Danger in the Snow

by Wendy Meadows

  “Connor Barker is in Snow Falls, Pete. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. He's already shot up the stores on the main street and took out the power,” Sarah confessed. “I'm in my coffee shop right now with Amanda. We're...hiding out….and waiting for Connor Barker to show back up.”

  “I should have known,” Pete said and hit his desk. “Sarah, the next time I see you I'm going to kick one of my size tens into your backside!”

  “I know I should have told you, Pete. I didn't want to worry you.”

  “I'm your old partner, kiddo,” Pete yelled, “we’re supposed to worry each other.” Pete stood up and began pacing back and forth behind his desk, dragging his phone across his desk as he did. “You're snowed in pretty bad, aren't you? Yeah, sure you are. I saw the weather. Nothing north of Washington State is moving.”

  “We're trapped,” Sarah confessed. “Connor Barker has the upper ground. He's a trained sniper, Pete. He...well, we don't stand a chance against him.” She explained the issue with the state police and the conditions of the roads as well.

  “You bet your bottom dollar you don't stand a chance,” Pete agreed. “Barker has killed more men than you can imagine. He is...or he was...a decorated combat soldier before he went mental on his commanding officer.” Pete stopped pacing. “Sarah, you're going to have to use your brains on this one. The only way you're going to get this guy is to lure him into some kind of trap.”

  “I set a flimsy trap at the police station. I doubt it'll work.”

  Pete snatched up a half-smoked cigar from his desk and tossed it into his mouth. “I need to think,” he said. “Call me back in ten minutes and not a second later, is that clear?”

  “Clear,” Sarah promised and hung up the phone. “Pete needs to think,” she told Amanda.

  “I heard,” Amanda winced. “He seems really upset.”

  “I can't blame him,” Sarah told Amanda. “Pete knows exactly how much of a bad situation this is and why he should be worried.” Sarah warmed her hands beside the heater. “But I trust Pete and have a feeling he's going to come up with a plan that's going to save us.”

  Amanda watched Sarah warm her hands. As she did, a rogue feeling of hope entered her scared heart. The feeling caught her off-guard. “Love, do you really think Pete will think of something?” she asked.

  “Back in the old days, Pete was the California State Chess Champion for over ten years in his age division. He could have gone to the national competition level but his work as a detective kept him too busy.” Sarah stopped warming her hands and patted Mittens on the head. “Pete approaches each case like it's a chess game...some games are easy to win with brute force and some are extremely difficult and require skill and strategy. But Pete has never lost, and I doubt he's willing to smear his record now.” Sarah thought about the difficult case Pete was facing in Los Angeles. “Poor guy is also facing a tough case of his own right now.”

  Amanda rubbed her gloved hands together. “If we live through this, I want to go visit Pete,” she told Sarah. “I want to give him a great big hug and tell him how great he is.”

  “Me, too,” Sarah agreed, and they wandered into the kitchen together. She walked to the table holding the food and looked down at a bag of cold hamburgers. “Pete taught me to play smart, June Bug. I'm trying to play smart, too...it's just that I don't see a way out of this. Connor Barker has the upper ground and all we can do is try to lure him out into the open. But the guy is a trained soldier...special forces...he's not stupid and he's surely not going to walk into a trap.” Sarah shook her head. “I guess the trap we set at the station house was pointless.”

  “At least you were right about Connor Barker bluffing about watching us,” Amanda pointed out. “You suggested he had returned back to his hidey-hole and you were right. And because you were right, we were given enough time to...well...get where we are now and...even get some food.”

  Sarah kept her eyes on the food. “We managed to move our king out of check...for the time being. But, June Bug, how long can we keep running our players alive around the board before we get trapped?” Sarah lifted her eyes and looked at Amanda. “This man is determined to kill you. He's not going to stop until he does. That means one thing: it's either him or us.” Sarah checked her gun. “My husband is out there risking his life and so is Andrew. I'm not going to let some basket case kill them or you.” Sarah looked back toward her office. “Pete, I need help, partner. I hope you come up with something good because if you don't, I'm going to have to take desperate measures.”

