He held out his hand, ready for her to get out of her prison. Kate flinched when he grasped her fingers and pulled her upward. At first her legs melted, but she steadied them, climbing out onto the packed dirt floor.
She faced him.
Something tickled her memory.
“You’re remembering, aren’t you, my Kate?” A satisfied smug formed.
Remembering? She scoured his features. Where did she know him from besides the Bend? Had he been following her before? A reporter? “You want my story, don’t you? I’ll give it to you if you let me go.”
He laughed. Threw his head back and laughed out loud. Maybe someone would hear him. Rescue her. She stepped to the side. His laughter died. “Don’t try it. I always win.”
Still her memory cells pricked her brain. One by one. That nose. Those eyes. Why did she think he looked familiar? “How do I know you?”
“Good girl. Now we’re getting somewhere.” He pointed to the lone chair. “Over there. Now.”
She hobbled the ten feet to the chair then collapsed into it. Her mind raced for answers. They knew each other? Impossible. She would have remembered a man who looked like him. Handsome in a rugged way.
“How do I know you?” she asked again.
“Oh you disappoint me, Kate. I’ve never forgotten you. How you picked your pepperoni off the crust, laid it to one side and then washed it down with your chocolate milk. And then there was Susan, your best friend who tittered whenever a boy walked past. But my favorite memory is you on the playground jumping rope. You had little talent in that department.”
Her mouth opened. It couldn’t be.
He stepped closer, dangling the knife in front of her. “Keep thinking. You’re almost there.”
“Todd Logan.” The name slipped from her memories. She stared into his wide-set eyes. His too handsome face. “The boy who should have died too.”
CHAPTER 84
Seth couldn’t go back to the newspaper. Not after the way he’d behaved with Tim. No, he was on his own in the Bend. He did another quick tour of Kate’s house, checking that she hadn’t packed her suitcase and taken off. When finished, he left the way he entered, getting in the Jeep and turning left.
He would visit David. The only other person Kate had formed a relationship with in the Bend.
When he pulled up to the intercom, he almost changed his mind. He told himself he was overreacting. Should wait a day and call her tomorrow. But the sight of her purse and phone unattended told him otherwise. Too many women had gone missing since he’d arrived in the Bend. Kate was not going to make that one more.
He pressed the button. “May I help you?”
Earl’s wife. “I need to talk with David. Is he home?” A lengthy silence ensued followed by David’s voice. “I’ll meet you out front, Seth.”
The gates opened. Seth drove through and parked by the visitor entrance. A light rain had begun when he left Kate’s house and now it had beat itself into a regular storm. Seth ducked and ran for cover beneath the porch. David met him at the door.
“Come on it. Looks like quite a storm. We’ll be lucky to have power by dinner.” Seth didn’t answer but followed him into another room filled with books and furniture out of the Victorian era. He didn’t want to sit but paced in front of David who had seated himself by the fireplace.
“What’s up? Change your mind about the woman?” David gave a relaxed stretch. He was kidding, right?
Seth was sure he did not look like a man looking for just any woman.
“No. I’m not. I figured you had gotten a call from Tim by now.” Might as well throw it out.
“A half hour ago. But a man can change his mind.”
“I won’t. I’m here on a different matter. It’s about Kate.”
David sat forward. His interest in her still obvious. Seth stopped. Did lover boy feel something for her? He wanted to ask but kept his mouth shut. It wouldn’t do anyone any good. He pressed forward. “She’s missing.” He watched David for clues that he knew more than he let on.
David stood, furrowing his brows. “What are you talking about? Did she move?”
“No. I was just at her place. Her car is still there. So is her purse and phone.” David’s eyes widened.
“How long?”
“I saw her last night. She didn’t show up for work so I checked on her.” He stepped closer to David. “If you did something to her, I swear I’ll kill you.”
David’s mouth twisted into an angry scar. “You know better. I’m not a murderer nor do I abduct women. You might not like some of our tactics but we don’t kill people to get what we want. It’s much simpler than that.”
Seth found himself in a stare down contest.
He looked away. He no longer believed the cult was capable of murder. Not after seeing Debbie and after attending the meeting. They wanted people to submit to them and had found a way through lofty promises. That’s all it took.
“Will you help me find her?”
David let out a sigh. Guess he didn’t want a fight any more than Seth did. “She broke if off with me.”
Seth rolled his eyes. “Your point?”
“What makes you think I can help? That’s my point. I don’t know more about her than you probably do. Maybe she left her purse for a reason. A second purse?”
Seth hadn’t thought about that possibility. He’d been so certain something was wrong. Did she have a friend he didn’t know here in the Bend? Someone picked her up?
“A possibility.” He eyed David again. Watched for some sign of guilt. When he found nothing, he frowned. “Sorry for busting in like this.”
David dropped his hand on Seth’s shoulder. “Call me tomorrow if she doesn’t turn up.”
Sure. He’d get on his high horse and trot right out here again. Seth nodded, left the house as fast as he could without running. He got back into his Jeep and punched Kate’s number in the phone. “Pick up. Please pick up.”
Nothing.
He threw his cell down. What woman leaves the house without her phone?
