by Debi Matlack
I couldn’t help myself. “What was that, Michael? I don’t think anyone heard you.” He glared at me and huffed, then turned to face Adam.
“Mr. Bell, I apologize for my behavior.”
Adam inclined his head graciously then looked at me, the corner of his mouth quirked up. “‘And though she be but little, she is fierce’” Something about a Florida Cracker vampire quoting Shakespeare struck me as funny and I giggled, sketching a quick bow. I gestured at the table and gave Mike a significant look. “Can we sit back down now? There’s a lot more to talk about.”
As expected, I got my ass handed to me by both my family and Barrett about the hammer incident, but so did Scott, so I wasn’t alone in my guilt. I don’t know if any part of the whole misbegotten episode had done any good. The only thing I’d learned was that whatever-it-was thought we were something to be cultivated and enjoyed, like a fine wine. That knowledge creeped me out more than anything so my brief foray in psychic forensics may have done more harm than good.
Chapter 24
My phone rang and I nodded an apology to Anna as I took it. We were hanging Christmas decorations and I had been up and down the ladder a dozen times, making sure the ornaments were all just so. Anna had given up offering any advice and just handed me fishing line, scissors and decorations as requested. I had just climbed up again.
“Hello?”
“He took my baby girl.”
Mike’s voice was tight with strain and my heart froze as the meaning of his words sank in. I didn’t have to ask who. “How do you know it was him?”
“He sent Christopher with a message, said it was for you.”
“I’m on my way.” I almost jumped off the ladder from ten feet up and shook my head as I passed Anna on the way to the door, pulling my jacket on. “Someone snatched my niece.”
“Oh my God! Should I call someone?”
“We’ve got it covered.” The idea that this monster was using my niece made me realize he’d use anyone against me. “Lock up and turn the alarm on but stay to answer the phone if you don’t mind. She might call here if she gets a chance.”
“Absolutely. Just call me if you need anything.”
Fumbling with my phone, I called Scott Jenkins as I raced to my truck.
“Detective Jenkins.”
“The bastard has my niece.” I screeched toward the outskirts of town, leaving behind a wide set of tire marks as evidence of my haste.
“What?!”
“I’m heading to Mike’s to find out more.”
“I’m on my way. Listen Maeve, I want you to hang up the phone and concentrate on driving, don’t speed, don’t drive like a maniac. You can’t help if you’ve crashed into a tree, right?”
“Yeah, okay, whatever.”
“Maeve!” The bark of command made me focus. “Please do as I say, all right?”
“Okay, I will.”
“Good. And I’ll call Barrett, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.”
His admonition to drive carefully was probably a good idea since I took the turn onto the highway too fast and fishtailed a couple of times before getting things back under control. Adrenaline already had my heart pounding, so I did as Scott asked and paid more attention to my driving. I did speed though.
As I drove, my mind hopscotched from one thought to the next, all ominous with my fear and imagination galloping free. Then one of those thoughts demanded my attention, so much so that I ran off the road and narrowly missed a speed limit sign. Did the son of a bitch know Dee was psychic too? If he did, what might he do to her, what might he be doing right this second? Helplessness and despair crushed the breath out of me, and my skin crawled with the knowledge that he could be torturing my sweet niece in some way. The idea of him so much as breathing the same air as Dee made my stomach roil with nausea. Now my mind turned to the macabre fantasy of skinning him a millimeter at a time if he touched her. While unproductive, it did give me something else to think about. Fifteen minutes later a towering plume of dust down the dirt road marked my progress as I screeched into the driveway, almost rear-ending Scott’s unmarked car. I dove out of my truck and was in the house without remembering doing any of it.
Karen and Mike sat at the kitchen table, stiff and sober, Chris sandwiched between them. The Christmas tree sat in the corner, waiting for ornaments and lights. Unbidden, for the first time in as long as I could remember, a real, heartfelt prayer coalesced in my mind. Please God, don’t let us lose her, not ever, but especially not now. It would destroy our family. I suddenly understood why so many people were depressed on what was supposed to be a joyous holiday. If something terrible happened to Deanna I knew I’d hate Christmas for the rest of my life.
