This Hero for Hire

by Cynthia Thomason

  His anger seemed to vibrate through the truck. “What did I get for helping you? One stinking visit to see how I was doing. No fancy lawyer. No call from the governor. And I did more in thirty minutes to help our cause than all the rest of you have done in two months of planting!”

  He turned off the highway and onto the narrower road that led to Braddock Farm. Susannah allowed herself to feel a sense of encouragement. Familiar territory. “Why are we going here?” she asked.

  “Your favorite place,” he said. “I’ve got a nice, quiet, out-of-the-way campsite prepared for us.”

  “A campsite? Here? What do you intend to do?”

  “You’ll find out.” He drove in silence until they reached the farm. Susannah planned an escape. Even if her friends weren’t working at this hour on a Sunday, which she supposed they wouldn’t be, when Randy slowed or stopped at the barn, she would jump out of the truck and run inside. She would hide from him until she could find a weapon, a pitchfork, something to protect herself with. Randy was nearly a foot taller than she was, so strength wasn’t an option in obtaining her freedom. But maybe she could catch him by surprise in the dark interior of the barn.

  The plan might have worked, but Randy barreled past the property, drove another half mile farther and then cut toward the foothills. The truck bounced along a narrow, rutted path that led to a couple of abandoned cabins in the hills. But he didn’t stop at the shelters. The path ended and still he drove forward, cutting through underbrush, barely missing trees, nearly toppling the truck on thick ground roots. Susannah held onto the door handle with a fierce grip and wondered if anyone had ever been this high in the foothills in a truck before.

  And then he braked. His poor truck coughed and sputtered, but the engine continued to run.

  “Why are we stopping?” she asked.

  “Because I want you to call your daddy before we lose a cell signal.” He picked up the knife and held it threateningly while he fished his cell phone from his pocket. “Get him on the line just long enough for him to hear your voice, then hand me the phone.”

  If Randy was going to demand a ransom, then everything she’d done the past few weeks would be revealed. Her abduction would probably make the news, as would her campaign against traditional farming methods. Her involvement in the destruction at the fertilizer plant. Her father would be ruined, his backers would desert him and the press would crucify him for claiming to support Georgia farmers while his own daughter undermined their efforts. Albee Rhodes would be a laughingstock this close to election day, and despite being kidnapped, the daughter who had continually disappointed him would have been the cause of his defeat.

  “Don’t make me do this, Randy,” she said. “We can work something out.”

  But his expression was hard and cruel. He turned the knife in his hand and thrust the phone at her.

  * * *

  BOONE CAUGHT UP on recent reports at the police station, and he was about to go for that beer when he decided to call the campaign headquarters first to check on Susannah. Sitting at his old desk, he punched in her number. She didn’t answer, so he called the main line usually staffed by one of the volunteers. A young man answered.

  “This is Boone Braddock,” he said. “Would you get Susannah on the phone for me?”

  “Sure,” the man said. “She’s in her office. Hold on.”

  Several minutes passed before the man returned. “She’s not in there, Boone. I’ve looked all over and can’t find her. She didn’t leave by the front door. I’ve been here the whole time.”

  “Maybe she’s in the ladies’ room.”

  “She’s not,” the volunteer said. “I knocked on the door. And again, I would have seen her go in.”

  “Then you’d better start checking under every desk and chair,” he said. “I want her found before I get there. I’m on my way.”

  Lila, doing paperwork at her desk, had heard his brief conversation. “What’s happened? Don’t you know where Susannah is?”

  Of all the people at the station who could be eavesdropping, Lila was the worst, though she hadn’t been bugging him about “the princess” for quite a while.

  “It’s nothing,” he snapped as he hurried to the exit. “She’s around.”

  It seemed that time had stopped when Boone reached the office. The phones were going unanswered. The volunteers milled around as if they had no purpose. Quiet conversations were taking place in all corners of the room.

  “You didn’t find her?” he said, carefully surveying the eerily quiet scene.

  “She had to have gone out the back door,” someone suggested. “I can’t imagine why. That just leads to the alley.”

  He clenched his hands into fists. “She’s done it again,” he mumbled to himself. “After all the promises, she’s cut out.” All that talk about understanding what a decision this is for me, and she runs because she didn’t get the answer she wanted when she wanted it.

  The volunteers stared at him as if he were speaking a foreign language. His mind raced. How could a woman he cared so much about, a woman Francine said loved him, deliberately set him into this kind of tailspin? What a childish, amateurish prank, one designed to ruin his reputation and guarantee that the story of their silly cat and mouse game would be all over town. He’d left her alone for a mere two hours, and she was gone. She’d probably been waiting for the chance to get even with him since Jared had first shown up at the farm.

  He told himself that a quick escape was exactly what happened, since that’s what he wanted to believe because anything else was unthinkable. But in the back of his mind he couldn’t prevent a niggling doubt that suddenly sprouted and grew. He went into her office and did a quick examination. Odd. Her backpack was on a chair. He checked a side pocket and discovered her cell phone showing one missed call, the one he’d made. Her wallet was inside with identification but no money, not unusual for Susannah. She hardly ever carried cash. He couldn’t imagine why she’d leave her belongings behind.