  Far away in California, Pete continued to pace around his stuffy office with a cigar shoved in his mouth. “Think, old man,” he whispered, “how can we catch this guy?” Pete asked. He cast his eyes around his office, shook his head, and continued to pace. “Let's try to understand the facts we have...Connor Barker wants revenge. He is a soldier who went mental on his—” Suddenly Pete stopped pacing. “Yeah, that's right,” he exclaimed. “The guy went mental on his commanding officer for insulting his dear old mother.” Pete snapped his fingers. “That's his trigger…and that's going to be the trap that catches him and puts him down.”

  Back in Alaska, Connor Barker called the police station. When no one answered the call, he put the phone down and grabbed his rifle. “Time for a recon mission,” he said and stepped out into the storm.

  7

  Pete snatched up his phone and called Sarah. Sarah heard the phone in her office ringing from the kitchen. “That's Pete,” she told Amanda in an urgent voice, ran into her office like a woman on fire, and snatched up the phone. “What do you have for me, Pete?”

  Pete chewed on his cigar. “Mother,” he said in a quick, stern voice.

  “Mother?” Sarah asked and gave Amanda a confused look.

  “Mother,” Pete confirmed. “Kiddo, Connor Barker is sensitive over his mother. Do you follow me?”

  Sarah struggled to let her mind catch up to Pete's thinking. “Pete—”

  “Think, kiddo!” Pete ordered Sarah. “Shake out the snow in your brain and think!”

  Sarah closed her eyes. “Connor Barker is sensitive over his mother...sensitive...” Suddenly a flash of light erupted in Sarah's mind. “Pete, you're a genius!”

  Pete spit the cigar he was chewing on down onto his desk. “Kiddo, you have to use Connor Barker's weakness to either catch him or kill him,” Pete explained. “The guy tried to kill his commanding officer just because he thought the guy was insulting his mother. Use that knowledge to catch yourself a killer.”

  Sarah nodded as confidence slowly began to trickle back into her worried heart. “I will, Pete,” she promised. “You're my hero.”

  “You would have figured it out sooner or later,” Pete assured Sarah. “You're just rusty, that's all. If you get your butt back to Los Angeles I can sharpen you up.” Pete shook his head. “I know that's not going to happen.”

  “I wish we could go back to the old days, Pete,” Sarah told Pete in a pained voice.

  “Me, too, kiddo,” Pete sighed. “You were...and still are...the best cop around.”

  “No, Pete, you are,” Sarah said and fought back a tear. “I...better go, Pete. I have a killer to catch.”

  “You sure do, kiddo,” Pete said and glanced down at his cigar. “Out-think this guy...play smart...think smart...be smart. Understand?”

  “I understand,” Sarah promised and slowly hung up the phone.

  “Well?” Amanda asked in an urgent voice. “What did Pete say?”

  “Mother.”

  “Mother?” Amanda asked. “Los Angeles, speak real English to me.”

  “Connor's mother,” Sarah said and walked back into the cold kitchen. “Connor Barker is very sensitive over his mother.”

  “How is that going to save us?” Amanda asked in a desperate voice.

  “We're going to use that as a trap door to catch a killer,” Sarah explained and made her way through the kitchen into the front room. “June Bug, do you think I can make it back down to the police
station?”

  “What for?” Amanda asked in a shocked voice.

  Sarah walked to the front door of her coffee shop and cautiously eased it open. She studied the storm with weary eyes. The police station was down the street from the coffee shop. Making her way through the storm would be slow going. Connor Barker could be anywhere. And, Sarah thought, if Conrad saw her out in the storm, he would surely leave his safe position and go after her. “I guess not,” she said and closed the front door. “Bad idea.”

  Amanda plopped down on the arm of a cozy white armchair and walked her eyes around the dim, cold front room. The café spoke of cozy fifties aesthetic and the kind of place where you could just about hear the voice of a loving housewife speak over your shoulder as you sat there – yet, she thought, the voice of murder was overpowering everything else. “Love?”

  “Yes?” Sarah asked.

  “Connor Barker loves his mother,” Amanda said, hearing her voice become sad. She hugged her arms and looked at Sarah. “I know the guy is a cold-blooded killer, but something made him that way. I don't know what and I never want to find out...but...he's only killed people who he claims has hurt his mother.”

