Farewell to Goodbye

by Penny Childs

  A sudden explosion of chatter caught the attention of them both.

  “Shit,” Craig said. The unit following the van had reported that they were accelerating at a high rate of speed. “My first guess is they’ve been spotted.”

  “Sounds like,” Trevor agreed.

  “Nell? You there?” one of the officer’s from the other unit called out.

  “What’s happening Vince?” Craig asked.

  “Jesus Christ!” came his answer.

  “Craig! They just slammed on the brakes and dumped something out of the back of the van! I think it might be…awe, shit!”

  “Vince, talk to me,” Craig said, trying to stay calm.

  “They dumped the girl.”

  “Stop and check on her,” he told them.

  Frustrated, Trevor slammed a fist into the dash. “They did that to get the cops off their asses, Craig.”

  “I know that, but what do you want them to do, leave the girl laying in the middle of the road? We don’t know if she’s dead or alive right now.”

  “I know,” he said quietly. But he wanted the bastards. If the girl was dead and there was nothing to be done for her anyway then they had just let the killers escape.

  “She’s alive, Craig! She’s alive!” Vince burst over the radio. “Randy is calling for an ambulance.”

  Trevor closed his eyes, relieved, as Craig took another curve at a dangerous speed.

  “If they’re going to the State Park then we might be able to catch up to them. Unless they take a dirt road. The road they’re on ends at Lake Michigan then swings around the shore. One way is the park, the other is the loop into town and what-not.” He squeezed the steering wheel. “Damnit! Which way would you go?”

  “Depends on whether I know the area or not. I get the feeling they do. So, which way would you go?”

  “Helicopters will be coming this way, they have to know that. The woods will offer them cover. They’d be exposed in town…but…they could jack another vehicle.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t risk town, too many people, too many lights and too risky. They can jack all the cars they want, but if we know what they’re driving the chopper will keep up with them.”

  “Follow your gut,” Trevor told him. He could think of nothing better at this point.

  Craig hit the road the van had been on past the point the girl had been dumped and stomped on the accelerator. When he got to the T in the road, he barely hesitated to take the left toward the park. Going well over the posted speed limit of 10 mph, he picked up the radio and transmitted his position and also got cars moving toward town, just in case his gut was wrong.

  There were several little off-shoots which he slowed at and gazed down. “I hope the girl is going to be okay,” he said quietly, then slammed on his brakes and put the cruiser in reverse.

  “Something?” Trevor asked, pulling his weapon.

  “It’s the van.” He shined his side mounted spotlight down one of the offshoots to illuminate the van, which was sitting in the middle of the road. “They can’t just be sitting there hoping no one would see them.”

  “You wouldn’t think.” Trevor rolled his window down. “Move in slowly.”

  “Backup?” Craig asked.

  “You can wait if you want, but I’m going in.” He didn’t think they were in there anyway. They had to be on foot, running through the woods.

  “All right, but if you get me killed Mel will never forgive you, you know.”

  “You’re probably right about that, so we’ll be careful.”

  Nosing the car onto the narrow lane, Craig inched it along as Trevor stayed at the ready, gun in hand. When they were twenty yards from the back of the van Trevor told him to stop.

  “Either they’re in the van and will open fire as we approach, or they’re long gone and this is a diversion to waste our time as they gain distance.”

  “But which is it?” Craig asked.

  Without further hesitation, Trevor pushed his door open and got out of the cruiser, approaching the van boldly, gun held out in front of him, shouting that he was FBI. Sometimes he just knew things, and this was one of those times.

  “Trevor! For Christ’s sake!” Craig watched in horror as Trevor drew up alongside the driver’s door of the van and yanked it open, then leaned in behind his gun.

  Leaning back out, he looked at Craig and shook his head. “They’re gone, man,” he called over the sound of the cruiser’s engine.

  Climbing out of the cruiser, still shaken, Craig walked to the van and opened the two back doors. “Shit,” he moaned when he saw the blood on the floor.

