by Kay Hooper
Besides which, the brief discussion she’d had with Jessie during the festival had only raised more questions, and Nellie had been busy running down those answers, reasonably sure Emma would want to know.
A party fifteen years before, one Nellie remembered vividly because her older boyfriend had taken her but made sure neither of them drank alcohol—and left early. And despite all his precautions, her father caught her coming in way past her curfew and had grounded her for a month.
A month without phone and TV privileges tended to brand an event into a teenage mind.
Nellie had made a few calls and did what she could at home on her laptop, but then she drove to the newspaper office, which was open only until noon on Mondays. She took note of the people gathering in front of the police station, but since it was across the street and she felt the need to hurry, she went in and asked the receptionist what was going on.
“Beats me,” Ann replied with a shrug. “Somebody said something about a search party. I didn’t ask.”
Nellie frowned, because search parties were fairly uncommon and she was, after all, a reporter, but then she went on down the hall to her office to find out whether the information she had asked a friend to hunt down for her had arrived, pulled by what she suspected was a much bigger story than a lost hiker.
There was a stack of pages in her fax machine, with a handwritten You owe me! scrawled on the otherwise blank top sheet. There was, of course, no signature; her friend had broken a few laws in passing on the information, and both of them knew it.
“Deep background,” Nellie had promised. “Nobody will ever know your name.”
That was a promise she always kept.
Now, looking through the pages of what was supposed to be a confidential medical report—even if it was fifteen years old—Nellie felt nothing but shock. From Jessie’s questions, she had assumed…
None of this made sense to her, but the medical report was clear: Emma Baron (Nellie had guessed at the fake surname) had been beaten and raped, and had been brought to this hospital—not Baron Hollow’s small hospital, but the huge and impersonal one in the nearest large city—by her sister.
Emma had, apparently, been close to catatonic during the days she spent there, but had refused to either name her assailant or press charges, and though a rape kit had been obtained, whatever evidence it contained was, presumably, in a hospital or police storage room.
Somewhere.
Feeling a queasy sympathy for what Emma must have gone through and dry-mouthed at the possible suspects flitting through her mind, Nellie put the medical report in a file folder and then opened another one, with information she had gathered earlier.
She flipped through the printed-out pages to refresh her memory, then stopped at one, frowning.
It hadn’t meant anything to her the first time. But now, with Jessie’s questions and her own ringing in her mind…
It was information she wasn’t supposed to be able to get her hands on, and she had called in yet another very big favor to get it. She wouldn’t have dared tell her boss about it. Well, unless and until it paid off.
And she thought, now, that it would.
Nellie bit her lip in indecision, her mind racing. There was no time to think it through, no time to do anything except follow her instincts. And her instincts told her not to share everything she knew.
Not until she had checked some of it out herself.
This, at least.
She put the folder in her laptop bag and swung it over her shoulder, then left her office.
At the reception desk, Ann was flipping through a magazine. “Going for lunch?” she asked, showing mild interest.
“An errand. If anybody asks, just tell them I had to run an errand, okay?”
“Sure. Hey, bring me back a salad, okay? I didn’t bring my lunch today, and Sam wants me to work ’til three.”
Nellie paused. “Why? Isn’t he closing the office?”
“Not ’til three. Said there was too much going on in town.”
“Where is Sam?”
“Went out a while ago. Maybe to join up with the search. He didn’t say. Just said he’d be back later, and I was to stay ’til three.” It was mostly muttered, and more than a little indignant as Ann kept her sulky gaze on the fashion magazine.
There was no use asking the girl just what was going on; Nellie knew Ann would have no more interest or knowledge of that than she had of the crowd outside the police department. An anomaly for Baron Hollow, Ann didn’t gossip. Actually, she didn’t do much of anything.
Nellie left the building, discovering that the crowd of people had vanished in the time it had taken her to get her stuff and come back outside.
Nellie was again briefly torn between wanting to know if a search party had indeed set out to find someone or something, and wanting to check out information that might lead her to Jessie—or to something Jessie had been searching for.
She didn’t even have to flip a mental coin, just got in her car, checked to make sure she had her cell phone and it was fully charged, then headed out.
“WE WERE STRANGERS, you know. Jessie and me. There were too many years gone. Too much life lived away from each other. We tried to…reconnect, I suppose. But it didn’t really work.”
“You’ll grieve, Emma,” Navarro told her. “Don’t beat yourself up for feeling numb right now. It would be a miracle if you didn’t.”
Emma reached up to rub her left temple, frowning. “I need to be doing something. And I know damned well you need to be doing something.”
After a moment, Navarro got to his feet. “I think it’s time we joined the search for Jessie,” he said. “Maybe my abilities will finally kick in, or maybe the medium will see something. Either way, two more searching could make a difference.”
However much she had put together in understanding the situation, Penny had clearly expected them to join the search, because she had a backpack waiting for them at the reception desk.
“Sandwiches, fruit, granola bars, and juice,” she said. “Neither one of you has had lunch. Don’t worry about Lizzie; I’ll keep her here with me.”
