“How long has he been out?” Victoria asked.
“Eight hours.”
“Shit!”
“Yeah. Let me see if he’ll answer the number I have for him.”
He scrolled through his call log list and found the number, dialing it. It rang eight times and just when he was about to hang up, Luke answered it.
“Have you found her?!” Luke said, the excitement in his voice palpable through the connection.
“No,” Jaxon said. “And I don’t need you keeping me from my job.”
Luke was silent for a moment and then Jaxon could hear the disappointment and anger in his voice. “From what I hear, you don’t have a job.”
“That won’t keep me from finding her, but if you’re out there blundering around in the dark, it only makes my job harder. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“What you can’t,” Luke said and Jaxon winced.
“Don’t do this. I don’t have time to be protecting you while I hunt for her. Stay at home.”
“You can’t stop me. And I have the edge.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You couldn’t find him before,” Luke said, “but we did. And we’ll find him again.”
“Don’t be messing with this guy. You know what he’s capable of. Just about your whole family is in the hospital because of him. If you’re willing to risk your life and theirs, then by all means keep doing what you’re doing, but this man will hunt you down and take everything that means anything from you.”
“He already has.”
“Dammit Harrison! I’m warning you! Stay out of it!”
“Too late.”
“What are you talking about?”
“He’s already contacted me. We can track him.”
“Then give the information to me,” Jaxon said quickly. “Victoria and I can stop him. We have the whole DC Metro area police force behind us. Tell me where he is.”
Silence.
“Harrison?”
“I don’t know where he is yet. But I will soon.”
“Give me what you have then.”
“No. You botched it before, you’ll botch it again.”
Jaxon turned to Victoria looking for help. He was losing and didn’t know what to do. She signaled for the phone.
“Hold on,” Jaxon said and handed the phone to Victoria. She put it on speaker.
“Luke, this is Victoria. You can’t do this alone. You know that.”
“I have help.”
“Even if you do, you’re putting your friend’s lives at risk. Can you live with that? Think about what you’re asking of them. Is it worth their lives for you to stumble around blindly, anger this man, and get them killed?”
“They know what’s at stake. They’re with me.”
“I can tell you have your mind made up and I know what Ellie means to you. She means the world to me and I’m sorry we failed her. But we will not fail again. We will not let her die! Jaxon and I are willing to give up everything to save her. Let us do our job. If you won’t listen to reason, then at least let us work together.”
“You had your chance,” Luke said. “She’s where she is because of you two.”
“I don’t blame you for being angry, but don’t risk her life because you blame us. You do know that’s what you’re doing, right? You’re taking her life into your own hands. A kid from the suburbs of Virginia, putting his girlfriend’s life in his untrained hands because he has something to prove. If you know something that can save her, tell us what it is and let us save her.”
“You had your chance,” is all that came out of the speaker. “You had your chance. You failed.” And the line went dead.
Luke held the cell phone in a hand that shook. Jaxon and Victoria had gotten to him even if he had ultimately refused to help them. He was feeling unsure of his actions and his resolve felt weakened a bit. He stared out the window into the dark night and talked to her.
“Ellie-I don’t know what to do. I’m sorry! I miss you so much. Please-tell me what to do.”
He slammed his fist into the wall and hot tears burst from his eyes. Of course, no answer came to him and he stood staring into the black void beyond the window and let his sorrow overtake him. He heard someone come into the room and he got himself under control. Just then a musical chime played from somewhere in the house. Luke had never heard it before.
“Luke!” Jimmy yelled. “His phone just turned on!”
Chapter 56
“This could help us,” Jaxon said.
“How?” Victoria asked, the cell phone in her hand, silent after Luke Harrison hung up on them.
“We can use his own tool to help us.”
She looked at him. “What are you talking about?”
“We’ll get the software that he gave us and track his own cell phone with it. When he goes after Worthington, we’ll follow him to the spot and take it from there.”
She smiled and then frowned. “How will we keep Luke out of it?”
“He’s made his own bed. Now he’ll have to lie in it.”
“That’s not fair,” she said. “We helped make that bed and now we’re going to just abandon him to chance? We can’t do that.”
Jaxon knew she was right. The kid was only acting this way because he and Vick had dropped the ball. “What the hell do we do?” he asked. “We need him to lead us to Worthington.”
She nodded, thinking. “We need to beat him to Worthington.”
“That would take being a mind reader. We wouldn’t need Luke and his software if we knew where the asshole was.”
“Maybe we’ll be able to guess.”
“Big risk.”
“Any better ideas?”
He shook his head. “Let’s go to the Hoover building and get the laptop. We’ll grab it and wait with it in Luke’s neighborhood so we’ll be right on his tail. Just in case.”
She looked into his eyes and grabbed his arm. “He’s not going to win.”
“You don’t have to give me a pep talk, Vick.”
“Maybe I need one,” she said and smiled.
He squeezed her hand and smiled back. “Come on.”
Chapter 57
Worthington’s phone was on, but he wasn’t moving. Luke, Jimmy, and John had all been watching the blip for the last hour. It sat stationary on I-495 near Tyson’s Corner. It wasn’t a house or hotel, just some random spot on the interstate.
