“I don’t think Ernie killed those women. Kat’s mother, yes. But I think the other murders twenty years ago were done by someone else. It really clicked when you told me about Manning. Everyone knows he’s a fanatic, believing that witches have powers due to a certain gene, right? He’s been collecting blood samples for years now.”
Brie nodded. “He wanted a sample from Nicole.”
Aghast, Elizabeth stared at her. “You didn’t let him have one, did you?”
“Of course not. It was all I could do to let him take one from me. Manning gives me the creeps. Are you saying he’s a serial killer?”
“No. I mean, it’s possible, but there’s nothing to tie him to those murders. Still, I wouldn’t trust him until I can be sure there is no connection between his research and this gene.”
“You don’t really think his crackpot theory could be right, do you?”
“I don’t know, Brie. The more I learn, the more I realize how much there is to learn. There’s a strong possibility he’s involved, somehow.”
“He’s a respected scientist, Elizabeth!”
“I know.”
“You’re starting to scare me.”
“I’m scaring me, too. After class I’m going to run these blood samples out to a friend of mine. He works for an independent laboratory about fifteen minutes from here. He agreed to test them and check my results.”
“Why not let me take them for you? I’m not about to haul Nicole and two cats over to the college tonight. As much as she adores you, I don’t think my daughter will sit patiently through one of your lectures. And I know for certain the cats won’t.”
“But the men want you to stay with me.”
“The weather is only going to worsen. I can run your samples out and be back before the men even know I left.”
A sudden gust of wind rattled the windows. Brie tried not to let her nervousness show.
“My mother has a bad headache tonight, Elizabeth. Dr. Thornton’s coming over to see her. I need answers. Gene therapy is her only hope for a cure.”
“Manning isn’t the only scientist doing this sort of research. While I’m at the college I’ll talk with a couple of people and make a few calls. I know when you’re scared it’s easy to grab a lifeline, but let’s make sure this really is a lifeline first. Okay?”
Brie nodded. She couldn’t seem to stop shivering.
“Are you sure you want to run this out there for me?”
“Positive.”
“All right,” she agreed reluctantly. “Let me write down the directions. I have to leave in a minute to drop Brandon back at my parents’ house.” She glanced at the window where rain beat a steady tattoo.
“I hope Cullen and Drew will be careful.”
Chapter Fourteen
He waited patiently, part of the blackness of the night. The headlights bobbed in the treetops as the car made its way up the twisty path leading to the house. He braced himself, waiting for the gate to swing open, admitting a long, dark hearse. As the vehicle drove through, he slipped inside, melding with the shadows.
His eyes were used to the night, so he had no trouble slipping unobtrusively through the tall old pines behind the hearse. When the vehicle passed inside the electrified fence surrounding the laboratory, so did he.
Wind drove the rain against his back. Since he was already wet to the skin, he ignored the sensation, but he didn’t like the distant sound of thunder. Lightning posed a serious hazard here in the woods.
Manning ran inside without looking around. Unable to find another entrance or exit to the building itself, he was relieved when Manning hurried back outside, jumped back in his vehicle and drove away.
The locks proved difficult, slowing him down more than anticipated, but once inside the lab, he turned on the lights and set to work. As expected, Manning kept meticulously detailed notes, all conveniently stored on the hard drive of his computer.
Slipping a disk in the blank zip drive, he set to copying everything on the machine. One file caught his attention. Manning had been running experiments on bog people. Stunned, he took the time to scan that particular file. A member of the secret society now living in England had discovered an unexplored peat bog where, according to old church records, a number of witches had been dumped after they were hanged.
This explained a number of things. The hearse in the middle of the night. The stack of coffin-size boxes in the corner. Even the mummified body washed up on the beach a few months ago. Manning was shipping bodies into the country illegally to study.
LIGHTNING CLEAVED THE SKY. Brie gripped the wheel more tightly and dropped her speed even further. If these were merely rain bands coming in ahead of the storm, heaven help them all when the hurricane actually hit.
