Promises in the Dark

by D. K. Hood

  Head going into overdrive, Jenna gaped at him, his horrendous plan hitting her like a sledgehammer. If he needed an excuse to rape and murder Julie, he’d just given himself one. She could identify him now. As he moved toward Julie, Jenna stepped from the shadows.

  “How did you get in here?” Matt’s eyes flicked all around as he pulled the Glock out of his waistband and aimed it at her.

  Jenna laughed at him to throw him off guard. “You can’t do anything right, can you, Matt? You took the wrong girl. You messed up. You’ve been messing up all your life, haven’t you?”

  “You shut your mouth.” Matt held the weapon steady. “You know nothing about me.”

  Jenna snorted. “Really? Then how come I’m here waiting for you to show, huh?”

  “You think you can take me down?” Thompson’s eyes had gone cold, as if another person had stepped in to take control.

  Jenna pulled her weapon and aimed it at him. “I’m not alone. Unlike you, I’m not stupid. We have you surrounded.”

  The next instant, Julie lashed out with her foot, taking out Thompson’s knee. He staggered forward and she kicked him again. On his knees with one hand still gripping the handle of the Glock, Jenna sprinted out and kicked the gun from his hand.

  With a battle cry, Jo barreled into him from behind and they sprawled to the ground. Thompson pushed up taking Jo with him on his back. Jenna shoved the Glock away and was heading toward him with her weapon aimed at his head.

  “I’ll kill you all and burn everyone you love.” Thompson tossed Jo off like she weighed nothing and was back up on his knees.

  “Oh no you don’t.” Julie rushed in, wrapped the chain around his neck, and pulled. “How do you like being chained up like a dog?”

  Thompson roared and rolled, trying to grab Julie’s legs. She danced away as far as the chain allowed. Jenna raised her voice. “It’s over. Make one more move toward Julie and I’ll have great pleasure in sending you to hell.”

  “I am hell.” Thompson gave her a sadistic smile. “Go ahead, pull the trigger.”

  Jenna shook her head. “I’d rather let Wolfe have some time alone with you. Arms behind your back.”

  “I don’t take orders from women.” Thompson grabbed at the chain around his neck and coughed. “You’ll have to shoot me.”

  Jenna handed her Glock to Julie. “Don’t hesitate, if he overpowers us, shoot to kill.”

  She read him his rights and with Jo’s help, they cuffed Thompson and searched his pockets. They found two cellphones and the key to the shackle. Jenna took back her weapon and released Julie. “Your dad is waiting for you outside and we have deputies on their way to take him in.” She tugged three times on the rope and received a tug in reply.

  “You won’t be triggering any explosions from these.” Jo removed the batteries from the phones and pocketed them.

  “Stupid woman. You should have put a bullet in me. Handcuffs won’t prevent me from killing you.” Thompson, jumped to his feet and swung his head making the chain cut through the air.

  The chain whirred as it gained momentum in its deadly sweep of the cavern. Jenna thrust Julie into the passageway. Now she’d have to break her word to Kane and take Thompson down. Death was too good for what this man had done, families needed justice through the courts, and Kane needed to face the man who’d killed his wife. Jenna pulled her weapon and aimed for his head. With the chain whizzing by, it was her only choice, but would make the shot fatal. “Stand down.”

  A flash of brown came out of the darkness and with the chain flashing above his head, Duke hurled himself at the monster, sunk his teeth into the front of his pants, and didn’t let go. Thompson howled like a wolf and dropped to his knees unable to dislodge Duke’s grip. Duke growled and shook his head, his sharp canines digging deeper into vulnerable flesh. Without a second thought, Jenna holstered her weapon, rushed in, and slipped the manacle around his ankle. The metal lock closed with a satisfying click.

  “You’ve got nothing on me. I’m going to hunt you down and make you pay.” Thompson’s words came out in a growl of pain. “I know where you live.”

  Jenna rolled back on her knees ignoring him. Her prisoner wasn’t going anywhere until backup arrived. “Okay, Duke, you can let go now. It’s time to go home.”