Scott already sat across from them. No doubt he’d cheated and used his lights and siren so he could drive in the very fashion he’d advised me not to. He glanced up and gestured to a chair. “Have a seat.”
I didn’t have the wherewithal to upbraid him for inviting me to sit in what was practically my own home, though the thought flitted through my brain, only to be replaced by the words that shot out of my mouth. “Why are we all just sitting here? We should be looking for her!”
“I know,” Scott said, his voice taking on a soothing but firm tone, “and we will. But we need to get all the information we can so we can find her quickly, okay?” He met my eyes with a sympathetic but professional gaze so I sighed and sat. Scott turned his attention to my nephew.
“Chris, tell us what happened.”
The poor kid was on the verge of panic, but he bit his lips and nodded. “We got off at the bus stop and were walking home. A guy stopped his car and got out. He acted all friendly but we kept walking, didn’t pay any attention to what he was saying, something about a lost puppy or something. I kept Dee walking ahead of me and then his voice was… different. He said, ‘I have a message for your aunt Maeve.’”
My heart stopped. Chris turned a pleading gaze on me. “I didn’t mean to stop! I wanted to keep walking but his voice was so…weird, and he said your name like he knew you and I couldn’t help it.”
Karen laid her ashen cheek against his head and squeezed him for a second. I took his cold little hands in mine. “It’s okay, Chris. What else did he say?”
“He said I should tell you that you’ll come to him after dark tonight, alone. If you don’t come alone he said he’d kill her!” His voice cracked with distress and it killed me to see him so distraught. I had a small inkling of what Mike had gone through for years with me and felt a surge of guilt. Chris got a handle on his panic and kept going. “Said you’d know where. ‘Where it all started’, he said.” He looked at his father, the tears slipping over the edge to roll down his face like rain. “Dad, I’m so sorry. I tried to do like you said I should, to protect Dee, keep her out of trouble. I wasn’t able to! I’m so sorry!” Mike folded him into his arms and held him.
“You did everything you could, buddy. Don’t worry, we’ll find Dee.” His eyes met mine over the top of his son’s head and locked on. “We’ll find her.”
Scott nodded. “Am I to assume that we need to keep this unofficial for the moment?” He looked at me and I felt the crushing weight of a thousand Earths on my shoulders. Apparently, as the expert in all things unnatural and freaky, I was running the show. My heart dropped to my feet and I nodded.
“Do you know what the message means?”
Wordless, I nodded again. With the patience of a battalion of saints, Scott questioned me. “We don’t dare risk his having some ability to know if you’ve told us where you’re going. Is it someplace you’re familiar with?”
“Yes.”
“Is it isolated?”
Tears prickled at my eyes. “Yes.”
“Give me your phone.”
“What?” The request seemed weird, but I was too numb to protest and pushed it across the table to him.
Scott fiddled with the phone for a few minutes then handed it back to me. “Now your GPS is active, the
phone silent, the keypad locked. So it can’t go off accidentally and let him hear it. Now we can track you.”
The massive weight crushing me eased a tiny bit, but I was antsy. Terrified, yes. But I had to get Dee back. There was no alternative. I would not allow this man… creature, whatever he was to terrorize my family any further. I jammed the phone into the ankle of my boot. “Okay, let’s do this.”
Barrett pulled in as we moved as a herd to my truck, Scott reminding me to drive normally and carefully. Mike and Karen stared, bleak and forlorn.
“I’ll get her back.” Karen nodded, tucked under Mike’s protective arm, her face blank except for the anguish in her eyes. I took Karen’s clammy hands, making her meet my gaze. “If she doesn’t come back, I don’t either.” A soft sob tore free from her throat and she nodded, turning to bury her face in Mike’s chest. My brother said nothing, just pressed his fingers to his lips and then to my cheek. That nearly killed me. My eyes burned with tears as I turned to Barrett, taking a moment to squeeze him, press a swift kiss on him and say, “I gotta go,” before I lost my composure.