“You’re a jewel among innkeepers,” Emma told her as Navarro picked up the backpack. “Lizzie, stay here and be a good girl,” she added, using the customary command that would tell her dog she was leaving for a while.
“We’ll be fine,” Penny said. “I called the station, and Craig is manning the desk. He has the map with the search grid.”
“We’ll check in with him. Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Thanks, Penny.”
As they left the inn and headed for the police station, Emma said, “I’m assuming looking at a map helps point you in the right direction.”
“Usually,” he agreed. “If the ability is working.”
His voice was just a bit distracted, and when she glanced up at him it was to note that there was a distant, oddly familiar look in his eyes. She’d seen that look the previous summer.
Just before the body of a murdered woman had turned up.
“Neither one of us put on hiking boots,” she said abruptly.
“We won’t be going into the mountains.”
“Because you’ve already been up there?”
“Because Jessie isn’t up there.” He was frowning now. “None of them are up there.”
Emma stopped walking and stared at him. “None of them? You can feel there are others?”
Navarro tilted his head slightly, as though listening to some distant whisper. “Jessie did find something she wasn’t looking for. All tangled up in her past—and yours.”
Emma closed her eyes briefly. “How long? Has he been killing since…since me?”
“I’m not sure. But a long time. Scattered out so nobody really noticed the people passing through who got lost somewhere along the way. He’s had a lot of practice, and he’s learned to hide what he’s doing.” Navarro blinked suddenly and looked at her, really saw her
.
“This isn’t your usual way of doing things, is it?” she said in a tone of realization. “This trancelike bit?”
“No,” he answered slowly.
“Then why has it changed?”
“I don’t know.” He took her hand. “But Bishop told me that sometimes it happens. Abilities change during an investigation. Come on. I need to see that map.”
Five minutes later, they were leaning over the front desk in the lobby of the police station, studying a map of the area with a clear plastic overlay of the search grid pattern. The blocks were outlined in color all along the main road to the highway, and most of the blocks held cryptic numbers.
“I have a list here of who’s searching which grid,” Officer Craig Bradshaw told them. “Every team has a number. The chief mostly paired volunteers with cops unless he was sure they were experienced and really know the terrain. Even though all the grids start close in, some of them run pretty deep into the woods.”
After a frowning moment, Navarro put his finger on a grid that held no numbers. “Here.”
Both Emma and Craig studied the map.
“You own some of that land, Miss Emma,” Craig noted. “Out there near the Willow Creek Church.”
“Yes,” she said. “I do. Jessie and I both own parcels.”
“That’s where we need to be,” Navarro said.
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
Emma nodded to Craig. “Okay, assign us a number and list us as checking out that grid, Craig.”
“Will do. And good luck.” His young face was serious. “I’ve had a bad feeling ever since I heard about it yesterday. I’m still hoping we find out she’s okay.”
Emma merely nodded, but once she and Navarro were outside, she said, “I should have told him.”
“Best to wait until we have proof.”
“Guess so. Still, I wonder how many people are out there searching and expecting to find Jessie’s car parked at some house and her inside visiting a friend.”
“Maybe a few.”
“Yeah. Look, we can stop at the inn and get my Jeep; the grid we need to search is about four miles down the main drag, so we might as well drive as far as we can.”
“Makes sense,” he agreed. He didn’t say anything else until they were in Emma’s late-model Cherokee and heading down Main Street toward the highway, then commented, “I noticed the chief had at least three K-9 units searching.”
“Search and rescue dogs are used a lot in the mountains, so we have quite a few in the general area. I guess Dan really is taking the search seriously.” She paused. “I wonder what that paranormal researcher said to him.”
“Probably what Penny said. That she’d seen Jessie and was sure Jessie was dead.”
Emma shook her head. “It had to be more than that. What Dan was convinced of was that whatever happened to Jessie didn’t happen in or near Baron Hollow.”
Navarro wondered if he might have an idea of what had ultimately convinced the chief to take Jessie’s disappearance seriously, but since he wasn’t sure, he kept the possibility to himself.
They’d find out soon enough, he thought, if he was right.
“HOLLIS, ARE YOU sure you want to follow the creek?” Officer Gerald Neal asked somewhat plaintively from at least half a dozen yards behind her.
“Definitely sure,” she said, dividing her attention between the weed-choked creek bank they were forcing their way through and a small box with a gauge and dial she held in one hand.
Just behind her, her partner said in a low voice, “You could have picked an easier path.”
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t have,” she responded, equally low. “Jessie’s leading us. And she’s getting more and more agitated. Whatever is happening, we’re running out of time.”
“The church?”
“I don’t think so. I mean, whether or not the church is part of this, it’s not where Jessie is leading us.”
“And I don’t suppose she’s telling you anything.”
“She’s tried, but that’s one thing I still have trouble with—hearing them. Besides, I think she realized she needed to save her energy to lead us. Right now, she’s waving us to hurry.”
