Sight Unseen

by Iris Johansen

  As it had the night before, the beeping was coming from the phone-company technician’s laptop. Once again, a red dot now appeared on the map.

  Kendra’s eyes widened as she jumped to her feet. She gazed up at the large projected map, which had remained unchanged since yesterday. Excitement was gripping her, taking her breath.

  Excitement … and dread.

  Have we got you this time, Myatt?

  The technician was already looking at his laptop screen. “This is another one of the three phones we’ve been tracking, Agent Griffin. It just connected with the network.”

  Griffin shook his head. “Myatt used the other phone on a timer to draw us out to Dean Halley’s house. He may be using this one the same way.”

  Lynch studied the map. “He’s east of Descanso. It almost looks like—”

  “Oh, my God.” Kendra felt a sickening jolt, her gaze fastened on the map. It couldn’t be true.

  Don’t let it be true.

  Lynch nodded slowly as he saw her face.

  “What’s happening?” Griffin asked.

  The worst thing that could possibly happen.

  “He’s found my mother and Olivia.”

  * * *

  “MOM, YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF THERE. Do you hear me? Immediately. Don’t argue, just move.”

  “Hold on, you keep fading out. I’m out on the balcony, and I get lousy reception here.” Diane moved through the house with her mobile phone, trying to find the spot with the best reception. She finally found herself in the living room. It was dark outside, and Nelson was turning off lights in the living room as he talked into his phone. He was standing straight and speaking in the clipped, efficient tone he adopted whenever he spoke to the Bureau higher-ups. Not a good sign, Diane thought.

  “Now, what’s happened?” Diane said into the phone. “Nelson is looking very … professional.”

  “Good. That’s what we want from him. Myatt’s found you. He’s somewhere in your vicinity. Griffin’s explaining it to Nelson right now. You’re going to leave the house immediately and go to the Sheriff’s Department in Julian.”

  “Wouldn’t it be better for us to stay here and let the police and FBI come here? This could be your chance to catch this psychopath.”

  “No. We will not use you as bait. Do exactly as Nelson tells you to do. Okay?”

  “I still think—”

  “No. Mom, don’t think. Please don’t think. Just get the hell out of there. Where’s Olivia?”

  “In the kitchen. She’s on her laptop.”

  “Good. Stay together. Do exactly as Nelson tells you.”

  “You already said that.”

  “Because I know you.” She paused. “I love you, Mom.”

  “Oh, Lord. You’re being sentimental. Now I am scared.”

  “You’ll be fine. I’ll see you in less than an hour.”

  Kendra cut the connection. Diane looked up to see that Nelson had pulled his automatic from the holster and was checking the cartridge.

  “It’ll be okay,” he said.

  “You sound as if you’re trying to convince yourself.” Olivia entered from the kitchen with her work knapsack slung over her shoulder.

  “We have a bit of a situation,” he said. “But nothing to worry about.”

  “Nothing except for the killer lurking outside. Excuse me for eavesdropping on your phone conversations, but since no one bothered to call me, I had nothing better to do.”

  Still holding the gun, Nelson picked up his phone and punched a number. He listened, then hung up. “No answer from Tad Martlin.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Diane said. “The cell reception is spotty up here.”

  “True, but it’s been a while since he checked in.” Nelson walked to a front window and looked through a parting in the curtains. “The two of you wait here by the front door. I’ll bring the car from the road and pull as close to the house as I can.”

  “You don’t want us to go together?” Olivia asked.

  “No. And don’t bother with your luggage. We’ll get it later. Right now, I just want to put some distance between us and this house.”

  Diane nodded. “Okay. The second you pull up in your car, we’ll be ready to jump inside.” She turned to Olivia. “When we go out the door, take my arm and I’ll lead you to—”

  “You know me better than that,” she said. “I’ll hear the car engine, it’ll be no problem. Just worry about yourself.”

  “For some weird reason, that’s scarier than worrying about you.”

  Olivia chuckled and reached out and squeezed Diane’s hand. “Hey, I’ll take care of you.”