###
She remembered him, all right. Fresh chills rolled through Todd’s body. She remembered him. All those years of thinking about her. Planning for this day. This moment. She. Remembered. Him.
“I never forgot you.” His tone sounded almost accusatory. He didn’t want it to. She remembered and that was all that counted. “Now we can move forward.”
The chain lay at his feet. As he bent for the clasp, a thunder of pain shot through his head. He rocked back on his heels as Kate leaped from her chair and rushed to the door. Todd recovered from her kick and threw himself at her. Tackled her to the floor with a heavy thud. “You aren’t getting away that easy. Not after all this time,” he whispered into her ear as she panted beneath him.
“Let me go. Please, Todd. Let me go and I won’t say a word.”
He hauled her to her feet. “Begging doesn’t become my Kate. I’ve seen you in action.” He shoved her back into the chair and snapped the heavy chain around her leg. Sweat dripped from Kate’s face, marring her beautiful profile. Pity. He didn’t like messy women.
She grabbed his arm. “What do you want from me? Can’t we talk?”
He shook her off. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk. I’ve waited twenty years.” He laid his hand on her flaming red hair. Stroked it.
But first he had other work to do. Final preparations. With a last lingering look at his final capture, he flipped off the light switch and left her in the darkness.
He crossed the yard to the house he’d rented when he came to the Bend days after Kate arrived. Like hers, the rooms were bare, filled with garbage furniture his mother would have demanded his father haul to the dump. He liked it like this, though. Easy to leave. Easy to forget.
He moved through the living room toward the second bedroom. The room he used to prepare.
He turned on the light he purchased at a junk store. With three one hundred watt bulbs, the light glared down on t
he folding table also purchased when he got here. He kicked aside a stool, preferring to stand over his work. His best work. Wires, tools, and enough explosives to blow up three buildings.
He hadn’t spent his entire life interviewing candidates.
Meeting JC when he was fifteen changed his life. The kid with hair down to his shoulders and a scar across his left cheek found Todd behind the high school one day when Todd skipped history class because the teacher pointed out his stupidity about WWII.
JC promised to teach him something better.
They crossed the empty football field, climbed the bank, and ping-ponged through a grove of elm trees until JC opened cellar doors to a house that needed more than a paint job. Cobwebs attacked Todd’s mouth as they descended. He soon forgot the nastiness when JC showed him his work. Seems JC had big plans like his old friend Burke, whose pieces lay beneath an unmarked stone in Ellis Cemetery.
JCs eyes glowed as he showed Todd how the parts could change the direction of his life. Their lives.
Only Todd had a direction already. Her name was Kate.
He spent the remaining afternoons when history class commenced deep in JC’s basement learning.
Soon he would put that schooling to good use.
He shut the door on his room. His stomach reminded him he hadn’t eaten all day. He opened the fridge and took out a pepperoni pizza. Thirty minutes later, he shoved the last piece of crust into his mouth.
Kate would be starving by now.
Instead of taking care of that small matter, he showered and climbed into bed.
CHAPTER 85
Going home was not an option. Seth finished the rest of the can of tuna he found at the back of Kate’s cupboard before rummaging through a closet for a spare blanket. Instead, he found a quilt that looked like she’d hauled it all across the country. He stretched out on the couch, immediately regretting his decision to not borrow her bed, but he was too tired to get up.
Her phone had not rung again. He charged it up as soon as he returned and scanned the contact list for a clue. Only three numbers were listed. The paper. Him and her friend. What kind of life had she lived? Running from the media. Unable to make long lasting relationships for fear of moving or telling someone about her curse.
Sympathy was not Seth’s strongest point. But something about Kate and the way she’d pushed to find the missing women and to stop Earl from taking over the Bend impressed him. He hated to admit it but he believed her about the church and what might happen.
The day after tomorrow.
Maybe he could get Earl to cancel.
Sure. As if that would happen. The man thrived from social adoration. He’d never give up the chance to further his agenda. His adoring followers will probably beat the church doors down to get a front row seat.
He shifted the pillow beneath his head, trying for comfort.
Kate’s phone rang. Seth lunged for it. “Hello?”
“It’s me, David. Seth?”
Seth let out his breath. “Do you have news?”
“No, I was hoping you did. Listen, I spoke with my brother. He’s willing to help you find Kate. He took a liking to her.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”
“Listen to what I’m saying. He said at first light, he’d put the word out among town that she’s missing. The sheriff will probably come by her place. Can you let him in?”
Seth looked around the dark room. “Not a problem. I don’t think he’ll find much. She lives like a monk. The only thing I found was packed dirt and a shred of cardboard. Like she’d gotten a recent delivery.”
“A delivery?”
Seth smacked his pillow with his fist. “Why didn’t I think of that? Who delivers the mail on this side of town?”
“Old Joe. He’s been with the postal department over forty years. Kate could touch him with her finger and he’d fall over. Listen, you might be on to something though. Let me run it by others.”
Seth hung up but couldn’t fall back to sleep. A delivery man? Why would that even be a possibility?
But it was.