Wind shoved at the car, overwhelming the poor windshield wipers. Trees bent ominously, swaying over the road. But it was the lightning that really scared her. The jagged spears were blinding in their intensity. As she bypassed Old Mountain Road and the cemetery, Brie decided even a ghost wouldn’t come out on a night like this. She should have gone to class with Elizabeth.
Nicole’s crying was making her physically ill and she had never heard Max howl before. “Nicole, please stop crying, sweetheart. I’m trying to find a place to turn around.” But the road was narrow and twisty.
“Mama, Mama, Mama!”
“Oh, baby, it’s going to be okay.” But Yvette’s words to Drew haunted her. “Don’t let her go anywhere alone.”
Headlights came roaring out of the darkness behind her. The stupid person had his high beams on and he was driving much too fast. Too late she realized the car wasn’t making any effort to slow down. The headlights filled her mirrors. Lightning and thunder came almost as one. And the car slammed into the back of hers with stunning force.
In that split second of total panic, Brie saw the tree rushing forward and knew that she was going to wreck.
DREW WATCHED THE ANGRY WAVES slap the shore, one breaker on top of another. The sky lit with heaven’s fireworks, the boom of thunder barely covering the noise of the pounding surf.
The weather service should hire Brie. Her accuracy put their instruments to shame. Wet clear through, he headed to where Cullen waited in concealment. “He’s not coming. We need to get back to Brie. She doesn’t like storms.”
“It’s only been forty-five minutes.” But Cullen was already moving, signaling the other two officers to call off the wait.
“What’s your home number? I want to call Brie.”
Drew punched the number into his cell phone. The answering machine picked up. Fear curled in his belly. “They aren’t there.”
“I forgot. It’s Tuesday. Elizabeth is teaching a class. They must be at the college. Follow my car.”
Cullen drove with reckless speed through the slippery, wet streets. Drew had all he could do to keep up with the officer. The sense that something was badly wrong hammered at him. Brie was in trouble. Drew knew it with gut-twisting intensity.
THE AIR BAG DEFLATED, filling the car with white powder. Dazed, Brie sat there. Max growled low in his throat. Turning her head, she saw his carrier had been tossed on its side. Little Imp perched on top mewing piteously. For a second, she wondered why that seemed odd. Then she remembered that Imp should be locked in her own carrier on the seat next to Nicole.
Nicole!
She tried to turn around and couldn’t. The seat belt held her pinned so tightly in place it was hard to breathe.
“Nicole?”
There was no answer. Her hands fumbled for the belt’s release. The metal clasp was wedged solid. Worse, the left side of her body was wedged, as well. Her left foot was trapped beneath the brake pedal somehow.
“Nicole!”
Nicole began to cry.
Relief mingled with fear. Imp jumped over the seat. Brie couldn’t see her daughter. The rear view mirror was gone, a tree branch resting inside where the mirror should be. The windshield was mostly gone.
Max growle
d and Imp hissed as a dark shape came alongside the car and tried to open the door behind her.
Thank God someone was there to help. “Is my daughter all right? I can’t move. My foot’s trapped and the seat belt is jammed.”
“Mama, Mama, Mama.”
“It’s okay, Nicole. I’m right here. Is my daughter all right?”
No one answered. The back door opened. Imp hissed loudly. There was a muffled oath and Imp yowled. Max screamed in primal rage. The sound traveled straight up her spine. Nicole began screaming as well.
“What are you doing? Let my daughter alone!”
Brie struggled against the belt’s restriction, twisting to see what was happening, but all she saw was a dark shape and black-gloved hands pulling her daughter from the car, Imp clutched in her arms.
“No! Let her go! Don’t take my daughter! No! Nicole—!”
THEY ARRIVED AT THE CAMPUS and Drew spotted Elizabeth’s car in the parking lot immediately, but not Brie’s. The storm’s fury was increasing. And every light in the campus suddenly winked out, plunging the grounds into eerie darkness.