  “How humiliating.”

  Nelson moved toward the door. “Sixty seconds, ladies. Be ready.”

  “Be careful,” Olivia said.

  Nelson was gone. They listened as his footsteps pounded the pavement outside.

  “Come closer to the door,” Diane said seconds later. “He said for us to be—”

  Rat-tat-tat-tat.

  The booming, staccato crack of gunfire outside.

  “Don!” Olivia shouted.

  A window shattered. Then another.

  “Down,” Diane shouted as she pulled Olivia to the floor.

  Rat-tat-tat-tat.

  The door flew open, and Nelson barreled through and hit the floor.

  Rat-tat-tat-tat.

  A lamp broke in the living room. Nelson swung his leg around and pushed the door closed.

  He gritted his teeth in pain. “I’m hit.”

  “What happened?” Olivia ran over and knelt beside him.

  “Somebody’s firing from the bushes across the road. I couldn’t even see him.” Nelson gingerly touched the bloody wound at his side. “Shit.”

  Diane grabbed a throw blanket from the couch and wrapped it tightly around Nelson’s midsection.

  Rat-tat-tat-tat. A fresh burst of gunfire destroyed another window.

  Olivia pulled Nelson’s arm over her shoulders. “Can you stand?”

  “Yes.” He gasped in pain as she lifted him to his feet.

  Olivia pulled him toward the back of the house. “We’ll go downstairs to the basement. Diane, you told me when you took me around the house that there are no windows in a couple of the rooms down there on the lower level, right?”

  “Right,” Diane said. “One side of the house faces the road, the other the forest.”

  “We’ll barricade ourselves in one of those rooms and wait for the cavalry to arrive. Sound like a plan?”

  “Yes.” Diane moved cautiously and threw the lock on the front door.

  “Good.” Olivia started for the door leading to the basement. “Now help me get Don down the stairs.”

  Together, they carefully helped Nelson down, one step at a time.

  More gunfire rained behind them.

  Chase/Wyndham Heliport

  San Diego, California

  LESS THAN A MILE FROM THE FBI field office, Kendra, Lynch, Griffin, and Metcalf emerged from the elevator atop the forty-four-story Chase Wyndham Building. A six-seat helicopter was warmed and waiting on the helipad.

  “Our response teams are on the way,” Griffin yelled over the sound of the rotors. “We have ground units and another helicopter tactical team en route.”

  Lynch frowned absently, as he stared at his phone, but he said nothing until after they climbed into the ’copter and closed the door behind them. “I can’t get through to Tad Martlin,” he said. “I tried to call and send a text, but there’s been no answer.” He looked grimly at Kendra. “I don’t like it.”

  “We’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” Griffin said. “The helicopter response team may be there even sooner. Don’t worry.”

  Don’t worry?

  Kendra gazed at him incredulously as the ’copter lifted off and made a wide arc over the city of San Diego. Fifteen minutes could be an eternity. Fifteen minutes could be life or death. Her mother’s life, Olivia’s life. There wasn’t any way she
could do anything else but worry.

  * * *

  OLIVIA STOPPED TO ADJUST Nelson’s weight on her shoulder as they finally reached the lower floor. He was weaker now, and she could hear his breathing becoming more labored. “Don, how are you doing?”

  “It hurts like hell.”

  “I know. Hold it together for me, okay?” Olivia suddenly turned, her head lifting. “What’s that smell?”

  Diane sniffed. “Gunpowder?”

  “No.” Olivia shook her head. “That was my first thought but it’s…”

  “Smoke’s billowing through a doorway in front of us,” Diane said. “There has to be a fire up ahead.” She looked behind her at the stairs. More pungent smoke was curling from that direction. “And behind us.”

  It suddenly hit Olivia. “This is too much like another one of Kendra’s cases … I remember the killer burned people alive in their homes, sometimes after sealing them inside.”

  “Myatt’s set the house on fire,” Diane said. “My lungs are burning from the smoke. Get down. Close to the floor…”

  She and Olivia dropped to their knees beside Nelson and scrambled across the floor. They coughed and breathed through their sleeves in a vain attempt to filter the smoke.

