of nowhere to find her.
It brought tears to Kate’s eye, but they were happy tears. As she wiped them away, she caught Mercy smiling at her. This time, it was genuine.
The girl broke away from the little group and started over toward Kate. Those around her started to reach for her, to keep her stationary, until they realized where she was headed. Kate put an arm around her instinctively when the girl reached her.
“The sheriff told me he’d help me with anything regarding social services,” Mercy said. “He said it in this kind of pained way, like he was hiding something.” She looked down at her feet and, as if embarrassed, added: “I know about my parents. Well, I mean, I know there’s some question about if Mom and Dad are my real…my real…”
“How do you know that?”
“A man claiming to be my real dad called a few weeks ago. Left a message. I never called him back.”
“What did the message say?”
“That he was my real father and the Fullers were liars and thieves.”
“Did you believe him?”
Mercy shrugged, leaning into Kate. “I don’t know. I…well, there would be times when I would look at my mom and dad and realize I looked nothing like them. And there aren’t any baby pictures of me around the house. I just…something never felt quite right. And it got stronger the older I got.”
“So you did believe him?”
“No. Not at first. But all of this…what happened…Agent Wise, was he right? Was he telling the truth?”
Kate bit back a sob when she realized she was going to have to be the one to tell her. She took the girl by the hand and then looked over at the small crowd by the car. She gave Barnes a little nod and then looked down at Mercy.
“Let’s take a little walk,” she said.
Mercy nodded, and the look in her eyes told Kate that she already knew what was coming. But she walked with Kate anyway, up the little driveway. They walked hand-in-hand as Mercy Fuller slowly but surely learned the true history of her life.
***
Kate got the text eight days later. She was huddled up under a blanket on the back porch of a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains when it came in. Allen was beside her, an arm draped around her waist. Somewhere below them, a vineyard wound its way through the valleys as the sun started to set behind the peaks around them.
The text was from Barnes, notifying her that Mercy Fuller had been placed in the care of the state of Virginia and had already been placed into a foster home. He also let her know that the family that was taking Mercy in had a track record for treating their foster kids exceptionally well. In fact, they had taken Mercy in because they had just sent their previous foster kid off to college.
She read the message and smiled. She then set the phone down and snuggled up next to Allen. The plan was to watch the sunset out on the back porch and then, if their backs and knees (and the chilly mountain temperature) allowed, to make love under the blankets.
“Good news?” Allen asked, noticing her smile.
“Very good. Mercy found a good home. I think she’s going to be okay.”
“That’s fantastic news,” he said.
“She’s also going to meet with Katherine Sanders…her biological sister.”
Kate smiled and looked up at the sun, slowly sinking behind the mountains. An entire spectrum of gold and oranges and light pinks had started to filter through the atmosphere, highlighted along the mountain peaks.
Good news seemed to be trending. Just yesterday, Kate had gone to the doctor with Melissa. Little Michelle had undergone some more tests and had come out absolutely fine. The indicators of the cancer they had feared just two weeks ago were now nowhere to be seen. There would be a follow-up test in six weeks but after that, the scare would be over and they would be out of the woods.
“You know,” Allen said, “I know that what happened in that barn did something to you. You’re different. Not distant…not really. But there’s something. Maybe we need to talk about it before we head back home?”
She knew he was right. She had talked some of it out with DeMarco, but had kept it all at a surface level. Even when she had debriefed with Duran, where she had to go into more detail, she had not delved into the emotional turmoil of it all.
“Yeah, I think we must,” she said. “Maybe later tonight, in the hot tub.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” he said.
She fully expected him to. And that was why she could so easily kiss him under the setting sun, moving closer into him to start with the final step of that evening’s plans. As they began, the sky showed off a whole range of colors as dusk settled in, pulling in the night. By the time they were done, the first of the stars had come out, shining fiercely. Kate looked up at them and something about their unblemished shine in the clear mountain sky reminded her of the slight sparkle she had seen in Mercy Fuller’s eyes when they had shared the one final smile.
It was a glimmer she often saw in Michelle’s eyes…a little girl who didn’t even know what cancer was yet had lived through a cancer scare.
It was as if those first stars of the night were speaking to her, telling her that there was reason to go on—reason to continue working to help others, to keep that glimmer of hope in the eyes of people like Mercy Fuller and all of the others who far too often could not help themselves.
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IF SHE FLED
(A Kate Wise Mystery—Book 5)
“A masterpiece of thriller and mystery. Blake Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.”
--Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)
IF SHE FLED (A Kate Wise Mystery) is book #5 in a new psychological thriller series by bestselling author Blake Pierce, whose #1 bestseller Once Gone (Book #1) (a free download) has received over 1,000 five star reviews.
When another 50 year old woman is found dead in her home in a wealthy suburb—the second such victim in just two months—the FBI is stumped. They must turn to their most brilliant mind—retired FBI agent Kate Wise, 55—to come back to the line of duty and solve it.
What do these two empty nesters have in common? Were they targeted?
How long until this serial killer strikes again?
And is Kate, though past her prime, still able to solve cases that no one else can?
An action-packed thriller with heart-pounding suspense, IF SHE FLED is book #5 in a riveting new series that will leave you turning pages late into the night.
Book #6 in the KATE WISE MYSTERY SERIES will be available soon.
IF SHE FLED
(A Kate Wise Mystery—Book 5)
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Blake Pierce
Blake Pierce is author of the bestselling RILEY PAGE mystery series, which includes fourteen books (and counting). Blake Pierce is also the author of the MACKENZIE WHITE mystery series, comprising eleven books (and counting); of the AVERY BLACK mystery series, comprising six books; of the KERI LOCKE mystery series, comprising five books; of the MAKING OF RILEY PAIGE mystery series, comprising four books (and counting); of the KATE WISE mystery series, comprising five books (and counting); of the CHLOE FINE psychological suspense mystery, comprising four books (and counting); and of the JESSE HUNT psychological suspense thriller series, comprising four books (and counting).
ONCE GONE (a Riley Paige Mystery--Book #1), BEFORE HE KILLS (A Mackenzie White Mystery—Book 1), CAUSE TO KILL (An Avery Black Mystery—Book 1), A TRACE OF DEATH (A Keri Locke Mystery—Book 1), and WATCHING (The Making of Riley Paige—Book 1) are each available as a free download on Amazon!
An avid reader and lifelong fan of the mystery and thriller genres, Blake loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.blakepierceauthor.com to learn more and stay in touch.
BOOKS BY BLAKE PIERCE
A JESSIE HUNT PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE SERIES