“Transformer went,” Cullen said as he ran up to him. He handed Drew a flashlight. “This is going to be a hell of a night. Let’s go.”
POPPING THE FINAL DISK from the computer, he was startled by a thud that shook the ground. The lights winked out. The darkness of the lab was absolute. His small pocket flashlight gave him just enough light to see the computer and not much else.
It had been his intention to prowl the cold room and the main room after he finished with the files, but he’d need a much stronger light, and the files were the important thing. He couldn’t allow himself to be trapped inside.
In the tomblike stillness, he heard an eerie sound, like a low moan. The hair on the back of his neck stood straight up. Wind shook the building and he relaxed. The storm, of course. Time to get out of here. His tiny beam picked up the pine boxes stacked in the corner like so many coffins.
He approached the stack and peered inside the top box. Empty. Not even packing material to indicate the contents. He started for the door when his foot hit a box off to the side. A cylinder labeled Liquid Nitrogen sat on top, and there was something different about the box underneath. He removed the tank and bent to pry off the lid when he heard someone at the door. Melting into the shadows, he waited as the door was thrown open. Wind and rain ushered in a dark-garbed figure. The light switch clicked futilely. Manning cursed and stepped back outside. He followed like a shadow.
Manning’s car stood a few feet from the door. The man himself appeared in the beam of the headlights, cursing as he reached inside the car. Lifting something from the front seat, he tossed it into the bushes.
Distant lightning illuminated the area. The gate stood open. Taking advantage of the rain and darkness and Manning’s preoccupation with something else inside the car, he made his way quickly to the gate as Manning carried a bundle inside. A tiny feline shape darted from the bushes, streaking toward the door.
ELIZABETH MET THE MEN OUTSIDE the main door, accompanied by a dozen students, one of whom carried a flashlight.
“Cullen! What are you doing here? Not that I’m not glad to see you. The power’s out.”
“Where’s Brie?” Drew demanded before Cullen could respond.
“She took some samples over to Mark’s lab for me.”
“Alone?” Drew demanded.
“No one showed up at the wharf to meet him,” Cullen said to Elizabeth grimly.
“Where’s this lab?” Drew’s body clamored for action. He couldn’t explain the demon driving him, he only knew he had to find Brie.
Elizabeth gave him directions but added, “She should be back any minute now.”
Cullen shook his head. “There’s a couple of low spots along there even though the road itself climbs. She might not make it through if the road floods. Come on. We’ll ride out in that direction.”
“Mrs. Ryan! Mrs. Ryan!” Two young girls came running up. “Come quick! Mrs. Newman fell down the stairs.”
“She isn’t moving,” the other girl added.
“Go,” Drew told Cullen. “I’ll find Brie.”
“If something happens to her I’ll never forgive myself,” Elizabeth said.
Drew battled to keep his sports car on the road once he was out of town. Like the other side roads around Moriah’s Landing this one was twisty and badly over-hung with trees. Trees whose weaker branches were coming down as wind forced them to scrape the ground.
Cullen had been right about the low spots. Water sat on the road in a spreading pool outside the church and several other locations. He braked sharply as a large branch crashed to the road in front of him. As he went around it, his headlights picked up the wink of metal off to one side. Drew was out of the car and running, his mind numb with terror. A tree sprouted from the front of the little sedan. The back door gaped open. Drew heard Max yowling over the sound of the storm. He reached the driver’s door. Bright red hair was spilled over the steering wheel. Brie wasn’t moving. She couldn’t be dead. He wouldn’t let her be dead!
“Brie!”
She lifted her head. Wet from the rain whipping in through the broken windshield and open door, her face was blotchy, her eyes rimmed by tears.
“Drew! Oh, Drew, he took her! He took Nicole! I couldn’t stop him. I’m trapped.”
His heart thudded to a stop. Nicole’s car seat was empty. So was the cat carrier beside it.
“Who took her?”
