Flashing lights slowly passed by only to reappear seconds later. A SUV now sat idling out front. Danny stepped away from the window.
“Fuck!” He scrambled for a plan of action. His gaze zeroed in on the truck, and he blew out a rush of air as he watched the SUV carry on down the road. “Phew!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Look, over there.” Randy pointed at the old Brinkly homestead. “I think I saw him.”
“You think you saw who?” Chief’s gaze followed the direction he pointed.
“Back up to the gap between the trees.” Adrenaline gushed through his veins as he straightened in his seat. “He was standing right there in the picture window.”
Chief rolled his eyes in obvious disbelief. “I don’t see anything. Besides, those windows haven’t been cleaned in years. How could you see anything through them?”
“I’m not seeing things. I know what I saw. At least go along with me on this and check out the place.”
Chief put the truck in drive and eased away from the side of the road. “If, and I mean if you did see him, there’s a good chance he saw you, too. Let’s let him believe we’ve left for good.”
They drove a good distance up the road before pulling over. Chief called in for backup in unmarked cars.
“We don’t want to spook him and give him the opportunity to slip away again.”
“You believe me?” The corner of Randy’s mouth lifted. “I’m going to cut through the woods and see if I can get a look inside.”
His boss reached over him and locked the door. “You aren’t going anywhere without backup. How are you going to feel if you act impulsively and he gets away?”
Randy flopped back in his seat. “How are you going to feel if we get to them a few minutes too late?”
His boss rubbed his scruffy jaw. “Touché. Let’s get out and stretch our legs. I feel like I’ve been driving for days.”
He didn’t need to be told twice. “It will be dark soon. I think that’ll work in our favor in getting a closer look.”
The unmarked cars arrived casually to not draw attention. Things weren’t moving fast enough for Randy’s liking, but he knew how important it was for them all to be on the same page.
If Danny did see me, he’ll be watching for any sign of us.
Chief kept Larry with them since he grew up in the area and knew the land better than most. “I want the rest of you to set up on the others side of the property so you have Danny’s vehicle in sight.”
The team quickly followed the chief’s orders and dispersed. Randy ran close behind Larry through the wooded area while his boss lagged behind a few yards until they reached a cluster of bushes in direct line with the car.
His boss struggled to catch his breath. “I think I’m getting too old for this shit.”
Randy patted his back. “Are you going to be okay, ol’ man?”
He waved Randy off. “It’s been awhile.” He nodded toward the house. “His car is still there.”
“I can get in there and fix it so he can’t make a run for it.” Larry crouched next to them.
“Okay, but any sign of Danny and I want you to take cover. I do not want anyone confronting him alone.”
“Copy that.” Larry set out obscured by the shadows.
Randy looked from the car to the house and noticed an amber glow coming from a room at the front. “I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
Chief sighed resignedly and drew his gun. “Go check out that light and be careful. I’ve got your back.”
He took the same approach as Larry. He pressed his back against the cool stone wall and gave the chief a thumbs up before crawling under the windows to the front. His heart hammered against his rib cage as he inched his way up to the window ledge.
Atop a stool a lantern sat bathing the room in an amber hue. His gaze settled on a sofa where someone lay perfectly still, but he couldn’t make out whom. Is it Becca? Am I too late?
He let his gaze travel around the poorly lit room. A dark shadow filled the doorway.
The Florist.
Danny walked into the room and over to the side too dark to see what he was doing. There was definitely someone else with him. Randy squinted and made out what looked to be someone sitting in a chair.
We have to get in there and find out if Becca and Jacob are okay.
Randy retraced his steps until he met up with Larry, who had just disabled the car.
“There’s someone on the sofa and someone else sitting on a chair while that whack job walks around laughing his sorry ass off.” He balled his hands into fists. “I can’t tell if they’re alive or dead.”
Their superior joined them behind the car and took out a penlight, holding it out and turning it off and on three times. The signal was returned from the far side of the property.