  “We can’t barricade ourselves down here. Scratch that plan. But there’s a way to get out of here,” Diane said. “I think I saw an exit that led to the woods when we were touring the house.”

  “Then let’s find it,” Olivia gasped, her lungs searing. “I hear the flames. Do you see them yet?”

  “Can’t see—” Diane barely managed to choke out her words. “Too much smoke. I can’t tell which way to go. It’s like a maze down here.”

  But they couldn’t just stay here, Olivia thought. They had to find a way out, or they’d be unconscious in minutes. Think. Find a way.

  She suddenly stiffened as a thought came to her.

  “Maybe…” She unzipped her knapsack. “Pray for American ingenuity and just plain luck, Diane.”

  “American ingenuity?”

  Olivia was no longer listening. She could do this.

  God, she hoped she could do it.

  She felt around in her knapsack until she located her plastic sample pack. She opened it and felt inside, trying to touch each product and identify.

  There it was. She’d located the object she’d been looking for. Finally, she pulled a contraption that resembled aviator sunglasses with attached earbuds. She put the glasses on her face and inserted the foam earbuds.

  “What are you doing?” Diane coughed.

  “It’s a gadget I’m reviewing. I hadn’t gotten around to testing it. It appears I’m going to do it now. I’m sure the inventor didn’t mean it to be used for a situation like this. It uses sonar…” She started crawling. “Follow me.”

  With Olivia as their guide, they pushed on through the black smoke, navigating the twists and turns past the laundry room, spare bedrooms, and recreation room.

  Even as visibility dropped close to zero, Olivia could hear the glasses emitting a series of beeps that distinguished between walls and passageways every time she turned her head. She stopped as she was about to take a right turn. She placed her hand against the wall. “This one’s warm. Quick, the other way.”

  They retraced their steps through the poisonous fog until Olivia found another hallway that would take them into the TV room.

  “There’s no outside door here, but I remember a window across the room.” Diane quickly closed the hall door behind them.

  Diane turned on her phone, and the illumination was just enough for them to see to make their way to the room’s single window, some six feet over the floor. Diane dragged a stool over, climbed onto it, and slid open the window.

  Fresh air blew into the smoky room.

  “Careful,” Nelson said. “He may be out there. We have no idea which side of the property he’s at right now.”

  Diane crouched lower and coughed again as more smoke poured into the room from the hall, smothering the fresh air from the window. “Well, we can’t stay in here.”

  Nelson pulled out his gun. “I’ll go first. Then I can cover you if I need to.”

  Olivia looked at him skeptically. “Can you make it?”

  “Yes.” He sounded indignant, but he winced as he climbed on the stool. “It will be painful, but I can do it. It’s my job. And the two of you have had to treat me like a basket case.” He peered through the window, then hoisted himself up and through it. He rolled onto the ground just a foot below the outside of the window. He took cover behind a bush outside, then motioned for Diane to join him.

  “Olivia, he just gave us the sign,” Diane said. “You first.”

  “No.”

  “This isn’t the time to argue, dammit.”

  “No arguments. You’re not as young as I am. I’ll help steady you. Then you guys can pull me out if I need it.”

  “Okay.” Diane pulled herself through the window. “But I’m insulted that you think I’m decrepit. I’ll get you for that.” She started to turn around but heard a coughing behind her that told her that Olivia had already climbed out the window.

  “So much for pulling you out,” Diane whispered to her, as they crouched next to Nelson.

  “Anything, Don?” Olivia asked Nelson.

  “Looks clear.” He turned back and looked up at the house, which was rapidly becoming engulfed by flames. “But we need to get the hell away from here. You and Olivia run for the woods.” His hand tightened on his automatic. “I’ll be ready to cover you if he’s still out there.”

  * * *

  “OH, MY GOD.”

  Kendra looked out of the helicopter window at the burning vacation house, a flaming torch on the dark hillside.

  “I’m sure they got out,” Lynch said quietly.