  He returned to the main room, yanked a pile of business cards from his shirt pocket and left them on the nearest desk. “Call me if any of you hear from her. I mean it.”

  His order was met with nods and wide-eyed agreement. He left the office and immediately ran into Lila Menendez on the sidewalk.

  “Is she in there?” Lila asked.

  “No, she’s not.”

  Boone hated to admit it, but news of Susannah’s slip would be town gossip soon enough. “I’ll find her. She can’t have gone far without her car and her ID.”

  He started down the street at a fast pace when Lila called after him. “Wait, Boone. There’s something you should know.”

  He stopped, turned. “What?”

  “That suspect from a couple of weeks ago, the one who destroyed all the property at the fertilizer plant?”

  “Yeah, Randy. What about him?”

  “He obtained bail somehow,” she said. “He got out of jail this morning, and since I figured you’d want to know, I checked the impound lot. He was able to get his truck released to him.”

  Boone’s heart pounded, sending blood rushing to his head. Susannah was with him. His cop mind worked double-time, and he had it all figured out. That stupid punk was trying to save his own skin by abducting Susannah.

  He grabbed Lila. “We’ve got to find her,” he said. “Put out a bulletin on that truck and start asking around for people who might have seen it.”

  “Will do,” Lila said. “It shouldn’t be hard to find. That vehicle is practically an antique.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  HOPING HE MIGHT find a clue, Boone returned to the back parking area and began combing the pavement. Maybe Susannah had dropped something that might hint where she was. He searched her backpack carefully but found nothing amiss there. And her phone. After tracing all her ca
lls, he gave up finding an answer on that device. He hated that she didn’t have it with her. At least he could track her whereabouts if she did.

  Deciding to check the hotel and then head out to the farm to talk to Susannah’s friends, Boone went back to his truck. He’d only gone a mile when his cell phone rang. His hand was shaking when he picked it up from the passenger seat. He recognized Albee Rhodes’s private number.

  The governor called him periodically to check up on his daughter. Boone could only hope this wasn’t one of those calls. Boone didn’t like lying, but he wasn’t about to tell the governor about his daughter being missing, at least not yet. He pressed the connect button. “Hello, Governor.”

  “What the blazes is going on there, Braddock?”

  Boone cringed. “Sir?”

  “I just had a call from Susie. At least I thought it was Susie. She only spoke to me a moment before some half-crazed imbecile grabbed the phone from her. The man claims he’s abducted her, Boone, and he’s taking her God knows where.”

  The implications made Boone’s blood chill. “I’m on it, sir. I’m right now on my way to the last known address of the guy who we think has her.”

  “His last known address? Are you aware that his last address was the Burl County jail?”

  The governor had learned a lot in a few minutes. “Yes, but before that he was at the Best Western. I’m hoping I’ll find them there.”

  “He’s a criminal, Boone, the kind of guy you cops ought to keep locked up.”

  “I know that, sir. He managed to get bail this morning.”

  “He destroyed the entire inventory of the Lawson Fertilizer Plant. Do you know that?”

  “Yes, sir, I’m aware.”

  “You’re aware. Susannah is probably aware. Half the people of Mount Union are no doubt aware. But me? The guy who’s paying your salary to keep things running smoothly back there? He doesn’t know a dang thing!”

  “Susannah didn’t have anything to do with the destruction of property, Governor, and she didn’t want to worry you.”

  “I’m worried plenty now! This guy on the phone sounds like some kind of a maniac, and he’s got my Susie. When I asked you to watch out for her, I figured she might get in trouble with a reporter or one of my political rivals, but this! I never in my wildest dreams thought she’d be kidnapped. You fell down on your job, Braddock. This better come out all right or you’ll pay for this screwup the rest of your life!”

  With the hotel just ahead, Boone slowed his pickup to turn into the parking lot. “I’ll find her, sir. This just happened about an hour or so ago, so they can’t have gone far.”

  “Finding her is the only chance you’ve got of ever being a cop in Mount Union again. You find her and bring her back safe. I’m on my way there now. Should arrive in about three hours.”

  Fearful that the governor would hang up, Boone shouted, “Wait, sir! The man, his name is Randy, what did he say to you? What does he want in exchange for Susannah? Is he after ransom money?”

  “Not entirely. He sees himself as some sort of delusional hero, the best I can determine. He wants the charges dropped against him and passage to Mexico, where he can start up some kind of farming project.” There was a pause before Albee said, “That’s another thing, Braddock. What the heck is Susie doing planting vegetables out at your place? She’s doing that along with running my campaign?”

  “Yes, sir. She sort of had an ulterior motive for coming home when she did. I’m sure she would have told you all about it once the election is over.”

  “She’s not in cahoots with this Randy fella, is she? Are you absolutely sure she didn’t destroy Lawson’s property?”

  “I’m positive, sir. She separated from Randy and totally disapproved of his methods.”

  “Find her, Boone. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

  “Yes, sir. My department is doing everything we can.”

