“What are you doing, Gary? Let us go and I’ll see that you get some help.”
His smile widened. “The way I see it I’m not the one who needs help, but you look like you could use a little. Unfortunately, if I were you I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it to come.”
“Let Emily go. If you think you’re re-creating Larry’s crimes, he never hurt a child. He never took a child.”
Gary’s blue eyes lit with an electric fire. “I know. Killing her just makes me better than him. People in this town will talk about me long after I’m gone.”
“What good will it do you? You’ll be dead, just like Larry.”
The smile fell from his lips. “Oh, no, nobody is going to catch me. I’m smarter than Larry, better than him. I’ll be like the Zodiac killer,” he said, referencing a serial killer who had become famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s and who had never been identified or caught. “Honestly, Brittany, who is going to suspect me?” He flashed her that bright smile once again.
He tossed the grocery bag in her direction and it landed just to the left of her. She was almost afraid to look inside. “That should hold you until I get back here,” he said. “You know, I’m not completely like him. I don’t have to have an audience to enjoy my work. I could kill you right now and start my own legend.”
It took every ounce of Brittany’s control not to explode, not to scream and rant at him, but she didn’t want to awaken Emily, who continued to sleep next to her.
Gary grinned. “Guess I’ll let you live for the night. We’ll just have to wait to see what tomorrow brings.” With those frightening words he stepped away from the door and disappeared into the darkness of the night.
For several long minutes Brittany sat staring at the darkness just outside the doorway, every muscle in her body taut, an ache in the back of her head threatening to make her sick.
They were obviously far enough out of town that he wasn’t worried about them screaming for help, otherwise they would be gagged. The small town of Black Rock was surrounded by farmland with hundreds of sheds abandoned and left to rot.
She and Emily could be in any one of those places, far enough away that their screams couldn’t be heard, yet close enough to safety to run to it if they could just get free of the chains that held them.
Remembering the bag that Gary had thrown at her, she picked it up and looked inside. A couple of bottles of water, two snack-size bags of chips and what appeared to be two cheese sandwiches in bags.
At that moment Emily moaned and her eyelids fluttered and then opened. A little frown danced across her forehead as she looked around and then a sharp cry of alarm escaped her.
“Emily, it’s okay, honey. I’m here.” Brittany wrapped the little girl in her arms and held her tight. “I’m right here with you.”
Emily clung to her and Brittany didn’t know if it was the little girl’s heartbeat that pounded so frantically or her own. “I don’t have Lady Bear,” Emily said, her voice quivering with the portent of tears.
“No, you don’t. But you have me.” Brittany tightened her embrace around Emily.
Emily leaned into her and released a tremulous sigh. “We’re in big trouble, aren’t we?”
Brittany hesitated. She didn’t want to frighten Emily any more than she already was, but she also didn’t want to blatantly lie to her. “Yes, we’re in trouble, but I’m hoping your daddy or one of my brothers will find us very soon and get us out of trouble.”
Emily sat up and looked at her. “Do you think they can find us?”
“I think it’s possible.” Brittany tried to inject as much hope as she could in her voice.
Emily’s gaze went out the door. “It’s nighttime.”
“Yes, honey, it is.”
“Maybe daddy will be here first thing in the morning.”
“That’s right. So it would be best if we both tried to get some sleep,” Brittany replied, although sleep was the very last thing on her mind.
“Okay.” Once again Emily leaned against Brittany and closed her eyes. She was quiet and still only a moment and then sat back up with a sigh. “I can’t sleep. I’m scared.” She looked at Brittany with her beautiful green eyes. “Maybe if we talk for a little longer I can get sleepy.”
“Okay, what do you want to talk about?”
For the next half an hour they talked about favorite colors and what Emily wanted to be when she grew up. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to be a ballerina or one of the people who arrested people who were mean to dogs and cats.
“I want a dog,” she said, her voice getting drowsy. “Maybe you could help me talk Daddy into getting one. Lady Bear would like a dog.”