“Here’s the plan. The other team is going to go in through the front, and we’ll cover the back. Remember, he’s armed and won’t think twice about shooting any one of us.” He slipped the penlight back in his pocket.
Randy’s phone vibrated in his vest. His breath caught as he looked at the caller I.D. “You aren’t going to believe this, but he’s calling my cell.”
Chief looked at the screen to read the perp’s name. “Answer it, but you have to keep your cool, Randy. Becca and Jacob’s lives depend on it.”
He blew out a rush of air. With a definitive nod, he clicked TALK. “Hello?”
“How nice it is to hear your voice. If I knew you were coming I would’ve had Becca bake a cake.”
“Danny? Is that you?”
“Don’t play me for a fool Detective Do-Gooder. I’m a cop and a damn good one. Did you think you could sneak up on me and I’d come out with my hands up?” His laughter sent a shiver up his spine.
Chief put his hand out for the phone and held it between them.
“Danny, this is the chief. Can you tell me if Becca and Jacob are okay?”
“I’ve never been better, thanks for asking. Maybe you should define okay before I answer your question.”
Randy snatched the cell. “You son-of-a-bitch. If you hurt one hair on her head, I swear you’ll wish you’d never been born.”
“You are in no position to threaten me. You’d be wise to remember that.”
He pushed the phone back in the chief’s hand and stormed off. It took everything in him not to knock down the door and go after the pompous ass-wipe himself.
Pull yourself together.
He rubbed his face and looked back at the farmhouse. “I’m here, Becca. I’m coming to get you.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
A glimmer of hope broke through the shroud of despair that encased her. It’s Randy on the other end of Danny’s phone call. Her gaze darted to the sofa where Jacob lay. She thanked God to see the slight rise and fall of his chest. Nothing seemed real after having to watch Danny perform such a despicable act on him, an image sure to haunt her for quite some time. That was if they got out of this nightmare alive.
Sensation slowly returned to her body. Once she was sure Danny wasn’t looking, she lifted each finger in turn. It felt like someone slowly filled her up with hot coffee, setting her nerve endings abuzz. She blinked back tears of relief. He needs to think I still can’t move. Maybe the darkness would give her half a chance of pulling this off. Upon hearing his laughter again, she shivered
Focus...focus...focus....
Danny walked over to the window. He folded his arms across his chest and smirked. “Always have a plan B.” He turned, facing her. “It looks like we have visitors.” He strode over and kneeled before her.
Becca knew she didn’t have enough strength to knock him down and run for it. No, I have to remain perfectly still. One, two, three, four....
Her captor moved to the zipper of her rain suit and slowly parted it until the cool air hardened her nipples.
“You want to be ready for your lover boy, don’t you?” He chuckled, pushed the jacket off her shoulders, and tossed
it on the floor. Next, he freed her arms so they hung limply at her sides.
An ear-popping bang issued from the back of the house. He jumped up and ran from the room. Becca allowed the shudder she’d suppressed to travel through the length of her.
“Sssss....”
Jacob? Is that you? Although he didn’t turn to face her, his hand rose a few inches off the sofa and dropped to the exact same position. Tears clouded her vision. Even after all he’d been through, he wanted her to know the drug was wearing off.
“Sssss....” She prayed he understood her muffled response.
“If they think they’ve won, they’d better think again.” Danny stormed in the room, flailing his gun in the air. He stopped in mid-stride and glared at her. “Will you put some fucking clothes on? You’re going to make me puke.” He scooped the jacket from the floor and threw it on her lap, standing there like he expected her to put it on herself. Several seconds passed before he stomped over and wrapped the jacket around her, and pulled the zipper up, tearing the flesh of her breast and forcing it up to the top with her skin still caught in the teeth.
She bit the inside of her mouth to stop from crying out. The taste of blood took her mind off the pain.