  That part was true. Lila and James had taken off toward Libertyville to check out the fertilizer factory and surrounding area. Other cops had gone on different roads armed with a clear description of Randy’s old truck. They would find her. They had to.

  * * *

  SUSANNAH HAD NO idea where they were. Once Randy headed into the foothills he blazed his own trail to the camp he’d set up. Susannah had not been able to keep track of all the twists and turns, but she’d sensed that Randy had made this trek before.

  He stopped next to a canvas awning suspended from four spindly poles. Apparently this was to be their shelter. He cut the truck’s engine, set the emergency brake and stuffed the keys in his pocket. If only she could get those keys!

  “Can I get out?” Susannah asked. “I really need to go to the bathroom.”

  He jutted his thumb toward a growth of trees. “Over there. And don’t be out of my sight. I want to see you the whole time. And don’t even think you can run faster than me. You and those sandals wouldn’t get fifty feet in this brush.”

  “How long are we going to be here?”

  “Until Daddy calls and convinces me he’s had the charges dropped and has made my travel plans. Now go on. Hurry up and get back here.”

  She went into the trees and considered running, but the sun would be setting soon and she could end up more hopelessly lost than she was already. She tried to remember anything she’d heard about finding direction in the forest. Something about moss growing a certain way, the North Star. It was no use. She didn’t have the courage to set out on her own. The phrase that kept going through her mind was, “The enemy you know is better than the enemy you don’t.” And her unknown enemies could be mountain lions, black bears or snakes. She’d stick with Randy until a logical plan of escape occurred to her.

  When she returned to the campsite, she asked Randy for some water. He took a canteen from the truck and told her to drink sparingly. “I didn’t have time to get to a grocery store for supplies,” he said. “Dinner is a candy bar.”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Suit yourself.” He told her to sit on a fallen log, and when she did, he bound her ankles and wrists with duct tape and used a rope to secure her to a nearby tree.

  “Is this really necessary? Do you think I’m going to run off into these woods by myself?”

  “I can’t take the chance. You’re my ticket to a new life, and I need to get some shut-eye.” He took a tarp from the back of his truck and laid it on the ground. “This is all your fault, so you have no one to blame but yourself.”

  She shook her head in disbelief. “I know you think that, but it’s ridiculous.”

  “You could have gotten me out of jail. One phone call to Daddy and I would have been free instead of spending miserable weeks in that place. Did you show me one ounce of human compassion? No. You let me stay there, and I’d be there still if my aunt hadn’t put up the bail money.”

  “You know I couldn’t involve my father. Our entire sustainable farming project was a secret from him. If he’d known about what I was doing at Braddock Farms he’d have been furious, thinking I was undermining his support for the election.”

  “So you made your decision based on a rich man’s chances of being reelected versus one of your so-called ‘family’ rotting in jail?” He held his hands palms up and moved them up and down as if he were holding a scale. “Well, pardon me, Miss Rhodes, but I don’t see those two things as equal.”

  She had to keep trying to make sense to him. “But Randy, you’re free now. You can meet with your attorney, decide on your plea, maybe bargain for a lesser sentence. But once you add kidnapping to your charges, you’re only getting yourself in deeper. If you take me back to town now...”

  He lay down on the tarp, resting his head on his crossed arms. He kept the knife in his belt. “If you think I have a chance of slipping through the system and getting off on these charges, th
en you’re more gullible than the rest of them. You’re the reason I went to jail—you and Omar. Now you have to be the reason I don’t go back—you and your powerful connections. As soon as Daddy says I’m cleared and I can come and go from Mexico to the United States as I please, as soon as he stakes me for a farming project in Mexico, I’m outta here. I’ll try to put all of you out of my mind while I do what we should have been doing all along, something that will make people remember my name. And you can go on letting that cop babysit you.”

  Randy chuckled. “He did a heck of a job, didn’t he, that cop of yours. I took you right out of your office. Anyway, shut up now. I’m going to catch forty winks. We’ll see where we stand when I wake up.”

  She leaned against the tree and surveyed her surroundings. Small creatures scurried through the brush. Birds called overhead. They were completely surrounded by land that had probably never seen human habitation before. What are the chances that a camper on foot could wander up here, she thought, trying to loosen the restraints on her wrists. The chances are about as good as me getting out of this tape.

  * * *

  HOURS LATER, SUSANNAH didn’t know how many, she was freezing. The temperatures on the hill had dropped to at least the forties, she guessed, and she only wore her jeans and a T-shirt. Randy was awake, so she decided to ask him for compassion. “Do you think I could go in the truck?” she said. “It’s at least out of the wind in there, and you have the keys so I won’t be going anywhere.”

  “I suppose.” Using his knife, he cut the restraints to the tree, let her go to the edge of the campsite to relieve herself and watched as she slipped behind the steering wheel of his truck. “I’m going to tie you to the wheel,” he said. “And don’t even think about getting away.”

  “As if I could,” she said. “You have the keys. Can’t you loosen the tape a little? It’s cutting into my wrists.”