“Maybe he parked the car and left the phone to lead us away.” Jimmy said.
“Are you sure you have the right phone number?” John said.
“Yes,” Luke said. “Bodey told me how to work the software and I watched Q use it too. The numbers that came up were just like when Q did it. He’s waiting for something.”
“Let’s go to him,” Jimmy said.
“Not yet,” Luke said. He wasn’t convinced Worthington meant to stay there. He would wait until they watched him move to a house or some other place they could approach without him knowing it.
His cell phone rang and Luke picked it up. He looked at Jimmy and John and they knew what he knew. Worthington.
“Hello.”
A deep voice, not the electronically altered irritation Luke had heard before, came over the speaker.
“Where are you?” he said, mockingly. “I’ve been waiting for you and you haven’t shown up.”
This voice, though normal, was somehow worse than the other one. This voice was human and Luke couldn’t seem to link it to anything human at all. The man was a monster and it bothered Luke that the monster could sound so normal. “Is she alright?” was all he managed to get out.
“Listen.”
Luke heard rustling and then a moan. Then her voice, sleepy, as if he was trying to wake her and she didn’t want to wake up. “No. I don’t want to eat,” she mumbled. “You can’t make me,” and her voice trailed off. The relief he felt was so great, he almost started to cry. Worthington stopped that.
“She won’t be alive much longe
r,” he said. “You’d better hurry.”
“Don’t touch her! I swear I’ll…”
“You’ll what!” he shouted. It made Luke jump. “I don’t see you here! I doubt you have it in you to even find me much less stop me. Bring it on, kid! Bring it on!” The line went dead.
“He’s moving,” John said.
Jaxon and Victoria sat in his car two blocks from the Harrison house. They were right by the pool complex with the laptop open and the tracking software running. So far, the Harrison boy was still in his house.
“You don’t think he left his phone at home, do you?” Victoria asked.
“I doubt it. Kids don’t go anywhere without them nowadays.”
“Still, what if he did?”
“We’re screwed.”
She sat silent for a moment and he knew her wheels were spinning. They had been spinning since they left the Hoover building. “What are you thinking?”
“About the pictures,” she said.
“What about them?”
“They bother me.”
“They bother me too, but we found his clue. He made it easy.”
“We’re missing something.”
“We’re missing a lot.”
She gave him a look and he turned away. The Harrison kid was still there.
“Why all the family shots? Why show us how his life was when he was with them?”
“Maybe he liked them.”
“Then why did he leave them for us?”
“He wanted to show me how I ruined his life.”
“Could be,” she said, but he could tell she didn’t believe that. “Or, he wanted us to see his house.”
“But we already know he lived there. That’s common knowledge. I’ve been there before and hell, I almost removed him from it.”
“But his house was in every picture,” she said, turning to him.
He thought about this and a little tumbler fell into place. Click. He jerked back to her and she was smiling.
“Every picture,” she said again.
“Shit!”
Just then he noticed Harrison’s cell phone moving. He pointed to it and she said. “He’s on the move! He must be on foot because he’s not moving very fast.”
“It has to be the house!”
“Let’s go!”
Chapter 58
Ellie woke from the nightmare and shook herself awake. She had been having a horrible dream, but when she saw where she was, relief washed over her. It was all just a nightmare. Her kidnapping at the hands of her father had all been a dream. She looked around her basement and wondered why she had fallen asleep down here. The TV was off so her mother must have done it. She went to get up, but couldn’t move.
She was tied to the chair. Suddenly, she knew it had not been a dream. Her nightmare was real and she was still living it. She struggled in the chair, panicking, but it was useless. Her hands were tied behind her and her feet bound to the legs of the chair. She stopped, hearing a noise and realized someone was behind her. Twisting around, she could see blond hair in her peripheral vision, but nothing else. The person behind her was unmoving.
“Hey,” she said. “Hey! Wake up!”
A moan escaped the person behind her and she recognized the timber of the voice. Patrick!
“Patrick! Wake up! Come on! Patrick!”
He moaned again but did not wake. She heard voices coming from above now, and she recognized one as her mother’s. She listened quietly, because she could tell the other was her father. Her mother’s voice was high pitched and getting louder and then she heard a slap followed by her mother screaming. She panicked.
“Leave her alone! Leave her alone!” She scooted in the chair, trying to move, but she must be tied to the chair her brother was in and he was a big kid. The chair barely moved.
“Come on Patrick! Wake up! Wake up!” Tears were falling down her cheeks and she was rocking the chair front to back trying to get him to respond, but he was passed out. The shouting above her grew louder and then she heard a loud thump and her mother’s voice suddenly cut off. Silence.
“Oh no!” she whispered. “You bastard! Leave her alone! Leave her alone! Bastard! Bastard!”
Then she heard a gunshot.
Luke went to the meter box and pulled the switch. He watched the lights go out in the living room. John was out back in the woods and Jimmy was across the street in some bushes in case Worthington made a run for it. Luke was going in alone.