The crazed killer strode up and down the length of the room, his finger on the weapon’s trigger.
“This is the police! We have the place surrounded. Come out with your hands up,” a voice through a loud speaker echoed in the farmhouse.
Danny opened the bigger black duffle bag and pulled out a semi-automatic. He stuffed a few extra magazines in the pocket of his newly acquired vest, making it perfectly clear he wasn’t going down without a fight.
He pulled his buzzing cell from his shirt pocket. “I’ve got nothing to say to you. If you’re going to bring out the big guns, I can play that game, too. Oh, and you can kiss your slutty girlfriend good bye.” He tossed his phone. It slid across the floor, coming to a stop under her chair.
“He’s not giving up. The asshole wants a show down.” Randy gritted his teeth.
His boss heaved a sigh.
Randy jerked, startled by the ringing in his hand. “Hello?”
“He’s got a few guns and ammo. Jacob is hurt. Danny thinks I can’t move.”
“Becca?” Relief washed over him and he stumbled back to lean against the car.
“Hurry.”
The line went silent. Why didn’t I have more faith in her? She’s a damn good cop.
His friend rushed to his side. “Becca?”
“Yes, how she got hold of his phone is beyond me.” He chuckled wryly. “Jacob is hurt and Danny thinks Becca can’t move.”
Chief’s expression sobered. “Dammit, he used that blocking drug on them.”
Becca’s partner swallowed hard. “What the fuck did he do to them?”
The shatter of glass pierced the silence. Randy turned to find the muzzle of a gun stuck out the side of the broken pane.
“I want you all to leave and I want it to happen now. If you ever want to see these two again you’ll back the fuck off!”
“Get behind those bushes,” Chief ordered everybody standing by Danny’s car.
Larry hunkered down beside him. “Hey, Chief, now that we have him back here it leaves the front of the house unmanned.”
“Good thinking. I’ll have Jerry and his team go to the front. Maybe we can keep Danny distracted long enough to get those two out before he realizes what’s happening.”
Randy positioned himself like a runner at the starting line. “I’m going with them.”
Chief put a hand on his arm. “You need to stay here. If he wants to talk to you and you’re not here, he’ll know something is up.”
He clenched his jaw.
“Come on, Danny. If you don’t give yourself up now, you got to know this is all going to end badly.” Chief wiped his sweat-beaded forehead with his shirtsleeve. “Why don’t you let Jacob and Becca go? Things will go easier on you in court if you do.”
Danny’s laughter resonated madness. Randy knew he had no intention of handing anybody over to them. The killer was a cop, too, for fuck’s sake. No matter what The Florist did, the rest of his days would be spent behind bars.
A blast from Danny’s gun turned a riding lawn mower into a raging inferno, sending an officer flying through the air in eerie silence. Judging by the force needed to launch a body like that, Danny must have planted some kind of explosive. He knew a single bullet couldn’t ignite the gas tank.
Chief spoke into the radio strapped to his shoulder. “Team One, open fire.”
A barrage of bullets slammed into the aged clapboard, where Danny fired from only moments before. Wood and glass flew in every direction.
“Cease fire!”
An ominous silence permeated the farm. The acrid stench of burning fuel set his throat ablaze and he covered his face with his arm. His eyesight blurred, as he tried to access the situation through the haze.
A short exchange of gunfire crackled from the front of the house, quickly followed by a resounding boom and billowing smoke floating up into the trees.
“Jerry? Are you there?” Chief spoke into his radio with no response.
“Alan, do you think you can get up there without him seeing you?” asked Chief Thomson. “I need to know what the hell happened up there.”
The officer dropped the shield over his face before hunkering down and weaving his way through the trees. It seemed a lifetime before Randy heard the radio crackle. “Team Two is down. I don’t see any survivors. It looks like some kind of trip wire. They never even made it to the door.”
Chief looked at Randy in horror and disbelief. “He’s got the place wired. Alan? Can you see into the house?”