  Sarah looked at Amanda. “Don't feel sorry for a killer, June Bug,” she warned.

  “Oh, I'm not feeling sorry for Connor Barker,” Amanda promised. “All I'm saying is...in his own twisted way, he loves his mother…he loves Bertha. And, well, if he dies, Bertha will surely crumble into an endless dark hole.”

  “Bertha is already in a never-ending dark hole,” Sarah pointed out. “Whether we kill her son or capture him alive, she's never going to have her son back. The woman is...sick in the mind, June Bug, and so is her son.”

  “I wish it wasn't that way,” Amanda insisted. “If I had only known Bertha was suffering from a mental condition...maybe I could have helped her. I thought the woman was an evil demon who enjoyed making others suffer…she was just hurting in her own way and got lost. It doesn’t excuse what she did, but it does make it kinda…sad.”

  Sarah walked over to Amanda and put a firm hand on her shoulder. “June Bug, Bertha is not just a sad person,” she said. “Maybe she didn't do the killing herself, but she approved of them and even encouraged her son to carry out the killings. The woman may be mental, but her mind is a loaded gun.” Sarah looked down at the floor for a second. “When a person fills his or her mind with deadly intent, they stop being human and become monsters. While it may be true Connor Barker cares for his mother, he is a monster nonetheless...a monster caring for another monster. Can we really let that stop us?”

  “I know you're right, love,” Amanda sighed, “I just wish...there was some way to cleanse the wounds of the past in order to save the future. I know that's impossible, though.”

  “You have a gentle heart, June Bug. You care about people...even your enemies...and that's what makes you so special. Unfortunately, we're in a desperate situation that calls for desperate measures.”

  Amanda patted Sarah's hand. “You know, I still feel sorry for the kid we encountered in Oregon. I would never admit this to anyone but you, but I do feel sorry for our enemies. I feel sorry for them because they live in a darkness...a darkness of the mind that will never go away. They'll never understand life, beauty, love...the way a rose smells after a rainstorm or the way a snowflake feels on your tongue. They'll never understand the sweet voice of love or the laughter of a good friend or the healing pain of a tear. All they will ever know...and understand...is the darkness consuming their hearts.” Amanda stood up. “Connor Barker cares for his mother...and as much as it hurts me to say this...we have to break a mother-son bond, which will create a lot of pain for those who want to harm us. And as much as my enemies want to harm me...I don't want to harm them. I know that doesn't make sense...I guess it never will, love.”

  “Makes perfect sense,” Sarah assured Amanda. “It makes sense because you have love inside of your heart, even toward those who hate you.”

  “Wish I didn't. I wish I could hate the way my enemies hate me.”

  “Do you really mean that?” Sarah asked Amanda.

  Amanda looked into Sarah's eyes and then shook her head no. “You know I don't, love,” she said and looked around. “Okay, so what's the plan?”

  “Wish I knew,” Sarah admitted. “I have bait to lure a killer, but I don't know how to set the trap.”

  “And the bait is...insulting Bertha?” Amanda asked.

  Sarah nodded. “We have to make Connor Barker mad enough to come at us. We have to bring him out of hiding,” she explained, picturing a shadow perched on a snowy roof inside her mind. “Connor Barker is deadly, June Bug. I spotted him on the roof only because he knocked a little snow loose, not because I actually saw him.” Sarah looked down at her hands. “Connor Barker could have waited and shot and killed anyone he wanted to, at any time.”

  Amanda shivered all over. “Scary, isn't it, to know that someone could kill you...easy as pie?”

  Sarah began to agree but she heard the phone in her office ring. “Pete, again?” she asked herself and ran out of the front room. “Pete?” she asked, snatching up the phone in her office.

  “No, it's Conrad,” Conrad whispered. “I've got bad news.”

  “What?”

  “I just saw our target walk Andrew into the police station at the end of a rifle. He was dressed in a white arctic camouflage suit of some kind,” Conrad whispered, hunching down in front of a small window. “I don't know how he caught Andrew.”

  “Did Andrew...trip the trap?” Sarah asked in a miserable voice.