CHAPTER 86
Kate’s ankle burned where the chain cut into it. Her throat felt as though someone had torched it. She slumped down onto the chair where she’d spent the night, being careful with her bad leg. After slamming her feet into Todd’s head, the leg might never recover.
A sliver of light crept under the door and around the blocked window. Would she see daylight again?
Her lips trembled with uncertainty. She strained one more time to loosen the bolt on the wall with no success. Although he had left her hands free, he’d made certain everything around her was more secure than a bank. And it was cold. Ice could form in this room. Downright miserable. Already her chest wheezed.
And her stomach. Beyond hungry. Would he leave her to die of starvation or thirst? Surely that wasn’t his plan. But what was it? She tried to remember Todd as a boy when she knew him. A distinct memory of him helping her when she fell outside bobbed to the surface. There had been kindness in him. After the blast, she changed schools. What had become of him? The shock that she knew her captor still had not worn off.
Yet if there was one ounce of kindness left in the man, she would find it. She’d convince him to let her go. Let her return to what little life she had.
Footfalls outside the door slashed into her thoughts.
A larger cone of light shone in as the door opened. A shadow of the man who threatened her life stood in the doorway. She bit back the whimper that rose to the back of her throat. No. She would not give him what he wanted.
Instead, she straightened her back—pressed it hard against the chair.
Waited as the light grew stronger.
###
Seth woke, shook his hands and feet. The horsehair couch had been harder than the floor. He checked the time. Early. Sunlight filtered in through the curtains.
Where was she?
The longer she didn’t return, the more likely she wouldn’t. Exactly like the other women in the Bend. Seth shook his thoughts. He would not go there. Not yet. Besides, the sheriff would show up here at any time, and maybe he’d have a better explanation.
He considered again the idea that a delivery man might have played a part in her disappearance. Seth turned on Kate’s computer and punched in delivery services for the Bend. Nothing. His fingers paused above the keys. Unless. The hardware store accepted and shipped packages. How come he didn’t know that?
He plunged out of the chair and grabbed his wallet and keys. He’d make a quick visit to town before the sheriff got out of bed. Seth climbed into his Jeep, turned left as he pulled out of Kate’s driveway and headed across the bridge. Hank’s Hardware store was located at the east edge of town along the river. When Seth moved to the Bend, he thought the rundown building was a feed mill but upon further inspection, learned Hank sold everything from shovels to light bulbs. At Easter he invested in dozens of colored chicks for brats to buy and let die ten days later. Did the same at Christmas with puppies. A woman in the neighboring town ran a puppy mill and sold her runts at half price. Rumor had it. Seth had never been able to confirm that with Hank.
He pulled into an empty parking space out front. Two other pickups were parked near a loading dock. Seth sidestepped three buckets in the walkway and detoured around a couple of ladders. He found Hank behind the wooden counter drinking a Coke.
Hank brushed his balding head with his palm then held out his hand toward Seth. “If it isn’t our popular newsman. What brings you my way, Seth?”
Seth shook the offered hand despite his urge to ignore it. Any information Hank could offer about Kate’s whereabouts was worth a few germs. “I saw online you run a delivery service out of here. News to me. Want to tell me about it?”
Hank puffed out his shoulders and pulled on his belt until Seth was certain he’d given himself a wedgie.
“Been doing it now for about six months. Got a deal with UPS in the city. People ca
n drop off packages and my delivery man makes the runs. Doing quite a bit out-of-town business now too.” His smile produced gaping spaces at the back of his mouth.
“Mind telling me who does your local deliveries?” Seth leaned against the counter. Plunked a toothpick in his mouth. What he wouldn’t give for a cigarette right now. He could almost eat the thick smell of nicotine that blasted from Hank’s skin.
“Got me a good guy. Always on time. Punctual. Keeps his nose clean.” Hank glanced toward a door behind the tool section. “He didn’t show today or I would introduce you. Said he had a prior commitment he needed to deal with. Okay by me as he never misses. Why the interest?”
A prior commitment? A rush of fear for Kate overtook him. Could David have been right? “Can I get his name and where he lives? It’s important.”
“Now, you know I can’t do that. Private information. Confidential, I think they call it. Come back in tomorrow and I’ll introduce you.” Hank reached for a jar filled with peppermint candies and popped one in his mouth. He held the jar out to Seth.
“I promise I have a good reason.” He was not going to tell this buffoon what his concerns were yet. If he was wrong . . .
Hank held up his ink smeared hands. “Sorry. Like I said, come back tomorrow and I’ll introduce you.”
Tomorrow. Another twenty-four hours. His frustration built. “Thanks anyway, Hank.” Seth turned and charged out of the store toward his vehicle. Maybe the sheriff would get the information for him. Confidentiality. Seth spit into the road. Like that idiot knew what the word meant.
He roared out of the parking lot. He had another idea.
CHAPTER 87
The Trainer opened the door to find Kate, his beloved, waiting for him where he left her the night before. Sure, she looked a little peaked. A little worn. But he’d fix that. He’d fix everything eventually. In his right hand, he grasped a bottle of water. Couldn’t let her suffer too much during the training process. He needed her to be able to walk upright tomorrow.
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