Both groups headed out and Thompson got comfortable for the wait.
Ten minutes later, his cell rang. Like clockwork. Matt reported they didn’t find anything in or near the shed and were heading to the duplex. Grant’s call came shortly after to report that his team was checking the shoreline and trees rimming the water.
Ten minutes passed, and subsequent check-ins brought no answers.
Thompson felt restless. He hated being stuck in the lodge. An idea occurred to him, and he handed Grace his cell. “You need a code to unlock it when it rings—extra security app the guys in tech added, since I tend to leave the damn thing behind sometimes. It’s eight-seven-one-seven. Can you remember that?”
“Eight-seven-one-seven.”
“Good. Make sure both groups call in. Tell ’em I’m in the bathroom. I should be back before they give their second report, anyhow, but I just wanna check something quick.”
He ignored Grace when she warned him not to go outside. He had remembered the photo Julie’s grandfather showed him, the one he’d found in the little cabin on the back of the property. Thompson knew it was a long shot, but he wanted to see if anyone was back there now.
It was a dark night. He should have brought his damn flashlight. He picked his way carefully across the black lawn. He could see the cabin in the moonlight, silhouetted against the woods. All was quiet. He approached the cabin from the side, not wanting to give up his element of surprise if anyone was in there. Wooden steps creaked under his weight, causing the sheriff to swear under his breath. He stilled, but couldn’t hear any movement inside. He advanced again, reaching for the door knob. Off to his left, an owl hooted, damn near giving him another heart attack. He turned the knob, and the door swung inward on creaking hinges.
Fumbling for a light switch, the sheriff gave up trying to be quiet. If anyone was inside, they would have heard him by now. A single, naked bulb over the kitchen sink blinked on, offering a small amount of light. The kitchen was empty, and at first glance the small living area—what he could see of it at least—looked empty, too. He took a few cautious steps farther into the kitchen. A large ring of keys lay on the table. The light wasn’t bright enough to chase away all the shadows, but Thompson had developed a kind of sixth sense over the years, and he knew he wasn’t alone in here. As his eyes adjusted, he could see someone standing in the far corner by the fireplace. The figure was wearing a large red cape with a hood pulled down low, obscuring all facial features.
“I can see you standing there, so you might as well tell me who you are,” ordered the sheriff. He could tell it wasn’t Julie—this person was taller. He positioned himself near the door so they would have to go through him first if they bolted. But he hoped to God they didn’t. Not in his condition.
But the figure didn’t move, nor did they answer.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” he asked again.
“She shouldn’t have ignored me,” the figure said.
“Who shouldn’t have ignored you? Julie?”
“I thought she loved me. But then she left and wouldn’t take my calls. Just like the other one. They use me, and then they ignore me. I’ll show them both.”
“Are you talking about Julie, young man?” He still couldn’t see the figure’s face, but he was positive he was right about it being a young man. “Do you know where she is? There are lots of folks worried about her right now. In fact, I’m expecting half a dozen of them to show up here any minute. You want to tell me what’s going on?”
The masked figure continued to mumble about “showing them,” but the words were hard to understand. Then Thompson thought he heard a moan from the back bedroom—just once, but he was relatively certain someone was back there. The figure in the corner was getting more agitated, shifting from foot to foot, his mumbles completely incoherent now. Thompson knew it could all deteriorate quickly, and he wasn’t confident he could physically handle this guy if it came right down to it. He had his firearm in its holster, but he didn’t want to have to use it. This was just a kid.
The door into the kitchen swung inward.
“Sheriff, are you in here?”
Thompson recognized the voice immediately and groaned inwardly. Grace.
***
Matt called Thompson’s phone to check in for the third time, halfway through their one-hour search.
The phone rang half a dozen times and went to voicemail.
“What the hell?” Matt muttered.
“What’s wrong?” Renee asked, her anxiety ratcheting up as their search continued to turn up nothing.
“Thompson isn’t picking up. Call Val.”
Renee pulled out her phone and started to call her sister but stopped with a groan. “I forgot. She left her purse and phone back at the duplex.”
“What? Why?”