Brittany smoothed a strand of her hair away from Emily’s face. “We’ll have to talk to your daddy about that.”
She should be trying to figure out a way to get them out of here. She should be frantically yanking on the bolts that held the chains to the wall, screaming her fool head off in case somebody might hear and come to their rescue. But at the moment she felt as if the most important thing she could do in the world was keep Emily’s terror at bay.
“Daddy is going to be so mad at Gary.” Emily leaned heavier against Brittany’s side.
“Yes, he is.” Brittany moved her hand from stroking Emily’s hair to caressing her back. Emily sighed.
“How come you aren’t a mommy?”
“I’m not sure I’d know how to be a mommy,” Brittany replied.
“Oh, I’m sure you’d make a wonderful mommy,” Emily replied, her voice slightly slurry with the edges of sleep creeping in. “And what you don’t know about it, I could teach you.”
Brittany couldn’t speak, not with her heart so big, so tight in her chest, and within another minute she knew that Emily was once again asleep.
Tears once again burned at her eyes as she thought of Alex, who’d already lost his wife. She didn’t want him to lose his child, too.
Somehow she had to figure out a way to get Emily out of here alive. No matter what it took, she had to save Emily.
The night was endless. When the sun began its rise Alex stood at Brittany’s living-room window and watched it with eyes that burned from lack of sleep, from the beginning edges of a grief the likes of which he’d never known.
Tom was in the kitchen, coordinating the search for Brittany and Emily from there. Caleb and Benjamin were out walking the streets, trying to glean any information that might help them find out who was responsible for the kidnappings. Tom had assigned another deputy to sit at Alex’s house just in case the kidnapper might try to make contact there.
Alex wanted to be home. He wanted to sit in Emily’s room and smell the scent of her that lingered in the air, needed to be in his familiar surroundings while his entire world fell apart.
Here the scent of Brittany that lingered in the air ripped at his heart, but Tom wanted him here, along with Jacob. Larry Norwood had taken great pleasure in calling Jacob Grayson and taunting him about the crimes he was going to commit. They were all hoping that if this was a copycat kind of situation, then the perp would try to make contact with Jacob once again.
Jacob sat on the sofa, his cell phone in his lap and dark anger in his eyes. Alex could definitely relate to the anger. If he shoved aside his fear, he knew there was a rage building inside him, a rage that scared him just a little bit with its ferocity.
He turned away from the window to face Jacob. “I love her, you know.”
Jacob nodded his head slightly. “She sounds like a cute kid.”
Alex frowned. “Of course I love my daughter, but I’m talking about your sister.”
“She’s a cute kid, too.”
“She’s not a kid.” Some of the frustration Alex felt crept into his voice. “She’s a loving, caring woman and it’s high time all of you treat her like one.”
Jacob raised a dark eyebrow. “Hey, I’m on your side, remember?”
Alex felt his face warm. “Sorry,” he said. “I just feel l
ike I’m about to jump out of my skin.” He turned back to the window. “Where could they be? Who in the hell is responsible for this?”
“We’ll figure it out,” Jacob replied, but there was no real conviction in his deep voice.
It was almost ten when Caleb came in. Alex followed him into the kitchen where Tom sat at the table, a stack of notes in front of him, notes Alex knew were from the original crimes.
“Luke Mathis has a solid alibi for last night. Even though he was off work at Harley’s he spent the entire night there drinking so heavily that when the bar closed Harley let him sleep on a cot in the break room,” Caleb said. “He was still there, still half-drunk when I talked to him a little while ago.”
A wave of hopelessness blew through Alex. He’d hoped…he’d really hoped that Luke was behind all this and that Emily had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time when an ex-lover had decided to confront Brittany.
Tom released a heavy sigh. “So, that takes care of our one and only suspect.”
“What about Buck?” Alex asked suddenly.
“What about him?” Tom asked.