“Okay, then,” her partner said. “I just hope I can get my weapon out of this bag fast enough if I have to. It’s a damned nuisance not being able to wear holsters.”
“Hey, at least you don’t have to carry this useless, stupid box and pretend. What is it again?”
“Supposed to detect surges in energy. I think.”
She made a noise under her breath. “And to think some people count on these things. Jessie’s aura is getting brighter. I think we’re getting close…”
BY TACIT AGREEMENT, they left the backpack in Emma’s Jeep. And though she gave him a look when he produced a pistol from an ankle holster she hadn’t noticed until then, she didn’t object. But she did comment.
“Do you always go armed when hunting the dead?”
“Pretty much. The dead I hunt seldom got that way by accident.”
Realizing suddenly, she said, “You know who it is, don’t you? Who the killer is.”
He hesitated, then said, “I had a lot of background information provided to me, Emma. And once I knew what had happened to you, and realized there was a killer here, one name kept jumping out at me.”
“He’s on our list of suspects?”
“Yeah. And I’m sorry, but—”
She was about to ask, but just then, still a good fifty yards away from the creek, they came out of the woods and upon a parked Baron Hollow Police Department Jeep.
“Nobody’s supposed to be searching this grid,” she said slowly. “Nobody but us.”
Navarro, eyeing the tire tracks the Jeep had clearly followed, said, “This road has been used, regularly. But it hasn’t been kept up to look that way. What’s at the end of it, Emma? We’re still a good hundred yards from the church.”
“It’s…a cabin, I think. It’s on Victor’s land, but I think Dan leases it from him. Something like that. My and Jessie’s parcels are on this side of the creek.”
“Did she know that? I mean that she owned land up here?”
Emma nodded slowly. “I told her Victor wanted to buy it. She had a list from our lawyer, and was using it as an excuse to wander around town and out here. Said the gossips would believe she was sizing up her inheritance. Nathan…the Jeep. Is it him? All these years, and it was him?”
“Let’s go find out.” Navarro immediately moved forward, following the track toward the creek and moving fast but also as quietly as possible. “Stay behind me,” he breathed. “I think someone else is in that cabin with him.”
Realizing even as he had, as she’d heard the sounds of raised voices, Emma fell in behind him, keeping her own voice low when she said, “That’s Nellie’s voice. But how would she know?”
“If she has the right connections, she could get cell phone records. I saw three towers ringing this area on the map; I bet cell reception up here is remarkably good. If Maitland was on her suspect list, I’ll bet she wondered why he was spending so much time up here.”
Emma wondered where Nellie would have parked her car, but didn’t waste much time or energy thinking about it; Nellie knew this area as well as just about anyone.
They came within sight of the cabin, and Emma followed his lead when he left the road before they reached the shallow stream. They worked their way through the trees, then crossed the creek without even getting their feet wet, thanks to all the flat stones.
As they climbed the other bank and reached a surprisingly cultivated part of the land, Navarro glanced over his shoulder at her long enough to whisper, “Listen.”
Emma could hear it much better now, as they moved cautiously through what cover they could use as they approached the cabin that was nestled into a sizable clearing twenty or so yards ahead. Nellie half shouting something that sounded like, “Wait, wait! Just listen!”
And
then the sound of a male voice rising and falling, using language so filthy and filled with hate that it almost sounded inhuman.
Evil.
She had known it, recognized it, fifteen years ago.
It had attempted to destroy her life, and it had destroyed her sister’s life. And all those other lives horribly taken, snuffed out…
By an evil straight out of hell.
TWENTY-TWO
If Emma hadn’t been with Navarro, she would have turned and run as fast and as far as she could to get away. Instead, she swallowed hard, reminded herself that she had to face her past as surely as Jessie had been forced to, and followed.
Navarro was moving faster as they approached the cabin, clearly believing that a preoccupation with his latest captive was blinding the killer to possible danger.
The cabin sat on a yard that sloped down to the creek in front of it, with a great deal of cultivated plantings all around it, and they had just reached the ring of trees when Emma saw three other people on the other side.
Two of the paranormal researchers and a cop. The cop looked dumbstruck, even horrified, but both the so-called researchers carried weapons they clearly knew how to use and wore grim determination on their faces.
The brunette woman spotted Navarro and took one hand off her gun to make a quick gesture.
He nodded, turning his head to whisper. “We’re going around back. For God’s sake, stay behind me.”
Emma didn’t feel the need to protest. She stuck close as they circled the cabin, hearing Nellie’s frightened voice.
“Dan, you know you don’t want to do this—”
“You had to stick your stupid goddamned nose into it, didn’t you? Had to be the one to figure it all out, the one to come looking for my flowers. And what did you do with my treasure box? Huh? I know you know where it is. Did she hide it? Or did you?”
“Dan, I swear to God, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Snooping. Trying to find my flowers. My roses. Just like the other stupid bitch came looking, her for a past she couldn’t even remember right, and you for a fucking story. Both of you thinking you’re smarter than me—”