“No pockets in her costume. Crap!”
“I think we ought to go check on things back at the lodge.”
***
As soon as Val told Matt that Sheriff Thompson had went to check on something and Grace had followed him out of the lodge a short time later, he feared their problems had just magnified. It took all his restraint not to yell at Renee’s sister for letting an old man and a teenager—both of them ill—go wander into the dark alone, but he knew that would only make things worse. He called Grant and the other search team back to the lodge. Upon their return, Matt updated Grant and watched as the man immediately started calling his daughter’s cell, but based on Grant’s stony expression, she wasn’t picking up.
Matt let out a whistle to quiet Renee’s family.
“All right, everybody needs to stay calm,” Matt ordered. “I would prefer it if all of you stayed here while we go find these three, but I’m afraid we need your help. We haven’t checked all the cabins yet. Grant, take your group and start checking at the first cabin on the east side of the pit. My group will start at the other end. Renee, do you have the keys?”
“Just a sec,” she said as she hurried over to the drawer in the lodge kitchen where she kept her spare set, then: “Shit!”
“What’s wrong?” someone asked.
“The keys,” Renee replied, “they’re gone.”
Matt hurried over to her side. “What do you mean, ‘they’re gone’?”
“My extra set of cabin keys! They aren’t here!”
“That is not good news,” Matt said. He faced the groups and rolled his shoulders in an effort to dispel the tension gathering there. “Let’s move, guys. Stay with your groups, and for God’s sake, be careful.”
***
“Oh good, there you are,” Grace said as she walked into the cabin, phone in hand, oblivious to the potentially dangerous situation she was putting herself in.
“I told you to stay put,” the sheriff reprimanded her sharply, grabbing her arm to prevent her from going any farther into the room.
“Jeez, sorry. I forgot the security code to unlock your phone. Matt and Dad tried to call but I couldn’t answer, so I had to come find you,” Grace babbled. She gasped when she saw the figure standing in the corner.
“Oh God, who’s that?” she asked Thompson, as if whoever it was couldn’t hear her.
“And there’s the first one,” the figure said, his voice rising from incoherence, “finally she comes to see me. I’ll show her. I thought she cared. But she’s just like all the girls. Uses you and forgets you. Tsk tsk, now she’s going to pay.” His voice droned on in a sick sing-song.
This had Grace stepping backward until the door halted her movement, clearly terrified by what she was hearing. Thompson kept a firm grip on her arm.
Voices reached Thompson’s ears from outside—not yet close but coming closer. “Sheriff, Grace, where are you two?”
The figure stilled his fidgeting, clearly realizing his window of escape was about to slam shut, and then sprang into motion. He made a break for the door—Grace jumped out of the sheriff’s grasp with a shriek—and he bulldozed right into Thompson, knocking
them both to the ground. In the struggle, the hood fell away and Grace gasped in shock.
Everything happened at once. The fleeing figure extricated himself from the sheriff and Thompson tried to grab his foot, but he wasn’t quick enough. He could see it was indeed a young man, one sporting a scraggily beard, but nobody he knew. The guy kicked hard at the sheriff as he struggled to get away, and grabbed for Grace as he ran for the door, but he missed her when she recoiled.
He ran out the door and was gone.
***
Grace stared around in shock, first at the open door, then down at the sheriff. The kick had caught him on the side of the head, and he lay there for a moment, clearly dazed. Grace knelt at his side to check on him.
A whimpering sound came from the back bedroom. Grace turned toward the sound, listening.
“Sheriff,” Grace whispered, “someone’s back there. It . . . it sounds like Julie.”
Grace started to stand, but the sheriff grabbed her wrist.
“Wait,” he grunted. “Don’t go back there. Let one of my men check it out. I can hear them outside.”
“But it sounded like Julie,” Grace repeated in a high-pitched voice. “I need to make sure she’s OK!”
The sheriff labored up into a sitting position. “I know, but we have no way of knowing if she’s alone. There might have been more than one punk.”