“I don’t know,” she sobbed.
“All right. Sit still, I’m going to get you out of here. Where are you hurt?”
“I’m not hurt. I’m stuck. My foot’s trapped and the seat belt’s jammed. I’ve tried everything, but I can’t get loose. I can barely move. Drew, we’ve got to get her back! We’ve got to find Nicole!”
“We will,” he vowed. Someone had taken his daughter. The enormity of that was almost paralyzing.
Drew couldn’t get either of the front doors open. Pulling out his cell phone he dialed the emergency number, but the call wouldn’t go through. Drew ran to the trunk. The bumper was caved in, lodging it shut. It took him a second to realize her car had been struck from behind.
All he had in his trunk was a tire iron. Desperately, he began prying at Brie’s door. Headlights trapped him. He whirled, clutching the tire iron. A pickup truck coming from the opposite direction slowed to a stop. Two men about his age jumped out.
“Anyone hurt?”
Fear receded. “My wife’s trapped inside.”
“You’re never gonna get it open that way. Let us give you a hand.”
A sign on the side of the truck read D&D Construction. Between the three of them and their assortment of tools, they forced open the door and cut away the seat belt. They had to work the broken seat back until Brie could slip her foot from the twisted wreckage holding it in place.
“You okay, ma’am? You really oughta let a doctor check you over.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.” She hugged each of the embarrassed men.
“Glad we could help.”
“Oh, wait!” She turned unsteadily. “Where’s the black box?”
“I got your purse, but I didn’t see any box. You see a black box, Darrin?”
“Nope.”
“It was on the floor in the back seat,” she told them.
“We’ll look,” Drew said. “Let’s get you and Max in the car out of the rain.” He led her to his car and handed her the cat.
“Drew, the box contains Elizabeth’s medical samples. I can’t leave them. She learned something about the serial killings that might be important.”
“I’ll find it.” But he didn’t. There was no trace of the medical supplies anywhere inside or outside the car.
“Sorry, man, I don’t think it’s in here.”
“I’m Andrew Pierce,” he said, pulling a business card from his wallet. He wrote quickly on the back. “If I can ever help either of you, let me kn
ow.”
“Any relation to Senator Pierce?”
“My father.”
“Oh, wow. I voted for him. Hey, thanks.”
“No, I thank you. Both of you.”
“No problem, man. Be careful, it’s nasty out here.”
Drew returned to his car and turned the heater on. Brie hugged the carrier, tears running silently down her cheeks.
“Brie, are you sure you aren’t hurt?”
She turned blindly toward him. “We have to get her back, Drew. We have to!”
“We will. I promise,” he vowed. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
Brokenly, she did. Helpless rage threatened his emotions. Where did they go to get his daughter back?
When his cell phone rang they both jumped.
“It’s probably Cullen.” But it wasn’t.
“Does your daughter own a calico kitten?” a deep male voice asked beneath the static in his ear.
“Who is this? Where’s my daughter?”
There was a long, almost puzzled pause. “Leland Manning tossed a kitten from his car a few minutes ago. He carried something into his lab.”
And the phone went dead.
Because the person hung up? Or because the other person’s phone cut out? There was no way to know.
“Manning has Nicole!” Brie said.
“We don’t know that. This call could be another trap.”
“But what if it isn’t?”
Drew started the car even as he dialed the emergency number. The call still wouldn’t go through. “I think the emergency line must be down.”
“We have to go out there! Drew, he wanted her blood. I told him no.”
“Manning wanted Nicole’s blood?” And in that moment Drew understood what it meant to have his blood run cold. “What for?”
“I don’t know!” Numb with fear and grief, Brie stared at the road ahead, seeing in her mind those dark hands reaching for her child. Her daughter’s screams would haunt her the rest of her life. So would every helpless minute she’d had to sit there in the dark, struggling to get free, praying for her daughter’s safety. “I don’t even know if Nicole was hurt in the crash,” she sobbed.
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