  “Don’t touch,” Trevor said, shoving his weapon back in its holster and pulling out his phone. “Bill,” he said when he got an answer. “Yes, I know it’s still the middle of the night, thanks for the reminder.”

  “Then you better talk to me,” Bill said irritably.

  “Bill, Mel got a lock on the bitch.” He saw Craig swing around to stare at him.

  “You got them?”

  “No, they got away. But they dumped the girl.” He explained what had happened while he watched Craig carefully circling the area around the van.

  “Trevor,” Craig called, waving him over to an area at the edge of the road.

  He walked over and looked at what Craig had in the beam of his flashlight.

  “They had a dirt bike in the back of the van,” Craig told him. “They could be miles from here by now.”

  “We’re screwed, Bill, unless we get real lucky.”

  “You may have saved the girl,” Bill reminded him.

  “Yeah, and now that bitch will be extremely pissed off, Bill. We both know that Mel is next on her hit list. She’s not going to be predictable at all. This last stunt they pulled proves that. And with her angry…I don’t know what she’ll do.” He saw Craig looking at him again, concern written over his features.

  “You left Renee with Mel, right?”

  “Yeah.” Trevor shoved his fingers through his short hair. “Son of a bitch! We were within minutes of them!”

  “Look, I’ll do what I can on my end. You make sure Mel is protected.” He hesitated, then said, “She’s your best shot at getting these bastards now.”

  “Bill, I’m not using her as bait this time. I told you there won’t be a repeat and I meant it.”

  “Yeah. Now you tell her that, Trev.” Bill disconnected the call.

  Trevor turned to find Craig staring at him.

  “What do you mean about using her as bait?” he asked suspiciously. “Is that what your boss wants you to do?”

  Trevor shook his head. “It doesn’t matter what he wants, it’s not going to happen.” He wished the State Cops Craig had called would show up so they could leave. “Mel set herself up as bait for Julius Becker, against a direct order from our boss. It was a bad decision on her part and it almost cost her life.” He found he was still a little angry with her for that after all.

  “But in the end, a monster was stopped,” Craig said.

  “Yes. We’re not going to see if she can do a repeat performance. I’ll lock her in a goddamned cell if I have to.”

  Now Craig snorted out laughter. “Now that is something I would like to see you try and do. She does what she wants. We both know that.”

  “Not this damn time she doesn’t,” Trevor said with finality.

  With a groan, Mel came back around. She didn’t open her eyes, but let the rest of her senses come around first. She heard a lot of commotion coming from the bull pen. She also heard a voice asking her if she was okay. She recognized the voice not as Trevor’s, but as Renee’s.

  “Fine,” she said, still not opening her eyes. “I’m fine. Are the lights still out?”

  “Yeah.”

  Slowly, Mel opened her eyes to find Renee occupying the chair she had last seen Trevor in. “Where is Trevor?”

  “He took off with Craig after the killers. Seems Trevor got some kind of anonymous tip that gave him a location on the van. It must ha
ve been some tip. It made you feint right on the spot.”

  Narrowing her eyes at Renee, Mel slowly sat up and brought a hand to her pounding head. “Your attempt at sarcasm is not appreciated at the moment, Agent Marshall.”

  “Duly noted. Trevor took Craig with him. Last I heard, the girl was dumped out of the back of the van.”

  “Is she…”

  “She was alive and on her way to the hospital a few minutes ago. Trevor and Craig took off into the state park by the lake after the van, but when they got there the bastards were already gone. I think I heard they took off on a dirt bike.”

  “Long gone,” Mel said on a groan. “Holy shit. Will you get the bottle of ibuprofen out of my desk for me? Top middle drawer.” She watched as Renee moved around the desk, opened the drawer and brought the bottle back, handing it to her.

  Shaking three of the pills out, she popped them into her mouth and dry swallowed them, then noticed the bloody tissues on the floor.