  “No,” Conrad replied, keeping his eyes on the snow-filled front street. He grew silent and watched the icy winds rip at the snow in some places and build deep drifts in other places. “Sarah, I'm not sure what to do,” he finally spoke. “All we can do is stay hidden...for now.”

  Sarah bit down on her lower lip and looked at Amanda. “Connor has Andrew. Conrad saw him walk Andrew into the station house at rifle point.”

  “No,” Amanda said in a miserable voice. “The poor guy.”

  Sarah drew in a deep breath. As she did, an idea struck her mind. “June Bug,” she said in a quick voice, “I think I just thought of a way to set the bait.”

  “How?” Amanda asked and then caught on. “Oh,” she said and nervously bit her thumbnail. “What if the bait backfires and he kills Andrew?”

  Sarah closed her eyes. “Connor Barker,” she whispered, “what are you thinking...what is your plan? Why did you expose yourself?”

  “What are you saying, Sarah?” Conrad whispered, keeping his eyes on the front street. Even though he was alone in the store and could not be heard by anyone, the cop in him wouldn't speak above a whisper. Conrad feared if he did – somehow, some way – his voice would cause Andrew to suffer certain death.

  “Why did Connor expose himself?” Sarah asked Conrad. “This man is a trained soldier and a trained killer. He's...he must be trying to lure us back to the police station.”

  “I know,” Conrad whispered in an angry voice. “If this guy caught Andrew, he must know we're all hidden...scattered...about somewhere. He'll track us down one by one. I just don't know how he got the best of Andrew.” Conrad studied the front street with worried eyes. “Either this guy is really good, or Andrew fell asleep at the wheel.”

  “Andrew didn't fall asleep.”

  “I know,” Conrad agreed.

  “Honey,” Sarah told Conrad, “stay where you are,” she begged. “I'm going to call the police station. Pete gave me an idea and I want to try to put his idea into action.”

  “What was Pete's idea?” Conrad asked.

  “Connor Barker is very sensitive over his mother. He even tried to kill his commanding officer for insulting his mother,” Sarah explained. “If I can get him mad enough...just maybe...we can lure him back out into the open. Blind rage is a deadly enemy.”

  Conrad glanced over his shoulder at the cold store he was hiding in. “Sarah, if you can do that...i
f I can get up onto the roof...I might be able to get a clean shot at the guy.”

  “No,” Sarah begged, “stay hidden, honey, please.”

  “Sarah, I'm a cop—”

  “I know you're a cop, honey,” Sarah said, “and that's why you have to save Andrew. If I can lure Connor Barker out of the police station…” Sarah squeezed her eyes closed and braced herself, “you have to go out into the storm and rescue Andrew. But please, honey, be careful. I don't want to lose you. I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” Conrad promised Sarah.

  Sarah slowly opened her eyes. “I know you do,” she whispered and fought back a tear. “I'll...lure Connor Barker over to me, Conrad.” Sarah looked at Amanda. “I have June Bug with me and together we'll end this.”

  “How?” Conrad asked in a strained voice. “Sarah—”

  “Honey,” Sarah pleaded, “you're just going to have to trust me...as a cop and as your wife. If what Pete said is true, and I believe it is, then we can manipulate Connor Barker's emotions and force him to act outside of his training. Right now, Connor is in control because he's obeying his training. I have to alter his mind so he acts like the killer he is and not the deadly soldier controlling him.”

  Conrad grew silent again, considered his wife's words, and then – reluctantly – agreed. “You're the writer,” he whispered. “You understand the mind of monsters better than I do.”

  “I wish I didn't,” Sarah confessed. She looked at Amanda and then back down at her hands. “Don't leave your position until you see Connor exit the police station.”

  “I understand.”

  “Okay,” Sarah said and drew in a shaky breath, “let's get to work, Detective...love you.”

  “Love you, too,” Conrad whispered.

  Sarah put down the phone with sadness coursing through her body. She took a deep breath and thought about what they needed to do next. “Okay, June Bug, it's time to catch a monster,” she said.

  “What's the plan?” Amanda asked.

  Before Sarah could speak, the phone on her desk rang again. Sarah looked at the phone and then closed her eyes. Connor Barker was calling. “It's him.”