Ever practical, he held me at arm’s length, scrutinizing my face. “You’ll be okay. You can use a weapon, a pistol, right?” His matter-of-fact manner calmed me more than any flowery words of reassurance could. I took a deep breath, heart hammering at my sternum, threatening to get out and run ahead of me all the way.
“I can. But I don’t want to risk him taking it, and using it on me or Dee.”
“Fair enough.” He held me tight for just a second, then I got in my truck, backed out of the driveway with exaggerated caution, and set off on the longest twenty-minute ride of my life.
Chapter 25
Florida does have rare, truly cold nights and this was one of them. I got out of the truck and hunkered into my jacket, feeling the knife edge on the breeze and the stroking of frozen feathers on my skin. I stumbled through the dwindling twilight to the edge of the pond, the realization that whatever lurked there had set off this century-plus series of events which threatened to culminate with my own gory demise. But first things first. In order to find Dee, I needed to find him. Eighty acres of pasture and woods and I was pretty much dead center. No sense beating around the bush.
“Hey! Asshole! I’m here, like you said!” My own voice echoed from the tree line. The only other sound was a breeze rustling the dried broomstraw and overgrown grasses. From the corner of my vision I saw the spirits that guarded this place swirling with agitation. They clustered around me, sometimes mustering enough energy for one to manifest a face, its visage distraught. Rather than try to hold them at a distance as I had done with Mike, I let them surround me. The stroking became a solid sensation of glittering frost, coating my skin with a layer of protection. The face hovered before me again and I sought its attention. “Dee…”
“You’ll see her soon enough.” The voice, chilling in its very normalcy, came from behind me. The guardians clustered around me in a tight cloud. “Call off your dogs or you won’t see your little niece.”
With a sigh, I shook my head. “Please, let me go.” Their agitation mounted. “No.” Go look after her, I beg you.
They let me go with great reluctance, trailing their contact out until he shouted, “Now! Or I will kill her without another thought.”
She’s close, she has to be. That thought alone made me able to submit to his cursory pat-down. I was glad I had refused the gun and stuffed the phone in my boot. He seemed too concerned with finding a pistol butt or a knife handle to find the nearly-flat rectangle under my sock. If I had a way of conjuring a gun… Scott Jenkins would have a lot of cleaning up to do after I finished with this piece of shit. Abduct my niece, threaten her life, you don’t deserve to keep living yours… He interrupted these cheery thoughts by shoving me in front of him on the path.
“Walk ahead, keep going until I tell you to stop.”
“We better be headed to wherever Dee is—” A sharp poke on the back of my head cut me off. It was cold metal, a gun barrel, and it bulls-eyed in the center of my scar.
“You’d best be keeping your mouth shut.”
I never was one for taking advice to heart unless it suited me. Plus, fear brought anger and anger brought babbling. “Why? You want me dead, so just do it. I can’t do anything to convince you otherwise.”
“But you do think you have a chance to save your niece.” So, he was toying with me.
“Do I? Have a chance?” Not that I expected a straight answer from him.
An amused snort prefaced the expectedly vague, “We’ll see.”
We had to be heading to the old equipment barn. Isolated among the acres and acres of pasture and woods, it was the only structure nearby. I assumed he knew I grew up here, but I didn’t let on, just in case. My suspicions were confirmed when I saw the glow of a lantern illuminate the path ahead. He shoved me through the human-sized door, retreated and locked me in. It was darker than dark and I froze, hoping my eyes would adjust soon. “Dee?”
“Aunt May?” A near-silent whisper made my heart pound with fierce joy.
“I’m here, baby.” I could feel her coming before I heard her soft step and I saw the nimbus of spirits that surrounded her. Some of them leaped to me with what seemed like delight then backed away with a measure of respect, as a familiar cold approached.