  “How do you know?” Kendra snapped. “How can anyone know?” She was dialing her phone. “I can’t get through to Mom.”

  “I don’t know. But your mother is smart, and so is Olivia,” Lynch said. “And Nelson is a good agent. They’d find a way to get out of that inferno.”

  “Myatt is down there,” Kendra said. “Even if they’re out of the house, they might be running straight toward him.”

  “You’re right.” Griffin lowered the microphone on his telephone headset. “But I’ve just had word that the response team is down there. They’ve called the paramedics. The paramedics are four minutes out.”

  Kendra felt as if she were going to jump out of her skin. “Paramedics? What the hell happened? Have they reached them? How are they?”

  “We’ll find out soon.” Griffin held up a finger as he listened. He leaned toward the pilot. “Did you get that?”

  “Got it,” he said. “We’ll be on the ground in sixty seconds.”

  The helicopter was banking around the burning house and hovered over an empty field down the road. Kendra looked down and saw that the response team’s helicopter had already landed there. Its searchlights illuminated the field.

  What was she going to find down there?

  In less than a minute, Kendra unbuckled herself and jumped out of the helicopter. She bolted across the small field, which was lit up by crisscrossing searchlights from the landed copter, which also provided fierce wind and noise from their rotors.

  There they were! At the edge of the field nearest the road. They were being treated by personnel of the response team.

  And they didn’t look good.

  “Mom?”

  Kendra dropped to her knees in front of the spot where her mother, Olivia, and Agent Nelson were being treated. Blackened faces, torn and rumpled clothes. And they were each wearing oxygen masks.

  Kendra took Diane’s hands in her own. “Are you okay?”

  Diane pulled off her mask. “Agent Nelson needs help. Immediately. I’ve been telling them to fly him to a hospital. They’re not listening to me.”

  Kendra looked over to see Nelson on his back, his shirt off and bandaged around his torso.
He was being tended by two agents, one of whom leaned over and replaced the mask over Diane’s nose and mouth.

  “Ma’am, the paramedics will be here any minute. They’ll help him.” From his steely tone, it was obvious Diane had been getting on his every last nerve.

  An encouraging sign, Kendra decided with relief.

  Diane said something that caused her mask to fog. Kendra figured it was a good thing they couldn’t understand her.

  She turned to Olivia. “How are you feeling?”

  Olivia just nodded. She was staring down at Nelson and holding his hand. Then she looked at Kendra. “He took a bullet for us. Myatt was out there waiting.”

  “Can you tell me what happened in there?”

  “It’s better if they don’t talk.” The response-team agent leaned toward Kendra. “They’ve already discussed it with the commander when we first found them. He’ll fill you in.”

  Kendra looked over and saw that Griffin and Lynch were already on it, intently discussing the situation with the response-team commander.

  She saw red flashers, strobing over the hillside. Relief. Two paramedic units rounded the bend and stopped on the side of the road.

  As the paramedics jumped out and started to work, Kendra joined Lynch and Griffin. “Will somebody please tell me what happened?”

  As they brought her up to speed, she could see that Lynch was clearly troubled. “Still no sign of Tad Martlin?” she asked.

  She’d clearly hit a nerve. “Not yet.”

  “I’m sure the paramedics will take Olivia and my mother to the hospital, along with Agent Nelson. I need to go with them.”

  “Of course.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “I’ll stay here a while and join the search for Martlin.” Lynch shook his head. “I’m the one who brought him into this.”

  “He had to know what he was doing when he took this job.”

  “Did he?”

  “As much as any of us did.”

  Lynch nodded. “Keep in touch. I’ll let you know what we find out here. The local police have already put up roadblocks on the highway. No one’s driving off this mountain without our knowing about it.”

  “If he’s still on the mountain.” Kendra turned toward Nelson, who was on a gurney being placed into one of the paramedic units. “Well, that’s my cue. You know the expression, ‘Doctors make the worst patients?’ Whoever said that never met my mother.” She glanced back at Lynch. “Be careful.”