  Sixty

  The time it took for help to arrive seemed like hours and Jenna sighed with relief when Kane and Wolfe emerged from the tunnels with Nootau. They’d left at once and made the mile or so journey through the forest in short time, but negotiating the catacombs had slowed them down some. During Jenna’s wait, Thompson’s words had played on her mind. Did they have enough evidence to link him to the bombings?

  After they’d made the trek up the mountain, Carter flew straight to Black Rock Falls Hospital and landed on the helipad. Once Wolfe had carried Julie inside, Carter headed to town. With Rowley and the Louan deputies blocking Main, he put the chopper down outside the sheriff’s department. Inside, Jo formally charged Matt Thompson with the kidnapping of Julie Wolfe. It was a charge that would stick and hold him in the cells. With the threat safely locked away, Jenna sat with Jo in her office sipping coffee to wait for Carter and Kane to arrive. She yawned and looked at the clock. “I’m getting tired now.”

  “Me too. I’ll be glad when we can hand over to the Louan deputies and get some sleep.” Jo peered at her over the rim of her cup. “It was pretty tense in the caves when the guys arrived. I understand Wolfe’s anger when he saw the state of Julie but the way Kane changed when he confronted Thompson was almost like seeing a psychopath with a victim. Although he didn’t touch him, I could almost cut the tension. It must be his sniper training, I guess. They can fall into a zone and block out emotion.”

  Wishing she could confide in her about Kane’s secret hell, she averted her gaze and nodded. “Yeah, he does that, I call it his combat face. With Wolfe, I figure he kept it together well, although I could see he wanted to tear the man apart.” She turned to stare at her computer screen and quickly changed the topic of conversation. “We don’t have enough solid evidence to charge Thompson with the bombings.” She frowned. “By changing his MO each time, with a good lawyer, he’ll do a plea bargain and be out in a few years.”

  Voices came in the hallway and Jenna stared at the door. Kane and Carter strolled in waving an evidence bag. She looked at them. “Okay, please tell me you have some evidence to nail this guy?”

  “Oh yeah.” Kane laid the evidence bags on the desk. “Two explosive devices. Don’t worry, they’re safe—but Thompson made a mistake. We found a fingerprint on the tape and it’s a match. The trademark soldering is identical to all the other devices.”

  “Wait, there’s more.” Carter tossed a toothpick in his mouth and did a dramatic pause. “Kalo called, Thompson is a match for the DNA found under Pamela’s nails. It was on the database. Thompson had given a sample of his DNA to formally identify his son, who was killed in a housefire last year.”

  Jenna nodded. “How come I didn’t know about that?”

  “Thompson lived in Blackwater and the housefire was in Helena.” Kane filled two cups with coffee added the fixings and handed one to Carter. “Kalo hunted down links between Thompson and the three main points of our conclusions, social workers, magistrates and cops.”

  “Yeah.” Carter stirred his coffee. “Thompson was tossed from foster home to foster home and ended up abused. Years later, he put in numerous complaints about the system and one complaint made it to court but he had a lousy lawyer and the magistrate dismissed the case. When he couldn’t get justice, the bombings occurred.”

  Jenna nodded. “So, I assume the people killed in DC were the ones involved in the case?”

  “Yeah, he targeted the social worker and lawyer, but why he killed the magistrate’s secretary is still a mystery.” Kane dropped into a chair and sighed wearily. “Then comes the circumstances around the Blackwater bombings.” He stared at the ceiling. “We were that close.” He held his forefinger and t
humb an inch apart. “Thompson must have been satisfied with his revenge in DC and settled down in Blackwater, married and had a son. His wife died in a car wreck, he took up drinking and someone reported him to child protection. It was Connie Wood, who took his two-year-old son away and put him in foster care. He ran off with him on a visitation day and Sheriff Stuart arrested him for abduction. After the arrest Connie Wood stood up in court and labeled him an unfit father and the boy was placed in another home in Helena. The magistrate responsible was Abe Coleman.”

  Rubbing her temples Jenna peered at him. “Oh Lord, and then his son died in a housefire at his foster parents. That would have been the second trigger that caused all the recent bombings.”