  “Your nose was bleeding,” Renee told her, sitting back down.

  Mel bit her lip. That was not a good sign. The last time that had happened she’d been out of commission for days. And if the killers had gotten away she needed to be able to try again.

  “You wanna take a shot at telling me what happened, or what?” Renee finally asked. “’Cause, just so you know, I’m not buying the anonymous tip thing.”

  Putting a hand to each side of her head and squeezing, Mel groaned again. Then she told Renee everything.

  Sixteen

  Trevor and Craig came back to the station a little after six o’clock in the morning, both dragging ass.

  “She’s on her couch in her office,” Renee said to him as he came in and gave her an imploring look. “She’s just sleeping now.”

  Trevor pushed into Mel’s office and found her much the way he had left her, curled up on the couch, but this time he could tell she was sleeping, not unconscious. Kneeling down beside her, he touched the side of her face first with his fingers, then with a brush of his lips.

  Blinking, she opened her eyes and smiled up at him. “There you are,” she whispered.

  “I’m sorry I left.”

  “The girl. Is she okay?”

  “Fine so far. Minor injuries.”

  “Then it was worth it,” she said with a sigh.

  “You’re not going to ever do that again.”

  “Not in the near future,” she said, yawning.

  “Meaning?”

  “I’m fried right now, Trevor. I wouldn’t be able tell you what color your underwear are on a bet.”

  Grinning at her, he said, “You know damned well what color my underwear are today, love. You watched me put them on this morning.”

  “Okay, so that would not be a fair test of my abilities, but, regardless, I’m fried for a few days.”

  “Experience?” he asked. She’d not mentioned this to him before.

  “Yeah. It’s happened a couple times before.” With a groan, she sat up, not offering any further explanation. “If the girl is safe and Bill has feds looking and every cop this side of the state looking, right now I’d say you need to get some sleep.”

  “Maybe I’m too wired to sleep right now,” he said.

  “Maybe you better try. The couch is open, or you could hit one of the cots. I’m going to tell Craig to go home and get some sleep. Renee should probably go to the hotel and do the same.”

  “And you?” he asked.

  “I’ve had quite the nap, I’m good to go for a while.” She reached out and scratched at his stubble with her fingernails. “Trevor, you should sleep. I’ll find some things to do to keep me occupied.”

  “Like?” he asked, grabbing her hand and pressing a kiss to her palm.

  “I’d like to go visit the girl at the hospital,” she said slowly. The girl had been on her mind since she’d heard she was okay.

  “She may not be up to answering any questions yet, Mel.”

  “I know. If she’s not, that’s okay. But I think I should be the one to ask her them when she is ready. I know what she’s been through, Trevor. I think she’ll be more at ease with me than with anyone else once I explain that to her. It will probably help her parents stay a little calmer too.”

  He nodded, seeing the sense in it. “You’re probably right.” Yawning again, he said, “I don’t want you going alone though. You should take one of the boys with you.”

  “It’s broad daylight out there,” Mel said. “I’ll be fine. Everyone is out on the search and I don’t want to pull even one of them off of it.”

  “Mel…”

  “Get some sleep,” she said sternly, leaning toward him and placing a lingering kiss on his lips. “When you wake up we’ll plan what to do next.”

  “Yes boss.” Getting up from his knees he sat down on the couch as she got up. When he lay down, his legs hung over the end.

  “Trevor, really, you can grab a cot. That doesn’t look comfortable at all,” she told him, picking her gun up off her desk and clipping the holster to her belt. Grabbing her keys, she started for the door.

  “I’ll be fine right here. Believe me, I’ve had worse accommodations.” Besides, he knew if he wasn’t very comfortable, he would wake sooner. “Mel?”

  “Yes?” she asked, turning back.

  “You’ll call and have them wake me up if you need anything, right?”

  “Yes, Trevor. Now get some sleep before I hit you over the head with a brick and knock you out.”