The fear he felt was a crushing force that threatened to suffocate him and render him useless. He kept telling himself Ellie was going through worse and had been for two days. She needed him to be strong. Needed him to rescue her. Needed him to be her savior. He took a few deep breaths and moved. If he kept moving, he wouldn’t freeze up.
He crept to the basement sliding glass door and peered inside. What he saw surprised him. Patrick Pemberton was facing the glass, his head down, his feet tied to the chair he was in and his arms wrapped behind him. He was not moving. Then he saw movement just behind Patrick and Ellie’s head came into view. He gasped and felt elated. She was alive!
He quickly moved to the door handle and pulled. It was unlocked and he slid the door open quietly and slipped inside. The basement was dark since he had killed the electricity and the outer edges of the room in shadow. He could see Ellie and her brother from the dim light through the sliding glass door.
“Ellie!” he whispered and he saw her head jerk up.
“Luke? No! Get out of here! He’s in the…”
A huge blast sounded in Luke’s head and he was flung back against the glass by an invisible truck. He sank to the floor, the air sucked from his lungs and he looked around not understanding what had happened. Faintly, he heard Ellie’s voice as if coming through a fog.
“No! No! No!”
He watched a big shadow emerge from the gloom, a pistol leading the way as the rest of the huge man followed, grinning behind it. Then the pain hit him and Luke realized he’d been shot.
Jaxon was standing at the front door, his pistol out and up. Victoria he had sent around back and he waited the full minute they had agreed upon to enter the house. A gunshot sounded and Jaxon decided he couldn’t wait any longer. He kicked the door in and burst through it, his gun leading the way, but he found nothing but darkness and silence. Then he heard Ellie’s voice from somewhere deep in the house wailing ‘No!’ over and over again and it broke his heart. He knew Luke was around here somewhere, but they had not been able to beat the kid to the house. He hoped the gunshot had been Victoria taking Worthington down.
He ran to the kitchen and tripped over something in the doorway. Slamming his shin into a chair he cursed and sat up, feeling for his gun. He found Madison Pemberton instead. Leaning in close, he could just make out her open eyes and the dark mass of blood which surrounded her upper body. He realized he was kneeling in it. Her throat had been cut and she was dead.
More wailing from Ellie, and Jaxon felt around until his hand struck his pistol. He snatched it up and jumped to the basement door. Opening it slowly, Ellie’s sobs grew louder but no other sound could be heard. He knew Worthington was down there.
He crept down into the darkness and reached the bottom landing without feeling a bullet hit him. He pushed the thought out of his mind. Turning into the room, he tried to see into the gloom. His eyes adjusted just enough for him to make out Ellie tied to a chair and crying. Another figure was bound behind her, though it did not move or make a sound. He saw another shape slumped against the glass sliding door and heard a wet rasping sound as if someone was breathing through a damp rag. He realized it was Luke Harrison.
Movement in front of Luke caused him to jerk as a huge silhouette emerged from the left, backlit by the moonlight shining in through the door. Someone was struggling in its arms.
“Drop it, Detective.” The voice was Worthington.
He moved away from the door and the light shown onto Victoria’s face. He was holding a pistol to her h
ead and she was struggling feebly against him. He jerked her in his arms and she stopped fighting.
“Let the kids go,” Jaxon said. “This is about you and me.”
“Now, why would I do that? I’ve finally gotten to know them.”
Ellie cried softly now, and Luke’s breathing was getting worse. The ragged sound grew louder by the second and Jaxon knew he didn’t have much time.
“I’ll put it down if you let them go,” Jaxon said.
“No!” The voice boomed in the room. Ellie squealed and started sobbing harder. Victoria remained still.
“I’m not putting the weapon down,” Jaxon said.
“Fine. Then die.” Worthington pointed the pistol at Jaxon and fired. It was like being struck with a fire hydrant. His shoulder jerked back, the gun flying from his hand, and he was flung against the wall like a rag doll. The blast from Worthington’s gun shook the air like a cannon going off in confined quarters.
There was no pain. Just a feeling of weakness, as if someone was letting the air out his body. He was deflating like a tire and could no longer stand. He slumped to a sitting position and watched as Worthington struck Victoria in the head with his gun, her body slumping to the ground and then he strode over to Jaxon, kicking his gun out of the way and picking him up like he weighed nothing. The man grinned into Jaxon’s face.
“You took my family from me,” he said through clenched teeth and Jaxon could smell his sour breath. “Now, I will finish taking yours and then take your life.”
He turned and fired the gun into Victoria’s prone body. Jaxon moaned as he watched it jerk and then lay still. He had lost again. The bastard had beat him and taken everything that mattered to him. A pain flared in his shoulder. Ice and fire screaming into his back and neck, and he welcomed it. It was like a jolt of electricity, jumpstarting his heart. He embraced the pain, moving his shoulder and creating more, a molten hot spike striking the core of his body. It made him angry, and angry was good.
Worthington was leering at Victoria, watching his handy work drain the life from her. Jaxon’s pain grew to a growling, menacing thing and it made his body tremble from the power of it. Worthington felt Jaxon shake and turned back to him.
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