  “Yeah.” Carter gave her a long look. “Then what happened, Jo?”

  “It was the profile I surmised at the get-go. The first bombings were all about him, his revenge on the system but the second wave of bombings specifically targeted the family unit because he’d lost his son. His son’s death would have triggered the dormant psychopath and he wanted revenge.” Jo shook her head. “The problem was, as he went along escalating, he was starting to enjoy himself. It was probably the first time he’d felt anything for a long time.” She sighed. “Raping Connie Wood was his way of getting even and knowing he would kill her children was his revenge.”

  “I’d like to speak to the prisoner.” Kane finished his coffee and stared at her. “He hasn’t lawyered up yet, has he?”

  “No.” Jenna took in his relaxed demeanor but he couldn’t hide the rage in his eyes. She looked at Carter. “Would you mind updating the files while we’re gone? The Louan team are dropping by to take care of the prisoner overnight and they’ll be here soon.”

  “Sure.” Carter pulled out his phone. “Kalo sent me all the details.”

  “I’ll re-write the charge sheet.” Jo smiled at her. “We got him, guys.”

  Jenna followed Kane down to the cells. “Dave, don’t do anything stupid.” They stopped in the hallway to lock up their weapons. “I know you want revenge, but he’ll pay for his crimes.”

  “I just want to look into his eyes, Jenna.” Kane met her gaze. “I have to do this and put Annie’s ghost to rest.”

  Swallowing the lump in her throat, Jenna nodded. When they reached the cell door, she swiped her card and as Kane walked inside, she operated the recording app on her phone. “Mr. Thompson, Deputy Kane would like to speak with you. You have been advised of your rights.”

  “I know my rights.” Thompson sat on the bunk, passive and unthreatening.

  “We have evidence against you for the DC bombings and the local ones, fingerprints, DNA from Pamela Stuart.” Kane stood hands by his sides, relaxed. “I understand revenge and figure that was your motive for killing people. Being abused as a kid always leaves scars. Seeing your son taken away and then dying in a fire must have been devastating.”

  “I made them pay.” Thompson lifted his gaze to Kane. “They deserved to die.”

  “You believed that innocent children just like your son deserved to die?” Kane inclined his head.

  “No, they died to revenge my son.” Thomson glared at Kane. “An eye for an eye.”

  “And what about the people in the truck you bombed?” Kane hadn’t moved a muscle. “Why did you bomb their vehicle?”

  “He was collateral damage.” Thompson shrugged. “She was the target. That bitch refused to give me an appointment to see the magistrate. I’d sit there all damn day and he’d slip out the backdoor.”

  “That was pretty slick, getting a bomb into an agent’s vehicle.” Kane shook his head. “Now that took skill.”

  “It was easy.” Thompson stood, placed his hands on his hips and smiled. “I waited for her to leave her desk and slipped a device inside her purse. She carried a nice big purse and then I followed her. As soon as she slipped into the truck, boom.”

  “So, for following orders, because it wasn’t her decision to give you an appointment,” Kane’s expression hardened and he clenched and unclenched his fists, “you wiped out an entire family?”

  “Can’t you see why I hated happy families?” Thompson looked at him and smiled. “Those people needed to be stopped. First, the people in DC destroyed my life by not listening to what happened to me in foster care and then when I’d gotten my life back together, another group of so called, do-gooders took my son and destroyed my family. Why should they be happy when they were responsible for the death of my son?”

  “So, you burned them all?” Kane’s eyes flashed in anger.

  “Yeah and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. They all deserved to die but the secretary, she just pissed me off. I didn’t destroy her family, just her and her husband. So what?”

  “Yeah, you destroyed her family.” Kane stood rigid. Every muscle had tightened like a coiled snake. “She was pregnant.”

  The words hit Jenna like a sledgehammer. She let out a gasp and stopped the recording, that was privileged information. She had to get Kane out of the cell now. “Kane, I think that’s enough.”

  “Not yet.” Kane stepped closer but didn’t touch Thompson. He just stared at him. “You’ll be charged for killing a federal officer and officers of the court in DC. They’ll want the death penalty and when that day comes, look out into the audience because I’ll be there watching the show. No lethal injection for you, you’ll swing or fry.” He turned slowly and nodded to Jenna to open the door. “Let’s go.”