***
Matt led his team toward the Gray Cabin and instantly saw that the front door was wide open. Then a skinny figure appeared in the doorway and he heard Grace’s voice yelling for them to hurry. Matt held up an arm at the bottom of the stairs, signaling everyone to stay put. He entered the cabin, looking from Thompson, struggling to rise, to Grace, and around the rest of the front part of the cabin.
“Someone’s back there,” said Grace, motioning toward the bedroom. Matt saw the fear in her eyes. “It sounds like Julie.”
Matt moved forward cautiously, drawing a gun out of his waistband and holding it poised in the air. He held a flashlight in his other hand, aiming the beam into the dark room ahead. It was a small room, and unless there was someone hiding under the bed, he was sure the only person in the room was lying on the bed. He instantly recognized Julie, crying softly and holding her head.
Matt did a quick sweep of the room and under the bed with his light and then put his gun away, flipping on a lamp.
Julie started to cry harder when she saw Matt.
Sitting down gingerly on the bed next to Julie, Matt quickly looked her over. She was wearing some kind of dress—some kind of costume, probably—and didn’t appear to be harmed other than where she was holding her head.
“Your mom is right outside, Julie. You stay here for a minute. I will go get her and be right back, OK?”
Matt left the room, asking Grace to sit with Julie for a minute. He needed to talk to Thompson before calling Renee in. He knew she was sick with worry over her daughter—was surprised she hadn’t charged in here herself—so he had to make it quick.
He knelt down by the older sheriff and asked, “What the hell happened?”
“When you guys weren’t finding anything, I was getting antsy sitting there waiting for news. I remembered the weird deal earlier this summer when someone appeared to have been holed up back here and how Julie’s picture had been tucked into a drawer. Thought it was worth checking out. Probably would have been a better idea to bring one of my deputies along.”
“Ya think?” Matt asked. He was disgusted with Thompson for taking such a risk. “Julie’s grandfather already checked this cabin once tonight. Was Julie here alone?”
“Shit, no, didn’t you guys grab the guy that ran out of here?”
“What guy that ran out of here? We didn’t see anyone.”
“Oh, God,” Thompson said, shaking his head. “We need to find him, Matt. There was a guy in here, and he was rambling on like some lunatic. He stood over by the fireplace when I came in, trying to hide in the shadows. When he heard you guys outside, he freaked and ran, knocking me down in the process. He looked about Grace or Julie’s age, but pretty tough. Dirty and unshaven. He’s still out there. What if he went to the lodge where the kids are?”
“Oh, Christ . . . Val’s with them, but still—stay here with the girls. I’m sending Renee in, too. Try to keep everyone in here so they aren’t out wandering around with a nutcase on the loose. I’ll take the deputies with me.”
Running back down the stairs, he told Renee that Julie was back in the bedroom and she needed her. Everyone needed to stay together; he would be back in a minute. One of the deputies was close by and understood Matt’s body language to follow him. The other deputy was walking up with Grant’s group.
“What’s going on?” Grant demanded, stepping in front of Matt. “Did you find Grace? What about Julie?”
“Yes, they’re both back in that cabin. I sent Renee in there. Go in there with them. Keep your eyes open for trouble. We have a guy on the run, and we need to find him. And Grant, keep them safe.”
Grant didn’t need any further direction. He headed for the girls, leaving Matt to try to wrap up this messy business.
Their first stop was the lodge. Thankfully, Val and the kids were fine. They were told to lock the doors and stay inside.
A noise in the parking lot caught Matt’s attention. He ran out of the lodge in time to hear a spray of gravel and a crunch of metal. Tail lights raced out of the lot. It was the small blue Honda that had been sitting off on the edge. Matt noticed it earlier because it had out-of-state plates, but there were so many strange cars in the lot at the time, he hadn’t given it much thought.
“Goddammit!” he yelled.
***
Matt and the deputy jumped in the patrol car—now sporting a long dent down the passenger’s side where the Honda caught it with a bumper—and they gave chase to the fleeing car.
They were gaining on it when the car reached the main road, taking a hard left. There was a squeal of tires and the car almost turned into an oncoming pickup. Both drivers swerved sharply to avoid a collision, but the Honda driver overcorrected and lost control. It veered off the road, into the ditch, and there was another sound of crunching metal, but this time the impact was with a tree. The Honda was going no farther, crumpled against a massive pine.