“He was working here with me. He asked some inappropriate questions to Brittany about her time with Larry Norwood, seemed way too excited to talk about what she’d been through.”
A deep frown cut across Tom’s forehead. “Buck might be a lot of things, but I can’t quite see him being responsible for this. Still…” He picked up his cell phone. “Let’s get him in here and have a discussion with him.”
“Wait,” Alex said. “Let me call him. I’ll tell him I need an hour or so of work from him. He won’t be suspicious if I call and he’s always up for a little extra pay.”
Buck answered on the second ring. “Hey, boss, what’s up?”
“I’ve got a little more cleanup here at Brittany’s and wondered if you could come and help. I don’t need anyone but you and it will only take a few minutes.” Alex was pleased that his voice didn’t betray any of the turmoil inside him.
“When do you need me?”
“As soon as you can get here,” Alex replied.
“I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”
The call ended and Alex looked at Tom. “He’s on his way. But what if he doesn’t have them? What if he isn’t a part of this?”
“Then we keep looking and we hope we get lucky,” Tom replied.
“If he’s playing the game like the original, then he won’t hurt them until he has more women,” Caleb said. “At least that works in our favor.”
“But he’s already deviated from the original. Larry Norwood never took a child,” Alex said, the words falling like painful glass shards from his mouth.
“And maybe he’ll let Emily go,” Tom said in an obvious effort to soothe Alex. But there was no soothing. There was nothing that could ease Alex’s terror, his grief until both his daughter and Brittany were out of harm’s way.
By the time Buck arrived Alex was ready to tear off somebody’s head. The rage was taking hold, so much easier to embrace than the killing grief and fear.
Buck knocked on the back door and Alex opened the door, grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into the kitchen. “Where’s my daughter?”
“What?” Buck look around the room, his gaze lingering on Tom, then Caleb and finally back to Alex. “Wha—what’s going on here?”
“Somebody broke in here last night and kidnapped Brittany and Emily,” Tom said. He gestured to a chair at the table. “Sit down, Buck. We need to have a little chat.”
“You think I had something to do with this?” Buck cursed soundly. “Why is it that anytime anything goes wrong in this stupid town you come to me? I don’t know anything about it. Why would I want to do something like that?”
“Maybe because Larry Norwood was your hero. Maybe you want to be just like him.” Alex’s need to punch somebody was overwhelming, but instead he fisted his hands at his sides.
“What, are you crazy?” Buck looked at him in astonishment. “Norwood was a sick twist. Why would I want to be anything like him?”
“You seemed very interested in Brittany’s experience with him,” Alex countered.
“Sure, I’ve never known anyone who’s been held by a serial killer. I was curious.” Buck frowned. “But I’m not the only one. Gary talks about The Professional all the time.”
“Gary?” Tom looked at Alex.
“Gary Cox. He’s the other kid I used to help build Brittany’s deck,” Alex replied.
“But Gary wouldn’t do something like this,” Buck said with a half laugh. “He’s just a goofy kid.”
Gary was just a goofy kid and from what Alex had heard Larry Norwood was a nice man who cared for animals. You never knew what kind of facade hid the heart of a killer.
“Where does Gary live?” Tom asked.
“In the same apartment complex where I live. But he’s almost never home.” Buck’s eyes narrowed. “He spends a lot of time working on an old abandoned shed he says he’s turning into some kind of an awesome man cave.”
Alex’s heart jumped as Caleb and Tom exchanged glances. “Where is this shed?” Tom asked as he got out of his chair.
“I’ve never been there, but I know it’s someplace on the Burwell property,” Buck replied.
“The Burwell property?” Alex looked at Tom.
“Raymond Burwell died a little over a year ago without a will, leaving his farm tied up in probate court with relatives all fighting over it. It’s a big spread, overgrown and with several outbuildings,” Tom said.