  As they left the cells and the main door clicked shut behind them Kane sagged against the wall and closed his eyes. Jenna put her arms around him and hugged him. “I’m so sorry.”

  When he buried his face in her neck, she could feel dampness on her skin. She held him until he straightened and looked down at her. Not able to express the words to give him the comfort he needed, she patted his arm. “Will you be okay?”

  “Yeah.” Kane pushed a hand through his hair and cleared his throat. “I could almost feel Annie with me, as if she was standing beside me, confronting her killer.” He looked at her, his eyes tragic. “She’s at peace now. I can feel it in here.” He touched his heart.

  “You caught her killer and now her work here is done.” Jenna leaned in and hugged him again. “She’d be so proud of you.”

  “The nightmare is over, Jenna. The image of her that haunted me has gone. From now on she’ll only be a beautiful memory.” Kane stepped back and looked into her eyes. “Let’s finish up here and go home.”

  Epilogue

  Three months later

  As August arrived spreading more color across the landscape, Jenna leaned back on the new porch swing and watched Kane moving along the fence line with Rowley making repairs. The Thompson case had taken a long time to wind up. The amount of evidence they presented had been more than any case she’d handled before and the hours had been long and tedious. One of the most chilling pieces of evidence they’d found during this time were the cryptic posts Thompson had made on social media. Each one coincided with the bombings and gave a frightening insight to his disturbed mind. They’d searched his house and found a cellar, the entrance hidden inside a closet with all the evidence they needed to prove without doubt, he was making explosive devices. For now, Thompson waited in federal prison, without bail until his case came to trial but with all the evidence against him and the confession she had taped, the chances of him walking free was more than a million to one.

  Roger Suffolk remained a free man with no charges laid against him. Dawn Richardson had been placed with a foster family out of Snakeskin Gully, and no amount of persuasion would make her return to Louan to stand witness against Suffolk. With no other women coming forward with a complaint, he had no charges to answer. After extensive investigation into Mrs. Suffolk’s car wreck, the case stalled when they discovered the vehicle had been crushed by the insurance company. All they had as evidence was the previous examinations of the vehicle, which cleared Suffolk of any wrongdoing.

  It had been great working with Jo and C
arter again and watching them fly away had tugged at her heartstrings. It seemed they’d all become close and now they made up part of her extended “family”. She looked forward to visiting Snakeskin Gully in her downtime to meet Jo’s daughter, Jaime and spend a relaxing weekend with friends but she had to admit, the FBI held no allure for her. She preferred her life as the sheriff of Black Rock Falls.

  At last, life had gone back to normal and three months without a case had Jenna scratching her head. It was like waiting for the other shoe to drop and the anticipation grew with each passing month. She patted Duke on the head and rubbed Pumpkin’s ears. How easy it was to make animals feel safe. The pain Kane had carried deep inside for so long had faded and she believed he’d finally turned the corner. He laughed more and had an easy going way about him. It was as if she was seeing the man before the car bombing emerging from a cocoon of sadness.

  They’d spent alternate weekends working on the ranches. Jake and Sandy Rowley’s ranch needed a lot of work and she’d pitch in with Kane to help them. With nothing much happening at the office, she looked forward to getting her hands dirty. She’d also spent some time looking over applications for another deputy. She had funding for two more but with Rowley’s old house sitting empty, she could take her pick from a ton of experienced men or women from around the state. She put the notion on the back burner as the front gate alarm buzzed. She headed to the front door, in the screen she made out Sandy waving at the camera and opened the gate to let her in.

  As Sandy came up the driveway, she sounded her horn and Rowley and Kane picked up their gear and headed toward her. She jumped out the truck and suddenly the three of them went crazy, jumping around and laughing. The next instant, Duke leapt to his feet and headed toward them barking like he’d gone mad and ran in big circles around them. Bemused, Jenna stared at them and looked at Pumpkin. “Hmm maybe there’s a special on peach pies at Aunt Betty’s?”