“There’s a light coming from the front room. Hang on.”
With baited breath, Randy waited for the response.
“The room is empty. There’s nobody there.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
In the midst of all the chaos outside, Danny stormed into the room with knife in hand. He no longer resembled the clean-cut cop she’d worked with over the years. His face now blackened with soot and always perfect hair askew. Becca squeezed her eyes shut and prayed she wasn’t about to die.
Danny cut through the tape binding her to the chair and picked her up. She tried to bring her hands up to rake his eyes, but only succeeded in lightly brushing her fingertips across his cheek, the effects of the drug far from over.
“Ha! You’re something else, Becca. Welcome back.” Amusement now danced in his eyes. He wasted no time in running upstairs with her to a sparsely furnished bedroom where he sat her on a chair and quickly bound her to it.
All the while she prayed. Please don’t see the phone in my pocket. He held a piece of tape in front of her face and shrugged before tossing it to the side.
“Scream all you want. It won’t make a lick of difference.”
“What about Jacob?” She hardly recognized the rasp coming from her mouth.
“Jacob? I could care less what happens to him. He’s no threat to anyone.” His lips curled in a snarl, and he narrowed his eyes at her. “You, my dear, are my trump card. You’ll be safe up here for now.”
He quickly pulled the mattress off of the bed and propped it up against the narrow window, engulfing the room in darkness. He paused beside her and said, “I really hope you’re not afraid of the dark.” His tongue circled the inside of her ear before he continued out of the room.
A shudder ripped through her and she willed away the urge to vomit. The door closed behind him, and a key rattled the lock with a final click.
She wagered Jacob still lay on the couch. Whether he was alive or dead was another matter. Becca squinted, trying to adjust to the darkness. Moonlight streamed in through an uncovered space at the top of the window.
This time he’d taped her good. Her hands stuck out the bottom of her bindings, slowly losing sensation from the lack of blood supply. She took a good look around the room. A single bed
sat against one wall and a small chest of drawers stood nearby it. Her breath hitched.
“It’s an old iron bed frame.” She had a bed like it when she was little and knew the ends of the springs were very pointed and sharp.
Becca sat at an angle in the corner, at least four feet from the bed. With every ounce of strength she could muster, she tried to throw her weight in hopes of bouncing the chair across the room. Unfortunately, her strength didn’t match her determination. Her frustration level reached an all-time high and she screamed.
“Chief? Randy? I’m upstairs! Can you hear me?” Becca threw her weight in the direction of the bed and crashed to the floor, her head hitting the iron frame.
“Shit!” Her world spun and the all-too-familiar darkness swept her away.
Danny shivered in unbridled expectation. He could hardly wait until they happened upon his other surprises. His smile broadened upon hearing Becca’s screams. Is the big-shot detective a little scared? He should really just shoot Jacob and be done with him, but for whatever reason, he wanted him alive. Not that he’d be any good to anyone with his love-maker sewn shut.
Jacob sat propped in the corner where he’d moved him to, only now he’d acquired a rather foul odor about him. Danny turned up his nose and pulled the guy up to his feet, uncovering the reason for the stench. He’s done gone and shit himself.
“You dirty fucker.” Danny dragged him to the bathroom and into the tub, positioning him so his head rested below the rim. The blocking drug made things almost too easy. He put the plug in and turned the cold water on. “I guess I’ll see you later. That is if I come back in time.”
Danny left the bathroom and stopped in the middle of the now vacant front room. The picture window framed a stupendously star-filled sky.
“The calm before the storm.”
Danny smiled and sauntered to the dining room where the contents of his duffle bag lay strewn across the table. He set the lantern down and pulled the pocket doors closed. Armed with a hammer and several wooden planks he’d leaned against the wall, he began nailing one at a time across the doors. Several minutes later, he stood back and shrugged, having used all eight planks when three would have sufficed.
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