“Then let’s go,” Alex exclaimed with a sick urgency pressing tight against his chest. He felt sick to his stomach, so afraid that this all might be a wild-goose chase, so afraid that they were already too late.
Chapter 13
Emily had slept through the rest of the night but Brittany had found sleep impossible. As she’d held Emily close her thoughts had gone in every direction possible.
She’d relived those days…weeks when she’d been held captive by Larry Norwood and reminded herself that she’d survived once before and she could do it again.
If the very worst happened and she didn’t get out of this shed alive at least she’d had those moments in Alex’s arms, those moments when she’d felt more alive, more loved, than she ever had in her life.
She could have loved Alex if she’d allowed herself to. She could have easily envisioned a future with him. He was everything she’d ever wanted in a man.
She smiled as she thought about Emily telling her she could teach her whatever she needed to learn about being a mother. Her smile fell. Emily was obviously so hungry for a stepmother, she had no standards whatsoever.
Funny, the last time she’d been held against her will she’d thought about building a deck and spending time with friends and family. This time she thought about love and being in Alex’s arms.
Brittany guessed that it was about nine in the morning when Emily woke up. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “I thought it was all a bad dream, but it’s real, isn’t it? Do you think Daddy will come soon?”
“I hope so. Are you hungry?” Brittany opened the bag and pulled out a bottle of water and a bag of the chips. She was afraid of the sandwiches, which weren’t prepackaged.
“I’m not really hungry. I just want my daddy and my Lady Bear,” Emily said in a tiny whisper.
“I know, honey.” Brittany pulled her back into her arms and for several long minutes neither of them spoke.
“You know what?” Emily finally asked.
“What?”
“I think if I point my toes like a ballerina I can slip my foot out of this thing around my ankle.”
Brittany’s heart began a rapid tattoo. “Really? You want to try it and see?”
Emily bent down and unlaced the tennis shoe she wore. The sight of her pink polka-dot socks nearly made Brittany lose it. No little girl in pink polka-dot socks should be in this place, at the mercy of a young man who was obviously unbalanced.
&nb
sp; Once the shoe was off Emily pointed her toe just like a ballerina and she could easily pull it out of the shackle that was intended for an adult’s foot.
Brittany’s heart nearly exploded. Emily was free! She could run and get help. But wait… Brittany’s head whirled with suppositions. What if Gary was right outside the building? What if he lived close enough that he would see if Emily ran outside? The last thing Brittany wanted was for Emily to run into more harm.
A plan began to formulate in her head, a dangerous plan that might get them both killed or could possibly be their salvation. As she heard footsteps approaching the shed she quickly whispered her plan, not once, but twice, to Emily. She prayed the little girl understood and obeyed. It might be their only hope.
With Emily’s stockinged foot covered by the plastic bag that had held their food and her tennis shoe behind Brittany’s back, Brittany prepared to meet the devil in his lair.
Gary appeared in the doorway, his bright smile like nails on a chalkboard screeching up Brittany’s spine. “Well, looks like you both made it through the night.”
“You’re a bad man,” Emily said, surprising Brittany with her show of bravado. “You’re a bad man and you’re going to get punished.”
Gary laughed. “You got a little smart mouth on you, girl. What are you going to do? Put me in time-out?”
“And you’ve got delusions of grandeur, Gary,” Brittany said, wanting to take his attention off Emily. “You’re just a freckle-faced punk pretending to be a bad guy.”
Gary’s nostrils pinched together, letting her know her remark had gotten under his skin. “You know what’s interesting about serial killers? Nobody ever remembers the names of the victims, but they always remember the name of the killer.”
“Oh, yeah, and have you picked your killer name yet?” She kept a taunting tone in her voice. She had to make him mad. She had to make him mad enough to get closer to her. “Maybe Howdy Doody or Tom Sawyer?”
“You’ve got a smart mouth on you, too,” Gary said, no longer smiling. “I’m The Real Professional.” He said the words as if he were proclaiming himself the King of Siam.
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