The deputy pulled quickly to the side of the road. He grabbed a fire extinguisher while Matt called in for an ambulance. If whoever was driving that car survived the impact, he’d need medical assistance. The second deputy arrived behind them, jumping out of Thompson’s car. The three of them approached the crumpled car, guns drawn. Steam spewed from the decimated hood. A figure draped over the steering wheel. Matt cautiously reached through the shattered windshield. There was a pulse, but it wasn’t going to be easy to get the driver out of the car.
The pickup the Honda almost hit was pulled over on the far shoulder. Matt signaled to the deputies to stay with the wreck, and he walked back up to the road, wanting to keep any witnesses out of harm’s way. He was surprised to see Ethan climb out of the pickup.
“Matt? What the hell is going on?”
Matt couldn’t believe it. He actually laughed. “Was that you that jackass almost hit, flying out onto the road like that?”
“Luke gave me a call, said Julie might be missing. I was partway home but turned around. Oh God . . . tell me I don’t know anyone in that car down there,” he said, motioning toward the wreck.
“Ambulance is on the way. I don’t know who he is, and I only see one guy in the vehicle. He’s in tough shape. Might be someone Julie knows.”
Ethan’s eyebrows shot up. “And Julie—?”
“We found her,” Matt assured him, “and I think she’s OK, although she might have a nasty bump on her head.”
Ethan’s expression hardened. “Did that guy hurt her?”
Matt held his hands up. “Hold on, Ethan. You know I can’t let you go down there. We’ll figure out what’s going on, I promise. I think this is probably the guy Sheriff
Thompson found in that little cabin Renee hasn’t gotten around to fixing up yet.”
Ethan looked at him sharply. “The cabin where—”
“Where you guys found her photo, yeah. Julie was back there, too. We’ll get answers. Why don’t you let us deal with this and head on back to the lodge? Check on everyone.”
“Yeah, OK. Should I let them know you caught the guy?”
“Well, I can’t be a hundred percent sure, but it’s looking that way.”
Sirens were approaching.
“On second thought,” Matt said, “why don’t you sit tight for a minute? These guys will need to follow the ambulance, but I want to get back to the resort, too, and they were my ride. Can I catch a ride with you?”
***
The rescue squad cut the driver out of the wrecked car and loaded him in the ambulance. He was unconscious and losing blood fast. A tow truck arrived to take the vehicle in. It would be searched for evidence, but that could wait until daylight.
Ethan and Matt found everyone in the lodge. One of the deputies had phoned ahead to let Sheriff Thompson know about the accident, and since the guy driving was wearing a red cape, it looked like they had their man. The sheriff had allowed everyone to go back to the lodge instead of waiting in the dingy old cabin. Julie, Renee, and Grace were waiting in one of the sleeping rooms. The sheriff didn’t want the girls talking to anyone until Matt got back. Since Matt would be taking over for him within days, Thompson wanted Matt in on all parts of the investigation.
There was some debate whether or not Julie should be taken to the ER, but she was still traumatized from the incident at college and was adamant she didn’t need to be checked. As a compromise, Thompson called a doctor buddy to come examine her. If the doctor thought she should go in, there would be no further debate. Thompson needed to be checked, too, anyhow.
There was no way Renee was leaving Julie’s side, so she was allowed to wait with the girls. Grant was concerned, as Grace was visibly upset about something, too, but she hadn’t said anything yet. He waited with everyone else. With Matt’s permission, Ethan convinced the rest of his family to call it a night. Val’s family would spend the night in Cabin #1 as planned and Lavonne and George in #2. Instead of getting a third cabin dirty, Ethan would stay with his sisters in the duplex. Matt convinced Grant to go back to their cabin as well—Grace needed to be questioned about her part in tonight’s debacle, and Matt promised to personally walk Grace over soon. They would probably know more tomorrow about what had happened, but for now, everyone in the family was safe.
Whispering Pines (Celia's Gifts Book 1) Page 40