See, little one? Told you she’d come for you.
Poppy! Dee’s hand fumbled for mine and I fell to my knees holding her as tight as I could. She nearly strangled me in return and I felt her tremble. Satisfied we were both still alive, I held her at arm’s length. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
“No ma’am, I’m okay.” Relief flooded again and I held her tight as I stood, Dee clinging to me like a baby chimp. I could see better now and lifted my head to look around. “Poppy, is there a way out of here?”
No windows down low, but out the loft door is a branch that’s close. It’ll hold Dee, you’ll have to jump and hope for the best.
And make a lot of noise, alerting Mr. Assassin to our escape. Crap. “Let’s go.”
I hoped that immediate action might take our abductor by surprise. I was counting on him thinking I was a helpless female and that I was currently paralyzed by dread instead of executing an instant jailbreak. We went up the ladder to the loft and I crept to the door that allowed access to the top of the barn. Cracks between the boards gave me a view of the pine tree growing against the siding. One branch snaked across, right in front of the loft door. Squatting down, I fumbled in the top of my boot and pressed the cell phone into Dee’s cold little hands.
“Hide this in your clothes, someplace that it won’t fall out and you can still run.” She considered for a moment then dropped it down the front of her shirt. Tucked into her jeans, the little pouch it formed was perfect. “Good girl. Now, when we get this open, you jump into that tree and rabbit it away from here as fast as you can. Don’t go near that pond and don’t go to Poppy’s house. That phone will let Mister Scott and Mom and Dad find you, okay?”
“Okay.” Deanna sounded braver than I felt. I had every confidence in her tree climbing ability; it was one of the advantages of growing up with an older brother who constantly challenged you with “bet you can’t”. What I was worried about was that jerk hearing her and being close enough to intercept. There was no evidence that he had an accomplice, but I couldn’t swear to it. Too much speculation made me hesitate and I couldn’t afford to lose another second trying to get Dee to safety. I reached for the latch.
Spit on the hinges.
I figured Poppy knew what he was talking about so I spent a few frantic moments locating the rusty hinges and generating enough saliva to hopefully minimize the noise. Before I reached for the hasp again, I sighed. “What we really need is a distraction.”
Poppy smiled. I think we might be able to keep his mind someplace else for a minute or two. He faded as did the guardians.
Deanna tugged at my hand. “Aunt May, I need to tell you, it’s
not him.”
“What do you mean?”
“The man, it’s not him. There’s something inside him.”
“Okay.” I had no idea what she was talking about and didn’t have time to figure it out. It was time for her to run. “I love you, Dee.”
“I love you too, Aunt May.” I squeezed her for a second, then pulled the door open. The rusty hinges moaned low but the wind was picking up, making the trees creak as well. The branch swung back and forth and, as it moved toward us, I whispered “Now!”
Dee leaped, scrambled for a second, which made my heart stop. She got her grip and shinned down the branch to the trunk. From there she went down like a squirrel, hit the ground running and never looked back. I leaned out, giving her time to lose herself in the trees as I watched the branch swirl and dance in the stiffening gusts. Maybe messing with the wind wouldn’t have been my first choice of distraction when my only means of egress was a brittle pine branch, but that was just me. I was the veteran of many a tree-climbing myself, but always from the ground up and back down, never from one to the next or from a structure. I stood, hands echoing the movement of the branch, building enough nerve to jump. Poised on the edge, I heard a voice behind me.
“Hey!”
Screw the timing. I jumped, grabbed for the branch. My hands closed around twigs, flailed, caught a sturdier branch and I stopped, swinging, the limb bowing under my weight. My palms stung from a myriad of abrasions that made it feel like I held live coals. I groped for a better grip, trying to pull myself up, the branch bouncing under my weight like a bungee cord. There was an ominous creak, then a long tearing sound as the ground rushed up to catch me.