  With a grin, he lay back and closed his eyes and found he was much more tired than he had thought. He was asleep within minutes.

  Stepping into the main office area, Mel went to the front desk. “Brody, Agent Giles is sleeping in my office. Try not to let anyone disturb him, okay?”

  Brody nodded. “Sure thing, boss.”

  “I’m going to run down to the hospital and see about the girl, Wendy Chapman. I don’t know if she’s ready to talk yet but I’m going to drop off my card with her parents, at the least, so I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.” She looked around. “Are Craig and Agent Marshall still around?”

  “They said something about getting some sleep. They said they’d be back around noon.”

  “Good, I won’t have to kick them out then.” She looked Brody over. He looked tired and she knew he was pulling long shifts. “Are you okay?”

  “Sure.” He had just started his shift but was tired already.

  “You tell me if this gets to be too much, you hear me?”

  “Yeah, boss, I will.”

  Satisfied, she headed out the front door into the morning sunshine and got in her car. On her way to the hospital, she thought about a lot of things, but mostly she found her mind wandering back to Trevor. She knew without a doubt she was in love with him again, despite how hard she had tried not to be. And now, when this was over, he would go back home and leave her again. “Damnit,” she whispered miserably. Tears wanted to come and she fought them off. Right now a young girl needed help. She needed someone to talk to. Someone strong. Someone who knew what she had gone through and where she was mentally. There would be time for crying later, she was sure.

  She pulled into the parking garage, found a spot and walked into the hospital, knowing her way around from previous visits to victims of domestic disputes, drunk driving and other accidents. Going to the information desk she did not have to tell Karen who she was.

  “You here to see that poor girl, Mel?” she asked.

  Mel nodded. “Yes. I at least want to let her parents know I’ll be available when she’s ready.”

  “She’s on three. Room 304,” she said with a grim smile. “I heard that FBI agent almost had the guy this morning.”

  Mel did not want to start rumors or gossip but nodded her head. “Almost. I better get up there. You have a good day, now.” She got away from Karen before she could ask any more questions and rode the elevator up to the third floor.

  Finding the nurse’s station, she stopped there f
irst, telling a nurse whom she’d never met before who she was and what business she had.

  “I think she’s awake. Her parents are in there with her right now. You’ll have to ask them how they feel about you talking to her.”

  Nodding, Mel walked that way, stopping outside the room and knocking on the door gently.

  It was answered by a tall man with blonde hair and a moustache. His face was pale from a lack of sleep and worry.

  “Mr. Chapman?” she asked.

  He nodded, glanced down at the gun on her side, then back up to her face. He knew what she was well enough. And he knew what she wanted of them. After all, he and his family had been through this before. “I don’t know if she’s ready to talk about this right now.” The tone of his voice indicated he wasn’t prepared to ask his daughter if she was, in any case. He just wanted her to go away.

  “I understand. I know what she’s been though.”

  He gave her a speculative look, then blinked, suddenly recognizing her from television and newspapers. Her own story had made headlines again. “That’s right. I read in the paper that you were attacked and got away seven years ago.” He seemed to relax a little now and opened the door further. “Come on in and we’ll see how she feels.”

  Mel was glad she had been the one to come now, instead of Trevor or any of the deputies. She saw a woman sitting at the bedside holding a young, fragile looking girl’s hand and talking quietly to her.

  When Wendy saw Mel her first reaction was fear. She knew why she was here and knew what she wanted from her too.

  Mel saw the panic in her eyes and smiled at her. “Wendy, I just wanted to stop by and see how you’re doing and drop off a card with your parents, for when you’re ready. That’s all. No pressure.”

  Relaxing a little bit, Wendy nodded.

  Mel took in the bruises and scratches on the girl’s face and the bandages on her arms and wondered which wounds were from being pushed out of the back of the moving van and which were from the madman. She pulled one of her cards from the back pocket of her jeans and handed it to the girl’s father.